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These Tips will Help you to Start your Own Restaurant

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Start a Restaurant|These Tips will Help you to Start your Own RestaurantIf you want to take the plunge and start your own restaurant, then you are certainly not alone. So many people want to take things to that next level, but at the end of the day, you also need to face the facts. Only one out of three businesses make it past their first birthday, but there are things that you can do to ensure that your restaurant business is a success in every way.

Don’t Do it for Vanity

You probably wouldn’t choose to buy a football club because you love the game. Why would you do the same for your business? Make sure that you have a genuine desire when it comes to starting your own restaurant and also make sure that you love what you do. If you can do this, then you’ll soon find that you are able to have the best time in your business venture.

Do your Homework

Everyone knows that the secret to running a great restaurant is understanding your customers. You need to make sure that you do your research and that you also make sure that the location is good too. Would you feel more comfortable running a fine-dining establishment or would you much prefer to keep it casual? You also need to make sure that you understand your strengths and weaknesses too. Having a plan is crucial if you want your business to stand out from the rest.

Choose the Right Chef

If you cannot cook, or if you do not want to be working behind the scenes then you need to make sure that you choose the right chef. Your best investment will always be in your chef, so if you are yet to get this asset sorted, then make sure that you take the time to do this. You need to find someone who can bring someone back time and time again, not to mention that you also need to choose someone who cares as much about your business as you do.

Put Someone in Charge

You have to trust in your brigade. After all, you’re paying them, so you need them to develop and then evolve into staff who are going to keep on pushing your restaurant forward. You also need to be the boss and you need to take responsibility where possible. You have to know what’s happening in every single area of your business too. Sure, you don’t want to be a control freak, and you also need to try and listen to the opinions of your staff. This will help you to act accordingly and it will make you a better leader.

Communication is Key

The key to starting a restaurant that’s successful also comes down to communication. You have to make sure that your management are talking to your head chefs, and that they are passing on the message well. That being said, it doesn’t stop there. You also need to make sure that your staff are working as a team with the customers. They are the ones who are paying your wages, so make sure that you do your part and that you treat them well. If you can, look into the SCHADS industry award too, if you‘re hiring a team.

Get your Menu Right

Long menus tend to lead to a lot of confusion. They will have your chefs running around, not knowing what to do as well. To make things even worse, you may find that you have customers walking in or walking out. Start with a simple menu if you can, and also make sure that the produce you are dealing with is high in quality to begin with.

Quality Control

Quality is essential, and so is consistency. You need to make sure that everything that goes out, is the best it can be. There’s absolutely no excuse for having sloppy plates of food lying around in your kitchen. If you know that it is not good enough, then don’t even think about serving it. If you do, then you may find that you end up ruining your reputation, and this is the last thing that you need.

Clean and Organised

You have to make sure that you keep your restaurant clean and organised. If you don’t run an organised kitchen then you may find that things become much more difficult. You have to make sure that there is a place for everything and that you put in the work to ensure that you monitor the process you have. As things expand, you may need to tweak things to keep everything nice and organised.

Ways Technology Can Help Grow Your Business

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business technology|Ways Technology Can Help Grow Your BusinessYou will already use technology in one form or another within your business. Whether this is for cybersecurity or operating a webpage. However, there is a wide range of other ways technology can help. It won’t be able to take away from you and your employees bring the business on a day to day basis. But, when it is being used properly, technology can change your life and your business for the better.

Here are a few suggestions as to how technology can use technology to support business growth.

Use The Cloud

Gone are the days of storing data on hard drives. To provide more freedom and ease for data storage and access it is worth using the cloud. By doing this you will have the ease of being able to host data in an online storage account, with the flexibility of being able to invite peers or employees to access this with a simple invite. The benefit of this is not needing to spend a fortune on manual and bulky storage solutions, you have access to these documents anywhere in the world, as it is digital it automatically backs up your documents, you have an option for unlimited storage.

Social Media

You can harness the insight of knowing your audience. Social media is used worldwide and by such a wide and varied cross-section of society. With this, you really can learn about your target audience, know their behaviors, their motivators, and, in short, anything else that will help you market your business. In addition, social media is also another tool in your marketing arsenal where you can share the word about your business, your brand, and your network.

Analytical Tools

Where once you never knew which aspects of the business were supporting in it thriving and which areas needed focus and improvement, technology can help. From using it to find an ecommerce agency or finding digital tools to assess your business’s insights.

There are so many ways to improve your business, from understanding and improving site load speeds to assessing your SEO. With all this data available the sky is your limit as to how to utalize the information and change your business accordingly.

Marking Campaigns

By opting for digital marketing, you give yourself the potential to market specifically at a targetted group. You will be able to see immediate results. By being in a digital format there is also the likelihood of higher returns due to potentially being able to reach a larger audience than more traditional marketing and advertising forms.

Ease Of Communication

With recent technological advancements, communication is almost effortless. There are so many variations and ways to communicate to cover any and all business requirements. Not only is it now extremely easy to do, but now it is extremely fast and incredible low cost and affordable. With this, previous barriers have been removed and as a business you can now easily work with or collaborate with investors, business partners, manufacturer etcs anywhere in the world.

10 Winner POS Systems for Businesses that Thrive

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |POS System|10 Winner POS Systems for Businesses that ThriveThe Point-of-Sale system, popularly known as POS, is one of the must-have tools of business owners who want their businesses to thrive. 54% of businesses now use POS to process transactions, and the total number of POS users is expected to reach 85.6m by 2025.

Why is POS the current most sought-after tool for many business owners? What advantage can POS have on your business? And what are the top POS systems to use?

This article answers all these questions in detail.

What is a POS system?

A POS system is an electronic device used by business owners to accept credit card payments and complete business transactions. A POS system is equipped with a POS terminal and software that enables sales transactions to take place.

How can a POS system improve sales for your business?

As a business owner, your ultimate goal is to reach your sales goals. And the way to go about it is to ensure you create a seamless experience for your customers and perform business transactions efficiently.

The good news is that a POS helps you achieve this and much more. Let’s check out the different ways a POS system can help grow your business.

Increased productivity

A POS system helps you get more things done.

Rather than checking balances and accounts for business transactions with manual documentation, you can easily automate all these activities with a POS system.

This means you won’t have to spend so much time trying to document daily transactions because your POS system does all the work for you.

Through this, you have enough time to focus on other aspects of your business that matter.

You will give more attention to your customers during purchases and satisfy them with top-notch customer service. The result of this? A great customer experience that paves the way for high customer retention.

Provides you with actionable data

One of the invaluable assets a business owner can have is access to vital data.

Besides providing you with your customer data, a reliable POS system gives you insights into what you have in stock and the items running out of stock.

This means you will never run out of stock on any purchase unaware, making you a dependable business owner for all your customers.

Your customers can always count on you when they need you, which increases your chances of getting high returning customers.

What’s more? You can work with the stock data your POS system provides you with to know what goods are doing well and what goods are not.

With this, you know what item to stock more and what things to put on hold. This reduces the rate of damaged goods and ensures you don’t run at a loss in your business.

Keeps your customers updated

A POS system isn’t just a medium for you to complete sales transactions with your customers. You can maximize the POS functions to impact your business by making it an effective marketing tool.

To make this happen, you can install the capture feature on your POS device to keep your customers abreast of the latest offers and promotions or new products available.

With this strategy, you can guarantee your customers will never miss a thing on your offerings and products. This simple technique can contribute to increasing sales for your business.

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |POS System|10 Winner POS Systems for Businesses that Thrive10 Highly sought-after POS systems for your business in 2021

When purchasing a POS system for your business, it’s important to opt for one that provides you with all the functions your business needs to excel. Below are the ten most coveted Point of Sale systems for 2021 to consider.

1. Lightspeed

Lightspeed is one of the best Point of Sale systems for businesses that manage large and complex inventories.

Lightspeed helps you create several product bundles, put multiple variants in different sections, and run numerous orders from a centralized catalog.

Lightspeed gives you detailed analytics on items’ costs and items running out of stock so you can stock up before things run out.

You can access reports from any location and track your inventory from anywhere. Lightspeed offers the convenience that makes trading easy for small and large businesses.

What’s more? Lightspeed comes with an easy-to-use platform that makes transactions easy, and you won’t have to break a sweat to train your staff to sell and take payments anywhere.

2. Square POS

Square POS is one of the most prominent POS systems used worldwide. One of the main reasons Square POS is among the top list of the best POS systems is its flexibility.

Its flexibility allows you to accept payments en-route or through standup terminals.

Whether you own a coffee shop, grocery store, or you run an online business, Square POS allows you to complete your sales transactions in the most convenient way for you.

You don’t have to purchase POS hardware if you don’t want to; you can convert your phone to your POS solution. There are also several options to choose from to suit your needs if you want a POS hardware system.

3. Helcim

Helcim Card Reader is famous for its multi-functionality.

It doesn’t only allow you to make online transactions wirelessly; it allows you to create and design your store online.
With easy-to-use templates and interfaces, you don’t have to be a designer or web developer to set up your website in minutes.

Helcim also enables you to make and accept payments from all your devices.

This means you don’t have to always be on your desktop or in your store to take and complete payments; you can make sales transactions while you are on the go, on your tablet, or mobile phone.

4. PayCafe

PayCafe is among the best POS systems to use if you plan to run your online store simultaneously with your physical store.
It enables you to complete your sales transactions from one place by allowing you to make and receive payments from online transactions and physical transactions.

PayCafe also provides you with reliable data to work with. It gives you insights on your customers’ transactions, and how well your store is doing so you can make changes and devise new strategies for what works and what doesn’t.

5. Shopify

Shopify is among the most common POS Systems among business owners who accept payment transactions across multiple channels.

Shopify POS integrates your business transactions in one place so you can take and make payments seamlessly on any platform.

Shopify POS offers inventory management and detailed analytics. It comes with features that let you sell on social media while you are on the go and also on third-party market platforms.

Due to the effective integration Shopify POS offers for your online store and in-person store, your customers can make payments online and pick up, exchange or return purchased items from your physical store.

6. ShopKeep

Shopkeep is one of the most common POS systems used by small business owners to facilitate business transactions.

ShopKeep is easy and straightforward to use, which gives you and your customers an enjoyable user experience.

ShopKeep also comes with a Mobile App that keeps you updated about your business metrics so you can keep tabs on your business wherever you are.

7. TorchBistro

TorchBistro is a functional POS system for business owners in the food industry. So, if you run a restaurant, club, or bar, TorchBistro is your go-to POS system.

It comes with several functions such as table management, staff management, inventory management, data analytics, and much more.

TorchBistro lets you take orders online with your POS hardware or software. You can also purchase both and use them simultaneously for the success of your business.

8. Revel

Revel is one of the best POS transactions for businesses that run transactions from several platforms.
It offers a centralized system that enables you to take and make payments from different platforms from one comprehensive place.

A unique feature of the Revel app is its ability to enable you to perform transactions even when you don’t have a connection, as it makes use of both the cloud and your local network to store your data.

9. Toast POS System

Toast POS system is one of the ideal POS systems for restaurants as it was explicitly customized for food-based businesses.
It comes with all the functions to facilitate sales for your restaurant business. Such as table mapping, inventory management for ingredients in store, and the feature enables you to take online orders.

Toast offers other features that let you manage your staff effectively. Such as automated payroll and labor reports features.

10. POS Nation

POS Nation is designed to be one of the best POS systems for liquor and convenience stores.

It comes with functional features like actionable analytics on sales and employees—inventory management on carton packs, purchase orders, stock details, and many more.

POS Nation doesn’t only allow you to complete sales transactions and keep track of business activities; it is equipped with built-in ID scanning and age verification features that guide you through selling to the right people.

Conclusion

A POS system is an essential tool to facilitate your business success as it offers flexible payment methods and business analytics. This article discussed the top 10 POS systems you can employ to build a thriving business. Before you proceed to choose your POS system, be sure to check out each review to help you make spot-on decisions.

5 Indications You’re Cut Out for a Job in Customer Service

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Customer service|5 Indications You're Cut Out for a Job in Customer ServiceContrary to a common misconception, customer service is not merely hearing complaints and speaking politely to customers; it is a critical component of any successful business operations. By ensuring high-quality customer service, any organization can build a favorable reputation in their industry, attract new customers, and keep a loyal client base.

Given its relevance, it is not surprising that customer service jobs have always been in demand in the Philippines. If you are interested in entering this industry for career advancement opportunities and financial gain, know that this sector is not for everyone. You need specific skills, personality traits, and qualities to succeed.

To ascertain if you are cut out for a position in customer service, below are several signs that you may want to consider. If most of them ring true to you, then there is a good chance that you will thrive in this field of work.

You Have a Way with Words

Although communication skills are necessary for customer service, the job entails more than merely speaking fluently and calmly. Customer service representatives should be able to relay awkward things or give unpleasant news in a way that does not upset or irritate the clients. However, it is worth noting that having a way with words is not about lying but packaging the message in a more palatable manner.

For instance, instead of giving an outright refusal to a customer request that is against company policy, you can tell the client that you will see what you can do about the issue and inform them about the result the following day. In the interim, make sure to see what else you can do to help the customer that may not be violative of your company policy. When you call the next day, the client will most likely be receptive whether you’ve found another way to help them or your reply to the original request is unfavorable. Either way, this will send the message that you tried your best to resolve the issue.

You Are Cool as Ice

Answering calls, addressing different concerns, and dealing with frustrated people all day can be taxing and emotionally draining. That is why customer service representatives should be patient enough to deal with all types of individuals and concerns without taking things too personally.

Think about how you deal with friends and acquaintances and the different circumstances in your daily life. Are you easily irritated when things do not go your way? Do you tend to lash out at others when they act rudely?

If you answer affirmatively to the above questions, you probably need to develop the value of patience before seeking a position in customer service. Take note that unless you have the ability to remain calm and unperturbed in any situation, you will probably have a difficult time staying and growing in the customer service profession.

You Have a Positive Outlook

One study published in the Journal of International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences found that more than 50 percent of customer service representatives in Metro Manila are high in cynicism due to the nature of the work environment. The finding is understandable, considering that individuals working in this sector are getting beat down by bad-mannered and frustrated customers on a daily basis. It is easy to believe the worst in people if you encounter the not-so-nice ones regularly.

That said, a customer service representative should have a positive outlook to remain happy and satisfied in their work despite frequent interaction with unpleasant clients. Positive people focus on the good things, are inherently grateful, and do not dwell on things they cannot control. They are proactive and see opportunities in all circumstances. If those around you often comment on your positive energy and optimism, you will probably be effective in assisting frustrated customers and keeping the spirit up of those around you.

You Are Highly Adaptable to Change

Customer service work is unpredictable. Apart from the system continuously evolving, there is no way of knowing what types of calls a customer service agent will receive throughout the day. There might be a downtime for a certain period followed by multiple phone calls nearing the end of office hours. Even work schedules can be erratic.

How do you usually react to changes and instability? Perhaps you are hardly bothered by surprises, or you are thrilled with the idea of not knowing what to expect. If that is the case, working as a customer representative could be a good fit.

You Maintain Long-Lasting Relationships

As mentioned above, effective customer service is about making clients feel valued by the company. That is why people working in the industry should be genuinely interested in people and build customer relationships. Doing so means remembering client names, being sensitive to their needs, and addressing their concerns in the most efficient manner.

To determine if you have this ability, you may want to assess your personal relationships. If you make friends effortlessly, get along with everyone, and maintain long-term friendships, then you might be suited to work in the customer service sector.

The items discussed above are just some of the essential indications that an individual is well-matched for a job in customer service. Ponder on them to see if they speak to you. If your desire to pursue a position in the field becomes stronger, or if the job becomes even more interesting, you should seriously consider joining the customer service industry today.

Finding the Best Stock Photos for Your Book Cover

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Stock Photos |Finding the Best Stock Photos for Your Book CoverAn adage tells us not to judge books by their covers, but that’s just what everyone’s going to do anyway, especially when talking about actual books. If your name isn’t quite enough to sell the book on its own, the cover design might be. On the other hand, a bad cover might drive away from the otherwise interested buyer.

It doesn’t matter whether you are planning to sell your book online or in a brick-and-mortar store or even as an audiobook. Front cover, or its thumbnail is the first thing a potential buyer will see when browsing the book section. And yes, the reports of the death of printed books have been greatly exaggerated. While the number of bookstores has been declining, printed books remain the most popular medium with audiobooks gaining popularity and e-books losing some of their charm lately.

So, the design is essential. But a good plan costs a lot. Well, not always. But before talking about the cover images themselves, let’s talk about the general design guidelines and current design trends a bit.

We won’t go into too much detail about the cover typography here, but good typography is essential and should match the overall design. Handwritten or big bold sans serif fonts for fiction and clean and crisp fonts for non-fiction are popular choices.

You may have seen the words “Millennial pink” and “Gen-Z yellow” thrown around. They aren’t witty comebacks to “OK boomer” but popular contemporary design colors. Millennial pink is a dusty pink color popular in fashion magazines, Tumblr, and books aimed at the young and millennials. Celebrities like Beyonce and Kendall Jenner popularized Gen-Z yellow, and it remains a popular color for dust jackets and book covers. Trends change fast, and we don’t know what will become popular in 2020. Pantene color of the year is always a trendsetter, so maybe we’ll see Classic Blue in bookstores this year. But keep in mind that using something that doesn’t have real staying power can make your design look outdated fast.

What about the actual cover images then? First, think about your genre and audience. Each style has its stereotypical theme. Fantasy novels have knights, swords, and dragons. Planets, androids, and spaceships are ubiquitous in science fiction. They might be cliches, but that’s partially what the buyer is expecting to find. Don’t always aim for the least common denominator, though. Floral background and a shirtless beefcake on the cover signals a romance novel but may drive away everyone except the lovesick and romance hungry.

When you have the theme in mind, you need to think about the style you wish to go for. Making an exceptional design takes some experience, but there is one affordable shortcut that takes advantage of already proficient designers: Stock photos. There are stock images of almost every theme with many different styles, so there should be something for every need. So how to find what you need? Dreamstime employs a powerful search engine where any search keywords can be filtered with different modifiers. You can limit your search to only images with people, choose pictures that haven’t been used before to avoid using the same image as someone else, apply desired color composition, exclude undesired keywords, and so on. Choices are almost endless. For inspiration you can check the editor’s choice section for some of our popular images.

Finally, a couple of useful tips: Choose a few different covers and run them through a test audience. With stock images, this won’t be prohibitively expensive. Also, I would avoid the so-called “free stock” sites. Any good public domain images are probably already in use in a million different places. You would want your book cover to be unique.

When you have decided on your cover image, make sure you get the correct image license. There are licenses for every need, from online publishing to printing.