The Top 5 Growing Industries In Spartanburg

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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective | The Top 5 Growing Industries In SpartanburgIf you are an investor or business owner looking to carve out some space in the Spartanburg SC  area, then knowing who the major players are in the area is important. This is especially true when looking to buy a business through a business broker Spartanburg service in order to know who your competition may be.

Aerospace

The aerospace industry has seen a lot of growth in the last few decades. In 2020, this industry boasted 5,148 jobs, which is 336% above the national average for this industry. The reason why this industry has grown so much is due to The Boeing Company creating assembly facilities and their consolidation of the 787 production to the South Carolina area.

Charleston, for example, is one of the three places in the world that assembles and delivers wide-body jets. This makes this location a prime area for highly skilled workers such as electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, as well as other specialized skills.

There is also a very large aeronautical training center in this area. This training facility is designed as a partnership between government and private companies to train pilots and other operators on specialized equipment. This facility is over 218,000 square feet and includes two hangars, a ramp, 22 classrooms, 25 specialty labs, and 37 staff offices.

Automotive

The automotive industry boasts 4,151 jobs in this area, which is 141% above the national average.  The main reason for this is the Mercedes-Benz Vans automotive plant that was opened in 199 and then doubled in size in 2018. This plant alone employees over 1,300 people.

This plant fabricates and delivers Mercedes sprinter vans which are coveted by sports enthusiasts and road trippers throughout the county. Due to the high demand for these vans, which are often bought by fleets of delivery companies, this plant has become a staple to this area when it comes to a healthy job force and decent wages in the community.

Technology

It’s often said that South Carolina is primed to become another “Silicon Valley” of sorts. The main reason is that this area has been selected as a desirable location for technology-based workers. The proof of this is that there are more than 400 technology-based companies in the area across a myriad of different industries. Some of the most notable homegrown tech companies that have come out of this area include companies like Phish Labs, Blackbaud, and Benefitfocous. This area also works with Google for satellite operations, Infosys, and other large technology firms.

This area is also home to many technology startups as it is very entrepreneurial friendly and boasts a decent cost of living that cannot be found on the west coast. Another reason why this sector is so desirable is because of some of the other large industries in the area, there are a lot of people with highly skilled specialties that can help to spur new business growth.

Logistics

One business broker in Spartanburg deems the logistics industry to be one of the fastest-growing industries in the area. The reason for this is due to many deepwater ports, international airports, and easy ground transportation which makes transportation needs easier to carry out.

Along with 41,000 miles of state-maintained highways and 2,000 miles of rail line, shipping products and services has made this area into a natural logistics hub. The South Carolina Ports Authority offers weekly service to more than 140 international destinations and can handle vessels that can draft up to 48 feet. This port has one of the highest efficiency ratings in the world as they specialize in getting cargo in and out as fast as possible.

South Carolina’s international airport is a joint civil-military airport that further helps private and government entities ship and receive cargo. The United States Foreign-Trade Zones are special areas that reduce the cost of import duties. There also just so happens to be one of these types of ports in this area.

Defense

This area is estimated to bring in over $2.6 billion annually in contracts from the Naval Information Warface Center. Because of this, there are over 80 defense contractors in the area that deliver talent and success in order to achieve and secure these contracts. These defense contractor companies cover everything from cybersecurity, space systems, and communication. This has made this area one of the fastest-growing mid-size metro areas for computer and hardware engineers. Large companies such as Science Applications International Corporation, Scientific Research Corporation, BAE Systems, and I.T.T. Kliburn all are large players in this industry space.

As you can see, the Spartanburg area is a thriving area with a lot of different industries. As an investor who is looking to buy or sell a business, it’s important to take note of who the major players are in an industry to make sure that the business you are interested in buying or selling has the foundation in order to compete. For businesses that are looking to grow, this information can also be extremely helpful when it comes to knowing if the types of people you need to hire exist naturally in the area or if they will need to be relocated nearby.

If you are selling a business, having the information of your competitors is also very important to help potential buyers know how the business fits into the geographical landscape and what industry resources are available to tap into. By having this information, you will be better equipped to sell or buy a business in this area.

4 Common Reasons Why Careers in Real Estate Fail

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Career in Real Estate|4 Common Reasons Why Careers in Real Estate FailThere’s a reason why so many people go into the real estate business— it’s an incredibly promising and fulfilling career that, if executed correctly, can bring a lot of wonderful opportunities. In addition to fantastic income potential, it also provides great flexibility and an exciting schedule.

Yet, despite how many wonderful opportunities may be possible through a career in real estate, not everyone manages to make it work for them. The truth is that there are many mistakes that can be made throughout the process if you don’t know what to avoid. Take a look at some of the most common reasons why some people can’t get their real estate careers off of the ground.

They Fail To Market Themselves Adequately

One of the most important aspects of success in real estate is remembering that it’s a business. People aren’t going to come to you out of the kindness of their heart to buy a house. So, it’s important that you put in a considerable amount of effort to find clients. Marketing your real estate business consistently is the only way to ensure that you continue to bring in sales.

Some people aren’t willing to put in the work of the marketing it requires to make money. If you hope to succeed in real estate, you have to see it as a business that must be treated like one.

They Don’t Have Savings

On average, it takes close to a year to make your first sale when you become a real estate agent. This is for a variety of reasons, and most people are prepared for this, so they rely on savings to carry them through until they start building more experience. It’s important that before you quit your full-time job and dive into the real estate world that you have plenty of savings to support yourself. Otherwise, you could risk not having any income for quite a while.

They Don’t Set Goals

The success of any business relies on clear goals and strategies. Real estate agents who fail to strategize through goal setting will find themselves struggling to keep their businesses afloat. It’s important that you have a solid goal-setting process in place and measure your progress on each. Without goals, you’ll be wandering aimlessly through the real estate world. A clear plan of action is the best way to become a top real estate agent.

They Have No People Skills

As a real estate agent, it’s your job to be charming. You’re a salesperson at the end of the day, so you have to be a people person. Many real estate agents who can’t get the hang of the business are the ones that unfortunately don’t have great people skills. If you hope to successfully sell and buy houses, then you’ll need to put on your salesperson hat, and start charming clients!

How to Drive Success as an Entrepreneur

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Entrepreneur|How to Drive Success as an EntrepreneurHaving a successful business is about a lot more than simply having a sound business idea. The type of entrepreneur you are, and your own efforts to learn more about business management will help your business to prosper. However, how do you strive for business success if you’re new to the entrepreneurial game or only have experience and expertise with your product rather than running a business?

Here is a guide for how you can drive further success as an entrepreneur, whether new to the business world or develop your ongoing skills.

Learn About Your Industry

You may have spent a dedicated amount of time knowing everything there is about your product, but market research and industry insights are key as well. You need to understand best how your product will fare in the market, so always strive to learn as much as possible about the industry you’re in regularly. This means staying up to date with trends, too.

Manage Your Work-Life Balance Effectively

It can be a common misconception for business professionals that business success means working as many hours as possible. While it’s naturally important to put in the time and effort to grow your business, this may undoubtedly mean working longer hours — that doesn’t mean you should sacrifice downtime or relaxation. On the contrary, this is crucial for helping you to remain focused and motivated and avoiding the risk of business burnout.

It can be very difficult to know how to manage your time properly when you’re a business professional trying to launch a new business. That’s why a Business Growth Coach can help; companies like Develop Business Group Ltd can help you to develop appropriate strategies to manage your time and your goals.

Be Tenacious

This doesn’t mean being too stubborn or ignoring when you might have made business mistakes; it’s all a learning process, after all. What it does mean is being resolute in your business goals and your belief in your product. Remain determined so that determination can see you through, keep you reaching for your goals, and helping you to remain interested in the industry you’re in.

Keep Evolving

Learning how to launch your new business and start off on the right foot as an entrepreneur is crucial, but it doesn’t mean the hard work is done once your business is open. Continually learning and evolving is key to ongoing success. This means staying up to date with changes in the industry, what your consumers are looking for, what your competitors are doing, and how demands might change (such as through new technology).

Always be adaptable and flexible as an entrepreneur.

Final Thoughts

Success as an entrepreneur is about finding the ideal balance with your own personality traits and business acumen. Developing yourself as a person is just as important as developing your areas of business, such as organization, confidence, and time-management skills. To drive future success, always continue learning — and that includes learning from other business professionals, too.

What Do You Need When Opening a Retail Unit?

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Retail unit|What Do You Need When Opening a Retail Unit?There are many different forms of business out there, and each one offers customers and owners alike something slightly different. If you have chosen to open a retail unit, you need to think about some of the following things.

Location

With a retail unit, location can be everything. You need to make sure that you track down somewhere that meets several needs. Of course, the unit has to be big enough for your business. Not only must it have a good layout on the shop floor, but there should be enough room in the staff-only areas like the stockroom and office for you to be able to successfully manage the business.

On top of this, the unit needs to be in a good place. If you are going to be relying on passing foot traffic for a lot of your trade, you need to make sure that you are located somewhere where you will get this interest. A busy high street or a shopping centre might be ideal. If you are tucked away in the middle of nowhere, you might not be able to get the foot traffic that you need.

You should also think about the needs of your customers. For example, if you sell particularly big or bulky goods, or if you expect your customers to purchase a lot from you in one go, it can be good to try to find a retail unit with an adjoining car park. This is going to be something important to your customers, and can be a great way for you to begin to build customer satisfaction and loyalty from the moment your brand launches.

Technology

Nowadays, there are many pieces of tech that every business needs to make sure that they have as part of their retail unit, even if it is a simple shop. For example, most shops nowadays take card payments, so you will need the terminals and software to be able to process these payments. With this, you need to look for the payment provider that offers the lowest credit card processing fees possible. This means that you will be able to take the most revenue from each transaction instead of paying excess fees. Though finding the lowest credit card processing fees should not be a priority when choosing a payment provider, it should definitely be something in the back of your mind.

A retail unit is going to need many more different pieces of technology to be able to run smoothly. Most businesses nowadays make use of some form of computer system to be able to keep track of several metrics. This computer system might be linked to the till and payment provider, but it could also be used to track stock, orders, and holidays for staff to mention just a few of its capabilities.

Even if you have what appears to be a very traditional store on the outside, you can still make use of technology in a few key places to help you manage the business more efficiently. Never doubt how much easier it can be to manage certain projects and operations with the right tech on your side.

Equipment

In a slightly different tangent than technology lies equipment. You obviously need to make sure that you have all the right equipment necessary to be able to open the business and run it properly. This can often mean that you need to find some highly specialised equipment. For example, if you decide to open a hairdresser, you will need all the equipment associated with styling hair. A café will need a kitchen outfitted and a coffee machine. A specialised repair shop will need the tools and precision equipment required for orders.

It can be expensive to outfit a retail unit with the right equipment but it is incredibly important that you do find it. Not having it to hand means that you might be tempted to try to get around it and complete the task with the equipment that you have might mean that you do not finish the task properly, potentially leading to more issues further down the road.
You might have to go to a specialist supplier to get the right tools and equipment that you need. However, there is a chance that you will be able to build a professional relationship with this supplier. If you know that you will regularly need to purchase disposable equipment as part of your business, finding a supplier to work with could mean that you are able to score a discount on bulk orders in the future.

The Shop Floor

You need to think carefully about how you decorate and arrange the public sections of your business that your customers will be able to see. This needs to be a good space that is welcoming and perfectly describes your branding. It can be more difficult than you might imagine to get this right. Ultimately, you need to make sure that you have a space that flows well, that naturally encourages your customers to browse.

It is incredibly important that you think about how the shop looks from the customer’s perspective. You might like your initial set-up and design, but it could be overly cluttered from the point of view of a customer. Likewise, you might want to go for a more minimalist look, but to a customer the store could appear to be very bare.

Don’t worry if it takes you several attempts to arrange things how you would like them. Consider taking a course in visual merchandising to learn more about how to arrange your shop floor in a more pleasing manner. You would be surprised to learn about how much this could help with gaining traffic and other interested parties.

Social Media

Even if you do not operate an ecommerce business, having an online presence of some variety is incredibly useful. If you want to be able to find new customers who can be converted into loyal ones, you should turn to social media. You cannot expect to rely on foot traffic alone.

Make sure that you have social media accounts across the big platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and make sure that you post on them regularly. These are key places where you can reach out to your customers and they can get in contact with you if needs be. It is also the perfect environment for you to show off your new deals and products that might be launching. Learning the best tips and tricks for social media will hopefully help you to push ahead and attract a new audience who are interested in what you have to offer as a business.

Opening a retail unit can be more work than people might realise. However, there are plenty of things that you can do to create a fantastic environment that many are happy to visit. From the tech and equipment you are choosing to include in your operations to the design of the shop floor and your choice of social media, opening a retail unit can be very complex. Make sure that you have everything that you need on your side, and take this challenge head on.

7 Strategies for Reducing Operational Management Risk

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Operational Management|7 Strategies for Reducing Operational Management RiskDeploying an operational risk management program that does the intended job remains a challenge for many businesses today. The industrial sector and others have witnessed rapid changes that significantly altered the way businesses operate. Global commerce continues to expand and supply chains are becoming more complex. Furthermore, regulations influence every interaction, and social media provides another means for regulators and other government entities to scrutinize the businesses.

Another problem companies face today involves the funding of the operational risk management strategy consistently. Verdantix, an independent consulting firm, recently conducted a study on behalf of DuPont Sustainable Solutions. This study found that 65 percent of businesses lacked the funds for this purpose, according to the respondents. They stated it remained a barrier they were finding difficult to overcome.

This study involved 75 senior leaders spread across eight different industries and ten countries. Verdantix asked them about risk management to learn more about ORM strategies within their organization and their perception of these strategies. These interviews led to DuPont Sustainable Solutions recommending the following seven steps for anyone looking to implement an operational risk management program successfully.

Start at the Top

The leaders at the top of the organization must be fully behind the operational risk management program for it to be effective. Approximately 80 percent of businesses in the survey stated the corporate level remains accountable for risk management. The leaders need to understand the internal operational risks, as this allows them to make better decisions and direct employees to take informed risks. They need to discuss what happens when there is a breakdown in regular operational processes, systems, and people. The risks can be controlled and avoided when team members assume responsibility for identifying the risk before evaluating and addressing them. The top five operational risks are collaboration, cultural, customer, people, and technology risks.

Risk Accountability at All Levels

However, leaders serve as only part of the equation. They need to train all employees to make risk-based thinking part of everyday operations. These individuals must be held accountable when something goes wrong in the area they remain responsible for. In the survey, 38 percent of businesses reported they didn’t hold shop floor employees accountable in this area. Any person within an organization can make a risk decision. Nevertheless, this task should be reserved for the person with the authority to minimize or eliminate the identified risk before implementing any necessary controls. This is currently how the Federal Aviation Administration handles it and other businesses have followed suit.

Timely Risk Assessments

Companies must comply with new regulations as they arise, which helps to explain why risk management must always remain a top priority. However, each company must determine how often they need to conduct an audit based on their unique characteristics and operational footprint. Of the firms surveyed, 92 percent stated they carry out this assessment at least once every year. They do so to ensure their risk profile remains current and they incorporate necessary changes in a timely manner. However, this serves as only part of the process.

Every company needs to determine risk triggers. For instance, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico needs to be battened down when a hurricane is forecast to hit the area. They know this trigger increases the risk of damage to the rig and take steps to prevent this damage. Each company needs to determine the root cause of each risk and protect against the risk event in every way possible.

Quantifying and Prioritizing Risks

When optimizing the operational risk management program, companies must quantify each risk in terms of its probability and severity. Once this information has been gathered, they calculate the benefits and costs associated with mitigating each risk to determine if it is more costly to mitigate than to allow it to remain. These calculations allow the organization to target its efforts effectively.

Select Metrics and Key Performance Indicators

To successfully implement an operational risk management program, the company must know which metrics and key performance indicators are needed to monitor and assess performance accurately. This ensures the company is putting its efforts and resources where they are needed most. Fortunately, many companies recognize they need to make this a priority and are turning to outside sources for help in determining which metrics and key performance indicators are best for their organization.

Many business owners associate key performance indicators and metrics with general business management, accounting, and finance. However, they remain necessary in every organization, as they help with achieving specific targets. The company might identify targets related to exposure reduction, minimization, or mitigation. For instance, a business may monitor the number of transactions that have a fault or error and the number of cumulative hours the IT system is down. It all depends on the business.

Implement Controls

When a business chooses to implement control measures to mitigate risks actively, particularly those that have been determined to be a priority, they must use controls that are cost effective, consistent, and well-documented. Although 98 percent of respondents in the survey stated they have measures in place, only a quarter of the businesses believed the measures to be cost effective. This demonstrates the need for companies to look for better solutions when it comes to managing and controlling risks they have identified.

Communication

Companies must recognize operational risk management needs to be an ongoing process. Furthermore, regular communications on ORM performance serve as a requirement when it comes to effectively ensuring employees remain engaged in this area. Tailor these communications to different levels and functions across the organization, as different areas and departments have distinct priorities and areas they focus on. There is no need to share a communication meant for one department with everyone in the organization, as excessive communications lead to people tuning out, particularly when the majority of the communications don’t pertain to them. Avoid this by sharing messages with certain audiences rather than across the board.
Operational risk management differentiates competitors. Companies that make this a priority find their product performance improves, brand recognition increases, and financial results are easy to sustain. If you have yet to make this a priority in your company, do so today. You cannot afford to miss out simply because you haven’t focused on ORM enough. This needs to change today so you can stand out from competitors and increase your market share.