3 Ways To Run A Successful Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Startup| 3 Ways To Run A Successful Business Starting a business can be the ideal path for some people. It offers freedom, a sense of achievement, potentially more money than if they had been working for someone else, and it can improve the work-life balance substantially. However, although many businesses startup, not all of them are going to be successful; many of them fail or don’t do as well as first hoped. Read on to find out just some of the ways that you can run a successful business and make the most of your self-employment.

Do Your Research

One of the most important elements of running a successful business is to know that you will be successful from the start. This doesn’t mean having a ‘gut feeling’ about doing well; it means doing plenty of research to show that your idea is something that is needed and can grow. The more time and effort you can put into your research, the better it will be as you will have answers to all the questions that might be asked of you, and that you might ask of yourself.

Not only do you need to know that your products and services are different (or different enough) to what is already available to make a difference, but you also need to know who is most likely to buy from you. If you know this, you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly, and give yourself the best chance of being seen.

Have A Good Website

A website is all-important when you run a business. You might choose to set up an e-commerce site to enhance your sales, or even to be the business itself. Alternatively, your website might be more about offering information to your potential customers and showing that you have all the relevant knowledge and expertise that they want and need you to have.

Whatever you use your site for, it needs to be well-designed and easy to navigate, with enough information on it to satisfy people’s requirements, but not so much that it becomes cluttered. This can be a difficult balancing act, especially when you factor in SEO. Using SEO Fuel’s consulting experts to help you rank well with search engines will ensure that your website is helping you grow your business rather than damaging its reputation.

Provide Amazing Customer Service

Your customer service will need to be the best it can possibly be if you want to have a successful business. No matter how interesting or useful your products and services might be, and no matter how much of an expert you are regarding them, without good customer service your buyers will look to other companies – those that do have good customer service – to help them instead of you.

There is a lot of choice for people these days; they can buy products from all over the world, and no longer have to use a business just because of how close it happens to be to them. This means there is a lot more competition, and if the customer is not treated in the way they feel they should be, you will lose out.

3 Types Of Responsibilities All Business Owners Must Meet

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneur | Entrepreneurship | 3 Types Of Responsibilities All Business Owners Must Meet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a business owner, your primary responsibility is relatively straightforward: to ensure that your business is as successful as it can possibly be. You are the captain of your ship, and you have to chart a course to profitability and success, navigating the occasional choppy waters but nevertheless always advancing and covering new ground.

However, as well as shouldering the responsibility for the business’ ultimate success, there are other types of responsibilities that business owners will also need to meet, as we have expanded on below:

1. Environmental Responsibilities

Modern consumers expect companies to be as eco-friendly as possible, a tendency that is likely to only continue in future given the environmental focus Generation Z are becoming known for. As a result, it’s well worth investigating the various ways and means of switching to more environmentally-friendly methods in your office. You could, for example, consider going paperless in your office, working to reduce your business energy usage, and opting to use local suppliers wherever possible; with just these small changes, your ability to meet your responsibilities to the environment will be greatly enhanced.

2. Compliance Responsibilities

Regulatory and legal compliance is one of the best ways business owners can meet their responsibilities. After all, regulations and legal requirements are put into place because they are deemed necessary to offer protection to someone or something – be it your employees’ well-being, the finances of your investors, or the safety of any visitor to your business. It’s therefore well worth taking the time to go through a SOX compliance audit or requesting a health and safety assessment regularly; not only does this ensure you meet all compliance requirements, but all aspects of your business will be better protected by your complete adherence to all important legislation.

3. Customer Responsibilities

When customers choose to buy one of your products or use your services, they are placing a huge amount of trust in your business. They are trusting that any product you deliver will be safe to use and any services provided will be effective and delivered as promised, and that the money they have spent with your company will be well-used. As a business owner, it is incredibly important to honor this trust and do all you can to meet your customers’ needs; treat every order you receive as if it is vitally important to that customer, and go above and beyond to ensure that their order proceeds exactly as it should. If something does go awry, then it’s always worth doing what you can to provide compensation – even if you are not required to by law, as you are far more likely to salvage an ongoing relationship with an unhappy customer if they feel their issue has been fully addressed and rectified.

In Conclusion

By ensuring that you take account of the three types of responsibilities as listed above, you can be confident that you, your employees, and your business as a whole can look forward to a bright, productive and successful future.

Making Your New Retail Shop A Hit

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Retail Shop|Making Your New Retail Shop A HitMany businesses start from home, but often the issue with that is at some point, you need to be able to expand and move forward. A business idea can outgrow your small home setup fairly quickly, and while you want to keep the costs as low as possible, you might end up getting to the stage where things change and you need to move on. Many entrepreneurs consider opening up a retail shop. It gives you a business location to work from, but also gives you the chance of dealing with face to face customers and making sales in a different format. So how do you make sure that your new retail shop is a hit? Here are some of the things to consider.

Think about the location

One of the first things to think about would be the location of the shop. You will want a decent location to attract customers into your store and also to be easy to find, but you also need to be aware of the costs involved. A prime location on the high street might be great for business, but it will also hurt your business financially in those early days. So you will need to find a happy medium that you are comfortable with but us yet still worthwhile. It might also be worth thinking of a smaller premises for better location and seeing it as a stepping stone to the next level.

What about the layout?

The layout of the shop is just as important as the location of it. You want people to walk into the store and feel comfortable and able to see things clearly. This is when the shop fittings and things like shelving will be important. Of course you may need to spend a little time looking for a slatwall for sale and finding a decent shopfitter to put it all together, but the hard work will be worth it in the end as you start to see the difference between a good shop layout and ones that put off customers coming back.

Would there be a theme?

The next thing you need to think about would be whether or not your shop would have a theme. This might have a lot to do with the things that you are selling and who you market toards. For example, a woman’s clothing brand might want to make the shop and layout appeal to women. A children’s store might be bright and colourful, or an outdoors shop might have set ups of tents and gear. Think about the theme and make it part of the experience in entering into your store.

Customer service

Finally, customer service is a huge thing for customers and so you will want to ensure that the experience in your store is a positive one. That means that your staff are presented well, that they look the part and make people feel special. The store should be an inviting place and not an awkward environment.

Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to making your retail shop a hit.

4 Reasons Your Business Should Move to Office 365

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Office Technology|4 Reasons Your Business Should Move to Office 365Lots of companies are still using outdated technology, despite there being plenty of new solutions and platforms that can fully transform and improve the way that they work. There are a number of reasons why many are resistant to change, including the need to re-train staff to learn how to use new technology, and the belief that it will be a struggle to migrate data from one platform to another. In many situations, though, the pros far outweigh the cons. In this article, we’re going to explain why an Office 365 migration is a good idea for your company, no matter its size.

1. No Need to Worry About Maintenance or Servers

Office 365 is fully hosted in the cloud, so there’s no need to worry about investing in local servers or performing maintenance either. The Trust Center that comes with the platform ensures that your data remains in safe hands too. Cloud services are becoming increasingly popular with businesses of all sizes, as they offer so many benefits that you just can’t get from hosting software locally. Plus, the software can also be seamlessly linked with many on-premises solutions if needs be.

2. It Can Grow with Your Business

One of the best things about Office 365 is that you only need to pay for the programs that you plan to use. And, if at any point, you think an additional program could help your business, you can easily add it to your subscription. The same goes for data storage. Unless you need tons of storage right away, you can simply opt for the cheapest plan, and increase it later on as your storage needs grow. OneDrive offers a large amount of storage for a very affordable rate too, so you’ll never be left struggling for space again.

3. Take Advantage of Updates and Features as They’re Released

If you currently use any Microsoft Office products, you probably choose to invest in the newest version a while after they’re released. This could be for cost reasons, or simply because you don’t have the time to re-install the software on all your devices. With Office 365, this is no longer a worry. You will instantly have access to the latest updates and features the second they’re released, and won’t be stuck in a cycle of waiting for the next large update to launch.

4. Workflows are More Collaborative

Office 365 is designed to make collaborating on documents easy. When all of your devices have Office 365 installed on them, colleagues can quickly leave comments, make edits, and access documents in real-time. This completely eliminates the need to email documents between different departments, download them, make edits, and then email them back. Not only does this improve efficiency, but it means that different team members can collaborate on one document all at the same time.

Office 365 is the number one product when it comes to data and security. Most large and medium size business owners prefer Office 365 migration services from a reliable cloud hosting provider which provider impeccable support. If you value your business, want to improve efficiency, and want to spend less time performing server maintenance, migrating to Office 365 is definitely something you should consider.

How Small Changes Can Optimize Your Business Profits

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Profitability|How Small Changes Can Optimize Your Business ProfitsWhen you run a small business, your focus is primarily on working towards increasing profitability by maximizing sales; finding new customers, running successful marketing campaigns, sourcing better products and so on. With all these strategic goals to focus on, it’s unsurprising that a lot of the smaller influences on your bottom line slip under your radar. However, neglecting smaller matters can make your primary role a great deal more challenging, so it’s worth spending a little time and effort on smoothing out any rough edges in your business.

The saying “don’t sweat the small stuff” has wisdom, because worrying about trivial matters in your life can cause you to forget the bigger picture and make you unnecessarily stressed. However, in business, you should keep an eye on the everyday ins and outs of how your business runs, for there’s very often useful information to find or improvements in processes that save time and money.

Embracing Balance

What you need is a balance; you don’t want to spend a lot of your valuable time carrying out mundane tasks like checking the stocks in the stationery supply cupboard. On the other hand, you could be spending far more than you need to on supplies because one of your staff members is helping themselves. A quick spot check on the stationery supply chain should highlight any discrepancies, saving you unnecessary expenditure, and putting a stop to dishonest practices.

Your Role

Another angle to this scenario is your role as supervisor to your employees. If you have a member of staff who is responsible for all the stationery supplies, you want to be able to trust them to do a good job. On the other hand, however good they are at their job, now and then a review of how they’re carrying out their responsibilities is wise because everyone benefits from a fresh pair of eyes on their work. For example, you might see the potential for cost savings or ways of streamlining the task that hadn’t occurred to your employee.

Equipment & Tools

It’s also sensible to check that every member of staff has all the tools they need to complete their work to the highest possible standards. That could mean replacing standard keyboards with ergonomic versions, updating the office chairs, or providing better break facilities. Small changes like these improve the working environment for everyone, and staff who are happy and well cared for are far more productive.

For employees who don’t work at a desk all the time, there are other considerations to make. For instance, do they have safe and sensible storage solutions for their tools? A scatter of tools on a workbench makes unnecessary clutter, and it’s harder for employees to find what they need, wasting time every day. Using a well-organized storage system protects tools and ensures they’re readily at hand when needed. You could also combine the function of storage with the workbench, saving space and making it easier and quicker for staff members to carry out tasks. Check out this product to see how the concept works in practice.

Regularly Reviewing Processes

As well as staff facilities and activities, reviewing your processes can highlight opportunities to make savings and optimize productivity. How long is it since you compared what you’re spending on essential goods and services with the prices other suppliers are charging? A quick review of your bills and a comparison to what you’d be charged elsewhere can save you hundreds or thousands in costs every year. You don’t need to spend ages seeing the whole process through, simply delegate the nuts and bolts of the task to a responsible member of staff.

On the subject of staff, their performance is influenced by far more than their equipment and facilities. If you’ve been concentrating on strategic matters, you may have fallen into the trap of failing to provide positive reinforcement to your staff. The boss who only notices their employees when they do something wrong is a familiar stereotype, but there are still many of them about. Examine your own behavior to see if you’re communicating well with your staff. Do you always greet them warmly, give them your attention, and ask after them personally? Or has it become your habit to mutter a quick salutation before disappearing into your office?

Pay Attention to Small Gestures

It’s understandable that the big issues in your business take up your attention, but not stopping to converse with the people around you causes resentment and lowers productivity. Small gestures that show you care and appreciate the work they do are highly motivating for staff and can yield results way above the input required. The same is true of relationships with suppliers. A little time spent building relationships can reap rewards when you need stock in a hurry, or you have a problem with a product.

There are probably many other small influences relevant to your business that don’t get your attention, but that could be affecting your profitability. For example, if you have a store with a window, keeping the displays fresh and attractive is essential for drawing in customers. But have you been so absorbed in what should go in the window that you’ve forgotten about tasks such as cleaning the window glass, so it sparkles, or sweeping away any cobwebs?

These little points can make the difference between you attracting customers to come into your store and seeing them wander off to your competitor’s store. There are cycles in all things, so if you’ve got some aspect of your business perfectly sorted today, don’t forget that in six months or a year, that area will need to be reassessed. Everything changes over time, but being aware of how to monitor these changes and keep in sync with them gives you an advantage over your competitors.

It’s vital to spend the bulk of your day engaged with the matters that need your expertise and supervision, but in your efforts to manage the big picture, don’t neglect the smaller elements that play such a fundamental role to your business success.