Finding Specialist Suppliers for Your Unique Business Needs

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Specialist Suppliers|Finding Specialist Suppliers for Your Unique Business NeedsDoes your business do something unique or different? If so, then you’re probably doing it for the sake of standing out, to improve your products, or to get your brand noticed. This is an excellent strategy when starting a business for the first time. First impressions matter, so doing something unique and different can help you stand out.

Unfortunately, being different in the world of business can be difficult and expensive. So here are a couple of tips to help you find specialist suppliers to meet your unique business needs.

Start by considering your budget and your needs

First, ask yourself how much you’re willing to spend on specialist suppliers and if it’s worth it for your business. For example, if you offer lots of personalisation options but it drastically reduces your profits, then you need to decide if it’s worth sticking with your current business model or if you should go for something more generic at first. Evaluate your needs and keep an eye on your budget to see what kind of suppliers you can work with and which you might need to pass on.

Consider networking at various events to connect with suppliers

Networking is an incredibly helpful way to connect your business with new suppliers. It’s important for you to chat, introduce yourself, exchange business cards, and gossip about the industry. This helps you learn more about different suppliers and could be the start of a lucrative partnership.

Be highly specific about what it is that you’re looking for

The more specific you are, the more likely you’re going to get a fantastic service. Even if the price is a little higher, being specific ensures that you get exactly what you’re looking for, thus reducing the possibility of wasting money and time. For instance, if you’re looking for plastic packaging technologies, then dig a little deeper and find a packaging company that works with the exact dimensions or use cases that you’re looking for.

Speak with influencers and spread your presence

Influencer marketing has become a huge deal in the marketing world, especially if you’re a relatively new and hip company that has a social media presence. Making use of influencers is difficult. You need to focus on building a healthy relationship with them to spread your presence, and you need to work with many different people to spread your reach to different audiences.

Look for a bespoke service that offers flexibility

One of the best ways to build a healthy relationship with your suppliers is to look for a service that offers flexibility. If you find a supplier that just about does what you need, then it’s going to create further complications when you request bespoke services. However, if that supplier already offers bespoke services, then you’re less likely to cause annoyances and delays, and you’re more likely to have your jobs accepted.

Finding specialist suppliers can be challenging, but as long as you do plenty of research and ask around your network, you’ll find your ideal supplier sooner than you think.

5 WAYS TO HELP AUTOMATE YOUR BUSINESS

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Automate your Business|5 WAYS TO HELP AUTOMATE YOUR BUSINESAutomation is a process of replacing manual human needed in executing tasks with any form of technology. Automation is an area of business that is of immense benefit as it uses technology to perform business tasks or processes, where human effort or supervision would be otherwise needed. By incorporating automation, business-owners can boost efficiency, minimize operating costs, and ensure near-perfect consistency in business activities.

Although automation is great for business, certain factors must be considered before integration into your business. Areas any business owner should focus on are tasks or processes that are reoccurring, repetitive, algorithms can handle easily or time-consuming. Choosing the right tasks to automate is key to the growth of a business. So, here are five easy ways to help automate your business.

1. Social Media Automation

Social media has become an essential part of any business, especially in small businesses. Social media can help businesses to build an online reputation, raise awareness for their products or services, engage customers and potential customers, get feedback, and demonstrate expertise.

Automating your social media is a great way to help boost productivity, with tools that integrate your social media platforms and schedule posts across various social media platforms. There are several available such as Buffer, Hootsuite, ContenCal, etc.

2. Integration of AI Learning

The capabilities of Artificial intelligence have grown significantly over the last decade. It is now possible to feed AI’s business metrics in the form of data points that allow AI to optimize your business activities like price and digital marketing send. The benefits of Integrating AI are not no exhaustive, as there are constant developments and updates.

3. Automated Updates and Responses

Setting up automated updates and responses is great for reoccurring activities that involve your customers. Such as automated email updates that welcome new subscribers or inform them of recent transactions with your business or business promotions

The automated updates can intelligently respond to basic questions and regular inquiries customers may have, based on pre-set guides.

4. Documentation and Data Gathering

Automation in business is not limited to digital relations alone; it is also useful in areas of data gathering and documentation. Several documents and data are transferred in email correspondence, and keeping track of all the paperwork can be very time-consuming and tiring.

With automation software such as ERP Development, all the paperwork and documentation are automatically sorted according to your pre-set rules.

5. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)software

ERP software one of the best ways to ensure effective business automation. As it is a system that centralizes various aspects of business process management i.e., human resources, logistics, finance, documentation, orders, billing, inventory, customer management, and all that comprises the said business. ERP is basically a business management software.

However, the ERP software is not a generic solution, as it must be developed to suit every businesses’ metrics. Therefore in ERP Development, the software system must be modeled after the metrics of every business.

Conclusively, the first step to ensuring effective automation is to observe the repetitive and time-consuming areas of your business. Also, the development of ERP software will help in centralizing all the aspects of your business.

5 Things Your Business Needs To Focus On In 2021

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business 2021|5 Things Your Business Needs To Focus On In 2021For anyone glancing back over 2019’s plans for 2020, it will become glaringly obvious that flexibility and survival were always going to come naturally for some companies, but for other companies, the very need to survive wasn’t even a consideration.

A Big Learning Curve

If 2020 has taught businesses anything, it’s that you need to be ready to be adaptable and that trusting our employees to work with you rather than against you is vital to the survival of any business -both large and small.

Here are five things that your business needs to be doing in 2021 to weather the storms to come over the next year and, hopefully, set yourself up in a better position to weather any storms in the medium and long-term future too.

Improve Your Website

The switch to online has accelerated in the last 12 months, and any business still relying on that ‘good old fashioned handshake’ to survive is being and will be left out in the cold.

Investing in your website now will improve your chances of survival, employ some professional web development services, and get involved to make sure your website works for your business as well as your customers or clients.

A Resilient Marketing Plan

All marketing strategies for 2020 went down the pan by about March time, and, as shown by the Keep Calm and Travel On campaigns, marketing had to adapt and change within days along with the changing guidelines issues by every country.

In 2021, as a vaccine is rolling out for a lot of the world’s major economies, your marketing department will need to be working overtime to keep up, so keep your marketing plan flexible and resilient, and don’t be afraid to pull campaigns at the last minute if needs be.

A Strong Remote Working Policy

Remote working and working from home has been popular for a few years, but in 2020 that took on a whole new look when hundreds of thousands of workers were forced to take their office home with them.

There’s not much you can do aside from going with the flow, but putting in some strong policies around expectations can help employees feel connected without feeling like they’re being micromanaged and monitored every five seconds of the day.

The Ability To Be Flexible

Flexibility is likely to be the new buzzword of 2021, and for a good reason.

With rolling lockdowns and changing restrictions coming every few weeks, you will need to now an incredible amount of flexibility around employees, time off, and working allowances to keep things going. Still, flexibility isn’t all bad and some employees, especially working dads, may be thriving in this new working atmosphere.

Focus on Talent Acquisition

While many companies will be considering sweeping redundancies in 2021, it’s important not to lose sight of talent acquisition.

If you can find new employees to cover the skillset that would normally take two or three employees, now might be the time to invest in better talent over just more talent.

Quality over quantity.

Increasing Efficiency Within Your Small Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Small Business Efficiency|Increasing Efficiency Within Your Small BusinessWhen you start your own small business, it won’t take long for you to realise that efficiency is one of the most important features that your team must concentrate on. Poor efficiency levels can mean that you spend far too much time on even the simplest of tasks, missing important deadlines and reducing your team’s overall productivity to make certain that you are physically unable to reach and surpass your goals. Luckily, improving efficiency levels within your small business needn’t be as difficult as you might initially expect, as there are just a few key areas in which you can focus your efforts to make a massive difference in no time at all. So if you and your team are ready to boost productivity and improve their pace, then read on to uncover some of the best tips and tricks that you can utilise today!

Motivation Is Key

One of the most essential features of a successfully efficient small business is motivation. If your staff are inspired to give it their all though each and every shift, you’re sure to benefit from increased productivity and a genuine desire to reach and surpass any goals that have been set. Keeping your team motivated needn’t be hard, as you can begin by offering rewards to those who show a particular level of commitment – a prize such as a luxury bottle of wine or a weekend hotel voucher is the perfect encouragement for your staff to really commit to the task at hand. Another way to keep your team motivated is through positive affirmations, as taking the time to personally congratulate and thank your staff for their hard work and dedication will encourage them to feel valued and appreciated. If your team can acknowledge that you really do need (and want) their help, they will be far more serious about providing you and your business with the support you need.

Cutting Transport Times

There’s nothing worse than having to wait for weeks and weeks for a product that you’ve purchased to turn up in the mail, and such an experience can discourage customers from ever purchasing through your store again. Transport reliability can either make or break your small business, as poor travel efficiency can mean that you wait for an age just to receive your materials which then take even longer to reach your customers once a product has been manufactured. Finding an experienced, reliable freight broker is one of the best things that you can do to increase your shipping efficiency levels, as they can act as a middle man in between you and transport companies to get the best service for the best price. Many big brands now offer bonuses like next day or even same day delivery, and this is important to bear in mind when establishing your delivery goals – as a small business you won’t be expected to provide such a service, but aim to keep your postage within a timeframe of 3-5 working days to keep your customers happy.

Remote Access Software: What is It and Why You Need One

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Remote Access Software|Remote Access Software: What is It and Why You Need OneThe last decade saw an increasing interest in alternative work setups. Many organizations were considering remote working. The pandemic pushed companies to shift their operations remotely.

Beyond COVID-19, businesses are ready to establish at least a hybrid workforce where employees work both in the office and at home throughout the week. This will be impossible without the advancements in technology, specifically remote access.

Remote access software has become one of the most important tools in managing employees across different locations. Neil Patel highlighted some of the most popular remote access solutions in the market today.

But, before you choose a platform for your business, you should know the ins and outs of remote access and why you need one.

What is Remote Access Software?

Remote access refers to authorized personnel’s ability to access a system or a computer from a geographical distance using a network connection.

The user can access files and other system resources on any servers or devices connected to the network.

A remote access application is used to accomplish these tasks. Applications come with numerous features so your team members can work together seamlessly.

While each platform differs in functionalities, most have these essentials features:

  • Two-Way Desktop Sharing. A remote access application allows you to see the remote computer’s desktop. Similarly, you can share your own desktop view with the other machine. This is essential when providing technical support or demonstrating product features.
  • File and Clipboard Transfer. Remote access platforms make it easy to access files on another computer and download them to yours. You can also copy texts, commands, and scripts from the remote computer to your machine without using third-party communication software.
  • Unattended Access. The ability of authorized users to connect to another system even when no one is present in the remote end. With this functionality, you will not have to disrupt the other user whenever you need to access a file or an app on their computer.
  • Session Recording. While this can be accomplished using a third-party screen recorder, the ability to record your remote session within the same application is much more efficient. Having a video or snapshots of your session ensures transparency on both ends.

You can also explore advanced features depending on your specific needs. Functionalities such as multi-session handling, built-in messaging, reboot and reconnect, and more are available in most modern remote access applications.

Why Do You Need Remote Access Software?

Building a remote-working team brings unique challenges and opportunities to your organization. At the end of the day, you still need to make sure that your team stays productive. You still have meetings, presentations, planning, and other tasks, albeit in a different form. Remote access software can help you transition from a traditional office-based workforce to a completely remote team as seamlessly as possible.

Some of the advantages of using remote access software are:

Streamline Tasks and Workflows

Using remote access platforms, your staff can work on any device as long as they can access a network. They can quickly access files stored in your company servers or computers. That means they can remain productive regardless of their location.

Furthermore, some companies use proprietary software that can only be installed on corporate machines. Migrating these apps to new devices is expensive. Also, some enterprise-level applications require powerful computers that your staff may not have. Remote access platforms ensure that your team can still access your business tools without having to buy new hardware. They can connect directly to your machines in the office and continue their tasks.

Easy Collaboration

Remote access tools allow your team members to communicate and collaborate with one another without having to meet face-to-face. Screen sharing ensures that they are always on the same page. That means working together on a task is a breeze. Similarly, presentations and meetings can be conducted seamlessly by showing the presenter’s screen to the rest of the team.

Your clients also benefit from remote access apps. For example, your web designer can conduct a demonstration of the WordPress theme that they are creating for the customer. The client can clearly see the progress of the design. And, they can even provide interactive feedback using remote access tools.

Enhanced Monitoring

One of the challenges in shifting to a remote-working team is productivity. After all, without supervision, team members can wander off on the Internet and lose focus.

There are remote access platforms that can connect with multiple machines. These apps are often used for monitoring multiple computers. You can see your team members’ screen and check the progress of their tasks. The complete transparency ensures that your team is always on track and productive.

On top of that, you can keep a log of your team’s activities. Some remote access systems keep a record of who is accessing your company’s network and what they’re doing. These logs are necessary for auditing, especially if your organization follows regulatory guidelines.

Choosing the Right Remote Access Software

Remote access comes in all forms and functionalities. Depending on your company’s needs, you can use one or a combination of the following:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) – It creates a secure “tunnel” between your office network and a remote computer. Once your computer is added to the network, it can access the same files, applications, and systems as if you are in the office. It provides the best security and privacy as authorization is required to join a VPN.
  • SaaS Remote Access Tools – These are the most well-known remote access software. The desktop tools create a connection between a remote computer and another computer at the office. LogMeIn and TeamViewer are some of the most popular examples.
  • Helpdesk or ServiceDesk Software – They are often used in customer support and technical services. It includes tools to assist end-users, especially in troubleshooting problems. Technicians use this type of application to remotely access and control a client’s computer.

Organizations will continue to face challenges as they shift to remote work. However, using the right tools can make the transition as smooth as possible. Remote access software ensures that your team can work and collaborate as they used to, even outside the office.