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Is Your Business Heading For The Cliff Edge?

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What exactly is a disaster scenario in business? A disaster scenario occurs when you are no longer able to sell your products or make a profit with your company. At that money, the engines for your business have faltered, and you’re falling fast. In cases like this, the best option would be to start completing damage control procedures. But, if we’re looking at the optimum outcome, you should not be controlling the damage at all. Instead, you should do everything you can to make sure it never happens in the first place.

You need to avert a disaster scenario in your business, and there are a number of ways that you can do this.

Keep Spending Under Control


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One of the most common disaster scenarios is caused by a simple case of overspending. By spending more than you make from your business, you will reach the point where you’re no longer making a profit. Once you get to that stage, you only really have two options. You must be ready to cut back. Of course, if you keep your budget under control from day one, you’ll never reach that point. So, you’ll have to think about how to manage your budget.

Outsourcing is a great way to cut the costs while still delivering a quality service to your customers. You can outsource almost any part of a business these days from logistics to HR. When you do outsource, you have to remember that you are essentially giving the control of that part of your business to another company. They’ll still work for you, but they will be responsible for maintaining quality levels. As such, you should choose a company very carefully.

Backup Everything


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Another piece of advice would be to make sure that you are backing up important data and files in your business. To do this, you can use a colocation service for your company. Colocation services provide data protection, handling and backup for companies and colocation pricing can be very reasonable indeed. For just a few hundred out of your budget, you can make sure that if your systems do break down you have a backup ready to go. This can allow you to avoid your business entering a period of disaster recovery that can take weeks or even months.

Hire A Legal Advisor


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Of course, one of the main issues that might cause a disaster scenario for your business would be a legal issue. That’s why you might want to think about hiring a legal advisor for your company. You can check in with your legal advisor every so often and ensure that you’re not crossing any lines that you shouldn’t be.

Legal issues can arise in any area of your company, but you should pay particularly close attention to employee management. It’s quite possible for an injury or complaint from an employee to send your business towards a legal case that could cost hundreds of thousands. An SME won’t survive this type of expense and neither will your business.

If you take this advice, you can steer your business away from the cliff edge before you get anywhere near it.

It’s Not A Race: Don’t Rush Launching Your New Product!

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You’ve done the hard part, you’ve come up with that perfect product idea, or at least, you think that you have. The fact is that although coming up with the initial product idea and developing it can seem like the hardest part of launching a new product, that isn’t necessarily the case. There are also various other factors that come into play when launching a product, which is why it’s so important not to rush the process and to ensure that you take your time launching your new product.

That being said, what you don’t want to do is take so long that your competitors beat you to the punch – it’s all about finding the right balance between rushing the launch and taking too long. To help you ensure that you don’t rush the launch of your new product but don’t end up being beaten to it by your competitors, below are some useful tips and pieces of advice to take note of.


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Be clear on aesthetics

Let’s talk aesthetics. The product itself aside, because you will most probably have already dealt with the aesthetics of this, but what about the aesthetics of the branding. From the packaging and logo to the stock images you plan on using, it’s vital that you ensure the aesthetics of your product are on point. What this means is making sure that when it comes to the designs of your product packaging, for instance, or the layout of your product photos, that they will be appealing to your target audience. To do this, it’s worth investing in packaging research, as well as doing research into the types of styles and designs that appeal to your target audience. What you want to be clear on is that your products, their packaging, and any stock images that you have created, appeal to your target customer base.

Make time for focus groups

A simple way to ensure that your new product, its packaging, and various marketing materials will appeal to your target audience is to hold focus groups. This is where you bring a group of people together – usually five or six people – and ask them to discuss something, in this case, it would be your new product, and it’s branding. You can then use what is said in the focus group, such as what the attendees like and dislike about the product design, as feedback to improve the product and its aesthetics. Focus groups are an incredible tool for ensuring that before you launch a product, it’s a perfect fit for your target customer base, so it’s worth making the time to run them.

Use social media to build excitement

The key to success when it comes to launching a new product is social media, as well as a fabulous product launch, that is. But going back to social media, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are the key to your success with a new product. You see, these sites can be used to help build excitement surrounding your new product with tweets about it, sneak peek photos, and competitions, you could even create your own hashtag for the product and attempt to get it trending. Learn to use social media effectively to build excitement around your brand and the launch of your new product, and you can significantly increase the product’s chances of success.

It’s important to take your time when launching your product, to ensure that you don’t rush things and make an error. That being said, what you don’t want to do is take too long launching it, as else a competitor may beat you to it and launch something similar.

Harmony vs Chaos: Keep Employees on the Same Page

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
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Making sure everyone in your business is on the page shouldn’t be seen as mere courtesy. When everyone is on the same page, then it becomes much easier for business to go smoothly! You want everyone working in some sort of harmony, in order to fight off the chaos that big business projects can often bring.

Employees are your strongest asset, but you’re doing them a disservice if communication and collaboration isn’t that strong in your business. Here are a few tips you should keep in mind.

Contribution

If employees don’t feel all that involved in certain aspects of the business, then it’s going to be more difficult for them to really engage as deeply as you want them to. One of the best ways to encourage professional harmony in the workplace is to get more employees involved in the planning process of a particular project, or even in its inception. Of course, you have to balance this with the risk of having too many cooks in the kitchen – this approach may stretch out the planning process. It could benefit the project in the long run, though.

Collaboration

The easier it is to collaborate, the more people you’re going to get on the same page. Thankfully, there’s a bunch of software and web applications you can use to facilitate this. SharePoint, a Microsoft Office feature, is currently gaining popularity in this area. It’s relatively new to many people, however, so consider working with a consultancy business such as HingePoint to help people get used to things. There’s also suites such as Google Drive, communication programs such as Skype and Google Hangouts, and project management web apps such as Trello and Basecamp that are all recommended.

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Documentation

Whether it be documents detailing the goals of the project or notes taken from meetings, keeping strong documentation of the project is pretty essential. When people get a little lost, they can refer to a central piece of information – such as a project bible – to help them get back on track and see what the particular aims and expectations are. This is also very useful for instances in which employees are late, have to take a sick day, and return from vacation. You should make sure that these documents are kept up-to-date, too; they shouldn’t be static texts. After all, things are probably going to change a few times on a given project!

Sociability

A lot of business owners see encouraging sociability to be something quite peripheral to work. They want to keep things friendly in the office, though they also know that these good vibes can also increase satisfaction, which helps drive productivity and focus. But encouraging sociability really helps in a very direct way when it comes to people being on the same page at the workplace. When bonds grow between employees, they don’t only talk about private or trivial matters – they also begin to talk about work more frankly, and become more enthusiastic to offer each other help. So arranging after-work social events, as well as allowing employees a bit of space to talk casually from time to time, can help your business more than you might think.

It Takes No Time At All To Take Care Of These Niggling Office Tasks

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article
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There are some jobs that no one wants to do in the office. You know the kind of things, like taking out the recycling or nipping out to the shop to buy a new jar of coffee. But once someone does take care of them, the office will certainly be a better place. After all, how are you all going to get any work done without any caffeine?! So, why not take the bull by the horns and get these niggling office jobs done today. They won’t take any time at all!

Clean The Kitchen

Most offices have a kitchen area these days. They are a place where employees can prepare some lunch or grab a quick drink. If yours is large enough for a table and chairs, some workers might gather for a chat during their break. Kitchens are important spaces in offices, but if yours is a tip no one is going to want to use it! So, it is really worth taking ten minutes out of your day to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher and to just have a general clean up. If you find that it’s always you taking care of the kitchen, you could set up a rota so that everyone takes it in turn. Apart from this, it might be useful to hire a professional cleaning company. One well-received company is Ideal Cleaning who can provide a routine office cleaning service, as well as kitchen, canteen and washroom cleans – this will save even more time when taking care of the kitchen, as the amount of upkeep employees have to do will massively decrease.

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Tidy Up

No one wants to work in a cluttered office! It will make it incredibly difficult to find tools and equipment, and it will look like a right mess to any visiting clients. Everyone in your office will benefit if you have a quick tidy up. You could cut down on clutter by using business document storage solutions so that you aren’t stuck with piles of documents all over. If everyone in your offices shares certain items, such as staplers and hole punchers, then you should have a cupboard where all these are stored. Make sure everyone returns them when they aren’t in use. Otherwise, they will clutter up your office and could easily go missing!

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Book Some Team Building Activities

Do you remember when the last time everyone in your office did some team building activities? If it has been a while – or if you have never actually done any – then you might want to take the time to get some booked. There are two ways to go about this. You could either look for a motivational speaker or team-builder organizer to come and visit your team in the office. They will then carry out activities in your office. Alternatively, you might like to book a session for you and the team at a local laser tag center for a fun way to strengthen your relationships. There are also some community centers that run company team building days.

So, rather than procrastinate for an hour, why not get one of these jobs done? At least once you have carried one out, it won’t need to be done for a while! And I’m sure that your whole team will benefit now that the job is done. Plus, it could encourage others to be more proactive around the office!

Be The Best Person To Run Your Business

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As much as it’s down to your business idea, you are part of the package when it comes to making your company successful. After all, if you don’t have the right skills, it’s going to affect your business. In fact, you might struggle to find clients if you aren’t winning them over with your passion. Therefore, here are some ways you can ensure you are the best person to run your business.

Get in the right mind frame to run your business

It’s time to work on you for the sake of your company. After all, you need to be in the right mind frame if you want to make a success of your business. Otherwise, it’s likely your company will fall at the first hurdle. For starters, you need to make sure you keep calm when starting your business. Of course, it’s easier said than done launching a company. After all, it’s likely to be one of the most stressful times of your life. But you need to find ways to get rid of stress. For example, it might be getting a helping hand when it comes to certain areas of your business. After all, if you are finding them particularly tricky, it can be necessary to get some outside help. Also, you need to ensure you have a good work-life balance. After all, if you are overworking yourself, you are bound to go under due to the stress. Therefore, ensure you are still spending time with family and friends.

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Work on enhancing your skills

You should also take steps to ensure you have the right skills for the sake of your company. After all, if you have lack of experience in particular areas, your business might take a turn for the worse. And you might make errors that jeopardize your company. Therefore, work on your skills for the sake of your business. For starters, you might want to look at doing a course such as an online mba aacsb. After all, you will learn valuable skills which will help you run your business. And if there are areas of running your company you are not so clued on, the masters can give you the knowledge you need to make it a success.

It’s time to be pitch perfect

You need to talk the talk if you want to run a successful business. After all, it’s the best way to win over a client’s trust. However, if you are not very good at public speaking, now is the time to improve these skills. After all, you want to be pitch perfect when it comes to talking about your business. You want to appear confident and passionate to impress them with your communication skills. You might want to work with a coach who can boost your confidence and ensure you are an amazing public speaker. That way, you can guarantee you are the perfect person to pitch for your company.

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And if you don’t have the right skills to run your business, it might be a good idea to get someone to front your company. Then you can concentrate on areas you are more skilled at such as creating the products!