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Business – Page 177 – Reginald Chan

Reginald Chan

Category: Business

  • How To Pick The Right Professional To Shield You From The IRS?

    How To Pick The Right Professional To Shield You From The IRS?

    The ramifications of choosing the wrong auditor can have a profound effect on your business. The best-case scenario is you’ll manage to work for years to correct your mistakes. The worst case is the auditor will leave you vulnerable to massive penalties and legal issues that could run your accounts dry. That’s why it’s imperative to make this decision wisely.

    Below are some of the key factors to consider when choosing an auditing professional or firm.

    Qualifications

    The firm you choose to work with must have credentials proving they have undergone the necessary training and are certified by the relevant board. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires all companies auditing public businesses to be registered by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

    Hiring a firm that’s under the oversight of PCAOB comes with many benefits. First, it’s a show of credibility, which is good, especially when the Internal Revenue Service is going through your books. You really don’t want the investigators to find out that you’re even working with crooks.

    Secondly, an auditing firm that has gone through the hassle of getting registered is probably serious and transparent about its business operations, meaning your books will be in good hands. 

    Such auditors are constantly appraised to the ever-changing tax and auditing regulations. They’ll utilize their knowledge to ensure your accounts meets all legal requirements.

    Experience

    An experienced auditor is a valuable asset to your business. Although these professionals are likely to charge higher fees, the knowledge, quality, and efficiency they bring to the table are unparalleled.

    In your meeting with the company, ask them how many years they’ve been operating. Inquire about some of their previous and current clients. Look up the clients and see whether they’ve had any unfriendly encounters with the taxman.

    Depending on the specific auditing problem you’re in, it may be vital to ensure the firm you’re hiring has experience in your industry. This is really important since certain regulations change based on the industry in question, i.e., is your company under not-for-profit, government, or public company regulations? Let the auditing firm show their track record.

    Reputation And Reviews

    Testimonials and references go a long way to tell you how good a company is doing its business. 

    There are two ways of getting these testimonials. You can ask the company directly about their other clients. Proceed to contact the clients and ask about the quality of services they receive. This option is as straightforward as it sounds, but it might not be very reliable. Why? Rarely will a business give you contacts for a client they hard a rough relationship with. And that’s why you cannot overlook option two.

    Conduct your own research to determine how reliable the firm is. This is where business review websites like Yelp and google my business come in. You will find independent reviews that can paint an accurate picture of how it’s like working with the firm on a daily basis.

    You could also tell the reputation of a firm by looking at their honors. Have they participated or won any auditing/accounting awards? 

    Size Of The Firm

    Proper auditing takes a lot of effort and time. When IRS notifies you of an imminent field audit, the whole process becomes even more complicated. The Effective Audit Experts – Tax Shark explain that full-blown IRS field audits are rare, but they do happen, and they can put a business owner under immense pressure. In such situations, it’s imperative to hire a firm with the necessary capacity to handle your workload and keep you off the IRS radar.

    A sizeable firm also adds value to your business. They’ll handle your accounting with efficiency to smoothen your business operations and adherence to the law. Sadly, big audition firms also charge higher fees.

    Use Of Technology

    Working with accountants that have embraced auditing technology is beneficial in various ways. For starters, it makes the auditing process more efficient. Tech can digest tons of data and produce accurate results much faster than traditional auditing techniques. This leaves you and the accountants with sufficient time to scrutinize the results and draw any anomalies that could be affecting your business.

    Some of the latest auditing software are also developed to provide useful insights for better decision-making.

    Tech-based auditors are very useful, especially to businesses that store their data electronically. They can even perform virtual audits and communicate their results and findings without interrupting the regular office operations.

    If your business is still using traditional accounting techniques, good auditors will scale down their technology to address your unique needs.

    Customer Service

    It’s good for businesses to stick to one auditor for as long as possible. However, this is only possible if you hire a good and reliable firm. One that is helpful, friendly, and responsive. 

    For this reason, experts urge businesses to interview potential auditors in person. Take note of how they handle your questions and concerns. Check how accessible the senior employees are. Look around their offices and see whether they have sufficient capacity to handle your needs.

    Fees

    It’s okay to shop around for the best deal but keep in mind that you’ll always get what you pay for. Ideally, the auditor’s fees should be the last thing you consider since saving a few bucks is nowhere as important as ensuring your business gets accurate and reliable services.

    If you have a limited budget, you are free to make several compromises, but do so carefully. For instance, you can opt for a smaller auditing firm since they usually charge less when compared to established auditors. Tech-based auditing may also be a reasonable trade-off if it’ll help you save a few dollars without hurting the services rendered. 

    Do not compromise on crucial factors like knowledge, experience, accreditation, and reputation/reviews.

    Good auditors do more than just helping your business comply with legal requirements. They’ll generate valuable insights from raw data to help you make accurate and beneficial decisions affecting your business. Think of them as business partners.

  • 6 Effective Tips From The Pros To Make Your Website Rank Higher

    6 Effective Tips From The Pros To Make Your Website Rank Higher

    Let’s face it, in the twenty-first century, almost everyone with a business has a website and social media to match. Now more than ever, people recognize the opportunities that an online presence can provide. Regardless of whether you’re a business novice or relatively seasoned in the digital marketing space, you’ll likely be aware of how important exposure and brand building are to your business’ success. The thing is, with so many websites in existence, it’s difficult to get noticed. To make the most out of your digital assets, getting your website a higher search ranking is essential- but what’s the best way to go about it? Though advice will vary from person to person, some basic needs should always be met. Curious as to which tips take the top spots? Here are 6 effective tips from the pros to make your website rank higher.

    Try Blogging

    Though musing about your day or showcasing pictures of your breakfast might seem like anything but groundbreaking content, for most brands blogging is an excellent way to organically increase website visits. This is because bloggers usually amass a loyal following and have an easier time naturally incorporating internal and external links. The higher the frequency of the posts, the higher the generated traffic. Blogging is a great strategy for building your website because it allows for almost unlimited content potential. All the while, it appeals to current and potential customers, as well as the all-important social amplifiers.

    Focus On What Sets You Apart

    In an oversaturated online market, going with the herd can be a very bad thing for the success of your website. If you are a mid to small-sized business, you likely won’t have the resources to appear in a top spot in broader searches. The less specific a keyword or offering is, the smaller the chance you will find success while engaging with it. The reason being, if your focus is too vague, the potential for competition skyrockets. By concentrating on what sets your website, product, or service apart, you will increase your rankings tenfold. Let’s say you own a water bottle company; if you focus solely on using keywords and content related to water bottles, your product will be easily buried. By switching the primary focus to your environmental initiatives, health benefits, or another unique feature that only you offer, you’re far more likely to rank high up in a more specific search group.

    Use Varied Content

    Content marketing is a concept best implemented in a variety of formats—basically, the less formulaic your content, the better. Most digital marketing experts will agree that though keywords and writing-based content are extremely important for optimizing search engine results, using images and videos in new and interesting ways will help keep your content exciting, eye-catching, and fresh. In addition to this, tags and metadata on pictures and videos can help to further boost your website’s rank when used correctly. By using keywords in conjunction with visual aids and things like eye-catching infographics, you’ll be moving your web page up the ranks while capturing more eyes and prolonged website stays.

    Build Your Network

    Algorithms and other web tools are useful and effective, but technology is not the only way to ensure your website ranks high among others. Though it can be tough work, building your network and attracting links from top-quality sites is one of the best ways to increase your company’s rankings and overall exposure. This is something that takes a little more time and groundwork than normally seen on the internet. However, if you start to build relationships with publishers, webmasters, and bloggers, this sweat equity will be greatly rewarded in the long term. Taking care to reach out personally can help grow your brand and website exponentially and place your content in front of entirely new audiences.

    Keep Up the Pace

    The world of e-commerce and marketing is a pretty fast-paced environment, and your website needs to be up to the task. You may be doing everything right, but if your website is slow or unresponsive, you can kiss a high website ranking goodbye. To curry favor with search engines and customers alike, keep your website up-to-date and well maintained. The functionality should be flawless across any device and platform to capitalize on any traffic earned. If you’ve spent time and money on great content and even better goods or services, you are doing yourself a major disservice by not optimizing your website for speed and efficiency.

    Click-Throughs is Key

    So you’ve managed to rank high enough to get noticed on a search page- now what? In order to get high and stay high, any savvy company should be concentrating efforts on increasing their CTR or click-through rate. Unsure of what click-throughs are, exactly? Consider this: every time someone chooses to explore your web page as it appears in their search results, you’ve successfully garnered a click-through. These are important for several reasons. For one thing, the main way a business generates sales is through its website. This means that increasing CTR boosts the potential for sales. Additionally, the more search engine users click on your website whilst in the middle of a particular search, the more relevant your page is deemed, and the higher your website will rank. Make sure that your metadata is relevant and clear and that your titles are short and emotive to really make them pop.
    There you have it, some of the most effective tools for leveling up your website’s ranking. While the list may not be exhaustive, these tips are ones that marketing pros will never overlook. From highlighting and celebrating your differences to creating interesting, creative content- there are many things you can do to ensure your website resonates both personally and in the online space. Remember to never take basics like website functionality for granted, and always strive to create authentic, engaging copy. By employing a mix of tried and true strategies and never settling for anything less than the best, your website, brand, and business will thrive and climb up the ranks in no time at all.

  • 6 Top Solutions to Prevent Sexual Harassment in Workplaces

    6 Top Solutions to Prevent Sexual Harassment in Workplaces

    A quick search on the internet for sexual harassment will tell you that little has been done in preventing cases of sexual harassment at work. On any given day, the internet is filled with dozens of news headlines about sexual harassment. Even though most organizations tend to believe that sexual harassment at work isn’t in their workplace, the truth is that sexual harassment is widely prevalent. For this reason, we shall continue to share with you the top solutions to prevent sexual harassment in workplaces.

    Define Sexual harassment

    As an employer, you must inform every member of your organization about what sexual harassment is all about. What is defined as sexual harassment? This is one question that many employees find confusing. For example, is it wrong to hold a coworker’s hand while at work? The answer is dependent on the situation. If the other worker isn’t comfortable with you holding hands or touching the body, then that can be deemed as sexual harassment. 

    Most organizations discourage dating among colleagues. Doing so can help in many ways, among them improving productivity at work. Most importantly, this rule helps curb cases of sexual harassment. It ensures that employees focus on work and not flirting with colleagues. In an instance where one engages the other colleague in unwanted flirting or asking for dates that have continuously been turned down, this may be considered harassment. 

    Also, sexual harassment can happen online. For example, transmitting sexual harassment pictures to a coworker is a criminal offense. It’s for this reason that most companies usually monitor work emails to prevent such incidents from happening. The mentioned examples are just a tip in the ice of the many incidences that may be deemed as sexual harassment. 

    Professional training

    Sexual harassment is a crime. As an employer, it, therefore, means that you should boldly let your employees know that your workplace has a strict zero-tolerance rule to this. While your anti-harassment policies may deliver the message, introducing sexual harassment courses is highly recommended. The training should be conducted for both employees and supervisors. Refresher courses should also be provided annually or as needed. Doing this helps everyone in the company understand the definition of this act and the rights and remedies to those who feel that they have been victimized.

    Develop Sexual Harassment Policies

    Defining sexual harassment is one thing, but making your employees understand the consequences of this harmful act is another topic, and that asks for attention. As an employee, you are tasked with creating clear and detailed sexual harassment policies. With the policies in place, everyone in the organization will understand that your company doesn’t condone such actions. 

    The policies should indicate the specific behaviors that will constitute sexual harassment and that aren’t tolerated. The policies should also include punishments for those who cause sexual harm to others. To ensure that everyone understands the policies well, circulate them widely to every member and ensure that they sign to indicate that they have read and understood. In addition, you can bring in professional trainers to help establish an understanding of the topic and the policies you’ve in place. 

    Lead by Example 

    On most occasions, sexual harassment allegations at work revolve around the top bosses taking advantage of the juniors. This is sad since most of these cases go unresolved as the juniors fear losing their jobs. As the employer, you should lead by example. It will make no sense setting up policies that you can’t follow. 

    According to successful entrepreneurs, having a solid management and HR team is essential for creating a respectful workplace culture. If it means holding management-level pieces of training, don’t hesitate to bring them up. Remember, most of these juniors look up to you for protection. If you don’t lead by example, the employees won’t feel comfortable approaching you with such an allegation. But, once you present yourself as a boss who understands your work, then this means that handling such investigations won’t be a problem at your premises. 

    Have a Clear Harassment Reporting Procedure

    Generally, reporting sexual harassment cases can be tiring. Many victims may find themselves giving up with the process, depending on the structure you’ve at your workplace. Some may even feel intimidated to report to their seniors such cases. As the employer, you should, therefore, have a clear and straightforward harassment reporting procedure. 

    The procedure should be detailed and shouldn’t involve going through different offices for the matter to be considered legit. Instead, you can form a committee that listens to such allegations and carry out the needed investigations before implementing the necessary punishments. With a straightforward reporting procedure, it means that all the matters will be attended to and the culprits punished without making the victim feel intimidated or threatened. If it’s a matter that requires police intervention, you shouldn’t hesitate to bring them onboard so that they can take over the case. 

    Take Decisive Actions when an Issue Arises

    As mentioned earlier, most organizations assume that sexual harassment cases don’t exist on their premises. The sad truth is that they are there. The big question remains, what actions should one take when a matter of such nature emerges? As an employer, it’s recommended that you respond promptly to reports of harassment whenever they are presented. You should carry out a thorough investigation of the matter and impose meaningful consequences on the culprits. 

    Taking swift and informed decisions isn’t only good for your company’s reputation, but it also makes the employees feel that they are working in a safe environment. Failure to deal with the issue when it arises sees the criminal employees continue doing so as they are sure nothing will be done. Therefore, you shouldn’t hesitate to take action and let every employee be aware of the consequences. 

    Currently, sexual harassment allegations have been on the rise. It’s right to say that the increase is influenced by the fact that most employers tend to ignore the existence of these cases. Mentioned in this article are some of the proven ways you can help prevent sexual harassment in your workplace. Read through the article to see how easy this should be to solve them and the intensity of the topic.

  • How To Set Up A Perfect Website In 2021 Style?

    How To Set Up A Perfect Website In 2021 Style?

    Building a website is a hectic task that requires lots of planning. Depending on your strategy and the type of website you are building, it may also take time before your website starts generating any revenue. 

    In today’s review, we’ll be looking at the crucial steps involved in setting up a successful website in 2021. These tips will significantly reduce the stress involved in building and marketing a modern site.

    Create A Masterplan

    It’s impossible to build a successful website when you have no idea what its objective is. So, before you start spending money on hosting and digital marketing courses, have a meeting with yourself and decide why you want to build the website and what you hope to achieve. These answers will solve at least half of the problems experienced in the next steps of setting up a site.

    The first thing you need to figure out is the subject of the website. This should be followed by comprehensive research on whether there is a profitable market for your objective. The market analysis is really important, especially if you’re starting a blog you want to monetize. 

    If your topic generates enough searches per month, move to the next step and find the keywords needed to support your main subject. There are lots of free and paid tools that can help you with keyword research.

    At the end of the planning period, you should have a spreadsheet containing the main topic of your website and the supporting keywords for the internal pages.

    Register A Domain Name And Choose A Host

    Coming up with the perfect domain name should be super easy once you know what the website is about. However, there are some basic rules to follow when purchasing a domain name to improve the performance and visibility of your website. This is particularly crucial if you are building an affiliate blog since the name will influence how fast your website ranks.

    Generally, there are two ways to determine the kind of domain name you’ll use. The first is to go with your brand if you already have a company. This basically means you’ll use your company name as the domain name. Established businesses need to use their company names since it gives the website legitimacy.

    The other option is to come up with a creative name based on the topic or industry your website is targeting. For instance, if you are in the tech niche, you can create a domain name using tech terminologies. These domain names are a bit easier to rank since they’re easily recognizable to search engine bots.

    All in all, a good domain name should be short, simple, and professional. Experts would also advise you against adding hyphens and numbers in the name.

    Next up is finding the perfect host for your site. Pay for a reliable host to avoid costly downtimes. Some of the factors you need to consider when choosing a host are customer support, security, storage, backup options, and estimated traffic.

    You must also think about the server types. There are generally three options here, dedicated, VPS, and shared. Shared servers are the cheapest, but they are far from ideal, especially for e-commerce and other sites that deal with delicate customer details.

    Choose A Content Management System

    CMS is the system that allows you to publish all the content appearing on your website. There are platforms to choose from, but WordPress is the most commonly used one.

    The platform is popular because: 

    • It has an intuitive dashboard
    • It is scalable
    • Has thousands of plugins
    • It has lots of themes to choose from
    • It can be integrated with BigCommerce and WooCommerce
    • It’s open-source, so there is a lot of support from the community
    • It’s great for SEO

    Other options worth checking out are Squarespace, Elementor, Wix, and Shopify.

    Design Your Website

    This is one of the most critical steps in making a website since it directly affects the user experience. As the designers at nettonic.co.uk explain in their web design report, website visitors take just 2 seconds to determine whether they’ll stay on your site or not. This is a tiny window, so you must do your best to grab and retain your visitor’s attention as soon as possible.

    The good news is that designing a website is nowhere as stressful as it used to be. You don’t even need any coding knowledge to get the job done. Most platforms come with free and paid themes that you can edit with simple drag-and-drop functions to personalize your site.

    But, if you want to customize your site extensively, hiring an experienced developer is the best play.

    Below are some of the factors to keep in mind while designing your website:

    • User-friendliness
    • Mobile-friendliness
    • Loading time
    • Aesthetics

    Create Your Content

    Consult any digital marketing expert, and they’ll tell you that content is king. Without high-quality content, all the effort you’ll put into creating a website and ranking it will be for nothing. You could attract thousands of visitors per month, but your conversion rate will be terrible if your blogs are poorly written.

    It’s for that reason that you need to create the best content in your niche. Look at what other websites are doing and compile the information to build quality long-form content.

    Make sure your homepage reflects your brand. The inner pages are just as useful so create quality blogs for these pages as well. 

    Basic business information should be easily accessible to your website visitors. This includes contact information and location. If you are running an e-commerce store, add links for shipping, return policy, and payment methods at the footer.

    Implement An SEO Strategy

    Your SEO strategy starts when creating a website master plan and choosing a domain name. However, optimization is even more important once you have your content published.

    SEO is a broad subject, but it generally covers onsite and offsite optimization. Onsite SEO involves optimizing your website and content to improve rankings. It works on keyword density, URLs, metatags, external and internal links, webpage loading speeds, and creating mobile-friendly content.

    Offsite SEO aims to improve your rankings through campaigns like social media marketing and building backlinks through guest posts, website comments, and brand mentions. 

    Finally, it’s time to launch your website. But that’s not the end of the road. Continue creating fresh content and updating the existing one. You must also stay updated with the latest “white hat” SEO techniques to improve the rankings of your web pages.

  • Introduction to API Gateways and How to Choose the Right One

    Introduction to API Gateways and How to Choose the Right One

    An Applications Programming Interface (API) is a computing interface that allows applications to communicate and share information. In an API architecture, one of the most important yet less talked about pieces is the API gateway. It plays a very crucial role that contributes a lot to the successful survival of an API.

    Over the past few years, we have experienced a growing number of clients accessing data. They do this from different IoT devices, mobile applications, websites, and other web applications. Businesses are also coming up with solutions using APIs, transforming how they operate. For instance, AI and ML have completely transformed marketing today. This would not have been possible without APIs. Such things have led to a tremendous increase in the number of businesses relying on APIs for their day-to-day operations. 

    Due to this demand, the use of API gateways has also been on the rise. There are different types of gateways available with each coming with different types of features. It is not easy to get an API gateway that offers a solution to everything, but the right choice of an API gateway depends on the different needs of different organizations.

    What is an API Gateway?

    An API gateway can be defined as a platform that provides developers with a single point of entry to an organization’s backend services. The gateway is mandated with getting all the incoming requests and making sure that they end up at the right service. This setup makes sure that the backend services are protected by an abstractive layer and that all clients interact with a single interface. It also makes sure that the clients do not interact with any of the backend services individually.

    Furthermore, an API gateway comes with more features that enhance the efficiency, monitoring, and security of APIs. Some organizations use multiple API gateways depending on their requirements. This is largely attributed to the fact that they have different teams working on different APIs in silos. Managing multiple API gateways has made sure that they are able to handle their increasing and changing requirements without any issues.

    Choosing the Right API Gateway

    As discussed above, it is not easy to get an API gateway that works as a one-stop solution for all of an organization’s needs. However, the right gateway depends on the needs of an organization. That notwithstanding, there are a number of things that one needs to look at when choosing an API gateway. They include;

    Authentication

    You need to know how an API gateway handles authentication before settling on it. A gateway is supposed to authenticate all incoming traffic to ensure that authentication on different services is eliminated. This will, in return, improve the performance of your API.

    This means that you need to evaluate the authentication methods supported by a gateway. Some types of authentication supported include OAuth, basic authentication, LDAP, and API keys among others while other gateways might come with limited authentication options.

    Authorization

    An API gateway comes with policies set up in its configuration to make sure that a request has some restrictions on the services that it can access. This means that once a request has been authenticated, it is not just left to access any service that it feels like accessing.

    When choosing an API gateway, it is important to make sure that you understand the levels of access that your API offers. If you, for example, have subscription plans that offer different access levels to people under different plans, and you need to limit access depending on those plans, you should choose an API gateway that allows you to do that.

    Analytics and Logging

    There are API gateways that allow one to add functionalities such as analytics and logging. This is important in limiting duplication in different services. Other gateways allow one to integrate them with other applications that perform these functionalities. This allows one to monitor their APIs from the gateway.

    Make sure that you know the kinds of monitoring that you need for your API and choose the gateway that offers what you need. Also, you need to decide if you want to get gateway logs for integration with service logs or just rely on the service logs.

    SaaS or Self-Hosted

    Finally, you need to decide whether you will host your API gateway for yourself or you will use a cloud-hosted one. Even though there might not be many differences between the two options, a self-hosted API gateway provides more control and allows one to configure it the way they want. The only downside with it (though not quite an issue with experienced developers) is that you will need to configure it correctly and take full responsibility for maintaining it.

    Conclusion

    An API gateway is very important for any organization or developer that builds and depends on APIs for their activities. Apart from providing a gateway through which all requests go through and are directed, it also acts as a security layer and provides API owners with monitoring functionalities for their APIs.

  • The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Making A Successful Online Course

    The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Making A Successful Online Course

    With the prices of traditional academic learning now higher than ever before, online courses have transitioned from a supplementary source of knowledge to one of the most popular methods of learning worldwide. It’s one of the most impactful and fastest ways to spread knowledge to people around the world. 

    In recent years it has also become an essential tool utilized by entrepreneurs of all kinds. By teaching your specific field or skill, you can prove to people that you are indeed highly knowledgeable and worth investing in. In which case, an online course functions as a business card of sorts, attracting many to learn from your evident experience and possibly invest in your business as well. 

    Here are 8 steps for making a successful online course. 

    Choose Your Topic

    Your choice of topic is the foundation of your online course’s entire conception and success.

    You’ll want to choose a topic that you are highly proficient at, whether your knowledge is formal or self-taught. Most importantly, you need to choose a topic that you are passionate about, and this increases the chances of successfully engaging customers through your course. 

    These days any topic is fair game; to list the variety of courses on the market would be practically endless. Use this factor to your advantage and really choose the exact niche which you resonate with the most, and try to align that with what’s in high demand in your respective market. 

    Dictate The Course Outcomes 

    So you’ve found the right topic for you, the next step is to carefully decide on the outcomes of your course. These are the core deliverables of your course, what your customers will essentially gain from buying and taking your course, whether it’s new skills, knowledge, or an emotional impact of sorts, for example. 

    Not only will this be one of the unique selling points to your customer base, but it will also help to ensure that you attract the type of customer with which you intend to interact through your course.

    Gather Your Content 

    One of the reasons online courses and other methods of learning have become so popular is the sheer amount of rapidly developing information we are exposed to these days. So the art of gathering content for your course lies in what things to exclude, as opposed to what thing to include. 

    Your main focus is making sure every predetermined learning outcome has its own dedicated compilation of content. These will be the main influence of what content to include. Once that has been achieved, be sure to filter as much non-essential information as possible.

    Outline Your Course Structure 

    This is when you start organizing your gathered content into groups that share similar themes or ideas into modules. Once these modules have been grouped accordingly, they should then be ordered in a logical manner that flows naturally. 

    The progression between each of your modules must be smooth so that customers can easily digest the information you are providing over the span of the course. This tends to keep them more engaged and motivated throughout.  

    Choose Your Delivery Methods 

    The next step is to decide on which delivery methods to use for your course. A good rule of thumb is to include a balance of visual, audio, and practical methodologies amongst your course modules. It helps to do some prior research surrounding the learning preferences of your target customer base in order to cater the delivery methods to their needs. 

    There are several services that make this easy, even without prior teaching experience. Some online resources can give you insight into how an easy-to-use course creation platform allows you to focus on the content whilst tech, hosting, design, and marketing integration is taken care of. Another top tip is to try to keep things interesting, and courses don’t necessarily have to be purely informal. Some unexpected twists or tricks sporadically placed throughout the course can provide an element of surprise, keeping people interested. 

    Filming and Editing 

    Now that your course’s foundations are in place, it’s time to start actually filming and editing your content. There are many styles for filming and editing; most of the choices to be made relying on the preferences of your customer base. And what you feel the most comfortable doing as well. 

    Try not to convey things too simple, but also be sure not to overwhelm your customers with too many different elements all at once. You can do this with basic equipment at home and basic research on filming and editing, or you could do this with the assistance of a media production agency. 

    Pricing and Marketing  

    At the end of the day, the process of creating and operating an online course requires time, effort, and money. An investment on which you will expect returns. You must determine where your online course will fall into your existing business model or whether it will need a business model of its own. 

    Although there are no strict rules defining how to price and market a course, it should mostly abide by the general trends within your specific segment of the market, both in terms of pricing and marketing strategies. With Teachables offering bundle services, you can offer your online courses at a discounted price. It’s important to note that in some cases, courses can be provided free of charge as a means of attracting interest towards one’s primary product or service, in which case pricing is not an important element as profits are not the goal. 

    Set Up Your Online School

    There are 3 major ways to sell your online course:

    1. Online course marketplaces 
    2. Learning Management Systems (LMS)
    3. Plugins or software on your website

    The most comprehensive method is usually a Learning Management system (LMS). It simplifies the course creation and selling process in an all-inclusive package. It functions as your very own learning platform that you can then link to your website. This keeps all the maintenance and operation functions centralized on one efficient platform instead of integrating the different aspects across several platforms. 

    The steps in this article are by no means a comprehensive guide to creating your online course, but they provide you with the crucial elements you need to address throughout the process. By following these steps and putting them into action, you will find that the learning curve is exponential in this rapidly booming industry as you settle into things.