3 Social Media Tips to Consider for Your Business

When it comes to owning a business, one thing is for sure: it is highly imperative that you look into each and every new trend. One current trend that is undoubtedly popular these days is social media. Practically everywhere you go you will find people who are on their smartphones updating their statuses or browsing through multiple images on Instagram.

Maurice Bouri, son of Alex Bouri, the founder of Seament knows that operating a business is not always easy. However, like most other business owners, Maurice Bouri knows about the many advantages of social media.

If you are a business or you are affiliated with one, you probably are already aware of how beneficial social media can be for your company. If you decide to take on social media initiatives on your own, then make sure to follow some of the most helpful strategies and tips for the industry.  

1. Decide upon a consistent posting strategy.

• When you have come up with a very consistent posting strategy, you will notice that your customers and followers will tune in more to particular days to see if you have updated your social media platforms. This gives your customer and follower base a sense of consistency. 

2. Determine which social media platforms you want to use. 

• What social media platforms do you want to use? Each different platform has a specific method. For example, Twitter is only 140 characters long if you want to create a status, so perhaps having a Facebook account (where you can write more) might come in handy. A LinkedIn account can also assist you if you wish to reach more professional audiences. However, you could always use multiple social media platforms; just make sure that you have the extra time.

3. Start contests, create special offers, and consider sweepstakes.

• Nothing will inspire an audience like getting the chance to enter a contest to win $500. If you could win $500, then wouldn’t you enter the contest? If you have something promotional to offer your customers, such as a gift card to your retail store, you can expect your customers to respond. 

These are only three social media tips to consider if you own a business or are associated with one. These tips should help you out quite a bit in producing excellent social media. 

Be a Better Entrepreneur in 2014 with New Year's Resolutions

Since we're only a few weeks into 2014, it's a good time for entrepreneurs to wipe the slate clean and look at the year ahead with fresh eyes. Seasoned entrepreneur Alex F Bouri offers some words of advice for taking advantage of the new year and the opportunity to make New Year's resolutions.

Start with an Evaluation…

What seemed to work last year and what didn't work? Being honest with yourself is the only way to truly evaluate your business plan and start with a clean slate.

Tackle Challenges Head On

It can sometimes be difficult to admit to yourself that you have weaknesses, but it's extremely beneficial to do so. Once you identify what's challenging you most, you can figure out how to tackle it. As a New Year's resolution, stop thinking up all the excuses for why you can't do something, and start focusing on the reasons why you should.

Incorporate More Technology

Nowadays, there's an app for almost anything. Why aren't you taking advantage of this? Apps are huge time savers, can help you stay organized, and are extremely easy to get accustomed to. It's simply a matter of researching the ones that you'd find most helpful. This can help you to incorporate other goals, like keeping all your employees more informed and checking items off a to-do list every day.

Connect with Clients

If you're a small business, you probably know a lot of your clients by name. Take advantage of this by sending out holiday cards or sending personalized e-mails with deals they might find useful. If your clients feel as though they know you on a personal level, they'll be more likely to stick with you in the long-term.

Set More Incentives

For many people, the goal is improving KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). It's hard to do that without the help of your employees, and it's hard to get them to do that without incentives. Hold contests to see who can sign on the most new customers, make the most phone calls in a day, or make the biggest upsell. Every little bit counts!

Family Business Advice 101: Tips For Transitioning Power To The Next Generation

It’s finally happening.  Maybe you’re ready to retire and enjoy your golden years, or perhaps you’re finally ready to hand over control to the next generation.  Either way, after years of success you’re ready to hand over the family business to the next generation.  It can be difficult to step down after decades of doing things your way, but this is something you’ve been planning on doing since your first day of business. 

Giving someone else control of your business can be stressful regardless of if you’re related or not, and some find that it’s more difficult to give up control of a family business than any other kind.  Charles Bouri and Prudence MacLeod were able to take over the family business without any problems, but that’s probably because their parents did a good job of transitioning over control.  If you’re going to be stepping down from the family business soon, make sure that you follow these tips to ensure that everything goes smoothly.

Know that things will change

When some family business owners hand over control to the next generation, they’re surprised and even a little offended when they see their children, nieces, and nephews making changes to their business.  No one you put in charge of your business is going to run things the exact same way you did, and if you want your business to succeed you wouldn’t want that way.  Businesses need to evolve with their markets, and a business that stays the same each and every year is eventually going to fall out of public favor.  Embrace the change, and be happy that the new owners are excited to be making a change.

Talk about it frequently

If you want the transition of power to go by smoothly, you need to talk about it with your family members, and talk about it often.  Honest conversations about your plans are crucial for ensuring that your employees and family members know what they need to know about the upcoming transition.  While we’re on the topic of honest conversation, we should move on to the next topic…

Be ready to defend your successor

Maybe your cousin always envisioned that they would be the one to take over the family business instead of your son.  Maybe your life partner doesn’t understand why you’re choosing one child over the other.  Either way there are going to be some people that are going to be surprised by your choice of leadership, and they’re going to demand answers about why you chose who you chose.  You don’t need to go into in-depth detail about your decisions; you just need to be prepared to answer people when they start asking questions.  A simple statement about the good qualities of your successor (good business sense, spotless work record, enthusiasm, new ideas, etc) should be enough to explain your choice.  

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Hiring a New Employee

The saying "It's hard to find good help these days" is very true, even though most people wouldn't expect that it would apply in this economy.  Despite the high amount of people that are looking for jobs, many employers still have difficulties finding an applicant that they feel can handle their job.  Everybody has had to go through employment woes, from the small business owner down the street, to Alexander Bouri, even to CEOs of large businesses. Some business owners wonder why they can never seem to find good employees, but the problem may have more to do with the way you're going about the hiring process. Before you start looking for new employees, ask yourself these important questions.

Do I have a defined role to fill?

If you're constantly bombarded with basic questions about the position from people you're interviewing they may not be as clueless as you think.  When you advertise a job you need to advertise a specific position that needs to be filled, vague job descriptions are sure to bring in applicants that aren't qualified for the job.  Filling out a detailed job description ensures that you'll be scheduling interviews with people who can handle the job, and also makes it easier to set basic bench marks to see if your employee is living up to their standards.

Am I hiring someone with my skills?

Work relationships aren't too different from regular relationships.  In both scenarios you want to find someone who can compliment your skills and personality, you don't want someone who has a carbon copy of your skill set.    The new employee you hire should ideally excel in areas that you aren't familiar with so that your company can grow, and so that you have someone with new perspective to add to your daily work routines.

Can You Commit to Your Employee

A lot of businesses view employee loyalty as an essential part of every business, but in order for an employee to be loyal to a company the company itself as to earn it.  Can you guarantee that you'll be able to provide your employee with a good salary and benefits?  Can you ensure that they'll be safe at work?  Can you give your employee the training they need in order to properly do their job?  If the answer to any of those questions is no, you should hold off on hiring another employee.

Business Decisions: Planning for Succession

Family businesses come in all shapes and sizes, from mom and pop car dealerships to ones like Seament, a global cement company run by founder Alex Bouri and his kids, Maurice, Mark, and Charles Bouri. Though the way they run their businesses and what they do might vary, there's one thing that all family-operated companies have in common: the decision of succession. If an owner should decide to pass the business on to his or her children, how would they even go about it?

According to FORTUNE, it starts with an exit plan. A business owner has to sit down with a financial advisor and come up with a comprehensive business succession which will detail the business owner's personal and entrepreneurial goals and resources. In this meeting, he or she will take into consideration the financial and legal stipulations of transferring the title of a business.

Advisors stress that business owners give the process due thought. After all, you only get one opportunity to make this move, so you have to be sure that it's exactly what you want.

The biggest decision you'll have to make: do I give the business away, or sell it to my child? The answer must be made based on your level of financial security. If you're secure enough to simply give it, take into consideration your limit of yearly gift tax exemptions. A financial advisor can look into these and see if you're entitled to discounts for giving the business as a gift.

Or, you could make an intra-family sale as a way to sell the business to your son or daughter, which involves selling the company's stock for an installment note in return.

With the proper advisor, the process is an easy one. The decision itself – how to go about it, and if you should allow your kin to take over your business at all – is often the hardest part.

Three Difficult Truths About Starting a Business

Founders of successful businesses all started out the same way.  They were people with ideas who were determined to make them work.  In a perfect world a head full of ideas and a gut full of gumption would be all you need to be a successful businessman, but unfortunately we live in the real world.  Every businessman you know from big successes like Maurice Bouri to the owner of the deli down the street learned some tough lessons when they started their businesses.  Sometimes you have to learn from the school of hard knocks in order to truly understand something, and if you're starting your own business soon you'll probably be learning these tough lessons soon.

You Can't Get Bank Loans with Ideas

No bank or credit union is going to write a check and tell you to simply follow your dreams.  You may have one of the best ideas in human history, but if you don't have proof that you can pull it off you shouldn't expect a dime from anyone.  It's unfortunate and unfair, but many banks shy away from financing startups because many of the people behind the startups have little experience managing businesses.  Having a concept is great, but if you want to get any monetary support you'll need to have proof that you can make the concept work.

Your Initial Financial Expectations Will be Way Off

You could have an economics degree and have the finest financial analysts going over your projected earnings, but you won't know how much you'll earn until you actually start your business and start earning money.  Financial forecasts are a lot like regular weather forecasts.  Experts look at the data they have and make predictions on what they think will happen, and the majority of the time unexpected factors affect their predictions.  You can't predict world events, changing social norms, or upcoming economic shifts.  Focus on growing your business naturally before you start setting 7 figure revenue goals.

Success Today Doesn't Guarantee Success Tomorrow

There is no such thing as a perfect business that's always profitable; companies go through high and low periods as often as the wind changes.  If you falsely believe that you'll always be the top company in your industry you're almost guaranteed to fail somewhere down the line.  A good business owner is always looking for ways to improve their business and they make it a point to stay on top of industry trends.  The faster you realize that your success isn't guaranteed, the better off your business will be.