Archive for month: January, 2019

Perhaps the most fundamental axiom of business life is that if you hope to generate revenue as a business, you must first be operating. This is so profoundly obvious that we usually don’t even consider it. Sure, your business having to stay open makes perfect sense. But unfortunately, there are little issues that can crop up from time to time to prevent this from happening in the way you might intend. Some might be twists of fate or difficulties that you weren’t expecting. Some downtime might be due to your own large mistake, or a plan gone wrong. Others might be more in how you have decided to run your business, such as what services or utilities you have opted to help your business through its lifespan.

Keeping your business up and running is an important thing to take care of, but perhaps so obvious that we fail to keep all the considerations close to hand in order for it to remain that way. With the following advice, we hope you find a range of methods or potential tips to help adjust certain decisions that might be threatening the temporary closure of your company, even for an unwarranted day or two. After all, time is money. Alternatively you could use this list as a confirmation you are doing everything quite brilliantly. That works too.

Utilities

It’s essentially important to consider your utility needs as a business. Leaks can cause damage, and electricity downtime can affect your entire operation, particularly if you host your website in-house. Without certain basic utilities, it is impossible for you to call your staff into work. Even something as simple as no bathroom access can legally put you in a grey area when asking your employees to come into work. This is where you need the help of an emergency electrician or tradesman, someone on call most of the time and able to find solid solutions to your problem. When you find one as suggested, you should understand that they are worth their weight in gold. Show them around your entire office and give them a working understanding of your office utilities layout, such as your wiring network or problem plumbing. This can give them a good idea of how to work should they be asked back again for an emergency job.

Pay for complete solutions, rather than quick fixes. Issues must not be allowed to repeat themselves, even if it’s something as simple as a leak in your storage basement. On top of this, be sure to have a competent reporting system in-house to ensure that maintenance requests are taken with the utmost speed and priority. This could potentially help you avoid further office downtime.

Health & Safety Code

Your business might be functioning well to a degree, but it’s not just restaurants that need to hit excellent results when it comes to the health and safety code they follow. An office is a co-habited space, and as such can bring with it all the human worries that usually follow a large group of people, no matter how well behaved and civilized they seem to be. Scheduling bi-yearly health and safety meetings can help your staff continually remain updated with the best practices for personal space tidying, for wearing protective gear in construction environments, and any other regulations you feel important to self-impose. It sounds like a harsh reality, but a business must never be afraid of imposing rules to sustain safety, no matter how arbitrary or small they seem to be. If there’s a brand of soup known for exploding hot liquid in the microwave, it might be a good idea to impose a ban on that particular brand to avoid injuries. It’s often the little things that matter.

But of course, you would also do well to schedule regular pest control maintenance measures with the use of a professional. Any leak, wiring difficulty or other construction failing must result in an evacuation of that area. You must take extra special measures of control if renovating or constructing part of a new building or office. After all, if you take care of your staff, they can continue working in their operational capacity day after day. Be sure to inspect your business often to see where these issues might arise, and to catch them early.

Opening Times

The opening times of your business are important to consider, specifically if running a business that doesn’t need to follow the standard 9-5 structure. You might be running a retail store or a restaurant, for example. Opening times are important to consider. It might be that you don’t enter your salon until 11am every day and open up shop then, which is comfortable for you. It gives you time for a cup of coffee after dropping the children off at school, or might give you an extra hour in bed each morning. But you live in a populated area, an area where anyone could enter from 9am. This way, you might be missing a few worthwhile customers. For a simple convenience, the funding of your business might be missing out.

Sometimes, keeping your business up and running means taking those small personal sacrifices to take opportunity where you can. It might not feel like the nicest thing to do, but can surely help you build the reputation you deserve. This helps you meet the demand and need of the local environment, no matter if you’re a restaurant/bar now serving breakfast, or someone realizing that them always being closed on Tuesdays, no matter how long this has gone on for, makes no real sense when there’s money to be made.

Consider your opening times if you have the freedom to, and don’t be afraid to tweak them around a little. It could open you up to the financial lifeblood your business might be looking for, even if it means staying open an extra hour a day.

With these tips, you’re sure to keep your business up and running successfully.