Category: business coach

3 Essentials Every Member Of Your Business’ Field Team Needs

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Field businesses involve a central company that then allocates agents to specific on-site jobs; for example, a plumbing business may have a number of different plumbers working on-site with a number of different customers at once. If you run such a business, or hope to in the future, here are three essentials you’ll need to ensure your agents are equipped with… 

#1 – A dedicated GPS 

Smartphones are able to provide good GPS services to a degree, but to ensure your field agents are always able to get where they need to be, opt for dedicated GPS units. These units tend to offer more in-depth detail (such as which lane to take, rather than just a general “go forward”) that can help your agents to move between jobs as quickly as possible. 

#2 – Mobile Wi-Fi 

Most field agents will need an internet connection to complete various aspects of their work, such as updating the field management software you use, issuing invoices, or simply communicating with you directly via email. Due to this, ensuring that every agent has access to 4G Wi-Fi via a mobile hotspot, or a prepaid, generous data plan on their company-issued smartphone, is strongly advised. 

#3 – A reliable payment processor 

Processing payments in the field can save a huge amount of time for everyone; the agent, the central business, and the customer. There are a variety of different options on the market, with Square one of the most reputable and best known. The infographic below explains Square in more detail, as well as the benefits you could look forward to if you decide to give it a try with your own agents…


Infographic Design By University of Alabama Birmingham

Work Fast, But Work Right! Streamlining Your Business Effectively

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Whether you feel like you are behind the times, or you are struggling to make sense of where you’re going wrong, every business can benefit from streamlining. But as a method of working smarter rather than harder, streamlining your business in a productive manner can be difficult because of the tasks you have ahead of you. You may find that you’re spinning so many plates that you’re not able to actively approach the task of streamlining your company. So what are the best ways to do this? 

Finding The Right Tools

The right tools can be invaluable. The big difficulty is in finding the right ones. It all depends on what the major issues are in your business. If you are struggling to keep a lid on the more technical approaches, you could use diverse tools like investment management software, organizational tools to keep everything structured, or it could just be a case of ensuring you’ve got a various smorgasbord of tools to realize your business plan. As so many businesses need a diverse roster of tools to keep track of everything, if you don’t have anything in place and you’re doing it in a more analog method, it’s time to make the upgrade.

Outsourcing The Pressing Tasks

As we begin to see what the most pressing tasks are, we’ve then got to analyze whether we have the abilities to do it in-house. As such, we have to think about outsourcing these components because it will make the completion of the task easier, and, quite possibly, for a fraction of the budget. If we outsource the pricing tasks, we are able to get the task completed, but also realize where we are failing. It’s as much about analyzing our weaknesses as much as our strengths. And when we start to see the bigger picture and there are a couple of issues, either relating to the technological aspects, or the fact that there isn’t an adequate filing system in place, we can easily outsource to IT specialists or administrative contractors to do the number crunching.

Working Smarter Instead Of Harder

Streamlining is all about mindset. If we look at a task and view it as a collection of processes, we are unnecessarily creating more work for ourselves. If we employ the mindset that we should work smarter instead of harder, this gives us the ability to problem-solve in a more productive manner. Rather than be able to do the task as it is, if we can analyze the least number of steps to completion, but employ this as part of the business approach, we are able to integrate this with better efficacy. 

It can take a while to find out where we are falling behind. When we think about our processes that need streamlining, we have still got to do it in a productive manner. Tools can definitely help you, as can outsourcing, but ultimately, it is the mindset of improvement and development that will provide you with the impetus to find the quickest steps to completing a task. At the same time, we need to work fast, but we need to work right.

Getting Your Customer Service In Good Order

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A bad review can put a lot of people off make future purchases. Consumers are quick to believe a bad review over a good review – and sometimes with good reason. The age of the influencer has meant that people are no longer sure if the glowing reviews of products are real – or paid for. And only with recent crackdowns has that become clear. 

In order to really thrive as a business, your customer service needs to be exceptional. And it doesn’t matter if you are selling soap from your kitchen, or running a multi-million pound/dollar establishment – you need to maintain the highest standard possible. 

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” –Sam Walton

Easy

You need to make it easy for people to get to you. You should have your customer service numbers easy to see on your website, and on from that – on all of your social media channels. People will often prefer to email or message you on social media. So you should have that set up ready for people to get in touch. 

Polite

When they reach your helpdesk of choice, they should be greeted with a respectful person. Often people who are getting in touch with customer services aren’t doing so because they are happy. So it can be hard to keep your cool unless you are well trained, like Single Point Global in providing these services. 

Even automated services should be polite in their responses. 

Prepared

You should be ready to have some angry people ask a lot of you to rectify smaller issues. It is up to you how you deal with these things. Typically make sure customer service operatives are authorized to give discounts, arrange returns and elevate the issues where required. 

The more power that your operatives have, the less likely you will find a more significant complaint on your hands. 

Encourage Feedback

You will not know if you are doing, or if you are doing badly unless you ask someone. They will be able to tell you where you can make improvements, if your delivery is too slow, where the issues are in your products. This will enable you to make changes and fix the issues. So while lousy feedback might feel like you are being attacked, actually it is really beneficial for you to be able to do something constructive with it. For example, if you hear consistently bad reviews about your current choice courier – you can then simply swap and see if that improves the situation.  

They’re Not ALWAYS Right

Ideally, you will have happy customers who are raving about your goods, but occasionally you and your staff will be tested. There will be a customer who will have an issue with you, your products, your ethos and more. And, nothing you say or do will help rectify the situation. It is essential to know that, nor you or your customers are always right.

4 Hiring Mistakes That New Business Owners Make

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Hiring the right employees is key to business success in any industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re a great entrepreneur, you can’t run a successful business all on your own and without a good team behind, you’re really going to struggle. As a boss, it’s important that you know how to motivate your team and help them to develop their skills so you can get the best out of them. A good employer knows how to unlock the hidden potential in their employees, but they also know how to spot that potential in the first place. While it is important that you know how to develop your employees and get the best out of them, it’s equally important that you know how to hire the right people in the first place.

This is one of the biggest challenges that new business owners face because they don’t realize just how difficult it is. They assume that it’s a case of looking through the resumes to find the people with the best qualifications and experience and then interviewing them to see who they like best. In reality, there’s a lot more to it than that and there are a lot of things that you can get wrong along the way. If you’re going to hire the best possible people for your business, you need to make sure that you avoid these common mistakes. 

Hiring Without A Reason 

Whenever you hire an employee, you should have a reason for doing so. If you don’t have a reason, you’re likely to hire somebody that doesn’t really add much to the company and you’ll just be wasting your money. In some cases, there is a very clear cut reason for hiring somebody. If an employee leaves, for example, you’ll need to hire a replacement. However, if you’re expanding your team, it’s important that you are doing it for the right reasons. Whenever you hire a new employee, it should be to fill a skills gap of some kind in the company. For example, if your sales team are stretched because you’re seeing a lot of growth and they can’t keep up, you need to hire more employees in that department. If you have been handling digital marketing on your own but you aren’t seeing much engagement from potential customers, you should consider hiring a digital marketing specialist to handle it instead. In these situations, it is clear why you’re hiring an employee and what they will bring to the company. If you can’t clearly state what a new employee will add to your business, you probably don’t need to hire them. 

As well as thinking about why you’re hiring somebody, you need to consider the specifics of their position. What exactly will their duties be, which department will they work in, and who will they report to? Not considering these things beforehand can cause problems when they start working for you and there is not a clearly defined role for them. It’s also going to cause you problems when you’re advertising the job and writing the job description in the first place. If you don’t clearly outline exactly what the job entails and what experience is necessary, you’re going to get all sorts of candidates that aren’t really suited to the job and that means the hiring process will take you a lot longer. 

Not Having A Clear Hiring Process In Place 

Having a clear process for hiring employees is so important but a lot of smaller businesses don’t think that they really need one. You need to decide whether you want every candidate to submit a resume and cover letter, whether you’re going to conduct phone interviews first, and how many people you are going to invite to interview. If you are unsure about what your hiring process should look like, https://resources.workable.com/ has a good guide. Having this clear process in place benefits you in a few different ways. Firstly, it makes the whole process a lot smoother and it’s easier for you to keep track of all of the candidates and which stage of the process they’re at. Having the exact same process for all candidates also makes it a lot easier for you to compare them when it comes time to make a decision. If you’re measuring each candidate by different metrics, it makes it hard to work out which one is best suited to the job. 

Not Conducting Background Checks 

Background checks are an important part of the hiring process that a lot of new business owners decide to skip. In most cases, you’ll be absolutely fine but there is always the chance that a candidate may have a criminal past or may not be allowed to work legally in this country. It’s important that you find these things out early, otherwise, you may end up hiring somebody that could damage the country in some way. You can easily conduct background checks online through companies like Checkr (at https://checkr.com/) so there is no reason to skip this step in the hiring process. It’s best to do this early on so you don’t waste time interviewing candidates that you later decide that you don’t want to hire for whatever reason. If you do hire a candidate, only to find out that they are not a very effective employee and they’ve had a lot of trouble at previous companies, it may be difficult for you to get rid of them and you’ll be stuck paying an employee that you don’t really want to work for you. 

Not Considering Office Space

When you start expanding your team, you need to make sure that you’ve got enough room for everybody so your office needs to grow at the same time. Before you start bringing any new employees on board, ask yourself whether your office is fit for purpose and whether you have enough space for everybody to work effectively. If you don’t, you should focus on finding a bigger office before you think about expanding your team any further. 

If you’re making any of these common hiring mistakes, your team won’t be as effective as they should be and your business will suffer as a result.

Is Your Business Falling Behind?

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One of the best things about the modern world is just how easy it is to start your own business. In the past, you needed a lot of resources, not to mention capital, to even get started. However, the modern world all you really need to get things off the ground is a great idea, a computer, and the drive to turn your idea into something real. From there, everything grows outwards. However, the is a downside to this fact and that’s the reality that it also means that you will have a lot of competition. The modern business marketplace is incredibly crowded and being able to stand out means staying ahead of the game. With that in mind, here are some things that you need in order to avoid falling behind.

Innovation

Innovation has always been important in business but there is no time where it has been more important than right now. The truth is that thanks to modern developments in technology the sheer speed at which a lot of innovation happens is constantly increasing. This means that you have to be able to keep your finger on the pulse of everything from technology to working methods to social perspectives. It’s not just enough to keep up with the modern world, you have to be out in front of it whenever you can.

Efficiency

The pace of the modern world can be rather overwhelming for a lot of people and running a business is one of the easiest ways to bring that fact into stark focus. You simply can’t get away with doing things slowly if you want to run a business in the modern era. Because of that, you need to make sure that your business is as efficient as possible. Luckily there are companies like https://www.zenops.com/workflow-efficiency/ that can help you. They can offer you the kind of support and know-how that you need to make sure that your business’s levels of productivity are always as high as possible.    

Connection

One of the things that has had an incredibly significant impact on modern businesses is the rise of social media. It’s almost entirely altered the way that customers and businesses interact with one another. It’s no longer just about showing potential customers your business, you need to be able to actually connect with them on a personal level. Just look at many of the most popular corporate Twitter accounts. Many of them will advertise their products, sure, but they will also make the effort to joke with customers, respond to questions, and generally connect with their customers on a human level.

Of course, if you spend all of your time focusing on your competition then you’re likely to end up missing incredibly important parts of your business. If you’re spending all of your time trying to figure out how to get ahead of other businesses, you could well end up ignoring the things that make your business truly great and unique. The key to any great business, no matter the era, will always be a sense of balance.

The Business Aspects That May Require The Most Attention In Your Biz

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Starting up a business is something that many people would love the opportunity to do. They want to get to a stage where they feel passionate about something they do each day, and the control that being their own boss gives them. Starting up will be overwhelming, and there is often a lot of plates to spin. But you will get to the stage where the idea has come into fruition and you are ready to move the business forward. However, there will be aspects of the business that you may forget about. So here is a quick reminder to help you keep the dream on track.

Keep a close eye on cash flow

Cash flow in and out of your business may be something that you might not have much experience, but it is an essential area of the business to keep it moving forward. The aim is to stay in the black and not have any debts around you. But often not having the right level of insight on this area can cause you to make errors with forecasts and profit projections. Take time to be aware of funds going in and out, and also be mindful of payment windows. Some of which you can take advantage of, others will also take advantage of it as you await money coming in. Outsourcing your accounts can help to take the pressure off this are for you as a business leader. 

Think about your website

These days you have to be aware how much is done online, and your website is one area that you can’t afford to make mistakes with. You only have to look at your own habits to understand that you go online for a lot. So it may be time to ensure that you give your full attention to your website. Ensuring that the pages load up quickly. All images are quality and not pixelated. Things like stock levels are up to date with the correct pricing and also taking into account SEO so that you are driving traffic to your website from search engines. 

A business blog may be beneficial 

Another thing to consider might be to set up a business blog that runs alongside your website. This can also create more chances of using things like SEO to help drive traffic to your main website and ecommerce page. You could look at having experienced writers create engaging content for the blog, as there are affordable blog writing services for your business that you could consider. This can help you to also share other information relevant to your customers, such as knowledge of the industry or the latest offers. It can even translate into social media posts as another thing to share through those platforms. 

Social media engagement and responses 

Finally, you may want to think about how you engage and use your social media platforms. You may have a strategy in place in terms of content, but if you fail to respond to comments or direct messages then it could be all to waste. 

Let’s hope this has given you something to think about when it comes to the business aspects that require your attention

Why Small Manufacturing Businesses Fail

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As an entrepreneur, you want your small business to succeed, but you can’t succeed until you’ve made the business secure and stable. In the world of manufacturing, businesses fail for a wide variety of reasons. To make sure you’re doesn’t, it makes sense to find out why small businesses in this industry so often do. Read on to learn all about that and take steps to ensure a similar fate doesn’t befall your company.

A Lack of Purpose and Focus

Starting a business without really knowing what its focus will be or what its niche is will almost always end in disaster. Many entrepreneurs mistakenly believe that being vague and keeping their options open is wise, but in practice, it really isn’t. Be sure to clarify these things before you get your business off the ground. That way, you can hit the ground running with purpose and focus from day one.

The Wrong Colleagues and Collaborators

No business exists in isolation; they all have colleagues and collaborators, as well as vital suppliers. They rely on these companies and individuals to carry on running their business smoothly. If you need Red Diesel, for example, you’ll need to find a supplier who can provide you with it reliably and consistently. Working with the wrong companies and suppliers will only hurt your business and maybe even cause it to fail in the end.

Insufficient Capital

This is the classic cause of business failure. When you run out of money and you struggle to cover basic costs, it won’t be long before the business is dead in the water. But that’s not the only scenario that describes the problem of insufficient capital. Sometimes, businesses can fail to grow enough in their early days because they don’t have the necessary startup capital in place. This can lead to rapid failure.

Poor Management

Poor management leads to unnecessary mistakes and once they start to mount up, it can really impact the business’s chances of surviving. Good management is about making sure the fundamentals are taking care of and that the business operates in a sensible and coherent way on a day to day basis. It’s not uncommon for young entrepreneurs to get this badly wrong because they lack the requisite experience.

Try to Grow Too Quickly

A little early success can be really positive but it can also be misleading. Just because your business does well early on, that doesn’t mean it should grow too fast. Trying to grow too quickly is liking trying to run before you can walk. Be sure to put a sustainable growth plan in place and don’t get carried away with early success. Growing the business in a steady way is usually the best way to go.

There are many reasons why small businesses fail in the manufacturing industry, but the reasons mentioned above are certainly among the most common. Be sure to address the concerns mentioned above if you want to make sure your manufacturing business operates in a successful and sustainable way.

The Most Common Reasons For Why Small Businesses Fail

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The reason for business failure can be down to many things, most commonly though it is often tied to the reason that the owner was ill-prepared when starting the business. When the average ‘joe’ hears ‘business’, they generally assume that the primary reason for starting your own business the desire to make a lot of money and that ‘business’ is always based on the circulation of money. They aren’t wrong, but they are also not right. Do you think that if you started your own successful business that you’d have more time with your children or family? Or maybe that being the boss, everything would be smooth sailing as wouldn’t have to answer to anyone else? While these are benefits that some successful entrepreneurs achieve, after years of hard work, they are not reasons to start up a business.

Here are some of the most common reasons start-ups and small businesses fail.

Poor Management

At the start of creating a business, there is a lot to do and consider getting done and more often than not, new business owners frequently lack relevant business and management knowledge or experience in areas such as finance, stock purchasing, marketing, production, and even hiring and managing their employees. If the business owner doesn’t recognize what they don’t do well and seek help if they don’t comprehend the issues, then the company may fail and go out of business. There are plenty of administrative and vocational courses, some free, some paid for, that small business owners can take advantage of to educate themselves on skills they lack, hire skilled employees, or outsource work to competent professionals.

Lack of Planning

If you have ever been in charge of planning a major event then you would know that you were not careful with methodically and strategically planning it, which includes a lot of team collaboration and hard work, then success may have not followed. The same could be said of any business success. Having a plan, or Business Plan / Model is critical for all businesses to be on par with the vision of the company. Though, many small businesses fail because of a lack of fundamental foundations in their business planning. It must be realistic and based on accurate and current information with pre-existing affairs with educated projections for the future.

Insufficient Capital

Depending on the type of businesses one sets up, such as a removal company, restaurant or even a web hosting company, there will always be a common factor to think about: How much will you need to start being able to make more? Another common business mistake that can make a business fail is down to having insufficient investment funds.

Often, business owners who are totally new to running a business won’t fully grasp or understand cash flow and underestimate how much money they will need to get the business started. Unfortunately, as a result, many are forced to close before having had a fair chance to succeed. Another financial disaster that strikes new businesses is there also may have an unrealistic expectation of incoming revenues from sales. 

No Website, No Social Media Presence, No Back Up

Today’s industries now heavily rely on having an online presence and having custom come through that business platform. An estimated number of American internet users – nearly 90% of the population, used web-based purchases and e-commerce sales in 2016 and continues to rise yearly.

Simply put, every business should strive to have a professional looking and well-presented website that allows users to easily find out about their business, products and services. If you don’t have a website and your competitors do, you’ll lose out. You may also need to have various social media profiles for the services that your clientele might use for the same reason. If a company didn’t do this then the chances are the company will won’t look professional amongst its peers and market competitors, and may even lose business to these competitors who do at least have profiles on popular social media sites.

If you have products that can be sold online, or you can take orders online, that’s an added benefit. But at the bare minimum, you need a website that lets customers know what you offer and how they benefit by doing business with you. Having a Web-Based service for your business will also need to be securely backed up with regular maintenance. Depending on the nature and spec of your application or framework, small business owners may want to consider utilizing services such as Backup and Business Continuity Solutions as part of keeping the business secure, protected at the forefront of your online presence.

When it comes to the success of any new business, the businesses owners and directors are the keys to its success. For many business owners, failure is not an option! Are you one of those determined business people? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Onwards and Upwards

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You’re going great, your business is ticking along nicely and you’re feeling relaxed and in control of your life. Should you take your foot off the gas? Absolutely not, it’s at this point you’re in the perfect position to take time out and think about where you’re business is going next.

If you’re hitting your targets month on month then consider upping those targets. Yes, you want them to be realistic but without challenging yourself you’ll never fully realize what it is you’re capable of or how much more you’re capable or earning. 

In this article we take a look at some key ways you can drive your business forward and find some inspiration to take your company to the next level.

Reach Out to Customers

You might not see the immediate need to talk to your customer base but re-connecting and finding an opportunity to get your brand into their inbox is never a wasted opportunity.

Start by thinking about something like a customer survey. What useful questions could you ask a customer that would make them feel listened to and help you to make some of those little changes that enhances your customers’ experience of dealing with your site?

Send out a survey with specific, actionable questions being aware at what time you’re sending and how long it takes to complete. You know your customers well enough by now and if the majority are office work-based women, aged between 20 to 35, you’ll realize that first thing on a Monday is not a great time when everyone catches up on emails and begins planning for the week ahead.

Revamp Your Site

As your business grows so your website needs to grow with it and if you want to stay fresh and relevant then think about how you might up your game in terms of your site. Talk to a web design agency about what changes might enhance your customer’s experience but also adding some more engaging visual elements as well.

Don’t be afraid to be bold with any changes, now’s the time to make these kinds of decisions, particularly if you know that they’re a sound investment for the long term success of your business.

Your business can stand up to being challenged and being given the chance to grow. Giving yourself the opportunity to find new and better ways to talk to and attract customers is something every business should take part in regularly but when things are going well, you have the luxury of being able to do it with relatively little pressure.

Run through your website from a customer perspective and experience what it’s like to find information, make inquiries and purchase your goods or services from start to finish. Be honest about your experience and make those little tweaks that will have your customers coming back for more. Grow your business, grow your profits and see just what you’re capable of as you take your company up to the next level.

Getting Tough On Training

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Any business owner knows the importance of training. In some cases, even just the fact that you offer training could help you appeal to quality applicants. Even once you have the best team onboard, making sure that they’re well versed can increase both their satisfaction and that of your customers. But, is extensive training always a good thing?

Training courses cost in time and money, and those are two commodities which no business can take chances with. Of course, some training is always going to be unavoidable. Sometimes, though, business owners embark on training which may not be necessary. This can lead to both knowledge and money going to waste. The question is, how do you know when this is likely to be the case?

There isn’t a regular use for the knowledge

Before offering expensive training, consider how often your team will use that knowledge. After all, there’s little point in embarking on training which won’t often be necessary. You may even find that your team forgets everything they learnt by the time that knowledge becomes applicable. If you’re training your team in something like programming which will only come in handy during disaster recovery, for instance, you may end up throwing money away. That’s not to say you can do away with essential knowledge like this, but you may find that it’s more cost effective to outsource with companies like Pointivity who specialize in this are and already have the necessary know-how. That way, you can save on wasted training costs, and focus instead on IT issues your team is liable to face daily. 

Costs outweigh benefits

As profits always matter, it’s also important to consider whether training costs outweigh any benefits. The last thing you want to do is to spend on training which doesn’t increase your income. Again, something like IT repairs is an excellent example of this, as are courses in programs which will soon be obsolete. Again, outsourcing can often be a cheap alternative. You may also want to use this excuse to eliminate outdated programs and methods, rather than losing profits on training here.

Downtime stands to do damage

For the most part, training means downtime. That’s because employers tend to train entire teams at once. In some cases, it is fair to say that this team-wide training is entirely necessary. But, before signing everyone up, it’s worth considering how much damage that downtime could do. Think about how long you’d all be out of the office, and how much profit you stand to lose by doing so. When you add that to the cost of the training itself, you may find that downtime does too much damage to deal with. In this instance, it may be worth keeping certain training within select areas of your team. By training just a few staff members on your new security software, for instance, you could reduce downtime altogether while still ensuring that there’s someone onboard who can deal with questions and problems whenever necessary.