3 Things That You Should Consider Outsourcing

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As a business owner, there are many decisions that you have to make, and one of them is whether you outsource or not. Whilst some people are outsourcing converts – and get most of their work done by external companies – others are a little more skeptical, and would prefer to have control over every part of their business in-house. Whilst this is understandable, there are a range of benefits of outsourcing, and if you’re not utilizing it in your business, then you could be missing out on saving money, and having the job done, well… better by somebody else.

We’ve put together a list of 3 things that you should consider outsourcing in your business.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Outsourcing | 3 Things That You Should Consider Outsourcing
 
1. Your social media management

Social media seems like something that would be easy to manage yourself, because all you have to do is post out a few updates every now and again, to make sure that you’re drawing people in across the various platforms. However, getting social media right is actually a lot more complex than that, and outsourcing it means that you’ll be able to benefit due to those professionals that know the algorithms, and what works. On top of this, it’s actually harder than you think to come up with a few things a week to post, especially when you’ve got to think up those ideas that will cause a good reaction. Leave it to the professionals!

2. Your IT security

OK, so pretty much every business out there uses IT in some way, and we all enjoy the benefits that it brings us. After all, are there any people out there who aren’t checking their emails at least 50 times a day now? As people – and business owners – we are IT obsessed, but security is a complex and difficult thing to manage. Even if you’ve got somebody in-house to deal with issues such as networking monitoring, the truth is that most external cybersecurity companies are a lot more advanced, which means that you’ll be facing less problems in the long-run. It will probably be cheaper than hiring somebody in-house, too.

3. Your admin

When it comes to admin, there is arguably nothing more boring than dealing with these things. Whilst you want to be getting on with that good stuff, it’s pretty annoying that your phone is constantly ringing, and that you’re being bombarded with emails left, right, and center. There’s nothing that you can do about this though, right? You’ll be pleased to hear that you can get a virtual reception, where people answer your phone calls, and even deal with your mail, for you. This is ideal for those who can’t afford full-time admin staff, and it’s great if you just want to get rid of some of the pressure of office life.

So, if you want to take those first steps into the world of outsourcing, then consider handing over these 3 things to the professionals. You’ll be glad that you did when you’re saving yourself a lot of time, and money, in the process!

Can Your Business Keep Up With Consumer Demand?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Consumer Demand|Can Your Business Keep Up With Consumer Demand?When you’ve got a good thing going, you want to keep it going. But success only comes in intervals in business, and therefore no one is ever guaranteed a permanent seat on the throne. So you should do you best to stay one step in front of the next interval, and make sure you are consistently achieving what you want to achieve. Maybe your product is selling very well, or perhaps your service is making headway in your industry. Suddenly you’re looking like a brilliant alternative for customers around the world. Consumer demand for your commerce is only going to stay high if you know what they want. Then logistically you will be tested to deliver on that expectation. Practically, you will need to be ready to smartly use your resources, to continue improving your products and services in the ways being demanded. Do you have the capacity to fill such new demands and live up to the anticipation? There are numerous ways you can do this.

Don’t believe the hype

Your first bout of success is going to have you smiling from ear to ear. It’s going to feel wonderful and finally you’ll say to yourself, things are working out as planned. However, you must snap yourself out of this euphoria that success can bring and make sure you are keeping your finger on the pulse. Why are you having this great period of rising sales and profits? What are the exact reasons for this. It may not be because the majority of consumers think your product is better but rather, that you were simply cheaper than the next rival. On the other hand it could be because there is a key feature they like which no other competitor has. There’s always a reason or multiple for why you are getting a new and consistent sales increase.

Plan your improvements

Of course business cannot stand still, you are in the annals of constant improvement. You may have the best product one year, but the next year you could so easily be toppled from your perch. The large corporations like Samsung always begin to plan ahead for the improvements they will make for their next iteration even before the current product is released. Therefore you need to begin planning on what you would like to see be done more thoroughly, made stronger, more complex, optimized and just the sheer overall quality increased.

All this entails, going back to the drawing board and being totally honest about what you think were the shortcomings of your current product and or service line. In a perfect world, what would you change? Slowly but surely you should work your way towards making that perfect goal a reality.

Keep them fixated

Is there such a thing as customer loyalty? Yes. But is consumer loyalty real? No. Consumers on the whole look for what’s best for them. And price has a huge part to play in what choices they make. Consider using netsuite pricing which has the world’s leading ERP system. In this system there is a section for ecommerce. It will help you organize your strategy for reaching out to online consumers. This external strategy is by far the most important in the modern age of internet shopping. Everything from marketing, software applications, and real world connections via ecommerce can be decided and managed using this ERP.

Upscale your production

Perhaps the most crucial but by far the most expensive is the upscaling of your production. It’s the dream come true when you simply don’t have enough products being made to satisfy the sudden overwhelming demand. Yet, if it’s allowed to continue for too long it can be a nightmare. Consumers don’t wait around for any business, they want what they want, and they want it now. So if you can see that your units are being sold far quicker than you can currently produce in a short space of time, you need to upscale your production capabilities.

Instead of one manufacturing facility or storage warehouse, double both and start creating the right amount of products that will keep up with the rate of purchases. This way the increase in demand is met with the equal supply. Avoiding backlogs of orders also avoids the big headache of going back and rectifying outstanding and late orders.

Every business wants to have that feeling of being overwhelmed by so much demand for their product. You’re obviously doing something right, but you can’t be in a production deficit for too long. Using an ERP you can manage your online strategy for reaching out far and wide to new customers.

4 Areas Your Business Should Be Focusing On This Year

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StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program Article | Business Performance Improvement | 4 Areas Your Business Should Be Focusing On This YearThe reality is that if you try to take on too much at once with your business, this approach may backfire on you. It’s better to focus in on a few essential initiatives than it is to spread yourself too thin and, in turn, end up accomplishing nothing.

There are four areas in particular that your business should highly consider concentrating on this year if you want to experience more success. Take time to review the following ideas and then think about which areas you’re performing well and which ones could use more of your time and attention so that you can come up with a plan of action for moving forward.

1. Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is one area you definitely want to focus on this year if you’re going to run a better business. It’s important to collect feedback and track your customer service performance, so you know exactly how you’re doing. The happier your customers are, the more likely it is that your business will receive positive reviews online and that consumers will start talking about you with each other and spreading the word about why it’s a wise choice to do business with you.

2. Health & Safety Obligations

Additionally, commit to following health and safety protocol and running a safer business this year. You’ll avoid unwanted situations this way and be able to retain your employees because they’ll feel safe and protected coming to work each day. Properly ventilate and extract dust and waste by using products from Integrated Air Systems to help you achieve this goal. This way, you’ll reduce the risk of equipment breaking down or someone getting sick or hurt because of unsafe working conditions.

3. Employee Retention

Another area your business should be focusing on this year has to do with employee retention. The truth is that people are more willing to change jobs these days if they’re unhappy at their current employer. Keep your employees satisfied and motivated by assigning them challenging tasks and rewarding them fairly for their efforts. Be willing to gather feedback from and listen to your employees so you can create an even more attractive work environment.

4. Innovation

Your business should also be concentrating on how to innovate your products or services in the upcoming year. Going along with business as usual might be the easy answer, but it’s not what’s going to help you stay relevant or get ahead of your competitors. Hold brainstorming sessions with your employees and use your creativity to come up with new solutions that are impressive and newsworthy.

Conclusion

Achieve better results with your business this year when you’re focusing on improving in the right areas. Use these tips to help you set more specific goals about what it is you wish to accomplish and what challenges you need to overcome in the future. Start by coming up with a plan of action and then writing down specific details about how you’ll properly execute each objective.

Ethical Viewpoints & Environmental Investments: Helping Your Business Profit Emotionally (Without Wasting Profit)

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Business Management | Ethical Viewpoints & Environmental Investments: Helping Your Business Profit Emotionally (Without Wasting Profit)For every business leader out there, it can feel like stepping into the unknown from time to time, whether we believe we are making wise investments or not. Sometimes we forge a path all of our own, but sometimes we go with the grain. As far as the modern industries are concerned, money is tight, yet we are still expected to comply with numerous rules and regulations. Our carbon footprint is one of those common examples that we have to adhere to by implementing the most environmentally-friendly processes, but these come at a cost. With this in mind, are there any ways for us to embody a more ethical outlook while also keeping our finances down?

Making The Right Investments

We are told to minimize our paper usage, maximize our recycling, and ensure that our digital carbon footprint doesn’t go over a certain amount. In many ways, this is asking you to do contradictory things, but this is where you have to find the lesser of evils. The best place to begin is by looking at your business and how compliant it is from an ethical standpoint. If recycling hasn’t been a priority, and you want to rectify this, it’s a very simple change. You can buy a product like this one, the BearSaver – Mini Depot Recycling Enclosure which has individual compartments for plastic, mixed recycling, glass, or landfill. It’s a fairly simple starting point, but it gets the message across. Because improving your carbon footprint is a long journey, it’s far better for you to start by assessing where you’re falling down and getting the basics right.

Encouraging Employees To Take Responsibility

If we encourage employees to take responsibility for their work, then it’s not a big leap to encourage them to be responsible for their carbon footprint. Of course, we can’t force them to do this, but by providing them with the facts, and giving them the opportunity to realize what their individual impact is, such as by a carbon footprint calculator, it will make them think twice about what they’re doing and how their approach hinders the planet.

Finding The Right Ways To Give Back

And for those employees that believe the message of saving the planet to be “preachy” or that we’re forcing these things upon them unfairly, we have to lead by example. Giving back doesn’t have to be complex. For example, if you are a business that uses a lot of paper, and you are trying desperately to change this, by starting to plant trees, it’s a small gesture that can go a long way. From there, you can start to build up initiatives like cycling to work or encouraging certain employees to use public transport, we can feel more content that we are doing the right thing.

Some are sick to the teeth of rules and regulations, especially when it comes to the environment and carbon footprint, but we still need to push forward with this. For those companies that don’t think about it, you’ll soon see that your customers won’t align with your ethical viewpoints or you may have financial penalties. Either way, maybe it’s time to do your bit?

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.