
From Design To Development
793 adminJuly 3, 2023

The Importance of Execution in Startup Success
770 adminJune 30, 2023

Building A Founding Team
805 adminJune 29, 2023

When Should You Begin Looking For Funding?
911 adminJune 28, 2023

Top 5 Ideation Tools To Help Detail Out Your Idea
752 adminJune 21, 2023

How to Set Up a Project Acceptance Metric for Your Agency’s Next Project
774 adminJune 16, 2023 Youtube Video

Tattoo This On Your Forearm – Data Is The New Gold
740 adminJune 15, 2023 Youtube Video

User Acceptance Testing Best Practices For Your Agencies’ Projects
821 adminMay 25, 2023 Youtube Video

What activities does your Chicago-based small business need within website maintenance?
811 adminMay 18, 2023

Top 5 UI/UX best practices for your small digital agency
874 adminMay 15, 2023

Networking: How Much and Where?
778 adminMay 12, 2023 Youtube Video

React Vs. Vue: Which UI/UX Path Should Your Agency Take
React | Vue | |
---|---|---|
Popularity | Active users 1,600,000 | Currently used 800,000 |
Performance | It uses a virtual DOM - an independent object model that does not depend on the browser. The framework automatically renders HTML pages. | Virtual uses DOM and structural principles similar to React. Vue is fast when it comes to component creation and updates. |
Scaling | Offers a better ecosystem, more templates, and additional tools. | Offers scaling projects with higher performance speed. |
Mobile Devices Adapting | A framework that allows building Android and IOS native apps with the same React component structure. | A mobile UI framework developed by Alibaba Group. The framework uses Vue components to build IOS and Android apps and allows reusing web code. |
Size | 100Kb. | 80Kb. |
669 adminMay 4, 2023

DIY SMM Strategies For Your Chicagoland Small Business
625 adminApril 13, 2023

How much time should I spend as a CEO of a small agency in getting new business from old clients?
According to the Harvard Business Review, most business owners spend a small portion of their time with their customers. As little as 3% of their working hours. This means there are many weeks when business owners only spend a couple of hours with the people who are the essential part of their business.
This raises an important question. How much time should I spend as a CEO of a small agency in getting new business from old clients?
First, it is crucial to maintain a good relationship with your old customers. This means staying in touch with them, understanding their needs, and providing excellent customer service. This can help you retain their business and generate new business through referrals.
In actively seeking new business from old clients, you should dedicate a certain amount of time each week or month to this task. This could include reaching out to them with new offers or promotions, providing updates on your services, or simply checking in to see how they're doing.
It is also essential to balance your efforts between seeking new business from old clients and acquiring new clients. While your old clients can be a valuable source of business, it's crucial to keep expanding your client base to ensure your agency's long-term growth.
Staying in touch with old clients is extremely important. Your communication doesn't have to be frequent or profound, but these relationships need maintenance to stay alive.
Resource:
https://www.morefloods.com/how-much-time-should-small-business-owners-spend-with-customers/
https://customerthink.com/how-much-time-should-ceos-spend-with-customers/
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
677 adminApril 5, 2023

Top 5 Designing Best Practices
Whether you are designing a website, a logo, or an entire brand identity, it is essential to follow some best practices to ensure that your designs are practical, functional, and aesthetically pleasing.
Here are the top 5 design best practices that you should follow when creating your initial designs:
1. Understand the Audience: Before starting any design project, it is essential to understand the design's purpose and the intended audience. It should not be underestimated or rushed. Time and budget are always essential considerations in product design. With these, the product will be shipped. While that's important to the process, keeping sight of who uses the product, their customer journey, and whether they're desktop or mobile users is essential.
2. Define user objectives: Get into the mindset of a new end user. What do they want to achieve? How will the application help them? List and refer to our goals throughout the UI or UX design process. Conduct in-depth research to gain insight into your target audience's demographics, interests, and preferences. This information will help you create a design that will reverberate with your audience and achieve the desired results.
3. Consistent action in the application: Everyone loves when an application is user-friendly. It avoids headaches, saves time, and helps users achieve their goals by eliminating confusion — all requirements for creating satisfied customers. Consistent actions eliminate the need for user search and thus make their workflow run more smoothly. If an Audience knows how to use functionality in one section, they know how to use it in all areas.
4. Design patterns for product UI/UX design consistency: A successful and consistent UI means a user can perform tasks with a minimal number of actions. If a four-step job can quickly be completed in two, the UI should constantly be optimized for shorter workflows. UI patterns can benefit from this… after all, this functionality is why they became patterns in the first place.
5. Consistent Communication: Search results, form submission messages, error windows — every interaction with your user is a conversation. For an app/website to be successful, it must talk to the user and inform them of what is happening.
Resource:
https://www.uxpin.com/studio/blog/guide-design-consistency-best-practices-ui-ux-designers/
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
624 adminApril 4, 2023

Do You Have A Testing Process?
Software Testing checks that software or application does what it is supposed to do. The advantages of testing include avoiding defects, reducing development costs, and improving the performance of your software.
Why is Software Testing Necessary?
Software testing is an essential aspect of the software development life process. It involves verifying and validating the functionality, performance, and security of a software application or system to ensure that it qualifies the requirements and specifications of the intended user.
What is the Importance of Testing?
Let's look at the benefits of software testing in the software development life cycle:
Testing should be started in the early stages of the SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle), if testing is not done in the early stages, then the cost of defect resolution is high, and defects are found in the later stages.
In today's competitive market, only a quality product survives for a long time, so application testing is essential in the SDLC to ensure they produce a good quality product.
Testing is essential as its software application cannot be debugged.
The most important thing about testing is that the development environment is different from the test environment, and the testing done in the test environment is similar to the production environment.
Risks of Not Doing Software Testing:
Here are some common pitfalls of not correctly testing software before deployment.
Excessive Expenses:
Fixing software bugs requires immediate attention. This process is easy during pre-launch testing with software development.
An important consideration is the cost of eliminating defects or defects associated with improper software testing. These costs include long work hours, lost productivity, and lost profits during software downtime.
Delayed Product Launches:
For a product to be launched quickly without any error, it must be tested throughout the development process or before it goes to market. While in-house software testing can help catch many bugs before product launch, without third-party software testing, many defects risk detection until it's too late.
Dissatisfied Users:
Software users have certain presuppositions about their products; they expect Software to run fast, work correctly, and protect their private info. If software bugs hamper them from having a positive user experience, they will churn and probably not return.
Finally, it is crucial to have a testing process to ensure the quality and reliability of software products. A well-designed testing process can help identify and fix defects and problems early in the development cycle, saving time and resources in the long run. Implementing a testing process can also improve customer satisfaction and product confidence.
Resource:
https://www.ibm.com/in-en/topics/software-testing
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/software_testing/software_testing_quick_guide.htm#:~:text=Testing%20is%20the%20process%20of,contrary%20to%20the%20actual%20requirements.
https://www.softwaretestingclass.com/importance-of-testing/
https://www.ibeta.com/risks-of-not-testing-software-properly/
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
593 adminMarch 31, 2023

How Much Time Should I Spend AS A CEO of A Small Agency In Getting New Business From New Clients
As a CEO of a small agency, you should spend a significant amount of time on new business development, including at least 20-30% of your time on sales and marketing activities. This time must include attending networking events, reaching out to potential clients, creating proposals, and nurturing leads. As your agency grows, you may be able to dedicate less time to new business development, but it should always be a priority.
While starting first, you may need to spend even more time on new business development. In the early stages of your agency, you need to build a solid client base to establish your reputation and generate revenue; this may mean dedicating 50% or more of your time to sales and marketing activities.
It's also important to consider your goals when determining how much time to spend on new business development. You may need more time on sales and marketing activities if you have aggressive growth targets. On the other hand, if you are happy with slow and steady growth, you can spend less time on new business development and focus more on servicing your existing clients.
One crucial factor to consider is the size of your agency. If you are a one-person shop, you will need to spend more time on new business development than if you have a team of employees. As your agency grows, you can delegate sales and marketing activities to your team, freeing up your time to focus on other business areas.
In summary, as a CEO of a small agency, you should be spending a significant amount of time on new business development, depending on several factors, including the size of your agency, the stage of your business, and your goals.
Resource:
https://www.morefloods.com/how-much-time-should-small-business-owners-spend-with-customers/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/get-new-clients/216661/
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
641 adminMarch 16, 2023

Your Best Friends To Help Scale Up Your Agency
Your Clients: Client Relationships Are the Heart of your Business. Your clients are your most important asset. Building solid relationships with your clients and providing exceptional service will help you retain and attract new ones. Be sure to listen to their needs, communicate regularly, and go above and beyond to exceed their expectations.
Employees: Your employees are the backbone of your agency. Hiring and retaining talented and passionate employees who share your vision is critical to success. Create a positive and supportive work environment, provide opportunities for professional development, and recognize and reward employee contributions. Considering your employee as a friend can help to build growth, enhance engagement, and make the workplace more productive.
Technology: Technology gives you unlimited access to information. The Internet opens up every one of the details that can help you succeed in your business. Technology can help you streamline processes, automate tasks, and improve efficiency. Choose the right tools and platforms to help you manage projects, communicate with clients, track progress, and analyze data.
Networking: Networking is about collaborating and engaging with people for mutual benefit. Building a solid network of contacts and partners can help you expand your reach and gain new opportunities. Attend industry events, join relevant associations, and collaborate with other agencies and professionals to build your network.
Mentor: Mentorship is a mutually favorable professional relationship in which an experienced person (mentor) imparts knowledge, skills, and wisdom. A mentor or advisor can provide valuable insight, guidance, and support. Look for mentors who have experience in your industry and can offer advice on growing your agency.
In Conclusion:
Growing your agency requires hard work, dedication, and a robust support system. Build strong relationships with your clients, employees, and network, leverage technology, and seek guidance from mentors to help you achieve your goals. You can take your agency to the next level with the right friends.
Resource:
https://www.business.com/articles/8-tips-for-scaling-your-business/
https://99designs.com/blog/marketing-advertising/start-digital-marketing-agency/
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
670 adminFebruary 21, 2023

Usually, Pain Points While Scaling A Small Digital Agency
Every agency owner wants to work with the biggest clients, build the most prominent team, win the most significant awards, and land the biggest procurement deals.
Unfortunately, the path to sustainable growth is lined with potential pitfalls that threaten your ability to scale and your agency's entire operation.
After reading this blog post, you can find solutions to what is holding your agency back and power through those pain points.
1. You Scale Beyond Your Skills: Your clients refer you to others as you complete projects. These new clients refer you to others; in theory, the whole process snowballs until you're working with the top names in your vertical. Before saying yes, to a big project, take a closer look at what is required to execute the project. Do you need to bring in other talents? Can you partner with another agency that specializes in a new area? It's better to turn down an opportunity you don't deserve — no matter how good it sounds — than to accept it and blow away your carefully crafted brand reputation.
2. Your system is not scalable: Measuring services as an agency is complex. Because it requires a lot of manual effort and skill, you will always need help if you want to scale, but your systems and processes still require significant manual effort. Take the time to get your house in order with more scalable solutions before investing heavily in growth.
3. You Don’t Give Your Past Clients A Graceful Exit: As your agency grows, your service offerings are likely to change. Your price points will vary. How you build your packages will change for the new, possibly more significant, customers you're targeting. As a result, you may have clients on your roster who are not a good fit for your changing agency.
Here's what you don't want to do: keep them limping along with your agency because you're too afraid to tell them your growth means you're not a good fit for their needs.
Growth may be the holy grail of most agencies, but it can be a double-edged sword. By planning to avoid the pitfalls described above, you can improve your agency's ability to scale without compromising performance or integrity.
Resource:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/21/four-pitfalls-most-digital-marketing-agencies-encounter-when-scaling/?sh=46e1105f3440
https://www.autogrow.co/agency-growth-secrets/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/scale-small-agency-brand/306157/#close
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
640 adminFebruary 20, 2023 Youtube Video

Firing Your Worst Agency Clients
When you ignore bad client behavior, you are sending a clear message to your team - that revenue from one client is more important than the happiness of your employees. You are creating a vast employee retention risk.
Let's see how to decide and then how to proceed.
How do you decide to Fire your worst agency clients?
Here are some of the problems you might face with your worst agency clients:
Broken client communications: You work on client projects but need more support or interest from them.
Unrealistic demands: This is a common situation. Some clients need to pay more attention to the original scope of work. They become aggressive to get their way.
They threaten you and your employees, Block payments.
No project support: You find yourself running in circles with this client. They veto all your ideas. But they never provide insight to move the project forward. Poor anger management: Misbehaviour with you or your team member, bad temper attitude, None of these make a great client. Late payments: No one likes constantly chasing invoices. Not to mention struggling with cash flow as a result. Although you can often overcome this challenge, some clients need better payers. And sometimes, it might make more sense to replace them.
Firing a Client While Practicing Warmth & Competence:
Once you've decided that firing the worst agency client is correct, you want it to go as smoothly as possible, follow these steps:
Pick up the phone: Don't dismiss agency clients via email—a call conveys warmth and is more personal than an email.
Consider transit time: Ideally, give at least 30 days' notice so the customer is safe.
Send a recap email: Reiterating what you discussed on the call. Remember to include the next step. Unless the client is unethical or abusive, we recommend helping them find a new agency. At the very least, this includes offering them some names to contact.
Stand firm: Once you decide to fire a client for a reason, stick to the decision. Flip-flopping shows your team that you lack courage—and that's not good for employee retention.
Conclusion:
Firing a client takes work. Such a business decision can carry heavy emotional weight. But at the same time, toxic customer relationships can affect your agency's growth. Good luck!
Resource:
https://sakasandcompany.com/how-to-fire-bad-clients/
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/how-to-fire-client
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
695 adminFebruary 17, 2023

5 Sales Transformation Tools For Your Chicago-Based Small Business
Many free and paid sales tools are launched in the market every day. Here are the top 5 sales tools that are useful for small businesses.
1. Content Management: When selling, you need content to attract an audience — your sales and marketing teams will work together to create this content for your site. It would help if you run campaigns, create videos, blog posts, and more. These tools will help your team.
Top content management tools include:
• Allbound
• Brainshark
• Consensus
2. Sales Enablement: Sales enablement provides your entire sales force with everything they need to close a deal.
Popular sales enablement tools include:
• Seismic
• Highspot
3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Software for CRM lets you better manage the relationship with your customers. You can improve existing customer relationships by driving sales and marketing communications.
Some options to consider include the following:
• Salesforce
• Pipedrive
• Nutshell
4. Sales Automation: Sales automation tools cover a vast online marketing field. You can automate many processes with this software. Automation in sales includes sending emails, personalizing interactions with customers, scheduling, data entry, and many more.
Sales automation tools include:
• RollWorks
• Winmo
5. Sales analytics: Analytics is a significant factor in understanding whether your business is growing or declining. Sales analytics tools allow you to track and manage how your sales process is performing. Sales analytics tools enable you to see individual parts of your sales process to see what's working and areas for improvement.
Some sales analytics tool choices are:
• Looker Sales Analytics
• Insight Squared
Resource:
https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/sales-tools/
https://www.highspot.com/sales-enablement/best-sales-enablement-tools-and-software/
https://salesmateio.medium.com/9-best-sales-tools-for-small-businesses-f47389641532
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
590 adminFebruary 16, 2023

Checklist To Ask Your WP Hosting Provider
Below is a checklist you can discuss and questions you should ask any provider you are considering.
• What uptime guarantee do you offer?
• What types of hosting are available?
• Is it free to upgrade to a new hosting package?
• What kind of security do you have in place to protect websites?
• Do you offer a free SSL certificate?
• What kind of backup policies do you offer?
• How responsive is your technical support?
Once you have a good idea of the hosting you need for your website, make sure you ask the following questions. In most cases, you can find the answers to these questions on the hosting company's website.
In some situations, you may need to contact the hosting provider's sales team to get an answer. Once you have the answers to this interrogation, you can decide which company offers you the best web hosting services. Let's go through each question one by one.
1. What uptime guarantee do you offer?
Regarding web hosting, nothing is more important than uptime and reliability. Most good web hosting providers offer an uptime guarantee of 99.9%, although some go as high as 99.99%.
2. What types of hosting are available?
There are many types of web hosting available. The following are the familiar types of hosting that companies should offer:
• Shared Hosting
• Virtual Private Server (VPS)
• Cloud hosting
• Dedicated server
3. Is it free to upgrade to a new hosting package?
Most small businesses need simple shared hosting. If you start generating a lot of traffic, you may need to upgrade to a VPS or a dedicated server. If your website reaches that point, you want to be sure that the hosting company can upgrade you to a new type of hosting easily and without downtime.
4. What kind of security do you have in place to protect websites?
Cyber security is critical, and for many companies, it starts with protecting the website. Some standard security features offered by good hosting companies include:
• Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Mitigation
• Virus and malware scanning
• Email scanning
5. Do you offer a free SSL certificate?
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a basic form of security that protects your site and helps keep the users who visit your site safe. Having an SSL certificate is also essential for SEO.
6. What kind of backup policies do you offer?
You always want to keep your website files safe and protected. While website problems are rare, a good backup policy helps ensure you never lose any valuable information.
7. How responsive is your technical support?
If something goes wrong with your website, you want to affix it as soon as possible. Whether the problem is caused by you or your hosting company, contacting the technical support team will be the first step in resolving it. You’ll want to make sure your hosting provider offers 24/7 support.
Resource:
https://digital.com/best-web-hosting/questions-to-ask-to-help-find-your-best-web-hosting-services/
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
606 adminFebruary 15, 2023

How Much Time Does Reputation Management Require For Your Chicago-Based Small Business
How long does online reputation management take in Chicago?
Short answer:
Content removal ► 5-7 business days
Content suppression ► 1 - 9 months or longer
Online Customer Review Management ► 1-6 months or more
It varies from a straight removal between 1 and 4 weeks to correcting online reviews, which can take over a month. Online reputation management activities take 6 to 12 months to suppress/push negative search results.
Every project is different and with many factors to consider. Some projects are ongoing and never 'finished' but will be improved over time. We use our expertise and experience to guide customers through the process and understand how much work goes into improving online search results.
Your current online reputation is a significant influence on timing
The existing reputation of your business, brand, and even senior people within the company significantly impacts how long reputation management takes and the type of lit-up strategy it creates for you.
If you have a negative online reputation
If search results for your name, brand, and target keywords already show negative links to reviews, fake news, forum threads, and social media posts, or if you're being trolled online, options are to remove or push these negatives down. And out of sight. It takes much work and skill to remove or counteract harmful content with high rankings.
The competition for your keywords also affects how long online reputation management will take:
It is challenging to change your search results if there is a lot of competition for your targeted keywords. Other companies will invest in different SEO-based marketing strategies and link-building, making it complicated.
Google prioritizes the most relevant and high-quality search results for each keyword. It uses over 200 ranking factors to determine the quality and relevance of each keyword. So, if the competition for your keywords is high, you need to outperform your competitors on as many ranking factors as possible - which is a lot of work in terms of time and activity.
Resource:
https://blog.reputationx.com/how-long-does-orm-take
https://www.igniyte.co.uk/blog/how-long-does-reputation-management-take
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
773 adminFebruary 14, 2023

Considerations To Keep In Mind While Designing The Flow Of Your Product
The following things are Considerations to keep in mind while designing the flow of your product.
1. Your product should be relatable:
Be realistic—new product evolution development takes time and money. Trying to get a great product fast and cheap can result in a compromised product that is ineffective in solving any customer problem in the market.
2. Creating minimum viable product (MVP):
A minimum viable product (MVP) can demonstrate an idea without significant financial investment for full-scale development. Once you start generating sales with an MVP, the company has more incentive to invest time and resources into developing additional features in the product.
3. Create a budget:
While preparing the budget, analyze the expected returns from the product and how much the company can invest in the given period. Avoid further funding of "nearly finished products" that will not show a significant return based on the resources required.
4. Develop a Good marketing plan:
Creating the best product does not guarantee that customers will buy it. It is developing a marketing plan along with the product development process. It helps to have an effect with a primary feature focused on a known problem for the customer. Marketing is all about focusing on how they will hear about your product as a solution.
5. Get early feedback from customers:
Many companies fear that negative feedback early in the product development process could derail their carefully planned product development efforts. Granted, it can happen, but it can be a good thing! You can improve the product quickly, so it's essential to get feedback from real customers using the product as soon as possible.
Resource:
https://qubstudio.com/blog/ten-steps-of-the-product-design-process/
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/7-things-to-consider-before-starting-product-development/
Disclaimer: Wherever any material is quoted as sourced from the published text with publishing rights vested in an individual, it is stated that it is a pure quotation and has no intention to claim it as our own.
Image Source: www.freepik.com
474 adminFebruary 13, 2023
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