The year 2020 really did a number on individuals, businesses, and the world in general. Looking at the toll that a worldwide pandemic took on companies, the Washington Post states that over 100,000 small businesses have closed their doors forever as a direct result of the virus and the effect it had on the economy. And even for those companies that have managed to weather the storm, there are challenging times ahead.
Smart Business Objectives Entrepreneurs Should Focus on Now
Each year, entrepreneurs form their business strategy for the months ahead, basing actions and developments on the end game. What do they want to see at the close of the year, and how they can align this year with their long-term goals?
With the pandemic still going on and the world constantly changing, what business objectives should entrepreneurs focus on now?
Let’s look at five smart business objectives and how they can impact your company’s growth:
Brand for the new normal
Move to an at-home office
Boost customer loyalty
Increase social media marketing and interaction
Increase website traffic
Objective 1: Brand for the New Normal
With that shift to online-only and online-preferred marketing and services, we see corporations touting their ability to provide services that are tailored for the new normal. Promoting free shipping/returns, curbside pickup, offering incentives and new digital customers, etc. are the new norms.
To make this as organic as possible and prevent it from looking like a bandwagon-jumping gimmick, it’s important to promote these as part of your branding strategy.
Yes, you want your efforts to be noticed and appreciated, but you don’t want them to be haphazard, out of tune with your current branding, off-message, or generic.
What to Do: Now is the time to set aside part of your marketing budget to ensure that you’re applying good brand identity design principles across the board, and thinking in the long-term, not just the present.
Some ideas that you might consider include:
Brand with digital media
Create a personal brand for yourself
Volunteer locally to create brand awareness
Give products or services for free to spread the word
Read More: How Technology is Helping to Improve Small Business Growth
Objective 2: Create a Productive At-Home Office
Working from home has often been cited as a perk for both employees and business owners. But these days it’s a little more than that — it’s just good business sense.
If you made the shift from office space to an at-home office at the beginning of the pandemic, you likely saw how sustainable it is. It cuts down on your required budget, makes use of your resources in a more effective manner, and even eliminates your commute. This gives you more time to focus on what really matters in your business.
However, many who made the shift did so in a rather slapdash manner. For many, that means that they’re still working out of a corner of the living room, without a dedicated workspace, which cuts down on productivity.
What to Do: If working from home is a beneficial step for you — as it has been for many — and you like to keep your budget low, it’s wiser to invest in productivity tools and a good working environment in your home office. Setting it up now will cut down stress levels, boost productivity, and enable you to keep your focus where it needs to be: growing your brand.
Objective 3: Boost Customer Loyalty Through Customer Service
Customer service is a recurring concern for many entrepreneurs. This is because it heavily impacts word of mouth, which is one of the most effective ways of marketing yourself, with the lowest budget.
Now more than ever, customer service deserves your attention. Your customers have been through a difficult time over the last year — or even longer. Your understanding, compassion, and willingness to work with customers now, in times of need, will do more than you can imagine to build up their loyalty.
What to Do: Set aside time and budget to create customer service initiatives that reward your customers for coming back to you and sticking with you. Again, look to the long-term. All indications point to this rough patch in the economy. So set up incentives and rewards programs that lasts.
Objective 4: Engage with Social Media Marketing
A business objective that is worth your time is building your social media marketing. Not just increasing the amount of content you post, or the number of followers, but focusing on quality over quantity.
This is the time for digital transformation to ensure that your customers — and potential customers — understand their continued importance to your business. By giving extra attention to your fans and followers, you convert them right from the word, “Hello”.
Engaging with your social media audience also lets you know exactly what your customers or prospects are looking for. It’s time to reach out to them, rather than play the dormant role of letting them come to you.
What to Do: Set up a CMS to orchestrate regular posts, curate content to provide value and interest, make everything easily shareable — but above all, take the time to interact with your customers as individuals. Respond to complaints, questions, comments, and remember that each public interaction with your brand can bring in new customers.
Objective 5: Increase Website Traffic
Your business website is the home base for your company. It’s the most dedicated advertising space you can have. It’s the hub for customer interactions, and it’s the ideal branding opportunity. How you handle your site can position you as an authority in your field. It can also turn visitors into consumers, and effectively tell your story, bringing in new customers and retaining existing ones.
But your site won’t have the chance to do any of that if no one is visiting it.
Just two months into the pandemic, back in April 2020, statistics showed a 129% increase over the previous year in e-commerce sales, and the numbers only continued to skyrocket through the year. The year 2020 showed us a definite shift towards online services and shopping. This shift doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon.
This is both good news and bad.
Internet traffic will continue to grow organically, as your potential customers seek out your site, prioritize online services over visiting in-person locations.
However, your competition will also benefit from this trend, so the playing field is fairly level.
What to Do: This illustrates the importance of not only riding trends but capitalizing on them. This is the time to increase the flow of traffic to your website by:
Boosting your SEO
Proving your value to your visitors
Make sure that you’re marketing effectively through PPC
Don’t wait for users to come to you — get out there and direct traffic to your website. And if possible optimize your website for UI and UX to appeal to search engines. After all, that’s one top priority of a good website.
The year 2021 may seem like it’s time to focus on recovery, not on big goals, for fear of overreaching ourselves. You may not have to aim for overly ambitious goals, but these objectives will help you get on with the setback.
Zaheer Dodhia
Zaheer Dodhia is a serial entrepreneur and Founder of LogoDesign.net, a SaaS company that offers brand designs. He has a deep understanding of business needs, search engine, and has expertise in graphic design, computer recycling, and technology, which have motivated him to spearhead several online projects including ZillionDesigns, and PCStore.com. He likes to cover topics like branding, graphic design, and computer recycling.
London-based fintech startup Kennek has raised $12.5 million in seed funding to expand its lending operating system.
According to an Oct. 10 tech.eu report, the round was led by HV Capital and included participation from Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One. Kennek offers software-as-a-service tools to help non-bank lenders streamline their operations using open banking, open finance, and payments.
The platform aims to automate time-consuming manual tasks and consolidate fragmented data to simplify lending. Xavier De Pauw, founder of Kennek said:
“Until kennek, lenders had to devote countless hours to menial operational tasks and deal with jumbled and hard-coded data – which makes every other part of lending a headache. As former lenders ourselves, we lived and breathed these frustrations, and built kennek to make them a thing of the past.”
The company said the latest funding round was oversubscribed and closed quickly despite the challenging fundraising environment. The new capital will be used to expand Kennek’s engineering team and strengthen its market position in the UK while exploring expansion into other European markets. Barbod Namini, Partner at lead investor HV Capital, commented on the investment:
“Kennek has developed an ambitious and genuinely unique proposition which we think can be the foundation of the entire alternative lending space. […] It is a complicated market and a solution that brings together all information and stakeholders onto a single platform is highly compelling for both lenders & the ecosystem as a whole.”
The fintech lending space has grown rapidly in recent years, but many lenders still rely on legacy systems and manual processes that limit efficiency and scalability. Kennek aims to leverage open banking and data integration to provide lenders with a more streamlined, automated lending experience.
The seed funding will allow the London-based startup to continue developing its platform and expanding its team to meet demand from non-bank lenders looking to digitize operations. Kennek’s focus on the UK and Europe also comes amid rising adoption of open banking and open finance in the regions.
Featured Image Credit: Photo from Kennek.io; Thank you!
Radek Zielinski
Radek Zielinski is an experienced technology and financial journalist with a passion for cybersecurity and futurology.
As excitement around generative AI grows, Fortune 500 companies, including Goldman Sachs, are carefully examining the possible applications of this technology. A recent survey of U.S. executives indicated that 60% believe generative AI will substantially impact their businesses in the long term. However, they anticipate a one to two-year timeframe before implementing their initial solutions. This optimism stems from the potential of generative AI to revolutionize various aspects of businesses, from enhancing customer experiences to optimizing internal processes. In the short term, companies will likely focus on pilot projects and experimentation, gradually integrating generative AI into their operations as they witness its positive influence on efficiency and profitability.
Goldman Sachs’ Cautious Approach to Implementing Generative AI
In a recent interview, Goldman Sachs CIO Marco Argenti revealed that the firm has not yet implemented any generative AI use cases. Instead, the company focuses on experimentation and setting high standards before adopting the technology. Argenti recognized the desire for outcomes in areas like developer and operational efficiency but emphasized ensuring precision before putting experimental AI use cases into production.
According to Argenti, striking the right balance between driving innovation and maintaining accuracy is crucial for successfully integrating generative AI within the firm. Goldman Sachs intends to continue exploring this emerging technology’s potential benefits and applications while diligently assessing risks to ensure it meets the company’s stringent quality standards.
One possible application for Goldman Sachs is in software development, where the company has observed a 20-40% productivity increase during its trials. The goal is for 1,000 developers to utilize generative AI tools by year’s end. However, Argenti emphasized that a well-defined expectation of return on investment is necessary before fully integrating generative AI into production.
To achieve this, the company plans to implement a systematic and strategic approach to adopting generative AI, ensuring that it complements and enhances the skills of its developers. Additionally, Goldman Sachs intends to evaluate the long-term impact of generative AI on their software development processes and the overall quality of the applications being developed.
Goldman Sachs’ approach to AI implementation goes beyond merely executing models. The firm has created a platform encompassing technical, legal, and compliance assessments to filter out improper content and keep track of all interactions. This comprehensive system ensures seamless integration of artificial intelligence in operations while adhering to regulatory standards and maintaining client confidentiality. Moreover, the platform continuously improves and adapts its algorithms, allowing Goldman Sachs to stay at the forefront of technology and offer its clients the most efficient and secure services.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Google DeepMind; Pexels; Thank you!
Deanna Ritchie
Managing Editor at ReadWrite
Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.
As Web3 companies increasingly consider leaving the United States due to regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom must simplify its cryptocurrency regulations to attract these businesses. The conservative think tank Policy Exchange recently released a report detailing ten suggestions for improving Web3 regulation in the country. Among the recommendations are reducing liability for token holders in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and encouraging the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to adopt alternative Know Your Customer (KYC) methodologies, such as digital identities and blockchain analytics tools. These suggestions aim to position the UK as a hub for Web3 innovation and attract blockchain-based businesses looking for a more conducive regulatory environment.
Streamlining Cryptocurrency Regulations for Innovation
To make it easier for emerging Web3 companies to navigate existing legal frameworks and contribute to the UK’s digital economy growth, the government must streamline cryptocurrency regulations and adopt forward-looking approaches. By making the regulatory landscape clear and straightforward, the UK can create an environment that fosters innovation, growth, and competitiveness in the global fintech industry.
The Policy Exchange report also recommends not weakening self-hosted wallets or treating proof-of-stake (PoS) services as financial services. This approach aims to protect the fundamental principles of decentralization and user autonomy while strongly emphasizing security and regulatory compliance. By doing so, the UK can nurture an environment that encourages innovation and the continued growth of blockchain technology.
Despite recent strict measures by UK authorities, such as His Majesty’s Treasury and the FCA, toward the digital assets sector, the proposed changes in the Policy Exchange report strive to make the UK a more attractive location for Web3 enterprises. By adopting these suggestions, the UK can demonstrate its commitment to fostering innovation in the rapidly evolving blockchain and cryptocurrency industries while ensuring a robust and transparent regulatory environment.
The ongoing uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrency regulations in various countries has prompted Web3 companies to explore alternative jurisdictions with more precise legal frameworks. As the United States grapples with regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom can position itself as a hub for Web3 innovation by simplifying and streamlining its cryptocurrency regulations.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Jonathan Borba; Pexels; Thank you!
Deanna Ritchie
Managing Editor at ReadWrite
Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.
