“My coach with Small Business Coach Associates made a very large impact on my business.”
What if I told you that small business success could mean more time with your spouse, profits soar, and an overall sense of fulfillment? It sounds too good to be true, right?
That’s the reality Robbie experienced when he decided to join Small Business Coach Associates.
However, Robbie’s journey was not easy.
Here’s what happened.
Even though they had been operating successfully since 1965, due to the financial situation they faced caused by incurring a very large bad debt, Robbie was desperate and frustrated.
Robbie feared that bankruptcy or reorganization might be their only option.
“Although we have had a reputation for outstanding service and technical expertise since 1965, our business was having a difficult time making it through these hard economic times. We incurred a bad debt of $174,000, which equals about 10% of our annual sales, and it caused me to explore possibly filing bankruptcy or reorganization of the company. I was beginning to lose hope in recovering from this large loss. We had many obstacles to overcome, low morale with our employees, non-existent cash flow, and inefficient business practices. I was working 80 hours per week and I told him that the number one thing I wanted was a date with my wife.”
But the results were remarkable when he decided to invest in small business coaching.
Before starting one-on-one coaching, he mentioned that his number-one priority is to have a date with his wife.
“I was working 80 hours per week and I told him that the number one thing I wanted was a date with my wife.”
Within six months of working with Small Business Coach Associates.
Not only did Robbie’s small business succeed and become profitable again, but he had more time with his wife. Furthermore he had an increased income that allowed them to do things they never thought possible before, and a renewed sense of accomplishment.
“After six months, our profits had increased over $152,000, which annualized is over $300,000 per year! We have started paying off our accounts payable to our vendors. We have reorganized our office and improved our staff with my coach’s help. We are starting to achieve many of the actions in our action plan. I have a clearer vision of where we are going and what it takes to get us to the next level. With this clearer vision comes renewed hope. Most importantly, I am working less and have started taking my wife out on dates. I would like to thank SBCA for seeing hope in me and my company, and helping us through a difficult time”
Robbie’s small business success story is just one example of the many small businesses that have benefited from Small Business Coach Associates.
The Top 3 Take Away From Robbie’s Story
#1 Don’t Be Afraid To Seek Help
As small business owners, we often make the mistake of trying to do everything ourselves. We want to be in control and take pride in our ability to tackle every problem independently.
But truthfully, sometimes we don’t have the know-how or experience necessary to handle certain situations effectively. That’s why it is so important to seek help from a professional if you need to.
These professionals can provide invaluable insight, advice, and guidance to help you navigate difficult situations and grow your small business. They also offer a unique perspective on various challenges small businesses face and how best to approach them. Most importantly, these small business coaches are there to provide small business owners with the support they need.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or uncertain about how to proceed, don’t hesitate to get help. It can make a huge difference in your small business’s success!
#2 Develop a realistic action plan and collaborate with your team to make it happen.
It’s not enough to just have a vision for your small business. To make it a reality, you’ll need an action plan outlining the steps you’ll take to meet your goals. This means taking time to break down what to be done and creating a timeline that works with your team’s resources and abilities.
Communicating your vision and collaborating with your team to develop actions will help ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to executing the plan. Make sure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities, as well as any deadlines or milestones they need to meet in order to keep things moving forward
Developing an actionable plan and involving your team in the process can be incredibly beneficial to small businesses and can set you up for success. So don’t overlook this important step!
#3 Take Action
It’s easy to talk about small business growth, but actually taking the necessary steps to get there is much harder. No magic pill will make your small business successful overnight – small business owners have to be willing to put in the work.
This includes defining your mission, vision and values. It also includes creating an effective strategy and understanding how to optimize various processes within your small business. It takes time, hard work, and dedication to get small businesses where they need to be.
At the end of the day, small business owners have to take action if their small businesses are going to succeed. There’s no way around it – small business owners must be willing to put in the effort required for success
Marketing is definitely one of the most important factors to success. However, there are other things that matter.
A successful business needs a great team and a well-implemented business system in place.
Most business owners are unable to achieve this and as a result…
They get stuck, desperate, and frustrated.
And unable to grow their business.
If you want to unlock the potential of your small business, seek the help and advice of Small Business Coach Associates. With our help, you can develop a realistic action plan, take action on it and make your small business vision come true. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today!
“We have seen a big change in our business since we began working with my coach at Small Business Coach Associates. Not only in how we are running our business but in our personal lives as well.” -Cam & Cody-
Do you feel that your business has no direction? Or are you stressed about running your business? Growing your business to a million dollars or to the business freedom stage is hard. If you relate what I mentioned above, achieving your goals or even running your business may feel impossible.
Moreover, if you make the right choices by building and implementing your business systems, you can triple your revenue and have more time to spend with your family.
When business owners don’t have a system in place, they usually face these two common problems:
Work 50-70 or more hours a week
Compromising family time and health
This was the case with Cam and Cody, who own a painting company.
Their business was doing good, but their revenue had stayed the same.
As Cam & Cody explained,
“We were working 70 hours a week, and now we are working 30 to 40 hours a week.”
As a coach, I saw great potential in them during our first meeting.
They also believed they could grow their business and needed to get out of the hamster wheel.
After simple preparation, modification, and implementation of the Business Systems and Time Mastery System, they grew their business exponentially and reduced stress.
“Before coaching, we were always dealing with emergencies. Now we have less stress. Now we respond to problems with clients and employees more quickly.
Because they are now working as the CEO’s of their business, they have more time to make decisions. They can create a solid plan for how to respond to problems with their clients and employees,
While working with Small Business Coach Associates, they exceed their yearly sales goals with two months remaining of the year.
“Before, $1 million in sales seemed impossible. Our sales goal for this year was $675,000. But now we have already exceeded $ 1 million in sales with 2 months remaining this year.”
When we first met and talked about their business, their main goal was to reduce their working hours and stress.
They realized the improvement by reducing their working hours immediately after starting to do the Time Mastery System.
Watching and hearing them achieve their goals is always rewarding and amazing.
“We have seen a big change in our business since we began working with my coach at Small Business Coach Associates. Not only in how we are running our business but in our personal lives as well. This coaching has changed our health and stress levels.”
In conclusion, the main points of our discussion today are.
Through the Business Systems and Time Mastery System, Cam & Cody managed to:
Exceed their annual sales goal of $675,000 to $1M in 10 months
Reduces their working hours from 70 hours a week to 30-40 hours a week
Reduced their stress level
How did they do it?
First, identify tasks that you need to delegate to get you back as the CEO of your business.
As the CEO of a business, it is important to delegate tasks to free up time and resources to focus on more significant issues. Identifying which tasks can be delegated will help you maximize your effectiveness and benefit your business. Examples of tasks that could be delegated include administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, answering emails, or handling customer service. Delegating tasks can also help to manage workloads and ensure that all aspects of the business are taken care of promptly. By taking the time to identify tasks that need to be delegated, you will be able to reclaim your role as CEO and focus on leading the business.
Second, plan and build your business systems with your team.
When planning and building your system, it is important to have a team of people who can help. This could include IT professionals, software engineers, designers, and other experts who can provide insight and advice. It is important to decide on the scope of the project and ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. Make sure to discuss tasks, timelines, budgets, and any risks involved in the project. It is also important to ensure that all team members are working together towards a common goal. Finally, make sure that everyone has access to the necessary tools and resources to complete their tasks. With a well-defined plan and a strong team in place, your system should be up and running in no time.
Lastly, making changes to your business and yourself is a challenge.
I want to emphasize the difficulty of making changes to both a business and an individual. Change requires effort, commitment, and dedication to stay motivated and keep going. It can be difficult to overcome any obstacles that may arise while transitioning into a new way of doing things. It takes hard work and determination to make lasting changes in any area of life. With the right attitude, however, it is possible to turn challenges into successes and create a successful business or lifestyle. Change can bring about incredible possibilities that were once thought unimaginable. With the right effort, it is possible to create a better future for yourself and your business. Making changes may be difficult, but with dedication and perseverance, it is absolutely possible.
I’m always happy to see Cam and Cody’s achievements while working with us. They now have a system in place that takes them in the right direction to move their business forward.
It took multi steps process to build and create their system. However, it paid off because they were able to grow their business to a million dollars while being able to spend more time with their family.
Employee health and safety is a serious concern, from both a legal and ethical standpoint. Health and safety legislation has come a long way since its first real introduction to UK law in the 1970s – but for many starting out their own new business venture, the essential routes to ensuring staff safety are ill-defined. How can you ensure your staff remains safe in the workplace?
Risk Assessments
Employee safety and health measures are underpinned by the risk assessment, which seeks to comprehensively identify and engage with the various risks and hazards presented by a given workplace or site. A risk assessment not only recognizes a given risk, but identifies manners in which it can be reduced and grants responsibility for these measures to an individual – establishing accountability.
PPE
Hand-in-hand with recognising the various risks present in your workplace is the provision of equipment to protect against them. Where a safety officer has recognised the serious risk of hearing damage from loud or sustained volume of tools or industrial equipment, hearing protection in the form of ear defenders or plugs must be supplied. Likewise, crush risks from heavy or falling objects should be met with hard hats and steel toe-capped boots.
This is not just an ethical or morale-based standpoint. Health and safety legislation is unequivocal on a business’ health and safety responsibilities to its staff, with the provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) a legal requirement.
Signage and Procedure
But PPE is regarded as a ‘last resort’ in terms of workplace health and safety. It is often the last barrier between a potential hazard and a member of staff; more effective forms of health and safety intervention occur earlier in the chain, mitigating exposure to risk or even eliminating risk altogether.
These kinds of interventions can be achieved in a number of ways. Signage is the most obvious way in which hazards are outlined and risks mitigated; with proper signage, workers and visitors can understand any present dangers, and take steps to avoid them. The robust procedure, enshrined by company policy, is key to aligning staff on the importance of safety.
Training
The above provisions are absolutely crucial to promoting a safe working environment for your employees. However, their impact can be negligible if not shored up with arguably the most important piece of the puzzle: training.
Without a comprehensive approach to staff training, not all employees will have the same understanding of your business’ safety expectations. On a simple level, if an employee has not been trained in the proper use of certain apparatus, the likelihood that they will injure themselves with it is heightened. This extends to the wearing of PPE, and the following of strict health and safety procedures.
By regularly and repeatedly training staff members in the correct conduct and practice from a health and safety standpoint, you can ensure all employees are upskilled to the same level. Employees will be on the same page, and no one weak link can inadvertently cause a preventable incident.
The people you hire to work for your business can be your biggest assets and your biggest headaches; finding and training great employees can be a challenge. They can support and help you to achieve the vision you have for your company – but they can also prevent you from reaching that vision.
Finding and Training Great Employees
Too manybusinesses overlook the role of employee recruitment and retention when planning for the success of theirorganization. Staffing is an important exercise that needs to be purpose-driven and strategic, just like marketing.
Employees Think: What’s in it for Me?
It is vital to understand in today’s market that the relationship between employee and employer is a two-way street. Now, more than ever, employees have a “what’s in it for me?” attitude that extends beyond salary and benefits expectations into incentive and rewards programs. The days of simple compensation structures are over.
Now, this may sound like a big headache, but it’s actually a good thing! With some simple systems and open dialogue, you will be able to effectively create – and keep – your dream team.
The Power of Your Dream Team
How much of your own personal time has human resources – staffhiring, firing, issues management, etc. – taken this year? No doubt staff recruitment and retention is one of the biggest challenges facing anybusiness owner today.
The truth is, if you spent half as much time on human resources as you do on marketing, I guarantee your sales would increase dramatically.
Employees Treat Customers Exactly the Way You Treat Them
Customers know the difference between happy employees and disgruntled ones, and it makes a difference when it comes to purchasing decisions. I’ve heard it said that youremployees will treat your customers exactly the same way that you treat them. Would you rather have your car serviced by a grumpy mechanic who doesn’t feel his good work is rewarded or a pleasant one who just stepped out of a weeklyteam meeting?
Asuccessful business owner has confidence in the people who work for him because he believes they are the best people for the job.Employees who know their employer believes in their skills and abilities will go over and above to get the job done, to make the sale.
Successful Business Owner Invest Time and Money in Employees
Successful business owners invest time and money in finding, keeping and training great employees. These are the people who share and support the collective vision of the company.
I’m not talking about a complicated formula or magic concoction. I’m talking about some careful thought and a proactive strategy that will make your business shine from the inside out.
Finding Your Dream Employees
Building a dream team starts by finding and hiring the right people for the job. Sounds simple enough. You post an ad, find someone who has the necessary qualifications and hire them on.
Not so fast. Recruitment is a complex process that can dramatically impact your business operations. Just like finding and securing the right customers, finding and hiring the right candidates requires pro-active planning and careful evaluation. In today’s competitive job market, where the demand for skilled professionals is high, relying solely on traditional recruitment methods can be limiting. Consider leveraging the advantages of modern software for recruiting agencies and recruiters to make the hiring process more efficient and effective. This software allows you to reach a broader pool of potential candidates, automates boring tasks, sorts through resumes, and analyses applicant info to find the best fit for your company’s specific needs.
Create an Internal Recruitment System
If you currently work with a recruiting agency to build your team, now may be a good time to stop and evaluate the effectiveness of their service. While a recruiting agency can save you the time and hassle of working through the hiring process, it can also cost more money in the long run.
I always recommend creating an internal recruitment system, not because recruiting agencies do a bad job, but because no one knows yourbusiness like you do.
Create an Attractive Business Culture
If you want to attract and retain the highest quality clients, you must have a culture that is attractive and a future that is compelling. Developing an effective strategic plan and including your employees in the process is a good place to start. Determine where you are going, what your mission is and how your organization will treat others. Once you have established your vision, mission, and values, then you must deploy them throughout your organization to ensure that you “practice what you preach.”
An internal recruitment system ensures that the true essence of your business culture is communicated – from advertisement to interview. You also have the opportunity to communicate expectations from the outset, instead of relying on the recruiter to relay this information. The middleman’s thoughts and impressions are eliminated, leaving you to make decisions based on your impression of the candidate and no one else’s.
Step One: Advertise the Opportunity
The first step in recruiting candidates is obviously letting potential candidates know about the opportunity with your company.
But before you pick up the phone to place a classified ad, remember that advertising for potential employees requires just as much consideration and planning as general advertising for your business.
Before You Place an ad ask yourself:
Who is your ideal candidate?
What are their skills and qualifications?
What is their personality or demeanor?
What are they passionate about?
What are they looking for in a job?
Once you have a mental picture of your candidate, then you can begin to write an ad that will not only reach them but also inspire them to act (and submit an application).
When writing this ad, be as specific as possible and focus on the benefits of the job. Remember that potential candidates screen job postings with an eye for “what’s in it for me.” Tell them exactly that.
Here are a few sample job postings:
Are you the Marketing Assistant we need?
About You
You’re fun, friendly and have a keen eye for detail. You’re always two steps ahead of your colleagues, and eager to take on new and exciting challenges.
You’ll be in charge of website updates, copywriting, event planning, and customer relations, and you’ll be the glue that keeps the marketing team functioning smoothly. You’ll be reliable, trustworthy, and well-dressed.
You’ll ideally have an undergraduate degree in marketing or English, and some previous office experience, but a fast learner with a great attitude will also get our attention.
About Us
We are a collaborative team of young professionals. We offer a competitive salary, great benefits andperformance incentives.
Think you fit the bill? Email your resume and cover letter to John Jones at jjones@your business.com by Friday at 5 pm.
Are Computers Your Life?
About You
You are smart, outgoing, and a wiz when it comes to computer programming. You’re on your friend’s speed dial for computer emergencies, large and small. Helping people understand the complex digital world is your passion.
You’ll be our Lead Computer Technician, managing our computer repair counter and five Junior Technicians. You’ll have great people skills, mounds of patience, and enjoy working as part of a dynamic team.
About Us
We operate Anytown’s leading computer repair store and are known across the region for our customer service. We work hard, play hard, and offer a competitive benefits package to our employees.
Tell us why this job is for you. Email your resume and cover letter to [email protected] by Thursday, September 23.
Both of these job postings speak directly to a very targeted audience. They’re friendly, colloquial, and communicate the job requirements in an informal way.
Every job posting should:
Be written in the way that you talk
Be specific
Describe benefits
Include skills, qualifications, duties and job title
Be written in the present tense
Have a great headline
Call the reader to action
Be simple – in word choice and sentence structure
Be more exciting than the competition
Now that you have a great ad to post, you need to decide where you are going to publish it. This depends on the level of the job (junior to management) and on the specific type of candidate you are looking to recruit.
Here are the five major places to advertise your opportunity:
Government Employment Center
These are great places to find blue-collar or junior level employees. Candidates register with the center, which keeps their resumes on file. Be cautious with this route – it can produce a wide variety of candidates who are not qualified.
Indeed, Ziprecruiter, Etc
This is a great place to post junior to mid-level employment opportunities. You’re looking for basic qualifications from local applicants, perhaps even for part-time positions, with minimal cost.
Linkedin
Senior employment opportunities that require specific high-level qualifications are best advertised with a broad scope. This incurs a greater cost but will return a greater variety of candidates.
Online
This is a cheap way to tap into a massive database of job seekers. Post your ad online on sites like www.monster.com or www.workopolis.com and watch the resumes come flooding in. A large number of highly qualified job seekers who do not wish to register with a recruitment agency will use these services.
Referrals
The most ideal way to find candidates is through your existing network – including associates, colleagues, employees, friends and family. These candidates come to you already vetted by a trusted source. You may also wish to consider giving your staff an incentive to refer their qualified friends and associates to you.
Other Niche Areas
You should also brainstorm a list of any other niche areas that your target market may look for a job. Consider vocational schools, colleges, industry publications, industry associations, small publications, etc.
Once you’ve posted your ad, your next step is to manage the inquiries that come flooding in. These are just a few steps in the process of finding and training great employees.
Screen and Interview Candidates
One of the most time-consuming parts of the hiring process is screening and interviewing prospects, so you’ll need to develop a system to handle the response to your job posting.
Screen and interview candidates is a system that will also ensure you ask all potential candidates the same questions, and provide them with the same information about the role as well as about your company.
1. Decide whether all inquiries will be handled by one person or several.
To screen and interview employees whether it will be handled by one person or several, depends on your staff resources and capacity. A system will allow multiple employees to assist in the process.
For example, if your candidates have been instructed to submit their resume and cover letter to you through email, designate a single email address and inbox to receiving and responding. This way you or another staff member will not be bombarded by emails and can designate an hour oftime each day to managing the inquiries. If your candidates are calling in, designate a unique phone number or answering machine for this purpose.
2. Decide how inquiries will be responded to.
This can be as simple as an email acknowledging receipt of the resume, or specific instructions on an answering machine. Ensure everyone receives the same information, and that you receive the same level of information from all candidates (resume, cover letter, portfolio, references, and other relevant information.).
If you have asked candidates to call you instead of submitting their resumes through email, create a standard checklist of questions to ask them, as well as of information to provide them with. You may wish to create a script. Some questions might include:
What kind of job are you looking for?
Why do you think you would be well suited to this position?
Tell me a bit about yourself.
What makes you interested in our company?
Use this opportunity to get a feel for the applicant’s personality, and trust your initial impression. Create a form on which to record this information, and file it with their resume when you receive it.
3. Devise a process for reviewing resumes or applications.
The easiest and most time-efficient way to do this is in a single session, after the stated deadline, and not as you receive them. You may wish to enlist the assistance of a senior colleague to provide a second opinion.
Review the resumes and application materials, and divide the applications into three piles: interview, no interview, and maybe. From here you can begin to call candidates and set up the first interview.
It is also a good idea to be in touch with unsuccessful candidates, and politely let them know that you will not be asking them in for an interview. If you anticipate your response rate will be overwhelming, you may wish to consider stating in your advertisement that only successful applicants will be called.
Step Three: First Interview
The first interview is also a screening interview; your objective is to develop a first impression of the candidate as a person and to determine if they are qualified for the position. If you feel you have found an ideal candidate, this is also your opportunity to convince them to choose your company over any others they may be considering. Good people don’t stay in the market long.
Interview Candidate Structure
You will need to decide on a structure, or system, for the interview process as well. Will you be conducting the first interviews, or will another manager? Will the interviews be conducted one-on-one, or will several employees participate? If you are replacing an employee, you may want to consider inviting that employee into the interview to provide insight into the role.
Interview Candidate Materials
Just as you are asking the potential candidate to come prepared to the interview, you must be as well.
Have an outline prepared for what you would like to cover? Topics include company history, job description, interview questions, compensation structure, availability, and room for advancement.
Bring two copies of a typed job description. Include all tasks the candidate will be responsible for completing or assisting with.
A company profile or overview document (other marketing collateral will also work here).
Interview Candidate Attitude
Begin to build a relationship with each applicant. The purpose of the interview is not just to discuss the job description, or for the applicant to get all the interview questions “right.” It is to determine if this person has the right attitude for the job, and whether or not they will fit in with the company’s culture and its employees.
Keep the interview professional, but make sure the applicant is comfortable. Interviews test our ability to perform under pressure, but you will want to gain an understanding of the applicant’s true nature. Remember that even if the applicant is not well suited to the role they have applied for, they may be suited to a future opportunity with the company.
Interview Candidate Questions
The questions you decide to ask the candidate are highly specific to your company and the role you arehiring for. Take some time to brainstorm what you really need to know about each person, and what questions you can ask to get that information.
Keep in mind that part of the objective of the first interview is to get a sense of the candidate’s personality. You will want to ask questions about their responses and begin to establish a real relationship with them.
Here are some starter interview questions to get you going:
Tell me a little bit about your background.
What has been your first impression of our company/product/services?
Tell me about a time when…[insert a likely scenario they will encounter in the position]. How did it make you feel? How did you handle the situation?
What advantages do you feel you have over the other candidates?
What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
Tell me about an achievement you’re proud of.
Why did you leave your last position?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
…and so on.
Make sure you take good notes or ask a junior member of your team to take notes for you. Also, record your impression of the candidate after each interview. You will want to be able to reflect on each interview before inviting the candidate to the next phase of the selection process.
When the first interviews have been completed, review your notes and discuss your first impressions with other employees involved in the process. Then, decide who you would like to invite back for a second interview, and let the unsuccessful candidates know they are not right for this particular role.
Step Four: Second Interview + Reference Check
The second interview is used to confirm your impressions of the applicants you believe are well suited to the job. It can also be used to get more information, or to more closely compare two solid candidates.
Make sure you only offer a second interview to those you are considering hiring. If you are on the fence about a candidate, chances are your instincts are right, and bringing them in for a second interview is a waste of their time and yours.
Callbacks
When you call a candidate to invite them to come in for a second interview, remain professional and don’t make any allusions to a job offer. If your impression of the candidate changes during the second interview, you do not want to have to go back on something you said. Let them know what you thought of them based on the first interview, and ask if they would be interested in meeting with you a second time.
Give yourself and the candidate at day or two between interviews to reflect on the first interview and prepare for the second.
Interviewers Can Change
You may wish to change the person or team of people who conducted the first interview. Usually, the second interview is conducted with more senior team members at the table.
Interview Candidates Questions
While the second interview is often less structured than the first – a relationship has already begun to be established – you should still prepare a list of questions for the candidate.
These questions should focus on the specific tasks related to the job, and on providing more information about the culture, systems, and values of the company. You can also use the second interview to ask questions you may not have had the chance to in the first interview.
Office Tour + Introductions
Once you have determined that you have found the candidate for the job, take them on a tour of your office or business, and introduce them to your staff members. This is a good way of gaining an initial understanding of how the candidate might interact with your existing staff members.
Calling References
This is the final – arguably most important – step to make before offering the job to the candidate. You should ask your candidate for at least three employment references, and perhaps one character reference.
Call each reference contact, and explain who you are and why you are calling. Then ask if they have a few moments to answer some questions about the candidate. You will want to find out information about punctuality, professionalism, skills, and their reason for leaving. Cross-reference this information with your interview notes to ensure consistency between the candidate and their reference.
Step Five: Hire Your Employee
Provided their references are solid, now is the time to make them an offer of employment.
Call the candidate personally to offer them the job. Make sure you congratulate them and express your enthusiasm in welcoming them into your team. You will also need to follow up your conversation with a letter or email that includes the job offer document or contract.
In the case a candidate declines the job offer, you may wish to do a reference check on your second pick candidate and make them an offer.
Training Your Dream Employees
Once you have landed your dream employees through a rigorous recruitment process, it is essential that you continue to invest in your decision by putting them through a thorough training process. Training great employees makes them a great asset and grow professionally, and this makes them stay in your company.
Training is Important for Employee Retention
It is an element of recruitment. A new employee’s orientation and training set the tone for their entire employment; this includes their impression of your business, its systems, and respect for its leaders. This has an impact on your ability to retain good people and avoid unnecessary or redundant recruitment processes.
Too often, businesses rely on junior employees to train new ones without any guidelines or ‘curriculum.’ New employees are thrown into the deep end without clear expectations or an understanding of ‘how things are done around here.’
Your Leaders’ Involvement in the Training Process
These elements affect how an employee perceives their own required level of effort or performance. Abusiness that doesn’t give much thought to planning, expectations, and preparation will end up showing a new employee that the same lack of attention is expected from them.
Here are some things to ensure you implement when you create your comprehensive training system:
Prior Learning / Existing Knowledge
Acknowledge your new employee’s prior learning, and don’t overestimate or underestimate their existing knowledge.
Choice of Trainer
Investing time and effort in training employees, make sure the person or people who will betraining the new employee are sufficiently qualified and experienced. If an administrator is leading a salesperson’s training and orientation, consider asking another salesperson or more senior team member to assist on specific days or sessions.
Training Materials
Have all the required training materials handy. This includes company manuals, industry guidebooks, common reference materials, work samples and anything else that will aid in the training efforts.
Training Tools
Also, ensure you have the tools available to train your new recruit. Will the training be held at their workstation or another workstation? Do you have all the software you need? All the equipment required? Doing so will ensure the training runs smoothly and the time provided will be used effectively.
Time for Training
Provide more than ample time for training – including time for questions and elaboration. Rushing training benefits no one, including your profits.
Testing to Ensure Mastery
Consider including some ‘tests’ or checks to ensure the new recruit understands each component of the training. Ask the trainer and the trainee to sign-off on each section.
Employees’ Part in the Big Picture
Each team member’s role is part of a larger picture: the company as a whole. Ensure that the trainee understands how their role contributes to the big picture on each level. If they are a junior member of a department, they should understand how their job contributes to the department, as well as how the department contributes to the entire company.
Encourage Employee Feedback
The trainee should be able to ask questions and review information at any time – including after the training process. Create an environment that encourages open dialogue and encourages employees to ask questions when they are unsure of a task.
The other common mistake that many companies make is ending training after the first few weeks of a new recruit’s employment.
Ongoing Employee Training
Training our employees is an ongoing process for every single member of your team, and there should be a system or structure in place to ensure that staff training and development happens on a regular basis. This can include cross-training, employee development, and new systems orientation.
Benefits of Regular Training
Regular training not only benefits your staff and improves their performance, but it allows you – thebusiness owner – to:
Implement new policies + procedures
Invest in your staff, thereby improving confidence and morale
Evaluate staff performance at an individual and team level
Reward staff based on performance improvements
Provide a regular arena for feedback and discussion, including positive and negative experiences and issues
One-on-One Training + Evaluation
An effective system of ongoing training for employees is by weekly, monthly, or quarterly staff reviews. When conducted one-on-one, this provides a forum for regular communication with employees to review performance and identify areas for improvement. A one-on-one environment will encourage more open and honest dialogue than if the session were conducted as part of a team.
As a business owner, these sessions are valuable sources of information and insight into the strengths, weaknesses, and motivations of your team.
Senior Staff Mentoring Junior Staff
If you have a large staff, consider pairing junior staff with senior staff and establishing mentorship relationships. This is a powerful way tobuild the synergy of your team and frees you up from weekly meetings with each staff member. Instead, each senior staff member can report back to you on the results of their regular training sessions, and you only need to conduct these sessions with your senior staff.
Team Training Events
Training events are great networking opportunities. By bringing together people with diverse backgrounds and skill sets, training events provide a unique opportunity for professionals to connect and learn from one another. In addition, training for networking offer a chance to learn about new methods and approaches to work. As a result, training events can be extremely valuable for both individual professionals and teams as a whole. However, it is important to choose the right training event for your team. If the event is too social, it may not provide the desired opportunity for networking and learning. Conversely, if the event is too formal, it may not create the desired sense of camaraderie and collaboration. The key is to strike the right balance between networking and learning. With careful planning, training events can be an excellent way to build strong teams.
Team training exercises will shed light on the leaders and followers in anorganization and bring together employees who may work outside of the office. These can be especially helpful if you and your senior staff do not see the team ‘in action’ on a daily basis.
I suppose you’ve done what you’ve set out to do: get the right people working for you. But what happens when those people get bored? Or stolen by another company? Or feel they’ve “done all they can do” at your company?
The final step in the overall recruitment process is employee retention. This includes keeping your employees happy, supporting their development, and giving them anincentive to continuously improve their performance.
Your Work Environment
The environment you create for your staff has a huge impact on your employee retention rates. This includes the interior design and layout of your office or business, the lighting, plants, and kitchen amenities available. It also includes the culture of the company – what is the general working atmosphere? Are most people loud? Quiet? Is there a buzz or hum to the office space?
The bottom line is that employees should enjoy and feel comfortable coming to their workplace – they do spend most of their waking hours there.
Spending a little more on comfortable office furniture and amenities like coffee, tea, snacks, and social spaces will go a longway toward keeping your employees happy at work.
Recognition, Rewards, and Incentive Programs
Did you know that many employees place more value on positive public recognition for a job well done than they do on salary?
Recognition andrewards are powerful tools when it comes to keeping employees happy. Positive feedback from those in more senior positions has a higher perceived value than a 3-5% salary increase – and it costs the business little to nothing to implement.
Retaining Your Employees
Incentive programs are a formalized way of rewarding employees for their achievements and successes. Clear targets and milestones are identified, and when an individual or team reach those milestones they are rewarded with bonuses or prizes.
Recognition, rewards, and incentive programs are an important part of employee retention, as well asteam building. They will be discussed in further detail in the Team Building chapter.
Professional Development Programs
Another common reason employees choose to leave their positions isprofessional development. Many feel they need to move to another company in order to develop their careers or gain more responsibility. They may not necessarily dislike their current role, but become bored or stagnated and believe they have ‘done all they can do’ at that particular company.
Keeping good people means providingopportunities for growth and advancement within your company. This benefits the company because you can hire from within, and save money and time on recruiting and training new staff. It also benefits your employee and increases their loyalty toward your business.
Staff Retention
Professional development programs are an important part of staff retention – but they are also an important part ofbusiness growth and development. A company with staff who are always increasing their knowledge and improving their skills will stay on the ‘cutting edge’ of their industry and have an advantage over the competition.
Ongoing training and development should be a primaryfocus for any growing business. Here’s why:
Increases productivity
Increases staff retention
Increases workplace safety and morale
Increases customer service
Increases sales
Professional development programs typically focus on the big picture ambitions of the company and its staff members. The longer-term goals and career ambitions are recorded and taken into consideration.
Professional development can be easily worked into your ongoing one-on-one training systems. Keep a folder or binder for each staff member that outlines current role responsibilities, short and long term goals, and areas for improvement, and review it during your weekly or monthly meetings. Identify specific areas for growth, and develop plans of action for that growth.
For example, if your marketing assistant wants to grow into a marketing coordinator or manager role, and needs to improve her people management skills, consider putting her through a management course.
Simple System Tools for Employee Retention
Maintaining this program doesn’t have to be a time-consuming task. With some simplesystem tools and a commitment to regularly scheduled meetings, you can have a clear and effective program for your staff.
Evolving job description documents to monitor roles, responsibilities, and tasks
Finding and training employees is one of the most challenging issues that small business owners are facing. Implement these practices and see your business take on a life of its own!
Training is a learning and upskilling process. This process entails sales personnel becoming fully equipped with the knowledge they require to sustain a business and make constant attempts to grow profit margins.
Let’s look at what exactly are we going to learn in this article:
Taking the help of the LMS system for sales training
1. What is Sales Training?
Sales training is an activity that involves the up-gradation of the sales personnel’s skills. It is through effective sales training that they can polish their selling skills by gaining adequate knowledge and are also able to perform their tasks better. This helps them immensely in closing the deal and turning it into a sale for the organization.
2. Importance of Sales Training for the growth of business
For any business, sales are of utmost importance, and this is why they spend their valuable resources on training the sales personnel, as it is directly related to the goodwill of the company. A well-trained sales team can survive the competition in the market and generate revenues to keep the lifeblood of the business flowing. Let’s look at its importance one by one:
Returns on Investment see an upward trend
Businesses have to spend large amounts of money for training purposes, yet, they are willing to incur these expenses; the reason is the return on investment. Sales training is a one-time expense, but the lessons learned are for a lifetime. Employees can showcase the skills they learn while making a sale without having to lure the customer with a discount and making the customer understand how they can recover the cost in no time.
It helps teams become dynamic like today’s market
Markets today have become volatile and dynamic. They are continuously evolving and as a result, sales teams have to follow suit. Team members have to keep their skills up to date. Any change, be it a change in the technology or a product feature, the sales team has to know before the world. A good training tutorial offers all the updates and keeps the team informed.
It strengthens the credibility of the business
The sales team develops a personal relationship with the customers, not just professional. So, they exactly know their pain points and can provide the right itch for that scratch. This also strengthens the goodwill of the business and builds a solid brand image. If the salesperson can gain the trust of the customer, then it’s highly likely that they will return in the future for other prospects.
It helps improve customer experience
If optimizing the customer experience and making them happy is your ultimate goal, then sales training is something you cannot skip. In today’s time, posting feedback about a brand is very easy, looking at the convenience of social media and its reach. Therefore, if the customer has had a bad experience with the brand, they may talk about it, and in the worst-case scenario, post about it on social media. Sales training ensures that your employees know exactly what to do to make the customers happy and improve their experience.
It helps improve the leadership skills of the employees
A good training session can empower the sales team with knowledge and the ability to distribute that knowledge among the customers. It teaches them effective communication skills, which improves their overall personality, making them good leaders and confident people.
It helps achieve business growth
If you want to see your business grow, you have to make the people in the business grow. That can only happen if they are trained enough to educate the team and also the customers. Quality training gives the team the knowledge they need to empower themselves and the people around them. All these attributes are important for any business to experience growth and stability.
3. Using LMS systems for imparting sales training
Learning management systems are platforms or software that help provide and upskill the qualities of employees with the help of training programs. These come with many features which help in learning, training, and updating knowledge.
Reasons why you should use LMS for sales training:
Cost-effective and affordable
Imparting training through an LMS is not just cost-effective but also yields numerous benefits. One such software for sales training is Docebo. There are no administrative costs involved in online training, such as travel and accommodation costs of the trainer, printing cost of the training material, and many more similar expenses. All the modules and study materials are updated and uploaded to the system for sales personnel’s reference and guidance.
Content is easily accessible without geographical limitations
Learning is made easy with an LMS as there is no geographical limitation. It can be accessed anytime and from anywhere. Once the content goes to the system, it can be studied without any hassles. This enforces fast-paced learning without any dependency on anyone. Learners from across different time zones can utilize this flexibility ensuring consistent training modules across locations.
Content security
In an LMS, content is mostly secured. All the learner data and data related to the training are stored in one place and can be accessed by authorized personnel only. With an LMS, learners do not have to waste extra time finding the right and relevant content; everything is made available to them on the server.
Tracking the success of the training course
A robust LMS comes with an in-built feature for reporting and analytics, whereby it becomes easier for trainers to track the learning paths of the learner and identify the potential areas of improvement. By keeping a tab on individual learning, leaders make sure that the employees are benefitting adequately from the training program and can achieve their training goals on time.
Conclusion:
The above-mentioned points will tell you how sales training is an integral part of any business. Good sales mean good profits for the organization. So, keeping the sales personnel up to date becomes important for keeping the customers of the company happy. It is mandatory for businesses, in times like today, to draft a strategy for successful implementation of the training module and to leverage its benefits.
When it comes to lead generation and sales, soft skills are just as important as hard skills. In fact, some would argue that soft skills are more important since they’re what allows you to build relationships with potential customers and clients.
If you’re looking to improve your crucial skills, here are 5 soft skills you should focus on.
Improve your communication
If the objective is to improve your lead generation skills, one of the most important things you can do is work on your communication skills. To help boost communication confidence, consider understanding negotiation types, body language, and value conflict examples. You may also want to sharpen your public speaking skills, practice active listening techniques, or tailor communications based on the intended audience. Whether you’re communicating with potential customers, clients, or colleagues, being able to clearly and effectively communicate is essential to success. There are a few key things you can do to improve your communication skills:
Be clear and concise in your communication. When you’re communicating with someone, make sure that you’re getting your point across clearly and concisely. Don’t try to include too much information at once, or you’ll risk overwhelming the other person and confusing them. Instead, focus on conveying one key message at a time.
Listen actively. Effective communication with someone requires you to be a good listener. Pay attention to what the other person is saying, and try to understand their perspective. This will help you better respond to their needs and wants.
Use nonverbal cues. In addition to the words you use, your nonverbal cues – such as your body language and facial expressions – can also convey a lot of information. Make sure that your nonverbal cues are consistent with the message you’re trying to communicate.
Improve your writing. You can improve your writing in a variety of ways, including reading more (and writing more). You can also incorporate word games like Scrabble into your daily routine, which relies on verbal intelligence and vocabulary to excel at. Scrabble can take some experience to get good at, so if you’re struggling, there are many word unscramblertools on internet which help you arrange letters into winning combinations.
Avoid making assumptions. When you’re communicating with someone, it’s important to avoid making assumptions about what they know or don’t know. Instead, ask questions to clarify any misunderstandings.
Be patient. Communication can be challenging, and it may take some time to get your point across. Be patient, and allow the other person the time they need to understand what you’re saying.
Practice, practice, practice. Like with anything else, the more you practice communication, the better you’ll become at it. Make a conscious effort to improve your communication skills, and you’ll see a difference in your ability to generate leads and close sales.
Relationship building
If you want to be successful when it comes to find and closing leads, it’s important to build strong relationships with potential customers, clients, and colleagues. Strong relationships are built on trust, respect, and communication. There are a few key things you can do to build strong relationships:
Be genuine. When you’re interacting with someone, be genuine in your interest in them and their needs. People can tell when you’re not being sincere, and it will damage your relationship.
Be honest. It’s important to be honest with the people you’re interacting with. Don’t try to hide your true intentions – people will see through it and it will damage your relationship.
Be helpful. When you’re interacting with someone, try to be helpful and offer assistance when you can. People will appreciate your help, and it will strengthen your relationship.
Be a good listener. To build strong relationships, you need to be a good listener. Pay attention to what the other person is saying, and try to understand their perspective. This will help you better connect with them.
Show interest. When you’re talking to someone, show interest in what they’re saying. Ask questions, and make sure that you’re engaged in the conversation. This will help to build a stronger relationship.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware and understand your own emotions and the emotions of others. It’s an important soft skill because it can help you better understand and connect with potential customers and clients. There are a few key things you can do to improve your emotional intelligence:
Be self-aware. Being emotionally intelligent requires you to be aware of your own emotions. Pay attention to how you’re feeling, and why you’re feeling that way. This will help you better understand and control your emotions.
Be aware of others’ emotions. In addition to being aware of your own emotions, you also need to be aware of the emotions of others. Pay attention to nonverbal cues, such as body language and facial expressions, to better understand how someone is feeling.
Be empathetic. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. When you’re interacting with someone, try to put yourself in their shoes and understand how they’re feeling. This will help you better connect with them.
Be able to regulate your emotions. It’s important to be able to control your emotions, especially during difficult conversations or situations. Take a step back and take a deep breath when you can sense you are getting too emotional. This will help you stay calm and maintain control.
Be able to manage stress. Stress is a normal part of life, but it can be detrimental to your emotional intelligence. Learning how to manage stress will help you better cope with difficult situations and maintain your emotional composure.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze information and make decisions based on logic and reason. It’s an important soft skill for anything related to sales or lead generation, as it can help you better assess customer needs and make informed decisions. There are a few key things you can do to improve your critical thinking skills:
Be open-minded. To think critically, you need to be open-minded and willing to consider all sides of an issue. Don’t let your personal biases or opinions cloud your judgment – instead, objectively consider all the evidence before making a decision.
Be analytical. When you’re faced with a decision, take the time to analyze all the available information. Break down the pros and cons, and weigh all the options before making a choice.
Be inquisitive. Making informed decisions means allowing yourself to be inquisitive and ask questions. When you’re presented with information, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification or more details. This will help you better understand the situation and make a more informed decision.
Be systematic. When you’re making a decision, it’s important to be systematic and methodical in your thinking. Follow a step-by-step process to ensure that you’re considering all the relevant information before coming to a conclusion.
Be rational. It’s important to be rational and logical in your thinking. When you’re making a decision, don’t let emotions or personal biases cloud your judgment. Instead, base your decision on logic and reasoning.
Negotiation
Negotiation is the process of trying to reach an agreement between two or more parties. It’s a crucial soft skill for improving your ability to sell your products and services because it plays a fundamental role in helping you better understand customer needs and reach mutually beneficial agreements. There are a few key things you can do to improve your negotiation skills:
Be assertive. If you want be a successful negotiator, you need to be assertive and stand up for what you want. Don’t be afraid to speak up and state your case – doing so will help you better advocate for your needs.
Be collaborative. While it’s important to be assertive, you also need to be collaborative and willing to compromise. Try to find common ground and reach a mutually beneficial agreement.
Be prepared. Before you enter into a negotiation, it’s important to be prepared. Know what you want to achieve and have a clear idea of your bottom line. This will help you better negotiate from a position of strength.
Be persuasive. Negotiation is relies on an ability to persuade and convince. You need to make a strong case for why your proposal is in the best interest of both parties.
Conclusion
Developing strong emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and negotiation skills can help you better generate leads and close sales. In summation, those looking to improve their ability to generate leads and close sales should focus on developing the important soft skills covered in this article. Together, they enable you to build and nurture the kinds of customer relationships that will convert into not just one-time sales, but referrals, repeat business and long-lasting, mutually beneficial business.
Do employees get better with age, or do they wear out?
The general workplace environment comprises old and new employees, and keeping them motivated can be tricky. Unmotivated workers cost the US economy about $550 billion each year.
As employees get older, their priorities change, and what may have worked in motivating them last year may not work so well the following year. Employers and managers are responsible for finding what works in keeping both their old and new employees motivated.
In this article, we help you uncover the best ways to make your old and new employees feel motivated. We examine the best strategies you can employ to excite your old and new employees for the best performance.
Before we get into that, let’s quickly divert to explain why you need to make both your old and new employees feel motivated.
Why is employee motivation important to your business?
Positive employee testimonials for career pages.
Most candidates view your career page before applying for your job openings. This is the best place to grab their interest.
A typical career page content example is employee testimonials.
When your employees are motivated and active, they give great testimonials and are more valid as they’re delivered on-screen.
You can easily pull the positive quotes of your employees and paste them on your career page.
Retaining employees is very important for every company; as your employees continue to work for your company, they gain more business experience, improve efficiency, and cut recruitment and training expenses.
Improved relationship between management and staff.
Don’t be the cranky boss. Build great relationships with your staff.
The most motivated staff have great relationships with their leaders or managers. They are always willing to work, make improvements and
accept modifications without debate. Happy employees’ work makes the work easier for their managers.
Enhanced worker performance.
You motivate your employees; they get the job done. Motivation stimulates engagement, and a highly engaged workforce increases profitability by 21%.
When you keep your workers motivated, not only do they get the job done, they do so effectively and efficiently and are more committed to their jobs. Companies with motivated workers are more productive and increase the overall output of the business.
Exceptional quality and improved customer service
A motivated employee is more inclined to work to provide high-standard services and put extra effort into producing quality products. Those in service-related enterprises are also more committed to providing excellent customer service and are more excited about their job.
Find their Commonalities
Every employee needs motivation. Old and new employees may have shared things that make them feel motivated. You can take out time to find those commonalities. Motivating old and new employees aren’t so different from each other. However, we individuals examine the ways of motivating old and new employees.
Finding commonalities and similar interests is a significant part of the social bonding process, and it is always profitable for managers to form bonds between their old and new employees.
Ways to make old employees feel motivated
Employee perks.
It is important to note what perks are not.
Perks don’t include health care, dental, or vision packages.
Employee perks don’t include factors like mission, vision, values, fair play, or a strong/ethical team.
Perks are not the same as company culture but are a component.
A good employee perk is providing travel management services for older employees. Small business travel management companies can help to manage all aspects of business travel for the company’s staff, from signing contracts with airlines and car rental companies to arranging other services. Save your employees the stress involved with business travels and make business travels easier.
Communicate your expectations to them.
Generally, people have misconceptions regarding older employees’ willingness to learn new things. Most old workers are quite teachable and ready to learn new skills, software, and equipment. It’s best to communicate your goals, mission, and expectations to all your employees, both old and new, and have an open mind to avoid the thought that your more senior employees are already burnt out and can’t do much for your company.
Value their experience
Older employees, in most cases, have more experience than new employees. Encourage your new workers to learn from them. Experience is valuable to every business. You should value and encourage your employer more as they stay longer on the job. You can consider making productive ones the head of their various departments.
Take the Time to Understand Their Motivations
It’s essential to find what motivates your older workers. Their motivation might differ from fresher employees, although that isn’t always the care. It is important that you do your research and discover what works. Build a relationship with them and know their personal goals, ambitions, and desires.
Be Open to Feedback
As a good manager or business owner, it’s important to accept older employees’ feedback. Ask your senior employees about your performance, what can be done better and how to make better decisions. Remember, you are dealing with experienced individuals. Listening to their opinions and feedback helps you understand how to motivate them and make them feel important and appreciated. Asking for feedback makes them see you as a leader and not some boss.
Focus on Results
Focus on results rather than their methods of doing things. Older employees usually have a different approach to things. Considering they have been working on a job for several years, they tend to create unique work techniques. Instead of forcing older employees to adopt a new method, focus on the results. The most important thing is to focus on whatever gets the job done, regardless of the techniques adopted.
Ways to make new employees feel motivated
Express trust for new employees
It’s normal to see new employees lack confidence in performing their jobs. It can result from the new environment, new job description, or fear of poor performance. You can avoid this and boost their confidence by expressing trust in them. Show them you expect them to do great in executing tasks, just like older employees. Encouraging them to be the best of themselves is an excellent way to go.
Track their productivity
Set targets and goals for each employee to measure how productive they are. We get motivated when we hit targets, no matter how little. You can employ these tactics for your employees.
It’s important to reward employees that steadily hit their targets. This will encourage them to achieve more and work to develop themselves and improve their efficiency.
Give specific roles to your employees.
Employees are more productive when they have specific tasks assigned to them. It also shows their efficiency and value to the business. As your employees perform their duties, they get motivated to achieve greater heights.
You should make your new employees recognize their role in the business vision and goals and how their performance affects the company. This gives your employees a sense of responsibility.
Stay positive
As a manager, maintain a positive atmosphere. Your employees must see you full of enthusiasm and motivation. Regardless of your feelings, always stay positive and transmit the same to your workers.
Always see the possibility of success in every project.
Create a good work relationship with your new staff
Paying particular attention to your new employees helps them adjust to their new work environment and boosts their performance.
Ask about their challenges and how they are coping with their work. It is also important to get feedback. Their opinions will help you know how to motivate them.
When you succeed in creating a good relationship with your new employees, you’d know their weaknesses and strengths better and how to motivate them. Plus, they will trust you more and be more excited to work for you.
Reward your new employees when they perform well
Rewards best-performing employees to keep them motivated and encourage other employees to put in more work. Create a system that rewards jobs well done. Two-thirds of employees are motivated to stay at their job with the presence of a motivational scheme for employees.
Rewards like extra stipends, movie tickets, and paid days off. You can also ask your employees what they’d love as a good reward. This will help you provide the most motivational incentives.
Wrapping Up the ways to make your old and new employees feel motivated.
We all need inspiration and encouragement to give our best. This is necessary for optimum productivity and profit in the work environment. Companies with highly motivated employees make up to 27% higher profits— this is some high profit, and you can get in on it.
You can keep your employees motivated and active at all times. These simplified strategies can be adapted to help motivate and keep your old and new employees inspired to give in their best.
Your employees are your asset. Keep them motivated.
Author Bio Martins Favour is a creative content writer with over five years of experience writing SEO content for various brands. She finds a home in weaving worlds out of words. Stories are her life and LinkedIn is her favourite tool.
Communication is crucial in any organization, which is why any size or scale of business should invest in a practical business phone system. These systems become an integral part of your business operation where you realize your business will run smoothly, thanks to its many features. However, since a few business phone systems are available in the market today, choosing which one would fit your business needs can be confusing.
The key is assessing your business first, how often you need to communicate internally and externally and what would lead to more cost savings. After all, these phone systems require money—installation fees, monthly subscriptions, or phone bills. If you want to get to know their features and compare the different business phone system choices available today, use this article as your brief guide.
Types Of Business Phone Systems
Business phone systems are always more effective than traditional ones, no matter your business size. You can choose a business phone system for several reasons. Which system is best for your business depends on your needs. Choosing different phones systems from various providers can help you decide which phone system is best. Hence, before selecting the right business phone system, consider your company’s future and how it will grow. Here are the different options to consider:
VoIP Phone System
Systems like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) use the company’s existing internet connection rather than copper wires like landlines. Without hefty costs, you can benefit from expensive features that were only made available to larger companies in the past. VoIP phone systems today can allow you to enjoy advanced calling features like automated call attendants, CRM integration, queues, and more. You can access voicemails on your company smartphone too.
The business’s phone system is accessible to remote workers via VoIP systems. VoIP is a sophisticated phone system with all the features you need for easy daily communications. Compared with landline systems, these systems are easy to install and configure. A small business looking for the components of a sophisticated phone system at an affordable price won’t be disappointed when using the VoIP phone system.
You’ll need to decide how you want to have your VoIP system hosted if you choose a VoIP system. Unlike landline systems, with physical installations in the office, you can integrate VoIP systems with other software and systems if you plan to rent or subscribe to a VoIP provider. Businesses can indeed improve productivity with VoIP.
PBX Phone System
Private Branch Exchange (PBX) is another business phone network. It allows users to communicate easily using internal telephone lines and to receive and make external calls. There are promising features for this phone system, too, like call forwarding, call queuing, automated attending, and so on. In addition, you can operate a PBX phone system through VoIP or digital landlines. The difference with the VoIP phone system is that this is an on-premise device not connected to any data network.
Multi-Line Phone System
Another good telephone option for your business is a multi-line phone system. Multiple people can use the same phone line simultaneously if it has multiple lines. It also allows you to handle multiple calls simultaneously. You can use it to communicate both internally with colleagues or externally with partners and clients. In multi-line telephone systems, audio data goes through between two parties simultaneously.
Similar to a traditional one-line phone, a multi-line system transmits audio packets over telephone wires. The only difference is that it will allow you to communicate on multiple lines. This system is also an ideal telephone system choice if your employees are all displaced from the office. Using this method, you can attach a second phone or phone line.
Additionally, suppose you only need another line. In that case, you can use a line splitter to connect to another phone or device. Plugging the splitter into the phone jack and inserting the phone cable into one of the ports is all it takes to set up your system. Unlike the other two phone system technology, this is more conventional and similar to landlines.
Features Of Business Phone Systems
Communication is vital in making your business successful, and each employee has a different communication style. To help you communicate effectively, you must make tools and phone systems available to make communication seamless for different parties. While the features of business phone systems may vary depending on the type, here are the most common features and functions:
Basic Features
You should expect the following essential features from any phone system you choose: caller ID, conference calling, extension dialing, call forwarding, and call transferring. Depending on the operator, some of these basic features can help improve your operations or remain useless. However, checking the essential elements when selecting the best telephone system is vital.
Voicemail
Since customers have different schedules, it might be challenging to contact them in real time. Hence, it’s essential to leave a voicemail instead. Regarding this call feature, there are now additional features for voicemails. For example, you can send messages via email or text message and even have them transcribed. Make sure these features are helpful for your type of business.
Call Routing
A sales or service business must have this feature. The company may lose a potential sale if a customer goes to voicemail instead of speaking to a human. When an agent is busy answering an incoming call, calls can be routed to the available agents, reducing potential customer wait time. In addition, call routing ensures that all your customers will be spoken to, increasing customer satisfaction.
Integration
One of the best features of advanced phone systems is customer relationship management (CRM) integration. You can integrate CRMs with business phone systems easily to increase efficiency. Making and receiving calls will no longer require employees to switch from your CRM to the phone system app. Integrating your phone solution with your CRM can help achieve seamless information flow. Therefore, you can access all your communications from the same place. This saves time and makes the call more productive, and your employees can tend to the callers easily.
Conclusion
With today’s technological advancements, there are tools and features for whatever a business may be seeking. Whether your business goes with a PBX system, a multi-line landline, or hosted VoIP—you can’t go wrong. First, however, you must focus on customer communication. Next, assess the importance of communication in your company and decide which kind of phone system is most beneficial for your operations. By understanding the different types of phone systems and their features, you can now better choose and decide which one to go for.
Guide to Business Success and How Businesses Succeed
Every entrepreneur wants to create a successful and profitable business; this is a basic and obvious statement. But what does not seem too obvious to most small business owners is how to run a successful small business. To succeed in business today, you need to be flexible and have good planning and organizational skills. Many people start a business thinking that they’ll turn on their computers or open their doors and start making money, only to find that making money in a business doesn’t just happen as such. In this article, we’d look at business success – what business success is all about, how businesses succeed, and some key tips you can apply to your business to achieve business success. So, keep reading.
Business Success Definition
A successful business makes efficient and effective use of resources like human capital, money, inventory, plant, and equipment. A successful business is a living, breathing organism that contributes to everyone’s wealth and quality of life. It is crucial to remember that business success is never a certainty or a final goal. It is a journey that never ends since any one of the factors that could have an impact on a business’s success could alter at any time.
Business Success Dimensions
Personal: For entrepreneurs, the process of creation – starting with an idea and producing something that lasts – provides immense gratification. Seeing your family name on the corporation gives you a sense of ownership. Successfully confronting problems and, as a result, discovering abilities and strengths you didn’t know you possessed are undoubtedly parts of personal success in business.
Financial: Successful businesses provide a significant return on investment for the shareholders who put their money into the endeavor. The company’s founders, who are typically also stockholders, can produce riches for their families and future stability while simultaneously living a more wealthy lifestyle. They define success as being able to offer a better life for their children than they had for themselves when they were younger.
Social: Business success is also measured by the benefit they provide to society. Some of the products and services they provide have explicit social purposes, such as helping the environment or offering educational opportunities for children. Others are really dedicated to philanthropic giving and becoming good corporate citizens.
Longevity: With the number of organizations that fail or start off strong only to falter in the competitive marketplace a few years later, the capacity to sustain success in the tumultuous, ever-changing business environment is another measure of corporate success.
Customer Satisfaction: Many of the goods and services we use every day were established to assist clients in solving an issue. Seeing that your goods have made a major difference in the lives of your consumers is one of the driving elements that keeps company owners working persistently to build even better solutions. Praise from delighted clients creates a sense of success that is as significant to some company owners as the financial gains they get.
Employee Satisfaction: Business owners can be able to assess whether the satisfaction of their employees is their topmost concern by assessing how hard their workers work and how dedicated each member of their team is to the goals of the business. This component of business success is measured by how many employees stay with the company for five, ten, or more years – sometimes their whole career.
How Businesses Succeed
Certain key attributes make a business successful and can be synthesized into a stepwise process of how businesses succeed.
1. Pursuing a defined mission
The purpose of a small business is critical to the operation of all areas of the organization. It assists the entrepreneurs in growing the firm with a large aim in mind. It offers employees something to strive for and provides them a feeling of purpose. It also informs clients about the company’s values and fosters personal relationships.
Your goal is more than just a flag proclaiming your support for something. Your company should operate by its goal.
2. Pursuing long-term goals
Successful businesses have both short- and long-term goals. Long-term goals are vital, whether they be investments in new technology that will not be available for several years or aiming for a particular level of growth in the next decade. Instead of bouncing from tiny success to small success, a long-term aim integrates those modest victories into a larger image.
3. Focusing on customers
The most successful businesses prioritize customer care and the customer experience. The first stage is to develop items and services that clients desire. However, concentrating on customers extends beyond your products. Customers are fed up with dealing with businesses via phone menus and automated chat bots. They are looking for a human connection. A consumer wants to know that their company is appreciated and that you will endeavor to address their difficulties. A few negative client experiences may have a significant influence on how well-liked a company is.
4. Retaining employee talent
Good managers help a successful business maintain good personnel on the payroll. Another approach is to create a purpose with strong core principles in which workers may believe. The most successful businesses identify and seek to retain their top employees. That entails more than just good compensation and a few perks.
Offering additional training opportunities and other incentives such as telecommuting days are common approaches for businesses to retain their finest employees. Another example is benefit packages that provide flexible sick and vacation day options. Finally, employees must be aware that chances for advancement, such as moving up the ladder or laterally within the business, exist. You won’t lose someone to a similar position at another firm this way.
5. Employing a great management team
Successful businesses, large and small, require effective management, from the top down to foremen and shift supervisors. Quality leaders provide communication, a natural business culture, and clear goals and objectives to their staff. Criticism is constructive, and employees feel appreciated while also knowing where they need to improve. A good leader embodies the corporate culture, follows norms and rules and serves as an example to workers. Finally, successful leaders make their staff feel appreciated.
Being a bad leader isn’t just about making poor decisions for the company. In fact, a bad leader can make good financial or marketing decisions, yet lead a team of miserable employees. From failing to empathize with an employee who struggles to communicate in an unclear or frustrating manner, bad leaders inspire employees to quit or switch departments left and right.
In picking out leaders at your business, it is important to have an expert who whispers advice and coaches you on what suitable steps you can take.
Do you need the services of a small business coach for your business? Then click here to book a free callwith one of our small business coaches now.
6. Keeping detailed financial records
Financial records are an important part of how businesses succeed. Businesses must have a clear understanding of how much money they make and spend. Keeping track of money allows organizations to identify beneficial tendencies as well as potential financial hazards. Businesses that understand their finances might choose to invest, seek innovations, or pay for new equipment or suppliers. It is also how firms determine when they need to hire extra employees.
7. Continuous innovation
People will imitate you if you make a high-quality product. That’s why the most successful businesses are always inventing, whether it’s improving on existing items or creating totally new ones.
Improving a product, finding a means to give a reduced price, or inventing new ways to express gratitude to clients are all examples of effective innovations. Never give up on amazing ideas.
15 Keys to Business Success
1. Provide a Great Product or Service
While marketing is important for building excitement and increasing visitors to your brand, it can only get you so far. Once the consumers arrive, the items or services must be good enough to meet or exceed their expectations. This is how you develop a lifelong repeat consumer who will aid the business by spreading the word.
Making consumers become brand ambassadors is one of the most successful and cost-effective strategies to get a small business noticed. However, this can only happen if the service is of high quality and, most all, delivers an amazing solution to a real problem that fits a market demand. Many entrepreneurs have created mind-blowing and unique goods that fail, while others with a simple idea dominate the market – Why? Perhaps the first group became so focused on the end product that they forgot to resolve an issue, whereas the second group solved a common problem to which many potential buyers can connect.
2. Focus on Customer Service
A NewVoiceMedia research found that 51% of customers won’t do business with a company again following a negative service encounter. Additional research also shows that it usually takes numerous happy customers to make up for one unhappy one.
Make providing excellent customer service a top priority since devoted consumers are much simpler to sell to. To make sure that your small business is offering a service that is superior to that of your rivals, evaluate your existing customer service and implement the necessary modifications. You could need to spend money on employee training, change your return policy, or make simple adjustments like immediately answering consumer voicemails or emails.
3. Expand Your Marketing Efforts
You must use effective marketing to boost your sales, but doing so doesn’t have to be expensive. There are several low-cost alternatives to sell your goods and services, such as:
Advertising your business on your vehicle with a vehicle wrap
Cold calling (yes it can still work)
Creating and using a promotion kit
Developing business partnerships and doing cross-promotion with complementary businesses
Giving free workshops or classes related to your products or services
Involving the newspapers in your grand openings, moves, or charity events
Joining professional organizations
Sending out promotions with your invoices
4. Do Your Research
Business is never simply business; it must be extremely personal as well. This is not to say that entrepreneurs should throw caution to the wind and launch firms based simply on their own opinions. For example, you may believe that walking a cat on a leash is a terrific idea, but will a cat leash business be successful? Gut instincts are useful, but they are not the same as information. It is derived from data, which is derived through study. How large is the prospective consumer base, and what qualities do these people have? To effectively target customer profiles, it is vital to understand what drives and motivates them. One of the most important factors to small company success is research.
The competitive assessment is another important part of the research. To establish a brand that meets the demands of the market, you must first comprehend the playing field. Here are some questions to think about asking:
Are there any companies that may be considered competitors?
What can you learn from your rivals?
Is there one that sticks out as a leader in the industry?
If so, how did they rise to the top?
What were the secrets to their small company’s success?
Have they made any errors that you might have avoided?
5. Update Your Business Plan
One of the key factors for business success is to regularly update your business plan.
Before establishing your business, you did create a business plan, correct? For several reasons, including determining the viability of your business idea and obtaining a loan or equity funding, a business plan is essential for startups.
It’s not too late to make one if you haven’t already. Successful, well-established companies revise their business plans every year to assess their successes (or lack thereof) and choose new objectives or paths.
The income statement, the cash flow forecast, and the balance sheet, which is all included in the business plan’s financial section, provide an overview of your company’s financial health. From there, you may decide how to increase sales, decrease losses, or reduce costs to make your company more lucrative. You require a strategy to achieve your goals if you want your company to be more successful.
6. Keep Things Organized
This point cannot be overstated. Access to information quickly and effectively will make a huge impact in the everyday operations of a small business, whether it is through a real file cabinet or an ordered digital folder structure in your computer. It is strongly advised to retain individual folders for each part of the business that are suitably labeled and structured in a way that makes sense to you and is intuitive enough for everyone in the firm to access as needed. Backups of digital information are very critical, particularly when it comes to financial data. It is critical to keep them in a secure location to avoid potentially catastrophic circumstances later on.
7. Detailed Record Keeping
Proper bookkeeping allows you to understand the financial health of your company and what may become an issue in the future. It might be the difference between becoming a success story for a small business or not. At the same time, it can help to envision future forecasts and aid in company planning. You must grasp how much money the company makes and how much it sells. While many entrepreneurs consider hiring an accountant to perform their taxes as needed, understanding your statistics entails much more. You must be able to make changes to your business every quarter to ensure that you stay on pace to meet your annual goals.
It pays to clean up your records when it comes to excellent tax record keeping. Here are three other ways that accurate records might benefit a small business owner:
Identify income sources: Using the books, you should be able to distinguish between business and non-business revenues and taxable and nontaxable income.
Maintain a record of deductible expenses: everything should be noted as it happens to prevent leaving anything out when completing tax returns.
Support items listed on tax forms: If the IRS requests extra explanation on the items reported on the tax returns, a comprehensive collection of precise and thorough documents will be crucial to speeding the inspection.
8. Keep Focus & Have Patience
Here’s another amazing small company success tip: to help you stay to a plan and avoid distractions, make a “to-do list” every night before going to bed and attack it first thing in the morning. However, it is critical to create a realistic to-do list in order to avoid setting yourself up for failure.
Maintaining focus on a specific objective is critical to achieving business success. The overarching aim must be determined, and smaller milestones must be established along the route.
That being said, it is equally critical to be resilient, not just in the face of everyday problems, but also in the face of overall company success expectations. Most successful firms do not emerge quickly; it may take years for a company to reach its full potential and become a small business success story.
9. Be Prepared to Make Tough Decisions
Every business owner must make sacrifices for the betterment of the company. However, there may come a time when the most difficult decision you must make is to set your ego aside. Pride may be fatal to a business, and not all decisions will always reflect your values and ideals. And, while a small business owner should have substantial personal and emotional stakes in the company, these should not be the driving force behind every daily decision. You should realize when you need assistance and acknowledge that there are individuals who may know more about some parts of the business than you do.
It is OK to seek assistance as a business owner. You must be willing to leave your ego at the door and listen to what others have to say, especially if it comes from your consumer or business coach. It is difficult to approach a problem with humility and an open mind, but it is the greatest way to make smart business decisions.
10. Keep Your Overhead to a Minimum
One of the keys to small company success is cash. Most business owners recognize the importance of capital liquidity as the first line of defense against any unanticipated issue. However, not all small firms can maintain a substantial enough reserve to sustain unexpected income losses or expenditure spikes.
A decent rule of thumb is to not increase the company’s overhead above what its cash reserves can support. It is far simpler to expand the firm as cash liquidity improves, rather than being forced to reduce later because the business couldn’t afford its overhead expenditures in an emergency.
11. Know the Operational Needs
You must understand everything about your company, and this knowledge should not be restricted to figures. It is critical to understand what the organization needs to function efficiently. Employees, equipment, supplies, and everything else required are all included. However, there is also the intangible factor to consider. Efficient operations and inventory management may have a significant impact on operating expenses. Researching best practices in a certain market and testing to see what works best for the firm (by trial & error) may be a time-consuming and laborious task. However, it will increase the profitability and performance of your company.
12. Build Your Online Presence
Your small business has to have an online presence since it is very quick and simple to create a professional-looking website. According to statistics from the E-commerce Wiki, 88 percent of shoppers now do their shopping research online before going to the store.
Many small businesses only need a basic website that outlines who you are, what you do, and how to get in touch with you. Your website should at the very least include:
A summary of what you do—your products and services
Your mission, e.g. “We make the best pizza in town…”
Social media may also be a terrific tool for marketing your company, depending on your target demographic. For the majority of businesses today, creating an online presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram isn’t really optional for some businesses these days.
13. Hire the Right People and Treat Them Well
This is one of those areas that may come under making difficult decisions, but the organization must have A+ team players. All small business success stories have one thing in common: they understand that the people they recruit are critical to their company’s success. Every employee at a small firm, more than in a huge corporation, must be trusted to perform his or her daily tasks with as little monitoring as possible. To reduce overhead costs to a minimum, the structure must be as lean as feasible. As a result, no small business can afford to squander a job by recruiting the wrong person. The converse case, however, is true. No small business can afford to lose a top-notch employee. So, create a team and treat them nicely. Listen to them and assist them in growing.
14. Always Look to Improve
To achieve business success, stay away from becoming complacent and innovation-blind. It’s time to start searching for methods to improve once things get going well and the company finds its rhythm. Perhaps it involves adding a new item, developing a special taste, automating a manual step in the process, or opening during more hours. Whatever it is, keep in mind that there is always an opportunity for development in any company. To prevent becoming stagnant, you must remain active. Innovation is crucial to your success as a small firm.
15. Build Word of Mouth for Your Business
Word of mouth is more crucial than ever, whether you run your business in a small town or a big city. Building a solid reputation is essential to the success of your business because the majority of customers use the internet to research businesses before choosing where to purchase.
How can you spread good word of mouth? By offering excellent, professional service, establishing and maintaining a solid local (and online) reputation, and obtaining recognition by supporting and sponsoring neighborhood groups and charities. This all adds up towards lasting business success.
So, there you have it. We trust you found this article helpful.
Do you need help taking action on all this information? Then book a free call with one of our small business coaches today. Click here to schedule a business breakthrough session now.
There’s a considerable difference between big businesses and small businesses regarding their resources and know-how with content marketing, and this affects how successful their campaigns are. Of course, it’s only natural to think that larger companies are going to be more successful at content marketing campaigns because they have more money to invest in the effort. It’s even easier to become discouraged, thinking “let’s just leave content marketing to the big guys” — but this is a mistake.
Small businesses can make excellent headway with content marketing thanks to the internet. Small businesses may not have substantial marketing budgets or big teams to execute their marketing strategies. However, they can still increase sales, attract new customers, and grow brand awareness with a bit of gumption.
Don’t allow what your small business lacks to stop you from taking advantage of content marketing. Instead, focus on making strategic content creation and distribution choices that are true to your brand and in alignment with your target audience’s desires.
Here’s why content marketing is a good choice for small businesses.
Scale Your Marketing Strategy
First, content marketing can boost your overall marketing strategy. Not only will you be required to reevaluate your company goals, but you’ll also have to establish clear marketing objectives that support your overarching marketing strategy.
When you set company-wide goals, attach them to smaller marketing plans and define each department’s role, it ensures each person has direction, productivity gets better, and your business’s bottom line improves. These goals are generally going to be based on problems that need to be solved, and you can even take a visual approach when defining these goals with a visual problem-solving flowchart:
First, draw a shape that represents the problem you’re trying to solve.
Then draw a shape that represents a goal or a decision, and ask yes-or-no questions concerning these goals.
Based on these answers, you’ll connect the possible paths you can take to work through the steps and individual processes.
Keep going down these paths and asking questions until you’re able to narrow them down to goals that could feasibly solve the original problem.
Select the goal you’d like to commit to, and then pursue it. If it doesn’t ultimately work, you can review this process and analyze what might have gone wrong, as well as select a new, more viable goal.
Additionally, it’s crucial to map out how you’re going to track your marketing team’s productivity and how they work together with other departments. By doing so, you create bandwidth in your business for content marketing and establish a workflow that supports a solid customer experience with your marketing.
Next, content marketing can make it easier to build a customer base.
Build a Customer Base
Instead of relying on word-of-mouth or traditional marketing efforts, you can reach more people with good content.
You can publish content across various channels and platforms, extending your reach beyond local, state, and even international lines. In addition, you can build a community of people that support your business and are loyal advocates of your brand with a solid content marketing strategy.
Furthermore, not only can you create a customer base, but you can learn more about it through content marketing.
Learn More About Your Target Audience
When you create and distribute content, you have access to more data about your target audience and how they engage with your brand and business. It’s integral to not just your content marketing strategy but your overall marketing goals and business plan, to continually learn about your target audience.
By setting up data analytics tools to track the performance of your content and how your target audience engages with it, you’ll be able to make insightful adjustments to your strategy when needed.
You also have more creative freedom in a small business content marketing strategy.
Exercise Creative Freedom
There is a lot of room for creativity in a small business’s content marketing strategy. The marketing department in a small business is usually a one-person show, a small team, or run by the owner.
You don’t have to get permission from someone higher up about content marketing decisions when you call the shots. Instead, you can take creative risks with content, experiment with various platforms, and try out different distribution methods at will.
Another way content marketing can help your small business is by establishing your brand as an expert.
Establish Your Brand as an Expert
You can establish your brand as an expert when you do content marketing right. By constantly churning out entertaining, educational, helpful, interactive content, you’ll have a better chance at establishing trust-filled relationships with members of your target audience.
Content can also be the difference between becoming a thought leader in your industry or remaining in the shadows of big businesses. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you truly know what you’re talking about, or you’ll get called out for it, and may achieve the opposite of your goals. Failure to understand your industry is one of the most grow brand awareness, so make sure you don’t look like a newbie or a chump by brushing up on industry knowledge.
Lastly, content marketing helps your small business work on brand consistency.
Work on Brand Consistency
Consistency is critical when building brand awareness. You want people to recognize your brand no matter how or where they encounter it. Ensuring your brand is represented the same in your content can help.
Content marketing helps you work on your brand consistency. You’ll have to nail down the messaging, brand voice, guidelines for visuals, and other brand elements you’ll include in your content to be as consistent as possible.
Ultimately, when you prioritize brand consistency in your content marketing, it’ll be easier for your target audience to identify your brand through your content, no matter the platform or channel.
Conclusion
Content marketing is beneficial to small businesses looking to scale their marketing strategies while staying within budget and within the realm of what their small teams can produce.
It can also help you build a sizeable customer base, learn more about your target audience, and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. It will take some time, but your small business can leverage content marketing effectively with a bit of creativity, brand consistency, and dedication.
