Startup Tips

Getting your finances in shape is a primary concern of every business owner. If you find yourself struggling to make things work, then I have some financial advice for you:

Save Money

My number one tip is to save money at every opportunity. It doesn’t matter how little you’re saving; it will all add up. Most small businesses will struggle because of their high expenses. You may be making lots of money, but it won’t matter if you’re spending too much. So, review your budget and see if there are any ways you can save money. One super effective way is to outsource some of the jobs in your business. Marketing and HR work requires quite a few employees, so it makes sense to outsource these jobs. It means you’re paying one set fee, rather than monthly payments to numerous employees on your payroll.

Pay Any Debts

Being in debt is never a good thing as it’s like a cloud following you around everywhere. Many business owners are in debt because of their startup costs. The popular choice is to get a business loan when starting your company. You need to pay this back, or you’ll end up in debt forever. The sooner you pay any debt, the better. It leads to you being in a good financial position. You’re ready to start making money without worrying about the overhanging debt.

Restructure Your Company

Sometimes, things take a turn for the worse, and you end up in serious financial bother. Your business finances are in a mess, and something needs to change. In a scenario like this, company restructuring could be your best bet. You need to get some help and take a look at the way your business is run and how you deal with your money. Then, you’re able to see where things are going wrong and why you keep losing money and getting into financial bother. This allows you to restructure your business and do things differently. Hopefully, by changing things around, your company should be set up to enjoy better financial health.

Look For Money Making Opportunities

Obviously, your business is going to have a primary source of income. You’ll sell products/services for consumers to purchase. But, there are ways for you to make more money on the side as well. Primarily, you can do this via advertising. Create a website and then you can have adverts placed on it. There are ad services online that will pay you to have adverts on your site. The more traffic your website gets, the more money you earn. It may not seem like much, but this secondary income can become huge for your finances.

I can’t stress how important it is that your business finances are in check. Being in a comfortable financial position will help to keep your business nice and stable. You want to ensure you’re getting lots of money in, and restricting the amount that leaves. If you do this, you shouldn’t have any problems and your company should be making a profit.

Your working environment has a major bearing on your productivity. You may lack motivation if you work in a run down old office, which is filled with outdated technology and rickety chairs. If you are greeted with bright lights and fancy gadgets designed to make your working day easier, you may be more inspired. If you’re setting up a new business or you’re eager to overhaul your current premises, this guide should help.

Think about location and space

Before you even start looking for suitable premises for your new business, think carefully about location. Do you need to be close to rail or road links? Is there a sustainable workforce in the area? Do you need to think about face to face meetings with clients, representatives or colleagues? Are you are launching a business, which relies on face to face sales? Is there going to be a constant stream of people going in and out? If so, choose a location close to major roads and rail routes. If you’re not reliant on transport links, and you have a very small team, you may wish to avoid urban areas and commuter hotspots to save money.

You’ll also need to think about the space you need. How many employees will you have? What kinds of rooms do you need? Will you need a stock room or a series of meeting rooms? Do you want individual offices, or an open plan set-up? Do you need a data centre? Will you need a reception area? Go through the figures and once you have an idea of square footage, you can start your search.

The design process

You want your workers to feel inspired when they turn up on a Monday morning, so put some thought into the design process. Think about colours, prints and versatility. Create an attractive space, which looks smart and professional. Retain a sense of formality and have more fun in communal areas, such as staff rooms.

Buying high-quality office equipment is essential. Your employees must feel comfortable at their desks. You should also take steps to promote efficiency and modern working styles. Invest in up to date technology and consider the value of innovative office gadgets.

Maintenance

Once your office is up and running, maintenance is vital. Schedule regular safety tests for electrical appliances. Call in the experts to find out more about data centre cooling and air conditioning. Update software programs and ensure staff members have the relevant training. Carry out regular risk assessment and ensure any repair work is completed quickly.

Setting up a new business can be daunting. Finding the perfect office space may be tricky, but once you’re up and running, you’ll never look back. Follow these simple steps to choose the best location and provide your workforce with all the tools they need to succeed. Keep on top of maintenance jobs and try to move with the times. Technology plays an increasingly important role in modern business. Investing in it can help to increase productivity significantly.

The hardest part of starting a business is the initial stage after opening. Things can be slow and you feel nervous wondering if you’ve made a huge mistake. To scupper any negative feelings, you need your business to get off to a flying start. And, here are three tips to ensure this happens:

Create A Business Website

No matter how small your startup is, you can benefit from having a website. I know a lot of people think they’re only necessary for large businesses. That may have been the case back in the day, but now things have changed. It’s easy to create a website and so people expect you to have one. If you don’t, then they won’t think highly of your company at all. Your startup needs to be in tune with current trends, and this is one of them. If you want the best website possible, then I highly suggest you hire professional help. Look for a freelance web designer to help you out and get things up and running. Trust me, you’ll be amazed at how much of an impact a professionally designed site can have on your business.

Generate A Web Presence

So, after you’ve got your website up and running, it’s time to generate a web presence. As it says on the seowidebay website, having a strong online presence leads to more people visiting your site. In turn, this leads to more people being aware of your business and becoming customers. You need to work on getting a good online presence if you want your startup to hit the ground running. Generally speaking, this is something that most startups fail to do. They neglect the need for a web presence, and it can cost them. Don’t make the same mistakes as the rest of the pack, set yourself apart and do things right. Use social media as the driving force behind gaining your online presence. Interact with people online and you’ll soon acquire a reputation that grows and grows. Before you know it, you’ve got a large web presence and your website is flooded with visitors every day.

Create Hype Before Launch

It’s hard for your business to hit the ground running if no one is aware that it’s even opening. Lots of startups won’t start promoting their business until they set everything up and open their doors. However, you’re missing a trick if you do things this way. What you need to do is start creating hype well in advance of your opening date. By doing this, you get people excited and curious about your company. People will be eager for you to open your doors and see what all the hype is about. So, don’t think that your marketing campaigns start when your business opens, think about starting it as early as possible. As soon as you get the go-ahead to start your company and all the legal bits are done, that’s when you start creating hype.

By following these three tips, your startup will open its doors very smoothly. People will be queuing up outside, and there’ll be a real buzz about your business.

If you can sense an aura of slacking within your company’s offices, then it might be time to ramp up the productivity levels within your business. No idea where to begin? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are three simple ways that your business can instantly improve productivity within the workplace.

More Reliable IT Services

Don’t you just hate it when you’re trying to get something done and you end up waiting for your computer to catch up with? Well, so do your employees. Don’t let your team use technology faults as an excuse for work not being done or deadlines not being met. Make sure that your office is full to the brim with technology that you can rely on. Externally managed IT services are a great place to start. A lot of businesses are beginning to outsource their IT for its obvious benefits. Firstly, there is no long the cost of hiring expensive IT specialists in-house. Plus, secondly, all of your problems can be resolved remotely through specialist help over the phone or internet. Companies who provide external IT services often pride themselves on their excellent customer service. Now that your tech is sorted, your employees will be able to produce mountains more work each day.

Set Goals & Targets

Secondly, be sure to set goals and targets for your business. This is important no matter how big or small your enterprise is. It’s of pivotal importance that everybody is working towards the same end goal. This is because it will, ultimately, drive everybody, as a team, to get stuff done. Setting your employees specific goals is a great way to helping them become a better worker, too. Make sure that all of your staff are creating to-do checklists each and every day to ensure that they achieve what they need to by the time the clock hits 5pm. Nobody should be away to wing their way through a professional career. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that your employees are working at their peak productivity level. Setting goals and targets for them is just one way to do that!

Motivate, Encourage & Reward Employees

Finally, be sure to keep your employees motivated. Encouragement is what drives a lot of staff to improve. A lot of people won’t respond well to negative feedback, even in the form of constructive criticism. So, be sure to lay down some encouragement from time to time. Furthermore, it is important to reward your employees when they have done well. If they have met and achieved some of their more ambitious targets that you have set them, then you might want to reward them. This can be done by giving them an extra day’s paid holiday or a small bonus. Little things like that will help motivate employees. This is because they will feel like they’re best positioned to challenge for the next in-house promotion.

Hopefully, you liked these three simple, productivity-boosting methods. They should have shown you how to really get the most out of your employees within the workplace. Let us know below how successful these methods were with your team!

It always happens in business. You meet with a client who you want to sign on the dotted line and seize the services your company is offering. But during that fateful meet, something goes wrong. At some point, they decide they don’t want your business services. They reach the conclusion that your company can not possibly match their needs. What happened? It’s simple; you didn’t wow the client. When you bring a new client into your business, they need to be impressed. They need to leave that meeting, believing that they would be worse off without your services. At the end of the meeting, they should be eagerly grasping for a pen to sign the contract. If they’re not doing this, your business hasn’t been impressive. Here’s how you can change that.

Pick Them Up In The Right Wheels

The first thing you should think about is what they thought of your business as soon as they met you. Perhaps you met up for lunch. We guarantee they will have looked at the car you pulled up in. It should have been impressive, stylish and perhaps a little ostentatious. If you want to ensure that’s always the case when employees meet new clients, you should provide company cars. Have a look at www.visadrive.co.uk to sort out all the documentations you need for your business fleet. Then pick the wheels that will make a client want to use your business. How could they not? You have reached a level of success where your employees are driving that kind of car.

Make Sure Your Office Is Incredible

You should think about your business property. It should be impressive, both inside and out. First, you should add a little glamour to the exterior of the building. You may want to consider doing this by purchasing a beautiful stone sculpture. That’s sure to add a lot of curb appeal to your office. You could also think about adding some new lighting. This will, quite literally, make your office shine.

On the inside, we’d suggest a complete redesign. You can check out that possibility on www.space-pod.co.uk. You need your office to look stylish, keeping up with the times. Again, a touch of ostentation wouldn’t go amiss here with some expensive looking art prints on the walls. Do this and we’re sure you will be shaking hands with that client to secure a deal very soon indeed.

Your Employees Matter

Finally, you’ve got to think about the people working for your business. They need to be impressive as well. Not just how they are but how they look. In business appearance is everything, and it’s not a bad idea to hire attractive workers. Particularly if these are the people who are going to be liaising with clients. We’ve all gone to look at buying a service or product and found ourselves talking to a stunning sale rep. That’s exactly what you need in your business. You need people who make clients want to be a part of your business so that they have a chance to spend more time with these individuals. Check out www.businessnewsdaily.com for tips on hiring the right people.

You should never underestimate the importance of impressing your clients. It might get you the big contract your business needs.  

There is so much to think about when setting up a new startup. However, don’t underestimate how important your office space is going to be to business success. A great office space is one way to avoid startup failure – so be sure to follow these tips! Here’s everything you need to kit out your startup’s office space.

Comfy Chairs

A super supportive chair is going to be vital to your comfort throughout the day. A lot of back problems stem from sitting at a poorly supportive chair for eight hours a day while at work. So, to avoid this for yourself and your employees, be sure to invest a significant amount into the chairs that you use. Although pricey, GT Omega makes some great office chairs. They feature incredible lumbar support that is sure to keep you and your staff comfortable throughout the day. Be sure to look greatly into the office chairs that you will be buying as they are not something that gets replaced very quickly. It is an important decision!

Desks

A good desk can be pricey, and that’s why many startup owners look for affordable new and used office furniture to kit out their offices with. You’ll need something solid, spacious and with plenty of space for a footrest. Many employees like to customize their desks to feel a bit more at home. So giving them the space to do this is vital. Ensure that the desks have drawers, too. This will mean that your staff can store documents, and important items away along with their stationary.

Water Dispenser

A water dispenser is also a must have within the office. Your staff will be concentrating hard all day long, and they will be prone to suffering from migraines if they are not well hydrated. As their boss, it’s your job to keep them comfortable at work. So, instead of relying on them to bring in their own water bottles each day, offer up a water fountain to allow everybody to stay hydrated. These aren’t too much of an expensive outlay, and the pros massively outweigh the cons. So, be sure to pick one up for your startups ultimate office set-up.

Canteen

Keeping your employees hydrated isn’t going to be enough, however. A great canteen that offers both hot and cold meals every day will also keep your staff well fed. Buying lunch from external retail stores can get very expensive for your employees. The chances are that they will begin to get frustrated if nothing is done about it. So, ensure that your startup is quite literally catering for everybody by having a canteen maintained daily. This is quite a hit on the budget, but will enable you to make a slim profit back, too. Canteens are especially worth it if you are planning on growing your startup into a bigger business. This is one of the greatest perks you can offer an employee.

Hopefully, this post has helped you see what crucial gear you’re going to need for your startup’s new office space. Be sure to invest time and money into getting these aspects spot on and you should have a happy workplace to be in. All the best!

Are you starting your own business on a somewhat limited budget? If so, then accounting for the expenses of pricey tech gear is probably at the forefront of your mind. Startups, like your own, are very limited in what resources that they can go out and invest in. Therefore, it’s important that you know what is out there, and what is most beneficial for your company to spend its hard-earned cash on! It’s all part of setting up a successful business. So, check it out below.

4K

Investing in 4K is a no-brainer if your company shoots and outputs a lot of video. If you are a video production startup, then this is simply the only way you’re going to be able to land any clients. 4K is fast becoming the industry standard when it comes to pixel density. So, don’t fall behind the times by continuing to upload your promotional content in 1080p. Standard HD cameras shoot a resolution four times less pixel-dense than that of a 4K one. Therefore, be sure to invest in the latest tech to keep your startup at the top of the game. Cameras, drones, and even some smartphones all come with 4K recording capabilities, too. There’s plenty of ways to get in on the action!

Client Portal Software

Certain software can be the centre-point of any business, and without it, many feel lost. If you invest in client portal software, then you’ll never look back. If your startup deals with multiple clients, then this is a great way to manage all of them from one system, remotely. Client Portal Software is an excellent file sharing and client collaboration solution. It will enable your staff to work on projects on an array of devices with employees from other businesses. This means engagement, customer service and collaboration will be at an all-time high. Your company is bound to get a good name on LinkedIn simply for that! The customer portal is especially useful. Allowing users to view, edit and collaborate on documents with a handy chat feature available in-line with the software, too. This is a sound investment!

Smartphones

Finally, invest in business smartphones for all of your employees. At a startup, the chances are that you’re going to be managing a fairly small team. It is, therefore, vital that everybody is on the same wavelength. Windows Phone smartphones connect seamlessly with Outlook. So, if you organise your business’ contacts, calendars and emails via the Microsoft service, then this may be the platform you look to go for. An Outlook app is available for iOS and Android devices too, though, should you not wish to splash out on new hardware. The benefit of getting everybody sync up is so that there is an increased level of productivity. Nobody will miss a meeting again if their phone is buzzing to tell them that it starts in five minutes time.

Hopefully, this post has advised you on what tech to splash your cash on when it comes to owning a small startup business. These three technological innovations are likely to get you the best value for money. Plus, they’ll improve the professionalism of your business, too.

Every business needs insurance – of that there is no doubt. But, not all insurance policies are the same. In fact, your policy will differ from the next business’s policy because you’re different. The only problem with this is that you need to ensure that you tailor your policy to suit your needs. If you don’t, and something nasty happens, the insurance company won’t pick up the bill. To make sure that doesn’t happen, here are a couple of the areas you need to cover in your policy.

Building Insurance

Most businesses have commercial business premises that they use to run their operation. If you are one of these businesses, you need to insure the building. The premises are open to a variety of threats from theft to water and fire damage. Of course, you can invest in water and fire protection and anti-theft security to limit your exposure. But, you also need a safety net should these precautions fail. If you work from home, make sure this is specified in the agreement. And, make sure you check who is responsible if you rent a property.

Business Content Insurance

Just like home content insurance, this protects you from any theft or damage to your contents. Depending on the type of business you run, you will have a variety of equipment and essentials. Regardless of the size, though, they still need insuring because they’re essential. Without them, your employees can’t do their work, and the business will suffer. When you draw up the terms, don’t sell yourself short with regards to the price. The quote should reflect the replacement price of the items.

Transit Goods

Content insurance doesn’t cover all of your goods. For example, goods in transit don’t come under the same policy unless you have specific cover. For any delivery services reading this, you need to ensure you have transit cover. Otherwise, you will have to bear the brunt of the loss and start over again. There’s a good chance you outsource your delivery service to a professional company. In that case, demand to see their insurance policy so that you know you’re covered in the event of any losses.

Employee Insurance

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your staff is the reason you need specific cover. The dangers in the workplace are varied, and they can sue for the slightest fault. If that happens, you need to know that you won’t have to pay the bill. Damages can be substantial, and one successful lawsuit can destroy everything you have created. Liability insurance protects you against injury, illnesses and diseases in the workplace.

Public Liability Insurance

You also need to protect your business from the public. Can members of the general public walk in and out of your premises? If they can, you’re responsibility for their safety. As long as there are adequate signage and no major hazards, you should be fine. However, public liability insurance will cover the cost if someone does trip and fall.

We all know the challenges and difficulties when it comes to setting up a startup business. It’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s also not wise to tackle the challenge all on your own. While you should definitely seek advice from family and friends, there comes a time when they’re not going to be able to help. When the inevitable happens and you start to struggle, the professionals will be there to assist you.

Most of the time, you’re going to want them to make things easier for you. Running a business doesn’t leave you with much time to spare, so you’ll struggle to get everything done. Having these services in place will help you to manage your work much more effectively. Let’s break down some reasons why you might need professional services as a startup owner.

Managing Your Finances

Finance management is not an easy thing, even if you’ve been running a business for years and years! When you’re just starting out, it can be incredibly overwhelming to tackle this on your own. You might be able to do it for a while, but as you start growing, so will your financial demands. Suddenly, it’s very easy for them to get out of hand. Seeking out professional services to help you with this area will make things much more manageable. They’ll be able to give you tips to make things easier in the long run as well. There are even software packages that can automate your accounting.

Training

Just because you own a business doesn’t mean you’re a whizz at everything to do with it. There’s always going to be something that you’re not very good at. Even if you are, the best business owners are always willing to learn. There are plenty of training courses that you can attend to further your skills. If you’re buying new products like Adeptia Connect, you can also get training and professional assistance. With this, they’ll help you to get a few projects off the ground, or even offer a course for you to take. When you’ve got a lot of new things to think about, having that helping hand is a very welcome thing. Take advantage of all the training materials that you can. They’ll help you to become a better business owner.

Social Media

Stepping into the big, wide world of social media is an overwhelming prospect for some business owners. This is especially true when you’re just starting out. There are plenty of other things to worry about than what the latest post should be on Facebook. That said, social media is incredibly important to many businesses these days. Although you can spend the time doing your research online, you might not have the time to spare. Professional services will help you to maximise your online reach and let you get on with the more important things. You don’t have to stick with this solution forever, but it’s a good way to get you off the ground.

Advice

Sometimes, professional services are simply limited to giving you advice. Starting a business comes with its own challenges, and you want someone that can help you every step of the way. These services will stick with you and assist you when you get stuck. Instead of madly searching the internet for any tips and tricks you can find, you’ll be able to go to the experts. This isn’t something that you’re going to want forever. However, it’s a beneficial idea to seek out as you’re starting out and getting off the ground.

Future Planning

Some businesses think about the here and now, instead of planning for the future. While it’s crucial to think about the present, you could be neglecting your success in years to come. You need to analyse the market and think about how things could change as time goes on. Some professional services will help you with this. They’ll know what to look for and analyze your business for any potential weaknesses. Don’t make the mistake of neglecting your future; you’re setting yourself up for failure by overlooking this area.

Market Research

Knowing your customer base and what strategies to implement is paramount for your company’s success. After all, you can’t be successful without customers. I’m sure you understand about the importance of this sort of thing, but it’s still not easy to understand properly. It takes a lot of time and planning to make sure you’re targeting the right people. Again, you can get the experts to come in and help you with this. They’ll have benefited from years of knowledge in this area. They can pinpoint what sort of audience you need to target, and how you can capture their attention. You might be really good at this already, but if you’re not getting results, it’s time to look at these options.

All-In-One Solutions

There are all-in-one solutions out there that will do everything for you. Whether you’re looking at software packages or a company to come in and manage your business, you can find what you want. If you’re only good at a few areas of business, you can pay people to manage the other bits for you. It’s going to cost you quite a bit of money, but it might help you get off the ground and get established. Alternatively, software and similar solutions can do a range of things for you. From IT to social media, or accounting to customer analysis, all-in-one solutions are a great way to manage effectively. By using one system, your workload will be much less overwhelming to tackle.

Money Loans

If you need to invest a bit more money into your business, you’re going to need to look at taking out loans. Of course, you’ve got to be careful when you’re taking out loans of any kind. Do extensive research about what sort of loans to take and make sure the company is reputable. If you need a little extra to get your business up and running, make sure you can pay it back down the road. You’ll need to do some financial planning to advance to prepare for any potential issues that may crop up.

Employment

You can get help with hiring the right employees. Unless you’re from a recruitment background, it’s unlikely that you’ll know much about it. Why would you?! Of course, you can hire recruitment companies to take care of this for you. While you might think that you can handle it all yourself, you could also end up hiring the wrong people. Everything from having the correct processes to being able to read a person’s character is a necessary requirement. If you fail to do this, you’ll be left with unqualified personnel for the job. Hiring a recruitment company will save you the hassle of advertising and other additional costs as well. You won’t have to spend your valuable time going through CV’s and calling prospective employees to come in for an interview.

When you sink so much money into your startup business, the last thing you want is to start paying more. However, it can really benefit your company in the long run. What you need to do is analyse the needs of your business. Make clever, informed decisions about the purchases you make. There are professional services out there to cover any business needs you desire, from time management to plain old advice. Be careful, be smart and set yourself on the path to greatness!

In many ways starting a business is a lot like a participating in a race. There will be people you need to beat if you want to seize first place. First place on the market means that you will have taken most of the demand and claimed the interest of investors. If you can do this, then your company has a great shot at success. But for that to happen, you need to make sure you’re starting off in the right position. We’ve got some tips on how to do that.

Keep Your Team Small

One of the most important factors of your new company is the team and whether or not you have people on your staff who you can count on. That’s why we recommend you keep the number of people in your company quite small, at least at first. If you do this, you reduce the chances of there being any weak links in your company. You must know that you can count on the people working for you and with you. If you’re running a startup, there should only be four people in your business. Any more than that and it becomes a “too many cooks” scenario.

Cheapen The Deal

It’s important that you figure out ways of reducing the costs in your new business. One possibility that you should certainly consider is to run your business online. If you run your business online, then you can work from home. This saves you the costs of opening an office or renting a space. As well as this, it will allow you to reduce your energy bills. You can get some info on reducing energy costs at actonenergy.org.  Any costs that involve your business at home will also be substituted through taxation.

Marketing Madness

A vital part of your business is the marketing. You need to be participating in the promotion of your business straight away. It’s not enough to just write a few posts on social media. Or, release a few tweets. You need to be as active as possible on every platform. One possibility that is certainly worth considering is attending a tradeshow. If you visit infinityexhibits.com, you’ll be able to find out everything you need to know about making your attendance have an impact. It all starts with the design of your stall. When you attend a tradeshow, you have the massive opportunity of making your company the next big thing.

Give Your Customers What They Want

When your business opens on the market, you’re not going to be the only company providing the product or service that you’re offering. There’s going to be hundreds of other businesses offering the same or a similar product. The question then becomes how do you make sure customers want to buy yours. The answer is perception. Customers need to perceive your product as the one that they want or need. You’ll have to make sure that it stands out and is the one that they take notice of. As you can imagine, a big part of this is how you market the product.

We hope you take this advice on board. Start off in this position and you’ll win the race.

When you run a small business, you will be able to take it in the exact direction you want. That’s the benefit of not having any shareholders. You alone are the sole decision maker. But being in complete control can often make you blinkered, and you can lose track about all your business needs. It’s crucial that this doesn’t happen to you.

One way it’s easy to forget about things is if you are too busy. When you are busy, you forget to notice if anything is lacking in your company. To help you out, we’ve come up with this handy list of five things every small business needs.

Credit Card Machines

No one depends on cash nowadays thanks to the development of credit card technology. In the past, credit cards were only ever used for large, important purchases, but today we can use them even if we are simply buying a coffee. If your business has customers coming in everyday to buy things, make things convenient for them by installing card equipment. Every customer will expect you to take cards. Not having the right device could put people off buying your products or using your services. Don’t have one? Buy a credit card machine for a small business right now.

Social Media Marketing

Don’t forget to keep your company up to date with all the latest IT trends and technologies. Social media marketing is booming at the minute and isn’t showing any sign of slowing down anytime soon. If you are on all the usual social media platforms, you will be opening up your company to a much larger audience. When people interact with you on the likes of Twitter and Facebook, your posts will be spread further. Hopefully, you will go viral so a huge audience will see your content. So, don’t forget to update your content regularly!

Customer Relationship Management

In this day and age, people are extremely likely to voice any complaints they may have online on social media. It is crucial not to ignore these. If you have the money and space, hire a CRM team to manage your business’s reputation. Small businesses are unlikely to have employees dedicated to CRM though. One solution is to get your marketing team to keep an eye on any negative interactions with social media users. Whatever happens, don’t delete negative reviews or comments. This will look like you are trying to cover something up!

Effective Cybersecurity

Very important in the modern world! Make sure all your computers, software and online accounts are thoroughly protected from hackers and online crime. You may think you may not be targeted as you’re just a small company, but there are lots of fraudsters out there trying to make as much free cash as possible! Every couple of months update your antivirus software to ensure it is the latest version. Whenever you create an online account, you need a strong password. Think of a really obscure one that includes letters, numbers and special symbols. This makes them harder to crack!

When you can tick off everything on this list, you’ll know your small business is ready to go to the next level!