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6 Ways to Increase Your Team’s Productivity

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | 6 Ways to Increase Your Team’s ProductivityLeading a team isn’t simple, no matter the size. Whether you’re in charge of a team of five or a team of 500, there are obstacles you must overcome. Your goal is efficient, hard-working staff that boost the business’ quality and increase profits. To do this, you must be a leader who promotes productivity, and here are six ways you can do that.

1. Communicate Effectively 

A crucial part of leadership is having excellent communication skills. Without them, you run the risk of miscommunication that will lead to errors, frustration, and loss of morale. Provide your staff with constructive feedback, a clearly defined task list, and have an open-door policy. This way, your team will know they can rely on you to be honest and give help where it is needed, which will boost productivity.

2. A Comfortable Environment

Assuming that you and your team work the standard 40-hour week, you are spending a third of your time in the workplace. By creating a bright, comfortable environment, you will cultivate a productive team that enjoys being at work. Add plants, install wide windows, and have an area where your team can hang out and discuss. You could even provide auto sliding doors that use sensors to open, providing your workplace with a brightened, automatic entrance.

3. Give Praise 

Acknowledging a job well done will boost a worker’s productivity. If your team is constantly hearing about where they’ve made errors, they will begin doubting themselves and it will show up in their work. By providing positive feedback, they will feel valued and have pride in their work, and they will carry on doing a great job.

4. Use Incentives 

People work best when they have a goal and a reward. Provide that reward by bringing incentives into the workplace, and you will see a definite uptick in hard work. In study findings written by Harold Stolovich, they found that incentive programs engaged participants, attracted quality employees, and that the employees valued the incentive programs. Some rewards you could employ include lunches out, coupons, and bonuses.

5. Understand Their Strengths

Each team member is an individual with their own strengths and weaknesses. You cannot expect one employee to work in the exact same way as another, so get to know your team and their strengths so that you can take advantage of them. It will benefit both you and the employees, as you get their best work while they are able to enjoy hitting their goals easily.

6. Leave Them to Their Work

Micro-managing results in a quick descent into unhappy employees. You hired them for a reason, so you should trust that they have the business’ best interest at heart and will do a fantastic job each day. Have confidence in your team by showing them freedom in their work and they will show you their appreciation through productivity. Their sense of responsibility will let them shine while allowing you to focus on other areas of the business.

Building Residual Income By Franchising Your Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleThe vision for every entrepreneur is to eventually figure out how to scale to the point where the day to day business isn’t reliant on the owner every minute of every day.  For many, this objective never comes to fruition as the business is structured in a way where the business owner is consumed and literally devoured by the entity.  The business owner becomes an employee in reality and the business never grows beyond what that business owner is able to accomplish with their own two hands.  The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber, says it best, to build a business, one must figure out how to get themselves OUT of the business before they can start to work ON the business.  Franchising is a the ultimate definition of scale where a business owner removes themselves completely from operational responsibilities in order to become a coach to others who wish to enter the world of entrepreneurship.  The reason why franchising lends itself to scalable, high-residual income is the same reason that Larry Ellison has a net worth of $49.6 billion and a boat that is larger than some countries.  Once you are able to create the formula for what you do and replicate that formula through scaled growth, you have achieved the ability to generate income for your intellectual property.

Franchising is a unique vehicle in that it allows businesses that traditionally are not scalable, such as restaurants, retail and service businesses to become scaled through franchisee’s investment and willingness to manage the local business.  When you franchise a business, you create a vehicle that supports residual income through long term relationships with independent franchise ownership and contiguous brand equity.  Franchisees pay a fee to you as the franchisor for the rights to your intellectual property and brand recognition in addition to making the investment in opening the new franchise location of your business model.  Where the residual income is derived from franchising is that a franchisee typically commits to a 10-20 year relationship where they are agreeing to pay a percentage of their revenues on a weekly or monthly basis.  In addition, many Franchises also require franchisees to purchase products and business items from the franchisor as well which may be sold at a profit to the franchise network.  This is where residual income is generated and at the time where a franchise system becomes self-sufficient is when the business owner can step out of day to day operations entirely and focus on building the business and moving the company forward.  Visionary entrepreneurs who leveraged franchising to expand such as John Hewitt in the tax preparation business or Ray Kroc in the hamburger business were most likely not the best tax preparers or burger flippers, they were great at finding scale and achieving residual income for their ideas.

To franchise a business one must be in a position where they have the right formula in place, systems, processes and procedures to be able to teach a third party how to do what you do.  In many cases, I’ve found that business owners don’t realize that franchising is a viable expansion model and that they could achieve this residual income sooner than expected.  My advice is always to let the market drive this decision of whether to franchise your business, if people are asking for what you do in their market and how to invest in your business, the franchise expansion model needs to be on the table.

For more information on how to franchise your business, visit Franchise Marketing Systems: www.fmsfranchise.com/

About the Author

Christopher James ConnerChristopher Conner, President of Franchise Marketing Systems has been in the franchise industry since 2002 working with several hundred different franchise systems in management, franchise sales and franchise development work. His experience ranges across all fields of franchise expertise with a focus in franchise marketing and franchise sales but includes work in franchise strategic planning, franchise research and franchise operations consulting.  To read Christopher’s complete biography, click here.

Strategies to Transform Your Small Business into A Large One

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Strategies to Transform Your Small Business into A Large One

Small businesses play a large role in the world’s vibrant economies, as they employ many people and drive innovation and competitiveness. According to the US Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses constitute 44% of the country’s economic activity. However, every small business owner’s primary goal is to have a company that expands and eventually becomes large and profitable. So which smart strategies can help turn your small business into a large one? Here are four points to consider:

1. Extend your market reach

Making your products or services available to new customers is a great way to expand your small business into a large one. New markets represent new customers, who also represent fresh opportunities for increased earnings. You should open stores in new areas to introduce your business to new customers. Experts also recommend targeting new groups in your locality who could use your products and services, aside from your regular customers. Finding and promoting new uses for your product also encourages existing customers to purchase more from you. Therefore, it would be advantageous if you extended your market reach to increase sales and transform your business into a more stable model. Over time, this stability will only lead to increased earnings that will transform your business into a large one.

2. Introduce new products and services

Many business experts agree that the business world is in constant flux, and as such new products and services are crucial to the survival of companies. Consider introducing new products and services that attract new customers and encourage your existing ones to buy more. Accomplishing this can be quite tricky, but with research and flawless execution, you could be on your way to bigger things. First of all, you must identify a pressing need through customer interaction, employee brainstorming, and personal research. Then, you must develop and test a product concept that meets this urgent need. Developing a good prototype is essential here, so reach out to experts to find out how it works and how best you can bring your ideas to life to permeate new markets.

3. Consider franchising

Research reveals that 80% of McDonald’s locations are franchises. Franchising is a useful tool that you can also leverage to transform your small business into a big company. As your small business begins to experience success, consider licensing your branding, business model, and processes to others who will market your products under your brand name. Franchising has many benefits that should make it a vital consideration in your business expansion plans. Firstly, it can substitute capital acquisition as a less risky and more cost-effective way of business expansion. Franchising also gives you more motivated unit managers because your franchisees are business owners themselves with a vested interest in your business’ success. It facilitates faster growth because you team up with already successful companies, which catapults you to a market leadership position within your industry ahead of your competitors. You should see franchising as a way to increase your business’ profitability, penetrate new markets, and transform your small business into a large company.

Have You Strategised How Productive Your Business Is? Time To Focus

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Productive Business|Have You Strategised How Productive Your Business Is? Time To FocusWhen you start a business, no one can really prepare you for the steps that you may need to take. It can consume you in those early days, and you may put all of your efforts into it. But as your business progresses you find that you spin too many plates and are not able to focus on the priorities. This is when you need to strategize to ensure that your business is more productive. So here are some of the things to consider.

Placing a value on your time

One of the first things to think about would be placing a value on your time more effectively. The issue that so many business owners and entrepreneurs have is that they tend to want to do everything themselves, but as their business progresses and thrives, there simply isn’t enough hours in the day. This is when outsourcing certain aspects of your business can help you get more out of it. You might also want to think about things such as Information management services to help with IT things and such. Placing a value on your time enables you to focus on the areas of the business where you can make the most difference.

Is your business productive when it comes to marketing?

The next thing to think about would be whether or not you think that your business is productive when it comes to marketing opportunities. Often it is more to do with analyzing things like social media platforms and working out the times in which to post and also what platform gets the most engagement and reach for you. The mainstream platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter would be beneficial if you came up with a strategy to remain consistent to beat the algorithm.

Happy employees means productive staff

As businesses progresses, you get to the point where you need to have staff and employees. The issue is that you then become responsibility for their productivity. This is when happy employees make productive staff. Think about the working environment and the atmosphere, make sure that you look at how you communicate with your staff members and keep things professional while ensuring that you do all you can to get the best out of the people that work for you.

Making use of technology and shortcuts

The next thing you might want to think about would be the use of technology and shortcuts that are available to you. Customer relationship management systems to stay in touch with clients and customers, scheduling tools so that you can always be present online.

Gap in the market and jumping on the opportunities

Finally it is always going to be worth keeping an eye on the business trends and ensuring that you spot the gaps in the market. Jumping at these opportunities makes you productive as a business owner, as you seek out the next step to take to make your business the success you dreamed it would become.

Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to being productive in your business.

Six Ways A Small Business Can Use Outsourcing

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | <img class=As your business grows, you will find yourself tackling problems that are possibly further away from your core skillset, this is completely normal, and often when the business starts to utilize outsourcing more.

These tasks are the tasks that take you away from your core skills and require you to spend more time than you need on learning new skills that are only linked to a limited amount of functions. For example bookkeeping or payroll. These are functions that are a necessity, however, unless you have experience in these areas you may spend valuable time away from aiding your business to grow.

It’s essential for you to outsource tasks such as these to people such as Digital Goliath Marketing who are able to manage your work efficiently, leaving you with less stress and hassle to have to do it yourself. There are many occasions where it is more sensible and worthwhile to outsource. In fact, it’s not realistic to handle everything in-house for a modern business.

Bear in mind that whilst outsourcing is efficient and necessary, you should always keep your core business functions in-house. That means that you don’t need to outsource anything that your skillset covers already/

Let’s have a look below at some of the areas you may want to think about outsourcing:

Legal Requirements

Every business will have legal requirements, and this is usually the first area that gets outsourced. Hiring an in-house lawyer can be extremely expensive, and there is often no need to have one employed all the time. Most businesses can’t afford to have their own legal department, so you need to outsource. There are many ways you can source legal services such as:

  • Find one lawyer to deal with all your legal requirements.
  • Use a freelance lawyer or solicitor.
  • Use different lawyers or solicitors for each aspect of your legal needs.

Administrative Duties

Did you know that your employees could be spending around 40% of their working ay just on administrative tasks? This means that a huge portion of their day is spent completing repetitive and time-consuming tasks that are easy to outsource and train people on. It is a sensible choice to outsource these tasks to someone who would possibly charge less for their time than yours or your employee’s costs. Especially if they are highly-skilled staff members.

Remember you shouldn’t be outsourcing your core business functions, however, you can outsource parts of your core functions like the admin. Build processes and systems to ensure that the outsourcer can support you well.

  • Some of the outsource administration you could consider are:
  • Surveying, polling, and focus group tests.
  • Data collection and research
  • Travel arrangements
  • Compiling reports
  • Virtual assistant
  • Document management and organization
  • Calendar management and organization
  • Customer service emails
  • Social media posting/management
  • Preparing and taking notes
  • Transcribing audio or video
  • Personal errands (so you can spend more time working)
  • Editing/proofreading

Financial Management and Bookkeeping

It’s far wiser to keep your account organized as you go rather than leaving them until the end of the year. If you don’t keep an eye on your finances, then you could be making an expensive mistake. You could use cloud-based accounting software to track it yourself, however, working with a bookkeeper is probably easier. All you need to do is send your bookkeeper all your data and they will organize it for you. They also send you back whatever types of reports you like.

It can also be handy to have a contact for any questions you may have about the business finances, based on your circumstances. It certainly never hurts to have a financial expert that you can contact and work with. When it comes to completing your taxes at the end of the year, a bookkeeper will eliminate that stress. All you need to do is give your account access to your accounting firm and they will deal with the rest. If they require any information from you they will just ask for it.

Lead Generation and Marketing

Marketing can be challenging for small businesses. It can be easy to market yourself when you are slow, however, if your business picks up, marketing can get left behind. This can’t happen, your business will only slow down again if you neglect the marketing of your business and brand. Marketing is how you are going to grow your business, therefore, you need to ensure you have the time to make a commitment to it. Even if you outsource your marketing, though, you still need to ensure you have heavy involvement in it. You could choose to use a complete marketing service that deals with the management and social media or you could choose to outsource to several different freelancers, it’s really down to what works best for your business.

For example, you may prefer to have someone in-house dealing with the articles and information that is allowed on your website, but you are happy to outsource content creation to a content marketing agency. If you would prefer to manage your own marketing strategy you could choose to use consultants or freelancers to complete bulk work but oversee it yourself.

IT Services and Technology

Regardless of whether you are tech-savvy or not, it is usually simpler to let someone else deal with your technology needs.

Many technology duties come tagged with a steep learning curve. Therefore it may not be worth your time to learn how to web develop, code an app, migrate your information to the cloud, optimize your website, or implement two-factor authorization for your data. The cost it would take with regards to your time to handle your own IT needs is probably more expensive than if you hired an outsourcer to do this for you.

For example, you could choose to manage your own website, but do you know how to safely move your files around your host? Backup your site? No jow to migrate to a new host? Or, Set up cybersecurity? They are most certainly all doable, however, they could cost you a huge amount of time. If your skill doesn’t lye in this area, then you may be better off outsourcing your IT needs. Yes, you will pay more than just hosting space, but your time is valuable and it could save you money in the long run.

Before you opt to outsource certain IT tasks though, you should also have a look to see if there are any tools that could do it for you rather than paying an outsourcer or in0house team.

Human Resources

Human Resources suits can definitely take up a lot of time, especially as your business and team grow. Each time you recruit a new person, the obligations in the human resources department only grow. On top of this, if you mishandle any human resources such as payroll, firing, ot hiring a poor employee, it can cost you money, create an array of issues, and even see you facing a lawsuit.

Depending on your businesses needed, you may choose to outsource your human resources to one provider or several smaller ones. For example, you may use recruitment agencies for any talent searching, a payroll company to ensure your staff is paid correctly and on time, and a PEO to manage any benefits. As well as this you may also want to make sure you have access to legal advice relating to anything involved with human resources.

These are six areas that you may want to consider outsourcing as a small business. Is there anything that you already outsource? Please share some of them in the comments section.