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Cost-Saving Strategies Every Business Should Implement To Cut Down On Outgoings

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Cost-Saving Strategies Every Business Should Implement To Cut Down On Outgoings Every business, no matter how large or small, wants to keep their outgoings as low as possible. In a competitive market, it is essential to ensure you are keeping costs down in order to remain competitive and maximise profits. There are a variety of cost-saving strategies businesses can implement in order to reduce their outgoings and increase their bottom line. From automating processes and negotiating better deals with suppliers to introducing digital solutions and switching water utility providers, there are many measures businesses can take to reduce their outgoings and increase their profitability. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most effective cost-saving strategies every business should consider implementing in order to cut down on outgoings.

Automating Processes

One of the most effective ways to reduce business costs is by automating processes. Many businesses have a number of manual processes in place that can be streamlined by introducing automation. For example, by automating repetitive tasks such as data entry, you will be able to reduce the number of staff members required for this task and free up valuable resources for other important business activities. By automating processes, you will be able to reduce your overheads, save time, and improve productivity.

Negotiating Better Deals With Suppliers

Another cost-saving strategy every business should consider implementing is negotiating better deals with suppliers. Before you sign a contract with a new supplier, it’s important to shop around and compare their pricing with that of other suppliers in your industry. You may find that you can negotiate a better deal with a supplier than they are currently offering you. You can also negotiate better terms and conditions with your existing suppliers by informing them that you are prepared to find a replacement if they cannot offer you a more competitive pricing structure. 

Switching Water Utility Providers

Another cost-saving strategy you can implement is to review your business water contracts and consider switching water utility providers. If you are currently spending a lot on your water utilities, you may be able to switch providers and save money on your water bill. You can switch water utility suppliers by looking for better deals at The Business Water Shop, where you can compare business water rates in your area to save you money and time.

Introducing Digital Solutions

There are a number of ways in which you can introduce digital solutions to help you cut down on your costs. For example, introducing a CRM system is a great way to cut down on costs. Not only will this software help you to save money, but it will also help to reduce the amount of time it takes you to complete your daily tasks and manage your customers. Similarly, introducing an automated email marketing campaign can help you to reduce costs by cutting down on your spending on marketing. Likewise, HR and payroll software can help you to reduce the amount of money you spend on staff scheduling and finances, while digital marketing tools can help you to cut down on the amount of money you spend on marketing. No matter which solutions you choose, implementing digital solutions is an excellent way to streamline your business and cut down on your outgoings.

How to Start a Heavy-Duty Parts Business in 5 Simple Steps

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | How to Start a Heavy-Duty Parts Business in 5 Simple Steps

If you know about the manufacturing and the sale of heavy-duty parts, and you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you might want to start selling them. Starting your own business may appeal to you, and if you have the aptitude for it, there’s no reason not to pursue this endeavor.

You might sell international truck parts or other heavy-duty parts for which there is a market. In this article, we’ll detail the steps you’ll need to take to get your new company off the ground.

Come Up with a Viable Business Plan

Coming up with a sensible business plan is the first thing you’ll need to do if you’re serious about starting your own heavy-duty parts company. There are templates online you can use if you’re not sure how to create one of these plans.

Business plans lay out what you propose to do in a simple, step-by-step format. If you’re going to approach a lending entity about getting a business loan, they will expect to see one of these plans.

Make Sure You Have the Cash in Place

Next, you must consider funding. If you already have the cash to get the business going, you won’t need to borrow any money. If you need a loan, though, you’ll need to approach a lending entity like a credit union or bank.

The lender will ask you questions about the company you propose to create, and you can show them your business plan. You should have answers ready to all the questions they’re likely to ask.

Set Up Your Supply Chain

Next, you must set up your supply chain. You’ll need an entity from which you’ll buy the heavy-duty parts. They should be reliable and have an excellent industry reputation.

You’ll want to have ready access to the heavy-duty parts you need. Without that, your business isn’t likely to be successful.

Create a Company Website and Hire Employees

Once you have your funding and supply chain set up, you’ll want to either create a website for your company yourself or else you can hire a professional site designer to do it for you. You can talk to the designer about what you envision for the site and what elements it must feature.

Then, you can hire employees. You will want to hunt for the best and most skilled individuals who can handle each of the positions that will be part of your overall business model.

Open Your Doors to the Public

Finally, when you have hired all of the necessary employees, you can take your website live and open your doors to the public. You’ll have to figure out whether you’re selling heavy-duty parts to private citizens or to larger commercial entities.

In other words, you’ll need to decide whether you’re operating a B2B or B2C company. B2B means business to business, while B2C means business to consumer.

If you follow these steps and don’t neglect any of them, you should set yourself up for success as a company selling heavy-duty parts.

5 Reasons Using A PR Firm For Your Business Should Be On Your List In 2023

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | 5 Reasons Using A PR Firm For Your Business Should Be On Your List In 2023

Being a “software as a service” provider company, you must invest in marketing for your product as much as your competitors do. Every company regardless of what size it is and whether it belongs to the FMCG sector, electronic appliances, automobile, or any service sector, is going to need some sort of promotional function on its side. Public Relations is a good option. It’s a great way to get everyone talking about your product. Also known as PR, this is a fantastic way for many businesses to establish direct contact with their audience. But what does a PR firm do for a SaaS company? Let’s find out:

1. It Can Ensure More Credibility For Your Brand

If you are looking to create a more honest and reliable image of your company among your customers, public relations can help. Creating a positive image for your brand is a very vital component of public relations from the start and it has always been this way. When you are looking to increase the credibility of your company, you are also looking to invoke a sense of trust among your customers. This has to be driven by real opinions that are not biased at all. For this, you have to come across as a considerate brand. And to achieve this, you must connect with a reliable and skilled public relations company that understands your sector as much as you do, if not better.

2. It Is A Low-Cost Option

Who told you that PR is going to be expensive on your budget? Even the most elaborate public relations function is going to prove to be a low-cost option. This is because there are custom promotional campaigns available for small-size, medium-size, and large-size businesses. The implementation of a PR campaign can be as customized and streamlined as you want it to be. You can either pause it at your convenience or even keep it running for as long as you want. It does not necessitate for you to have a high monetary outlet. Most of the public relations functions that are recommended by marketing gurus use free media coverage which means that there is little to no investment from your side for the most part.

3. Don’t You Want To Become A Category Leader?

Becoming a category or industry leader is a dream come true for every SaaS company out there. You want to lead the innovation circuit. You want to become the pioneer in your sector. With public relations, you can establish a strong dialogue with your consumers. You can easily convince them to buy your product (and also ditch the offerings that are available to them via your competitors). But of course, this message is going to be very subtle and in a way that will help them understand just how skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable you are as a brand.

4. Great Reach At A Very Affordable Price

This is a very big reason that a lot of technology and solutions companies in the IT sector are aiming for public relations. The reach of these SaaS PR firms is phenomenal. It can help you connect with your target audience more easily. As a tech company, you are able to reach even the furthest corner of your target demographic by leveraging the popularity of these PR professionals. They help you understand the many ways you can use social media to widen your reach and gain more attention even internationally. Public Relations is not only a great way to create more awareness about your brand but also about the various offerings in your product portfolio that would otherwise go unnoticed by most of your prospects. Your campaign can be run on various mediums such as television, radio, podcasts, online news websites, print media, and a lot of other channels that you may have not even tapped into before.

5. Constant Activity

Just as pointed out above, this can be a constant exercise or it can be a periodic one. Depending upon your needs and your financial capability, you can choose to stay in the minds of your customers for as long as you want. It can be only for the duration of a project or up until the launch of your newest product/service.

Final Thoughts

Public Relations is critical to the success of your SaaS company. Almost everyone in your industry is already using it in some way or another. It is time for you to invest in it as well. The sooner you do it the better it is for you.

9 Team Building Activities Your Entire Staff Can Enjoy

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | 9 Team Building Activities Your Entire Staff Can EnjoyIn theory, organizing team building activities is a perfect way to get your team to get to know each other outside the office and form a stronger bond within the office as a result. However, finding the right activity for everyone if you are running a company that has multiple departments can be a real challenge.If your workforce is very diverse, there’s a good chance that preferences are going to vary – especially if you have a workforce in which there are employees who are not all the same relative age. This is why you need to find a way to celebrate these differences by choose activities everyone feels comfortable participating in.

Here’s a list of fun team building exercises everyone can participate in and enjoy.

Scavenger Hunt

Purpose: Teamwork

A scavenger hunt is a classic team collaboration game. The rules are easy:

Split your team into equal sized groups and send them out with a list of fun things to find. You can choose whether you want to do this in the office or outside the office. Set a time limit for all groups and put together some fun clues or even riddles that will force your teams to get creative and use not just their eyes but their brains as well! Whichever team comes back with the most items once time has run out is the winner.

Minefield

Purpose: Communication and problem solving

For this indoor game, you will need an empty room or hallway and a bunch of random office items. You can use office chairs, paper, boxes, anything you have around the office that isn’t too delicate or expensive to create obstacles in the empty space or “minefield.” Divide teams into pairs in which one of them must be blindfolded.

The other one must guide that person from start to finish without setting off any mines. That means they cannot step on any obstacles or venture outside the given boundaries. Their only guidance is the voice of their partner. You can change the number of pairs and obstacles depending on how difficult you want this game to be.

Three Truths and a Lie

Purpose: Getting to know each other

This is a really easy game. Before starting, give each team member four slips of paper where each of them can secretly write down three truths and one lie about themselves. It’s very important that the lie is believable. Instruct them not to reveal to anyone what they wrote down!

Then allow 15 minutes for conversation between the team members. This is the time when everyone should go around the room and talk about their written talking points in random order. The goal here is to convince others that your lie is a truth while you try to guess other people’s lies by asking them different questions. Remember- you should not reveal your truths or lies to other team members, even if everyone else has already guessed everything!

Say My Name

Purpose: Breaking stereotypes

Everyone should write down names (e.g. someone famous) or types of people (e.g. professor, doctor, wealthy, athletic) on name tags. Then put those tags on each team member’s back or forehead so they cannot see who they are but everyone else can.

Give people a few minutes to talk to each other and ask questions. The point is to treat everyone according to stereotypes related to the name on their tag. After each team member figures out who they are, they should exit the game and leave the rest of the people to continue playing. This game allows your employees to have fun and engage in conversation while confronting stereotypes at the same time.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | 9 Team Building Activities Your Entire Staff Can Enjoy
Office Trivia

Purpose: Bonding

This is one of the easiest team building games to put together! All you have to do is come up with a series of questions about your office and then test your team’s knowledge. You can ask a variety of questions such as: “What brand of computer does a certain employee use?” “How many people are in the finance department” or “How many windows are there in the office?” or “Who takes their coffee with cream and sugar?”

Besides bonding people through conversation, this fun and easy team building activity is great for testing how observant people are and how much they know about their office, company and colleagues.

Community Service

Purpose: Enhance teamwork and collaboration

Find an activity that reflects your company values, get out of the office for a day and do something good for your community. This team building activity is not only excellent for getting your employees together and bonding through something that’s incredible positive, it’s also great for the overall image of your company in terms of local marketing.

When businesses go out into their communities and help people in need, the members of the community take notice and reward those businesses with loyalty.

Mural Painting

Purpose: Enhancing creativity

For this fun and creative team building activity you will need paint, brushes and something to paint on. It can be a canvas or a wall of your building/office. The point is to give each member of the team complete freedom to paint whatever they want. Give them a general theme and then let everyone create their own colorful masterpieces.

If you are giving an individual canvas to each employee, put them together and display them in your office as a mural once they are dry. Some people might refuse to paint at first because they don’t think they are talented, so make sure you explain to everyone that this is not a contest. This game’s purpose is to show that everyone has a creative side once they overcome their fears of showing it.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | 9 Team Building Activities Your Entire Staff Can Enjoy
Make Your Logo

Purpose: Problem solving

Start by asking everyone to empty their pockets, purses and wallets and gather all the coins you can find and then place the coins on a table in front of you. Each team member should create their own logo for the company or team using the coins in front of them in one minute.

You may also use pens, notebooks, paper and anything you else you have around the office to create the logo. The logo can represent the team members individually or you can work together to create a logo for the department or even the entire organization. It’s a fun and creative game that encourages resourcefulness.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Purpose: Communication skills

For this team building activity, you will need a small piece of paper for each employee and a list of well-known “couples” such as peanut butter and jelly, Romeo and Juliet, salt and pepper, and so on. Each team member should wear the name of one half of each pair on their backs.

Have everyone mingle and try to figure out the word on their backs while only asking each other “Yes or No” questions. Once they figure out their word, they have to find the other half of their pair. As they find each other, have them sit down while the rest of the team continues until everyone has connected with their pair.

About the Author

Tamara Luzajic is a web content writer and editor, currently working as a copywriter at Humanity, employee scheduling and workforce management software.

How 25 Years of the Internet Has Changed the World of Business

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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article | How 25 Years of the Internet Has Changed the World of BusinessMany things have changed in the world of business over the past 25 years; in fact, some would say that almost everything to do with business and the associated transactions has changed or been altered in a significant way with the advent of the internet, online purchasing, smartphones, and Wi-Fi. While it may be true that how business is conducted has been altered significantly, it is also true that who consumers are doing business with is sometimes a complete mystery, even to the consumer. Yes, the world of business has changed a great deal in the past 25 years and here are just some of the many ways you may have noticed it altering the way you do business.

Online Information

It may be difficult to comprehend, but there are 55 to 60 billion pages of web information that has been created by people using the internet, and that figure grows exponentially each year. In addition to that number of web search engine indexed pages of data, there are an estimated hundreds of billions of pages of information that are not indexed – including almost 700 million tweet posts each day. Add to that all the emails, government records, and constantly changing pages of products for sale, and you can see how massive the world of online information has become. As little as 25 years ago, that much information available to anyone that wanted to spend time locating it was unthinkable.

Internet Searches

Once upon a time, it was thought the internet held databases, and everything was a product of those databases. While that may have been true during the early years of the internet, it is not true today. Everything is a result of a search task in the modern world. What clothes to buy, what books to read, what restaurant to visit are all the result of a search. Additionally, you no longer need to wonder about something for longer than a few seconds because you can initiate a search and the answer is instantly at your fingertips. The consumer is such a curious group that they ask the internet to answer over three trillion questions for them every year on the search engines. There is no estimation of how many additional queries are made on travel sites for where to go on vacation, shopping databases to compare different items or other areas such as the United CPA Association for information on help in a business matter, but it must be upward of six to nine trillion or more. That means the average person makes around 1,500 search queries a year, or an average of 42 a day.

Social Networks

Social media site owners report that one account alone has more than 25 percent of the world population (1.1 billion people) checking into that single site alone each day. That means that billions of people talk about different products, shops, books, and businesses every day on their favorite social media sites, and some spend hours pasting on walls, sending tweets, and posting stories about their lives. During all that interaction with their keyboards, those consumers also spend time sharing information and pictures about products they love and products that have failed them. For some businesses, the word of mouth meant instant success, but for others, it meant the death of a dream.

Product Placement

Twenty years ago, if you had a new product for sale, you could request a product placement on a shelf or endcap that would entice the consumer to purchase your items. It was the biggest and best way to get the consumer to purchase your product once they were in store. In the past five years, however, it is estimated that millions of consumers no longer step into stores to purchase products, rather they look online for goods, place an order, and have it delivered to their car outside the store or delivered right to their home. This type of consumer purchasing power has done away with product placement, and for many retailers, it has come as quite a quandary as to how to counter the power the consumer has taken away from the advertising agency and distributor.

Commercial Overload

Long ago, there was a time that four or five commercials played in certain time slots between sections of television shows. When consumers complained and used the four or five minutes as a time to get food or take the dog outside, the time slot became known as commercial overload. Today, the consumer is constantly being bombarded by advertisements to sell him or her something using the cookies his or her computer stores; and just like before, consumers are ignoring the ads in record numbers. Not only has it become more difficult to catch the consumer’s attention, but researchers have noticed that ignoring the ad placement begins at a very early age now as children begin using the internet and learn to focus on what they choose, rather than having their attention reverted away by something colorful and flashy. That means the world of advertising is going to have to learn to capture the consumer’s attention in new ways, and it will be interesting to see what advertisers come up with.

The world of business has been forever changed by the internet over the past 25 years. Some say it has been good for the business world, and others claim it has been massively destructive. Only time will tell what the real story is.