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Online or On Campus: Pros and Cons

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There is no doubt that the internet has played a big role in changing the way we learn. Many people are not engaging in courses which are taught solely online. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should discount traditional learning environments entirely. In this blog post, we are going to weigh up some of the pros and cons of online learning versus on-campus study.

Studying Online

In the pros column, you can certainly put flexibility. You have the option to study courses which are based miles away from yourself and even in other countries. You can also fit your learning around the other commitments in your life such as work and family. As time goes on, you also have more and more options of what you can study, whether this is an online language class or something more specialised like an MSN degree online. Essentially, the choice in your hands.

On the downside, you have to be motivated and disciplined enough to study in your own time. There is also a degree of isolation involved as you are not face-to-face with teachers and other students – but improving communication methods are making this easier. Depending on the course and educational institution you have chosen, you may find that there is a lag time in asking your questions and having them answered again.

Studying On-Campus

Now let’s look into the pros of studying on-campus. If you find that you learn better in groups and face-to-face, this may be a better option for you. Help is readiliy available and when you are in a learning environment, you can simply raise your hand when you want a question answered. You also may want to engage in the social side of learning in a real life environment.

The obvious downside is that you don’t have the freedom and flexibility to set your own schedule, and you also have to be located close enough to your univerisity or school to get there easily. You may find that you have to put other aspects of your life on hold to complete your course – particularly if you are faced with a long commute. As well as this, on-campus study can end up being the more expensive option of the two.

Ultimately, the choice is up to you when it comes to studying online or on-campus. Essentially, you should weigh up the pros and cons just as we have in this list. Look at the different courses that are available in the area which you are interested in. Work out how best you are going to fit in the other commitments in your life. But there is no doubt that no matter what choice you make, further study is something which could end up enriching your life in many ways. You could find that you spark off a new passion or discover a career path which is more suited to you.

4 Hacks to Become More Productive In Business

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Productivity levels are as important to a business as its revenue streams. In fact, the true character of a company can only be found out from the productivity levels of the workers. Still for many businesses productivity levels seem to be an abstract concept. The point is that a business without a tight grip on its productivity levels is bound to suffer. Here are 5 hacks to become more productive in business. They may take some time to implement and some more time for the workers to get used to it, but the long-term results are promising in terms of work satisfaction and revenue generation.

Control of phones

All organizations must keep a close eye on their workers’ tendencies to use their phones at work. It’s a worrying habit because everyone is a victim of it. All it takes is one notification sound to divert their attention for 10-15 minutes or even more. However, to avert this, a business can establish no notification zones.

In the workplace there should be no notification zones where it’s not allowed to check the phone for notifications. Unless it is a phone call, employees should not be allowed to take out their phones at all in these zones. In case they need to check their phone, they should excuse themselves and leave the room to do so.

To do list apps

Several software companies make specialized apps for businesses to use. A to-do list app that can be centrally accessed can work wonders for an organization. The benefits of such an app are aplenty, some of them include:

• Keeping track of all job schedules.

• Supervisors are able to check which worker is lagging.

• Allotment of work becomes easier.

In case the organization is unable to afford investing in a personalized application, it can always look for free alternatives in the app stores.

Reading business articles

Reading business magazines and journals, especially the types that are suited to the workers’ job requirements must be encouraged by the organizational heads. Here’s how an organization can encourage its workers to read more:

• Subscribing to magazines and newspapers related to the field of work undertaken by the organization.

• Sharing websites and article links on a common social space for all workers to view and read. There are several knowledgeable websites which business professionals must read. For instance, Fabweb.Org is a great website which keeps its readers up to date on the latest technological and business advancements around the world.

Refusing additional work

Productivity does not mean taking up a large number of tasks and not being able to finish any one of them. It is measured in terms of how successful the worker has been in the process of completion of all the tasks that have been assigned to him/her. If they feel that taking up additional work could hamper their chances of finishing their assigned work, workers should be given the chance to refuse it.

Apart from following these guidelines, you must also have trust in the workers and give them their freedom to do their best. Only then can your business become truly productive.

What Is Procurement?

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Procurement is a term you will hear often in business, but it may not be one which you are instantly familiar with. Procurement is all about making sure that all products a company gets are from trusted suppliers and are of good value. For example, if you had a company whose sole focus was to be environmentally friendly, the procurement team would make sure that their suppliers were environmentally friendly and that all product is sourced naturally wherever possible.

Why is it important?

Procurement is a huge part of your business strategy and it is vital to get it right in your business. If you think about it, over half of your business revenue is used to source materials and products for your company to sell on, so procurement is a department which needs to be managed correctly. You can buy Sertica’s procurement software for better management of your procurement team and this can make life much easier when researching for the correct suppliers. Making sure that the correct decisions are made with products and suppliers is absolutely essential for any business.

Visibility

In the procurement process, one of the important things to think about is visibility. Visibility means that as an organisation, you can see exactly where your money is being spent, and in turn, you can make changes to save the business money and be more successful as a result. Segmentation is a strategy which is often used for monitoring spending as it puts spending into different categories to make it easier to see what impact each type of spending has on the business.

The procurement process

The process of procuring items can involve several different steps, and here is a basic rundown of those steps which are involved here:

  • Identify requirements
  • Authorize purchase request
  • Identify suppliers
  • Make inquiries
  • Get quotes
  • Negotiate terms
  • Make a decision
  • Creating a purchase order
  • Sort out shipping
  • Receive invoices
  • Make payment

Is Procurement Purchasing?

Most people use the term purchasing and procurement as the same thing, but they are different in the fact that purchasing doesn’t concern itself with the sourcing and researching of suppliers, it is only concerned with the shipping, making an invoice and paying for the goods. Procurement is a department which you should have alongside the buying department in your business for maximum efficiency.

Learn more here about how you can use software to enhance this area of your business easily and give you a head start above your competitors for both purchasing and procurement.

Using technology

In this day and age, we are lucky enough to have software for pretty much any business process, and our procurement process is no different. Because the process of procuring items can be complicated, technology can help massively by organising data and comparing different quotes to come up with your final decision. It can make life much easier and allow for more productive working on the case.

If you don’t already have a procurement manager or team in your workplace, now is the time to take that leap and hire yourself a new member of the team. Procurement is a vital role in any business, and it can make a massive difference to your success and growth in the industry.

How to Run Your Business in the Most Cost Effective Way

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Running your company in the most cost effective way possible should be your number one priority right now. If it’s not, that suggests there’s something wrong. So why is this so important? Most business owners assume that things are being run efficiently and cost effectively, but that’s often not the case at all. Making those kinds of assumptions as an entrepreneur is almost always a bad idea.

You’ll be surprised by the many ways in which your business is probably throwing money away right now. It’s something that you can’t let continue because the sooner you look into it, the sooner you’ll realise that you’re throwing away resources unnecessarily. We’re not going to look at some of the things you can do to make your business operate in a more cost effective kind of way.

Outsource Certain Minor Things

There are are some things that you simply shouldn’t waste time and money hiring people to do. For example, something like data entry is something that’s very simply and very mundane. That’s why you shouldn’t be afraid to outsource certain minor issues and problems that might be present inside your business. Make them problems for someone else to deal with.

Put Stuff in the Cloud

The cloud offers you a fantastic way to save money because it’s all about switching stuff from your servers and putting them up in the cloud freely and easily. You don’t have to worry about running servers and paying for the electricity that powers all this stuff. It’s something that’s definitely worth considering and looking into if you haven’t had any experience with cloud computing and storage just yet. So it’s about time you started putting more stuff in the cloud.

Embrace Green Ideas

Running your business in a green way is one of the shortest and most obvious ways to make your business more cost effective and efficient. If you install water limits so that water can’t be wasted, you’ll save money. If you produce some of your own energy reserves, you’ll save money. And if you cut the amount of paper and cardboard you use, you’ll save money. When you go green, you save; it really is as simple as that.

Keep Modernising Your Advertising and Marketing Strategies

If you’re still persevering with advertising and marketing strategies that are well past their sell by date, you’re only going to run into disappointment sooner or later. Those strategies will produce ever diminishing results, and they’re not cheap. The modern ways of reaching people via targeted online ads and social media content is much more cost effective. So if you’re still living in the past, it’s time to drag yourself into the future.

Choose Tools and Components That Reduce Wastage

Depending on what kind of sector and industry you’re working in, there are all kinds of tools and components that can help you to make less. If you’re working in manufacturing, for example, you can use a flow meter to help keep things safe, secure and efficient. There are plenty of other examples of similar components that you can make use of in your place of work too, so this is something for you to look into.

Travel Around Less

Business travel can be really expensive, even if you’re just travelling across the city. Of course, you do still have to do a little travelling in order to run a successful business, especially if you want to go global. But you certainly can minimise the amount of travelling you’re doing by embracing conference calls and things like that. With modern tech, you don’t need to travel to discuss things with your clients, partners or suppliers, so why waste the time and resources?

Be More Careful During the Recruitment Process

Your recruitment process is something that you should definitely try to perfect as soon as possible. This is a cost effectiveness issue because it’s all about making sure you hire the right people the first time. When you hire the wrong people, it can unbalance, undermine and massively damage your business. It can set you back years, so it’s vital to get it right the first time.

Your business is going to have to operate in an efficient and cost effective way if you want it to be a major success going forward. No business succeeds if it’s wasting money on a continual basis, so it’s time to get things in order and make your business even more profitable and sustainable than it is already.

Top Tips To Start An Online Business

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E-commerce businesses are conquering more and more market shares. Since it is tempting to be there among the top performers, you can get a head start by implementing a few straightforward things. These are some of the most important steps.

Have A Unique Business Idea

The business idea is, of course, the starting point and the heart of every online business. Maybe you want to sell products, whether digital or real goods, but maybe you also want to offer services. To develop a viable business idea is, in any case, the basis of your business success. As well as a unique idea, you should develop a clear strategy early on.

Always Remember Your Target Audience

If you do not think of a specific design concept for your online business, think about what your target group is. In the end, customers should immediately realize that they are on the right track with what they are looking for.

Also, the emotions of your visitors should be addressed. If your clothing store is aimed at women under 25, it makes sense to show fashionable and chic clothes. This is how the visitors understand that they have landed right with you.

Find A Domain Name

If you want to open an online shop, you need a good, memorable domain name. The most important rule here is that short domains are better than long. You can remember them better, and there are fewer ways to mistype.

Choose The Right Merchandise Management

What is often overlooked by many, is the right choice of inventory management. With increasing sales, many online shops often fail due to improper storage and bookkeeping. That is why it is important to ensure that you work with good software for inventory management right from the start. LFORM can help you get started with creating the most suitable website for your business.

Choose A Memorable Brand Logo

The image of a company is crucial to its success, as it is a reflection of how your brand is different from the others. Therefore, it is a high priority that the company image is in the header of the page and is easily recognizable. One thing is for sure – you have to spend your money on a good logo design because the logo quality can say a lot about your business. The same brand logo also needs to be disseminated through your social media channels. Your customers need to be 100% sure that they have really come to your site.

Choose The Right Payment Methods

On the subject of payment methods, in general, PayPal is a standard payment method that very popular with online retailers. Often, however, sales potentials are lost due to missing payment methods. You, therefore, need to analyze your target audience closely to determine which payment methods are needed. If, for example, you have an online shop with a target group from the middle to upper class with a high income, aim to offer a credit card payment method that doesn’t require the customer to leave your website.

If the online shop targets a target group with a rather low income, then you can probably do without the credit card. The age structure of the target group also plays a major role in the preferences of the payment method. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of the target group is an essential prerequisite here.

Find A Suitable Storage Place

Your business will require a suitable storage area, that is not your living room. This includes a warehouse with equipment such as a packing table, product storage shelves, hand truck, pallet trucks, shelving for shipping utensils, barcode scanners and so on.

Find A Professional Photographer

Good product pictures and descriptions are indispensable. The aim is to convince customers that your products are a top quality which will result in a purchase. This is when you should be honest and ask yourself if you are a gifted as a photographer so that you can do the job yourself. If the answer is no, find some assistance.

Offer Multiple shipping methods

So, once you’ve set the general structure, products, and prices, it’s time to think about shipping. Usually, a standard shipping method offers variants such as standard of express shipping. The standard shipping should, however, bring no additional costs, since this can deter a customer and in the worst case, can even lead them to abandon the cart.

In addition to the choice of shipping, you should also give buyers the opportunity to determine their preferred parcel delivery service. This is important to consumers and is a definite advantage over the competition.

Have An Effective Advertising Plan

An online business can only succeed if the world knows about it, so advertise wherever possible. Also, you can use social networks like Facebook or Instagram. Implementing a successful advertising plan and giving time, effort and thought into ensuring you have an effective strategy is vital to the success of any business.

Your Website Should Be User-Friendly

Experienced e-commerce business owners understand very well that website and web design alone are not very crucial. With today’s rivalry, you can only win with the help of a well-thought-out strategy. The usability of your site guarantees that your customers will have positive experiences with it.

A clear menu, a contrasting color palette, a small selection of main categories and a clear number of sub-categories. If is efficiently implemented, your visitors will understand at lightning speed whether the online shop looks attractive or not. It’s a lot faster than a regular shop – the distance between you and your competitors is just a few clicks away.

If the potential customer comes to your online shop, they must be able to access the desired product with a maximum of 2 clicks. If your customers have positive experiences after visiting your website, you are already ahead of your competitors by a few nose-lengths.

Analyze Your Competitors

Take a look at the pages of potential competitors. See what they are doing differently, so you can do better. Pay close attention to details that you find to be poorly implemented so you can learn from the mistakes of others and perform them better or differently.

This puts you one step ahead of your competitors. For example, develop an extraordinary concept or score points with particularly extensive customer service. When you exploit the unique potential of your online store, this will bring the decisive advantages.

Conclusion

For more way’s to make money online, check out this helpful guide.