Eight Tasks To Outsource When Running A Small Business

/in /by

All entrepreneurs should know how valuable time is. When you waste it, you put a strain on the entire business. Anyone starting a new venture understandably wants to be active in every aspect of the company. However, trying to do everything yourself, especially when you’re not qualified, is risky. Even if you avoid making mistakes, success will take longer and cost more to achieve. Because of this, every business should outsource. Not only is this cheaper, but it causes less hassle. With that in mind, here are eight tasks to outsource in small business.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Eight Tasks To Outsource When Running A Small Business

1. Employee Training

Outsourcing in business doesn’t have to mean giving up employees entirely. Certain tasks are much better performed in-house. However, if you insist on having employees, you must provide the proper training. Having inexperienced workers in your business can cause many problems. Untrained staff members are dangerous, but wasteful too. Thankfully, you can outsource the training of your team to an expert, which avoids any problems and ensures the task is done well.

2. Market Research

Before making any changes in business, you must conduct market research. After all, you don’t want the changes that you make to put current or potential customers off. Marketing research is also essential in learning about competitors and customers. While market research seems relatively simple, many businesses make mistakes that lead to incorrect results. Outsourcing to an expert is recommended because third-party companies can provide entirely objective data.

3. Receptionist Duties

Most people start a business to make a difference. Unfortunately, that will be difficult to do when you’re chained to a phone all day. The good news is, you can outsource many receptionist duties, including answering phone calls. Many answering services, like the Ivy answering service, offer value for money by providing you with experienced and professional virtual receptionists. What’s more, you aren’t stuck in a contract, so you can change the service to suit your needs.

4. Website Design

A website is a powerful digital marketing tool for any small business. Even if you don’t intend to sell online, you should still have a company website to connect with customers and raise brand awareness. Unless you have web design experts in-house, you must bring in professional help. The only problem worse than having no website is having an unprofessional one. Rather than choosing the first design company you find, therefore, you must research to find the best one.

5. Content Creation

No website in today’s market is complete without a blog. Most company websites use blogs to educate customers and clients about what the business does. Blog content can also optimize websites for search engines and attract more customers. The trouble is, producing and publishing content that converts will take time. For this reason, many companies outsource the task to freelancers. Although this isn’t free, the rewards of doing so far outweigh any expenses.

6. Inventory Management

All businesses typically begin with a small and manageable inventory. With so few units to keep track of, you can manage your stock on a simple spreadsheet. However, with any luck, your marketing campaigns will pay off. When that happens, the orders will multiply, which will make inventory management much harder. Rather than risk losing stock, you must minimize shrinkage by outsourcing this task. Doing so will reduce operating and staffing expenses, among others.

pasted image 0 8

7. Customer Support

Unless you’re sure you have enough time to handle customer support, you shouldn’t be doing it. Customer service is perhaps the most important aspect of business. After all, without loyal customers, your company wouldn’t stay afloat. Outsourcing customer support will ensure that you have access to any resources necessary to provide excellent service. Unlike in-house customer service, you will also have the capacity to expand quickly and support efficient growth.

8. Tax Planning

Money keeps the business world alive. While there are many reasons why a business might fail, all those reasons typically boil down to lack of capital. Because of this, you must take care with accounting tasks, like tax planning. Even a small mistake can cause huge problems for your business. Entrepreneurs can save money and hours every week by using an outsourced bookkeeper. What’s more, you will have peace of mind that your finances are in trained hands.

When done the right way, outsourcing in business will save money, time, and plenty of hassle. Rather than taking on every area of business yourself, you should hand over certain tasks to the experts. Hopefully, with the advice above, you have an idea of which tasks to start with.

Achieving Time-Efficiency And Cost-Efficiency To Ensure Steady Business Expansion

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Strategy|Achieving Time-Efficiency And Cost-Efficiency To Ensure Steady Business ExpansionBuilding a successful business requires a well-planned and efficient strategy. You need to consider the way in which you use your time and resources on a daily basis if you want to maximize the growth of your company and its profits. Having an innovative idea for your products and services, of course, will help you to succeed. And having motivated workers will help you, too. But if your company operates inefficiently, then you’ll be squandering your opportunities for growth in the future. Or, at the very least, you’ll be slowing the rate at which you grow. In this article, we’ll look at some ways in which you could achieve time-efficiency and cost-efficiency to ensure steady business expansion.

Help your team to work productively.

The first way in which you could make your business more time-efficient and cost-efficient is by helping your team to work productively. Firstly, of course, you need to ensure that every single employee is engaged with their specific job role. Hiring professional candidates will help, but they need to be passionate about their careers. If you feel that your members of staff have become apathetic towards their jobs, then you might want to help your team by offering incentives for hard work. Recognition in the form of an “employee of the month” award and perhaps even a bonus could encourage staff members to work hard in the hope of being noticed and rewarded. You have to give workers a reason to do more than the bare minimum.

Of course, even motivated employees need a bit of help from time to time. Even if your workers are pushing themselves to be highly-productive, you might not be maximizing efficiency. After all, there’s only so much that people can achieve on their own. So, you might want to use technology to improve your operations. Make sure every employee is connected to the company’s central network through their devices, so as to make communication easier. You might want to do some research on mobile malware. It’s important that workers know how to keep their devices secure and prevent infiltration of the main company network. You might also want to get automated software to handle administrative tasks. That way, your employees will have more time to focus on important aspects of their job roles. This will help to make your business more productive on a daily basis.

Reduce wasteful overhead costs.

If you want to ensure steady business expansion, then you should also reduce wasteful overhead costs. You might be pulling in plenty of sales from happy customers, and that’s great. However, if your expenses are excessively high, then this will erode your profit margins. In turn, that will give you less money to invest in your company. Your growth will be slower. So, pay attention to wastefulness in your budget. You could reduce your office’s energy bills, for starters. Thicker window glazing and even wall or roof insulation could help to trap heat and reduce energy consumption. You could also stop buying paper and start creating documents entirely digitally. In 2019, going paper-free is easier than ever. Everything’s done digitally in the modern age, after all.

How To Celebrate A Business Birthday

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Anniversary|How To Celebrate A Business BirthdayFrom time to time, a business will celebrate its anniversary. Of course, perhaps celebrating three years of being open is not something you will celebrate outside of the office, even though it is somewhat of an amazing achievement. But five years? Ten years? Twenty? These are large milestones that show you have the staying power you once felt impossible, and this is worth celebrating.

There are many methods of celebrating a business birthday. You could finally loosen that tie a little and enjoy a drink with your employees after hours. You might decide to hire a couple of new people for the interesting and exciting year ahead. Or, you could celebrate your business birthday with something truly memorable, something that adds an additional sense of occasion to the entire affair, giving you and your staff an amazing memory to remember.

This may also be a great opportunity to drum up further press for you and your business, as we often see the age of certain companies plastered all over social media once a business passes that threshold. Here’s how you can celebrate in style:

Limited Edition Products

Why not curate a wonderful set of limited edition products? You needn’t go overboard with this, of course. Sometimes, a different set of packaging, sometimes a smaller measure such as a combination of two items into one, or perhaps a collaboration with another company can give you a great means in which to sell a few products and also celebrate your firm. Perhaps if those in your office are a great fan of horror, you might opt for a spooky edition of your flagship product, even if that’s only related to its packaging. You’ll be sure to draw attention.

Office Prizes

You may wish to celebrate the staff that have helped you build your firm thus far, from morning to night. Running a staff award ceremony, running a competition, or perhaps investing in a worthwhile gift can give many the willingness to interact with and feel respect within your business events. Why not offer first prize as something quite amazing, such as flight school lessons or paid vacation? The opportunities are endless. After all, a little reinvestment in your team can be appreciated more than you may expect.

A Huge Unveil

Why not use this time to add weight to a marketing proposition you have? For example, unveiling a new product line, a new marketing campaign, or perhaps a new recruitment drive can help add a sense of value to things. For example, consider two product launches, perhaps two bottles of Whisky. Inside, they are the exact same. However, one is titled ‘Whisky Company’s Own Scotch!’ while the other is titled ‘Whisky Company’s 10th Year Own Scotch!’ – which sounds more premium? Which adds that sense of intrigue as you shout this from the rooftops? This ethos can help aid many of your other birthday plans.

With this in mind, we hope you can celebrate your business birthday effectively.

Ideas To Make Your Workplace Sustainable and Green

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Ideas To Make Your Workplace Sustainable and Green

Running an organisation is no cakewalk. Managing clients and delivering on the due deadlines is one just one side of the story. But, it also involves several costs-latent and glaring. You have your employees to think about. The salaries, the bonuses, appraisals, benefits and the like make for just one fragment of the entire picture. The other piece consists of paying for several utilities like workspace rent (if you do not happen to own a workspace), catering to the electricity bills and things like those. Thus, it is clear that running a workspace involves paying quite a price (like, literally). And, truth be told, half the amount on the bill comes from paying the electricity bill.

A workplace consumes several units of electricity. Some of the usage might also be unnecessary. But, we do not realise that because we are so caught up with our work that it becomes difficult even to catch a breath. And in the midst of this hullaballoo, where the Earth’s resources are being depleted, and we are facing a tremendous energy crisis, it is important that we gear attention towards the idea of sustainable living. In this article, we have tried to put across a few ways in which we can make our workplaces sustainable and green. The onus for doing so is not only on the employers or the owners of the workspace but also on the employees. Therefore, waste no more minute and read on.

Allow Nature To Light Up The Space

Now, this might not be possible throughout the day, but it is definitely a thought to be entertained. Most work hours begin in the morning and end in the evening. Thus, you could make use of the natural light for your work at least in the first half when the sun is shining brightly outside. Obviously, there is very little that you can do when the day is all gloomy. But, on the other days, try avoiding artificial light as much as possible. Switch the lights off and see how the amount on your electricity bill comes down. It is a great energy-saving tip, and you should definitely try it out.

Check For Cheap Power Plans

More often than not, we fail to live sustainably and end up spending more energy than usual due to our ignorance and inability to acquire new knowledge. There are several cheap power plans available around you; but, you yet go for the one that you stumble upon first without any research. There’s even sites you can visit that compare business electricity prices quickly, so there’s no excuse for not doing any research. Remember that there is no glory in being inane and uninformed. Check for the plans and subscriptions around you and only then choose a befitting one for your workplace or household. Check https://strøm365.no/stromleverandorer/akraft/ to find more cheap power plans for your office and be an aware consumer.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Ideas To Make Your Workplace Sustainable and GreenTry To Talk Your Employers Into Choosing Laptops Over Desktops

If you are an employee, you must try to talk your employers into switching over to laptops from desktops. Desktops need a continuous source of electrical energy to run, which obviously is not a brilliant idea when you are trying to cut down on the consumption. But laptops can run on batteries for a minimum of eight hours. Therefore, you must see to it that you have the option of working on laptops in your office.

If you are an employer, then you must try to replace the desktops with laptops so that your employees do not have to come over to you to talk about the move. You could be one step ahead of them already.

Do Away With Outdated Electrical Equipment

Be it air conditioners, ovens or desktops, keep tending to them, upgrade or replace them when the parts start ageing. Old electrical systems use more than the usual units of electrical energy. Therefore, if you keep using the old models and decide against upgrading the parts, you are going to receive a severe blow on your bill. You could also consider recycling your old electrical parts or appliances to make use of everything at your immediate access and reduce wastage as much as possible.

Get Some Plants To Brighten Up The Space

Now, we know that this is not directly related to the entire ‘saving energy’ drill, but we are looking at making workspaces sustainable and green. Therefore, try getting some plants that can thrive under the shade and brighten up the space. It is always alleviating to look at some greenery during stressful work hours.

Conclusion:

People make saving energy sound like a big deal when, in reality, all it requires is some conscious actions on our part. Small gestures can amount to significant differences, and we must only understand that before it is too late. Our planet can stretch itself beyond normal. But, everything has a threshold. Therefore, we need to act now before we are beyond damage reparations of any kind.

Three Popular Workspace Solutions That Could Be The Answer to Your Prayers

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Workspace Solutions|Three Popular Workspace Solutions That Could Be The Answer to Your PrayersThese days, offices come in all shapes and sizes. From virtual offices to hot-desking and leased floor space, it’s getting more difficult to be sure you’ve chosen the optimal solution for your needs, especially if your business is growing fast. If you feel a little intimidated by all that choice, these tips will help you work out what type of office space would suit your company best.

Leased Office Space

Once your business is properly up and running, it is possible that you will have special requirements that don’t fall within the realms of your standard serviced office offering. If you’re excited by the idea of designing your perfect office from scratch (everything from IT infrastructure to décor) you may appreciate the chance to begin with the blank canvas that is leased office space.

Leased office space only really becomes viable when future projections for your business suggest that you have a few years of secure trading in the pipeline. Renting your own workspace may not be particularly cost-effective if you aren’t in a position to sign a long-term lease, which would lower the overall cost. It’s also worth bearing in mind that you will have to manage every aspect of your office, which can be challenging if you’re used to the service office environment. Everything from carpet cleaning to ordering stationery and performing maintenance tasks will fall to your company. Depending what you’re up for, you might like to investigate outsourcing options. For example, to ensure you avoid IT disasters, look into customized managed IT.

Coworking

Working flexible hours according to an international clock is the norm nowadays, and if you’re hoping to retain your top performers, taking flexible hours into consideration could be beneficial. This is just one of the many reasons why startups are flocking to the countless coworking spaces that are popping up in cities all over the globe. These super convenient, and often extremely stylish, serviced workspace locations pride themselves on a community atmosphere, were people from all industries work together in a shared space. Most locations stay open 24/7, allowing you to come and go, as your schedule requires. Leases tend to be extremely flexible, with short term options as standard. Most of your needs are taken care of, from wifi to good coffee. The coworking demographic can be characterized as motivated, ambitious and young, so if you and your team would benefit from a competitive atmosphere with fantastic opportunities for collaboration, coworking could be ideal for you.

Virtual Office

A virtual office is, in a nutshell, running your business from home, or a far-out location while acting as if you have a well-located office. If this sounds like a good idea to you, don’t feel ashamed by the pretense: the virtual workspace solution is helping countless emerging startups fake it till they make it. Until you have your own real office, you’ll suffer from the lack the credibility that stops you from competing with bigger companies. A virtual office lets you put a professional business address on your letterhead, with the option to receive calls to a landline number monitored by a remote team, answering as if they were your employees.

Whether you’ve just launched a startup or you’re the owner of a mid-sized company, securing the ideal workspace for your business is not easy with all the options on the market. These pointers will help you narrow things down a touch.