When was the last time you checked that your employees had the right resources to do the job? Supplying them with the right resources is more than just making sure they have the correct equipment, although this is a major part of it too.
For a well-rounded employee to be able to do their job properly, how you treat them and understand their specific job role plays a big part in how they perform for you. No one wants to be paying employees who aren’t doing the job well or even at all. So, what can you do in your role as their employers to make sure they have all the resources they need to do the job?
Equipment
In every single job role you come across, there will, of course, be the need for equipment. This will take many different forms, depending on the sectors and type of business you are in.
Whether this is making sure you have a solid infrastructure in place for employees to do their jobs properly and deliver customer service, making sure you have the best epson drivers in the office for your printing needs or state of the art tech for workers who need to stay connected on the go.
Making sure you have provided staff with the right products, systems, apps and devices to do their job efficiently will play a part in making sure the job is done and done well.
Training
It can be tempting to skip out on making sure training is completed and completed thoroughly. Don’t. If you don’t make sure your team is well trained, then chances are, they won’t be able to perform as competent as you need them too.
Ignore the fact you are against the clock, have time restraints or any other issues and focus on making sure all your staff, new and old, are able and confident to carry out their job role properly.
Neglecting this will end up in sub-par customer service and corners being cut due to gaps in knowledge. So cut the mistakes and make sure everyone is one the same page
Motivation
Are your staff looking forward to the day ahead and today’s workload? Chances are if they don’t have the right support system in place or are over/underwhelmed and lacking in motivation they won’t be doing their best work for you!
Look at how you interact with staff and how you and the job itself comes across. Is there anything you can be doing differently or stop altogether? Staff feel more motivated to work when they know what they are doing is appreciated and their opinions and suggestions are taken on board.
Staff meetings are a great way to get everyone together to discuss new ideas and ways of working together as is one on one meetings. Take anything that is offered onboard and see how you can create a better working environment that fosters creativity and encourages people to work more efficiently and productively.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/office-1209640_1280-5.jpg8541280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-03-05 09:00:072020-03-05 04:53:44Giving Your Employees All The Resources They Need to Work Better
If you haven’t started to make “green” changes in your business yet, then it’s time to start now. When it comes to your business, it’s not just about contributing to the sustainability of the environment as there are many benefits to your business as well and many reasons to go green.
Contribute to the Sustainability of the Planet
Let’s start with the most compelling reason for making your business greener and the most obvious one. We all know that the planet is changing and that we need to do our bit. Going greener can benefit our health, it can help endangered species and provide a better future for the next generations. Most people know about this now, and companies are doing what they can. From Starbucks providing incentives to bring your own reusable coffee cups, to other companies working on ways to use recycled frack water or non-potable brine for fracking. No matter what business you work in, there is something you can do to help, so it’s time to work out what that is.
Save Money
One way that you can go green in your business is to minimise your power usage – and the good thing about this is that it will save you money too. It might seem like a cost at first to switch to energy-saving light bulbs and upgrade to other more energy-efficient equipment where but over time it will save you a lot of money. You could try converting a paperless office which will save you money on paper, printing supplies and filing cabinets too.
Tax Reductions
Green strategies often equal tax deductions. Renewable energy will mean savings not just for now, but for way ahead into the future, and the government wants to encourage and are providing incentives to do so.
Builds Your Reputation
Today consumers are pickier over who they choose to buy from and give their money to. This applies to millennials in particular, who would spend more on the same product if the company they are buying from is more ethical than another. Research shows people now want to do business with merchants, service providers and manufacturers that share their values. It would help if you shouted about the efforts you are making, whether it’s on social media, writing blog posts or advertising your efforts. Let people know so that they can make an informed choice on where and with whom they spend their money.
Helps to Attract Talent
Just as people are picky about who they spend their money with, they are also particular about who they work for. If you want to attract the best talent, then you need to become a leader in your industry and stand out from the crowd. Today, employees are more bothered about being environmentally responsible too, so they will want to work from somewhere that they align with in terms of what is important to them. Make sure your home page, About Us page and blog proudly show that you value sustainability, and any potential employees who share your values will definitely notice.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/sustainability-3303398_1280.jpg5331280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-03-05 08:00:502020-03-04 16:14:42Why Its Time To Turn Your Business Green
Communication is one of the key tenets of any business. Without clear communication, things just don’t get done, and start to fall apart. Whether your business’s communication is good or bad though, there’s always room to streamline, and doing so can have huge benefits for your company.
There are many ways you can look to improve your communication, both internally and externally, and find the systems that are going to allow your business to offer a better service.
Here, we take a look at five ways in which you can streamline your business communications.
Clearly Define Roles
When you’re working on an important project, it’s important that everyone clearly understands their roles. If everyone’s roles aren’t clear, that’s when communication can break down, as nobody knows who they need to communicate with.
You may think you have defined someone’s role within the project, but it really needs to be made sure that they understand exactly what that role is and what they’re responsible for.
Have a Point Person
You need to have a person at the top who is in charge of the project. Otherwise, different pieces of information can get passed around certain pockets of the project without ever making it to the person who’s actually in charge.
Communication needs to flow through the point person, who decides what to do with the information and how to proceed. Otherwise, people begin to communicate as individuals rather than as a team.
Bring Your Communication Together in One Place
We have so many different ways of communicating these days, which in many ways is great, but it also brings its own problems. Every minute someone spends trying to remember if they received that important piece of information through email or an instant messenger is time wasted, and this time can really add up.
Bringing your different communication channels together through unified communications (UC) with a company like Code Software can help streamline your team’s communication, making it more efficient and effective.
Make Use of the Data
When you use a UC system, you have access to so much data that allows people to learn about the way they communicate and improve their performance.
When it comes to communication with the customer, there are so many variables that happen in every call, so it can be difficult to judge how you’re performing. It’s only when you have access to all the data that you can see which areas you can improve on.
Make Rules for Different Communication Channels
Another way to overcome the problem of having too many communication channels is by having different rules for each communication channel. For example, if you’re seeking someone’s opinion, it can be quite tricky to do it through written word because it’s hard to understand tone in writing.
So, you can make the rule that if you’re seeking an opinion it has to be through a voice call rather than instant message. There are many different rules you can put in place to suit your business needs and further improve upon communication.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/artificial-intelligence-3382507_1280.jpg8531280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-03-05 07:00:552020-03-04 16:05:18How to Streamline Your Business Communications
There are a number of online threats that you can experience while running your business, and while some can be minor, some can be so catastrophic that it results in business closure. Building up a solid business idea and turning it into a profit-turning organization takes hard work and dedication, and the idea that it can fail due to someone else’s actions is devastating. However, it is a very real situation many businesses find themselves in, and all because they didn’t take online security seriously.
Just because you are a small business, doesn’t mean that you aren’t a target for online hackers. Yes, hackers will target big businesses, but as you are less likely to have viable security solutions in place, this is exactly why people will also target small businesses such as yours too. Fortunately, some solutions can help keep your business safe from online threats, and we will explore them in more detail here.
Secure your network
Whether you use your computers every day or once in a while, you still need to ensure that your network is secure. Start by encrypting your wireless access points, as this is a great way for hackers to get into your system and steal sensitive data. Then set about changing the name of your wireless network to something that doesn’t announce to the world that it belongs to you. Instead, make sure to use something more inconspicuous that will make it harder for the hacker to find out your location or business name.
It is one thing to secure your network, but in circumstances where you want to ensure safety to the finest degree, you need to test how good this defense actually is. By carrying out penetration testing, you can test your protection against a number of different threats that hackers will attempt in an effort to steal your data. It will highlight any vulnerabilities and weaknesses within the system and what needs to be done to rectify it.
Antivirus software
One of the best ways to ensure your business is safe is to install the right antivirus software on every single device that enters the company before it joins your network. If a device that an employee has bought into work doesn’t have the right security defenses in play, you are at risk of a data breach.
Train your staff
Many problems regarding company data are the result of uneducated staff. Companies that don’t train their staff are at more risk of experiencing breaches. Therefore, you should make it mandatory training every year for your staff to learn more about cybersecurity and what they can do to maintain the safety of your business.
Educate them on how to spot potential security issues, such as phishing emails, but also reinforce how serious it is to uphold. As cybercriminals improve their techniques and strategies, you need to also improve your training. This is why it is recommended to carry out the training regularly and keep it relevant to on-going security issues.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/hacker-1944688_1280-1.jpg8531280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-03-04 20:00:382020-03-04 15:57:25Keeping Your Business Safe: A Guide
As many proud business owners can attest, the growth cycle for ecommerce businesses doesn’t necessarily adhere to older principles related to the growth of physical stores. Indeed, when you’re setting up online, you’re bypassing many of the difficult aspects to scaling that you’d have had to work through with brick-and-mortar stores.
In this article, you’ll learn about your priorities in year one in order to make a sustainable and profitable business that scales effectively into your second year of operations.
Marketing
To scale, you need more people to visit your website, and more people to make purchases to boost your ecommerce business’ profits. It’s really that simple. While there are some other underlying elements to scaling mentioned later in this article, you’re going to need to build out a marketing campaign as a priority in order to draw in traffic, clicks, shares and sales to your site.
You can do this in a number of different ways, depending on your budget and the personnel you have on-side. If you’re a small company, you may prefer to outsource marketing to an experienced digital marketing firm, which will help you build a long-term strategy to increase engagement. Otherwise, look online to uncover some of the fundamentals of digital marketing, enabling you to slowly bend your strategy to fit with the wants and needs of your audience and your target customer.
Operational Efficiency
Many ecommerce startups begin with manual processes, and slowly move into the automated software world as they scale. That’s exactly what you should be looking to do in your first year, so you spend less time managing orders, responding to emails, and doing all those little repetitive jobs that end up consuming most of your waking day.
As a starting point, you should automate orders on your website, and automate emails through to confirm orders, confirm subscriptions, and add individuals to mailing lists. Mailing lists are incredibly important for your data collection, and to offer deals and discounts seasonally, so they’re also best set up in your first year in business. Once you’ve taken a good look at your operations, and made as many of them automated as possible, you’ll be able to deal with scaling far easier.
Deliveries
The only physical part of your ecommerce business is delivering parcels to customers. You want this to be as effective and efficient as you can possibly make it. You’ll know only too well that one of the main market differentiators in the ecommerce world is customer service, and that’s primarily driven through cheap yet swift delivery services. You need to get your parcel to its destination within the shortest-possible timescale.
The problem with distribution is that you can ship your products easily to local distribution centers – but it’s the final mile that’s the kicker, adding costs to your overall logistics operation.
Indeed, last mile delivery costs are one of your greatest overheads, and something you’re going to want to keep low in order for you to succeed in your first year in ecommerce. Be careful when signing contracts that you’re getting what you want to get from your delivery deal, and that you can hold delivery companies responsible for late packages, too.
Funding and Cash Flow
Finally, you need to be cognizant of your funding situation, and how much cash you’ll have in the kitty to support a growing business, before you enact your scaling plan. If you’re unable to meet soaring costs related to providing more for your customers, you’ll miss out on delivery times, you’ll miss payments to clients and subsidiaries, and you’ll endanger the soul of your business just as it shows promising signs of sustained growth. You need capital – some saved for worst-case scenarios – before you scale.
This capital will help you bring in new personnel if you’re swamped with orders to process. It’ll enable you to buy in bulk, reducing your order costs in anticipation of larger order volumes and it’ll enable you to invest in made-to-scale, cloud-based software – the kind that’ll help you to build your audience through automation, and meet the extra demands placed upon the entirety of your operations. With financial security in place, you won’t need to worry about your labor and your investments going to waste as you’ll be prepared for your next great step into ecommerce profits for 2021.
These tips are all designed for ecommerce startups in their first year – those which are ambitious to scale, but a little concerned about how to achieve sustained and sustainable growth into 2021 and beyond.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/ecommerce-2140603_1280-1.jpg5481280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-03-04 17:00:592020-03-26 19:31:19How to Grow Your Ecommerce Startup in Year One
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Business Programs
Giving Your Employees All The Resources They Need to Work Better
/in Managing Your People/by StrategyDrivenFor a well-rounded employee to be able to do their job properly, how you treat them and understand their specific job role plays a big part in how they perform for you. No one wants to be paying employees who aren’t doing the job well or even at all. So, what can you do in your role as their employers to make sure they have all the resources they need to do the job?
Equipment
In every single job role you come across, there will, of course, be the need for equipment. This will take many different forms, depending on the sectors and type of business you are in.
Whether this is making sure you have a solid infrastructure in place for employees to do their jobs properly and deliver customer service, making sure you have the best epson drivers in the office for your printing needs or state of the art tech for workers who need to stay connected on the go.
Making sure you have provided staff with the right products, systems, apps and devices to do their job efficiently will play a part in making sure the job is done and done well.
Training
It can be tempting to skip out on making sure training is completed and completed thoroughly. Don’t. If you don’t make sure your team is well trained, then chances are, they won’t be able to perform as competent as you need them too.
Ignore the fact you are against the clock, have time restraints or any other issues and focus on making sure all your staff, new and old, are able and confident to carry out their job role properly.
Neglecting this will end up in sub-par customer service and corners being cut due to gaps in knowledge. So cut the mistakes and make sure everyone is one the same page
Motivation
Are your staff looking forward to the day ahead and today’s workload? Chances are if they don’t have the right support system in place or are over/underwhelmed and lacking in motivation they won’t be doing their best work for you!
Look at how you interact with staff and how you and the job itself comes across. Is there anything you can be doing differently or stop altogether? Staff feel more motivated to work when they know what they are doing is appreciated and their opinions and suggestions are taken on board.
Staff meetings are a great way to get everyone together to discuss new ideas and ways of working together as is one on one meetings. Take anything that is offered onboard and see how you can create a better working environment that fosters creativity and encourages people to work more efficiently and productively.
Why Its Time To Turn Your Business Green
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenContribute to the Sustainability of the Planet
Let’s start with the most compelling reason for making your business greener and the most obvious one. We all know that the planet is changing and that we need to do our bit. Going greener can benefit our health, it can help endangered species and provide a better future for the next generations. Most people know about this now, and companies are doing what they can. From Starbucks providing incentives to bring your own reusable coffee cups, to other companies working on ways to use recycled frack water or non-potable brine for fracking. No matter what business you work in, there is something you can do to help, so it’s time to work out what that is.
Save Money
One way that you can go green in your business is to minimise your power usage – and the good thing about this is that it will save you money too. It might seem like a cost at first to switch to energy-saving light bulbs and upgrade to other more energy-efficient equipment where but over time it will save you a lot of money. You could try converting a paperless office which will save you money on paper, printing supplies and filing cabinets too.
Tax Reductions
Green strategies often equal tax deductions. Renewable energy will mean savings not just for now, but for way ahead into the future, and the government wants to encourage and are providing incentives to do so.
Builds Your Reputation
Today consumers are pickier over who they choose to buy from and give their money to. This applies to millennials in particular, who would spend more on the same product if the company they are buying from is more ethical than another. Research shows people now want to do business with merchants, service providers and manufacturers that share their values. It would help if you shouted about the efforts you are making, whether it’s on social media, writing blog posts or advertising your efforts. Let people know so that they can make an informed choice on where and with whom they spend their money.
Helps to Attract Talent
Just as people are picky about who they spend their money with, they are also particular about who they work for. If you want to attract the best talent, then you need to become a leader in your industry and stand out from the crowd. Today, employees are more bothered about being environmentally responsible too, so they will want to work from somewhere that they align with in terms of what is important to them. Make sure your home page, About Us page and blog proudly show that you value sustainability, and any potential employees who share your values will definitely notice.
How to Streamline Your Business Communications
/in Business Communications/by StrategyDrivenThere are many ways you can look to improve your communication, both internally and externally, and find the systems that are going to allow your business to offer a better service.
Here, we take a look at five ways in which you can streamline your business communications.
Clearly Define Roles
When you’re working on an important project, it’s important that everyone clearly understands their roles. If everyone’s roles aren’t clear, that’s when communication can break down, as nobody knows who they need to communicate with.
You may think you have defined someone’s role within the project, but it really needs to be made sure that they understand exactly what that role is and what they’re responsible for.
Have a Point Person
You need to have a person at the top who is in charge of the project. Otherwise, different pieces of information can get passed around certain pockets of the project without ever making it to the person who’s actually in charge.
Communication needs to flow through the point person, who decides what to do with the information and how to proceed. Otherwise, people begin to communicate as individuals rather than as a team.
Bring Your Communication Together in One Place
We have so many different ways of communicating these days, which in many ways is great, but it also brings its own problems. Every minute someone spends trying to remember if they received that important piece of information through email or an instant messenger is time wasted, and this time can really add up.
Bringing your different communication channels together through unified communications (UC) with a company like Code Software can help streamline your team’s communication, making it more efficient and effective.
Make Use of the Data
When you use a UC system, you have access to so much data that allows people to learn about the way they communicate and improve their performance.
When it comes to communication with the customer, there are so many variables that happen in every call, so it can be difficult to judge how you’re performing. It’s only when you have access to all the data that you can see which areas you can improve on.
Make Rules for Different Communication Channels
Another way to overcome the problem of having too many communication channels is by having different rules for each communication channel. For example, if you’re seeking someone’s opinion, it can be quite tricky to do it through written word because it’s hard to understand tone in writing.
So, you can make the rule that if you’re seeking an opinion it has to be through a voice call rather than instant message. There are many different rules you can put in place to suit your business needs and further improve upon communication.
Keeping Your Business Safe: A Guide
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenJust because you are a small business, doesn’t mean that you aren’t a target for online hackers. Yes, hackers will target big businesses, but as you are less likely to have viable security solutions in place, this is exactly why people will also target small businesses such as yours too. Fortunately, some solutions can help keep your business safe from online threats, and we will explore them in more detail here.
Secure your network
Whether you use your computers every day or once in a while, you still need to ensure that your network is secure. Start by encrypting your wireless access points, as this is a great way for hackers to get into your system and steal sensitive data. Then set about changing the name of your wireless network to something that doesn’t announce to the world that it belongs to you. Instead, make sure to use something more inconspicuous that will make it harder for the hacker to find out your location or business name.
Make this a private network, and ensure like everything you change the password regularly.
Test your company’s defenses
It is one thing to secure your network, but in circumstances where you want to ensure safety to the finest degree, you need to test how good this defense actually is. By carrying out penetration testing, you can test your protection against a number of different threats that hackers will attempt in an effort to steal your data. It will highlight any vulnerabilities and weaknesses within the system and what needs to be done to rectify it.
Antivirus software
One of the best ways to ensure your business is safe is to install the right antivirus software on every single device that enters the company before it joins your network. If a device that an employee has bought into work doesn’t have the right security defenses in play, you are at risk of a data breach.
Train your staff
Many problems regarding company data are the result of uneducated staff. Companies that don’t train their staff are at more risk of experiencing breaches. Therefore, you should make it mandatory training every year for your staff to learn more about cybersecurity and what they can do to maintain the safety of your business.
Educate them on how to spot potential security issues, such as phishing emails, but also reinforce how serious it is to uphold. As cybercriminals improve their techniques and strategies, you need to also improve your training. This is why it is recommended to carry out the training regularly and keep it relevant to on-going security issues.
How to Grow Your Ecommerce Startup in Year One
/in Starting Your Business/by StrategyDrivenIn this article, you’ll learn about your priorities in year one in order to make a sustainable and profitable business that scales effectively into your second year of operations.
Marketing
To scale, you need more people to visit your website, and more people to make purchases to boost your ecommerce business’ profits. It’s really that simple. While there are some other underlying elements to scaling mentioned later in this article, you’re going to need to build out a marketing campaign as a priority in order to draw in traffic, clicks, shares and sales to your site.
You can do this in a number of different ways, depending on your budget and the personnel you have on-side. If you’re a small company, you may prefer to outsource marketing to an experienced digital marketing firm, which will help you build a long-term strategy to increase engagement. Otherwise, look online to uncover some of the fundamentals of digital marketing, enabling you to slowly bend your strategy to fit with the wants and needs of your audience and your target customer.
Operational Efficiency
Many ecommerce startups begin with manual processes, and slowly move into the automated software world as they scale. That’s exactly what you should be looking to do in your first year, so you spend less time managing orders, responding to emails, and doing all those little repetitive jobs that end up consuming most of your waking day.
As a starting point, you should automate orders on your website, and automate emails through to confirm orders, confirm subscriptions, and add individuals to mailing lists. Mailing lists are incredibly important for your data collection, and to offer deals and discounts seasonally, so they’re also best set up in your first year in business. Once you’ve taken a good look at your operations, and made as many of them automated as possible, you’ll be able to deal with scaling far easier.
Deliveries
The only physical part of your ecommerce business is delivering parcels to customers. You want this to be as effective and efficient as you can possibly make it. You’ll know only too well that one of the main market differentiators in the ecommerce world is customer service, and that’s primarily driven through cheap yet swift delivery services. You need to get your parcel to its destination within the shortest-possible timescale.
The problem with distribution is that you can ship your products easily to local distribution centers – but it’s the final mile that’s the kicker, adding costs to your overall logistics operation.
Indeed, last mile delivery costs are one of your greatest overheads, and something you’re going to want to keep low in order for you to succeed in your first year in ecommerce. Be careful when signing contracts that you’re getting what you want to get from your delivery deal, and that you can hold delivery companies responsible for late packages, too.
Funding and Cash Flow
Finally, you need to be cognizant of your funding situation, and how much cash you’ll have in the kitty to support a growing business, before you enact your scaling plan. If you’re unable to meet soaring costs related to providing more for your customers, you’ll miss out on delivery times, you’ll miss payments to clients and subsidiaries, and you’ll endanger the soul of your business just as it shows promising signs of sustained growth. You need capital – some saved for worst-case scenarios – before you scale.
This capital will help you bring in new personnel if you’re swamped with orders to process. It’ll enable you to buy in bulk, reducing your order costs in anticipation of larger order volumes and it’ll enable you to invest in made-to-scale, cloud-based software – the kind that’ll help you to build your audience through automation, and meet the extra demands placed upon the entirety of your operations. With financial security in place, you won’t need to worry about your labor and your investments going to waste as you’ll be prepared for your next great step into ecommerce profits for 2021.
These tips are all designed for ecommerce startups in their first year – those which are ambitious to scale, but a little concerned about how to achieve sustained and sustainable growth into 2021 and beyond.