9 Bite-Sized Tips For Reviving Your Restaurant Business

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It’s not easy running a restaurant business. Profits can be slim, operating costs high, and you always need to be pushing your restaurant forward. If you stand still for more than a moment, then there’s going to be another restaurant ready and willing to the customers that aren’t quite impressed by what you’re doing anymore. But fear not, because reviving a restaurant that’s become stuck in a rut isn’t as difficult as you might think. Below, we take a look at ten actionable tips that’ll make your restaurant appealing to locals and visitors alike.

Update Your Menu

New restaurants have an instant advantage over ones that have been in business for a few years: everyone knows that they have a brand new menu (because how could they have anything else?). That means every item on their menu has been well-thought out; there’s nothing on there that can yet be “phoned in” by a chef working on autopilot. But you can catch up to the start-up restaurants by reviewing and updating your menu. This will also be good for you, and for your cooks: menus can get pretty boring! Take a walk through your offerings and see what items are tired and should be retired, and which should stay. This also gives you a chance to add some fashionable menu additions, such as vegan and gluten-free options.  

Create One or Two standout Dishes

You can’t make every dish on your menu an above-average offering. You have to think about time, after all! Still, that doesn’t mean that every item on your menu has to be a standard offering. Think about creating one or two standout dishes, for which your restaurant will be famous. When it comes to putting together your new menu, put some extra time into creating something special – this is a fun part of running your own restaurant business. The emphasis should be on a creative dish, made from the best ingredients. If everything works as it should, it’ll be the most popular dish on your menu.

Get a New Look

It doesn’t take long for a restaurant to look a bit dated. The walls can look a bit faded, the toilets aren’t working quite as well as they should, and the cosy atmosphere you created when you opened is now a thing of the past. Updating your look can breathe new life into your establishment, and is actually a good way to get people visiting again; they’ll be thinking “we haven’t been there in a while, let’s go check it out!” Also, keep in mind that the toilets are often indicative of the quality of the place. It’s a bit odd but true!

Redesign the Inside

While your refurbishing your outside and walls, remember that it’s where people are sitting that really counts. If you have booths that have scuff marks, or tables that won’t stay straight without wedging some paper under one of the legs, then it’s time up update your furniture. There’s a wide range of restaurant furniture by Apex available, so take a look and see which type of tables and chairs would best suit your restaurant’s new look. The entire look and feel of your restaurant – not to mention your customer’s comfort – can depend on the quality of your furnishings, so make sure you’re putting a lot of thought into what you buy.

Be a Presence

You’ll have a lot of tasks to take care of as a restaurant owner. However, no matter how busy you are, it’s important that you’re a presence in your restaurant, especially if you’re operating a local joint. People are much more inclined to revisit a space if they know they’re going to receive a friendly greeting from the owner. In any case, running a restaurant is difficult enough, and this is one of the fun parts!

Host Special events

You’ve got a big space, the facilities to cater, and a local population keen to attend events, so why not host one? There’s a lot of scope for hosting special events, such as concert evenings and guest chefs, and there’ll also ensure that plenty of people come through the door.  

Breakfast and Lunch

Not everybody can afford to eat dinner in a restaurant. And when they do go to a restaurant, they typically stick to what they know. You can cater to this market by offering a lunch menu, and a weekend breakfast menu. This is obviously cheaper, but will boost your revenue – and more importantly, will bring a whole new type of customer through the doors.

Improve Staff Training

Your staff play a massive role in the success of your restaurant. It doesn’t matter if the food you serve is outstanding; if the service is terrible, then you’re unlikely to get too many repeat customers. While some restaurant owners think that having the best food is the most important attribute, keep in mind that most restaurant goers aren’t culinary experts; they just want to have a nice meal with their loved ones. If you’ve hired correctly, then your staff will already be pretty good at navigating customer expectations and offer a high level of service. Still, there’s not a waiter or waitress in the world that wouldn’t benefit from receiving some extra training from time to time.

Getting Food Out

If you’ve created a pleasant ambience, offer good drinks, and make your restaurant conducive to conversation, then your customers are likely to give you a little bit of leeway when it comes to waiting for their food. Yet still, there’ll come the point when impatience begins to set in. As such, make sure that, while your emphasis should be on delivering delicious meals, that the waiting time isn’t excessive. The average time from order to food being served is around 25 minutes, so try to keep it within this limit. If the wait time is routinely exceeding forty minutes, then there’s something wrong with your order process.

It’s not easy running a restaurant, but there are ways to help yourself. Take the tips above, and you should notice an improvement.

The Untold Business Benefits Of A Safe Working Environment

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Many entrepreneurs are aware of the laws surrounding safe working environment. Namely; you need to provide on or face potential legal issues. As a result, most businesses strive to make their work environment as safe as possible, purely to fit with the law.

Nevertheless, it may surprise you to know there are actually lots of benefits to creating a safe working environment. It’s not just a legal requirement, it will help your company in many different ways:

Greatly Improves Productivity

Honestly, it’s bizarre how much your business can improve its productivity with a safe working environment. There are no hazards for people to worry about, meaning they can focus on the tasks in front of them. They won’t be distracted, and there will be fewer disruptions too. People won’t have to take time out of their work to try and fix a safety issue, they can just knuckle down and do everything. The entire atmosphere in your business changes and everyone starts working to the peak of their efficiency.

Reduces Employee Turnover Rate

Employees will not enjoy working for a company that doesn’t provide a safe working environment. As such, what would you do if you worked for a business that didn’t take safety seriously? You’d leave and move somewhere else. As a business owner, this is terrible as it means employee turnover rates are high. The consequence of this is more money being spent trying to bring in new staff, and it’s just a massive burden. But, with a safe working environment, you improve employee retention and reduce turnover rates!

Prevents Money Loss From Accidents

It’s common sense that a safe working environment causes fewer accidents in the workplace. It’s also common sense that this is clearly a beneficial thing! Fewer accidents mean your business will lose less money. If you don’t have the right business insurance, then you could spend a lot of money paying compensation after an accident occurs. This could be to customers, employees – you name it. By making your workplace as safe as can be, accidents won’t happen, and there’s no need to spend money paying anyone compensation!

Maintains A Positive Business Image

Imagine your company doesn’t have a safe working environment. What happens to your image? Eventually, word gets around about how dangerous your premises is, and people start to look at your company in a negative light. They hear your employees talk about how bad it is to work for you because there are so many hazards. Furthermore, if accidents happen because your work environment isn’t safe enough, then they could make the news, which further damages your image. When you have a safe working environment, then nothing gets in the way of your positive image, and you maintain it!

It’s clear that a safe working environment benefits your business in so many different ways. Speaking of which, your small business should focus on making your premises as safe as can be. Don’t just meet the bare minimum legal requirements, go above and beyond to provide a great working environment that people feel safe in.

Boosting Business Productivity: Expert Advice For Entrepreneurs

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So, you decided to launch a new business, and now you’re ready to make some serious profits. Well, the best way of achieving that goal is to ensure that your company and employees become as productive as possible. Those without experience might struggle when it comes to that task, and that is why there is some excellent advice and guidance on this page. Take a read through some of the ideas below, and then work out how you can apply them to your operation. We’ll try to keep things as simple as possible to avoid confusion and ensure every reader can benefit from this post.

Automate as much as possible

There are lots of ways in which modern entrepreneurs can automate areas of their operation. Maybe you need to invest in some robotics or something similar to make light work of dealing with your warehouse? Perhaps specialist software that automatically records all your income and outgoings will help you to save time when you need to complete your tax return? Just use some common sense and look for areas in your business where it’s possible to remove human workers and replace them with machines or computers. That will help to ensure you complete orders in the fastest time.

Invest in the latest technology

You’ll find new technology hitting the markets every single week that could assist you in reaching your business goals. That is especially the case when it comes to dealing with your workload and managing your staff. Developers around the world create workload management software that is guaranteed to help you save lots of time and money. Those programs will consider many different factors before advising your team on the best processes to follow in the most suitable order. Again, a software of that nature is sure to help your business become more productive this year.

Offer financial rewards to employees

Sometimes you have to use some psychology to encourage your workers to go the extra mile for your brand. Dangling a financial carrot in front of your employees is often the best way to get them to go above and beyond the call of duty. Let your workers know that you will reward a bonus to the employee who offers the best performance each month. That should help to create an element of competition within your team, and you should notice the benefits and improvements almost immediately. If you don’t want to hand out cash, you can always get some vouchers or family theme park tickets.

Now you know how to boost productivity within your operation, it’s time to start working on your plan for the next twelve months. Make sure you don’t forget any of the advice from this article because it could make a significant difference to the level of profit you create. When all’s said and done, you became involved in the business world because you wanted to make a fortune, right? Then you need to implement some of these ideas before it’s too late. Good luck!

Size, Location, Facilities and Other Office Moving Tips

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There is no doubt that the decision to move to a bigger office space is a difficult one to make. Sure, your business has enjoyed success where it is now, but how will the uprooting everything to go elsewhere affect this? The whole process required in-depth project planning, solid communication skills with everyone involved and a full understanding of your individual business requirements. However, if you get everything right, you will put yourself in the strongest position to upgrade your company to the next level. In this blog post, we are going to be talking you through a few top tips to help you with your office upgrade.

Look at Your Current Infrastructure First

Before you do anything, you need to closely analyse your current office infrastructure. Have you outgrown it or is there still room to expand in-house? There is no point changing location unless you are sure that it will bring positive benefits to your business. It is an expensive and time-consuming process, so you really need to have confidence that you have gotten the most out of your current space.

If you feel like you have, now is the time to analyse your current workplace in detail to see what you rely on to run your business effectively including technologies, processes and stakeholders. You need to ensure that everything is fully transferable to prevent as many delays and drops in productivity levels as possible. Your IT systems may have been designed for your current size and specifications and you need to install entirely new ones in the future.

Choose a Location

Next up, you need to closely consider the location where you will be moving to. Of course, a lot of business is done online these days, so you may consider this to be not as important as it used to be, but there are still plenty of advantages to setting up in a good place. Issues like customer footfall, proximity to suppliers, transport facilities and accessibility for employees are all things which should be firmly on your radar.

Perhaps you are even thinking of having your own business premises built from scratch. This is likely to be a hugely time-consuming and costly process, but the major advantage is that you get everything exactly as you would like it. You may need to employ a professional project planner to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and you may also require some partner organisations and Veris use a variety of methods to perform Underground Service Detection Surveys before you even begin. There is a lot to think about so make sure that you have weighed this decision up in your mind thoroughly before getting started.

Perks of Moving

The whole point of moving office is that you are supposed to be going somewhere which is better than what you have already. As well as preserving the culture which you have built up in the life of your business so far, you will ideally be adding some features that both you are your employees can enjoy. Think bike storage, catering facilities, and access to exercise equipment etc. Perhaps the benefits simply come from where your office is located and the other businesses that are in the local area like cafes, restaurants, grocery stores etc.

Consider the Difference in Size

Just because the new office that you are currently looking at is bigger, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be more accommodating to your business needs. You need to do all your measurements carefully, checking the dimensions of your furniture and other larger items to ensure that it all fits comfortably in the new office. You want to avoid dead space wherever possible. After all, you are paying for every inch and you need to make sure that it is all being used in the best way. The effect that you should be aiming to achieve is a nice balance between emptiness and clutter. When you are showing clients around the place, it doesn’t look great is your office is packed with disused space. Remember, decoration can also be an effective use of space as well.  

Consult with Your Team and Take Their Requests

Obviously, your opinions and ideas as the business owner are hugely important when you are creating your new office. However, it should also be a collaborative process as managers, employees, and even contractors all weigh in on how they would like the extra space used. Perhaps one department is pushing hard for extra desk space because they would like to expand. So, you should try to establish a smooth request management process which involves everyone being able to put their case forwards.

Make Your Moving Timetable

Your office move obviously needs to be carefully coordinated, and one of the best ways of achieving this is by creating a timetable that takes into account every little detail. You want the actual move to be completed over a short period of time – maybe even a weekend to minimise business disruption. However, there is a lot of preparation to make before you can get to this stage. Enlist all the professional support you can get as early as you can including moving companies, IT support technicians etc. When you make the timetable, ensure that everything is followed rigidly as you don’t want the process to be dragged out unnecessarily.  

There is no doubt that upgrading to a bigger office can be a great decision for all kinds of business. Not only are you giving yourself room in which to grow, you are also giving yourself the option to improve your facilities and experience new location benefits. However, this is not something that you should be entering into lightly. To make sure that you enjoy a positive overall experience, you should put in place a strong project plan that takes into account all eventualities and leaves you with a transition that is both smooth and orderly.

Understanding Logistics Is Essential For Every Company

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We’ll start with an easy question. What do we mean by logistics? There are actually a variety of different meanings behind this term. In this case, we’re talking about the activity by commercial organisations of transporting goods to customers. It is crucial that businesses think carefully about this area of the business model for a variety of reasons. Costs, for instance, can be high here which is why there are many businesses that choose to outsource this area of the company and get another business to handle deliveries. Though, there are certainly issues that can arise with this plan. You need to think about speed and efficiency as well. If your logistics services aren’t efficient turnaround for your company is going to be slow. This could lead to customers favouring the competition instead and avoiding your business completely.

So, let’s explore some of these areas and make sure you know how to keep logistics on track in your company.

What About The Warehouse?

The warehouse is where you keep all the stock before it is shipped off to customers and a great warehouse goes a long way to making sure that logistics in your business are top notch. Obviously, if your warehouse is run in an effective way, it will be a lot easier to get things out and on the way to your customers without delay.

Tech could play a big part here, and unsurprisingly, this is not the only area of logistics where a little more tech could benefit your company a lot. Here, we’re talking about cloud servers. With cloud servers, you can complete inventory stock management remotely. That means regardless of where you are, you will know exactly how much stock is left in your company. This is fantastic because it’s not just you that will be able to check this. If it’s on the cloud server, every part of your business will be connected and be able to see how much stock is left. So, for instance, you might have more stock of a certain colored item. If that’s the case, marketing would know to push this color more than the rest. It’s a basic example, but it shows just how important connectivity can be.

Of course, if you want a great warehouse, you need to make sure that it’s easy to manage, move and prepare items. For this, you need the right equipment, and with forklifts for sale online, it’s easy to get this for your company. Though it is certainly an expensive commitment and that’s where you have to think about whether it’s worth handling the logistics of your business yourself. As already mentioned, a lot of companies do outsource, and it is worth exploring this option.

Is Outsourcing Logistics A Smart Move?

By outsourcing logistics, you will be employing a company to handle everything for stock management to deliveries and everything in between. The advantage of this move is that you no longer need to worry about these areas of the company yourself. It takes a significant weight off your shoulders as a business owner. You can also limit the costs if you get the right service, but that’s a big ‘if.’ There’s a strong possibility that you’ll find the service adds a large amount to the overall cost which is of course exactly what you were trying to avoid.

It’s why you need to compare the costs of these types of services because we’re not talking about pocket change here. You could be dealing with massive amounts of money that will ultimately be added to your business budget overall.

There’s also an issue with quality. One of the aspects that you should always consider when outsourcing any area of your company is whether the new business can maintain the same level of quality. If the answer is no, then it’s a serious issue, and this is especially true for outsourcing. If you look at reviews online, a common issue that customers have is with the speed and quality of deliveries. They hate when deliveries arrive late, when packages arrive damaged and when the customer service for the company providing the deliveries is terrible. There are ways around this. You can check whether the company has a positive performance history online and also explore some of their other clients. Check whether the businesses that they provide a service for have a fantastic record for deliveries. If they do, then there should be no issues using that particular company for your own logistics.

Still, it’s important to realize that ultimately whenever you outsource, you are giving away a fraction of the control of your business away. This isn’t always a bad move, but it does mean that you get to make none of the decisions and all of the responsibility or indeed accountability for the outcomes.

Giving Customers What They Want

When you do set up the logistics area of your company, you need to think about what customers want. Ultimately customers want to be in the loop, and they want to know exactly when a product is going to be delivered or when it will arrive. They are eager to ensure that the service is customization so they can choose when a product will be delivered too. This is something you should take into account regardless of whether you are managing your own logistics or not.

Again, tech can help here. With tracking tech, you can make sure that customers are always able to see exactly when a product is going to be delivered and how long it will take. They will even be the first to know if a product is going to be delayed and you can see how this would be beneficial for them.

You may also want to think about setting up an app for your business so that customers can keep a check on their deliveries and orders. Make things easy as possible for customers and they will buy more products. It’s as simple as that.

We hope you find this helpful when dealing with logistics in your company.

The True Cost Of Providing Employee Benefits

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As anyone in the world of business will tell you, one of the most expensive overheads a company can have is the people working for it. In the beginning, these people won’t simply walk into their jobs, and money will need to be spent to find them. This can be very expensive, and a lot of businesses struggle at this early stage. From here, you will have to start paying salaries, taxes, and loads of other little things to make sure that they are safe, secure, and happy in their role. All in all, this will put a lot of pressure on your business, and this is before you even begin to consider the benefits you give them.

In most cases, when you decide to do something nice for your employees, it will often come with loads of little negatives which make it hard to justify. Of course, though, you don’t always get a choice, and providing these things to your employees will be essential if you want to get good work from them. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring the true costs of doing something good for those working for you, while also helping you to make it a little bit cheaper.

Leave/Vacation Time

 

Nowadays, almost every job you will find will come with some sort of vacation allowance which enables employees to take some time out of work each year to spend on themselves. This is designed to help your employees to stay on their toes, while also ensuring that they are happy. It can be very hard to work for an entire year without a proper break. So, to make sure no one is overworked, you will have to work hard to provide this to them.

The main area which makes this expensive is covering the time when important people are away. There will be employees in your company which perform essential roles every day, and will be missed when they are not around. To make sure things go smoothly during their absence, you will need to cover this time, paying other people to take over for the duration of the vacation. Using freelance staff is a great way to do this, and there are loads of agencies out there with the experience to help you.

Along with the money being spent on their replacement, you will also have to think about the money you pay them while they are on holiday. It is standard for people to get at least a portion of their normal working finances during this time. To make sure that you can cover this, it will be worth factoring it in when you’re deciding what you can pay everyone on the team, taking out the extra you will have to pay them while they are on their breaks.

A Company Car

 

Jobs which come with cars are often some of the most popular you will find on recruitment sites. This sort of benefit isn’t to be sniffed at, and it can give someone a lot of freedom without having to pay the price. Of course, though, when the employee doesn’t have to pay for something, it will mean that you’re covering the costs, and you will need to consider a couple of different areas when you’re doing this.

The first will be the car itself. In most cases, you will handle this on a lease agreement, instead of buying the car to give to your employee. This will already make things a little cheaper, while also giving you upgrades as they come out. Of course, though, it won’t be cheap, and the contract you will have to sign could last for a couple of years. This makes it very important that you only give this to people who are very serious about the prospect of working for you into the future.

Along with paying for the car itself, you will also have some other areas to think about. Insurance will be one of the biggest, as you will need something special for this sort of arrangement, sparking the need for some research. A lot of employers will also want to get the help of a lawyer like https://www.robinettelaw.com/west-virginia/morgantown-car-accident-injury-attorney/, just in case they ever need to cover an accident caused by their workers. While this isn’t essential, it can provide you with a great line of defense when you’re working on a company car.

Breaks And Their Environment

 

Over the last couple of decades, it has become increasingly popular for modern workplaces to take on elements of comfort which have never been seen before. Stocked drinks fridges, lounge areas, and entertainment can all improve your employee’s breaks by a huge margin, as covered by http://www.health.com/home/workday-breaks-help-employees-reboot-researchers-say. Along with this, longer and more frequent breaks are becoming standard throughout the world of work. Of course, while these things are good for employees, they can cost the business a huge amount.

While having good breaks will always improve their work, it also has the chance to distract your employees. If they have too much time for playing games during their work day, it will be impossible to switch to work mode, and you could lose a huge amount of money thanks to poor productivity. There is a fine line to walk when you’re trying to achieve the goals in the paragraph above. To help you out with this, there are loads of blogs around the web covering modern offices and workspaces, giving you the chance to see what has worked for others.

With all of this in mind, it should start to get a lot easier to assess the costs of providing benefits to your employees. As time goes on, more and more jobs are coming with perks which can’t be ignored by those looking for work. With the best people going to the companies offering the most, this sort of investment could have a huge positive impact on your business. Of course, though, you will need to do some research to make it work.

Go Japanese Or Go Home

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Japan is a popular destination for tourists. In fact, a small island in Japan has even been named the most popular travel destination in 2018. Needless to say, the island nation is becoming an attractive area, both regarding culture and landscape. The global public has fallen in love with the kawaii characters and the healthy sushi – even though most people continue to refer to all the Japanese cuisine in terms of sushi – and more and more tourists plan their holiday in the island where the sun rises first. But aside from being an exciting vacation destination, Japan is also a fantastic place to start building your business empire. With its mixture of reliability, innovativeness, cultural differences and growing markets, Japan has everything you need to grow your startup safely and durably. So what’s stopping you from going Japanese and making a success of it? Here are the key lessons you need to learn before approaching the Japanese market.

They love apps in Japan

Japan is by far one of the most modern countries in the world. As a result, it’s also the country where apps are the most popular, and especially gaming apps. In fact, despite its small size, Japan is the first country in terms of consumption of gaming app, enabling developers and app companies to profit significantly from monetizing their application to the Japanese market. Japanese users are more likely to use in-app purchases, creating an average revenue per download of $6.34, opposed to the cost per install of $1.86. So, if you’re considering the internationalization of your business, you need to give your app Japanese exposure to approach this profitable market. From a practical point of view, you should offer a Japanese version of all play apps, as it’s the best way to grow your revenues effectively. Lifestyle and networking apps are also big in Japan, as the market reacts positively to the western culture. For businesses, it’s a simple enough tech alternative to testing a new market without a high budget involvement.

You can trust Japanese engineering for your business

Japanese engineering is received positively all around the world. In fact, when it comes to everyday items, more and more users turn to Japanese manufacturers for replacement parts to fix their IT devices. Last year, Murata Manufacturing, a Japanese manufacturer, announced that their parts still support Apple’s technological leaps forwards with the iPhone X. Another common everyday item that benefits from the Japanese engineering quality is your car. Japanese cars have a reputation for being extremely reliable, more than American or even German cars. Automakers such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota, have long proven their worth, and even though you could apply for a Nissan extended warranty plan, you probably know that it’s likely you’ll never need it. The natural effort that Japanese manufacturers put in design and research pays off so that pieces last longer and don’t need to be often replaced. Working with a Japanese partner in any part of a manufacturing project is a profitable choice.  

An intensely innovative and playful country

Every year, CEATEC opens its door to the largest electronics show in Japan. And every year the nation that has invented the Walkman and the blue LED light continues to fascinate visitors with their innovative approach to electronics. Last year, CEATEC introduced a Bluetooth bitescan, designed to measure your chewing strokes. The purpose? Helping people to eat healthily by maximizing their chewing habits, and ultimately collecting data to improve the food and dental industries. Japan has also brought a new identifiable print to the market, the earprint, which is much more difficult to fake than a fingerprint. Finally, for those trying to lose weight, an infrared calorie counter can help you to know how much you’re really consuming in a meal. What would you give to share these innovations with your audience?

The joy of Japanese partnerships

Admittedly, if you already have a business outside of Japan, you may only be looking for a partner to expand your activities on the island of the rising sun. You might as well gain new insights into business management and performance management by developing a close connecting with a Japanese firm. Indeed, management in Japan doesn’t start in the office. Management is designed by people for people, and it has a clear purpose: To help you to make the most of your knowledge and expertise in your life. As Japanese has a deep understanding of the value of each individual, they, therefore, ensure that business management delivers individual value to each employee.

Who is the Japanese customer?

If you’re looking to understand the Japanese customer, it’s important to understand that while the market is different, most consumers are learning lessons from their European and American counterparts. Discounted prices and online retailers have now become a popular behavior in Japan too. In other words, you might want to remember the lessons learned on the Western market regarding best value for money items, as you will be using these to enter the Japanese market. The typical Japanese household spends more time at home than going out, and they choose lunch boxes over lunch offers. In short, if you want to export, you need to deliver exceptional value.

What does the market want?

However, you’d be pleased to know that exporting onto the Japanese market can be easy. Indeed, you are dealing with an audience who is attracted to Western products. Surprisingly, while American and European customers love the cuteness of kawaii items, their Japanese neighbors find our Snoopy, Smurf, Bart Simpson and Barbapapa just as cute and desirable. In fact, you could almost say that Western characters have a kawaii reputation in Japan, among children and adults. Lifestyle items, from fashion to beauty products, are especially sought for, as Japanese customers long for Western life and overseas trips. However, you will need to ensure that your export items don’t go against some of the trade barriers. There are indeed specific rules and regulations to comply with if you want to export, so it’s important to work closely with your local Department of Commerce and to link with Japanese offices.

In conclusion, there is a lot of potential for startups and existing businesses to turn to the Japanese market for growth and partnership. Innovativeness, creativity, playfulness, management skills, and new kawaii culture, there is a lot to gain from building a business relationship with Japan.

Setting Up Your Catering Business in the 21st Century: Seven Things to Consider

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If you are thinking about starting your catering business and would like to support events in your local areas, you will have to face a huge competition. The good news is that what you don’t have in experience and reputation you can make up for by staying unique and catering for specialist markets. By staying flexible, listening to your clients, and building positive relationships, you can make it in the industry. Below you will find a list of things you should consider before you get started.

1. Check the Current Food Hygiene Regulations

Whether you would like to make your own food items freshly, or order it from a supplier, you need to study the current food hygiene regulations, health and safety, and industry standards in the area you are setting up your business. You will need to build a sustainable business that complies with all the legislation and focuses on customer safety. If you need specialist equipment to run your business, or need to keep certain items at a level temperature, you might have to invest more in the beginning.

2. Evaluate Suppliers

You need to make sure that all your business partners are able to meet the industry standards and can show you their working practices. If you don’t know how the food you serve at events is produced, you cannot guarantee the quality. Check the reputation of your potential supplier, and interview different companies before you choose them as your partner. You want a reliable supplier with a proven track record to make sure they don’t let you down at the worst possible time.

3. Traceable Food

It is also important in the 21st century that your food is traceable, and doesn’t have a huge carbon footprint. If you have corporate clients that pledged to make their supply chains cleaner and greener, they will not appreciate your salmon dishes that traveled thousand of miles. Likewise, an increasing number of Millennials are concerned about the carbon footprint of their food, so if you focus on catering for weddings, you might be asked the question.

4. Ethical Consideration

Employee relations within your company are important if you would like to build a strong brand with a great reputation. You are likely to work with temporary workers and women, in particular, therefore, you need to talk to an HR professional about your options. Make sure your employees get adequate time off and breaks when needed, and make health and safety one of your top priorities.

5. Waste Management

When dealing with food and leftovers, it is important that you create a detailed food waste management plan. From donating to charities on the day to disposing of the wrapping ethically, there are several things you must pay attention to, if you would like to pass inspections with flying colors and avoid fines.

6. Catering for People with Special Diets

Today, an increasing number of people choose a special diet. Others have developed milk, gluten, wheat, or nut intolerance. You are likely to come across some customers with special dietary needs. Try to find alternative ingredients to make sure that everyone is able to enjoy the food served. Check out Global Foods UK – Wholesale Date Paste Supplier For The Food Industry to find out how you can create cakes without flour, using date paste. You can offer gluten free, dairy free, and vegetarian options on demand, depending on the size of the event.

7. Finding Your Unique Selling Point

In the event management business, added value matters a lot. You need to check what your competition is offering, and provide something more, better, or cheaper. Before you start building your brand, it is necessary to search for your unique selling point, so you can stand out from the crowd. Whether you would like to cater for a small group, or specialize in corporate events, you need to give your potential customers a good enough reason to choose you and not another company.

Whether you would like to team up with wedding planners and offer special menus for the big day, or start small with corporate events and meetings, you will need to create a sustainable plan to stay competitive on the market in the 21st century. A catering business is highly regulated, as it deals with food and perishable items. Research the regulations, your market, your competition, and develop a business strategy that is built on your unique selling points. To win the game, you need to listen to your customers, meet their individual needs, and offer more value than the competition.

Getting Your Marketing Right First Time Around

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When you establish your own small business, there’s an awful lot to bear in mind and a seemingly never-ending list of tasks that you’re going to have to carry out in order to get things up off the ground and running. But even once you’ve achieved this, the hard work isn’t over. In fact, you could say that it’s only just begun, as now you have to ensure that the consumer market is aware of the products and services that you have on offer and want to purchase them, thus making you a healthy profit and keeping your business out of the red and in the black. One area that you really need to focus on is marketing. But what actually does this entail? Well, marketing is essentially the practice of encouraging consumers to purchase your products over a competitor’s. While this may sound simple, consumers are relatively complex individuals and not only do you have to make them aware of your product in the first place in order to start convincing them that it’s something that they need, but you have to be very careful about how you go about encouraging them to purchase your products. Nobody wants to feel pushed into a purchase, but at the same time, if you lie back and do nothing, they’re likely to run straight into your competitors’ arms. You’re going to have to do a whole lot of market research in order to fully understand what your target audience wants and how they want it presented to them. You also want to ensure that you get the whole marketing process right the first time around. It can often prove to be a pretty costly business, and you want to get it spot on so that revenue from sales encouraged by it can easily cover the investment you’ve put into your marketing campaigns. So, to get you started on the right foot, here are a few marketing ideas that you might like to try out for your small business!

Search Engine Marketing

Nowadays increasing numbers of business people are taking their companies online. Whether this means starting up as an online-only business, making the move from brick and mortar business to an online-only business, or operating online at the same time as running a brick and mortar company. There are various reasons for this. Operating online means that you open your products and services up to a worldwide audience. Near enough anyone with an internet connection anywhere in the world can access your page, browse your products and (if you offer international shipping) start making purchases. It also means that you are open for business around the clock. While a standard store requires constant supervision during opening hours and will generally operate between nine in the morning and five in the evening, web users can use your webpage at any time of the day or night, making orders around the clock. But if you’ve put a whole lot of work into developing a website, you can’t automatically expect that people will find their way to it. In fact, many business owners don’t thoroughly consider how they’re going to direct traffic to their page and end up feeling disappointed when they have few hits when they launch their site. The answer to your problems in regards to this is search engine marketing. Think about it. If you’re personally looking for products online, how do you find them? You input keywords into a search engine and generally opt for one of the first options that appear. Search engine marketing, or SEM, uses various specialist techniques such as keywords, tracking, landing pages, creative marketing, reporting, and management to ensure that as much traffic is directed to your page through search engines as possible. The most important and solid strategy for SEM tends to be a strong keyword strategy, so let’s focus on that one aspect for now. You should collaborate with SEM professionals to use professional keyword search tools combined with their own years of experience to find the best keywords that you should use in your webpage to drive traffic in your direction. They will set up broad keywords, phrases, or exact keywords matched with negative keywords in order to balance volume and quantity as well as targeting specific countries or devices.

Social Media Marketing

Nowadays, almost everyone with a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer has social media profiles set up and these numbers are constantly increasing. Just look at published figures pertaining to social media usage. Facebook has over one billion active profiles,  Instagram is used by at least one hundred million individuals every single month, and Twitter has an average of three hundred and thirty million users online every month too! These are the three main social media powerhouses that you need to focus on. While many people may well think that social media is solely for personal use, it should be noted that having a large social media presence and following can be extremely beneficial for your small business. In order for your company and its products to be on show to as many people online as possible, you should place them in areas where large numbers of people are directing their attention. In this case, focus on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! Now, these platforms are designed to be user-friendly and extremely simple to use, as they are designed for ordinary members of the public who may not have extensive technological knowledge. This means that you can generally set them up alone without having to reach out for professional help. Simply set up new profiles on each of these platforms under the name of your brand. Most social media platforms now have options for business pages, so make use of these when they are available, as they have special features such as spaces to include business profiles, contact addresses, and store locators. Hopefully, your brand name will be free for a username, but if not remember that you can always incorporate dashes, underscores, or numbers into your username, so don’t be afraid to mix things up a little. Upload your branded logo as the page’s profile picture, write a short bio, and you’re ready to start posting. A good approach when it comes to fuelling your site with content is to reuse many of the product photographs and feature photographs from your website. You can’t expect to gain masses of followers straight away, so consider sponsoring posts. They will then be appear in more people’s feeds than just those who follow you. Thanks to the types of targeted advertising that many social media platforms use, your money should go far, as your ads will appear on the feeds of people who are already showing an active interest in the products you’re selling and competitor brands.

In-Person Marketing Campaigns

While these previous techniques may have a potentially wider reach, as they are based online and can be shared to people all around the world, sometimes the internet just doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to getting people to engage with your brand. Sure, it can raise brand awareness, but nobody gets to interact directly with your company or its products before handing over cash and committing to a sale. This can often put people off and is a big reason as to why brick and mortar commerce is still thriving despite the fact that E-commerce can generally offer goods at a lower price and comes hand in hand with the convenience of ordering from the comfort of your own home and having items delivered to the comfort of your own home at the click of a button. But you don’t need to leave in-person interaction to real life retail in commercial properties alone. You can engage in tangible marketing campaigns too. There are various ways to go about this, but nine times out of ten you will be most successful with any of these types of campaigns if you collaborate with promotional agencies. These are agencies who have hundreds or even thousands of promotional staff in their books who can be booked to carry out any of the following types of work: sampling (so potential customers can try your products out and get an idea of what they’re all about), demonstrating (so potential customers can see how products work), and data capture (this will involve entering customers into a competition of sorts in exchange for their contact details so you can contact them with future advertising and marketing campaigns).

These are just three types of marketing that you might want to engage with, but they are three of the most effective methods that are more likely to gather success first time round. Sure, you can try some more alternative and out-there approaches, but save these as side projects and make sure you get your product out there with these bread and butter marketing techniques. Then if your more daring pursuits succeed, they’re merely a bonus! Get started as soon as possible!

Calling All Call Center Bosses…Here Are 5 Habits of Success

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If your business involves managing a call center, this can be a very challenging environment to manage. Your job revolves around keeping your agents properly motivated while also ensuring that they hit the goals and deadlines that you lay out for them. In this article, we will be discussing the habits that you can adopt to ensure that you stand out from the crowd and lead your team to success.

Communicate with Your Agents

Your agents are the ones who are at the forefront of your business, so it is vital that you keep them on side with effective communication. Listen to them and they will tell you what your clients think is most important, as well as their common causes of complaint. This way, you will be better placed to improve your current processes and practices, and you will also make sure that your agents feel listened to and that they play an important role in the success of your company.

Keep Up with Call Center Technology

Technological advances continue coming thick and fast, and you need to ensure that your business is at the forefront of embracing these changes. There is so much great field service software out there that can improve your business practices and efficiency levels. Ultimately, you need to keep a competitive advantage over your nearest rivals, and technology is one of the ways that you can stay one step ahead of the curve.

Retain Your Agents

There is no doubt that agent retention is one of the biggest challenges facing every call center manager. Call centers are renowned as being difficult places to work, so when you have high-quality agents, you need to keep hold of them in any way that you can. Try to implement agent engagement programs and reward systems which are designed to help do this, as well as encouraging them to do better in customer service.

Put Yourself in Your Agent’s Shoes

How often do you pick up a headset yourself to see what it is like acting as an agent? If the answer is a long time ago or never, the time has come to give it a go. You will get a much better idea of the challenges that your agents face on a regular basis, and this may even lead to you refining and updating your strategic thinking and approach. You may also help to gain the respect and appreciation of your team.

Provide Regular Training Sessions

Continual improvement is one of the hallmarks of a great call center, so provide the training sessions that your staff need to improve and develop their skills. Demonstrate how things should be done and what you would like to be changed, as well as the reasons why.

Getting into these five habits should give you the basics that you need to manage a call center successfully. Ultimately, you need to keep your agents on side, improve your processes and embrace the latest technology.

3 Great Ways to Grow Your Small Business’ Instagram Followers

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With over 800 million monthly active users, it’s becoming more and more evident that Instagram is an essential tool in a marketer’s toolkit. If not too long ago, businesses dismissed the social platform as just a passing trend, now they are beginning to realize the power the network holds. In fact, reports show that Instagram has the highest engagement rates among all social networks. And, it makes sense if you think about it: highly visual and entertaining and with massive potential for growth, Instagram can drive conversions for a small business.

The question is: how do you get there? How can a small business gain Instagram followers that it could nurture into buyers?

Here are some ideas that might help.

Learn How to Use Hashtags Correctly

Hashtags seem to be all-powerful. They can help you attract followers, increase engagement, generate more likes and make it easier for prospects to find the information that interests them. There’s just one twist, though: you need to know how to use them correctly and leverage their power.

Here’s the thing: even though hashtags offer many benefits, they won’t help you if they are not relevant to your business. Think about your target audience, their needs, and how your products or services can help them. If you’re a physical therapy clinic, for instance, then it would be better to use hashtags that add value to your PT business, such as #physicaltherapy, #getPT, or #paincontrol rather than generic ones like #health or #blessed.

Create a Theme

Here’s a fun fact: the human brain can process information about 60,000 times faster than text. That’s one of the reasons Instagram is one of the most engaging social media platforms out there.

It’s also why it can help you reach your business purposes and scale your revenue. So, why not leverage Instagram’s highly visual nature and create a profile that is sure to stand out and increase your following.

For instance, you could create a theme and automatically boost your profile’s image and engagement rates. Make sure to be consistent with your photos if you want to achieve an aesthetic effect. Use the same filters when you edit your photos, pick a color to set the tone of your grid and don’t forget about framing your pictures correctly.

Post Exclusive Sneak Peak Pictures

Another thing that made Instagram such a powerhouse is that it allows users to share snaps from their lives and create an authentic connection with their followers. Sure, those perfectly lit images that you are posting are an excellent way to showcase your professionalism and trustworthiness. But, don’t ignore the human component of this network and focus on building an actual relationship with your followers.

The best way to do that is by sharing “behind the scenes” photos that let prospects take a sneak peek into how your business functions. Use the story feature to post exclusive content and create an emotional connection with your audience. Let them know how you celebrate an employee’s birthday, how you overcome a difficult day, and so on.

Conclusion

With one in three small businesses on Instagram saying that the platform helped them increase sales, it’s evident that you can’t ignore the network anymore. Use the tips above to fuel your company and drive more followers and engagement to your profile.

If You’re Not Doing This, You’re Not Doing Business

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Just like the CEO’s and entrepreneurs of companies, small or large, no two businesses are alike. Many business owners spend their careers trying to better their companies, with no real lasting success.

Running a business is a challenging task that many entrepreneurs find they aren’t cut out for in the long run. However, what separates the unsuccessful startups from the businesses that actually make it is the secret so many of us struggle to find.

Knowing What’s Best for Business

Far too often, businesses end up closing their doors after spending years hoping for their big break, realizing that that day will never come. When considering the vast history of successful businesses, there are a few key things that all of these companies have had in common. Here are some tips to lead your business to the success it deserves:

Fostering a Fearless Attitude

The reason so many people admire entrepreneurs for stepping out and starting their own businesses is the reality of the risk that goes into getting one’s own company off the ground. As many businesses fail within their first year, simply choosing to go out on one’s own requires a huge amount of resolution.

To run any business successfully, one has to be fearless. Many people settle for the security of a consistent paycheck, rather than going the route of the “self employed” business owner simply because, taking that large of a financial risk is too strenuous. Anybody can dream of owning their own company and being their own boss, but at the end of the day, it takes someone with an incredible amount of courage, and willingness to succeed, to start their own company.

Properly Managing Money

Having a working understanding of money management is non negotiable for business owners, almost as much as having capital. If you’re business is surviving with little to no capital, you won’t be in business for very long. While everyone loves the tale of the company that was built on nothing but a dream, the reality is that it takes money to turn a dream into a thriving company.

Businesses that have already experienced a certain level of success end up facing financial troubles as they try to expand their company. Oftentimes, the companies that are growing fail to properly keep track of their finances, mismanage their funds, or experience a sudden loss in revenue.

Investing in Leadership

Business owners that fail to invest in leadership training are doing themselves a disservice. The development of these types of skills is imperative in the workplace, as well as life. For a business to continue to do well, companies need to ensure that training employees and team members to be competent leaders is a top priority.

Additionally, companies that continue to succeed understand what makes a successful leader in their business. Oftentimes, businesses that have begun as startups by entrepreneurs end up hiring more experienced leaders to fill the roles of CEO and the like. Companies like these recognize the true value of having proper leadership in a company.

Mastering Time Management

We all get the same 24 hours in a day. Being able to keep a business running requires entrepreneurs and their team to bring several different projects to completion at once. Understanding how to properly manage the hours we do have is what separates the successful businesses from companies that fail.

Companies that struggle with time management don’t stand a chance in the long run. To combat issues with time management, companies can utilize the services of time management software. This kind of technology will allow employees and employers to focus on maintaining tighter deadlines, use time more efficiently, and communicate across departments easily. With better time management skills, businesses can tackle more projects and experience a significant amount of growth.

Keeping Up With Technology

Businesses that fail to keep up with the ever-changing trends in tech are not doing business well. In today’s business world, automation is king. Throughout every industry, companies are employing the likes of automation software to handle their daily routines. This type of tech will increase productivity by automating simple processes like issuing invoices, managing the payroll, and analyzing financial data.

With technology such as inventory software, project management software, and e-invoicing software, companies can utilize their employees’ skill sets in more efficient ways. As the software takes over more mundane tasks, workers can be trained to take on a more diverse workload, allowing the company to focus more on consumer engagement.

Do What’s Best for Your Company

Every business owner has their own way of running their company. However, keeping abreast of what’s best for a business will help employers and employees, regardless of the industry. Making it a point to maintain the right attitude, properly manage money, invest in strong leaders, master time management, and keep up with technology will ensure that your business is on the path to success.

Cash-in With a Construction Business

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As a professional builder or tradesperson who has been in the industry for years, it’s probably crossed your mind at one time or another to set up your own business. Instead of working for someone else, you can cut out the middleman and be the boss. You get to call the shots and do things your way, and as you’ve already spent year in the industry you have the skills and experience- maybe even contacts already that you need to make the venture a success. However it’s not all plain sailing, construction businesses are some of the most difficult industries to get established in, and there are some significant drawbacks that can make it tricky for startups. However there are some incredible benefits too, and if you’re able to make it a success you have the opportunity to earn a significant profit. Here are a few things to bear in  mind if you plan on going in this direction.

Start-Up Costs

One of the reasons starting up a construction business is so difficult is because of the high startup costs. Things like machines and construction vehicles like diggers and cherry pickers don’t come cheap. You need power tools, materials and much more and that’s just for starters. One option would be to finance the cost of these things, or you could hire instead of buying. Another thing you could do is look online and at auctions. Often companies sell off machines, vehicles and equipment when they upgrade or if they go out of business meaning you can snap up a great deal. Taking on a business partner, or even finding an investor could be ways to raise the money you need to get started. They would give you a cash injection in return for a share of your company. Investors often act as mentors too, and could provide you with invaluable advice needed to make your company a success.

Earning Potential

The bottom line is always going to be profit when it comes to business. Your success all boils down to how much you earn after balancing all of the various elements of your business.

You need to source the materials, employ staff, deal with marketing, transportation costs and much more- and still make a healthy return from each job you do. So when you’re looking to set up a company, choosing a type of business that’s known for doing well is a smart move. Of course, much depends on you and how much of a success you can make it, but some businesses do tend to earn bigger profits than others. One of the reasons it’s so beneficial to start a business in the construction industry is because of the high earning potential. They can cost a lot to start up with high overhead costs. However, they have the potential to earn a lot of money. This comes down to the fact that projects that involve building work are generally larger and more expensive. Having a conservatory built, a kitchen fitted or an internal wall removed or built, for example, is going to always cost a good chunk of money. They’re the kind of thing that customers spend a lot of money saving for to get done. Other businesses that usually tackle smaller projects mean it’s easier for work to dry up. They need lots of customers, whereas you don’t. You have fewer customers but do bigger jobs that earn more money. However there are some downsides here, one being that a lot of building work can only take place in fair weather. Bricklaying and anything to do with electrical, for example, can’t be done in the rain, and so losing days to bad weather is common in this industry. However, if you’re smart about it you can time projects well, for example if you are putting up a large builder, you could ensure the outer work is done before the wet and cold weather of the year starts to kick in. That way you’re inside a structure and everything else can be completed regardless of the weather.

Health and Safety

Workplace safety can be a minefield with any job. Even in seemingly safe workplaces such as offices and shops, there are slips, trips and falls that can land a business owner with a lawsuit. Health and safety always needs to be taken seriously but in companies in the construction industry there are extra considerations to bear in mind. When you’re working with vehicles, machines, power tools and heights, there are lots of added risks. Make sure suitable clothing is worn by anyone on site, steel toe cap boots, a hard hat and a high visibility vest are examples. In some cases, eye and ear protection will need to be used as well depending on the equipment and type of job being worked on. You need to make sure all of your workers have the correct health and safety certification, if you’re in the US this could be the americansafetycouncil.com/content/OSHA-card. In the UK, it would be a CSCS card. You should ensure that employees have proper training and qualifications to use the machines and vehicles too.

Is It Futureproof?

When you set up any business, it’s a good idea to ask yourself whether the idea is futureproof. After all, you don’t want to end up out of business in a few years where your entire concept was made obsolete. When it comes to construction and building work, it’s fair to say that it’s always going to be in demand. Both commercial and residential clients will always want buildings erected, extensions, layout changes and more. The only thing to be aware of is dips in the market. Take the recession for example, this lead to a net loss of over two million jobs in ten years. However, this is an extreme example and not something that’s likely to happen very often. Right now, the construction industry is thriving and business is booming in this area making it a great place to consider setting up.

Considering Starting Your Own Charity? Here’s How

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Many of us can get toa time in our lives where we have a situation we are faced with that changes us. It might be an illness, something you go through as a family, or a loss of someone too soon. Often that can give you the sense of determination to raise awareness for a subject, and this is how so many charities and amazing things are started from. You might be in this situation right now, maybe you feel like you want to have a voice. I thought I would share with you some of the steps you can take to start your own message and charity.

Know your vision and intention

One of the first things you need to think about would be to think about what your vision for the charity is, and your intention and long term goals about what you want to achieve. Knowing how you want to raise awareness, what message you want people to hear, and even how you might go about it is a great way to ensure you do things justice, if only for yourself.

You need a name

The next thing you might want to start thinking about would be the name of your charity. Perhaps you want to use your very motivation for starting the charity as a point to begin creating the name. Name itself can be a great thing to consider. People like to know what the charity is about, or who it is aid of perhaps, so if you do have a motivation that stems from someone perhaps using their name would be the ideal way to celebrate them.

Think of ways for contributions

There are so many ways people could donate, so you need to decide what areas you want to be associated with. There are just giving pages and even things like global faces direct monthly giving programs for non profits that could be worth looking into. You may also want to think of organised sponsorships where people do certain things for the charity. These can be small things or stem to bigger adventures such as climbing mountains. The world is your oyster for your charity and you just need to decide how far you want to go.

Write a plan

Part of your plan may have already formed in your head. You could have considered your visions and what is driving you to make a difference, your message and even how you want people to be able to get involved. But you also need to treat this in a business like manner and this is when a plan can be put into place to get things moving.

Create a website and register where needed

Finally, you can start by creating your website and social media platforms, which is a great way to get your message heard. However, you do also need to think about how you register your charity to be official and for non profit.

I hope that this has inspired you to take the right steps to creating your charity and to get your message heard.