Using Technology to Your Advantage

Using Technology to Your Advantage

Posted by Unknown  |  at  9:42 AM

Running Business

Using Technology to Your Advantage

Technology for Business The business world has always been a good option for many individuals who had the passion for the type of products and services they sell or market. Through the years, there had been changes in technology that was initially thought to benefit only those who have a working knowledge of information technology. There are still many ways to see how technology can benefit your business depending on how you wish to expand your business. Two common uses of technology in business transactions are marketing of products and services and electronic payments.   Electronic Commerce One business strategy that many companies use to their advantage is known as e-commerce. It is a concept where products and services are marketed through the support of information technology. Money is also exchanged in the convenience of homes and offices without need for a person to physically travel and trade. One such company who has maximized this concept is the designer label manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co. They used bar codes to tag pants according to color, styles and sizes on a database. The retailers can order the shirts, jeans and pants with the right color, style and size based on these bar codes. This system helped Levi’s increase their annual sales by up to 25 percent to 30 percent. Overhead costs have gone down considerably due to this inventory software that provide accurate inventories and minimized holding costs.   Online Payments Both business and consumers can now pay for purchases over the Internet. Payment systems have since mushroomed from PayPal to CertaPay. Payments using mobile phone technology have also surfaced that allows people to use their phones to send and receive payments. CertaPay is the first payment network that uses email with this kind and scale. The system is known as Universal Funds Transfer Platform where transactions are made through emails. Through the email, a user can send his account information including amount due. There is also a security question to answer and opportunity to send a personal message for additional instructions or information. Once the email is received, the amount is debited automatically and the same amount is credited to the recipient’s account. Most Canadians use this payment system similar to transactions made over an ATM. CertaPay profits by charging a fixed amount to each transaction completed similar to ATM fees. Security measures are in place to safeguard accounts of these individuals so they can use this system again with convenience and peace of mind.

 

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Home Office- Good or Bad?

Home Office- Good or Bad?

Posted by Unknown  |  at  9:37 AM

Running Business

Home Office- Good or Bad?

Home Office - Good or Bad? Gone are the days when most businesses had to be done in a formal office setting. Home businesses had become an option for many entrepreneurs who have found this to be a viable option than setting up a business in a commercial building or area. There are both advantages and disadvantages of moving your office in the comforts of one’s home. The option is inherently good and practical and knowing the disadvantages of a home based office can help one guard against these risks to ensure that things are in place so that businessmen and entrepreneurs find ways to counter potential risks that home based work creates for them.   Pluses to Working from Home Many individuals have found it practical to work from home which is brought about by the increased sophistication of technology, allowing employees and employers to stay in touch via email and instant messaging. Unless one’s business requires field work to be done most of the time, home based businesses is a good option. It minimizes the chances of tardiness since everyone has easy access to a computer and a reliable Internet connection. Overhead expenses are cut down because one won’t have to pay lease or rental fees for the use of space or building where a conventional office is usually located. And because one is at home, one can dress down as he pleases because there is less chance of entertaining clients or individuals to be able to make business transactions. One may have heard of individuals who would wear a nice shirt and coat with boxer shorts when joining video conferences. This isn’t hard to imagine and one can laugh about it but there might be some truth into that as well. Individuals won’t have to pay for gas nor deal with traffic jams during rush hour. This greatly reduces the stress because travel time, especially if it takes one an hour to get to and from work, individuals can get tired in the middle of office hours.   Personality as a Disadvantage Surprisingly, the advantages of working from home can be the cause of disadvantages too. If one looks hard into this, you will realize that it has a lot to do with the personality of the individual. Dressing up for success may seem cliché but it helps psyche people up for the work ahead. If you have the discipline and motivation focus to get the job done, home based business and work can really work.

 

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Medical Benefits

Medical Benefits

Posted by Unknown  |  at  9:33 AM

Running Business

Medical Benefits

 

Employee’s Medical Benefits Part of the non-monetary benefits that employees look forward to is their medical benefits. It has become one of the universal benefits that employees can expect to receive while working for companies in the United States. Medical benefit plans are available and employers can look into a wide range of options such as traditional insurance, health maintenance organizations or HMO and savings plans to address uninsured costs arising from medical situation. Employers have the option of how to split the premiums between them and employees. How to Provide for Employees There are a few steps that employees can follow to come up with a good medical package that can address their employees’ needs. Like most other decisions, one will need to establish a set of criteria that focus on in-plan professionals, manageable cost, option to choose group insurance or HMO, preventive programs, membership in fitness clubs and even coverage for mental health and other special services. Involving the employees in the decision making process will also help employees bring down their choices to a manageable list. Reach out to public agencies where the business is located because there are specific rules on legislations regarding this topic that employees will have to comply with. They are also the first place to go to for recommendations on medical plans that are cost-controlled in the state. Employees can start looking at proposals from HMO’s and health insurance providers that can fit the criteria that you and employees have decided to be important components of their medical benefit package. Information Dissemination to Employee Pool After a thorough research of options and discussions, one can now start moving in to an agreement that will require your employees to enroll and their beneficiaries to the chosen medical benefit plan. Coverage will usually start upon enrolment and may have some exceptions, depending on the chosen package. Employee handbooks will need to include information regarding this medical benefit package. Accordingly, they will need to be disseminated to all employees. The discussion should include statements on the work hours required and other eligibility conditions set to take advantage of this benefit. There should also be awareness on the premiums employer and employees will need to contribute. Usually, these are deducted automatically from their pay and will show on pay slips to indicate the amount paid and total amount paid since enrolment. These are only the basic rules on medical benefits for employees mandated by law for everyone’s protection and benefit.

 

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Market Strengths and Weaknesses

Market Strengths and Weaknesses

Posted by Unknown  |  at  9:29 AM

Running Business

Market Strengths and Weaknesses

 

Understanding Your Place in the Market We have seen a number of businesses that seemed promising in the beginning only to see it suffer a bitter ending. We may even have been one of those who had big hopes for our businesses, even if it’s a home-based small business for instance; only to experience its painful demise, much to our bewilderment.   Carefully analyzing your place in the market is the first step in preventing the untimely death of your business. From these analyses, we can already come-up with several business strategies to create a niche for ourselves in the market.   Strengths When considering strengths in the market, we can study this in two ways: our strength in the market; and the strengths of the market itself. Do not confuse one with the other. Our strengths in the market means our edge over our competitors. Strengths of the market targets on who our market is.   What do we have that they don’t? This could be our products, a good marketing strategy, our location, excellent customer service and any other company strength that we can rely on to deliver the goods, in a manner of speaking.   When we talk about the strengths of our market, we focus on their purchasing ability, their comprehension and recognition. We also consider their standing in the social echelon.   Weaknesses As in strengths, we can also look at weaknesses in two ways: ours and our market’s. Let’s first consider our weaknesses. How come we haven’t been producing as much as we hoped we would? This could be a lack of manpower skills, shortage in raw materials and resources, or even outdated equipment.   Have we been keeping up with the changing times? There are much technological advancement that we can fully utilize to help our business. The internet, for instance, can expose us to our target audience without having to spend too much on advertising. It can also provide us with excellent communications tools for our business partners and suppliers overseas.   Location is another key factor. Can our market reach us without much trouble? Are we easily accessible to our targeted audience? Efficiency is next; plus a lot of other factors that could be hampering the growth of our business.   As for the weaknesses of our market; what is it that they need? If we create something that will fill in whatever it is that they are lacking, we have created something that will answer this need.   We should be specific about the demographics of our market when targeting their need/s to enable us to give them something that they can afford and at the same time appreciate.

 

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Who Do You Work for?

Who Do You Work for?

Posted by Unknown  |  at  9:21 AM

Running Business

Who Do You Work for?

Creating Your Niche in the Market - Who Do You Work for? Perhaps who do you work for may not be the appropriate phrase; but technically speaking, the business that we have created is there to serve the interest of our market, first and foremost.   It has been said time and again by successful businessmen that making money is secondary to running a business. It is the incentive for providing something that the market needs, not the other way around. There is nothing more fulfilling than being able to provide something that people need, and providing this with excellence; and there is nothing more rewarding than being recognized by your target audience for excellence in your field.   Sifting Through the Market One of the things that we have to acknowledge and recognize when running a business is that the entire population cannot and should not be our target audience. If we want to target every man and woman, child and adult in all social classes; we will have a hard time creating something that everyone will appreciate.   If we have a product or service designed for the AB market, we could expect that some of those in C will avail of whatever it is we’re offering; but the chances of D and E even checking us out are very slim.   One of the determining factors for recognizing who our market is, is the cost of either our products or services. Who can afford them? Determining the price factor, for our part, entails the actual cost that went into production; or the cost of equipment to be utilized, among other things; each time a client comes to us for our services.   Specialize Your Products or Services True, we may have a lot of competitors but this does not mean that our chances of running a successful business have been shot down. There may be a lot of others out there providing consumer products of the same kind; but what makes ours special?   Other than the price – perhaps we can afford to offer ours at a lower price than our competitors’; what sets us apart? Create something with an extra touch that others don’t have. Specialize in that and harp on it.   If it’s a specific type of service that we are offering, put a little incentive for clients who choose to go with us. The key to remember is to always be one step ahead when it comes to dealing with our customers and providing products or services.

 

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Keeping it all Organized

Keeping it all Organized

Posted by Unknown  |  at  9:15 AM

Running Business

Keeping it all Organized

Organize and Run Your Business Smoothly Have you ever experienced running late for a meeting because you just can’t find the presentation you worked so hard on the previous night? This is one classic scenario that most of us have gone through at some point in our lives.   Perhaps this is a rare occurrence; or perhaps this has become commonplace already in our business that we just don’t care much about it anymore. However, the fastest way to lose business is to be this disorganized in the workplace. We can miss appointments, lose important files, lose track of how business is doing and basically keep running around trying to find things, instead of running the business with as little snag as possible.   Get Rid of Clutter Disasters The way to get organized is to start with the basics. Have a place for each item in your office or work area. Filing cabinets are great for keeping all important paperwork. Have a cabinet for each type of file such as common files and confidential files. Give access only to people who are authorized to view the files.   It might be a good idea to have a duplicate for very important files.   Put only necessary items on your desk. It would be hard to think with all that mess in front of you. Keep a date book for all your appointments – within sight and easy reach so you can check it regularly.   If you have people working with you at your workplace, encourage them to be organized as well. Have a designated area for lunch and coffee breaks to discourage everyone to eat at their work area.   Part of being organized is good grooming. Ask everyone to dress appropriately especially for meetings.   Reduce Stress - Organize Being disorganized is very stressful because you just don’t know where everything is particularly if you urgently need something. Moreover, seeing all that mess around you can already create stress vibes that can hamper your performance in the workplace.   Now, if you have a very important business meeting right in the office; you might be creating a negative first impression if your client sees things in disarray. How you run your office does reflect how you run your business.   There are a lot of ways that we can keep organized for our business other than the abovementioned. There are computer applications that we can use to monitor our day-to-day transactions, track appointments and even keep soft copies of our important files.   The thing to remember is to never procrastinate when it comes to organizing everything so we can run our business smoothly.

 

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Interviewing Techniques

Interviewing Techniques

Posted by Unknown  |  at  9:02 AM

Running Business

Interviewing Techniques

Get the Best Out of Your Interviews

Getting the best results from the interviews that you will be conducting depends on the kinds of questions that you will be asking. Interviews are a good source of information regarding the person that we wish to employ.

While the applicant’s curriculum vitae will cover all the basics, i.e. work experience, field of expertise, educational background and such; the interview can break or seal the deal for both the interviewer and the interviewee.

As a consequence, how we conduct the interview is tantamount to getting the kind of results that we are looking for and finding the right person for the job.

Basic Interview Questions

Typically, employers start-off the interview session with a few basic questions to get the interviewee to further expound on the things listed in their résumés. This will help the interviewer assess just how extensive the applicant’s job experience is with regards to the position being applied for.

This could include asking specific questions pertaining to certain scenarios that could be expected to occur from the position being considered. This will again give the interviewer a better picture of just how well the applicant, if hired for the job, can work under pressure or troubleshoot when necessary.

Inconsequential Questions

These are the types of questions that may only be regarded as inconsequential in relation to the specifics of the job itself. However, these kinds of questions can give us a better insight to the personality of the applicant. Personality is one major aspect that we should check out. We don’t want to hire someone who may not be a team player and who may have a few attitude problems that can damage the rapport among everyone in the workplace.

Trivial questions such as views on current events, movie characters, books, questions on lifestyle, handling finances and such are usually good things to ask an applicant about. Just seeing the applicant’s perspective on certain things will tell us if the person is well-rounded enough to be able to work with a lot of other people, including those in authority and even clients.

Another perspective that we can get out of asking questions of this sort is how well the applicant responds to surprises, since they surely won’t be expecting to be asked such trivial questions. The facial expressions that come with these surprise questions can pretty much tell us whether the interviewee has a sense of humor or not – again, something that you will need in the workplace if you want to keep working without a chip on your shoulders.

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