Posted by hecto on April 26, 2010 under General Management, Tips | 
In order for a business to grow and be successful there is nothing more important than actually employing the right people for your business. Employment recruiting therefore helps you to find the perfect fit for your business. There are various steps that need to be taken to recruit these right individuals.
1. Create a profile of the ideal candidate
Firstly you need to do a job listing, explaining what you exactly are looking for. This attracts the qualified individuals to give an immediate response and discard the unqualified. Therefore you must be clear when you do the job listing and define your expectations of the job. As a result you can list the key duties as well as details such as salary and hours.
2. Search tactics
You need to decide on the strategy that you want to use to employ people. There are different strategies that can be used:
• Recruiting services
• Recruiting firm
• Job sites
• Job center
Of course it is important to remember whatever tactic you decide to use you need to determine what will make it work. Therefore it is crucial that you try different things and see what works the best and throw the rest out.
3. Shortlist and interviews
For some vacancies there may be hundreds of candidates, in this case the applicant forms may be useful. This would allow you to investigate who has the qualifications you need and who don’t. Maybe you could draw up a shortlist of only the best candidates to call for an interview.
4. Understanding Candidates
It is important that when you have interviews with the candidates you think are suitable for the job you understand them. Normally successful candidates show passion, knowledge of the industry, and most of all desire to succeed and learn. A good candidate should be hard working, compatible with other employees and a good fit with the other organizational culture.
Overall you must remember that finding the right person for your job increases the value of your business and helps to ensure your future.
Posted by hecto on April 18, 2010 under Business Software |
If you still haven’t tried accounting software to keep your company accounts on track then I would say you are missing out. Accounting software is just application software that records transactions in areas such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and trail balance. Depending on your budget you can get this software developed in-house to fit your company as you want it, but most of the time there is no need for that because you can always buy it from a third party which will do the same job. Usually if you buy the software from a third party you will also be able to make some modifications to fit your needs and requirements, again it varies on the cost and complexity. Accounting Software is not new to many businesses, however since the 1990s the market has been transforming. Many of the small suppliers have stopped trading or were bought out by larger companies due to the high competition.
Accounting software packages are split into 3 categories which include the low, middle and high end market. As you would expect in the low end you will find the cheapest software available that will allow you to perform the general business accounting functions but not much more than that. In this market, smaller vendors tend to serve one national market with the same package while larger suppliers supply many national countries. A point to note about the some of the low end systems is that they do not have sufficient security. Now about the When thinking about the Mid Market QuickBooks accounting software springs to mind, their software is pretty good but also not cheap. Vendors in this market are generally orientated towards one market such as hotel or manufacturing accounting software which is also why this type of software is more expensive. On the high end market it is the more complex and expensive software solutions that are available; this type of software is mostly known as Enterprise resource planning or ERP software. It could take up to a year to implement this kind of application and will be designed to support individual company processes.
A lot of the large accounting software vendors do not generally sell directly to the mid or high end market, they first sell to resellers, developers and consultant who then sell on to their customers at a good profit. These resellers normally request a license fee from their customers for the software, but what may sound more interesting is that clients could end up paying up 300% of the software price on fees for consulting and implementation. So it may be wise to shop around when searching for accounting software.
Posted by hecto on April 17, 2010 under The Internet, Tips |
For some small businesses it may be the case that the internet is everywhere but their business is not on the internet which means that they are preventing some of their customers from finding them. A few years ago no one really cared about the internet that much and if someone did mention the word “web” you would have probably thought about a spider infestation. However today that has changed and when the word “web” is mentioned everyone thinks about the internet. The internet is playing a key role when it comes to informing people. So if you still don’t care then its time that you think about it a bit more.
Think about your competition
Being in business means that you are also in competition, so while maybe a lot of your competition in your market may have a website it means that they have a competitive edge over you. If you notice that your competitors are not online yet, then take the first step and go online, whatever your business there will probably many good reasons to why it is necessary for you to be online.
So how can you get online?
You are probably thinking about the fact that it could be difficult to design a website and see that as a major obstacle. Well yes it is a major obstacle if you do not know how to do it. However being in business does not mean you have to do everything yourself, the internet has also brought a lot of web developers with it who are willing to develop simple but unique websites at very cheap rates. For example if you go to one of the major webmaster forums like Digital Point there are a lot of people there who provide quality but cheap services at extremely cheap rates. One of the reasons for this is because they are from India or China, the other reason may be that they are young students who want to earn a bit of extra cash. Nonetheless this does not mean that their quality is bad. Business is all about connecting and communicating so it help getting out there and doing just that. While it may be worth learning something about the internet and websites yourself if it interests you but it really is not a must if you don’t find it interesting.
Posted by hecto on April 16, 2010 under General Management, Management |
Customer complaints are a part of any business in general. The internet made it possible for the traditional transactions that used to be conducted in person such as purchasing and payment to be carried out online. Taking into account the fact that billions of transactions take place everyday you can also expect errors to occur. I have written some tips on how to approach customer complaint:
1. Enable the Customer to complain
What I mean here is that you should make it possible if not very easy for the customer to complain in the following ways:
- On Your website make sure the customer can have a contact form or telephone number where they can call up and make a complaint, you do not need to have a specific number for complaints but the customer needs to be able to contact the business.
- If there the complaint is specific for a certain department in the business then put the customer through to the department, it will show them that you actually care about their complaint.
2. View complaints as free advice
It is important that you view complaints as free advice for your business, it could be that via a complaints you actually improve your consumer service. So question the customer and takes as there will probably be something you can improve in the service somehow.
3. Apologize to the Customer
Even if the customer is wrong it is important that you apologise for the company and for the person who may have made a mistake. However try not to apologise too early as it will lead to further irritation for the customer, let the customer speak and explain first.
4. Identify and Fix the problem
At times you may be able to identify a problem from a customer complaint and it is important that you fix it as soon as possible to reduce further dissatisfaction from more customers.
5. Follow up
After sometime get in touch with the customer and tell them that their complaint was important to you. You could use this follow up to show the customer that you care about their complaint and that you value them as a customer.
Posted by hecto on April 13, 2010 under Business Software, Tips |
Well learning in general requires a lot of patience and persistence to get from A to B. MCSE certification is no different however it is certainly something to consider doing if you are thinking of taking your IT career to the next level. It certification can really give you the competitive edge that you required in your career.
Now before getting any deeper into MCSE Certification lets explain what MCSE first of all is, for those of you who may not know it. The Microsoft Systems Engineer (MCSE) credential is the leading certification for those professionals who analyse the business needs and invent or design a system that is based on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server platform and Windows Server System. MCSE certification is appropriate for a number of different roles such as, System engineers, System analysts and Network analysts. This is one of the most widely recognised IT certifications in the industry. Having the MCSE credential under your belt would actually show different employers all over the world that you have all the necessary skills to lead an organisation in the successful design, administration and implementation of both Microsoft Windows operating system and their Server System. It is the high level of skills and knowledge that you gain via working with these complex computing environments that will really help fast track you towards a very exciting career.
The MSCE exam does vary a bit because from 2007 there have been a few small changes, now the MCSE is available for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, a different set of exams is required for each of them. To pass MCSE 2003, you are required to pass six core design exams which include four networking exams, one client operating system, one design exam and one elective exam. On the other hand if you are a MCSE 2000 candidate then you are required to pass one less core exam (so five of them in this case), the exams include four operating system, one design and two electives. However if we compare this to the old MCSE NT 4.0 exam that does not exist anymore, a candidate had to only pass four core exams.
As good as it sounds to get MCSE certification it also costs a reasonable amount to complete, the course price generally varies on the area but it could cost up and over $5000 to complete. The cost really does vary as it all depends what you want, for example if you go to a well known institution with a very good reputation who also have teachers with a lot of expertise who are doing the training then you will probably be expected to pay more. Normally the number of people in classes is small for these types of courses due to the high complexity and insensitivity of the course. However there is no need to worry about training because there are a lot of companies and different training opportunities, there are many different companies that offer MCSE training in diverse formats. These formats include computer based training discs; web based training, instructor-led courses, training videos and so on. So if you do not feel like joining a class for whatever reason then no worries because there are plenty more options open there for you.
Posted by hecto on April 8, 2010 under Business Ideas, General Management, The Internet, Tips |
I have been thinking for some time about this and I have looked at a few small businesses that are currently doing it. Well my idea is that small businesses should use opportunities better and get their business to operate on an international scale. While it is always good to supply a certain market in a certain region I believe that some small business should look into supplying the international market. While this may not happen over night it could work if you give it a go. For example if you are selling washing machine parts in your local area why not put some of these parts online and try and sell them to people all over the world. You could try it out on eBay and slowly open your own website and build your customer base. You will be surprised to see how much interest you will get from people in other regions of your country and other foreign countries.
EBay enables people from all over the world to find your product easily. I used to sell on eBay myself and at the beginning I was only shipping most of my products to UK customers but over time this changed and I was suddenly shipping most of my products to customers in Europe and the US. But eBay prices are very competitive as there are many sellers selling similar products so it will be tough at the beginning, but even on eBay people look for service so once you have satisfied a buyer once s/he will come back to you if they need more.
Operating on a international scale does not mean having to get bigger it just means that you could get more customers. Ebay was one of the examples but the problem with Ebay it can only work with specific products and a lot of small businesses may find that the prices people sell there are the prices they buy their goods themselves. All that means is that you need to find cheaper suppliers. Another way you could serve an International market is by taking part in forums that fit your business people there are always looking for help.
There is also the option of getting your own website online to sell your goods but I would not suggest this if you don’t know what you are doing because you could end up spending a lot and not getting any results, this is why I was suggesting the cheaper methods to start with.
