Creating A Versatile Home Office

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Home Office|Creating A Versatile Home OfficeAs many as 30% of professionals believe they are more engaged when working from home, but this number could increase even more if they design their home office correctly. For many, the home office is a makeshift setup. Usually, professionals set up their laptops on the sofa or in the kitchen or dining room. While this is convenient, it lacks the versatility entrepreneurs and employees need to stay on task and boost productivity. If you’ve not yet renovated your home office for maximum productivity, here are a few ideas to help you create a versatile workspace.

Decorate It to Reflect Your Business

Every successful brand has filled its office with decor and essentials that reflect the business, so you should do the same if you want to maximize productivity and remain on course for your company’s growth.

This all starts by choosing furniture that reflects your business and your personality. If your brand is innovative, bold, bright colors and sleek, tidy lines are essential. You can hang artwork or arrange furniture that inspires you to maintain our vision and makes it easier for clients to understand what your company does.

Set Up a Meeting Space

Entrepreneurship means you will have a lot of meetings with clients. But, without a dedicated office, it’s challenging to determine a designated space to meet and discuss projects.

With exclusive penthouses, you have enough space to maximize your office’s reach. While you have a desk area where you work, you can set up another room specifically for meetings, ideally one with a view if possible. If this isn’t possible, research local coworking spaces or even cafes.


Keep It Separate from the Rest Of Your Home

You will fail to stay productive if you have a constant stream of distractions, whether from your partner, kids, or pets. Because of this, you must keep your home office separate from the rest of your house.

This is easier said than done, of course, but it isn’t impossible. Sometimes, it’s as simple as closing your office door during work hours, maybe even with a Do Not Disturb sign on the handle. If you have outdoor space, a garden room could be another solution, but this represents a considerable investment and requires power access.

Master Organization

By now, you know that organization is crucial for successful remote working. If your desk or larger work area is cluttered, you’ll struggle to remain on task. To overcome this, you can make a habit of tidying up at the end of each day and organizing all the papers and information you need for the following morning.

This is useful when partaking in meetings over Skype, Zoom, or Teams, as it means you have everything you need in one space. Your organizational skills reduce time searching around for specific details and keep the meeting flowing, which encourages efficiency for everyone.

Versatility

A versatile home office is key for boosting engagement and productivity. Although many basic remote working setups can be effective, they lack the distinction that adds an extra layer of efficiency. By designing a space that matches your typical office as closely as possible, you will not need to worry about interference or disruptions from the rest of the household.

The Biggest Challenges Of Going Paperless

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Going paperless|The Biggest Challenges Of Going PaperlessThere are many benefits to giving up paper in the office. Paper files take up a lot of space, cost money to buy/print and are often slow to share and distribute compared to digital files.

All in all, it seems like a no-brainer to go paperless in 2022. However, as many businesses realise, there are some challenges to giving up all paper. Below are just some of the challenges and what you can do to overcome them.

Digitizing old files

It’s possible that you may have lots of old paper files that do not have digital copies. If you want to get rid of all paper in your office, you need to be prepared to create digital copies of all these old paper files.

You can do this by using a scanner or by taking photographs with a camera/mobile phone. This can be a time-consuming process if you have hundreds or thousands of documents to digitize. One solution that you could look into is to pay a mass scanning service to digitize all of these paper files for you. Just make sure that you are happy sharing all of these documents with another company.

Signing contracts

Many businesses still like to print contracts so that they can be signed manually with a pen. The same goes for forms, which may still require people to manually write information or tick boxes.
Fortunately, electronic document signing is now possible. There are also digital options for filling in forms such as using a PDF editor to digitally edit a PDF form. This could prevent you having to send out or receive paper contracts and forms.


Reducing incoming paper mail

How do you stop customers sending you paper newsletters and documents? In most cases, it’s possible to opt out of paper mail by simply talking to the company.

If a company prefers to send out physical documents, but you don’t want paper of any kind in your office, another solution could be to outsource a virtual mailbox. This is when another company collects your mail. They can then send you digital copies of all your mail so that you don’t have to physically receive it.

Preventing digital file loss

Digital files can be lost in various different ways. They could be accidentally deleted, corrupted due to software issues, lost as a result of faulty hardware or compromised during a cyberattack. This puts off some businesses from going paperless.

The solution to this however is simple – backup your digital files in different locations. This could include backing up files on the cloud or storing copies on an external hard-drive. Just as having multiple paper copies can protect against the risk of damage and loss, so can having multiple digital copies.

Dealing with digitally illiterate customers

What happens if you want to send information to a customer via email but they don’t have an email address? In this day and age, it’s becoming a much rarer occurrence, however there are still some older people who don’t use email and aren’t computer literate.
You have to decide whether to sacrifice these customers or make a special exception to cater to them. It may depend largely on who your target customer base is. If you’re an audiologist, you’ll likely deal with a lot of older customers, so it may make sense to still provide the option of paper newsletters and reminders. If you run a gym that is mainly aimed at younger people, it may be better to stick to digital newsletters and promotions.

5 Things You Need to Launch Your Own Business

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Launch your own business|5 Things You Need to Launch Your Own BusinessThe lure of being your own boss and the desire to escape the rat race is tempting an increasing number of budding entrepreneurs and savvy side hustlers to launch fully-fledged businesses. In fact, recent statistics show that 80 new businesses are launched every hour in the UK, which highlights just how many people are striking out on their own.

To increase your chances of success, however, you’ll need to ensure that you’ve done the prep work and collated the resources you need. With this in mind, take a look at these five things you need to launch your own business:

1. Market Knowledge

Having a great business idea is a good foundation for launching a new venture but other people need to think it’s a great idea too! Before you invest substantial time or money in your business, undertake extensive market research to ensure there will be sufficient demand for your products or services. The more in-depth market knowledge you have, the more effectively you’ll be able to compete with existing companies and acquire new customers or clients.

2. Workspace

Although the homeworking trend reached a peak recently, many people are now recognising the downsides that are associated with working from home on a full-time basis. If you want somewhere quiet and productive to work without your business taking over your home, try serviced offices and co-working spaces like sopershouse.co.uk. With access to a wide range of amenities and the opportunity to network with other professionals, choosing the right workspace can give any new business the strong foundations it needs.


3. A Vision

You might already have a clear idea of how your business will operate or what products and services you’ll offer, but it’s important to have a realistic vision of how your business will evolve too. To transition from a start-up to an SME, you’ll need to implement a successful growth plan, so don’t overlook the long-term prospects your business can offer. By creating a detailed business plan from the outset, you’ll have an overarching strategy to guide you as you develop your business and expand your operations.

4. Staff

Some entrepreneurs work alone when they’re first starting out but, as your business succeeds, you’ll soon need additional support. Hiring permanent staff can be a big commitment for a new company, so consider outsourcing what you can to reputable service providers. Similarly, you might want to use professional freelancers to access the expertise you need, before hiring your own full-time workforce.

5. Funding

A lack of funds can be disastrous for any company, so make sure you’ve got sufficient funds to launch and run your business for as long as possible. Whether you’re seeking investments, taking out a loan, or selling shares in your company, it’s vital to mitigate early cash flow problems with reliable funding.

Launching a New Business

Starting a company can be an exciting way to expand your skills and take control of your career but having access to the right resources and support will be critical to your success. By planning your venture carefully, however, you can identify exactly what you need to get your new business off to the best start.

3 Signs That You Need to Improve Your Site’s Copy

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Improve your site's copy|3 Signs That You Need to Improve Your Site’s CopySound web copy should be a priority for all businesses, but especially for those that rely heavily on website conversions for leads or sales. If you created the web copy yourself and you had no prior experience, then we’re almost 100% sure it’s deficient. And, even if you had the copy done by professionals, it may be outdated right now. Or it may not be as good as you think. Let’s take a look at a few signs that you need to improve your site’s copy.

You’re Getting High Bounce Rates

If you’re not checking analytics on your site, you need to start doing it right now or you’ll have no idea how your site is actually performing and when you need to make changes.

One of the metrics you’ll see in most analytics tools is the bounce rate. This is the percentage of people who leave your site immediately without checking other pages when they reach your website. A high bounce rate is not necessarily bad, however. A high bounce rate on a single-page informational website with thin content could show that a person found exactly what they needed.

But if you have a multi-page website and rely on your homepage to drive sales and you have an unusually high bounce rate, there’s a strong chance that your copy has something to do with it. Anything over 70% should be cause for concern here, so if this is where you are with your website, you may want to hire copywriting services.


People Keep Asking You the Same Things

If you constantly get asked the same questions when people call, then it’s a clear sign that your web copy is not detailed enough. The more information people can get upfront, the more likely they are to opt in. But, if the information is missing, you’ll get more friction and lose potential customers because of frustration. People shouldn’t be calling you for things like turnaround times, what you do, or your price range, so make sure that you have all of this laid out in your web copy.

You Have Low Conversion

If your conversions are disappointing and below average for your industry, then it may be time for you to hire a copywriter service. You’d be surprised at how a few changes to your copy could drive sales right up. A good website copywriter will be able to make adjustments and test them through A/B testing. You will then be able to see immediate improvements in conversions if this is done right.

Look for an experienced copywriting agency that’s familiar with a wide range of industries, such as https://beesting-digital.com. The right content writing agency will be able to tell instantly where the issue might be and make corrections instantly with fresh SEO content writing.

Your site’s copy will have a direct influence on your sales and brand image, so do not neglect it. Review it as often as you can and consider hiring SEO copywriting services if you feel there’s something wrong with it.

How to Motivate Your Staff – Enjoy Improved Productivity and Efficiency

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Motivate your staff|How to Motivate Your Staff – Enjoy Improved Productivity and EfficiencyBusiness owners often make the assumption that by hiring qualified staff, making sure all departments have enough employees, and setting up systems that appear user-friendly enough that everything will go well. But here’s the thing, staff are people – not machines – which means variables such as workplace stress and pressure can negatively affect them. Business owners must recognise this to be the case and have a workable solution.

Here’s a look at how you can motivate your staff, help them to cope with the stress and pressure of the job, and in turn enjoy improved productivity and efficiency.

Enrol in Resilience Training for Business

The first tip is to get educated. Being an effective leader means you recognize when something is outside your realm of knowledge and that you seek out information to educate yourself. Training that teaches you how to be more resilient is an excellent choice for a company owner and upper management.

Look for training courses that address how to cope better with pressure and stress, which you can apply to your employees and teach them about. This can be done when you create the kind of work environment that is proactive, solution-based, and positive. That is the exact messaging that motivates employees in all the right ways. Learning how to be more resilient also means that you roll with the punches and you learn to thrive despite outside stressors.


Encourage Communication at All Levels

Another useful tip is to encourage and improve communication at all levels of the company. Staff needs to feel comfortable communicating with each other, their supervisors, and upper management. It shouldn’t be fear-based wherein employees would rather stay quiet than “get in trouble”.

Communication ensures that systems and processes run smoothly, everyone is on the same page, concerns and issues are shared promptly, and those good ideas get heard. Excellent communication helps to build a more inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels valued.

Employee Rewards Can Go a Long Way

In terms of motivating employees, offering rewards for a job well done can go a long way. This can be in the form of extra holiday time, bonuses, profit-sharing, paying for courses that better their qualifications, and even incentive programs.

Give Thought to the Physical Environment

You can take all the training courses and say all the right things to your employees but if you don’t also think about the physical work environment, then you won’t be successful in motivating staff. Staff want to work in an environment that allows them to do their job safely and comfortably, so ask yourself if this is being achieved in the current set-up?

Perhaps you need to invest in new equipment (office furniture, computers, printers, and so forth), maybe you need to create more space for employees, offer them a fully-stocked breakroom, and bring more natural light into the space.

It Won’t Take Long to See the Benefits

Once you embrace these tips and realise that motivating staff is to the benefit of all, it won’t be long before you start to see the positive results.