Getting a website is a popular method to gain online profits and a trendy way to become an e-businessperson. It may be tempting to take advantage of the benefits of a large website with little effort. However, it is slightly more complicated than it sounds. Before conducting any purchase regarding a website, you should consider several points. Find them listed below:
Get started with a “clean” site
Would you buy a house simply because you like how it looks? The same applies for websites. Do not make decisions based on the design of the site or the basic description.
Do your research on the assets, designer and history of the website. Look at the reviews collected during their activity. You can go about this step as a prospective customer of a product on the site.
If the designer and owner have a bad reputation with customers or regarding their previous activities, forget the investment. As a beginner, it would be best to start with a site that has a relatively good reputation, background included.
Visit the website
Browse the website and ask yourself the following questions:
Does it offer an optimal user experience?
What is the speed of the searches and commands?
Is the site mobile-friendly?
What does the domain look like: Is it short, attractive and modern?
Do not invest your savings in a website with a complicated URL, rough navigation and slow loading time. The SEO will probably not be great and the few users who will visit the site will leave it immediately.
Also, take a look at their sales history and see if it is consistent and sustainable. Analyse the marketing strategies put in place and see what you can keep or improve.
Analyse the SEO
What about the rating of the website on search engines? Is it well placed on relevant searches?
You can also check if the site has a blog. Nowadays, appearing on the first page is difficult without regularly publishing content.
You can, for example, use tools to know what keywords are used. Then, do not hesitate to make these searches on Google to check which page the site appears on. If it appears beyond the first page, you will have to invest in the SEO to get to the first page. The further away the site is, the more you will have to invest.
Analyse revenue sources
To make sure your investment will be profitable, see how the website earns its revenue. It can be through selling products/services, Google Adsense, affiliates, subscriptions, etc.
The e-business you are looking to buy should have as many revenue streams as possible. Otherwise, you may need to make other investments to create more reliable revenue streams. In case the income comes exclusively from products or services, make sure that the sales are regular. Above all, they should be in the growth phase.
Review the maintenance of the website
Depending on the platform hosting it, a website will be more or less easy to maintain, customize or optimize.
If you are a beginner, work alongside a professional or go to sites that rely on content management systems.
Also consider asking the seller for a maintenance report:
How often are updates done?
When was the last update?
What are the recurring problems?
The price
There is no fixed price for a website. It will depend on the performance of this actual site.
However, be careful. If a seller asks for much less than the average, there must be a problem. If they ask for a strangely high price, either the site is very efficient or it is a scam.
To buy a good website, take the time to talk to the seller and ask for all the supporting documents. If he willingly accepts, you can erase a part of your doubts.
Following the above tips should help you if you are considering to buy a website. However, be sure to do thorough research and seek the help of professionals make a secure investment.
https://turbine.mu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Buy-a-Website.jpg327400Turbine Team/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-turbine-50.pngTurbine Team2019-10-14 18:36:312019-10-14 18:36:31E-Businesses: 6 tips to follow before buying a website
A motivated team equals work that is of high quality. Discover 5 tips to motivate your suppliers or employees on a daily basis.
Poorly motivated employees or suppliers tend to quickly exhaust themselves, thus becoming unproductive.
You should aim at achieving a good quality in terms of work and increasing your employees’ loyalty towards your company. To do that, you may have to switch strategies regarding your employees. That is, shifting from the simple assignment of objectives to the transmission of a company culture.
Here are 5 tips to boost your team’s motivation and get better results:
Create a feedback culture
Your employees may not know how to improve or they may not be able to improve. In these cases, how will they and their work be able to evolve?
Regular feedback gives you the opportunity to boost their growth. This does not mean scheduling more meetings. Rather than that, try to take a look at your team’s productivity from time to time.
Delegate more difficult projects to your team
In order to not end up with automated employees, try to protect your staff from a boring daily routine. When employees perform the same tasks every day, they quickly become complacent. Get them to try other things by giving them the opportunity to take risks.
One way to do this is to give them a project that really represents a challenge to your team. Define new targets and objectives during quarterly reviews. They will have the following quarter to work towards these goals.
Maintain a list of challenges
Ask your teams to create a list of projects to complete, problems to solve or skills to acquire. The goal is to find a challenge to keep them busy, but also to teach them how to challenge themselves.
Your employees will be eager to take on a new project or solve new problems. Testing their skills outside of their day-to-day work will make their job more interesting. Instead of waiting for the time to pass, they will focus on solving business problems or improving outdated processes.
Offer various training programs to your employees
Training allows employees to increase their effectiveness on the job. It also ensures that their knowledge and skills are up to date.
A company offering hands-on, up-to-date training will not only retain its workforce, but also reap the benefits of their improvement.
Change the objective-setting process
Objectives are important to motivate your group. To challenge your employees, you need to rethink the goal-setting process.
They should not focus on reaching them, but on finding the best possible solution to achieve them. This technique challenges the employee to be creative, rather than to find quick and simple solutions.
Set animated, necessary and achievable (but not too easy!) goals that your employees will enjoy reaching. Unlike the easy targets, which leave them stuck in a routine, these should stimulate brainpower and encourage high performance.
Challenge your team members to take risks, step out of their daily roles and advance in their careers. Also, do not forget about challenging yourself. Improve your training, focus on feedback and rework your goals. In the end, everyone will be more successful and more committed, including you.
https://turbine.mu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Motivate-your-team.jpg327400Turbine Team/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-turbine-50.pngTurbine Team2019-10-08 08:45:282019-10-08 08:45:285 ways to motivate your team
In attempt to keep its incubated entrepreneurs inspired and motivated, Turbine organizes Entrepreneur’s Talks. This is an opportunity for founders of new start-ups to learn about the journey of seasoned entrepreneurs, to ask them for advice and to exchange ideas with them.
This month, we had the pleasure of welcoming Zulaika Sunthbocus – Co-founder and Managing Director at Spoon Consulting.
Zulaika is Mauritian, born and raised. She has done her primary and secondary studies in Mauritius and then moved to France to pursue her tertiary studies following which she started working as a software analyst. She always knew she wanted to come back to her roots in Mauritius.
While in France, Zulaika tells us she climbed the professional ladder she started off as an analyst, getting from programmer to manager to project manager. By the time she left France she was an IT consultant at PwC accompanying her clients in their information system implementation. When she came back, Zulaika worked at Accenture as a Delivery
Manager for about a year. It was then that she teamed up with her co-founders in order to set up Spoon Consulting.
The idea was to build a company that would provide ERPs and CRMs, and they could do so by leveraging the fact that all 3 of them were Oracle consultants. The 3 founders invested their savings in order to create Spoon Consulting. Zulaika mentions that they have always been trend setters as even during their early days they were investing significantly in training on the salesforce platforms for their team.
In the early years, she was very involved in operational activities of the company until one day she decided that perhaps she should try something a little further out of her comfort zone. She decided to venture out into another business. Being a certified PADI passionate diver, it was no surprise that her venture was in the diving sector. She built the business up and ran it for a couple of years.
But fate brought her back to Spoon Consulting in 2013, this time her role in the company was different. This time around she was more in charge of the Talent and Culture aspect of the company, and it turned out to be something she thoroughly enjoyed. Today Spoon Consulting has over 100 employees and she attends most of the recruitment interviews.
She enjoys working with her teams in order to promote a healthy work culture. She explains that having a committed team is one of the pillars of running a successful business. At Spoon Consulting prides itself in the attention that they provide to their employees. It is important for them to make their talents feel like they are the major asset of the company directly generating value for the company through their high-quality delivery geared towards customer excellence.
Q&A Time:
To what would you attribute the sustainability of Spoon Consulting as a company that is born and bred in Mauritius?
She accounts the sustainability of Spoon Consulting over 15 years to the following:
The Team
She has nurtured a leadership style with the major objective to empower her team which remains the major asset of the company
Within this culture, she is continuously challenging her team, taking them out of their comfort zone, and at the same time motivating them and valorising them and above all making them feel as part of the Spoon Consulting family
Ongoing training including soft skills training is being delivered whole year round to ensure that her people are not only getting more money in their pockets but also strengthening their brains.
Commitment and Strength.
It is important to note that it was not always a “La Vie en Rose” scenario with starting a company as a woman in the time that she did. IT was, as it continues to be, a male dominated industry and in that time, it was crucial for her to be committed to producing good work and maintaining positivity in order to build her credibility. She also points out that it is important to believe in yourself and never give up and today she is proud to be on board of several IT commissions in Mauritius, hence sitting at the same table of the IT guys .
Money
The next thing is, money. During the first few years of Spoon Consulting, revenue was an issue for the company. She says this is something that everybody should be aware of, it is normal to have to bootstrap at the beginning. Getting money flowing into the business will not be easy. It can be frustrating to see that the forecasts don’t match the reality of the company’s performance. She says: “10 years ago, I was struggling, and it can be a stressful experience!” but today we are experiencing a constant increase of 20 percent of our revenues ( chiffre d’affaire) since 2015 and we have over 100 clients
And last, but not the least: Diversity
Don’t be afraid to embrace new technologies and trainings for your employees. It is important to make it as a priority: Invest in training and cater for their well-being on a daily basis .
Always ask for feedback, even though sometimes feedback can be negative, it is important to be able to learn from your mistakes. Focus on lessons learnt and learn from the perception of the client. See the situation from the client’s point of view. This will help you identify the factors that help differentiate you from your competitors.
Moreover, when it comes to personal level, Zulaika says it is important to be passionate and motivated. She lays emphasis on keeping a positive and bold attitude while working.
She says she is amazed when she sees entrepreneurs working at Turbine. She feels that these people are fearless and is quite inspired by this.
How do you recruit? And how do you make them stay?
They recruit graduates from the University of Mauritius who they then put through a bootcamp training and on the job training.
Treating Talents Like Assets
When it comes to retaining talent, Spoon Consulting is a big advocate of investing on training, valuing the talents they recruit. To treat them like assets that appreciate over their journey with the Company. This creates value for the company as well as the employee as you then become an institution through which they get to grow professionally. That being said, the company also covers half of the medical insurance, they pay half of the gym membership, they sponsor mini football pitch for team members that like to play football. They are sponsors of a great number of IT events in Mauritius and they even bring members of the team to huge IT events in San Francisco on a yearly basis since 6 years now.
“Top Talents”
She explains that Spoon Consulting has also implemented “Top Talents” these are employees that get preferential trainings to develop their skills based on their exceptional performance. There are two appraisals a year and managers are trained to value their subordinates.
Performance Appraisal
Their performance appraisal is based on Engagement, Value Creation and Knowledge transfer within the team.
Team Building!
They have also coined the term “Spoon Spirit” in the company which implies taking ownership of their tasks and feeling like they are in a family at Spoon Consulting. A lot of the training at Spoon Consulting is done by the seniors to the juniors.
How do you keep up the spirit when the revenues fluctuate?
On low seasons they encouraged people to follow training to improve their skills. It is important to show them that they can still generate value for the company when the sales are low. Developing their skills during low season ensures that they can deliver a continually improving service to their customers.
How have you managed to stay with your co-founders?
It is important to have complementarity at the heart of a founding team. Theirs is broken down as follows: Marketing, Tech and Culture.
It has not been that easy, she says. But they have had (and try to keep) a good communication. They have never taken one executive decision without having a unanimous clearance. When one of the founders wants to take a new measure or initiative, Zulaika explains that they must have a valid and rational reasoning behind it.
As a parting note, Zulaika imparted an important piece of advice: Learn to identify and to seize opportunities. They can make or break your path as a business owner.
Moving a business is complicated and costly. You need to plan everything perfectly and anticipate future happenings before you expand your space.
The more your business grows, the more space your team needs. With sustained growth, you will need to move offices so that your employees are comfortable. You will also need to plan for future additions to your team.
Here are some tips to help you when plan your move:
Time your business’ move
A larger space becomes increasingly important as your company undergoes steady growth. However, if you decide to move, you should ask yourself when the right time to do so would be.
The answer becomes “yes” as soon as you begin to experience disorder and distractions. Is there no room to work anymore? Does the location no longer support your employees’ productivity? If the answer to these questions is “yes”, it is time to consider moving.
Be thorough in your planning
Consider changing offices well in advance to have a smooth transition to the new location.
Expect the unexpected. Take your time and consider the company’s and the staff’s needs. Anticipate your growth rate before deciding on the size and location of the new office.
Consider the storage of equipment and the number of new employees you will need in the future.
Think of your employees
Don’t follow the trend, look for the best option for your employees:
Open-spaces may be popular but are they suitable for your team?
How can your company adapt to this change?
What changes do you need to make to create the best possible environment for your employees?
Ask them what they need. Involving everyone who works with you is important, because everyone will have different ideas and demands.
For example, a creative team may request a private room, the human resources may need individual offices, and sales people will want space to welcome clients.
While you won’t be able to meet all of their requirements, asking them will make your employees feel more valued.
Avoid an expensive and long-term lease
Don’t let prestige blind your judgement!
Your profits may have skyrocketed, and you may have hired new employees. That does not mean you have to move to a high-end building, especially if it is just for “the image”.
Choose large spaces
To avoid getting stuck in another small office a short time after your move, always think of extra space.
Even if your team can’t use it all at the moment, you can still rent it before hiring new staff. This saves you the hassle and distraction of finding even more space as you grow.
Train your team to adapt to new environments
A team should be operational regardless of the environment.
Build team spirit in your employees so they always remain productive, no matter where they have to work. It is also always important to arrange your future office a way that will foster team work.
By following these 6 tips, your move will go smoothly and you will not fall behind in terms of productivity. Consider involving your employees for this important moment in your company’s history. Finally, don’t forget to inaugurate your new office by throwing a party!
Small businesses are growing very quickly. For an optimal development that will not overwhelm the company, they must invest in the right tools.
In the midst of the influx of new, innovative technologies and gadgets, how can you find the right technologies? How will you know which ones are most promising for your business?
Here are some of the most useful technologies today that can help start-ups grow:
1. Use chatbots to increase your company’s communication range
A chatbot is a computer program capable of simulating a conversation with one or more people. The exchanges can be in text form, in the case of a chat, or carried out via voice mail.
This tool is increasingly being used to improve customer service, especially through instant messaging.
Chatbot users can:
• Learn about an event
• Book a means of transport
• Get practical information
• Get technical advice
Digital conversational agents continue to grow. They are now becoming a must. They both save time and maintain optimal customer service. By leaving common questions to a robot, teams save time and customers get real-time answers.
Thanks to machine learning, chatbots can help you learn a lot about your customers. They can even help you increase your traffic or sales.
2. Enable voice search to increase sales
Voice search is becoming increasingly common as an internet habit. Many people use this searching mode to look browse the internet, but also to buy online.
So why invest in voice search? First of all, a voice can tell you a lot about your clientele. Voice search reveals nuances that are invisible in written queries.
It can allow you to know your customers better and reach a wider audience or even new markets. To use this technology correctly, ask your marketing teams to work on the keywords that lead to your website. They should also conduct tests to know which specific voice searches are the most profitable to your business.
3. Try to include dynamic pricing
Dynamic pricing allows prices to be set in flexible ways depending on events, scenarios or trends in supply and demand. For example, the price of toys rises dramatically in the Christmas holiday season.
A study by Gartner found that dynamic pricing was the most successful marketing strategy.
It is certainly a frustration task since prices are constantly fluctuating. However, it can really help your business grow and get you ahead of the competition.
4. Anticipate customer demands with sentiment analysis
We agree that this technology seems a bit surreal. It generates an automatic analysis of a user’s feelings from a text. This can be valuable help in understanding the quality of customer interactions with your business.
In a way, it uncovers the hidden subtlety of words. According to Gartner, 75% of the companies most praised by their customers could lose up to 20% of their value. The reason for this is the decadent perception of brands and a loss of consumer loyalty. After all, customers are inevitably attracted by novelty or lower prices.
Using sentiment analysis can help you anticipate this phenomenon and better respond to the needs of your customers.
Whatever technology you use, do not forget the primary aim of your digital development. This would be the growth of your business through better customer service and marketing strategies.
https://turbine.mu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/dynamic-pricing.jpg327400Turbine Team/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-turbine-50.pngTurbine Team2019-08-20 08:25:082019-08-20 08:25:08Which technologies can help your company grow?
Communication is the key to promoting your start-up. However, getting a website, promoting via phone calls and/or advertising through the web are not enough in 2019. There is a lot of work involved in making your start-up known to its market/audience. Take a look at the alternative marketing strategies below for a glimpse 2019’s advertising trends:
1. Develop a content marketing strategy for your start-up
Content marketing is one of the best strategies you can turn to. Not only is it affordable, it is also effective and renders tangible results.
To attract the attention of your audience, you can create any kind of content. These can be blog articles, infographics, videos, podcasts, guides, white papers, etc. You can also distribute the same content through various forms of media. People are more likely to share interesting content on social networks and make it become viral. This will likely garner the attention of your potential clients and will eventually lead to sales.
However, any content marketing strategy requires special attention to SEO. It is essential to boost your visibility on search engines. You can call on SEO professionals for this task.
A content marketing strategy should allow you to:
Become a reference brand in your industry
Be credible in the eyes of netizens
Inform your audience about the products or services you sell
Improve your SEO and your site’s traffic
Make sure you know your target before you start creating content. You should also regularly measure the performance of your strategy to improve it.
2. Go for videos and webinars
The video format is currently extremely popular and versatile. You can use it to create all types of content: interviews, testimonials, presentations for your company, and even webinars!
You can present your company, the products or services you sell and their features and benefits live on Facebook or YouTube. This allows your audience to react in a more immediate way. You can also answer their questions and thus get closer to your customers. Make sure to promote your webinar a few days or even weeks in advance for a bigger audience.
As long as you make your videos or presentations interesting and lively, you are sure to reap great results.
3. Use influencers to advertise your products
Similarly to videos, influencer marketing is in full hype. While famous influencers are expensive to hire, you can still increase your visibility with micro influencers.
For this strategy to be effective, choose web stars who communicate to target that you want to reach. This will allow them to effectively promote your products to a wider audience.
Another advantage of using this method is that it will make your company appear trendy. Your audience will see your start-up as innovative and it will gather more interest. It also increases your chances to go viral and gain the attention of investors.
The above-mentioned strategies can help increase your visibility as well as your credibility. Depending on your target audience, some methods might work better or less well than others. Carry out research about your competitors and differentiate your business from them. While tactics will work for your 2019 audience, the future is still open to innovations. Therefore, do not hesitate to adapt your method according to the changes in your market.
https://turbine.mu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/promote-your-start-up-in-2019.jpg327400Turbine Team/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-turbine-50.pngTurbine Team2019-07-22 18:04:322019-07-22 18:04:32How to promote your start-up in 2019
We currently live in a world led by communication and new technologies that are being developed at a dazzling rate. Mobile applications, which emerged in the 1990s, have become an unavoidable global phenomenon. These even compete with websites and attract millions of users. Each year, companies who want to access this market delve into marketing strategies that focus primarily on apps. So, what makes apps so appealing and what can they bring to your business?
Mobile apps: a way to improve your brand
The way your customers view your company matters. By getting an app for your business, you will develop a modern and innovative corporate image. This will help in the branding process and will later appeal to the majority of global consumers. You will also specifically respond to the needs and desires of consumers in terms of communication, modernization and accessibility.
A way to retain and acquire new customers
Speaking of accessibility, apps allow you to remain closer to your customers. They provide your clients with an easy and fast way of contacting your company. Unlike a website or a phone number, the application is always within their reach on their phones. This will also reduce chances of your customers going to competitors. Mobile apps increase your company’s credibility through reviews and comments, which will attract potential clients.
Enhanced communication with your regular customers
Access to mobile apps is easy. You can download an app within seconds and use it at home, at work or while on the move. In addition to being accessible, they allow you to communicate with your clients in a way that websites do not. Notifications, for instance, are incredibly useful to remind your customers about events and sales. They appear directly on your clients’ smartphones and make for great advertising.
Mobile apps increase productivity
Apps are also popular among entrepreneurs for management purposes. They help to optimise sales, increase communication among employees and improve productivity. Aside from an app for your business, you can consider creating one to manage and relay information. From booking to accessing product information, everything is more readily available to your staff. Your customers may also find apps easier to navigate, thus reducing the risk of dissatisfaction.
Intelligent apps to offer better services
Why carry out surveys among your customers when your app can do it for you? Intelligent apps are very useful to collect and analyse information. This includes:
the number of times the application is used
the frequency of use of certain features
the location of your clients
the products they prefer
The list goes on. Apps allow you to understand your customers, their tastes and their needs better to offer a customised service. In addition, mobile apps have perfect synchronization with social networks. This enables consumers to share content from the app directly on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. By doing so, they are providing free advertising for your company, leading to increased sales and popularity.
In short, it does not matter whether you are a large company or a local business. Acquiring a mobile application will allow you to meet the expectations of the current market. Decide on the services that you wish to offer via the app and encourage its use among your clients. The results are bound to be positive.
https://turbine.mu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Apps.jpg327400Turbine Team/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-turbine-50.pngTurbine Team2019-07-16 18:07:122019-07-16 18:07:12Mobile apps: are they useful to grow your business?
To raise money and start a small business, there is nothing better than investors. These individuals and/or companies pour money into your project, leaving you free to make it thrive. However, sponsors do not provide funds easily. They may also not invest at all if they do not find the idea to be profitable enough. To raise your chances of getting sponsored, you need a truly brilliant idea and solid preparation. Find some tips on ways to get funding below:
Consider joining an incubator for your start-up
You just got your idea for a start-up and you are new to the idea of entrepreneurship. If your project is an innovative one, you can consider joining an incubator. These organisations assist entrepreneurs and help them grow their idea into a flourishing start-up. They provide various types of facilities, such as access to legal services and to a work space. These incubators, such as Turbine, can help you to connect with like-minded individuals and thus create a professional network. They will eventually provide you with the means to get funding for your start-up to grow.
Make your activity visible to investors
Sometimes, businesses do not need much funding to launch on a small scale. Once this is done, you can attract investors by making your activity as visible as possible. Become trendy. Get media attention and work on your popularity on social media. Use influencers and SEO tactics as much as possible. Getting popular in Mauritius is easy since its population is quite small. Journalists are also always on the lookout for innovative subjects to cover. Make your business famous even before you present it to potential investors. This will considerably increase your chances of getting a sponsor.
Know your business from A to Z
The key is to arrive to your presentation well-prepared. If you are unsure about your idea and/or your charts and figures, you will not paint a reliable picture of yourself. The investors will not deem you capable enough to carry out the project. In other cases, they will not deem the project itself worthy enough. An investor is looking for a leader, a ship’s captain. A captain who does not know its ship cannot lead it on a successful journey.
Prepare a rock-solid business plan and revise accounting and management basics. Work on your public speaking skills and rehearse your presentation before the actual day. Focus on communicating your vision and on displaying its potential. You already know your project and your market by heart. So you need to impress with figures to bring credibility to your project.
Once you obtain funding, you should work on building sales rapidly. A start-up will only become a fully-fledged business if it demonstrates rapid growth. Investors will also be more at ease about sponsoring your project if they see quick and satisfying results. A fast-growing company will give less opportunity to competitors. Aside from sponsors, you can consider other options to raise capital. These are crowdfunding, money-saving and loans, amongst others.
https://turbine.mu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Investors.jpg327400Turbine Team/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-turbine-50.pngTurbine Team2019-07-01 22:38:292019-07-01 22:38:29How to find investors for your start-up
Developing your business abroad seems simple thanks to the Internet. However, internationalisation can fail without a good prior study of the competition, the market, and/or cultural codes.
Digital activities are continuing to grow internationally, partly due to the facilities that the Internet offers to entrepreneurs. It is easy to slack off with the advantages of technology. It allows you to create an activity with the prospect of developing it internationally, all without moving from home. This does not mean that it is effortless. To expand on an international scale, you will need to grow your expertise and multiply collaborations. Therefore, staying at home and taking it easy is not a real option.
Below are some key steps to take when planning to launch your business abroad.
Analyse your business’s performance with regards to the local market
Before considering the expansion of your business on the international scale, you should conduct a study about its current performance. Are local customers happy with the services that it offers? Is your business successful at the local level? If the answers to these are yes, you should try to understand what makes your product/service appealing to consumers.
If you are unfamiliar with the local market or the behaviour of your customers, you can ask them directly. Set up a feedback form on your website, e-mail your clients with questions or conduct a satisfaction survey. The information that you gather will allow you to identify what makes your product attractive to your consumers. This data will be crucial when you start working on internationalisation.
Understand the expectations of the target foreign market
Your product may be the best and most attractive in its local market. There is still a possibility that it will not work at all in a new geographical area. Various entrepreneurs face this problem when they attempt to expand abroad without carrying out prior research.
Determining the readiness of the target foreign market to accept your product is easier after studying its demands. It is also helpful to determine whether the competition is already established and powerful or not.
Be patient and take your time to determine the above factors instead of rushing in unknown territory. If you are lucky, you might struggle a bit in the beginning and learn as you go. With a little less luck, you will most likely fail to go with the trend and you will fall behind.
To avoid wasting your time and effort in an unsuccessful foreign business adventure, study carefully and prepare a viable plan.
Make your business adaptable
Observing the market and understanding it will also allow your company to adapt to its differences.
Adapting is necessary for the successful integration of your business in its new market. Be they languages, symbolism, colours or messages to convey, some are not well accepted in certain cultures. As they, your company should work to blend into the cultural mould of the destination market.
The prior research that you carry out will enhance your adaptability. You will be able to both merge with the culture and offer something new to the market. This is one of the formulas for success that are perfectly calibrated to an international deployment.
International growth is one of the most exciting and complicated stages in a business’s life. It can open up the market and the number of consumers within the enterprise’s network. It can also be catastrophic for development if it is poorly managed. Take the time to analyse and understand the new market, its cultural codes, its competition and its consumers. As said above, your product may be the best locally, but it must adapt to succeed internationally.
https://turbine.mu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/business-businessmen-discussion-2182981.jpg44806568Turbine Team/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-turbine-50.pngTurbine Team2019-06-17 08:56:002019-06-17 08:56:26How to develop your business on the international scale?
Be they comedians, YouTubers, models or even bloggers, they are more importantly the new faces of Mauritius’ influencer marketing sector. For example, Vincent Duvergé and his friends can be seen at Chantecler, while Neeshi Beeharry is the brand new endorser for Patel Optics. Influencer: is it a promising job?
From YouTuber to influencer
Probably one of the most recognisable faces across the Mauritian Web, Vincent Duvergé, under 25 years of age, is already a major influencer. The young YouTuber quickly seduced his audience thanks to his parodies and mimics on the video platform. Today, brands contact him to promote their products. Making use of a familiar face that Mauritians already appreciate seems to be a winning formula for many companies.
What is influencer marketing?
Companies are increasingly using social media to get closer to their customers and gain greater visibility. Influencer marketing thus refers to the use of the popularity of influencers to promote products and services. This method is gaining in importance in Mauritius and throughout the world. Considering that 70% of millennials rely on the recommendations of influencers before making a purchase, there is no longer even a trace of doubt. The vast majority of young adults seek inspiration from influencers, and brands are not about to let this opportunity slide.
Driving trends and promoting sales
These social network “people” already have a substantial number of followers. This popularity enables them to influence a lot of users. This can be achieved through product testing or by becoming a brand ambassador. One such example is Laetitia Darche Sauzier, Miss Mauritius 2010, who is now an ambassador for Huawei in Mauritius. However, popularity alone is not enough to influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. These influencers must also act as true professionals.
What type of future awaits influencers in Mauritius?
Few Mauritian influencers can currently make a living out of this “profession”. However, the companies or agencies with which they collaborate regularly send them gifts and products to test. Depending on their popularity, they can be contacted by several brands. Joel Capillaire, who has more than 9,000 followers on his Instagram account, is hired by three brands. He even happened to go to Malaysia and Singapore to take pictures for a travel agency. However, income is not stable and until this concept grows in Mauritius, most of the influencers have another simultaneous occupation.
Influencer marketing on a worldwide scale
Nevertheless, at international level, a large number of influencers manage to succeed. Swedish blogger Lina Lindholm covers 100% of her life costs through the means of her Instagram account, which currently has more than 100,000 followers. The same applies to female YouTuber Lilly Singh, aka IISuperwomanII, who now has 14 million subscribers to her channel and no less than 2.5 billion views on her videos. A true success story for the 30-year-old, and certainly a glimmer of hope for our talented young Mauritians!
