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How The Cloud Can Help Businesses During Covid-19

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Times are unusual for everyone at the moment due to the Coronavirus across the globe. Businesses have had to take a fresh look at how they function and how they can best enable their employees to work from home to keep their business afloat.

Never have there been such testing times for the business world during the pandemic. Many have had to take swift action to keep systems in place, as well ensuring that they enable remote access to their employees.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | How The Cloud Can Help Businesses During Covid-19

Covid-19 has highlighted the need for widespread adaptation, laying aside outdated, manual ways of working in favour of secure, internet-based tools, built to handle everything from your accounting and invoicing to meetings and quick chat options. All of this, and a lot more, is easy to set up in minutes, thanks to cloud computing for business.

Due to enforced social distancing and many offices having to close (or at least have reduced access). It’s been imperative that companies utilize the various online tools that are available, such as video calling.

This is where the cloud comes in as it means businesses can use the internet to store and get hold of data, instead of using their hard drives in the office, server or things like disc technology.

There are some key advantages to using the cloud for business:

It enables employees to work from home

If the cloud was already part of your business before Coronavirus, then it meant that you were one step ahead of those who didn’t. Many businesses were still very traditional in the fact that they operated from premises and were used to their employees reporting into the office. The pandemic really turned this style of workforce on its head.

Now employees have been helping to ensure businesses and their jobs are still there, by working from devices at home. Employees now need access to hardware such as laptops, mobile phones and desk phones which has created a huge demand for these items.

Security is a critical aspect of home working that is not as apparent to employees but of paramount importance to the organisation. Cyberattacks are on the rise and a big concern for businesses and other security professionals implementing work-from-home and cloud solutions.

IT efficiency

It can often be perceived that employees are not as productive at home, at least to their employers. However, this is not always the case. Many people are working to their best, perhaps more so, since working from home and it will often be facilitated by the infrastructure that the company has in place. This in turn makes it even more crucial that IT departments are working effectively to make sure that systems are running as smoothly as they can, plus, having a cloud service provider and is like having a specialist third party on-tap, as well as utilizing companies such as techsquared.com.

It gives your business resilience

In uncertain times, it’s having the tool to be able change that’s key. Due to rapid changes, that in some cases have had to happen overnight, having the ability to scale up and down has been paramount. By enabling employees to be able to perform their role from home, it really helps to make the business far more resilient and as a result, more likely to be less affected by the pandemic in the long run.

4 Ways To Lower Costs and Increase Your Business Revenue

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Businesses cost money to run. As the owner, you should be looking for ways to lower costs and save money as much as possible, without affecting your staff or production rates. There are many ways to lower your costs and the earlier you are in your business, the sooner you start saving money, the more you will have to re-invest in the future. So how can you lower costs efficiently and quickly? Here are 4 methods you can look into to help reduce the money your business is spending.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | 4 Ways To Lower Costs and Increase Your Business RevenueLowering production costs

Have you ever considered the price of a zip tie? How many do you use when building your products? If you lowered the amount in each one, how much would this save in the long run over thousands of products? Small incremental savings like this are the key to reducing your production costs through your business’s lifetime. Lowering production costs doesn’t have to be as ruthless as lowering staff numbers but by finding ways to save small amounts that add up in the long run. Automation and time-saving techniques are easier to implement. If you need to, consider other suppliers of your products to lower your outsourcing and production costs further.

Free-licence software

Many software suites now use an expensive subscription service that adds up quickly when you start to add multiple users. However, there are other options available to you. As users became tired of paying for expensive software, well developed, managed, and most importantly free, software exploded onto the market with alternatives to almost every major software suite. As a smaller business, it is within your best interests to become accustomed to what free software is out there for you. Do keep in mind though that you must consider compatibility issues between different pieces of software. Don’t waste time forcing a square peg into a round hole, when the paid-for software will do the job.

Go digital

Newer businesses have the luxury of being able to perform almost all of their admin digitally in the modern-day, with paper or hard copies rarely being required. With widespread software or mobile apps designed to provide you with paperless, digital alternatives to paper forms and documents. Going digital means you can cut out almost all of your paper documents which removes unnecessary storage and the costs associated. Yes, at some point you are going to have to print something, but if this is rare, you also save money on expensive printer maintenance costs as you only need something small to suit your need.

Speaking to financial professionals

Speaking to tax and accounting professionals is a great way to learn about what options are available to you. You may be surprised to find out where you are overspending and what your actual liabilities are in certain areas of your business. For example, in some cases, you may be able to look into a tax segregation report to cut tax liabilities across your premises. To learn more about cost segregation click here. Financial advice can cost. But the money you can potentially save makes the initial outlay small in comparison. Good professionals are worth it so invest your money into them wisely.

5 Ways Managers Can Prepare Their Businesses for the Peak Season

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | 5 Ways Managers Can Prepare Their Businesses for the Peak SeasonIf you are a business owner or even the manager of a business, the looming peak-season can be daunting no matter what industry you work in, retail, to hospitality, to manufacturing. You will want to find the best strategies to prepare for your peak trading times and implement them while you are quiet. Perhaps you are considering how to bring your customers back once the current restrictions have been lifted. Here are a few ideas to help get you ready for the next big season.

Conduct Repairs and Essential Maintenance

The first step that you should take is to inspect your site, including all public spaces, electrical equipment, and fixtures, to ensure that they have not sustained any damage. If you find an issue, you must act quickly and conduct a risk assessment and arrange for repairs to ensure that your premises are compliant with health and safety regulations. You should find ways to conduct repairs and essential maintenance as soon as possible in the quieter periods. For instance, for those in the hotel or theme park industry, they may take this lull to conduct commercial pool renovations, such as resurfacing or installing a new filter.

Scale Up Your Marketing Campaigns

Now is the best time to revise your marketing campaigns. How can you attract new customers and spread word about your business in preparation for the peak of summer? You should check that your website is prepared for a higher amount of traffic, and ensure that your contact information is easy to find. Have you considered SEO and PPC advertising to help customers who are looking for businesses like yours? Perhaps you can find the time to evaluate your budget to incorporate this.

Review Your Rates

While you are quiet, you can take the time to review your rates and your pricing structure. Are your prices still competitive against your rivals? If you cannot answer ‘yes’ for certain, take time to have a look around and see what you can update, perhaps setting up promotions alongside your revised marketing campaigns is a viable option? Nearly everyone will appreciate an incentive such as a discount code, or a special sale, it will help to bring people to you ahead of the peak season.

Review Your Employment Strategy

Do you have enough employees for your business? Perhaps with recent events, you have had to lay staff off. Are the ones who are left skilled enough to cope with the busier periods, or would you benefit from hiring a few extra hands temporarily? Do you have an effective training plan for your team to ensure that they can handle the demands that the job and customers may make? If not, now is the best time to think about how you can help them.

Review Data from Past Seasons

One of the best ways that you can prepare your business for the upcoming season is to review the data from previous seasons by tracking the critical metrics of every business, such as sales, website traffic, and customer numbers. This will enable you to effectively predict how your business will fare.

With these five helpful tips, hopefully you have gained some ideas on how to prepare yourself and your team for the upcoming summer season. Good luck!

5 Key Fire Safety Measures for Small Businesses

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | 5 Key Fire Safety Measures for Small BusinessesIf you’re a fledgling business owner or are in the early stages of setting up premises for a new venture, one aspect you are likely not thinking about a lot is fire safety. Starting a new business requires a hefty amount of thought and planning, but most of that will be focused on acquiring customers, financial planning, marketing strategies, overheads, and so on.

Once you’re up and running, ensuring that the bricks and mortar of your small business are physically and financially protected from fire is essential. Below are five safety measures to implement as a small business.

Identify Fire Hazards

The importance of a fire risk assessment cannot be underestimated. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), there are roughly 37,000 fires on manufacturing and industrial properties every year in the US, resulting in nearly $1 billion in damages. The first place to start when conducting a risk assessment is to evaluate any fire hazards around the facility, such as electrical hazards or combustible and flammable materials. It is also a good idea to review all areas of the office and consider how fires may start because of surrounding materials.

Identify People at Risk

Once you’ve identified potentially hazardous areas or materials, you will also need to evaluate any people who are more at risk during a fire. For example, do you employ anyone who may be visually or physically impaired? Or do you have people whose roles put them at additional risk to fire than others? Identifying these people means you’re able to put secure plans in place should a fire strike.

Invest in Fire Protection Services and Products

It goes without saying that installing the necessary fire protection products around the office is a necessity. Items such as fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, alarms, emergency lighting, and the like will all need to be evaluated and installed. If you are unsure about how to go about this, try consulting experts at a fire protection services company like APFE.

Plan and Practice a Fire Exit Strategy

Every business or office should have a sound fire exit strategy and this should be practiced regularly. All employees need to be aware of the main exit points and what is expected in the event of an alarm. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) require all companies to have evacuation maps and visual communication so that staff can quickly refer to guidance if needed. Facilities are also required to have two exit points and paths that are clearly identified.

Train Staff in Fire Awareness and Safety

Creating a fire safety plan for your business is not enough. You will need to train your employees so that they clearly understand the risks of a fire, how they can prevent fires, and what they need to do during an emergency. As fire safety training is a legal requirement, there are various fire safety eLearning modules that your staff can complete online at any time.

The risk of fires is a very real and serious matter to consider when setting up and running a business. To ensure that you and your staff are safe, refer to the above tips and take the necessary precautions. Otherwise, the danger to life and financial consequences for your business could be huge.

4 Things You Should Know Before You Buy a Website

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 4 Things You Should Know Before You Buy a WebsiteBefore you decide to start an e-commerce business from scratch, you should know that you always have the option of buying a website that is already profitable and build it from there. This can be a great way to generate instant income if you have the capital to invest and it allows you to start much faster without the hassle of building a website and a brand. However, finding and buying profitable websites can be a challenge, and unless you know exactly what to look for, you could end up with a dud on your hands. Let’s take a look at some of the things you should know before you buy a website.

Choose the Right Platform

Know that there are only a handful of exchange marketplace websites you should trust, and it’s important that you do your research on any platform before you start. Ideally, you want to work with a platform that’s already attached to a major brand. Sites like these will allow you to check a site’s revenue, average monthly profit, and various other metrics. Working through a site like this will also ensure that the transaction goes smoothly and that your funds are safe at all times.

Look for Website You Can Take to the Next Step

If you want something safe and have the money for it, you can always go for a website that has a lot of revenue, but you’ll have to pay for it. Instead, we would suggest you also look at sites that you might feel are underperforming, but you could take to the next level.

In many cases, sites are sold by people who don’t have the motivation to push it further, and this could be a great opportunity for you. Research the niche, see how you could market it, look at the margins and asking price, and see how fast it would take you to start turning a profit.

Do You Understand the Site’s Niche?

A lot of people will look at profits first when picking a website, but it also pays to pick one in a niche and market that you understand. This will give you an edge when it comes to creating content, for instance. This will also come in handy if you have to do customer service yourself at the beginning.

Knowing your stuff will really allow you to build some credibility and show your expertise. People will trust you better and will be more likely to listen to what you have to say. You’ll also be able to immerse yourself better in the community and become an actual resource people turn to.

Buying Competitors

Buying a competitor’s website can be a great way to gain market shares, so that’s definitely something you should consider. Another thing you could do is buy a website that will complement your current one. For instance, if you already own a site selling gardening and landscaping equipment, buying a fledgling gardening blog could be a great option.

Buying an existing website can be a great way to capitalize on someone else’s work and build on their brand. But, before you make an acquisition, make sure that you look at the details and do your research so you can replicate their results.