Keeping Your Business Up And Running

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Managing Your Business |Keeping Your Business Up And RunningPerhaps 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.

WorkFlow Optimization Begins with You: 3 Types of Software No Business Owner Should Forget to Implement

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Optimize the Workflow of any Business with Software Implementation

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Articles | WorkFlow Optimization | WorkFlow Optimization Begins with You: 3 Types of Software No Business Owner Should Forget to ImplementMost businesses are started because a person or a group of people have a particular passion, and they want to use that passion to drive their work. Bill Gates and Paul Allen shared a passion for computers and technology, and Microsoft is the result of their work. Steve Jobs had an interest in electronics and gadgetry and his vision was to put a computer in the hands of everyday people. While passion may be needed to get a business idea off the ground, there are several other aspects of a business that needs to be managed well for it to succeed. Workflow is something that needs to be organized and efficient, but it might not be the area of passion for most business owners. There are several types of software that can help optimize workflow and put businesses on a path to increase efficiency and overall success.

Project Management Software

The initial stage in a workflow process for most businesses is some sort of consultation, request, or order from a customer. Paper forms are still common in the business world, and these forms can cause a disruption in the workflow process. Paper forms can be misplaced, they can sit on a desk for long periods of time, and they represent a very inefficient way for employees to communicate with each other. Regardless of the size of a business, the communication between employees is critical to how efficient the business will run. Implementing an order management software system as part of an overall workflow solution can be a positive step toward making things run more smoothly. Project management software can create a proposal for a customer which can lead to a purchase order. The purchase leads to an invoice, and many systems have credit card processing built in to complete the transaction.

Accounting Software

Businesses need to manage money coming in as well as money going out. An accounting software like designdocs can help with paying bills, collecting money from customers and payroll for employees. One of the biggest advantages in an accounting software system is the ability to run specific reports that make the overall financial management more effective. Detailed proposals for customers can be generated quickly along with invoicing for those customers. Overall company financial reports and tax reporting documents can also be generated much more quickly and accurately with the help of a software program. The American Payroll Association concluded that companies not using software systems to help with workflow will spend twenty-five percent more time working on accounting tasks.

Communication Software

In the midst of all the work being done, there needs to be an easy to understand the system in place for all employees to know what needs to be completed, and when the work needs to be finished. This is critical when information needs to move between people in different departments that are all working on the same project. When there is a gap in communication between people, that can slow down or disrupt the flow of work. Having a system where everyone can access the same documents, reports and customer notes will encourage teamwork and promote a more cohesive environment.

Optimizing workflow with software has the immediate benefit of organizing the workload for employees in a way that makes it very neat and user-friendly. This puts employees on a path that is going to decrease the frustration and inefficiencies that can come with a paper system. In the long term, workflow optimization can increase inefficiencies and help businesses see more success.

Three Ways to Establish a Baseline for Your Brand-New Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Three Ways to Establish a Baseline for Your Brand-New BusinessIn business terms, a baseline is where you start. It gives you an idea of your bottom-most revenues and ranks, then allows you to improve upon them until you have a new baseline to replace the start-up version. This is super-important for a brand-new business, as you need to know where you’re starting from to grasp where you want to go. Especially important in project management for business, baselines should be included in your initial business concept. Or at least projected and considered. That said, this article gives you more to think about when establishing a baseline for your brand-new business.

1. Establish a Projected Baseline of Your Hopeful Revenues, Ranks, and Business Presence for the First 3 Months

Baselines are your bottom dollar and where you begin in business. It’s the rock-bottom of your company, and it’s rather low to start with because you don’t know exactly what your business will make. However, you can do a projected baseline as a goal for the next three months. Project a hopeful new baseline, and if you accomplish that one, then that will be your new standard until you consistently make more.

2. Compare Your Actual Baseline to Your Projected Baseline AFTER the First 3 Months and Make Note of Things to Do Differently/Similarly

The first three months are crucial to the success of your business, so keep well-documented records of projected baselines and actual revenues and ranks. When the first three months pass and your business is still standing tall, make tangible notes of what you did, what you will keep the same, and what to do differently. This will be your routine for every three months that your business excels. You could even make a tangible office chart on your wall. Make custom stickers to represent your baseline, projected revenues, and current ranking numbers.

3. Build on Your Business Concept Using the Baseline as an Example of What You Can Accomplish—but Update it Every 3 Months

Baselines change, and businesses go through the trial and errors that either lead to big successes or big failures. Look at where your business began and how much you have accomplished every three months. Let these numbers drive you to do better and maintain a standard of success within your business.

How Can A Business VPN Secure Your Company?

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Across the globe, VPN services are providing privacy and security to more than 400 million consumers and businesses. Business VPNs are used to help safeguard the information employees send and receive online and protect their internet connections from unauthorized intrusion and other dangerous hacks.

Here, we’re going to discuss how a business VPN can secure your company, so read on if this is something you’d like to learn more about.

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Business VPN
 
What Is A Business VPN?

A business VPN is something you use that provides you with end to end encryption for your business device’s internet connection. You get a secured web connection to your company devices, wherever people connect to the internet. You will be able to avoid things like hackers, governments, fake wi-fi, competitors, and more when you use a business VPN.

Is it a good idea for you to start using a VPN? Well that can depend on what your business goals are. We discuss the benefits of a VPN below:

Better Security For Your Business

Hackers and other threats can still be a danger if you have firewalls, antivirus protection, and other things in place. A typical online connection isn’t all that secure or encrypted, so a business VPN can ensure you are protected from the lesser known viruses, hackers, and threats. A good VPN will protect sensitive customer and client information, internal documents, internal communication and other trade secrets. Although it’s possible to pay for a VPN service, it could be a better idea to go for a Free VPN to begin with, especially if you’re not yet convinced of what this can do for you.

Secure Data Sharing

One of the best uses of a VPN is safe and secure data sharing. You will safely be able to share data between your colleagues and even those outside of your organization. You just have to ensure the VPN encrypts your entire internet connection rather than just the connection to your company network.

Remote Data Access

How do you securely connect to your cloud? A VPN allows you to remotely connect into a secure server that hosts the data you need to access, keeping you secure from prying eyes.

Companies that want to improve security while not hindering accessibility for their employees should all look into a VPN.

Avoid International Censorship

If you’re looking to grow your business, this may mean traveling to and from countries that have internet censorship in place – and this can hinder your employees and your progress in a big way. With a business VPN you can choose different locations to appear as if your business is still connecting to the internet just like you were back home.

When you’re thinking about whether a VPN is the right choice, other things to consider include set up costs and management and operations. A business VPN may not might be an ideal solution for every type of company, but the security and flexibility it offers can help those organizations looking to protect their data as securely as possible.

Steps To Solving Operational Issues

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If you are spending more time encountering the same issues over and over again in your business operations, you are going to notice over time that they are festering into bigger issues. The thing is, no matter what industry your business is in, if you have done the things that you have always done, you will get the results that you have always gotten.

Choosing to implement an approach that solves problems in your business can help you to realise the root cause of what is going wrong in your operations, so that you can approach it the right way and find solutions to the problem. Manufacturing plants are large places, and anything from boilers to heat exchangers can go wrong at any time. You need to take a problem solving approach and below, you will find this solution broken down into steps to make sure that mistakes do not happen.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Operational Issues Resolution | Corrective Action Program
 
Look at the problem. An issue can be seen as a temporary setback or an interruption in production. The problem is that these temporary setbacks can be costly, and the first thing that you need to be aware of is if a problem exists and you should view it as an opportunity to make improvements for next time.

Get to know the issue. Something in the plant has broken down and production has halted across the board. In order to understand the issue, you need to figure out what started all of it. Some of the questions that you can ask is:

  • Who needs to be informed?
  • What are the processes in question that have failed?
  • When and where did the issue occur?
  • What caused the issue?
  • Does the problem happen too often?

Implement temporary measures. You can’t always find a perfect solution right away, and that’s okay! You first need to put out the fire and put the right fix in place for now – even if that fix is only temporary.

Find the cause. You can’t always find the exact cause of the issue straight away, but when you do you need to find the root cause and not just the immediate problem. If the heat exchangers or boilers have failed, you need to figure out what caused the failure and then trace back from there to fix it. This will prevent it from happening again.

Find a solution. Once you know the root cause of the issue you are facing, you can figure out the solution. Work with your team and examine your options wholly. Once you find your solutions, plan for back up solutions in case the first solution doesn’t work.

Make a plan. Action plans are there to help you to implement the solutions that you’ve come up with. With the right resources and an established timeline, your progress can be closely watched.
Reap the rewards. When you start to see progress and results, collect the data to evaluate these results and use performance indicators against any standards you set. Adjust your plan and make it work.