Tag: Business

How Physical Advertising Can Increase Business Foot Traffic

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you own a brick-and-mortar business, you want to figure out how to get as much foot traffic possible into your proprietorship. The following contributed post is entitled, How Physical Advertising Can Increase Business Foot Traffic.

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Physical advertising can have a huge influence on foot traffic to your business. Physical advertising refers to banners, flags and billboard advertisements (non-digital), that people can see in the real world. Foot traffic is the number of people that visit a particular area, in this case your company location. Foot traffic to physical businesses will result in a direct conversion to customers in the same way you can expect on a website. Here’s how physical advertising can increase business foot traffic.

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Physically Signpost Your Business

Research suggests that 85% of people live within a five mile radius of your business. A physical sign will literally signpost your business to local residents, directing them to your location. A sign is a physical way of highlighting your presence in a specific area. Reputable services and high quality banners like this will help physically signpost your business to local customers. 90% of people that enter your business are usually attracted by a banner placed near your store.

The Science Of Advertising

Corporate events have always benefited from physical advertisements like banners and flyers. This is because physical advertising is scientifically proven to draw people to your location. In fact, what is known as ‘out of home’ or OOH advertising reaches 98% of the population and influences over 50% of these individuals every year. Out of home advertising refers to adverts people see when they go outside. With individuals spending as much as 70% of their time outdoors, they are more likely to see physical advertising than the digital equivalent for a high percentage of the time.

Brand Recognition

Brand recognition has a huge influence on foot traffic to your location. Brand recognition is successful when a customer has associated your branding or logo with your business. Physical advertising like billboards or banners can help expose foot traffic to your business, having a huge influence on brand recognition. The use of physical colored banners can even increase brand recognition by as much as 80%. Higher brand recognition usually translates directly to increased popularity and profits.

Increase Business Credibility

Physical advertisements can act as a boost to your business reputation. High quality physical advertising like banners, billboards or flags can show passing foot traffic that you are prepared to invest in your business. Good advertising can also signal to your customers that you are a credible and high quality business. Brand recognition and credibility combined can have a huge impact on foot traffic, as people usually tend to be drawn towards what they like and trust.

Consistent Digital Advertising

Brand consistency plays a huge role in both brand recognition and foot traffic to your business. If your physical and digital advertising is consistent, then any web traffic in your local area will convert to recognition of your physical advertising. Keep any logos, fonts and colors consistent in both your digital and physical advertising for maximum impact.

Have More Money To Invest In Advertising

Physical advertising is significantly cheaper than digital advertising, and it has a real-time physical impact. Investing in physical advertising leaves you with more money to spend on the quality of the advert, and the volume of the adverts to display in your local area. Physical advertising is considered less competitive than digital advertising, which is why there are fewer cost implications associated with purchasing a billboard or banner. They also last for longer than a digital advert which makes them automatically cost-effective compared to shorter digital campaigns.

Reputation As More Energy Efficient

Many banners and billboards are recyclable, whereas a digital billboard or advertisement costs a lot of energy to run for a comparatively shorter period of time. As many as 80% of millennials consider business environmental policies integral to whether they work with an organization. Through investing in physical advertising, you can reap the reward of additional foot traffic to a more environmentally sustainable business.

Conclusions

Physical advertising can have a real world impact on drawing foot traffic to your business. You are physically signaling to customers your location, boosting your brand recognition, and even boosting your reputation as a sustainable business. If you create a consistent and high quality physical and digital campaign, you’ll benefit from your physical banners even more. With more and more people going outside again this year, you’ll find people are more likely to see a physical advert rather than a virtual one. Try investing in a physical banner this year and see what impact it has on your business today.

How Does Cloud Disaster Recovery Service Work?

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. If you’re running a business or organization, you must think about protecting your data and back it up, even if you have cloud storage. The following sponsored post is entitled, How Does Cloud Disaster Recovery Service Work?

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How does cloud disaster recovery service work? This article explores cost-effectiveness, scalability, compliance requirements, and SLA. The benefits of cloud disaster recovery service may surprise you, and these benefits can help you determine if it’s the right choice for your business. To help you make the right decision, consider four questions before selecting a cloud DR service. This article was written for business owners looking to save money and applies to individuals.

Cost-effectiveness

A cloud disaster recovery service like https://portworx.com/kubernetes-disaster-recovery/ is a smart choice for businesses that need to bounce back from a cyber-attack or ransomware attack. Cloud backup helps minimize the time it takes to get back online, and it can also reduce the overall cost of a system failure. Unfortunately, while most companies recognize the need to use a disaster recovery service, only a tiny percentage of them do so. However, the benefits of this service far outweigh any cost.

The cost-effectiveness of a cloud disaster recovery service depends on many factors. Several factors to consider, such as the level of protection the service offers, its scalability, and the TCO of dedicated DR infrastructure. Some cloud DR providers have several tiers, and some are better suited for specific data types than others. As a result, a cost-effective cloud disaster recovery service will serve a wide variety of data loads, and it may even be more suited for some companies than others.

Scalability

With cloud disaster recovery, your organization can get the scalability and flexibility needed to meet its current and future recovery needs without causing a significant resource drain. Depending on your needs, a cloud DR service may include some or all of your organization’s infrastructure. In this case, your recovery provider should have options to tier the infrastructure with longer-term storage solutions. In addition, you can restore your data and infrastructure remotely.

To choose the right size, you need to determine how much capacity your business needs. There are two main ways to scale up or down. The former involves upgrading memory, storage, and processing power. A vertical approach to scaling usually has an upper limit, and rising beyond that can lead to downtime. The latter method involves:

• Adding more servers.
• Spreading the workload across these machines.
• Enabling scalability to meet your needs without significantly impacting performance.

Compliance requirements

A cloud disaster recovery service can protect your business’ data and resources, but how do you determine which one meets compliance requirements? This article examines the factors to consider when choosing a cloud DR service. To begin, select the type of data you’d like to protect. Do you need to protect sensitive data, or is it enough to ensure your business’s continuity? The answer to these questions can vary by industry and provider, but there are several key factors to consider when choosing a cloud DR service.

SMBs must adhere to specific regulations, such as the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). The requirements vary, but they all require cloud backup solutions to be secure and encrypt data. Also, under HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act), cloud backup providers must sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with their clients to provide backup services.

SLA

A good SLA for cloud disaster recovery service must specify what normalcy means to the customer. In other words, how quickly can the service be restored to the previous state? In short, what is a “recovery point objective”? This article will explore what that is and how you can find out if the provider is meeting its SLA. After all, when disaster strikes, you’ll want to know that you’ll be able to recover your data as quickly as possible.

When evaluating cloud disaster recovery service providers, it’s essential to look at SLAs for the different stages of the recovery process. For example, continuous replication is critical in cloud disaster recovery as a failure during the replication process could compromise the integrity of your standby backup system, thereby inhibiting the recovery process. So, in addition, continuous replication should be included in the SLA.

When Do You Need Help With Your Business Finances?

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. In addition to having a marketable and profitable idea, another major part of your business is managing its finances. It may not always be easy to do by yourself. The following contributed post is entitled, When Do You Need Help With Your Business Finances?

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Every business owner needs to have some money sense. It’s crucial to ensure that you’re not making decisions that hurt your business’s survivability. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to be making every single financial decision by yourself, nor to completely understand every bit of the complex economic underpinnings of modern business. Sometimes, it’s okay to ask for a little help. In fact, it’s recommended. But, when should you do it? Here are a few examples of when to consider it.

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When it ensures that you get paid

What could be more vital to the financial health of the business than to make sure that you’re getting the money that you’re owed? Depending on how you get paid by your customers or clients, almost every business could benefit from some kind of payment service. This might mean setting up a merchant account to ensure that you’re able to accept certain kinds of payments. If you get paid by invoices, then you should look at invoice software that can help you track the incoming payments across all of your clients, including the ability to automate reminders for those whose payment date is coming up very soon or those who are late. A lot of business owners let their clients go for too long without giving them the pay that they should be getting.

When it comes to your taxes

Every business has to pay taxes and the vast majority of them are leaving money on the table by not being as thorough as they could be. An effective tax plan could see you saving a lot of money through allowance and deductions that you might not know to take advantage of. As such, you should ensure that you make use of taxation services in the lead-up to tax season. Not only can you make sure that the taxman isn’t taking more than they should, but you can also make sure that you’re avoiding any red flags that could trigger an audit, putting you under the microscope and disrupting your ability to work.

When you don’t have enough time to do it all yourself

You need to stay on top of and manage your small business finances. However, that can be easier said than done when you’re running a growing business and having to wear a host of hats to make sure that everything gets done to standard. If that’s the case, you might want to consider hiring a bookkeeper. Bookkeepers don’t really do anything that a business owner couldn’t, they just allow you to free up your time so that you don’t have to worry about it as much. It’s much better than letting your record-keeping, cash flow tracking, and other vital financial tasks go to the wayside.

Simply put, getting help with your business finances is always better than being unable to manage something related to them. Whether it’s something outside of your expertise or you simply don’t have the time to go over the books all of the time, there’s nothing wrong with getting some help.

Vehicle Tax Deductions For Business

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re running a business and it involves the use of a vehicle, you must consider what vehicle tax deductions you can take advantage of. The following sponsored post is entitled, Vehicle Tax Deductions For Business.

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Taking the maximum deduction from your business car payments is crucial for maximizing your return. This article will discuss Section 179 deduction, Bonus depreciation, Actual costs, and leasing options. To make the most of your deduction, it’s best to own the vehicle instead of leasing it. However, if you can’t afford to buy a new car outright, you may want to consider leased cars. To know more about that, you can visit different websites. A good example is MIle IQ.

Section 179 deduction

You may be eligible for Section 179 vehicle tax deductions if you are a business owner. The deductions are based on your net taxable income for the year and can be as much as $510,000. However, if you use a vehicle for work, you can only take advantage of this deduction if you purchased it for business purposes. In addition, the deduction cannot exceed your net income for the year.

The Section 179 deduction applies to vehicles purchased for business use. You can claim a percentage of the cost of the car on your tax return, as long as you are using the vehicle for business purposes. However, most employees cannot take this deduction. This deduction was suspended for most employees when the law was passed in 1997. Some exceptions to the rule include Armed Forces reservists, qualifying performing artists, state or local government officials, and people who have disabilities that limit their ability to work.

Bonus depreciation deduction

A vehicle must be used for at least 50% of its life to qualify for a bonus depreciation deduction. If use decreases to less than 50% within the five years, the deduction must be returned. To take advantage of this deduction, tracking mileage is necessary. Heavy vehicles are eligible for bonus depreciation deductions because they have a gross weight of more than 6,000 pounds. To calculate weight, check the manufacturer’s website.

Those who own a new business vehicle or plan to replace a used car can take advantage of a bonus depreciation deduction. This deduction is available to businesses, including small business fleets, delivery services, and specialty vehicles. The maximum deduction is $1,040,000 per year for a business, and you must have purchased the vehicle by December 31. In addition, it is essential to note that a company must show positive income for the year to qualify for a bonus depreciation deduction.

Actual costs

You may be eligible for a vehicle tax deduction if you’re running a business. In this case, you can deduct the business portion of your car-related expenses, including gas, oil, repairs, and tires. Your mileage and insurance costs can also be deductible. You can even claim depreciation expenses. As long as you keep careful records, you may qualify for a larger vehicle tax deduction than you otherwise would.

To calculate your vehicle tax deduction, you need first to determine your mileage. The standard mileage rate deduction is designed for the average vehicle. A heavier driver may qualify for a higher deduction. But an economical vehicle will typically cost you less. For example, if you drive twenty-two thousand miles per year for business purposes, you can claim a deduction of $12,320. According to AAA, a typical vehicle costs $11,278 per year.

Leasing options

Were you considering vehicle leasing? Here are a few advantages to consider. First, you can write off the lease payment. If you use the vehicle for business purposes, you can claim a larger deduction for the lease payment. Second, leasing is much cheaper than purchasing a vehicle. Third, the monthly payments are much more affordable. And, you’ll never have to worry about mileage limitations. If you need a luxury vehicle, leasing might be the way to go.

Leasing options for vehicle tax deductions allow you to take advantage of a broader range of vehicle expenses than purchasing a car outright. For example, you can deduct your fuel, insurance, and tire costs as business expenses. Additionally, you can deduct maintenance and repair costs as well as depreciation. However, you must make sure you lease a vehicle for at least 30 days to qualify for this deduction.

Want To Protect Your Small Business? Read This Guide Now

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Once you start successfully running a business of any kind, you must next start thinking about how to protect it. The following contributed post is entitled, Want To Protect Your Small Business? Read This Guide Now.

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Running a small business takes an enormous amount of time, money and energy, so it’s vital that you can take the opportunity to protect all of your hard work by implementing the most effective security measures. Thankfully, this guide contains an array of innovative ideas and handy hacks that you can make the most of to protect your small business like never before. So, if you’re interested in finding out more, then simply read on.

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Explore The World Of E-Safety

In today’s modern world, every business needs to channel considerable efforts into e-safety. There are so many different risks online that could cripple your business, from viruses to scammers and hackers, so you need to take the time to prevent such dangers from putting your company in harm’s way. One of the worst web-related problems that you can encounter as a result of lacking e-safety efforts is a data breach, as a hacker could gain entry to your data stores and business files to use them for criminal activity. They could subsequently access your commercial bank account, steal customer data for identity related crimes and so much more, ruining your reputation and potentially even leading you down the path of legal action. You could be sued due to your lack of data protection, so there’s no time like the present to up your security online! Install firewalls, use complex passwords and tell your staff never to visit personal websites on company devices – these are where most threats lurk. Regularly run antivirus software to clean your system of any suspicious activity and data, and make sure you take extra steps to encrypt your data to promote ultimate security.

Protect Your Premises

Protecting your physical premises should be your next priority, as there are a number of risks that could cause reputational and financial damage to your business. For example, if your security simply isn’t tight enough, then a criminal could easily gain unauthorized access to your property and subsequently steal or destroy anything they please. A good step to take would be installing CCTV cameras, as they can deter criminals from attempting to access your business as they will be recorded and therefore potentially identified. You can also choose to employ a security guard to watch your cameras and act if anything suspicious occurs. In addition, installing a good locking system on external doors such as the mul t lock mt5 that can promote extra safety. Such secure locks are much harder to bypass, so you can rest easy knowing your small business is as secure as can be.

Protecting your small business has never been so simple when you can take the time to utilize some of the brilliant tips and tricks that have been detailed above! Keeping your hard work safe and sound is vital, as you have likely spent countless hours building your small business to its current thriving state. Start by implementing extra e-safety measures, and be sure to protect your physical premises too.

4 Things You Must Do Before You’re Ready To Run A Business

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Many people want to start and run businesses but don’t have the fundamental skills or knowledge sets. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Things You Must Do Before You’re Ready To Run A Business.

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Are you considering setting up and running your own business? Perhaps you have a great idea that you know you can transform into a successful business venture. If that’s the case, then you do need to approach this the right way. Here are some of the key steps that we recommend you explore.

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Build Your Knowledge

Anyone can run a successful business. This is true but you increase your chances of success if you build up the right knowledge. The reason for this is that you’re seen as a lower risk by investors and customers who might be interested in your company. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you do learn how to be an entrepreneur. If you do this, then you can make sure that you understand what it will take to make your business successful while also getting information about the common pitfalls new business owners do tend to fall into.

Expand Your Network

Another key stpe that you can’t miss is building up your network. No man is an island and that’s certainly true for business owners. To run a successful business, you need to make sure that you are connected to the right people. If you don’t have these types of connections, then you’re always going to struggle to make your company a success. You can use social media to build up your network. Or, you can use contacts that you have already made in previous positions that you have held in the past.

Create A Personal Brand

Next, you should consider creating a personal brand. While your business idea is important, this is often going to be just part of the puzzle to making your company successful. You need to give customers or clients someone who they can connect with and feel like they know. This is why it’s important to start building up your personal brand before you even think about creating a business brand identity. Start getting more active on social media and perhaps consider writing some guest posts for blogs that relate to your chosen business industry.

Find Funding

Finally, you may have heard in the past that you can run a business with no money in your account. Well, this isn’t the case. You’re always going to need funding to run a business, no matter how small your business model is. On average, you will need to save about three thousand for an online business. If you are interested in running a brick and mortar company, then you’ll need closer to ten grand. The good news is that there are lots of funding options that could be worth exploring. For instance, if you think your business is highly marketable and has wide appeal, then crowdfunding could be the right choice.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key things that you must do before you will be ready to run a business. By exploring these options, you can guarantee that you are giving yourself the greatest chance of finding success on the market.

Outsourcing: Signs It’s Time To Start

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Depending upon the type of business you’re in, you may need to consider outsourcing in order to continue your operations and or to scale upwards. The following contributed post is entitled, Outsourcing: Signs It’s Time To Start.

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When was the last time you thought about getting some help in your business? We don’t mean hiring a temp to get through data entry, but outsourced, specific and expert help to ensure that your business can comfortably meet its goals? Running and being the leader of your own business takes a lot of time, and as the owner you are going to have to recognize when you need to pull in extra pairs of hands for help.

Outsourcing can be the best option for a range of different functions, whether you are an insurance company looking for help from resources like Green Leaf FMO, or whether you need additional IT support. The options can often feel limitless with outsourcing, so it’s understandable that you might find it difficult to know where to begin. Below, we’ve got a short list of the signs that it might be time for you to start looking at outsourcing for your business.

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  1. You have way more work than you do time! You cannot possibly know everything about everything and that’s okay – you’re not supposed to. It’s a good problem to have a lot of work because it shows that your business is booming. The unfortunate thing is that you can’t handle every single thing on your own. So, instead of waiting to handle it all, outsourcing can make the biggest difference to what your business needs.
  2. You are on the right track for growth. If you are heading toward meeting your goals, you’re on the right track. However, if you are on track for growth but you can’t do it alone, then you have to consider outsourcing for that additional help that you need. Finding someone to support your marketing needs or your content needs is not a bad decision. In fact, it’s the smartest choice that you could make for your business to succeed.
  3. You’re struggling to add new services. If you are looking at ways in which you could add new services, you might need additional support to market those services and that means that you need to outsource. Expanding your team is one of the best things to do to support and enhance your business. You might be more limited in what you can do, and if that’s the case, asking for expert help is smart.
  4. There are some business tasks you could do without doing. There are always those jobs in a business that people hate to do. It’s not because they’re not good at it; you could be excellent! The thing is, these are the tasks that are boring and uninteresting. You could pass these off to those that are experts in what they do, and clear your plate of the things that you dislike doing.

If you haven’t done it before, then outsourcing is going to feel a little like you’re getting someone else to run certain areas of your business. The truth is that’s precisely what’s going to happen – but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Your business will benefit from the help!

Why You Need a Website and Social Media Platforms for Your Business

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In our current digital age, more and more business is being conducted online. Even if you have a brick and mortar business, you’ll need a social media presence and a website in order to compete. The following guest post is entitled, Why You Need a Website and Social Media Platforms for Your Business.

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In this day and age, having a website and social media platforms for your business is essential. More and more people are using the internet to find businesses and products, so it’s important to make sure that your business is easily accessible online.

If you are thinking of building a website, you can pay for web design services. If you want to have social media platforms, you can create accounts for free on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Having a website and social media platforms is important because it allows customers to learn more about your business and what you have to offer. It also allows customers to connect with you directly, which can lead to more sales. Additionally, having a website and social media platforms can help improve your search engine ranking, which means that more people will be able to find your business online.

Why Are Websites Important?

Websites are important because they allow businesses to reach a larger audience. A website can be accessed by anyone with internet access, regardless of where they are located. This makes it a great way to promote your business and products to a global audience. Additionally, having a website gives customers a place to learn more about your company, which can lead to more sales.

Why Are Social Media Platforms Important?

Social media platforms are important because they allow businesses to connect with customers directly. Customers can learn about new products and promotions, and they can also provide feedback about their experience with your business. Additionally, social media platforms can help improve your search engine ranking, which means that more people will be able to find your business online.

What Makes A Good Website?

Below are the things that make a good website:

Accessibility

Your website should be easy to access, regardless of the device that is being used. This is because not everyone uses the same device to access the internet. Your website should be accessible on desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

Design

Your website should have a professional design that is easy to navigate. The layout and graphics should be appealing to customers and reflect the image of your business.

Functionality

Your website should be easy to use. All of the links should work properly, and the pages should load quickly. If there are any errors on your website, they need to be fixed immediately.

SEO

Your website needs to be SEO friendly in order for it to rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that you will need to include keywords and phrases throughout your website content and metadata. You will also need to set up proper redirects and use canonical tags.

How To Use Social Media Platforms Effectively?

Below are the ways that you can use social media platforms effectively:

Create Interesting Content

Your social media posts should be interesting and engaging. They should also be relevant to your target audience. You can use images, videos, and text to create content that is appealing to customers.

Engage With Customers

You should engage with customers by responding to their comments and questions. This will help build a relationship with them and show that you care about their feedback.

Promote Your Products And Services

You should use social media to promote your products and services. You can post images, videos, and text about your products and services in order to generate interest from customers.

Monitor Your Results

You should monitor your results so that you can see how well your social media campaigns are performing. This will help you determine which strategies are working and which ones need to be changed.

Benefits Of Having A Website And Social Media Platforms

There are many benefits of having a website and social media platforms for your business. Some of the benefits are listed below:

• A website allows businesses to reach a larger audience.

• A website can be accessed by anyone with internet access, regardless of where they are located.

• A website gives customers a place to learn more about your company, which can lead to more sales.

• Social media platforms allow businesses to connect with customers directly. Customers can learn about new products and promotions, and they can also provide feedback about their experience with your business.

• Social media platforms can help improve your search engine ranking, which means that more people will be able to find your business online.

• You can use social media platforms to promote your products and services

In this day and age, it is important for businesses to have a website and social media platforms. These platforms allow businesses to reach a larger audience, connect with customers directly, and promote their products and services. Having a website and social media platforms is essential for any business that wants to be successful in the modern world.

Effective Ways To Enhance Operational Resilience In Your Business

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The business world is literally full of peaks and valleys, and ups and downs. How you bounce back from the downs will predict your success. The following contributed post is entitled, Effective Ways To Enhance Operational Resilience In Your Business.

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In an ever more competitive market, customers continue to demand the best from the business they work with. This means that even during a crisis they expect the products they have paid for to be delivered. The good news is that by boosting operational resilience in your business you can maximize the chance that this will happen. Read on to find out more.

Establish a company-wide operational resilience process

Most businesses now understand that to be successful over the long term they need to have contingency plans in place. Unfortunately, the main problem with such plans is that they aren’t unified and cohesive across the entirety of the business, something that means they are harder to implement and can be less effective too.

The good news is that by using Business Continuity software, something you can learn more about by clicking the link, you can ensure that your company stays ready for any surprises that come its way. Indeed, by using Business Continuity software you can better manage the planning, impact assessment, and even the crises themselves!

Know your dependencies

Often the delivery of a product or service to a customer will depend on specific things, like subject matter experts, a specific location, and particular supplies, and without these things, there will be significant disruption. That is why it is so important to identify any dependencies your deliverables may have and have a plan B in place for when they are in crisis.

Favor proactive prevention

When it comes to operational resilience prevention is always better than cure. This means that your company will need to take a proactive approach, not just having a process in place for when crises do occur but also actively taking steps to prevent them from coming to fruition in the first place.

There are many ways to do this, but among some of the most effective are making sure that any changes are managed effectively, so they do not end up triggering a disruption. Additionally, segmenting critical IT systems can be helpful, as it means that even if one is compromised, the rest of your infrastructure will continue to operate.

Practice dealing with disruptions

Having a process in place for when a crisis occurs can help a great deal with operational resilience. However, those putting the process in place need to be able to do so calmly and effectively. This means that they need to have practice with a range of disruptions and crises, and running simulations for this purpose is an excellent idea.

Just be sure that you run these simulations at the top as well as the middle level in your business. After all, while it’s the middle managers that will often be left to deal with disruptions, anything of a serious nature will require the input of your top-level management as well. Indeed, if your CEOs and MDs can deal with a crisis in a calm way, this will only serve to have a positive impact on all those working below them.

Take nothing for granted

It’s essential to make sure that you optimize all levels of your business, and you can do that by conducting internal audits and reviews to make sure everyone, absolutely everyone, is pulling their weight. For instance, the board review process can help you better understand key metrics at the executive level of your company and the decisions it makes.

When you take nothing for granted in this way, there’s no limit to the capabilities of your firm, and its possibility to adapt to the presence moment.

How A Quality Management System Can Help Your Business

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As your business grows and evolves, it’s needs will change, especially if it expands and scales upwards. The following contributed post is entitled, How A Quality Management System Can Help Your Business.

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A Quality Management System (QMS) is a collection of workflows and documents that outline how you achieve quality in your business. The main goal of a QMS is to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction and continually achieve and improve upon quality standards throughout your business processes.

What constitutes ‘quality’ is determined by the needs of your customers. A QMS helps to document current customer requirements and outline how your business goals will help achieve those needs. It also helps you identify how customer needs evolve and continually adapt your business at the same time.

This article will look at how a QMS can help your business.

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QMS Certifications Add Credibility To Your Business

Quality is the process of consistently achieving high standards, and a QMS certification acts as proof you can achieve quality. The international standard for a QMS is defined through ISO 9001 guidelines. These guidelines outline a high quality QMS as one which has a strong customer focus, process documentation, continuous improvement, and the ability to involve and engage high ranking management.

The ISO 9001 is set out by the International Standards for Organization (ISO), but is awarded by certified national bodies. As an example, the AS/NZS ISO 9001:2016 is a form of the ISO 9001 awarded by the Australian Standards agency. Each government or agency may have their own ISO 9001 accreditation, but the agency must be certified themselves by the ISO.

Of course, not all businesses rely on QMS certification. But you can use similar services such as leadership training, teacher coaching, or professional onboarding tactics to enhance the overall employee and management strategy and processes at your private business.

A QMS Allows You To Replicate Quality Time And Time Again

A series of documents outlining your processes will allow you to achieve quality time and time again. Documenting a successful workflow will help you consistently achieve high customer satisfaction again and again. Once you’ve documented your processes, it’s also easier to note where workflows can be improved upon in future. A QMS will help you streamline your workflows and make quality a standard part of your business. Your company will be more streamlined over time as efficiency improves.

A QMS Can Help You Save Money

A QMS can help you identify redundancy in the workflows, ultimately saving you money. Are there parts of the process that can be better automated with new systems? Does a certain task simply not add value to the customer? Studies as early as 2008 show that simply following ISO 9001 advice resulted in increases to employee wages and an overall decrease in errors and injuries. A QMS can help to avoid costly mistakes and ultimately even benefit the employees that work for the company.

A QMS Can Increase Employee Engagement

As well as a QMS increasing efficiency and potentially even wages, a QMS can also increase employee engagement. An employee that understands their role in achieving quality will be more engaged and ultimately more productive at work. If an employee has a detailed understanding of how they are involved in company success, they will ultimately be more motivated to help achieve company goals.

Be More Likely To Win Clients With A QMS

Some customers may require you to have a QMS before you’re even invited to bid on a project. For other clients, it might give you an edge over other businesses, especially if you’re competing against other SMEs. In some sectors, like healthcare, a QMS might be a mandatory requirement for your business to grow. In others it will help your business stand out from the crowd as a USP.

A QMS Makes Your Business More Scalable

During times when a business is rapidly expanding, a QMS can help you achieve improvement through having your existing processes documented. If you have a rapidly growing or changing business, without a QMS there are no documented workflows or ways to achieve scalability. A QMS means that all your processes are accessible to new and existing employees. This will also help achieve cohesion between teams, as each individual will be aware of their part in the workflow and overall company structure. As your teams grow, a QMS will act as a foundation for capturing your process and allowing for continuous improvements over time.

Conclusion

A QMS is a great way to document your processes for achieving high standards. It allows you to make your business more efficient in terms of time and financial savings. It also acts as a badge of credibility for new and existing clients, to help your client-base grow. Employees may benefit from increased understanding of their role and even higher salaries, which will boost their morale and productivity. Ultimately a QMS is a vital step in growing and maintaining success during times of business expansion and change.