Remote work started as a trend, but now, it’s pretty clear it’s here to stay. As the world becomes more capable of handling remote work and doing it well, the benefits of hiring remote workers has far outweighed the disadvantages. Here are some ways that hiring remote workers can help your business.

It Helps Operations

Remote workers can improve your business’ overalls operations and effectiveness in several ways.

 

Firstly, you may be struggling to fill a position with local talent. With remote workers, you have no restrictions. When you widen your search, you can cover niches in your business with remote employees and get the benefits of those skills.

 

Also, remote workers are more productive, though that’s often hard to believe. Not only are remote workers less distracted by colleagues, office visitors, and more, they are more likely to work overtime than in-office workers. Their productivity translates into more productivity for you -- and more work done in less time.

 

What’s also surprising is that there’s actually less turnover with remote workers. Though company culture is usually the strongest path to company loyalty, remote workers are often happy with their jobs. The setup is so convenient and preferable to them that they often stay longer in their remote positions.

It Helps Your Budget

Hiring remote workers can also drastically lower your operating costs, leaving your budget more open for other important expenses and growth.

When a percentage or all of your team is remote, you require much less office space. When you add more remote workers to your team, you don’t need to expand your offices either; they can stay exactly the same.

 

Similarly, hiring remote workers means you don’t need to buy additional workstations or computers. This allows you to grow your team without having to continuously spend on them.

 

Because remote workers aren’t physically around, their benefits packages are significantly smaller or nonexistent, saving you money there as well. Your company will also save on retreats, outings, and other company gatherings.

It Helps Your Workers

Finally, remote work is actually great for the workers themselves too. It’s no surprise that remote work has become popular as technology has improved, and more than that, stuck around.

 

One of the biggest benefits of remote work is better work-life balance. Remote workers primarily work from home, allowing them to spend more time with family, keep flexible hours, and take longer vacations than in-office workers.

 

A huge benefit of remote work is the lack of commute. Commutes are a principal stressor for working adults, cutting into their free time and affecting their moods. Working from home minimizes this wasted time and provides relief.

Just like your business spends less, your remote workers spend less: on travel, food, clothes, and more. Working remotely means they can save and spend their salary on more valuable things.

Start Hiring Remote

 

Interested in taking advantage of the benefits of remote workers? S-FX can help you find them. Reach out and we can connect you with qualified remote workers that fit what you’re looking for.

A website should engage your current and potential customers the moment it loads, and for the entire time they stay on it. How can you tell if your website is boring? Look out for these five signs, and then start working with your web designer to fix them.

It takes forever to load.

If an internet user has to wait longer than 2 seconds for your page to load, they’re going to give up and click away. You’ve probably done the same thing. Web users nowadays expect things quickly, almost immediately. Nothing is more boring than waiting. If your site is too slow, talk to your web developer about optimizing your site.  

It isn’t answering any questions.

Your website content is just as important as how it looks. If your website isn’t providing any information or entertainment for your visitors, then they have no reason to be on your site. Make sure your content is, above all, answering their questions. What does your business do? Why do you do it? What hours are you open? What are your social media channels? How can they reach you? What are your products? How can they buy them? If your site doesn’t answer these, write some new copy and do a website redesign.  

It’s an old design.

Users can tell when a website is old. Websites from a decade ago have a very different outdated look to them, and users are all about the new. They will judge your business based on it, and they will definitely get bored of being on it. Refresh your website design with a designer who’s up on the latest trends and can give your site a new, modern feel.  

The colors are off.

Minimalism and simple design are in, but that doesn’t mean that every website should be black and white. The wrong colors will make your website less interesting to a visitor. If the call to actions don’t pop, they won’t do anything on your site. If your brand colors aren’t used, they may even forget it’s your site. Color is powerful, so don’t be afraid to use it to your advantage.  

There are no images or video.

A plain site can be very boring. The right images and/or video can change that. (And they count as good content.) They can inform or entertain as much as copy can, and they are excellent for converting visitors into customers as well. Although they aren’t 100% necessary, if your site has zero of either, consider putting more multimedia on your page. Just get an expert designer’s opinion to make sure you’re using the right kind and amount of them in the right places.   Making a website more engaging can be a simple task, and you’ll be amazed at what fast loading times, good copy, the right colors, and a fresh feel can do for your site -- and for your sales and conversions.

Social media for your small business is a must. Every business should be on social media. In 2019, that’s just a fact. Many sometimes believe they don’t need to engage their customers online, but in order to grow, you have to find current (and new) customers where they live, and remind them about your brand. But don’t just jump online without a plan. Before you start running social media for your small business, here are five things you absolutely need to do first.

Do Your Research

Before you start social media for your small business, you have to do some research. What are your competitors doing online? And more importantly, what are they doing right? We’re not asking you to copy them exactly, but knowing the methods that are working for businesses like yours is an excellent place to start. Which channels have the largest following and the most engagement? What kinds of posts work best for them? Make note and decide which elements you can learn from for your own efforts.

Choose Your Channels

Not every social media channel is right for every industry or business. Many businesses get on Facebook and call it a day, but depending on your audience, you may need to focus on a different platform. If your demographic is millennials, Instagram is a clear choice. Younger customers are favoring Snapchat. And nearly any business can benefit from being on LinkedIn. You will definitely need to be on more than one platform. Be smart and figure out which channels are right for your business.

Get The Right Tools

Before any posting happens, you should get the right set of tools to help you schedule and track your social media efforts. Popular scheduling apps include Hootsuite, Zoho, Hubspot, and SproutSocial. Look into several and find the one that suits your needs. Since your business is small, and more than likely so is your budget, a paid app may not be the right choice yet. Also, make sure you have a way to track your progress and engagement.

Make A Plan

Nobody should start randomly posting topical memes, photos of their products, and links to industry blog posts without giving their strategy a little (a lot of) thought. You’ve got the management and analytics tools to start running social media for your small business (see #3), so now you need to make a plan:

1. Create a content “bucket” of types of posts: blogs, product photos, client reviews, company culture highlights, informational graphics or videos, etc. This will help when you're stuck on what to post.
2. Make sure your content is high quality and BRANDED.
3. Decide how many times a week to post to which channels based on your research, post types, and available time.
4. Decide what content goes on which channel, because no, not everything goes on every channel.
5. You can even create a few weeks’ worth of posts before you start, just to make things easier for you.

Have Something Good To Link To

Your social media should link back to a beautiful and functional website that finishes the job and turns visitors into customers. If your social media is amazing, but your website is outdated and difficult to navigate, all your efforts may have been for nothing. If your site doesn’t fit that description, optimize or redesign your site before you start social media for your small business.

Conclusion

One of the best ways to succeed online as a business is to create a plan and stick to it. Follow these five steps and you’ll be well on your way to bringing more customers to you.Once you’ve started on social media, you aren’t done, so remember to constantly look for ways to improve your social media presence and engagement methods.

What's the main color on your website? And, what other colors are on your site? If you’re in the process of building your business’ website, or have ever been through it, there’s a lot you’ve had to consider: the structure, the images, the copy. On that long list of important elements, where did the colors of your site fall? Possibly low on the list.

The Effects of Color

Whether you’re aware of it or not, the colors of the websites you visit every day affect your experience: both how you navigate the site, what you think about that brand or company, and even whether you purchase their products. The effect of color on humans is very natural, and “color theory” has existed for years. So how do we use the effects of color on our consumers to our advantage? We can use the colors of our brand and our sites to make people buy, to make our business memorable, and to attract the right kind of customer. It’s likely you already have brand and logo colors. If you’re looking to rebrand, then definitely take these tips into account. If not, you can still use colors outside of your brand to your advantage by incorporating them into your website.

picking the color on your website: A Few Examples

So how do you go about choosing color on your website? You have to understand the effects of each color, not just emotionally, but physically, on a person. Is it difficult to read a site with that color? Is it evoking the wrong feeling? Let’s look at a few examples.   Blue Blue is very popular in technology, science, and finance industries. It promotes calmness (think oceans and skies), trust, and reliability. Speakers at TED Talks and the like are often told to wear blue on stage for the same reason: it causes listeners to relax and trust you, and it doesn’t distract from what you’re saying. Blue can be an excellent choice if you need your customers to trust you. If your business is something that requires a lot of trust (like a bank), then making your customers feel safe the moment they reach your site can have a massive positive effect. What Not To Wear: If you work in the food industry, you probably shouldn’t use blue as a main color on your website. It’s considered the “least appetizing” color. It’s also very corporate, so if you’re a young, fun brand looking to build an attractive site, skip blue or go for a more vibrant blue with fun accent colors. Example: Check out Facebook’s particular shade of blue.   Red Red is both a great color and a dangerous color. It’s so powerful and vibrant that it can spur a customer into action very easily, but can also be seen as domineering, or too aggressive. Red is excellent for restaurants since, unlike blue, red is very appetizing: think the bright red of Coca-Cola or Red Lobster. (Or as an extreme example, Red Bull.) For more upscale restaurants, a darker red can give the site a classy and warm feeling, evoking a rich red wine. Brighter red is also used by many car companies in their logos, promoting speed and action.  Not My Brand: Red may not be in your brand colors, and maybe you don’t want it to be your central color, but it has a lot of potential for your website anyway. Red is excellent for call-to-action buttons: it pops out from its surroundings and encourages the visitor to click. Example: Toyota’s use of red in their home page’s CTA buttons.   Green Green is the color of nature, so it’s a popular choice for food industries, especially those with an organic or healthy spin. Outdoor activities, eco-resorts and hotels, and similar businesses may want a website that evokes the feeling of being outside. Like blue, it’s calming, but not as corporate. It feels fresh and clean and positive, giving energy to a site without the dangers of red.  Dark green can also have a similar effect as blue, giving a sense of trust and calm. Even if you’re not Whole Foods, you may want to emphasize some sustainability or “go green” efforts you’re making as a company. This is an excellent place to use green on your site, contrasting with your other colors and bringing attention to a campaign or commitment. What Not To Wear: Be careful about using a bright green and a white as the main colors on your website. This can be overwhelming to the eyes. Example: Evernote’s bright green website.   Black Black is a bold choice, and can be overwhelming if used too much, but when used correctly, it can lend a sophisticated air to your site. Black is difficult to design around, and is overpowering. The heaviness of a black background can be contrasted with minimal content and larger text, which creates a sleek and classy look. A black menu bar or section can add a strong accent to a site, and mixing black, white, and a third accent color can be very modern and minimalistic. If you go for black, make sure you have a designer that knows what they’re doing. Example: The MAC Cosmetics black, white, and red site.   In the end, color on your website will have a significant and likely unconscious effect on your potential customers. If you want to make sure that effect is the right one, do your research, be conscientious, and get an experienced designer to create your site. Your site is one of the most important places that a customer interacts with your business--so get that first impression right.

You know that hosting a highly functional website ensures that your customers have a place to browse, consider, and order your products or services – but what about the navigation and user journey they’ll undertake on your site? According to the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), 77% of agencies consider poor website user experience (UX) to be a pain point for their online customers. That means online businesses face a lot of pressure to install a user-friendly design and get it right, or else risk pushing potential customers away. Thankfully, there’s no reason any startup or small business needs to take on this challenge alone. At S-FX.com Small Business Solutions, LLC, we specialize in web design and other digital service consultation for smaller firms and nonprofits. We pride ourselves in our ability to be flexible in accommodating a multitude of requests for our clients. We offer an array of technology consulting solutions – from website design to SEO, marketing, branding, and process re-engineering. Our customers have been pleased with the attention and care we’ve given to their website needs, which is why they’ve left us such positive feedback on Clutch, a verified B2B ratings and reviews platform. We’ve received an average rating of 4.8 stars! According to Clutch rankings, we’re one of the top web designers in New Jersey. We recently redesigned a website and performed SEO for Miniature Folding Inc., a packaging company. We also built a resource management system to assist their internal communication needs. Our work helped Miniature Folding, Inc. to increase its production and sales numbers. They were pleased with our work, and they offered a special commendation for our ability to tailor our offerings to the needs of their small business. “S-FX knows exactly what a small business owner might be looking for and tailors their offerings to my needs. You can buy big box management programs right off the shelf, but these typically include features that, frankly, aren’t necessary for our small business model. I appreciate the fact that Shane understands our specific needs and delivers products that are scalable and easy to use.” – Joseph Taliercio, Director of Facilities & HR, Miniature Folding Inc. We also did design, integrations, and WordPress site integrations for CMT Association, a nonprofit. We met all the expectations this client laid out for their web partnership. They were pleased with the quality of our work and our creativity. Our clients give us the opportunity to learn about entirely new industries, and share in the joys of their success! Interested customers should review our ranking on The Manifest, which highlights our work. According to The Manifest, we’re one of the top 100 design agencies in the world! Our projects are also showcased on Visual Objects, a graphical company resource. Want to learn more? Contact us today!