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A Smarter Approach for Upgrading Your Business Technology

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Technology|A Smarter Approach for Upgrading Your Business TechnologyTechnology is incredibly important for all of our businesses. No matter what kind of company you run, there’s probably some kind of technology that helps you manage customers, advertise your products and shorten the amount of time you spend on administrative tasks. Sadly, technology can get extremely expensive over time. With many companies switching to a subscription-based business model, it can be difficult to keep track of all the costs of keeping your business up to date.

So here are a few tips to help you approach your technology upgrades with a smarter and more streamlined strategy.

Identify problems before you consider upgrading

First, make sure you identify problems in your workflow before you go spending your company’s money on solutions. It’s extremely important that you take a slow and steady approach when it comes to upgrading your company’s technology, especially if your workflow is already well-defined. Attempting to upgrade portions of your work processes can lead to disaster if you’re not planning it correctly.

While technology can help you innovate, it needs to address a problem or challenge that you’re facing. For example, if you find that your employees are spending too much time on a particular task, then you need to focus on ways to assist your employees to finish said tasks. If you don’t identify a problem before you invest in new technology (or worse, you actively create an issue in order to “buy” a solution for it) then you’re going to end up wasting money and time.

Identify the companies that can help you innovate

It’s a good idea to identify what companies you can work with to help you solve your business challenges. There are some companies that operate at the forefront of technological innovation, constantly producing new products, machines, and software that actively solves challenges that real businesses are facing.

A good example of this would be Blue Iron Foundations & Shoring, LLC. The Giken Silent Piler is their latest machine that enables piling to take place with drastically reduced vibrations and noise. This has allowed construction companies to operate very close to homes without disrupting the neighbourhood. This has helped construction companies garner positive feedback from local communities, and it’s solved a challenge that is currently plaguing many companies in the same industry.

Find consultants that you can trust

One of the issues with hiring a consultant is that they’re often given a bit too much trust. It’s very easy for a consultant to abuse their position by introducing a problem and also suggesting a solution. This is something that entrepreneurs tend to do by accident because they’re not presented with the data that shows a problem in the first place. Instead, they blindly trust their staff or a consultant because they have too much faith in them.

If you’re the one in charge of decision making in your business, then you need to look at the data that points to a problem in your business. From here, you can start making smarter decisions by actually calculating the return on your investment and if it can make your team more productive.

Smart Ways To Enhance the Efficiency of Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Business efficiency|Smart Ways To Enhance the Efficiency of Your BusinessEvery entrepreneur and business manager is constantly working to improve the efficiency of their business. Business efficiency entails maximizing your outputs from your input and making the most out of your resources.

Failure to notice stagnation or regression in your business can ultimately lead to a decrease in profits or the eventual closure of your business. It is, therefore, essential to apply smart tactics to improve the efficiency of your business. They include the following;

Delegate Duties

While delegating duties might seem obvious for business owners, it is often quite difficult to practice. Many entrepreneurs hold their business close to their heart, and they prefer to have a direct hand in everything involved with it. While prioritizing the quality of your products or services is quite okay, checking on every small detail rather than delegating can lead to wastage of everyone’s valuable time.

Instead, consider delegating responsibilities to the most qualified employees and entrust them with performing the task well. Doing this gives your employees the chance to learn new skills and gain leadership experience, which are ultimate benefits for your company.

Assign Tasks According to Skills

Knowing the behavioral styles and skills of your employees is vital for maximizing efficiency. For instance, a creative and extroverted person who thinks out of the box will probably be the best at pitching proposals to potential clients. However, they may not show the same excellence when it comes to a more detail-oriented and rule-intensive task.

Efficiency doesn’t call for expecting your employees to be great at everything. Instead, it requires that you determine that an employee is suited to perform a specific task before you assign it to them. If they cannot perform the task as expected, it means you might have to find someone else whose styles and skills match your needs.

Outsource Intelligently

Intelligent outsourcing can make your business run efficiently without alienating your employees and customers. The best way to do this is by outsourcing the non-core activities of your business. For instance, you can find a company specializing in human resource management and payroll or outsource for QuickBooks bookkeeping services if no one in your team is savvy with accounting.

Outsourcing also allows you to focus on the core activities that make up your business. You can also put the money you saved up from outsourcing into marketing, innovation, and any other aspects that are vital for the smooth running of your business. It also allows you to focus your attention exactly where it belongs and see a quick boost in the productivity and efficiency of your business.

Automate

While some entrepreneurs are reluctant about automating their business, it is also likely that their businesses are incredibly inefficient. Technology is a vital tool for improving the efficiency of your business, and you should consider incorporating it as soon as possible if you haven’t already done it.

Automation doesn’t mean that you have to replace your employees with robots and software. It only requires that you incorporate such technology to increase the efficiency of your workforce. You can also use software to host meetings, which saves a lot of time and money used for travel to the meeting venue.

Incentivize Your Employees

One of the best ways to encourage your employees to continue performing exceptionally is by giving them a reason to do so. You can achieve this by recognizing them whenever they do a good job, making them feel appreciated, therefore increasing their productivity.

Ensure that you take every individual’s preferences and needs when rewarding your employees. In addition to simple words of gratitude and appreciation, you can give them incentives like a handwritten note, taking them out for a meal, or implementing a workplace wellness program.

Make Communication Easy

Miscommunication or the lack of communication is another aspect of inefficiency. While a meeting can sometimes solve this problem quite easily, they are difficult to schedule, and you may end up wasting a lot of time.

Fortunately, all the available technology makes it easy to have streamlined communication at all times. Whether you opt to utilize a fast-paced chat system software or easy face-to-face conversation via webcam, you can ensure that your employees get the relevant information as fast as possible. Effective communication can also sidestep confusion and ensure that your employees can get to work and improve the productivity of your business.

While selecting the tactics that will help improve your business’s efficiency, you must first identify the issues present and then work to determine their solution. You should also keep in mind that working for your business efficiency is a continuous process that requires you to continually find loopholes and work towards implementing an effective solution.

How to Lower Your Small Business’s Operating Costs

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Operating costs |How to Lower Your Small Business's Operating CostsIt can be difficult yet rewarding to keep a small business up and running. There’s a lot of work that goes into keeping things out of the red.

Whether you’re looking to reopening or just need to cut down your current operating costs, there’s much a small business owner can do. Keeping your operating costs down is the number one thing any business can do to help ensure they can stay in the green and continue to grow.

Would you love to spend less? Read on and we’ll walk you through a few key suggestions on how to cut costs and run smoother as an operation.

Embrace New Technologies

Are you still running archaic old systems and doing everything by hand? Isn’t it time to take a few steps forward and be part of the modern age?

There so many different software programs out there that can help to streamline your business operations. What area of your business operation is slowing you down? There is more than likely a program or online system out there that can help you out.

Accounting, website hosting, marketing, payroll, on and on. If you have a problem, there’s probably a technical solution that you can embrace. From the TurboTax to the free paystub generator, someone out there has created a solution for you.

Why embrace tech? Because tech creates efficiency. A computer can do something at triple the speed we can and often at a higher rate of accuracy. If you can reduce the need for direct labor, you’ll cut back on the time needed for various tasks.

You’ll also be able to eliminate some needed manpower and that can decrease the amount of money you’re putting into wages as well. Tech might even be able to improve the way you approach certain processes in your business, cutting out unneeded steps and providing cheaper alternatives.

Consider Outsourcing

It can cost a lot to keep employees on your payroll the whole year-round. On top of wages, you’ve got health insurance and various budgets to worry about. It might be enough to sink your whole budget outright.

It doesn’t have to be, however. If there are certain departments that you don’t really need to have year-round, you could always outsource them. Many companies do this for a variety of departments: tax accounting, human relations, or even customer service.

Instead of hiring someone full-time, outsourcing allows you to pay for these services only when you need them. That can greatly help to lower your overall cost and to raise the efficiency of each dollar that you spend.

Advertising and marketing is another area that you could benefit from outsourcing. For many business owners, running an entire marketing department isn’t worth the investment that it provides. It can be a real headache.

However, outsourcing your marketing and advertising needs to another company can help get the results you want at a fraction of the cost. This can really pay off as time goes by.

Look for Better Rates

Have you been working with the same shipping company for years? Maybe you’re not doing the work at finding a business partner who will really provide you with the kinds of prices you need to stay profitable.

One way to cut operating costs is to take a serious look at your vendors list. Where are you spending the most money, and might it be possible to get the same product or service from another entity for cheaper?

Even if you’re considering leaving, the current vendors you work with might consider negotiating down in order to ensure you’ll stick around as a client of theirs. If you compare prices from different vendors, you might be able to pit them against one another and get them to bring the price down.

Getting new quotes if it’s been a while since you’ve done this kind of research can ensure you’re getting the price you really deserve.

Create a Green Workspace

Did you know that creating a green workspace can do more than helping out the planet? It can also provide a positive impact on your bottom line.

It’s true! One of the benefits of many green practices is that they are more energy-efficient. Energy efficiency as it relates to your budget means cheaper bills.

Switch out all the light bulbs in your office for green-friendly fluorescent lighting and you’ll be surprised at how much you save on a yearly basis. Improving your heating and cooling systems cans also help to shave dollars off.

If you can cut your office’s reliance on disposal products you’ll also be able to save money there. Recycling and reusing products lessen the need to buy more. Encouraging multi-use water bottles, mugs, plates, and so forth will help Earth and help your wallet.

Swapping back to a normal coffee pot as opposed to those single-use coffee cups can provide big savings as well. A normal tin of coffee can produce hundreds of cups of coffee as opposed to the very few that a pack of cups will create for the same price.

It may be difficult to get your team to adjust to these kinds of changes right away. With a little work, however, you can create great change and cut some of your costs.

Learning to Lower Your Operating Costs

It can be hard to run a small business, especially in the current climate. However, embracing some of the above tips and tricks can help you to lower your current operating costs.

If you can successfully keep these costs down, you’ll be well on your way to a brighter tomorrow. Need more financial advice for the office? Keep scrolling our blog for more.

How to Streamline Your Business and Reduce Expenses

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Streamline your Business|How to Streamline Your Business and Reduce ExpensesStreamlining is in every business’s best interest. Operating a clunky business is costly. You need to pay to keep all the essential components together and juggle with operations. It’s a nightmare both for outright costs and for time wasted. Despite what many businesses may think, there is a very good chance that they are inefficient in at least one way.

Audit Your Business

Any efforts you make before auditing your business have the potential to have been a complete waste of your time and resources. You might know of a problem, yes, but without that audit, you don’t know why it is a problem or what the best method is to go about fixing it. The best solution might be to improve a different area of your business entirely. Until you do an audit, you will never know.

Automate Your Business

Auditing your business will give you a clear idea of what needs to be done. In most cases, automating specific tasks will immensely improve your business and employee relations. You just need to know which tasks to automate to see the most significant improvements. Data management systems are incredibly clever and can help make steps that took minutes or even hours and days take seconds. HR, inventory, and data collection are three areas that often see the most significant improvement in productivity when automation is introduced.

Invest in Closed-Loop Systems

Waste is waste. If you manufacture items, you want to make use of the scraps and cut-offs just as much as the main bulk of the virgin material. If distilling is included in your process, then you will want a closed-loop system that will reduce loss and help you optimize your manufacturing process. Do try to choose items that work together. Your new pdx.gold extraction unit should work with the rest of your system, for example.

Make Money Out of Your Waste

Following on the closed-loop suggestion is to make money out of your waste. You won’t always be able to recapture raw materials in a closed-loop machine. Instead, you will want to look at creating a closed-loop business partnership. Find businesses that need your scrap and waste and are willing to pay for it. If your scraps are metal, paper, or other similar raw materials, then you can make money back on an item you used to have to pay to dispose of.

Invest in Regular Training

If you want your workplace to be efficient, your employees need to know the best way to do that. This applies to those working on a manufacturing floor and your office. Train on optimal data input, on how to operate machinery, and even make an efficient system so that all items and equipment have a place and can be easily located in seconds.

Go Paperless

Try to reduce the number of materials you need. Going paperless is just one of the most apparent routes you can take. Today, computers can handle important tasks like document comparison, redlining, and similar tasks. To put into perspective just how much you can save, consider that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at savings in $1.5 billion in the next decade just by going paperless. Though your business likely isn’t cutting down 2 million trees each year to feed its paper habit, the savings are still there, and you can and will see a difference for your business.

5 Golden Rules for Managing Business Logistics

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Managing Business Logistics|5 Golden Rules for Managing Business LogisticsManaging your business gets increasingly more difficult as you scale it, Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to ensure that your company stays organized as long as you adopt some golden rules to help streamline your workflow and logistics processes. So in this post, we’re going to talk about five important things to follow.

1. Proper planning is mandatory for an efficient logistics system

Before you make any sweeping changes to your business, it’s vital that you plan out all of your actions to ensure that you’re not missing anything and that you’ve included everything that is a part of your logistics chain. Planning is important because it allows you to get a better overall view of your business’s current logistics system, giving you a better look at the areas that need to be optimized and where you can maximize your profits.

However, what’s arguably more important than proper planning is the ability to prepare for any potential situations where your plans don’t work. Unforeseen circumstances aren’t uncommon regardless of the type of business you operate. Whether it’s a problem with your products, adverse weather conditions, transportation issues or even internal organization problems, you need to have contingency plans in place for when things go badly.

2. Focus on building solid relationships with third-party services

While you might manage most of your general logistics chain, there’s undoubtedly going to be areas that you need to rely on other companies–at least for now. Everything from outsourced drivers to a pallet delivery company can be considered an essential service for smoothing out the bumps in your logistics chain. In some cases, you might even need to rely on a warehousing service to help you store excess goods as you grow your company’s storage space.

However, if you find that you’re constantly forced to use external employees to help, you might find it more convenient to hire new staff instead as long as the cost of recruitment and training can offset the current cost of hiring temporary workers. Eventually, you’ll want to manage virtually every aspect of your logistics chain so that you have more control over it, but until then, it’s perfectly fine to rely on outside services.

3. Efficient warehouse management is the key to a well-oiled logistics system

Proper warehouse management, such as indexing of items, can help a considerable amount when it comes to optimizing your logistics system. This is especially important for companies that typically deal with items that are perishable, such as food items that need to be refrigerated. The capacity of your warehouse should also accommodate your needs. This can be difficult to measure unless you’re actively monitoring every aspect of your logistics chain, hence why analytics and accurate reports can be important.

Warehouse management also means having enough workers and equipment to store and retrieve orders as needed. This includes having staff that are knowledgeable of all the safety considerations of working in a warehouse, and also having access to forklifts and similar pieces of equipment to make their life easier.

4. Use automated processes to become more efficient

Whether it’s organizing goods or printing labels, automation can make your logistics chain a lot simpler to manage. With the right type of software and engineers to monitor and tweak it, automated processes could play a major role in the way you operate your logistics.

Automated tools are usually always a big help, but it’s worth remembering that they can be difficult to set up and are usually prone to problems. Make sure you do your research and trial any piece of automation technology you use before putting it into service.

5. Analytics will help you get an objective look at your logistics chain

We mentioned this briefly already, but having analytical tools to track different metrics is critical to the operation of your business. Warehouses benefit greatly from using analytics because it allows you to make informed decisions backed by real statistics and facts that you personally generate. It allows for smarter inventory management, it helps you expand when needed and it also works well with complex supplier networks.

In addition, analytics can also help you react to certain situations. For instance, if there’s a supply chain issue like a truck getting stuck in transit, then you’ll immediately notice there’s an issue. Using your analytical tools, you can make decisions on how to proceed. This can be done by examining current stock, how much the truck is carrying and also how long your current stock will last. You can even track financial objectives to see if you’re meeting your targets.