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

Writing Resumes that Communicate Your Unique Value | Writing Marketing Content for Telecom Business Growth

Impressing Luxury Clients

by Leave a Comment

Impressing clients, getting them involved in your company and ultimately, taking their money, is essential to the success of your business. As a new business, with a tiny budget, you might stick to taking clients for businesses lunches or hiring conference rooms for meetings. You might even stretch to the odd corporate event or dinner party. You might just rely on your products and marketing campaign to do the talking. This is great and is certain to appeal to some clients. But, at some point, in order to take your business further, you need to do more. You’ll need to attract luxury clients, who aren’t going to be impressed by a novelty event or party. You need to offer more.

Luxury ClientsThink Quality, Not Quantity

Loads of events throughout the year and a huge range of cheap products appeal to some. But, if you want to attract a high-end client or customer, you need to hold back. Cut back on your product range, and what you are offering, and instead focus on quality. Save your money and time and devote it to coming up with luxury options of very high quality. Think of it like a restaurant. Cheaper establishments often offer a massive menu. All easy, cheap and fast to prepare. Not particularly tasty or nutritious. A more premium establishment provides a much smaller menu. The food is more expensive, of a higher quality and takes longer to cook. But it tastes much better.

Offer Personalization

High-end clients are used to personalization. Their holidays are personalized, they buy products that are made just for them, and their décor is one of a kind. Offering customized trips and gifts might be out of your price range, but that isn’t the only way to do it. When a luxury client gets in touch or makes an order, send them a handwritten thank you note and keep in touch. Sometimes, it’s the little things.

Use a Private JetPrivate JetsOf all of the private jets in use by businesses, most of them are flown by small firms and companies. Read more about business aviation news to learn more. A flight in a private jet screams luxury and appeals to everyone. If you can’t afford your own, hire one for the day or consider a timeshare with other small businesses in your area.

Establish Credibility

High-end clients have got the money to be fussy. They can take their time to choose the right brand for them. So, they’re never going to pick a small company that they know nothing about. So, spend some time boosting your credibility. Define your marketing strategy, get feedback from your customers and get people talking about your brand. Make sure you’ve gained a reputation as a company that’s sustainable, great for customers and a fantastic employer.

Branding

Branding is crucial when it comes to attracting clients, especially those of a higher caliber. Your branding should be smart, easy to read and understand. It should stand out from the crowd and be easy to remember, but it should also get people talking. Speak to a branding expert for help if this isn’t your field.

Businesses That Do Too Much Can Sometimes Begin Failing

by Leave a Comment

Is there such a thing as working too hard?

Perhaps, only if you are putting your health at risk. But if you’re strong as a bull and have the energy of continent-cross blue whale, then have it, Henry!

But there is a such as thing as doing too much. Businesses that are planning too far ahead, trying to figure out what they can do to anticipate what might happen beyond 6 months to a year, or maybe even just continually doing too much in little bites, can fail.

Now it’s not wrong for you as a small business owner to plan ahead. In fact, you would be jeopardising your own future if you didn’t. However, when an accurate educated guess turns slowly into a wild stab in the dark, that’s when you start having major problems.

An overstocked inventory

We do this in our daily lives, we buy things that we know we don’t need right now but believe will come in handy later.

For example, you see apples are on sale at the supermarket, and even though you don’t eat many apples during the week, you buy a lot of them anyway in the hope that they can last you long into the future and you can eat them at your leisure. Weeks go by and your tastes have changed, and you forget about the apples. One day you come home and find them rotting away, that’s pretty much money down the drain.

This is a simple example of overstocking. It’s okay to use evidence from your business history to anticipate an increase in sales, e.g. during Christmas. However, you don’t know what’s going to happen, so don’t overstock your inventory as your products could go to waste sitting in the warehouse. Getting too far ahead of yourself and doing too much that is not needed, can end up losing you money.

Drop what doesn’t sell

Some products are just going to be more popular than others. Even though you heart may be invested in one of them, that product may not be doing so well.

With a Six Sigma approach, you can analyze what is and isn’t selling well in your business. Going through the various different training programs that are categorized as belts, you can learn how to monitor and solve problems that are flying under the radar. One month it may look like Product A has sold really well, B and C have done good but not great.

However, this new approach to thinking about your business, gives you a new way of looking at things. What if it costs twice or three times as much to make product A than both B and C? That means that even though the latter products haven’t sold as many units, they have made a higher profit if they were to be priced similarly. In fact, what if it turns out that products B and C have sold good consistently throughout the year, but product A has only had a couple months where it has sold to an equal amount of more?

Dropping what doesn’t sell and make sense, could help you to focus on other products you are doing well in.

Don’t overstep the mark and think you know exactly what’s going to happen during a financial quarter or busy time during the year. It’s important to not overstock as products you do not sell, could end up costing you money as either wasted or even for warehouse storage.

The Secret To Succss Is Better Efficiency

by Leave a Comment

Success Through Efficiency

We’ve all heard someone say, “there is no secret to success in business,” whether this has been the advice of an entrepreneur friend, someone giving a TED Talk or a business expert writing a blog. But it’s a lie. There is a secret to success: it’s called efficiency. It’s about taking what you do and finding a way to streamline it a little more.

Thankfully, this can be done in a number of ways. The problem is, running-slash-managing a business can be more complex than trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube through a kaleidoscope and that means not knowing where you should begin with this whole process.

So, to help you out on this front, we have pulled together a list of ways you streamline your business to increase productivity. Just remember to analyse how each of these will impact your bottom line, as well as how they could affect the other areas of your business.

  1. Reduce Your Paper

There is no faster way to streamline your business than to address the amount of paper you use and find a way to reduce that. Drastically. The reason for this is simple: paperwork can very quickly start to pile up and, when that happens, everything else slows down. Not only is it an analogue process failing to keep up in a digital world, there is the issue of filing and storage and organisation that needs to be considered.

  1. Space, the Final Frontier

Another way to quickly make your business more efficient is to make better use of your space; something that can be achieved no matter what your business does or what industry you’re in. If you have lots of employees working from different desks, use an open-plan space to promote better collaboration and communication. If you have a warehouse, invest in a pallet rack – lots of them – to make better use of the space and improve access. If your business is in the retail sector and public transport isn’t on your side, make sure there is plenty of space for customers to park. All of these will boost your bottom line in some way or another.

  1. Empower Your Employees

There are no ifs or buts on this one: your employees know how to do their jobs better than anyone else. It’s part of being in the trenches and on the front line. They have been with you long enough to know what the best way of doing things is, what’s the most efficient process to adopt and what decisions make the most sense. Use this knowledge or, better yet, let them use this knowledge more freely. Empower your employees. Trust them to do their job to the best of their ability. Share what you know, listen to what they say, and let them do the important stuff and not just the day-to-day grind work. Not only will this boost their productivity because they will feel more valued, it will take another person’s opinion out of the equation, and that will naturally streamline your business.

Five Things To Consider Before Opening Your Construction Business

by Leave a Comment

One of the most unique niches out there for a business is the construction industry. When it’s done right, it can be extremely profitable, and if you already have some construction experience, you’re already two or three steps ahead of others in the business. If you are a contractor, then you may have toyed with the idea of starting out by yourself. After all, you know your stuff and you’ve considered your own business before, right? Well, you’ve probably already looked into everything that you need to know so far, but here’s a refresher of the five most important things that you should be aware of before you press start on your business idea.

Starting a Construction Business

Licenses, Permits. You will have specific rules in your area to ensure that you are legally covered to be able to work. Visit a local government office in the district that you want to work in so that you can work out which paperwork you’re going to require. The requirements do differ from place to place, so make sure that you thoroughly do your research before you get going.

Location. Your location truly does matter when you go into construction. If you choose to start building a fleet of construction vehicles with cranes from servicetrucks.com, you’re going to need space for them. The location that you choose has to cover potential warehouse space as well, and you have to do this before you start the business as it needs to be in your business plan.

Health & Safety. It’s not just for your staff, but construction has very high standards in health and safety. You need to keep you safe, your employees safe and on top of that, the public needs to be safe, too. Employees should be trained thoroughly with you as well as their qualifications before they come to you, and all machinery should be looked into by each member of staff so that everyone has a balanced education at work. The construction industry is one that is considered to be one of the most dangerous jobs. Health and safety on site is crucial, which is why regular training and site inspections are a must. Falling debris, trips and falls as well as accidents with large machinery are very common.

Equipment. The biggest expense for a construction business is the equipment that it uses. Construction orders require a lot of accessories, and you need to look into the best for your business. It’s not just vehicles, it’s ladders, power tools, wheelbarrows and excavators. Try not to skimp out on quality, either, because while you can buy second-hand equipment, it doesn’t mean that you should.

Insurance. Something important in an industry that is dangerous is insurance. You need to ensure that your employees are covered, your equipment is covered, your vehicles are covered, and you also need to ensure that your job site is covered for public liability, too. It can get complex, so make sure that you speak to insurance specialists.

Construction is an industry that comes with a lot of considerations, and this list isn’t exhaustive. Do as much research as possible before you get started and speak to the bank to get started on funding before you put everything into place. You can make your mark in the industry with your business if you tick all the right boxes.

The End Of The Nine-To-Five: The Future Of Business Operations

by Leave a Comment

Office EnvironmentsIn business, nothing is certain. Stocks go up and down; trends come and go; businesses that seems to have everything going for them suddenly fail – essentially, there are no guarantees.

While most business owners accept that the nature of their business is inherently volatile, there are some aspects of a company that have always seemed resolute. Perhaps the most obvious of these is the concept of a designated office space, which is used as a base of operations according to a standard nine-to-five schedule. This kind of arrangement has been fundamental to businesses for decades… yet in the 21st century, all is set to change.

The problems with conventional office setups

The standard office setup comprises of the following:

  • A designated work space, usually complete with desks, bathroom facilities, and occasionally a kitchen
  • Employees work in this space, most usually on a nine-to-five working pattern.
  • Employees attend this space to work between Monday and Friday.

The above arrangement likely sounds familiar; in fact, it is the norm, a setup that literally millions of businesses across the world stick to… and no one is entirely sure why.

One would expect that this kind of setup is standard because we know it’s effective; that it encourages productivity; that it’s genuinely beneficial to both employees and businesses. However, this simply isn’t the case – and, in fact, there is evidence that the standard setup is outright damaging.

The points above genuinely are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issues posed by the standard setup.

So why does everyone use the standard office setup?

Basically, habit. There’s no other reason for this choice outside of a perception that this is how a business should operate. Business owners copy the standard working environment that they see other businesses using because it’s assumed that this arrangement is the best choice – despite the fact that the evidence says otherwise.

What are the alternatives to the standard office setup?

Thankfully, attitudes are changing, as more and more studies conclude the arrangement of office space/nine-to-five/Monday-to-Friday is far from the best choice. There are a variety of innovations currently being trialled by businesses across the world, including allowing higher levels of remote working, the use of a flexible shared workspace, and four-day working weeks. All of these changes are incredibly positive, and suggest that business culture is changing, opting for what is genuinely beneficial rather than what is familiar.

Should your business make these changes?

In a word, yes – or, at the very least, you should consider it. The arguments against the standard office setup are convincing, and the alternatives tend to produce positive results for both business productivity and the employees. The idea of abandoning your office or opting for a four-day working week may sound outlandish, but in reality, could be the dynamic change that allows you to reach new heights with your business endeavors.

Ssl_seal_1
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy