Category: business coach

How To Avoid Injury Lawsuits

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

With the rise of compensation culture, employers nowadays are increasingly prone to coming under fire when it comes to health and safety. Not only do you have to worry about running your business, but this authority position also means that you have to keep an eye out for the health, safety, and well-being with every individual who engages with your business. Whether this is your employees, customers, or anyone else who makes use of your products and services or comes into contact with your professional properties. Now, this can sound like a lot of pressure, but if you handle health and safety in the correct manner, you can eliminate both the chances of people becoming hurt or injured at your hands and swerve expensive court cases at the same time! Here are a few ways to go about keeping everyone’s best interests in mind.

Safety Signage

A large number of accidents occur as people are unaware of hazards that surround them. People are easily distracted at the best of times, but the increasing popularity of smartphones and personal music systems means that people are less aware of their surroundings than ever. Take a look around you. Most people will be wearing a set of headphones, have their attention focused on their phones, or perhaps both at the same time. This is why prominent safety signage is so important. These brightly colored and bold signs catch people’s attention and alert them to potentially problematic situations. These should be used in various situations. If there has been a spill of some sort, a wet floor sign can prevent people from falling while the mess is being cleared and while the floor dries. Low ceiling signs can prevent people from bumping their heads, while indications of a step can prevent trips. Safety signage can also indicate exits should problems such as fire arise. This will help people to evacuate your commercial property quickly and efficiently.

Roof Fall Protection Systems

While relatively few people may frequent the roof of your professional locations, a fall could prove fatal. So install roof fall protection systems to ensure that anyone who does access the roof can clearly see the edge of the roof and is prevented from slipping from the edge.

Staff Health and Safety Training

While you may focus a lot of effort on training your staff to fulfill their given role to the highest level, you also need to spare time to fully train them in workplace safety. This should involve tutorials on proper lifting technique, fire safety procedure, and dealing with incidents or injuries effectively. The better trained your staff are, the less likely they are to experience injury themselves and the more likely they are to react appropriately should someone else come into trouble too.

While you may be busy and have all sorts of areas calling out for your attention, the health and safety of people need to be your priority. Just bear in mind how costly a court case could be. Not to mention the detrimental effects it could have on your professional reputation. So, always keep the old adage in mind: it’s better to be safe than sorry!

From Flat Whites To Lattes: Opening Your Own Cafe

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

As of 2015, The Netherlands was the country where people drunk most coffee, with the average consumer sipping over 260 litres per year. This was followed by Finland in second place and Canada in third. In the US, 44 percent of the population claims to drink between two to three cups of coffee a day. With recent studies suggesting that drinking coffee leads to having a longer life, this trend is only going increase in upcoming years and it is as a result of this that more and more individuals are opening their own coffee-related businesses, from cafes to roasting factories.

It is a well-known fact that coffee is deeply embedded in Australian culture. After all, Australians invented the flat white and this has long become a world sensation. Opening your own cafe requires hard work and determination, but if you think you have what your locals need and can offer them an excellent coffee-based experience, this could be your chance to shine in your local coffee-loving community.

Below we tell you what you need in order to make of your dream a reality.

Location

This is the starting point for any business out there. Choosing your preferred location is striking a balance between going for an area that has the desired customer demographic and choosing somewhere you can pay for without it ruining your business’ cash flow. Whilst this is indeed a hard balance to find, the success of your business will depend on whether you have a good number of likely clients to attract, and this can only be done by setting up your coffee shop in a desirable spot. Opening your cafe in an established area will cost you and a dodgy area will likely bring you a small number of clients. Do your research and find a location that will sit in the middle of those two spectrums. Have you looked into franchise options?

Interior decoration

Once you have chosen where your coffee shop will be located, it is time to do some research on interior decoration in order to make of your cafe a beautiful and relaxing place. After all, your customers will most likely pay you a visit to drink some excellent coffee and take their mind off their everyday routine. Some of them are likely to be freelancers who have decided to make of your cafe their office base, true, but even those will need a soothing atmosphere in which to work. Apex.com.au import furniture from Europe and Asia to supply to Australian commercial venues. On their website, you will find the most incredible pieces with which to furnish your cafe.

Menu

You are the coffee connoisseur and are likely to know your flat whites from your macchiatos. You probably already have some fierce competition and as a result of this, you need to make sure you design a menu that will attract potential customers for the variety of coffees on offer and the care with which you have listed these. Put some effort into your menu-designing and you will see customers flocking to your business in large numbers!

Workplace Trends Worth Making Note Of

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

If there is one thing we have learned from all previous end of year swan songs, it’s that you can’t change the past. You can look at it, analyze it and use it to help you grow; but you can’t change it. So, instead of making the mistake that almost everyone makes, which is looking back at the year just gone and focusing on the regrets, why not be positive and look to the future, understand how to smash next year’s targets and accept this where your real chances of success lie.

And, with that in mind, we have pulled together a list of workplace trends that we believe every business leader, manager and employee should be aware of moving forward. After all, knowledge is king.

  1. Human Interaction Is Back On The Menu

It wasn’t too long ago that the whole world was going bonkers for remote-working programs and, while a huge chunk of businesses are finding success down this route, some major names are refocusing on workspaces designed to promote interpersonal relationships. Offices are being redesigned with this in mind, managed technology solutions are being brought into practice to help boost human connection, hangout spaces are becoming the norm and physical spaces are getting an overhaul. Why? Well, it is partly to do with efficiencies and partly to do with Gen Y & Z-ers preferring to do things face-to-face than through technology.

  1. The New Credentials Of Learning

If the modern age will be remembered for anything other than technology itself, it is the disruption people have caused within certain niches, and education is one of the most affected of all. There are now so many third-party services that are offering a) education, b) credentials and c) certifications. The reason for this is demand. Traditional forms of tuition are becoming less popular among young adults, which has a lot to do with the rising costs associated. As such, people are shunning colleges altogether, opting for low cost and online courses instead. The result will be much more tolerance from companies to accept candidates with non-traditional credentials.

  1. AI Is Going To Become More Commonplace

This is one of those trends that is met with a mixture of excitement and anxieties, which is totally normal given that’s how all unfamiliar territory makes people feel. Anyway, what you will find over the coming year is AI enters the workplace across the board and that’s because almost every new device that gets developed these days comes with some form of intelligence. Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon – they have all gone down the AI route. If we had to pick out one niche in which this will hit businesses most, it is with Chatbots. This form of intelligence can be used in personal assistant software, customer support tech, data mining, for streamlining businesses and are even being used to answer questions – both internally and externally.

  1. Happiness Through Financial Help

More people than ever are living from one paycheck to the next, which is not so much because Millennials are bad at saving (quite the contrary), but because the cost of living is now so high it is a two-income society. This financial stress is affecting mental health and performance. As such, more and more companies are helping their employees manage this stress, with paying off student loans now a normal benefit in workplaces.

Turning A Hobby Into A Booming Business

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Everyone has a hobby, and everyone knows they’re good at or have fun with what they do in their downtime. But one day we find ourselves thinking: what if I can make money off of this? If you’ve recently find yourself entertaining the thought, or you’ve been planning it for a while, this is the sign it’s time for you to build your own business off of your hobby activities. If you don’t know where to start, here’s some of the steps you’ll want to take.

Take Baby Steps

Baby steps is often not what we want to do when it comes to getting stuck into a new venture, but doing well in your business when you’ve never conducted something like it before means taking it bit by bit is essential.

Think of it as a side hustle. You don’t want to immediately drop everything to stick at your new business, as it may not take off in the way you plan for it to. When the customers start leaving amazing reviews and you’ve got yourself a good amount of notoriety amongst a cult following, then it’s time to consider taking it up full time. For more advice, check out the tips on succeedasyourownboss.com.

Get a Website

This is the main thing to do when you want to take your ‘hobbying’ to the next level. If you don’t have a place for people to stop off at and contact you through, they’re not going to even bother! So, either build one yourself, or use the multiple online marketplaces to set up your own shop, and subsequently your own corner of the web.

It takes time, but in the end it’s worth it. Hire out a webmaster if you don’t know the first thing about web design or coding, or download some software if you’re the type of person who likes to go it alone. Either way, whatever you do with your website will work, and you can build on the design and add other functions the more and more orders you get.

Take out a Loan

Chances are you’re going to need a little more than pocket money or what’s in your savings account to set up an online retail store or buy plenty of materials to carry out your new business. It’s good then that funding is a lot more accessible than it used to be! Plenty of adverts on social media are often the first port of call if you’re looking to make it on the web.

Just because you’re a new business, or because you don’t have any previous experience, doesn’t mean you’re not deserving of a cash line from somewhere like Smallbusinessloans.co. It’s not just young and fresh entrepreneurs that always look like they know what they’re doing that use these kinds of services, and thankfully online lending options have a lot of information for you to read up on if you don’t know where to start.

Let posts like these help your endeavors!

Saving On Daily Tasks In The Office And Shop Alike

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Running a business is often its own reward, but the money that comes from it is not something most would complain about. Of course, the amount of money may vary due to factors which you cannot control, like terrible weather and no one going shopping, or seemingly no interest in your product for the week. Things like that just happen, and you should always be mentally and financially prepared for them, being somewhat accepting of the fact that life can just throw them at you anytime. However, one thing that you can do, is not needlessly spending more money on everyday routine tasks than necessary. Let’s go through just a few things which you could do to start saving money on everyday things in the shop or at the office.

Be on the lookout for second hand goods

Need a new printer? Maybe a new fax machine? Maybe even some computer parts? Well, while a brand new and shiny version would be the objectively best solution, we live in an imperfect world and sometimes imperfect choices have to be made. Second hand goods of all kinds can be found in stores or online, with some even hosting dedicated websites to them. If you need a new office PC for all your generic office needs like word processing and accessing emails, consider getting some refurbished PCs. A refurbished PC is essentially a second hand PC that has been brought back to its almost former glory, often boasting low prices  and amazing performance for the price. Before you start feeling too bad about yourself and feel like you are cheaping out on both your staff and yourself, keep in mind, this is all a means of securing stability for your staff and business alike.

Save on routine tasks

There are some things which are almost daily routine in any business but often overpaid for even in this day and age. Things like an internet connection, or even printer paper, often get managed sub-optimally to say the least, and overpaying for a mediocre internet connection is not exactly uncommon. If you have had your workplace’s internet contract for several years, chances are there is probably a better deal by now that suits your needs more, for an attractive price even from the same provider. Even getting rid of rubbish can prove to be an expensive task which can make your pockets feel quite a bit lighter if you do not interest yourself in commercial waste disposal. Like any smart business owner, you should make sure that both your staff and yourself turn off all needless electronics after working hours. It’s actually rather common for people to just leave and say they are done for the day, then leave several computers and appliances still racking up the energy bill when they are getting literally zero usage. Giving your staff a polite reminder to stay a bit more eco-friendly wouldn’t hurt anyone, especially your pockets and the planet. While on the topic of being eco-friendly, try and reduce paper usage whenever you can. Emails exist for a reason, and if your staff still lives in the middle ages where they print their emails to read them, then it might just be time to change that. Printing double-sided can be as financially-efficient as it good for the environment.

Cyber Attack! Your Steps To Freedom

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

One of the main threats against us in this day and age is a cyber attack. Even if you don’t use your laptop or computer for work reasons, it is still imperative that you ensure it is correctly protected from an attack. Otherwise, you could end up losing a lot of your personal data and giving hackers access to your various online accounts.

Unfortunately, hackers and viruses are becoming a lot more sophisticated now, and it is easier than ever to get into our computers, even if you do have the most up-to-date protection on your system. So, as well as knowing how to stay protected, you also need to be aware of what you need to do in the event of an attack. Here are the steps you should take to freedom!

Contain The Attack

First of all, you need to make sure that the attack doesn’t get out of hand. To do this, you need to make sure that it is correctly contained. If your affected computer laptop is part of a network, you should disconnect it from any connected devices so that the virus doesn’t spread between them all. As well as disconnecting it from other devices, you should also take it offline. It’s important that you manually turn off the WiFi rather than doing so through software.

Seek Professional Help

Once you have isolated your computer, you should then seek some expert help. Take the infected computer or laptop to an IT firm, such as Windward Technology, as they will be able to heal the machine. IT firms can get to the route of the attack and remove any viruses from computers. Not only that, though, but they can help you recover any lost files or data if anything was lost during the attack. However, you should note that recovering lost files might not always be possible, so don’t get your hopes up!

Download All Programs From A Reputable Source

Once you get your computer or laptop back from the experts, it will have been wiped completely and there will no longer be your usual programs and software on it. So, you will need to download it all again. Ideally, you will have kept the original CD discs if you used them in the first place so that you can reinstall them. If not, you will need to download them from the internet. When you do this, always make sure that you download from a reputable source or else you could end up with another virus on your device!

Backup Your System

It is absolutely crucial that you always backup your system. That way, you can always retrieve healthy files if you are ever a victim of a cyber attack again. Ideally, you should aim to backup your system and all its files every couple of months so that you have a recent record.

Being involved in a cyber attack can be incredibly scary but, as you can see, getting back to a healthy computer isn’t too difficult!

The Costs Of Opening A Medical Clinic

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

There are lots of perks to setting up a private medical clinic. It can be more profitable in the long run and more stress-free – you get to choose your workload and the types of treatment you offer. The biggest obstacle faced when starting a medical clinic is the upfront cost of setting it up. After the cost of university and medical school, few people are able to then justify taking out a massive loan to start a business. Whilst you will make a substantial return in the future, it’s important to effectively budget when considering starting up a clinic. Many doctors go into a partnership with someone who can split the costs and handle the business side. Here are just a few of the costs that need to be covered to get your medical business off the ground.  

Insurance

Physicians starting their own clinic are required by law to take out malpractice insurance. This can be anywhere between $4k to $70k a year depending on the state. Insurers such as Towergate provide these insurance scheme – it’s worth comparing rates. If you’re taking on staff, you may need to also take out employer’s liability insurance. Property insurance can also be beneficial for covering your premises against damage and theft.

Leasing space

Most people starting up a clinic will rent or lease out space. It’s possible to buy your own space, but this is obviously more costly upfront. The cost will depend on the size and location of the property you need.

Renovations

You’ll most likely want to refurnish the place to feel more like a clinic if it wasn’t already one before. Renovation companies like Perfect Practice specialize in remodeling medical clinics. Costs can vary widely here too ranging from $15k to $50k depending on the scale of the project.

Equipment

You’ll next want to kit out your clinic with the necessary machines such as computers and X-ray machines and furniture such as beds and chairs. You can expect to pay up to $50k on all this equipment. That said, you can save upfront costs by leasing equipment or buying second-hand. Most used equipment is likely to be fully functional, although you’ll want to thoroughly assess the condition of it first (especially computers and machines).

Staff

If you’re taking on employees, you’ll need to be able to provide them with a regular wage. Some clinics can operate with one physician, but you’ll still want medical assistants and receptionists. If you keep patients in overnight, you’ll definitely need extra staff to offer round the clock assistance. As mentioned already, you’ll also need employer’s liability insurance if you’re hiring staff.

Marketing

To let people know about your services, you’ll need to do some marketing. This could include paying to design a website, printing off flyers, create radio ads and possibly even getting news coverage with the help of a PR company.

Admin

As your clinic is also a business, you’ll need to handle various business-related admin including keeping clear records of taxes, billing patients correctly and organizing HR-related matters such as creating rotas and keeping on top of staff holiday and sickness. This will require extra software as well as potentially hiring staff to handle it. As mentioned earlier, it’s wise to go into a partnership with someone business-oriented who can help organize all this, allowing you to focus on patient care and organization of the medical side.

A Web Presence Which Runs Like Clockwork

Scott Asai1 Comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

You’re probably sick of hearing about the importance of a web presence. It’s all anyone seems to talk about, right? Well, unlucky for you, that’s what we’re going to talk about here, too. But, before you click away in exasperation, consider why there are so many articles out there about this. Because it MATTERS, of course. Without tackling this, you won’t see any success. There’s no escaping that fact. So, suck it up, and prepare to learn even more about the online aspect of your business.

The chances are that you’ve heard a thing or two about SEO by now. It is the not-so-secret key to a successful web presence. Using backlinks, and URLs for other informative sites, you and those pesky search engines can become best of friends.

But, there is another secret to SEO which you may not have heard as much about. For the most part, that’s because the workings of this aspect are a mystery. But, uploading schedules and relevance also seem to play a role in how high your site ranks. Those who upload intermittently fail to impress the likes of Google. With that in mind, then, you should update and upload often. And, we’re going to look at how you can do it.

Hand over the reins

If you’re groaning about having enough to do already, fear not. By turning to the IT Support offered by companies like Capstone IT, you won’t have to worry about this at all. For a monthly fee, they’ll ensure everything on your website is taken care of. And, that includes updating on a regular basis if you need them to. Of course, when it comes to actual content, this will need to be a collaboration. But, once you’ve come up with the ideas, they’ll do all the hard stuff for you. If you have the cash to spare, this may be a step worth taking.

Develop a regular routine

If you are taking the task yourself, it’s crucial you develop regular uploading days. For one, uploading at the same time each week seems to please the big guys. Plus, it allows you to keep on top of the issue. Go through your planner, and highlight the days on which you need to upload something online. This could be on your website or social media page. It doesn’t matter. You merely need to let people know that you’re out there, and you’re active.

Schedule posts

Of course, you won’t always be able to make time on those particular days. But, whenever you have a free moment, you should use it wisely by creating content of some kind. You can schedule posts on social media, and on your website. So, whenever you have an hour or so free, get something written. Having a decent backlog will save you having to worry. It’ll also ensure you always get something up when you’re supposed to. In no time, you should see your views skyrocket as you win favor with those in charge.

The Critical Reasons Your Business Isn’t Smashing It’s Targets

Scott Asai3 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Profit targets and production goals are an essential part of running a successful business. This is because they provide a goal to aim to, something that you can use to keep everyone motivated and focused on what needs to be done. The problem is, not every business meets their targets every time, something that hints they aren’t on the path to long-term success.  Read on to find out more.

Target setting

First, a word on target setting. Very occasionally targets are not reached not because there is an issue per say within the company, but because the actual goals themselves are unrealistic.

That is why it is so vital to always create targets that are challenging but also actually achievable. Something you can learn more about here. Otherwise, you run the risk of always failing and seriously demotivating your staff and providing a poor impression to your investors, unnecessarily.

Employees

If you are under the impression that your employees are not critical in helping your business achieve its targets, then you are sadly mistaken. In fact, unless you do absolutely everything yourself you will need to be able to trust your employees to get things done in a correct and timely manner. This is something that means recruitment and retention are vital to any businesses long-term success.

With this in mind, steer clear of using agencies wherever possible and advertise posts in quality publications. Also, if you can give people a trial before employing them on a full-time basis, as then both you and they can see whether the role they are in will suit them and whether they want to stay long term.

Online strategy

Next, as so much marketing, advertising, and selling is done online, a major reason that your business may not be meeting the targets you have set is that your online strategy isn’t up to par. This is a critical danger to your business because so many people research a product and brand online before buying, so if you are proving a poor impression, you will be losing sales hand-over-foot.

To deal with this, there are some basic tactics that you can use to improve your online business strategy. These include having a clear recognizable brand, posting quality content, and driving traffic to your site. The latter being something you can consult this blog post to find out more about. Just remember what your business does online matters just as much, if not more than real-world!

Processes

Take a look at your processes efficiency.

Last of all, another significant reason why your business may not have met their production or profit targets is that the processes you are using are wasteful. That is, they waste time and/or resources unnecessarily. All things that cost the business money and make it harder to be in profit.

Deal with this by reviewing process in the office and on the production side of things. Automate IT tasks wherever possible to save time too. You may even consider having a professional audit conducted to help you see where the redundancies in your system are. Then you can modify these to save time and money, making it much easier for your business to smash its targets and be a success in the future.