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

Probing Questions You Need To Ask Before Hiring

November 23, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Hiring a new member of staff is a costly decision and not one to be taken lightly. For most businesses, wages are the top expense, so you want to know that when you do take somebody on, that they’re the right person for the job. So what questions should you ask before hiring?

Interview Questions to Ask

Question 1: Does The Candidate Fit Your Culture?

A candidate might have all the relevant experience and qualifications. But if they don’t fit the company culture, they can create problems. Employees used to an open culture may struggle in closed ones, and vice versa, creating confusion and dissatisfaction among other team members. They may also have different values to your company, preventing them from really fitting in and getting on well with management.

If you can, probe the values of candidates to check whether they align with your own. It’s okay to turn an applicant down, even if they appear to have everything you want on paper.

Question 2: Do They Have A Checkered History?

Some employees have a checkered history which can make them unfit for certain types of work. However, they’re unlikely to be upfront about certain things about their past. If you have suspicions about their character, then it might be worth asking a private investigator to perform some checks. You can often get hold of lots of background information, including any criminal record or activity on social media.

Question 3: Do They Seem Enthusiastic?

You know that you do your best work when you’re excited about the task you’re performing. When you find something boring, it’s tempting to do the least work possible. Ideally, candidates should be enthusiastic about the work you offer. Ask them for evidence that they’re keen on certain aspects of the job, such as what they might do outside of working hours. People who are genuinely passionate about the content of their work often have a related hobby or side project.

Question 4: What’s Their Attitude Like?

Harvard researchers have created a list of attributes they believe constitutes a person with a great attitude towards life. The list includes traits such as high openness to new experiences, low negativity, and cognitive energy to apply oneself to tasks. You want these same people working in your organisation because their positivity will rub off on the people around them, creating a better working environment.

Again, don’t be tempted to hire somebody just because they tick experience and qualifications boxes. Find out whether their attitude will be beneficial for your organisation or not.

Question 5: What Are They Worried About?

Candidates will often have worries about a particular job, just as consumers may have concerns about buying a specific product. The role of good employers is to assuage these concerns so that they don’t miss out on an opportunity to employ a high-quality person.

Take the time to go through the employment contract with candidates, asking them for their input along the way. Potential employees may have questions about holiday time, company policy regarding parental leave, and pay.

Oust The Outsourcing: Create Your Own In-House Departments To Save Money

November 23, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you’re currently outsourcing areas of your business and things are going well, you might be under the impression of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’ However, if you sat and added up all of the fees, costs and often the added time associated with outsourcing departments of your business, it might spur you on to make a change. When you keep processes in-house, you have more control over your company as you’re not at the mercy of anyone else. And most importantly, in many cases it can save you money in the long run. Business is of course, all about profits, and so anything you can do to maximise these figures is always worth looking into. Creating your own new in-house departments is a massive task, and there are some things you’ll need to bear in mind if you’re considering taking the plunge.

The upfront costs

One of the biggest concerns when it comes to opening new departments in your business is the upfront cost. If you’re mainly office based, new departments will mean a larger premises which of course means more rent. It means more computers, printers, phones and desks. If you’re planning on opening your own factory, manufacturing plant or construction site, you have the cost of machines, vehicles, premises and security to bear in mind- click here to find out more about the latter. If you want to stop outsourcing your delivery, you’ll need to invest in vehicles such as courier vans or even a fleet of ships. Along with these things you then have additional software to cover, maintenance fees and lots of other more ‘hidden’ costs. Depending on what you do or what you sell, the costs of opening your own departments can be significant, and might be what puts you off from setting up on your own. However, it’s important to bear in mind that once these are covered and you’re up and running, you’ll save so much money compared with outsourcing. This makes it a better option over the longer term, when business is going well and you know you’re going to be in it for the long haul. If business is doing well and you’re in a position where you can start adding your own in-house departments then you could improve the financial standing of your company.

Hiring staff

When you’re opening new departments, you’ll need the right staff to fill the roles. In terms of costs, you’ll need to consider advertising, recruiting, interviewing and training costs. You’ll need to factor in the time and money of running background checks, asking previous employers about their history and generally finding the right people. It’s another significant time and expense, as it’s important to find the right candidates for each role. Again, this is a massive undertaking when it comes to setting up your own departments, and can be enough to put some company owners off. But as with upfront costs, once things have settled down and you’ve found the right candidates then it’s plain sailing from there. While you will always get some people leaving, most will stay especially if you take your time with the interview process and be sure that you’re hiring the best people for each role. Don’t be afraid to conduct second and even third interviews if needed, and be sure that you’re portraying the role accurately. This prevents people from accepting, getting hired and then leaving soon after where the job wasn’t up to their expectations.

Health and safety concerns

One of the biggest issues when it comes to setting up your own departments is that you’re then responsible for your own health and safety. When it comes to things like construction, manufacturing and shipping these can all come with significant issues. Working with machinery, power tools, at heights, with heat and chemicals can all add more risk than you’d get at the average workplace. When you outsource to another company, they’re responsible for their own health and safety and so it’s not anything you need to worry about. Even within your office department people can experience slips, trips and falls. When you’re running everything yourself, there’s a lot of responsibility and one major task is keeping everyone safe. Make sure health and safety is being followed to the letter, and provide training to all of your staff so each role is being done to the best standard. Invest in good liability insurance, so you’re covered just in case the worst does happen. That way you won’t end up out of pocket if a claim is made against you. Even something as simple as someone slipping over on a wet floor and injuring themselves could spell disaster for your company, so be prepared and protect yourself. Do your research when it comes to insurance, won’t accept the first or cheapest policy. You’ll want to know exactly what you’re being covered against.

There’s nothing wrong with outsourcing, in some cases it can be the sensible option. Sending the work elsewhere means a weight off your shoulders, and one less thing to oversee as the boss, but it can be costly. It’s often best to outsource at first while you’re getting started, and then when your company is more established you can start to create your own new departments.

Are you currently outsourcing areas of your business and becoming increasingly aware of what this is costing you? Would opening your own departments be a possibility, or something you’d consider?

Why A Great UX Is A Must For Product Startups

November 22, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

UX Design There is no underestimating how important the design of your company’s ‘product’ is – i.e. your website, mobile application, or software. This does not only relate to what it looks like, but also how long it takes to load and whether navigation is easy and effective. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula when it comes to getting the design right. However, there is a path that most designers seem to be going down, and that is user experience design – commonly abbreviated to UX design. Keeping that in mind, read on to discover why all product startups must invest in a great UX design…

What is UX design?

Before revealing the significance of UX design, it is first imperative to reveal what it actually is. It is a discipline that is centred on designing the end-to-end experience of a certain product. In essence, this design centres on addressing the needs of your users at every stage of your product life cycle. Business owners are too commonly telling their users what they want them to know, instead of considering what the user needs. When it comes to UX design, everything from receiving an email invoice to the usability of the home page is considered with the user in mind. Several years ago this style of design was considered a niche, but now it is a well and truly a necessity.

Compete with big industry players

There are many reasons why UX design is so important. When it comes to start-ups, it gives you the chance to compete with the bigger players in the industry. Good design and user experience is not something that can be duplicated easily. Therefore, if you manage to achieve this, you can really set yourself apart from the competition – including the mature products in your industry. Using the ASK method is a good way to go about this. This is all about finding out what your audience, i.e. potential customers, really want. By getting to the bottom of this and delivering a user experience that caters to this, you have the winning formula.

Break down the trust barrier

Moreover, one area where startups also face obstacles is in relation to trust. After all, why should a consumer trust you when they don’t know anything about you and you have no track record? Design and UX helps to create the atmosphere of confidence you require. Quality website builders can help you to achieve this. You won’t be able to keep a loyal consumer base without it. Whilst a consumer may purchase a product based on its features, this will not keep them interested in the long-run. They will only keep coming back if the experience is a good one.

Further benefits associated with effective UX design

It is evident that users are at the heart of UX design, and therefore to gain the advantages that have just been mentioned, it becomes imperative for you to get to know your clients if you are going to integrate this approach effectively. You need to be able to spot the problem of your future users. You need to define it and determine the issues it causes, and most importantly, you must eliminate it. This is the recipe for successful UX design. Yet, it means that you need to take a different approach to the one you are likely to have now. You need to actually talk to your clients and get to know them. If you fail to do this, you are merely guessing what your customers’ feel, and thus you fall back into the trap of providing them with what you think they need, rather than what they actually need.

To conclude, the boom in UX design is no coincidence. If you want your product to stand tall against mature products in the industry, you need to embrace this approach. It will build trust and confidence in your brand, and ensure that you create a consumer base that keeps coming back for more. However, developing a design with good user experience is a lot easier said than done. It takes a lot of research and testing so you can determine your consumers’ pain points and address them in the most effective manner.

6 Tips for Creating a Successful Business Strategy with Vulnerability Management in Mind

November 21, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Successful business strategy

Strategy is important for any business large or small. Check out these 6 tips for creating a successful business strategy today!

Every 39 seconds there’s a cyber attack costing individuals and companies millions of dollars and destroying reputations.

There’s nothing that undermines management more than a breach of security. No matter how successful your management is or how clearly defined your organizational structure is it can all be wiped away with one well-timed attack.

If you don’t want this to be your company then you need to think long and hard about how management will deal with security vulnerabilities.

Luckily we’ve created a plan to help you make a successful business strategy for your company with vulnerability in mind.

1. Make Cybersecurity Part of Your Vision Statement

Your vision statement declares your objectives as a company. It tells the world what your focus is and what your goals are. As well as how you plan to shape your actions to achieve those goals.

If you want to tell the world that you value cybersecurity and privacy spell it out in your vision statement.

2. Review Your Strengths and Weaknesses

The hardest part of making a successful business strategy especially if you’ve been in business a long time is giving an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.

One good thing to look over is whether or not your company has FFIEC compliance. This is a set of online banking standards that help ensure data safety.

3. Know Who to Hold Accountable

Once a security breach happens everyone scrambles to find out who they should blame. This’ll lead to a nearly endless game of pass the buck.

If you want to build a strategy that’s effective you have to know how to hold accountable and potentially fire someone if an emergency happens.

When developing a business strategy you should have a clear chain of command so that each employee knows who to answer to.

4. Create a Rolling 3-year plan

A key part of developing a business strategy is knowing where you supposed to be at any point in time. This should also extend to vulnerability management.

You should use the rolling 3-year plan to anticipate your security needs and plan solutions for any upcoming security threat.

The fact that it’s a rolling plan means that each you change and readjust the plan each based on what has already happened.

5. Performance Management

No matter how good we are at writing a business strategy and creating a plan it will all be ineffective if you don’t constantly make sure that you follow through.

This means writing quarterly or annual reports, making sure project managers are up to date on the latest threats and being sure you’re hitting your goals in a timely fashion.

6. Do a Risk Profile

When asking how to create a strategic plan that includes vulnerability management you need to know how to asses your risks. The best way to do this is to build a profile or outline of all the risks your vulnerable to.

When working with strategy development you need to factor cost into how you handle these risks. You need to understand what vulnerabilities you cannot afford to fix.

We’ll Help You Create a Successful Business Strategy!

Building a successful business strategy is a challenge but it will set your company apart. And will make it seem like a safer option than the competition. But there’s more to running a business like setting up payroll and dealing with clients.

If you want more help running your business feel free to contact us!

A Business Owner’s Guide to Setting up Payroll and Managing It like a Pro

November 17, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Setting up Payroll

Most businesses owners hate dealing with their payroll, but it doesn’t have to be a pain! Here’s a guide to setting up payroll and managing it like a pro.

One of the most difficult things about being a small business owner is managing your finances. This is especially true if you have employees working with you at your company.

But, setting up a payroll doesn’t have to be the nightmare people often perceive it to be.

Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s take a look at how you can go about setting up payroll as easily as possible.

1. Obtain Employee Records

Before you begin, you’ll have to acquire payroll documents from your workers. There is a handful that you need to collect, so let’s briefly go over them:

The State W-4

Serves as a state tax withholding document. The name could vary depending on which state your company is based in.

The Federal W-4

Declares what tax rate you need to use for that specific employee.

The New Hire Form

As the name suggests, you’ll need to have this on hand so you make sure you report any new hires to the state.

The I-9 Form

Declares the worker’s eligibility to seek employment in the United States.

Once you’ve collected all the necessary forms, you’ll be ready to…

2. Calculate Their Total Work Hours

This step is fairly straightforward. The only additional factors to consider are salary and overtime.

For regular hourly employees, you simply add up the hours on their time sheets to get the total of hours worked. If these hours add up to 40 in one week, you’ll need to make note of this for calculating overtime pay.

Employees are who salaried generally do not need to have their hours tracked.

After you’ve added up your employees’ hours, you can see how much they made.

3. Calculate Gross Pay

For each week, add up the hours your employees worked and multiply that number by their base pay. Any hours over 40 are multiplied by 1.5 times the base pay for overtime.

For example, let’s say that you have a worker who you pay $10/hour. He worked 50 hours during a busy week.

So, you’d calculate 40 x 10 (base pay rate) = $400.

But, then calculate 10 x 15 (overtime hours at overtime pay rate) = $150.

Thus, he would have earned $550 for that week.

If math isn’t your thing, don’t worry. There are plenty of ways to calculate these numbers automatically.

4. Calculate Deductions

This is the section every employee loves.

Before you can give your workers their checks, you’ll need to take money out for things like state tax, federal tax, social security, and benefits you may offer.

But, the process for calculating this is straightforward. You simply add up the cost of each deduction for each employee and then subtract that amount from each employee’s check total.

5. Calculate Net Pay

Finally, you’ll have the amount you’re supposed to pay your employees.

How you actually pay your employees is up to you, however, whether you choose to write checks manually or utilize direct deposit. As long as you’re paying your employees the appropriate amount, there shouldn’t be any issues.

If you’re looking to automate this process too, software like the California Pay Stub Generator can help make your life easier.