The External Factors Affecting Your Business

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Try as you might, you will never really “own” your business. It is too much part of a bigger network that is too far beyond your control for that. While there might be plenty of directions you want to take your company in, you’ll also be subject to the whims and plans of your fellow humans, who all too often (it can feel like) have plans that are out of sync with your own. Here are just a few of the ways your business can be affected by external factors, to which you only have a passing, observing role.

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Political
A thriving economy relies on there being not too many things rocking the boat. You can see the way the stock market reacts whenever an announcement or decision is made; sometimes it gets a boost, which is its way of saying ‘we approve!’, and sometimes it takes a nosedive, at which point everything gets a bit nervous. With Donald Trump, for instance, no one – including quite possibly Donald Trump – is quite sure which way the economy will go. That one is just for time to figure out, but down the line it could have a knock on effect to your business. A good economy means you’re in the best possible position to succeed. Also, you’ll notice how things can get a bit twitchy whenever there’s political unrest, more commonly when it’s overseas. A destabilised China, for instance, can have effects that spread across the world, such is the way all our economies are interlinked.

Your Business Partners

It’s all good and well keeping your own house in order. It’s all good and well operating at full capacity, with the books in order and things slowly progressing just fine and dandy. But how many other businesses do you rely on for your success? You’re probably more wrapped up in the well-being of other companies than you think. For instance, how does the software you rely on influence your success? You might want to look at a service such as software escrow, which would give you access to the software you depend on should the software company fold. Elsewhere, you could face major difficulties if your suppliers unexpectedly fold. You can’t stop that from happening, but you can make sure you have the contingency plans in place so that you’re able to handle any temporary setbacks relating to stock and so forth. Essentially, it’s important not to be too reliant on any other single company.

Trends

You’re at the top of your game at the moment, right on the cutting edge of what’s new and fresh. You’re part of a movement that is going places! Only, it’ll only be going places up until the time when it’s not. Take a look through history and everything that was once ‘hot’ ended up being pretty ‘not’ in the end. You only need to look at what passed as fashion twenty (or any number) years ago to see that things really do change. Did the people wearing the clothes back then think they’d one day look so lame? Of course not! Did Blockbuster think there would always be a demand for home videos? Probably! Trends come and go. The important thing is to realise that ‘trendy’ doesn’t really mean anything, and that you shouldn’t be relying on it for your success. Always make sure you’re looking to the future, especially if the industry you’re in is prone to change.

External Innovation: Good

Not every external factor is bad, of course. In fact, all the ones listed above can be good if the cards fall nicely enough. This positive change also extends to innovation, which as we all know is essentially what’s making the economy thrive in recent years. And it looks like it’s here to stay. Innovation is creating new markets, new products, new services, new just about everything, and it’s happening all the time. Every year, there are new services that help to streamline businesses and make them less dependent on other factors. You should be keeping your ear out for the developments that will aid your business. Everybody else will, and to not do so you run the risk of falling behind. Make sure you’re reading up on all the best business online blogs and reading your industry magazines; it’ll keep you fresh.

External Innovation: Bad

With that being said, not all innovation will be there to give you a boost. In fact, sometimes it’ll come along and put you right out of business. This has been happening for centuries, with new products popping up that resulted in massive shifts in the economy. We see it today, with Uber versus traditional taxi companies. No matter who you are and how successful your business is, you should always be ready to face oblivion. It’s the way innovation works. If you’re worried about an emerging company or trend, then look at diversifying your business – but do it well in advance. The number of jobs that may be lost – and industries taken of – by robots in the coming decades should be an eyeopener for many business leaders.

Environmental Factors

Sometimes, the factors that affect your business has nothing at all to do with other humans. It’s all about that grand old mother earth, our home. We think we know a lot about the environment, but we don’t – and unfortunately, we’re about to know a whole lot less once climate change really gets underway. A changing climate will affect a lot, from how things are produced (if they’re able to be at all) and how they get around the world. It’ll also bring more extreme weather, so making sure you have business insurance and cloud storage will be essential.

Predicting The Changes
You don’t know what will happen in the world, because no one does. But you can be prepared by keeping on top of global events – not just what’s happening in your industry, but in all the industries that branch out from your own too. We’re all connected in the end!

What Your Team Needs Besides Money

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The monetary compensation plays a big role in retaining your best employees and giving them good reason to give their job their all. But if you believe that’s all they need, you’re going to find more people leaving the team than you would like. There are deeper needs that you and even they might not recognize at first. Neglect them for too long, however, and those will serve as the reasons you can’t retain your staff.

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Goals

Employees have responsibilities for day-to-day work in their role, and they should know that. When it seems like the day-to-day involves nothing other than just running through a workload to no aim, however, that’s when people can get frustrated. Goal setting for employees, whether it’s collaboration toward a certain goal or simply improving productivity and efficiency can give them something important. It can give them something to aim at, so they don’t just feel like they’re standing still in their job. It’s also a good way to align their goals at work with the goals of the organization.

Progress

Beyond their work goals, you should consider your employee’s personal goals a little more. If they’re looking to progress in the company, see if you can bring out that leadership material. If their job requires expertise, help them build on it with training. If they have personal projects they want to tackle, then offer them time in the office environment to work on it. Make your leadership instrumental in their personal progress.

Value

Let’s not pretend this relationship is all about what you can do for your team. Your team does plenty for you and showing that you acknowledge and value that is important. From simple thanks and an employee-of-the-month scheme to an awards dinner complete with award plaques. Showing real, verbal appreciation and offering a physical token of that appreciation shows that you truly value the team. It also gives you the opportunity to incentivize the behaviors that you consider most important in the workplace.

Cohesion

The work environment is most likely one of multiple people. Getting them cohesive and collaborative is important. Even for those like remote workers who aren’t in the physical environment. Improving the ways they communicate and organize, such as using project management tools, removes the barriers from that cohesion. You should also consider those corporate get-togethers as the opportunity to have people build rapport and relationships without the pressures of work exerting on them.

Flexibility

Speaking of those pressures, every workplace has them. But allowing a little more flexibility to your team can help them deal with said pressures a lot better. Everyone has ways that they work better. Flexibility helps them discover those ways. Whether it’s flexibility in time, location, dress code, method or otherwise. You have to think of what you can reasonably allow. Whatever you can allow, you should.

A better understanding of the human needs in your team is going to make you a better employer in every way. You’re going to retain them, keep them motivated, engaged, and even happy to work for you.

Could Your Business Survive a Downturn? Here’s How to Bolster the Finances of Your Company

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There is always a chance that something will go horribly wrong for your business. All business owners have this at the back of their minds. You don’t have control over what happens in the wider economy or how sales trends develop. You do, however, have control over what your business does. And if you want to make sure that your business is going to be able to survive a downturn, you need to put it in a financially secure position as soon as possible.

Start Investing

First of all, you should start doing some investing. If your business owns properties and rents them out, you can make money. Or you could invest personally and put the returns into the business. There are plenty of ways in which your business can invest in order to improve its finances. You might want to go to companies like triple net if you need help with beginning an investment strategy that’s going to work and pay off for you and your business in the long-term. There is nothing wrong with getting help when you don’t really know what you’re doing.

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Diversify Your Business

Next, you should start to think about diversifying your business as best you can. This will make your business more financial stable because it will allow you to get to appeal to more customers and, hopefully, sell more products or services. It will also make your business better able to cope with a potential downturn in the future because your business will be more diverse. You won’t be reliant on selling just one type of product, and that can be a big deal when you want to get ahead and remain profitable.

Save Money Regularly

Simple saving some money can make a huge difference to the financial stability and security of your business if it’s something that you can manage to do regularly. You only have to put aside a small amount each month, and you will soon see that your business is ready to face any problems that might be heading its way. The money you save should be stashed away and only called upon when something goes wrong and your business is in urgent need of cash. It’s pointless saving money if you also keep spending it. Put rules in place for when that savings pot can and can’t be dipped into.

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Halt Any Extravagant Spending Plans

Many businesses are pretty careless with their spending plans. Is it really worth spending big money on an extravagant idea or statement? Sometimes, you need to look at the value that a particular project is going to return to your business before you push ahead. When you do that, you can be sure that you only spend money on things that are really worth it for your business from a financial point of view. So, if you have an extravagant spending plans currently in the pipeline, it might be a good idea to halt them until your business is more financially secure.

How Health Practices Find New Ways To Expand Their Revenue

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If you run a private practice and you’ve done for any serious amount of time, then you have probably already realized that you need to think about medicine as a business. Not just in how you maintain professionalism, effectiveness, and efficiency. You also need to think about profit, which many treat as a dirty word in the industry. However, getting more tight-fisted is not the only way to ensure you see more money. Instead, you should consider looking at just how your business could offer more and thus make more.

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Make use of that expertise

Besides thinking like a businessperson, to succeed in running a practice, you need real medical expertise. That same expertise could be the very same tool you use for finding new opportunities for bringing revenue into the business. Not only are blogs good ground for monetization through advertising and affiliates programs. They can also be a tremendous way to build your visibility and your personal brand online. You can also look into providing your advice as a premium product, by producing eBooks or getting into hosting webinars. At the same time, getting more involved in the community around you can help, too. Lots of experts find paid speaking opportunities to share their knowledge at seminars and other live events.

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Reach new patients

Naturally, trying to get as many patients into the business is the most obvious way to try and expand your ability to gain revenue. But you shouldn’t just think that outreach and marketing are the only ways to reach more patients. Instead, you should think about what might be preventing certain portions of the market from reaching your services. For instance, for some the barrier is physical. Some people are not mobile or well enough to reach your practice. To that end, some practices are starting to expand their services to those who need them not only by visiting more patients. Many are using more time-effective telemarketing methods from services like Chiron Health. Not only can you improve your patient portfolio, but you could be providing your services to those who have in dire need but lacking this whole time.


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Finding new niches

You might also be able to get more business from existing and new patients alike by simply offering them something that you weren’t able to do so before. When starting a practice, it’s a smart move to ensure that you’re spending on the essentials, investing in the equipment that can supply you with a steady enough flow of work to keep the doors open and the lights on. However, there are ancillary treatments that require more specific equipment or training. If you’re in a position to grow the business, then it might be time to invest in changes to the business that could open you up to extra services such as allergy testing and treatment or urgent care without an appointment.

As the practice grows, you may want to think about branching out into another location. However, that is a significant cost, so for those who want to grow without going to such lengths, the three strategies above can be tremendously helpful.

It Doesn’t Have To Be Taxing: Simplifying Your Business Tasks

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Think of everything you have to do in your day as a business owner. Think of the mass of tasks and work you have to perform. Think of the systems you rely on.

When you stump it all together like that, running a business seems like hard work! And it is. There is no doubt about that whatsoever.

Now, technology moves at such a fast pace in the modern age. If you want your business to succeed, you’re going to have to build a good relationship with tech and understand exactly how it all works. You’re going to have to appreciate that your gadgets and computers are going to be outdated. You’re going to have to adapt to thrive and the future is now.

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Now, let’s return to the beginning. If you are adapting so your business can thrive, you’ve still got heaps of tasks to complete. It is now time to knit everything together and see how we can simplify your business tasks.

Let’s talk money first. Accounting software like Sage accounting online is going to save you a lot of headaches. Not only can you keep yourself in the know with your finances with some simple data entry, but it’s also going to be automated and can save you the hassle of replicating invoices and calculating your tax. What does this mean? Well, it means you can spend more time on your actual job than counting coins!

What more is there to know about money? Well, payment is crucial! Sites like Paypal can offer you a cloud-based payment solution that automatically exchanges payments into a currency of your choice – meaning you’re not the one heading to the exchange! This is an amazing solution whether or not you have a lot of overseas customers.

With accounting and currency exchange out of the way, there are already two heavy tasks dealt with. Now, it’s time to talk communication.

Basecamp is an amazing software package that can do it all for you. Basecamp’s Campfire organizes your internal communication and projects in a single dedicated place. The advantages of this are too often underestimated and having a single platform for multiple, yet linked, subject matter (like work) is a brilliant way to increase the productivity of your staff. The campfire app within Basecamp allows you to communicate instantly, like an old school instant messenger app, and in-real time and you can even link to work. This cuts a number of steps out the process and allows your workflow to be centralized with a single piece of software. There are no more messy and long email chains between staff members. Instead, Basecamp offers topic based message boards, instant chat tools, to-do-lists, staff check-ins and instant work reports. Not only can you simplify your staff’s communication process, but you can get everything moving forward in the same direction.

Communication, work flow, accounting and payment – four huge tasks have been broken down and simplified with technology – find out what else you can simplify and launch your business forwards.