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How to Create a Greener Business

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Becoming an environmentally-friendly business cannot only help to preserve the planet, but it can also improve your brand’s image and increase sales. If you want to develop eco-friendly practices across your organization, find out how to create a greener business.

Utilize Solar Energy

Do you want to reduce your energy bills without compromising on your electricity usage? If so, you should utilize the power of solar energy. You might be surprised to learn that one hour of sunlight can meet the world’s energy needs for a whole year. So, it is therefore an environmentally-friendly way to power your operations whilst reducing your overheads.

Telecommuting

Modern technologies no longer tie businesses to offices. Video conferencing, cloud computing and email has made it easier than ever for professionals to communicate and collaborate, so you can create and run your business from the comfort of your home. You can also outsource affordable talent from across the world to help run your growing business. So, try telecommuting to reduce traffic, your carbon footprint, waste and energy consumption.

Green Procurement

Green procurement is easily one of the most effective ways to make your business eco-friendly. You simply must source both goods and services that are both produced and supplied sustainably. Always try to buy from local suppliers to reduce your carbon footprint.

Always ensure suppliers embark with sustainable manufacturing processes, and that their products and materials do not feature any ozone depleting or toxic substances. Also, ask a supplier if their products are made from recyclable or renewable materials.

Decrease Water Usage

North America has experienced some of its driest years on record recently. It is therefore important to prevent both climate change and drought conditions by decreasing water usage across a business. You can do so by fixing dripping taps or plumbing leaks, and you can hire a plumber to install both low-flow faucets aerators and low-flow toilets in every washroom.

Electronic Recycling

Unfortunately, the US alone is responsible for two million tons of e-waste every year. Items that are not recycled will make their way to landfills or will be incinerated or illegally exported to developing countries, which will each have a negative impact on our planet.

Businesses therefore have a morale responsibility to recycle their electronic devices. Most technology manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, have introduced technology recycling programs to make it easier for individuals and companies to dispose of their gadgets. You may also be able to donate computers, monitors, smartphones or tablets to charities or schools across the local area.

Cloud Computing

 

Cloud computing makes it easy for businesses to store important documents, collaborate online and gain instant access to important files. As a result, it can reduce the need for travel or the printing of hard documents. So, you can reduce paper waste and improve your carbon footprint. Utilize cloud computing software today, such as Dropbox, Office 365 or Google Drive.

Have you got any top tips for becoming a greener company? Share your advice by posting a comment.

Why Technology Is So Important In Business Practice

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The information age got itself into full swing about 100 years ago, and we’re still living in it these days because of the amount of new information that can spring up in any sector in any market anywhere on the globe. As a result, it’s such a powerful time to run a business. You can be reached from anywhere and find the market you need instantly with a few search engine terms, and then operate on a larger scale than you ever would have been able to in the past. So with that in mind, here’s some of the mostly wide renowned reasons as to why technology is so important in our business practices.

Our Communication is So Much Better

Let’s consider this for a minute. When you’re able to write things down to send off, instead of speaking it to a person, we can draft out what we’re going to say. That means we can perfect our communicative skills, and make it a lot easier to close a deal with a few emails. Of course there’s no beating the natural charisma of the speech, but if you’re the kind of person who is in a leadership position and struggles with this, no longer do you need to think yourself turfed out because of it!

Not only does this impress possible investors and business connections, but you can also better perform customer service with the written word. No issues with connectivity over the phone, everything about a complaint is set out in front of you to refer back to, and you can focus on more than one task at once seeing as you’re using a screen instead of your voice. You can practice with online programs and apps without ever needing to hire out a service. It’s often a lot cheaper to run business through technology!

It Affects Our Operating Size

So whilst we may be a far cry away from replacing human workers with robots, despite burgeoning AI on the frontier, we can expand our businesses via the use of software. This is because everything is instantly accessible as long as you have an internet connection, and there’s hardly any countries left in the world where this isn’t reliable. Connectivity on a global scale means we can do international trading, conference calls across oceans, and bring in more and more people from the other side of the world with a whole wealth of talent. It’s incredibly exciting when you think about it!

You can even cut out a few hours of work time, or even lower the cost of hiring an accountant when you can do financial modeling on smart spreadsheets. It may still be a good idea to bring on someone who knows the numbers inside and out, as nothing is smarter than the human brain, but programs like this give people with lower budgets a better chance from the get go.

It Often Keeps Details More Secure

Of course in such a digital age you’re going to experience software bugs, and of course sometimes there’s the odd hack or two. However, having firewalls and digital security systems in place make these details you store on a network a lot more secure, plus they’re easier to reach for everyone involved in a transaction process.

On a more local scale, business operations can be kept secure by software from outside intrusion by competitors, and if you’re running a business that has a secret recipe involved in the creation of your product, this is where it’ll be the most safe. Even passwords alone are a great deterrent!

So the general theme is that if you have software systems in place to encrypt the data of customers, you’re not going to lose it in the back of a filing cabinet or need to input the same information everytime it comes to it, plus you’re better protected against any malware willing to get into your data banks. Don’t underestimate the power of technology when it comes to this purpose, and remember that customers always have a choice to either have their details remembered or not; you’re simply providing a better alternative for them to avoid hassle!

Overall, technology makes business easier and safer to conduct, and there’s a whole world of it out there for you to explore as an entrepreneur. Startups have never had such a strong foundation age, and whenever a sustainable business crops up on the block, it means the information age has done its bit for the future.

5 Ways to Keep Your Employees Safe at Work

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As a business owner, your employees are perhaps your most valuable assets. Any entrepreneur worth his salt knows that to please his customers, he must first address the happiness of his team – making sure workers are healthy, safe, and fulfilled in their roles.

When it comes to give and take, it’s not enough to provide extra holiday or bonuses to compensate hard work. As an employer, it is your duty to look after your workers, but above-par health and safety regulations will also benefit your business, so it’s worth going the extra mile. With this in mind, here are five ways to keep your employees safe at work.

Be Prepared

With the humdrum normality of everyday life in the office, it’s easy to think that your workplace is immune to danger. The reality is, none of us expect natural disasters or crime, and yet those unfortunate events still happen. The best way to protect your business is to prepare for the worst. Know that a break-in, cyber attack, or other crime could befall your workplace at any time, and have a written plan of action ready.

Follow Preventative Measures

Many people only install burglar alarms or extra locks after a burglary, so stay ahead of the game and prevent one happening in the first place. We often hear about the importance of data security, but it’s easy to forget that leaving your office building vulnerable to intruders puts real people at risk. If in doubt, contact your local law enforcement officials and ask them to run a risk assessment on your premises. Once you’re aware of your vulnerabilities, you can set about sealing the cracks in your defense.

Safeguard Your Vehicles

If your employees use vehicles for work, make sure they are regularly inspected, and that security measures are in place to protect their belongings. If you own three or more company vehicles, consider taking out fleet car insurance to reduce your overall expenses without compromising on complete coverage.

Check In With Your Employees

People are unpredictable, and you can never truly know what’s going on under the surface. Violent behavior often masquerades under a guise of normality until something provokes an outburst; so keep a close eye on each member of your team. If you run a large-scale business, make sure your managers are checking in with their employees regularly and keeping tabs on their mental health.

Follow Health and Safety Requirements

It goes without saying that you should follow health and safety requirements in your workplace, but during busy periods it’s easy to let your standards slip. Make sure your employees and managers are abiding by workplace safety rules, and arrange for regular inspections to make sure no one is cutting corners. It never hurts to be over-prepared, so talk to a workplace safety expert to ensure you have the appropriate measures in place.

Without the people who show up day after day, your business simply would not run. Therefore, it makes sense from a financial point of view (as well as a moralistic one) to keep your employees safe at work.

Why Data Cloud Storage Improves Business Performance

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Technological infrastructure is a real headache for most businesses. Large or small, companies have to be ready for the unexpected, like a hard drive suddenly dying or an employee’s PC repeatedly showing the blue screen of death shortly after every reboot. When systems aren’t functioning right, any kind of strategy goes out the window because when you cannot deliver, your business is toast.

Here are a few reasons why cloud storage supports business performance.

Distributed File Architecture Supporting a Global Workforce

Companies no longer rely on an internal network to provide file access to everyone who needs it. With the increasing use of outside contractors, part-time employees, and home workers that require access to documents, spreadsheets, and other files from the company server, it becomes a real headache for IT departments. For smaller companies that don’t really have an IT department at all, the inconvenience is felt even more.

Using a cloud service designed for businesses that enable anyone with a mobile app or web browser to access the necessary company files, once they’ve passed through two-factor authentication, makes it simpler. There’s no complicated setup necessary because everyone can be given access to the folders they need in the secure cloud. File audit trails and multi-factor authentication protocols ensure that companies can keep track of who’s accessing what and verify that only the approved people can access shared files.

Stay Focused on Core Competencies

Running a proper data center with all the equipment and staff required is expensive and involved. Trying to do so on a small budget or as a small business takes the focus away from providing services to customers and the technology team that is supporting that effort.

Whether looking to place group files on a secure cloud service or purchasing a sales package that works in the cloud, taking advantage of professional companies that already offer excellent data cloud services ensures you get the talent without having to find and hire it. Be sure to compare one cloud service with another, like they do at cloudstoragebuzz.com, to see which one is right for your business.

Scalable Storage as Needed

Growing businesses need ever-increasing amounts of storage. This puts a strain on the existing network and requires adding larger local drives to PCs while ensuring there are enough network drives to handle the storage capacity requirements as they grow. Needless to say, this is one problem that the IT team could well do without.

The beauty of using a cloud service is that they have sufficient storage capacities to allocate increasing storage to businesses on an “as needed” basis. Basic plans sometimes have an unlimited data capacity, but most business plans require additional payment for extra terabytes of storage at affordable rates.

In many ways, cloud storage takes some of the heavy lifting away from IT departments – and people tasked with this responsibility in SMEs – so the company can focus on its core operations. The cost per megabyte or gigabyte is low with so many cloud providers competing, so it just doesn’t make sense to try to handle it all in-house any longer.

5 Marketing Tactics to Reach Your Demographic

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It is important for businesses to promote the right message to the right customer. Yet, choosing the right marketing channels can often be complex, especially when attempting to promote your brand to a specific audience. To ensure your success, read the following five marketing tactics to reach your demographic.

1. A Social Media Strategy

Facebook has approximately 1.5 billion users, which proves the large majority of planet Earth is using social media to connect with loved ones, colleagues, acquaintances and, of course, businesses. Any company hoping to succeed online must, therefore, have a strong social media presence.

Yet, with so many online campaigns to compete with, you might find it difficult knowing how or where to start – or you might be tempted to replicate your competitors’ post. However, those dedicated to developing a solid presence and connecting with their key demographic must create original, engaging social media posts that boost brand recognition and increase traffic. Firstly, consider your brand and who you’re marketing too. If you’re appealing to Millenials, then speak their language. Network and connect with Instagram and Twitter stars, converse with your customers and be unique.

2. A Video Marketing Campaign

Video marketing has easily become one of the most compelling forms of social media marketing, with people watching more daily minutes of video on Facebook over YouTube. Videos are not only engaging, but they are incredibly shareable, too – so, if you do it well, you can trust people will share your content with their followers, which can boost your online reach. It might, therefore, be helpful to enlist the help of video marketing experts, such as working-beautifully.co.uk.

3. Traditional Marketing Tactics

Many modern businesses are focusing all their attention developing engaging, creative online marketing campaigns; however, it is still beneficial to focus on a traditional marketing strategy to reach your demographic. It is important to define your target market to identify how they commonly consume information. For example, most people over the age of 55 still consume marketing and information via traditional printed press.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Companies striving to connect with their target audience in the digital world must boost their website’s ranking in the search engines. It is vital to get to grips with the various SEO tactics that can help improve your search rankings, so you can maximize your online visibility and drive traffic to your website. For example, you could increase your site’s load time, utilize keyword optimization and embark on an effective outreach program.

5. A Content Marketing Strategy

If you want to reach your demographic, you must start creating content that will appeal to your audience. Segment your audience to produce different forms of content that will increase your reach. Video marketing might be one of the most powerful engagement tools, but there are also other forms of content to target your audience, such as blog posts, case studies, infographics, white papers and podcasts.

Aim to create engaging, informative content that complements your branding, which can establish your business as a thought leader. It is, therefore, a great way to help users make an informed decision regarding your brand, products and services, while increasing your trust and credibility within an industry.