How Businesses can Give Back to their Communities

Businesses rely on the support of their clients and home communities to thrive and survive. If you are looking for a way to give back to those that support your company, consider a fundraiser. Now these can be a single day event or something that is ongoing. Large or small, there are opportunities for all companies concerned with giving back. For instance, your company may want to sponsor a local athlete or team like Yoel Wazana did through his company Micro Solutions Enterprises. Giving back is an excellent way to say thank you and it may also lead to new business connections for you.

One Day Event

One of the most popular types of fundraising events is the single day event. There are a variety of ways companies may participate in these. For instance, you may offer your clients food for a certain price with the donations going to a specific cause. If the budget is on the larger side, you may want to consider throwing an all-day event for the current clientele. This may even attract other potential clients that did not know about you.

If you are planning an event of this nature, make sure to give your team enough time to prepare. You may event want to create a specific committee to handle the details.

Get Behind a Specific Cause

Choose a specific charitable cause and get your employees behind it. To make it more meaningful, you may want to consider a charity that one of your employees has a personal connection with. Whether you form a team for a fundraising walk or decide to hold a family fun day with the proceeds going to your cause, there are a variety of foundations out there and just as many ways to raise money for them.

Support a Local Athlete or Team

One of the charitable contributions that Micro Solutions Enterprises makes is to support Yoel Wazana in his backing of a local youth soccer team. Children are encouraged to get outside and become more active. However, doing this in an organized fashion is not cheap. If you hear of an athlete who needs help to participate in a competition or want to help support a local team, do it. Not only will you get the satisfaction of making an impact on your community, but you will get the enjoyment of watching young athletes blossom.

Giving back to your community or the country at large will leave you with a feeling of satisfaction. It may even lead to more business connections. Decide upon which route you want to take and have fun.

Yoel Wazana Provides 4 Ways for Businesses to Improve Customer Relationships

While there are many factors that affect the bottom line, customers are the lifeblood of any business. They purchase your products and/or services and they are the ones who keep your business flourishing. That's why it's imperative to build a strong and solid relationship with your customer base.

Understandably, developing strong relationships can take time and dedication. That’s why it's important to employ the right customer relation strategies. To help you improve your relationship with customers, business professional Yoel Wazana provides the following tips.

1. Establish connections with your customers

Connecting with your customers and keeping them informed about your products/services, events, deals, discounts, and other such information is a crucial part of improving customer relations. Whether you keep them informed through social media, e-mails, texts or your website, your customers should be in the loop about what's going on with your company and products.

Also, keep in mind that it only takes one bad experience to send a customer away, regardless of whether they're shopping in your store or talking with you over the phone. You should always be courteous and give each interaction with customers a personal touch.

2. Listen to your customers

Customers respond well when they feel like someone has a genuine interest in them. They want someone who listens and responds to their wants and needs. Whether they demand that something be done or changed, or simply want someone to pay attention to them, it's important that you address their concerns and do so in a timely and interested manner. Understandably, you may not always be able to have face-to-face interaction with customers. Get feedback through a forum on your website where people can voice their concerns. You can achieve this through customer surveys and e-mails, as well.

3. Reward loyal customers

While your goal may be to bring in new customers, remember that it's easier and less costly to take care of your existing ones. One of the best ways to strengthen your relationship with current customers is to show them how much you appreciate them. You can do this by sending a thank you letter or e-mail, or free samples of a product. These tokens of appreciation are easy ways to thank customers for staying with your company, and customers feel special when they receive them.

4. Provide the proper employee training

In order to provide customers with the best service, your team of employees should be properly trained, knowledgeable and experienced. Many customers' opinions are formed by their interaction with employees; therefore, your employees should know how to properly respond to customers in all instances. 

Making an Impact in the Community

There are two sides to every business story: the first and most obvious revolves around the products and services that a particular company offers their clientele; the second, and sometimes less seen side, is the human factor. Sometimes this factor involves taking care of your own workers. At others, this is a great way to expand your company’s profile in the community and become more involved. The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to explore the human impact of your company. You may choose to sponsor an event or like Yoel Wazana did for Micro Solutions Enterprises, sponsor a local team, or donate. No matter what you do, it will be appreciated by those it benefits.

Expanding on the human impact of your company will take money, so before you sign over that big check or print up uniforms proudly displaying your logo, take some time to think. How much money can your company put towards these efforts? Perhaps you may want to look at it as part of your advertising budget, as any interaction with potential clients is good. The most important thing is that you have a budget in place before you go looking for opportunities.

Look for events and groups that will provide you the best result and the greatest reach. For instance, you could become involved with a local annual festival. Whether it draws a couple hundred people or a few thousand, these are all potential clients. Perhaps your local high school sports program is looking for sponsors for game day materials. This may give you an opportunity to expand your impact beyond your local neighborhood to cover the opposing school’s area.

Take some time to research charitable opportunities in your region. Not only will you feel good about making a positive impact, but the event will look great for public relations. Contact children’s hospitals and other organizations to see if they are in need of something specific. If it is financially possible, purchase that item and then present it.

Consider sponsoring something outside of your normal realm of business. For instance, Micro Solutions Enterprises helps to sponsor a local soccer team thanks to the green generosity of the founder Yoel Wazana.

Whether you have a large budget or a small one, making an effort to impact your local community on a human level can have many benefits. First, it gets your name out there (free advertising). Secondly, it shows potential clients that you are involved in the community and truly care about your area. 

Yoel Wazana Provides Business Owners 5 Ways to Stay Ahead of the Competition

As a business owner, you already understand the importance of knowing your competitors and customers, creating a product that will sell, and continuously targeting new markets. But what else can you do to stay ahead of the competition? Yoel Wazana, president and founder of Micro Solutions Enterprises, provides five small, yet highly effective marketing tips for you to utilize.

1. Expand your current offer

In other words, think of what other related products or services your customers would be interested in. Your focus shouldn't necessarily just be on promoting a product, but rather on branding and promoting your company. What else does your company have to offer? Also, think about the little bonuses you can provide that will grab the attention of your audience. For example, many cafés today provide free Internet to customers.

2. Offer freebies to boost sales

Who doesn't like a free product? A great way to keep the interest of your current customers and attract new ones is by offering complimentary products. This is the perfect way to show potential customers what your company is about and why your products and/or services are worth investing in. Free products also give existing customers a reason to want to stay with you. Also, word of mouth travels fast and customers will have a lot to say about a company that offers free products.

3. Update your company logo

Have you ever noticed how companies will update or enhance their current image or logo? Companies like Domino's, JCPenney and Twitter recently upgraded their company images. Even the smallest changes, such as a new logo color or font, definitely stand out to customers.

4. Create future scenarios

A lot of businesses focus their attention on previous work and ideas when they should be thinking about what they should do for future success. Your goal should be to stay ahead of the game. Focus your attention and time on developing future marketing strategies and how you can beat your competitors. Be sure to follow consumer trends, invest in new technology, and have a clear vision of where you want to be in the next few years.

5. Don't underestimate the importance of financial planning

While you want your business to succeed, don't ignore your finances. From paying employees to purchasing technological devices, you spend faster than you may think. You should prepare a long-range financial plan so that you know how much you are able to spend and can avoid any dangerous situations.

Business Incentives for Recycling

The government, on both the state and federal levels, offers businesses incentives to make recycling a part of daily operations. Yoel Wazana, president of Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), a recycled toner cartridge company located in California, urges business owners to look into federal and state recycling programs so that they can save money and help the environment. Below are some different ways that your company can get involved.

Check out Tax Programs

Some states offer sales tax exemptions for companies that purchase various types of recycling machinery and equipment. Other states offer discounts on this type of equipment, sometimes making companies pay as little as 1% in sales tax. Some states even offer property tax exemptions for companies that recycle. Visit your state's business bureau website to see if you qualify for any tax breaks on your business's property, sales, or income tax.

Create an Internal Recycling Program

Many companies also create unique recycling programs internally to motivate employees to live more eco-friendly lifestyles. Over 80% of office trash can actually be recycled, and more and more businesses are catching onto that fact. To ensure the greatest cooperation from staff, business owners and managers should talk with employees and encourage them to participate.

Have a Special Committee

Most company owners will establish a recycling committee within the company. Individuals on the committee should support the sustainability message and also work to motivate co-workers to live a greener lifestyle. A kick-off party is a great way to inspire passion, encourage people, and ramp up the program. It's important to stress the importance of recycling and how, as a company, you can make a huge impact on reducing everyone's carbon footprint. Create a goal for employees to work towards -- have milestones and once they're hit, reward employees with things like free lunch, extra PTO time, etc. Get creative and your staff is likely to buy into the program. 

Make it Easy

It's also important to make recycling easy for everyone in the company by conveniently locating recycling bins throughout your locations. If you work in an office setting, start by getting enough recycling bins for each major area. People are more likely to recycle if it is convenient for them. Yoel Wazana suggests involving your staff and encouraging them to offer suggestions on how the program will work, so they feel invested.

Being green as a business is important because you create a larger carbon footprint. This footprint can be greatly diminished by getting involved in a recycling program and encouraging others to do so as well.

2014 Resolution: Reduce Plastic Use in the New Year

While we're still in January and people remain focused on resolutions that they intend to keep throughout the New Year, it's time for individuals and businesses to commit to reducing their plastic use. While most resolutions are beyond challenging sometimes even unrealistic, cutting down on your plastic usage is a realistic goal. 

Yoel Wazana, president of Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), urges companies to try to be eco-friendly this year. MSE takes steps each and every day to reduce the amount of trash that their company uses. Sustainability through less plastic should be everyone's focus in 2014. Here's why it's important and how to be successful at it.

Why Use Less Plastic?

Americans use so much plastic that recycling all of it has become nearly impossible. As a result, plastic is polluting our earth, killing our wildlife, and leading to more of those unsavory landfills that no one wants in their back yard. It's up to individuals and businesses to be more conscious of the amount of plastic they're using and make better choices.

How to Use Less Plastic

BYOB

No, we're not talking about beverages here! We're talking about bags. Jump on the recyclable bag bandwagon and make it a personal goal to never use disposable plastic shopping bags. Millions upon millions of one-time use bags are made and used every day, and they only add to our landfills. Treat yourself to some colorful and stylish bags and don't forget to get them out of your car before going into a store. Many businesses have started taking part in this craze by offering recyclable bags with the company logos on them and you can too! It's a great way to market the business and do something good for the environment at the same time.  

Become One with Bamboo

Because of its sustainability, bamboo is now being used to create countless products. Why are products made of bamboo great options? Bamboo is an extremely renewable resource. After all, certain types of bamboo can grow as much as six inches a day; most trees take years to reach their full height. The material is also incredibly versatile, and can be used to make such diverse items as flooring, clothing, cabinetry, furniture, and other household items. 

Simplify

A "less is more" mentality goes a long way when you're trying to conserve. Seriously consider whether the items you're buying are really necessary for your life. By buying and using less, you can easily create a lot less plastic waste in terms of products and packaging.

Change the Way You Drink

Way too many people drink water, soda, and other beverages out of single-use plastic bottles. Ditch the plastic and invest is a reusable container that beverages can be poured into. There are many stylish and unique options out there to please everyone in your family. Or your company could give them out as an incentive.   

Yoel Wazana advises that once they get into the habit of using less plastic, people will start to feel good about it and urge others to join in. The ripple effect of that idea could be the thing that changes the world for the better.

4 Ways to Expand Your Small Business

When you started your small business, you probably did a ton of research and invested a lot of time -- after all, you wanted it to succeed. Now, a few years later, your business has been progressing steadily and you're ready to expand it. While you're eager to take the next step, you may not be sure how to do it or where to start.

If you're ready to take your small business to the next level, but want to make sure that it remains successful, here are four important steps:

Open another location
When people talk about expanding a business, this is what most of them envision. By opening a new branch, you can introduce your products, services, and business to a new client base. Don't be quick to choose just any location. Important factors in the decision-making process include cost, convenience, and visibility, among others. When you look into a new location, you should choose it based on what's best for your business.

Expand your marketing strategy

If your current marketing strategy is helping your business, then it's time to expand it. This gives your business an opportunity to build upon your local footprint. From billboards to television commercials, radio, and online marketing, you have a variety of options available. To help you choose which is best, take a look at your target audience and determine which method will be the most likely to reach them.

Develop new products
There's no better way to help your business expand than by creating new products. If your customers already recognize your company by its current products, adding some can drum up interest from new customers and gain revenue from old ones who are buying on brand faith.

Partner with successful businesses
Another way to expand is by partnering with another successful business that already has a list of prospective clients. This will help you introduce your product to new customers. You can also work together by promoting the other's products.

While starting a business can be a detailed and challenging process, president and co-founder of Micro Solutions Enterprises, Yoel Wazana understands that the harder part is keeping your business stable and growing.