Technological advances in the last 20 years have transformed the way business is conducted around the globe. Not only has technology helped them become more efficient, but also it has enabled them to improve quality and reliability of their products. This in turn has helped the society as a whole prosper. Recent innovations in the areas of mobile and wearable computing will continue to drive the businesses, and in turn, human society towards higher standards.
Online security has received lot of attention lately as a result of NSA scandal and high profile hacking attempts at several large corporations. With the rise of internet and proliferation of computers in our daily lives it is imperative that businesses pay close attention to online security and protect their computer networks like a hawk. At the same time, it is also important to ensure your offline or physical security is in place to protect physical infrastructure from intruders and scammers. Failing to do so can result in theft and sabotage producing large financial loss for your business.
Large corporations use outsourcing to offload their non-core operations so that they can focus on what they do best. Small and medium size businesses can benefit equally from outsourcing. Many small business owners do not feel comfortable with outsourcing thinking that it does not provide them sufficient benefits or they don’t like losing control of their business operations. This could be a mistake. When done properly, outsourcing can help small business owners grow by focusing on core operations.
Work-life balance is not something that is on top of mind for many entrepreneurs and small business owners. After all, when you have customers expecting immediate response, employees asking for help, vendors waiting for payments, all at the same time how can you even think about taking time off from work. Life can wait until you have established your business. Once you have put the business on the right path you can go back to enjoying the life, right? Wrong. Let’s face it. When you are running a small business will there ever be time when you will not need to take care of this?
Small business owners are missing out on significant sales opportunity if you do not have ecommerce presence. Online sales continue to grow at double digit rate and are expected to do so for many years to come. Amazon and eBay reported solid online sales for the Black Friday last week. More and more customers are now comfortable buying online, which is why every retailer in the world is trying to set up online presence.
When you sense a conflict brewing in the business situation what do you do? Do you put your head down and focus on your own work to stay out of it? Do you play peacekeeper and attempt to help everyone just get along? Or do you add fuel to the fire?
According to the leading theories of conflict, there are five major “conflict styles,” or approaches we take to handling disagreements. Everyone uses one of these styles at one point or another, but most of us tend to stick to one or two styles in most situations. The style you are most comfortable with and use majority of time can have a big impact on the outcome. It can help you arrive at a solution to your advantage or make you suffer with unfavorable outcome. It is crucial to understand what style you are most comfortable with and develop alternate styles so you can respond appropriately in a given situation.
Warning to all budding entrepreneurs!! Almost 75% of small businesses fail during their first year. This number goes even higher during financial or environmental crisis. During Great Recession of 2008-2009 number of businesses, large and small, failed because they were not in the best position to manage during the time of crisis. They either did not have sufficient financial cushion or failed to generate enough sales to meet their expenses. The key to succeed in the crisis is to prepare for it ahead of time and take decisive actions once the crisis does hit. This is the time not to panic, and you will not, if you have planned ahead. If you do run into financial turbulence here are 3 important steps you can take to navigate through the crisis.
Fire safety is usually not on top of mind for many business owners. After all, they have business to run and fire safety does not help them improve their sales or customer service. Most business owners probably include fire safety equipments as part of building construction and pretty much forget about it as they go about running their daily business. There is nothing wrong with focusing on your business first, however it should not be done at the expense of safety of your employees and yourself. There is a good reason why fire safety is taught to us from a very young age.
Project management is a must have skill for small business owners as well as managers and executives of large companies. Anyone can dream up new projects without much effort. Only those who can execute those projects stand to succeed in their endeavor. History is rife with examples of projects, large and small, that have either failed or overrun their time and budget because they were not managed well. The managers in charge of these projects did not possess and exhibit necessary skills required to take them to the finish line.
Coupons are dead! Long live the coupons! Some people have argued for some time that coupons have gone out of fashion with today’s customers. No one has time to clip coupons anymore. With the advent of internet and Smartphone customers can just pop up digital discounts at the time of purchase rather than looking for and clipping coupons before hitting the mall. The arrival of Groupon and LivingSocial, where customers can buy great deals (sometimes as much as 50-60% off the price) has dented the use of coupons.
