Category: Planning & Management

Article Contributed by Finn Pierson

When it comes to being an elite manager, you need the right tools and strategies to succeed. Without them, you risk losing to the competition in various sectors of your market. To keep the business process of management under control, use the tips below:

Customer Service

If your management team has experience in customer service, you will be at a distinct advantage. Thankfully, high quality customer service training is something every business can afford and use right away. Understanding how to put the customer first in every transaction has a number of benefits. First, you can anticipate their needs so problems don’t arise in the first place. Secondly, there are referral opportunities that arise. That means free marketing and advertising.

Sales

Many of the best managers know how to sell. Selling is more than a skill, it is a lifestyle. If you can sell, there isn’t anywhere you can’t succeed. Knowing how to uncover needs and guide people through a proven process to make a purchasing decisions is what every business depends on. Luckily, you can get out in the field any time you want and get real experience fast. That way, your sales team will know that you’ve been in their shoes before.

Copywriting

There’s a saying that copywriting is simply salesmanship in print. That is to say that copywriting converts the sales process into something digital and portable. Whether it is a long form sales letter, email, or advertisement, you can apply your knowledge of great copy to sell more for your company. The best part is that once you create this asset, it continues to work for you without additional time or money put into it.

Marketing

Sales is necessary and important. However, marketing aims to make the selling portion of business irrelevant. That means that your marketing should be focused on putting your product in the best light possible. For example, if you have a premium product, your marketing skills should highlight why it’s good to pay more for your solution. If you get great at this as a manager, there’s no limit to how well you can grow your business.

Finances

Finance can be scary and confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. If you take some simple finance courses, you can know more than the majority of people competing in your market. Never hesitate to hire a CFO or other professional into the right role, but don’t leave yourself in the dark. Finance is a tactic that can stretch money and do magic with less investment.

Team Management

Nothing gets done in business without a whole team working hard. If you don’t manage your team, they will eventually resent you. To manage your team better, try conducting team exercises regularly. These create bonds between workers. When everyone is on the same page, it decreases drama and boosts productivity. And that’s a result that’s win-win.

Motivation

A highly motivated work force will make more products and services in less time. They do this because they have a clear understanding of why they’re working for your company. When you motivate people, always use the tactic of visualization. Allow them to clearly see what the gold at the end of the road is.

Market Research

You can always design a product and then try to find a market to sell it to. However, this is the most expensive way to grow a brand. Instead, smart business managers always ask themselves which market they want to reach first. Then, they design solutions specifically for them.

Markets are dictating that managers have to be performing at their best to stay competitive. It’s crucial that you use the right tips and techniques. Without them, your profits and productivity can suffer. Make sure you’re schooled up on the skills above and enjoy better results in your company.

Author: Dave Lavinsky

They say it’s lonely at the top. And for most business owners, this is particularly true. While employees often spend time talking with co-workers about issues, business owners often have no one with whom they can discuss key items. Importantly, getting quality advise on certain issues can have a dramatic impact on your bottom line.

A great way to overcome this challenge is to form an Advisory Board. An Advisory Board is a group of Advisors who help you grow your business. Below are answers to key questions most business owners have about Advisory Boards.

Why should I form an Advisory Board? The right advisors can add a lot of value to your business. In many cases they have faced and/or overcome the same challenges that you currently face. They can act as a great sounding board for your ideas and give you new ones. Some Advisors can even introduce you to key customers, partners, vendors or investors.

Who should be on my Advisory Board? Choose your board members based on your needs. For example, if your key need is getting investors, choose board members who have great investor networks. If you need industry connections, find a seasoned industry executive. Other business owners, executives and service professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants, consultants, etc.) often make the best advisors.

How many people should be on my Advisory Board? I have found the best results with Boards having four to eight members. Any more and it’s too hard to get everyone’s thoughts and opinions during a meeting. Any less and you often have two few viewpoints and relationships that can be leveraged.

How should I compensate my Advisory Board members? Advisory Board members, unlike Board of Director members, generally do not require compensation. However, to get the most value from them, I suggest paying them with options that vest annually; this gives them a vested interest in your company’s success.

How can I get the most value from my Advisory Board? Start by circulating your business plan to board members so they better understand your business objectives and goals. Then schedule regular in-person meetings with your Board either monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly. Correspond with them via email at least monthly to let them know your results and challenges and to solicit feedback. Set up calls with individual Board members as needed to help solve specific challenges for which they have unique insight, connections and/or experience.

There’s no need to “go it alone” as a business owner. Particularly when there are people out there that can dramatically improve your success. Importantly, these people are not walking around thinking “I wonder what companies I can advise.” Rather, you need to identify them, contact them, and convince them that you and your company are worth their time. And once you do, you’ll see your business soar.

Author Bio

Dave Lavinsky is a serial entrepreneur and the president and founder of Growthink, which since 1999, has helped hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs create business plans and grow their companies.  Dave is also the founder of BusinessPlanTemplate.com which provides business plan templates for a wide range of industries.

With Brexit looming and new immigration rules likely to shake-up the availability of non-UK workers in the UK, interest in retaining talent has never been higher on the business agenda. If predictions are correct, the availability of workers, particularly those skilled in science, technology, engineering and maths (the STEM workers), is likely to fall dramatically following Brexit and the restriction of EU workers coming to the UK.

If businesses are serious about continued growth and success beyond Brexit, they will need to hang on to their key players like never before.There will undoubtedly be plenty of headhunting going on when there’s a shortage of skills, and small businesses could lose out. Ambitious and talented staff will be the ones most likely to be tempted by better offers of pay and conditions.

The loss of good talent from your business could cost you more than you think. Talented and loyal staff help to keep morale high. Lose them and you’ll not only be missing them, your whole workforce could slump inmorale and productivity. Add on the costs of recruiting and training new talent, and you’ll quickly see why you need strategies for staff retention.

There are many facets to running a successful business.Developing proper company policies and procedures, improving communication with your staff, and making sure employees know what is expected of them all make good business sense. A shift scheduler, project management tools and HR software are all great investments to help with the day-to-day running of your business. Your employees are worth some investment too.

Here are 9 brilliant benefits of investing in employee development:

1. Improve retention

It’s a fact, poorly trained employees end up leaving within the first year of their job. Invest in your employees from the beginning and you’ll improve retention levels. It’s cheaper to train employees than it is to replace them.

2. It pays to promote from within

When employees are properly supported and are able to see that they can move up the ranks and take on more responsibilities, they are more naturally inclined to perform their jobs at a higher level. Promoting from within also means you get employees who are familiar with your company culture, and recruiting replacements at the bottom of the ladder is much cheaper. It promotes loyalty, so will help with your retention levels too.

3. Increase engagement and productivity

Employees who enjoy their job and are engaged with their work are more productive. It’s a fact. Investing in staff development is one way you can help your employees to feel more valued. Proper training also makes sure your people are confident in doing their best.

4. Great customer service

Engaged employees who are happy in their work give off the same vibe to your customers. Exceptional customer service puts you one step ahead of your competitors. Investing in your employees pays.

5. Reduced absenteeism

Employee development creates a positive channel of communication, allowing you to support your employees and know when they are experiencing difficulties. Empathetic employee support and a system of rewards for good performance have a positive impact on absenteeism.

Stress is known to contribute greatly to absenteeism. Understanding your workforce and providing a coherent training programme minimises the risk of work overload and work-related stress.

6. Increase job satisfaction

Through continued investment, staff feel much more valued. A sense of value and the ability to progress within the company will have a positive impact on job satisfaction.

7. Attract new talent

Implement an attractive employee development programme and you’ll not only retain staff, others will get to hear about it and want to work with you too.

8. Stay ahead of competitors

Helping your staff to be the best they can be means your business runs at its optimum. Continual assessment of training and developmental needs will give you the edge over your competitors.

9. Identify skills gaps

With an ongoing staff development programme you’ll easily see when a skills gap arises. It means you can support your staff with specialist training, helping them to feel more able and secure in their job.

When you are implementing an employee development programme, it’s important torememberthat your employees don’t just exist in a professional capacity. They are human beings with emotions as well. Endeavour to support your staff on an emotional level. Your employees need to be seen, heard, acknowledged and validated.

Brexit means the future availability of skilled talent is an unknown. If predictions are correct, developing a coherent, holistic personal development programme could benefit your business in more ways than one.

Article Contributed by Dan Razak

Even though many people think that the business world is very complex, it’s actually pretty easy to explain. Customers are constantly looking for companies that can offer them better products or services at more affordable prices. But of course, reaching the stage where you can offer your customers something like this is never easy. The first thing you have to do is ensure your business is constantly becoming more efficient. And if you’re wondering how to achieve that, here are 4 ways that are guaranteed to do the trick.

Invest in marketing

If you want your business to be more efficient, you should always aim at increasing the number of your customers. And the only way you can achieve this is to invest in marketing. Of course, if you’re just starting out, you won’t have enough funds to start a multi-channel marketing campaign. That’s why you’ll have to prioritize and turn to some less expensive ways to promote your business. Social media marketing is a big deal today and you simply have to run pages for your business on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Another great idea is to turn to influencers who have already reached your target audience and can bring your products or services closer to them.

Take your business home with you

What’s so great about the 21^st century is the fact that it allowed us to do a lot of jobs from our homes. This means you should keep working even when you’re home and encourage your employees to do the same. Of course, they’ll need to have all the necessary hardware for taking their jobs home with them. Even though a smartphone might be enough, it’s always a better idea to equip each of your employees with their own laptops that will allow them to work from home. Those who constantly work from home, however, might fare better with a custom made desktop setup packing a reliable intel processor and a high-end graphic card li NVidia GTX 1070. Also, you can use cloud to store all of the important data, as that way, you and all of your employees will be able to access it no matter where you are.

Keep your employees motivated

No matter how good your products or services are, if your employees aren’t motivated enough, you’ll hardly be able to take your business to the next level. Every successful business needs a set of dedicated employees who are passionate about what they do and share your ambition. And it’s up to you to make sure your employees are motivated enough and want to see your business progress. First of all, this means they should receive appropriate wage for what they do. Another great idea would be to host office parties from time to time and prepare gifts for your staff. Employees who feel appreciated will always be ready to do some extra work, that will help your business grow.

Ask for feedback

There’s no need to say that how efficient your business is going to be heavily depends on your customers. That’s why turning to them in order to come up with some new ideas for your business is always a great idea. If you have a website, you can create a survey where your customers will be able to leave you feedback, as well as their ideas on how you can improve your business. Starting a survey like this will not only show your customers that you care about what they think, but it will also provide you with some new business ideas that might help you make your business more efficient.

Follow these 4 ways and your business will undoubtedly get an efficiency boost. Just bear in mind that running a business is all about working smart, and by thinking your every move through you’ll be able to unleash its full potential.

About the Author

Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.