Much to the relief of consumers and business bankers, Egypt has monitored its banks throughout the turmoil in the international economy. Both local and foreign banks in the country operate under the Central Bank of Egypt’s watchful eye. Entrepreneurs can do their business banking and feel comforted to know that bank transactions are internationally secured and guaranteed during commercial deals.

If you’re an entrepreneur and are thinking of starting a business in Egypt, here are some facts of interest to you.

The business choice is yours

As part of the Egyptian Government’s drive to encourage foreign investment, there have been major changes in Egyptian law. Attractively, you no longer have to go into partnership with an Egyptian national or Egyptian business. The business can be yours… all yours!  This goes for representation on the board of directors too, who can all be foreign.

Additional legal protection exists where your property is concerned. The Egyptian Government can no longer expropriate private property. It has a real fight on its hands if it wishes to.

Trading places

The first place you should look to establish your start-up in Egypt is in a free zone. The Egyptian Government created these zones to encourage foreign investment, so they hold juicy incentives to entrepreneurs who want to undertake a new business venture in Egypt. These include:

• Exemption from all taxes and customs duties while the business operates in the free zone
• Exemption from import and export regulations
• The option to sell a certain percentage of your production domestically
• Selected exemptions from labor provisions
• Freedom to choose your business’s legal status.

In the zone

Egypt’s free zones lie close to sea ports and airports so that businesses can import and export their products easier. Here are some of the main public ones:

• Alexandria — 20 kilometers from Nozha International Airport and located on the Alexandria to Cairo road, this free zone’s main areas of investment are ready made garments, household garments, chemical and petrochemical industries, engineering and electronics, medical equipment manufacture, navigation services, and maritime shipment.
• Nasr City —the first free zone and based in Cairo, pharmaceutical industries, medical equipment, engineering and electronics, and the automotive industry are the main openings for investment here.
• Port Said — in this free zone which overlooks the north of the Suez Canal, the main areas of investment are leather and leather industries, readymade garments, household and refrigerating equipment, and chemical industries services, including petroleum, logistics and maritime services.

If you start up a business in Egypt not only can you be your own boss in the venture but, thanks to the changes in Egyptian law, you can also choose freely who you want to be a partner in the business.  Establish your start-up in one of Egypt’s free zones and you can enjoy tax-free profits. These free zones to attract foreign investment, plus other moves towards a free-market economy, have made Egypt truly open for business.

1. Know Your Customer

Content Marketing isn’t about your product– it’s about your customers’ interests. If you don’t have customers or users yet, make sure you have a clearly defined target customer before you continue with content marketing (or product development, for that matter). If you have customers or users, find out who they are and build a primary archetype for that person. Give that person a first name, a profession, age, gender, how they like to spend their time and waste it, and what they aspire to.  It doesn’t have to be true for every customer, but it should feel like the average person.

This guest post was provided by Daniel Rodriguez, co-founder of the visual content marketing agency Indivly Magic. For more information about content marketing, visit their blog.

While scrolling down my Facebook news-feed one night I saw a message from CyberChimps Themes, one of my favorite WordPress theme developers. The message stated they were looking for beta testers for the brand new WordPress framework they were going to roll out in all of their themes in the up coming year. I quickly contacted them and told them about my interest in helping in this process. They added me to the beta testing list and I have been testing this new framework for the past two weeks.

This is my first time beta testing a WordPress theme. I find the process fascinating. The CyberChimps team is using BaseCamp.com to receive feedback from us and give us updates on new versions and fixes within the framework. I find this program very effective and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to collaborate on a project over the Internet with others. This website allows for the sharing of big files, commenting on forum like areas, and adding to-do lists as well.

The process of beta testing has taught me how to evaluate themes more effectively, look for bugs and flaws, and has taught me about great plugins that can help beta test other new themes as well. I actually did find a few bugs that helped the developers perfect their framework.

I recommend anyone testing out themes to use these plugins:

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/theme-check/

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/debogger/

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/log-deprecated-notices/

This has been a great experience and has come with some cool perks too. In exchange for my time and services CyberChimps gave me access to all of their pro themes. I will be testing out some of these new themes soon and writing more reviews on CyberChimps’ themes, which I already love!

I will update you guys soon on when the new framework will be rolled out to the public so you too can see the great work the CyberChimps have done.

CyberChimps makes great WordPress themes. I have used many of their themes for my customers and have always been happy with how they work. And for those of you readers who aren’t as experienced as me in WordPress, when you buy a theme from them they offer a support forum that they check constantly to help their clients.

Today I will be reviewing CyberChimps’ Business Pro theme. Business Pro is one of CyberChimps oldest and most popular themes. Although it is one of their older themes they have updated it several times, making it look as up-to-date as any other new theme on the market.

Here are pictures of their latest update from Business Pro 2.0 to Business Pro 3.0:

2.0

vs.

3.0 

The theme’s title states which type of client they are targeting: businesses. The theme is oriented toward professional businesses that need a classy and stylish look for their website. Business Pro is great for businesses trying to wow their own clients. It has a great slider on the home page for pictures of a product and an area to the side of it for a description (look above for reference). I would recommend this theme for most businesses but wouldn’t recommend it for too many blogs. It is a more serious and professional looking theme and wouldn’t be the best option for most blogs.

The most groundbreaking feature of Business Pro is its drag and drop elements. Business Pro includes a variety of Drag and Drop Page Elements making managing content easy on every page.

This theme is very mobile friendly as well. The theme automatically adjusts to any ios or android device and looks great. The Mobile version of the template makes users believe and see you are serious about your business and are very professional.

Business Pro is also ready equipped with social media buttons. Easily add links to your social media outlets and let your users connect with you through countless platforms.

There are countless other great features which are listed below. There are many themes with a lot of features but CyberChimps have made sure to include very detailed documentation and to always update it when the theme is updated.

Another great feature of buying a theme from CyberChimps is that when you buy a theme from them all future versions and update of that theme are free to you. This helps make sure your website is always up to date with the Internet’s new standards.

Check out the demo here
It’s 50% off for a limited time so buy it here!

What Should You Plan For?

You can’t plan for every eventuality, and it’s not really worth obsessing over every single “what if”. Instead of planning for a flood, hurricane, fire, and zombie apocalypse, think about the end result of those things. Your plan should consider what you would do is your servers went down, you lost data, or you lost access to your office.
Business continuity planning involves ensuring that you are able to operate as normal during an emergency – any emergency. This means building in redundancy for things like SIP trunking, ensuring that you have multiple ways of communicating with people, and ensuring that everyone in your office knows what to do when an emergency hits.

Tech Is Only Part of The Answer

Many companies make the mistake of investing in remote backup tools, sophisticated alarm systems, SIP trunking, redundant leased lines, sophisticated cloud servers and other tools, but then fail to consider the most important part – the human element.
If your employees don’t know about your business continuity plan, they won’t be able to implement it. If your plan is hidden away in a cupboard in the basement (just like the planning permission documents in The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to The Galaxy), then it may as well not exist. All of your technology will be useless if the first and only thing that people do in an emergency is panic.

Revisit Your plans Often

In your plan, you should include a list of contacts within your company that people should turn to if they need help. You should also have a list of external contacts – for example, key clients and suppliers that need to be told what’s going on, your insurance company, the tax office, and other important contacts.
This list should be updated often to make sure that all of the contact details are correct.
In addition, you should re-evaluate the usefulness of the plan regularly. Whenever you change how your company operates, you should stop to think about how this will change your plan. If you invest in new equipment, do you need new backups? If your team grows, could your existing infrastructure support all those extra remote workers in the event of major travel disruptions in your area?
Planning for the worst might seem depressing, but it’s worth doing. You may never need your emergency plans, but in the event that something goes wrong, they could well mean the difference between “major inconvenience” and “utter ruin” for you and your business.

Because of the Internet

The internet is the centerpiece of the information age, and nerds built it and now guide its ongoing development. By creating innovations that continue to revolutionize the way the modern world communicates, consumes media, does business and just about everything else, nerds have become very powerful people. Skills that most nerds have cultivated throughout their lifetimes are now prerequisites for virtually every job in America. Skills like mastery of obscure software and fluency in multiple coding languages put nerds in the lead against their comparably educated and intelligent non-nerd counterparts.

Because of Gadgets

As gadgetry has moved out of the shadows and into the mainstream, the people who invented, built and now maintain the devices that make all of our lives run smoothly are suddenly indispensable and sought-after. While the rest of the country struggles to set up their latest tablet or smartphone, nerds are building the next device.
At one time, gadgetry usage was an indication that the user was disconnected from reality. Use of a gadget was compensation for deficient social skills; but in 2012, with QR codes on every billboard, the average person needs a Smartphone just to feel adequately connected to their own lives. Gadgets, one of the mainstays of a nerd’s lifestyle, are here to stay.

Because of the Geek Trendsetters

Even with the explosive growth in the technology industry and internet usage, nerds would probably still be left out of the cool kids lunch table if it were not for some key personalities to carry the torch and represent the cause of nerds everywhere in the public eye.

Successful actress and lifetime gamer, Felicia Day grew weary of chasing auditions in the traditional Hollywood movie and television scene, so she took matters into her own hands by creating one of the first financially successful web series, “The Guild,” which has run for five seasons, each with more views and higher overall revenue than the last. More recently, she has made the move from writer and actor to producer with the launch of her new channel, “Geek & Sundry”. The first video posted on the new channel was a music video called, “I’m the one that’s Cool” which enjoyed several weeks in the iTunes Top 10. Day turned her back on mainstream popularity to make a living in geek-centric entertainment.

And of course, how could an article about Nerd being the new Black not mention Mark Zuckerberg, the King of Nerds. The founder of Facebook was immortalized in the semi-fictional retelling of his life story in the movie “Social Network” which opened to $23 million in sales on its first weekend. The real Zuckerberg reached nerd fame when he built the most popular social network in the world, but his celebrity escaped nerd subculture into the mainstream when he turned down a $1 billion dollar buyout offer from Yahoo. A nerd who is business savvy along with nerves of steel, what’s not to love?

The past few decades have brought nerds like Zuckerberg into the social spotlight. Only time will tell if they can stay there.

If a bank turns your business proposal down, do not give up. Banks are not investing in businesses as much as they used to because of the current financial climate, so try not to take it personally.

Small business owners now have to think outside the box

Finding alternative routes to fund their business in order to survive is crucial. Personal finance is more important at this time than ever. There are a few successful routes small businesses are turning to including angel investors, venture capitalists, friends, family and business associates.

Angel investors

will own a share of your company, so you will trade as much ownership as you wish in exchange for a start-up investment. Only give away control of your company if you wish to, if you give a single investor 50% or more you will lose significant control of the company decisions. Although, this can be a useful way to support a business, angel investors are not for everyone. Some owners feel they lose control over their business, if this is something you feel you will struggle with; it is not the option for you.

You can generate ‘venture capital’ from individuals. However, venture capitalists will expect a very high return so be careful about the business plans they choose to provide funding for.

Friends and family

are willing to help your business out financially. Just remember to treat them like an ordinary investor. Just because they are not working at your local bank, doesn’t mean they don’t want their money back. If a family member or a friend wishes to lend you money, sit down with them and devise a plan on how you will pay them back, and stick to it.  Use your business contacts too. A person that is well acquainted with your business may be interested in your vision and want to invest.  A business owner may be more inclined to invest, especially if they are trying to expand their own business ventures.

Times are hard in the business sphere and small businesses need to find alternative ways to fund their firms. With many small businesses in the same position, competition for funding is high so help yourself out and try alternative routes and get ahead of the game. The key is to get your business out there and sell yourself well to get funding from the private sector.

Press Coverage and Press Releases

Depending on your industry there are various publications you can send a press release in order to announce your new product or service. Believe it or not, people care. As a former journalist, writing business profiles about start-ups was one of my favorite stories to write about. Cold calling is never anyone’s favorite but by calling your local newspaper you can ask for the business editor’s direct e-mail address or even speak with the editor director. If your company is an eCommerce site, sending a press release through PRWeb or PR Newswire might be a better bet. When it comes to press releases make sure you use Associate Press Style (AP Style). Your release should be 400-600 words and include a boilerplate or “about us,” section. Remember to highlight how your product or service is different than its competitors and the problems you solve. Adding a little bit about the inspiration or original idea of why you decided to start the company will always catch a journalist’s eye.

Sponsor an Event

Sponsor an event or better yet host your own event. Again, the industry of your start-up will be the deciding factor for what kind of event you chose to be a part of. For any type of sports store or related product (running, hiking, biking, soccer, etc.) there are more obvious events to host or sponsor than with non-traditional start-ups. This is where you’ll have to get creative and do market research. Finding out where you potential customers will be and promoting your service or product in front of them is the ideal situation. For example, maybe your company sells cameras, hosting a free photography class will help get the word out there.

Network

Industry tradeshows are a good place to meet people, learn about others products and services while spreading the word about your company. Even if you don’t have a booth to promote your product or service, swap professional business cards and business brochures and keep in touch with the people you meet. Many times at tradeshows people don’t follow up with the people they meet and they lose a valuable connection. Trade shows aren’t the only place to network. Remember those great friends and family that care about your business? Don’t count them out as a valuable resource to spread the word about your product or service.

Build a Following through Social Media

It should be said that building a fan base on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook won’t happen overnight. The number one thing you can do to gain a following is to add value to people’s lives.  Why did you create your product or service? If it didn’t add anything to anyone’s life and people didn’t need it, it wouldn’t exist. Keep this in mind when you post things to your outlets.

Follow the 80/20 rule where you post 80% of things that relate to your product or service and 20% of things that are directly about your product or service. Steer clear of things that don’t relate to your brand whatsoever. The only way you’re going to gain followers on Twitter is if you follow relevant people. Be sure to answer all of your direct tweets and wall posts on Facebook. Social media is a great tool for startups and once you’ve kicked you campaign off the ground you’ll be surprised at how it can help you.

In addition to building a social following, networking, sponsoring an event and gaining press coverage nothing can replace good customer service. By valuing your customer’s and showing them appreciation you’ll have a chance to gain a return customer who might tell their friends about you. These types of relationships are priceless. What ways have you gotten your start-up recognized?

Time Management

Money can be made; income can be generated. Time, however, is only a one-way flow. How you use your time every hour of every day can make or break your business dreams.

Know when it becomes more cost-effective to either hire help or outsource tasks: Your time can be spent marketing your goods and services instead of sorting payroll or taxes, for instance. Some things you might handle yourself, but when 80 percent of your time is spent answering customer queries or complaints, will 20 percent of your efforts pay your bills? It might be time to hire a call center or staff to handle incoming routine calls or take messages for you.

Licenses

While the IRS may not require a business license to determine your work is actually work and not a hobby, the moment you hire staff, you will need a business license for an employer ID and sales ID. Your local ordinances may require you to obtain permits or licenses, depending on the nature of your business, even if you work from the comfort of your home.

Employee v Independent Contractor

There are benefits and detriments to both statuses when you hire or contract. An independent contractor may be cheaper in the short term for you since you pay no unemployment tax, benefits or income tax for that individual, but maintaining verification of independent contractor status can be somewhat difficult in some circumstances.

Know the IRS guidelines for IC status and ensure you meet all of them. Ensure the IC understands at all times that he or she is not an employee. If the contract between you is vacated, make every possible effort to prevent a tax audit if the contractor mistakenly applies for unemployment benefits against your company.

Proper Tax Planning

Your business structure defaults to one of sole proprietorship. That status doesn’t change with a “company,” “LLC,” or other business designation following the business name. It changes only under limited circumstances – a board of directors, for example, or employees.

Ensure you know the proper tax structure for your enterprise. Seek professional advice before and after you start your business. Any consultation fees you pay should be legitimate business expenses and deducted from your taxes, so don’t consider the fees as wasted money. From small business loans to legitimate business expense credit on quarterly taxes, nothing replaces competent and qualified tax advice for the new business owner.

Advisory Panel

Your tax planner and a competent business attorney often form the core of a good advisory panel for your business. Regular consultations with at least these two entities should start and keep your business on the right track. They shouldn’t advise on marketing techniques, for example, but they ensure you don’t over- or under-pay your IRS bills and are not veering into borderline legality in your contracts, actions and plans.

It’s far better to meet at least annually if not semi-annually whenever possible, especially during your first few years in operation. The legal advice can keep you updated on changes in laws that affect you, and your tax consultant can help find ways to lessen your tax burden legally. A few hours once or twice each year can save you thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours.

Get your business on the right track right from the start. Do your research into local ordinances, available market and tax plans before you put out your shingle.

Research

– One of the most important things you can do for your business is research.  Not only do you need to need to research the competition but you need to check into your costs.  For instance, if you plan to do a lot of shipping, you need to know what an average order is going to cost to send.  Once you know that, you need to figure out if customers are going to be willing to pay that amount.  Where are you going to get your product from and how much is it going to cost you?  How are you going to advertise?  You are going to need a website, so what will that cost?  

Create a Business Plan

– Once you have done all the research, or while you are doing it, create a business plan.  This allows you to put all the information in one spot and to see where you still need to do some work.  The business plan helps you think about how you are going to make money and where you are making money.  It also helps you evaluate your competition and many other aspects of your business you may not have considered.  If you are not sure where to start or how to go about it, there are many websites out there to assist you with writing a plan .If you are looking to borrow money to start your business, especially from a bank, this will be required.  Ask others that you respect to look it over and see if it makes sense or if they can see anything you missed.

Why are you Unique?

– Competition is good for business as it makes people work harder and be better at what they do.  But you still need to know what they are offering and why people choose to buy from them.  For instance, if they are selling the same blue widget you are, but they are selling it for $3 and you are selling it for $5, and your shipping rates are the same, why should people buy from you?  People are willing to pay more if they feel there is the value for the extra funds.  

Find Support Systems

– Running a business can be a lot of work. With the Internet and the world being a global market, there is a lot of competition.  It is helpful to find others who have been there or are having the same struggles as you.  They may just be there to offer you advice or tell you it will get better, but regardless, they can definitely be helpful.   I joined a local place that helped women in business and they were there to support and help me to expand my advertising and increase my business.  I was also matched with someone to help mentor me through their program.  

Be Patient

– One of the most important things to remember is that starting a business is that you will not be an overnight success.  I ran my business for a year and a half and was just starting to get to the point where I was covering all my costs each month.  As I was starting before I figured I would need it to be profitable, that was fine for me and my needs.  If you need it to start making you money sooner, then you need to have the time and resources to work at it more.

Starting your own business is definitely a lot of work but it can be fun and rewarding. But do not expect the money to start rolling in when you open the doors. Have you started your own home business? Let us know about it!