Business Plus Baby

April 6, 2017

Growing Your Business In A Techy Direction

Over the last couple of decades, tech has moved forwards in remarkable ways. Nowadays, we have the power to find near limitless information from our pockets. And, it’s all designed to be incredibly user-friendly. So, anyone can use it. Along with these sorts of advancements, the tech world has made a big splash for businesses, too. It’s never been easier to kit your business out with gear. But, it’s important that you make the right moves. To help you out, this post will be going through some of the easiest areas to change in your business, simply by using technology to clear the way. Now, all you have to do is start investing.

Within your business, you will be able to find loads of areas to improve. Often times, this will mainly involve clever self-auditing techniques. You have to be able to see where you could be saving time or money. Of course, there are some areas that are easy to see. And, below you’ll find examples of our of these areas; to give you the inspiration you need to find the slightly harder ones.

Any business that is using paper for a lot of their work in the modern age needs to make some changes. Paper is expensive. And, getting rid of it can be a pain. So, it’s best to minimise your use of it as much as possible. Doing this can be achieved nice and easily with computers, though. There are loads of services out there that allow you to store your documents online. And, there are software applications that can be used to make this easier. This is all well and good; but, it leaves all of your older paper-data with no home. Thankfully, there are companies that can help you with this issue. Document scanning and storage companies have popped up everywhere since cloud storage options become viable. This gives you the opportunity to match your old file systems with your new ones. And, have access to all of your documents from anywhere in the world. Doing this sort of job in-house will take hundreds of man hours and will likely be more expensive that using someone else to do it for you.

Security

Next, you need to start thinking about the security in your business. There are loads of physical and digital threats that can be helped with technology. If you have an office or other physical premises; it’s important to make sure that you have the right tools to secure it. Having digital locks, which use key cards or fobs limits the risk that a member of the public will get their hands on a key. And, a good amount of area covered by CCTV can make a big difference. Next, you have to think about your internet connection. As a business, you will no doubt have a substantial router to power your network. Along with this, you should also have a physical firewall to avert threats before they ever make it onto your network.

Efficiency/collaboration

Speed is one of the biggest benefits that technology can bring. So, as a business, you should be utilizing everything you can to make sure that everything is running nice and smoothly. One of the best ways to do this is by limiting the amount of time your employees have to be sharing data and passing around paper. Services like Office 365 and GSuite allow you to achieve this goal, without having to put in any effort at all. These systems allow your users to collaborate on the same files, at the same time. And, they’re incredibly affordable. The way that these systems store your data limits the needs to have on-site servers. It gives you staff access to their files from anywhere in the World. But, best of all; you don’t need an IT technician to set it all up for you.

Computers

There’s no point in improving the software that your staff members use, though; if their computers aren’t good enough to run it. Unfortunately, the world of computers moves very fast. This leaves companies in a bad position. Computers are usually very expensive. And, buying the as they go out of date is a very costly procedure. So, most companies can’t afford the expense. Thankfully, this is easily resolved with the help of a computer rental agreement. Loads of computer manufacturers, like Dell and HP, allow their business customers to borrow computers from them. This will give you the chance to have your machines upgraded regularly. And, it won’t cost a fortune on maintenance.

The Benefits

The benefits to something like this can be huge. For one, you will be saving a lot of money. Thankfully, once you have all of these things in place; they cost very little or nothing at all to keep running. Of course, you do have to deal with the initial investment, though. This will usually be worth it for most companies. And, if you don’t do it now; you’ll probably have to do it in the future. But, this can help you with more than just money. Space is a big factor for a lot of small businesses. As you grow, it can be hard to make sure that you have enough room for new employees. Having paper or other unnecessary things taking up space will only hinder your progress when it comes to getting bigger.

Everyone should be aware of the environment. It affects everyone. And, humans have already had a major impact. Of course, this doesn’t mean that most people will go out and grab pickets to start protesting. But, for some reason, care for the environment is becoming more and more fashionable. And, businesses have to be aware of this. People won’t be willing to buy things from a business that does nothing to help it’s environmental impact. Getting rid of paper in your business will do a great deal to help your impact. And, if it comes to it; people will be happy to see that you’re at least doing something.

Hopefully, this will give you the inspiration you need to start building your company into a techy haven. In the future, you will rely on tech to help you get a lot of your work done. As a bigger business, it will be impossible to avoid using things like this. So, it’s best to get yourself kitted out early. So, you won’t have to make change when it’s harder for your employees to adapt.

April 5, 2017

Cut The Costs Of Your Marketing

Marketing is a hugely important part of any business, and often this means that it takes up a lot of the internal resources. Chances are, a good proportion of your budget goes towards the marketing, and this means that it is probably somewhere where you want to get the most bang for your buck. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can reduce the costs of your marketing, and this is likely to have some great ongoing benefits for the rest of your business. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can cut the costs of marketing today.

Get It Right The First Time

If you look at where marketing money is usually wasted, it is often the same old story. More often than not, people overspend on their marketing simply because they fail to get it right the first (or even second or third) time around. Clearly, if you want to spend less, you need to make fewer mistakes to begin with, so make this your first mission towards cutting your marketing costs. To ensure you get it right the first time, you might want to think about the customer target, what it is they are likely to respond to well, and what your efforts should be directed towards most of all. This will help you to get the marketing in the best position possible for the future.

Save On Content

A lot of different content goes into any marketing campaign, and if you are looking to make the whole process cheaper you will want to make sure that you are saving on this content as well as possible. This might mean that you need to use a stock photo instead of an image which has royalties behind it that need paying. It might mean creating content yourself, such as the written side of it, or it could be that you need to think about other inventive ways of finding cheap or free content to use. Do this, and it will make a noticeable difference to the overall costs of your marketing.

Consider Outsourcing

Sometimes it is necessary to give the whole project to a third party to take care of for you. Outsourcing is usually considerably cheaper than producing the same content in-house, and you might even find that it saves you time and energy as well. If you do think you want to outsource your marketing, then you will want to ensure that you communicate your desires as strongly as possible to the firm you are using. Otherwise, they might not end up producing exactly what you are looking for, and that can be a disastrous thing when you are looking to improve your business on the whole. Also ensure that you shop around for the best marketing firm you can find. It makes a considerable difference, and you want to use people that you feel you can genuinely trust if at all possible. With any luck, you will cut the costs of your marketing and also improve its quality.

April 4, 2017

Keeping Your Business Legally Tight

Laws surrounding business are constantly evolving. Keeping on top of these changing legalities can keep you from accidentally breaking the law and allow you to use such laws to your advantage. Here are just a few ways that you keep your business legally tight.

Get contracts professionally written

It’s important that both staff and clients have some kind of contract to abide by. You can write this yourself, but it may pay to have a professional legal writer rustle one up for you. This will protect you against any possible lawsuits or exploitation that could occur. A legal advisor will be able to tell you what you need in your contracts in order to be fully protected.

Arrange a risk assessment

Health and safety can be a place where a lot of business owners fall short. Hiring a surveyor to carry out a risk assessment of your business could help notify you of any places where you may need to introduce new health and safety laws. This is recommended before you hire staff as this is where you may have to introduce the most of health and safety feature (a well sign-posted fire exit, a first aid kit, special equipment ect.). Lawsuits in this area are becoming more and more common – safeguard your business by not allowing any risks to go unprotected.

Hire a legal advisor

Every business owner can benefit from hiring specialist legal advice from a local solicitor. Such advisors can be useful when dealing with difficult staff or clients or making big business decisions such as renting your first office, taking on your first staff, franchising or selling your business. Legal advisors will be able to tell you the best routes to take to guard your business against lawsuits and criminal behaviour, as well as making the most of legal business limitations.

Get your books checked by an accountant

Having an accountant check your books and help you out with a tax return can be useful. Not only can they prevent you making any costly errors, they can also alert you of any expenses that you should deducting from your tax. Financial law can vary from trade to trade so ensure that you find an accountant or firm that has previously worked in your line of business. Chartered accountants can be useful for ensuring the most professional service as such accountants must pass special screening processes and be educated and trained to a specialist level.

Keep on top of business news

Because laws are always changing, it pays to keep on top of business news that could affect you so that you can adequately prepare for when major changes come in. Laws are coming in soon to enforce compulsory pension schemes and paid overtime. For some small businesses, failing to prepare financially for such changes could be serious. A legal advisor may be able to warn you ahead of such changes, but you can keep yourself up to date by reading business news columns and subscribing to business blogs.

April 3, 2017April 3, 2017

The Big Questions About Big Data

To a business owner, the term “big data” can have a wide variety of definitions. It can represent massive amounts of unstructured information from a range of different sources, or just large volumes of consumer behaviour data. For some inexperienced entrepreneurs though, it’s one big question mark! In this post, we’ll be answering three of the most important questions small business owners may have about big data.

What Exactly is “Big Data”?

These days, information is moving through different platforms in a larger volume, velocity, and variety than ever before. All of this data falls under title of “big data”. To give you an idea of how “big” big data is, around ninety percent of all the data stored on modern computers was created since 2011. This all started when automated systems became involved, and began gathering countless amounts of data every day, from smartphones, machinery sensors, and every little click we make with our computers. Converting all this data into accessible and manageable reports has become a massive talking point in the global business arena in recent years, and given rise to service niches like SQL server business intelligence. These days, it’s almost a necessity for modern businesses to be making this process a priority.

How Do I Take Advantage of It?

There are a lot of different answers to this question, depending on the size of the business, its industry and major objectives. However, any company that’s trying to make the most of big data should ultimately be striving towards being constantly in the loop. If you’re able to draw information from data-logging sensors, you can distil that knowledge into prompt, smart decisions, and trigger the right actions at the right time. Gathering and cataloguing data used to be all about seeing what happened in the past. Now, it’s all about what’s happening in the here and now. Focusing your big data resources on this will allow you to fine-tune your marketing to the right audience, improve the standard of service you’re giving your customers, reduce operating costs and save a lot of time. It can take some doing to get big data to mesh with your existing business, but once you do, the possibilities really are endless.

Where Do I Get This Data?

First and foremost, you have to pin down the data you already have, and the data you’d like to have. This should cover all your spreadsheets and SaaS applications, along with sales receipts, partner information, and any other methods you have for gathering data. From there, you should connect sets together to form more timely and valuable insights. One of the best ways to do this is focussing on something specific you want to achieve, for example, improving the sales on Fridays. By having these kind of specific goals, you’ll be able to zoom in on the data sets you’ll need to gather. Once you’ve identified and gathered, let’s say, online sales and social media posts, you can automate these processes as much as possible, minimising your company’s reaction time.

April 3, 2017

What To Look For When Buying Machinery For Your Business

Whether you’re buying heavy machinery or computers or even portable machinery, you need to make sure that all the specs fit your business. Such equipment is often a huge expense. Knowing what to look for can save you time and hassle later down the line.

Convenience vs cost

The most important thing to weigh up when buying machinery is whether the convenience is worth the cost. Are you going to get the use out of it make the return? For many, pieces of machinery involved in mass production such as 3D printers and packing machines, the cost can often be worth the convenience. However, buying a floor scrubbing machine for cleaning a floor might not be worthwhile if you’re only going to use it once a year – hiring a machine in such cases may be easier. Similarly avoid high-end models of machines unless you’re going to make use of all the complexities they offer. Modern machinery can come with multiple settings and computer analytics features, which may only be worthwhile if you’re using multiple settings and need that extra precision.

Checking the condition

Second-hand machinery will often be much cheaper. But you should consider whether this age and condition will have ramifications later down the line. Repairs may need to be more regularly made and parts may be harder to find. Old computer-based machinery may be outdated. In all case, you should try and check the condition before buying. This may mean travelling to check out the machinery in person, but could worth it in the long run. Also, for heavy machinery, check that there are appropriate documents available such a safety manual and service history.

Equipping your premises

Your premises needs to be equipped for the machinery you’re buying. You may need to upgrade to a bigger space when buying heavy machinery, although some heavy machinery such as belt conveyors for handling materials can often be sculpted to fit your location. Check that the premises has appropriate electrical outlets and ventilation for the machinery that you’re using. If the building you’re using is old or on an upper level and you’re buying heavy machinery, get a surveyor to check that the structure can withstand the weight of the machinery that you’re buying.

For portable machinery, you may have to check that the vehicle you’re using can support such a weight.

User friendliness

Some machinery may have to be assembled on site. Many suppliers of such machinery can assemble it for you, although this may be an added cost. Portable machinery may need to be assembled and disassembled before and after transport, so check that this assembly and disassembly process doesn’t take too long or isn’t too complex.

Ask for demo when buying machinery so that you know how to operate it, including processes such as cleaning and maintenance. Remember that you will potentially have to train up staff to use this machinery, so you don’t want it to be too complex. Foreign computer-based machinery may have to be converted into another language. Also ensure you know all health and safety precautions so that can protect you and your staff from injury.