Business Strategy | Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

Practical Ways to Cut Costs to Your Small Business

December 12, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Keeping costs low is as important as making sales if you want your business to succeed. Some business owners do not realize this when they are new to trading, but they soon find out as the money starts to disappear. Cutting costs can make a huge difference to the success of your business and over a year save you thousands of dollars.

Use Freelancers

It is estimated that by 2020 more than 40% of the American workforce will be freelance. That gives you great opportunities to save money, but you do not have to wait until then. There are already many of them with skills such as writing, data entry, social media management, bookkeeping, and many other things that could help you. Freelancers only charge you for the work they do, so they can be a cheaper way of getting things done rather than employing more staff.

Check Out Your Energy Costs

It is very easy to just keep paying energy bills for your business without taking too much notice of them. You should be looking a lot closer at the deal you have and seeing if there is not a better one you can sign up to.

It also helps if you and your employees become aware of the energy you are wasting. For instance, a computer left in standby overnight will cost almost a dollar a week. Multiply that by how many computers you have and by 52 weeks in the year and that can amount to quite a bit of extra on your bills. Make sure lights are turned off when they are not in use, and perhaps change all your light bulbs to LED. These will not only cost you less to run, but they also last much longer than traditional light bulbs and are more eco-friendly when you have to dispose of them.

Look At Your IT Services

If you are paying for IT services that you think is not up to standard, then look elsewhere. Ribbit Business Solutions is just one company that provides a service you can rely on at a cost that is affordable. They will be able to explain the advantages, and savings, of using cloud computing rather than more traditional computing.

Do You Really Need A Landline?

As more and more services such as Skype and FaceTime become available you really have to consider if you need a landline and the costs associated with it. You can make free calls from your mobile on Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger, so why are you still paying or a landline that you could easily do without? Certainly, many homes have done away with them and more and more businesses are doing the same. They are an unnecessary expense that you do not need.

At the same time, you should be checking your mobile contract to make sure it is the best deal you can get. Ask around for a better deal, and quite often you will find that your existing provider will match it rather than lose your custom.

There are many other ways your business could cut costs, including things like becoming paperless, asking for discounts on supplies, and probably many other things that have not been mentioned. Keep looking closely at what you do and how you do it, and be flexible enough to change if it saves you some money.

Make Your Office Feel More Sophisticated And Productive

December 7, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you’re looking to make your office feel more sophisticated and productive, you’re probably wondering what’s the most time and cost efficient way to do so… indeed, you might even be questioning whether it’s truly worth the effort with regard to the return on effort.

In this article we’re going to look at some of the core principles in terms of making your office feel more sophisticated and productive. Of course, when it comes to sophistication, that’s a very subjective matter yet there are some core design principles to consider.

For instance, installing glass railings to ensure safety whilst maintaining a feeling of clean, cool, spacious and airy design would be one way to enhance sophistication. The challenge is, as with most things, design is constantly changing in terms of trends and tastes – what’s in one minute is out the next, so in this article we’re going to look at some of the core components that are likely to stand the test of time.

CREATE A BLANK CANVAS

If you value both sophistication and productivity, you can’t go wrong with thinking along the lines of an art gallery. Art galleries tend to have nice white walls that allow the statement artworks to stand out. The reason you want a blank canvas, and to keep it that way, is that it will bounce light around and lead to a feeling of calm rather than clutter.

2. ENSURE PLENTY OF LIGHT

One of the most important aspects of creating a more sophisticated and productive workplace is to ensure there is plenty of natural light entering the space, and if there isn’t to use tricks such as mirrors, or alternative sources of light to create a feeling of spaciousness and clarity. You just want to make sure they are energy efficient light sources.

In doing so, you will find that people are much more focused and energised, because when people work in a dark and dreary place they often feel drained and uninspired. The more natural light (presuming it doesn’t interfere with their ability to see the computer screen in front of them) the more focused and energetic your staff will be.

3. INCORPORATE NATURE

Whilst you don’t want to turn your office space into a jungle, it can be helpful to bring the outdoors indoors with regard to having some foliage around the place. It helps people feel more connected to nature and has a variety of health benefits.

4. MINIMALISM IS OFTEN BEST

Similarly to how a clean desk policy can help people feel more productive, and less cluttered in terms of their environment and their mind – keeping a minimalist space can be helpful in terms of keeping people feeling productive whilst creating an air of sophistication.

Of course, you don’t want to make things so minimalist that they feel austere, but clean, white walls, for instance can be a lot better than walls cluttered with certificates and art work.

5. KEEP IT COOL

If you’ve ever been on a hot stuffy train, or aeroplane, then you’ll know how agitated and drowsy this environment can make you. Yet, when it comes to office space, there are so many sources of heat (i.e. people and computers) that need to be accounted for in terms of keeping the temperature cool enough to focus.

You want your staff to remain energised throughout the day and one of the best ways to do this is to lower the temperature, as it has been shown in study after study that a cool working environment increases focus and attention span.

Construction Companies: Outshine Your Competitors

December 6, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

As the owner of a construction company, you know very well that the competition can be rather tough. Arguably, it’s even more so than in many other industries as you tend to be up against the ones that are in your area exclusively – and you will all be competing for the same customers in the surrounding area.

Construction companies how to outshine your competitors

Luckily, there are a few ways to make sure that you put them far behind you even if you are a new construction business. Here is a handful of ways to get a head start and ensure that those customers are coming to you for their project needs rather than the other companies. It just makes it a bit easier to grow and thrive as a business should.

First: Spy on them with social media

You’re not going to be able to get that head start unless you know exactly what you’re up against. While pretending to be one of their customers is a tried-and-tested method of spying, it’s rather old-fashioned these days; head online instead and save yourself the expenses.

With social media, you’ll be able to gain an insight to a lot more reviews as well and will get a much more comprehensive overview of their business than by just pretending to be in need of their services. Use it to understand how many customers they have, the kind of work that their network is happy with – and the kind of work they’re unhappy with.

That way, your business will be able to pinpoint all of its strengths and weaknesses in order to outshine them and make sure that you’re delivering up to their standard and far beyond it.

Next: Focus on quality

One of your best ways of marketing your business is going to be through happy customers and word-of-mouth. Undeniably, this is the kind of marketing you’re much less in control of as you won’t always be able to know exactly what they’re saying about your business.

You can make sure that every project is delivered to the highest standard, though, and focus on quality above everything else. This means that you should spend some time on going over your equipment, find an even better supplier for grout packers and all of your other construction needs – as well as seeing to that your employees have sufficient training.

Remember your employees

The last part is particularly important as your company is only as good as its employees. With construction work and its high focus on delivering quality, your employees should work on not just perfecting their work skills but also their people skills.

The friendlier your team is, the likelier it is that the customer will enjoy having them around and associate your company with their friendly service. Talk about this with your employees and show them that you care about them too – that way, they will be much more willing to go that extra mile for your company.

Make Running Your Company As Easy As Possible

December 5, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Whatever kind of a business you might have, you have to agree that there is no reason to make it any harder to manage and run than it needs to be. You should be aiming at all times to make running your business as easy as possible, and this is actually something that you can do by approaching it in a number of ways first of all. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the things that you can do to make running your company as easy as possible specifically. As long as you are taking advantage of these kinds of opportunities, you should find that it is considerably easier to keep your business going strong, so it is definitely a good idea to focus on these elements early on in the life of your company. Focus on these, and you will find that your business is much easier to run.

Simplify your operations

Simplify Your Goals

First things first, it is always a good idea to make sure that you are clear on whatever goals your business might have, so that you can be sure of following them and getting them right from the very start. If you are struggling to do this, you might find that it is beneficial to make those goals a little simpler, as it is in doing so that you can expect to be able to actually approach them in the best possible way, and the most efficient way you can. You will therefore need to know how to go about simplifying your goals, and that is something which you can do in a number of ways. Understanding how to do exactly that will mean that you can hope for a much easier way of doing business, so it’s definitely something to think about.

Most business goals will be based on a particular amount of profit or the achievement of gaining a certain number of customers. If you have these kind of quantitative goals, you will certainly want to know that you are achieving them expediently, and you can do that by making sure to keep them as simple as possible. Or if you have goals which are looser, and more based on ideas and values than any real-world numbers or terms, you can simplify those aims by actually finish a way to make them more concrete. Do that, and you will know much more easily what you are actually aiming for, which will likely result in a much greater chance of getting those goals. By simplifying your overall business goals, you make the actual running of the business considerably easier too.

Better use of your time

Make Better Use Of Your Time

It’s important to make sure that you are using your time well if you want to run your business as smoothly and easily as possible, but so many business owners find that they end up wasting their time, or much of it, and this can be a hard thing to change at first glance. If you start to look into it, you will probably see that there are many places and ways in which you do waste time at work, and the same will be true of your colleagues and employees. Changing this is a long process, but there are a few things you can focus on to begin with to really get the ball rolling. As it happens, there are a number of ways to ensure that you are using your time better within the business – which is always going to be good news for the business itself.

For instance, you might want to think about if there are any tasks you are currently doing manually which could be better and faster handled by some technology. Often there will be specific software which can help with a situation which you need help with, especially if you are wasting a lot of time and energy on it. You might, for instance, want to use software like Copper.com to help you with your customer relations and to make entering data quicker and more automated. Or you might find that it is necessary and a good idea to use some kind of scheduling software to ensure that you are organizing your workforce in the most effective way possible. From the little to the large, these kinds of tech uses will help you to spend time more efficiently in your business, and in so doing ensure that you are going to make running your company considerably easier – not just for you, but for all those who work with and for you.

Single focus

Focus On One Thing At A Time

As with anything else in life, in business you can make things much easier for yourself just by ensuring that you focus on one thing at a time. This is important, and yet so easy to overlook that so many people end up not doing it. However it will be vital if you want to make sure that you are going to be able to run your business as easily as possible, so it is something that you need to be sure you are focusing on to some degree or another. If you are struggling to focus your business on one area at a time, there are fortunately a huge number of approaches you can take to ensure that you are going to get it just right.

For instance, you might want to think about only having one goal in mind for the business at a time. You might aim for a particular result from each financial quarter, for instance, or you might want to think about ensuring that you know what you want to get out of each year alone. If you focus your energies in this way, your business will be much more directed towards the one thing, and you will find that you can much more efficiently run it without too much stress and hassle. This simple change in how you do things is so easy to take on board, and yet it will make such a profound difference to how your company is run – so it’s worth thinking about it if you want things to be as simple as possible for everyone in your company.

Could You Make Your Clients Even More Loyal To Your Business?

December 4, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

It’s always easier to try to get your current clients to keep on using your business rather than always being on the hunt for new ones. However, not many entrepreneurs are aware of that and they keep on trying to focus their marketing efforts on attracting new business.

Do you think that it’s time you refocused your marketing efforts and instead look to increase the number of clients that you retain? Well, one way to do that is to give each of your clients a reason to be loyal to your brand. Here are some great tips that can help you improve your clients’ loyalty.

Customer Loyalty

Give Them Something For Nothing

We all love to receive freebies, right? Well, lots of business owners have realized that giving small freebies away will reward your clients for their business and will make them a lot more likely to return to use your company in the future. There are plenty of great client gifts that you might want to consider, including the likes of custom air fresheners, T-shirts with your logo on, and branded refill coffee cups. I’m sure your client will really appreciate their free no matter what it is!

Improve Your Company’s Customer Service

If your client can’t fault your business’s customer service, then they will find it hard to think of a reason to jump ship and use one of your competitors. So, it’s a good idea to provide all of your customer service employees with plenty of training so that they can continually improve their skills. Ideally, you need to create a bespoke customer service for each individual client so that they feel like you are focusing all of your company’s attention on them.

Remember They Are More Than A Paycheck

You need to treat your clients very well. In order to do this, make sure that you are treating them more than just a paycheck. Sure, your company would struggle without the work provided by a client, but that shouldn’t be your own focus for helping them out. If it is, it could leave them feeling quite cold when they are engaging with your company, and they might be reluctant to return to you with more projects and contracts. So, be sure to always offer a personable service.

Keep In Touch

Sending out an email or quick note in a card to your client is a good way to keep in touch with them when you are in between projects. This will be a nice gesture to show that you haven’t forgotten about them. Plus, it might remind them to contact you about some new work that they have!

Try To Get Feedback

Once you’ve completed a project for a client, you should always ask them for feedback. If they have any areas where you could improve, make sure you work on them so that your quality of work is even better for them when they return.

If you follow all of these handy tips above, your clients should become very loyal to you indeed!