Category: Tips and Tools

Working to a budget is a reality of life as a business owner. You can only do as much as your bank balance or overdraft will allow. For new business owners who are not yet familiar with the concept of running costs, there is a lot to understand. What are the most important costs, what makes them the price that they are and can they be reduced in any way?

The typical business will have several common expenses, the first of which is staff. Either by paying yourself a salary or hiring someone else to do tasks like admin, someone needs to be paid to do work. Salaries are often the biggest running cost a business will have to cover, but is arguably the most important.

Budget-wise, the average UK startup business spends £22,756 in its first year. If you pay yourself, most of that money will come in the form of a salary, but what other expenses should be accounted for?

Office and Transport

Office space is usually the second biggest expense, unless you are running your company from home. In most cases, renting an office or warehouse would involve making weekly or monthly payments. For accounting purposes, this is extremely useful, as the amount paid in rent would be unlikely to change over at least a 12-month period.

The cost of transport can be a little more difficult to calculate, whether it’s for meeting clients or delivering goods to customers. The price of fuel fluctuates on a daily basis, while there are costs besides buying a company vehicle such as insurance and maintenance to consider.

Getting value for money is important for keeping down car running costs. This means finding the cheapest or best-value insurance policy, seeking the cheapest gas station and, most importantly, the best vehicle you can afford. Looking out for hidden costs like servicing is also useful.

Utilities and Raw Materials

Regardless of where you run your business, a running cost you will have to pay for is energy. Without it, you would not be able to run a computer or make your products. Like you would with transport and office space, it is possible to find a cheaper deal. The average electricity bill for a small business in the UK is £5,100; switching to another tariff could slash that cost.

Finally, there are the raw materials your business may need. If, for example, you run a printing business, look for the cheapest paper and ink you can buy. It is worthwhile to look at different suppliers’ costs before choosing one. Should they hike up their prices, do not be afraid to take your business elsewhere.

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Many people can get a job as a restaurant manager. But it takes a special skillset to work professionally and effectively as a successful restaurant manager, commanding a good wage and developing a long-lasting career in the industry. All successful restaurant managers, no matter their personality or where they work, have a specific set of skills that they bring to their work, which make them effective and more likely to progress further in their careers.

Take a look at the following key attributes that help form a highly successful restaurant manager today.

1. Ability to Manage Stress

There is no doubt that the restaurant manager role can be stressful. The job can be demanding and the stresses can come from all directions. You need to be able to manage multiple tasks without feeling overwhelmed. You should be able to manage your stress levels so that stress doesn’t get in the way of running a successful business.

2. Multi-Tasking and Organisational Skills

Every hotel recruitment head looks for a restaurant manager with the honed ability to manage multiple tasks at the same time. You need to be able to demonstrate your skills at staying highly organised even when you are doing more than one thing at a time.

3. Passion for the Job and for Customer Service

If you don’t really like people, this is not the job for you. If you’re just doing it as a means of making some money, you are unlikely to progress far in your career. Demonstrate that you have the passion for the role and that you are determined to make a great career and succeed in a people-facing role.

4. Creativity

You need a good amount of creativity and inventiveness when you are taking on a restaurant manager role. New ideas from you help keep the business fresh and making a profit. Staying creative also gives you greater job satisfaction and keeps your knowledge up to date and keeps your business ahead of the local competition.

5. Ability to Develop Relationships

You should know how important it is to cultivate business and customer relationships in order to develop loyalty and brand. Make sure that you can generate good feedback and create long-standing relationships that lead to repeat business and satisfied customers. Customer service should be focused on bringing people back again, not just on solving immediate issues.

Being a successful restaurant manager is challenging, but at the same time extremely rewarding. It’s a dynamic, ever-changing work environment in which you’ll need to stay alert and responsive to the needs of all involved: staff and guests alike. Do you have what it takes to be a successful restaurant manager?

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The packaging is a very important part of a product, since it differentiates it from the competition, it identifies the manufacturer, and it creates brand identity. This will help the product be appealing to buyers when compared on the shelf with competing products.

A very important part of packaging that also protects the product, is the label, as it provides additional information, and in many cases, is required by law in each country.

So, here is a guide which will help you to make your labels effectively.

Remember to include any mandatory information required by law in association with your product. If you consider its inclusion from the beginning, it will be easier to choose an ideal place to position it, and you won’t have to redesign or alter the general design of the label later. Also consider the type of labelling machine which will be used, so as to design a suitable label.

Proper label design will attract consumers. It will also provide key information on the brand, manufacturer, content, ingredients, suggestions for use, care, etc. The price of a well-designed label can be justified, as it highlights quality and adds value.

Labels for food:

As a minimum you should include the following information as part of the packaging:

• Product name and denomination.
• Ingredients: ordered from highest to lowest, with respect to the initial weight.
• Net content (on the face of the container).
• Name, business name and particulars of the producer / importer.
• Country of origin and / or manufacture.
• Authorisation, as required by the Ministry of Health or the entity in charge.
• Production date and expiration date.
• Lot number, to be able to follow and monitor products, and facilitate internal management.
• How to use, cook and store. (You can also add small tips or recipes that can help customers)
• Nutritional information

A very commonly used and legal strategy, used by many healthy products, is to include portion information, when each package can contain up to 3 or 4 servings.

The first thing to include in the nutritional tables is the size of the portion and the number of portions present in the content declared on the package. This is followed by the calories contained in the unit of intake.

The following is the required information regarding macro nutrients, expressed in grams, in the following order:

• Total fat.
• Saturated fats.
• Trans-fat.
• Dietary fibre.
• Sodium (mg).

Followed last by vitamins and supplements that are contained in the product.

And don’t forget to highlight any information you believe can add more value according to your consumers, such as “without sugar”, “without preservatives”, “light”, “without cholesterol”, or any other thing that can help you create brand preference.

Clothing labels:

These should include, as a minimum, the following information:

• The materials and percentages with which the product was manufactured
• The country of origin
• Care of the garment
• Sizing

Finally, you can also mention additional value information for customers, such as that employees were not exploited, that sales help a certain charity or organization in a developing country, etc.

Remember, in general, how important it is that your product label adds value.

 

Getting injuries is no fun. If you’re a business owner, you feel the extra pinch. Who has time to be out of work when you’re trying to ensure your business is running and you’re keeping your head above water? Some medical issues you can plan for or work around easily, such as pregnancy (to some degree) or having a common cold. But what about serious issues, such as going on vacation and having a dock accident on a cruise ship? Such an instance would leave you with an injured body part and court dates to attend.  Rest assured, even if you had an accident or injury that makes getting around difficult, you can still operate your business, whatever it may be. Here are a few ways to keep pulling along, regardless of your situation.

Have an Assistant for Physical Work

If any aspect of your business involves going places, traveling, or physically being in different locations to monitor or check things over, consider having an assistant take over this role for you. Pick someone you trust, and ask them to either make notes or call you with updates or problems regarding the situation. They can keep you in the loop, and you won’t feel as though your business is being neglected. Having an assistant help you with the physical and more unmanageable side of your job makes life easier, let’s others in your business know you are still active, and ensures that deadlines are being met.

Decide How Much Can be Accomplished at Home

Take inventory of your business, and decide how much you can run from home. Thankfully, internet and a cell phone make operating just about any type of home business possible. Make a point to write down and set up priorities for your business.  This enables you to plan out what is most important on your schedule first and go from there. Consider setting daily and weekly goals that you can accomplish at home, and what you need to have done by the end of each week. The more you can do at home without stepping out and handling problems, the more effective your time will be spent. Delegate as much as possible, especially trivial work that doesn’t have to personally be done by you.

Make Time to Relax

If you have injured yourself, you likely have appointments to go to. From the doctors’ office to physical therapy and perhaps even meetings with your lawyer depending on the situation, your time will be busy enough as is. Make time for yourself where you aren’t overburdened with work. Instead, focusing on relaxing, getting outside, and allowing yourself to feel renewed. This is healthier for you in the long run, and it will prevent you from getting frustrated with your company, your injury, and how you can’t work at your normal capacity. Accept the fact that everyone deals with things in a different manner, and you shouldn’t expect yourself to function at the same level as you did when you were working before your injury.

Look for New Solutions to Run Your Business

While you are waiting for your injury to recover, you’re likely considering other ways you can run your business. Now is the time to consider a different way of running it. For example, if you drive people for a living, consider moving yourself into management, and managing drivers who take over your old job. Your time is spent in an effective manner, and you can double and triple your profits because you are managing others instead of doing all the work yourself. Alternatively, look for a side business that complements the one you are currently doing. A taxi service could also do deliveries, for example. This creates more value for possible customers, and provides you with additional opportunities for revenue that were previously unexplored.

Don’t let your injury hold you back from running your business the way you want to. Consider this an opportunity to move into a different realm, including upper management, or find a way that something else can complement your current business. Make time for yourself to properly recover and relax. Consider having others help you in your work, and seek ways that you can accomplish the work at home, rather than operating in your former role. Whatever you do, make sure you are flexible with your business, and allow it to work for you. This will lead to more opportunities and less frustration.

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The Investment Decision

In the decision to invest, the following phases must be considered:

• Identification of investment alternatives (projects) that adapt to the strategy defined by the investor. Once the investor’s strategy has been established, the strategic planning will be developed, which will be carried out in several stages.
• Design and evaluation, organisation and modelling of the information regarding each investment opportunity in relation to the legal, accounting, tax, technical, social, commercial, economic, and financial aspects. The report on the viability of each investment opportunity allows the filtering and discarding of those projects that are not viable.
• Choice of the best investment opportunity among the different options can then be based on viable alternatives.

Importance of an Investment Project

The purpose of evaluating an investment project is to know its economic, financial and social profitability, in a way that resolves a human need in an efficient, safe and profitable way, allocating the economic resources that are available to the best alternative.

This technique can provide critical information to investors, and allow them to reject an unprofitable project and accept a profitable one.

The complete analysis of a project requires, at least, the performance of four complementary studies: market, technical, organisational, administrative and financial. While the first three fundamentally provide economic information on costs and benefits, the latter, in addition to generating information, allows building cash flows and evaluating the project.

Market study

It is very important to note that the market cannot be analysed exclusively on the basis of what already exists, but that projections should be made about the future.

Objectives of the market study

For the purposes of evaluating an investment opportunity the study is mainly aimed at the collection of economic information that has an impact on the investment project.

In relation to income this study acquires its greatest importance. Here, the consumer’s study must determine the existence of a real demand for the product in terms of its price, volume and periodicity, in a specific place and time.

Technical study of the project

From a financial perspective, this study aims to provide information to quantify the amount of investments and operating costs pertaining to this area.

From this can be obtained information on the needs of capital, labour and material resources, both for the start-up and for the subsequent operation of the project.

Study of the organisation of the project

This is associated with investment expenses and operating costs, usually managed by investment specialists such as Maritime Capital, that can determine the profitability or not of the investment opportunity.

Legal study

The economic effects of the legal aspects that are most frequently considered in the viability of an investment project are those related to the tax issues, such as, for example, taxes on income and assets, and expenses.

Financial study

The final stage in the analysis of the financial viability of an investment project is the financial study. The objectives of this stage are to organise and systematise the monetary information provided by the previous stages, to prepare the analytical tables and additional background for the evaluation of the project, and to determine its profitability.

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