Category Archives: Business
Money on Tap: How to Start a Bottled Water Business
Did you know that 1,500 bottles of water are consumed in the USA every second? This huge statistic goes to show how big business bottled water has become. It is both a basic unit of life and also a fashion statement.
If you are considering getting into the bottled water business, what do you need to know? How can you get started and where can you find the needed equipment?
Why not read on to find out the answer to all these questions.
Where do I Start?
Even if you are planning to start at home, you will need to invest in some basic equipment to start your water bottling operations.
You will need to purchase a water treatment plant that can ensure that your water has the content and quality that you will display on the label. Following this, you will need equipment to sterilize the tubing and bottles that will carry the water.
As your operations expand you will need to employ trained professionals who can work with and guarantee the quality of the product.
What license will I need?
While it might seem simple to arrange the production of bottled water, you will need government approval to sell it. There are two kinds of licensing that you will need.
A general license from the Food and Drug Administration and a permit from your local state health department.
What Basic Premises Will I Need?
Depending on the size of your ambitions and initial production rate, you will likely need to spend at least $750,000 on your first bottling location. This will include your equipment for treating bottling and packing your water for shipping.
While you may be able to find a water bottling line for sale relatively easily, sourcing a water provider and forming a distribution network can be more challenging.
How Much Can I charge?
Depending on the price of your water source, you may be able to sell water at as much as 100 percent markup.
Initially, you will generally be able to sell your water for as much as $1 a bottle. However, if you are marketing your water as having especially high quality or as having specific nutrients, you may be able to charge more.
The goal for most bottled water companies is to establish a strong distribution network and regular customers. To be able to do this you may need to market your water at a lower price initially and then gradually raise your price over time.
How to Start a Bottled Water Business and Much More
Water is one of the basic elements of life and has become a huge business opportunity in recent years. If you have a unique angle and provide a quality product you may be able to succeed in the bottled water business.
If you are looking for other business plans and suggestions, then why not check out our blog articles? We gather the latest information and author independent articles that can help you and your business. Why not take a look at how we can help you today.
When Should You Start to Invest in Assisted Living?
Are you trying to build wealth? Do you want to invest your money into appreciating assets that will secure your financial future?
If so, then you need to consider turning to unconventional investment opportunities. It’s important to diversify your investment portfolio beyond the mutual funds and stocks that you may already be in.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at whether or not you should make the decision to invest in assisted living. We’ll give you all the info you need, including the pros and cons of this type of investment, plus a timeline as to when you should start investing.
Why You Should Invest in Assisted Living
Before we start talking about when you should redirect your assets into this particular venture, let’s first talk about the justification as to why assisted living communities are a good investment.
The first thing to consider is the average age of the population. Due to the baby boomer demographic, the world’s population is steadily getting older. Another causation of this is improved medicine that allows for a longer life expectancy.
Consequently, the demand for assisted living enterprises is rising at a surprising rate. The supply of these homes is not keeping up at quite the same rate due to increasing real estate shortages around urban areas. So the final consequence is an increase in the prices of assisted living communities.
This in turn causes those communities to be valued higher as assets.
The primary con of investing in assisted living facilities is that your investment will not be very liquid. You will have to pick a particular venture and invest money into it, and because the money is not very easily tradable the capital will be tied up for several years at the very minimum.
When You Should Invest in Assisted Living
If we’ve convinced you and you’re now really thinking about investing in this kind of facility, then let’s start to talk about timelines. As with all investments, the earlier that you can put your money in, the more your money will be able to grow in the long-term.
Consequently, you should definitely focus on investment as much as possible as early as possible. But be sure that you find the right enterprise to invest in.
Even though assisted living facilities’ values are on the rise, not all retirement homes are good investments. You want to pick one that is run by an excellent management team and has positive reviews across the board. This will help to ensure its long-term success that will net you a positive rate of return.
Use a service like findcontinuingcare.com to identify the right investment.
Keep Planning for the Future
Whether you decide to invest in assisted living communities or other asses, be sure to keep planning for old age by putting your money to work for you in various investment assets.
For more financial articles, be sure to check out the rest of the articles on the website before you leave!
7 Tricks to Simplify Strategic Planning For Small Business
Did you know there are over 30.2 million small businesses in the United States?
Although many small businesses face tough challenges, they can revamp their strategic planning with the right strategy. If you’re ready to create a new small business or take your current one to the next level, you came to the right place.
Read on to learn about these strategic planning for small business tips.
1. Collect the Data
Before you start implementing strategic planning for your small business, you need to collect data. The collection of internal and external data is one of the most important parts of strategic planning.
Start by gathering information regarding your business channels, customers, product categories, target audience, etc.
Even if you have a small business, you should still look for and collect important internal data.
2. Expand the Team
Many business managers and owners leave the main decisions to the people on the top. However, when it comes to selling products, sometimes employees who interact with customers have the best insight.
If you want to think outside the box during strategic planning, you should allow more team members to participate in meetings.
3. Productive Work Environment
For your team to thrive, they need to have the right environment. This applies to more than just the physical environment; it applies to the creative.
Everyone in the team needs to feel like they can share their ideas and cultivate their creativity.
4. Over Preparation
During strategic planning for small businesses, all team members must follow through with the preparation. Expect all involved team members to participate in the conversation so that everyone can bounce ideas off each other.
After all, they will be responsible for the implementation and follow-through of those ideas. Preparation and research will ensure the success of the strategic plan.
5. Build a Business Plan
After you have laid out the basic groundwork and built the team, you’re ready to create a business plan.
On the business plan, you will write an executive summary, target audience, market analysis, short and long term financial projections, and an action plan.
6. Strategic Planning Is a Process
Unlike the launch of a promotion or an event, strategic planning is a process. The work doesn’t end once you put the plan in motion.
Don’t worry if you don’t see results right away as long as you continue to see a steady process.
7. Measure Growth
The best way to know the effectiveness of your strategic plan is by measuring growth. Pay attention to the numbers and see how things progress monthly, quarterly, or bi-yearly depending on your goals.
Also, measure the value the strategic planning brought to your business. If you don’t see as much growth as you should, there’s always time to modify the course.
Try These Strategic Planning for Small Business Tips
Now that you know about these strategic planning for small business tips, it’s time you put them to the test.
Remember to start by collecting data, choose the team, create a productive work environment, write a business plan, and measure growth.
If you enjoy these business tips and would like to learn more, check out the rest of our blog.
Taking a Look at the Future of Shopping Malls
Did you know that in-person holiday shopping is projected to lower by twenty-five percent this holiday season? The coronavirus pandemic has altered our lives in many ways, including the way that we shop.
How will shopping malls continue to cater to the needs of shoppers and attract in-person sales in retail stores? Here are three things that could change in the future of shopping malls.
More Storage for Customers
One of the biggest drawbacks for mall customers is the need to carry around bags of goods after purchasing them. However, this problem can easily be fixed with shopping malls providing on-site storage that is safe and reliable.
Customers would be able to rent out a storage space in a designated area of the mall, where they can go back and forth to deposit items that they have bought. For a nominal fee, they can make shopping much easier.
Some locker companies even offer solutions like keyless entry. For those who are afraid of losing a key to a locker or storage unit, companies such as National Lockers and Shelving have units that can be activated with a PIN or key code, rather than a physical lock and key.
Luxury Dining and Services
For shopping malls, another tactic to draw in more physical shoppers is changing the space to be more luxurious and inviting. Including movie theaters and other amenities in shopping malls may be the ticket to keep customers in the space for longer periods of time.
A trend that has taken off with shopping malls recently is integrating grocery stores into the mall itself. This way, consumers can buy some of the household goods and other items they need at a more convenient price, rather than from specialty stores.
Although the food court has long been a staple of the classic shopping mall experience, the restaurant space in malls is changing to fit a growing need for customers. Many opt for more upscale restaurants within the shopping center.
Targeted Centers for Different Demographics
One of the biggest reasons why shopping malls have been losing customers is because of a changing demographic. Younger generations seem to be more attracted to online shopping due to its perceived convenience.
Mall developers can look at nearby residential areas and gauge what the target demographic is. For example, if the mall happens to be near a retirement community, the shopping center can cater to an older aged population.
The shopping mall plan would include restaurants, retail stores, and experiences that would help to attract the target market. Creating a customized shopping experience is a great way to keep bringing consumers into shopping malls of the future.
The Future of Shopping Malls is Always Changing
When it comes to the future of shopping malls, it will ultimately be dictated by how technology and consumer habits evolve.
Would you like to know more about how our world is changing with advances in technology and consumer habits? Check out our blog for all of the information you will need.
How a Social Media Monitoring Solution Like NetBase Could Help Your Business
In today’s day and age where social media is considered the primary mode of sharing important moments, being in touch with friends, and doling out hot takes on latest news, conventional mechanisms of communication just don’t cut it for brands anymore.
For each billboard you pay for, there would 10 more tweets by competitors engaging with your potential customers. For every TV spot you get after local news, there would be someone on Instagram learning what your customers want. And for every ad in a magazine, there would be a Facebook post guiding your customers to your competitor’s website by learning what they are looking for.
Simply put, if you are not paying attention to social media monitoring and understanding your potential market’s behavior, then all of your advertising revenue could be wasted away.
What is Social Media Monitoring?
Social listening refers to the practice of learning your target market’s behavior and views through different aspects of social media.
By monitoring various social media channels, you could learn about customers’ needs through their public posts. You could predict the market’s response to a product idea. And you could go as far as to design products modeled after what a large chunk of potential customers are ready to pay for.
All of this happens when you take part in active social media monitoring by seeing how your target market is behaving through their respective profiles. By collecting this data, you can effectively learn what your target market is looking for, and model your media advertisement campaigns, future product launches, and current service models accordingly.
Social listening is crucial.
How Can You Use It to Your Advantage?
Using social listening could seem like a daunting task. But if you have the right tools at your hand, it could be a walk in the park.
Since you cannot go after each of your target market’s social media profiles manually, these tools help you monitor each user’s behavior through automated yet intelligent solutions.
By identifying the deeper meaning of each word used in a post, or how a certain “like” to a specific post could convey users’ emotions, you are able to have a large set of data that could be utilized in a number of ways.
That is why, the concept of social listening and social media monitoring is gaining traction faster than ever, where companies are doing all they can to learn exactly what their target market is thinking about a certain aspect – but without having to put in manual labor into the process. Instead, it’s all smart algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) in play, which identifies user behavior seamlessly, leaving you with results rather than an abundance of posts to make sense of.
Where Can You Find Such Solutions?
Due to their complexity, social listening and social media monitoring solutions might project the image of being difficult to implement. But it is very easy to find firms that specialize in deploying these monitoring campaigns with simple yet highly effective programs.
One such firm is NetBase, which specializes in understanding user behavior through AI and other automated learning mechanisms. Having served companies such as Meredith Corp., Visa and BuzzFeed, the company is one of the leading solutions provider for monitoring user behavior through social media analysis.
Whether you are looking for more information on social media listening and social media monitoring or if you are ready to hire such a solution right away, don’t hesitate from reaching out to NetBase today. With customized programs, you are bound to find something that suits your requirements.
