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When Is The Right Time To Hire Your First Employee?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Hiring Employees|When Is The Right Time To Hire Your First Employee?Although it’s entirely possible to run your business by yourself for as long as you want to – maybe even forever – that’s not what every business and every business owner needs. In fact, for some businesses, not taking on staff can be detrimental and reduce growth, or even cause the business to stagnate.

Knowing when it’s the right time to hire your first employee, however, can be difficult to determine, especially if you are nervous about doing so. Move too soon, and you won’t be able to afford it, wait too long, and you’ll have missed too many opportunities. Read on to get a better idea of when to start the hiring process.

You’ll Make More Money

It is an expensive time when you hire someone. Not only will you be taking time away from the business to read through resumes and interview candidates, but you’ll suddenly need to be paying someone a regular amount of money each week or month. If you are unable to do that, your employees won’t stay around, and they might even take the matter further and sue you for their money. Plus you’ll need to pay taxes, insurance, and maybe contribute to pensions schemes.

You will need to add this all up and determine whether or not you can afford to take someone on. You will also need to work out how much additional revenue you can bring in by hiring someone. It might be that they can pay for themselves and then some. You should wait until you are financially stable, however, as it is a gamble that might not pay off.

You Can Do It Right

When we say do it right, we don’t mean all the admin and other exercises that need to be done when you hire someone. You can outsource much of this and TriNet’s payroll services can take on what you cannot such as managing your payroll for you or simplifying your taxes.

What we mean is that you need to be able to find the right person for your business, and, when they are hired, you need to be able to ensure that they are looked after. Getting these aspects right will help you immensely. You’ll have someone you can trust who, because they feel happy and satisfied in their work, will be loyal. Loyal employees are wonderful as they will mean you don’t have to start all over again and spend more money looking for other workers.

You Need Something Specific

As noted above, outsourcing can be a wonderful way to ensure that work is done accurately and professionally. You can do this with many aspects of your business, and it will mean that anything specific that needs to be done and requires a certain skill set can be completed.

In time, however, you may find that it would be easier to hire someone to do the work in-house. Some business owners prefer to have someone working just for them, and if this is the case and you no longer want to outsource yet can’t do the work yourself, it could be time to hire your first employee.

How to Reduce Business Costs

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Every business will have various costs, which are, unfortunately, unavoidable. While many expenses are inevitable, there are always ways that you can reduce them which could have a significant impact on your bottom line. Even the tiniest alteration could have a considerable impact in the long run, so it is certainly worthwhile making a few changes – provided that it does not impact the quality of the product or service that you offer to your target customer. Additionally, it is important to re-assess your costs regularly to make sure that you are not overspending. Here are a few ways that you can reduce your business costs.

Outsourcing Work

It can be helpful to have employees, and in some cases, you will need staff that you can rely on, but for certain aspects of the operation, you may be able to outsource the work. Doing so is beneficial because you do not have to pay a salary and instead it can be on a per-project basis. This could free up a tremendous amount of cash and drastically reduce your costs without impacting the quality of work (just make sure that you use specialists!). You can also use interns so that you have staff onsite but without the costly salary.

Encourage Remote Working

Another good way to save money when it comes to staff is to encourage remote working. What this means is that you are using much less energy in the office, plus it can also bring various other benefits for both the company and the employee. Technology has made remote working a viable option and should be encouraged by all employers.

Use Time More Effectively

Wasted time means wasted money so it is worth identifying a few ways that you and your staff can use your time more effectively. This could include:

  • Eliminating unnecessary meetings
  • Minimizing distractions
  • Using software to track time usage
  • Setting goals
  • Incentivizing staff
  • Creating a weekly schedule
  • Using technology to streamline/automate specific tasks

Lease Equipment

Most businesses rely very heavily on equipment and technology for their operation. It can be expensive but often the technology and equipment will quickly become dated, plus there could be maintenance costs to factor in. Leasing equipment will prove to be cheaper in the long run, and it gives you the chance to upgrade to the latest technology when developments are made (which is often in many cases).

Software

Again, most businesses rely very heavily on software for their operation, and this can be a considerable expense. While there may be specific software which is essential for your business, you will find that often there is a free open-source alternative available. This option can sometimes be better than expensive software packages.

Switch To Alternative Energy

In a time where environmental damage is a significant talking point, it is crucial for businesses to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint. One of the most effective strategies for this is to switch to alternative energy. In addition to the environmental benefits, this will also prove to be cost effective in the long run despite the initial price.

Go Paperless

Similarly, going paperless is vital in terms of reducing environmental damage, but it can also bring a few benefits to any business. First, you can cut costs as paper and printing can be costly over the course of a year, but it can also improve the organization of your operation. This is because digitizing documents can free up space in the office and make it much easier to find what you need (just be sure to backup regularly and having a digital storage system in place).

Switch Providers & Suppliers

It is also worth listing all of your utility providers and suppliers to see if you could be making any savings by switching to another company. It can be a complicated process, but if you can make long-term savings, it is certainly worthwhile considering.

Do Your Own Marketing

One of the most significant yet most important expenses is marketing. Every company needs high-quality marketing in order to increase awareness about your brand and to increase your visibility online, but this can be expensive. It is for this reason why it is a smart move to do your own marketing. You can complete an online MBA in marketing which will teach you everything that you need to know to market your business across multiple platforms. This, in turn, should help to boost your sales, making it a highly valuable and worthwhile course to complete.

Purchase Second-Hand Furniture

It is crucial that you create a comfortable and practical work environment for your employees so that they can be productive each day and to keep morale high. Office furniture can be expensive, and it is important to have quality items, but you could make significant savings by merely buying second-hand furniture or by searching online for free furniture that people are giving away.

Insurance

Having insurance in place is an absolute necessity as it could be devastating to the company if you do not have this and something were to happen. There are a few different ways that you can save money on insurance. These include:

  • Comparing providers
  • Asking your current provider to match the best rate that you find
  • Consolidating insurance policies
  • Making sure that you are not overinsured or have duplicate coverage

Downsize Business Premises

It is nice to have a big open office, but this can be a considerable expense and often is not necessary. Especially when first starting out, it is a good idea to opt for somewhere smaller which will still allow you to work comfortably and you could then look to upgrade when you are in a healthier financial situation or if you are going through an expansion.

Every business owner should regularly look at their operation to see if there are ways that they can reduce costs in order to maximize profit. In most cases, you will be able to find a few ways that you are able to cut down on costs and even a small change could have a big impact in the long run.

Keeping Your Business Data Up to Date

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Keeping Your Business Data Up to Date

Collecting valuable data for your business is essential, but keeping it up to date is just as important. If you have data that is no longer relevant, it won’t be much use to your business. How long your information is useful for will depend on exactly what it is, so staying up to data can take some work. There are a few things that you can make sure you’re doing if you want to have accurate and useful data at all times. Take a look at some of the steps that you can take to keep your business data up to date.

Bring in Fresh Data Regularly

Collecting business data isn’t something that you just do once and then never again. You should be bringing in new data regularly so that you always have the freshest information. How often you collect new data will depend on what sort of data you’re collecting, where it comes from, and what you can afford. You might constantly be collecting data on who is visiting your website and how they behave. On the other hand, you might only collect information about your competitors every few months or years. When you collect new data, you can ensure it’s accurate and up to date.

Have Your Data Reviewed

Going over your existing data can be time-consuming. If you want to save time, outsourcing the review and auditing of your data will help. You can use a service to comb over your debt collections contact details or your customer demographics data. By finding the right service to help you, you can ensure that your data is reviewed and stays up to date while saving time so you can work on other things. Some services can both review your current data and help you to find more up to date and accurate information for your records.

Remove Data You No Longer Need

You should get rid of data that are no longer useful for your business. For one thing, it will help to free up digital space so that you can store new data instead. It will also mean that outdated and irrelevant data is no longer used, even accidentally, and you can replace any old data with new and more relevant information. Data that are no longer relevant could be useless and best and even dangerous at worst, depending on what it is.

Pay Attention to Regulations and Compliance

It’s important to be aware of the regulations and laws concerning data. You should know what you’re allowed to collect and record, and what you’re not allowed to keep. You also need to know what rights individuals have to know about the information that you hold about them and to ask you to remove it. The regulations can change at any time, so it’s essential to stay up to date with the latest laws and how they affect your business.

Keep your business data up to date if you want it to be useful for your company. If it’s out of date, it could cause problems.

How to Run a Successful Janitorial Business

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Efficiently and successfully running a janitorial business takes time, strategy, and consistency. Due to the ways that janitorial businesses can differ from other companies, there are very specific steps that are most advisable for success.

As a business that focuses on meeting the maintenance, repair, and cleaning needs of others, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page. In order for this to happen, workers, managers, and business owners must effectively do their jobs.

This is where adhering to the following steps comes in handy.

1. Use Time Tracking Software

Time tracking software is a valuable tool for any company; however, janitorial businesses can especially benefit from using this tool.

Janitorial Time tracking software allows you to not only know when your employees are working, but also where they’re working and which tasks are underway. If you employ remote workers or freelancers, then time tracking software can especially come in handy.

Additional benefits of using time tracking software to run a successful janitorial business include the following: knowing where company funds are going, tracking task productivity, and saving time from manual data entry into timesheets.

2. Maintain Contact with Your Clients

Clients are the lifeblood of any business, including janitorial ones. Staying in contact with your clients ultimately helps ensure that your business is meeting their needs.

If the janitorial business is checking all necessary boxes, then having that confirmation is advantageous; if there are areas in need of improvement, then catching this sooner rather than later (and acting accordingly) is always the best protocol.

When communicating with your clients, be open to feedback, suggestions, and even complaints. In the long run, this can only benefit your janitorial business and enable its success.

3. Market Strategically

Strategic marketing is another imperative measure for successfully running a janitorial business. In order for your business to thrive, the free market needs to know about it. Contrary to certain beliefs, the importance of a marketing plan doesn’t disappear when clients arrive.

Even as your janitorial business thrives and grows, marketing will remain a necessity. Keeping your business before the eyes of consumers allows for room to increase your profits; it also puts you and your janitorial staff in the position to remain afloat (and profitable) even if certain clients go elsewhere for whatever reasons.

Running a successful janitorial business is not an overnight process; although, with the best time tracking software, communication with your clients, and strategic marketing, you can successfully run a janitorial business one step at a time.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Raya KhashabRaya Khashab is the CEO and co-founder of ezClocker, a time tracking and scheduling software for small businesses. She is passionate about customers and building products that change the way people run their business. S

Blog Like A Pro

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Blog Like A Pro

In case you haven’t noticed, a business can make good use of a blog. Whether it’s on the business site itself or a different address linked to it, content marketing can do plenty for you. It can increase your visibility, give legitimacy to your brand, and build the kind of connection you want with your consumer. But blogging is a venture that takes skill all on its own. If you want to look like a pro, you have to blog like a pro.

Value must be your focus
If you want to improve the search engine optimization of your business and build its visibility, it’s easy to focus on quantity rather than quality. However, that’s not going to do you much good in most cases. Search engines use algorithms, such as visitor interest, to see just how valid content is. For that reason, as ever, value needs to be the core of what you need to know about your marketing strategy. Make it informative and newsworthy or helpful and instructional. It can even be focused solely on entertaining. The fact is it needs value for you to consider publishing it.

StrategyDriven Online Marketer & Website Developer Magazine

Make it your own

That’s not to say the text is all that matters. The visual style of a blog has to have a certain uniqueness to it. If you can’t pay for your own design, then at least try to find ones that aren’t widely used while still being relevant to your theme. Even with images heading blogs, you should take care to personalise them. Instead of throwing up generic images, find or make ones that stand out and customise them further by turning them into banners. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking a generic content mill. That’s the kind of design that will ensure readers don’t even stick around long enough to read what you’ve written.

Reach out

Those readers are important. Not just because they can lend the blog credibility. Those are the kind of leads that the blog can build. As with your social media and all your other marketing efforts, you need to put the work into making a community out of them. Reply to their comments. Get them involved in giveaways and competitions. Ask if they have any topics they would like you to cover.

Don’t be afraid to have a personality

When marketing for a business, it’s easy to play things safe and stick to the branding message and tone alone. When it comes to a blog, however, showing your human side is important. Finding your voice gives you the chance to enliven the intros and outros to articles. It enables you to write comments without sounding like a corporate robot. It creates the human connection of the blogger that a lot of blogger-followers want to see. Blogging is a very social kind of marketing, so you need to get sociable.

Building your audience on the blog is only going to improve the business. That means you have to take time. Time for the audience, time for the visuals, and time, most importantly of all, for the content. Happy typing.