Michael Levitt's Blog, page 125

What To Do When Your Business Is In A Slump

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Starting a business is a big challenge for many people, and one that can set off a lot of insecurities and doubt, this is because there is no guarantee that it is going to work, and with all the best intentions you can sometimes find yourself falling short. Unfortunately, this means that there are going to be times when you may struggle in business, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will fail, but those of us who are willing to put in the hard work to get the business up and running again, I’m going to find they are much better off in the long run. But if you find your business in a little bit of trouble, then here are some ideas that you can use to help you back on track again.

PR

It may not be necessarily a PR disaster that you are facing, but there are certain things that you can outsource when it comes to business that may help your business come out of a difficult patch. Choosing from business process outsourcing companies can take a lot of weight off the business whilst you are focusing on other things, and within these processes, PR can be included, but free focusing and ensuring that your business is becoming much more resilient, and leaning towards a brighter future is essential. Outsourcing parts of your business that will change the way in which the public views The way in which you work, can bring you many more clients and customers and you could have hoped for

Going back to basics

Sometimes, especially when we have been in business for a long time, there is a disconnect between what our original message is and what we are hoping to achieve now, so making sure that you go back to basics, even if you don’t necessarily want to implement those basics, and ensuring that you remember why you started in the first place, can really help you recover and thrive from any temporary issues. Making sure that you have a clear vision is business 101 if you don’t have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve it can be difficult to get anywhere.

Teamwork

It can be difficult to run a business on your own, and most people tend to find that they have a team, whether that is outsourced accountants, or people working in the customer-facing role of the business, but either way, pulling together as a team can make a significant impact on the way in which a business runs. Creating a team ethic and a positive bond between the people who work for you is going to bring a significant amount of positivity and Resilience to the business as a whole. This is always good news and there are many success stories that we can read, whereby the team has pulled together and save the business from a difficult patch. Not only this but a pleasant working environment relies on a team being together and working hard.

Tips for Smoother Business Logistics

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Running a business differs depending on what kind of business you run, but if you have a business that relies on logistics and transportation, you need to be on top of those challenges as much as possible. Smoother business logistics will help you to run your business in a more manageable way and ensure you never get overwhelmed by things. Here’s how you can approach the challenge of logistics a little better.

Hire a Logistics Manager

One of the first and best things you can do for your business from a logistics point of view is to hire a logistics manager. It will help ensure that one person is accountable for this part of your business each and every day of the week. Without that dedicated staff member overseeing logistics matters, things can get a little confused and muddied, which is not what you want.

Make Forward Planning a Key Part of Your Approach

You should try to make forward planning a core part of what your business does each day. When you plan properly and comprehensively, you make fewer mistakes and face fewer problems too. When you plan ahead and think about the things that really matter, your approach will be massively improved. It’s about paying attention to the small things and making sure your business is always prepared.

Learn From Each and Every Mistake

When mistakes do get made in the logistics side of your business, you should make a point of learning from them and improving things going forward. There’s no way to avoid mistakes entirely, you simply need to learn from them and make improvements as you go along. That way, you’ll avoid repeating mistakes which is what’s most important.

Use Logistics Services You Can Truly Trust

Logistics services will be a vital part of what your business does. You should use things like business-to-business shipments to make your life easier. But most importantly, you should use services you feel you can really trust. It’s vital that you can trust and rely on these services because they’ll have a massive impact on how your business runs and functions. Do your research before you outsource to any external business.

Always Have a Plan B

Finally, always have a plan B that you can fall back on when you need to. This is always a good option to have and it’s one of those things that so often gets overlooked. But that shouldn’t be the case. It’s never a bad idea to have something to fall back on because all kinds of unexpected situations can arise and you need to be prepared for those.

Running a business is always easier if you make the processes smooth and simple. You really don’t need to overcomplicate things and make them more complex than they need to be. By following the advice we’ve discussed above, you’ll be able to run your business more smoothly from a logistical point of view.

Wholesale Silk Flowers For Event Planning Companies

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Do you run an event planning company? If so, one thing you should certainly do is find a company that can provide you with beautiful, high-quality wholesale silk flowers. Continue reading to discover why this would be of great benefit to your business. 

All occasions call for flowers, from joyous events, such as weddings and conferences to moments that are filled with sorrow, like funerals. Not only do flowers look beautiful, but also they create the perfect ambiance for any occasion. This is because all flowers carry a meaning, and so they offer a stunning way of conveying emotion without having to say a word. 

Therefore, at funerals, flowers can create feelings of sympathy, yet they can also generate emotions of love, fondness, and friendship – signifying the relationship people had with the person that has passed away. At weddings, flowers can create a romantic, joyous, and gentle vibe. At birthday parties, they can add a dash of vibrancy and excitement. The possibilities are endless.

However, fresh flowers can cause a lot of problems and difficulties at events, which is why you are advised to go for silk flowers instead. Fresh blooms lose their beauty quickly, and can die within a week or so, which could mean you end up losing profit if you order in advance. It is a high-risk approach. Plus, with silk flowers wholesale you will be able to cater to the demands of all of your clients because you are never going to be restricted to the flowers that are in season. 

Read reviews first, though

If you are thinking about buying silk flowers wholesale online, you need to purchase with care. There are, unfortunately, some retailers that sell the cheap, plastic flowers, which appear very fake. You don’t want to end up purchasing these. This is why you are advised to read reviews online. The same goes if you are interested in dropshipping. You want to be sure the company you rely on delivers quality products to your customers. You can read more on how to dropshipping from Alibaba for details about one of the best suppliers.

While it is much better to purchase silk flowers on the Internet, especially when it comes to buying wholesale silk flowers because in-store options are limited, there is just one problem. This is the fact that you never really know the quality of the flowers when simply viewing them on your computer screen. This should not put you off, however. It just means that you need to be careful when doing your research. 

You need to do a bit of digging online to make sure the company does not have a bad reputation for providing poor quality flowers that are not realistic looking at all. This is why it is a good idea to read the feedback that has been left by past customers. This is the best way to get an honest insight regarding the level of beauty, quality, and creativity provided by the company, as well as their standard of customer service. If you come across a lot of negative reviews, you should feel a bit concerned, and it is advisable to look elsewhere instead. However, be mindful to consider the reviews as a whole. Don’t let one bad comment cloud your judgment, as it can often be impossible to keep everyone happy.

Think About Those Extra Things Your Business Needs

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Running a business is no easy feat, so we congratulate you if you’ve taken the plunge and you own a business. It takes a lot out of you. There is so much that needs to be done, and making sure that your company has everything that it needs for success is one of the most important things that you will need to do. In this article, we’re going to be looking at some of those extra things you might have overlooked in the past, but you need now if you want your business to be the best it can be. Keep reading if you’re interested in finding out more.

Help With Marketing

The first thing that we are going to recommend is that you get some help with your marketing. If you’ve come to this article, then it’s likely you think your business is missing something, and the obvious answer could be marketing. If you’re not seeing a range of new clients, then something isn’t right with the marketing side of your business. Look at your campaign and see if it is something that would entice you to buy the product or service that you offer. If it isn’t, then it’s a sure-fire sign something needs to change quickly. If it is, then you’re in the minority because it seems nobody else is interested, and things still need to change quickly.

Hire a marketing executive to revamp your entire marketing campaign. They will ensure that your company is utilizing online methods such as social media and offline methods such as posters. There are plenty of ways to make your business seen, and someone with a background in marketing is going to know exactly what to do.

A Look At Logistics

The next thing that we want you to consider is the logistics of your business. If you offer a product or service that requires a range of supplies, then you have to get them somehow. If you are shipping products, then you might need to look up the question, what does freight shipping cost? You’re likely already paying for this kind of service, but you need to know that you’re getting the best deal. It can be expensive, and you want to choose the company that caters to your needs at the best possible price. Just ensure that you take a look around and see if there is any way to cut the cost without damaging the quality of service that you receive.

IT Management

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It might also be the case that up until now, you’ve thought there was no need for any IT management. Well, how many times has your server crashed, and you’ve had to wait for a specialist to fix the problem? If it hasn’t happened yet, we can guarantee you it will. But, this isn’t the only reason you need an IT management team, there is also cyber security to think of. You need your network to be secure, and if you don’t know much about tech, then there’s no way you’re going to be able to protect it effectively.

We hope that now you understand some of the extra things that you need for your business, and will consider looking at our suggestions sooner rather than later.

How To Keep Your Employees Safe At Work

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A big and important part of keeping your employees happy when they are working is ensuring that you are looking after their safety as well as you can. This is something that you really can’t overlook: for one thing, it is a legal and moral responsibility to make sure that the workplace is as safe as possible. For another, it’s something that your employees are going to think about when it comes time to appraise the business, and you will soon develop a reputation one way or the other about safety matters. So let’s take a look at how you can hope to keep your employees safe at work at all times.

Set & Follow Rules

Essentially the main thing you need to do is to make sure that you are setting rules which your employees can follow clearly. And you need to then follow them yourself as well so that you can make sure the management is setting a good example. These rules should be based on the health and safety laws that must be followed, and you should make sure that they are clear and that your people are well aware of them and what they mean, what they entail. Do that, and people are going to be a lot safer at work.

Provide Safety Equipment

There is plenty of safety equipment that you might need to provide, depending on the workplace and the nature of the work and so on. If you want to make sure that you are going to provide the best safety equipment, you have to think about finding those that work for the specifics of the workplace. In some cases people will need prescription safety glasses, in others you just need to provide generic items. It’s all about paying attention to what people really need in your workplace.

Training

You can’t hope people to be as safe as possible without good training. Providing plenty of health and safety training is an important part of looking after their wellbeing and safety, so make sure that you are thinking about doing this if you want to keep your employees safe. You should train them when they start work at your place of work, and at regular intervals after the fact too. If you can do that, you are going to find that you are much more likely to keep everyone safe, and everyone will feel more able to look after themselves.

Have An Open Working Environment

Finally, remember the benefits of having an open working environment. That means that you need to think about keeping the lines of communication open and clear, so that your employees feel that they can bring up any health and safety problem which might arise. This is the kind of culture you want if you are going to try and keep people as safe as possible, so make sure that you are working on providing this as soon as you possibly can. You will find it really helps things along.

Giving Yourself Enough Time To Run Your Business

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Busy business owners often find themselves running out of time, especially when they start to grow. Your workload will increase, but you will still be a long way away from being able to expand your team, making it tricky to manage your time well enough to meet all of your commitments. Thankfully, the modern world is packed with tools that can help you with this. To make it easier to start using them, this article will be exploring a range of the best services for business owners that are finding themselves short on time.

Phone Answering Services

It can be all too easy to find yourself spending hours on the phone each day, achieving very little by answering simple questions and helping customers with queries. Of course, though, you can’t simply ignore the phone, and you need an alternative that will enable you to keep your customers happy while improving the service you offer. A virtual HQ company will be able to provide you with phone answering services, along with forwarding addresses and a range of other tools that will make it easier to keep your time free for the things that matter. Most customers won’t be able to tell the difference.

Document Template Services

Business have to deal with a lot of paperwork, though much of this is digital nowadays. Having this sort of work on a computer gives you the opportunity to save a lot of time, with the documents you have to make on a regular basis following templates rather than being made fresh each time. There are loads of companies around the web that can provide you with document template services. Some are free, but it can be a good idea to shop around to make sure that you can’t get something better by spending a little bit of money.

Freelance Recruitment Tools

While your business may not be ready to start taking on a permanent team just yet, you may be able to afford to pay freelance workers. Employees like this won’t have a fixed contract, either working until their project ends or until you don’t need them anymore. There are loads of sites around the web that are designed to make it easier to recruit people like this, giving you the ability to start growing your freelance team right away. This process will always be cheaper than hiring employees, while also taking less time and effort on your part. You will need to learn a little bit about managing a freelance team before you get started with this.

Saving time as a business owner can be an opportunity to make more money, and this always makes it worth it. Of course, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by your workload, you should always look for ways to reduce it. This doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice your income, though you may have to make some investments along the way that will enable you to keep working without putting all of your time into the business.

Tackling the Problems That Keep You From Work

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You can find yourself out of work, and perhaps unable to get back to work, for a variety of reasons. While some people might welcome a short break from work, being unemployed or unable to get back to your job for an extended period of time is difficult for many. You might feel like you're no longer useful, and you're not contributing to your family or to society. It can feel like you're not valued, especially when you're trying to find work but can't get a job. When you're faced with some of the key problems that might keep you out of work, knowing how to respond can get you back on your feet again.

Illness or Injury

You can't choose when you're ill or injured. It's something that happens, and it might mean that you have to take time off work. Sometimes it could affect your ability to work long-term or even permanently. If you have a serious accident, you might need to rely on a truck accident lawyer to help you pay for the resulting costs, such as medical bills and lost income. When you're ill or injured, there's no rushing back to work. You need to give yourself time to recover. On some occasions, you might also need to rethink your approach to work to get adjustments in your current role or find something new.

Lack of Appropriate Work

When you're looking for a job, you can find that there's nothing out there that seems to suit you. You can't find any roles that suit your goals or match your skills or experience. Sometimes the solution to this might be to take a job that you can work while you're waiting for something better to come along or even to take a job that you're overqualified for. However, it might also benefit you to expand your search criteria. For example, looking at jobs in different cities could reveal more opportunities, although you will need to consider moving.

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The photo was taken by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay

Struggling to Get an Interview

You've been applying to jobs left and right, but you have yet to get a bite on the interview front. When this happens, it's easy to wonder what you're not doing that other candidates are. But people often just keep going in the same fashion, without thinking about what they could change. If you're not getting any interviews, you need to find out why. It's important to understand what recruiters and employers in your industry want to see from job applications. You can even try reaching out to some for feedback on your application.

No Drive or Goals

Sometimes you might be out of work because you don't know what you want. You don't have any work or career goals, and you can't find the drive to push yourself. If you're not sure what you want to do, you need to explore some different options. Although many people say you should find something that you're passionate about, you don't have to be passionate about your work. Look for something that interests you or that you think you're capable of doing or learning.

You don't need to be out of work for too long. If you're really having trouble, you can also consider working for yourself as an alternative.

Smart Ways to Improve Your Business with Mobile Technology

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Mobile technology is improving the business world in many ways. You can use it in your office, with your staff, and with your customers to make improvements to your company and modernize your business. If you're not already using mobile technology, you need to be careful that your business isn't going to get left behind. Thinking about how you can use mobile technology to achieve your business goals can give your company the boost that it needs. You can use mobile tech in a number of different ways that appeal to your customers, and that can help your employees too.

Ensure Your Website Is Responsive

Your business needs to respond to the rise in mobile technology among consumers. One of the ways you should be doing this is by ensuring your website design is ready for mobile use. A responsive website design means that your site looks good and is usable on different devices. The design responds to different browsers and screen sizes so that no matter who is looking at your website, they will still get a good user experience. If you don't already have a responsive website, hiring a web designer to update your site is a must.

Offer Mobile Payment to Customers

Another way to keep up with consumer use of mobile devices is to offer mobile payment if you run a face-to-face business. Whether you have a store, a restaurant, or a hair salon, you can make it possible for people to use their phones to pay for their goods and services. You can also use your own mobile devices to take card payments. Tablets are often used in restaurants to manage a table from the moment that the diners sit down, through to taking their orders and when they're ready to pay.

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Give Your Staff Mobile Devices

Your staff can benefit from having mobile devices, which can allow them to move around the workplace and also work in different locations. You might choose to give your staff company devices, which can help with security. You can improve IT security with mobile device management software, whether you use company devices or you invite your staff to bring in their own devices. A strong BYOD (bring your own device) policy is important if you have your employees use their personal devices while at work. You need to protect your company from any security breaches that could occur.

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Use Cloud-based Software

When you give mobile devices to your employees, you need to have the right software to use with them. Cloud-based software can be used from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. It makes it easier to share files and collaborate on projects, and to stay in contact with anyone that you need to communicate with. Many cloud-based applications work on a subscription basis, which can help to save time and money and keep your business secure by ensuring everything is up to date.

Your business can be greatly improved by mobile technology. Assess your current situation to consider how mobile tech will help you most.

A Quick Guide to Selling Your Products Online

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If you have a business that trades in physical products, being able to sell those products online can open a huge market for you and enable your business to grow exponentially. If you haven’t already begun researching and discovering the ways you can make this happen, now is the time to get started. There are many ways to sell your products online, and many systems you need to put in place in order to make this an efficient and lucrative prospect. Below are a few tips to help you know what to look for, and what choices you will have to make to get your online retail up and running.

Your Website

There are two main ways to sell your products online, and the first one is through an e-commerce page on your own website. If you go down this route, the design of this page will be one of the most important things you work on. It will need to be very user friendly and attractive in order to entice customers towards your product as opposed to the hundreds of other options out there. Consider making sure there is the ability to search the ‘shop’ by product type, color, or price so that the process is made as straightforward as possible. If you have a physical shop, think of your website in the same way as you’d think of your shop floor; it must be clean, attractive, and easy to navigate.

A Third Party Seller

Alongside your website (or instead of it) you may choose to sell your products through a third-party retailer. Examples of these services include massive companies such as Amazon or eBay. Different websites will work in different ways, but they will usually take either a membership fee or a percentage of your profits, sometimes with a baseline amount that you guarantee to pay them each year. It is worth closely researching the terms and conditions of different retailers before committing to one, as you do not want to get drawn into a bad deal. On the positive side, selling through these outlets can massively increase your reach, and can also help manage the practical deliveries of items.

Shipping

If you decide to retail through your own store and manage delivery yourself, it’s important to consider the practicalities of this service, and know whether you want to deliver domestically or internationally. Either way, you will need to invest in equipment, from packaging to pallet scales, in order to prepare your orders. Consider if this is something that may require extra manpower - do you have the capacity to take responsibility for deliveries, or might you need to hire more staff to facilitate this new service? If so, you will need to create a budget and project when you will break even on this extra expenditure, and be able to grow.

Supply and Demand

This may seem like your last concern, as you worry about receiving orders and setting up your infrastructure. However, it is worth making sure you have enough stock that you will be able to meet unexpectedly high demands for your product. If this happens, you do not want to risk your business’s reputation by being unable to deliver - so stock up, get ready, and be prepared for the best scenario!

How Your Business Can Handle Storage Better

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There are so many things you need to deal with when running a business, and proper storage is one of them. It often gets overlooked but it really is important. After all, when you’re storing stock and things like that organization and security are two things that are absolutely key, and they’re both connected to storage. Find out more about how you can approach this challenge in the right way by reading on now.

Find a Reliable Facility

First of all, you need to find a location that’s going to enable you to store all the things you need to store. There are all kinds of storage facilities out there that can do all kinds of different jobs. It’s up to you to find the one that’s right for your business and the specific needs you have. It needs to be safe, secure and reliable, no matter what kind of storage it’s offering.

Use Pallet Rack Businesses

If you can find a good pallet rack business out there that can be really helpful for all kinds of storage needs businesses have. It might be just what you’re looking for because not only is it efficient and easy, but it’s also one of the most cost effective ways for businesses to store items, so it’s definitely something for you to look into.

Know What Needs to be Stored Where

It’s important that you have an idea of what you need to store and what kind of environment it needs to be stored in before you do anything else. Take an inventory and see where your current approach to storage is falling short and what you can start to do differently. When you do that, you’ll be able to take an approach that makes sense for you.

Use Cloud Storage

It’s not just physical items your business is going to need to store. You’re also probably going to need to store digital files and things of that nature too. It’s just as important that these things are secure, especially if they contain sensitive information to your business or its people. That’s why you should use the cloud; it’s the safest and most secure way to store the things that are most important to your business.

Choose an Ultra Secure Safe

Finally, it’s a good idea to store things in a highly secure safe. That way, you can be sure that the things that are most valuable are properly protected and won’t be easy to steal if the worst should happen and someone breaks into your business’s premises. Find one that you know you can rely on to do the job properly.

Having good storage options in place and properly looking after your stock is key. If your business is going to find success, it’s these relatively mundane things that you’re going to need to get right because if you don’t, you’ll run into problems later and limit the growth of your business.