Business

Paid invoices make the world go around

January 29, 2019 by Reporter Leave a Comment

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Late payments are the bane of a business owner’s life. They limit cash flow and prevent you from paying your own bills. In the aftermath, suppliers feel disgruntled, your stock runs low, and perhaps you can’t pay your employees. Whatever the effects, it’s safe to say, they’re not pretty. Unfortunately, this is something that typical business insurance policies don’t cover.

So how do you deal with late paying customers and clients? We’re glad you asked because there are a few simple measures you can take to protect you and your business.

Discuss terms upfront

Before you provide a service or a product, make sure that your customer or client understands the payment terms. Some business clients assume that they have 30-days to make payment while others may even assume they have three months. Be sure to clearly outline how soon they must pay so they can budget accordingly.

Ask for 50% deposits

Some service providers ask that their clients make a deposit of up to 50% of the full payment before they carry out any work. This 50% should ensure that your own expenses are covered and allows you to pay your employees or suppliers on time. Not all clients or customers will agree to this, so again, be upfront and honest about your plans.

Make late payments fees part of your terms

Late payment fees are a great way to discourage clients from taking advantage of the line of credit you extended. Once this is clearly outlined in your original payment terms, then they can have no complaints when you charge them extra for being late. Ideally, you’ll never have to charge them as this is more of a deterrent than anything else.

Offer discounts for upfront payments

A 5% discount for full payment upfront is a nice benefit that many of your customers and clients will jump at. While you may make a bit less on the deal, the security of having that payment upfront is well worth the cost. Just ensure that the discount doesn’t mean you lose money on the deal. No need to be too generous!

Consider a short-term loan

If all of your measures to limit or prevent late payments have failed, then you may find yourself in a position where cash flow is low and paying your own bills or employees’ wages is a struggle. In this case, a short-term loan could be the solution. Even if your credit score has taken a beating due to matters outside your control, a short-term lender will still be able to help you. While it’s not an ideal scenario, it does provide you with a safety net of sorts should your clients fail to make payment on time.

Don’t offer credit

This is the toughest one of all but the most effective. If you set a policy that all services and products must be paid for upfront, then you’ll never have a problem with late payments. You may feel like this isn’t possible, but it’s your business, and you can set your own terms. If you are providing high-quality service that guarantees satisfaction, then your clients and customers won’t think twice about paying upfront.

Unfortunately, late payments are part and parcel of business life. Dealing with them could be the difference between staying afloat and shutting up shop. So take a moment to consider the tips outlined above before agreeing to providing a service without upfront payment.

Considerations To Make When Insuring Your Business

December 21, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Insurance has become an essential part of living, from health insurance to car insurance, life insurance to travel insurance and there’s even pet insurance. So it makes sense that for businesses, insurance can be the beginning or end to a venture. No one likes to pay out money on a maybe accident that rarely realises itself, but in the chance that it does, you want your business to be covered. Coverage can include losses related to the actual business to losses related to covering employees who lose income because they are not able to work.

The five main categories that businesses can find themselves needing insurance are compulsory insurance, loss of income insurance, asset insurance, liability insurance, and cybercrime insurance. When running a business in Australia, businesses can choose to have all of the above types, except compulsory which includes workers’ comp, public liability, and third-party personal injury insurance. Even though compulsory insurance only covers those three categories, those looking for business insurance have to consider the full range of coverage needs for their business. Continue reading to learn more about what to take into consideration when choosing business insurance.

Risk

When looking for business insurance, owners have to take inventory of the business and assess risk. When assessing risk, consider the location of your business as a risk. For example, those with businesses in places that experience natural disasters might find they need coverage for property loss. Other risks include fire hazards and risks related to injuries that might occur as a part of the job. The point is to determine areas where your business could be vulnerable to problems that can arise.

Compliance

While there is compulsory insurance, businesses have to make sure they comply with any regulations. This means they not only have to provide coverage, but it also has to meet the guidelines related to the industry that the business operates in, which might require purchasing additional coverage. Either way, it is better to have more coverage as opposed to just meeting the requirements.

Your Industry

Compulsory insurance is mandated by the government. To be on the safe side, though, knowing what to insure is wise to carry for your industry is also important. Most industries provide guidelines for what is considered good practice, but knowing exactly what areas should be covered is always a good idea.

Employees

When purchasing insurance, figure out coverage for your employees. While businesses are not mandated to cover employees outside of compulsory coverage, it might be a great idea to get extra coverage for employees in industries where the risk of injury is higher, for example, in the construction industry. If an accident or loss occurs, with insurance, you reduce your risk of a lawsuit.

Consider Coverage For Negligence

While you are a competent employer and business manager, you want to find policies that will cover you for negligence. No one goes about ignoring the important details of their business, but sometimes accidents happen as it relates to not being aware of existing problems or even being knowledgeable about the subject. A good insurance policy will cover accidents related to negligence.

International Coverage

If your business is an international one, you want to make sure you are complying with laws and regulations related to insurance coverage. This is important as it relates to any loss that might occur through events happening in the country where your business is located. In this situation, it might be wise to research laws that govern the country in which you choose to do business before insuring your business.

Getting The Most From Insurance

The above are just a few things to consider on the search for your policy. Insurance can be a lifesaver during hardships, and while it can get pretty expensive, in the long run getting insurance that provides your business the right coverage is important. Without it, a minor issue has the potential to be a major legal problem.

5 Strategies to Minimize Abandonment of Shopping Carts for Your Online Store

November 6, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

Once a customer makes a few purchases from your store, they are bound to be loyal. However, abandoned carts are always a problem for most online stores. Luckily, it is easy to manage them and get back your loyal customers to their buying behaviors. Some of the tactics you can use include:

Follow up on abandoned carts

Regardless of how strong your SEO strategy is you need a plan moving forward. Following up on abandoned carts is the first strategy you can make a follow up on. Once you have a SEO agency set up the framework to drive more traffic to your site, you can proceed with your core skills. Follow up on customers who were once buying from your store and lure them back to continue doing the same.

Manage your leads from the start

It is a long road from the time a person visits your online store to when they choose to buy. Most of the time potential customers will give up along the way or take a lot of time before they can buy from your store. Luckily, you can close a sale within a short period if you choose to manage your leads from the start. Once you drive quality traffic to your site with help from the best SEO agency, you can start managing them from there. Allow yourself to ask them for help as soon as they show up on your site. You can offer to help them find an item with ease and close that sale within a few minutes.

Utilize email marketing for buying customers

Email marketing is what every online store should use not only manage abandoned carts, but also to increase the conversion rate. The returning customer is your major asset as they guarantee that you will have sales in future. Always treasure that and by using email marketing, you can win every day for loyal customers. To maintain that spirit of buying, you will need constantly send promotional emails to customers and remind them of the best offers they are missing out on. Consult a SEO agency with expertise in email marketing to optimize your email content for objective marketing.

Keep track of the customers ‘buying behavior

The buying behavior should have an even pattern for a loyal customer. If you identify any deviation from the norm, then you should move in to find out what went wrong. Did the customer change stores, or did the customer move? It helps you to keep a record and remind the customer to come back now and them. If they went to another store, then they might come back when they hear from you.

Respond to views and responses from customers

Since you are running an online store where people are spending their real hard earned cash, then you have to respond to their queries. Whether positive comments or not, you need to keep your composure. It is all about making the customers happy. If the customer is not happy then your business will be in danger or losing revenue. You have to make sure that you follow up on any issue and respond as fast as possible and assure a better service. Also, respond to complements from customers to a cordial relationship.

The Logic of Layouts – A Guide to In-Store Displays

October 17, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

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When customers arrive at your store, it’s crucial that you present whatever you are selling in a way that will make it appealing to them and make them want to buy. Take a moment to put yourself in their shoes and consider how you can best display the product to highlight its features, show-off its unique selling point and make the consumer see why they need to make the purchase.

With in-store merchandising, you have the opportunity to do just this. You can design a display to present your products to the consumer, to offer information about the product and show how it can add value for the consumer. Effective in-store displays allow your customers to visualise themselves using the product, wearing the clothes or engaging with whatever it is that you are selling. It’s one of the most important marketing assets for any store owner to use and a very powerful tool but it’s important to take some time to make sure that you do it right.

Let’s take a look at just some of the ways you can make visual merchandising and product placement work to your advantage in-store.

Target Audience

In order for your in-store display to deliver, you need to ensure that you are designing your display for the right people. It’s not enough to target your customers based on age, income level, or education level, you need to go deeper into their behaviours as well as their psychological attributes. To get an in-depth sense of who your customers are, try sending surveys to repeat customers to get a true sense of what it is they want and expect from a store like yours.

Keep up with market trends to find out what’s working in your niche and visit some of your competitor’s stores to see what they are doing to successfully reach your same target audience. Armed with this information, you can create a display for your products that will entice and draw in your customers.

Focus On The Senses

Your customers experience your in-store displays, not just through seeing them but through other sensory stimuli, too. Visual merchandising tends to focus on the eye of the customer, as it is the easiest way to communicate with your audience. However, you can make a large number of sales for your product if you focus on the other senses as well.

For example, the music you are playing in the background of your store can be an influencing factor and useful marketing tool. You can slow customers down by playing softer, more deliberate, lighter music. If your product is for the younger generation, make sure to crank up the music and play upbeat dance sounds or hip-hop tunes to get the audience to browse in the store longer. You can accomplish the same effect with the other senses as well such as using different textures for touch and having different air fresheners and other smells in the air to have a positive influence on the customer.

Group Similar Items Together

When you have a product that is selling well, you can use it to your benefit by placing similar items in displays near your successful product. However, it’s important to keep similar products together as you need to ensure that your display still makes sense. Pair similar items together that will complement each other or are related in some way.

For example, if you have an electric store and one of your microwaves is doing great, trying to pair a TV with it on a display would not be a good idea. However, pairing a TV with a popular surround sound system would be a great pairing and will likely increase the number of sales for both items.

Create Ambience With Light

A great in-store display will be lifted by the overall ambience you create. It’s important that you try to put your customers in the right mindset to encourage them to buy and to give your display more life. For example, mood lighting and soft music could be a hit when trying to sell high-quality lingerie, while bright lights and energetic music can create a “game day” atmosphere in a sports shop. Lighting can make a real difference in your displays so be sure to pay special attention to different types of soft and harsh lighting and experiment with different coloured lights to best highlight your products.

Use The Right Approach

Creating effective in-store displays to highlight your products is as much a science as it is an art. For positive results, it’s crucial that you take the time to understand your target audience so that you can take the right approach to garner their interest and appeal to that particular market. Experiment with different layouts, music choices, colours and textures until you find a design that works for you and your store. With the right display in place, you can be sure that your sales will increase, your customers will be more interested in what you are offering and you will be on track to a successful future.

A Successful Business Isn’t How Much You Earn; It’s How You Use It

August 27, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

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Measuring the success of a business should not be based solely on how much the company makes in profit. The Income earned by a business is not as important as how that income is used. Where you choose to reinvest your earnings, whether it be in advertising, staff, small business accounting software, product development or anything else that can improve your business, will be crucial to the future of your company.

The old adage ‘it takes money, to make money’ can certainly be applied here. As a struggling startup, every last cent you make needs to be spent wisely to ensure the longevity of your company. Once you start turning a profit, you can’t get complacent. In fact, once you have money coming in the door, you need to look at where that money can be best allocated to grow and enhance your business, improve your processes and ultimately grow your company into a serious player in your niche.

Continue reading for some useful tips on how using your money wisely can benefit your business.

Hire The Right People

Business owners, especially in new companies, tend to wear many hats. Often times, they are looking after the marketing, the accounting, product development, customer service and virtually every other element of the business. Not only is this inefficient, it’s also exhausting, stressful and will eventually end in disaster.

As soon, as you are turning a profit, the first thing you need to do is to hire a team that you can rely on to help you move towards your business goals. Depending on your needs, you might hire part-time staff, a remote team or perhaps outsource some of your tasks to third-party. Whatever route you decide to take, if done correctly, you will have more time to focus on the areas of the business that you are best at.

Streamline Your Processes

Depending on the kind of business you are running, there are a multitude of software packages and tools at your disposal that can help you become more efficient. Remember, ‘time is money’ and the more time you can gain back in your day, the better positioned you will be to move your business forward and grow.

For example, if you spend hours every week going looking after your finances, consider utilising accounting software to make things easier and gain that time back. Perhaps you spend hours researching the right social media strategy for your business, then maybe hire a digital marketing company to alleviate the pressure. Having dedicated people and tools doing what they are best at, you can streamline your business and everything will run much more efficiently.

Invest In Marketing

In order for your business to stand the test of time, you need customers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a B2B business, you sell to passing foot-traffic or your entire operation is online, you need to implement a marketing strategy that will allow more people to find you.

Successful business owners are the ones that know how to put their business in front of more eyes. You need to let your market know that you exist and give them a reason to choose you over your competitors. Maybe your products or services are better, you offer more competitive pricing or you are better at customer service. Whatever your USP is, find out what it is and invest in a strategy, whether digital or traditional, that will let your business reach a bigger audience.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Whether you are just starting out in your new business or you are a seasoned business owner, spending your earnings the right way is crucial to your success. When you have money coming into your business, you need to allocate it to the right areas of the business where it can have a positive impact and help you move closer to your objectives. As your business grows, so too will your workload. To avoid working yourself too hard and potentially burning out, you need to make smart decisions with your finances early on to ensure a long and successful future.

Economic Emergency – What to do When Hard Times Hit

July 20, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

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Financial hard times happen to the best of us. Whether it’s a failing economy or the loss of a job, struggling to pay the bills and trying to make ends meet can be exhausting and scary.

While there’s not much you can do to control the economy or even your employment, there are things you can do to improve your financial situation, secure your future, and weather any economic disasters that may loom over the horizon. The list below is designed to help you get through when hard times hit, so you come out on the other side with your financial life intact:

Avoid the Payday Loan Trap

While it’s tempting to head to a payday loan store when you need cash fast, this can be a serious mistake. Payday loans only add to your stress by hitting you with extremely high interest rates and even more outrageous fees if you can’t pay on time.

If you absolutely need cash fast a growing number of responsible microfinance lenders offer small cash loans online with less onerous terms Designed to help you out of a pinch without the astronomical fees, these options can help improve your financial resilience.

Do Away with Unnecessary Things

Many people spend money on non-essential items, leaving them less disposable income for the things they truly need. It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between which items are necessary and which aren’t. The best way to do this is to write every purchase down along with its price.

At the end of the week, go through the list and decide which items you could do without. When you see the things you buy in a more objective light, it puts into perspective how much money you could be saving by reining in unnecessary expenditure.

Cut Back

Depending on your situation, it may make more sense to cut back on some things rather than cutting them out. For instance, do you really need an unlimited data plan for your cell phone? What about that premium cable package? How often do you actually watch all those movie channels? Cutting back on things you don’t fully use can add up to significant savings each month.

Consider Refinancing Your Home

If hard times have you struggling to pay your bills, but your credit is still in good shape, consider refinancing your home. This simple act could save enough money each month to help you ride out your financial difficulties much more easily.

Re-evaluate Your Insurance Policies

It’s very common to be over-insured, especially when you don’t fully understand complicated insurance lingo. You could be shelling out more money than necessary for more coverage than you need. To find out, and potentially save a lot of money each month, contact your insurance agent to discuss the details of your policies. Be sure you’re getting all the discounts available to you, including good driving record, theft deterrent devices, and safety equipment discounts.

Continue Saving for Retirement

Retirement will come, whether you like it, or not. You have to be ready when it arrives, and that means continuing to save for it no matter what your financial situation. Barring a complete financial loss, don’t stop putting even a small amount each month aside for your golden years, and don’t borrow against your 401k if you can avoid it.

Financial hard times can hit anyone. However, it’s how you react to them that makes the difference. Keeping a level head and using smart tactics like the ones mentioned above will help you ride out the storm with the least amount of stress and frustration.

Smoke and Mirrors – 5 Secrets to Making Your Small Business Look Great

July 15, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

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Every business has to start somewhere. Even with a limited budget you still need to make your business appealing to customers. Without a façade that screams “I’m successful,” you risk appearing unprofessional and inexperienced. Here are five secrets to making your small business look the part even as you’re finding your feet in your chosen market:

Think Smart with Offices

Where you work can make a difference to the appeal of your business. Therefore, there’s every reason to consider serviced offices or virtual offices when you’re looking for suitable premises. A serviced office in a premium location can offer a sense of professionalism while still being affordable. The best part about a serviced office is you can utilize WiFi, reception services, office furniture and more, all built into one convenient weekly or monthly cost.

Virtual offices, on the other hand, are perfect for small businesses operating from home. You can benefit from an official business address and phone number, with forwarding services directing it to your home. No one need ever know you don’t work in a premium location.

Go Professional with Design

The worst thing you can do when you’re trying to launch a business is skimp on design. As IBM president Thomas Watson Jr. once said, good design is good business. If you create a logo on your own, you risk plastering your business with an unprofessional image that you can’t shake. The result? Wariness from potential customers who may otherwise have purchased your products if your image appeared more appealing.

Get Creative with Marketing

When you launch a new business, it can be challenging to get the word out. While you may have hoped that by merely by opening your doors the customers will come flocking, that’s often not the case. To put your business in a league of its own, you need to get creative with marketing. Offer your customers a solution to their problems in an “out of the box” way and ensure your business branding is everywhere.

To do so professionally, you may need to call upon the expertise of a marketing consultant. They can help you to understand where you need to market yourself, how best to approach your audience, as well as whom you should target. Hitting the bullseye with a killer campaign can be all it takes to get customers rolling through your doors.

Know Your Competition

There is a high chance that you are entering the world of business with a fair amount of competition. For example, if you’ve opened a new restaurant, there’s a good chance there will be at least a handful of restaurants nearby. Therefore, when you hit the market, you need to watch your competition like a hawk.

Find out what they are doing successfully and where they’re weak. By doing so, you can establish your business model with a competitive edge. Do it differently, do it better and your business is going to look far more successful to the general public.

Encourage Online Reviews

More and more people are turning to online reviews as their primary source of information about a new business. The more positive reviews your venture has, the better it is for your image. As a trickle of customers slowly comes through, encourage them to review the service you provided. You can even offer incentives for them to do so – such as discounts on their next purchase.

Your business isn’t going to look the part without a little effort and planning. While you might have a limited budget, there are so many things you can do to present your business to the public in a favorable light without breaking the bank.

Tighten Your Belt – 5 Secrets to Creating a Stable Financial Future

July 15, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

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It can sometimes seem impossible for low-income households to get ahead in today’s economy. Financial pressures can have a debilitating impact on your life. Too many families are familiar with the pattern of purchasing only the bare necessities, putting off replacing broken appliances, and spending all their time commuting to and from jobs that pay too little and ask too much. The economic hamster wheel leaves little opportunity for saving, or to enjoy your daily existence. The following are a few creative, yet simple ideas to help you get a handle on your financial stress and get back to loving life.

Wiggle Room

Unfortunately, lower-income families can find it nigh impossible to access credit with mainstream lenders. Locked out of the market, many turn to high-interest options such as payday loans for a lifeline that ends up being a deadweight around their necks. Fortunately, a growing number of government agencies and not for profits are offering interest-free loans for people on low incomes, to spend on necessities, like home appliances, or car insurance. Sometimes that wiggle room is all you need to ease yourself of some of that stress.

Master Chef

The ease of ordering takeaway in our modern society means a lot of money can quickly disappear on food. Yet it’s cheaper and healthier to cook your meals at home. All you need to do is change your perspective on meals preparation. Instead of a chore, transform it into a fun-filled activity. Numerous celebrity chefs that have a wealth of cheap, easy recipes that turn into delicious meals. So, get a quick recipe online, put on some music, and turn it into a joyful ritual. Get your family involved, and make preparing the meal just as enjoyable the meal itself.

Saving Grace

It’s hard to think that a small amount of money set aside every day can make a significant difference in the long run. However, with a bit of discipline and patience, you will be amazed at how much it can add up to over time. Even as little as 50 cents a day, or 10 dollars a week squirreled away into a dedicated savings account you don’t regularly check, your long-term savings can really start to grow. If you can’t get yourself into the habit of putting the money aside, there are apps that can do it for you, all at a rate you’re comfortable with.

Free Entertainment

Just because the budget is tight doesn’t mean you have to skimp out on cultural activities. You can spend hours wandering around free museums, markets, and historic buildings. Your local backyard is someone else’s tourist daydream. Check out the tourism travel page for your local city and see what they recommend is a must do for free. There are always plenty of ways to entertain the family without having to fork out hundreds.

Au Naturale

Whatever the weather, whether you feel like lazing around or getting active nature has you covered. Plan a trip to the beach, and spend the day lazing on the sand. Alternatively, plan a trip to the hills and go for a hike. Getting out of your four walls and enjoying nature has many mental health benefits, and it doesn’t cost a cent. Even if you end up doing precisely what you were planning on doing inside, such as relaxing with a book, or tapping away on your computer, if you do it outside, you’ll feel much better for it.

Having money problems doesn’t have to take the joy out of life. Cheap activities are still fun activities, and clearing your head of stress can help set you up for a financially stable future.

The Lightbulb List – Understanding the Benefits of Solar Energy

June 26, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

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Solar energy has become increasingly popular over the last three decades. With consumers becoming ever more eco-conscious, we are seeing a huge rise in people wanting to live more sustainably and contribute to a more energy efficient planet. Considering the benefits of solar energy is now more essential than ever in adapting to a sustainable, environmentally-friendly lifestyle.

Nowadays, there are many different ways that we can lower our carbon footprint on a daily basis. From recycling to upcycling, from hydro to hybrids and renewables to new ways of thinking, there are a plethora of ways that we can lower our impact on the environment. Harnessing the energy if the sun through solar energy is the fastest growing source of new energy and is having a big impact on how Australians are making positive changes.

Continue reading below, to find out more about the advantages of solar energy and how using solar energy could positively impact your life.

Renewable Resource

The first and most well-known benefit of solar energy is that it is taken directly from the sun’s radiation. As sunlight hits the Earth, we can harness this natural energy resource to power homes, buildings and even cities. Of course, solar is a renewable resource as, although night falls and there are cloudy days, each and every day the radiation from the sun will reach the Earth’s surface and can be collected until the sun burns out, millions of years from now.

Solar Vs Grid Electricity Costs

Solar energy offers two types of resources for energy used in the home and workplace: thermal energy and sunlight converted directly into electricity.

Due to the rise in investigation, research and interest in solar power over the past 30 years, prices for solar energy facilities and installations have dropped considerably and are now much more affordable than in the past. There has also been a rise in grid electricity supply prices. As both thermal and solar panel energy fixtures are becoming cheaper and the investment return is being repaid so much quicker, it is unsurprising that more and more people are being persuaded to use solar energy because of the long-term economic benefits.

Additional Economic Advantages

As well as the savings that people experience from switching to solar energy, there are also various tax advantages and rebates from solar energy installations. These extra economic advantages are offered through regional and national governments, organisations with renewable energy goals and even electricity companies when extra collected energy is filtered to the grid.

Remote Access to Solar Energy

Even in the most remote places, the sun will be able to benefit those who are well prepared to receive solar energy. Not only in the capacity of solar panels on homes of rural-dwellers but also in ways that are not so evident. Solar energy can be used to heat water in areas with no access to hot running water or distil it, in areas with no drinking water.

Solar Energy’s Environmental Footprint

Although there are some negative environmental effects that come from the manufacturing and transporting of solar energy equipment, the overall consensus is that solar energy has far less damaging effects on the environment than other energy sources.

In addition to this, once solar thermal equipment or panelling is installed, there is no noise pollution or environmental contamination produced. Solar energy produces no greenhouse gas emissions because there is no burning of fossil fuels involved as the sunlight is converted directly into electricity.

Infinite Solar Power

From these benefits, it’s easy to understand that solar energy, as a source of renewable power, can help us in many ways. The sun is not likely to disappear in the near future, nor can it be monopolised by large corporations. The advantages of solar energy far outweigh any initial negative aspects of solar power, making it one of the best choices for both homeowners and businesses to make positive changes for the future.

Is Genesis Studiopress Websites a good choice for small business

April 25, 2018 by Reporter Leave a Comment

When you have 20 + websites that you manage for yourself, you end up learning a lot about web design, wordpress themes, installing and fixing websites and practising SEO.

Today I am reviewing an awesome wordpress theme provider. I signed up with them, earlier on last year and since then, I have used their themes on five of my new and existing websites.

Yup I actually removed the old wordpress theme and installed the Studiopress – Genesis themes. Why because I noticed a good change (increase) in traffic and speed after swapping the old theme with the new studiopress theme on one of my websites.

I will even show you an example of one of my sites – check it out

I used to use solostream wordpress theme for my blog website and also continue to use elegant themes on some other websites, but I can tell you that studiopress is my new go to for the professional looking wordpress design and inbuilt SEO.

Why studiopress themes for WordPress?

I can sum it up in just one word, because they are “Awesome”, but I am sure you would want more than that fi you are also looking to change to something better – so here is a list of what I liked.

Professional looking design

All thier themes look slick and professional to the eye. The theme/template design potrays a website with quality and professionalism.

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Multiple themes available

I purchased the lifetime membership which is the best value in my humble opinion. You get access to many different kind of themes, recipe theme, agency theme, portfolio theme, news theme, fashion blog theme and many more.

The themes are provided by studiopress themselves and many themes are now also by approved third party theme makers.

Quality and speed

A well coded theme means quality and speed and that is what studiopress gives you. Thier WP themes have been coded by the best programmers specifically focussing on speed and clean certified code without any errors. This also ensures that your website theme does not slow down your hosting servers.

Modern html markup

The theme structure is streamlined and the design uses php and also the latest html 5 to bring out the best in design quality.

WordPress plugins support

When you purchase a theme from them, you automatically get free custom plugins to support and further enhance your theme design with sliders, featured posts and more.

They also have some custom paid plugins if you need to do in-depth customization of your templates.

Genesis framework and child themes

If you dont know much about the concept of child themes, then this is how it works – You have the main theme which is the base theme or framework (Genesis) in this case and then you have the child theme – the studiopress wp theme templates.

The base theme or genesis framework holds the basic information/structure of the website and so even if you change design/templates you dont lose much information due to your themes being the child theme for the framework.

In simple terms you get a robust base framework and less chances of losing data with change in templates/themes.

Modern and responsive

All the themes provided are fully responsive and work well on desktops, tablets and mobile. The designs are made using modern concepts and trends to display fluid design and flow.

Inbuilt seo

Who doesnt like a template with good inbuilt seo. I have been using these themes for a while now and I do know you can rank websites based solely with the inbuilt seo functions, with no need for third party SEO plugins. This one is a prime example of this. This framework reduces your load of work for onpage seo.

Genesis isn’t cluttered with unnecessary options either, which can often cause slow load times with other standard wordpress themes.

To get their lifetime pro plus package, which is what I recommend even though its a bit pricey – Its worth it . Check out the deal here

If you are on a budget then you could just go with the single theme that costs anywhere from $99 to 129

Frequently asked Questions about Genesis Themes

Is it easy to download and customize studio press themes?

It is easy to download and upload a theme to your wordpress blog. For customising your theme they provide you detailed setup guides to make your website just like the demo theme. They also provide extensive code snippets guides with code samples which you can copy and paste to further customise certain sections of your website. In certain cases you might need a coder to change things, but you can always contact their support in the first instance.

Can I use the purchased theme on multiple websites?

You can use any theme package you purchase as many times as you’d like, on as many websites as you desire. The purchase of theme packages allows you lifetime use of the themes and lifetime support for the original purchaser. In other words, they do not restrict your use to a specific number of sites, or a specific period of time in which they can be used.

Do I have to repurchase genesis framework for buying second theme?

The genesis framework theme is a onetime purchase if you purchase it by itself. You get this free anyway if you purchase a studiopress child theme. Once you have it, you are free to use it with any third party compatible theme.

Studiopress genesis launches hosting with wordpress

Now you can get the best of both wordpress themes and webhosting with genesis studiopress entering the hosting business. The first bonus that caught my eye had to be the free lets encrpyt (https) and the free migration of your website, but they do have more bonuses. Studiopress Genesis themes have long been known for thier robust fast loading and superior quality wp themes. That is also the reason why you pay more for them.

Their budget hosting plan starts at$24 a month (with bonus 24 studiopress premium themes included)

With thier new hosting plans, you can get both the theme and website at the same place, and get your website started quickly and easily.These plans are best suited for serious bloggers, affiliate marketersand people starting new small business websites.

You could try studiopress by purchasing a single theme (anywhere between $99 to $129 with genesis framework) or get the plus package including all the themes. But, there’s something to be said about buying the Pro Plus All Theme Package because you don’t have to pay again. Ever.

Summary

The best thing I like about the themes is you can just download a theme in minutes, upload it to your server in a flash and get it all set up in half an hour with thier free set up tutorials and plugins. Now all you need to do is focus on writing content for your good looking website. This is a real time saver possibly not only for developers who do this regularly, but also for bloggers like me.

Review by Jeff for http://www.wordpressaustralia.com.au/blog/

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