Author: Kivo Daily Staff

Seasoned community journalist, content writer, and editor Heather Asiyanbi works with authors to bring their vision to life. Through Pens and Proof editing services she works closely with authors from the concept to completion  so their manuscripts are ready for formatting and publishing. Heather helps authors step out of their comfort zone by asking questions so they dig deep and produce work that resonates with readers long after they turn the final page.  

Heather founded Pens and Proof in August 2020 as a side business after more than 20 years as a community journalist, editor, marketer, and public relations professional. In the end, however, she realized she derives her greatest joy by editing, coaching, and ghostwriting. In February 2021, she jumped at the opportunity to work Pens and Proof full time, and it was one of the best decisions she’s made thus far.

Heather edits children’s books and heavy adult memoirs from predominantly female authors, which can make her days an odd combination of serious emotional baggage lightened up by whimsical rhymes about teddy bears. To date, she has completed editing two anthologies, a dozen children’s stories, and three ghostwriting projects of between 30,000 and 50,000 words each.

While Heather has spent the most part of her adult life writing content, from feature stories to blog posts, marketing materials, and press releases, she got burned out, prompting her to shift her focus to editing. She later realized that she experiences a unique kind of satisfaction when helping authors polish their work before publication. 

“Helping authors bring their stories fully to life is a feeling I struggle to describe. We work together to create a complete narrative that leaves their audiences happy they invested their time. To hear the joy in my clients’ voices when they hold a completed manuscript in their figurative hands makes every comma splice, each errant apostrophe, and all the contraction confusion absolutely worth the effort we pour into the work,” Heather said. 

As part of her services, Heather also writes press releases for the authors she works with to help them market their books strategically. Her marketing and public relations experience enables her to empower her authors to take a bold approach to promoting their books, from tapping into social media channels to appearing in the local news and holding book signing events at local bookstores, among others. 

Heather looks forward to the next couple of years as she continues to expand Pens and Proof. She envisions her business transforming into an independent publishing outfit that offers authors a one-stop shop for all their editing, coaching, ghostwriting, marketing, and public relations needs. Additionally, she plans to use Pens and Proof as an avenue for authors to learn how they can use their books to develop multiple streams of income. 

Find out more about Pens and Proof by visiting its website,  Facebook, and Instagram pages.

There may be a number of occasions each year where you feel like you don’t have time to breathe, let alone take on other duties on top of your business. As Christmas approaches, you may feel a significant amount of pressure to find or make time to prepare, while still needing to keep on top of running your business. Due to this, it can be important to find ways to manage all of these expectations without facing mental burnout. Sometimes, it can be a good idea to look at the resources you have available to you which may significantly aid with time management.

Parents who have work commitments may not have the luxury of being able to run out to the stores to buy gifts, even during their lunch breaks. By the end of the day, it is also entirely possible that the stores are closed when you finish work. This can be immensely frustrating, and cause concerns that your children will be left disappointed. Rather than using some of your precious holidays for a shopping trip, you might want to consider purchasing gifts online at Wicked Uncle instead. You could then also opt to have the items delivered to the office if that is where you spend most of the day so that you can avoid them being left out at home, or requiring collection from the depot.

When profits are running high, you may also want to think about hiring a temporary assistant in the run-up to the holidays. Some companies find that, as it gets closer to Christmas, they require more staff that may not be necessary at other points of the year. This could help to save you some time, allowing you to focus more on the needs of your family. It is entirely possible that – budget allowing- you find that things run a lot smoother with an assistant around, so there could still be the possibility of amending the contract if you see fit. For the time being, it means that tasks can still be completed without you needing to bear the burden of it alone.

Learning how to switch off from your working day is important. Although you may want to give due attention to your business, especially if it is still fairly new, time to yourself is also critical. During this time, you can get other tasks completed at home and for family, do some of your holiday prep, and make sure that you get in a bit of self-care. By having set times that you work, and others where you deal with your personal life, you can bring a bit more routine into your life and make sure that your business doesn’t monopolise all of your time.

While running a business can be incredibly rewarding, you may also want to be involved with the run-up to Christmas. This can allow you to find gifts, and even start purchasing ingredients and equipment for hosting, without leaving yourself overly exhausted at the end.

Daily bookkeeping and tax season are two aspects of running a business that many business owners struggle with. Thankfully, those services can be outsourced, and there are tax preparation and bookkeeping businesses that help other businesses keep their books up to date. Seeing the struggles of many businesses motivated Keisha Smith to establish A List Tax Solutions, and over the years, the company has grown in leaps and bounds to become a well-known name in the business world.

Building A List Tax Solutions was born out of seeing the struggles that many businesses were going through. Keisha Smith got into the business and financial world early in her life. From working in her father’s auto collision repair shop as a teenager to working in the financial industry years later, Keisha has amassed years of experience in bookkeeping and is putting the knowledge acquired back into the world by helping businesses.

A List Tax Solutions provides tax preparation and bookkeeping services to clients all over the United States. The company is dedicated to delivering a high level of customer service and professionalism while ensuring clients get the maximum tax refund allowable by the IRS. In addition, A List Tax Solutions stands out with its audit protection and identity protection services to protect its clients from identity theft and fraud. 

With a team that has a collective experience of over 20 years in customer service and the financial industry, the company understands that each client is unique and their financial pictures are not the same. Therefore, A List Tax Solutions supports businesses and entrepreneurs with the best of quarterly tax processing and monthly/quarterly audits to keep them and their finances in tip-top shape throughout the year.

A List Tax Solutions has a wide range of client bases and happily provides its services to a wide range of businesses such as e-commerce, coaching and consultancy, medical practices, and many others. Keisha Smith is a big advocate for excellent service as she believes it is the only thing that keeps customers coming back and sticking to the brand. “Our customer service from beginning to end is what separates us from our competitors. It may sound cliche, but when I started A List, the goal was to create a customer service experience that would leave our clients feeling valued and WOWed. We ensure our clients feel welcomed and see the sincerity in our work in every interaction,” she said.

The goal for the next few years is to climb to the top of the industry as the number one tax preparer in the United States. “I see myself and my team as the leading tax experts training new and upcoming tax professionals how to establish profitable tax businesses,” Keisha said. She also plans to create tax software, conferences, webinars, classes and internship opportunities for students and aspiring tax professionals. “We understand that in a forever changing industry, it’s vital that we continually educate ourselves on new tax laws, tax credits and provide opportunities for others.

Learn more about A List Tax Solutions on the company’s website.

Companies continuously have to adapt to consumers’ changing preferences, and for the beverage industry the current trends are pointing towards non-alcoholic drinks.  In 2019, sales of non-alcoholic beverages were able to reach $919 billion, which is almost four times more than the amount of alcoholic beverages sold in the same year.  Sales of sodas have also been on the decline in the U.S. as governments around the world introduce taxes on sugary drinks in an effort to reduce consumption, which has led companies like PepsiCo to invest in other brands.  

The beverage market is currently experiencing change and growth with five categories taking the lead in popularity.  Functional waters is estimated to cost $18.24 billion by 2025, however continuous changes in cost and customers’ growing bargaining power pose challenges to the market’s growth.  Nonetheless, drivers such as a shift towards consuming products infused with healthier ingredients that have positive effects on people’s nutrition as well as popularity among the young generations are making functional waters a desirable drink.  

Another growing market is organic beverages, which is expected to be worth $32.78 billion by 2027.  Consumers’ interest in organic beverages because of its health benefits, higher demand for sugar-free drinks, and desire for more natural flavors have led to brands including organic drinks to their lineup.  The ready-to-drink (RTD) tea and coffee market has also seen increased popularity over the years as coffee continues to fuel the modern world, increasing demand for the natural energy drink.  Drivers such as growing adoption of healthy habits, innovation of new products, and demand for drinks that have low or no sugar have helped the RTD tea and coffee market to rise in popularity.  However, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, some consumers are instead making their own coffee at home instead of buying them in stores.  

Those who want a caffeine-free alternative might be wondering what drinks could replace coffee, and that’s where the tea market comes in.  People who want to adopt healthy lifestyle habits have shown a growing preference for herbal and oxidized tea, which provides the energy boost without caffeine.  Nitro offerings, functional add-ins, and different milk blends are also upgrading the cold tea category.  Nonetheless, there are still healthier options through the RTD alcoholic beverages market for those who still desire alcoholic beverages but prefer ones that have lower alcohol content.   More brands are offering alcoholic beverages that include good-for-you flavors and ingredients.  

Bars are also acknowledging the non-alcoholic beverage trend by offering the mocktail on their menus.  These are mixed drinks that do not contain alcohol and allow those who do not drink alcohol often a healthier choice and provides them the ability to still drink something luxurious with their friends who prefer to drink.  A mocktail also grants children the chance to have a special drink with their families during an occasion for celebration.  

Beverage brands are continuously looking for ways to expand into new markets, and jumping on the non-alcoholic beverage trend is a great way to appeal to a big target audience.  

Lack of transparency from manufacturing companies is one of the major challenges of industrial marketing. Intellectual property theft is a big problem, making manufacturers acutely aware that other domestic and/or foreign entities could steal their designs and create cheaper versions of their products. As a result of this fear, many manufacturing companies are hesitant to share the very data engineers are seeking from them. In order to protect their products, some manufacturers require that potential customers sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before reaching out for data. Moreover, only 20 percent of engineers will contact a supplier if they cannot find a 3D model download online. In order to protect intellectual property, many manufacturers are reluctant to leverage their most valuable content, the CAD models and data they use for their products.

The more information manufacturers make available on their websites, the better the customer experience is for engineers. Information regarding industry-standard specifications, maintenance instructions, maintenance schedules, minimum order quantity, and installation information all help engineers as they spec parts. Each type of information is another hook that adds value to the engineer outside of the product itself. If an engineer can choose between comparable products, purchasing the part with more data and information is more advantageous. In some cases, the data is worth more to the engineer and their company than the product is itself, especially if the data informs downstream processes like predictive maintenance.

Another critical factor is the ease at which engineers can access product information and CAD data. Engineers are busy. If they have to spend much time and effort to get information, chances are they will go the path of least resistance and find a vendor that makes obtaining CAD data and product information more accessible. John Joyce, the Global Marketing Director at Brennan Industries, Inc., harps on this in saying, “If you aren’t taking customer experience seriously as an industrial manufacturer, you don’t deserve your customer’s business. Innovations in data sharing, delivery, accuracy, speed, and availability are just as important as other innovations and often become competitive advantages”.

Embedding a configurator with 3D previews is the most effective way to deliver product-specific data. Engineers can easily navigate through product families, view product metadata, and visualize products in 3D instantly. In addition to providing engineers with the information they need, 3D previews increase time spent on pages, which is a key in ranking for product-specific keywords.

You need to ensure that the 3D CAD models on your website are in great shape in order to serve as powerful marketing content and to lead capture. 90% of engineers and architects see 3D visualization as an important factor in product selection, and when they can’t download CAD models from a supplier, 37% redraw the part, 80% move on, and 43% go directly to another supplier. John Joyce, the Global Marketing Director at Brennan Industries, Inc., says that after uploading 3D CAD models to their site, “We saw our downloads double overnight. Each download is a foot in the door for us”. Open doors for your industrial products with 3D CAD models.