Mohit Tater's Blog, page 613

How Automation Can Improve Profitability

Running a successful business is all about finding an edge over your competitors; being able to provide a service no-one else can match and attracting your ideal client base. There are multiple factors involved in this simple premise, however, which is what makes being an entrepreneur such a complex and exciting experience. A great deal of the success of your business will depend on the decisions you make and the judgement you use to reach those decisions. Some decisions are easier to make than others, and when it comes to finding ways to rise above the competition, automation is becoming a go-to technology.

Free up staff time for other roles

A high proportion of staff time is frequently spent on administrative tasks that could be run quickly and efficiently by automation software. Email systems that send out communications to predefined recipients at allocated times are becoming recognised as a simple and effective way to deal with email lists. The software is capable of automating almost every aspect of your email marketing, freeing up considerable staff time. As another example, payroll can be a time-consuming task that has to be done, but does nothing in practical terms towards building your business. Even if your staff numbers wouldn’t justify an entire accounting system for dealing with payroll, you can use online software services such as a check stub maker to suit your needs, freeing up time for the tasks that require staff input and therefore making more productive uses of human resources.

Improve speed and accuracy

Taking book-keeping as an example, one person – or a team in a bigger business – could take several hours to complete the entries and calculations required for the business accounts each day. An automated accounting system can reduce this to mere minutes, depending on the processes you use. It also eliminates the need for extensive cross-checking and supervision. Providing the system is set up correctly and programmed to perform the tasks exactly as required, you can eliminate human error from the process too. You then have a system that works constantly behind the scenes, gathering data from your invoicing, supply and banking systems and updating your accounts on a constant basis.

The challenges of automation

It can take a while to get these systems set up to run precisely as you wish and get the most benefit from them. The length of time will vary according to the type of software and what you wish to achieve, but the investment will be worthwhile once the new system is fully functional. You will also need to think about change management to ensure your staff are embracing the new technology. Introducing change such as this is likely to concern at least some of your staff, who may worry that their jobs are under threat, or that they won’t be able to work with the new software. You need to anticipate this and demonstrate to the staff the advantages to them of implementing new systems, as well as the benefits to the operation of the business.

The post How Automation Can Improve Profitability appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Manufacturing, Data Analytics & Improved Production

Manufacturing is one of the most important industries to the United States and global economies. About $2.25 trillion was added to the U.S. economy in 2016 thanks to manufacturers; and that number continues to grow. With so much capital flowing through the manufacturing world, it makes sense that companies want to do whatever it takes to improve operations. This is where data analytics has started playing a bigger role in the manufacturing process. Data offers manufacturers a unique opportunity to take their production to totally new heights.

More Efficient Production Processes

There are few industries that can be boiled down quantitatively more than manufacturing. Just about everything in the manufacturing process can be turned into data. On the production floor, each step can be made more efficient, or organized in a less wasteful way. Sometimes it’s easy to see what’s causing bottlenecks in the manufacturing process or supply chain. Other times, the causes are too discrete to be detected by the human eye. These are the situations where data analytics really comes in handy. By having all processes linked to cloud-connected data collection devices, manufacturers can find weaknesses in their systems. And identifying issues is the first step to developing solutions.

Identify Future Trends

The world is changing faster now than ever before. With the proliferation of technology, businesses everywhere are taking advantage of new resources. But the benefits also come with their own sets of challenges. Due to the quickly evolving nature of modern tech, it’s essential that organizations stay ahead of what’s happening in their respective industries. Manufacturers absolutely need to be aware of this and do whatever they can do keep up with competitors. Manufacturing business analytics is essential to this goal. By utilizing data and data tools, companies can do a better job of identifying future trends than ever before. For example, breaking down regional sales trends can now be done at an extremely specific level, almost instantly. This helps organizations plan for tomorrow, as they can get a clearer picture of what’s happening today.

Solutions Work on the Enterprise Level

When it comes to manufacturing, everything should ideally be working in unison all the time. This is of course not possible given the immense number of variables involved in the whole process—from design and material sourcing, to product delivery. Data analytics, however, is giving companies greater power than they’ve ever had before on this front. Using a cloud-based data analytics tool isn’t just about the data collection itself. It’s also about unifying your whole enterprise under one system. There are two main benefits that go along with this. First, it of course allows for unprecedented insights from across the whole spectrum of the production process. But it also facilitates collaboration between departments and key players that otherwise might have a difficult time on this front. This kind of unification makes it possible for manufacturers to bring operations to a whole new level.

The spread of data analytics is a blessing for people in the business world. This is particularly true in the manufacturing industry, which so heavily relies on hard numbers. There’s no question that data analytics is improving production for manufacturers.

The post Manufacturing, Data Analytics & Improved Production appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

3 Effective Fundamental Strategies for Better SEO

Search engine optimization is a critical aspect of a business’ online marketing campaign. It goes without saying that often webmasters get tempted with the latest SEO trends in order to help their website reach the top positions in the search engine rankings. Apart from applying mobile first, using structured data to optimizing your site for featured snippets, you should never get misdirected from the main goal of your marketing campaign.

Speaking of which, there are still some fundamentals of a typical search engine optimization that defines the success of your online business. In order to leverage the leads and traffic generation for maximizing your ROI, here are some basic strategies that you should follow in your SEO program.

Value the User Experience

Needless to say, the sole purpose of your online business and building your website is to offer your target audience something to keep revisiting your site frequently. This can be effectively done when the user experience on your website is harmonizing and people can easily access the information they need. Moreover, the major search engines like Google always put the user experience on top priority while indexing a site for the search engine rankings.

In order to ensure that your targeted audience is satisfied with your offerings and web design, put yourself in their shoes and develop a site that offers great functionality. You can also engage SEO experts such as Tayloright who can take care of your page loading speed, content, and other critical user-friendly elements.

Build Relationships

Earlier, there were various tactics to get links directed to your site, but ever since the latest algorithm changes, Google is no more fooled by spammy links. Hence in order to build authentic and quality links to your website, you have spent some time researching and give overwhelming efforts to the process. Form relationships with some genuine organizations or groups that will enlist you in their list of members. You can also develop a co-marketing program with a related business for increasing your brand awareness among more people. When properly done, links will definitely come to your site.

Effective Communication

This is the root cause that determines the success of your website and overall business. If you are able to engage with your clients and customers through your site, half of the SEO work is accomplished. To carry out this SEO strategy effectively, take some time in employing the right language and arranging it in such an empathetic manner that has the best chance to influence and convert your targeted audience. Studies show that the online users are always looking for useful and fitting content for their needs and queries. Also, spend some time in making your headlines captivating along with a content that is filled with persuasive call-to-actions, which will help you in achieving better ranks on the SERPs. Get your content writing team on board and work together for crafting high-quality pieces of content.

Concluding Thoughts

Ultimately, it boils down to the basic fundamentals of SEO that determines the long-term success of a business website. Stick to the above-stated guidelines and build your SEO campaign that is best for your audience and caters to their needs.

Author Bio – Maria Jones describes the important and profitable aspects of SEO in her blogs. She also reviews the web design carried out by reputable firms like Tayloright and tells her readers about them in her blogs.

The post 3 Effective Fundamental Strategies for Better SEO appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

The Road To Continuous Compliance

You have to continuously comply with industry standards to attain absolute governance of security controls. Compliance, therefore, must not be an act of a single moment. Today, numerous technologies enable companies to continuously check security needs without relying on the annual audits.

What is continuous compliance?

When reviewing the data environment and its controls, continuous compliance requires a deliberate and efficient strategy in your organization. Scheduled audits often characterized traditional compliance. Continuous compliance is the active gathering of data control insights every single minute of the hour, 24/7.

Why you need for continuous compliance

There is a super-fast evolution of risks to your IT environment. Any risk assessment procedure should focus on measures that protect information at any time of day or night. Sadly, you have to keep up with the speed of malicious efforts to make your data vulnerable. As threats emerge every day to compromise your IT environment, continuous compliance is absolutely important.

6 steps to continuous compliance
Step 1: Have the right personnel

To construct a foolproof compliance program, you have to set up a culture that upholds the integrity of information. Your IT personnel and anyone who uses, stores or processes data must have high integrity. This cuts across senior management to entry level employees.

As you hire, your company must insist on the significance of compliance. While most employees comprehend the need for information security, very few actually enforce follow-up measures throughout. Let continuous compliance exist from their first day at the company up until their last.

Step 2: Set aside critical assets

Compliance to cybersecurity protocols depends on how well you identify critical assets of data storage and processing. The onset of cloud computing over the years has altered how we store information. Critical assets must, therefore, be physical as well as virtual.

A great example of PCI compliance is the need for retailers to understand where their POS systems are positioned. Additionally, they need to comprehend how these point of sale systems transmit or process data.

Companies employing hybrid cloud solutions have more work to do. They must identify third party assets in addition to physical, private and public ones. Each location of AWS hybrid cloud must have guaranteed security in line with the needs of continuous compliance.

Step 3: Create & implement controls

You will know where your information exists when you conduct careful asset identification. Next, it is time to protect these assets. Companies are increasingly adopting Zero Trust models of compliance that deems data to be always at risk. It secures the environments from the inside out.

Security frameworks such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, NIST, ISO, and COSO are among leading protocols. However, implementing them is increasingly difficult. Encryptions and firewalls could inject more specific differences in protection.

Step 4: Establish continuous measures of the information environment

Continuous compliance requires the continuous monitoring of threats to the entire ecosystem. Note that hackers have upped their game lately, and are now using multiple attack approaches to compromise your information.

The assumption that your existing controls will enable compliance is modern-day data misconception. Instead of thinking about ‘if’ threats will occur, it is increasingly better for data security personnel to think “when’ it will. Simply put, be always prepared to respond rapidly to diminish intrusions.

Step 5: Keep documentation

You have to outline documentation of the efforts of compliance in order to prove to authorities that your data controls actually work. Start mapping out all compliance protocols and update the documentation regularly. The following are examples of an administration that shows continuous compliance.

System logs
Software configurations
Security procedures, policies, and protocols
Vendor questionnaires and reviews
System architecture maps
Reviews on identity management and user access
Procedures of event response and business continuity

Step 6: Communicate with your company and industry

Continuous compliance is not a one-man show, but rather a multi-disciplinary procedure that requires the cooperation of many stakeholders. Therefore, communicate effectively internally and with third party service providers.

As mentioned earlier, the people that store and process your data are the most important asset. Choosing and hiring the right people is just the basis. You must actively and continuously communicate within the industry to maintain a successful data protection campaign.

For instance, your IT and HR departments must be able to communicate seamlessly. While the HR hires employees, the department must report job descriptions to IT personnel to help with the vetting of individuals. Guys from IT department must be present as HR hires IT, professionals.

The IT department then employs these job descriptions to accurately assign role-based authorizations to IT personnel. It is common to find organizations being unable to communicate effectively across departments, with employees failing to interact amongst various departments.

The vendors appointed by a marketing department might be different from those of the IT department. If that is the case, management must conduct vendor insight consistently. Finally, departments must adopt similar or related frameworks to effectively manage compliance.

Author Bio

Ken Lynch is an enterprise software startup veteran, who has always been fascinated about what drives workers to work and how to make work more engaging. Ken founded Reciprocity to pursue just that. He has propelled Reciprocity’s success with this mission-based goal of engaging employees with the governance, risk, and compliance goals of their company in order to create more socially minded corporate citizens. Ken earned his BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT.

The post The Road To Continuous Compliance appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Asset Manager’s Guide To SOC1 Compliance

In the IT space, the typical manager ensures both long-term and daily strategic management of the hardware and software belonging to the company.  Aside from that, the manager must also cultivate relationships with service organizations, especially those whose control environment accentuates the company’s already established risk assessment.

SOC1 Compliance for Asset Managers
What is the Importance of a SOC1 Report?

A SOC1 report delivers entities that utilize service organizations that are known as user entities, which entail the evaluations of the organization’s controls to the point that the influence the financial reporting of the user entity. In essence, these reports are a promise by a business partner that they are implementing internal controls that help in safeguarding their data environment, which automatically means that they are protecting yours.

What Service Organizations are required to provide a SOC report?

Asset managers must gather information from all the businesses that their organization has outsourced services, for instance, the payroll processing company. Generally, service organizations comprise of cloud service providers, trust services and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers whose functions can influence the internal controls over financial reporting of user entities.

What is the Relevance of SOC1 Reports from Service Organizations to Organizations?

AICPA or the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is behind the creation of attestation engagements’ auditing standards.  In this case, an attestation engagement simply refers to an independent auditor affirming that another individual told the truth during interviews. In the internal audit space, SOC 1 reports may still be referred to as SAS 70’s, a term that was dropped back in 2011.

The relationship between SOC1 reporting and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) reporting

Aside from being related to financial reporting or sounding similar, SOX and SOC1 reports play two distinct roles. Also, keep in mind that they are not interdependent even if they may overlap at times.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed into was passed into laws by the US Congress in 2002. The action was owed to the occurrence of multiple public scandals by several large corporations including World Com, Tyco International PLC, and Enron Corporation, which resulted into a stock market plunge, a few months to the 2002 poll. In an effort to restore consumer financial trust, Section 404 of the SOX Act looks at the adequacy and scope of the procedures and internal controls for financial reporting.

On the other hand, SOC1 report aligns in the same manner to SOX 404 compliance. Nevertheless, clients utilize the services offered to assess the service organization controls as opposed to investors evaluating the organization control environment, particularly for operating effectiveness.

SOC1 Report: What is it?

SOC 1 reports are divided into Type I and Type II. Even though a user entity utilizes such reports similarly, they contain different information. In fact, a Type 1 report outlines the service organization’s system as provided by the management’s description of control designs. On the other hand, a Type II report starts the same way as a Type 1 report. However, it then assesses the organization control as well as its usefulness.

What does a SOC 1 bridge letter mean?

Also known as gap letters, SOC 1 bridge letters help in filling in the time gap that exists between the close of an assessment duration and year-end. In this case, the SOC 1 Type II reports help to cover the entire first to the third fiscal quarters.

Since the service organization‘s auditor requires the original report while conducting the interim m internal control assessment, the service organization has to complete the report before the expert comes for auditing. The duration creates a gap in attestation.

After the completing the SOC1 audit, the service organization delivers an update on the internal controls. As such, this bridge letter updates user entities regarding any material alterations, particularly in the control environment.

The scope of the asset manager in SOC 1 reporting

Three asset manager areas are associated with SOC 1 reporting. First, “baseline” entails that the internal control of a user organization regarding other internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR) is common to SOC 1 scope. Alternatively, “not baseline” means that a user organization’s internal control is not common to issued SOC 1 scope. Lastly, “other areas to consider” means that the internal controls not common even though it may be included in the scope.

How automating the SOC 1 Reporting review can simplify vendor management?

Asset managers may need to manage more vendors and assess additional reports as more organizations continue to rely on service organization partners. This consistent documentation and flow of information call for organizations to have repositories to store their data. Various tools including ZenGRC can provide one source of truth that simplifies the collection of audit information. What’s more, such automated GRC tools allow easy cooperation through developing one, accessible location whereby all stakeholders can meet.

Author Bio

Ken Lynch is an enterprise software startup veteran, who has always been fascinated about what drives workers to work and how to make work more engaging. Ken founded Reciprocity to pursue just that. He has propelled Reciprocity’s success with this mission-based goal of engaging employees with the governance, risk, and compliance goals of their company in order to create more socially minded corporate citizens. Ken earned his BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT.

The post Asset Manager’s Guide To SOC1 Compliance appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Different Types of Health Insurance Plans available in India

The escalating cost of the medical treatment should ideally translate into more people purchasing health insurance plans. However, on the contrary, most of us have not medically insured ourselves. This is why about 70% plus medical expenses are self-funded.

People hesitate in buying health insurance citing the high cost of premiums. Yet, on a closer scrutiny of most health insurance plans, one will realize that the health insurance premium is just a fraction of the healthcare expense you may have to bear in case of a medical emergency.

As per a National Family Health Survey for a majority of population, private health sector is the main source of healthcare. With an enhancement in the quality of treatment, hospital infrastructural development, and more urbane care in the private sector, the medical expenses have also increased multi-fold.It has thus become imperative that people cover themselves and their families against any medical emergencies.

The significance of Health Insurance Plans

We have several financial liabilities in our life like buying a house, buying a car, going for international trips, children’s education, etc. And we keep saving money throughout our lives to fulfill all these goals. But do you know that a single medical emergency has the potential to eat up all your savings? The World Health Organization says that 3% Indians are below poverty line just because they bear high medical bills. This is why buying a health insurance policy has become a necessity now.

Types of Health insurance Plans

There are many health insurance plans available to suit every need, so let’s discover what these are:

Individual Health Insurance

The Individual health insurance plan provides health coverage to an individual against many medical exigencies. In this individual health insurance agreement, the insurance provider covers the healthcare cost incurred by him, for which the individual pays the premium amount to the insurer as decided between the two.

The benefits of the Individual health insurance plan include:

One person gets all the benefits as provided in the plan
The total sum assigned is used by one person without sharing with anyone.
The individual has the ability to add any of his family member to the policy whenever he wishes
Tax benefit
The individual can raise as many claims in one year as he wishes, unlike the family plan

Family Health Insurance

Under the family health insurance plan, the entire family is covered. A family health insurance focuses on all the family members and not just an individual. It is also known as the umbrella plan as it covers the whole family against any medical exigency.

A family health insurance plan:

Saves money
Saves time and effort as you are not bothered about managing multiple individual health plans.
Covers the policyholder, the spouse of the policyholder, and also the children.
Some plans also include parents, dependent siblings, and in laws.
Can cover 10-15 relationships to the primary insured.

Critical Illness Insurance

With the current health scenario, critical illness insurance is a must have. It has been observed that incidents of critical illnesses are rising, and it is not uncommon to hear about a completely healthy person being diagnosed with a critical illness suddenly.  Critical illness is a grave medical condition that not only causes physical pain and emotional stress, but also leads to severe financial burden because the treatment cost is very high. This is why many health insurers have designed a critical illness cover at reasonable prices.

Under a critical illness insurance plan, if the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical illness which is included in his policy, he gets a lumpsum along with other benefits from the against the premium he pays. The illnesses covered are:

Heart attack
Cancer
Muscular dystrophy
Paralysis
A plastic anemia
Kidney failure requiring dialysis, etc.

The benefits of the critical illness insurance plan include:

Some insurers offer the policyholder a daily allowance as critical illness leads to loss of job and income.
Protects saving
It can be attached to your basic health insurance policy
Tax benefits.
6 to 15 critical illnesses can be covered.
Free health check-ups.

Senior Citizen Health Insurance

This is the health insurance for the senior citizens who are inmore than 60 years of age. Due to the upgraded medical facilities in India, the lifespan of an Indian has improved from 53 years to 71 years in the last 20 years, which means a longer retirement period, hence this plan is more crucial to have. The premium of the senior citizen insurance plan is decided on the basis of the age of the senior citizen and the sum insured.

The advantages of such senior citizen plans include:

A senior citizen can lead a stress-free retired life
Under this plan, higher benefits are given to the senior policyholder
Provides cashless cover

Group Health Insurance

Under this plan, a group of people like employees or the members of an association are covered. The employees can also go for an additional medical coverage too. Group health insurance at times covers individual, spouse, children, and parents.

The advantages of the group/corporate health insurance are:

Lower cost as compared to the individual health insurance
Medical certificates or test not needed
Covers pre-existing illnesses.
Ancillary charges are covered
Includes maternity benefits also
Provision of a relationship manager to handle queries.
Cashless hospitalization

The more you know, the more you are aware of each type of health insurance plan, which in turn helps you take a prudent decision at the time of buying.

The post Different Types of Health Insurance Plans available in India appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

5 Lead Generation Lessons for B2B Startups

Selling to businesses is hard, and slow. When you have a B2B startup, you can pick from two models: hunting for sales or farming them. To farm is simply to handle the leads that come in via a well-built marketing funnel. We call it inbound marketing.

But how can you achieve a well-functioning lead generation funnel? Here are 5 lead generation lessons for your B2B startup.

1. Content is your ultimate card

I know – you’ve heard this a billion times. But like it or not, without quality content, you’re dead. There are many lead generation examples and strategies for B2B, but to generate heavy organic traffic, you should focus on SEO-conscious content marketing. If you write one piece of high-quality keyword-optimized content every week and earn a couple of backlinks from high domain authority sites, you can expect thousands of organic visitors every month after 6-9 months, even in a competitive market.

2. Bring them back over and over

B2B funnels have several touchpoints where prospects can interact with your online presences. Split your marketing funnel into 3 different stages and use remarketing or email marketing to bring your users back. Your users should see content tailored to the stage they’re in. At first, in the awareness stage, show them basic-level content. At the consideration level, you can go into more detail, explain your product, and use social proof that builds trust. At the end (decision) you can try to convert your online prospects into leads via conversion pages or lead generation forms. Then your sales team takes over.

3. Linkedin is king

Since Microsoft bought Linkedin, it’s developed rapidly in terms of targeting options and useful features. Usually, if you’re selling to businesses, you know to whom you want to sell. You know which industry, which job role and which level of decision-making you need to target. That’s why Linkedin should be your first choice if you want to run campaigns. Lead generation cards and sponsored inMail (with its new analytics) are the tools that perform the best.

4. Online sales cycles are just as long

With a proper marketing funnel generating hot leads, it may be tempting to think that the sales cycle will move faster than if you started from scratch. This only seems to be true because most of the sales work is done by the clients themselves online. That’s the benefit of content marketing — your content is working for you. The sales cycle is the same; it’s just that marketing plays a greater role.

5. Measurement is crucial

In order to set up a funnel, you’ll need the right measurements behind it. Set up Google Analytics, a Facebook pixel, a Google Remarketing tag or Linkedin Insight tag, depending on your chosen marketing channel. In Analytics, be sure to specify your ‘goal’ and ‘event’ and build a customized dashboard for your funnel.

Summary

You deal with the same people online as you do in the real world. It’s just to you to make that funnel just as powerful.

About the Author Zsolt Farkas

CEO & Co-founder of 7 Digits that is a growth marketing agency focuses on B2B lead generation worldwide for SMEs and middle-size companies.

The post 5 Lead Generation Lessons for B2B Startups appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

How to Make High ROI Purchases for Your Business

In nearly all businesses there comes a time when equipment or services need to be purchased. The reason might be to replace worn or outdated machinery to maintain current levels of operation or to venture in a new direction with the goal of adding to your company’s bottom line. As one of your business’s decision-makers, you are always concerned with making purchases that make sense for your enterprise’s goals and that fit into its budget.

When making business purchases there are several metrics that can be consulted to help determine the utility and financial benefits that accompany the sale. One of the most telling is your return on investment (ROI). As defined by investopdeia.com, ROI “is a performance measure, used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments.”

ROI is calculated by a simple calculation that results in a percentage or ratio. The calculation takes the gain from investment and subtracts the cost of the investment. The percentage is then determined by taking that number and dividing it by the original cost of the investment. For example, a $1000 investment that returned $1100 would yield an ROI of 10%. This is the calculation: $1100-$1000/$1000.

Now that we are on the same page regarding what ROI means, the real question emerges. How can you attempt to make business purchases that maximize your ROI? It’s an important topic, as spending your company’s funds in a manner that does not produce viable returns is certainly not in its best interests. Or yours for that matter.

There is no magic formula for ensuring that your business purchases reward you with a high return on investment. If only it was that easy. While there is no simple solution for guaranteeing a high ROI on any particular business purchase, there are some guidelines that can help point you in the right direction when considering disbursing your company’s hard-earned financial resources.

ROI and Capital Equipment Purchases

Many of the purchasing decisions you need to make when running a business revolve around equipment that your company requires to maintain its current operations. It may also involve equipment that is designed to make your company more competitive or to address a new market segment. Some examples are a factory that is buying new manufacturing machinery to increase production capabilities or a restaurant that is interested in food trailers or truck builders to branch out into the mobile market in its quest for new customers.

In all of these cases, the balance between the cost of the equipment and the ROI can play a critical part in how the final decisions are made. The two basic components that you need to consider are the revenue that your purchase will generate for your business and the cost incurred to procure the equipment.

Estimating your expenses is a critical component of your purchase decision and cannot be made simply on the list price of the equipment in question. According to canadaone.com, these are some factors to keep in mind when calculating your expenses in addition to the base price:

Shipping and taxes – Business equipment comes in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be obtained from either domestic or overseas manufacturers. Shipping, taxes, and dues for overseas purchases can add substantially to the cost of your equipment.

Installation and training costs – If you are introducing new equipment to your enterprise there is a good chance that there will be training involved in order to use it properly. These costs, as well as those involved with installing your equipment, need to be rolled into your expenses.

Operational considerations – Your labor costs can change with the addition of new machinery or procedures and may increase. There is also the expense of supplies and operating costs such as energy consumption to estimate.

Maintenance – The cost of maintaining your new equipment can add a substantial amount to your expenses and can often be overlooked when making your estimation.

Debt servicing – Unless you are making a cash purchase there may be debt servicing expenses that need to be included when calculating the overall cost of your equipment.

After considering all of these factors you can begin to get a true estimation of your expenses. This estimation is often easier to make than the one that calculates the revenue that will be generated by this purchase. Careful research needs to be conducted to ascertain a realistic estimate of future revenue. This is especially true if the equipment is not simply replacing a worn component with a similar one.

Tips for Making Smart Equipment Purchases

Your purchasing decisions can have a tremendous positive or negative impact on your company. According to www.bdc.ca, here are some tips that can help you make good choices:

Evaluate your business objectives – Will an equipment purchase help resolve issues that your business is currently facing? Can it help you be more competitive or increase production? Answering these questions honestly is vital to making a good purchasing decision.

Strive for innovation – Innovation is a key component to creating and maintaining a competitive advantage in your market. When considering business purchases you should search for opportunities where your business can use new equipment to appeal to a new market segment or improve issues that current customers may have experienced with your product.

Employ an external consultant – When making large purchases you may want to enlist an external consultant to assist with a cost-benefit analysis. An objective viewpoint can shed light on factors that you may not have considered.

Research alternate suppliers – The Internet has opened many new avenues from which to obtain business equipment. When choosing your supplier, consider price along with service and the reputation of the manufacturer.

Consider financing options – In some cases, renting or leasing equipment may make more sense for your business needs that an outright purchase.

It can be challenging to consistently make high ROI business purchases. Hopefully, we have helped you get started on the right foot as you determine what purchases to make to grow your business.

The post How to Make High ROI Purchases for Your Business appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Five Ways Your Competitors Are Winning – And How To Fight Back

With instant communications across the globe and a shorter technology lifecycle than ever before, in most industries the level of competitiveness is rising sharply. Maintaining the status quo is simply not enough, since the competition is adopting innovations as well as testing new sales strategies. To stay in the game, it’s necessary to adopt an open-minded attitude and look for ways to strike back at your competitors and emphasize some of the natural strengths of your brand.

Thanks to modern technology, redefining your business model to be more in line with the times doesn’t require too much investment or specialized knowledge. While the range of options at your disposal is huge, here are a few areas worth looking into:

Search engine optimization

Those days, most people are shopping online and researching potentially interesting products and providers on Google. Marketers are well aware of this fact, which is why they are optimizing the content of their websites to appear higher on popular searches. This marketing technique is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and it has been confirmed as one of the most effective online promotion channels that in many cases can be utilized with only a moderate financial commitment.

Digital banking

Payments are another critical element for any sales-oriented business, and simplified money transfers represent a clear competitive advantage. Digital banking products bring a range of unique features, from protection against fraud to something as innovative as a get paid early app. App format is very simple and intuitive, allowing for more flexible financial management that doesn’t require a visit to the bank. In other words, digital banking makes life easier for the provider just as much as for the clients.

Mobile services

Business world has gone mobile – you must follow in the same direction. Customers have much higher expectations when it comes to convenient service delivery than they had only five years ago. That’s why in many sectors it’s mandatory to introduce mobile outlets for sales, customer support, and other key functions. Allowing clients to interact with the company from a smartphone is a strategy that is quickly becoming indispensable, especially for brands active in the B2C marketplace and service providers.

Remote work

Availability of freelancing and crowdsourcing platforms fundamentally changes how companies approach hiring. In many cases, highly refined expertise can be found remotely and paid on a project basis rather than through full-time employment. In this way, companies are managing to reduce operational expenses without compromising quality, effectively increasing their competitiveness as well as resilience to pressure from international competitors.

Customer engagement

Successful companies are taking advantage of technology to establish closer relationships with their customers and supporters. Social networks are particularly useful for this purpose, as they allow for interaction in real time and transparent discussions on a community level. This creates numerous opportunities for engagement-oriented activities such as collecting feedback, promoting new products and campaigns, explaining policy changes, and rewarding most loyal or most active customers.

The post Five Ways Your Competitors Are Winning – And How To Fight Back appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Why Cloud Hosting Is More Secure Than Other Traditional Hosting Services

Ever since Cloud Hosting has been introduced as a faster, safer and more efficient alternative to the traditional hosting plans, there have been a few myths surrounding the security of data in the cloud. Some such myths are:

The cloud is not safe
It is easier to attack
The data is accessible to everyone
You don’t have control over the data
Your data can be misused, and many more.

While the apprehension of website owners is understandable, considering that Cloud technology promises to offer much more than what the traditional systems did, the fact is that all these myths are baseless. Cloud Hosting is without an element of doubt, more secure than the traditional systems. In this article, we will look at major features of Cloud Hosting which will debunk these myths.

Data can be exposed to two major types of risks; cyber-attacks and data getting corrupted.

Cyber-attacks are probably the worst nightmares of any website owner. Cloud Hosting providers employ the best experts in the industry and the latest tools like SiteLock to ensure that these attacks are kept at bay. Regular updates of the security tools and proactive testing of databases to find loopholes ensure that they stay a step ahead of the cyber-miscreants at all times. They also ensure that your data is encrypted so that only people with authorized access can view/edit the data.

To counter data corruption issues, Cloud Hosting providers resort to a good storage architecture (like Ceph Storage). This ensures that in case of any disaster, you don’t lose your valuable data.

Finally, talking about backups, be it a cyber-attack or a natural disaster or the data getting corrupt due to any other reason, the hosting providers ensure that your data is automatically backed-up every day so that you don’t lose your valuable data in any eventuality. Although it is recommended that you create backups for your website yourself, the backups taken by the host can work as an additional safety net for you.

All this at a price proportional to the resources used by you make Cloud Hosting not just more secure but also a more cost-efficient option for your hosting needs.

Before you go

In order to get the most out of the security features, you must ensure that you do a thorough research and look at plans offered by different Cloud Hosting service providers before making a decision. Any provider who has data centers with a state-of-the-art HVAC infrastructure with latest networking switches and hardware and dedicated security experts can ensure that your website will work efficiently on the Cloud.

The post Why Cloud Hosting Is More Secure Than Other Traditional Hosting Services appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.