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Business Owners: Are You Guilty Of Negligence?…

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If you’ve recently started a business, I’m sure you’re quickly discovering just how much goes into making it a success. Your big idea is just the start of it. From there, you need to think about your HR, marketing, IT infrastructure and a whole host of other factors. With so much going on, it’s essential to make sure you don’t neglect anything important. Here are some things that you simply can’t afford to neglect…

Office Data Backup

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Business Owners: Are You Guilty Of Negligence?...
Photo courtesy of Torkild Retvedt via flickr

Office data backup is something that you’ll hopefully never have to use, but you’ll be glad you have it if and when the need arises. Backing up your office data is a great insurance policy against the unexpected. Files can be wiped from your servers, sabotaged by a disgruntled employee, or some kind of freak disaster could damage the servers beyond repair. By regularly backing up all your company’s important data, you’ll be able to get the company up and running again soon afterwards. Despite the massive importance of backing up, a lot of small businesses manage to overlook it completely. If you haven’t already, take a look at your options and set up a dependable system for backing up your files.

The Employee Handbook

Neglecting this part of your business is usually a side-effect of rapid growth. In the early days of your business, when there’s only you and a few employees, any kind of solid HR policies aren’t really that necessary. However, when your business starts to grow and develop as an organization, you’ll need to take on a lot more staff. This means you’re going to need some solid rules in place. A good employee handbook will introduce new recruits to the company’s core values, mission and culture, will tell them what’s expected of them, but most importantly, it will tell them what’s permissible and what’s not. By taking the time to draft an employee handbook, you’ll protect yourself from all kinds of costly litigation and disputes. Whether you do it all on your own steam or reach out to an employment law firm like Ellis Whittam, an employee handbook is an absolute must. Just a few printed words can make all the difference to your company’s future!

A Good CRM

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Business Owners: Are You Guilty Of Negligence?...

CRMs, short for customer relationship management platforms, are great tools for managing your company’s interactions with both current and prospective customers. With one of these in place, your company will enjoy better workflow, will be able to automate various tasks, increase the number of sales leads you’re getting and generally increase productivity. Although these auxiliary programs were once considered a luxury, an increasing number of firms are using them, and they’re quickly becoming something of an essential resource for any modern business. Despite what you may have been led to believe, CRMs aren’t exclusive to big businesses anymore, and the packages on the market are getting more and more cost-effective all the time.

As you move forward with your business, make sure you’re not neglecting any of these and holding your firm back from what it can achieve!

How To Make Everything Easier For Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | How To Make Everything Easier For Your BusinessIs taking care of your company a challenge? Even if your business is thriving, there may be a lot on your plate. You may feel that there are too many responsibilities to take on. This is a normal thing to feel when you are taking on a large project, such as starting and maintaining a business. Even years down the road, you may feel that stress again. Here are three things that can make your life and the lives of your employees easier.

1. Get An Office

If you have lots of responsibilities, it may be time to rent an office. An office can be a space where you and your team can focus on the goals and needs of your company. You may also need an office so all of your workers have space to work. This is an important stepping stone for many companies as it makes the business feel established. Mail can be delivered to the office, you can store company equipment and you have a place to conduct meetings.

Once getting the office, you can more fully organize the company. You may consider delegating smaller tasks to all who work there to lighten the load and increase productivity. It may be easier for you to meet with clients and customers and host incentives.

2. Use Cloud Services

Tired of storing all your data on your computer? Make accessing data ten times easier and safer by using cloud services to back up your information. You can also use these services to run software and applications through the internet, making it efficient for all members of your team to do their duties. Microsoft Cloud Solutions offers security, IT service and flexibility that can make your company run smoothly.

3. Make Good Goals

If you are feeling overwhelmed with the responsibilities of your business, it’s time to make some serious goals. Have a meeting and plan out your yearly, monthly and daily goals. What are you trying to achieve? Where do you want the business to be in five years? Make sure to plan financially and take account of what expansions you want to make in the future. Try to keep your goals reachable and inspire your team to work hard. You may want to think about some digital marketing, local advertising and improved customer service to help you progress.

As you expand your business, increase digital security and make achievable goals, you can take on the responsibility of a business step by step. Don’t forget to make it a team effort!

Why London Businesses Should Think About Making the Switch to Green Cleaning

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Why London Businesses Should Think About Making the Switch to Green CleaningAs individuals, we know the importance of being as green as possible. Utilising reusable plastic bottles, avoiding fast fashion and making the investment into electric and hybrid cars. However, it is businesses that are the largest to have negative impacts on our environment and they need to know how and why to make the change.

While paperless offices and carpooling colleagues are becoming the norm, many do not know the importance of green cleaning in the workplace. London is home to thousands of businesses of every size and even if just a fraction made the switch to green commercial cleaning London services, it will be a fantastic start. If all made the switch, we would begin to witness a huge difference to our planet.

Now that keeping a workplace clean is more crucial than ever before, here is an assessment of the benefits of switching to green cleaning within a professional environment to the business, employees and visitors.

Green Cleaning Produces The Same Results

A common misconception is that green cleaning products just don’t work as well as chemical cleaners.

This is usually down to the lack of soap bubbles generated during lathering. In reality, phosphates are added to conventional cleaners to generate these bubbles to give the appearance of better results.

Green cleaning products can produce the same effects and commercial cleaning companies will provide their staff with full training on how to get the best outcome out of these products.

It is also a frequent error that people believe you need harsh chemicals to kill germs and bacteria. Many green cleaning products have been proven to kill the common cold and flu virus, leading to staff and visitors being protected against any bugs going around the office.

It Can Increase Employee Productivity

If helping the planet isn’t a concern of company directors, ensuring top productivity from their staff certainly is.

Chemical cleaners can reduce air quality in the workplace, especially in areas where air conditioning replaces open windows as toxic fumes circulate constantly.

In turn, this can reduce the performance of cognitive tasks among staff members.

It has been revealed that those who worked within a green office space performed these tasks at a rate of 61% higher than those who did not.

Within these green offices, when ventilation was doubled, the results increased to 100%. Making this small switch to a green cleaning supplier can make a massive difference in the work produced by colleagues.

Money-Saving

With an economic crisis just around the corner, it is imperative that cost-saving solutions are found in every area of the business.

Consumable products quickly add up and can be a large factor to the monthly invoices. Swapping paper hand towels for reusable, washable one is just one example.

While this initial cost may be more than their disposable counterpart, this will save costs in the budget which will eradicate the monthly delivery costs of these products.

During the pandemic, staff members are now requesting more cleaning products to use within their personal space, not wanting to wait until the end of each day for commercial cleaners to see their desks, phones and keyboards.

Businesses are under an obligation to provide these and it is generating significant costs. Green cleaning products don’t have to be purchased from a supplier, they can instead be created from common household ingredients. Despite the potentially large expenses, these ingredients will go a long way and will last far longer than the pre-made products.

Looks After Employee Health

Conventional cleaners can be detrimental to the everyday health of colleagues and Monoethanolamine is a chemical that is commonly used in many cleaning products.

If inhaled, this then causes inflammation of the lungs and brings on attacks and even be fatal. For this reason, this ingredient is regulated within schools and hospitals, but there is nothing in place for other workplaces.

Few cleaning products openly declare this on their packaging, which means that staff who are feeling the effects of this may not even know why.

Nowadays, there is no excuse for London businesses to not make the switch to green cleaning, it is cost-effective, protects the health of all those within the workspace and ensures employees are producing the best work possible, also leading to happy clients and potentially higher revenue.

Tips to Reduce Insurance Costs for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article | Healthcare | InsuranceAs a business owner, you know that it’s important to protect the business that you have put so much into by having appropriate insurance coverage. However, even though you might appreciate the importance of having various types of insurance to protect your business, you might still be burdened by just how much it costs. Controlling insurance costs is possible in some ways, though, including by following these tips.

Choose the Right Insurance Company

One of the biggest things that will impact the insurance rates at your place of business is the insurance company that you choose. Taking your time to shop around and choose an insurance company that offers the right coverage but that also has affordable rates is very important, so if you haven’t done that lately, you might want to explore different options like Captive Insurance to see if there is a better insurance company out there.

Focus on Health and Wellness

If the health insurance rates that your company is paying are way too high, consider focusing on implementing a health and wellness program for your employees. This can help your employees live healthier and happier lives and may impact insurance costs for your business at the same time.

Focus on Protecting Your Property

You may be counting on your insurance company to protect your building, vehicles and other company property. It’s definitely good to have insurance coverage to protect these things, but taking steps to protect your own property as well can help with preventing theft or other problems and reducing insurance rates. For example, installing GPS systems in company vehicles and installing a security and surveillance system in your commercial building can both help.

Insurance rates can be a big burden for many companies. Don’t get rid of or reduce your insurance coverage because of these costs, though. Instead, look for ways that you can reduce your rates. You can start by trying the tips above, and your insurance agent might even have suggestions that can help, too.

Figuring Out the Best Way to Get Your Business Insured

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Figuring Out the Best Way to Get Your Business Insured

40 percent of businesses don’t reopen after a disaster. That’s the bad news.

The worst news? We’re in the middle of a disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic is taking the economy to the cleaners and leaving many small businesses on their death bed.

The good news? As a business owner, there are steps you can take to protect your business from foreseen and unforeseen disasters. One such step is to purchase adequate commercial insurance.

This sounds easy and straightforward, but it’s not. You must find out the best way to get your business insured; otherwise, you could end up underinsuring or even over-insuring your company.

Continue reading to learn how to go about insuring your business.

Identify and Assess Your Risks

Every business faces a wide range of risks.

Some risks affect all kinds of businesses regardless of their industry or niche, and others only affect certain types of businesses. For example, owners of medical practices face malpractice risk. Restaurants don’t face this kind of risk.

However, both businesses do face a fire risk. An electric fault can result in a fire that razes down the buildings that house both businesses.

As such, the first step to insuring your business adequately is to identify all the risks it faces. You can do this on your own or you can hire a risk assessment professional to help you.

If you’re hiring a professional, ensure they’ve got enough industry-specific experience. If you own a logging business, for example, an industry risk specialist is in a better position to identify logging insurance risks than a risk pro who specializes in the retail industry.

After identifying all your risks, assess their threat-level. Which risks pose a more imminent threat? Which ones are less likely to affect your business?

Next, what amount of damage is every risk likely to cause?

With a proper risk assessment, you’ll know the amount of coverage you need to protect your business.

Determine the Kind of Insurance Policies You Need

Wouldn’t it be awesome if insurance policies offered a blanket policy that covers all the risks your business faces?

Well, some large insurance companies offer customized policies, but it would rarely be a blanket policy. Also, there’s the general liability insurance policy that covers most of the risks your business faces, but it’s barely adequate on its own.

Yet, a common mistake small business owners make is purchasing general liability insurance and stopping there. Don’t make this mistake.

There are several other types of business insurance policies you should buy, depending on the nature of your business. Here are some of those policies:

Property Insurance

If you run a brick and mortar store and you own the building, purchase property insurance.

Your building faces a number of risks that can result in extensive damage. Fires and natural disasters, such as floods and windstorms, can destroy the building, forcing you to abandon it until repairs are made.

A property insurance cover will compensate you for the damage and other losses.

If you run a home-based business, you might want to add on to your homeowners’ insurance policy, so that it covers your commercial activities as well.

Business Interruption Insurance

You don’t need to look beyond the coronavirus to see how a disaster can disrupt your business operations.

During such times, business interruption insurance is your ally. Depending on the terms of coverage, the insurer should compensate you for the losses you make during the interruption period.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Do you have more than 3 employees?

In most states, that’s the requirement for purchasing workers’ compensation insurance. When an employee gets injured on the job, you won’t worry about compensating them for their medical expenses and other losses. Your workers’ comp provider will do that.

Cybersecurity Insurance

If your business has digitized some or all of its operations, it’s imperative to buy cybersecurity insurance.

43 percent of online attacks now target small businesses like yours, which means your risk level is high. A cybersecurity insurance policy will protect your business from the effects of an attack, including business interruption and data loss.

Other types of insurance you might need include product liability insurance and commercial vehicle insurance.

Find the Best Insurance Provider

You’ve probably heard horror stories of insurance companies that refuse to settle claims. If you don’t do your homework when looking for an insurance provider, you might end up telling such stories.

You want to work with a legitimate, reputable insurance company.

Read up online reviews about a specific insurance carrier before giving them your money. What are past and current clients saying about their service quality? Do they take forever to settle valid claims?

Also, you want to work with an insurance company that provides most, if not all, of the insurance policies your business needs. This way, you’ll be in a better position to negotiate for discounts when renewing your policies.

Consider Self-Insurance

Large corporations don’t typically purchase insurance from other companies. They self-insure, simply because they can afford to cover their risks from their deep wallets.

Self-insurance isn’t just for big companies, though. Even small businesses can develop a self-insurance plan, as long as you know how to go about it.

One effective way is to set up a captive insurance company. This is just like any other insurance firm, only that it is wholly owned by your parent business. You have complete control over its operations.

Get Your Business Insured the Right Way

Getting your business insured adequately can be a costly task, especially if you’re a small business running on a tight budget. However, it’s the right thing to do. Even a minor disaster can bring your business to its knees when you don’t have insurance.

With this guide, you now have the information you need to insure your business the right way.

Keep reading our blog for more business tips and advice.