Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. While it’s great to envisions all of the positives associated with owning a business, it’s important to consider the costs as well as they can come back to bite you. What are some of the unexpected costs of owning a business? The following contributed post is entitled, The Unexpected Costs Of Owning A Business.
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Choosing to start a business is not a simple decision. Although it may seem like it is at the time, there is a lot that you need to consider before you get the ball rolling, from the support of your family to the extra workload. You’ll also need to work out the cost. No matter what others may say, owning a business is very rarely cheap, and there are often many more expenses than you initially realize. With that in mind, here are five unexpected ones that you’ll need to plan for.
1. Research Expenses Before you can launch your new venture, you need to work out exactly what it is. While some people do decide to start a business knowing what they’re going to sell and who they’re going to sell it to, many others have absolutely no idea. If you’re with the latter crowd, you’ll need to conduct market research to give yourself some inspiration. This is something you can do yourself or delegate to a research agency, but, either way, it can end up costing you hundreds.
2. Employee Turnover We all know that recruitment can cost you big, but what few realize is just how expensive losing the employees you recruit can be. As well as having to repeat the costs of hiring someone new, you may also need to pay extra to cover the additional workload in the meantime. For this reason, high employee turnover can wreak havoc on any company. Thankfully, if you offer a welcoming work environment and competitive benefits, new hires shouldn’t want to move on.
3. Product Shipping Businesses who ship products to their customers rarely consider how much this can cost. In addition to packaging and postage, you may also need to invest in your own vehicle to transport goods and cover the costs that this will bring. Being on the road also runs the risk of an accident. That being said, a truck accident lawyer can help you get the compensation you deserve in this event. To cut shipping costs further, you can shop around for the best deals.
4. Inventory Shrinkage Any business handling physical products has to face inventory shrinkage at some point. This occurs when your goods are damaged, stolen, or otherwise lost before they can be sold and delivered to customers. Unfortunately, there is no way to eliminate this worry completely, but there are several things that you can do to reduce it. These measures include improving product management and investing in better security, such as security cameras and guards.
5. Equipment Maintenance We all understand we’ll need to invest in certain types of equipment to keep our businesses up and running. Computers, tablets, and other office technology is generally a must, but some enterprises require specialized and expensive tools too. While you’ll know to budget for these investments, you may not have planned for the cost of maintaining them. This helps to keep your equipment running smoothly, and is cheaper than replacing it, but still costly nonetheless.
In the world of business, money is everything, so make sure that you take care of yours by planning for the unexpected expenses listed above.
Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Not all businesses are the same and thus not all rules apply across the board. If you’re running a special type of business, you have considerations that other entrepreneurs don’t. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Helming A Business Involved In Sensitive Specialisms.
There are some types of business advice that could be considered universal, from top to bottom. This is usually the type of advice focused on those that sell products and services of some kind. For example, the fundamental tenets of opening a restaurant are likely considered similar, no matter what cuisine is on sale. Of course, sometimes there will be outliers, such as how to organize a successful line of food trucks, or considering just how wacky a three michelin star restaurant can afford to be.
But there are some businesses that might not be that open to the fundamental business advice required. For example, research and development initiatives, innovative incubators and a range of other investment-led propositions. Helming a business involved in sensitive specialisms can be truly difficult, and no matter your level of technical expertise could be considered overwhelming. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. While keen business sense is a universal principle, sometimes excellence is required as a fundamental standard.
This is fine, because if you’re hoping to begin or maintain an operation like this, you are likely excellent already.
Consider:
Recruitment
When stocking any form of business with good staff, you need to understand your requirements to the T. Odds are that if you’re running your own business, you have a technical level of proficiency in this area already. However, that isn’t always guaranteed, and in fact can sometimes lead a once-innovative business to ruin if not handled well. This means that if you do not have the level of specialist expertise, you must craft a board of individuals that include some who are. These will act as your technical advisors, helping you make the best decisions from the offset, especially where matters of working policy come in. They might advise you the delivery times expected as you manufacture new products, help you optimize and make your manufacturing line more efficient, among a range of other positive helpers that can truly make all the difference.
Recruitment hardly stops here. You also need to stock your company with high-intelligence, accredited professionals. But you must also reach out to those places that could potentially help you continue to bring in the intelligence your company needs for success. A brain drain can cripple a company involved in high-spec ambitions. Recruit at science universities or even begin a sponsorship program to allow high-achieving students with their scholarships. Develop youth training links as far as you can to potentially help build brand loyalty in your employees of tomorrow. This is how you can ensure the average skillset of your staff stays high, but you can also benefit from new, fresh ideas, develop comfortable and confident understandings surrounding
Your Vision
Your vision is important to get right. If you fail to do this, you’ll unfortunately fall behind. A business that is aimless is one that tries everything, but never the right thing. A business without targeted goals and deadlines for those goals has no measure of success. Simply ‘breaking even’ might be all you need to survive, but is that success? Unless you’re running a non-profit, most business leaders wouldn’t. To innovate you need to reinvest, to stay on the cutting edge, and have the versatility to experiment with new ideas. Without this added flexibility, it can be very easy to fall to the wayside.
Refining a vision is important. Changing it over time is possible of course, so don’t feel you’re limited to one direction. But you need to know why you’re here, and why your specialist product matters. How can you help explain it in an accessible manner to those who might not understand? What countries do you hope to sell in? Is this a specialist item for the use of knowledged professionals or is it going to be part of the consumer market?
What pedigree do you want to set for yourself? Will you have the longest-lasting item, the item with the most versatility, or perhaps the most refined and complex of all the products in that industry? What problems with your current industry and the products within it do you wish to solve and overcome given the time?
Feedback & Creativity
It’s important to blossom creativity as much as you can within your business. Part of doing so will help you continually understand what current expectations are, and how you might improve upon them. Never use customer expectations and understandings as a means to base your current method of innovation from. Always look to improve upon it, because you are the ones who should be presenting the new standard.
However, with this kind of interfacing with professionals in your field, with the customers you hope to sell to and perhaps with consultants from many different highly-refined specialisms, you will be able to better gauge the patterns of the industry. But it is always important to keep that window open. This is because even in innovation, you need to understand the purpose of why you’re innovating. Any competent firm with the ability to can get lost in its own hubris, developing and refining products that might not have much practical use in the industry. That is what your sideline experimental products are for, but there must always be a balance between feedback and creativity, from top to bottom.
Directed Aims
As we explained before, directed aims are important. But how do they manifest in your product or service development? Well, of course the aims are to provide a product or service that is capable and competitive with others on the market. But what format might this process take? Do you hope to have the most energy efficient production capacity compared to anyone in the industry? Do you pride yourself on your vetted supplies, on the in-house ingredients generated for each development? How about helping initiatives flourish such as those trying to mitigate the damage your industry is known for?
There’s always something positive to try and achieve, and while this is always worthwhile for its own sake, it doesn’t hurt your PR to engage in this either.
Equipment & Expectations
It’s important to ensure that you measure your equipment correctly. Your staff need to have cutting edge gear, especially in your R&D lab. A temperature and climate-controlled area with excellent sanitizing procedures before and after, extremely worthwhile health and safety equipment, important alarms to sounds if an issue occurs, protective and regularly maintained apparel, stocking yourself with an excellent chip kit collection, and ensuring your storage capacities are all extremely well-maintained is essential to helping your lab staff simply start with the fundamentals. Equipment changes depending on the type of research and experimentation is being conducted is essential. Finding the space necessary for this, sometimes in warehouse units, sometimes in office buildings or even underground could be incredibly important. This leads us onto our next point:
Security
When you’re involved in a highly innovative and specialized field, competition is stiff. Half a document of findings could be the smoking gun that allows another firm to try and innovate on your products before your patent is accepted, and could prevent you from taking the competitive edge you would have done. Security needs to be tight, because corporate espionage can be a real, definitive problem in these industries. Vet employees through and through before giving them any sort of clearance, and be sure to tailor your security access in layers, allowing only the most trusted and proven to reach the higher echelons.
Gate document access, secure and encrypt your internet traffic, and ensure devices are restricted from certain areas. Have your staff sign non-disclosure agreements and be sure to keep a competent legal team by your side to execute any lawsuits you have correctly. Lock your building well, and ensure that full security systems are installed. When a single piece of research could potentially gain you or lose you millions of dollars, you need to construct your business correctly from the beginning, to avoid any and all suspicious behavior from reaching its end-point.
Constant Market Research
While it’s essential to conduct your own research and to try to shape the trends of the industry, you must also research the industry through and through. This can be well achieved if you know what you’re doing. Not only must you research customer opinion as we have explained prior in this article, but you must try to understand every move your competition makes. For example, if a rival phone manufacturer releases a model that seems innovative, purchase some in bulk and deconstruct them. Try to get to the heart of the OS, or the design philosophy, or how it was marketed despite the apparent flaws. Learn from those around you, because they’ll almost certainly be learning from you. It’s in this way that you can stay on top of any and every element of the industry that might have otherwise evaded your understanding.
With these tidbits of advice, helming a business involved in sensitive specialisms is sure to be worthwhile.
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A lot of people work in the area of ‘contracting’, particularly with government agencies. When working in this sector, it’s important to know how to get repeat business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 3 Ways For Contractors To Get More Repeat Customers.
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If you’re a contractor, it’s the loyal customers that will sustain your business. If all of your customers are only using you once, you’re not going to have enough regular work to keep you going. But finding repeat customers is often easier said than done. If you find that you’re getting a lot of new customers but you can’t turn any of them into repeat customers, you’re getting something wrong somewhere along the line. These are some of the best ways to get more repeat customers for your contractor business.
This is very important. If you repair something for somebody and it breaks again 6 months down the line, they’re not going to call you again to fix it. In fact, they won’t call you for any other work they need doing either. That’s why it’s important that you do a good job that’s actually going to last. A big part of that is the materials that you use for the job. For example, if you’re doing some plumbing work and you buy cheap pipe and fittings, they’re likely to corrode and leak pretty soon. But if you buy decent quality black iron pipe fittings and copper pipe, the job will last for years to come. As well as good materials, you need to make sure that the workmanship is perfect. Don’t rush jobs to get the next one in and earn more money, it won’t work in the long run. Take your time and make sure that everything is perfect. You also need to be realistic about your own abilities and don’t take on jobs that you’re not really equipped to do. The work will be bad and you’ll lose the customer for good.
Build A Relationship
The work is obviously an important part of it, but you’ve got to remember that the customer is going to have you in their house, so they need to feel comfortable around you. If you don’t have a good relationship with your customers, they’re not likely to ask you back. Always make sure that you’re polite to customers, the way that you represent your company is very important. If you can offer a personalized service to each customer, you’ll build better relationships and they’ll be more likely to call you next time they need work doing.
Follow Up With Customers
If you finish the job and then don’t have any other contact with your customer, you’re missing an important part of the process. The aftercare is just as important as the work itself. You should always call up your customers a week or so after you’ve finished the job to make sure that everything is ok. If there are any small tweaks that need to be made, you should do it for free. By offering good aftercare to your customers, you can show that you’re invested in the work and you care about them. This is what people are looking for in a contractor so it’ll really help you to get repeat customers.
If you use these simple tips to get more repeat customers, your contractor business will thrive.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money. Whether you’re running a business or another class of organization, taking care of your employees is critical. Creating an environment where they feel as though their best interests are being considered will assure their loyalty to management. The following contribute post is therefore entitled, Your Most Valuable Resource: People & How To Take Care Of Them.
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The idea that you can have a successful company with happy customers and not treat your employees well is ridiculous. In fact, the whole systems works on a trickle-down effect, with happy employees supplying the best productivity and service, and so pleasing customers. Something that then leads to better profits. Happily, even if you haven’t thought of your business in these terms before you can significantly improve how you treat your employees with the advice elbow. Read on to find out more.
Leadership
Great leadership can make all the difference in how your employees feel about their work. Such leadership may not always be what you think it is either. In fact, it’s not about striding around the place barking orders or even having the ability to do all the tasks from top to bottom yourself. Instead, it’s about having a strong vision for your company both inside and out.
What this means so that you need to have an accurate idea of how you want your company to run internally and balance this with the successes and profit you make. You need to draw a line in the sand and decide that you will treat your employee with respect no matter what their role, and insist that they treat each other this way as well.
In fact, bullying, intimidation, and unpleasantness is often something that can degrade an employee’s work experience and job satisfaction. To that end, you need to have up to date policies that deal fairly with any instances of this as well. If you want our employees to feel happy and safe at work that is.
Safety
Of course, your employee’s safety is also crucial in terms of the task you are asking them to do. In fact, businesses have a responsibility to those that work for them. What that means is it’s crucial to be aware of any laws and guidelines concerning the type of tasks you need them to do.
In fact, even in an office environment, there is plenty to be aware of such as desk height and ergonomics as well as manual handling training. Where employees are shows how to move boxes correctly, so they don’t end up injuring themselves.
However, in more specific environments there are even more safety issues to be aware of. For example, when working with machinery the risk of employee harm is much higher, but it can be reduced by using items like cable housing and protective carriers. Something that you can visit Dynatect Manufacturing for more information on. A place where you can also find help with others ways that you can improve your machine process to increase its safe use and productivity.
The same is true when your workers are using construction equipment and heavy machinery too because these things have a partially high risk of causing harm or damage if they are not operated properly.
To that end, proper induction training courses for each piece of specialized equipment are needed, as well as regular refreshers at appropriate intervals as well. Clear signage to remind those that are working around such machines of the danger they pose, as well as the safety gear they need to wear are also vital aspects of looking after your employee’s safety in such environments.
Another way that you can show your employees that you care about their well being is by encouraging them to be as healthy and fit at work as possible. In fact, this is something of a new idea that is taking off, with many business offering exercise classes within work time. Some companies are even choosing to offer meditation or power nap breaks that allow people to rest and recuperate, as well, something that is also good for reducing stress levels.
Another way that many businesses can show concern for the physical well being of their employees is to install office furniture that encourages movement while working. This may include a standing desk, treadmills, and even balance ball chairs which are known to be excellent for posture and core strength.
Of course, all of these items do cost money, but what most smart employers realize is that if their workforce is physically more healthy, they are likely to be more productive as well. In fact, integrating such programs in a work environment can significantly reduce sick days and so boost company productivity, and save on cover over the long term as well.
Salary and Wages
People don’t tend to work for free, not unless they are lottery winners or secret millionaires that is, and that is why to show your care about your employees you need to offer them a decent salary and benefits package.
What that means is that the salary you pay needs to be comparable, if not better to your closest competitors in the market. Although, if you can’t match them in terms of cold hard cash, you may wish to consider introducing an excellent employee benefits scheme that includes discounted or free gym membership and other perks. Something that you will be able to purchase as a compare documented price and so will work economically for your business as well as for boosting morale.
Social
Lastly, if you want your employees to enjoy work and feel valued and so stay with you for as long as possible, creating a community atmosphere in the workplace is essential.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you ignore sensible guidelines about appropriate behavior at work, but instead it’s about introducing opportunities for workmates to spend quality time together outside of the office.
Some firms do this with regular social evenings, while others prefer team building activities like adventure weekends away. The idea being that not only does this strengthen bonds between individual employees and help them to communicate and get on better at work, but also allows people to feel more integrated and valued as well.
Something that can contribute to a feeling of belonging, and so help to boost your employees’ overall job satisfaction. It can even reduce your worker attrition rate, and so work out better for your budget as well.
After all, if people are your most essential resource, it’s crucial that you look after them in the best way that you can.
Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital age, many individuals are moving their products using an online store. If you have an online store, it’s important to be able to deliver your products as efficiently as possible. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 3 Important Changes You Need To Make To Your Online Delivery Process.
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A good shipping process is vital for online retailers. Customers have high expectations and they want their products to arrive as quickly as possible. Even if they love your products and the prices are great, they’re not going to come back to you if you make them wait a week for delivery. You’re not going to be able to match the next day or even same day delivery that the big companies are offering because you simply don’t have the resources to do it, but you do need to make sure that you’re getting products out as quickly as possible. You also need to make sure that you’re doing it in a cost-effective way and products aren’t getting broken in transit. It sounds tough, but if you follow these basic tips you can handle your shipping efficiently.
Supply chains are a difficult thing to manage and there are a lot of different steps to consider along the way. You need to get the products from the manufacturer delivered to your warehouse, then you need to pack them all and plan routes for your delivery vehicles. If this is your first business and you’ve never dealt with a supply chain before, you probably haven’t got a clue where to start. That’s why it’s a good idea to consult professional companies like the Moresby Group and get their advice. They’ll have a lot more experience than you and they’ll be able to help you set up and manage an efficient supply chain so you don’t make any costly mistakes.
Route Planning Software
Giving your driver a list of addresses and sending them on the way isn’t the most efficient way to handle your deliveries. Everything will still get there on time but it’ll take longer than it needs to and you’ll be using more fuel. But if you use route planning software, you can create the most efficient routes possible. That saves your drivers time, saves you money and makes your business more eco-friendly because you’re using less fuel.
Barcode Scanners
Picking items from the warehouse is quite a long part of the shipping process, especially if your employees are doing it all manually. You’re wasting so much time if people are searching the warehouse for products every time they need to load a shipment. That’s why you need to invest a bit of money in some inventory software and barcode scanners. Your employees will be so much quicker if they can scan their picking list and find out exactly where the products that they need are stored.
Consider Outsourcing
If you’re selling products on a large scale, it might be more cost-effective to run your own warehouse and shipping process. However, if you’re a relatively new business and you don’t make that many sales yet, you probably don’t have the capital for that. It’s also not necessary at this stage in your business career. Instead, you should consider outsourcing to a courier company. They’ll already have the infrastructure in place and the necessary experience to handle your deliveries in a timely fashion.
If you don’t have a good shipping service in place, you’re never going to get your online retail business off the ground.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Whichever kind of organization you’re running, taking care of your employees is key. If you do that, they’ll continue to give maximum effort. The following contributed post is thus entitled, More That a Cog: Show Your Employees That You Care.
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These days, employees want more than a paycheck from their employers; they want to feel like they’re part of something more important, to believe that they’re not just slogging away at a job so that a salary ends up in their bank account each month. Of course, money is a factor – a big factor – but there are others, such as knowing that their boss sees them as more than a cog in their machine. Showing a more caring approach doesn’t just affect your employees, either – it’ll be good for you, too, and the culture of the company. Below, we take a look at a number of ways you can become a more caring boss.
You’ve hired your employee to do a job for you, but that doesn’t mean that all of your interactions have to be solely about business. If they are, then you can’t have any complaints if they think you just see them as an expendable employee. Get to know your staff on a deeper level. No, that doesn’t mean you should spend every Friday night bar-hopping; it just means getting to know what makes them tick, what they want to achieve in life, what their dreams are, things like that. Their chief aim in life isn’t to work for you — but maybe you can help them along on their journey to wherever they want to go.
Give Trust
There are some bosses who really shouldn’t have hired any employees at all, since all they want their employees to do is whatever they’re told to do. They’re micromanaged to death, and when that happens, there’s no amount of personal chit-chat that can make up for what is painfully obvious — that the professional side of the employee’s life is of no importance. As such, one of the best ways to foster a deeper relationship is to give the employee the opportunity to do the job they were hired to do, without looking over their shoulder. It’ll be a big step along their professional journey, and you’ll have been responsible.
Sympathy
In the cold-hearted corporate world, you’re told to park your personal problems at the door when you arrive at work. This might work if the human switched to robot mode once they entered the workplace, but it’s not realistic if that’s not an option. If you’ve got a huge personal problem in your life, then there’s not much you can do about the influence it has on your life, nor should you need to. No-one likes a boss who puts the company’s profits above an employee’s personal problems. Show some sympathy, and do what you can to alleviate any problems that they may have, such as giving them extra time off from work.
Look After Their Health
Employees are working longer hours than ever before, and it’s beginning to take its toll. There’s been a sharp rise in work-related health conditions, especially those connected to mental illness and prolonged periods of sitting. This, of course, does nobody any good — not the employee nor the company. So put making sure your employees are fit and healthy at the heart of your employee wellness programs. If someone’s feeling the mental strain from work, give them a few paid days off. You can also initiate a telemedicine system at the office, so your employees can get their health virtually assessed by a professional. These types of workplace initiatives will, primarily, show that you care about your staff’s wellbeing, but also boost morale and reduce sick days, too.
Take Their Side
If you’re in business for long enough, eventually you’re going to have to deal with a rude or hostile client. Or, to put it another way, your staff may have to deal with such a client. Now, in business, it’s generally recommended to make believe that the customer is always right, but to do this, this may sometimes mean throwing your employee under the bus. Once you side with a client who was rude and in the wrong, you’ll have lost the trust, and most likely respect, of your employee. You do not have to take the side of a customer who is rude and insulting towards your staff — side with your employee, and tell the client that their business is no longer welcome.
Employee Perks
You are, of course, paying your employees a salary, which is hopefully relatively generous in the first place. But just think about how much money they’re making for you; it likely greatly exceeds their salary. While your staff will know that this is part of the deal of a job, a few employee perks that go beyond their pay are always appreciated. Even small things, like buying a few drinks at Friday happy hour, will be a good start. Treat them well, and they’ll treat you well — it’s the same in business as it is in life.
Tell The Truth
An employee will always be skeptical of a boss who says nothing but good things. And why wouldn’t they be? There are problems in every aspect of life, including business. If the boss isn’t mentioning anything contrary at all, then what’s the deal? Get into the habit of telling it to your employees straight. This could be about the health of the company, your expectations for their work, or any mistakes the employee has made. It’ll make the praise all the more believable. And talking of which….
Genuine Praise
Let’s never forget that employees are human, and, like all humans, like praise! So if one of your workers does something praise-worthy, then tell them. And don’t just say “good job” and punch them on the shoulder; tell them specifically what they’re being praised for, including what it was about their work that impressed you.
All In It Together
Finally, work hard to avoid any divisions between you and your employees. You do not exist on a higher plane to your “regular” workers, you’re just the leader of the team. Emphasize that you’re all in it together!
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Starting a business isn’t easy and it’s important to assess one’s self before starting down that road. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 5 Things to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Business.
More people than ever before are starting up their own business. They start businesses out of their own house, catering, baking, designing and creating. They begin online businesses like ecommerce stores. They turn their blogs into a business. They work as writers, designers, social media managers and virtual assistants online. People are still opening brick and mortar stores and salons. Some work alone, others employ staff. The internet has made things much easier to start up on your own, without lots of money or training.
This has, unfortunately, lead many people to think that it’s easy. They rush in with nothing more than an idea. They start with nothing, throw themselves in and quit their jobs straight away, believing that they’ll make a success of things quickly. They don’t realise how much time, effort and hard work goes into starting their own business and unfortunately, this means that many small businesses fail within the first year or two.
If you want to start your own business, great. There’s no reason that you shouldn’t. But, there are some things that you should ask yourself before you get going. Here are five of them.
If you are considering starting your own business, chances are you’ve already got an idea of what you want to do. But, it’s always a good idea to give it a little more thought and ask yourself more in-depth questions. If you’re going to sell a product, how? Will you create it yourself and sell it on existing sites like Etsy? Or would you rather launch your own website and store? If you are selling a service, do you need further training? Or do you already have the skills that you need? If you want to launch a real-world store like a salon or a shop, where will it be based?
If you don’t yet know what you want to do, write a list of your skills and ask yourself if anyone else would be willing to pay for them.
Do You Have Time?
How are you going to run your business? Will you quit your job? Or will you be working around another job? Do you have a family that needs you? Starting a business takes time and commitment, especially in the beginning when you can’t afford staff and you are doing most of the work yourself. Ask yourself if you’ve got time to commit before rushing in.
How Will You Finance Your Business?
Some businesses can start with very little. You might already have what you need to get going. Others, don’t. You might need startup costs or even small business equipment loans. Ask yourself how much you need to get going, and where it’s going to come from. Loans, investors, your own savings and crowdfunding are all options. If you face a loss of income while you start out, can your family cope?
Is There a Market for Your Business?
A big question that you need to ask is, do people want your business? Is there a gap in the market that you can fill? Is there too much local competition? What is your target market and where will you find them?
Is It the Right Time?
Look at your current situation. If you’ve got a young family, personal debts or a large mortgage, is this the right time? Or, would you be better taking the time to improve your personal finances first?
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Many people say they want to become entrepreneurs, but they don’t understand all that goes into becoming one. There are a host of other considerations involved than when being an employee. The following contributed post is there entitled, The Things People Don’t Consider When Becoming An Entrepreneur.
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When trying to become an entrepreneur, you’ll often find that people are only thinking about a few things, and nearly all of them are positive. People think about the money, the opportunities it could bring, and the general happiness of being their own boss. Does this sound like everything that’s going through your mind at the minute, or perhaps did go through your mind when you were setting up your business. But there really are some things that we know people just don’t consider when starting up their own business, for one reason or another. Perhaps the positives really do cloud the vision, and it becomes hard to see what the reality is behind it. Which is why we want to create this article for you, because we really do want to highlight some of the things you might not think about when becoming an entrepreneur. It’s not even if you’re just considering to become an entrepreneur, because we know that some of you reading this might actually already be an entrepreneur, and trying to deal with the scary realities yourself now. We want to make this journey easier, and we think the tips we’ve got below for you will do just that, so keep on reading to find out more.
There are some personal losses that you will feel alllll along the way of your business journey, and the first will start at the very beginning. The first loss you’re going to have will be financial, because we hope that you’re not just going to rely on the banks to give you a loan. Do this, and the money you could be racking up will drown you in the coming years. Unless of course you do become that successful entrepreneur that can control the money of their company without having to keep dipping back into bank money to move forward. So, if you’re investing so much money, you probably want to know how to make sure it doesn’t become a personal loss, and more a personal gain. Well, all you have to do is grow, grow, and grow some more. If you take it steady, seek out opportunities, and focus on getting your company name out there in every way that you possibly can, then you’re heading towards success already.
We think another big personal loss that people never seem to consider, is the loss of your time that you’re never really going to get back. You might think that your working life was restricting, but those of you who run your own business at the minute will know that your time just melts right away, and your main focus does become your business. All hours of the day are controlled by it, and if not because you physically have to do something, then because you’re thinking about it constantly. Don’t even get us started as to what it’s like when things start going wrong. You have all of these worries going on, and you just know how much is riding on it, yet you still have to try and balance normal life as well. Our top tip is to always communicate your fears with the people closest to you, and perhaps even have a business advisor on hand to help you through any of the tricky situations. Someones to talk to, and someone to guide you is actually going to be so beneficial.
The Problem Solving
Problem solving is something you’re going to have to become good at, but we don’t think people are actually prepared for how many problems they’re going to have to solve. It can become a serious issue for a business when there’s just so many problems present, but we think we have a few solutions for you. A big problem a company has is tracking what their employees are doing, and what they should be paid for. For example, some companies pay mileage if their employees are out on their road, but tracking actual business mileage can be hard. However, if you check out companies such as triplogmileage.com, you’ll find your solution to your problem. All you need is an app or software to track it for you, and you’ll find it’s so much more trustworthy than your employees. You also need to be able to track the hours they’re working, and we promise you there’s software for that to. We think that pretty much any problem you have can be solved with software, so check out what solutions you can find today!
Lingering Feelings
The biggest lingering feeling that every entrepreneur has to go through, is the one that they’re going to fail. It’s the feeling that your business is going to drop at the minute, and the financial weight is going to come crashing down on you. Because if you have a big investment from the banks and your business fails, you’re just going to have a whole world of problems to deal with. But these lingering feelings are something you’re most likely going to have to deal with everyday. The slightest change in your monthly profit, a slow day in the office, an employee leaving… it can all trigger these feelings. But, we think the best way to battle them, is to focus on turning them all into positives. If you know you’ve had a really slow month with your profits, figure out a plan that will ensure you more than make up for it the next month. If you feel like your business is becoming a little stale and that’s why you might not be able to attract as many customers, think of ways that you can jazz it up a little bit! We also find that business owners have the lingering feeling of success in their mind, which can only be a positive. If you always have that thought that you’re going to succeed in your mind, it’s going to be so much easier for you to have that drive to win. We think it pays for a business owner to be a little cocky in this respect.
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As with any field, the legal world is competitive. It’s thus important to understand how to set yourself apart from your competition. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Making Your Legal Practice More Enticing To Prospective Clients.
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Running a successful legal business requires a lot of dedication and perseverance. It’s an industry that fosters fierce competition, so you need to continuously reinvent your business plan in order to help your practice grow. Still, it can be difficult to turn heads when there are so many other firms with highly professional teams of lawyers in the market. You need to be unique in order to stand out from the crowd. What can you do to make an impact on the target market? Well, in this article, we’re going to discuss some ways in which you could make your legal practice more enticing to prospective clients.
Focus on your company culture. It’s easy to become laser-focused on clients when you run a law firm because your reputation is important. And it’s true that your clients are important – you need to become known for delivering an exceptional legal service to clients. People and businesses choose firms to represent them based on their success rate; it’s a highly competitive industry. But you need to start by improving your legal practice behind doors. You can’t deliver an exceptional service to clients and take the industry by surprise unless you have an exceptional team of attorneys to help you out. A strong workforce is important in any company, but law practices entirely depend on the legal expertise of their employees. You can’t just hire any average candidate, and you also can’t take your members of staff for granted (even if they are exceptional). You need to treat your team well and foster a strong company culture. Not all cases will be easy to solve, so you need employees who are going to work well together.
Additionally, you need a balanced workplace. Take a look at firms such as Ogletree Deakins which have taken huge strides forwards and achieved balance in terms of gender. This isn’t just to avoid workplace discrimination; it’s about creating a more diverse and varied work environment. In the legal industry, this is essential. Creativity is involved in unpacking many legal claims and protecting individuals. You don’t want a team full of employees who are carbon copies of one another. But it’s important that your team works together. You don’t want senior attorneys who make newer and less experienced attorneys feel stupid. This might cause newer members of staff to shy away from offering the full extent of their legal advice to clients because they’re afraid they’ll get something wrong. If your team is cooperative then everyone can learn from one another. In turn, you’ll create a team that can solve any legal problem or simply offer exceptional advice to clients by pooling together their expertise and experience.
Deliver customer service that is second-to-none. Again, this is important for any business in any industry, but it’s particularly important for legal practices. As stated above, you need an exceptional reputation if potential clients are going to trust you, and this starts with you impressing your current customer base. For example, you need to understand clients on a personal level. In other words, keep the technical legal jargon in your head and try to relate to them on a human level. Understand their problem or their concerns, depending on the type of legal representation they need. You might even be able to offer a more appropriate type of legal coverage or protection if you get to know them and their situation more thoroughly. This will give you a reputation as a business that cares about its clients. In turn, you’ll be able to make your business look more enticing to prospective clients.
Project the right message. Branding depends on more than a pretty logo. It’s about the message that a business presents to the target market. And in the legal industry, it’s vital to craft the perfect statement. As has been discussed throughout this article, reputation is important for legal practices. Clients put a lot of money and trust in attorneys. They’re not buying some menial and unimportant product; they’re buying a service that has value to them in more than just a monetary sense, whatever the field of practice in which you operate. A good rule of thumb is to keep quiet if you’re ever in doubt. Saying the wrong thing can really damage your company’s reputation. As a law firm, you are expected to say the right thing on behalf of your clients, so you need to prove that you can say the right thing on behalf of your own brand.
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Most successful business enterprises eventually reach a point where moving to a new location makes sense. A change of location requires a lot of thought and consideration. The following contributed post discusses this and is entitled, Heading To A New Commercial Premises In 2019? Here Are Some Things You’ll Need To Consider.
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Who knows what new heights of growth, prosperity and productivity 2019 will bring for your business? You may well find that this is a transitional year for you. A year in which you outgrow the limitations of your current business model, throw out the rule book and rewrite a new one as you go along. This can be extremely exciting and liberating… It can also be kinda scary! As you take baby steps down the path to sustainable growth you may feel like a novice all over again, grappling with the inherent challenges of growth like you’re still a year one entrepreneur.
This is all part of the learning curve of entrepreneurship and should be embraced. Take searching for a new commercial premises, for example. When you first started out and were trying to make waves in your community and industry, your selection criteria for a premises was probably pretty simple. The only real question was “what’s available”. Now that you’ve reached a period of growth, however, you need to think a little more strategically. You’ll need to consider…
Footfall
Not only will you have to consider footfall in a very general sense, you’ll also need to consider exactly which feet are falling as they pass your business. Do the passers by match your target demographic? The best market research you can do is position yourself outside for a couple of hours and take notes about the age groups, genders and groupings of people who pass by your prospective new place of business.
Surveying
Whether you’ll be moving into a purpose built commercial premises or making one from scratch on a newly acquired plot, you may need to consider the surveying needs of the project. These may have a knock-on effect on your budget and moving date. Potential surveying needs may include;
• Topographic surveys
• Property boundary surveys
• Zoning and land use investigations
• Subsurface utility mapping surveys
Knock-on effect on punctuality
Your new premises’ location may well have a knock-on effect on your employee punctuality and productivity. How easy is your new premises to get to from where they live? What is the parking situation like compared to where you currently do business? You may find that even if you’re able to find a spot in a great location in terms of customer footfall, it may be harder to get to and park in for your employees which could have a residual effect on punctuality and productivity, especially if employees wind up fighting over parking spaces.
Layout
Your premises’ layout can have a knock on effect on productivity and profitability whatever the nature of your business may be. For retailers, for example, it’s essential to have your store set out in a way that makes the products easy to find and showcase, while lending a sense of journey and progression as customers move around the store.
Security
Security is an important consideration for all kinds of businesses. Will your site be safe and secure from prospective thieves or saboteurs? Will the site have its own security staff or will you be expected to provide your own? Will the lease agreement prohibit the installation of CCTV cameras, fencing, window bars or other anti-theft measures?
Physical security is important, but let’s not forget digital security too. Premises using a shared Wifi network, for example, can face potential security risks that could compromise your data.
If you shop around for a new premises with the above in mind, you’re likely to find a great fit for 2019!
