Many people dream of being a professional photographer but just how do you get started? We take a look at how to get started in creating a professional photography business that has all the ingredients of success.

EVERY business needs a plan

No matter what the business, it needs a plan. This means that as well as photography skills, you need business skills too.

Here’s a snapshot of what a business plan should contain;

A business plan is the projected route of your business to success and for any new business, having a detailed plan is essential (but no guarantee of success!).

Your photography specialism

A professional photographer offers a particular service such as landscape photography, wedding photography, portraits and so on.

The professional photography market is a crowded and competitive place but that doesn’t mean that with vision, commitment and talent you can’t make an impact and have a successful business.

By offering a specialism, you are appealing to a niche market and for you, that means understanding your customer demographic.

What is ‘customer demographic’?

Customers demographic is an overview of who your customers are – their age, gender, income, occupation, wants and needs etc.

Build your portfolio

Getting a start in a creative industry can be tough, especially if you don’t have anything to show potential clients.

With photography, building a portfolio is a stepping stone to getting your first commission. By building a portfolio, both in print and online, you show potential customers you do have the photographic talent to deliver what they want.

Marketing

Every business needs customers – and a constant stream of both new and returning customers – and a steady flow of cash through the business.

When you start a business, deciding what to spend your limited budget on can be problematic. But with your business plan and your customer demographic defined, you are in a stronger position to create a marketing campaign that hits the right people.

Research what opportunities there are to push your business in front of the right people. As well as online marketing such as social media, pay per click ads so that customers find your website and so on, consider offline marketing tools too, such as booking a stand at a wedding fayre.

Expand your skills – photography and business

You will need your business head to push your business forward and into a successful arena, just as you will need strong photography skills.

How to Start Your Own Photography Business

Stick with it!

Starting and running your own business is a big step. If your dream is to become a professional photographer, here’s the good news – it can be done! – but here’s the tough lesson: you need to be committed, focused and passionate about what you do and what you can offer.

Is it your dream? How will you make it a reality?
If you want to become a childminder, you’ll need to know how to go about setting up your business. Find out the basics of how to become a childminder with our great blog. You can also learn more from our childcare courses.
Being a childminder is a fulfilling career choice. If its something that appeals to you, you may be considering becoming a self-employed childminder, offering to look after children in your own home.

Your local authority

You will need to see what measures your local authority has in place to register childminders in your county. Every authority has a ‘family services’ section, although it may be called something different from one county to another. There may also be different requirements in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland too.

Get your paperwork in order

Running your own business usually means some kind of background paperwork that needs to be completed and kept up to date and being a childminder is no different! Online business courses are a great way to introduce yourself to a new skillset.

There are certain key things that you have to have in place before you can formally register with OFSTED. You’ll need to check who inspects childminders if you don’t live in England.

You will need to complete;

How to Set up a Childminding Business

Register with the inspectorate body

In England, you will need to register with OFSTED as a childminder. This is process checks through your paperwork, documentation and whether you provide the stimulating, safe and nurturing environment that young children and babies need in their early years.

There is a growing emphasis on the quality of early years childcare provision as it has been proven with academic studies and research that the better quality learning in these early, formative years, the smaller the gap between children’s learning later in life.

In Wales, it is PACEY who are responsible for inspecting childminders. In Scotland is it the Care Inspectorate and in Northern Ireland, it is the Early Years’ Service. Check their websites for their current requirements.

Get insured

Once you have completed your application to OFSTED or the equivalent body, and successfully passed your inspection, you will be issued with a certificate. This is an important piece of paper, confirming to parents and caregivers that the provision you offer is safe and of the highest quality.

It also shows that you have in place all the necessary measures and basic qualifications such as first aid.

What you now need to do before you open your doors and welcome children into your home, is public liability insurance. This protects you against paying out potentially expensive claims should something happen whilst a child is in your care.

Stay up to date

Being a childminder can be full-on. After a busy day, you will need to stay on top of your paperwork because you could have a drop-in inspection at any time.

We have produced an in-depth guide to anyone considering becoming a childminder. You can find out how to become a childminder. You can also find out more about the skills and qualifications that are useful for childminders by taking a look at our growing range of childminding courses.

Within your professional field, you can become a specialist, offering childcare services with a specific slant to them such as provision for children with disabilities and more.

Being a childminder is a fantastic career choice and one that parents and caregivers rely on heavily. Is it something you plan on doing? Enrol on a childminding course to test the waters.

What does a start-up need to get right in order to fledge into an established business? In this blog, we explore the key ingredients of business success.

The business idea can be unlike anything the world has seen before. The product may be of the highest quality and yet…

8 in 10 companies fail in the first year, a startling statistic found when a research company scrapped data from Companies House.

What is not included in this data are those sole traders or partnerships that didn’t register with Companies House as they were still in their infancy but didn’t make it.

There are many reasons why businesses fail. And yet, despite knowing these, the rate of failure is still high.

We live in an ever-changing world where consumer demands, wants, needs and expectations change at a lightning-fast pace. As a business, new or established, it is essential to keep step and to make changes that satisfy customers.

And yet, a business can be slow to respond or fail to read the signs that times have changed.

There are many other ingredients to business success. Building your knowledge is an essential factor to establishing your company, there are plenty of business management courses to help you along the way. What is the perfect combination that signals success?

1.   Getting the product or service RIGHT

This can trip up established companies just as it can new businesses but a poorly thought out and a poor quality-controlled product can spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.

In effect, this is all about impression. And when you make the wrong impression, it takes a lot to come back from this negativity.

But it isn’t just that, its about producing a quality item that will enhance a customer’s life. Sounds far-fetched, but just think of the humble potato peeler and how much that has helped people over the years to peel potatoes easier, and without too much waste.

As well as quality, you need plenty of product research finding out what works and what doesn’t.

It is also about getting the branding right, something that can be far more complex than first realised.

HINT – If your product does fail, that doesn’t mean the end of it because there are valuable lessons in failure.

2.   Marketing and promotion

There are two reasons why a business fails when it comes to its marketing;

  1. It didn’t do enough market or none at all
  2. It did the wrong kind of marketing

Both spell disaster for a business and so getting it right is an important ingredient of business success.

Not doing enough means that customers are not alerted to a business or its product. But it isn’t just that: marketing can be a valuable avenue of letting customers know why your brand can be trusted.

It is often assumed that any marketing campaign is, therefore, better than none. And so, leaflets are printed, adverts designed, and tweets sent out.

This scattergun approach rarely gets the results that a business needs thus, many entrepreneurs must learn about marketing.

Effectively, marketing needs to target the right customers and in the right way. And this means understanding who your customer is.

3.   Understanding customer demographic

Effectively, a successful business has answered the question ‘who is our customer?’

How old are they? Are they male or female? Where do they live? What do they do? Why do they need the product or service? What problems is the product solving?

Defining your customer is not a hard thing to do but clearly, a business who has an in-depth of understanding of who they are aiming their product are, are far more successful than ones that don’t.

Customer demographic defines everything – from the packaging of a product to branding, to the marketing message to the marketing methods used.

HINT – businesses that have an innate understanding of their customer demographic also realise the importance of staying in tune with customer expectations and needs.

4.   Talent

A successful business will have, at its heart, a pool of talent, skilled people that will drive the business forward.

And yet, so many businesses fail to seek our fresh and new talent to help them do this.

At one time, people left school and went to a ‘job for life’. They weren’t expected to or had little expectation of moving from one job to another.

The workplace has changed and is changing: people no longer want to be with one company for all of their careers. They want new and exciting opportunities, and they understand that to find these, they may need to look elsewhere.

This sounds bad news for a business that it could effectively leak talent at a time when it needs it most.

What it can do, however, is breathe fresh air through a business, with new people bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things.

On the other hand, however, a transient workforce in and out means larger recruitment cost and stunted growth as you continually induct new members of staff into your way of doing things.

Finding and holding on to talented people with key skills is essential and critical to the ongoing success of a business.

If you look at a successful business, you will see that the reason why they hold on to people and why people apply for roles with them in the first place is the culture within it.

Collaborative, creative, free to explore new ideas and so on, all contribute to a workplace where people want to be.

5.   Financial control

Effectively, the first four ingredients examined have been important but of all the ingredients listed for a successful business, this is the one that most commonly stops a business in its tracks.

The recent recession has seen big brands disappear from the high street and online. From Woolworth’s, a long-established and favourite high street to the recent demise of Toys R’ Us, alongside tough trading conditions and failure to adapt, it was also spiralling financial issues that finally put paid to their trading.

Finances can soon be out of control and once it starts its spiral, wrestling it back is something few manage.

From managing cash flow to balance sheets that show the business net worth, being pedantic about the financial health of a business will pay dividends.

Keeping outgoings low means you keep your business competitive. Reducing financial waste by looking for the best deal is something that could have saved some smaller businesses, and for bigger businesses, keeping borrowing under control would no doubt have helped their survival.

From employing your own financial experts to investing in software accounting packages to working closely with your accountant, understanding the financial shape your business is in, makes you and it more responsive. A business administration course can be used to help teach you the skills you will need to help keep you on top of some financial elements of the business.

HINT – ‘cutting costs’ isn’t always the solution. Investment and borrowing have their place but there needs to be careful financial forecasting too.

6.   Passion

As a business grows, it almost takes on its own character. It becomes a ‘thing’.

For the person or people who started the business, it represents their life’s work in many ways.

They have lived and breathed it. They have asked tough questions and placed themselves in uncomfortable positions. They have believed in their business idea, what they are offering. They have believed in themselves.

They have kept going when others have disparaged them, ridiculed their ideas or criticised their product.

Dogged and determined, their business did flourish. And it continues to do so because this passion still burns.

However, there can be a pitfall and that is leader dysfunction. As a business owner, there comes a time where maybe, you have to admit to yourself, you are not the right person to take the business further.

Heart-breaking it may be to sell or move on, but in other ways, it is a relief. This is no reflection on the person – far from it, it takes courage to admit when you no longer have the skills to grow the business – but a clear indication that you have created a successful business.

In summary

A successful business is a combination of ingredients from marketing strategies to branding, along with a sprinkling of luck.

It starts with a business idea and morphs from there but along with these ingredients, a successful business could be in the offing;

What else do you think makes for a successful business?

A few weeks ago we were excited to announce our nominations for three awards at the 2018 Conwy Business Awards.

After an incredible awards dinner on Friday the 18th May at Venue Cymru, we were over the moon to walk away with the ‘IT/Digital Business of the Year’ award.

On receiving the award from Sian Shepherd (S2 Recruitment Services), Our Managing Director, Tony Smith said:We are delighted and overwhelmed that the judges selected NCC Resources as the winner of the ‘IT/Digital Business of the Year’ from such a strong line up of finalists

Our Managing Director Tony Smith, Business Manager Owen Smith and Head of Marketing David Keller, receiving their award from Sian Shepherd

Our Managing Director Tony Smith, Business Manager Owen Smith and Head of Marketing David Keller, receiving their award from Sian Shepherd

We would personally like to thank all of this years sponsors and opposing candidates at the Conwy Business Awards, it truly was a fantastic evening and as each year goes by they get better and better.

We’ve now been shortlisted for Conwy Business Awards for the past 2 years, winning our first award of what we hope to be many along the way:

You wouldn’t think that business and psychology are two things that go together but without psychology in business, companies and entrepreneurs wouldn’t be as successful. We examine how and why psychology is important in business.

What is psychology?

Before we start linking psychology with business, we need to first have a firm grasp of what psychology is.

There are many definitions but all of them point to psychology being the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour.

In other words, psychology examines why we act the way that we do. To extend the definition, it also examines why we act in the way that we do in given situations.

And for a business, this should be triggering an ‘a-ha’ moment.

Psychology in business

bananas in a shop with a price tag that uses psychology in business

You may not know it, but as business employs certain ‘tricks’ to tap into our psychology. For example, marketing campaigns are essentially created and funded with one aim in mind – to get people to buy a product or service.

There are many ways that businesses entice us to buy.

For example, have you noticed that most stores prices things as being so many pounds and 99p e.g. £3.99 or £26.99? There are a handful of stores that buck this trend – take a look around Wilkos and you will see prices rounded up as well bargains labelled up as £2.25 or £5.75.

There is a reason why stores do this and it relates to how we see the price and our reaction to it. It may only be a penny difference but buying something for £25.99 is better than £26.

And there are the deals, the BOGOFS (Buy One, Get One Free) and ‘buy one, get one half price’, all of which suggest we are getting a better deal.

But it is not just the pricing but the fact that the deal ‘can’t last forever’, along with the exciting colours of red on most sale ticket prices…

You get the drift. The company creates a specific circumstance to appeal to a certain reaction within you – ‘I must have this and I must buy it now because it could be double the price next week’.

The true extent of psychology in business

pumpkins for sale that use a price based on psychology in business

Understanding the impact of psychology in business will help a company grow a business. And here’s how they use it;

#1 Six human needs

Similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, when it comes to attracting customers and growing a brand if a business can meet these six human needs, they are a step closer to unparalleled success.

  1. Certainty and comfort: an assurance of no pain but plenty of pleasure grabs attention
  2. Uncertainty and variety: humans need change, new stimuli and the need for the unknown
  3. Significance: feeling unique and important – which brands do you know deliver that?
  4. Love and connection: when someone feels part of something, they feel a further sense value
  5. Growth: the ability to expand capacity, capability and understanding
  6. Contribution: how good does it feel to ‘give something back’?

Some say that these six human needs are the driver behind our behaviour. What do you think?

#2 Personalisation

Just reading this word should have triggered something about you and the internet.

Increasingly, customers browse the web for information on products and companies, searching out the best price for the best product.

And as you do this, you may have noticed how the pay per click adverts of the top and side banners change. You looked for a family-sized swimming pool using a search engine and the next thing, you have adverts for not only family-sized swimming pools before your eyes, but family garden games and furniture too.

This is one example of personalisation. When we get a feeling, as consumers, that we are valued and a service is tailored specifically to use, we feel a certain sense of inner warmth… and we can be more generous too.

The Journal of Applied Psychology published the results of a fascinating study, Sweetening the Till: The Use of candy to Increase Restaurant Tipping.

This is what happened;

These diners were made to feel valued and the service they were receiving made them feel special. This personalisation of service is important.

Can you think of a brand that seemingly went this extra mile for you? How did you feel? Do you think it affected your purchasing decision or how much you spent?

#3 Mirroring

netflix using psychology in business

Mirroring is a concept talked about in psychology and in particular, counselling. When someone mirrors what you are doing, they are interested in what you are saying and in you.

Flirting is a good example of this. Sub-consciously, if you fancy the person sat opposite you at dinner, you will mirror each other’s gestures. It’s a subtle way of giving off the right signals.

And this leads us to the phrase ‘treat others as you would like to be treated’. In other words, if you smile, people smile back.

And this is an important psychological aspect to bring into business too. The idea is simple; if someone does something nice for you, it tends to be reciprocated.

For example, the 30-day free trials you see with big brands is playing on reciprocation. They provide you with something free and you buy into their service.

Or giving away branded items also entices reciprocation, probably why many charities on sending marketing material will include a branded pen or another item in the envelope.

Is this something that you think still works today?

#4 A fresh experience

The queues go round the block at Apple stores but why is it that intelligent people queue for hours to spend hundreds of pounds on the latest Apple phone?

Is it the quality product? Or is it more about the fact that they want and must-have the newest features – who can mock the face recognition unlocking? – that the marketing material advertised?

Psychology would suggest that it is the latter and the loyal following that brands like Apple have, with clever marketing, created in its customer base.

And there is scientific evidence to back this claim too, although the jargon of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience can be a little tough to decipher,

“It is a well-known fact amongst scientists that the midbrain region regulates our levels of motivation and our ability to predict rewards by releasing dopamine in the frontal and temporal regions of the brain. We have now shown that novelty activates this brain area.”

Have you ever queued for a store opening or the launch of a new product? Why do you think you did that?

#5 Scarcity

The psychology of supply and demand is often used as a driver behind marketing material and messages. That is why, as we covered in an earlier point, marketing will often contain a time marker.

But it isn’t just time that can drive us to buy but the idea something may run out. There have been various experiments conducted over the years about the psychology of supply and demand, alongside scarcity.

A real-life example would be Facebook. It started as a social sharing platform for Harvard students only but its success meant it was rolled out to the Ivy League and then, because there was a feeling of someone else having something others wanted, the social sharing site was rolled out to all users in September 2006.

When does the notion of scarcity work in kickstarting the psychology of demand and supply?

#6 Storytelling

Storytelling has been around for as long as there have been humans on earth. Even when we communicated in a series of grunts, we told stories and passed on folklores with cave paintings.

When we began to use verbal language, we started to tell stories, the ideal way of passing on legends and folklore over the millennia.

And we still do this today. The psychology of storytelling has long been used in marketing. Creating characters we can relate to, identifying their struggles and how they are mirrored in our own lives and the solutions a brand, product or service can offer is a long-established successful equation of marketing.

But why are stories so successful? Many psychologists believe because stories are part and parcel of our brains and that they are essential for lighting up the emotions and the senses.

Which adverts and marketing campaigns can you think of that successfully told a story and ignited our senses?

Psychology In Business: In Summary

It’s no wonder then that workplace psychology courses are increasingly popular. By understanding and tapping into psychology, not just of marketing but innovation and leadership, we can create a firmer basis to a business.

We’re really proud to announce that we’ve made the shortlist for three categories in the 2018 Conwy Business Awards.

We have been selected from amongst hundreds of nominees to become one of the finalists for the ‘Small Business of the Year’, ‘IT/ Digital Business of the year’ and ‘Apprentice of the Year’ awards.

Matt

Good luck to our shortlisted apprentice Matt, who is in the running for the apprentice of the year award.

NCC Home Learning, with more than 20 years of experience in providing learning solutions to individuals, and who continually strive to make the option of further education accessible to everyone, was selected from amongst hundreds of nominees across North Wales to become one of the finalists for 3 prestigious awards.

Reacting to the announcement, NCC Home Learning’s Managing Director Tony Smith said: “At NCC we are extremely proud to have been recognised as finalists for a number of awards at the forthcoming Conwy Business Awards. As a small business, the recognition as a finalist for these prestigious awards is a testament to the hard work and commitment of the whole team.”

Awards

We’re looking forward to the ceremony on the 18th May, which is sponsored by a multitude of business such as S2 Recruitment, Tir Price Leisure Group and many more. We’ll be posting updates from the ceremony throughout the evening, via Twitter and Facebook, be sure to follow us to get a glimpse of the action!

 

The home office needs to enhance and support your productivity but this doesn’t mean gimmicks. But ‘Improve Your Office Day’ on 4th October 2017 looks to how you can really improve your home office, as well as how you can continue to develop your own skill set and abilities. What changes can you make to your office to spark and support your productivity and creativity?

  1. Re-Organise, Re-Shuffle and De-Clutter

Considering the amount of time we spend in the home office, it is amazing the little amount of time we spend organising it and keeping it clutter-free. We also tend to continue arranging things as think they should be or as we have always traditionally done.

But the desk has changed. The advent of IT and the various gadgets we now use as part of our daily working lives has meant the landscape of the desk is very different in the

minimalist desk

21st Century but many of us still continue to accessorise our desk in the same way!

When it comes to improving your office, if you do nothing else, re-organise, re-shuffle and de-clutter – and here’s how…

 

Consider if everything in your home office needs to be there or is it just a convenient place to ‘dump’ it?

#2 Sort Your Filing System

You may create paper and documents several times in any given work day or once in a blue moon but either way, you need to make sure that you have a filing system in place so that you can keep your work organised.

This doesn’t just mean paper filing but your PC as well… it’s a dreaded job but being organised with your PC is important too. And so, why not make the upcoming improving your office day the excuse you need to organise your filing system across the office, including your PC and cloud-based services. There is no denying the fantastic feeling of having tidy filing cabinet drawers and a well-ordered online filing system too. And you will probably discover things you had long forgotten about.

#3 Decorate

Colour is incredibly important in any room in your home. In the bedroom, you want something romantic and calm but in the downstairs rooms, you may want something vivid and vibrant.

The same is true in the home office. You want some fresh but you don’t want anything too bright so that it takes over the space with some colours known to stagnate our creativity as well.

But there is no denying that redecorating your home office is a great way to add a little extra pizzazz and zing to a space. Adding a feature wall is a fantastic way of adding colour and detail. This can be a block colour wall or if you want some extra detail, why not consider a wallpapered feature wall?

When choosing a colour scheme for the home office, choose colours that complement and lighten the space. And take care if opting for something uber-modern and quirky – the home office may not be the room that you end up decorating on a regular basis so think neutral colour scheme with small details that can be changed as and when you want.

#4 Improve the Lighting

We all know how important lighting is in the home office but we don’t always do enough to maximise light in the home office;relaxing man

#5 Time for New Furniture & Gadgets

Technology has changed the workplace and that is why you need to think carefully about the furniture you have in your home office. Why not take a look, for example, at treating yourself to a new office chair? They are an investment that will last years but the support their offer your back and shoulders in invaluable, especially if you spend a long time sitting at your desk.

There is also an increasing range of stylish office furniture from which to choose and again, choose wisely because your office furniture will be with you for a long time.

If you don’t have the budget to invest in new furniture just yet, upgrading smaller but still essential items is a great alternative. If you spend a lot of time at your keyboard for example, why not invest in a soft touch keyboard? It will make your working day so much easier! Or, if you design a lot, why not opt for a touchscreen monitor or an ergonomic mouse specifically for designers will also add an extra zest and sing to your working day – as well as keeping repetitive strain at bay!

#6 Artwork

The home office doesn’t have to be devoid of all clutter and detail, although we tend to think that in order to concentrate we need to remove all distractions.

But we think that some well-chosen and well-placed artwork is ideal for adding a note of interest but without being distracting. There are some great ideas from photos of far-off climes to crashing waves of the sea. Why not swap your artwork around with the seasons?

#7 Upgrade You!

So far on our list of how to improve your office, we have looked at the office, its fixtures and fittings. In a workplace, however, there is continuing development of people too and just because you work at home, this shouldn’t be any different.

Investing in yourself is just as important as investing in your working environment but what are the options?

Improving your office day is about many things – it is essential that you have a pleasant and practical environment in which to work. But just because you work from home, whether that is flexible working arrangements or as a solopreneur, this doesn’t mean that your continuing professional development should stagnate.

And so, on Improve Your Office day 2017, make yourself a promise to make one change to your home office and a change to your skill set too. Which course would you like to enrol on?

The beauty industry in the UK is worth £17 billion a year – and it is growing. Many surveys that suggest that many women spend up to £450 a year keeping their nails looking their best.

Nail Art – Not a Modern Invention
Painted nails in Ancient Egypt were a symbol of someone’s social standing

Humans have been painting their nails, fingers and toes for millennia. Ancient Chinese and Egyptians are thought to have been amongst the first to get creative with their nails.

The Chinese would apply an enamel to their for a delightful pink finish, whilst the Egyptians used nail colour to denote social status. The higher classes wore deep, rusty reds with an overtone of luscious gold. The colours were derived from the juices of crushed berries including the henna plant.

The Inca civilisation decorated their nails with art, using eagle prints as their preferred artistic pattern.

Painting nails remained part of many cultures for centuries, but it was in the 19th century that manicures took off as a must-have feature of a lady’s toilette.

With the Industrial Revolution came new techniques and substances, including automobile paint. It was a French make-up artist who first used small amounts of car paint to create shiny, painted nails, and from this idea came nail polish. In fact, this early example of nail polish helped to launch the Revlon cosmetics company in 1932.

As the decades past, the colours became a symbol of the changing society, and by the 21st Century statement nails coloured to fit a mood, outfit and occasion became the norm.
The must-have nail polish colour for this summer is
Palm Tree Green, an intense, moody green
And this is where you come in! Nail art is no longer just about a block colour. It is about fun designs, elaborate detail and patterns, with many stunning examples of 3-D nail art coming to the fore.

With more women (and men!) taking care of their appearance, your skills as a nail artist will be in demand. That said, completing a nail art course is one thing, but running your own business is another.

With these hints and tips, you can supercharge your career as a nail artist and enjoy a fantastic income as well as varied career. But how?

Part 1 – Nail Art Qualifications
There are some who say that with nothing more than a creative flair and artistic talent, nail artistry is something that you start immediately, but most experts agree that you need formal training to succeed.

Maybe your skills are already in demand. Friends and family may turn to you for help in beautifying their nails for special events and nights out.

Offering your services on an informal basis to family and friends every now and then is all well and good, but when it comes to offering your services for payment to members of the public, you are entering a different arena.

Artistic flair should be combined with recognised qualifications and public liability insurance cover so if anything does happen (adverse reaction to chemicals used or a cut finger) you are covered.

Customer Confidence

As well as insurance cover, having a recognised qualification means that your customers will have confidence in your abilities and that you can deliver the services and products that you say you can.

Nail Art Techniques

As demand for nail care has increased, nail technicians and companies have developed an increasing range of products to satisfy demand. With your creative outlook, you can create stunning and unique nail art designs for clients.

Possibly the most popular form of manicure is the gel nail. Gel nails involve the application of a special gel polish to the nail, which is then set using UV light. There is a growing range of colours and designs.

These have a faster curing time than gel nails and have been the staple of the beauty industry for decades. A mix is applied to the natural nail and then shaped. Hardening when coming into contact with air, acrylics make the ideal hard surface to paint and create amazing nail art.

Creating nail art is about pushing the boundaries of creativity, and foil nails are the ideal eye-catching nail art design. Anything that glitters is sure to attract attention and these foil transfers are the perfect solution. Hard wearing, the foil transfers are cut to shape and then applied, held in place by special foil glue. Once applied, the top layer is peeled away and a protective layer of clear nail varnish is applied.

Nail piercing has been pushing the boundaries in recent times. A small hole is made in the tip of the nail (usually acrylic or a gel nail, but can also be natural nail tips too) and a small decorative accessory inserted.

Nail art is advancing all the time, which is why so many people want to be nail art technicians. Nail art pens are a handy device that allows images, patterns, colours and textures to be applied with ease. As a nail art technician, this means that you can create completely unique nails for your clients each and every time.

We have already mentioned the current trend for 3D nail art, and we think it is here to stay. Miniature accessories are being made and added to nails, raising the flat designs to 3D ones. Beaded nails are common, with some people adding feathers and other accessories to elevate the drama.

Part 2 – Practice and Expand Your Skill Set
Nail art is a skill, and for anyone who is creative, you will have no shortage of ideas. That said, it takes practice. The canvas on which you work – the individual nail, natural or otherwise – is small.

As well as practising your art, you also need to practice your people skills. The good news is that with family and friends, there will be no shortage of volunteers for your services.
Using black as an accent colour in designs is a hot 2017 trend – try orange nails, slashed with a line of black for something different.

As your confidence grows, you can take steps to start your business. This takes time and effort, as well as a little, know how.

Part 3 – Start Your Business
Many nail artists and beauticians offering various treatments and therapies find that their skills are in high demand. Whilst this is great news, it can mean that many nail artists can undercharge for their services.

This is why it pays to spend some time formulating a business plan. As part of this plan, you will need to do the following:

In Summary
Nail art is a dynamic and ever-changing trend that shows no sign of fizzling any time soon. New patterns, styles and techniques come to the fore on a regular basis.

As a qualified nail artist and technician, you have the keys to a supercharged business that adapts and changes to what your clients want.

EVERY business operates in a crowded marketplace with competitors and rivals vying for the attention of customers.

As a business, you need to be streamlined and responsive, continually pushing forward with innovative solutions that make you the go-to business. Online management courses are designed to help you on this journey.

And this means strong leaders and leadership. There is a whole sector of academia that looks at the roles and types of leadership that are important within a business.

Nature or Nurture?

Many people assume that people are either born leaders or not. It is true that a successful leader has certain attributes but even they have learnt to be a leader, what it means, how people react, what needs to happen and when.

If your business lacks leaders, it will lack focus and direction as well as the person or people who can push things on and bring the staff team with it.

There are many online business courses that upskill workers, moulding them into the leaders that your business needs and wants. And these are the five reasons why improving on the skills of leaders will make a difference to your business;

Man in a meeting

With strong leadership, your business can grow in the right direction.

Morale is about the overall ambience and the emotional well-being that people enjoy about working for your company or business.

People need several things from a leader – they need direction, feedback and praise. And yet, all too often, these basics needs are not met.

From supervisors to department heads to the CEO, leadership spans many levels of your organisation. But it only takes a weaker link in the leadership chain for the whole thing to become weaker than it should be.

Poor leadership means poor staff morale. Strong leadership and direction means boundaries and creativity, it means excellent management of people and their aspirations.

It is an ongoing issue in business across the country, in all sectors and industries: how to get more and improved levels of productivity.

It might mean investing in new machinery, changing or tweaking a process or it may mean staff working smarter, but not harder; or it could be all three of these factors.

A strong leader can see the bigger picture. They can identify where productivity is stalling, where the bottlenecks in the flow of productivity are, but – and this is the important bit – they can initiate change in a way that is welcomed, and not feared.

When people are valued by the company they work for, they stay. When they feel challenged in their work, when they feel safe, when they feel they are an important and integral part of the process, they stay.

Continually recruiting new staff is disruptive for a company, as well as expensive. New staff can signal new growth but it can also be symptomatic of a bigger issue: poor staff retention. Poor leadership often leads to poor retention.

The bottom line is the amount of cash or money a business has left once all the bills and overheads have been paid.

Teamwork

It is true that a successful leader has certain attributes but even they have learnt to be a leader.

From suppliers to wages, the rising costs of running a business severely dent a business’s bottom line. As a business, you need to be constantly and consistently monitoring your outgoings, the cost of raw materials and other expenditure items.

Monitoring is one thing, being proactive and decreasing overheads with new technology and new, cheaper, leaner ways of doing things are all things that a good business leader will bring.

And these four reasons combine to give the fifth reason to why people, who have completed online business courses to become better leaders, benefit a company – providing faster, sustainable and scalable growth.

The majority of businesses want to grow, but they need a firm foundation with well-laid roots and the right kinds of growth in the right direction. Growth that is too quick causes weaker strands of growth that can prove to be problematic.

But, with strong leadership, your business can grow in the right direction. This growth will be sustainable growth and scaled at a speed that suits your business.

Upskill Leaders

Leadership needs to be different things at different times to face the challenges and the opportunities that markets present.

But like other skills, you need to invest effort and resources into training people to be the leaders that your business needs. With online business courses, they can gain these vitals skills without having to take months or even years out of work. They can study at work or at home, at a time that is convenient and at their own pace.

Just imagine how your business would benefit from skilled leadership.

The spreadsheet sets out a large amount of data and information. At a glance, you can see information such as income and expenditure, as well as being able to identify pinch points in your budget.

The spreadsheet, developed in 1979, is a tool used by many – not just bookkeepers. National Spreadsheet Day is celebrated on October 17th every year, marking the anniversary of its creation. Bookkeeping courses will introduce you to the finer points of spreadsheets and, by knowing more about them, they can become an even more effective tool.

Information and data

Number crunching may not be your favourite past time. After spending many hours building your business, you probably just want to sit and relax but no doubt you have ‘paperwork and accounts’ to do.

However, sending out invoices and checking for payments are important, but this is not the be-all-and-end-all of running a business. You need to have a clear and accurate over view of how well your business is doing financially.

One of the main reasons why businesses fail, no matter what their size, is from problems around cash flow. If the cash isn’t flowing in, but it is still flowing out, it leaves your bank account not only empty – but in the red.laptop and notebooks

Although stressful, in the short term it can be managed. But, on a longer term, it can spell disaster. In many instances, when the economy turns to recession, long-term cash flow issues and accrued debt lead to the end.

It can affect all businesses, which is why larger well-known high street retailers who have been in business for decades, go to the wall.

Bookkeeping is your means of defence; it is the way to check what is happening, as well as help you look to the immediate future. Knowing your financial position can help you understand what needs to change too.

The 5 top reasons for accurate bookkeeping

Bookkeeping courses will see you gain so many skills. So much so that you will wonder how you ever managed without…

#1 Improved financial analysis and management

Knowing what your income is is only one piece of crucial information. You will see how this has improved (or not!); you will be able to look ahead and identify possible problems. You may have a full order book but it may mean invoices will not be paid for some weeks and short-term borrowing may be needed.

Or, the jobs you have lined up are many, but they are low paying. This can also present problems, but knowing the potential issues, as well as the good news is essential, no matter how big or small your business.

It can also show which clients pay on time, who are slower at doing so, who still hasn’t paid…

#2 Fulfil tax obligations

Annual tax returns; although you know when you have to submit your returns by, they always seem to crop up and surprise us. With excellent bookkeeping, you can submit your return early and also have truly accurate figures.

If you also have an accountant, accurate bookkeeping also means that they have less to sort through, so actually, you could be saving yourself some money by being organised!

#3 Reporting back to investors is easier

If you are hoping to attract financial investment, then people want to know how much of a risk they would be taking. With no real accounts, the risk can be too high.

When potential investors can see you take care and due diligence with your finances, they can get a much better idea of how well your business is doing.

Clearly, when you do have people sinking money into your business, they want an accurate report of your finances too. Accounting courses will equip you with all the skills that you need to analyse and present financial information in a way that gives people the information that they need.

#4 Business planning is easier

Both profit and loss are two important columns in your bookkeeping ledger. It is these two sets of figures that will inform you of whether your business is growing (and how fast) or sinking (and how fast).

Forecasting growth is sometimes needed, especially if you are asking the bank for a business loan. Bookkeeping courses, will again, be fruitful in seeing you able to compile the data and detail needed on which you can project future growth.

And finally…

Keeping accurate financial records is the law. You have to do it. Even the most basic of financial records are enough to suffice legal obligations but most companies find that accurate, detailed bookkeeping is the foundation stone of building a thriving business. To ensure you are up to date on all things business, check out the online business management courses to get support along the way.

If you would like more information on how to become a bookkeeper – Click this link.