Michael Levitt's Blog, page 121

5 Ideas To Make Your Business More Earth Friendly

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Businesses are well aware that sustainability is important; most companies are also aware that failing to go-green can damage your credibility. So you’ve ditched the paper, got on board with the cloud, and switched to a green energy provider? Perhaps you’ve introduced a cycle to work scheme or purchased energy-saving appliances? Once you’ve taken these initial steps, what else can you do to be more earth-friendly?

1. Waste Management Systems

To reduce your carbon footprint, take a look at your waste management system to see if you can make any improvements. If your business is producing a large amount of waste, you’ll waste money, time, and possibly compromise your reputation. When you’re considering waste, focus on wasted time and as well as wasted materials. Waste management software can help companies to carry out waste processes, including collection and disposal. Waste management software can help your business adhere to regulatory compliances and work towards reducing waste. With less waste and more productivity you’ll be expanding your business in no time!

2. Try Green Web Hosting 

Modern businesses would struggle to survive without the Internet; the problem is that data centers use a huge amount of energy. Data centers even need huge cooling systems to stop the equipment from overheating. In response to the issue, green web hosting companies provide an Internet service, while also contributing towards carbon offsetting. Green web hosting companies contribute the same amount of energy that they use up towards a renewable source. To support sustainably, choose a green-web hosting service for your Internet needs. A few examples of green web hosting companies include Dream Host and Green Geeks.

3. Environmental Monitoring Processes

Environmental monitoring means the processes used to define and track an environment, and it’s quality. Environmental monitoring procedures are intended to prevent humans from damaging the environment around them. You should pay close attention to EM if you operate within an industry where oil spills are a possibility. PVC and stainless steel valves for stopping oil are a great solution (for applications to separate oil and water). EM assessments are highly recommended for industrial settings or construction sites, yet various industries can benefit from an EM assessment.

4.Use Solar Power

Solar energy is one of the most popular types of renewable energy available. An increasingly number of businesses are switching to solar power to reduce their carbon footprint. Solar technology is created using semiconductors, which are called photovoltaic cells. When the sun hits the cells, electrons and atoms separate, resulting in electricity. Once you’ve paid to have solar panels built onto your roofing, you’ll find that your electricity bills are substantially reduced. 

5. Prioritize Sustainable Construction

Sustainable construction is becoming more popular; there are even government rewards for sustainable building projects. Green roofing is one great example of a sustainable construction method. To create a green roof, you have to grow grass and plants upon the material of the existing roof. With a green roof, you’ll improve the air quality, reduce heating costs, and store excess energy. When making improvements to your existing building, be sure to commission sustainable construction methods.

5 Top Tips For Expanding Your Business

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If you’re thinking of expanding your business but you’re unsure whether or not it is the right decision for you then don’t worry, you have definitely come to the right place. Whether you’re increasing your product range or increasing your team, there are lots of benefits to expanding your business on a whole. While it may be overwhelming at first, there are lots of tips and tricks you can pick up to ensure you’re doing all that you can to succeed throughout your expansion. From setting new goals and targets to increasing the services you offer, the more you’re thinking about it the better. With that in mind, here are 5 top tips for expanding your business: 

Set Yourself New Goals And Targets

If you’re expanding your business, you’re going to find that the goals and targets you set in your original business plan are a little outdated. Whether that means you’ve already hit your expansion goals or you have reached the levels of profits you were aiming to achieve, new goals are a great way to re-motivate yourself. If it helps, take a day or two to think about what you want to achieve now that you have hit all of the goals you set. For a guide to setting goals as a business owner, you can visit this site here. 

Think About New Products And Services You Can Offer

As your business expands, you’re also going to need to think about the new products and services you can offer your customer base. Whether this means increasing your offering or switching things up a little bit, only you will know what your target audience would want. For a guide to changing the products you offer as a business, you can visit this site here. 

Consider Outsourcing Tasks To Professionals 

If you know that your time is going to be limited now that your business is expanding, you should consider outsourcing certain tasks to professionals. Whether that means outsourcing your social media or getting someone else to update your website, you will be surprised at how much of your time it can free up. 

Use Service Providers To Help Manage Your IT Systems 

Similarly, you may want to consider using managed IT providers to help make running your business easier. Whether they’re helping you helping with your computer network support or enabling you to switch to a cloud-based platform, you may be surprised at how much difference they can make. For more information about computer network support, you can visit this site here. 

Adapt Your Marketing Plan Accordingly

Finally, you need to ensure you’re adapting your marketing plan accordingly. Whether that means increasing your marketing or decreasing it, the decision is up to you. 

With lots of great tips and tricks to bear in mind when it comes to expanding your business, you can ensure you’re as prepared as you can possibly be. What else can you do? Did we miss anything off of the list? Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below. 

5 Unexpected Ways Your Business Could Be Losing Money

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You will have numerous goals when you are running a business. You need to make sure that you are keeping your customers happy and guaranteeing that you consistently deliver a high-quality product or service. Another key goal is to ensure that you keep your costs under control. Most people have heard that 90% of companies will fail on the market in their first year. That shouldn’t be unexpected because there are always going to be winners and losers. 

However, it’s still worth identifying the key reason that companies tend to fail. One of the main issues tends to be a problem with high costs. When there are high costs for a company, a business is always going to struggle to remain competitive and efficient. 

Let’s say that there is an economic shift in the market. If experts are to be believed the coronavirus pandemic is still on track to cause a massive market recession. When this happens, it will be vital for companies to lower their prices to ensure that they can continue to attract the interest of consumers. 

You will only be able to do this if your costs are low enough to still continue to make a profit selling your products or services at a lower price. That’s why it’s worth identifying and exploring how your business could be losing money. 

There are lots of common ways that a business can lose money over time but there are also issues that you might not expect or predict. Let’s take a look at some of the more weird possibilities. 

Employee Churn

Have you heard of employee churn? This can be one of the most significant costs for any company. If you don’t know what this is it basically refers to the cost of losing and then needing to replace workers in your business. If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. After all, the hiring process isn’t cheap. You need to work out the package that people leave with, advertise the position that is now open and proceed through the hiring process. Some businesses will also use a recruitment team. While expensive, they can be worth the cost for one key reason. They’ll make sure you get the right person for an individual position. 

One of the biggest reasons for a high level of expensive churn is simply the fact that the person was never right for the position in the first place. They may not have had the skill, experience or expertise. They may also not have had the right goals in mind. Perhaps they say the position as a stop-gap whereas you were looking for someone to fill the role long term. There are definitely various issues to contend with here. 

You also need to think about your office culture. This should be built up and become a key part of your hiring process. You need to ensure that new hires do fit into the office culture and that they are going to click with other people in the work environment including you. 

Churn can also be effectively reduced by ensuring that you are providing benefits to employees who stick around. These have to be the right benefits and they won’t always be purely financial. For instance, you could ensure that the position is not a dead end. Instead, they should be able to grow and evolve in their career while remaining at your business.

Poor Performance

On the other end of the spectrum, it’s possible that you lose money in your business model because you keep a poor employee on for too long. One bad employee can drag your business right now. They will lose you sales, reduce levels of efficiency and impact general productivity for your business on a daily basis. This is why it’s worth completing temperature checks in your business model. You need to make sure that there are no issues with individual employees as well as groups too. As with other options that we have mentioned, you can automate this completely. Simply get your employees to fill out surveys at the end of each week and run the results. You can then provide a personalised level of support to anyone who is struggling in your business. 

When you are having difficulty with an individual employee, there are two options. You can think about training them up or letting them go. Don’t forget letting them go is always going to be the more expensive choice. It will lead to that issue of churn that we mentioned above but sometimes it’s best to cut someone out then let them become an anchor for your business long term. 

A Sharp Undercut

You might also find that you are struggling to get the profits you should be earning because another business or corporation is selling them instead. This is commonly referred to as the grey market. The times are sold legally but outside of authorised sale channels. So, every time a product is sold on the grey market, that’s a lost sale for your business. 

Since the grey market is legal there are limited levels of power in terms of what a business owner can do here. You can’t simply report sellers on this market because they aren’t breaking the law. Instead, you need to educate your customers on buying from authorised sources. Ultimately, this is about ensuring that you create loyalty for your brand. It’s not always easy to do this but you should start by selling a quality product. Don’t give customers a reason to explore an alternative from the official seller by offering a product that isn’t worth the price. You should also aim to provide value in every consumer purchase decision. Value can be achieved in a variety of ways from a free gift with a purchase to the right level of engagement. It’s important to remember that these days customers want more from their purchase decisions. They want to feel connected to your business and they want to know that you care about them beyond just a source of profit. 

To achieve that, you need to think about adding personality to your brand identity. It will be important to ensure that you are stepping away from the competition with a brand that is completely recognizable and entirely unique. You should always speak to a marketer about how to do this the right way from day one. If you don’t have a strong brand identity from the beginning then you will be quickly forgotten on the market. 

Hidden Money

You might find that you have hidden money in your business model. This will usually be the case if you are not managing your books carefully. You’ll probably find that a lot of money is slipping through the cracks in smaller sums that you have not foreseen. If you are worried about this possibility, then it’s worth hiring an accountant. With the right accountant, you will have someone to manage your books for you and that’s always beneficial. A lot of business owners wrongly assume that an accountant is going to cost more than it saves. Well, that’s just not the case. Instead, an accountant can save you a lot more in the long term. 

If you are worried about the additional cost, it’s going to be worth exploring outsourcing services. You don’t need to take your accountant on as part of your full-time staff. Instead, you can get the same quality service and just access a solution like this whenever the needs arise. 

You might also want to think about exploring automated outsourcing solutions. With this option, you can simply check how your costs are yourself. You can make sure that you don’t have to worry about the costs slipping out of control. 

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Bad Technology

Finally, it’s possible that your business is losing you money because you have fallen behind with technology. In 2017 a reported 50% of businesses were still dragging their feet with Windows XP systems. The reason? Companies wanted to avoid the costs of switching to new software and training employees. While new training does take time and money, it’s worth it because the tech will operate faster. You probably don’t think much about the few extra minutes it takes to load up the PCs in the morning or access a piece of software. But it all adds up eventually and the result could be that your business is dragging behind the key competitors. 

If you are concerned about the short term costs of upgrading tech, it could be worth renting it instead. This will allow you to keep up and save at the same time. 

We hope this helps you understand some of the hidden ways that your business could be losing money over time. It’s important that you take the right steps to prevent this type of financial leakage. If you approach this the right way, then you will make your company far more competitive on the market and a force to be reckoned with. You could also ensure that longevity of your brand. 

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Reason Why Losing Your Job Could Be a Good Thing

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Let’s come right out and say it, losing your job is not a great thing. Unfortunately, the present climate has a lot of people finding themselves out of a job. Sure, it's not ideal, but what if it was not such a bad thing overall. Spelling it out, it may not look that way, considering that you need to have a source of income to survive. But, it is in no way the end of the world. That is undoubtedly one of the most cliche phrases out there. The thing is, losing your job is the start of something new, especially if you didn’t reach your full potential at your old job, and here’s why.

It Gives You Time To Consider What Really Matters

It's very easy to be reduced to a cog in a machine all in the name of having a job. After some time you forget how important it is to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Losing your job, as horrible as it may seem, gives you the chance to step back and have a wholesome life. You have the chance to connect with friends and family that you’ve neglected for a while. Even more, you could evaluate your lifestyle choices and tweak any aspect that needs tweaking.

Opportunity to Venture Out on Your Own

Believe it or not, venturing into business in the pandemic is a great idea. There are some emerging markets right now that you can tap into with limited competition. Even better is the fact that you know and understand what the new normal is. It's easy to navigate the market now that people are simply looking for what to grasp onto. So, maybe you weren’t meant to be an employee at all, you were meant to be the boss. Think about it.

You Can Get Your Dream Job

The way we see it when one door closes, another one opens up, or you could simply pry one open. Losing your job right now is a great opportunity to position yourself for your dream job. What’s that one thing you always wanted to do, or the firm you always wanted to work at. This time around, get it right. Get employment lawyers on board from the get-go so you don’t get put out of a job with nothing to lean on. They can equally help you negotiate terms that are more favorable for you at your new firm.

You Realize How Resilient You Are

The truth of the matter is that losing your job is a big blow, to your morale, your account, and your outlook on life. But with every passing day, it gets easier to move on and pick yourself up. So, ensure that you seek out ways to bounce back from losing your job. It is hard to do it, but every day you keep pushing is taking you one step to your next adventure. Whether it's a new job or your own business, your resilience will give you the confidence to succeed.

Will You Be Running A Successful Promotional Event?

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A successful promotional event can take many forms; as long as your goal has been achieved, and you’ve got your brand name or your new product out there, you can sleep soundly knowing all your plans have pulled through. 

So, it’s time to work out whether or not you’ll be running a successful promotional event. With the points listed down below, we hope to help you work out if your night is going to go off without a hitch. Make sure you keep them in mind if you aim to plan any kind of business event in the future.

Secure Your Location

The location of your event needs to be prime; somewhere people can easily get to, and is central enough to hold importance. You need it to be able to hold at least the number of attendees booked to come along, if not more. And you need it to have the right atmosphere - if you want everyone to be able to sit down and eat dinner before the event, a dance hall is  probably not the place for you. 

And remember, you’re never alone in trying to secure a location. Visiting links such as https://www.mtievents.com/event-and-meeting-services/kc-destination-management-company/ could give you a good idea of what you’re looking for in an event venue, but at the same time, it could also be a quick way to secure the location of your dreams. 

Have a Focal Point

The event needs to have a centerpiece, and it needs to work towards a crescendo. Simply put, you need to have a focal point to draw attention to, and to make people wait for. You want your guests on the edge of their seats, knowing something is coming, to keep their attention where you want it to be. 

You need a plan for the night. Something that’ll build the hype up for a new product launch, or a reveal of a new name or partnership, etc. A focal point ensures your guests won’t get bored, won’t leave early, and will certainly be talking about you for a good while after the event is over. 

Mingle as Much as Possible

And of course, you’re going to need to network. You’re going to need to get out there and talk to your guests, as much as possible. Networking connections can be worth thousands down the line, and this is your one night to impress as much as you can. 

Overall, you need them to have an impression of you, and a face to put behind the name - you want to be able to form some connections here, and build some rapport between yourself and anyone who could help take your business to bigger and better heights. 

Running a successful promotional event is all in the details. Make sure you have them streamlined, and you’ve invited the right people along, and you’re out there making as much of an impression as you possibly can.

3 Essentials Your Business Needs For Successful Automation

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Automation is the future of business operations. It will save time, funds, and energy and help your company take the crucial steps it needs to reach the next level. However, a business cannot one day decide to automate and make it a success. Like any shift in operations, it requires specific preparation to make it possible. If you recognize the need for automation, here are the three essentials you need to succeed. 

Well-Trained Staff

Automation is not possible without having staff that can handle the shift from manual operations to automated processes. 

When planning your automation, you must find ways to train your staff so they can hit the ground running. There are several ways to do this. One of the most successful is encouraging them to enroll in automation courses offered by institutions such as Kettering Online. However, this is not the only way you can ensure a comfortable transition towards a more automated business. 

Some automated processes will not even require tertiary education, and workshops can often do the trick. Regardless of which avenue you take, you will provide your staff with the knowledge they need to overcome the teething problems that sudden business practice changes often create. 

A Sufficient Budget

Another thing you must ensure you have is a sufficient budget. While there are free automation systems available, these are often not comprehensive enough for larger companies or companies that want to embrace automation to its fullest. 

With a sufficient budget, you can get the very best automation software available. This will give you the confidence you, your staff, and your customers need to guarantee everything runs smoothly. 

While automation can save plenty of time, inadequate measures could make problems much worse. If you want to present your business as one that is ahead of the curve with automated processes, it’s crucial to work with the most efficient and reliable software around to guarantee excellent results. 

A Clear Idea

It might be tempting to automate everything at once. However, this is not always beneficial for a business, especially if you are just starting the switch towards automation. 

You will need a clear idea of what needs to be automated first. This saves plenty of time working out the nuances of the system, but it will also allow you to deal with any issues you encounter more comfortably. 

Once your team has mastered one step of the automation process, such as email marketing or something as simple as automatic appointment booking, you can start to consider more substantial and sophisticated automation processes. Taking it one step at a time by recognizing the more crucial aspects of your business will make everything more manageable. 

Making Things Easier

The whole idea of automation is that your business can do away with the tedious processes that take up far too much time every day. By putting the correct measures in place to shift towards automation, you can find the success you need and reap the benefits that will ensure the growth and streamlined operations that will ensure your company manages to take positive steps in the right direction. 

First Steps To Grow Your Business

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What’s a business without growth? For most business owners, the whole point of running their business is to ensure that it grows in some way or another. Of course, the extent to which a business grows depends upon a range of factors. But the important thing is that you know what to do when you want your business to grow a little more. There are certain steps that you should always think about taking when you are keen for your business to grow. In this post, we will take a look at some of the most important of these.

Detail Your Plan

First up, you need to have a plan for growing your business, whatever you might be specifically aiming to achieve. That plan needs to be as detailed as possible, and it’s not a bad idea to spend a long time working on this first before doing anything else or any of the other steps in this article. The more fully you know what you are aiming for and how you are doing it, the more likely it is that you will get there. If necessary, put some heads together to work out in more detail what you need to do.

Get Marketing

There are no significant changes that lead to growth which do not require some kind of marketing. You should therefore make sure that you are ready to market those new changes, and to ensure that your business is going to grow as quickly as possible. In order to get the best possible results you should seek out the help and assistance of a professional digital marketing agency like SunCity Advising. That way, you can be sure that you are going to grow your business more swiftly, and that everything is more likely to land how you want it to.

Secure The Base

Many types of growth actually mean that you have to put your business through a period of uncertainty. If you are expanding into other markets, for instance, then it is likely that there will be some turbulence in terms of income for a while. Hopefully, it will all pay off, but it’s a good idea to protect against that in the first case by securing what you already have of the business. Think of it like your base - make sure that it is secure regardless of whether or not the new venture succeeds, and then you know you are in a good position to make that change.

Motivate Your Staff

Without your staff being fully on board, you are not going to have the same level of success as if they are completely with the changes. So an important step you need to take is to start motivating your staff about the new changes that are coming. The more effectively you do this, the more likely it is that it will work out - and you will find that your business grows much more steadily and with greater certainty. Consider this an unavoidable aspect of growing your business.

Helping Your Business Get Used To The ‘New Normal’

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There has been a lot of changes to businesses recently, and with the threat of COVID-19 not going anywhere anytime soon, you may have to start to think more long term about the impact it will have had and will continue to have on your business for some time. The last few months has seen many businesses have to close their doors or trade in a different way. But as things start to get back to some normality, it might be time to think about the changes you can make to your business. With that in mind, here are some of the ways to do it.

Diversify the way you do business

One of the biggest changes that you may have found is that you will have had to diversify your business and make some big changes just so that you could carry on trading. You may have lost your retail premises or place of businesses temporarily so diversified to keep the sales coming in. So why stop now? It could be the ideal time to continue to make those changes and keep diversifying and open up a new avenue of trading for your business. Even as you return to normal ways of doing business don’t stop the changes that have worked for you. Keep going. 

Prepare retail premises or business locations

As things do start to go back to normal, you will notice that things won’t necessarily look the same. This means that you may need to start thinking about how you can prepare your retail premises and business locations. Whether that is signposting for social distancing, maybe hang sneeze guards from the ceiling, or looking at face masks as a compulsory thing, it is worth it to safeguard where you work so that your customers feel safe in your business. These changes are likely to be around for a hike, so it will be worth the investment to get back to normal with your business. 

Rigorous health and safety checks

You might also need to remember that you will need to have rigorous health and safety checks when it comes to your business now more than ever. It is essential to follow new guidance about trading in a retail premises or shop, as well as ensuring that you check for any staff that work with you that everyone is following the new rules. It may seem like a lot to take on, but as these changes and the threat is not going away, it is essential that your business keeps up with the new normal. 

Making savings where possible 

Finally, making savings where possible will be essential. Not all businesses will have thrived during these times, so you may need to think about making savings. It could be enabling people to continue to work from home so you can save on office leases. Or maybe things like reducing staff levels or being a purely online business moving forward. Small savings all add up. 

Let’s hope these tips help you to make some long term changes to your business in this new normal world we find ourselves in.

The New Product Launch Cheat Sheet For Startup Businesses

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The Internet is awash with websites that explain how you should promote your company’s products. There are even many case studies that detail how following specific instructions can produce a highly successful outcome.

That’s all great, but what if you’re still at the research and development stage? And you’ve yet to release your first product to market? If you’re in that situation, this new product launch cheatsheet is for you. Here’s what your startup business needs to do:

Make sure you’re not reinventing the wheel

It’s no secret that many of today’s new products on the market are essentially enhancements of existing ones. Whether you’re developing something from scratch or making an existing idea better, make sure you’re not reinventing the wheel.

For a start, you need to be 100% certain there isn’t an identical product already on the market. Companies like GHB Intellect can help you determine that you’re not going to infringe on someone’s existing intellectual rights.

Make sure your product can fill a gap in the market

Once you’ve determined that your new product idea isn’t going to cause you any legal grief, you need to be sure that it will fill a gap in the market. The last thing you want to do is launch a product that solves a problem your customers aren’t experiencing!

Spending time on your market research is essential during these crucial early stages of your product development. Thankfully, research firms such as Nielsen can give you a detailed insight into your market and the problems that it faces.

Carry out plenty of testing

As you get to the stage where you have a working prototype of your new product, you need to get as many people as possible to test it. Doing so will help you in several ways:

Fault-finding

First of all, you’ll discover if there are any flaws in your product that need resolving before you release a final working version. One of the biggest mistakes some innovators make is keeping their products a closely-guarded secret and not letting third-parties test them.

Feedback

Your product testers can give you a frank and honest account of their experiences using your product. Feedback is crucial to developing a product that becomes critically-acclaimed and widely-revered by your target audience.

Arguably the best way of gaining feedback from your product testers is by inviting them to answer a questionnaire.

Safety

The sad truth is that sometimes new product innovators forget to comprehensively check the safety of their products before they release them to the market. Thorough product testing ensures that your product will be safe and meet all legal safety testing requirements.

Final thoughts

Some people believe that launching a new product is as simple as designing and building it before selling it. The truth is, you need to follow a flow process so that you can guarantee a successful product launch.

You want to make sure your new product won’t give you any legal problems, harm anyone, or otherwise cause your target audience to avoid using it. By keeping in mind the points raised in this cheat sheet, you’ll have carried out your due diligence.

Good luck!

If You Master The Art Of Employee Appreciation, Your Business Will Fly

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If you want your employees to stick around, you need to show them that you appreciate their work. If you don’t, they’ll become disgruntled and look for somebody else to provide them with gainful employment - not what you want. 

Some leaders get into the habit of believing that the only way to get people to stick around is to raise their pay. But this is emphatically not true. Something as simple as the odd compliment here and there can make all the difference. 

Here are some pointers for showing your employees that you appreciate them that won’t deplete the company coffers. 

Take Them For A Coffee Once Per Month

Going for a coffee once a month might not sound like much, but it can make a difference. Head out of the office on a Wednesday lunchtime, grab them a drink of their choice, and enjoy some pleasant conversation. Please don’t make it all about work. Give them a chance to enjoy their whipped cream latte without having to worry about performance metrics. 

Offer Them Gifts

Bosses have to be a little careful when it comes to giving employees gifts. You want to make sure that you do so in a sensitive way that doesn’t violate regulations. You also need to ensure that you don’t leave some employees feeling ticked off. 

Vouchers are, in many ways, the perfect company gifts for employees. You show them that you care while allowing them to decide what precisely it is that they want. You’re not handing out cash, either, so it’s not just extra pay. 

Celebrate Their Milestones

Employees put a lot of effort into their work, so it can be useful to celebrate their milestones. While workers love getting paid, they also want you to affirm and appreciate them when they do something for you. Reciprocity is vital. 

Praise Colleagues Vocally

Don’t be afraid to talk about the achievements of your colleagues in meetings. Be vocal about what people have done and how they’re helping to build a better business. Publicly praising people can become a part of the culture, and something that everyone can enjoy with enough hard work and dedication. 

Allow Employees To Work Flexibly

More than anything, employees want to be able to work flexibly. Being tied to their desks from 9 to 5 isn’t practical in the modern world. There are so many demands on people’s time that antiquated working practices aren’t popular anymore - if they ever were. 

Ask Your Employees What They Want To Do For Fun

Your idea of what constitutes “fun” might be very different from that of your employees. Therefore, it is always a good idea to ask them what they’d like to do instead of relying on your instinct. You don’t want them to see you as “out of touch.”

Thank Your Coworkers In Person

Firing off an email saying thank you is a good thing to do. But it is even better to go up and talk to the coworker yourself. Tell them how much you appreciate their efforts.