Eventually, there will come a time when your small business reaches the limit of what it can do without growing. Small businesses and their growth are an important part of the economy – Forbes reports that they make up more than 65 percent of the net new jobs created since 1995 and that more than half the working population works at a small business.
If you think your business needs to expand, watch for some of these common signs:
You’re Getting Outpaced
One of the indicators that it is time for your business to expand is when the demand for you product or service begins to outpace your ability to supply it.…
It’s perhaps natural for smaller and even medium-sized businesses to assume that domestic customers should be the priority. It’s less hassle, and your product or service will appeal less to the foreign market, right? Actually, no.
Government’s Blessing
According to UK Trade & Investment’s report, exporting companies are more productive, have stronger financial performance and a greater chance of staying in business. Other benefits include increased confidence and higher efficiency rates.
Companies surveyed also reported that exporting was the catalyst to new product and service ideas.…
Offering a decent salary is most certainly enough to get some of the top millennial candidates through the door… but is it enough to keep them? Sure, the “almighty dollar” can be a great incentive and is definitely one of the reasons that we go to work each day, but as the cost of living goes up, the company budget tightens, and raises become far and few in between, money is no longer the motive.
In order to run a successful company, equipped with a great staff, business managers and execs must be willing to think outside of the box to maintain employee satisfaction.…
The Christmas season is finally here and consumer behavior is now adhering to the holiday spirit. Is your small business ready to attract more holiday shoppers and tackle this not-to-be-missed, lucrative period?
Make sure you’ve got to all the things in the list and get ready to get the sales rolling in. Read on and see if you’ve got everything to help your small business along in all the hustle and bustle of the holidays.
1. Develop a contemplative strategy for the holidays
Planning your seasonal strategy should start early on, so chances are you’ve got this checked already.…
So, what is ‘house flipping’? Simply, house flipping is when a home is bought by an investor with the intention of being sold at a later date for a substantial profit. Usually, these homes are bought at auction as they can be purchased cheaper, but this isn’t always the case. So, if you can buy cheap with the ability to sell high not too far down the line; then is it a good, low risk investment? This blog post aims to find out.…
If you’ve been following the news recently, you might have seen how Sainsbury’s accidentally made its plans to try to drive 50p from every customer public. Although there was a significant customer backlash to the public incentive to Sainsbury’s staff to ensure every customer walks out of the store 50p worse off, the reality of retail is that the shop is there to generate income, and maximising that amount of income is an essential part of the job.
Ultimately, what this means to you is that if you work in a retail environment, you have a range of strategies that help you maximise the profit of your business.…
Today’s HR directors are operating in an environment of change and interesting opportunities. The role of these teams are changing, particularly within in-house organisations. Originally, personnel teams were focused heavily on the administrative requirements of managing staff according to processes and legal requirements, dealing with pay and benefits, sickness and absence reporting, development and training opportunities, issues resolution, hiring and firing and other ‘business as usual’ activities, often at large volumes and with high manual administration requirements.
A changing remit
Today however, the human resources management world focuses on people as a resource – or an asset – for the company to use and get the most from.…
Gamification is a popular word that has been used in the last couple of years; however, the word and its meaning has been used for years by credit card companies and such famous websites as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The word gamification basically means when companies integrate game mechanics into their non-gaming product or service to engage and pursue users.
Two Types of Gamification
According to Karl Kapp, author of the book The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education, there are two types of gamification: Structural Gamification and Content Gamification.…
The start of a new year is a perfect time for renewing your business brand as well as your own mind. It is really important that your customers and all the potential customers get a certain vibe from your business. Having a positive brand image can really help you get more customers and publicity. To help you out here are five simple ways to improve your business brand in 2014.
1. Recheck Your Focus
Naturally, the first thing you should do is to look at how your business brand is matching the overall values of your business.…
Outsourcing has become an enormous part of the modern business environment. And though this especially applies here in the wealthier countries, it’s also started to become a trend in many other places worldwide as countries which were the former sources of a lot of outsourced workers also start to outsource their own labor needs overseas.
In basic terms, outsourcing has become a global, highly competitive industry and business phenomenon –as this article makes clear. However, things have only accelerated in the field.…
