Published on: 15 January 2019
Last Updated on: 21 February 2020
Product labels have always been part and parcel of product branding. If you don’t create a good one, it will severely affect your sales. Doing your own product labels is a fun and easy task if you know what you are doing. You need a basic understanding of the dos and don’ts of product label making if you want to do it by yourself. If you haven’t got a clue, don’t worry! We can help you out. We listed a few key things you need to remember if you are going to be designing your own product labels. Check them out:
Dos
Do focus. Match the colours, fonts and images to your chosen theme and layout. It’s not good if you have a messy concept. The final result will be chaotic, and it can do more harm than good to your company. The key is balance. It’s not good if you have too many elements on the label.
Do go for unique. You don’t need to settle for ordinary. You can do whatever you imagine, and it’s best if you let your imagination run free. Going for a unique look can make your product stand out.
Do something simple. There is beauty in simplicity. Don’t go overboard and make your label design too colourful or loud. It will attract the wrong kind of attention. Going for something simple is better since minimalism is all the rage nowadays.
Do ask for help. Ask for help from someone you know to help you design if you are having some trouble. It may be a close friend of yours who is quite skilled at handling design software. If you don’t have anyone, you should hire a graphic artist or an illustrator. They can undoubtedly assist you in bringing your creative concepts to life. If you are already set, consult your family and friends and ask for their opinions. They may suggest having a few details changed that could help you improve your label.
Don’ts
Don’t scrimp on the budget. To make a well-designed product label, it will take a great deal of time, effort and patience. But, more importantly, you need to allocate a portion of your budget to make a great label. If you use high-quality materials and advanced labelling systems to create your product label, then, naturally it will come out beautifully.
Don’t pick hard to read fonts. The most challenging thing to do in label designing is selecting beautiful but readable fonts. Here are the top 12 most easy-to-read fonts you should use:
Georgia
Helvetica
Open Sans
Quicksand
Karla
PT Sans & PT Serif
Verdana
Futura
Ubuntu
Rooney
Roboto
Lato
These are a few things you should and shouldn’t do if you are going to design your product labels. Following these will make sure that you only get the best results and you will have a compelling product label that you can use.
Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.
You might come across account words you're unfamiliar with when looking at papers like the balance sheet and income statement. Understanding these operating cost concepts, on the other hand, is critical. This can help you better comprehend your financial accounts and improve the financial health of your company.
Are you interested in learning more about operating costs and how they affect your company? We'll give you a detailed breakdown of running costs. Then, following a definition and explanation of the phrase, we'll go over some of the things you can do to lower your operational costs. If you are just starting your business, then you might even need to consider a startup mentor.
What Are The Operating Costs?
The costs of running your firm on a day-to-day basis are referred to as operating costs. Therefore, the operating expenses, operating expenditures, and all terms of OPLEX are used to describe the operating costs.
The cost of products sold is one of the most important components of operational costs (COGS). The direct costs of manufacturing your company's goods or services are referred to as COGS. Operating expenses include the following items:
● Payroll and other labor costs related to operating costs
● Employee benefits like employee health insurance, pensions, and other facilities
● Commissions on sales
● Depreciation
● Amortization
● Costs of upkeep
It's critical to understand how to calculate operating costs because it allows you to boost your bottom line. If you run a for-profit company, lowering operating costs will directly affect your profitability.
6 Things You May Do To Reduce Your Operating Costs
You will be able to stay ahead of the competition by minimizing your operating costs. Therefore, small business owners should always look for ways to reduce costs without sacrificing product quality or making life more difficult for their employees.
So, what are the most effective methods for lowering operating costs? Here are eight suggestions for lowering your business's running costs, allowing you to reduce overhead and increase income.
1. Adopt A New Technological Mindset
There is a plethora of internet tools and software packages available to help small businesses automate and optimize their operations. Accounting, website hosting, marketing communications, pay stubs, and other areas of business can all be covered by these platforms.
Technology is beneficial not only because it increases productivity but it also leads to a reduction in OPEX in sectors like direct labor. Robots and artificial intelligence can work faster and with fewer errors than humans. The technology could also help to improve supply chain procedures, such as lowering the cost of delivering raw materials.
Ask yourself the following questions to help you find the proper program for operating cost or service for you:
● What am I exceptionally skilled at? (For example, if you have a background in accounting, you might want to try employing technology for marketing rather than finance.)
● What do I find myself devoting an inordinate amount of time to each week?
● What would I do if I could eliminate one of my most time-consuming responsibilities?
Hopefully, your responses to these questions will reveal the task or subject matter area in which you should employ technology.
2. Outsourcing
Outsourcing the key business activities to a third-party specialist is an alternative option for increasing work efficiency. If you don't have a background in real estate or tax law, it may be difficult to identify strategies to lower your lease payments or property taxes. Someone with specific training in this area might be able to assist.
Advertising and marketing appear to be one area where outsourcing appears to be particularly beneficial. This is a source of frustration for many entrepreneurs if they are not having a good grip over that. They discovered that the amount of time they spend on advertising and marketing is related to the amount of money they make. However, they may not have the time to devote to a marketing strategy.
While it may appear that hiring an outside vendor would cost more money, assigning specific duties to subject matter experts will save you money and produce even better outcomes in the long run. Outsourcing specific functions is a sound long-term investment in the operating cost.
3. Shop Around For The Best Deals
If you work with vendors regularly, you might wish to put up a project and work bidding system. If you ask three separate vendors for quotes, you can pit them against each other to drive down pricing for an operating cost.
Make sure you create an appropriate scope of work or request a proposal (RFP) for suppliers to bid on since missing information or increased complexity can substantially impact the stated fee. In addition, you can better plan for anticipated operational expenses if you get an accurate quote.
4. Cancel Unused Services
Examine your variable operating cost to find out which services you are no longer using. Look for a cheaper plan or cancel them completely if you haven't used them in a few months. If you're not using them, they're not helping you make more money.
It's easy to lose track of unused services, especially if you have them set up on auto-pay with your credit card. If you do decide to keep service, do some comparison shopping to see if there are any cheaper options.
5. Go green
If you have an office, think about making it as environmentally friendly as feasible. To save energy, replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, enhance your insulation and windows to save money on heating and cooling, and reduce the amount of bodily waste you make.
Not only will you save money on electricity, but you'll also save money on office supplies on a monthly basis for an operating cost.
6. Telecommute
Leasing office space, paying utility bills, and keeping a physical workplace can all put a strain on your budget. Allowing your workers to telecommute can help you save money overall.
In the United States, telecommuting is becoming increasingly popular. In 2005, 1.8 million employees in the United States reported they worked from home for half of the week. That number had risen to 3.9 million in 2015, and it has continued to rise up.
With today's level of connectivity, the difference between a person working in an office and one working from home is almost indistinguishable. Employees will often benefit from this as well since they will be able to reduce their commute times and expenses.
Take Charge Of Your Company's Money
Are you the type of business owner that simply watches spending and income without delving into the details? If that is the case, it is time to make a change. Understanding things like running costs will become increasingly crucial as your company expands.
Operating costs allow you to examine how your spending affects your profitability in greater detail. Once you understand your expenses, you can start decreasing costs and increasing earnings using the strategies we've offered.
Read Also:
5 Financial Risks of Starting a Small Business and How to Avoid Them
Why Virtual Offices Are The Future Of Business
Imagine this for a minute. Your boss has asked you to plan a product launch for an up and coming product that you’ve been working hard on. While this is your chance to prove your capabilities and stand out in your team, it can also be a source of unwarranted stress. Your Business function plays a vital role in upgrading your business to the next level.
So, how do you plan a successful business function if your event planning experience is only limited to those frat parties you used to throw back in college? Who are the people you need to work with and what are the things you need to prepare to organize a corporate event?
In this short guide, you’ll learn just how easy it is to put together a successful event - with the right mindset and strategy.
Essential Components Of Business Function Are As Follows
There are several essential components of business function that you need to take care off while improving your business to the next level.
Pre-event planning:
The basics:
Before you book those suppliers, the first thing you need to do is understand the who, what, why of the event you’re planning. Without the basics, it will be hard for you to put the different components together.
Who are you planning an event this for?
What is your company trying to achieve with this event?
Why is this event important for your organization?
Understanding that the company’s vision and mission come before your own personal goals will enable you to deliver the message that the company wants to communicate. Organize a meeting with the event stakeholders to discuss the questions above and hopefully, it will help you make the event more meaningful.
Date:
Part of planning any event is deciding on a date to have it on. Make sure that your event doesn’t fall on the same date as any major industry conferences. You should also steer clear of holidays and civic celebrations.
Budget:
Your budget will dictate how well you will be able to execute your plans so don’t just pull a random number out of thin air. Consider both your expected costs and actual costs when asking for a budget so that you don’t end up broke.
Location:
While you might prefer to hold your event at the hottest spot in town, you need to make sure that your location reflects your company’s main purpose for the event. Your location shouldn’t just be a great fit for your event, it should also accessible enough even with public transportation.
Catering:
Let’s face it, planning food and drink for any business function can be nerve-wracking when you’re trying to impress the head honcho. For big events, it’s always best to hire a catering specialist who can meet your specifications and expectations.
Staff:
You can’t run a successful event as a one-man show. You need the help and support of a great team to get your event off the ground. Since you’ll be handling pretty much everything from event promotion to on-the-day coverage, look for people who are not only creative but also willing to work overtime for the pre-event preparations.
Marketing:
Promoting the event should begin as soon as you have the materials from the marketing team. This way, you’ll have enough time to get send your invites out and secure any VIPs you want to invite. As a rule of thumb, you should send out your invites at least 4 weeks before the event date and send out reminders weekly.
Program flow:
Having an event without a program flow is a recipe for disaster so try to come up with an event checklist before the date. Create a “run of show” document that lays out the whole event as you plan it to happen. Make sure to include contact information of the persons involved for each part.
On-the-day event execution:
One of the most challenging parts about managing an event, especially a big one with plenty of guests, is keeping track of the onsite registration. While there’s nothing stopping you from doing this manually, you can make the process easier and faster by using the right tools.
Here are some innovative ideas to make the check-in process flow seamlessly.
Self-registration using tablets
Face recognition
RFID
On-site badge printing
At any event, you want to make the right first impression, especially with the VIPs. Make sure that you have a team dedicated to welcoming guests as they enter the door. You also want to have enough space between your venue’s entrance and the registration table so that you can minimize jams at the entrance.
Expecting a lot of VIPs at the event? Don’t be afraid to ask the corporate heads for help to usher them into a designated area where they can have the best view.
Post-event follow-up:
A successful event doesn’t end once the doors close. You need to have a system for the follow-up to keep up with the guests who made it to your event. Depending on your event, you can utilize social media, email marketing or even snail mail to let guests know that you appreciate the time and effort they put into coming to your event.
While you’re at it, you might as well ask your guests for input or feedback. The information you gather will be extremely helpful for your next corporate event planning.
Here are some ideas to make follow-up a breeze:
Using the emails from the registration process, you can schedule an email drip campaign for the people who attended your event. It’s a great way to make special offers on your new product or send them useful tips on how to use the product you just launched. Try not to go overboard with the offers though.
Even before the event date, you can already put together a content packet that you can give away to guests right after the event. A good way to digitize printed content is to use a QR code that will quickly give guests access to a landing page you want them to visit.
You can also build a social media following around your event with a dedicated hashtag. Encourage guests to like and follow your social media accounts and use the dedicated hashtag in their posts. Make it even more exciting by offering a special prize to the best post about the event.
Read Also:
7 Important Tips For Planning An Outdoor Event
3 Ways To Boost Employee Engagement In Your Business
A few things at work can be as frustrating as an unorganized or pointless meeting. These meetings waste time that can be spent on getting actual work done. Agendas are a good way to prevent unproductive meetings because they compel attendees to prepare in advance, set clear goals, manage time, and stay focused.
An effective agenda establishes expectations of what is to transpire during the meeting, thereby increasing its overall productivity. It helps the team address important issues quickly.
Lack of productivity is no joke. According to Atlassian, hours lost in such meetings cost businesses an average of $37 billion a year.
Agendas can be formal or informal, short or long. In every event, they should be as simple as possible. Without further ado, here are some excellent meeting agenda examples.
Best Formal Agenda Examples:
Most meetings start with standing items, which include team status updates and other items that are always on a regular meeting agenda. A meeting facilitator takes attendance and approves the minutes
in the end.
After the updates, the new topics are introduced. The agenda should have a list of topics, the name of a person responsible for each one, and a certain period of time allocated to each. For example:
Cory - Discuss sales quotas (15 minutes)
Once discussions of new topics have been closed, you can move on to previous ones that weren’t completed. For example:
James - Employee engagement survey update (20 minutes)
Sean – Sales hiring update (30 minutes)
At the end of the meeting, review action items and schedule a new meeting if necessary. These will be the last items on your agenda.
Less formal agendas will have far fewer items. Below is an example:
Intro (5 minutes)
Review quarterly marketing plan (15 minutes)
Review sales metrics to date (15 minutes)
Discuss proposal for next quarter’s marketing goals (10 minutes)
Agree/disagree with proposed goals (10 minutes)
Long Agenda Examples:
The above examples were formal and informal but in both cases short agendas. Long agendas are typically segmented in three parts – theme, discussion, and structure. Here’s some detailed information about each of these.
Theme:
Segmenting an agenda by themes or topics will set out clear expectations. Without such, a meeting can become chaotic and unproductive. If it proves challenging to establish topics in advance, consider inviting an expert facilitator to the meeting. They will ask attendees what they want to talk about and why. The topics have to be relevant to all the people present. If a topic is only of interest to one person or a small group, everyone else will feel like they’re wasting time.
Discussion:
Next, move to discussion of the topics. Sending the agenda out before the meeting will make it possible for attendees to prepare in advance. Then, everyone will be up to speed and prepared to contribute. You’ll have more insightful and deeper conversations because people won’t have to waste time going through issues they’ve prepared for.
Structure:
Finally, you need a specific set of steps to address each theme on the agenda. Participants will know what to expect and talk about at every stage if you assign certain talking points within a suitable time frame.
Long Agenda Sample:
Your topic might be “Steps to better exposure of the company.” To prepare for the discussion, you could have people focus on newsletters, emails, and data on subscription and engagement. The structure including reviewing and analyzing this data, pinpointing key issues, and drawing conclusions. You could allocate 40 minutes for this.
If you conclude that engagement is poor, discuss possible reasons for this. Ask attendees why they believe this has happened. This would take about 30 minutes. Finally, spend 15-20 minutes talking about improving your newsletter or email subscription strategy.
Read Also:
Components Of A Successful Business Function
How To Plan A Successful Corporate Event
Looking For A Gardener: 8 Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Professional
