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Small Business Guide to Outsourcing

Leave a Comment / Startups /

Outsourcing is a great way for small businesses to expand the services they offer as quickly as possible. It allows them to offer a range of different services to help them run their business smoothly without having to do it all themselves. It is a good idea to consider outsourcing before you even think about recruiting for other employees, particularly if your business is in its infancy, or you’re not sure whether a new service will work for your long-term. There are many different services that are covered through outsourcing, such as, administration, IT services, web design, SEO, customer support, sales, payroll, accounting, marketing, social media, human relations, public relations and content creation. Which you choose to do in house and which you outsource depends entirely on your business.

Outsourcing your accounts 

One of the main services that you may need to consider outsourcing is accounting. It is a good idea to outsource accounting at the beginning when you are first expanding your business, especially before you start to hire employees to help you to run your business. It is perfectly fine to handle the accounts yourself. However, it is always a good idea to outsource a professional to handle the accounting side of things as mistakes can be very costly in the long run and could end up costing you dearly.

Marketing help 

Another important service that you could benefit from outsourcing at the beginning before expanding your business is marketing. Marketing plays a key role in how successful your business will be. There are many branches of marketing that need to be covered to ensure that you are running a successful business such as online and offline marketing and social media marketing. To ensure that all areas of marketing are covered effectively it would be very beneficial to hire a professional to make sure that you have not missed anything. 

IT Assistance

One service that you might want to consider outsourcing is IT services. IT services are important for every company whether they are big or small as they ensure to help keep your services up and running without any major issues. Having an IT department can be very costly for any company and is most likely out of the question for smaller companies. Therefore it might be more advisable and beneficial to outsource for IT services to lower the costs. 

Web Design

It could also be beneficial to outsource your web design. Having a well-designed website that is properly maintained could be the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful business. If your website is full of bugs and does not draw in your target audience, then you are not going to get the response that you were hoping for, so it is wise to outsource a service that covers this before you look into employing other members of staff. This can be done as part of your marketing services in some cases, so you may be able to get both of these services covered by the same person/company.

To summarise, it is important to make sure you carefully consider which services you outsource during the beginning stages of your business. One important thing to make sure that you do when outsourcing different services is to heavily research the service that you want to outsource to ensure that you find the right company to help you get the most out of your business and not just go for the cheapest option available. 

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What are the qualifications I need to get a job as a carer?

Leave a Comment / Career /

A job as a carer usually evolves with experience, but do you need qualifications to begin with? Find out here.

A job as a carer usually involves helping a vulnerable individual with personal care tasks, like washing, dressing and using the toilet. Live in care for an older person  may also involve food preparation, feeding and giving medication as well as housework, laundry and shopping if caring for someone in their own home. As a home care operative, you might be asked to be help your client to socialise and access outside activities, enabling them to find ways to continue doing the things that they enjoy.

Will I need a formal qualification?

Although some employers will request a relevant qualification, a good carer is generally considered to be somebody who has the right qualities as a person, rather than the right qualifications to provide private care at home. However, having some good basic qualifications will help you secure the best jobs and a rewarding career in the care sector. A First Aid training certificate and – in the UK – an NVQ in Health and Social Care are a good starting point A good carer is also somebody who can relate to people from a wide variety of different backgrounds, can communicate clearly with people (both their elderly client and family members), show patience, respect and sensitivity. It’s also a bonus to be able to remain calm under pressure.

If an employer does request qualifications, this will usually be an NVQ 2 in care or a diploma in health and social care. However, if your potential employer is convinced that you are the right person for the job they will often be more concerned about whether you are willing to work towards a qualification on the job rather than already having one. The standard areas of a care qualification include values, safe care, supported living, communication and handling information. The NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) scheme has now changed to the QCF (Quality and Credit Framework) scheme and this too will be replaced in early 2018 by the RQF (Regulated Qualifications Framework). Although this all sounds a little complicated, the principles of learning and the majority of the content will remain the same. The schemes enable you to earn credits. Each credit requires around 10 hours of learning. These credits build up to make units and units build towards qualifications. On average, a level 2 qualification will take around a year to complete. This qualification then stays with you and will be recognised in other places of work as well as the care sector if you choose to be a carer long-term.

The Care Certificate

All employees new to care work are required to complete new, standardised training called the Care Certificate. This is made up of 15 components that are key to developing skills as a carer. Once the Care Certificate has been achieved, it will be recognised by other employers so is a great thing to have on your CV. Although the Care Certificate is not accredited, elements of it will count towards a QCF if they are witnessed by a qualified assessor.

Experience

Just as important as a qualification is experience. Employers will place a lot of emphasis on evidence of experience. It is this experience which will help your know if being a carer is right for you as well as demonstrate that to your employer. This doesn’t have to be purely care based. Evidencing customer service skills, where you needed to be friendly, professional and helpful will be valued by employers. The principle of looking after customers is along the same lines as looking after clients that you would be caring for. Experience of caring for someone at home, perhaps a family member or friend is also very meaningful as it shows you have an understanding of what is required when looking after a vulnerable person.

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Getting more value from Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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Unlike employing an SEO consultant, the decision to implement a CRM is not one to be taken lightly and even a small implementation of Microsoft Dynamics can be a considerable chunk of your annual IT budget.

Which is why it is important to be using it to the fullest extent. A CRM that is used as a glorified customer database is an extremely expensive white elephant but a CRM deployed across the whole company could increase productivity, decrease errors and improve customer satisfaction.

But how do you go about getting the most from Microsoft?

Get Up to Speed

Microsoft Dynamics is immensely powerful but that means you can’t expect to learn it by trial and error. It is essential that everyone in the sales process using the system is provided with sales training, both on the actual mechanics of “How do I do that?” and on the underlying methodology of “Why are we doing that?”

Tailor it to your needs

The only right way to run a business is the one that keeps the business alive. Whilst there are reams and reams of books and blogs telling you how to run your company you will no doubt have settled on a combination of techniques that you and your staff are happy with.

Which is why Microsoft Dynamics allows you to expand its capabilities by adding on apps. Do you use SCOTSMAN commitment measuring techniques? There’s an app for that . Do you use Social Media? Get the app to manage your social marketing. Need to monitor MailChimp? Guess what – there’s an app for that too.

Just like you’d be wasting your money buying an iPhone and only using it for phone calls you get the most out of Microsoft Dynamics when you add on apps to extend what it can offer.

Automate your sales pipeline

Microsoft Dynamics, naturally, integrates with Office so you can automate the creation of documents without needing to leave the CRM. This has two major benefits: firstly, you can keep all your interactions with a particular client together so you can see at a glance what stage of the sales cycle you’ve reached; and secondly, you minimise errors caused by transferring data from one system to another. This reduces the amount of time your sales people are spending on admin tasks whist improving the customer experience by speeding up responses and reducing errors.

Use mobile apps

Microsoft Dynamics has a mobile interface meaning your employees can access the CRM data wherever they are. Site visits – both sales and aftersales – can be logged immediately before the rep has a chance to forget what occurred and without the possibility of errors caused during transcription of paper records. It also allows them to be familiar with all interactions between the customer and your company – even if the customer rang in with an issue after your rep left the office. Attention to detail on this scale improves the customer experience which leads to greater customer satisfaction and better customer retention.

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small business failure rate

SURPRISE! 95% Failure Rate – Small Businesses

Leave a Comment / Business Success, Small Business Tips /

What shouldn’t be a surprise is that the number of small businesses are currently seeing hyper-growth!  There are millions of people out of work that are trying to figure out what their “plan B” is and that often means starting a small business.

Unfortunately, if 1,000,000 people start a business such as a technical SEO firm, this year only 50,000 will come out victorious.  There are several factors for these numbers but I think the biggest is the lack of knowledge and training, and an awareness of the best ways of improving the profitability of your small business.

“Old School” Vs “New School”

Old School

I started my first business over 10 years ago at the age of 21. I had a good idea – I asked all the people I knw what they thought of the idea and they also thought it would work. Many of my good friends and all of my family were encouraging about my business idea because they wanted to make me feel good about myself. But they weren’t giving me honest feedback – perhaps not surprising really.

But I thought it was a good idea, I was encouraged to think that by friends and family and when it didn’t work I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. Surely everyone needed this unique product/service – I bet many of you have been there yourselves – not understanding why you’re not selling such a great product/service.

New School

As I’m sure you have probably figured out I was not very successful at building my business using the old school approach.  I worked my butt off for 16 months, spent thousands of dollars on products and training materials and produced a total of (drum roll please)…..ZERO profit for my business.  Needless to say, I felt like a complete failure and I quit.   At the time, I never thought I would start another business again.

It was not until early 2011 that I finally realized that anyone can be successful in business if they know how to market themselves using the internet.  The philosophy was fairly simple.  It is called Digital Marketing and the idea is to attract attention for your product or service from all over the web.

Needless to say, after applying this methodology and philosophy to my new business I started seeing tremendous results.  Currently, my business organization is close to surpassing 200 employees!  On top of that, I have increased my product offering so that I have spread my risk and have different income streams into my business.

Final Thoughts

If you are struggling to get your business off the ground you need to start applying online marketing methods to your business.  Learn the technique and grow your business using the power of the internet.  Yes, you still can build a business using the “old school” methods but why waste your time?  There are millions of people searching the web every single day for leaders in every industry.  Position yourself as a leader and start helping others all over the world with their businesses!

As more and more people start to realize that you can successfully build a business using the power of the internet you can bet that the 95% failure rate will continue to drop.

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A Job As A Live-in Carer – Could It Be Right For You?

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Working as a live-in carer is a very rewarding role with high levels of job satisfaction. It may not be the first job that springs to mind when you embark on your career in the caring profession but it has many advantages both personally and professionally over the more typical care roles on residential care homes and nursing homes.

For a start the people that are being cared for overwhelmingly want to stay in their own homes if they can when they become old and frail so you are already helping someone achieve this aim. According to the Better At Home report from the Live-in Care Hub, 99% of people say that live-in care helps them continue to live a happy and fulfilling life even with illness and frailty.

However, the role of a carer of any kind requires certain personal traits, skills and attitudes that not everyone possesses. Of course, you have to be compassionate and empathetic to provide senior care but you also need a good dose of common-sense and practical skills such as cooking tasty, home-cooked meals. You also have to effectively take on the role of companion as well as carer, which might mean taking you elderly client on trips to the shops, library, doctors or community clubs – it is a job that requires true dedication but which, in return, is truly rewarding. A live-in carer can make such a significant difference to how an old person can live their life in their golden years.

What Skills and Personal Qualities Are Required  To Be A Live-in Carer?

Experience of some sort in the health sector is always valuable but not a necessity as most live-in care agencies and providers do offer training when necessary. Live-in carers come from all walks of life – they may be nurses, care workers previously based in a residential or nursing home; equally they may have cared for their own elderly relatives before and decide it is a role they would like to take further.

Some are young students from abroad who find they can combine caring for someone else with their studies – often enabling them to live in pleasant areas in cities and towns they would have struggled to afford if they had to pay rent. This can be a perfect way to gain valuable experience in the caring profession whilst also studying for relevant qualifications so they can avoid the problem suffered by so many newly qualified young adults who have qualifications but no experience so find it hard to secure a good job.

Whatever walk of life a live-in or in-home carer comes from they the most important quaoties they can possess are:

  • Compassion
  • Dedication
  • A positive outlook
  • Willingness to work hard
  • Common-sense

They also need to be physically fit and be able to work happily on their own.

What About Ongoing Support?

Of course, training in such an important role is essential but so too is ongoing support while working in the job, and also continuing professional development to help you develop in your career. Live-in care agencies and providers have a duty of care to their client which means they will always help the carer deal with any difficult situations and where there are complex care needs they will provide support, for instance in the form of an additional carer with specialist skills for medical conditions such as dementia or Parkinsons disease.

All in all a job as a live-in carer is extremely rewarding, you will receive training and gain recognised qualifications, as well as ongoing support to develop your career as a carer to its fullest extent.

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WordPress - benefits of using it for business

WordPress | It’s Kind Of A Big Deal

Leave a Comment / Business Training /

I’m not sure if you’ve heard or not but WordPress  is kind of a big deal.  After hearing a tremendous amount of buzz in the industry about it I just had to check it out for myself. I was a bit skeptical as I’ve had my fingers and my wallet burned with other products but I figured I would find out what all the fuss was about. After all I’d seen great looking blogs such as projectmanagementworks.co.uk created quickly and easily by people I knew with no tech know-how at all so it had to be worth a shot to help develop my own project management and business training blog.

Have your friends ever hyped up a movie so much that you couldn’t wait to see it? Halfway through the movie you start to get a little upset because the movie is the worst thing that you have ever seen? At the end of the movie you feel completely deflated because you just wasted two hours of your life watching an over-hyped movie.

Trust me, this online industry is full of over-hyped products that do not deliver what they promise. I proceeded with caution…

What Makes WordPress such a Big Deal?

Once I had completed an online training course I wanted to test drive how quickly and easily I could set up a WordPress site – both as a website and as a blogging platform.  The great thing about WordPress themes is that you can create a well-designed looking website in minutes with a well-chosen theme but you  can also customize them and make them your own.

They also have hosting so that you can set up a custom domain for your site.  I was beginning to see why WordPress was creating such buzz in the industry.

After setting up my site I ventured into the area of plugins and I was beyond shocked at how many additional features were there – all at the click of a button.  In the past, folks would take weeks to get websites up and running but they wouldn’t have any traffic going to their websites.  It’s like opening a restaurant and not having any customers walk through the front door.  But with WordPress you are given a plethora of tools that you can use to get targeted traffic to your site.

Whether you want to upload Images, Articles, Videos, Training Podcasts or Blogs there is an easy way to do so.

The Final Verdict

After using several systems in the past I can honestly say that WordPress under promises and over delivers.  I could easily write a 100 page eBook on WordPress and everything that it has to offer the small business owner of blogger.  It is an incredible system that allows you to build your business’s online presence quickly and easily.

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building a successful business

Top 5 Leadership Books Of All Time

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Effective leadership is arguably the holy grail of business and makes all the difference in whether a business thrives or merely coasts. Many books, papers and articles have been written on this topic over the years which creates the dilemma of which is likely to be informative and inspiring and which is destined for the recycling bin.

Read on for our selection on which leadership books are, in our opinion worth reading for insight and inspiration, whether you are an experienced CEO or just starting out on your leadership journey.

1 Learning to Lead by Ron Williams with Karl Weber

Growing up in segregated Chicago was no barrier to Ron Williams getting to the very top of his field in health care and this book sets out to share his personal philosophies as well as useful tips on how to put yourself in the right place at the right time to progress your career.

2 Excellence Wins by Horst Schulze with Dean Merrill

The hotel business is more than most subject to the vagaries and whims of passing trends and a successful hotelier is all too aware that the hotel business is only as good as the quality, enthusiasm and ideas of their employees. Former Ritz-Carlton president Schulze understands the power of a fully committed and engaged staff who contribute towards the success of a business when their ideas and experience are taken on board by managers.

3 Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

The two ex US navy seal officers who gained valuable leadership experience and more when they led special operations units during the Iraq war bring their unique perspective on how to structure your team for success. Strong leadership is essential whether in the field of war or otherwise and the authors illustrate perfectly how to lead under fire whether real or metaphorical.

4 The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

How many of us have worked for a company or organisation where the management and leadership was at best sporadic or even non-existent and how many of us have been the ones gallantly struggling to keep things together for customers or other stakeholders. The Fifth Risk offers an insight into how much better and more successful an enterprise can be with the right leadership and support.

5 Leadership is an Art by Max De Pree

This book by the former CEO of the highly successful home and office furnishings company Herman Miller Inc is probably the definitive work on how to build the success of your business through not only hiring the right creative minds but also through placing trust in your employees and nurturing relationships. He makes the point that great leadership is not just about ‘wielding the big stick’ but instead building solid foundations from top to bottom.   

Whether you’re just starting out and unsure of your talents or whether you have innate, instinctive leadership skills we feel sure that there is always something to be gained from the wise words of those who have mastered the art. 

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home-office-couple Effective feedback

The Secret To Successful Marketing

Leave a Comment / Business Training, Small Business Tips /

The Secret to Successful Marketing

Whether you are new to online marketing or having been in the industry for several years you have probably struggled at some point.  The number one reason why most individuals fail is because they do not know how to properly market their business. But get that right and the sky if the limit. Take, for instance, the project management training company Parallel Project Training – with astute business development leadership and a dedicated digital marketing company on board, they have grown ten-fold in just a few short years. Their success has been based on a highly active online presence – on their own blog and on other reputable blogs, on social media, on YouTube with their videos and on iTunes with their lively podcasts.

The majority of marketers are still using old school methods to try and grow their business.  This includes face to facenetworking events to build a list of contacts.  If you want to be successful in any industry you need to rethink your approach and adapt to new ways of doing business and marketing.  The secret to successful marketing in the 21st century is adjusting your way of thinking to match the social networking world.

Adjusting Your Mindset

As with any industry in this world, you need to adjust your marketing and mindset to keep up with the times.  The main reason why people fail in business is because they are trying to use the techniques from 10-20 years ago.  Sure, these techniques can still be used to build a business but you are going to have a very difficult time growing that business and who wants a business that is just ticking over?

You need to adjust your way of thinking.   Sorry to burst your bubble but, unlike using an SEO consultant, good ol-fashioned networking just doesn’t cut it anymore.  The people who attend those events don’t care about your product or service because they are probably only there to sell their own product or service.  Honestly, you will make little progress if you keep marketing your business this way.  In fact, one of my close friends tried this approach on Facebook and her friend count dropped dramatically because of it.

In order to build a successful business you need to be there to assist with people’s problems.  Be a genuine individual that truly cares about helping people.  This strategy applies to both online and offline marketing.  If you think your company sponsored website is going to make you millions you are sadly mistaken.  You need to have a blog or a website that helps people solve their problems.  Help them find answers to what they are searching for.  In addition, you need to be there for your friends and family members during these tough economic times.  You will be amazed at how many people will ask YOU about your business if they see that you are successful and you are not shoving it down their throats.

Are you passionate about your company and the product or service that you offer?  Would you purchase that product if you were not a distributor?  Once you build trust with your prospects and they start asking you about your business you need to make sure that you are passionate about your company and the product that you offer.  If you have a bad product or a sub-par company it is going to be difficult promoting your opportunity – even after they approach you!

Once you have a company and a product that you honestly believe in you should have no problem building a thriving business if you apply the philosophy above.  Simply put your need to build trust and be a leader ahead of trying to sell a product or service and you will be successful. Good Luck!

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AI

How To Manage Your Emails Effectively

Leave a Comment / Startups /

As a manager your email inbox will always be full, which is why it is so important to manage it properly. Here we look at how to do this efficiently with some top tips from Ditto Digital.

Managing your work emails can be an extremely stressful activity. Not only does it take a lot of time, but it can be extremely unproductive and divert a large amount of focus away from the work you actually need to be doing.

Many management courses teach you how to be organised, but the approach you personally take to being organised is down to you, and you alone. In this article we’ll be looking at how to reduce the amount of time you spend in your inbox and how to make sure that you can focus on what needs to get done whilst still be able to use email effectively when absolutely necessary.

  1. Set aside time to deal with your emails

    The best way to keep your email under control is to allocate certain time slots for checking your inbox and replying to any important emails. It’s best to do this noo more than 3 times a day.

    If you want you can also create an automatic response to incoming emails informing the sender that you will respond in due course to prevent them thinking you are either ignoring their email or haven’t received it. Make sure your own team can communicate with you directly, in person, if they need to.
  2. Deal With It Now

    We all know the feeling, an email comes in that absolutely has to be dealt with now. First, remember that there are very few times when an immediate response is necessary – if it was an emergency then you would most likely be contacted in person or by phone. Nevertheless get into the habit of acting quickly with emails where possible so that they don’t mount up, say, reply within 48 hours where possible.
  3. Get Organised
    Making sure that your inbox is organised can be a massive help when wading through your email. Being able to filter through the emails that are potentially more important than others is key to being able to work efficiently.

    Messages from clients or senior execs? If they’re important you can handle them as soon as possible. However, messages from someone about a trivial matter can be dealt with another time if necessary.
  4. Stay Organised
    The worst thing you can do if you want to be efficient is subscribe to lots of different newsletters. Whether they’re Monthly, weekly or daily unless you really need them to help you do your work then unsubscribe – right now. If you are interested in reading certain newsletters when you have time then set up a rule to automatically move them to another folder that you can check at your leisure.

It’s not difficult to manage your emails efficiently but you just have to train yourself, change your email habits and allow yourself to become more productive.

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Managing Conflict With Those You Lead

Leave a Comment / Leadership /

Managing conflict or arbitrating through disagreements is never the fun part of being a leader. Still, even the greatest leaders have to understand how to handle conflict and, wherever possible, prevent it or manage it in such a way that workplace morale and productivity isn’t severely dented.

Conflict management is a crucial skill that every leader should acquire, and seeking mentoring, training and coaching services early in your career can help, as it can undoubtedly be challenging learning on the job.

Leadership and conflict management connections

Conflicts may not happen often, but you will undoubtedly lose the respect of your team if you don’t handle it correctly. You may lose the confidence of your superiors if it is found that conflict is severely damaging output and morale. Promoting employee happiness benefits everyone; as a leader, understanding potential conflicts you may face and strategies to handle them will help you maintain workplace harmony

You are primarily likely to face two different conflicts occurring. The first is personality clashes and conflicts between individual team members, and secondly, the conflict team members have with goals or demands placed on them or the methods required to meet those goals. 

To achieve goals, the team must understand not only the destination but also the route to get there. You will see better cooperation and achievement if methods used to complete a project successfully can be agreed upon.

Success requires clear communication both from the leader and the team. One of a leader’s primary responsibilities is to build a team that works well together and can handle differences of opinion without damaging the team’s overall well-being and usefulness. Undoubtedly, a team will comprise varying personalities, which is often essential to identify the best possible outcomes. Too similar characters can leave great ideas missed, so as a leader, you must have the ability to recognise potential conflicts and resolve them quickly. Understanding conflict management will help identify possible causes and give a chance to resolve issues before they occur or provide ways to resolve existing conflicts to ensure the team dynamics aren’t interrupted, and you keep a cohesive unit.

The benefits of sound conflict management for leaders

Even with differing opinions occasionally, a team that works together, successfully managing conflict, will achieve goals, develop strategies, and streamline processes more effectively if they are led well.

Look to assess the situation and only intervene when necessary. Some conflicts may resolve quickly without assistance. When a solution isn’t forthcoming, or the conflict persists, it is time to step in.

Create guidelines. If it is clear that certain situations always cause conflict, try establishing rules that help respectful conduct or use error accountability that defines expected behaviours and consequences when things don’t go to plan.

When you can recognise outside forces likely to cause conflicts, such as changes in work processes that may require additional support for some team members to adjust. In that case, you can establish a training program or offer support where appropriate to team cohesion. This may be enough to reduce the chances of conflicts occurring.

The essential tips for leadership conflict management are staying calm, impartial, and focusing on facts whilst maintaining boundaries. Set clear behavioural expectations and a way for team members to understand what a resolution looks like for each individual to enable the whole team to benefit.

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