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7 Tips for Asset Tracking

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | 7 Tips for Asset TrackingA company’s worth is directly connected to its total assets. The assets may seem irrelevant to the public’s view but are the bedrock of the entire enterprise.

Construction work doesn’t happen with forklifts, bulldozers, etc. A taxi company has to maintain a fleet of vehicles for its company to be successful. Manually keeping track of the physical assets is time-consuming and eats into other duties.

Many companies are turning to asset tracking to collect and gather important information about machines, vehicles, or equipment the business uses. Each asset is fitted with a device that tracks key statistics, such as runtime, downtime, location, and work orders.

GPS sensors, RFID chips, or QR codes are the devices most often used for asset tracking. Tamper evident stickers ensure that the sensors aren’t messed with. What are seven tips companies should know about asset tracking?

What Assets to Track?

The type of business will determine which assets to track. For example, a construction company may be more interested in which assets are used the most. For that, they would track an asset’s runtime and downtime.

On the other hand, a taxi company would track the location of the vehicles in their fleet.

Use Unique Tracking Digits

If each vehicle in a fleet is given the same tracking code, how would the software determine a vehicle’s individual location or other important stats? To accurately track multiple assets, they each need their own tracking number, whether it’s a GPS sensor, chip, or QR code.

Track New Assets ASAP

When a company acquires a new asset, the first instinct is to try it out. But that’s the wrong instinct. The asset should be immediately given a tracking number and added to the software. Runtime and other important information need to be tracked from the get-go for maintenance and other reasons.

Watch Your Asset’s Value

Are your assets helping or hurting the company’s bottom line? Asset tracking can help determine which assets are increasing or decreasing in value. Machinery, vehicles, computers, and other assets won’t last forever. Eventually, they will need to be repaired or replaced. Asset tracking can help determine whether repairing or replacing is the best financial option.

Know Where Your Assets Are

Stationary company assets may not need location trackers, but mobile equipment and fleets do. Knowing the exact location of your mobile assets will help keep scheduling and planning on course.


Identify Vital Assets

Some assets are more important to a company than others. A fleet of vehicles is more vital to transportation companies than office equipment. Asset tracking can determine the most profitable assets for meeting the company’s goals and workload.

Practice Accountability

Asset tracking is computer software with real-life functionality. The software can create work orders or repair requests for malfunctioning equipment. The software then holds employees accountable for the necessary repairs by detailing how the work order was filled and when.

Tasking an employee with manually tracking a company’s assets is likely to fail due to human error. Using tracking software ensures that the assets of a business are secure and safe.

Do You Need a CRM?

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article | Do you need a CRM?Customer relationships are crucial to the success of any small business. Recently, customer relationship management (CRM) has gained popularity. The use of the best free CRM software is a tremendous accomplishment. To what extent may implementing a customer relationship management system predict the success of your organization? Here are some problems you might be going through in your business that might indicate that you need a CRM:

The Quantity of Leads is Unmanageable

CRM could be handy if you are trying to handle the inflow of consumers you are having. A sophisticated CRM system will categorize and prioritize leads so that your sales team can respond to them promptly.

You Are Unable to Locate Any Client Information

In the past, spreadsheets, emails, and post-it notes may have been adequate for your organization. Your team’s ability to see consumer interactions and make timely decisions will be hindered as it grows if it continues to use obsolete tools. A corporation should utilize a customer relationship management system to enhance sales and customer retention.

You Are Unaware of the Members of Your Sales Team

Monitor your sales force both at home and on the road. Using a sophisticated CRM, team members can rapidly update information from their mobile devices, allowing you to monitor and respond to real-time changes. A dependable customer relationship management system enables accurate monitoring of company operations and revenue forecasting.


Inept Interactions With Customers

Acquiring new clients is a challenging endeavor. The last thing you desire is subpar service. If your customer service team spends more time reacting to problems than proactively addressing client expectations, you may want a customer relationship management system. Case management and a comprehensive customer view enable you to impress and retain customers.

Reasonable customer relationship management solutions promote knowledge sharing and case assignment among customer support agents. Customers can acquire answers through self-service forums, allowing operators to focus on more complicated problems.

You Are Responsible for Managing the Accounts Over the Long Term

There are numerous types of consumers. No one wants to feel as though they are unimportant to you. By keeping track of significant anniversaries and accomplishments for your most valuable clients, a CRM system may enable you to send timely emails demonstrating your concern for their company. A CRM system can also be used to monitor employees. This allows you to adapt to future encounters and retain a relationship with a client even after contact has moved on.

The Preparation of Reports Wastes Time

Manually entering data into reports deprives salespeople of time they could spend making sales. The centralized nature of CRM platforms’ data storage facilitates analysis and reporting. Periodically, some programs can “clean” client data by adding missing information and deleting duplicates. They can also synchronize your account and contact information with your CRM.

The Path to Your Growth is Obscure

Describe your strategy for acquiring new customers. Is your confidence in the scalability of your company warranted? It may be time to consider a customer relationship management system if your approaches and resources are insufficient. A scalable solution allows your organization to grow without sacrificing efficiency. A scalable CRM software/Sales CRM system can expand and adapt to your business. On the Salesforce AppExchange, there are close to 3,000 corporate applications.

Reasons Why You Should Get A LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Done

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Reasons Why You Should Get A LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Done

Getting your team involved in LinkedIn marketing can be tricky. Fortunately, there are some resources you can use to make it easier. These include templates that follow brand guidelines and content ideas. This way, even if your team isn’t a designer, they can still be included in the strategy.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing on LinkedIn is a great way to get the attention of industry leaders who may be interested in your products or services. However, it’s important to start building relationships early. Influencers can help boost your brand’s reputation and drive sales.

Clear Strategic Goals

To be successful, your LinkedIn marketing strategy must be based on clear, strategic goals. These goals should be specific and include brand awareness, consideration, and conversion. They should also include measurable metrics and a planned editorial calendar. It is helpful to divide your objectives into sections, such as macro-topics. Then, you can create an editorial calendar that includes topics related to each objective.

In addition to attracting followers, your LinkedIn strategy must also focus on retaining these followers. This requires providing relevant, high-quality content. The quality of your posts can make or break your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Taking Advantage Of LinkedIn’s Features

One of the most effective ways to generate new leads on LinkedIn is by leveraging the features of this networking site. For example, you can publish an article on the LinkedIn blog. This feature enables you to publish articles that can be read by other members and get indexed by search engines. Not only is this feature useful for building relationships, but it also allows you to stand out from the crowd.

LinkedIn has many free features to help you market your business. For example, you can post blog posts and status updates and even request recommendations from your connections. This helps you attract potential new customers. Moreover, you can even use LinkedIn for recruiting, hiring, and finding new business leads.

To Promote Your Business

To promote your business on LinkedIn, you need a strategy. Unlike other social networks, you can’t just publish the same content across different networks. Your strategy should focus on specific objectives such as brand awareness, consideration, and conversion. You need to have clear goals and define metrics, as well as a planned editorial calendar. For example, you need to establish what types of content your audience wants to read, and then organize your schedule around them.

To Generate Leads

Creating and sharing your content on LinkedIn is an excellent way to engage your followers and generate leads. You can choose to make your content more targeted and niched, and use a variety of marketing methods. For example, you can create ads aimed at specific groups of people, such as people who are looking for jobs. This can be a great way to generate leads for your real estate business.

Another great way to generate leads on LinkedIn is to learn from your connections. Connect with your existing clients and ask them to recommend you to their connections. This method is far fewer sales and pushy than cold calling. You can also browse through the profiles of your current clients and see who you have in common. This can give your leads a sense of confidence in you.

To Increase Traffic

If you want to gain the most benefit from using LinkedIn, the first step is to get a strategy in place. You can get help from social media dashboard software to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Once you have a strategy in place, you can get started and reap the rewards.

For Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy is a great way to gain more exposure for your brand, and it’s also a cost-effective way to engage with your customers. Employees have personal networks that can connect them with others and build trust. They can share content with their connections, which improves networking and sales results.

Employee advocacy can also help your company build a positive reputation in the industry. Employees are usually proud of their employer and are happy to share positive experiences. This will make employees feel more attached to the company, which will increase retention and longevity. A successful employee advocacy strategy on LinkedIn will give your employees ready-to-share content and optimize their profiles to get the most attention possible.

Lastly

LinkedIn is a powerful social network. It can be used for employee advocacy and to drive leads. But, before you can make the most of it, you need a marketing strategy. That’s where a professional LinkedIn marketing strategy comes in handy.

The Costs Of Running A Trade Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article | The Costs Of Running A Trade Business

Thinking of starting a business as a tradesperson? Trade businesses include the likes of plumbing, electrics, roofing, tiling, landscaping and window cleaning. They can be a popular business venture for those that have the skills – and they can be relatively inexpensive to start up compared to many other types of business. However, there are still costs that need to be budgeted for if you’re going to start a trade business. Below are some of the costs to consider when running a trade business.

Tools

Perhaps the most important cost to consider is acquiring tools. Pretty much every trade from pest control to tree surgery requires tools. Certain trades are likely to require more expensive tools than others – for example, a decent piano tuning kit can be bought for less than $20, while a decent commercial carpet cleaning machine will cost over $1000 to buy.

Buying used tools could be a way to save money. When it comes to specialist tools that you may only need for one-off jobs, it may make more financial sense to hire them. You can also lease tools, which can be cheaper upfront than buying, but potentially more expensive in the long run.

To work out exactly how much you need to spend on tools, make a list of all the tools you need. Then compare prices online to work out exactly how much all of these tools will cost. If you need to take out a loan, this will help you to know exactly how much to borrow.

Supplies/parts

On top of your tools, there will be ongoing supplies or parts that you’ll need to buy. These will likely vary from job to job and are something you should factor in when it comes to quoting a price.

The internet is one of the best places to look for niche supplies like boiler auxiliary equipment or pressure washing chemicals. More general supplies and parts may be possible to buy from a local store, although you may still find that you access greater discounts online. Some suppliers may even be able to offer loyalty discounts or bulk discounts for supplies and could be worth sticking with.

Travel

You also need to consider the cost of travelling to your clients. This will typically involve owning or leasing a vehicle. Some tradespeople simply use their personal vehicle. However, if your personal vehicle is too small for your tools or not business appropriate, you may have to consider acquiring a new vehicle (a separate vehicle could also give you the option to invest in branded vinyl wrapping).

Each job you do will cost you money in fuel, which is also important to budget for. Many trade companies will only serve customers in a certain area so as not to spend too much time or money travelling to clients. Of course, if your trade is very niche, you may have no option but to cover a larger area in order to source enough customers.

Licensing/certification

Some trades do not require you to have any licensing or certification. In other cases, licensing or certification may be compulsory. It’s worth looking into the regulations of your state to see what the case is.

Most companies need a business license, which can cost between $50 and $550 depending on the state and profession. Certification fees are likely to vary depending on where you obtain them from – in some cases, there may be multiple certification courses that you can take. Some may also have to be regularly renewed, which is something to budget into your running costs.


Insurance

In many cases, it is not mandatory to take out insurance as a tradesperson. An exception is if you hire employees, in which case you are obliged to take out worker’s compensation. You will also need auto insurance for your commercial vehicle.

Other types of insurance may be highly recommended depending on the trade. Public liability insurance is something that most trade businesses should consider taking out. This insurance scheme can help to pay out compensation if a member of the public is injured or their property is damaged as a result of your work. You could also consider insuring your tools against damage and loss.

It is worth taking the time to shop around for insurance as it could save you a lot of money. Some insurers may offer specialist policies catered to the risks of your specific trade. There are also trade business insurance packages that you can take out that combine multiple policies for a discounted price.

Marketing

Marketing is essential for attracting business. You will need to invest some money regularly into marketing if you want to generate customers and grow.

A website is the most basic marketing necessity. You can build a website yourself, or hire someone to build it for you. A DIY website is the cheapest option – nowadays there are drag-and-drop website builders you can use that don’t require any programming knowledge.

There are so many other types of marketing that you can spend money on including social media marketing, SEO, PPC ads, business cards and flyers. It’s worth experimenting with different forms of marketing to see what works. You can hire marketing agencies to help handle marketing for you – in such cases, make sure to shop around to get the best rates.

Tax

Every business has to pay tax on its earnings. You will need to file a tax return each year, which will need to be accurately calculated. You can do this yourself or you can hire an accountant (the latter can save you a lot of time and hassle, but is an extra expense to budget for). At the very least, you should try to invest in accounting software to help make bookkeeping easier.

A benefit of being self-employed is that you get to claim expenses, which can result in tax reductions. This includes all the costs listed above. This is why it’s important to record every expense, so that you can accurately deduct the necessary amount of tax each year.

What Is The Best Insurance For Your Small Package Shipments?

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If you have high hopes for entrepreneurial business success then you’re probably thinking of how you could do this. There are so many business ideas out there, and what do you see yourself doing? For many people they’ll opt to sell products. This could be wholesale items, handmade, and the list could go on and on.

If you’re starting a business, you’ll also want to think about the logistics of it, such as shipping. This can include getting insurance from third parties such as www.secursus.com. But before you begin all that, how do you determine the best insurance for shipping packages? How can you feel confident in your choice if it’s something you’re unfamiliar with? Here is everything you need to know!

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | What Is The Best Insurance For Your Small Package Shipments?

Why should a business owner buy small packages insurance?

Some people might think that it is not worth buying because they only have a few personal belongings that are worth protecting. Package Insurance is one type of insurance that covers packages and shipments up to a certain value. It provides coverage for the shipment against loss or damage in transit and for the goods within the shipment against loss or damage during storage and transport. This type of insurance can help you out in the event that something does happen and you need to replace your items quickly; a lot of business owners need it.

What factors impact the cost of shipping insurance?

An insurance company will charge a different amount for shipping insurance than the one charged by a carrier. The price difference is based on the company’s risk assessment. Some factors that impact the cost of shipping insurance are:

  • The type of goods being shipped
  • The size and weight of the goods
  • The type of service used to ship the goods
  • Whether or not there is a contract between the buyer and seller

If you’re starting out, there may be a chance that it could be expensive. However, you’ll need to keep your options option and look into different providers.


What does small package insurance cover?

As a business owner who creates and sells products, there is always a chance that during transit something could happen to the package. It could get lost, stolen, or even possibly face some type of damage, It’s clearly not ideal, either. This is why small package insurance is needed for business owners. You won’t have to worry about losing money, and you will still be able to keep solid relationships with customers and clients. It’s going to be up to the insurance company and what they’re planning to offer.

The most common types of small package policies include:

  • Insurance on items valued under $500
  • Insurance on items valued between $500 and $1,000
  • Insurance on items valued between $1,000 and $2,000
  • Insurance on items valued between $2,000 and $5,000

However, keep in mind that it will still vary and this is merely an estimate.

Are there any extra fees?

The most common of these is a broker or destination fee, which usually applies to shipments sent by certain logistic companies like FedEx. These charges vary depending on the size of your shipment and your location. If you are shipping something from one company to another company, you might need to pay a broker fee for each shipment as well as a destination fee for each endpoint. It’s all just going to heavily depend.