9 Things Your Business Needs for Protection

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Protection|9 Things Your Business Needs for ProtectionRunning a business in 2021 is not an easy task. Apart from the everyday functions of successful operation, there are numerous satellite issues that every business needs. The many facets of business operation revolved around protection. Protection doesn’t only refer to financial insulation but legal protection for employees and your business.

In addition, the 21st-century proliferation of internet-connected systems makes any business a target for malicious hackers, the damage from which can be disastrous. Recent times have also brought to light many issues related to race, sexuality, and gender. It would be best to tackle these issues head-on, and it is necessary to educate all employees at every level.

Nine of the most critical protection issues in modern-day business include:

  1. Quality Legal Representation
  2. Accounting Strategists
  3. Cyber Security
  4. Multiple Insurance Policies
  5. On-Site Medical Aid
  6. Medically Trained Staff
  7. Emergency Exit Procedures
  8. Employee Training Programs
  9. Employee Awareness Seminars

Implementing one or more of these strategies into your company is guaranteed to help your business, yourself, and your employees when related issues arise.

Quality Legal Representation

Love them or loathe them, lawyers are an immense help in almost every aspect of a business. Apart from criminal law, there are multiple aspects to the discipline that most people will never use. A personal injury attorney can expertly represent your case when you have suffered injuries in the workplace.  If you have been injured on the job, you must get a company with good workers comp attorneys to help you with your case. Keep reading and find out more about how an attorney can help you get the compensation you deserve. In addition, business lawyers are incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to liability issues. For example, if you are a doctor, it could come in handy for your practice should you come under pressure or a face suit from a medical negligence lawyer. In addition, business lawyers are incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to liability issues. For example, if you are a doctor, it could come in handy for your practice should you come under pressure or a face suit from a medical negligence lawyer.

Accounting Strategists

Good accountants are necessary for optimal business. Apart from their well-known skills when it comes to taxes (which you need as a business), experienced accountants and financial planners will advise you on all aspects of your company’s finances. The expertise of accountants includes investment strategies, insurance decisions, and auditing. Auditing is a specialized technique that aims to highlight all expenses of a business.

Cyber Security

Protecting your business from malicious hackers has never been more critical than it is now. The year is just halfway through, yet the UK has suffered almost 10 million record breaches so far in 2021. Additionally, ransomware attacks are on the rise at the cost of approximately $6 trillion per year to companies worldwide. Consequently, one in five small to medium businesses fold within six months of a devastating breach. It would help if you considered managed IT services.

Multiple Insurance Policies

Probably the most vital protection your business needs is insurance. Good insurance doesn’t only protect your company, but your employees as well. Property insurance, liability insurance, and worker’s compensation insurance are a good start.

  • Property Insurance: provides compensation for any property lost or damaged inside the business.
  • Liability Insurance: pays for damages incurred from a lawsuit as well as related fees and expenses.
  • Worker’s Comp Insurance: pays the salary and medical expenses of employees injured while at work in your company.

On-Site Medical Aid

At the very least, essential medical treatment should be available at your company. Such on-site treatment includes first aid boxes and specialized care such as eyewash stations in industrial areas where shrapnel or chemicals are a risk.

Additionally, you could consider on-site defibrillators that employees can use in cardiac arrest or heart attack situations. Defib machines can be purchased for as little as a few hundred dollars/pounds and can save lives.

Medically Trained Staff

In addition to on-site medical aid, you can further protect employees by hiring on-site medical staff or training existing staff in medical procedures. For the most part, you may want to pay for a small number of employees to be trained in first aid procedures. But should there be a significant risk to employees, you could consider hiring an on-site nurse or physician. It’s also common for companies to hire therapists for treating those in stressful jobs.

Emergency Exit Procedures

Disaster could strike your company premises at any time. Acts of God, terrorism, and mass shootings are real threats in the modern world, and organized evacuation procedures are essential for minimizing potential damage. Regular drills are an excellent way of ensuring everyone knows what to do in an emergency as is installing security devices, fire suppression systems, and keeping emergency exits clear of obstacles.

Employee Training Programs

You should adequately train all your employees in their job. Poor job performance is dangerous and puts everyone at risk. For example, the current shortage of truck drivers means that companies are hiring unqualified drivers. Many of these contribute to the 121,000 bus and truck accidents each year in California alone. Additionally, should you employ an incompetent person for any role, you are liable for any negligent incidents in which they are involved.

Employee Awareness Seminars

Issues in the workplace have always been there. But the last couple of years have brought them to the fore. Movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter are socially significant as they serve to highlight injustice and repugnant practices across society and in the workplace. In response, you have a responsibility to ensure the safety of all persons in your employ. A tried and tested method of this is to hold awareness seminars. Educational programs like this can help inform employees what is acceptable and what’s not while at work.

Conclusion

As an employer, you have numerous responsibilities. In addition to owning and operating a successful business, there are a variety of meaningful actions that you can take to keep yourself, your business, and your employees safe. While these mainly extend to legal issues, fiduciary aspects, and cyber protection, they also include medical and societal issues.

Legal representation, accountants, and adequate insurance policies provide excellent meta protection. This kind of cover will insulate your business against legal and financial issues and provide satisfactory solutions to employees in your duty of care, as will adequate evacuation and safety procedures.

Duty of care protection also includes medical-related issues where the risk of injury is probable. On-site nurses, doctors, and therapists are excellent solutions to any medical problems that can arise and only serve to increase protection for everyone involved in your business.

Why Rules-Based Automated Underwriting is the Right Choice

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Underwriting|Why Rules-Based Automated Underwriting is the Right ChoiceUnderwriters have one of the most important roles in the lending process. They must ensure that their quotes are both attractive to prospects and lucrative for the company.

An underwriter collects a candidate’s information to set the amount, interest rate, and time period. This means that they need to go over data, statistics, laws, and regulations before making an offer.

Needless to say, this is a demanding and time-consuming job.

The solution? Rules-based automated underwriting.

Automated underwriting solutions give lenders the ability to make fast and accurate decisions, which are necessary for improving customer experience.

Automated underwriting platforms are able to process an application in mere minutes, shaving off days that would normally take a human underwriter.

Issues with Manual Underwriting

As the name suggests, manual underwriting requires a human underwriter to complete the process. Apart from the fact that manual underwriting is more expensive than automation, there are several other problems with this approach.

In order to give an accurate quote, the underwriter has to sift through huge volumes of documents. As a result, it could take days before a decision is reached. This makes it very difficult for lenders to respond to real-time demand when the underwriting process is so lengthy.

Also, since manual underwriting is performed by a human it means that the process isn’t error-proof and that the risk of inconsistent decisions is very real.

These are only some of the most common problems with manual underwriting that can have a disastrous effect on an organization.

Manual Underwriting Does Have Its Role

Every lender needs a human underwriter who’s going to assess difficult or unique applications. For instance, you would need the expertise of a human underwriter in cases where the client information is incomplete or seemingly contradictory.

However, while manual underwriting has its role to play, lenders are using automated underwriting platforms to quickly advance qualified applicants.

How Does Automated Underwriting with a Business Rules Engine Work

An automated underwriting system that uses a business rules engine to process loan applications first collects basic data such as addresses, social security numbers, employment status, and earnings details. Then the automation software uses this information to fetch more actionable data, such as the applicant’s credit score.

The automated system only needs a couple of seconds to do all the heavy lifting. Once the algorithm comes up with a risk assessment, the underwriter quickly reviews the result before issuing a formal offer.

Operational Efficiency

Automated underwriting streamlines the first stage of the underwriting process — it has the ability to instantly generate decisions that can take days to complete manually. In many simple cases, there’s no need for any human supervision.

Another advantage of automating the underwriting process is that there’s little human input. A business rules engine follows clear instructions that define each stage in the process. This means that the risk of mistakes is significantly reduced.

Conclusion

As long as the system has correct data, its decision will be accurate. Businesses don’t have to worry about things like transposition mistakes that can produce false assessments.
Automated underwriting is one of the best ways for lenders to become more competitive.
Automation can be used to underwrite a wide range of loans. Automated underwriting solutions are widespread and are available to both smaller startups and large established banks.

3 Simple Ways to Grow Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Grow your Business|3 Simple Ways to Grow Your BusinessTo guarantee your success in the business world, it is imperative that you grow your company in a sustainable way. It is sometimes the case that a business will try to grow too soon, and this can, unfortunately, contribute to failure. By first establishing your place in the market and then seeking stable opportunities to expand, you can begin to thrive in your industry.

When you are genuinely confident that your business is stable, the time to think about growth has arrived. If you are unsure where to get started, then the following three tips will help you on your way.

1. Get a Virtual Receptionist

A professional virtual receptionist from Telephone Answering is an amazing way to drive your business growth.
Your customer service is an essential component of your success, and the person answering your business calls will take much of this responsibility. When you entrust these tasks to an expert agency, you can be sure your customers are getting the service that they expect with each and every phone call.

A virtual receptionist can also help with other tasks that will enable you to focus more on growing your business. For example, you can outsource your diary management, switchboard handling, and your website live chat function to a virtual receptionist. This will undoubtedly free up a great deal of resources within your company.

2. Up Your Social Media Game

Social media is undeniably a fantastic way to expand your brand awareness and to boost your sales.

When you are successful at building a brilliant social media presence, then more and more people will become aware of who you are. This creates practically limitless potential for how many new customers or clients you can get on board.

Having an in-house social media team has its benefits as communication between different departments may flow seamlessly. However, that does not mean that hiring an external social media management team is not a good idea. Outsourcing this aspect of your marketing strategy can ensure that your social media efforts are consistent and that your campaigns are expertly executed.

With the right social media team behind you, you might be surprised at just how quickly your business starts to grow!

3. Host Your Own Events

Hosting events is an exciting way to boost your reputation and begin growing your business. These events can serve as networking opportunities, as well as being a great chance to show those in attendance what your company is all about.
You might consider hosting an event to coincide with the launch of a new product or service. It might also be something that you do on a schedule, such as once every two months. Either way, make sure that your event is always well organized and beautifully presented. You will also want to make sure that those in attendance are having a good time.

Growing Your Business

With the right plan in place, it is possible to start growing your business and future-proof your success.
Ensuring that the time is right is always going to be one of the most important factors, combined with a brilliant team and a commitment to success.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Toll Free Number

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Why Your Small Business Needs a Toll Free NumberThink your small business isn’t big enough to require having a toll free telephone number? Here are four good reasons why investing in one or more toll free lines can be an asset to enterprises of any size.

Conveys Your Legitimacy

In general, potential clients like to feel that they are purchasing from a stable, well-established organization. While you have probably worked hard to build a reputation that conveys this, there are also subtle things you can do as a business owner to create a sense of trustworthiness. Having a physical address, business cards, and a toll free phone number are seemingly innocuous measures that can do a lot to clue your clients into the fact that yours is a legitimate organization that is eager to serve them.

Makes You Mobile

Local telephone numbers may make you accessible to nearby clients, but unlike toll free numbers they won’t move with you. In the event that you relocate your business, with a toll free line you’ll be able to keep the same phone number you’ve already established. There’ll be no need to contact existing clients with a new phone number, no reason to reprint your business cards, and no extra money spent on changing advertising or marketing materials.

Increases Team Cohesion

With remote work on the rise, even small businesses often have employees who operate from far-flung locales. With a toll free company number, disparate workers won’t have to bother with setting up their own business lines or compromise their privacy by giving out their personal numbers. They may also find it easier to foster their client’s confidence by providing them with a nationwide number that can be reached from anywhere at any time.

Improves Your Tracking

Internet companies that provide toll free services to small businesses frequently offer additional technologies that work in tandem with the phone line, such as data tracking and reporting. With one of these providers, you’ll often have access to information such as what time of day most calls are received, where they’re coming from, how long they last, etc. that can prove invaluable when building a marketing plan.

Acquiring a toll free number for your business can be a smart way to build your brand and make your operations more mobile. It can even be critical to connecting your team and may also aid in your marketing efforts. No matter how large or small your organization is, don’t overlook this simple way to potentially improve your enterprise.

Keep Your Cost Per Customer Low

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Cost per Customer|Keep Your Cost Per Customer LowAcquisition cost is one of the preferred metrics on Google Ads to enhance the value of your ads. In essence, the acquisition cost refers to how much you are likely to spend on a prospect lead to turn them into a customer. In the world of Google AdWords, the metric is used to automatically increase bids in AdWords auctions to maximize chances when a user is likely to convert.

If you are familiar with this definition of the acquisition cost, you might assume that customer costs refer to the thing. In reality, customers costs are all the costs involved in the acquisition and retention of your customers. The overall customer management process could end up costing you more than you get paid for the product or service. Here are tips to ensure you can keep your cost per customer as low as possible.

Improve your SEM campaigns

As mentioned, Google Ads has strategic acquisition costs bidding. This approach can be successful if you set the most profitable cost. Paid marketing doesn’t have to break the bank. On the contrary, Google Ads lets you choose and manage your budget. But if you’re going to secure high rankings on the SERPs, you want to understand how to improve your ads for best visibility. High bids can win the auction, but other strategies can keep your costs low and your results high. Adding relevant ad extensions such as your phone number can increase the conversion rate. Additionally,m you can add business information to appear only for local searches.

Keep shipping costs profitable

Ecommerce shops have a tough task keeping their costs as appealing as possible. As a result, shipping costs need to be kept intentionally low. However, it can be tricky to manage all shipping-related costs effectively, including return costs, return checks, preparation for international shipping, etc. it might not physically cost more to transport a parcel from A to B, but your team will be working around to clock to manage the logistics strategy. So, why not give yourself some slack and turn to simple order fulfillment services to keep shipping processes cost-effective?

Let a bot help them

Customers frequently need help and guidance. Companies often feel overwhelmed by the volume of calls or emails reporting issues that are easy to solve. It is a time-demanding process that wastes the workforce. Simple queries could be easily managed by an AI bot. Whether a customer wants help finding the right product or needs basic troubleshooting, a bot can guide them effectively through the steps. More complex queries can also be filtered and passed on to the team.

Exceed their expectations

Customers have expectations on the quality of your services or product. The quickest and easiest way to keep customer costs low is simple to deliver precisely what they expect. Exceeding expectations is a popular marketing buzz phrase, but in reality, if you have to work extra to deliver more value than people have paid for, you are ultimately running your business to the ground. Meet expectations at all times, including in terms of communication. Honesty and authenticity in your communication with customers can remove increased costs linked to complaints.