Archives for April 2022

A Beginner’s Guide to Business Process Management

April 28, 2022 by Katie Conroy Leave a Comment

If you own or manage a small business, you want to do all you can to ensure smooth operations. Business process management, BPM, is the answer. This refers to the practices and technologies needed to optimize workflows in an organization, making it more flexible and adaptable. But that doesn’t mean you have to hire expensive consultants or spend big bucks on pricey software. Read on for some simple steps to improving BPM.

Understand the benefits of business process management

If you’re going to invest the time and effort into improving BPM, you want to make sure it’s worth it. Rest assured, implementing BPM measures can make a positive difference for your company. Well-executed BPM can improve efficiency, reduce the risk of errors (and their related costs), boost compliance, and increase productivity. By improving internal operations, BPM can also enhance external-facing operations, boosting customer satisfaction.

Identify and articulate your business goals

If you’re going to implement BPM, the first step is figuring out where there’s room for improvement in your current business operations. Consider what your business goals are, both short-term and long-term. Asana provides a guide to defining business aims, noting that any actions should be measurable and specific. For example, don’t say you want to grow your sales team. Instead, say you want to hire three salespeople by the end of the third quarter.

Invest in the right software solutions to help

There are many affordable software solutions that can help you improve your business management and enhance operational efficiency. Some of these tools are even free to use. Some popular technologies include ProofHub for business management, Bit.ai for document collaboration, and Scoro for project deliverable tracking. When trying to decide what software is right for you, consider consulting your employees for their insights.

Embrace automation to improve BPM

Automation tools allow you to save time on mundane and repetitive tasks. With automation, you can improve efficiency, streamline task management, and even reduce operational costs. Social media is a great example. Tools like HootSuite make it easy to automate your social media posting. Social media managers can then focus their energy elsewhere, such as on developing more engaging online campaigns.

Know when to outsource tasks in the interests of BPM

Often, business owners believe that keeping all of their work in-house is the easiest way to streamline operations and simplify oversight. In fact, outsourcing is often in your best interests. The Balance Small Business explains some of the perks of outsourcing, such as making it easier to scale up your business and offering greater staffing flexibility. You can also reduce employment costs since freelancers are usually cheaper.

Take steps to get management and employees on board

Whenever you’re making operational changes, it’s important to get your team on board. This is especially true when it comes to implementing BPM-related adaptations. To facilitate change, start by holding a meeting. Explain the reason for the change and ask for feedback. Then, create a schedule for implementing any changes. Finally, set clear guidelines for any new processes you’ve implemented as part of your BPM strategy.

Monitor performance after implementation and make changes as needed

If you’re going to make BPM changes, make sure they’re paying off. Towards this end, make sure to measure the impact of business process automation. Possible key change indicators, KCIs, should be specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time-related. For example, if you’ve implemented an automation tool that’s supposed to save time on a specific task, measure the time spent on that task before and after the tool’s implementation.

Improving business process management is a multi-step process, requiring careful planning and strategic action. Luckily, there are tools available to help, such as automation technologies. With these kinds of cutting-edge tools, BPM doesn’t have to be a pain.
For more content on business success, visit the Mike McRitchie blog.

Creating a Winning Business Team

April 28, 2022 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Mike McRitchie helps achievers who are feeling stuck uncover and share their accomplishments. He’s there to help with things like recrafting your resume or LinkedIn profile, a job search, or just finding the secret sauce in your business or career to move it to the next level. Here, he brings you some ideas about why collaboration is necessary for business (like you collaborating with Mike) to maximize everyone’s potential.

Many of today’s businesses have workers dispersed across the country and, in some cases, across the globe. And yet, everyone is more interconnected than ever before. Collaboration on both short-and long-term projects presents different challenges and opportunities but is always critical to a smooth, productive, and effective business project’s outcome.

A study by Stanford University showed that when people collaborated on any given project, they were 64% more effective than if they’d worked individually. It also found that collaboration increased motivation, too.

The Collaborative Toolbox

Some common tools necessary for any kind of business collaboration are:

Zoom and Slack for communication.
Dropbox and Google Drive for Cloud Storage,
Google or Microsoft Calendar for shared calendars
Wrike and Trello for project management.
Google Translate for instant translation

The success or failure of a team’s collaborative efforts begins with management. It means an executive-level commitment to having a group that can collaborate sometimes over long distances~members with varied backgrounds and skills~and using that synergy to bring a project together successfully is dependent on the executives at the top. Management that is committed to fostering a culture of team effort.

Building Collaboration

There are five pieces that should make up any team-building exercise. For groups that are all in the same location, it’s easier to set those up. For long distances, a little more creativity will be needed, but think of variations on the local ideas.

Communication and Problem Solving should be key elements of any team-building exercise. Think Escape Room or other puzzle-solving games.

Motivation is an important part of a collaboration and nothing sparks motivation more than the chance to win at something. Competitive team sports, like softball or soccer, get everyone outside and out of business attire. It’s also a chance for family members to get to know each other and to cheer them on.

Creativity is another element to working together successfully. An art class can be a wonderful way for everyone to create their own version of a common theme.

Trust can be forged in something fun, like paintball or laser tag. You have to know that people on your team will have your back as you go about trying to find or evade the other team.

No matter the activity, having photos to share will mean a lot to everyone involved. You’ll want to post them on multiple platforms, each with its own size requirements. You can resize image online using a template based on the site you’re using. Then simply upload, and voila! You’ve got everyone sharing the fun on their social media sites.

Having the right tools, ensuring everyone understands the essence of the business culture and goals and allowing everyone the freedom to use their own set of skills to contribute to the success of the project means you’ll have not only a successful collaboration but a successful outcome as well.
If you want The Ultimate Side-Hustle Resource Guide by Mike McRitchie sent to you absolutely free, just request it here.

5 Effective Tips to Make a Job from Your Hobby’

April 28, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Kids having fun with laptop – Image Courtesy of Pixabay

It’s not easy to make a job from your hobby, given the vast competition online and in the world. But you can get ahead of most with these easy and effective tips to get started.

Indulge Your Passion

To begin with, you should discover what you enjoy doing and what you wish to do for the rest of your life. It’s not always easy to figure this out. Your interests may be diverse. There is nothing wrong with having interests, but you need something you are passionate about as well. An effective niche is something you are happy to do without being paid. Unless you are engaged in your niche, you will get bored very quickly. For example, as an artist or musician you could pass the days as you build a guitar or write new tunes. You can monetize this online with a blog.

Highlight Your Niche

To build a following, you should find a niche. Focus on something you know a lot about. Focusing on a broad subject is not a good idea when finding a niche. Instead, try to narrow it down. For example, you cannot just write about dogs in an animal blog. Considering how popular certain breeds are these days, you could instead create a blog about them. A great example is King Charles Cavalier Spaniels. These are a great and fun breed. That’s why they are recommended for children. So your blog could be about the best animals when raising kids.

Make a Job from Your Hobby by Improving Your Skills

Learning what skills you need to do what you love is critical to making your hobby a job. For example, let’s say you love model railways and could spend all day making tracks. But you might not have the skills for the electronic components. Success requires a wide range of skills. For example, perhaps you want to open a model railway store, but you can’t grasp logic gates and circuits. This is a skill you need if you’re going to appeal to the best possible audience in your niche. Additionally, it’s a complex subject, so mastering it means better opportunities.

Make Yourself Known Online

People need to know about you in your niche. You can accomplish this in various ways, but it all comes down to developing a credible presence in your niche. Ads, word-of-mouth, and social media play an essential role in sustaining a steady audience. Yet a digital company can benefit from a niche such as making model railways. You can display your tiny creations and unique electronics on YouTube or on your blog. This will make it easy for people to find your stunning expertise and offer money or other incentives for your services.

Further Expose Your Skills

You have to pick a niche if you are going into a profession with lots of competition. For this reason, you may want to choose a subject related to your expertise. By being more specific, you will be less likely to face competition. Like everyone else, railway model makers have the option of showing their work online. So, suppose a TV production company needs a detailed rail environment with working lights for a kids’ show. In that case, they can easily find your work, and you might get offers to work full time or offer your services freelance on a contractual basis.

Summary

Your hobby can quickly become a source of income. Start with a hobby you enjoy. After that, develop your skills. And finally, establish yourself online and market your business.

5 Healthy Things To Fit Into Your Life When You Work So Much!

April 27, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Pixabay – CC0 License

It seems we’ve all got to work an insane number of hours these days! For those who are setting up their own business or need to earn more money, the reality is that when we work so much, our health can go into decline. When you work around the clock, there are some simple ways for you to fit health into your life. Let’s have a look at some of the most important.

Take Walking Meetings

Walking meetings are an amazing way for you to get things done while also working towards your 10,000 steps! You can go one step further and install a standing desk so you are not relying on a chair all day. In fact, you could also go even further and replace your office chair with a stability ball which can force you to improve your core. If you are sitting at your computer for many hours, this is one of the best workout activities where you are really making significant changes to your health in subtle ways.

Have a Water Bottle Next to You

When we work a huge number of hours, the best of us can forget to remain adequately hydrated. A large water bottle should stay next to you and your goal is to get to the bottom of it by the end of the day. If you do not stay hydrated you are going to suffer because a lack of water can have a major impact on your cognitive abilities. Even if you don’t eat healthy, at the very least drink plenty of water!

Exercise in the Littlest Ways

Some form of exercise is better than none at all. Some people benefit from doing micro workouts at their desk, for example, 10 push-ups here or 5 burpees there. You can choose the type of workout that makes you feel at your best, and for those people who haven’t started exercising at all, remember that it takes a while for our bodies to adapt. Start small and make sure that you recover before you start again. Rather than doing a massive number of press-ups at your desk because you can, remember that this can eat into your productivity.

Watch Your Coffee Intake

Everybody believes that consuming more coffee is conducive to a more productive way of working. When you consume a huge amount of caffeine, this is not an amazing long-term strategy. There are benefits to having a couple of cups in the morning, but you’ve got to remember that sleep is the biggest component of staying healthy. Quality sleep allows you to do so much and excessive coffee consumption will curb that.

Have Healthy Meals

As simple as it sounds, we don’t have time to make food. But if you want to stay focused and adequately fueled so you can function properly, it’s always a good idea to have healthy snacks next to you. Nuts and seeds or your favorite health bar can have a massive impact on how you feel, which is going to be vital to your levels of productivity and longevity.

Why Your Business Needs Great Bathrooms

April 27, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Pexels – CCO Licence

When you’re looking for advice on how to make your business better, you probably don’t come across the issue of bathrooms very often, but maybe more people should be writing about the importance of good commercial bathrooms because they are actually very important for a number of reasons, as you will see below.

They help to keep staff healthy

When your business bathrooms are regularly cleaned and sanitized, they will help to maintain high levels of hygiene within the workplace, which means that your employees will be less likely to get sick, and thus need to take time off work, which can send your productivity plummeting and cost you a lot of money.

That is why it is so important that you invest in good cleaners and ensure that they regularly deep clean the bathrooms and keep them in good shape.

They can impress customers and clients

If your customers or clients might have reason to use your bathrooms, then it is really important that they are clean, presentable, and as luxurious as you can make them. Don’t scrimp on toilet paper, and be sure to call in a good commercial plumbing service to deal with any leaks, as well as ensure that you have a crack team of cleaners to make the room sparkle.

So many washrooms on business premises are dirty and smelly and kind of unloved and it really does not reflect well on the business that owns them because it shows a lack of care for employees, visitors, and the most basic standards that it really could put people off doing business with that company.

Safety

When bathrooms are well-designed and maintained, they help to keep people safe., For example, bathrooms that are free from spills and leaks are less likely to cause someone to slip and fall over, and bathrooms that have single lockable cubicles make everyone feel safer when they are doing their business, which can be a vulnerable time for a lot of people.

Bathrooms that have not had much time or thought put into them are always going to result in more incidents where people feel unsafe or get injured, and that could end up with your company getting a lawsuit, so it is far better to invest well in your bathrooms.

Improve employee happiness levels

No one wants to work in an office where the bathrooms are disgusting. People will try to hold it in for a slogan as they can or they will start going to bathrooms outside of the building and it will affect morale more than you might think.

It may also lower productivity levels because, when people are feeling uncomfortable or leaving the building just to pee, they aren’t exactly going to be working at optimum concentration levels are they?

As you can see, bathrooms really are more important to your business than you might have thought possible, which is why you should make it your mission to ensure your company always has great bathrooms in place. It really will pay off.