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Deftly Walking Through the Minefield of Business Error

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The pursuits of business can sometimes feel a little like pot luck, as it’s not always completely predictable just what will define our success and what may delay it. Of course, that’s the gamble we all take when launching a business, but there are measures we can partake in to reduce that gambling potential. For instance, staying on good terms with our customers and clients, using honest promotional tactics, acting with integrity in honoring our business arrangements, and treating our staff well will almost always be a set of positive influences on our brand, and if not, you’ve unfortunately experienced some terrible luck.

That being said, deftly walking through the minefield of business error is not always so easy. For that we need to continually refine ourselves, learn from the goings-on around us and staying abreast of all developments in our industry. To that end, we’re sure to approximate the best forward solution.

But how do we get started as far as this is concerned? Might it be worth considering our vital role in this going forward? With that in mind, let us consider the following advice:

Your Staff Are Ambassadors

Your staff are ambassadors of your firm, regardless of if they willingly fill that role or not. Their activities on social media, how they drive in your company car, how they speak to clients on the phone, all of it is included in the overall perception of your company. It’s important to make them aware of this, and to train them in the best social media or public facing policies and practices you hold. Additionally, reserving the right to discipline or terminate employment based on if these requirements have been ignored can also be a worthwhile means of distancing yourself from bad behavior.

Your Legal Standing

It’s essential to ensure your legal standing is perfect, from hiring the best accountant to establish your tax contributions, to using legal services to help in setting up a corporation, especially knowing the difference between S-Cop and C-Corp options can be vital. Protecting yourself through the hiring policy that allows candidates to submit to best practice, and ensuring your safety protocols and policies are watertight before permitting staff to exercise dangerous tasks, perhaps in your manufacturing line, is crucial to covering your back, and ultimately protecting everyone involved in your business approach.

Promotional Blunders

It’s also important to consider protecting yourself against promotional blunders. Revise your marketing strategy to ensure it will not offend, or will not promise over the mark. Additionally, ensure that with any business marketing strategy that you’re completely clear about what it is consumers can expect, what your privacy policy will be, and what you require from them for using your services. Do not hide charges, or market towards one group of people, as you can never tell just who might be interested in your brand. When you focus on that, you’ll ensure most of your promotional blunders are cared for.

With this advice, we hope you can deftly walk through the minefield of business error.

Ensure Your Clinical Practice Wants For Nothing

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Ensure Your Clinical Practice Wants For Nothing

Every business has a responsibility to its client and staff, but this is perhaps the most true when considering the daily operation of a clinical practice. The work conducted here, no matter the healthcare specialism being administered, is of the utmost importance, and completely sensitive in nature. Of course, we’re not here to lecture healthcare providers as to the ethics of their practice, nor to recommend any basic advice that could be misconstrued as patronizing. We’re certain that clinicians are more than qualified to make vital decisions themselves.

But when it comes to outfitting their practice, and ensuring a greater level of daily effectiveness, it can be worthwhile to rely on several timeless business pointers, those that require an understanding of the mechanics of business to fully put in place. When you are able to approximate this in the best sense, you may find that your practice is as well oiled as can be, but perhaps with a more hygienic metaphorical material.

With this in mind, please consider how your clinical practice can want for nothing:

Excellent Healthcare IT Outfitting

While any excellent clinician is of course well versed in his/her practice and can commit to intensely important work, it’s important for them to utilize a healthcare IT consulting firm to equip them with the right digital infrastructure. This can not only help them keep their clients/patients confidential information well protected, but also outfit their practice with the essential and nuanced elements needed for tracking said treatment approaches. This means taking the time to invest in the best structural network, keeping your work focused and organized at all times.

Clinical Hygiene Practices

Essential hygiene is, of course, essential in any practice. This means hiring the best specialist cleaning services to ensure that your office and practice room is spotless each and every time you arrive at work, that this work is carefully inspected, that your sterilized tools are prepared, and that hand gel dispensers and worthwhile soaps/tissues are found around the waiting room and restroom areas can be essential. When you can ensure that your practice is a veritable haven of hygiene, you can ensure that the best standards are being kept, and that only positive care is experienced within your building.

Essential Receptionist Staff & Suites

Receptionist staff are extremely valuable, helping your business manage visitors and correspondence alike. It’s important that you’re careful when hiring them, and be sure to vet them, as this is a sensitive role that requires a high degree of integrity and excellence in management. A receptionist is a great boon to any excellent practice, and so it’s important that you hire as well as you can and work closely with them to ensure the goals of the practice are well pursued, and that your patients or clients are met and spoken to with the utmost of respect as you develop your approach.

With this advice, we hope your clinical practice can want for nothing.

Advantages of Outsourced Answering Services

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Advantages of Outsourced Answering ServicesOutsourcing different aspects of your business can help you save time, money and focus. You can send your books to an accountant, your calls to an answering service and your intelligence technology management to an IT firm, while you concentrate on the core projects and tasks that build your company up. Some of the benefits you will see from outsourcing your answering and receptionist services include being able to extend your customer service hours, save money and focus your efforts.

Extend Your Call Hours

Many answering services offer call-in hours around the clock and on all days, with the phones being answered by real people instead of an automated system. This gives your customers the opportunity to talk to someone and resolve issues outside of your normal operating hours without you having to keep employees working at all hours. You can even find mobile apps from these services to help you keep track of messages and leads in one place. This can lead to better customer retention and higher profits.

Save Money

Outsourcing can save you money both in terms of salaries and in terms of space needed for the extra personnel. You will not have to hire and train employees to answer the phones and then dedicate a place in your building for them. An outsourced receptionist service will have many clients to help cover their costs as well as the beefed-up phone plans to keep up with everything. Many will offer personalized call scripts so your brand’s voice and culture will be presented to the customer when they call just as it will be when they walk in your office.

Focus on Core Activities

When you do not have to pay for a dedicated employee to answer your phones, you can more closely focus on the core activities that make your company great. For example, if you own a catering business, then having another company answer your phones will give you more time to develop new recipes and finish orders without worrying about the calls coming in.

Outsourcing can help startups survive the first few years of business with less overhead and can streamline operations for huge corporations. When you outsource your call answering with a receptionist service, you can see increased customer service and retention as well as lowered costs. This gives you more time to focus on other aspects of your company such as making new products. You can also extend your customer service hours outside of your office hours and help clients around the clock without paying overtime.

Future-Proofing Your Business 2020

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Future-Proofing Your Business 2020Businesses are facing both scary and exciting times all over the world. There is a constant emergence of many tools to facilitate functions like accounting, branding, marketing, etc. The other side offers raging competition as the internet opens up the market to international players through innovation and technology that is hard to keep up with. Many traditional businesses are succumbing to entities dominating web presence by implementing the latest technology.

Most small business entities are struggling with current tech trends like data analytic, AI, and cloud computing; though it is impossible to know the challenges ahead, risk management cushions your business against any negative impact from the changes.

Keep Tabs on the Tech Trends

There is always something coming up in the technological world. Smart entrepreneurs keep tabs on the new technologies and adopt favorable ones to scale their businesses to the next level. Before other players realize, you will be ahead of the pack. Do not dismiss an innovation, thinking it is too early for its implementation. As long as you can afford and will add value to the business, take it up.

Others appreciate the use of AI and use products like chatbots to improve their customer service, marketing tools, and branding. Internet of Things introduces smart supply chains, holds massive potential for small businesses, and allows the collection of real-time data through responsive system building. Consult your tech-savvy team and brainstorm on how to synchronize these technologies into your existing processes for future-visioning.

Through Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR), customer engagement is changing. You can implement AR technology and free customers to visualize products in real environments or train employees on difficult tasks through VR. Such an approach sets you steps ahead of your competitors when they become table stakes.

Educate yourself on developments around you, even if not related to your line of trade. Keep yourself informed. Kodak – filmmaker and camera was a million dollar company but failed to see the introduction of smartphones as a threat. The giant company that was in operation for 130 years came tumbling down in 2012. Other products like handy cams, PSP portable gaming consoles, GPs devices, and telephone directories died when users shifted to smartphones.

Cloud Technology

Both small and large business enterprises have, for example, adopted cloud solutions for downscaling or upscaling, allowing a seamless collaboration. Employees can work remotely, thanks to this technology, as they can access and use files from their location, anytime. Organizations provide more secure access and reduce cybersecurity threats and virus outbreaks. A security breach is a serious threat to most businesses as it can cripple a company. A robust system is one way of future-proofing a business.

Some businesses are reluctant to adopt cloud migration as they have invested in customized software and infrastructure or do not like cost models like “pay what you use.” Hybrid clouds will allow you to use your system while you move some data to the cloud. Hardware, licensing costs, and public servers can be costly. Hybrid offers a cost-effective storage solution for start-ups and small businesses at any stage.

Hybrid also provides scalability and flexibility that allows rollback and roll out services for your customers and team. Since you only pay for dedicated servers when there is demand, you will reduce overhead IT costs. Ample data storage and the ability to support the latest tech will not only give you an edge over your competitors but also impress your customers.

Always Play by the Book

Change in the game presents different rules. Jurisdictions are exploring, and grappling with smart cities concept have birthed the need for local and regional data regulations. Invest in reliable cybersecurity to always remain on the right side of the law even when regulations shift. Some companies providing secure access, offer API management tools that allow you to integrate third-party apps with no compromise on your security.

Playing fair and keeping on the right side of the law will shield you from lawsuits and penalties that can quickly bring your business down.

Pay Attention to Customers

Rife competition in business can keep you engaged in product development and pushing sales that you forget about the most crucial player – the customer. Paying closer attention to your clients and studying their behavior is one way proofing your business.

People shifted to online shopping for convenience, wide product range, discounts, among other benefits a few years ago. Entrepreneurs who anticipated the change acted fast and set up eCommerce stores alongside their physical ones. Their counterparts caught off guard stuck in traditional outlets closed down.

Set up systems to track your customer behavior, listen to their needs, and consider industry developments. Always try to predict changes in the buying pattern and consider accommodating the clients to stay ahead of the game.

Track Happenings in Developed Countries

One of the most straightforward strategies of staying ahead and future-proofing your business is to follow trends in the developed countries in your industry. Creating a Google Alert on your interested topics is an excellent place to start. India cab hiring businesses should have learned a few things from Uber’s entry in the US.

Create a Conducive Environment for Innovation

While following the leaders is good, but becoming one is better. Innovation is not for the faint-hearted, as you may fail many times. Keep trying, though. An invention will set you far apart from your competitors and keep you ahead for a while. Innovation needs a favorable environment. You will, therefore, need to trust your team more. Give your employees the freedom to explore and reward their efforts. Invest in them by sending them to tech conferences and events in your industry. Working as a team makes your employees loyal to your brand and embrace your vision. Once they own the concept, they are more likely to make it better as they offer different views.

No business can survive the fierce competition and dynamic technologies with inadequate preparation for the future. Entrepreneurs who employ the future-proofing strategies above will withstand the unpredictable tides in the business world.

Managing Your Business with Location Mapping

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What are businesses to do with the explosion of data occurring in the marketplace? The ideal solution is to put it to work.

Chances are, you already knew that. However, we’re willing to bet that you aren’t using your data to its full extent. For example, are you using the locations of your current customers to find hidden insights about your business? Didn’t think so.

But how can you find these insights in your data without burning yourself out? With location mapping tools, it’s a piece of cake.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Managing Your Business with Location Mapping

Location heat mapping in action, courtesy of Maptive.com

Let’s look closer at what location mapping is and how it can help manage your business.

What is Location Data?

Most location data is information that comes from a mobile device, such as a tablet or a smartphone. This data provides the current position of the user. It can also simply come from spreadsheet data that you have collected from your customers.

With smartphone use on the rise, location data only continues to grow. At first, it might seem that all of this data would add to the complexity of the business landscape. However, this information brings power and makes the information easier to understand.

Location Mapping Can Help Your Business

As you exploit location mapping, you gain the information needed to make smart business decisions.

Location intelligence showcases the relationship between the data in a way you might not have seen without the analytics. With these advanced insights, you can quickly see where your customers are, where there is room to grow, and so much more.

You can also use location mapping to set boundaries, label points of interest, segment the demographics, analyze interest and assess risk. Instead of relying on spreadsheets, bar graphs and pie charts, you can showcase your data with the help of a useful map.

Location Mapping Case Study: Starbucks

Wondering what companies are using location data? Look no further than the coffee in your hand.

Starbucks has found incredible success through location intelligence. By using their rewards app to offer freebies and special offers, Starbucks has received valuable data worth far more than a free coffee.

The coffee giant now knows what products each customer likes; and they can quickly extract information about purchasing habits from that data. On its own, this would create overwhelming amounts of data, but Starbucks uses the information to personalize content, laser-focus their marketing, and make ordering coffee easier than ever.

This information also helps Starbucks determine where to put up new locations; and it also helps them decide what items to add to their ever-growing menu.

While you might not be as big as Starbucks, it doesn’t take millions to achieve the same results for your small business.

Getting Started with Location Mapping

If you want to turn your data into an easy-to-understand map, here are a few simple steps to follow.

  • Think Spatially: Determine how the place and location data will make a difference for your organization. How will this information help you understand the problems you face and allow you to craft solutions?
  • Perform Due Diligence: Go through the data you have to see how you can enhance it further. What steps do you need to take to ensure its integrity?
  • Collect More Data: What tools can you implement that will give you access to further data? Could you add a rewards app to gain more information about your clients?
  • Be Careful with Partnerships: You don’t want to choose just any location intelligence vendor. It’s vital to gain reputable data and high-quality support. Vet any company you plan to work with.

Most mapping solutions offer a free trial, making it super easy to import your location data from a simple excel spreadsheet.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Managing Your Business with Location Mapping

The key to starting with location mapping is to take the first step. Begin with the information you already have and see what new insights you can glean from using mapping software.