Author: Pamela Swift

Categories
Online Business

How to Successfully Manage a Remote Business from Anywhere in the World

Article Contributed By Alex Schnee

How and where your workplace is has changed drastically over the past few years. As remote work becomes a popular option for large corporations and small start-ups alike, you might be wondering how it’s possible to manage so many different aspects of a business while in various locations. Fortunately, there are a number of tools that can help you make the switch a more remote-friendly working space.

Here are some ways you can successfully create a business that works from around the world.

Hire the right people

Some people love to head to the office on a daily basis. They love the idea of meeting with coworkers and sharing space with others. That fuels them to work with others and to come up with positive solutions to many problems. Others feel more productive in their own spaces and welcome a chance to work from home or a separate office. When you hire new workers, you want to know that they are doing their jobs—even if they aren’t being constantly monitored. It takes a special kind of person to be self-motivated enough to accomplish their tasks without being prompted.

Have the right tools

Your employees will need to have access to a number of files that might have been available in an office environment. This might mean that you have to move documents online, have programs that allow employees to access files, and that help you to keep in touch with one another. This might mean that you have to purchase some of these tools or learn to work with free ones. Even free programs like Google Docs can work if they are used correctly for your business.

Be flexible

Having remote workers around the world means that you might need to be a bit more flexible with due dates and the time that your workers are available. Different time zones and schedules means that you might have to require a certain amount of hours logged each month, but you can’t expect employees to be online during the hours that work for you. Flexibility is incredibly necessary when you are looking to create a business that is based in multiple locations. You also have to be willing to meet employees where they are at.

Encourage creativity

Like being a flexible business owner, you also have to be willing to think outside the box a little bit and to encourage employees to think of creative solutions to problems. The issues you run into as a remote business are probably much different than the ones you would face if you had a home office where you could see your employees in person every day. You want to be in a place where you can encourage your workers to have a stake in the company and to think of new and innovative ways to approach any issues your business is facing.

Be open to offering benefits

Loyal employees can be earned in a number of ways. Just because your employees work remotely doesn’t mean that you can’t offer them reasons to enjoy working for your company. This might mean providing health benefits (or at least a stipend), offering to pay for continuing education, or giving them time off when they ask. Remote work isn’t an excuse for making things cheaper for you—it also means that you still need to think about your employees and how you can help them do the best job they can.

Switching to a remote environment can be beneficial in a number of different ways. However, before you make the change, think about how you can do it seamlessly and successfully.

Categories
Starting Up

What I Learned from Multiple Failed Startups

Article Contributed by Jenn Livingston

Startups are great ways to enter the professional scene and make your name heard around the world. Nevertheless, they can be difficult to execute correctly in high-pressure situations. There are many lessons to be learned from failed startups.

Impressions

When you are trying to promote a startup, you will inevitably come into contact with many other executives. If your startup eventually fails, do not worry about leaving a bad impression. Your first impression is usually perfectly fine, but other aspects of the startup are unsuccessful. Continue to put your best foot forward when meeting new CEOs and presidents. It is a common mistake to be turned off by failed startups. The truth is, your first impression is the best you can do at that moment. When things are out of your control, you should not worry about them until they become relevant. Make your name heard and don’t worry if your initial portrayal does not work out. In this industry, a lack of confidence is one of the worst traits a leader can have. You need to be decisive and confident in everything you do. From handshakes to text messages to apparel, a solid image can go a surprisingly long way. It is worthwhile to compare your demeanor between startups and how it changes over time. Tracking your disposition is one of the most clever ways to make progress. At each failed startup, you will show improvement and eventually stray away from a hesitant outlook. I learned this lesson the hard way, but by starting now, you can avoid these simple mistakes.

Following Up After the Failure

Failure can be difficult to deal with. Nevertheless, it is important to follow up after the incident instead of completely abandoning the project. I see a lot of young entrepreneurs noticing success and immediately moving on to the next project. While this might save a small amount of time, you won’t be able to recover lost data and information. You also won’t learn from your mistakes. When I encountered a failed startup, I would take the next few days to reflect on what went wrong. Did I overcommit to one entity? Did the project have a misguided direction? By jotting these mistakes down in a notebook, I was able to look at this for future reference and fix my errors. You can take a similar approach with multiple failed startups. Send as many as emails as possible to employees, officers, and clients. With the right documentation, you can again track progress and make a firm statement.

Importance of Recruitment

Recruitment is at the foundation of every startup. In the past, I used to neglect this step in favor of a speedy hiring process. This is completely wrong. A steady recruitment session is necessary to determine the best workers for your startup. There are many ways to go about this process. If you are familiar with the strongest marketing techniques, you can use this as a basis for recruitment. Young entrepreneurs much like yourself will flock to the startup to prove their worth. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is another fantastic strategy. When you outsource communication, you make it much easier for contacts to find your business in a heavily populated sea. In our world of market drivers, material analysis, and market overviews, it is important that you approach such a problem from multiple angles. After multiple failed startups, I decided that this technique is one of the best ways a young leader can take charge.

Conclusion

A failed startup is not the end of the world. If you treat these as learning experiences and take their lessons into your career, you will improve as a professional. Eventually, your failed startups will turn into successful ones and you will be on track for a lifetime of excellence.

Categories
Operations

5 Things You Can Outsource to Make Your Small Business More Efficient

Article Contributed by Brian Zeng

Running a business as an entrepreneur is no mean feat. Acquiring new clients, managing the existing ones, supervising the employees, looking after the expenses, and several other crucial tasks need to be juggled. It is imperative to shed the load of some activities to shift focus to the growth of the business. Outsourcing  certain services not only offers continuity of business, but also helps in risk management and managing operational expense control. With fewer things to handle, outsourcing improves your work-life balance as well.

Here are five tasks that you can easily outsource and contribute to your business growth extensively:

  1. Administrative Tasks

Various administrative tasks such as data entry, appointment scheduling, and making travel arrangements can consume most part of your time daily. While administrative services are essential for the smooth functioning of your business, they don’t constitute as the core activities. Outsourcing them to a virtual assistant or administrative service agency helps you save a lot of time to focus on the strategic aspects of your business.

  1. Social Media Management

Managing an effective online presence is vital to the existence of a business in the modern era. Social media management alone involves tremendous expertise and complete dedication. Outsourcing it to a specialized agency takes the load off the entrepreneur and allows him to focus on core business areas. Not only social media management, digital marketing also involves various critical tasks such as A/B testing, web analytics, search engine optimization, and more. Outsourcing these jobs allows entrepreneurs to get specialized services and adds value to your brand.

  1. Content Services

With an increasing number of people searching for businesses through search engines and mobile devices, it is important for entrepreneurs to create content that makes it easier for customers to find your business. Professional content writers understand the importance of the right communication strategy and use SEO-friendly language to help your business reach prospective customers. Outsourcing content services to specialized agencies or freelancers doing remote jobs allow entrepreneurs to avail expert services and enhance their business prospects.

  1. Design and Maintenance

Creating a powerful Web presence involves a series of crucial tasks requiring specialized services. Web design, while being an extremely crucial part of your company’s presence, is tremendously time-consuming. It requires the expertise of website hosting, HTML/CSS coding, wire framing and designing, hosting services, and a lot more. Maintaining the website is a continuous process, involving troubleshooting tech issues, regular upgrades, additions, and improvisations. This is a specialized area of business, but it may prove to be costly to have a full-time employee for this function. Outsourcing design and maintenance services make it easier to avail professional services at cost-effective rates.

  1. Payroll and Taxes

Specialized accounting firms/individual professionals can help take care of the financial aspects of the business such as invoicing, accounts (receivable/payable), bookkeeping, creating and analysing financial reports, and managing taxes as well. Whether your company has 5 or 50 employees, payroll processing alone is an extremely demanding job in terms of time, money, and expertise.

Also, payroll is a potentially risky and complex business function. There’s always the risk of identity theft and funds embezzlement for personal gain, even with the most trusted employees. Outsourcing payroll allows entrepreneurs a safe haven for managing confidential data as the providers invest in state-of-art systems and software to store and protect your interests. Outsourcing payroll offers enhanced security and compliance with government regulations.

Advantages of Outsourcing:

Whether your business is in its nascent stages or growing rapidly, the right time to outsource varies from business to business. While some may outsource to hire contractual employees for short-term projects, others may need help with daily administrative services. Irrespective of the nature of service required, outsourcing offers numerous benefits to small businesses. Some of these are listed as follows:

  • Outsourcing helps in controlling capital costs – Outsourcing helps to convert fixed costs into variable costs, thereby allowing you to avoid large expenditures during the initial stages of your business. Also, outsourcing makes your company more lucrative to investors as they know that their investments will be directly pumped in driving business growth.

 

  • Outsourcing reduces labor costs – Hiring personnel for peripheral or short-term projects can prove to be extremely expensive for small businesses. Outsourcing allows them to pick the best man for the job, while saving the business from the hassles of hiring on payroll, and training and retaining staff.

 

  • Outsourcing reduces business risks – Every business has to weather risks such as volatile market, stringent government regulations, unstable financial conditions, and rapidly evolving technology. Outsourcing helps entrepreneurs delegate tasks to experts who manage these risks more efficiently for your business.

 

  • Outsourcing helps businesses start new businesses quickly – Starting a new in-house project may take weeks or months. It takes time for a small business to hire, train, and procure the required resources. However, outsourcing firms are well-equipped with the resources required. This helps the business to focus its attention from the peripheral activities to the core functionalities.

Conclusion

Outsourcing a job may require more time initially, and this is totally is justifiable. Time should be taken to carefully analyze the capabilities of the outsourcing party to ensure long-term benefits for the company. Outsourcing can help entrepreneurs enjoy specialized benefits at comparatively lesser costs, and allows them to focus on growing the business with a relaxed mind.

Categories
Operations

Finding The Right Company Car

Purchasing cars for you employees can be a huge expense, especially if you aren’t a large corporation that can make deals with car manufacturers. But, it is sometimes necessary. If your employees travel often, it is important to provide them with means of transportation. I am here to give you some quick and easy ways to find the right cars for your company.

  1. Do your research.

One of the most important things you can do for you and your company is to do research on the cars you are buying. I recommend doing this for a number of reasons. The first is that there are thousands of cars out there. Finding the right brand, make or model can be very overwhelming. One of the websites I often use before making a car purchase is Cars.com. They are a great resource to see a huge selection of cars in one place. Additionally, I love to utilize their review features to see the pros and cons of popular vehicles. Another reason I suggest performing research is to get the right price on your car. Because car prices are often negoitable, it pays off to be educated on your potential purchase. This is especially important if you are shopping for used cars. Performing research will help you know the impact the number of miles has on the price of a car.

  1. Buy in bulk.

Buying bulk is a great way to save money. Whether you are buying 2 or 50, buying more than one car will save you money. Dealerships and companies are looking to sell as many as possible. So when you approach a seller looking to buy multiple vehicles it is important that you tell them upfront. From there, they are often willing to sell you each at a lower price or as a group for a discount. This is a great way to save money on your company car purchase. But, it is important when you buy in bulk to purchase all the cars from the same location or company. You cannot get the same deals if you don’t do this.

  1. Buy the same cars.

When purchasing company cars, buying all the same cars may not be an important factor that comes to mind. But, buying all of the same brand, make and model of cars can save you on a lot of expenses. As stated before, buying the same cars will save you money via bulk discounts. In addition, purchasing the same cars will save you money when it comes to car maintenance. When you buy all of the same car, they are all on the same page. So, when lights burn out, something breaks or a car needs new tires, you can save time and money using the same repair products and maintenance company. With the same cars, you aren’t in a constant search to find a new repair man for that type of vehicle or paying more money for a specific light. Buying the same cars can help you save money and simplify to process.

  1. Buy a trustworthy car.

When you do your research, you should make sure the car you are buying is safe, holds up well and is good quality. These are key factors when you are buying multiple of the same vehicle. If the cars are known to break, be unsafe or is bad quality, the cost of the car will quickly add up. So, it is important to check for these factors early on when are looking into buying company cars. Though buying the cheapest car will cost you the least amount of money upfront, if the car is known to break, it will be way more expensive in the long run. These factors may not always come to mind, but over the years I have learned their increasing relevance to company car shopping.

Car shopping can be stressful and overwhelming, no matter who, how many or what kind you are shopping for. When it comes to company cars, the price goes up and so does the stress. It is important to take your time when shopping for a company car to find the right fit. If you are looking into purchasing cars for your company, be sure to check out this list before you do so. Buying cars for your employees is a hefty purchase and it is important to take the right steps in order to get find the perfect car. Doing your research, buying in bulk, buying the same cars and buying trustworth cars are four very important factors to apply when you are company car shopping.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

A Quick Guide To Low Cost Internet Marketing Strategies

When it comes to internet marketing, most small business owners are reluctant to start. They can only imagine spiralling costs in a highly competitive market – but with the right strategies, that won’t be the reality. In fact, you can conduct your internet marketing on a shoestring budget and still get your name out there. Here’s a quick guide on how to do it.

Use social media

This is the number one strategy that you will be using, and it should be a constant process. Social media is free, and that means you can do as much of it as you need to get those sales in. First, set up an account in your business name on all social networks – even if you don’t intend to use them all at first, at least you have reserved it for later. Set up a regular posting schedule, using scheduling software if you want to make it easier. Use hashtags and other best practices to ensure that as many people as possible see your updates and start following your brand. 

Encourage customer posts

When you have your social pages up and running, don’t forget to get your customers posting too. Use certain hashtags to promote your brand, and ask customers to tag their purchases when they snap pictures of them. You can include hashtags with a delivery note or product information, so it won’t take up any extra printing budget to get this information out there! Once your customers are posting, reward them by showcasing their best shots on your own page. This gives a new view on your products and also encourages even more people to post about them, thus spreading the word even further.

Work with influencers

It might not be cheap to work with every social influencer out there, but many of them might be happy to feature you in return for a sample or two. You may even find you only have to pay a small fee for those who have a bigger reach. People pay attention to what influencers say and the products that they recommend. This means that you are likely to grow your following and get extra orders right off the back of that promotion, so it’s a great strategy for growing quickly and maybe even going viral.

Use Facebook or Instagram ads

Even though you only have a small budget, you might still be able to reach people by advertising on Facebook or Instagram. The ad campaigns you can run there start from a very low price, and you can use their targeting algorithms to ensure that you only hit the kind of people who will be interested in buying from you. It’s very important to be as precise as possible, as this is how the ads work best. If you leave the options more open, you may end up spending more but getting worse results.

Have a blog

The best way to increase your website’s SEO is to have a blog which you update on a regular basis. You can do this weekly, or even more frequently. It will provide content for you to share on all your social media pages, as well as giving people another reason to stop by your side. Make the blog relevant to your products so that you attract interested buyers, instead of all manner of other people.

Using these strategies will hardly cost you anything, but it could increase your sales hugely and raise your brand profile. That makes them immensely cost-effective, especially when all you need to spend is time!

Michelle Arios works as Marketing Assistant for BizDb.co.nz– New Zealand business database