How to Give a Good First Impression as a Small Business Owner

Are you getting ready to launch your business that you worked so hard to start? We understand this business is like your baby: you put everything you had into it, and now it’s time to bring it out into the world.

However, just because you believe in your idea or creation doesn’t mean the world will too. It is extremely important to make a strong first impression as a small business owner in order to drive sales and create your first set of loyal customers.

It can be difficult trying to figure out how to get your first set of customers to believe in your company. It also takes patience; you won’t get everyone to trust your brand immediately. However, making a solid impression will jump-start your small business to success. Here is how to give a good first impression as a small business owner:

1. Confidence Is Key

Stand firm in your brand and what it is you are promoting. Do not adjust the vision of your brand to help persuade more people to go with your business. Not only is that dumping your hard work out the window, but also it proves you aren’t a trustworthy company! Your customers want to see why it is you love your small business and why you started it in the first place.

A great way to exude confidence is to ensure that you are secure and covered in all aspects of your life, not just in your business. By ensuring you have reliable attorneys for car accidents or a personal injury lawyer, for instance, entails that you can walk and work with confidence knowing that you are prepared for whatever life throws your way.

Open your doors with confidence and you can trust that the right people will be brought to your business. People will see the hard work and the inspiring vision your business holds. There is nothing wrong with a little too much confidence—it helps show your potential customers you’re worth coming back for. You worked hard for what you have accomplished, so take some pride in it!

2. Appearance

Appearance is crucial when it comes to giving a good first impression. This means you need to not only dress the part, but you need to ensure your business does too.

Always ensure you look professional when you are in your business or talking about it. This will ensure credibility and also let others know you and your business are to be taken seriously. When you are greeting customers into your business, you don’t want to be wearing a wrinkly t-shirt or your Sunday Only pants. This also means you want to look well rested. If your mattress isn’t supporting your sleep the way it should, consider upgrading your mattress. Looking well-rested, in control, and well-kept are all important factors for whenever you are in the presence of potential customers. It will help your credibility as a new and small business!

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Talk About Accomplishments

Your accomplishments as a small business owner are something worth talking about. You worked with blood, sweat and tears to accomplish the things you have, so why not show it off a little?

As a small business, you need to show the world what you have to offer. That doesn’t mean being all talk and hyping up your company to be more than it currently is. It means letting your community know about your recent victories and levels of success. Take advantage of what you have accomplished to help motivate your potential buyers and attract new customers.

One of the best ways to share your success—or to give the appearance of success—is through an effective online presence. Make sure that you are using the best web hosting services for your company’s website and then get your website into the spotlight of search engines! SEO is a surefire way to put your company in the attention of your audience and expand your customer base. Whether you need SEO services in Australia or SEO services in the US or websites that sell, you will be able to better reach your audience and show them your accomplishments by boosting your online presence. 

If they don’t yet know who you are as a small business owner, don’t be afraid to highlight the good parts of your journey to help make your business seem new and shiny.

Everyone likes a small business that seems like they have accomplished a lot. It shows credibility within your brand and helps gain the trust of those who don’t usually choose to work with small businesses.

4. Ensure You Have Clear Nonverbal Communication

Customers will form first impressions of your business within just minutes of entering your small business. However, have you ever considered what your business is saying to them? Your business has its own types of nonverbal communication, just like people do. Customers will come in looking for key elements to help them decide whether your business is for them or not.

While many small business owners spend more of their time on their product or service, it often gets forgotten that they need to spend time on their customers’ first impression. Things such as your outside entrance, signs, decorations, and what they see when they first walk in are all important factors. It also involves their experience inside your business whether that’s getting to meet the owner or being greeted by an employee.

Another overlooked aspect of the business that has a huge influence on how the business appears to customers is what is going on “behind the scenes.” What goes on in the parts of the business that customers don’t see can affect what they do see—the attitudes and functionality of your employees. If your bookkeeping is a mess, or your files are so disorganized that your admin assistants can’t keep up, then it might be time to look into getting advice from office outsourcing services. These pros will be able to help you streamline your admin tasks, so you can focus on what’s really important: your customers and your product.

Ensuring customers are feeling valued and impressed upon their very first arrival is crucial to your small business! Small business usually doesn’t have it in their budget to spend on commercial advertising, which is why your storefront and the way your customers are treated will have an effect on your small business’s first impression.

7 Ingenious Space Saving Ideas for Small Kitchens

Photo by Jarosław Ceborski on Unsplash

Homes of grandeur have always been a kind of status symbol and a show of wealth. However, the 21^st century marks the beginning of the “tiny home” phenomenon. People from all walks of life are now trading their large houses for small and efficient properties to simplify and declutter their lives. However, a diminutive home, while cosy, requires you to be smart with your space. Here are seven space spacing ideas for small kitchens:

1. Hanging racks

When it comes to items such as cookware sets that you use on a daily basis, it’s a good idea to keep them within easy reach. Hanging racks will meet the mark as a convenient storage option that takes up no floor or cupboard space, but houses your cookware sets easily. The best part is, your beautiful copper, stainless steel or ceramic pots and pans will look stunning displayed on the wall, or hanging overhead.

2. Pull-out pantries

Kitchens can often have a lot of wasted space, so why not use nooks and crannies to your advantage by purchasing a pull-out pantry on wheels? They are narrow but suitable for a range of food items. As kitchens are slowly getting smaller, such a pantry will be handy for your family.

3. Wall-mounted cabinets

If you start to sweat every time you have to open your kitchen cupboards, for fear of being lost under a pile of Tupperware, it might be time to look at wall-mounted cabinets. While the majority of your floor area might be in use, take a look up and notice the abundance of wall space. Remove that tacky print you received for Mother’s Day 17 years ago and instead turn the blank canvas into a storage space that can house many of your kitchen appliances and utensils.

4. Compact kitchenware

Do you need that six-burner stove, or does it just look nice? How about that double dish drawer, or double door fridge? If your appliances don’t suit your space, it might be time to downsize. However, downsizing doesn’t mean you need to downgrade. Top brands are bringing out ranges of compact kitchenware items to suit space-restricted homes, and by using less energy in the process, you’re doing your part for the environment. 

5. Get smart with drawers

Every kitchen has drawers, but how well utilized are yours? Most people don’t organise their drawers optimally, so getting creative can save you plenty of room. Tactics like two layers of cutlery in one drawer, or using the toe-kicking area at the bottom of your cabinetry as a drawer for oven trays can challenge conventional storage layouts.

6. Stack, stack, stack

Our desire for smaller homes is getting stronger. At the same time, we seem to be constantly accumulating more stuff, with nowhere to stash it. Therefore, always be on the lookout for items you can stack. For example, the average mug set doesn’t stack well at all, but you can now purchase mugs that are purpose-made for layering. The same goes for pot sets. Where possible, always choose stackable items over those that aren’t. It’s an incredibly simple strategy that can make a big difference when space is at a premium.

7. Build up

Some people find that building kitchen cabinets up to the ceiling isn’t necessary because you can’t reach it without a chair. However, how often are you going to use that breadmaker or yogurt maker anyway? Cabinetry built to the ceiling enables you to hide away unused appliances, keeping them out of your more commonly-used cabinets.

It may seem like a smaller space means more clutter, but that’s only true if you don’t know how to utilize less space to your advantage. Take notice of these seven space-spacing tips and reap the rewards of a small yet well-organized kitchen.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

 DISTANCE KNOWS NO BOUNDS...

He misses home during this festive season, the two F-s... Family and Food...

With the modern technology, we connect to each other every day... "How's your day, what did you all eat for CNY?  Where did you all go?  Did you keep the red packets for me???"  LOL.. And we can talk and talk until I say... OK, time to watch my favourite show!

Connecting even though we are thousands of miles away.... 

Chinese New Year 2018 from Ipoh with Love!

3 Ways To Cut Costs On Your Vacation

Vacations are goals in life. Everything we do points toward the things that we look forward to doing, and vacations are right up there in the list of goals for us all. Scaling the Rockies, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, skiing the Alps: goals galore! The problem is, we all have grand ideas for our vacations, with not so grand wallets to go with them. Getting the most from your vacation in terms of experience is vitally important. Getting the most for your cash? Well, that’s just essential!

Travel costs are spiraling upward at the moment, with vacation companies upping their prices and things like war and terrorism spoiling the tourism industry. The thing is, planning a vacation isn’t just as simple at throwing a dart at a map and choosing to get on a plane. You need to shop around for the best deals and learn where you can cut corners without cutting on quality of your vacation. Don’t be left out of pocket and learning the hard way why you’re supposed to balance your vacation budget before you go. We’ve got three amazing ways that you can cut your vacation costs, without losing the quality of the destination that you choose!

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Transport. A road trip can provide an amazing way to see many different places at a very low cost. You could choose to get yourself a Jeep and head out toward the sunset, or you could check out used motorcycles available for you to buy instead. Two wheels, the open road and only what you need with you can provide you a freedom that may not have been otherwise possible. You can also cut down on your vacation transport by booking flights very far in advance – flight timetables and tickets are released 330 days in advance.

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Shopping. Vacation shopping is one of the best bits – it means that the vacation you’ve booked is finally around the corner. If you buy all your necessities early and before you go out to your destination, you can save huge amounts of cash. Holiday resorts are often ready to charge you far more for sunscreen!

Accommodation. The birth of Airbnb has been a revelation to holiday makers, as the rental of an entire home or condo is so much cheaper and a far better experience than being stuffed together in a hotel room with the housekeeping coming in and out to clean. You can save money by doing a shop locally and self-catering. The hotel experience is nice, sure, but it’s not going to beat the extra cash in your wallet.

Vacations are supposed to be relaxing and not stressful. If you ensure that you can stretch your budget properly when you book one, you will have a far nicer time away from home. Don’t just book the first vacation offer that you find, when there are hundreds of thousands of choices out there ready for you to look at. Take your time, save your pennies and go on the vacation of a lifetime!

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Making Your Wardrobe Last Longer

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We all know the pain of buying an outfit for a stupid amount of money that in hindsight was a stupid move, only to wear it for two weeks of summer and then have it go completely out of fashion by next summer. It’s an idiotic thing, but we all do it. Clothes are so expensive, and shopping at cheap clothing shops can be harmful due to seriously unethical practices. And even when you do have items that you love, you wear them so much that the wear out quickly. No one wants to have to keep replacing items of clothing because they keep breaking, and making items that you have spent your hard-earned money on last longer is always going to be a winner.

Quality over Quantity

Rather than heading to a cheap store and buying a basket load of clothes, spend your money on a slightly more expensive brand that produces higher-quality clothing. Not only will this help reduce unethical practices, but it will also ensure that the items that you buy will last for longer - and that goes for anything you buy in life. More expensive clothes means that you are paying for better quality materials and, often, better made. A dress bought cheaply is likely to be hemmed with an overlocker and consist of one layer. Where if you spend a little extra, that overlocked hem should be folded and seamed and have a lining, which reduces friction and snagging, and doesn’t give away the lines of your underwear.

Washing

Rather than just bunging all your clothes into two loads of washing; light and dark - actually look at the instructions on the label. There aren’t there for the fun of it and the symbols are easy to understand with a cheat sheet. Split your whites from your lights, cotton from synthetics. Woolens have their own cycle, as do your delicates. Black jeans should always be washed inside out, and coats, jackets, suits, dresses and cashmere often need to be sent for a great dry cleaning service. Don’t use a dryer for your delicates and anything cotton. Some woolens are fine. But 100% use on for your towels, bedding and jeans. Hang shirts on a hanger as soon as you can - it drops out wrinkles and reduces the need for ironing. When placing items on a clothes dryer, make sure the seams a straight, nothing folded and that the fabric isn’t stretched.

Storage

Hang up as much of your clothes as possible, but anything created with a stretchy fabric should be folded so that the hanger doesn’t stretch out the shoulders. Hanging your clothes also ensures that the fabrics are getting aired; when you have clothes that you don’t wear often tucked into a draw, they can often smell dusty by the time you get round to wearing them. You can counteract dusty-draw smells with scented bags placed inside. It might sound like an old lady trick - but it really works. Use dried lavender, rose petals or jasmine in a little bag to keep your clothes smelling fresh.

Ushering In Second Day Of Chinese New Year 2018

Second Day of Chinese New Year... also known as Opening of New Year...

This second day of CNY is considered a very auspicious day for the Chinese, officially ushering in the new year with lots of red crackers, making noise and of course, the glorious food on the table.  My late in-laws used to say, the more food displayed on the table as much as possible, it signifies abundant food for the whole year through.  Now they are no more here, we try to maximize what we can cook and usually ends up not as much.... we have tried our best to cook as much as we can to a certain limit. LOL...

This is half of the portion of the food compared to the time my parents-in-laws were around..

All the food were finished up in one go.. instead of leaving them overnight... 

This is from Reanaclaire's kitchen... 

Poon Choy from Singapore... 

One for the album before we ushered in the New Year!

How to Be Creative with Flowers!

You have to know that you can always be creative with flowers. There is a wide variety of flowers and there are so many ways to arrange flowers, too! Make a great combination of flowers can make them look more beautiful and fun as well. You can even be creative with the container of the flowers too such as:

Bouquet

A flower bouquet is definitely the most popular kind of flower arrangement. This is the most classic yet the most preferable way to arrange flowers and flower gifting.

Vase

After the flower bouquet, the flower vase also popular. Most people will use a vase to move the flowers from a bouquet to keep it longer. Either it is a glass or a crystal vase, your flowers will always look stunning if you arrange them well.

Bottle

A bottle is a more creative flower container here! You can use any bottle as the container of your flower arrangement such as an ex-wine bottle. Your flowers will look as elegant as they can be in just a simple container. However, you have to make sure that you clean the bottle before you put your flowers there.

Teapot

Other than a bottle, a teapot also can be a very creative flower container you can use! This type of container will make your flower arrangement look more vintage and beautiful.

Envelope

The envelope can look really sweet and classy when you want to give it as a gift or simple a flower decoration in your room.

After all, flowers and the special arrangement of them are just so hard to ignore! Not only they can immediately put people in a good mood and add such a happy vibe to the surroundings, arrange flowers creatively also such a fun activity to do!