Mohit Tater's Blog, page 578

John Lusink, Toronto Real Estate Professional, Speaks to Leadership and Disruption in Real Estate

John
Lusink is a Toronto-based real estate professional and president and broker
of record at Right at Home Realty, Inc. With more than three decades of experience in the real estate
industry, John’s background includes an exceptional commercial real estate
sales career, success in managing the corporate offices for one of Canada’s
most notable real estate brands, as well as the ownership of a successful
residential real estate franchise.

In addition to his work in residential real
estate, John  is an active member of the
organizational real estate industry. For six years, he served as director of
the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), an organization with over 50,000 members,
where he acted as chairman of the Government Relations Committee and chair of
the Finance Committee. Most recently, John was the commercial director for the
2018 Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA).

Before beginning his real estate career, John
Lusink earned his BA from Kingston’s Queen’s University. He then went on to
receive an MBA from the University of Fredericton in Fredericton, New
Brunswick.

John also holds a number of professional
certifications, including being a Certified Commercial Investment Member
(CCIM), a designee of the Council of Real Broker Managers (CRB) and a Fellow of
the Real Institute (FRI). In addition, he participates as a trainer and coach
in a number of programs through the Real Estate Business Institute (REBI).

Between
certifications, coaching, and serving on a range of boards, you take a very
active, leadership-oriented role in the real estate industry. Why do you think
this is important and where do you suggest young real estate professionals
start if they are interested in advancing into more leadership roles?

John
Lusink: I think this is extremely important for a couple of reasons. First,
there is a tremendous educational value in serving on committees.  The experience alone of participating in
professionally run meetings where high-level discussions are had around major
issues affecting the industry is of immense value.  Second, one learns to become much more of a
“critical thinker” by participating in these forums.  You quickly find out there is so much more to
the issues at hand and that you really have to investigate and debate and
challenge the status quo.

Throughout
your career you have proven to be an inspiring leader. What qualities would you
say are essential to strong leadership, regardless of the industry one is in?

John
Lusink: For myself, some of the best qualities that are required are (in no
particular order) 1) humility and 2) absence of ego.  Leadership for me is all about helping your
co-workers and colleagues truly achieve their highest calling and in so doing,
success – achieving their goals.  What they
don’t want or need to hear is how their leader thinks he/she is the only one
who can do something, the best at it, stories about their achievements, what
they often need to hear is how their leader overcame great challenges with the
help of their team, family, and what the lessons were that they are applying
today. 

The
teams you manage have proven skills and success. What is your secret to putting
together a high-performing team?

John
Lusink: A lot of it has to do with the qualities mentioned above.  If someone is only looking for the spotlight,
then they won’t be a fit.  The second
major point is that the team are involved in the selection process.  This might include staff of many different
areas, levels.  That together with a
personality profile and several personal meetings all forms a part of how we
try to ensure the candidate is a fit.  In
fact, what the goal is for us is to have the candidate reach a confident
conlcusion that they do or don’t want to join.

Real
estate is a rapidly-changing industry. What is your advice for keeping up with
its rapid change and what, from your experience, will inspire the next
disruptive change in the industry?

John
Lusink: It is a very fast-paced industry and at times seems almost impossible
to keep up with.  Having said that,
getting involved with ORE (Organized Real Estate) is critical.  That means joining committees, running for
Director on your local real estate board, or the Ontario Real estate
Association or even the Canadian Real Estate Association.  In addition, you could also run to be a
Director on the Real Estate Council of Ontario. 
The second opportunity to attend one or two conferences a year such as
the Inman or National Association of Realtors annual conference.  There are others so it helps to explore the
options.  For
the past ten + years, the disruptors have often been “technology” slanted.
Often it has been a combination of some new technological play along with a
pricing option directed at the consumer. 
In my view, the next true disruptive change will involve a couple of
areas of organized real estate.  First,
the local real estate boards have long held on to old, now outdated, by-laws
and rules and structures that are limiting growth.  What I mean by that is growth in the sense of
business models and services that truly can serve the consumer better.  While record numbers of people are becoming
Realtors, truly successful/profitable new disruptive brokerage models are not
emerging.  Certainly not in Canada.  There does seem to be a push on to create
more effective MLS systems for Realtors by collaborating and/or merging and
utilizing the same technologies.  Those
that don’t, no matter how large their membership, will find themselves on the
outside.  Second, the major brands are
being pressured by independent brokerage models who have understood that the
Realtor cares less about the logo on their business card and more about the
business services that are being offered. 
As these independents create better leading edge back office systems,
apps and manage to keep their fees low, they

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3 Tips for Staying on Top of Your Business Finances

Managing a business is rarely easy, but
there are ways of making it easier. Your overall level of organization and
discipline will have a significant impact on how efficiently your business is
able to operate and how easy you find it to stay on top of its day to day
activities. Of particular importance are your business’s finances.

Managing your money well brings benefits in both the long and short term. It enables you to keep as much of your profit as possible to reinvest in your business, as well as ensuring that you get as much of your available money as possible out. Good financial management is something that any business owner can practice; here are some of the most effective tips for doing so.

Manage Your Accounting

The efficiency of your day to day
accounting will have a significant impact on how much money is available to you
and how you are able to use it. There are two options here, depending on the
size and state of your business. The first option is to hire a full-time
accountant to manage your business’s books. The other is to invest in a good
piece of accounting software for your business.

A great way of approaching this is to look at paying for access to cloud-based accounting software rather than paying for a software suite. There are plenty of options to choose from. Two of the most popular option are Xero and QuickBooks. If you want to review Xero vs QuickBooks and get some advice on which one to choose, the article “Comparing Xero vs. QuickBooks Online: what’s the best cloud accounting tool for your business?” will give you all the information you need to make the right decision.

Review Your Costs

Managing your day to day finances better
means keeping track of all your expenses. Make sure that you retain as many of
the receipts for expenses as is possible, in addition to keeping a careful
record of what your expenses are and how much they cost.

Armed with this information, you should find it easy to review your expenses and identify opportunities to reduce them. Some of your expenses will be things that you can claim back later, but many will be simple costs of doing business. Record both of these separately and consider which are your priorities.

Regularly Update Your
Projections

As well as looking to the past in recording your previous financial costs, you should also think about how you will manage your finances in the future. You should always have an active business plan that is kept updated to reflect the most current state of your business. As time goes on and you discover whether your most recent predictions have come to pass, you should update your plan and adjust your goals accordingly.

Staying on top of your business’s finances
will make your life much easier. Business owners who are aware of their current
financial status in some detail are less likely to be tripped up by unexpected
costs and are able to make better spending decisions.

The post 3 Tips for Staying on Top of Your Business Finances appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

3 Secrets to Running a Restaurant

The restaurant industry is notoriously
difficult: many restaurants don’t even survive beyond a year or two. There are
so many restaurants competing for the same pool of customers that even if your
food is excellent, that may not be enough to make the business viable.
Unsurprisingly, restaurant managers are eager for help they can get to improve
the business operations of the restaurant.

Here are four secrets to help your
restaurant stay in business.

Restaurant
Scheduling Software

Many savvy Millennial small- and medium-sized business restaurant owners are turning to restaurant scheduling software to help manage their operations. There is important information for anyone thinking about opening a restaurant about these all-in-one platforms, which perform many vital functions beyond making excellent schedules for staff in up to 80% less time.

This software makes it easy for teams to
stay connected in a way that is efficient and natural for everybody. If any
changes are made to a schedule, every staff members get a notification on their
phone. Plus, staff can submit requests for days off and tell their managers
when they’ve available to work remotely, via an easy-to-use app. This means
they stay connected not just easily, but faster. The restaurant knows it is
staffed adequately sooner, and employees can better organize their life outside
of work.

Its manager-facing dashboard is also an
invaluable tool for unlocking key data that decision-makers need to know.
Manager log books make it simple for managers at all your locations to see and
track stats like total sales, total labour costs, percentage of labour costs
against sales, weather, and even staff feedback. It’s also customizable, so you
can track whatever stat you decide matters most to your restaurant.

Restaurant scheduling software can
integrate with all the common POS terminals, so all the systems in your
restaurant will work seamlessly together.

Get the Menu Right

Picking the food on the menu is harder than it seems. Beyond calculating food costs and portions, you need to decide what food your target audience doesn’t know it wants. If you have too many options, they will feel overwhelmed and will likely pick the same dish they always order.

This may prevent them from trying the food
that justified the creation of your restaurant in the first place.

Social
Media Done Right

Every restaurateur knows social media is necessary, but it must be done properly. Emphasize how your restaurant really is, rather than project an exaggerated and false aesthetic. Natural pictures of your food are better than bombarding people with info about deals or specials.

This will share the feeling of what the
restaurant is actually like, rather than set up disappointment for when the
eating experience itself doesn’t live up to the image.

There are many kinds of restaurants and no two will run the same way, but there are general lessons you can apply in a way that makes the most sense for you. Try out new software that makes running a restaurant easy, get the right food for your concept, and promote yourself accurately on social media – these are the secret ingredients to long-term success.

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Why Registering Your Trademark is Essential for Long-Term Success

A trademark is one of the most essential branding tools available to a business. If you want to stand out from the crowd, selecting a distinctive and instantly recognizable trademark that communicates a business’s ethos and values should be a major priority.

But while selecting a unique trademark is a start, it isn’t enough
just to come up with an eye-catching name, slogan or visual image: to guarantee
that your trademark is the legal property of your business, you also need to
register it with the appropriate regulatory bodies.

If you are in the process of launching a new company, or have unregistered trademarks you have already been using for a while that you want to protect, what you need to know about registering a trademark is that it is neither an easy nor a straightforward process. In most jurisdictions it is incredibly time-consuming, and can involve a significant amount of research and communication with the authorities that handle intellectual property.

For this reason, many businesses are choosing to work with trademark lawyers who specialize in trademark applications. Companies like The Trademark Shop have extensive experience helping companies of all sizes navigate the Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s trademark application process.

In addition to managing the application itself, trademark experts
can also help with the required research that goes into preparing a trademark application,
including trademark searches and the preparation of comprehensive clearance
reports.

Clearance reports are the best way to ensure that your trademark
doesn’t accidentally infringe on a registered or common-law trademark already
in existence, and a having a lawyer-drafted letter providing a legal opinion
summarizing the report and making the case for the validity of your trademark
is an important initial step toward registration. 

Perhaps most importantly, trademark experts handle the lengthy
back-and-forth communitcations required by the applicant, responding to examiner’s
reports, monitoring the advertisement of your trademark in the Trademarks
Journal, and filing the declaration of use to finalize the application and
complete the trademark registration process. Each of these steps involves
careful adherence to the requirements of the Intellectual Property Office, and
timely and informed responses to the different bodies involved in the
registration process.

Given how important registration is and how long the process takes, it is essential that applications be filed correctly. Instead of trying to navigate this process on your own while also managing the day-to-day running of your business, why not hire lawyers who know how to anticipate and deal with any problems that might arise?

If you want to make a strong impression on potential clients, customers and investors, a unique and memorable trademark is the first step toward building a brand that has staying power and marketability. Famous trademarks like those for Dolce & Gabbana, Apple, and WalMart transcend their particular meaning and become icons for an entire way of life, bestowing an incredible amount of value on the products that bear them. For this reason, businesses that want to see long-term growth should invest in registering their trademarks immediately to discourage imitation and infringement. In doing so, they should work with trademark experts like The Trademark Shop who understand the registration process intimately to get their trademark registered as quickly and easily as possible.  

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Consider These 5 Factors Before Choosing A Mobile Point of Sales System

Point of sale (POS) systems are a must-have
tool, especially if you want to get business done more efficiently. If you’re
using a cashier-register style system, you’ve likely got a product that you use
for automating inventory management while also streamlining other business
operations like marketing and employee management.

But what if you could invest in a system
that’s entirely mobile? Mobile point of sales systems are more popular than
ever and require a lot less hardware than a traditional POS system. If you’re
interested in going mobile, there are things you’ll want to know before you
buy.

Here are 5 factors to consider.

1. Be Sure it Offers Core
Features & Functionality That Your Business Needs

Not all mobile POS systems are built the same. One of the first factors that you’ll want to consider when choosing a mobile POS system is the features that are available. Ideally, you want to choose a system with POS software that offers all of the bells and whistles that your business needs.

In order to find the right mobile POS
system for your business, you’ll want to research which features are available
and determine which ones offer the most in streamlining your business
operations.

For example, if you run a retail business,
you want a POS system that offers inventory management with access to real-time
inventory data. Or, if you own a restaurant, you’ll want to choose a system
that offers table management and reservation features.

To get an idea of features what will most
benefit your company, research POS systems designed specifically for your
industry.

2. Works Across Many Mobile
Platforms

You don’t want to spend thousands of
dollars on a system that only works on a single mobile platform. To get the most
out of a mobile POS system, you want to choose one that offers true mobility.

A mobile system is one that can be
installed on tablets, mobile phones, and other pieces of hardware. The more
platforms that are supported by the system, the better!

So which platforms should the mobile POS
system support? Top platforms that you’ll want to ensure are supported include:

iOSWindowsAndroid

By choosing a POS system that is truly
mobile, you’ll never be limited as to which devices you can connect. This keeps
the system scalable, ensuring it will serve you now and for many years to come.

3. Accepted Payment Options

EMV chip debit and credit cards are becoming more and more common. Before investing in a mobile POS system, you want to ensure that the one you choose accepts this form of payment. The traditional method of swiping a credit card is becoming more and more obsolete, so you’ll want to choose a system that allows for chip cards to be inserted into the pin pad.

By choosing a POS system that accepts EMV
chip cards, you can ensure that customers can always pay in a method that’s
convenient and secure for them.

It’s also important to choose a system that
accepts near field communication (NFC) payments. Payment options such as Google
Wallet and Apple Pay are extremely quick. This is a feature that will greatly
speed up transaction times and minimize wait times at your business location.

4. Data Management

The fact is that we live in a data-driven
world. If you want to successfully track and engage with your customers, you’ll
want to have the right tools on hand that allow you to collect, manage, and
track customer data. The more you know and learn about your customers, the
better.

With a mobile POS system that offers data
management features, you can track things such as:

How often a customer visits
your businessWhat items they purchaseHow customers spend on average

Knowing this information about each of your
customers gives you valuable insight into their relationship with your brand.
This data also enables you to create buyer personas, which allows you to create
more personalized experiences and marketing for consumers.

5. Costs

Last but definitely not least, you’ll want
to consider the upfront and monthly costs to maintain the system. The good news
is that unlike traditional POS systems, mobile systems tend to require much
less hardware. Because POS systems are designed to run on tablets, phones, and
other mobile devices, hardware costs are likely to be much lower.

Other costs to factor into your budget
include software, payment processing costs, and support costs.

Conclusion

Selecting a mobile POS system isn’t a decision
to make lightly. This is a system that will serve you for years and years to
come. By considering the five factors above, you can choose the right mobile
POS system that will benefit you, your employees, and most importantly, your
customers.

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Why Taking Risks Can Be Good for Your Mental Health

In order to succeed in life, you
sometimes need to take risks. A risk can feel like a big gamble or feel like it’s going to have little return. Some people
live their entire lives not taking risks, and this can have a negative impact
on your mental health.

By
taking risks, we don’t mean trying to bike off the Grand Canyon or always
trying to bet on black. We are talking about risks such as trying to start the
business of your dreams, going for your dream job, or asking a person out. Here
are some ways taking risks can improve your mental health.

Not Taking Risks Leads to Monotony

Many people live lives of monotony because they don’t take risks. They don’t do much after school and instead get a simple job with a spouse and children who they provide for. There is nothing wrong with that; having kids can be a blast, and you should  look here to learn how you can give them some gifts. With that said, many people can have better jobs and an even better life if they just took a couple risks. The last thing you want is to be on your bed and regretting everything.

Taking Risks Builds Your
Confidence

If you
take a risk, it can help improve your confidence. Many people don’t take risks
because they feel like they aren’t confident enough. For example, they may feel
like there is no way they can accomplish their dreams and feel like they’re
just going to be rejected, whether they are asking someone out or getting a job
they feel they are underqualified for.

However,
by taking risks, you can improve your confidence and be able to take even more
risks. Even if your risk doesn’t pay off, taking them can still help improve
your overall confidence.

It Teaches Self-Correction

If you
take a risk and it doesn’t pay off, you can figure out why. For example, if you
applied for a job, is there someting you didn’t put in your resume? If you can
look at the preferred candidates, what set them apart? If you try to start a
business and it fails, do you know why?

Also,
how can you minimize loss the next time you take a risk? If you spent all this
time applying to a job, is there a quick template you can make to get the basic
details done? If you spent so much time on a date only for it to fail, is there
a way you can streamline the process so you don’t waste time?

Being
able to be critical about the moves you make and be able to correct is a sign
of a growing person, and you should strive to be like that. Do not be someone
who doesn’t self-correct whenever they make a mistake. You should try to grow
as a person and taking risks can help.

Seek Help!

If you
want to start your own business, be it a blog or something else, and are scared of the risk there is
hope. A counselor can help you minimize risk and teach you confidence. Some
people are not confident, and that is okay. However, there are ways you can
help improve your confidence and be a better person as a result.

Talking to an online therapist can help you grow as a person and you can learn much more about yourself and the world around you. If you’re ready to improve your chances, talk to someone today and see what you can do.

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3 Times in Your Life When You May Have to Lawyer Up

Having
to contact a lawyer for the first time is an odd situation to be in. Anytime
litigation is needed, it is never a pleasant experience. But how do you know it
is officially time to call up a lawyer to make sure someone has your back?
Listed below are three times when you should not hesitate to do a search online
and find the right lawyer for your needs.

When a Divorce Is Imminent

Needing
a divorce is one of the most heartbreaking situations you will ever experience
in life. There is no getting around it. The person you believed you would be
married to forever did not work out quite the way you planned. Not only are you
separating from them, but also from in-laws (could be a good thing) and groups
of friends. While it is best to try to work out the divorce between the two of
you, friends and the family tend to get involved. Before you know it, the
divorce has turned into a hurricane and destroying everything around you. When
this happens, reach out to a divorce lawyer as soon as possible. You can bet they
are doing the same thing. Even if the divorce is settled in mediation, it is
best to have a lawyer’s advice before going into negotiations.

When There Has Been an Accident

If
you or a loved one has an accident where there is a serious injury, do not hesitate
to contact a lawyer if you feel someone else is at fault. This could be from a
car accident, a problem at work, or even just being in the wrong place at the
wrong time. You are going to get hit with medical bills pretty quickly and if
you are not to blame one bit, then hiring a lawyer could put your mind at ease
while you recuperate.

Starting a Business

You
may believe you have everything in place for that business you have always
wanted to start, but there is a good chance you are forgetting something. And
with the complicated business laws you have to follow nowadays, it’s better to contact
a small business lawyer in Montreal rather than risk it on your own.
You will enjoy peace of mind knowing that everything was done correctly and
there is no need to worry. You can just focus on making your business the best
that you can.

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Mid-Year Business Checkup: How Are Those Resolutions Coming Along?

Back in January, you vowed to launch a number
of business-related resolutions to help keep your employees more engaged with
their work and your company.

Now that spring is here, it’s a great time to
assess those resolutions and see what type of progress you’ve made. It’s okay
if you still have plenty on that to-do list of yours — most business owners
have a really long list of goals and other tasks they wish to accomplish. But
by naming some of the common business resolutions and offering a few handy tips
and words of advice, you might be able to finally cross these resolutions off
your list.

Resolution 1: Improve
Office Security

To help keep employees engaged at work, it is important that they feel safe. Even if your office is located in a statistically safe neighborhood, it can still feel unsettling to walk to and from the building either early in the morning or late at night. If you have been vowing to improve your office security, there is no time like the present to get going on this goal. Fortunately, updating your security measures does not have to take a huge amount of time, and depending on your skills as a handyperson, you can probably tackle the installation yourself. For example, Lorex sells a wide selection of security camera systems including wireless models that feature flexible installation options. The wireless security camera systems offer the same features as wired cameras from Lorex; this includes HD-quality recording, infrared night vision and motion detection sensors. Once the cameras have been installed, send out a company email to let everyone know that you that they are in place, and that you welcome any questions your team has about them.

Resolution 2: Get to Know
Them

If you spent the 2018 holiday party thinking, “I really don’t know my employees as well as I should,” it is never too late to work on your resolution to get to know them better. As Nut Cache notes, spending time with employees is an easy, effective and fun way to keep them engaged at work. If you learn about their families, backgrounds, hobbies, fave sports teams and more, you can improve your rapport with your employees. Look for pockets of time during the day to chat with your team and ask them what they did over the weekend, and/or ask questions about the photos that they may have on their desks. If you routinely head out for lunch, stick around the break room instead and chat with everyone over your sandwiches and salads. This seemingly simple tip will help your employees feel like their presence is known and appreciated and that you think of them as much more than merely warm bodies doing work, but valued members of your team.

Resolution 3: Be
Transparent About Promotion Policies

For months, you have intended to create and post a clear promotion policy. You promote from within your company from time to time, and you also hire outside people to come in for certain positions. As Forbes says, being objective and transparent in your promotional policies will help to reduce any feelings of resentment that may take place when an outsider is hired instead of a high performing current employee, which in turn can improve their engagement. If you make it clear that someone was hired for a job because of certain managerial traits and experience, it can help to reduce any negativity. You can work with your HR department on your promotion policy and then have it accessible to everyone; you can also make sure that everyone is current in their latest reviews and make it a point to meet with each team member on a regular basis to go over their goals for advancement.

Finish 2019 Stronger Than
Ever

The great thing about resolutions is that they can be picked up and worked on all year long, not just in January. By adopting these three resolutions as well as any others that you have on your list, you will end 2019 with a solid team of highly engaged employees who appreciate all that you do for the company.

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Stop Making these Warehousing Mistakes

Managing a warehouse is a pretty daunting
task. There are more responsibilities than you can count. Not only do you have
to organize shipments and transportation, but you have to do quite a few little
things like training seminars and machinery checkups. It can be pretty
difficult to manage, but that’s part of the job. If you want to make your job
easier and increase efficiency, there are a couple of things that need fixing.

1.     
Improper lighting

Warehouse lighting is something that needs
to be taken seriously. Visibility is extremely important when you want to move
tons of very heavy equipment and machinery. One wrong step could mean the
destruction of hundreds of dollars of government property. Worse yet, a lack of
visibility could lead to employee injury and end up costing the company a lot
of money in compensation fees.

Warehouses can be pretty big, as they’re
used for a variety of things like storage and transport. Because of this,
managers might not have every corner of the warehouse in mind when looking for
an area they should improve. You should aim to make every single part of the
warehouse well-lit in order to minimize the chance of miscommunication and
injury. Don’t neglect the outer part of the warehouse either. This area needs
to be well illuminated for trucks and vans to be able to enter during the
night.

High wattage light bulbs are an absolute
must. A high number of lightbulbs won’t do much if they don’t have the power to
actually illuminate anything. Keep that in mind when picking out the locations
to put them in.

2.     
Inventory mismanagement

Warehouses are notoriously difficult to manage space-wise. You have a lot of mobile equipment that is surrounded by more boxes than you can count. Worse yet, because warehouses are storage facilities, you are very likely going to end up with more than your fair share of excess inventory. Sometimes, shipments can lag during transportation and that can lead to an overabundance of shipments in the warehouse, which will then lead to even more lagging during transport.

Proper space utilization is extremely
important for the efficiency of a warehouse. You want to be able to move around
freely within the warehouse without the risk of bumping into anything with a
forklift or crane.

A lot of math needs to be involved in order
to utilize free space to its maximum capacity. You need to understand the
optimal statistical distribution of cargo within the dimensions of the
warehouse. If the storage space is being under-utilized, you’re going to notice
the drastic change in pace within the work environment.

3.     
Unsuitable machinery and
equipment

Without the proper tools for the job, your
workers won’t be able to reach the kind of efficiency you expect from them.
Even the most dedicated worker is only as good as the tools he uses. When you
take into account the limiting factor of tool quality, getting better tools
becomes a sound investment.

Where you get your tools and equipment is
pretty important. There are many trusted suppliers out there which will give
you a variety of tools to pick from. You should always do your research
regarding what you need before making your decision.

A lot of managers will try to skimp on
warehouse equipment because it will increase the bottom line. But this effect
is temporary. Improper tools will work for a time and then they will require
frequent repairs. Not to mention the loss of efficiency that is present when
the tools aren’t optimal. Ultimately, the consensus is that better tools lead
to a better bottom line in just about every case. The only thing holding
managers back is the initial investment that might cost them quite a bit before
they see improvements.

4.     
Loading and unloading
mismanagement

Docks are one of the more danger-prone
areas of the warehouse. Whenever you’re loading and unloading a heavy weight,
there’s always a chance that something will go wrong. This is especially true
when unloading material from a forklift to a truck. Miscalculations aren’t at
all uncommon. If the weight is too heavy for the truck, it can tip over and
injure the driver or any nearby personnel.

For starters, the best safety measure you can take is preventing anyone from getting near the loading dock during unloading of material. Even if the dock functions with the use of lifting machinery, caution is still advised. You need to have proper lifting equipment in order for the load to be secure.

Warning signs and mechanisms should be in
place to minimize exposure to injury. Many docks have a sound system that
alerts passerby’s that something is being loaded or unloaded and that they
should stay away for the time being.

5.     
Disregard for safety
regulations

When they’re implemented, safety
regulations are presented as a big boogeyman by managers in the workplace. They
exist only to hamper productivity with delays and stacks of paperwork. This
line of thinking couldn’t be farther from the truth. Everyone treats safety
regulations as a chore until something bad happens.

Warehouses aren’t the safest locations in
the world. There is a lot of dangerous machinery present which can cause injury
in the blink of an eye. There are tons of materials present at very large
heights that could pose a danger if improperly placed.

 Because of this, safety regulations help protect workers from unnecessary injuries on the work floor. Safety regulations also help managers by preventing various fines by government organizations like OSHA. At the same time, avoiding injuries also means avoiding workers compensation, which is another way to look at safety protocols.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are a lot of difficult elements to running a warehouse. You have to follow hundreds of safety guidelines and make sure that your workers and equipment are being utilized to their full extent. It can be pretty taxing, but good managers make it work and always come out on top.

The post Stop Making these Warehousing Mistakes appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Thinking About a Home Warranty for Your Small Business? Consider These Factors First

Small business owners already have enough on their
plate and don’t want any unnecessary stress added. Between managing employees,
talking with customers, and planning for the future of your business, the last
thing you want to worry about is an electrical issue or major appliance failure
bringing everything to a halt. And while insurance is an important necessity,
it doesn’t always cover everything. That’s why some business owners have turned
to home warranties for extended peace of mind. But are home warranties always
the best option for your small business? Let’s look at the costs associated
with them, the advantages they provide, and what you should consider to make an
informed decision.

The
Costs

The idea behind a home warranty is to limit the amount
of unexpected costs for your business in the case of a failure. However, to
mitigate that risk for the future, a home warranty requires payment on the
front end via annual premiums. Similar to the way an insurance policy works, home
warranties require payment now for added protection that will come in handy
later.

Depending on where your business is located, the costs of a home warranty will vary. For those in the US, states in the northeast have higher average annual premium costs compared to those on the west coast like California and Washington. There are many variables that go into premium pricing, but states like Connecticut — which has the highest average annual premium costs in the US at $679 — tend to have older structures and much harsher weather. On the other hand, states like Washington on the west coast generally have newer buildings and much less severe weather so the average plan costs are less.

Besides location, it’s also important to factor in
other fees when addressing the costs of a warranty. Remember to carefully
consider the deductible that you’ll be pay out-of-pocket and the service fee
that has to be paid for any services that do occur during your contract.

Lastly, you’ll need to consider what appliances or
fixtures are worth purchasing a warranty on in the first place. If you’re
purchasing a warranty on more than one item, even more savings can be had for
bundling various warranties covering systems and appliances together.

The
Benefits

Of course, buying a warranty comes with benefits that
need to be weighed with the costs as well. With that annual premium being paid,
warranty holders are protecting themselves from potential financial burdens in
the future. For example, a small business operating in the south may run into
an issue with their A/C unit during the middle of July.

Whether you’re operating a storefront with customers
or a small office building, there’s not going to be much work getting done in
90 degree weather with no A/C. If you’ve purchased a warranty covering that
unit, you’ll be in a much better position for repairs or replacement.

According to HomeAdvisor, the national average for A/C unit installation in the US is $5,425. If you purchased a plan covering your central air system, then even though you paid a higher annual premium, you’ll avoid a large necessary expense to keep business running smoothly.

The
Bottom Line

When it comes to preparing for the future and
insulating your business from unexpected expenses, owners have a lot of options
to choose from. Home warranties can offer significant peace of mind for those
concerned about major appliances and systems failing but may not always be the
best option for everyone. While there are certainly some advantages that come
with a warranty, make sure to consider the specifics like what the premium is,
your deductible, what’s covered in your plan, and what the out-of-pocket costs
would be without the warranty — that plan may not turn out to be what you
hoped!

The post Thinking About a Home Warranty for Your Small Business? Consider These Factors First appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.