Different Strokes: Every Business Is Unique And Has Unique Needs

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There are a lot of things written both on and offline about what every single business needs in order to be successful. A lot of these blog posts and articles can be incredibly valuable. They go through many of the fundamentals that all businesses share so that any business has a strong foundation to work from. The problem is that there are many budding business owners out there who assume that they can get by with these fundamentals alone. Sadly, that’s not the case. In fact, one of the most important things to learn is that every business is unique and no two businesses are going to have the exact same needs. In order to help you avoid falling into that same trap, here are some things that are going to differ, perhaps slightly, perhaps significantly, based on the type of business that you’re running.

Staffing

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The kind of staffing needs that your business have is going to depend very heavily on the kind of business that it is in the first place. If your business is focussed on something like manufacturing, then you’re going to need workers with specific skill sets within the science and engineering industries, whereas if you’re running a business that provides SEO to other companies, then it’s likely that you’re going to be recruiting from selections of creatives and humanities graduates instead. Knowing what your business needs and choosing your staff accordingly are the key to a business that is made up of people, all moving the same direction.

Safety

Safety is a concern for any business, no matter what it is. However, that doesn’t mean that the safety concerns of various businesses are all going to be identical. Standards set out by The American Society of Safety Engineers are going to relevant to people within construction or engineering companies, but they aren’t going to have the same level of importance to those working in office environments. For those employees, it’s more important to focus on the basics of workplace health and safety.

Infrastructure

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It’s true that certain aspects of your business’s infrastructure are going to be the same no matter what. For example, there isn’t a single modern business that isn’t going to need some form of internet and telephone connection. However, businesses that are exclusively online are going to have a much greater need for reliable, fast internet than companies that only use it for certain tasks. Knowing the needs of your business can prevent you from falling into the trap of huge infrastructure costs that your business simply doesn’t need.

Marketing

Every business needs marketing, that much should be obvious. However not every business is going to appeal to the same people. This means that each business is going to need to find the best possible marketing methods to help it reach its desired audience as effectively as possible. If you’re trying to reach companies who might want to use your services, then you’re going to marketing yourself very differently than if you were trying to connect directly with consumers. And even then, not every consumer is going to respond to the same kind of marketing in the exact same way.

Cut Your Expenses Without Cutting Quality

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So hey, here’s a shocking newsflash for you: starting and running a business is expensive. And if your expenses aren’t being eclipsed by your profits, then your business isn’t going to last very long at all. This is why you need to ensure you’re not making mistakes when it comes to those expenses. Here are some of the smart ways that new business owners can start cutting expenses – without cutting quality.

First up: keep track of your business expenses!

You’re definitely going to have a hard time cutting your business expenses if you can barely remember how much you’re actually spending! Gathering the required data is the first step to improving many areas of business, and finances are definitely no exception.

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The mistake that a lot of new business owners make is that they underestimate the importance of all this. That, or they assume they can keep track of expenses – or do all the bookkeeping – by themselves. But when your business starts taking off a little and starts buying assets and making deals, then those costs are going to get a lot more difficult to track, and very quickly.

Don’t make the mistake of trying to do all of this without an accountant. Work with them to track your expenses in as detailed a way as possible. Only then will you know what areas are costing the most money and where you can start making some cuts.

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Telecommuting is the way

There are loads of benefits to having your employees physically there in the office with you, no doubt. But when you that’s a requirement to run your business with the model you’ve chosen to use, then you have to introduce so many expenses.

The costs of running a business are often so high because you have to account for all those employees! The biggest expense in this area, of course, is the total cost of labour in the form of employee salaries. But there are loads of other costs to consider. For one, you need to ensure that you have an office big enough to house the employees. You also need to consider utilities – electricity and water usage.

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There are also problems of time. How many times have you seen employees – or even yourself! – show up late due to commuting problems? And time is money, after all. The key could be to have workers telecommute, i.e. work from home. This is easier than ever with cloud computing and portable technology. Telecommuting has also been found in many studies to increase productivity – which means that you’re getting more bang for your buck when it comes to paying those salaries!

Proper inventory and supply management

Your business is going to have to buy a lot of things. If you’re an office, then you’ll have to buy loads of stationery, furniture, food, all that sort of stuff. If you’re in construction, then you’ll need to acquire equipment and permits. Regardless of your specific field, there are always going to be things you need to bring into the business.

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All of these things need to be sourced, investigated, and purchased (sometimes via auction!) at the best possible price. You need to ensure that you get the most quality from the inventory and supplies that you’re procuring. Tracking orders, shipments, and invoices is also required. If all of this is done wrong, it can get very expensive – and without the quality to support how much you ended up purchasing.

Mistakes in this area will cost your business a lot. Even the smaller mistakes eventually build up over time and reveal themselves to cost a lot in total over the course of a year or so. When business owners are having a hard time finding out precisely where they’re losing money, the fault is often found in bad supply management. This is why you should put a focus on find a supply (or procurement) manager that is highly experienced. Companies like Portfolio procurement can help you find who you’re looking for.

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Hiring the right people

If an employee isn’t very productive or simply isn’t very good at their job, then you’re losing money. A lot of business owners don’t see it this way, even though they’re not happy with the situation. They don’t think of employees in terms of an investment, or an asset.

To some extent, maybe we can be thankful for that. It’s nice to be seen as, y’know, a human being instead of an asset or an investment! Still, this is the world of business and finance, and sometimes you need to abstract the human element to gauge just how well something is working. And if an employee simply isn’t doing their job all that well, then you’re not really getting what you paid for, right?

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One of the ways this can be tackled is by improving training when new employees begin. But a lot of business owners prefer non-formal methods of training; being guided by a fellow employee, for example. And if you do currently have employees that aren’t pulling their weight, then you need to have a word with them about their performance. The better the feedback you give, the more the employee will take on board. Hopefully, this will result in much stronger performance in future!

But perhaps the best way to ensure that costs are saved to the greatest extent is to hire the right people in the first place. You may wonder how such a thing is possible – can’t you only really tell how well someone will work once they’re on the job? The problem here is that business owners aren’t always as discerning as they should be. Especially if they’ve set themselves a date by which they need to have an employee.

Unless things are extremely urgent, you should be willing to take your time. Don’t fill that vacancy until you’ve found the best damn employee you possibly can. This can sometimes cost more when it comes to actual search methods, and you may feel that the empty position is, in itself, a loss of potential earnings. But in the long run, the expenses connected to that employee will seem better spent – and will really be worth it. This is one of the most underrated methods of reducing business expenses – by hiring the right people to boost your profits!

Is Your Office On The Brink Of Disaster?

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You may not realise this but your business office could be on the edge of a disaster for a variety of reasons. If it is, it’s not too late to complete a course correction. The problem here is that most employers have no idea what disaster they are going to face until it hits. Let’s look at a few and see if we can work to tackle them head on.

Legal Lows

It is possible that your business could be heading for a lawsuit. This will certainly be true if you are not keeping health and safety levels in your office high. You would be amazed by the type of issue that could cause a serious injury in your office. For instance, there might be loose wires over the floor. This could mean someone trips, falls and breaks their neck. It can happen and if it does your business could lose hundreds of thousands.

Tech Failure

Or, maybe your tech is about to fail. You hope this isn’t the case but you can’t be sure. Tech can falter or fail for a variety of reasons including a glitch in the software that you are using. You can’t prevent it but you can prepare for it. To do this, think about hiring an IT support team. They’ll monitor your tech and ensure that there are no serious issues.

Loss Of Faith

Or, perhaps your employees are losing faith in your business. When this happens it can be a disaster because they may stop working or bothering to come in at all. High employee absences are a clear sign that something is going wrong in your business model. You can learn more about managing this issue in the infographic below.


Managing Employee Attendance created by brighthr

Core Components Of Company Culture

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You’ve probably heard all kinds of business gurus talking about it. The company culture. They’ll tell you that some tip or another is going to improve it, or some mistake will damage it. But what exactly makes up a company culture? Why is it worth fostering and why is it worth protecting? We’re going to be looking at the answers to those important questions now.

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Goal

The most important part of a company culture, and of a business in general, is the goal behind the business. Every business must have a mission statement and a long-term goal that can inform the strategies they take in the day-to-day as well as the larger collaborative projects. But the most important part of that goal is making sure that everyone understands it.

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Collaboration

One of the reasons that ensuring people have their own grasp of company goals, not just individual workloads, is because they have a lot more to offer than just work. Great company culture is about realizing that good ideas can come from anywhere. To allow those ideas to flourish, you need to give people some control and autonomy over the work they do as mentioned at intuit.com. If they spot new solutions or new tools and techniques that help them better do their work, then let them try them out.

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Relationships

To trust that they can use that autonomy well and that you can rely on them, it’s vital that the relationships within the business are kept healthy. The idea of fostering competition above all else does not create a healthy company culture. It creates a selfish culture. People need to better understand collective responsibility as well as personal accountability. The best way to do that is to create relationships where it’s safe for them to experience both.

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Environment

Think of the workplace as just another place that they have a relationship with. If the environment doesn’t treat them with respect, it fosters a lack of respect for the business, as well. Quality decor from places like fsgofficefurniture.com creates a prestige in the environment that sinks into the culture and the people. It gives them more respect for the business, their roles, and themselves in those roles.

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People

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the people themselves and how they work within a business are what the company culture is all about. But not everyone is a fit for that culture. This is when you need to take the time to get more in depth with your hiring practices and processes. You need to not only identify the skills that people bring to the table but find a way to see if they’re a cultural fit as well. For instance, if yours is that kind of collaborative culture of shared responsibility mentioned above, then signs of selfishness and self-exceptionalism should rule out most future applicants.

As you can see, a company culture isn’t just one attribute. It’s how the different elements of the workplace all work together and come to a single purpose. It can create a company that can excel even without you at the wheel and ensures that the business never relies on any one individual too much, but gains a life of its own.

Time Is Money; Spend It Well

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It’s an old adage and one that proves true in business every single day of the year. You pay for your employees’ time. You pay to keep the lights on and the network running. You invest in the tools used to do the job. When time is wasted, the money you spend on the things mentioned above is wasted. So, what can a business owner do to master time?

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Time is about priority

For the individual, good time management is all about what you spend your time on. If someone isn’t used to the duties of a business, they may not entirely be aware of which tasks on their workload are of the most important. Make sure that proper priority is taught throughout the business. Talk to employees more often about their workload and make sure they’re focused first on the tasks most important and most urgent. Creating a matrix on those lines can help them much better manage their own workload in future.

Availability can make the difference

The business runs on its own schedule as well. It runs on a schedule of project deadlines and the availability of certain resources. Keeping everyone synced to that schedule through things like project management and room scheduling software is vital. Without such tools, people will hold projects up and employees will clash when trying to use the same meeting room. Keeping the business schedule visible to everyone in advance of the plans they make will make it a lot easier for everyone to navigate around one another.

Eliminate downtime

Another wide-reaching issue is business downtime. In manufacturing, in construction, even in the office, equipment failure is by and large the biggest cause of downtime. A proactive maintenance schedule is the best way to avoid more downtime, but you should attempt to have backups available more often than not. Whether that’s a backup generator in the premises in the event of a power cut or an alternative internet connection to use when the regular one fails. Don’t let downtime dominate the workplace.

Deal with distraction

Back to the individual, there’s one issue that’s all about the human aspect of the business. We’re talking about distraction. The average worker loses 759 hours a year because of it. As a business owner, if you were to calculate how much those hours cost you, it would probably be enough to burst a blood vessel. Sources of distraction need to be sought and warned against regularly. Whether that means talking about appropriate use of social media or email management within the work schedule or creating a system of communication that ensures that requests to help from their colleagues don’t interrupt someone in the middle of their own tasks.

Stop déjà vu

Another way you will easily lose time is neglecting to keep hold of the information that’s going to save the business time. This might be the way of simplifying certain tasks or how you train new individuals. Don’t tread the same steps time and time again. Record more sticky information about how the business runs so you can catch people up in no time.

The better use of time, the benefits of collaborative scheduling, and the importance of keeping knowledge in the business can create a much more efficient and effective business. Never think that you can afford to waste time. The money spent on that wasted time builds up much quicker than you might realise.