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Creating a Savings Plan in 2021

The year is flying by and it’s a reminder for everyone to review the plans made for the year, across all areas of our lives – physically, mentally, financially, socially etc. But for the purpose of this article, we will be focusing on healthy savings habits to help you in the year 2021 and beyond.

You probably have read quite a number of articles and are dealing with an information overload. Well… we have decided to make savings simple and easy with these steps; savings like every other thing should be planned and not done haphazardly.

Here are a few ways to guide you on how to save in the coming months:

Write down your expenses:

It is important for every income earner to know how much is spent to maintain their current lifestyle or standard of living. e.g. power, internet, food, housing, miscellaneous, etc. There are quite a number of apps that could help track your expenses and assist with decisions to adjust your spending habits.

Automate your savings plan:

Have a direct debit set up that allows you to automatically make a transfer to your savings account at a particular time. This could be daily, weekly or monthly; based on the frequency of your earnings.

Set your priorities:

Bills never seem to end. However, you can choose what comes first and what’s not important. For example, health insurance will be more important than something that’s not so urgent. This helps you spend only on the important things.

Set realistic goals:

The easiest way to reach your savings plan is to set a goal towards it and be realistic. This will be based on how much money you earn and your financial responsibilities. It is irresponsible to have insufficient money available to you to pay your basic bills and keep you till the next inflow of funds.

Curb emotional spending:

It is good to treat yourself to luxurious or expensive items, especially if you have been working so hard. However, splurging unnecessarily on things that you do not need could be a problem as you may soon run out of money. One way to curb this is to have a trusted person as an accountability partner. This person helps to keep you in check as you spend.

We hope that this has helped you put a structure to your savings plan? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to contact us here

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Why your Small Business needs Reporting & Analytics

Forward thinking organisations are taking advantage of advanced analytics techniques to improve opportunities for business growth, innovations to be highly competitive and become market leaders.

Data analytics isn’t just for large corporations. Small businesses benefit from analytics technologies too. Data & analytics technology is quickly transforming nearly every industry by providing actionable business information and because of its effectiveness, even business leaders who are generally slow to adopt new technology, are now more curious about how data technology can be leveraged to drive business sustainability.

Businesses of all sizes – even small ones – want in on data analytics, and there’s a good reason for it; according to the Georgia Small Business Development Centre, companies that leverage big-data analytics tools enjoy 15% more sales than companies that do not.

Importance of Reporting and Analytics for businesses

Data Analytics plays a vital role in various organizations across verticals, Retail, Banking, Healthcare, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing amongst others. Here are some of the ways businesses can use data to gain a competitive edge:

  • Identify leakages and gaps within the organisation
  • Design new products and services
  • Conduct 360-degree customer reviews
  • Identify and prevent fraud by discovering patterns in transactions
  • Optimize pricing strategies
  • Make smarter business decisions

How can small businesses utilise data?

Nearly 51% of small business owners believe that data analysis is a must, but only 45% perform data analyses, according to a report published by the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). Furthermore, 73% of small business owners confirmed that finding new customers is a top priority, while 63% ranked retaining existing customers as a top issue.

Data analytics can help small business owners meet their goals. Many business owners believe that they do not have the required time to track analytics, but it takes only a few moments of studying to learn how to use and mine data to gain a competitive advantage. You probably already have more than enough information to start a data initiative without even realizing it. For instance, you can source information for data analysis from the following places:

  • Email marketing applications
  • Sales receipts
  • Social media
  • Website
  • Streamlined data from connected devices
  • Publicly available data
  • Stored data in Data lakes

Imagine the value that can be extracted from the information mined to create a whole new experience!

Final Note

Small businesses using reporting and analytics can make data-driven business decisions that could help increase the bottom line. As a result, it’s essential to use the right tools and methods for your data analysis.

While the non-technical staff is able to get a high-level understanding from data, organizations still need the expertise of specialists who are able to extract full value from the various data sets across your organizations, and that’s where a technology company like Descasio comes in.

Using a combination of reporting and advanced analytics tools, we are able to provide statistical summaries, break down data, help you understand the patterns in your data using advanced machine learning techniques, and most importantly, provide reasons why the patterns occur. With all this information you will be able to uncover insights that may reveal the future of your business environment in line with your business strategy and goals.

Find out how you can begin your reporting and analytics journey today, hi@descasio.io

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How to Create Valuable Content for Your Small Business

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive engagement.

This involves publishing inspiring and interesting content on your social media profiles, listening to and engaging your followers, analyzing your results, and running social media promotions.

How to create content for your social media platform:

1. Define your goal

Doing this early on will guide your social media marketing strategy. As Godin explains, “your strategy is like building a ship. You need to know where it’s going to sail before you can start nailing planks of wood together.”

2. Know who your audience is

Understand your audience, what social media channels they are active on, know what makes them tick, what kind of information they like, what type of content they consume (video/words), as this will guide you on what to create.

3. Create a brand persona

Identify the best representation of a typical consumer in the company’s selected target market. The brand persona describes the consumer quite broadly – their lifestyle, purchasing behavior and attitudes that influences their decision making.

4. Create a content calendar

Maintain a social media calendar to let you plan ahead, batch your work, avoid last-minute content creation, drive brainstorming, and note down all your creative brainwaves for later. It’s basically the best way to avoid duplicating content.

How to win the hearts of your audience when creating content for social media:

• Create relevant content:

Remember one golden rule – create content that focuses on your audience and adds value to them. Doing this is more likely to connect the audience with your brand. Be sure to strike a balance between engaging content and promotional content.

• Have an aesthetically pleasing feed:

Your content should be well-organized and easily readable with a good flow. If your content looks attractive, there are good chances that your audience may want to engage with it. If they find your content appealing, they may even share it with friends and partners.

• Create a Call to Action (CTA):

This is the chance to motivate your audience to take real steps toward becoming a customer, partner or ambassador. It can be the determining factor between a lead and a conversion. For example; “Click the link in our bio to learn more”

• Post user-generated content:

This is any type of content that has been created by the target audience. It is great for two reasons – it engages your audience and creates greater brand awareness. According to a study, posting user generated content helps your audience trust you better.

• Leverage influencer marketing:

When an influencer is well known in a specific area, and when their audience sees them give their stamp of approval in that area, it increases trust in that brand awareness and willingness to be associated with it.

The key to the success of this is to: develop a plan, commit the right resources, set a budget, and be consistent with your message.

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