Business Plus Baby

Many companies run on a tight schedule and can’t afford to be slowed down by inconveniences. Many of these inconveniences are things you may have overlooked – you may consider them part and parcel of the job. Here are just a few of the biggest offenders that are slowing down your business, as well as some advice on how you can overcome these obstacles.

Software saturation

Too much software can result in information being spread out all over the place. Not only that but it can slow your computer down. Rather than having to open multiple programmes to find the information you want, it could be worth investing in software such as Employsure that puts everything in one easy-to-find location. You may even be able to pay a software developer to make your own software that combines the functions of multiple programmes.

Frustrating phonecalls

Tired of constantly being interrupted by phonecalls? Some of these people calling you may have important information or they could be future clients – you don’t want their calls to go unanswered. However, phonecalls can eat away at your day and distract you from pressing matters. One way to deal with phonecalls is to let them all go to your answer machine, allowing you to ring people back when you’re free, however not everyone likes to leave messages and this could have negative implications. Instead, you could consider outsourcing a phone answering service such as Brainy Call – these companies can filter out the sales calls and general inquiries so that you only have to deal with the most pressing phonecalls.

Endless emails

On top of phonecalls, the endless stream of emails can slow many of us down. Keeping on top of your inbox could involve delegating periods of time each time simply for opening and answering each email. You could reduce the amount of emails you get by not publicly displaying it, but instead using a submission form on your website that leads to your email address – many people sending advertising spam won’t bother to fill out this form. Alternatively, as with phonecalls, you could delegate or outsource someone to go through your emails, filtering out the important ones that only you can answer whilst handling the rest.

Monotonous meetings

Meetings may seem like an important organisational task, but in this digital age they can often be a waste of time. If you want an update on progress from your employees, you could instead make use of project management software, which allows everyone to tick off tasks as they’re completed. If you want to brainstorm, you could find that having people email you your ideas or write them on a whiteboard is just as effective (this can encourage silent employees to speak up). As for meetings with clients, these could be reduced to phonecalls or email exchanges in most cases (video-communication could allow an in-person chat without anyone having to travel). The only real reason for using meetings should be notify people of company news and updates – and even this could be sent out as a mass email.

Arduous admin

When it comes to specific management tasks like accounting and completing the payroll, these can often be time-consuming. However, there are ways to make these tasks easier. You could outsource them to an accountant. Alternatively, you could use software to speed them up. This could allow you more free time focus on core tasks by automating/delegating these admin roles.  

Image: Michi Nordlicht

For a lot of people, online content has become a natural part of their everyday life. It’s not only easy to consume, but it is also quickly accessible and, more often than not, simple to manage. While online data multiply on a daily basis, you can get overwhelmed by the sheer volume and sometimes forget what online content really means on a personal basis. Indeed, as we all share, exchange, create and consume content online, it’s become essential to dive in and discover the four key pillar of digital content and how they can affect you in your day-to-day life.

Content means security

Digitalized content is often perceived as safer than paper archives. Indeed, it has the advantage of being indexable in a multitude of archiving systems simultaneously, making it, therefore, quicker and easier to access. All it takes is 0.1 second for your laptop to find the data you’re looking for. But, ultimately, online content can be exposed to a privacy breach. If your data storage has been corrupted, you might lose valuable information, or worse, you might unwillingly expose information to cybercriminals. In the context of business, you have a responsibility to ensure the protection of the content your store online. But hackers can work faster than security systems!

Content means money

In the business world, online content is often synonymous with income. Indeed, most clients discover the product or service they need online; the online content can, therefore, lead to a purchase action. Factors such as SEO and PPC can also facilitate your visibility and encourage a sale. Additionally, when the creation of online content is the core of your business, such as for bloggers, the possibility to join affiliate programs such as Wowtrk can also generate extra income. Here too, SEO and sheer volume of visitors are key to guarantee your success.

Image: Pantanea

Content means expertise

More often than not, for those who are looking to attract new clients, or even to impress future employers, the creation of online content is closely linked to the display of expertise. For companies, this can be part of their blogging and content generation strategy, where they can invite experts to discuss hot topics. For individuals, the example of Nina from Airbnb comes to mind. Nina chose to apply to the company by creating her own website to display the result of her research into Airbnb’s future market opportunities. She then shared her findings with the company and was successfully welcomed as a new team member.

Content means connection

Online content, in the form of chat or comment feeds, is part of Millennial communication. More and more adults turn to the online world to share their personal struggles with strangers. As surprising as it might sound, you will find more people ready to listen and advise than trolls trying to hurt you. That’s because, online content is part of creating a bond between people, wherever they are and regardless of their status and beliefs. The goodness of strangers online can be a life-changing experience.

In the end, online content defines who we are and what we want to be. It’s used for security, financial profit, career growth, and even emotional support. We are, ultimately, the content we share.

There is no denying that there are many benefits that are associated with working from home. Not only does this enable you to work in a comfortable environment and have more flexible working hours, but it can be great for parents especially, as they do not need to spend as much on childcare. It also means you don’t have to spend your life commuting and dealing with the costs that come with this. Nevertheless, working from home can be very different when compared with working in an office, and so you need to avoid some of the most common blunders mentioned below…

Working in your pyjamas – There is only one place to begin, and this is with working in your pyjamas! A lot of people assume that this is the main perk associated with working from home. However, if you wear your pyjamas, you will go into lazy mode, and this will make it difficult for you to work as efficiently as possible.

Failing to secure your computer – Cyber security is something that all businesses need to be concerned with. This includes businesses that are operated from home. It doesn’t matter whether you have a big business or you are a one-man band, all companies are a target when it comes to hackers. They will view you as an easy payday. So, make sure you take cyber security seriously and that you put the methods in place to protect yourself from a data breach.

Poor communication – It can be more difficult to communicate with clients when you are home-based. However, it does not need to be this way. There are so many communication options available to you, from video chats to email. Make sure you use the right communication platform based on the information that needs to be conveyed or the discussion that needs to be had.

Handling tax incorrectly – Your tax obligations are likely to be slightly different when working from home. This is especially the case if you have a number of different clients – your tax setup may differ based on who you are working for and what they are employing you as – i.e. whether you are considered a freelancer or contractor. It’s important to get your tax obligations right. You also need to look into what happens if you get it wrong. What is a Director’s Penalty Notice? What happens if you are served with one? What are some of the common mistakes that are made when filing tax as a work from home professional? Read up on subjects like this so you can make sure you have the education that is required.

As you can see, working from home is not without its challenges. However, if you prepare for these challenges, you can ensure everything runs smoothly and that your home business is as profitable and efficient as possible. If you are currently making any of the mistakes mentioned, rectify them as soon as you can, and you are bound to notice a difference.

Image: bruce mars

Working in an office can be chaotic. Contending with the demands of clients, your co-workers, and your bosses can be taxing to most people, but when you combine that with a workspace that is disorganized, you may feel like you’re facing absolute bedlam.

Improving your office workflow is often a multi-pronged effort. To that effect, we’ve got three ways you can improve your office’s workflow and organization below!

Get digitally organized

Having a physically disorganized office can be a nightmare (and an eyesore that can negatively affect your career), but things start to get really dodgy when you this disorganization becomes digital.

Most companies’ important files are now stored online and most transfers of documents are all done electronically. Not only is this method faster, more convenient and much cheaper than paper, it’s also often safer. Encryption of online documents is now incredibly robust and can provide with much more secure tracking, delivery and protection of sensitive documents than paper ever could.

However, none of that will help you if you lose the documents or don’t send them on time. If you deal with any kind of sensitive documents (as most companies now do) or legal documents, using a legal software that helps organize your contacts, files, deadlines, tasks and calendars all in one place will do wonders for helping your office achieve some much needed organization.

Clean up your office and your schedule

When you are organized, you will notice many benefits. Not only will the amount of time you spend looking for things decrease, your stress levels will as well. Organized spaces help control both physical and mental clutter and have been shown to lower cortisol (the stress hormone) and make your more efficient.

Speaking of efficiency, organizing your office by sorting old documents and taking out the recycling is only half the battle. It’s also important to schedule your time appropriately. Understanding how long certain tasks will take, when they’re expected of you, and what you will need to accomplish them will not only increase your productivity, but will also make you more trustworthy as en employee.

Analyze results

Any office looking to make drastic changes need to consider not only how they will implement the changes and train employees on the new expectations, but also how they will analyze the results of the change. Implementing change with no clear goal or way of understanding the benefits (or failings) of the changes will only result in more issues down the road.

Instead, evaluate the work processes or software put into place and discuss with users and employees what they feel was beneficial and what may have actually hampered them in completing their work.

There are many times that offices or companies implement changes to processes in the hopes of streamlining things, only to find months later that the affected employees loathe the change and find that it hinders their productivity. This is often seen with badly researched or quickly implemented software that may prove to have more negative than positive benefits.

For a while it seemed like the very concept of ‘family business’ was on the way out.  For a time, many of these businesses struggled with issues ranging from controlling expenses to figuring out what to when the next generation was not interested in taking over the company.

However, that it quickly changing as family businesses are making a comeback across the country.  These businesses range from small, part-time businesses run by moms to true family affairs that involve the parents and their adult children.

While these moves are welcome as family businesses are not only a key part of the economy but also a source of long-term employment for family members across the country.  With that in mind, we will dive into some of the reasons why family businesses are making a comeback.

Just the Facts

Here are some of the facts when it comes to the rise of family businesses across the country.  First, and despite of news that the industry was dying, independent bookstores have grown by roughly twenty percent since 2009.  Meanwhile, another industry that has seen an explosion of family businesses over the past decade is craft beer.

Note that these data points are not the only evidence about the growth of small businesses including family businesses.  While these businesses had been in decline since the 1990’s, they have been making a comeback over the past decade.  This has led to the creation of millions of jobs while larger corporations have been aggressively cutting headcounts.

Coming Full Circle

In many ways, this trend is a signal that American business has come full circle. Since World War II, or even before, large department stores and supermarkets killed off small family-owned shops across the country.  However, these departments stores were in turned killed off by ‘big box’ retailers.  Then there was the rise of online retailers who have left the ashes of entire industries in their wake.

Granted, this is a bit of an exaggeration as some family businesses have been able to survive over the past century.  But it does highlight the overarching trends in U.S. business – especially in retail.

While the rise on e-commerce has largely benefited companies such as Amazon and eBay, there are have also been millions of small businesses who have been able to reach new customers thanks to this technology.  It is in this way that business in the U.S. has come full-circle as family businesses are no longer tied to their physical location; instead, they can sell to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Express Yourself

Besides better access to markets, another factor which sets most family businesses apart is their ability to differentiate themselves from the competition.  Some of this is due to being better able to react to the market, while another reason is that the owners can personalize the message of these companies in a way with large, multinational corporations can never hope to achieve.

Ultimately, this means that some industries are better suited for family businesses than others.  For example, it is unlikely that we will see small, family-run car companies and time soon – though both Ford and Toyota include members of the founding family on their boards.  However, this is not to say that family businesses cannot carve out footholds in manufacturing industries.  In fact, quite the opposite is true; with the caveat that key members of the business understand how to make the products they are offering to customers.

While entire cars may no longer be the reality of family businesses.  One which focuses on car parts might be well within the realm of possibility – given that the principal knows the cost of catalytic converter and other key parts.

Opportunities for Innovation

Or is it disruption?  In fact, there is a fine line between the two.  One way to think of the distinction comes Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, ‘disruption displaces an existing market, industry, or technology and produces something new and more efficient and worthwhile. It is at once destructive and creative.’

This is more than relevant when it comes to looking at family business as many of these companies can serve as laboratories for the next big thing.  It doesn’t matter if that breakthrough in cupcakes or a mobile app as family businesses have the time to develop on their own without the constant stresses of shareholders and earnings reports.

As such, these businesses provide opportunities for innovation and it is this new way of doing things that is a major reason why family businesses are making a comeback.

Image: Pexels