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Category: Business Advice

The Four Services Every Successful Business Needs

The Four Services Every Successful Business Needs

Published by Troy Lambert on June 17, 2019

Running a new business can be a challenge for even the most experienced entrepreneurs. Every time you start up a new business, you take a new direction, and you need new strategies and ideas.  You need to make sure that your business is effective, productive, and efficient all at the same time, at the same time as adding value and giving your customers a great experience.

A successful business works with and uses a range of services. Of course, you can try to do it all yourself, but realistically, it can be very difficult to be a master of it all and do it well. You have your own strengths, and part of that is knowing when and where you should get help from other people.

There are some core services that you should ensure that you are using for your business, and here are some of them:

  1. Accountants

Making sure that the financial side of your business is all above board and organized is imperative. Not only can it stop you from getting in a sticky financial situation, but it can also avoid you getting into trouble with the tax man. An accountant can also help you to find legal loopholes to save you money, for example, finding out what you can claim back as expenses, and help you to run your payroll system, if you have one, more effectively.

  1. Managed IT Services

Pretty much every business relies on some sort of IT system, whether it is one at home laptop or a whole network of computers and devices. However big or small your system is, IT Management for businesses can make it run a lot more smoothly. From disaster recovery to cloud service and security software, they can advise and manage it on your behalf.

  1. Marketing Services

Everything from PR to business advertising can be covered by your marketing services. The success of your business rides on how well you can market your product or service, and for that, you need the right team of people supporting you, from collecting data to understanding precisely what your customers want. You can have the very best customer service, but without the proper marketing team, you can’t execute the best strategy to keep those customers coming.

  1. Website Design

Designing a basic website is something you can do yourself, but if you want one that is all-singing and all-dancing, and ranks highly on search engines, you will probably want to employ the services of a specialist website designer. Take the time to get this right because your customers are relying on you to have an excellent website to get the information that they want. Without a superior online experience, they are unlikely to come back.

Having a budget set aside for these services is vital for your business if you want to be successful, no matter what industry you are in.

Take the time to search the best services for your budget; just make sure that these are included!

 

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Time to Scale Your Business? Yes, But Now What?

Time to Scale Your Business? Yes, But Now What?

Published by Troy Lambert on June 17, 2019

Business growth must be carefully planned to be successful. While you might think that blind optimism and reactive decision-making will work just fine, the reality is that you need to know where you are going and which steps are required to get there before you start. Try to grow without planning and you will end up with an unbalanced business that causes far more stress than it should.

Scaling any business up usually comes down to three major concerns: your IT capabilities, your workforce, and your efficiency. Each of these areas is essential to the way you do business and no two can hold things together without the third. And when you are scaling up, you need to be thinking of ways to make running your business easier, if only to make time for more complex ideas!

Scalable IT

Every company is now reliant on IT in some way or other which means that you need to make sure that your IT can keep up with your demands. Cloud services are ideal for this as you can gradually grow the service to suit your needs so you don’t need to over-invest early on.

You should also think about the infrastructure you may require to run your business smoothly. At the point your small business begins to grow, it may not be sensible to house your IT infrastructure in your office. Again, outsourcing is often the best option here as it can also offer improved security.

Staffing and Freelancers

Hiring staff for the first time is a daunting task. If you are new to being a manager, it can feel quite strange to delegate tasks to someone new, especially when you have invested so much time, energy and money into your business. However, bringing new people onboard also opens the door to new talent. If you can keep an open mind, focus on creating a diverse team and let other ideas in, your business will be infinitely better off for it.

If you aren’t quite ready to hire someone full or even part-time, creating a network of freelancers is a good halfway house. Indeed, some businesses rely on freelancers almost exclusively, even when they could hire permanent staff. Freelancers are great for scaling up your business because they bring specialized talents, are project focused and are usually more affordable in the short term. Plus, if you aren’t really sure what you are looking for, a freelancer could guide you in the right direction.

Processes and Efficiency

Finally, you must look at your processes and work out where you can be more efficient in business. Efficiency is about maximizing your output with minimal input whether that means time, money, energy or materials. Often this comes down to working out which processes simply aren’t working, which can be modified and improved and which are okay now but may need revisiting in the future.

As you are scaling up your business, your efficiency will usually dictate how far you can go. However, you must always prepare for improved efficiency. There’s no point in being able to produce significantly more if you can’t get your product or service to the market straight away.

 

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Golf Club Management Components

Golf Club Management Components

Published by Contributing Author on June 10, 2019

Club Advisory Services

Managing a golf club can be a big job. A lot of people forget that it’s not simply a sports venue. A golf club can include a restaurant (if not two), gift shop, hotel and spa. Golf courses can provide classes, tournaments and several different kinds of special events – from tournaments to fundraisers. Golf clubs are also notorious wedding venues, which opens up a whole new arena of managerial concerns and liabilities. Needless to say, managing a golf course can be a little overwhelming.

If you’re thinking about getting into the golf club management business don’t worry. There are a plethora of golf club advisory services that can assist you with all components of your club. You can get one time advice or you can hire a company to manage entire golf course components, it’s up to you. Just be mindful of the many different golf club components before you make a decision about going into a new business.

Club Sales and Marketing

The majority of golf clubs in the country are membership based so you need to have someone who’s dedicated to making sure the marketing is constantly happening. Most golf courses benefit from having an annual marketing and sales plan with established quarterly goals so you can determine where you need to focus your efforts.

Business Operations and Financial Management

Golf club are businesses, therefore you will need to have a business manager. Several people go into the golf club business thinking that they will serve as the owner and business manager, and that can work for some people. However, managing the entire business operations of a club can be cumbersome. Managing the finances alone is a full time job, so you might want to consider securing a strong business administration team to ensure your business is successful.

Retail Store Operations

Most mid to large sized golf clubs have a retail store, which means they need to have a store manager. A significant portion of your revenue can come from a retail store, so this isn’t something you’ll want to take lightly.

Communications

From member emails and newsletters to special event flyers and social media content, golf course communications are constantly needed.

Human Resources

Golf courses can employ a handful of people or hundreds of people. Whatever the case, you’re going to need someone to handle recruitment, hiring, training and disciplinary matters.

Restaurant

Because restaurants are a business all on their own, you’ll want to make sure you have an experienced restaurant manager.

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4 Ways To Make Running Your Business Easier On You

4 Ways To Make Running Your Business Easier On You

Published by Contributing Author on June 5, 2019

Running a business is no easy feat, and when you’ve got a million things on your plate it can be difficult to keep on top of absolutely everything. Did you know that over half of all new start-ups fail within the first year of business? Whether it be lack of interest, no return on profit, or too much to handle, you need to make sure that this doesn’t happen to you if you want your business to succeed. So, to make sure you get your business to where it needs to be, check out these ways to make running your business easier on you.

Recruit a second in command

It’s hard to run a business alone – so don’t! It’s understandable that you may be finding it difficult to trust anyone but yourself with your business. However, trying to bear the load on your shoulders alone could result in losing your business. Recruit a second in command to help take the load off your back and help progress your business in the right direction. Take a look at these tips to remember when hiring a second in command so that you can look for the right qualities and hire the right candidate.

Use time management tools

It’s all too easy to become engrossed in a particular task and neglect those that are slightly less desirable. However, running a successful business means making time for even the most mediocre of tasks. If you struggle to do this, using time management tools could really help you become more organized. You could sync it with your Alexa device and schedule reminders like “calculate the ROI of performance management software” so that those all-important yet daunting tasks don’t get left behind.

Outsource

If you don’t feel like a second in command would benefit your business, perhaps because you can’t justify paying for another member of staff full time, you should consider outsourcing for those tasks that you just can’t manage. For example, if you need someone to create a snazzy logo and graphics for your website, outsourcing a graphic designer temporarily will save you a tonne of money and leave you with one less job on your list of things to do. You can find freelancers on websites such as Upwork and Fiverr, and it’s safer to use these for outsourcing because the platforms protect both the employer and the freelancer.

Take advantage of free marketing

Finally, getting the word around about your business can be difficult, especially if there are other brands within your niche already stealing your target market. However, you should take advantage of free marketing sources such as social media, carrier bags that you hand out to your customers, freebies, your store window, and even your car. Using social media schedulers such as Crowdfire means that you won’t have to spend all day glued to the computer either! Making the most of it not only saves you even more money to inject into your business but also helps take yet another large load off your back.

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What Do You Do If You Have No Choice But To Make Everyone Work Remotely?

What Do You Do If You Have No Choice But To Make Everyone Work Remotely?

Published by Troy Lambert on June 5, 2019

As a concept, remote working certainly appears to be great on the surface. After all, it’s cheap, and it allows you to work in the comfort of your own home. But time and again, there have been difficulties in harnessing our employees’ talents by remote working alone. But if you’ve got no other option, and you need to make it work, what are the fundamentals that need addressing?

Set The Template

One method of working is what needs developing. Everybody works in their own specific way, but because communication is a major barrier, if there are members of the team that works in their own way and on individual projects, they can feel like they are the exception to the rule. You don’t want to discourage people from working their own way, but you still need to set a certain template, because remote working is such a different beast. Having a morning meeting via Skype, even just for fifteen minutes gives everybody the opportunity to check in with each other, and see if there are any pressing problems, so everyone is able to get on with their day. The other added benefit of having a meeting via Skype is that it’s a lot quicker than sending an email! Sending an email means that you’ve got to wait for a reply, but if they add something extra that you need to answer, this back-and-forth will waste so much time.

Get The Right Tools For The Job

It all depends on what you do. If you are sending large files, the Jetdrop file transfer program can help, but also if collaboration is a crucial component, finding ways to make it feel like everyone is in the same room is as important. Tools like Evernote have been shown to be more than useful in this respect. And while there are plenty of tools out there, it’s not about getting the most expensive, but it’s about the ones that will really suit you and the team.

Share

It’s in the name, remote working. People can feel on their own, which may be good in terms of focusing on the job, but if everybody is working in an isolated fashion, certain self-absorbed habits can creep in. This is why it’s important, not just to have a meeting at the very beginning of the day, but to give people the opportunity to share information as and when is necessary. If you run the team, giving others that opportunity to open up if they have any misgivings will always benefit. But by giving them the chance to do it in a more personal manner, rather than in an email, will help to build bridges.

Remote working is one of those essential components now, but there can be a lot of mistakes made. Sometimes people go into it for the wrong reasons, thinking that it will just save money, when in fact, remote working is most definitely a cheap approach, but you can still use it to bring out the best in people.

 

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How To Create The Perfect Rental Property

How To Create The Perfect Rental Property

Published by Troy Lambert on June 5, 2019

You’ve decided you’re going to take a little dive into the world of rental property and you want to figure out just how to build a genuinely efficient money-maker. Well, like any business venture, it’s going to take some thinking – it does not just fall on your lap, and you’re not just going to hit the big time out of nowhere.

Within the rental property business, you can delve into something residential or you can own premises like offices, warehouses, and other stores. Your mission is to make sure you can secure a place or places of your own and turn them into something that people will want to work in or live in. The better the property, the most success you’re going to have. Let’s have a little look into some of the aspects that go into creating a fantastic rental property.    

Know Your Market

Before you decide to make any commitments, you’re going to want to think about the type of person or business that you’re trying to attract. It doesn’t have to be a completely strict and set-in-stone attitude, but you’ll want to align yourself somewhat with a particular group. You won’t want to have a certain layout and realize that it doesn’t match what any potential buyers want or need.

Choose The Right Property

When you have a certain idea noted down, you’ll then want to consider how the property is going to look. Consider the location: is it going to be in a densely populated area or do you want it out of the way where there’s more space to operate. How big is the property going to be? What style would you like it to have? Is there any potential for it to be built on further? These are all good things to think of.

Execute Your Renovations

Picked a good spot to work with? Good. Now it’s time to shake things up a little. If it’s a residential property you’re going to be working with, then you’ll want to make sure things are perfect for whoever wants to settle in there – we’re talking about the electrics and the facilities. If you’ve bought an office or a warehouse, then you’ll want to have everything functioning so that workers can operate properly. You’ll also want things to be safe: you could get help from things like floor safety services as well as running through all of the safety checks yourself. You don’t want any legal problems on your hands.   

Manage Your Budget

Whilst we’re talking about making sure that the bedrooms or the shop floors are perfect, it’s also wise to consider the money involved. Sure, we want it to be a good unit, but you have to make sure you’re making money, too. Note down where the money is going and make sure you have enough room for profit!

Market Your Rental

When everything’s ready, you’re going to want to get someone in straight away – there’s no point having it if it’s just going to be sat around idling. You can attract people and business by using ads in papers and magazines as well as social media – there are tons of ways to get it out there for the public to see.

 

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Don’t Turn A Blind Eye To These Office Blunders

Don’t Turn A Blind Eye To These Office Blunders

Published by Troy Lambert on June 5, 2019

Office blunders are happening all over the world right now, and both the business owner and employee are completely turning a blind eye to them. Why? Because telling the people at the top that there’s something wrong, is actually so scary. It makes it so much worse if the people that you’re dealing with are super hard to communicate with as well.

So whether you’re a business owner, or reading this from an employees point of view, we’ve got a few tips for you. There are some businesses who are really leading the way with what they’re doing, especially when it comes to the care and attention that employees receive. So what we’re going to try and show you, is some of the biggest office blunders that a business owner will make, and that an employee will too. Hopefully, this will give you an insight into what needs to be changed in the future! So keep on reading, and don’t be afraid to speak up after reading this!

Business Owner Blunders

The stress you feel as a business owner is so huge. Every single day you’re faced with a new challenge, and your employees definitely fuel a few of those. Managing a team of people as well as your business is hard, but there are some blunders that you might be making, that could make it so much worse. One of them is opening yourself up to a bit of trouble in terms of office safety. All it takes is for someone to fall the wrong way, because of the organization of your office, or perhaps there are some wires out, and workers compensation lawyers will come knocking at your door. You wouldn’t believe the number of businesses who are facing lawsuits, simply because they don’t know how to make the working environment safer. So take some time to review yours, and make it a far more positive environment by making it safer!

Employee Blunders

Being an employee is just hard work. You will usually take the brunt so much because business owners can just be so tough to deal with, especially when they’re having a hard day. So, you might want to think about how you can work a bit more efficiently, because one of the biggest employee blunders that can be made, is not paying enough attention to your role. There is most likely a lot of room for progression within the company you work in, you’re just not actively looking for it. But with more responsibility comes a better job role, and more money. So put some time and energy into your job, and see if being a little more motivated pushes you towards a promotion. If you simply can’t because the career doesn’t excite you, don’t make the second blunder of staying in a job that will get you nowhere, just because you don’t want to find a new one.

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Six Ways To Make Your Business Stand Out To Clients

Six Ways To Make Your Business Stand Out To Clients

Published by Troy Lambert on June 5, 2019

Running a business is not an easy thing to do. You have a lot of plates to balance, from clients you work with to the customers who want something from you. On top of that, you’ve got to keep the business running successfully and stand out among all the other companies in your industry. Every company will claim to be the best in their field, with the top customers being told that everyone is number one. You could spend all the time in the world building a brand that people can relate to, but that’s not going to make you the best in the world.

A big part of being the best business out there relies on your image and how people perceive you and what you do. So, you need to stand out from the crowd as best you can, with your brand and the way that you deal with people, you want to make your business stand out to your clients. Here’s how you can do it with six tips!

  1. Legendary Customer Service. Your people on the phone who are providing the customer service need to be perfect. They need to think they’re being treated like royalty – it’s the only way to create a loyal customer base who care about what you’re selling and what you’re doing for them. If you don’t have the right customer service, you’re not going to have customers at all.
  2. Face Mistakes. People love a business who own their mistakes and learn from them. If you make a mistake, publicize it, own it, apologize and move forward. You’ll be respected.
  3. Keep A Clean House. Your business location should be impeccable, from the carpets to the wiring. Everything should be ship-shape, particularly if you’re going to have customers and clients in the building. Bring in the right janitorial cleaning company, and you’re not going to have to worry about it anymore. Cleaning may be low on the agenda, but it’s a must!
  4. Stay Honest. Your customers deserve your honesty, so be as honest as possible about your services and products on offer. Don’t ever tell fibs about what you can offer; you WILL get caught out and pulled up on it, and that’s just embarrassing!
  5. Be Innovative. Coming up with new products and diversifying is essential for your development as a business. You want to continue to solve problems for your customers, and you can only do that with something impressive.
  6. Use Your Voice. Be the company that blogs with content stuffed with humor. Be the company that vlogs the silly days in the office and lets people see the real business behind you. You have a voice, and you should use it.

Each of these points will help you to impress your clients and make your business somewhere that they would want to interact. Take a moment and make a list: your business needs to make waves, and you have the power to do it.

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Should We Start A Business If We Don’t Like Our Jobs?

Should We Start A Business If We Don’t Like Our Jobs?

Published by Troy Lambert on June 4, 2019

We’ve all been there, endured that daily drudge to the office and thought to ourselves, why am I even here? If we don’t like our jobs, we start to think about what else we can achieve in life. As our brain starts to daydream more and more, we could very well think of pragmatic approaches to appease our frame of mind. Starting a business is one of those things that we will give consideration to for the very simple reason that we’ve got some control over our lives because we set the hours. But if we hate our jobs and we really think that starting a business is a viable approach, should we dive right in?

Plotting Your Course

You’ve still got to work hard at your day job but give yourself the space to plan every single particular of the business. Whether you want to start a business yourself from scratch or go for a home based franchise, these questions all need answering. The great thing about having a job that provides a steady income means that you can focus on what is feasible and remain pragmatic.

The Big Mistake Most Budding Business People Make

It’s that notion of time. We may very well feel that we’ve got to strike while the iron is hot, but if we jump ship from our current job and think this will give us the fear to put our plans into overdrive, the fact of the matter is there’s a lot that we don’t have control over. It can be very motivating to get a home office set up, and making it an efficient entity, but there are so many other things that have to align to make the business work, but also profitable. It’s far better for you to start planning your business when in the security of a job. And the added bonus of this is that you will feel a bit more motivation, so the daily drudgery won’t feel so bad.

You Have Something To Fall Back Onto

As exciting as it is to finally take control over your life, you’ve definitely got to think about if it will take off. Leaping from the security of a full-time job into something that will be considered risky could mean you end up with nothing. Your business could go down the tubes and you have no means of earning money if you leave your job. The best approach is to have your full-time job but also start your business as the equivalent of a part-time one or side hustle. That way, you are gradually building up your knowledge and skills on a part-time basis, and when it gets to the point that the business becomes viable, this can start to take over your life. And when it gets to the point that you are so busy you cannot realistically keep both aspects going, then you will have the confidence to say goodbye to your job.

Unfortunately, not liking your job isn’t reason enough to get going. But if the job is taking over your life in an unpleasant way, you should focus on getting a better job that will still give you some sense of accomplishment, but also enable you to push forward with your true passions.

 

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Improve the Performance of Your Business This Year

Improve the Performance of Your Business This Year

Published by Contributing Author on June 4, 2019

As a modern business, you should always be looking for ways of improving the performance of your business. This is something that is bound to improve the way the company comes across, as well as the success you might be able to enjoy. Do as much as you can to work on enhancing your performance, and doing as much as possible to take the business forward.

You have to look at what you can do to improve the company and focus on ironing out the creases when it comes to business management. There are a lot of things that you are going to have to make sure you focus on as an entrepreneur, and there are a lot of elements to the company that you need to make better. These are some of the best ideas you need to work on to improve your company this year and think about boosting performance levels as much as you can.

Become More Efficient

One of the most important things to keep in mind is how you can go about making your business more efficient this year. The great thing is that you have a lot of choices when it comes to trying to boost the company’s efficiency. You need to make sure you communicate better with staff in order to make sure they understand their business role more completely. It also means you should look at outsourcing (more on this later), as well as improving the digital footprint your business has.

Understand Your Customers Better

It is also crucial to make sure you understand your customers as much as possible too because this is going to have a big bearing on the success your company can have. Your customers are the lynchpin of business success, and the way to secure more sales and have a better customer relationship is to understand them better. This means looking at customer management software, and you might like to look at netsuite crm vs salesforce to see the best sorts of software that can help you get a reading on your customers as well as possible. This is integral to improving performance and understanding what your customers are looking for from your business.

Outsource More Tasks

As we touched on earlier, outsourcing is an absolutely integral part of making your company more productive and improving the performance of the business. There are so many things you can outsource nowadays, and you want to make sure you take a look at some of the best tasks for outsourcing this year. This is something that can free up a lot of time and money for your company, which will allow you to focus on improving other parts of it. Outsourcing is a key buzzword for modern business owners, and this is something to keep in mind if you want to improve business performance this year.

Hire the Best Talent

If you want to get the best out of your business, you need to have the best employees to help take the company further. This is something you have got to think about moving forward, and this means coming up with a strong recruitment strategy. You have got to be sure you are hiring the right people to fit your company, and this is essential. There are so many amazingly talented individuals out there, and you need to do as much as possible to make them a part of your business.Pexels

Digitize as Much as Possible

One of the other essential factors you need to get right is making sure you digitize your business as much as possible. This is something you will most likely get right moving forward, but you also need to make sure you are looking at how you can digitize as many different areas of the business as possible. This is something that you need to make sure you get right as a business owner moving forward. Digitizing all across the company is the best way of being able to take enhance the way the brand works.

Make use of these ideas when you look at improving the performance of your business, and this is something you have to work on moving forward. If you can make your business better and more productive, you are going to be able to improve and increase the amount of success you have. There are a lot of factors to keep in mind as a business owner, and these are some of the absolutely key factors to bear in mind when you are looking at how you can improve the performance of the company. A lot of this is to do with things like outsourcing, improving efficiency, and understanding your customers better.

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