Zombie Hunter Extraordinaire

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On my business cards, I’ve often thought the titles under my name should read: Owner. CEO. Zombie Hunter. Handing them out and watching for the inevitable eye roll would be kind of fun. But make no mistake; I’m dead serious about zombie hunting. This is a skill that – if Owner or CEO is a title on your business card – you need to master. And fast.

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About the Author

Jamie GerdsenJamie Gerdsen, the CEO/Owner of Apollo Home, is a sought after speaker on leading and improving a traditional ‘Main Street’ business. His new book is Zombies Ate My Business: How to Keep Your Traditional Business from Becoming One of the Undead.

5 Ways To Improve Your Delivery Service

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5 Ways To Improve Your Delivery ServiceDelivery is a core aspect of business. Whether you’re operating out of your bedroom or you’re a corporate giant, the delivery service matters. It all comes down to the final product you deliver to your customer. The delivery aspect is tricky when you’re a small business. Packaging and posting each item yourself takes time and dedication. But, it doesn’t get much easier when you start making more sales! Things become a great deal more complicated, and mistakes become easier. Whatever size your business, you could stand to improve the delivery service. Here’s how.

1. Automated software

Our first trick is to automate everything. From the moment an order comes into your system, it should automatically produce an address label. The software should track the delivery through your fulfillment process, checking off boxes as it goes along. This way, if something goes wrong or a parcel gets lost, you know where the problem is. That software should track the package all the way to delivery (more on that later). With software systems like this, you always know where things are.

2. Choose the right logistics company

As your business grows, you’ll begin to manage increasing order numbers. At a certain point, your small operation won’t be able to handle everything. When that happens, you’ll want to consider outsourcing your delivery system. The final part of your supply chain solutions should be a reliable delivery provider. Logistics companies have the resources to go abroad with ease, and they run their deliveries like clockwork.

3. Use GPS and telematics

The most crucial part of the delivery process is monitoring and measuring. You should track every single parcel that leaves your warehouse, and know where it is at all times. If there are any problems, you can spot exactly where the last check in was. Even using expert freight management solutions offers you real-time shipment tracking and regular status updates, which can be very helpful. By doing that, you can monitor their performance. How fast are the deliveries? Could they be even faster or more reliable?

4. Keep customers updated

There’s nothing worse than keeping your customers in the dark when it comes to deliveries. Use the automated software, and the tracking facilities, to keep your customers updated. Let them know when the package is dispatched. Let them know when it’s out for delivery, and the best time to expect their driver. At the end of the day, your entire delivery process is shaped around customer satisfaction. Keep them happy!

5. Exceed expectations

Speaking of customer satisfaction, it’s your job to go above and beyond the typical delivery service. Your customers have a baseline of expectations. In other words, they expect the delivery on time. They expect the product to be safely packaged. All you have to do, is add a little extra flair. Good customer service on the doorstep will exceed their expectations. So will a creative or unique package. Or an extra note to say thank you for their service.

Your delivery system is the heart of your business. Execute it with precision, and always exceed your customer’s expectation!

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How to Optimize Your Maintenance Spare Parts Inventory

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Economic demands place increasing pressure on executives and managers to reduce costs while maintaining high levels of operational safety and reliability. For Work Management and Supply Chain leaders, areas of potential savings lie with:

  • optimizing inventory levels while reducing associated carrying costs,
  • minimizing or eliminating expediting costs, and
  • eliminating losses incurred as parts become obsolete in the warehouse

… while providing the highest level of parts availability.

While every company’s circumstances are unique, StrategyDriven Advisors observe significant avoidable expenses incurred because of work management – supply chain program misalignments, including:

  • inventory reduction of 10 – 25 percent
  • near elimination of expediting costs
  • significant reductions in warehouse spoilage and obsolescence

As a complimentary supplement to this video, StrategyDriven’s Maintenance Inventory Optimization, Work Management – Supply Chain Interface Barriers whitepaper presents the sixteen most commonly occurring work management – supply chain program barriers our advisors have identified when helping clients optimize their inventories. We believe these barriers represent an excellent starting point to evaluate the sufficiency of your company’s spare parts inventories.

Download StrategyDriven’s Maintenance Inventory Optimization whitepaper – It’s FREE!

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Three Key Strategies Any Business Can Adopt in 2016 to Boost Profitability

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It is a competitive market in today’s economy. After 26 years since the creation of the businesses now have a number of methods and channels to distribute marketing and information about their products and services and are able to reach a varied and broad audience. While this may be an effective marketing approach, it generates an almost cutthroat atmosphere of competition. Here are three key strategies any business can adopt in the coming year to boost profitability:

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About the Author

Richard MilamRichard Milam is the president and CEO of EnableSoft. Prior to founding EnableSoft, in 1995, Richard was a partner and Senior Vice President of FiTech PLUSmark, and held other positions in Information Technology, Operations, and Sales.

4 Services You Need For Your Business To Succeed

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4 Services You Need For Your Business To Succeed
It’s nearly 2016 and that could mean a new start for your company. Perhaps this year wasn’t as profitable as you hoped so it’s time to make some changes. If you want your business to be successful, we suggest you invest in the right services. That way you can save on costs as well as making sure your business is run more effectively. These are the services and solutions that we suggest.

Legal Advice

It’s crucial for a modern business to hire the right legal help. There are a number of different ways your business can find itself with a legal issue. It could be related to your employees. This might be to do with human resources, bullying or even an accidental injury. You’ll be thankful that you have employment law consultants at hand, ready to help.

You could find that you have a contractual dispute with a supplier. When dealing with contracts for your business, it’s best to think ahead. You need to make sure that you always have legal help whenever you are making a new deal with business partners. That way you will be completely protected. Of course, legal solutions are just one of the ways you need to protect your company.

IT Support

We imagine that a large majority of your business is dependent on online networking. If that’s the case you need to make sure that it doesn’t break down or falter. It’s difficult to do this without hiring a full IT team for your business. That’s costly so instead you should outsource this job to an IT support service. They’ll keep a check on your computer systems and ensure everything operates smoothly. This is particular beneficial if your business is using cloud-based software.

Using cloud-based software, you might be running your company from outside of an office. In fact it could be a global machine with lots of different parts. But if the server breaks, then you will almost certainly run into issues operating your business.

A Business Consultant

Business consultants come in all different forms and with various charges. You could get a marketing consultant or a customer service consultant. Either way, they are sure to boost the effectiveness of your business, offering you key advice in their specialised area. That said, the cost is troublesome. That’s why we suggest you use a person business advisor instead. These are far more cost friendly and will provide your company with great support.

A Market Agency

Lastly, any successful business owner will tell you just how important marketing is. It’s not just about getting your business noticed. It’s about making sure that your company is remembered by customers and that you are constantly making waves. The best way to do this is to hire a digital marketing agency. They’ll run promotion for your business on all major platforms, ensuring customers find and use your company.

Use these solutions and we guarantee your business will be more effective, and you will maximise your profits in the new year.

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