Archive of ‘Blog’ category

Building Your Brand: Reaching The Right Audiences

The recipe for building a modern brand relies on several key ingredients. However, there can be no doubt that reaching out to the right audiences is an integral feature.

It may seem like a daunting prospect, especially for a startup. While a structured strategy will be required, the good news is that building it isn’t as hard as many fear. Focus on the six simple steps below and you won’t go far wrong.

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Business Simulation Games: Coffee Shops To Fuel Entrepreneurship

Starting a business from the comfort of your couch is an attractive proposition. But have you considered starting a virtual company from that couch?
 
Welcome to the immersive world of business simulation games. These are an overlooked way of learning some of the most important business lessons a new entrepreneur needs for their startup.
 
This article explores one business simulation game that is perfect for any budding entrepreneur. I’ll explain how this can teach you important business lessons: inventory management, customer awareness, external pressures, and pricing.

Unleashing Your Inner Entrepreneur: Can Business Simulation Games Play a Role?

Business simulation games are a surprisingly useful tool for aspiring entrepreneurs. On the surface, they seem like a fun and innocent way to fuel your entrepreneurial spirit. But the impact goes deeper, and the benefits are many. They offer a realistic depiction of the complex world of business. So entrepreneurs can use these interactive platforms to experience business thrills and challenges and do so in a safe environment where your real money is not at stake.

A game could ignite passion, ideas, and insights for a budding entrepreneur, paving the way for real-world success. It’s beneficial for the growing number of young adults (and even teens) who dream of running a business but lack years of experience that can prove an asset when you launch a new enterprise. 

Coffee Shops: Virtual Games in Action

Coffee shops are a good example of a virtual simulation game with practical use for entrepreneurs. I recently tried out a free Coffee Shop simulation game run by the team at Mortgage Calculator (the game was even safe enough for me to pass the reigns over to my daughter and let her have a try!). In the game, the simulation introduces you to real-world business challenges in a few subtle ways. Here are a few examples:

Inventory Management

If you launch any kind of shop or store (online or the traditional bricks-and-mortar), expect inventory management to appear high on your task list. Inventory management is the process of ordering, storing, and using your business stock. It includes raw materials, components, and finished products. And will come with challenges like storage and warehousing, packing, and shipping.

Good inventory management is about managing levels to prevent overstocking and shortages—a balance, in other words. Poor inventory levels can disrupt your business operations and lead to lost sales. It also greatly impacts your business profitability, pushing up storage costs or lowering customer satisfaction.

The coffee shop game was a neat introduction to the world of inventory management. Each day, you order your stock for your coffee cart. Order too little, and you’ll find your product sold out halfway through the day, leading to potential lost sales. But order too much, and the milk will spoil, eating into your profits. It takes a few (virtual) days of running the simulation to find the perfect balance.

stock management business simulation games managing inventory business simulation games inventory management

Tuning Into What the Customer Wants

When you run a business, your success lies in knowing what your customer wants. This goes beyond knowing your market. It extends to specifics about the product your customer needs most and the price they will pay.

By actively listening to your customer, you can adjust your offering to meet their expectations. The result? Higher customer satisfaction and more loyalty. Effective customer demand analysis will help you monitor feedback and forecast trends.

The coffee simulation game provides a useful example of this in action. You’ll get real-time feedback on what potential customers think about your product. Weak coffee? You need to add some extra caffeine tomorrow to improve your brand’s reputation. Too much sugar? You’ll need to adjust that recipe before it affects your sales! It’s a helpful reminder that a happy customer will drive record profits, but failing to listen to a customer will leave you with dwindling sales.

customer demands business simulation games

The Impact of External Pressures

You can create the perfect business model, but you’ll still find your entrepreneurial path shaped by factors outside your control. That’s often a lesson most business owners discover the hard way. It might be a new government regulation, a recession, or your commercial landlord putting up prices because of inflation. Either way, it shows the importance of having a flexible business model that can adjust to outside conditions.

The coffee shop game has a neat way of illustrating this point in the simulation. It’s the weather! This shopping cart is available on the sidewalk, and before the start of the day, you’ll get a weather forecast. A scorching hot day can make it difficult to sell a hot coffee. Perhaps it’s time to lower those prices.

Pricing Strategies and Price Sensitivity

Pricing is possibly one of the biggest challenges a new business owner faces. The most tempting pricing strategy when starting a business is to start low. That makes sense because you want to get customers through the door. But low prices are often a bad idea, eating into your profits and limiting your business growth, plus giving you a reputation as a cheap brand when you want to be seen as premium. But on the other end of the scale, you have prices that are so high people will walk past your door and not even look at what you have to offer.

The Coffee Shop simulation does an effective way of illustrating this. Potential customers will show a thought icon to let you know what they think of your prices. It’s a lesson in the importance of having a real-life pricing model that you can adjust to maximize profits and keep those customers returning.

Business Simulation Games: The Fun Way to Learn About Startups

Business simulation games are a unique and risk-free way to learn the ropes of running a business. Plus, it’s a fun alternative to reading some try textbooks about stock levels and price sensitivity! Why not try it today? For those dreaming about a new business venture, it’s a helpful stepping stone and will give you some pointers when writing your business plan.

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Laying The Foundations For A New Business Venture

Setting up a business can be incredibly rewarding, especially if you have aspirations to be your own boss. If you’ve decided that a 9-5 job isn’t what you want any longer, or you have a business idea that you’re eager to pursue, it’s essential to lay the foundations before taking the plunge and launching a startup. Here are some tips to help you get started on your entrepreneurial journey.

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Plotting Your Course During the First Year: The Most Important Marketing Aspects

The first 12 months of your business are the most pivotal. You have to make sure that you are lining your ducks in a row, but you’ve also got to ensure that your business is able to sustain itself. Of course, one of the biggest things that we all need to keep track of is our marketing, and when it comes to starting out in terms of marketing, there is a lot to learn. What are the biggest things we’ve all got to consider during those first crucial 12 months?

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4 Effective Ways To Keep Your Small Business Data Secured

Today, small and large businesses are at risk of various cyberattacks. According to Statista, there were 31,000 incidences of cybercrimes worldwide in 2019, with data breaches rising to nearly 4000, affecting individuals, businesses, and even state institutions. However, preventing cyberattacks should be easy with the right security safeguards. Here are the four best ways to keep your small business data safe and secure.

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How To Make Your Resume Stand Out

There Is a huge increase in the number of people looking for work right now. With the pandemic making so many people unemployed, the one thing that you want to ensure that you can do is stand out when you apply for work. You may be one of many that are looking to be employed, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t want to work your resume as hard as you can. You want to get ahead in the current work climate, and that means looking at how you can stand out among all of the others applying for the same jobs.

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Surprising Ways to Boost Office Productivity

Being as productive as possible is the aim of most businesses. after all, the more productive you and your employees are, the bigger your bottom line is likely to be with little extras investment. So, it makes sense to do all you can to boost office productivity.

With that in mind, here are a few productivity boosters you may not have thought about for your office:

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