If you are willing to enter the competitive, field and engage in some high intensity battle for the title of a successful executive then you cannot avoid a few things at all costs. You will be likely to go against some of the most seasoned competitors in the market and therefore being aware of the conditions is the need for the hour.
The seasoned competitors will be always on the lookout for opportunities to take down your venture. One mistake and it could cost you years in the race, potentially discarding you from the competition altogether. Certain steps however will ensure that your business takes off in the right manner and thus gains the potential to make it really far.
The right time to begin
Everything has its very own time and nothing happens ahead of the designated time. The right time to enter into any business is highly dependent on the niche of the venture. Owing to the fact that each market has its very own growth pattern, sighting the right time to begin the venture is important.
A core fundamental regarding the aforementioned aspect is to ensure that you have the requisite financial stronghold to take your company forward. If you were short on funds or having a crunch now, then it would be beneficial to wait for the right moment until finances settle down.
Banking in on the competition
This might sound a bit crazy, but in order to take the business off to a global arcadia, you need to be a bit wayward. The competition in the market is fierce and there are thousands of individuals willing to crush each other. Sighting the intensity of the competition, a large proportion of the incipient companies will back down, some will fail and some will never get off to a good start. The key here is to hold on take it slow. The growth initially might be slow and monotonous but you will be able to make it through the rough phases of the competition. You can also read more posts at TodaysGlobalNews.Net.
Work on your social skills
It is vital for any business owner to have the correct socialising skills up their sleeve. The social media for instance is one of the greatest assets to any modern day business. While the social media platforms allow people to be pretentious, your social skills will come into play when you address the public in seminars and business meets.
Developing social skills will ensure that people are drawn to you and will help to instill the wow factor. At the end of the day, a charismatic charm is always appreciated.
Brand development
The initial phase of any business venture is pretty tough and susceptible to fiascos. As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on brand development ahead of maintaining the profit margins alone. The brand reputation will be the deciding factor for the business in the longer run.
A larger brand value will help the business stay afloat and make it a global venture with the passage of time. Profit margins look lucrative but they have very little to contribute to brand development.
Keeping these 4 aspects in mind can help to consolidate the business amidst all of the volatility and help keep the business afloat in the days to come.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/olu-eletu-134760-unsplash.jpg30294745StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-06-06 11:00:032018-06-06 12:16:024 Things You Must Do If You Have A Startup
Social media marketing can seem like a quick win for many businesses, but if you don’t fully understand how to utilize these platforms, the millions of likes and followers won’t mean much if they are not converting. Many businesses are fixated on high numbers when it comes to social presence, but in fact, engagement is an accurate representation of the quality leads you can expect from this form of marketing. By focusing on the bigger picture, you can implement a precise strategy to make the most out of this vast arena. It’s not enough to just upload content and hope for the best, as most people want to be a part of the brand experience plus if you interact and communicate on a deeper level, this can have enormous benefits for your company.
Take a look at the ways to make a start in social media marketing, so that you can utilize its potential.
Understand what you are trying to achieve
When you create content or promotions for your social media platform, it’s naïve to think that if you just pop it up that people will find it. Feeds change every second, so if you haven’t got anything interesting to shout about, it’ll get lost in the ether. Unless you know what you want to get out of the post, you will have no idea how to measure its success. It could be a simple tally of likes, or how many followers you achieved but delving deeper could identify the engagement level and what type of people are looking at your content.
You can’t be good at everything
You will rarely see one brand doing every platform well. There are so many to choose from that spreading yourself too thin will mean that each may fall under the radar in the long run. Looking at how the different platforms work and what type of people they attract will help you decide on where to focus your efforts. For example, young people love Snapchat and Instagram, whereas professionals will be on LinkedIn, so knowing your audience is key to delivering the right message and not wasting your time trying to promote to people that have no interest.
Make it visual
Posts that are wordy can put people off reading them, but if you have a succinct, snappy message with a high-quality image, you will generally grab people’s attention. You can also use free resources such as MailChimp landing pages to create a call-to-action to share on your social media. This helps to give your audience a specific message such as promotional offers, sign up page or competition entry form in a simple way.
There are many things to think about when using social media to target new and returning customers. By utilizing these platforms and creating content that is interesting and shareable, you will begin to see excellent results both in engagement and sales. Like all marketing efforts, this aspect can take time to grow so unless you’re one of the very few lucky ones to get that moment in the viral spotlight, you’ll have to be patient and persistent.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/marten-bjork-658221-unsplash.jpg52593506StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-06-04 11:00:202018-06-04 21:56:30Making a Start in Social Media Marketing for Your Business
Businesses operate at a pace such that they grab for help wherever it is available. More often than not, they reach toward the wrong resources, the untied advisors and sources that send them down rabbit holes.
It is lonely at the top. There are many demands upon entrepreneurs and senior management of companies. Each organization is confronted with challenges and opportunities, both real and perceived. It is tough to tackle all the obstacles and feel that substantial progress is being made.
Businesses spend so much time on momentary pieces of their puzzles that they neglect long-term Strategic Planning and miss potential successes. Costs of band aid surgery and make-good work cost six times that of planning for business on the front end.
The need exists for comprehensive business ideas and growth strategies. The need is ever-present for interfacing with senior executives and updating management skills, to avoid burnout and stimulate the seasoned professionals toward new heights. Top management regularly needs the creative inspiration to take the company to new heights. Cutting-edge executives (the very top and those about to take the mantle) need seasoned advice and inspiration.
Here is where they go to get ideas, strategies and help, in the order where they commonly go. The lower numbers represent introductory resources. The highest numbers are where they should be reaching.
1. Hearsay and third hand
Comments heard at parties and networking functions
Uninformed sources
Friends of friends
High participation networkers
Research and surveys
2. Special Interests
Websites containing educational material as a way to sell services
Surveys and their feedback
3. People Selling Stuff
Vendors who distract you, using expressions like “funding to grow your business.”
Online marketing firms
Internet solicitors and sellers
Website consulting
4. Internal Management
People you work with
Mid-managers and supervisors
Corporate leadership
5. Niche Experts and Consultants
Trainers
Freelance consultants, per industry niche
Banking, insurance benefits, human resources, etc.
Technology consulting firms
Researchers
6. Educational Programs
Speakers
Seminars
Panels at forums
Workshops
Conferences
Webinars
Material published or broadcast in the media
7. Books
Articles excerpted for meetings
Blog material posted online
Thin self-published books by people seeking to establish a platform
Online articles and blogs
Serious books in libraries
Cutting-edge books with original material
8. Advocacy Groups
Business clubs
Chambers of commerce
People with whom you work in community and charity leadership roles
Boards of directors
The Better Business Bureau
SCORE
Small Business Development Center
Trade industry groups
Associations
Political action committees
Community alliances
Professional alliances
Consortiums of business
Cross-industry cooperative initiatives
9. Mentors
Pier advisory groups such as Vistage, Silver Fox Advisors
One-on-one coaching
CEO roundtables
Corporate heir apparent training
Programs such as Shark Tank, Fox Den, Ted Talks
Leadership programs
10. Senior Business Advisors
Professional service firms, including lawyers, accountants, marketing, public relations, quality management
11. Major Business Gurus
Track record experts with many years in advising strategically
About the Author
Power Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.
Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.
Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/HankMoore2.jpg333290StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-06-01 11:00:272018-07-15 19:53:54Where Do They Go To Get Business Advice?
In contemporary times, time is of the essence. Advancements in technology have led to increased company projections, growth and the enhancement of capitalist ideals.
The internet has also contributed to the advancement of the global village phenomenon, flying from one place to another for a couple of business meetings is now the norm. At times, one-on-one meetups are quite important because one can learn so much more from them about their fellow business partners.
Before setting up meetings in far-away lands, one should ensure that they have a couple of handy apps at the ready. Gadgetgestures.com covers topics like these to help ensure that one is able to achieve maximum productivity. These apps are made to ensure that the meeting proceeds unencumbered since one is able to keep track of progress back at work without having to be present. We’ve listed a couple of the top apps we believe every businessman needs up their sleeve.
Asana
Asana helps ensure that irrespective of one’s location in the world, they are able to keep tabs on what’s happening in their work circle and communicate with others back at the office. The Asana app enables easy communication, deadline progress monitoring, and the management of tasks to employees. Thus, if one’s business entails team management, output goals definition and a number of deadlines, Asana is the go-to app.
Twitter
The #hashtag feature on Twitter helps ensure that the top trending topics in the world are associated with a specific topic. As a business and thought leader, one should ensure that they stay in tune with the happening in the cyberspace world.
Through Twitter, one can also check out their team’s social media statistics over a given period and look at possible ways to boost engagement. To do this, all one needs is a stable internet connection.
Google Drive
Google drive allows the mass collaboration of various teams from anywhere on the globe. One can share documents, track team input and adjust their calendars to keep track of what’s incoming and find out the natures of the team’s discussion.
Concur
Concur is an amazing travel/expense manager that has the potential to dethrone all business-oriented apps from whichever throne they sit on. The app has fantastic expense management tools, features to automatically export expense reports and the ability to sync to the office in order to facilitate necessary approvals.
One of the tools on Concur is TripIt which helps make itinerary planning is a breeze and that all reservation numbers are easily stored up in one place for ease of access. To create a master itinerary, all one needs to do is forward the confirmation emails and the app will get hard at work to create everything one needs.
Circleback
This app is perfect because it helps maintain contact records, consolidate them and ensure they remain accurate and up-to-date. In addition to all contacts feature, the app has impressive business card scanning and email signature capturing provisions.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/img_7778.jpg8531280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-05-29 16:00:512018-05-29 21:45:30Top Apps to Have When Traveling for Business
Effective processes are how businesses develop and grow. Without these, it makes it difficult for you to make improvements and in turn make your business more successful. Managing processes and identifying what is and isn’t working quite right can be a time-consuming process depending on the methods used, but a necessary one. We have listed some ways in which you can identify bottlenecks within your business process effectively and how to use this information to make improvements.
Create Solid Business Goals
In order to overcome any issues in terms of business process or business in general – you should make sure that you have clear identified goals. In order to do this, it’s a good idea to have a meeting with the management team in your company and discuss what these should be. Your business goals should be able to be summarized on a one-page document. Normally businesses use SMART objectives. This stands for:
Specific – clear idea of what you want to achieve
Measurable – the goal should be measured, to help you identify whether or not you have achieved it
Achievable – make sure you have the cash and the level of resources needed to complete it
Relevant – it needs to be related to the goals you want to achieve. For example, increasing your profit margins, increasing your workforce, or pushing your brand out there
Timely – there should be a realistic timescale as to when you want to achieve your goal by
Once these clear objectives are set, it will allow you to evaluate your processes properly.
Use Kanban Boards
Have you ever heard of Kanban before? You may want to read this definition of Kanban by Kanbanize, for more in-depth information, but essentially you can outline your process on Kanban board cards which gives you a visual workflow process. Here you can see all the different stages of the specific process you are tracking. Within that, you can add limits to specific users too. This means that you can keep your key members of staff being torn away from their work and being distracted with other tasks by setting limits to the number of cards they have. This means that they can really focus on the elements of the business you need them to. By making sure you have every stage of your process outlined on your Kanban boards at a granular level, you will be able to spot any bottlenecks easily. It’s simple, if there is more going into one section than going out, that needs to be resolved. By pinpointing the exact area, this allows you to implement new improvements to this very specific area of the process.
Staff Appraisals
Staff appraisals are a great way to identify issues with your business process. In a busy working day – it can be difficult to find the time to speak to individual employees about their role and responsibilities in the company. By undertaking regular staff appraisals – this gives you time dedicated to that employee, to find out about their individual experience in the workplace and where they fit. Here you will be able to uncover areas that they may feel that they need further development – so you can make sure that they are trained effectively in order to undertake their tasks either internally or externally. You will also find out if there are any specific interests or skills that aren’t being used within the business currently that could be of use to you. It can also be difficult from a management level to be fully aware of everything that goes on in the day to day running of the company depending on its size or scale. Appraisals allows for feedback from the employees, where they can let you know if there’s anything they think that would improve processes moving forward that you may not have thought of.
Don’t just Resolve Problems – Look for Opportunities
Resolving issues within processes is all well and good, but it’s important that you also look for opportunities along the way. Identifying these key points could actually trigger a much bigger change within your business for better outcomes. Areas where you could be looking and creating new opportunities for include: better customer service, improved collaboration and communication between team members and improving the relationship between management and other team members. Developing upon these opportunities will improve the overall success of your business.
Keep Measuring and Refining
There is always room for improvement. Just because you have resolved a specific issue which has your process working better in that instance, it doesn’t mean that will always be the case. It’s important that you keep on top of processes on a regular basis. As your business grows things will change, so it’s essential that you keep monitoring and reviewing your processes to ensure they are still effective as they once were and fix as you go. That’s why something like Kanban boards can be incredibly useful. They are easy to modify when changes are made and allow for continuous evaluation. They are great tools to use to be in-keeping with business growth.
Have a Contingency Plan
When evaluating and resolving processes you also need to think about what happens if things aren’t running as they normally would. For example – will things still run as smoothly if someone is on holiday for 2 weeks, or if they have maternity/paternity leave scheduled in? These are common things that companies can forget when creating and evaluating processes. As well as identifying problems and resolving them, you also need to be on the lookout for potential problems that may not have arisen yet but could do. That way you are taking preventative measures and have everything covered no matter who is on holiday. We firmly believe in the phrase “failing to prepare, is preparing to fail”.
Review your Goals and Objectives
As your business grows and evolves, your goals will change. If not already in place, it’s always recommended that you have regular review meetings to not only evaluate whether t hey have been met or not – but whether these should be changed to either be more realistic – or to coincide with business growth. It could be that you have decided to introduce a brand-new product or service, or that you have new departments to think of, or it could be that you want to eliminate a part of your business all-together. Whatever the change may be, it’s important that you review your goals and objectives as these come along and implement the appropriate processes.
Hopefully now you have some more information as to how you can identify problems in processes within your business, and some useful tools that will allow you to do this. Make sure you have clear goals, have your processes outlined clearly on Kanban boards or similar software, speak to your staff – and of course look out for problems that could arise, not only ones that are currently occurring. Just like with anything, there is always room for improvement when it comes to running your business.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/magnifying-glass-3180075_1280-Cropped.jpg6091139StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2018-05-29 11:00:272018-05-29 16:54:10Ways to Identify Issues in your Business Process
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Business Programs
4 Things You Must Do If You Have A Startup
/in Entrepreneurship/by StrategyDrivenThe seasoned competitors will be always on the lookout for opportunities to take down your venture. One mistake and it could cost you years in the race, potentially discarding you from the competition altogether. Certain steps however will ensure that your business takes off in the right manner and thus gains the potential to make it really far.
The right time to begin
Everything has its very own time and nothing happens ahead of the designated time. The right time to enter into any business is highly dependent on the niche of the venture. Owing to the fact that each market has its very own growth pattern, sighting the right time to begin the venture is important.
A core fundamental regarding the aforementioned aspect is to ensure that you have the requisite financial stronghold to take your company forward. If you were short on funds or having a crunch now, then it would be beneficial to wait for the right moment until finances settle down.
Banking in on the competition
This might sound a bit crazy, but in order to take the business off to a global arcadia, you need to be a bit wayward. The competition in the market is fierce and there are thousands of individuals willing to crush each other. Sighting the intensity of the competition, a large proportion of the incipient companies will back down, some will fail and some will never get off to a good start. The key here is to hold on take it slow. The growth initially might be slow and monotonous but you will be able to make it through the rough phases of the competition. You can also read more posts at TodaysGlobalNews.Net.
Work on your social skills
It is vital for any business owner to have the correct socialising skills up their sleeve. The social media for instance is one of the greatest assets to any modern day business. While the social media platforms allow people to be pretentious, your social skills will come into play when you address the public in seminars and business meets.
Developing social skills will ensure that people are drawn to you and will help to instill the wow factor. At the end of the day, a charismatic charm is always appreciated.
Brand development
The initial phase of any business venture is pretty tough and susceptible to fiascos. As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on brand development ahead of maintaining the profit margins alone. The brand reputation will be the deciding factor for the business in the longer run.
A larger brand value will help the business stay afloat and make it a global venture with the passage of time. Profit margins look lucrative but they have very little to contribute to brand development.
Keeping these 4 aspects in mind can help to consolidate the business amidst all of the volatility and help keep the business afloat in the days to come.
Making a Start in Social Media Marketing for Your Business
/in Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Sales/by StrategyDrivenTake a look at the ways to make a start in social media marketing, so that you can utilize its potential.
Understand what you are trying to achieve
When you create content or promotions for your social media platform, it’s naïve to think that if you just pop it up that people will find it. Feeds change every second, so if you haven’t got anything interesting to shout about, it’ll get lost in the ether. Unless you know what you want to get out of the post, you will have no idea how to measure its success. It could be a simple tally of likes, or how many followers you achieved but delving deeper could identify the engagement level and what type of people are looking at your content.
You can’t be good at everything
You will rarely see one brand doing every platform well. There are so many to choose from that spreading yourself too thin will mean that each may fall under the radar in the long run. Looking at how the different platforms work and what type of people they attract will help you decide on where to focus your efforts. For example, young people love Snapchat and Instagram, whereas professionals will be on LinkedIn, so knowing your audience is key to delivering the right message and not wasting your time trying to promote to people that have no interest.
Make it visual
Posts that are wordy can put people off reading them, but if you have a succinct, snappy message with a high-quality image, you will generally grab people’s attention. You can also use free resources such as MailChimp landing pages to create a call-to-action to share on your social media. This helps to give your audience a specific message such as promotional offers, sign up page or competition entry form in a simple way.
There are many things to think about when using social media to target new and returning customers. By utilizing these platforms and creating content that is interesting and shareable, you will begin to see excellent results both in engagement and sales. Like all marketing efforts, this aspect can take time to grow so unless you’re one of the very few lucky ones to get that moment in the viral spotlight, you’ll have to be patient and persistent.
Where Do They Go To Get Business Advice?
/in Practices for Professionals, Professional Development/by Hank MooreIt is lonely at the top. There are many demands upon entrepreneurs and senior management of companies. Each organization is confronted with challenges and opportunities, both real and perceived. It is tough to tackle all the obstacles and feel that substantial progress is being made.
Businesses spend so much time on momentary pieces of their puzzles that they neglect long-term Strategic Planning and miss potential successes. Costs of band aid surgery and make-good work cost six times that of planning for business on the front end.
The need exists for comprehensive business ideas and growth strategies. The need is ever-present for interfacing with senior executives and updating management skills, to avoid burnout and stimulate the seasoned professionals toward new heights. Top management regularly needs the creative inspiration to take the company to new heights. Cutting-edge executives (the very top and those about to take the mantle) need seasoned advice and inspiration.
Here is where they go to get ideas, strategies and help, in the order where they commonly go. The lower numbers represent introductory resources. The highest numbers are where they should be reaching.
1. Hearsay and third hand
2. Special Interests
3. People Selling Stuff
4. Internal Management
5. Niche Experts and Consultants
6. Educational Programs
7. Books
8. Advocacy Groups
9. Mentors
10. Senior Business Advisors
11. Major Business Gurus
About the Author
Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.
Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.
Top Apps to Have When Traveling for Business
/in Practices for Professionals/by StrategyDrivenThe internet has also contributed to the advancement of the global village phenomenon, flying from one place to another for a couple of business meetings is now the norm. At times, one-on-one meetups are quite important because one can learn so much more from them about their fellow business partners.
Before setting up meetings in far-away lands, one should ensure that they have a couple of handy apps at the ready. Gadgetgestures.com covers topics like these to help ensure that one is able to achieve maximum productivity. These apps are made to ensure that the meeting proceeds unencumbered since one is able to keep track of progress back at work without having to be present. We’ve listed a couple of the top apps we believe every businessman needs up their sleeve.
Asana
Asana helps ensure that irrespective of one’s location in the world, they are able to keep tabs on what’s happening in their work circle and communicate with others back at the office. The Asana app enables easy communication, deadline progress monitoring, and the management of tasks to employees. Thus, if one’s business entails team management, output goals definition and a number of deadlines, Asana is the go-to app.
Twitter
The #hashtag feature on Twitter helps ensure that the top trending topics in the world are associated with a specific topic. As a business and thought leader, one should ensure that they stay in tune with the happening in the cyberspace world.
Through Twitter, one can also check out their team’s social media statistics over a given period and look at possible ways to boost engagement. To do this, all one needs is a stable internet connection.
Google Drive
Google drive allows the mass collaboration of various teams from anywhere on the globe. One can share documents, track team input and adjust their calendars to keep track of what’s incoming and find out the natures of the team’s discussion.
Concur
Concur is an amazing travel/expense manager that has the potential to dethrone all business-oriented apps from whichever throne they sit on. The app has fantastic expense management tools, features to automatically export expense reports and the ability to sync to the office in order to facilitate necessary approvals.
One of the tools on Concur is TripIt which helps make itinerary planning is a breeze and that all reservation numbers are easily stored up in one place for ease of access. To create a master itinerary, all one needs to do is forward the confirmation emails and the app will get hard at work to create everything one needs.
Circleback
This app is perfect because it helps maintain contact records, consolidate them and ensure they remain accurate and up-to-date. In addition to all contacts feature, the app has impressive business card scanning and email signature capturing provisions.
Ways to Identify Issues in your Business Process
/in Business Performance Assessment Program/by StrategyDrivenCreate Solid Business Goals
In order to overcome any issues in terms of business process or business in general – you should make sure that you have clear identified goals. In order to do this, it’s a good idea to have a meeting with the management team in your company and discuss what these should be. Your business goals should be able to be summarized on a one-page document. Normally businesses use SMART objectives. This stands for:
Once these clear objectives are set, it will allow you to evaluate your processes properly.
Use Kanban Boards
Have you ever heard of Kanban before? You may want to read this definition of Kanban by Kanbanize, for more in-depth information, but essentially you can outline your process on Kanban board cards which gives you a visual workflow process. Here you can see all the different stages of the specific process you are tracking. Within that, you can add limits to specific users too. This means that you can keep your key members of staff being torn away from their work and being distracted with other tasks by setting limits to the number of cards they have. This means that they can really focus on the elements of the business you need them to. By making sure you have every stage of your process outlined on your Kanban boards at a granular level, you will be able to spot any bottlenecks easily. It’s simple, if there is more going into one section than going out, that needs to be resolved. By pinpointing the exact area, this allows you to implement new improvements to this very specific area of the process.
Staff Appraisals
Staff appraisals are a great way to identify issues with your business process. In a busy working day – it can be difficult to find the time to speak to individual employees about their role and responsibilities in the company. By undertaking regular staff appraisals – this gives you time dedicated to that employee, to find out about their individual experience in the workplace and where they fit. Here you will be able to uncover areas that they may feel that they need further development – so you can make sure that they are trained effectively in order to undertake their tasks either internally or externally. You will also find out if there are any specific interests or skills that aren’t being used within the business currently that could be of use to you. It can also be difficult from a management level to be fully aware of everything that goes on in the day to day running of the company depending on its size or scale. Appraisals allows for feedback from the employees, where they can let you know if there’s anything they think that would improve processes moving forward that you may not have thought of.
Don’t just Resolve Problems – Look for Opportunities
Resolving issues within processes is all well and good, but it’s important that you also look for opportunities along the way. Identifying these key points could actually trigger a much bigger change within your business for better outcomes. Areas where you could be looking and creating new opportunities for include: better customer service, improved collaboration and communication between team members and improving the relationship between management and other team members. Developing upon these opportunities will improve the overall success of your business.
Keep Measuring and Refining
There is always room for improvement. Just because you have resolved a specific issue which has your process working better in that instance, it doesn’t mean that will always be the case. It’s important that you keep on top of processes on a regular basis. As your business grows things will change, so it’s essential that you keep monitoring and reviewing your processes to ensure they are still effective as they once were and fix as you go. That’s why something like Kanban boards can be incredibly useful. They are easy to modify when changes are made and allow for continuous evaluation. They are great tools to use to be in-keeping with business growth.
Have a Contingency Plan
When evaluating and resolving processes you also need to think about what happens if things aren’t running as they normally would. For example – will things still run as smoothly if someone is on holiday for 2 weeks, or if they have maternity/paternity leave scheduled in? These are common things that companies can forget when creating and evaluating processes. As well as identifying problems and resolving them, you also need to be on the lookout for potential problems that may not have arisen yet but could do. That way you are taking preventative measures and have everything covered no matter who is on holiday. We firmly believe in the phrase “failing to prepare, is preparing to fail”.
Review your Goals and Objectives
As your business grows and evolves, your goals will change. If not already in place, it’s always recommended that you have regular review meetings to not only evaluate whether t hey have been met or not – but whether these should be changed to either be more realistic – or to coincide with business growth. It could be that you have decided to introduce a brand-new product or service, or that you have new departments to think of, or it could be that you want to eliminate a part of your business all-together. Whatever the change may be, it’s important that you review your goals and objectives as these come along and implement the appropriate processes.
Hopefully now you have some more information as to how you can identify problems in processes within your business, and some useful tools that will allow you to do this. Make sure you have clear goals, have your processes outlined clearly on Kanban boards or similar software, speak to your staff – and of course look out for problems that could arise, not only ones that are currently occurring. Just like with anything, there is always room for improvement when it comes to running your business.