Category: Operations

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Operations

Launch a Successful Telemarketing Campaign for the Holidays

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The holidays are a great time of the year to promote your product, find new business partners and fine tune your strategies. With peak shopping months online and offline along with the promise of the new year, companies are finding ways to reach new customers and gain partners. One way to do this is by launching a telemarketing campaign. Here are some guidelines to help get you started the right way:
· With a new year beginning most businesses are going to be reviewing the previous year and critiquing their performance and figuring out what they want to change. Take advantage of this time of year to do the same thing and decide what new companies you would like to potentially work with and schedule a call. By scheduling an appointment with them in December, you’ll be on their books on the first of the year.
· If you operate a non-profit, the holidays are the perfect time to benefit from the giving spirit. People are in the mood for charity and some businesses have to give funds to charities. The same is true for colleges and universities. College and Universities can staff their call centers with current or former students so the recipient feels a connection when answering the phone.
· If you have an ecommerce store or a boutique shop, don’t just advertise on your site and via signs. Promote! Call your past customers to tell them about your deals. Send an email to them with concise and to-the-point specials. Let customers know of the great deals you are offering in more ways than one, but make sure to keep your message simple. People tend to be busier during the holidays, so don’t take more time than needed. Be sure your telemarketing staff is happy and in the holiday spirit. Most telemarketing companies offer lead generation services too. To connect with them, Resource Nation offers a service that is free and easy to use.
· Often companies are not as aggressive during the holiday season since they assume most other businesses will just tell them to call back after the new year has begun. While this may generally be true, there is still plenty to gain by getting your name out there. If a company tells you to call back after the 1st of the year, have the staff at the telemarketing company set up appointments for an exact time and day. This way you already have calls set up in advance while most of your competition is starting from scratch after the holidays.
· Tell your telemarketing provider to think of fun and creative ways to get your message out for the holidays. Consumers are going to be stressed and tired, so be sure to take this into account with each call that is made. You need to make people feel like you are taking some of the burden off of their shoulders instead of adding to it, so be sure to let them know early in the call how you can help them find great deals with little work.

ResourceNationPhoto.jpgResource Nation provides free tools, tips, and purchasing advice for business owners and entrepreneurs in over 100 business categories ranging from phone systems to credit card processing. Whether it’s connecting businesses with local and national pre-screened vendors, or offering easy service comparisons on a VoIP service, Resource Nation empowers business decision makers by providing the information they need to make smart choices.

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Operations

Restaurant Delivery Service Business: Keys to Improve Your Growing Business

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Article Contributed by Joe McVoy
As with any other venture, you would also need to improve upon your Restaurant Delivery Service business in order to ensure a continuing success. Simply resting on your laurels would get you nowhere, and competitors might come and lessen the profits that you gain. By improving your delivery business, you would be able to ensure that your service would not fall by the wayside as the months go by.
1. Increase your service hours.
One way to improve your restaurant delivery service business would be to try and increase your service hours. If you had been previously content with serving lunch or afternoon meals, then perhaps you can now also try and deliver breakfast items to your clients. By doing this, not only would you be able to give your business a chance to earn more profits through the previously untapped morning sales, but also raise awareness in your clients that you are now catering to more of their needs.
2. Expand your menu.
Another improvement that you can make is by expanding the menu that you have. Perhaps you can try contacting other restaurants in order to add more products to your menu. Doing this helps your business by adding variety to the food that you offer. This would help avoid your clients getting tired of the “same old food” that they get from your delivery service.
3. Check your service.
Also, improvements to your restaurant delivery service business do not have to mean adding services. It could also mean that you would just raise the quality of the service that you already provide. Maybe you can find ways to improve delivery time, or find methods to ensure that the food that you deliver would come as “fresh off the kitchen” as possible.
4. Deliver your own food products
Another way to expand and improve your business is to maybe include your very own food products on the menu. This can be a very good way, if you have your own restaurant, to promote your products and get two stream of profits at the same time.
5. Create a system that can work even when you are not there.
There is a saying that if you can leave your work on its own, it is a business; and if you can not leave it, you have a job. In improving your restaurant delivery service business, you need to set up a system that can be repeated over and over again, even when you are not there. Good thing about this business is that you do not have to manage it closely. All you need to do is a comprehensive business plan or strategy to make sure that your food delivery service business will operate even when you are on a holiday or vacation.
These are merely suggestions. Remember that improving on your restaurant delivery service business can come in many forms. You would just have to find the best one that matches the ideals of your service business.
For more information on how to ensure the success of your restaurant delivery service business, get your free report at http://www.dine-in-delivery.com/dine-in-delivery-free-report/.
Dine-in Delivery provides you with a proven system and solid years of experience to help you set up your own restaurant delivery service business.
About the Author:
Joe McVoy is the VP for Marketing of Dine-In Delivery Inc. For more information about starting your own food delivery service business, visit www.Dine-In-Delivery.com.

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Business Trends Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Human Resource Legal Operations Planning & Management

What Every Small Business Owner Should Know About Background Checks

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Your employees are your business’ most expensive asset. According to one estimate, up to a third of a person’s salary is devoted strictly to hiring costs. The cost of hiring the wrong employee is even more- reportedly up to twice an employee’s annual salary. Making smart hiring decisions can be tough- you want an employee that has the requisite skills, qualifications, and certifications, but you also want someone that’s the “right fit” for your business. While it’s relatively easy to verify whether or not an employee graduated from a particular institution or has a driver’s license in a certain state using a background check, the “good fit” question can be a little bit more complicated.
Social Media Searches in Hiring
The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act defines a “consumer report” as “…any written, oral, or other communication of any information by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living….” You’re not the only one thinking that that description is a little vague. A social media search, especially when conducted by a third party as part of a background check, can constitute a “consumer report” for legal purposes. A social media search also typically reveals all kinds of information that is “off limits” for consideration during the hiring process- for example, a person’s race, age, marital status, etc. You can’t consider these characteristics or a host of additional factors- for example, whether the person is pregnant, disabled, or belongs to a certain religious group. Even if you come across this information when you’re not specifically looking for it (as with a social media search), it’s impossible to unring the bell. What’s worse, information may not even be accurate- you may end up discounting a great prospect because of information they weren’t even aware was posted.
Disclosure and Consent
The best policy (if you want to avoid liability) is one of full disclosure- tell the prospective employee that you will perform an online search. The FRCA requires notice to prospective employees whenever you prepare a consumer report (as defined above)-whether you prepare it yourself or use an employment background check service. Outsourcing employment screenings can be a great idea for businesses that aren’t sure about the regulations, procedures, and policies that they need to comply with to perform a legal background search. Though legal opinions vary with respect to social media searches in hiring, it’s better to err on the side of caution- and FRCA compliance.
About the Author
MerrinMuxlowPhoto.jpgMerrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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Operations Technology

Quick Guide to Electronic Document Storage

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We all know that using less paper is good for the planet and can lead to big savings on business costs. You’ve probably heard the little tricks to reduce paper waste: you shouldn’t print all of your emails, you should purchase a refurbished copier and “green” supplies, and you should always research your equipment purchases (for items like copiers) to find the most energy-efficient options. Even offices that use all of these practices to cut back on paper waste can cancel out their efforts by continuing to store documents the “old fashioned” way- in paper files.
Paper document storage is typically more time consuming, waste producing, and error-prone than an electronic document storage system. Why not switch to a more effective, less expensive method of document management? Electronic storage equipment is becoming more advanced and easier to use, and recent data indicates that most companies recover the costs of a data storage system itself in about a year. Here is a quick guide to electronic document storage options for small businesses:
Document Management Software: This is the backbone of any electronic storage system. Document management software is what allows you to scan, convert, save, and retrieve files electronically. The most effective systems employ OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, which allows scanned images to be converted into text, and search functions that allow you search for miscategorized items. Document management software ranges from the basic (free, downloadable programs like SimpleOCR) to the advanced (hosted solutions costing thousands of dollars a month).

Storage Options: You can store data on your own server, or use a hosted solution. Hosted storage relies on an internet connection, and doesn’t require any large cost outlays for equipment. If you choose the self-storage option, you’ll need to purchase hardware and software outright before you implement the program.
Scanning Services: Documents will need to be scanned before you can access them electronically. Most software programs with OCR require a high-quality scanner- some digital copiers can perform scanning functions, and most basic office color copiers are usually compatible with document storage software programs. If you have a large volume of documents to scan, it’s a good idea to invest in a high-speed scanner or to hire a document scanning service. If you’re hiring a scanning company, you’ve got options- you can have the documents scanned on-site (especially convenient for those companies with large storage needs or very sensitive documents) or can ship them to a scanning service provider. You’ll need to decide how far you want to “back scan” and if you want to keep any paper files.
MerrinMuxlowPhoto.jpgMerrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Home-Based Business Online Business Operations Recommendations Starting Up Work Life

5 Things Every Stay-at-Home Entrepreneur Needs

What do computer giant Dell, gourmet food basket maker Tastefully Simple, and organic brewer Honest Tea have in common? Though all three are now multi-million dollar companies, all were originally started within the founder’s home. You’ve probably heard how Michael Dell worked out of his garage to build his empire, but equally inspiring are the stories of Jill Blashack Strahan- who assembled gift baskets on the pool table of her backyard shed- and Seth Goldman- who brewed tea at his kitchen sink and presented homemade samples to clients in thermoses.
The home-based startup story has a certain magic to it that often glosses over the particulars: where to set up office equipment (computer, printer, copier,etc.), whether or not you should dedicate a business phone line or switch your VoIP service to include “follow” features so you’re always available, and how many hours you should put in when your office is in your kitchen. What does a stay-at-home entrepreneur really need? Here are a few necessities:
1. A Separate, Dedicated Workspace. Whether it’s your garage, a toolshed in the backyard, or just an area off the den, you will need a space that’s just for work.

2. A Separate Phone Line. Small business VoIP service plans are cheap and easy to sign up for. You can also add an extension or line to your existing residential VoIP service arrangement.

3. A Fast Internet Connection. For businesses based online, this is non-negotiable. Your internet connection should be fast enough to support online activity and VoIP calls, if you use an internet-based phone system as your method of business communication.

4. A Door…or Earplugs. If you can’t physically separate your workspace from the rest of the house, you can mentally separate it by using earplugs to tune out audio distractions, or a folding screen to tune out visual ones.

5. A “Do Not Disturb” sign. If you’re working while others are at home, make sure they know when you’re “unavailable.”