Category: business coach

SMEs And Project Management

Scott Asai1 Comment

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You may be mistaken for believing that project management is just for big companies, and that project management training is simply for those that work at big firms. However, this could not be further from the truth. Project management is just as important for small businesses, and it is something they need to get right from the very beginning. Read on to discover everything you need to know.

Using a project management tool

There are many benefits associated with adopting a project management solution in the beginning. This includes the fact that you will find it much easier to collaborate and to manually track the likes of budgets, time and project tasks. Effective project management is imperative for scale and work quality.

A project management solution will ensure that you effectively keep on top of all of the different projects you are working on for different clients. You won’t need to refer to different files and dashboards for each client, which can be exceptionally time-consuming. Instead, with most project management software solutions you will benefit from all of the following in one place: company branding, apps integration, websites built, centralized data storage and document management, standardized processes and workflows, budgeting capabilities, file sharing, collaboration and team communication, as well as user permissions customization, task management, Gantt charts, employee and team time and tracking. These systems are also web-based, meaning they can be used anywhere at any time, and they are scalable to any number of users.

The human side of project management

With such a tool at your disposal, it is not easy to see how projects will become much more efficient and quality will improve. However, having a project management tool in place is not enough. You cannot expect it to do all of the work for you. The human aspect is just as important, if not more so. This is why all small businesses need to consider hiring a project manager. Alternatively, you can train someone in-house to manage all of the projects your company is in charge of. You can easily do a MBA online degree program today, so training in-house is more realistic than ever before.

This is an individual that will be knowledgeable and experienced in the likes of budget setting and management, time management, objective setting, managing client expectations and much more. They will also ensure that team morale and productivity levels are high, and that the right people are working on the right tasks so that resources are efficiently allocated. Combine this with quality software, and your small business will be able to handle any task that is thrown your away, and you will do so quickly and effectively.

Budget management

Budget overruns happen frequently. After all, very few businesses have an unlimited budget, and when project scope creeps in or changes are required, it can result in too much money being spent. This is bad news for any business, as clients and project stakeholders will see a budget overrun as a colossal failure. On the other hand, get it right, and you will have achieved a great success, which will enhance your reputation going forward. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five of the best ways to manage your project budget:

1.   Make sure everyone is in the know and accountable – A key part of staying on budget is making sure all team members know the current budget status. The project budget forecast is something that the project team needs to be informed about. After all, a team that is informed is a team that is empowered. If your team is aware of the budget status, they are going to be more inclined to watch their project charges, and they will charge less for extra ‘grey area’ hours.

2.   Develop relevant KPIs – The next step in managing your project budget effectively is establishing key performance indicators, otherwise known as KPIs. KPIs will help you to determine how much has been spent on a project, as well as how much the actual budget differs from what was initially planned, and much more. Let’s take a look at some KPIs that are commonly used and are vital when it comes to successful budget management in any project:

a.   Return on investment (ROI) – This shows the profitability of a project, as well as whether costs have been exceeded by the benefits.

b.   Planned value (PV) – This is the budgeted cost of work scheduled. Essentially, this is the estimated amount for project activities that have been planned.

c.   Earned value (EV) – This is the budgeted cost of work that has been performed.

d.  Cost variance (CV) – This indicates if the estimated cost of the project is lower or greater than the baseline that has been set.

e.   Actual cost (AC) – This shows how much money you have spent on the project to date. It can also be referred to as actual cost of work performed, i.e. ACWP.

3.   Budget for surprises – Projects very rarely go to plan, and there are often a lot of surprises along the way. You need to build in contingencies if you are to stay on budget. Factor in things that are outside of your control, for example, currency exchanges, financing, resources, and external environmental considerations that could impact the price of supplies.

4.   Understand the true needs and wants of your stakeholders – Last but not least, what stakeholders claim to want and need in a project aren’t always as straightforward as it seems in the beginning. This can lead to expectations and goals that have not been identified on both sides, which causes projects to run over budget. You need to make an effort to understand the true needs and wants of your stakeholders from the off.

Hopefully, you now have a good idea regarding why project management is crucial for small businesses, and why you need to get it right from the very beginning. One way to get started is by taking one of the project management training courses that are available. This will help you to get to grips with the ins and outs of project management and the different techniques and tools that can be used for managing client expectations, budget, time management and all of the other components that determine project success. Alternatively, you can do some research online, as there is an abundance of articles available.

Don’t Make Bad Hiring Decisions

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Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

When it comes to hiring it doesn’t matter if you are recruiting for your large company or just because you are a freelancer need some help in the day to day running of things. Sometimes making the wrong hiring decision can have a massive impact on your business goals and progress.

Although you can ever be 100% sure about the person you have hired until they have been working with you for a while, there are a few tips that you can use to try and be pretty confident you got it right the first time.

Be Clear

Often there can be a miscommunication about what the role really involves. Leading people with about a 70% skills match applying for the position. Whose fault is this? Well, yours actually. When you are writing out the job description, you need to make sure that as well as making it appealing, you are actually writing down the skills in your ideal candidate. Be clear on the following:

  • Objectives
  • Responsibilities
  • Requirements
  • Pay
  • Hours
  • Location

If the role is fluid, then describe an average day in your company so they can get a better idea of what they are applying for. If you are hiring for a very skilled rolled you should think about how to automate employee recruitment for hard-to-find skills.

Spread The Word

Now there is so many websites that people look for work it is worth remembering that you should be aiming to have your listing on as many as possible. The talented person you are looking for might be a night owl living in Australia, or the might be an early bird in Mexico. The more bases you cover, the more likely you are to find the right person for the position.

Are just a few places that you can pin your recruitment notice.

The Extras Count

When it comes to personality, that is what you will be working alongside. The skill, of course, will matter, but if you can get along with someone who doesn’t have all of the skills but is almost there the chances are you will work better together in the long run.

When you are looking over the CVs be sure to read the cover letter to get an idea of who they are in their everyday life. Have they written the typical answer of ‘I like to spend time with friends and family’ for what they do outside of work, or have they written something more interesting?

References

There are rules now as to what a previous employer can and cannot say about an ex-employee, however, if there were any real issues they will be able to identify them and let you know. Make the time to email or call the people that are listed as references. Have a look at what their previous employers do as well, you can begin to build a great profile of this person.

Interviews

Aside from ensuring that they are who they say they are, you should also take this opportunity to talk to them on a level beyond just an employee/employer relationship. If you can have a conversation, and the chemistry is working out, then that is usually a good sign. You won’t gel with everyone, so even if they look great on paper, they might not be who you are looking for.

There is a lot to consider when you are hiring in a smaller company, the wrong person can really shake things up so remember to hire slow, fire fast. If they don’t fit in or the balance isn’t right to protect your current staff and business.

Things To Consider When Starting A Business

Scott Asai3 Comments

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Considering your own career and a business of your own? Well pretty much anyone nowadays can make a company as long as they have an idea and the drive to succeed. With the digital world, it’s now even more accessible to run a business from the ground up and with very little investment. So what things should you consider when starting a business.

How Much Funding You’ll Need

Those who own a blog or record videos on YouTube, don’t really need any funding so long as you have the right equipment in the first place. But if you want to launch your own fashion line, then you’ll obviously need a lot more funds available to get it off the ground. So depending on what type of business you’d like to create, you need to factor in the funding you’ll need and how you will go about getting that funding. Perhaps you have savings already, can get help from family or friends or maybe considering a bank loan is a good option. Think all this through and set a budget and financial plan before committing to it fully

The Name

With so many businesses out there, there is a small risk that whatever name you choose, someone may have already claimed it. The last thing you want is to have decided on a name without the research, got all your business materials including business cards etc. and then find out that a company under that name already exists. It’s better to have a unique name than being mistaken for another brand. Thinking about the name should take some thought too, and it’s important to not to rush this process.

Create A Digital Footprint

If you don’t have a social media platform or a website for your business, then you’re sitting in the dark ages. Set yourself up with a custom website design and find the social media platforms that are suitable for your business. Each one works differently and what might work well for one business, might not do the same for another. So if your business is going to be more visual then maybe Instagram is worth picking over Twitter or Facebook. Creating a digital footprint is going to help build your business presence not just within your own country but across the globe.

Success Overnight Is Rare

It would make everything a lot easier, but unfortunately, success doesn’t happen overnight which means that you have to put in the hard work and hours to achieve the goals for your business. As a business owner, you are your own boss, so you have to be strict with your time management. You also have to trust your instincts and not be afraid of stepping into the unknown. When you’re your own boss, there’s a lot of responsibility resting on your shoulders.

So be sure to take this advice for when you’re ready to create your very own business. And don’t forget to have fun because it’s likely to be an exciting adventure.

Your Content Marketing Could Be Even Better. Here’s How

Scott Asai2 Comments

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By now you will probably already be aware of just how important content marketing is to your business. Now that everyone is using the internet to find new companies and brands, utilizing content marketing is one of the main ways you can direct current and new customers to your website. Any good content marketing strategy should see a sharp increase in the amount of web traffic going to your site. And that’s great news, as it will mean that there is a much higher chance of turning some of those leads into sales.

You might be pretty happy with your current content marketing strategy. But do you think that you could be even happier? I’m sure that you could be, especially if you use these following tips to make your content marketing even better.

Always Carry Out Keyword Research

You probably already know about the importance of keywords in any type of copy or content on your website. These are the words and phrases that Google will pick up when its bots are trawling through the internet deciding which websites to rank highly. As these are what Google uses to rank your site and match it up with keyword searches, it is very important that you research the best types of keywords to use. This will also help your title tag optimization as well, as you should be able to work out the most effective keywords to add to your blog posts’ titles. Once you have carried out thorough research in this area, you should find that the keywords in your content start to work a lot harder for you.

Answer Web Users’ Questions

Your content needs to be informative. Even better, though, it needs to answer the kinds of questions that people looking at your website might have. If you don’t give any potential answers in your content, then people might leave your site feeling very frustrated and this could put them off dealing with your company again. They may even go to one of your competitors to find out if they can answer their questions. So, next time you are reviewing your website’s content, you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What kind of information will be they after from your site? Think carefully about this, and try to answer all the questions that you come up with.

Spend Time Developing Your Brand’s Voice

It will also pay off to spend some time trying to develop your company’s voice. Everyone has a certain voice when they write, and it is this voice that web users will hear when they read your content. The more you write for your site, then the quicker the brand’s voice will be developed. Ideally, the voice should be friendly and knowledgeable, as then most customers will find the content on your website to be quite trustworthy. If you struggle with the development of a brand voice, you might want to reach out to a specialist content writer to help you with this. Most content writers are highly skilled in creating and developing voices, and the majority will have already done this for a number of different businesses and organizations.

Review Content To See How Well It Worked

Once you have published a new blog post, you shouldn’t leave it and hope for the best. It’s important that you continually go back to your old posts, and see how well they performed. Taking a look at your website’s analytics, you should be able to see just how many unique clicks a post got, and how much blog traffic it attracted to the website. You should also be able to see a pattern in the kinds of blog posts that perform quite well. Maybe they are all about a certain topic or niche? If that is the case, you should then start to write more posts on this topic so that it can bring even more people to your website.

Vary The Form Of Content That You Use

Of course, your content strategy shouldn’t be to post only blog posts. You need to vary things up a bit otherwise the web users who do land on your site could end up bored quite quickly. So, it’s worth thinking about the different types of content that you could put onto your website. For instance, listicles will work very well as people can read them without too much of their time being taken up. You might also want to start utilizing video content on your page as well. The more you do mix up your content types, then the more your website will benefit from this.

Keep On Working On The SEO

One thing you should never give up on is your website’s SEO. A good SEO strategy is critical to any good content marketing strategy. Without one, there is no way your content will be seen by as many people as it needs to. I’ve already mentioned honing your keyword research, which should help your SEO, but there are other things you can do as well. For instance, optimizing your website for mobile use and so that it loads quickly will impress Google. You also need to add some external links to your content and try to get other sites and blogs to link back to your content. Sticking to only posting excellent high-quality content will also really improve your website’s SEO rankings as well.

Publish Each Blog Post Far And Wide

It’s also essential that you post a link to your blog posts onto each of your social media profiles. This will help even more people see what you’ve published. Plus, it can be easy for your followers to share your content with their own followers, which can mean that even more people across the globe see what you have to say.

There is a lot you can do to improve your content strategy, even if you are doing a good job already right now. It always pays to put a bit of extra effort in!

 

Expansion Tools For Start-Up Founders

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Technology has created tools that can do more than we can imagine. Every entrepreneur needs these tools. But startup founders need them most.

Even though there are lots of premium and expensive tools, start-up founders might not afford them. For this reason, we combined a list of tools that are free or affordable.

From research, companies that used data-analytics tools experienced over four times growth of revenues within one year. Is it possible for startups to be part of the success stories within a year?

Use these tools to expand your online business.

1. Google Analytics: Surprisingly, there have been complains about poor user interface of Google products. Analytics is one of them. For you to make good use from this platform, you have to forget about the interface. And learn to use the tool.

In many cases, it’s not about the platform, but how you use the platform. Google analytics is a tool that helps you understand your customers. So you can analyze data, and do data-driven marketing. With data, small tweaks can make a huge difference. Let’s say you are doing keyword research. You might suspect that your customers are using certain keywords. But you may be wrong. Analytics will reveal the search volume of each keyword. So you can get keywords with low competition and high search volume.

2. Social Media.

From Facebook, Twitter, to Instagram, social media is rapidly shaping the way we do things today. With facebook, advertisers have a cheaper option of running cheaper Ads. Since social media has over 1 Billion active users, businesses have access to a global audience.

There are two primary functions of social media. First, listening to your customers. And then advertising through social media marketing.

If you have are running a B2C business, chances are that customers will use social media to inquire about your products. It can be through direct messages, tweets, or posts that tag you. Startup founders need social media managers to respond to every query. Additionally, you need to write Ads that convert, and target your specific audience. While today’s business operations are done digitally, it’s still a good idea to keep some well designed company letterhead in stock for the old fashion way of customer communications.

3. Email: email marketing is one of the most convenient ways a businesses can use to close deals. Startup founders need to understand the buyer’s  journey. Startups should have a website. Usually a niche website or an ecommerce website. Be sure to use a website you can monetize. The website will have a blog section that keeps the customer aware about your product, and how it solves their problem. You can then make lead magnets to capture emails and other important information about your prospects. From there, you’ll have permission to ask your customers whether you should send them promotional emails. That’s where email marketing begins. If you have a list of 30,000 prospects and a $500 product, you can make $300,000. That works if you meet the average conversion rate of 2.78%. And this can be done over a period of one year.

Infusionsoft: Infusionsoft is a software that allows one to personalize their marketing campaigns. The software has automated workflows, payment integrations like Paypal and credit cards. Startup founders can use Infusionsoft for businesses.

For you to expand, you need to know the power of FREE. So infusionsoft allows you to influence a customer by giving a free product. It can be a webinar, guide, report, or a book. Thereafter, you’ll have the customer’s information. And with this information, you can do marketing segmentation. Just grouping your email list based on certain metrics.

Asana: What was the last time you worked in a team? How were the results? Asana is a project management platform that allows one to assign tasks to team members. One can follow on deadlines, get reminders, and even attach relevant files. Begin by planning, prioritizing, and setting reasonable deadlines.

To-Do lists work. And Asana will definitely help you do that.  Start-ups can find their desired plans from it’s main website.

Salesforce.

Startups can also expand by maintaining their customer relationships. Salesforce is a dynamic platform that will assist you to do that. Salesforce offers training to people who can be administrators, developers and consultants. One can make ecommerce apps on the cloud platform.

Woocommerce: WordPress ecommerce allows startups to sell products online. Startups can do drop shipping using the Woocommerce plugin on wordpress. It’s affordable and scalable. Startups won’t worry about the availability of stock. So besides selling your products through Woocommerce, you can use leverage to expand your business.

Here are a few factors to consider when selecting the tools you use. Because not all tools work for all types of businesses.

  • Your budget. Make sure that the tool you are paying for is affordable, and only takes a small fraction of your profits.
  • When using project management tools, make sure you hit deadlines. Also, do not forget to track results.
  • Type of business. For instance, Woocommerce only works for businesses that sell products. So it helps startups sell products online.

Over 53% of businesses use these tools to expand their businesses. And they can’t be wrong. Startup founders should consider using any of these to expand their businesses.

4 Safety Tips That All Manufacturing Businesses Need To Know

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Finding and removing any dangers in the workplace is one of the most important parts of your role as a boss. It’s up to you to make sure that you’re following health and safety procedures properly so your employees are always safe while they’re working. In some businesses, that isn’t too difficult. An office setting, for example, doesn’t have too many dangers and it’s quite easy to stay on top of health and safety. But if you’re running a manufacturing business, there are a lot more potential hazards that you need to deal with.

If you don’t manage your health and safety properly and one of your employees ends up getting injured, you may find yourself in the middle of a very costly lawsuit. On top of that, you may lose a good employee for a while if they’re seriously injured. If the accident was a direct result of your lack of health and safety procedures, you might end up being fined for breaching the law as well. That’s why health and safety is so important, even if it can be a bit of a pain sometimes. If you’re running a manufacturing company and you find yourself struggling to deal with health and safety issues, here are some simple tips to help you along the way.

Training Is Key

You probably already know that training new staff properly so they know how to operate machinery safely is essential. But a lot of people don’t put enough time and resources into continued training for their existing staff members. This is important because people always slip into bad working practices after a while. A regular training session to refresh everybody’s memory once a year or so will ensure that everybody is always following procedure to the letter.

Sometimes, processes change or you might introduce a new piece of machinery. It’s important that you’re giving specific training sessions when those changes occur so your employees know exactly what they’re doing and how to perform their jobs safely.

Health And Safety Notices

Another simple way to make sure that people aren’t forgetting proper health and safety procedures is to put notices up around the workplace. Put some basic notices on or near all of the equipment with general guidelines about safe use. You also need to have signs reminding people of what protective gear they should be wearing while they work. That way, if one of your employees decides that they’re going to ignore any of the health and safety procedures and they get injured, you won’t be liable for it.

Good Flooring

When people think about accidents, they’re usually focused on malfunctions with machines causing injury. That is a big problem, of course, but don’t forget about the simpler injuries like slips and falls. Poorly maintained floors that have a slippery surface or have lots of cracks and dents increase the risk of trips and falls. That’s why you need a polished concrete floor in your warehouse and you need to make sure that it’s maintained properly so it maintains its non-slip properties. Properly polished concrete is also very hard wearing so it’ll be able to handle a lot of wear and tear without getting too damaged.

Be Careful With Second Hand Equipment

Manufacturing equipment is incredibly expensive but you can save yourself quite a lot of money if you buy second hand, however, you have to be very careful. There are plenty of great second hand machines out there that will do the job just as well as new ones would. But equally, there are a lot of damaged ones that are likely to be dangerous when you’re using them. Some of the older models won’t have anywhere near as many safety features on them either so, even if they’re in good condition, they could be dangerous.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t buy second hand machines at all, you just need to know exactly what you’re buying. Get some of your employees to look at the machine and test it to make sure that it’s all in good working order before you agree to buy it. You should also do some research into the safety features on the newer model compared with a second hand one and see whether it might be worth spending a bit more to get a new one. Finally, you should always make sure that you’re buying it from a reputable supplier.

If you stick to these rules, you can make sure that your manufacturing company is always following health and safety procedure to the letter.

 

Areas of Your Small Business to Consider Outsourcing

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Many small business owners start out by taking all work that needs to be done into their own hands. They’ll operate independently and get their business up and running alone. However, as your business establishes itself and you begin to experience more demand, you’re going to have to accept help. If you don’t, you’ll burn yourself out and your business will suffer for it. At the same time, taking on part time or full time employees can be relatively daunting. Becoming an employer lands a whole lot of responsibility on your shoulders. So, what’s the solution? Well, a good place to start is outsourcing.

What Is Outsourcing?

So, what exactly is outsourcing? Well outsourcing is a commonly employed business process in which you pay third parties or freelancers to take care of some of the work that you have to carry out. You don’t have to employ them – you simply pay them for a temporary service.

Web Design

Increasing numbers of small business owners are deciding to take their store online. The world of Ecommerce is booming and allowing customers to make purchases through the web can significantly increase your sales and profits. However, unless you want to spend a whole lot of time learning CSS and HTML coding, you’re going to have to outsource web design to a web design professional. They’ll be able to bring your ideas to life on a webpage.

Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable, otherwise more casually referred to as “AR”, are records of the money owed to your business. Perhaps you have let a supplier take stock and they are going to pay you for it as it sells. Maybe you have offered finance plans to your customers where they can buy now and pay later. Regardless of why you are owed money, it’s important that you manage these accounts well and keep an accurate record of what is owed, what has been paid back, and what settlement figures different people have attached to their account. This, of course, can prove extremely time consuming. At the same time, you can’t cut corners, because this could mean making losses and charging people the wrong amount for products and services that they have already received or used. So, consider an accounts receivable solution.

Product Photography

Sure, you might be able to take some good quality pictures on your smartphone nowadays. But nothing quite beats professional product photography. A professional product photographer has the best equipment and also has an eye for the perfect shot, so they’ll display your products in the best light possible. This can boost sales, especially if you are selling online. Remember that online customers only have images to go by when it comes to deciding whether to purchase a product or not.

These are just a few different areas that you might want to consider outsourcing. At the end of the day, you can outsource almost any aspect of your business’ operation. But these are some really good starting points that you could seriously benefit from.

Freelance Advice: Hiring A Contractor Umbrella Company

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Many people who work alone use the services of a contractor or freelancer umbrella company. Not only will you say goodbye to paperwork, but also you will reap the rewards of better efficiency, improved budgeting, and enhanced convenience. The only thing you need to do is make sure you find the best contractor umbrella company for you. This post helps to do so. Read on to discover five questions you should ask all umbrella companies before agreeing to their services…

How much do you charge for your services? This is the first question you should ask any umbrella company. After all, it is imperative to know that the fee they charge is going to be something you can realistically afford. It is also advisable to go for a company that enforces fixed payments. You don’t want to pay based on what you earn. Why should you have to pay more just because you have had a good month?

Do you have any customer reviews I can read? It is always advisable to read testimonials that have been left by past customers. You should also check their credentials, for example, the accredited MBA program online they have taken. Most companies will have reviews on their website. If not, they should not put up a fight if you ask for them – unless indeed they have something to hide.

How long will I have to wait for my net profit to be deposited into my bank account?  This is another important question to ask. After all, one of the main reasons for opting for an umbrella company is because it will save you time. If you go for a company that takes ages to deposit your money, you defeat the purpose of using their service in the first place. Moreover, can you really afford to wait lengthy periods of time for your cash?

How does the service work? Of course, most umbrella companies follow a similar plan – you upload your timesheet and expenses sheet and then wait for the net profit to be deposited into your account. However, how do you upload your timesheet and expenses sheet? It is best to try and find a company that offers an online service. This will be a lot more convenient for you and will ensure a quicker service as well.

If you ask the four questions that have been mentioned in this post, you should have no issue finding the best contractor umbrella company for you. There are many umbrella companies for you to choose from. Therefore, it is important to assess your options carefully and be sure that you are one hundred percent certain before you sign any contracts and hand over any money.

4 Technologies That Allow You to Get Far More Done with Your Business

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A lot gets written and said about technology these days. Of course, this is hardly surprising when you consider that we live in the most technologically advanced age that the world has ever known, and that the repercussions of this are immense – both in terms of how we live our lives – and in terms of how we conduct our work.

Of course, there are certain reasons to be wary of some technologies and technological innovations. For example, the fact that we now store so much of our data online, means it is pretty much inevitable that we are infinitely more vulnerable to cyber attack, and data breaches, than ever before.

That being said, it is also the case that recent technological innovations allow us an unprecedented level of productivity, and opportunity, to the extent that these technologies can make or break our careers in many cases.

Of course, as the old saying goes “money is time”, and those who are able to get more done, in less time, and to a more exacting standard, are all but inevitably bound to prevail over the competition.

So, bearing that in mind, here are some examples of technologies that may allow you to get far more done with your business – and consequently improve your chances of success.

Virtual answering services

In all professions (more or less), answering calls in a professional and timely manner is an important skill and consideration.

Often, if you fail to answer a call from a would-be important client, they will take this as a sign of unprofessionalism, and will react accordingly by deciding to not use your services after all. Of course, even in the cases in which your prospective client has not immediately come to this conclusion, they may well decide that they can’t afford to wait around for an answer, and will therefore go elsewhere in the meantime.

In certain professions, however, the ability to take calls quickly and professionally is far more “make or break,” or even “life-and-death.” For example, in the legal profession.

These days, however, the Internet and the various high-speed communications technologies which we now enjoy have created a situation where third-party phone answering services are more effective and accessible than ever before.

What’s more, these services will often be aimed specifically at particular industries. So, for example, you will find an answering service for law firms can provide you a certain degree of quality, and a certain “phone style”, that is perfectly tailored to the norms and expectations of the industry.

Communication software (including virtual numbers)

If you’re a small business owner, or the type of solo entrepreneur who works out of their bedroom, you will undoubtedly want to present yourself in the most professional light possible – while also doing whatever you can to maintain an appropriate level of division between your personal and professional lives.

If you find yourself in this situation, it is highly likely that you will need to take client calls on a fairly regular basis, and to leave a phone number on job applications, business cards, and so on.

Of course, giving out your own private phone number might be a bit jarring, and disconcerting. Not least of all when prospective clients phone up without warning on the weekend or evenings, and you answer the phone in an all too relaxed, and all too unprepared manner.

Fortunately, modern communication technologies mean that it is now possible to have a “work number”, and the “private number”, without having multiple phones, and having to try and keep track of them at once.

This can be as simple as creating a Skype number, and leave yourself signed into your Skype account during the day. You can then buy Skype credit, set your number for the country of your choice, and have at it.

Of course, short of actual calls, there are many other tools that can be used for workplace communication – including Gmail’s inbuilt “chat” function, and services such as Trello’s chat function.

Task and project management tools

A lot of things can go wrong when you’re trying to figure out how to organize, and execute your plans for a business venture.

You might, for example, be tricked into wasting an exorbitant amount of time on a given path of action, without first doing your due diligence and ensuring that it will actually yield dividends.

Then again, you may simply never come to the point of being able to reasonably identify what the “most important” next action is for any given project.

Many project and task management systems have been developed over time, in order to address the specific issue. The famous Getting Things Done system, created by David Allen, is one of the leading productivity systems in use in business. It rests entirely on the fundamental premise that the human mind isn’t very good at organizing things – only generating new ideas.

These days, there are a wide variety of task and project management tools available in digital format, that are powerful and nuanced enough to change your professional life. These range from the basic and “free” – such as Microsoft To Do, which is built on the premise of helping you to track your projects and to-dos in one central location, and then identify the tasks that you should execute on, on any given day – to the more complex, such as Trello, which are targeted specifically at team project management.

In any event, the key is that you find a task and project management tool that you can use comfortably, and which allows you to filter out redundant actions, and identify the most important “next step” to take.

Time management tools and software

It’s been said before, and it bears saying again, that “time is money.” No matter how well-off you may be in terms of your material resources, a business (or for that matter an individual) that doesn’t have a good grasp of time management, is in a deep rut, and is unlikely to thrive as a result.

Money can be earned and lost, but time is allocated in daily batches, and can never be regained once it’s been spent

All serious professionals – and just anyone who wants to enjoy the highest quality-of-life possible, for that matter – have to be very mindful of how they spend their time. In the case of entrepreneurs, though, time management is a truly fundamental necessity.

If you run your own business, and especially if that business is a start-up, you will have a dozen, or a hundred, different balls to juggle at once. Your ability to be efficient, and to allocate your time as effectively and carefully as you possibly can, is essentially equivalent to your ability to be successful in your business endeavors.

Fortunately, time management tools and software are among some of the most prevalent technological innovations in business. If you want to ensure that your team is wasting as little time as possible, you could use a service such as Time Doctor, in order to “keep an eye on them”, and automate “nudges” to remind them to stay on task.

Then again, if your time management issues are of a more personal nature, you could sign up to a subscription with Rescue Time – a service which monitors how you spend your time at your computer, and uses learning algorithms to assess how “productive” or “unproductive” your days have been.

Then again, there are more basic systems available, which can be used for tracking the amount of time spent on a given project. Toggl, for example, allows you to monitor the amount of time that you spend on an individual project.

Why And How To Protect Your Business With Technology

Scott Asai1 Comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Technology is paramount in one degree or another for all businesses to improve productivity, reliability, and professionalism and above all safety. Those stuck in the era relying on paper trails need to get with the times, technology can solve a lot of mundane time and cash consuming business processes you use to try and protect your data, you just need to figure out what can and will work for your specific businesses industry and size. It’s natural to feel as though the world of technology is quite daunting, and where to begin to enhance your business’s safety, so here are two areas to think about to get you started.

Security

Thinking about the safety of your files is so essential when you consider the outcome of a hacker gaining access to them. Especially when you take into account Statista’s report of $1.33 billion being lost in monetary value due to cybercrime. Whether it’s access to your business account details and statements, identity, address, your work or customer credentials, you most likely have something valuable worth protecting, that could cost you a lot of money, and a large portion of your existing reputation should anyone gain access to it. Security technology is the step where most businesses should begin to guard vital information.

Begin searching for services that are appropriate for your business such as computer security software. Or you could choose to outsource this task to an IT service that can professionally guard this information for you.

Back-Up

To enhance your previous decision to allocate cyber fighting software to protect your business information, you also need to back the info up in the unfortunate event your business intel is stolen or destroyed. This isn’t limited to cybercrime, there are an array of disasters that might occur which could ruin your data. Such as a fire, flood or hurricane to name a few. Getting your business back up on its feet following a catastrophic event is costly, especially if you’ve lost all of your enterprise’s intel in the disaster. This is why it’s important not to delay this step and to back-up everything as soon as possible.

The scale of back-up you need depends on the type and size of your business. For instance, for a freelance website designer working independently, they could back up their work on a Cloud Computing service and store any finished products or client details on an external hard drive and keep this in a separate building from where they work. For larger businesses such as a document filing agency, they may require in-built servers within different locations with employee and management access from anywhere in the world. This is to store, protect and gain access to vital business information to keep the company running in the event of a disaster.

Research, source, download and purchase the technology that’s right for your business by scouring opportunities, assessing the reputation and usage of the software and always update your knowledge to keep ahead of any technological advancements that could protect and save your business from a document storage disaster that is both time-consuming and costly to fix.