We are currently in the midst of a global crisis, and if you have no idea what we are talking about, you have either been living under a rock or on the moon. Yes, we are talking about the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic that is currently sweeping the planet. It is causing whole countries to go into lockdown. Of course, while this is having the desired effect that very slowly it is reducing the number of cases and deaths, it is also bad news for many businesses.
If you are trying to run a business from home and are worried about how you will stay on top of things and keep your head above the water, fear not. In this article, we will briefly cover some of the things that you can do to take some of the pressure off so that you can concentrate on keeping you, your family, and your business safe during these challenging times.
Create a virtual office
You may not be able to open your physical office for obvious reasons, but that does not mean you can not get all of your employees in one place in a ‘virtual office.’ While your staff probably don’t want to be on a video call all day, particularly if they are juggling looking after children and trying to home school at the same time, regular group check-ins using an app such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom is a great way to stay in touch. It allows everyone to talk as a team, bring up any issues and socialize, albeit through a screen!
Delegate
You may be balancing childcare and homeschooling as well as trying to keep your business afloat, and this may mean less time to dedicate to your business. If this is the case, instead of trying to do it all and failing miserably, delegate some of the tasks. This might be to other members of your team or outsourcing to a third party. Tasks that you could outsource include accountancy, HR and payroll, social media management, and even reception work – Ruby Receptionist can take over this role on your behalf.
Utilize workflow management software
Trello and Asana can be your friend here. It is easy to lose track of who is supposed to be doing what, but by putting it all into a workflow management system, everyone will be able to see what they need to do and mark when it is completed, so all jobs get done, and nothing gets duplicated.
Use ‘the cloud’
You may well be using this anyway, but if you aren’t, why not? By storing relevant documents and information on your company cloud, whether a free one such as Google Drive or a more professional one, your staff can access the things that they need to be able to work remotely, negating the need for them to be contacting you constantly to get hold of documents.
Even after this pandemic has passed, some of these tips can help you to remain organized and take some of the strain away.
If your business has one or more job openings, then what are some smart ways to get more eyes on your vacancy? Here are some great suggestions during a time when grocery stores, hardware stores, and other places are looking to hire more people.
Create a Social Media Presence
Have you thought about posting hiring news on your website or on social media? If not, you might be missing out on a valuable candidate who wouldn’t otherwise know about your vacancy.
If you don’t already have a Facebook business page or a presence on LinkedIn, now is the time to create them and get the word out about your company. In addition to having another place to recruit potential workers, you will also have the potential to attract future customers and boost sales over time.
Use QR Codes
Another way to spread the word that your organization is hiring is to send a mailer about it. Include a QR code that people can simply scan to get the job info or anything else you want them to know about right now.
If you have more than one QR code, then keep them organized easily using Flowcode. If you’re a tech firm, including these Quick Response codes is a great way to quickly convey information to your target audience, whether they have Android or Apple iOS phones.
Incorporate the Latest Tech
Another great way to attract talent is to provide the most advanced technologies to your employees. If someone is considering working for your organization, and then they see that they have access to the latest software and laptops, it’s likely to win them over.
Working with new tech is exciting for most employees – and that’s especially true if your business is in the tech sector. Make the workplace interesting to those who are thinking about working with you. Remember, they might have other job offers, and you want to have the most enticing one!
Investigate Salary Expectations Online
One of the key factors in winning over job candidates is salary. Make the salary one that they can’t say no to, and they’ll accept your job offer.
But how do you learn what their monetary expectations are? By using tech, of course. You might conduct a survey or research online what competing companies are paying staff in comparable positions. Then sweeten the pot with benefits or other enticing ways to get the best candidate for your job opening.
Final Words on Getting the Best Person for the Job
If you’re still struggling with how to use tech to attract employees, or you can’t seem to find someone who is a good fit, you might team up with a recruiting firm. They specialize in this type of work, so they’re likely to get the task done efficiently. Then you can focus on the daily operations of the organization.
Finally, make your business one that employees want to stay in, rather than hiring them only for them to stay on a few months before going elsewhere. Keep them interested by nurturing a positive workplace environment and encouraging worker feedback.
Address any concerns within a reasonable time and tell your employees regularly that you value them. Finally, if they want to have more tech in their position, try to make it happen! A happy employee is a productive and loyal one.
Ranking well on traditional search results is vital if you want to drive more traffic to your site. The majority of people will not look past the first page of results on a Google search, so if your site doesn’t make the first page, you will not get very many clicks at all. The very top result gets 35% of clicks, and most people won’t scroll beyond the first 3 results, so you have a very small window of opportunity. Unfortunately, that window of opportunity is even smaller where voice search is concerned.
Smart home devices like Google Home or Amazon Alexa are becoming so popular, and the majority of people have voice search functions on their phones as well. It is estimated that, by 2020, around 50% of all searches will be made using voice technology. This presents a big problem if you do not change your SEO strategy because smart home devices only return a single result, while voice assistants on smartphones only show the top 3. That means that it is absolutely essential that you rank at the very top for voice searches if you want to increase traffic to your site.
Ranking well on voice search often requires a different strategy, so it is important that you change your SEO approach. Although some concepts remain the same, there are some things that you need to do differently if you want to improve your rankings on voice search. This great infographic outlines some of the key factors involved with voice search rankings and has some great tips on optimizing your strategy for voice search in the future.
Advertising has drastically changed over the past few years thanks to advancements in technology. Rather than relying heavily on print advertising, more and more companies are investing in digital marketing and advertising. This makes sense. Sure, there’s still space for traditional forms of advertising, such as leaflets, posters and billboards – people are still spending time outside in the real world. But it’s also important to acknowledge that people are spending increasing amounts of time staring at screens. Whether that’s their computer screen at work, their laptop screen at home, their tablet while they’re commuting, or their smartphone. This creates a great opportunity and space to grab their attention and advertise your products and services to them! It’s absolutely essential that you invest in online marketing to keep up with the times and maximise your sales and profits. Here are a few tips that will help you to achieve the best results possible!
Set a Budget
First things first, it’s important that you set yourself a budget. Initially, online advertising costs can be low. For example, with pay per click advertising, you can find yourself paying just a few pence for every person who clicks your ad and is directed to your site. But if tens of thousands of people actually click the link, you can find yourself forking out a small fortune. Sure, it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth it or not and whether it pays off. But you do need to set a budget to make sure you don’t overspend. Your advertising campaigns should never cost you more than you can afford.
Bring in the Professionals
The world of online advertising is constantly changing and fluctuating. If you’re relatively unfamiliar with it yourself, it’s always a good idea to consult professionals who will be able to help you make the best decisions at any given time. Finding high quality advertising agencies is relatively simple. All you have to do is seek them out, check their reviews and see what others have to feedback about their services. This should give you a good idea of how effective their work is and whether it’s worth investing in.
Use Social Media Influencers
An emerging means of advertisement is the use of social media influencers. More and more brands – particularly those with a target demographic of young adults – are benefitting massively from influencers. Put simply, a social media influencer is an individual who has gained thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of followers on social media platforms like Instagram. People who follow these individuals tend to be influenced by what they post. They’ll want to follow the trends that these individuals set and are likely to listen to recommendations made by these influencers. When you advertise through a social media influencer, they’ll post something to their feed promoting your product, services or brand. This can lead to more sales made by their followers. Of course, you’ll have to pay them a fee or give them some free products or services in exchange for the post, but generally it’s worth the investment.
These are just a few steps you can take to make a success of your online advertising campaigns. Use them to your advantage and you should profit from them!
For a business to be successful, behind the scenes companies have many systems and technologies in place that help it run efficiently. We live in a world today full of great technology, most of which are designed to improve efficiency and productivity. So, the question is how can and what tech is best, to help run your business.
Using the Right Website Client
One of the most important parts of a business is its brand. Branding is the main driving force for whether someone will use your company, or go to your competitor. Add the fact that we live in a more and more connected world with the internet, more people are wanting to find a website to help them find out what your business does. So, the choice of which website client you should use is an important choice to make, so make sure you research exactly what you need. Squarespace helps manage email campaigns, appointments, and the website, so this could be a good choice. Other clients like WordPress and Wix have different customizing tools that may fit your business better than others. So make sure you research the features, the prices, and the plans that these clients offer, so you get the right one for your company.
Mobile App Development
Something that has been growing in popularity is custom mobile apps for within the business. This is for bigger companies, as smaller companies and start-ups wouldn’t require such customization at such a young age (In a business development sense). But having a good mobile development and technology team within your business can really benefit you in being able to build a good quality and efficient app for your business. If you are a digital company, then a development team would be great if you were to build a mobile app of some kind.
Data Management
If you are running a company that harvests data, like forms on a website or analytics from mobile apps and websites, then a good data management system is needed. Managing data is needed to first be more efficient as a company, as data is valuable and sometimes sensitive. Platforms such as ebecs (www.ebecs.com) and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are just a few of the many platforms out there that can manage your data flow and sort it for you.
Invoices and Paperwork
Do you send invoices? If so then a good system to send invoices is very useful! Platforms such as Square and more offer the ability to create products or services and then compile an invoice for you. The platform will then send the invoice and you can even manage reminders and repeat invoices, which makes your job managing these documents and invoices much easier!
Manage your Workflow
Last but not least, all of these products and services help improve your overall workflow. When a business is growing more and more it can be easy to start being buried in work and stress as the business grows. So that is why is important to take note of these technologies and services, and use them so you can take a lot of that stress away and run your business smoothly!
