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 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 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.
Posted by hecto on March 31, 2010 under General Management |
This is a question that many businesses may ask at time to deal with a problem or overcome a problem that just will not go away; well in this case hiring a consultant may just be the action you may have to take. At first it may seem a bit costly to do but if you think ahead then this would actually be saving you money for the future and at the same time you get the right expertise to overcome a current obstacle in your business. Generally a good consultant will be able to come up with a solution to a problem and implement this much faster than you or any of your staff would be able to. A consultant is a professional in a particular area of expertise such as law, marketing, human resources or accountancy. So basically you would be hiring someone who really knows that particular field well and has probably dealt with many different and similar situations in the past.
When hiring a consultant you need to clear a few things up before you do so:
- You need to identify the problem and what the symptoms are, this is important as you are requiring a consultant to help you resolve an issue in a particular part of your business.
- You also need to think about what you are really expecting from a consultant and at the same time consider your organisations needs.
- It is also important to know what you expect when the consultant accomplishes their task, so think about the results or particular changes that you may want to see.
- As mentioned above consultants are professionals in a particular field so you need to know what type of consultant to contact.
- Set a time frame about when you want this task to be accomplished by.
Posted by hecto on March 30, 2009 under General Management, Starting your business |
Starting a small business can be hard work and preparation is vital to the success of your small business. In this post there will be five tips on helping you start and run your business efficiently so that you don’t fall into any traps at the beginning.
1. Have a business plan. It is very important that you have a plan for your business, as the famous quote goes “Failure to Plan is a Plan for Failure” and this is particular true when you are starting out in business. You may have the best business idea in the world however not having a plan could mean you will ultimately lead to failure. So make a business plan work out the numbers such as the brake-even analysis, profit and loss forecast and cash flow projections. It may be that you sell a product to a large customer who will only pay you in 120 days, that’s 120 day without any cash and if you do not have a plan it could mean that you are will be out of business within the first few months.
2. Save as much money as possible before you start. Now the reason you need a really good business plan is because money is short when starting out, once you start getting paid then this problem will start to disappear up to a certain extend. So make sure you save enough money or have enough financing to overcome any problems.
3. Think big but act small. This is the key to success, if you think big it means that you plan for a successful future however it is important that when starting out you act small and try and run your business in the cheapest possible way. If you do not have money to rent big modern offices then old offices will have to do considering that they are also much cheaper and do the same job more or less. Keep the big offices in mind for when your business becomes bigger and more successful.
4. Employ people better then you. Having people who are better then you in a certain field of business means that you can learn something from them and at the same time the business can benefit from their knowledge, so always look for people with experience or who are really skilful in a certain area as they will bring your business to the next level.
5. Protect your personal assets. Ok you could do everything right but sometimes in business things just do not work out, so it is important that you are not personally liable as otherwise you could end up losing all your personal assets which you may own such as your house. What you could do to overcome this is register your business as a Limited Liability Company (Ltd), this will protect your personal assets and it will mean that if the business goes wrong you can always try again without having to lose all your personal assets.
Now these were five elementary tips that you should know before starting any small business, so keep a note of them because a lot of people miss out one of these points and end up running into trouble.
Posted by hecto on March 10, 2009 under General Management, Marketing, The Internet, Tips |
For small business marketing is the lifeblood, it is important to understand that real marketing involves every aspect of your business including yourself. It is understandable that while marketing your business you want to make the most of the money you have budgeted for your advertising, therefore small business needs to plan wisely and slowly.
Spread the word
Networking is an important aspect, as it allows you to spread the word about your business. This may mean that you can join up local business groups and allow yourself to interact with different people. When you get opportunities to speak to small business groups or professional organizations then let nothing stop you from doing so.
Local Media
Take advantage of the media in the town or city you live in. This includes newspapers and magazines that are able to write profiles about businesses. Therefore make sure you contact your local newspaper pr magazine and request whether they would be interested in writing a profile about your business. Of course you must remember to be prepared for the interview and be aware of what your business has to offer.
Good offers
Make an offer that no other business has made, this may include giving a good away for free. Every costume likes the feeling of getting something for free. Foe example if your business involves sweets, then give some away to several different costumers.
Business Cards
It can be argued that business cards are the most underutilized tools for marketing your business. When creating your business card you need to know what valuable information you want on it. With a business card you can just hand it to anyone you want.
Use Internet
The internet has spread world wide, for that reason you should take advantage of it as much as you can. Thus, there is no excuse for not creating a professional website for your business. This allows people to find information about your business in their own homes. However, you must add all needed information about your business.
Posted by hecto on under Business Ideas, Business Plan, General Management, Tips |
All around the globe small businesses have been hit by the recent credit crises; if you have not already been affected then it will still come. Some analysts say that this will be a hard time for small business owners as they will find it difficult to find credit and continue their daily operations. However this is predicted to be a short term problem. While many big banks in USA and Europe go bust the ultimate affect will lead to many more small businesses going bust. The truth is harsh but it will happen. The main problem is that at this time investors and banks are scared of letting go of their money due to the uncertainty in the economy, investing in a very volatile economy is extremely risky. Furthermore as the banks go bust it means that they don’t actually have enough money to lend because investors have pulled their money out of the markets.
Unless you are selling in a very specific niche market and you do not need large amounts of credit you will be affected. Either your sales will fall as people stop spending and start saving or the bank will not give you the much needed loan. If you live in UK or the USA you probably have noticed how the banks advertisements have changed from advertising their “great” mortgage deals to advertising their “great” saving accounts. This demonstrates how the banks have anticipated the change in the economy and are preparing for a recession in the economy.
Many of the big players fall during a recession because they are too dependant on a growing economy and fail or refuse to accept that the economy will not keep growing for hundreds of years without also major falling just like major increases. Being small during a recession can also be used as a major advantage because it means you are more flexible in your operations. What I mean here is that if you see that you are unable to meet mortgage re-payments then sell off and downsize, don’t use all your savings up and then before you know it you have gone bust. Another example is that if you have two warehouses and your customer base has decreased then downsize to one warehouse.
My main point for small business owners is that do not go against the flow but with the flow. While in a booming economy you expanded in a failing economy you downsize.
Posted by hecto on March 6, 2009 under General Management, Tips |
As it is important for a person to present the right kind of image to people, it is even more important for a small business to present a professional image that will tell customers and clients that your business is the kind of business they want to do business with. For the time being I will touch on only one aspect of image and that is “projecting a trustworthy business image”. Business in general is based on marketing and this is no different for a small business.
An experienced business person puts in a lot of hard work on making sure they look professional. However your business is not defined by just a few people in the organisation but many more so you need to make sure all your employees look polished and professional at their job. As a whole you need to make your premises internally and externally look presentable and professional. At the end of the day you want your customers to take you and your business serious. By doing this you will be showing potential customers that you are worthy of their trust and eventually business.
A good example of image would be an investment banker, they are always seen wearing a suit and looking serious and this shows that they mean business even though that may not be the case all the time. You do not have to build and investment banking image but you could build a very professional image. At the end of the day a successful image leads to increased sales because people think that what they see is what they will get.
If a decorator with ripped up trousers and a worn out shirt came to your house to give you a price estimate for a job, even though he might give you a reasonable price for the service the likely chances are that you will not pick him for the job because you probably will not take him serious. On the other hand his service may be the best ever but he was not able to sell himself so you did not pick him and the reason for that is that there is a lot of competition and you can pick someone else for the job who looks more trustworthy.
Posted by hecto on February 27, 2009 under Business Plan, General Management, Tips |
Once you have a business idea and you want to go ahead with it, a business plan is the next step before you do anything else. It is the business plan that will lead you to the next steps.
The general idea about a business plan is that it’s something the bank forces you to do if you are requesting a loan or on the other hand you are trying to persuade investors to invest in your business. However if you do think like that then you should probably stop because a business plan is actually necessary for you no matter how you plan to finance your business.
The main reason of writing a business plan when you have a business idea is to test if that actual idea is viable in the first place. Writing a business plan will essentially also help you to work out if your business idea has a chance of becoming into a successful and profitable business.
By writing a business plan you are required to research about your idea to get all the necessary information that will turn your idea into a successful enterprise. If after the research and after you finish your business plan it turns out that your idea doesn’t work then dump the idea and think of something else. All that has happened is that you have lost time but also learned from it.
On the other hand if you decide to go ahead without a plan and your business fails then you would have lost a lot of valuable resources because you may have failed due to the fact that there could have been thing you didn’t know but could have known.
You probably want to get on with your idea straight away and think you know everything but it always helps to be patient and invest some time and energy into writing a good business plan that will help you avoid failure. Remember “failure to plan is planning to fail”.
