Business

Despite the accessibility of launching a business in this day and age, a considerable number of startups fail. In actuality, only twenty-five per cent of newly established companies are able to make it past ten years of operations. Fortunately, you can improve your venture’s chances of succeeding where many others have not by learning from their mishaps and keeping yourself from the very same blunders they’ve committed. Here are some mistakes that all startup businesses must avoid.

1. Spending before shopping

For a business to make money, it must spend it too. However, to maximise your profit margins, you must find ways to keep your fixed costs low without compromising the products offered or services rendered. And one of the simplest ways to keep your overheads low is by shopping first before you make any purchases. After all, you’re likely to spend much more than what you need to if you spend impulsively. And a small investment of time in considering all available options for any necessary equipment, materials, or services now will ultimately save you a lot of money later on.

2. Keeping everything in-house

More often than not, most startups have little more than a modest budget to work with. And to drive down their fixed costs, many make the mistake of trying to keep all of the work in-house. While this might save some money in the short-term, it can have a negative impact on the company in the long run because it may spread your resources too thin and cost you more money as a result. So when in doubt, don’t be afraid to outsource. From hiring an IT company for cybersecurity needs to securing the logistics and packing services of a fulfilment company, outsourcing will help you maintain an efficient and productive company.

3. Not planning for contingencies

No matter the industry, success can’t always be guaranteed. And to survive in the less-than-predictable economic landscape of today, planning for contingencies is a necessity that no startup should ever be without. After all, if you don’t have a back-up plan in place, it’s unlikely that your startup will survive any potential problems like downtimes. And the time that you take in preparing for any issues will pay dividends in keeping your business from going under in the event of any trouble and adversity.

4. Overworking

It’s not uncommon for many entrepreneurs to work their fingers to the bone to get their startup where they want it to be. However, doing too much work and burning yourself out is just as bad – if not worse – than doing very little. So make sure that you give yourself a break every once in a while. Not only will you avoid any health-related problems. But you’ll also avoid making mistakes due to fatigue and exhaustion.

There’s no one strategy that will guarantee the success of your business venture. However, by avoiding the mistakes listed in this article, you’ll be able to minimise the chances of dealing with any problems and issues with your company, and, in turn, maximise your chances to attain stability and growth.

It’s not difficult to start a business. Achieving success, however, is a different story altogether. As financially rewarding and lucrative as it might be to take the entrepreneurial road, it’s also much more challenging. In actuality, it’s a colossal undertaking with no guarantees of attaining the desired outcome.

However, this doesn’t mean that business success beyond your reach. With some know-how and a little bit of careful planning, you’ll be surprised at how far you can get. So to maximise your chances of being successful in your endeavour, here are a few business practices that you must follow.

1. Always negotiate before committing to any deals

Running a successful company is all about keeping your fixed costs low without compromising the quality of the products offered or services rendered. And just because expenses are an unavoidable reality in doing business, it doesn’t mean that you should spend a lot of money.

So before you commit to any deals – be it with essential suppliers or service providers – it’s always a good idea to negotiate first. After all, taking the time to haggle on price will give you a better chance of landing a favourable deal. And as small as might appear to some, it can have a considerable impact on your bottom-line.

2. Exhaust your options before you spend

To drive down your operational expenses further and generate higher profits, it’s good standard practise always to exhaust all of your options first before you spend. When you get right down to it, the time you invest in exploring all avenues will pay dividends in keeping your expenditure at a minimum.

So, whether you’re looking for products or services for your business, make sure that you compare every available option before you make any financial commitments. It will save you money.

3. Stay open to collaborative opportunities

It’s not uncommon for many companies to pursue joint-ventures and collaborative projects. And for a good reason: not only does it improve their chances for success, but it effectively minimises the risks since it’s equally shared amongst all parties.

So when the opportunity presents itself, don’t shy away from working with other businesses. Doing so will not only increase your industry contacts. But you stand to gain more while keeping the risks involved with the project.

4. Outsource if needed

To keep costs low, many inexperienced entrepreneurs make the mistake of keeping the entirety of their business operations within the company. And while this approach can save money, it can also lead to mistakes that will end up costing you more in the long run.

As such, it makes sense to outsource when needed, especially when it comes to highly-specialised work like financial services IT. In this way, you won’t overburden your business. And, in turn, eliminate the possibility of making financially catastrophic errors as a result.

Let’s face it: there’s no clear-cut formula to achieve business success. However, by adopting the practices listed above, you’ll give yourself far more chances to succeed in your venture than you would have otherwise.

The design of your business website holds all the power to its effectiveness. Your business won’t survive on a prefab design.

It’s important that you take the time and resources necessary to develop a strong web presence, so your business will have a fighting chance in a technology driven world.

Take a few moments now to consider how you might make changes to improve your business website. Here is a brief look at some tips to boost the digital visibility of your business website today.

Hire professionals to assess the situation

If you are too busy running your business to take the time to truly develop your web presence, then you should consider hiring a team of professionals who specialize in website development to do the work that needs to be done.

With professionals on the job, you can be free to divert your focus elsewhere in the business. Building digital visibility takes time, and it’s okay if you need it to take someone else’s time.

Invest in mobile optimization

If you do take the responsibility of boosting your web presence online, your business website should be suited to a range of today’s most popular mobile devices.

Make sure you design for mobile responsiveness, so your digital content will easily display and function on smartphones and other mobile mediums. A properly optimized website will also rank better in the SERPs (search engine results pages), granting boosted visibility.

Bring your business to social media

Social media is a powerful medium for spreading the word about your business. If you don’t yet have a social media page for your company, today is the day to make that happen.

Set up a social media presence for your business, and treat your social media pages like you treat your business website. Keep the content fresh and up to date, so web users are always looking for the next new thing.

Add a blog to your content collection

Adding a blog to your website is also a valuable tool for boosting visibility online. No matter your industry of operation, there are people online who want to know more about what’s happening.

Grant users the ability to be “in the know,” and develop a collection of informative, engaging blog posts. Blog readers are notoriously loyal. Developing a loyal readership will boost your visibility in a big way.

Learn to see your pages like Google

Google does a great job of changing things around from time to time, and they are threatening to do so in the very near future. For now, SEO (search engine optimization) is the way to go, but that may change. Keep up with what Google uses to control their indexing systems, and work to maintain a parallel.

 

Whether it is an office renovation or office construction, hiring the right designer is necessary ensuring that your office will look usable and attractive not just for your employees but target clients too. Just like online casinos and their sister sites, the overall appearance of casino site layouts gives a huge impact to those who will visit and access them, and can heavily affect the business.

You sure would want to give your employees a good experience as this is how they will become more productive. There are many ways you can do to ensure that your office will be the best place for them to work. But it is hiring the right designer that can turn your office to its best shape and look.

There are many designers focusing on designing offices, and choosing which one to hire may not be the easiest to do. To help you get started, below are some of the qualities you need to look into an office designer.

Easy to collaborate with

Choose a designer that is very easy to collaborate with. Sure, they are the experts in this field but you are the right person to decide which is best for your employees and business. A designer should be easy to deal with, he/she accepts and understands your requirements and incorporates it to what he/she does best.

If they only follow what they think is right, doing business with him/her may not be the best choice.

Charge cheap

Even how much you want to hire the best and most expensive office designer in your area, if your budget does not permit you to do so, you have no choice but to stick with the one who can do the work at a minimum cost.

Do not worry as not because the professional is charging lower than their counterparts, they are not good with what they do. There are some who charge fairly yet the service they provide is of the same level or even greater than those who are charging very expensively.

Professional

Hire someone who is very professional. Make sure that he/she follows the schedules as agreed and will show up exactly or earlier during your meetings. For offices, delays are not acceptable as a day of delay may cause big issues for your business.

You may also want to hire someone who can work under pressure and replies to your message fast. You sure would want someone who respects you, your business and your time.

Has many available lines to communicate

Go for an office designer who has many available lines to communicate. Choose the one who can be contacted through different mediums like email, SMS, social network and more. You would not want to be limited with the number of ways reaching them.

Although, you also have to assess how fast they respond to your inquiries as even if they have many open lines and ways to talk to, if they are not responding, it is useless.

 

A conference manager may be referred to as an events planner or an events manager. They, the conference manager, the events planner, and the events manager, work in conference centres and will have the responsibility of managing staff that help to organise and to run conferences as well as other types of events.

A conference manager’s job responsibilities can vary. It depends on the event and also on the venue where the event is being held. Generally, however, a conference manager will oversee all of the events that are involved in the particular conference or event from the early planning to the final clean up.

Obviously, every conference venue is different from the next one. This means that the tasks of a conference manager are ever-changing.

The conference manager is responsible for the staff and the services at the conference centre, inclusive of:

• The accommodation
• Finances
• Catering
• Marketing and PR
• Sales
• Front of house/ reception

The conference manager must ensure that the services provided fulfill the clients’ requirements and that each event runs smoothly and efficiently.

It’s important to find a balance between effective business management and customer satisfaction. Often that will mean solving problems on the go and dealing with last-minute changes.

A conference manager must also continually develop the business. They achieve this by planning ahead, managing marketing campaigns, and maximising generated income by budgeting efficiently.

The Conference Manager’s Responsibilities

The activities of a conference manager vary in accordance with the conference centre size and the services offered by the centre. As an example, a conference manager that works in a larger-sized centre will have the responsibility of coordinating the operational team. This team includes accommodation and catering managers.

In a smaller centre, a conference manager might choose to subcontract various services out to various external companies.

A conference centre manager will need to:

• Handle customer enquiries, comments, and complaints.
• Effectively communicate with the management team on a daily basis to plan work schedules and check the requirements of clients.
• Manage financial planning and budgeting.
• Ensure the smooth running of events.
• Deal with staff recruitment, training, monitoring and organising of staff.
• Handle conference centre sales and marketing including branding, pricing, dealing with promotions and promotional materials.
• Carry out market research to identify potential future business.
• Negotiate with suppliers and external service providers when necessary.
• Ensure that licensing laws, health and safety, and any other legal regulations are all complied with.
• Invest in equipment that is required for the conference centre.

As mentioned, no two conference centres are the same. This means that the tasks a conference manager has to complete will vary from one day to the next.

For example, at some venues parking could be an issue whereas at other venues there may be onsite parking facilities whereby guests are welcome to leave their vehicles. If venue-specific parking is unavailable it is the responsibility of the conference manager to find suitable nearby parking.

The conference facilities will likewise need to be prepared in advance so that after guests have parked their vehicles they can easily find their way to the conference centre.

If food is a requirement at the conference it is the responsibility of the conference manager to oversee the kitchen and waiting services. When a caterer is hired the conference manager will work closely with the catering company to ensure correct food preparation and that the food is timely served.

The facilities must be made ready for the next event so cleaning-up duties will be delegated by the conference manager. Some conference centres employ their own cleaning staff, though others contract cleaning services out to external companies. Either way, it is up to the conference manager to ensure that the cleaning is done properly and timely.

A further remit of a conference manager is bookkeeping. The conference manager could have the responsibility for handling staff payroll, for obtaining contracts with third-party vendors, filing all related documentation, and a variety of alternative clerical duties that pertain to the conference centre’s successful on-going operation.

Inefficiencies involved in utilising manual processes and pushing paper in the office can soon add up.

Because of the continual demand for information – invoices, forms, contracts, approvals – to be secure and accessible, manually filing documents and the creation of paper trails may cause a severe limitation to the capacity of an organisation to compete.

Print Audit – How Can it Be of Benefit to Your Business?

Innovation starts by motivating your team to seek small ways to make improvements to business workflows. That may include becoming more productive, helping the environment, or being more efficient.

One area to make simple but impactful changes is within your print environment. Printing is a cost that can be reduced for most organisations, so it’s wise to ensure that your devices operate efficiently, that your staff are responsible for their printing habits, and your print supplier is providing you with a good deal.

What is a Print Audit?

Through a print audit, a business can understand the effectiveness of their print infrastructure. A print audit involves reviewing the current technology and conducting a survey of all on-site devices. This helps to identify:

• Device locations
• Output volumes
• Staff behaviours
• Machines that are over utilised
• Your entire print environments’ cost
• Broken or failing devices

How a Print Audit Can Benefit Your Business

Reveal print costs that are hidden

Among the main reasons why print audits are carried out is the review of the printing set-up and the identification of expenses and where processes can be improved as a way of saving money. Basically, a Print Audit shows how you can save money in your business by seeing what is being printed.

 

Print audits highlight devices that are over and underutilised as well as machines that are failing.

Immediate hardware savings can be made by the consolidation of the print fleet, the removal of unnecessary devices, the replacement of failing devices, and/ or swapping over legacy device location so that maximum efficiency is achieved.

Reduction of printing volumes and becoming greener

For most organisations, arguably the most difficult aspect is a sheer lack of control and visibility they maintain over their print infrastructure.

It is possible to point the finger at various individuals but through a print audit, you get a good concept of the amount of printing done for each device in every department.

From this point, it’s easy to introduce policies to reduce paper usage.

For this aspect of the print audit, it’s mainly about increased environmental awareness. With heightened visibility, it’s simpler to implement measures to become greener.

Tighten up the security of your print infrastructure

These days, every organisation must have a robust level of digital security in place. However, more often than not, print technology is overlooked.

With a print audit, a complete security analysis is carried out to highlight any gaps that exist within your overall operational processes.

Implement Document Management Solutions

Document management solutions (DMS) are available to make the best of an organisation’s key resources: money and time.

Through the implementation of DMS, an organisation is able to:

Automate tasks and improve process efficiency

Employees can work more efficiently with document management software because they have instantaneous access to information. This software likewise enables organisations to implement workflow automation that keeps business processes moving.

A document management system can also help an organisation to:

• Streamline the distribution of documents through automated workflow routing as well as notification, thereby improving accountability.
• Use more intelligent search methods.
• More efficiently manage organisational activities.
• Create document copies and distribute them as easily as it is to send an email.
• Greatly reduce the number of lost documents.
• Reduce clerical mistakes through the automation of optical character recognition and indexing.

Improve overall communication within the organisation

With document management systems it’s much easier to share documents with clients and colleagues electronically. This can be achieved either at the office or elsewhere.

A good quality DMS enables:

• You to gain access to the DMS remotely.
• The seamless integration of the DMS with your website.
• The balancing of accessibility and security.

Cut time waste by reducing the amount of time spent on filing documents

When a DMS is implemented, organisations can use their time more effectively to:

• Track documents that need to be signed by various personnel.
• Retrieve documents and various other essential information.
• Respond more rapidly to customer queries.
• Immediately respond to client and auditor information requests.
• Provide better customer service.

Minimise costs involved with additional hiring and paper storage

There are upfront costs involved in the implementation of a document management system. Nevertheless, over the long term, it does lead to savings. It’s possible to make savings over the long term by:

• Reducing the amount of downtime in an organisation which can be caused b fire, theft, or flooding.
• Completely eliminating the costs involved in off-site storage.
• The replacement of space used for paper storage by more productive activities that are revenue-generating.

What’s the Bottom Line?

It’s possible to completely overhaul the majority of manual processes with document management software. The digitising of documents and the control of electronic documents means that organisations can eliminate paper storage, improve communication, and streamline operations.

With this kind of boost in efficiency, organisations will enjoy the benefits by reducing clerical tasks in favour of revenue-producing tasks.

 

If you wish to have a new website created or you want your current site to benefit from a makeover you’re likely thinking “How do I go about choosing the right WordPress agency?”

This is a good question to ask because the agency you choose is going to be responsible for the design and development of your site, and your site is what provides the initial impression of your company to a customer.

So how do you go about selecting which WordPress agency is right for your needs? Below, we share 4 tips to help you in choosing the right WordPress agency.

4 Tips for Choosing the Right WordPress Agency

1. List the goals and needs of your website

Prior to searching for a WordPress agency, you must understand what it is your website needs to do as well as the features your site should have so that it will achieve your goals.

Here are some examples of what your website might do:

• Sync with your current customer relationship management (CRM), such as HubSpot, Salesforce, or any other CRM software.
• Generate business leads.
• Link seamlessly with your email marketing platform.
• Integrate seamlessly with the tool you use for marketing automation.
• Permit users to fill out any forms you wish to include on your site.
• Collect payments, including recurring payments.

Features that may be required by your website so you can achieve the above:

• Ecommerce functionality.
• Easy navigation, content that is search-engine optimised, and pages that are conversion optimised.
• Secure online forms.

Besides this, you may wish to think about the timeline for the work and your budget.

2. Review local and nationwide WordPress agencies

Your list is at the ready so it’s now time to begin the search for a WordPress agency.

Even if the final choice comes down to an agency that’s geographically close to where you are it’s still worth getting a feel for what’s available farther afield. This way you can better compare portfolios, experience, agency culture, and what kind of services are offered.

3. Review agency culture, experience, and portfolios

Arguably, there are three particularly important things you should look for in a really good WordPress agency: agency culture, experience, and portfolio.

Alone, these three can provide you with enough insight into how the work will be managed, if the finished product will be up to your expectations, and if the agency will be a good fit for you.

Agency Culture

The culture of the agency will let you know about the agency’s personality and style of work. The ideal agency will be one that matches the personality of your company so that collaboration is easy and you can successfully work together throughout the project.

You can assess an agency’s culture by:

• Having a look at their social pages.
• Checking out their team pages. Is their team’s expertise and talent showcased?
• Finding out about their community involvement or if they have any community involvement.

If you meet up with any potential WordPress design agencies you’ll soon get a sense of their culture, too. Are you made to feel welcome? Are they interested in listening to your ideas? Do they seem to be excited with regard to your project?

Because you’ll be spending a lot of time working with your chosen agency, do not underestimate the importance of the agency’s culture.

Experience

There are two things here:

Is the WordPress agency a startup or are they experienced? How long have they been in business?

How about experience in developing websites in your industry? Are there any websites that they have designed that you particularly like? What about sites they’ve made that have the same type of features that your own site will need?

Your WordPress agency of choice should offer support once your site is up and running. They should provide ongoing marketing services so that you can continually grow your business with your website’s input. And, of course, their team should be knowledgeable and consist of experts so that your site is sure to meet your requirements and goals.

Portfolio

The portfolio of a WordPress agency is one of the best ways to asses the agency team’s capabilities and skills. But it’s not only about being pretty. A website that looks pretty but isn’t user-friendly is never going to perform well against a website that is perhaps not quite as pretty but is very easy to navigate around.

The portfolio will provide insight into the level of agency creativity, their industry experience, the ability at complex coding tasks, and much more.

And if the agency does not have any or much experience in your industry, ultimately, it’s more about really liking the work they do rather than industry-specific experience.

4. Check out online reviews and testimonials

Be sure to read through online reviews and testimonials of any WordPress agency you feel would be a good fit. These afford insight into how happy prior clients have been with the work etc.

Have a look for reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. If you can only find reviews on the agency’s website, try to do a bit more digging since these reviews will likely be hand-picked.

You might think that organising a team-building activity is easy. You just need a venue where you can hold the activity and an exact date. The truth is that it can get a bit more complicated. Despite the complexity, you can still make it happen. These are some things you need to avoid if you want the activity to succeed.

Setting the wrong date

The team-building event isn’t only to help your employees work together. It’s also an opportunity for them to drop serious work and have fun. You can’t choose a date when everyone is busy or is hurrying to meet a deadline. No one will be in the mood to join the activities. Everyone feels like getting back to work.

Choosing the wrong leader

You need someone to facilitate the activity. As a manager, you can’t be the one heading this event. You should be one of the participants. You’re already giving several tasks each day. You don’t want this unique activity to be another chance for you to boss people around. Find someone else who isn’t a part of your team to facilitate the activity and think of ways to make everyone feel involved.

Asking everyone to give up their break

If possible, you need to do the activity during work hours or on weekdays. You can compel everyone to join since it’s a workday anyway. If you force them to come on a weekend or on a holiday, it might feel like a wasted opportunity to rest. They might also want to spend time with family or relax. If you want everyone to take part in every activity, you need to find the perfect timing.

Organising activities that are physically demanding

If your team has young employees who have all the energy to do the activities, it’s okay. However, if you have some ageing employees, you can’t have a physically demanding activity. They might not participate, and it could also place their health at risk. Look for alternate activities that will still make the employees realise the same lessons without going through a physically demanding task.

Doing the same thing each year 

It might get easy for you to repeat the same strategies that you did the last time if you think they worked well. The problem is that the participants already know what to expect. They won’t have a chance to learn something new. It helps you to be creative and look for ways to entice everyone to keep learning. You also don’t need to have the same type of team-building exercise all the time. You can even consider having a funfair company where everyone can just relax and have fun. You can ask https://www.wearetricycle.co.uk to help organise this event. The good thing is that it allows everyone to get to know each other in a relaxed setting. In a way, it’s still a team-building activity.

Find out what works for your team and come up with an exciting activity for everyone to learn from.

 

The term design may sound like a trivial factor in establishing and running a business, but it has a significant impact on the success of a company. It’s not only about how an establishment appears to customers and stakeholders. Bad design decisions can have adverse consequences for a business.

The word design covers many aspects, including building, office, product packaging, logo, and website design. This post focuses on the design used in creating the online presence of a business, particularly the website and corporate identity. The discussions below present essential details every business must know. As one expert from a top design agency in Oxford says, creating a sound design is more than just making a business look great. It should support business success, which means setting a distinctively appealing look that attracts potential customers and encourages sales.

Creating a good impression

Imagine if McDonald’s chose a black and grey colour scheme for its logo and buildings. Would potential customers be enticed to dine or buy at the company’s stores? What if Coca-Cola used straight white powdery lines to spell out the brand name (as a play on coca*** lines and addictiveness) in one of its online marketing campaigns? Imagine the backlash it would get.

Design can make or break a business. In order to create a good impression, it’s essential to choose something that appeals to the target market without stirring controversy. It’s great to be adventurous with the concept and to infuse meaning, but it’s advisable to ascertain that the resulting design is not divisive. A neutral decent-looking design is better than something that can be considered witty but potentially contentious.

Enabling distinctiveness

Excellent design makes it easy to identify and remember a brand. It does not have to be ornate. Too much sophistication or complexity can be a disadvantage. What’s important is to create a look that is not forgettable or comparable to what other businesses have. Designers should strive to develop something that instinctively makes customers associate it with the brand or business name. A design can look impressive, but if it ends up being linked to a different product or branding, it does not serve its purpose.

Stimulating purchases

Moreover, a carefully thought out design may encourage purchases and increase sales. Take the case of online stores. If they are created with dull colours and a generic layout, it won’t be surprising if they do not attract buyers. Customers online have learned to be discriminating because of the multitude of choices they have. Why would they stick with an unattractive store with an unintuitive interface if they could quickly find something better? Numerous businesses online compete for customers, so they need to come up with a look that catches attention and convinces customers to buy.

Design has substantial effects on businesses, especially when it comes to building an online presence. It only makes sense to give it meticulous attention and a thoroughly-researched and well-thought-out concept. To sum up, good design is something that leaves a good impression, makes a business easily identifiable, and encourages customer patronage.