Workplace

Starting any business in the United States is hard, especially if you’re an immigrant – from accomplishing additional requirements to overcoming different barriers to reach your goal. Furthermore, it is possible!

Despite these obstacles, immigrants hugely contribute to the entrepreneurial population in the United States, making the country’s current economy today possible. In 2019, immigrant workers made up 17.4% of the labor force in the country and have played a crucial role amid the pandemic. Across numerous sectors, immigrants are doing essential work on the frontlines fighting COVID-19.

Let’s cover all the steps you will need to attain this milestone.

Visa Application.

An immigrant entrepreneur dreaming of starting a business in the United States does not need to be a U.S. citizen or even a green card holder – the main reason for obtaining a visa is for employment purposes in the future. The key is determining which visa best suits your needs.

Have time to take into consideration several visa processing options for business-oriented immigrants.

Select your company structure.

There are four types of company structures in the U.S., but it all boils down to two different models for immigrants: corporation or limited liability company (LLC). These models are highly recommended to foreign business owners as they do not require residency or citizenship at any point.

Get to know these two models through more research to see what best fits your business.

State of choice.

Where is the best place to locate your business? In the U.S., business laws can vary from state to state – laws that can either make it relatively easy to run your own business or make it more hell of a ride. Delaware is known to be the best for starting a business due to its benefits in establishing a business as a non-resident.

However, it shall not limit your state of choice. Weigh every possible state for your business.

Register your business.

Now you have a structure and target state. Now it’s time to register. Below are the basics on how you can get your business registered:

1. Register your business name

Registering a business name is usually part of the process of registering separate entities. If you do not use your name for your business, you may need to file a DBA (a “doing business as” name). You have to be aware of trademark infringement. So, before you register a name, make sure it’s eligible for use. Do your research to prevent any lawsuit.

2. Acquire your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)

A taxpayer number is a vital component of any business. As an immigrant, you have to obtain an ITIN issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to anyone who must pay the U.S. taxes but does not have a Social Security number. Don’t worry. It’s as easy as A-B-C; you just need to fill a W-7 form. ^[5]

3. Apply for Employer Identification Number (EIN)

EIN is necessary to identify your business for tax purposes, just like a Social Security number for your business. It is simply done online.

4. State and Local Agencies Registration

Once you accomplish all the federal registrations, you’ll need to file documents known as “articles of incorporation” with your state or local agencies. This is usually accomplished by assigning a state-registered agent to handle all legal documents for your business.

5. Application for Licenses and Permits

For the finishing touches, make sure you have all the proper licenses and permits you need to begin your operations. Note that each industry may have different requirements. There is an easy way to search for the documents you need. It is made possible by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Once you’ve registered your business and accomplished all the paperwork out of the way, it’s your time to shine by providing excellent service for your clients.

Running a business as an immigrant is no easy feat but starting a new life as an entrepreneur is not impossible. With the right fraction of perseverance and patience, opening a business as an immigrant may be the best track you could enter. But remember, this article does not provide legal or tax advice and is not a substitute for advice from an houston immigration attorney or tax advisor.

For more information, you may ask or consult with Houston immigration lawyers.

 

Engraving – if you’ve never heard of it (like an anchor polishing wheel for bench grinder) – is the art of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface. When talking about it, most of us think about handicrafts and personalised items such as wooden keychains, jewellery, and trophies or plaques. What you may not know is that engraving can be used for lots of practical purposes. For instance, let’s see how engraving can improve your workspace.

Make Things Easy With Engraved Switch Sockets

In most workspaces, and above all in offices, the multitude of switches can make it hard for your employees to figure out what each switch does. Most places fix the issue with adhesive labels applied onto the sockets, but these can easily fall off.

Instead of investing in a temporary solution, you could simply opt for engraving your switch sockets. Companies such as The Engraving People can engrave the labels in plastic and metal sockets alike, and you can choose from a multitude of fonts.

Engraved Machinery Labels

In large workshops and factories that use industrial machines, an engraved label can make it easier for the employees to spot the machine they need. Apart from labels for your machines, you could also create warning signals and even engraved instructions for machinery use. All these plaques can be made of acrylic, metal, or laminate, so your options are truly endless.

Interior and Exterior Signage

Whether in an office, workshop, or outdoor construction site, signage is always important. And while you could buy generic plates, why not personalise your workspace with bespoke signage plates? For instance, you may need to signal the emergency exits in an office or the danger zones on a worksite. Whatever the purpose, engraved signage is suitable to use indoors and outdoors alike – you’ll never have to worry about rain and elements damaging your sign.

Engraved Trophies and Plaques

Trophies and achievement plaques can easily stimulate productivity within the workspace, no matter what industry you work in. For instance, a trophy for the employee of the year or a plaque commemorating an important achievement can make the employees feel gratified. This simple gesture can boost productivity and boost employee loyalty.

Moreover, you could also use engraved door plaques to help clients and employees find their way around the company.

Personalised Items for Employees

Another simple thing that can improve your workspace alongside the team spirit is the creation of personalised items for your employees. It doesn’t have to be something big. Small things, such as keychains or personalised mugs or glasses personalised with the employee’s name and the company’s name, can build loyalty.

Workspace Personalisation

Last but not least, engraving can improve your workspace through the use of personalised artwork and logos. This type of item can be made in acrylic, other plastic materials, steel, aluminium, and wood, to name just a few. While all these items could seem futile, remember that any company that respects itself needs a brand, and that branding can ultimately improve the workspace.

The COVID-19 global pandemic shows no signs of slowing down, and it continues to rattle markets and industries around the world. When it comes to digital marketing, businesses have essentially had to rewrite their playbooks, in order to adapt and thrive in this climate.

Many of the standard digital marketing practices are out-of-touch in the era of COVID-19, and failure to adapt to these changes can be a death sentence. At least, that’s according to expert online marketer and entrepreneur Nimrod Santo.

This marketing guru knows it all when it comes to digital marketing, and now, he’s sharing five digital marketing trends to focus on during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Interactive content is on the rise

We see this particularly in industries such as real estate, which have been greatly impacted by the ability for in-person meetings and showings due to social distancing. Interactive content, such as 360-degree videos, are rising in importance.

But interactive content is a wide term that can also be applied to some popular e-commerce practice, such as posts with an interactive shopping feature on social media.

• Social media shopping continues to rise in popularity

Shopping through social media was already an up-and-coming trend, rising in popularity over the past few years. But during COVID-19, we’re seeing an uptick in features that help consumers shop directly through social media.

These techniques include stoppable posts, social media discounts, and social media giveaways.

Read: Social Media Shopping Is Quickly Speeding Up

• Increased focus on useful digital content

The bar among consumers is very high for what they expect from their brands. It’s not enough to just offer an aesthetic social media feed, for example.

Consumers respond best when they’re deriving some sort of value or use from your content. This is leading to a rise in practices such as content marketing, for example.

Read: Nimrod Santo Exclusive Interview: How To Build a Recognizable Brand

• Increased value in fostering a community with customers

Brands are realizing that they have great potential to foster a community with their customers and create real relationships. These customers will be not only loyal to the brand but become advocates for it as well.

Because of this, brands and companies are putting in resources to create relationships with their customers, and are spending time interacting on social media, and following up with email surveys, for example.

• Smoothing out digital experiences across the board

Because of the reliance on the digital experience, companies and brands who are succeeding in this climate are ensuring their user experience is completely optimized and smooth across the board. It should be a walk in the park for your customers to achieve their goals with your company, and if they feel like they need to jump through hoops, they’re much more likely to walk.

Read: 7 Stats That Show How Advertising is changing

 

When you’re working in real estate, it can really feel like the Wild West sometimes: anything goes, and it can be unpredictable. No two days are the same, and a big reason why this is the case is because you’re dealing with real people, not just objects. And the people involved in these transactions have emotions and feelings, which can sometimes come up during the real estate process.

Just ask seasoned real estate investor Nick Trimble. From fix-and-flips to rental units, Trimble has seen it all, and he knows how much emotions can come into play, especially when working with sellers. Here are his tips on how to anticipate and overcome emotional seller objections.

Be prepared for emotions to come up

According to Trimble, working with sellers can be a surprisingly emotional experience. For example, sellers can have deep attachments to their properties, or certain memories, that can come up during the selling process.

At the same time, you’re dealing directly with people’s personal finances and livelihoods, which can also be a potential emotional trigger, and point of objection. So, it’s important to treat these transactions as very human experience, and be prepared for emotions to come up, especially as points of objection.

Know some of the common emotional seller objections

There are plenty of seller objections which can come up from a place of emotion, according to Trimble. While there can be many flaws with these objections, the real problem is that they’re usually illogical, and may go against what the seller actually wants as an end goal. It’s important to be prepared for certain fairly common emotional seller objections.

For example, if they are concerned about money, they may have trouble with your commission, and try to get you to lower your commission rates. Likewise, they may object to the way you’re pricing the property, because they might want more money, or want the property to sell faster.

How to overcome emotional seller objections

There are endless emotional seller objections that can come up during the selling process, according to Trimble. The best technique for overcoming them? Make sure you have the facts and data to back up your claims and support your stance.

If they object to your commission and say they might sell the property on their own, explain what happens over the lifetime of the selling process that is very difficult to do on your own. If they object to the pricing of the property, show them community data and comparison points of how you got to that figure.

According to Trimble, navigating emotional seller objections may sound tiring and overwhelming, but in reality, it can be much easier than you would think, as long as you’re prepared. Make sure you do your research in advance, make your decisions based on facts and data points, and be prepared to explain how you got to your conclusions.

There are a lot of things to learn when it comes to real estate investing. You can check out my recently launched blog to get the industry news, trends, and marketing advice you need quickly, so you can get back to what real estate is all about — helping your clients.
 

During the coronavirus global pandemic, brands and companies have made big changes to the way they operate. Namely, they’ve had to make big changes to the way they speak to their consumers.

Many brands themselves have had to adapt to the new circumstances, and their customers are no different. We sat down with marketing expert Douglas James, who reviewed some of the best advertising campaigns launched during the 2020 pandemic.

Douglas, who has developed his own digital marketing course, has his thumb on the pulse of critical marketing techniques, and has an eye for who is ahead of the curve. He’s helped more than 1,500 entrepreneurs boost their internet presence with the help of digital marketing, and now, he’s weighing in on how brands are adapting to the 2020 pandemic.

Big focus on social media reach to engage with customers

According to Marketing Expert Douglas James, brands that have been savvy during the pandemic are using their social media channels to spearhead their engagement for advertising campaigns.

For example, many athletic wear companies have been hosting live workout classes on their social media channels, food brands have hosted cooking lessons, and artists have even been hosting painting classes. Brands that are ahead of the curve understand what their base wants from them and know how to leverage their social media channels to keep their customers engaged.

Businesses that want to survive COVID-19 must maintain consistent and relevant communication with customers throughout the pandemic. Here’s how to do it: https://steemit.com/marketing/@thedouglasjames/reaching-customers-best-digital-marketing-practices-during-the-covid-19-crisis

Brands are pivoting to meet needs

What do Subway, Dominoes, and Target all have in common? According to Douglas, they’re focusing on things which are vital to consumers right now, such as no-contact deliveries.

Dominoes has run a series of television ad campaigns showing off how they can place a pizza in your trunk, contact free. According to James, this means that these brands are listening to the concerns of their consumers and pivoting to meet their needs.

Then, customers feel like they can trust these brands, and that these brands are making it easy to continue using them.

Giving back to the community

Brands that are killing their advertising right now are also making sure to make either charity or community service part of their imaging. Right now, with all of the large issues going on in the world, a brand that is taking a back seat may be seen as insensitive and hoarding its resources.

Brands which are giving back to their community have two benefits: they get to actually help a cause, and they get an image boost. This leads to your customer base trusting you even more, and becoming your advocate, which can be a huge strength.

 

About Douglas James

Douglas James is a serial entrepreneur who is an expert in digital marketing. After serving as a Navy Corpsman in 2014 on humanitarian missions, Douglas decided to dedicate his life’s work to helping others find financial freedom. To get to know more about Douglas James’ entrepreneurial journey, you can check out his recent interview with Entrepreneur.

The current pandemic has severely affected everyone around the world. Even businesses that used to thrive have ended up closing their doors. Others tried to get back on their feet and made the most of what they have. Your company might also be among the casualties of the closure orders due to the pandemic. You haven’t had any income over the past few months. As you try to resume operations, you have no choice but to reduce operating expenses.

You can’t spend the same way you used to since the company still has to wait for recovery. Informing your employees about potential changes due to cuts in expenses could be challenging.

Let them know that their benefits aren’t the first to go

If you decide to let go of your employees and scale your operations down, you have to let them know right away. Don’t keep your employees hanging since they also have families to feed. If you decide to keep them, you can’t drastically reduce their income. Let them know that you’re going to keep them, and their benefits will stay the same. You can’t keep your employees because they do an excellent job, and not pay them what they deserve.

Ask for everyone’s cooperation

Due to the limited income, your company has to forego business trips. You might also cancel all other parties and activities scheduled for the year. It might be painful, but you have no choice. The items on your list of non-essential expenses should go first. Tell your employees that you didn’t want it to happen, but you hope for their cooperation and understanding.

You might also need everyone’s cooperation on the use of office supplies. Everyone needs to be more cautious about the use of supplies. If unnecessary, employees shouldn’t use whatever is available. These supplies have to last a lot longer since you can’t afford to keep spending money to buy them. Consider www.aosonline.co.uk if you want quality supplies you can afford to buy if your current supplies run out.

Be transparent

You have to let everyone know why you’re planning to reduce the expenses. You should also be honest about the status of the business. If you’re barely surviving, everyone has to know. You can’t keep your employees’ hopes up, and declare in a few months that your business is going to close. Make them involved in the process if possible.

Be motivational

When telling your employees about these plans, you can’t look defeated. Instead, you have to be the most optimistic person in the room. Given the current situation, your employees are already in a bad mood. You don’t want to make it worse for them. Tell them about your plans, and the clear path to recovery. It might not guarantee results, but you know what to do. It gives them hope and also motivates them to do their share.

Recovering from this devastating pandemic isn’t going to be easy. You will have to make several sacrifices and hope for the best outcome.

Call centers are a crucial component of successful businesses in today’s economic landscape, and they’ve been growing increasingly important over the past few months. Research tells us that:

• 58% of customers say that customer service affects their choice of a brand
• 59% of customers say their expectations for customer support have risen over the past year

What this says is that customers are increasingly expecting companies to have first-rate customer support, and this includes phone support. This is especially true during the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has forced many companies to restructure as remote organizations and led to many customers resorting to phone calls to solve their needs.

FH Cann & Associates is a leading provider of call center solutions, particularly for some of the most complex and challenging call center projects that exist today. FH Cann & Associates has seen a first-hand rise of remote call center teams in 2020 and expects this trend to continue.

Necessary for every industry

Robust call center solutions are a necessity for every industry. FH Cann & Associates provides these services to large companies, governments and municipalities, education systems, financial institutions, medical organizations, and even utility companies. The need for extensive call center solutions is great and is a necessity in every industry.

Highly trained employees

The key to being able to offer top-notch call center solutions is by having a team of highly trained employees who are experts in remote call centers. The team at FH Cann & Associates goes through thorough training and frequent re-training. They are also dedicated to particular customers, so they learn the nuances of those accounts and can provide the best services. FH Cann & Associates is also careful to train their employees in data protection and information security, so they are able to discreetly handle sensitive information.

Compliance and quality control

With the rise of remote call center teams, comes the need for excellent compliance and quality control. This is not a given at every call center provider and is something customers should be sure to look for. For example, FH Cann & Associates uses a state-of-the-art software-as-a-service system for their crucial corporate documents, to ensure all employees have read necessary documents and are properly certified. FH Cann & Associates also monitors calls daily for compliance of Federal and State laws, and senior staff meet with the collectors at least monthly, to review their performance.

About FH Cann & Associates

FH Cann & Associates is a leading provider of complex call center solutions, as well as account receivables management services. They work across a wide range of industries. They were recently featured in Yahoo! Finance for adding 125 team members to their Sharonville, Ohio office. To learn more about FH Cann & Associates, you can view their blog, as well as their Twitter account.

 

Construction projects are often difficult to manage. It takes a skilled contractor and a team of people to plan and execute until the building has been completed. However, there always to make sure the project is successful. These steps ensure that everyone responsible for the project understands what needs to be done, and your team is fully prepared for everything that will come.

Managing Construction Projects

A construction project is one of the most challenging types of projects you can take on. The main reason for this is you are working with physical materials and coordinating a lot of different people. Anyone that makes mistakes results in the project budget going way up. You have to buy the materials again, and you also have to pay the people for the time they already worked and for the future.

This creates a situation where the best-case scenario is getting your project completed in time and under budget. However, doing this successfully requires careful planning and organization from the construction manager. Here are the vital steps that you can take to get your project under control and towards successful completion.

1. Understanding Your Project Scope

The first step is about understanding the scope of the project. You won’t always know everything there is to know inside your head. That is why you need effective planning at the beginning to make sure everyone knows their role in the project. This means you should know what completion looks like, and you should also understand all the milestones you need to hit before you get to the end of the project.

2. Know Who Will Do What

Every construction project requires many different workers. These workers have to come together, and each fulfils a certain role. As a project manager, you will be the one who coordinates all of these workers. To be successful, you must have a good idea of who will be doing which job and when they would need to come to the job site to stop working.

By having everything coordinated, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort because of delays that stem from this problem. For example, things like finding a dry excavator hire need to be well-planned so you can get the machine when you need it.

3. Hold Meetings Constantly

When it comes to all the stakeholders in the project, you need to be meeting with them often. By having these meetings, you can see how the project is coming along and what needs to be done in the future. Constant communication will make sure that the project never runs off course or falls behind.

4. Talk to the Relevant People

No one knows everything. By having people around you who can give you helpful advice, you are more likely to be successful in your project. Keeping these people around you will help you because they will often know things that you don’t. You also get a different perspective on certain issues so you can figure out what to do.

5. Organize Your Project

Once you have built your plan, you should do everything in your power to stick to that plan. By having a good timeline and sticking to it, you are more likely to come out ahead when it comes to your budget and project completion date.

6. Be Prepared for Anything

Things often go wrong when working on a construction project. Being flexible and adaptable will help you in the long run. You often need to adjust to the new scope of the project, and by being prepared, you will easily be able to change without any issues.

Finishing Up Your Project

A construction project is one of the hardest things to manage, and by sticking to these steps, you’ll give yourself a better chance of doing this successfully.

The first step of being a successful company is having a well-oiled machine. Understanding what’s happening on every level of your company and ensuring that each is functioning properly is important. One of the most important functions of a company is accounts receivables. As a leader in the accounts receivables management field, F.H. Cann & Associates knows the importance of ensuring your ARM services are functioning properly.

For two decades, F.H. Cann & Associates has worked with various industries in managing their accounts receivables. From government to healthcare to education, these high-functioning industries turn to F.H. Cann & Associates to ensure that the money coming in and going out is monitored correctly. As far as ARM services go, F.H. Cann & Associates’ reputation far exceeds their competitions. Here is our Accounts Receivable Management Company Spotlight on F.H. Cann & Associates.

Care

F.H. Cann & Associates knows the importance of rooting themselves in core values that encompass their company from all angles. By understanding that placing something as important as accounts receivables in the hands of an outside company can be daunting. Your business runs on the balance of funds coming in, going out and being able to monitor that accurately. It’s through F.H. Cann & Associates’ respect for how their services affect your company that they’ve been able to build their brand for your team.

Respect

Taking care of your company’s needs start with a healthy professional relationship. F.H. Cann & Associates understands that their team needs to prioritize respect on every level. This emphasis on respect is built by creating an environment that prioritizes how their team treats one another and their clients. It’s this positive environment that their team member are encouraged to do and be the best for each other and for their clients.

Clients

It’s all too common to see a company find a niche. F.H. Cann & Associates decided to do the opposite and ensure that they’re equipped for many different kinds of clients and needs. F.H. Cann & Associates is confident in their abilities and passionate about continuing to learn and grow with and for their those that they work for. It’s with this mentality that F.H. Cann & Associates has been able to expand their client base among industries. It’s with this vast client base that they’ve been able to build a strong reputation helping them maintain their status as the best in accounts receivable management services. Check out their Twitter account to see rave reviews about their services.

When you learn of a company having done so well over the course of twenty years, you might begin to wonder if they’re slowing down anytime soon. The answer for F.H. Cann & Associates is a definite no! As they adapt to different industries, they also adapt to new technologies in their industry and have been able to stay on top of their field. In fact, they’re still growing and plan to continue growing for the forseeable future. Want to learn more about this growth or even be a part of it? Learn more here! We’re not the only ones who think that F.H. Cann & Associates deserves a shout out. Learn more about their growth over the last two decades on this SweetStartups.com feature.

 

Search engine marketing is always evolving. As search engines like Google introduce new tools and features, digital marketers need to change and adapt their PPC strategies. The constant changes to the rules make it challenging to keep up. To be relevant, marketers have to develop new ways of approaching search marketing continuously.

Due to these changes, there has been an increased interest in PPC automation technology. PPC automation can help advertisers follow the future of paid search marketing without having to continually reinvent their strategy. By using PPC automation, you can generate better conversions, optimize your ads, and capture the right traffic by using the data you already have.

What Exactly Is PPC Automation?

PPC automation uses technology and machine learning to optimize your SEM efforts. Due to the volume of networks and platforms available, managing paid advertising campaigns manually has become a near-impossible task. This is why PPC automation tools have become crucial in assisting brands to scale their digital media efforts.

By using PPC automation to handle standard tasks, marketers can free up time to focus on strategizing and other internal processes. Implementing PPC automation into your workflow can help with the following:

• Bid Management

PPC automation can manage the time-consuming task of bidding for you. Because of the technical nature of bidding, automating the process creates a higher degree of accuracy and profitability.

• Ad Creative and Copy

You can use automation to help with large ad groups and campaigns. Automation can optimize your ad copy based on data feeds, IF statements and website copy.

• Reporting

Automation can generate insights that will assist you when making strategic decisions without having to sort through vast amounts of data manually.

Paid Search Automation: Pros and Cons

Paid search automation can showcase your products to new customers. It can also introduce your best content to a broader audience. It can be an asset to your marketing strategy by helping to achieve your marketing business goals. But as more and businesses invest in PPC automation technology, it’s worth taking a deep dive into the pros and cons of PPC automation too.

The Pros

• Paid search automation enables you to reach a larger audience. Search engine process billions of searches every day. So PPC automation allows you to access users across the globe from the data that it’s cultivated.
• Paid search automation creates immediate visibility. When searching for a specified term (set by you), internet users will see your business at the top of their search results page.
• If you’re using paid adverts to increase traffic, you can maximize the effect of your PPC campaign by integrating search automation into it.
• Paid search automation gives you complete control of every aspect of your paid ad management strategy. This includes how much you bid, how long the campaign runs, which keywords to target, and the campaign cost.
• To maximize ROI, you need to track the results of your campaigns and strategies effectively. Paid search automation allows you to track your results in real-time. This will enable you to measure and improve your performance as needed.

The Cons

• Although automation dramatically improves visibility, this doesn’t always guarantee conversion. Your adverts still have to be optimized to grab users’ attention and compel them to click.
• Automation requires attention to detail during the initial set-up. Make sure your keywords and adverts are customized to target your desired audience. Then set up your automation process accordingly.
• Every aspect of digital marketing comes with a certain amount of risk. So even after incorporating paid search automation, people may still ignore your adverts.
• PPC campaigns can be expensive. Even if you include automation, you’ll still be charged for each click.
• For PPC automation to work, you need to understand the basics. (But there’s always a digital marketing course available to help you with that.) First, you have to manually set up and manage effective ad campaigns that generate results. Only then will the automation features start to yield good results.