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Why You Should Consider Switching To a Direct Debit Service

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution ArticleDirect Debit is one of the safest and most cost-effective methods of conducting a financial transaction. It is an instruction from customers to bank or building society to collect specific amounts from their accounts after giving an advance notice of date and value of the transaction.

You give the authorisation by completing a Direct Debit Mandate form that can be either in paper or in the form of an online web page. Post-authorisation, the organisation can automatically take payments from you in accordance with their scheme rules.

Direct Debit makes sure all bills are paid automatically without delays or any hassle. It saves businesses plenty of time meaning they can focus on the importance of staying concentrated on their core competencies.

Use of Direct Debit

Direct Debit is mostly used for payments along with:

  • Paying regular bills of variable amounts. You will be assured with direct debit that all your bills are paid timely every month.
  • Safest and easiest way to make recurring payments like magazine subscriptions or membership offers.
  • Companies provide Direct Debit services as an option for spreading costs or paying on an account.
  • Other than regular and recurring payments, it is also used for one-off payments.

Direct Debit Payment

It’s hard to remember when bills have to be paid, but matters can be made easier using Direct Debit that allows hassle-free payments. It is the most preferred method of payment in the UK. It is not only used for paying household bills, but also by businesses to pay their day-to-day transactions and commitments. Payments are automatically taken from your account on a regular basis.

Direct Debit Collections

Implementing efficient billing services like Direct Debit is the easiest way for an organisation to collect payments from customers and businesses, ensuring accuracy and reducing administrative overhead. It reduces the cost of collecting funds directly from a bank account.

Here are some reasons why you should consider switching to a paperless direct debit service:

1. Ease of Use

It is very easy to set up. Once your business signs up with a direct debit provider, customers can get ready for payment collections through a one-off process. Customers receive a link where they enter bank details online giving customers the authority to make payments from their bank accounts. Direct Debit services are also optimised for mobile so customers can sign up on the move, making it very simple.

There is also an option of paying variable amounts at different intervals without having to do anything more. This feature makes it perfect for paying those bills where you are charged depending on monthly usage. The company AccessPay offer a Cloud-based Direct Debit solution (which you can view here) that adds an advantage and ease that I found few other competitors do. With their service, they make collecting funds faster, simpler and more efficient for you. With the cloud-based debit solution they allow you to set up a number of Bacs direct debits, which will help to manage the entire payment process with ease.

2. Saves Precious Time

It is very challenging for some people who lead busy lives to find time to stay on top of their bills and other finances. Setting up Direct Debit can help you pay on time without having to remember the deadlines. Everything will be done efficiently and automatically. Once your payment mandate is set up, your job is done. Forget all about setting reminders for your payments because direct debit will do all that for you without you having to lift a finger.

3. No More Late Payments

If you are running a business where customers are making credit payments and you are fed up of those people who never seem to pay on time, a direct debit service can make your life a little easier. With Direct Debit, your customers will pay on time every time. The entire payment process is taken care of automatically, so your customers will not miss a payment again. You can also give better customer service this way without any disruptions or awkward chase up emails. Save yourself from embarrassment and also from the cost and effort associated with tracking your debtors.

4. Safe and Secure

Direct Debit Services are secure and protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee. It has modern encryption and secured firewalls to protect all users personal and private information. When the information is transferred from the bank, it is encrypted at the source so customers can be assured the safe security of their data. The Direct Debit Guarantee gives customers complete coverage of payments in case of unforeseen circumstances like fraud or payment errors. From all the payment methods in the UK, this is by far the safest for users. It also guarantees to give you the rights to immediate refunds for any incorrect charges that have been added to your account.

5. Cost Effective

Direct Debit Services gives you ample time, admin and cost savings. This money can then be further invested in the business or passed on to customers in the form of incentives or discounts. This will make your services/products more attractive to existing and potential customers. At the same time, it will improve your business standards giving you an edge over your competitors.

6. Attractive Packages

More attractive payment packages can be made for goods that are expensive so that customers can pay back easily through affordable instalments. This will also avoid late payments and the added bank charges for exceeding the overdraft limit in banks. You can make more flexible payment plans for a faster, more efficient payment method.

Switching to a Direct Debit Service reduces the complexity of payment handling, saving your time and giving you peace of mind. So, start improving your cash flow and handle your finances smoothly.

Photo courtesy of Grace Stroke

Why Does Elon Musk Insist On Bamboo Flooring In His Car Plants?

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Tesla hopes that by the end of next year, it’ll be churning out more than half a million cars a year, a significant uptick from the current rate of about 100,000. And where will all of those cars be inspected? On a bamboo floor right at the end of the factory’s production line.

Why you might ask, would Tesla CEO Elon Musk insist on a bamboo floor to inspect cars? What is so special about the flooring? As always, Musk has his reasons. He believes that if you’re going to inspect a product for quality, then whatever is framing that product must also be beautiful and flawless. Bamboo flooring is, by most accounts, stunning. And so by using this flooring, Musk hopes that it will emphasize any defects in cars coming off the production line. It’s almost like the cars themselves have to graduate from an art masterclass before they’re allowed out onto the streets.

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Photo courtesy of Maurizio Pesce via Wikimedia Commons

What can this level of attention to detail teach other businesses? Why does something as apparently insignificant as a bamboo inspection floor mean so much to people like Musk?

It all comes down to the environment. Musk doesn’t see the elements of his company in isolation. There’s not an executive, a board, a marketing team, a production team or any other arbitrary group. Instead, the whole business environment is a living, breathing entity – and like other entities, it’s affected by its environment. Can you emulate this approach to environment in your business?

Cleanliness

Factories are supposed to be dirty places full of oil, dirt, and dust. But to talk a walk in Musk’s Fremont plant in California is to enter what seems like a clean room that just so happens to be making cars. Musk says that working environments need to be perfectly clean to ensure that no compromises are made on the product. A clean environment is an environment which employees unconsciously respect, whereas, in a dirty environment, they are more likely to make careless errors and accept second best.

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Photo courtesy of Maurizio Pesce via Wikimedia Commons

This is why professional commercial floor cleaning is such big business in offices up and down the land. Bosses realize that in order to get the best out of their team, they need to work in a spotless environment.

Stunning Lighting

Musk’s car factory is one of the largest buildings in the world by footprint. But despite that, it’s also one of the brightest. When the factory was first bought, it was a dark and dingy place. But since moving in, it’s become light and airy, thanks to the installation of hundreds of skylights and LED ceiling lamps.

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Photo courtesy of Bill in SF via Wikimedia Commons

Why is this important? Well, it turns out that employees who are exposed to natural light are more productive than those who aren’t. If natural light isn’t possible in your offices for any reason, try supplementing it with naturally-coloured artificial lighting instead.

Allow Desk Customisation

Finally, allow desk customization. Research shows that employees who are able to make their desks a little more homely work harder and longer than those that aren’t.

Outsourcing: The Hottest Thing In Business

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When you’re in business, it’s very hard to fall behind. So many new advances, trends, and ways of doing things pop up all of the time – meaning you hear about them pretty much as soon as they land. Some will benefit your business, others will be irrelevant, and then you’ll find the trends that stick. Because some of them will just work for your business. One of these is likely to be outsourcing. It’s nothing all that new, but as trends go, it’s certainly making waves out there in the business world right now. If you want to grow your business, improve your productivity, and generally operate well, here are some of the key areas you could consider outsourcing.

Sales

Not everyone is comfortable with the sales process, and that’s okay. When you own your own small business, or you’ve just started out, it’s highly likely that you’ll be tackling the majority of the sales process yourself. And if you’re not a natural, it can be something that you dread. So, instead of suffering, why not look at outsourcing it to an expert? With a sales consultant, their compensation is often results lead, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Production

Then there’s the actual administering of your business operations. If you manufacture a product, why not look into outsourcing it? Even if it means you have to send cutting services to one expert, R&D to another, and packing to a specialist, if it speeds up your productivity and is cost-effective, it makes sense. Even if you provide a service, you could outsource some areas of the work to free up your time for more important things.

Marketing

As a small business or startup, do you often find yourself saying that you’ll market more, and never find the time for it? If you’ve answered yes, don’t feel guilty, you’re not the only one. When you wear different hats, and you’re just trying to get your work done, marketing and promotions often get put to the bottom of the priority list. But that’s one of the benefits of outsourcing your marketing – it gets done for you. Plus, it will be experts handling your strategy, meaning they could probably do a better job that you anyway.

Finance

If you’re not a natural when it comes to numbers, you probably hate having to deal with them. Looking at budgets and forecasts and even filing your taxes can be a lot of work. So, outsource it. You can hire an accountant to take care of the regulatory stuff and even filing your taxes. And if you really don’t want to deal with anything yourself, get an assistant in to run the day to day stuff for you too.

Administration

When you’re really busy and are trying to put all of your efforts into growing your business, you’ll probably find that you just don’t have the time to take on all of the admin that needs to get done. Or, worse, you’re spending your time and efforts on the admin and not growing your business. Either way, you need a VA. A virtual assistant can take on all of the annoying admin that you hate doing, and probably get it done a lot quicker than you could too – because they’re a pro!

So You Created A Product, Now How Do Your Get It To Your Customer?

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When you come up with a great idea for a product, you can often find that you spend so much time putting your all into its creating, to then be left stuck wondering what to do when it’s complete. Well, even though it may not feel like it now, you’ll be glad to know that the hard part is over. You managed to come up with a product that was not only worth creating, but that was actually able to be made – so give yourself a pat on the back. So now, you’re going to need to work out just how you’re going to get it to your ideal customer – and that can involve a few different processes.

During the planning stage of creating your product, you would have identified the ideal audience that would be interested in buying from you. So now it’s all about getting your product in front of them and making those sales. Using a combination of marketing, sales, and operations, that can be easily arranged. As long as you’re ready to put a bit more work in and not aim for retirement just yet, your product will find a bunch of happy homes in no time at all.

Marketing

First up, you’re going to want to work on a proper marketing strategy for your product. This will not only get it in front of your customer but also help to create a brand image for your product and your business overall.

Deciding On A Strategy

Before you start with any kind of activity at all, you need to make sure that you decide on the right marketing strategy for your product. Now, this will entirely depend on what it is that you’ve created. But, it’s not always easy to know what strategy to formulate. As long as you have your intended audience at the center of your decisions, you should stay on the right track.

Creating A Brand

You should also think about your branding. It’s so important for every business to establish the right brand for themselves, but it’s especially important for startups or small businesses. Branding is often a way to assert your mark and differentiate yourself from the competition, so be sure to create a brand that will work for your product.

When To Launch

As apart of your marketing process, you’re also going to want to establish a set launch date for the marketing activity that you intend to carry out. This will often depend on the launch date that you also decide for your product to enter the market on. You may wish to coincide the two together or to start your marketing beforehand to work up some buzz around the launch. Either way, you need to have both dates in your mind to work towards.

Packaging

Next up, you’re also going to want to think about just how you’re going to get that brand onto your product and ensure that your customer receives it safely via the packaging you design and produce.

Incorporating Your Branding

One of the first things that you’re going to want to think about during the packaging process is your branding. As we established in the marketing section, you’re going to need to decide on a brand for your product. So, with that on its way to being created, you should also aim to add it into your product or your packing in some way. Again, this will depend on what product it is that you’ve created, but it should give you some food for thought.

Practical Packaging Design

However, at this stage, it is also very important that you think about the logistics of getting your product to your customer. You need to be sure that it is packaged safety and securely, so looking options. You may need a box for your technological device, foam padding for your breakable designs or even specialist intermediate bulk containers for your food product. Either way, be sure to do your research into what will protect and transport your product safely.

Supply Chain

But that’s not all; you’re also going to want to think of the operational ways in which you’re going to physically get your product to the customer. Not only does this involve how your customers will get their hands on it, but also where you will sell it.

Choosing Suppliers

To make sure that your product gets in front of your intended audience, it’s highly likely that you’re going to want to find the right suppliers for the job. Whether you have a B2B product or something for a consumer audience, working with retailers can provide useful to your sales forecast and for your growth. So you need to make sure that you choose the right ones to reach your customers.

Negotiating With Suppliers

With some ideal suppliers in mind, you’re then going to want to approach them. Sometimes, you can find it hard to get on their radar. However, if you’re looking to attend trade shows with your product, you might have better luck at accessing the right people. When you do get in touch, you then will have to work your way through negotiations so that you can get the best deal for your business.

Selling Online

You may also want to think about selling online. Going into ecommerce isn’t going to be for everyone, and it may depend yet again on what exactly your product is as to whether it will be a suitable option for your business. But, it’s often worth looking into. And if you’re not planning on having an operations ecommerce website, then be sure to have an informational site that allows interested customers to contact you.

Delivery Options

Whether you’re shipping to suppliers or directly to your customers, you then also need to think of another side of the supply chain – transportation. To physically get your product for your warehouse or manufacturing unit, you’re going to need some form of haulage, or a consumer delivery service. Or, you may even want to fulfill this yourself. Either way, they are all important decisions to make if you want to get your products out to customers.

Being Serious With Success At Trade Shows

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A business is always going to be hard work, no bones about it. If you’re not working hard to realize your business vision and create a successful business, you’re letting yourself down. All aspects of your business are going to require painstaking hard work, and you know what? If you’re not promoting this hard work, all your efforts might be going to waste. Without marketing your business, it’s going to go unnoticed – you don’t want that, right? Not at all!

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There have been plenty of advances in marketing theory and promotional tools via technology – and promoting a company via the internet is something that most businesses do – but they don’t exactly stand out without a bit of spice – creativity. Despite the focus on the digital world and all of the tools that it offers, maintaining a physical presence and physically promoting your business are just as important as anything else. To attract funds, to make sales, to generate leads and to find collaborators, you’re going to have to make an impact with physical promotion.

Physical promotion? It’s usually limited to networking, billboards, and leaflets – but it’s what you do with these tools that counts. This is the rule for everything. Your creativity in these areas do not go unnoticed. One of the biggest tools at your disposal is the business event -a trade show, an industry convention or an exhibition. Whatever it’s called, and whatever the purpose behind it is, an event that is attended, or even hosted by your business is a great way to market your business within the real world.

How do you make the most of an event in which your business is involved? Well, it involves more hard work. Running your own stall at a trade show or a convention is tiring – and it’s very physical and can involve a fair bit of manual labor. It’s very hard to enjoy most of the running of stall or platform – as it involves constant work, and even the most ardent workaholic will find it difficult to get to grips with exhibition work. Working a stall is difficult, no matter if it is at a large show, or something smaller for a localized event. You need to stay charismatic and approachable throughout the event, no matter what is going on. You also need to be alert and on your toes. You need to be a worker bee and as helpful as possible. You’ll also need to be incredibly happy and positive towards everyone you speak to, no matter what you’re actually feeling. An exhibition can really test you. Trade shows usually cost a bit of money to attend, but think of it as an investment, because if you make the most of your time at the trade show, it will heavily benefit your business.

First things first – make sure you have some kind of actual presence at an event that isn’t just posters, stickers and banners. Get there and get your team there. An event, especially one taking place over a number of days is hard work. It could be harder work than you’ve ever known. It’s a full-time role on top of your full-time job. This means that you need to be on hand to answer all sorts of questions throughout the duration of the event. Your stall can never be left unattended either – but naturally, an event will drag you elsewhere. This is why you need to bring a team with you. You cannot make the most of an event alone. If you have a team, you can rotate between operations and actually give yourself a bit of a break. Simply put, do whatever you can to ensure you are not running your stall alone, and to ensure that the stand is never left-attended. This can be a bit tricky if you’re a sole-trader, but you can work it with friends and family. You might even look into hiring professional spokesmodels who can run your stall and work the stand for you. You could just hire part-time assistants as well. Working with others will make the exhibition a little bit easier for you, and anything that can make your exhibition a bit easier is a bonus.

Bringing some sort of a team to the event means that you can actually work the event. Get involved and don’t be afraid to meet other businesses and get talking. Your neighbors are going to be busy, but they can help you out – especially in a pinch. Let them know who you are, find out who they are and see if you can’t work together in the future. Making friends and leads is what these are about. Don’t be afraid to refer people to other stands, because people might just repay your favor. The event is there for you to market, but not just that; you can make relationships to help your business out in the future, beyond the event.

Make sure you track what’s happening though, you might not be scared to say hi, but if you can’t keep track of who you are meeting and what they offer – what happens in Vegas might just stay in Vegas. This is very important if you’ve found leads or prospects to work on in the future. Depending on your goals, this may differ as some business types are suited to one-off there and then deals, while other businesses like suppliers might heavily value repeat business – regardless, you want to remember people who show heavy interest in your business – and you need to capture their details. Collect business cards and jot down details throughout the exhibition. This is where having a team can help, so the stall can keep on running while you work on maintaining contacts and jotting down information.

People come back from conventions with all sorts of tat – caps, hats, shirts, banners, posters and pens. This sort of stuff keeps a lead going because it reminds people of your business. Give this stuff out for free and see what it can do for your business. It’s better to give out something small for free than nothing at all. A phone call might be made off the back of a pen to you in future, so don’t underestimate the impact of the mere freebie,

The hard work doesn’t end when the trade show is over though – you’ve got a lot of catch up to do. The more successful your event was, the more you’ve got to do. It never ends, but don’t be discouraged – this is the important work! When you get to back to work, you’ve still got to follow up on your exhibition in a manner of ways to ensure you’ve made the most of it. Remember all that info that you jotted down? Now’s the time to use it and make good use of it. You’ve made leads and contacts, now’s the time to see if those leads will turn into business and sales. Start calling and emailing – you’ve got a lot of relationships to build.

If you don’t do this, you might have wasted all the time and money spent at the show. You’re going to get back to work after a weekend at show without rest, but if you do not follow up on the leads (and you may have hundreds) you’re not making business off the back of an exhibition. If you’ve got nothing to say to your leads, or nothing to do for your leads – you might have wasted all your hard work. At the very least keep the stove on and ensure that interest is still real and warm. If you lose your leads, you’ve lost all your hard work. A real shame.

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Exhibitions aren’t for free – so wasting your leads will cost you. This experience could put you off attending future events, which isn’t right. Trade shows are a key part of business. However, you must think about costs. If trade shows are not working for you, you’re wasting money until you can find out how to make them work for you. Only head to trade shows if they are worth it for your business. Costly errors at trade shows mean you will only waste money, and that’s not great for business.

There’s not an exact formula to succeeding at trade shows, but it’s not exactly rocket science either. You can succeed with trade shows if you’re willing to put in some seriously hard work. You need to plan hard, look good, meet and greet, take details and follow up. If you don’t do this, you are simply wasting a lot of time and effort – which could be better spent elsewhere than wasting your time at a trade show. If you’re serious about success, you’ll be willing to take on the load at an exhibition and get to work at a trade show. If you aren’t, don’t bother with it – it won’t work out for you. For those prepared, an exhibition could be a great boost to business and could create some long lasting business relationships.