The most important thing to you when you’re starting a new business is figuring out how you can make it successful, right? All every business owner wants is to run a successful company that provides a high-quality service to clients. But, do you know some of the things that you can do to give your business the best chance of success? If the answer is no, then you need to keep reading down below where we’re going to give you all of the information that you need.
Hire The Right People
You’ve got to make sure that you are hiring the right people. Your business is never going to get anywhere if you don’t have the correct teams and employees looking out for you. What we mean by this is that there are some people who just aren’t interested in working, so instead, they are happy to simply sit back and allow everyone else to do the work. You don’t need these people on your team because they are just a constant drag on everyone else. Instead, you’re going to need people who are dedicated to providing a high-quality service or product to your customers and also doing everything they can to make a successful business with you.
Your team is going to be the backbone of your business. At the end of the day, experience must come second to a willingness to learn and succeed. Those who are willing to put the effort in and learn are more important than those who think they know everything because they’ve held a similar role previously.
Make Sure You Are Insured
Something else that you need to do is make sure that you are insured. When it comes to your new business, the last thing that you want is for something to happen and everything to go down the drain. We highly recommend that you speak to an insurance broker and see what they can do for you. For example, if you are insuring your house cleaning business, they will let you know what kind of cover you need and what you can ignore. This is the best way to make sure you’ve got the right level of cover without going overboard.
Learn About Marketing
The final thing that we are going to suggest is that you learn about marketing. The more knowledge you have in this area, the better you are going to market your business. You don’t have to hire a professional if you don’t want to because once you have the knowledge you need, you will be able to create a fantastic marketing campaign on your own.
We hope that you have found this article helpful and now have a better understanding as to how you can give your business the best chance of success. Take this advice, and you should be able to give your business the best boost possible to see success on the market. Good luck, and we hope that this works out in your favor.
Whether you are applying for a loan or trying to take out a second mortgage on your house, you will definitely need to know a thing or two about credit score. It might come as a surprise to you that beyond the financial matters, your credit score can have an impact on your career as well. Many companies now look into potential candidates’ credit scores before they can decide whether to offer them a job or not. Furthermore, a poor credit score can be a deal-breaker for a hesitant landlord who will likely refuse to take you on as a tenant, assuming you won’t be able to pay your rent on time.
In the United States, three main credit bureaus are responsible for issuing credit reports. However, it is not uncommon to find discrepancies between the figures issued by each due to falsified information. It is your responsibility to constantly review your credit score and make sure that your credit information is correct and up to date. To do so, you need to have a clear understanding of the calculation process. To calculate your credit score, you will need information about the below five factors that combine to make up the final figure. So, continue reading on.
1. Payment History
Your payment history is perhaps the most important aspect in determining your creditworthiness. This information lets potential lenders understand what kind of a borrower you are and helps them identify the level of risk associated with lending you their money. Creditors consider how many times you defaulted on your payments, how often do you miss a bill’s due date, and the amount of outstanding payment that you currently have. Your late payment information accounts for 35% of your credit score. This should give you an idea about the importance of your payment history and how by doing some simple changes to your payment behavior, you can actually boost your credit score. If you can, always aim to pay your bills once you receive them. More often than not, having a poor credit score is a result of negligence rather than financial capabilities.
2. The Amount of Money You Owe
The amount you owe is a depiction of your current and future financial stance, which is equally as important as your payment history. How much you currently owe to all of your creditors, including credit card companies, car and house insurance, and other outstanding payments, has a huge impact on your credit score. For a high credit score, this figure should be significantly lower than your aggregate income. According to the credit experts at 3creditscores.net, lenders are more willing to loan money to those who prove that they can live within their means, as it makes them seem like financially responsible individuals. On the other hand, accumulating debt left and right and owing thousands of dollars in whichever capacity will make you seem like a high-risk debtor. Lending institutions are profit-generating establishments after all, so unless lending you money can help them make any, you won’t really have a chance. The amount of money owed makes around 30% of your final credit score, which is not a small portion that you can afford to ignore.
3. Credit History Length
If you want to be judged creditworthy, you need a long enough credit history with lots of data for credit bureaus to review and declare you as such. While this might seem counterintuitive, but it is actually true that the more you use your credit, the more likely you are to have a good credit score. Many people think that the best approach to protecting their credit score is to distance themselves from credit altogether and just let it be. However, it is all about being a responsible debtor who can commit to timely payments and full settlements. Credit history length accounts for 15% of your credit score. Although not as big of a portion as the previous two factors, yet it is still worth dedicating the time and effort to make sure you build a long and healthy credit history.
4. Accounts Diversity
Holding a variety of accounts other than the basic personal and savings will increase your creditworthiness. Banks and other lending institutions value clients with diversified accounts more than others who hold standard ones. Home loans, retail, and online shopping credit cards are all types of accounts that creditors like to see and can improve your chances of being judged as creditworthy. However, to make sure you are doing this right, consult professional financial advisors to help you understand the types of accounts you can benefit from and can enhance your credit score at the same time. Achieving proper account diversity will help you improve your credit score through the 10% portion of the total figure.
5. Most Recent Credit Activity
The final 10% of the credit score calculator is based on information about your most recent credit activity. Regardless of your reasons, opening new accounts and applying for new loans in a short period will hurt your credit score. Creditors see such ‘frantic’ financial behavior as alarming and one that calls for a harsh creditworthiness assessment. To avoid falling for this typical mistake, try to spread your financial activities and inquiries over a longer period, otherwise, make sure you at least have a good explanation.
As explained earlier, it is your responsibility to look into the often unmatching credit scores calculated by different credit bureaus. With the above information, you should now have a clear understanding of how to do that. However, as you probably know, calculating your credit score is only part of the equation. What is more important is how you can improve it and become a favorable debtor that creditors can trust and accept to take on. Improving your credit score is worth taking the time to look for new and creative ways to make it happen. Even if you think you don’t need it today, you should make that a priority because you will definitely need it at some point in the future.
The world of Information Technology, or IT, has changed immeasurably over the last few decades. Businesses have gone from using fixed-line telephones, fax machines, and physical document storage in the 1980s to email and server-based storage in the 1990s. The 21st century, however, has seen the biggest change in the way that IT works, with cloud-based computing has become the norm and companies switching from email to business communication platforms that all employees can use no matter where they are on the planet. These tools allow advanced efficiency as different teams in different locations can communicate and share information with each other much more easily than they could with email.
These modern IT symptoms are tricky to run and require careful management to work properly so it is important to be able to measure the performance of your systems to ensure that you are not wasting money and manpower. In this article, we are going to take a look at how to measure your IT efforts with KPI’s so that your business becomes as streamlined and efficient as possible, so read on to find out more.
Cost Per Ticket
This is one of the easiest KPI’s to understand yet is also one of the most important as it gives you the raw data in terms of efficiency. Basically, it measures the entire monthly cost of your service desk against how many tickets they had in that month. All costs are taken into account from the salaries of employed personnel to technology and telecom expenses. Your utilities and rent will also be taken into account, effectively every expense relating to the IT side of your business. Once you know the ticket cost you can work out whether the related project was a success or not against the costs spent.
Customer Satisfaction
This is one of the key metrics when it comes to measuring performance because as every business knows, keeping your customers happy is one of the most important ways of making money, and it is also easily measured based on the number of complaints that you receive. If customers are complaining about something as simple as your website’s poor readability on a mobile device, then you have immediate feedback on which to improve your IT infrastructure. Asking customers to comment on your performance is the best way of measuring whether this department is operating efficiently or not.
Feedback Resolution
When you receive negative feedback, the next step that you want to measure is how long it takes to resolve the complaint that you received, because customers expect action today, not tomorrow. You can easily measure this based on response times to the initial complaint, and then how long it takes for the whole issue to be resolved. Obviously, major IT issues such as a cyber attack will take longer to resolve than others, but you should keep your customers in the loop so that they are aware that you are doing all that is possible to rectify the issues as quickly as possible.
Use an Outsourcing Firm
Sometimes measuring all the metrics that you need to understand your IT performance can be exhausting both in terms of the man-hours required and the sheer number of metrics to measure. Professionals from onestopit.com recommend that you use a firm that can manage your IT services to ensure that they are run as efficiently as possible. They will look at your strategy and security as well as measuring performance based on uptime, response to queries, and the difference between desired performance levels and actual performance levels, which will give you a perfect metric to understand where your IT efforts are failing. This will free up your staff to concentrate on making money whilst at the same time giving you the data that you need in order to improve your IT performance.
Technician Utilization
Whether you employ technicians in-house or you outsource and use freelancers, it is vital that you measure their utilization as labor is expensive and this will be your biggest cost relating to them. If they are not working at 100%, then why not, and this is why you need to measure their labor efficiency. If you employ two technicians and they only work 50% of the time, then it is time to consider whether you really need two or not. If you get busy in the future, you could always outsource one role in order to keep your utilization high, and therefore your costs low, so it is integral that you have their utilization per ticket data to hand.
Technician Satisfaction
IT technicians can be a funny bunch. Given that they are so vital to your IT function and infrastructure, the higher their job satisfaction rating, the lower the staff turnover, absenteeism, and ticket times meaning that they will be much more efficient at their job. So, by measuring their satisfaction, you have a perfect bellwether for the rest of your IT performance. You should be measuring their satisfaction at least biannually as they can be fickle as the last thing you need is a disgruntled technician as your ticket times will increase and morale will drop. Staff training schemes are a great way of incentivizing as well as offering a clear path to career progression and coaching when it is needed. Make sure you do what you can to keep your technicians happy as they are the heartbeat of your IT infrastructure.
As we have learned there are many different ways to measure the performance of your IT efforts. KPI’s are always useful, but perhaps the most important is the cost per ticket analysis as it tells you whether you are being efficient or not. Customer satisfaction and complaint resolution should feature highly as well as the satisfaction of your IT technicians. If you are overwhelmed by your IT efforts, then outsource to a firm that can measure performance for you, allowing you to free up your staff for more important matters. Ensure that you never rest on your laurels, and then you will have an IT department that functions as efficiently as possible.
Saving for retirement should be a top priority for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting your first job or you’re about to move away from the workforce; if you have time, you have to make the best out of it. For that reason, most people start looking for profitable investments to grow their retirement portfolios. However, not every kind of investment can be described as smart, and that can only be judged according to your situation. This is why we’re going to go over effective options that will prove to be reliable ways to invest money for your retirement.
Retirement Accounts
First things first, let’s talk about the retirement accounts that will hold your investment returns. You have three options: saving money in the retirement account offered by your employer, opening a self-directed IRA, or saving in a normal investment account. Let’s explore the three options in more detail.
1. Employer-Sponsored Plans
Your employer may offer you more than one option to choose from or they can just offer a default account for all employees. An employer-sponsored plan can be 401(k), 403 (k), HSA, or other plans. These plans can either be traditional or Roth. A traditional plan will allow you to contribute pre-tax money, so you can escape taxes on the money you put into the account, while a Roth plan uses income after taxes, so you can get around taxes when you withdraw from the plan. One of the greatest features of this option is when your employer offers to match your contributions to the plan, which is something you totally have to take advantage of.
2. Self-Directed IRAs
Perhaps the downside of employer-offered plans is that you become restricted by their investment options. Alternatively, you can open a self-directed IRA account. The financial planners on this site explain the advantages of this option, where self-directed IRAs give you more flexibility in diversifying your portfolio beyond the traditional forms of investment. You’ll still be able to invest in the traditional categories, like bonds and stocks, but you’ll have the added advantage of seeking alternative forms of investments as well.
3. Investment Account
While the first two options offer the best deals for retirement investment, they have one significant shortcoming. These kinds of accounts are capped at a certain maximum regarding the money you can save on them monthly and annually. You may not have any issues with this limit if you’ve started early on, with more than 30 years left until your retirement. However, for those who’re looking for ways to catch up on their savings while nearing their retirement, a normal investment account offers them more flexibility. Unfortunately, this option won’t include any tax-advantages.
Reliable Investment Options
With your savings account in place, it’s time to address the question you’ve been wondering about. What should you invest in? Technically speaking, you can invest in any category. Asset classes usually include three categories: stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents. There are also alternative forms of investment. The only factor that will restrict your freedom is the age at which you start saving for retirement, although a good retirement portfolio will usually include all of the previous forms of investment.
That being said, here are your options.
1. Stocks
Stocks are best for long-term investments; they give you the largest investment returns over the years. However, they’re highly volatile in nature, and that makes them a poor investment choice if you’re looking for a short-term investment. That means that they’re high-risk investments that you should stay away from if you’re nearing retirement, but they’re great if you have more than 30 years ahead of you to save money. A long duration of investment can also overcome the effect of inflation, adding to their investment return vs risk advantage.
2. Bonds
Bonds come somewhere in between stocks and cash equivalents in both the risk factor and the investment returns. They’re not as volatile as stocks, and they’re also secure and stable in their interest accumulation. All of that makes them a safer form of investment. Moreover, you can also find bonds that provide tax-free income. On the other hand, they give less long-term returns compared to stocks. It’s common for people to change their asset allocation as they age, decreasing their investment in stocks and increasing it in bonds.
3. Cash Equivalents
Cash equivalents offer the least returns, but they also come with the least risk of all forms of investment. They have the advantage of being highly liquid, allowing you to withdraw them at any time without penalties. Cash equivalents are usually used for short-term securities, and they include certificates of deposit, treasury bills, corporate commercial paper, and other money-market funds.
4. Alternative Investments
In addition to the primary three investment assets, many people are increasingly seeking alternative investments. These investments can be in the form of private equity, real estate, gold, or other hard assets. Some also invest in artifacts and the like. Although these forms of investment may not be as secure or reliable as the primary three assets, they’re a great option for mitigating the risk that comes with market fluctuations. For instance, you may find the stock market crashing all of a sudden due to a worldwide pandemic. Unless you have an alternative form of investment that adds to your portfolio during such challenging times, you’ll suffer from the aftermath of that crash.
However, alternative investments are not available with all retirement accounts. You’ll have to open a self-directed IRA with a passive custodian to have the freedom to invest in any assets you choose. While a self-directed IRA may offer you a certain level of freedom in alternate investing, you’ll still be limited to the products your bank or financial institute sells. To invest in a more controversial way, like cryptocurrency, you’ll need a passive custodian.
It’s never too early to start saving for retirement, but it’s never too late either. You can always start at any point in your life, although starting early surely gives you the advantage. The whole difference lies in the way you approach retirement investment. For instance, risky investments like stocks are better when you’re in it for the long-term, while more secure kinds of investment can be a smarter option the closer you get to retirement. In short, your options will significantly vary depending on the age you start saving and your estimated retirement age.
Every business should have strategies in place to help it build long-term customer relationships. Customers who repeatedly visit your business, website or any other sales channel are much more valuable over time and can transfer their love for your business to others. Building these relationships is never easy, but there are important lessons to be learned from an industry that has been able to do this over and over again – the casino industry.
Complimentary Rewards
A common feature among casino websites is how generous they are with their complimentary gifts. According to several surveys, only about 40% of companies not in the casino industry give customers, leads or other businesses they are building relationships with complimentary gifts.
From free drinks and meals to hotel rooms, casinos lean heavily into this relationship-building strategy and it is relatively easy to find examples of Australian gambling websites doing this. To get started, think about what your clients and customers want. For customers, gift cards are inexpensive and work really well while for larger clients, you might have to go with something bigger.
Taking Advantage of Events
One of the best ways to make customers feel important is to invite them to events. Your repeat customers, especially other businesses, likely have a lot in common, and getting them together for an event makes them feel appreciated and thought about.
Additionally, you can use your social media as a way of building these relationships by inviting people who share your products on social media to VIP events.
Demographic Preferences and Segmentation
Although casino players might look like they have the same needs, that is not always the case. A close look reveals that older players spend about 80% of their budget on gaming and the rest on food while younger generations spend about 30% on gaming and 70% on other activities.
This means that if you were to come up with a marketing campaign, you would advertise your games to older generations while advertising a full-featured experience for younger generations that focuses less on gaming and more on the activities that surround it.
The lesson here is that by segmenting your demographics and cross-referencing them with their spending habits, you can find out what they prefer. You can then invest in the products and services they are likely to spend money on. Doing this makes your customers feel catered to which improves their relationship with your business.
Partner with Other Businesses
Casinos know that players do more than sit at the table and play. They may need food, drinks or even hotel rooms. They collaborate with other businesses to cut deals to offer additional services to their high-end customers and big spenders. For example, it is common to see casinos cutting deals with travel companies to offer discounts to their best customers.
To use this strategy, think about what else your top customers and clients need besides your products and services. Then, cut deals with other businesses to offer discounts to your customers and you to do the same for their customers who need your products and services. The casino industry builds strong customer relationships in ways other industries struggle to. The casino industry views relationship-building very differently, and if your business can have a closer look at how it does this, you could end up with valuable lessons that help you build stronger and better customer relationships in your business.
Technology can always improve businesses and their daily activities, streamlining every step to save time, effort, and money. Implementing tech solutions can empower your employees, making them work harder and focus better.
If you’re thinking about taking your business to the next level, then read on to learn more about seven essential tech solutions that can be beneficial for you and your company.
1-Artificial Intelligence (A.I)
One of the most effective tech solutions that any business should utilize is artificial intelligence (A.I) because it effortlessly streamlines every task. Implementing it will transform small businesses and help them compete with bigger corporations. The benefits you gain include machine learning, which means processing large amounts of information, tasks, and data quickly. Automation protocols that finish trivial and repetitive tasks quickly, giving your employees a chance to finish their important duties. A.I should be managed and set properly to ensure that it continues to minimize mistakes for you, eliminating human errors that can be easily missed.
2-Cybersecurity
Small businesses need defense protocols against malicious digital attacks and using cybersecurity solutions can keep their data protected. Having the right software programs and the professional IT specialists that can manage it is key, allowing you to prevent cybercriminals from penetrating your system. Kansas has several major companies that can be targeted by hackers and cybercriminals, making protective software programs a necessity. Advice from several digital specialists and IT support in Kansas City suggests that threat monitoring tools that protect networks should be easily managed to eliminate IT frustrations. This means that the right program that is simple to use and effective in protecting data can be worth the cost to have complete digital security.
3-Electronic Timesheets
Utilizing electronic timesheets can increase productivity levels significantly in your business. This type of tech solution allows you to monitor the progress of each employee, project, timestamps, history data, and reports. One of the best advantages of timesheets is that it can be customized to fit your business needs and requirements, allowing you to create custom fields that don’t require manual entries. It reduces time and effort, allowing every supervisor to monitor and oversee each project and every department effortlessly. Electronic timesheets allow you to see which project is progressing right and which ones aren’t profitable. The perks of monitoring each task this way will always improve productivity and success levels in any small business.
4-Customer Communication Tools
Another way to improve your company’s practices is by having customer communication tools that make it a hassle-free experience for both your customers and employees. Increasing satisfaction and retention levels should be one of the main priorities of a small business because customers can elevate the company to gain more success.
Your business should have systems that allow clients to open a line of communication with you through live chat systems, emails, or virtual assistants. You could either hunt for a pre-made system for that specific purpose or have one custom-made by a programmer. However, make sure you know the right way to find a programmer for your start-up.
As a result, problem-solving protocols will be easier and customers will be happier, increasing your brand recognition levels significantly.
5-Employee Collaboration Tools
Implementing software programs and digital tools that increase employee collaboration can improve productivity levels. Staff members will be able to communicate easily and in real-time, sending important documents or data to each other effortlessly. Team leaders can use these tools to coordinate between every employee, ensuring that everyone is on the right track. Communication and collaboration can streamline your small business and allow it to succeed a lot more.
6-Cloud Systems
Cloud systems are quite useful for storage and protection, making the process of saving and sending data a hassle-free experience. Backing up your data on the cloud will always protect your company from system failures or cyberattacks. Even if your main servers and data were compromised or got deleted, you will have the essential backup to ensure that your client and project information isn’t lost.
7-Mobile Applications for Payments
Companies can use mobile applications for payments to speed up the process, making it easier and better for both the business and the customers. The idea is to incorporate a tech solution that allows customers to pay using their smartphones, getting funds directly and quickly from them without waiting. Mobile applications will streamline the payment process and save a lot of time because credit and digital payments are easier for the customer.
Business owners and entrepreneurs must utilize tech solutions for the sake of survival. Customers and clients will appreciate a company that uses technology to improve their experience, increasing your customer retention levels tremendously. When your employees don’t waste time on trivial tasks and finish important activities quickly, productivity levels will skyrocket beyond your expectations. Undoubtedly, technology will always improve and elevate any small business and help it expand for more success.
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