Stay Productive: How to Winterproof Your Workplace

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Winterproof Your Workplace|Stay Productive: How to Winterproof Your WorkplaceThe winter season might be the furthest thing from your mind right now, but it won’t be long until chillier temperatures arrive. As the cold weather can affect your employees’ productivity and morale, you must take steps to provide a safe, warm, and comfortable space for your team.

If you’re looking for tips to winterproof your workplace, read the below advice on how to prepare for colder temperatures:

Avoid Slip and Trip Accidents

Slip and trip accidents are common in the workplace during winter. Rather than risking your employees’ health and opening your business up to a lawsuit, you’d be smart to stock up on various snow, ice, and flood control products.

The supplies can often quickly run out of stock when winter arrives, so buy the following items in advance:

  • Shovels
  • Salt
  • De-icer
  • Sand
  • Snowplow

It will help you to create a safe space for every member of staff or guest on your premises.

Repair a Leaky Roof

Many people make the mistake of ignoring a roof repair, but it can cause various financial and property issues down the road. For example, if you ignore a roof repair during winter, excessive rainwater and snow intrusion will cause a property to lose both hot and cool air.

This could cause your business to spend much more on energy to keep your employees warm. A leaky roof can also cause mildew and mold to develop, which can damage the property’s structure. Prevent the problem from spiraling out of control this winter by visiting a reputable roofing repair company: nextwaveroofing.com/commercial-roofing-denver-co/

Stock Up on Protective Clothing

If your team works outdoors, you have a responsibility to protect them from various arduous temperatures. Chilly weather and drab conditions can not only drain morale and slow down productivity, but could also pose a risk to your employees’ health and safety.

If your team works on a construction site or road maintenance, keep them safe and protected from the elements by stocking up on protective clothing such as:

  • Hats
  • Gloves
  • Boots
  • Jackets

You also should provide them with heaters, shelter from the outdoors, and hot drinks, so they can warm up on their break.

Create a Driver Safety Program

Before winter arrives, take the time to create a driver safety program, which will provide guidelines on how your staff can remain safe when on the road. As traveling in rain, snow or other tough elements can pose a risk to a driver’s safety, you should provide advice for your team to follow when traveling from A to B for their role.

For example, you could encourage them to:

  • Keep at least half a tank of fuel in the vehicle
  • Avoid cruise control on ice or other slippery surfaces
  • Inflate a vehicle’s tires and ensure they have good tread
  • Work from home (if possible) if they will face dangerous road conditions

If you follow the above tips, you could create a safe and comfortable working environment for your team, which could boost productivity and protect your company’s finances.

Understanding the Role of Technology in Growing Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Growing Your Business|Understanding the Role of Technology in Growing Your BusinessThe world of business is becoming ever more competitive, resulting in business owners scrambling to find ways in which to stand out, streamline operations, and hold onto the best talent. The secret to ticking all of these boxes and optimizing the potential for business growth lies in investing in the right technology. Read on for the details.

Finances

Financial management is arguably the most vital operational aspect of any establishment. Without ensuring that you are making a solid profit and that your staff members are paid on time, the business, as you know it, will quickly cease to exist. So, what type of technology is necessary to ensure that financial administration is properly taken care of from month to month?

The bare minimum is a high-quality accounting and payroll system. Software designers create these systems to fully automate various aspects of financial management, such as paying your employees and putting together reports.

Marketing

A great marketing strategy plays a key role in setting a business up for success. It generates brand awareness, consumer loyalty, and, of course, assists in maximizing conversions to boost that all-important bottom line. The right marketing technology can help a business to reach its full potential. Good examples of marketing software and technology include:

  • Analytics
  • Conversion optimization tools
  • Email marketing software
  • Remarketing software
  • SEO tools

Marketing automation solutions

Considering how diverse the marketing technology offering has become in recent times, it pays to consult with an IT and technology consultant company for advice, like oramca.com, to figure out which solutions are right for your enterprise.

Customer service

Marketing campaigns and customer service work hand in hand when it comes to nurturing the growth of any business. Ultimately, it does not matter how mind-blowing your marketing campaigns are, if your approach to customer service is lacking, your company reputation and turnover will suffer as a result. If your customer service is world-class, but your marketing efforts are falling short, you won’t have any customers to assist or impress in the first place!

From a technology perspective, you cannot go wrong with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution. Most good quality CRM systems allow for effortless lead and contact management, tracking of consumer interactions, quotes management, and email integration.

Human Resources

Your employees are your most valuable resource, hence the reason why it makes the world of difference when you put in extra effort into the hiring process and into keeping your existing staff happy. The best HR technology solutions boast features like employee information management, hiring and recruitment automation, benefits management, time and attendance management, professional development, and more.

Inventory management

It can become challenging to effectively monitor your available stock as your business grows, and product demand gradually increases. Doing so manually can lead to costly errors and disappointed customers. Luckily, inventory management software promises incredible features and benefits that are sure to solve these problems instantly. The great news is that there are different types of customizable software available for enterprises of all types and sizes.

If consistent business growth is the goal, advanced technology is the answer. Do not delay in finding the right solutions for your establishment!

Why Small Businesses Should Transition to Online Faxing

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Online Faxing|Why Small Businesses Should Transition to Online FaxingMany small businesses are quickly adopting digital practices to survive the rapid digital transformation driven by technology and evolving consumer needs. That is playing a significant role in enhancing their operations and facilitating their employees. One of the latest digital practices has been the adoption of online fax systems from the traditional fax machine.

There’s no doubt that fax remains an indispensable tool for many businesses. When you consider the limitations of operating and maintaining a fax machine, including the costs, you’ll understand why digital faxing is the future of fax. Online faxing helps address operational challenges and makes it easy to send and receive fax from anywhere on any device.

So, why should you transition to online faxing systems?

Increased Fax Accessibility

If your business relies on fax, you’ve likely gotten new employees or even existing employees who wanted to learn how to fax something. If you’re still using a traditional fax machine, what follows is a time-consuming process of pressing buttons and waiting, with limited access to the machine only during office hours. That is not productive for any small business.

By switching to online faxing, sending a fax is easy and quick, and you get to enjoy increased fax accessibility. Most digital faxing solutions can now be accessed via mobile, PC, or tablet. That means that your employees can send and receive documents and access their fax records anytime and anywhere.

Streamlined Efficiency

By transitioning to online faxing, your small business gets to streamline operations and improve efficiency. Instead of your employees spending countless minutes on the fax machine, they can send faxes in seconds and do more productive work. Complex on-premise storage solutions for your fax documents are also replaced by online fax storage solutions.

Your employees can access all the fax information and documents they need from a single location. Whether you use fax to communicate to clients, market your products, or keep your customers in the know, online fax streamlines the entire process for better efficiency.

Enhanced Faxing Security

With 46 million fax machines still operational worldwide, it’s easy to see why there have been growing calls about the security risks that these machines pose when conducting confidential business transactions. For small businesses in industries that still rely on fax such as real estate, legal, and healthcare, transitioning to online faxing offers enhanced security.

Online faxing helps you reduce compliance risks and ensure data protection when sending and receiving faxes. Even when sending confidential documents, your small business can be assured of a secure solution. When choosing an online fax service, be sure to confirm the security protocols in place for peace of mind.

Reduced Costs

By transitioning to online fax, your small business gets rid of the costs associated with fax machines, including hardware, software, networking systems, and maintenance. You can save a significant amount of money by simply switching to a cloud-based solution that is much cheaper, more efficient, accessible, and quicker instead of relying on a complex on-premise fax system.

No more buying ink, toners, and papers. With a quick and easy setup, you should be faxing by email, online, or a mobile app in minutes. Most online fax services feature a scalable and affordable pay-per-use pricing model or a monthly subscription model depending on your faxing needs. You can easily choose a pricing model that suits your small business.

Conclusion

Faxing is here to stay, and online faxing offers small businesses complete flexibility and access to their document sharing needs while ensuring secure data sharing. Being able to continue working and sending and receiving documents without the need for a physical fax machine will help your business streamline operations.

6 Reasons Why Your Organization Would Benefit From Using a Remote File Server

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | 6 Reasons Why Your Organization Would Benefit From Using a Remote File ServerKeeping your business organized can be a struggle, especially if you’re trying to take care of everything by yourself. Getting everything set up and ensuring that it all works properly is a hassle in and of itself.

But you can definitely make things easier for yourself with the use of a remote file server. So how do they work exactly and how can you benefit from one?

What is a Remote File Server?

A remote file server is a computer that someone can access from their own computer from anywhere else in the room or the building. That allows a person to have access to files that they may not have storage space for on their own computer.

With that said, here are the remote file server benefits you could experience when employing one in your business.

More Security and Backups

Instead of having to use your own computer to save your backups, you have a separate server where everything can be saved. You can also save and backup your files to another computer entirely, leaving you with more hard drive space.

That means less slow down and having to purchase another hard drive to transfer your files to. That’s more money in your pocket while still having access to all of your data. Having a separate server also means that your files are more secure, as only you (or anyone with the password) will be access the files.

Remote Access

Remote servers can be placed on their own VPN (Virtual Private Network) so that you can access it from just about anywhere, including your home or even on your phone while you’re away on vacation. You can grant access to your employees as well so that they can keep abreast of work and which projects need to be tended to.

File Centralization

No more having to search through hard drives to find what you’re looking for. With everything in one place, you can be more effective with work and get through projects much faster. Different permissions can be assigned to different employees as well so that only the right eyes are on the files you want.

Monitoring Employees

No one enjoys their boss peering over their shoulders to see if they’re working on what they should be. Through a remote file server, you can see exactly which employees are hitting which deadlines and what else needs to be worked on. No more having to rely on he said/she said arguments.

Data Recovery

Did you reformat your hard drive or have your computer hacked and lost everything? You won’t have to worry about losing all of your files with a remote server onhand. You can recover all of your data with a remote file server, as long as you’ve been backing up your files on a regular basis. You can avoid that horrible burden of having to start everything over from scratch.

User Control

User accounts and passwords are all controlled by your remote file server, which makes it very easy for new accounts to be created or to lock out/disable those who are no longer working for the company. This provides a safer working environment for all of your data.

Consider a remote file server for your business the next time you’re looking to upgrade. It’s definitely more beneficial than people give it credit for.

4 Frequently Asked Questions About Outsourcing Answered

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Outsourcing|4 Frequently Asked Questions About Outsourcing AnsweredFor those who are not yet on board with the prospect of outsourcing, this Q and A post shall help to quell your concerns. Below are four commonly asked questions that are often asked by business owners about outsourcing. And accompanying them, the answers to help you decipher whether or not outsourcing of some kind is a good choice for your business.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing refers to business owners finding and paying talented professionals (such as freelancers) and companies to do the work they don’t have the time or expertise to do themselves.

Depending on the scale of your business, there are usually multiple activities you (and your team) need to complete to ensure the company runs smoothly. For example, an entrepreneur who plans to launch their startup will need to work through the below;

  • Create a business plan
  • Build a website
  • Craft a brand
  • Set up and manage social media pages
  • Create a marketing plan to entice new customers
  • Hire, employ and train staff
  • Record every expense, income, and outgoing to ensure you have all the necessary information ready to complete your tax return

Everyone has a limited amount of time and resources available to complete business tasks, therefore attempting to adopt multiple jobs at once and do them well is near impossible. As a solution, outsourcing is often the answer to entrepreneurs’ who are short on time.

Providing numerous opportunities to outsource all of the tasks mentioned above and more, you can, for instance, outsource a trusted business partner to take care of everything related to human resources, such as hiring employees and managing the payroll. Or hire a freelance social media manager to take care of all the business’s social channels such as Instagram, Facebook, and Linkedin.

What services can I outsource?

Practically each and every area of your business you can think of can be outsourced. Here are a few of many examples;

  • Sales
  • Digital Marketing
  • Human Resources
  • IT services
  • Customer services

Can small businesses outsource work?

Of course, there’s no minimum amount of employees or turnover required to outsource services, but some freelancers, contractors, and services are better suited to smaller businesses than others; you just need to research and find out what works for you.

Is there a cost advantage?

Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of outsourcing is the amount of money your company can save. If your company has been affected by the pandemic, cutting costs is likely compulsory rather than a choice.

Delegating tasks to businesses outside of your own eliminates the costs associated with hiring employees to perform a specific role.

For example, hiring an in-house human resources team to take care of every aspect of interviews, employment, pensions, and healthcare is costly. Furthermore, you need to provide the same service to the human resources team you’ve hired too.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. – Jessica Jackley, entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs can’t do it all. If you want to cut costs, save time, improve efficiency, and concentrate on the parts of your business, you are passionate about, delegate tasks to other professionals.