Add to Flipboard Magazine. One of the biggest problems in making your business profitable is that it's all too easy to forget about the true cost of running your company. Especially with the less obvious things like the costs of your premises, the supplies that you need, and the other unexpected things that come along. But it is vital to include these items in your costs to get a true sense of profit or loss. Read on to discover more about these hidden amounts and what you can do to keep them as low as possible.
Premises
First of all, you need to have a good idea of what it is going to cost you to hire and run the premises that you need to your business. Of course, this will depend on what sort of business that you are actually running.
For example, a sales office may need a simple office building to run. Whereas a company that manufactures a product will likely need industrial space where things can be produced and assembled. As well as office space for the paperwork to be completed.
One way of saving money on premises is to utilize remote working. Where you allow your employees to work from home online. This means you have fewer business rates to worry about, which can reduce your overall costs.
Supplies
Another less obvious business cost that you need to account for is the supplies that you will need for your company. These could be anything from computers, phones, and printers for the office, to specialist laser cutting machine and safety gear.
The problem with supplies is because the company pays for them, your employees may not always treat them with the frugality that you would prefer. For example, most folks aren’t going to be that concerned with how much loo paper they use, or whether they hoard stationary or not because it is not them having to foot the bill.
A solution to this problem includes making one person in charge of assigning out supplies. This often has the effect of making folks more mindful of what they are using. As they can’t just go and replenish them, themselves every time.
Another way of dealing with this problem is to shop around for the cheapest suppliers. Remember that there are a significant saving to be made even in the areas of washroom accessories and stationery. Which can all help your business edge further into the black in your accounts.
Insurances
Lastly, an often forgotten cost of being in business is having the right insurance to protect you, your employees, and your customers.
Insurance is often regarded as an afterthought, and many people are surprised at how expensive commercial insurance can be. Especially if you are dealing with high-risk products or processes. But it is, of course, essential to have this in case the worst does happen.
To make it as reasonably priced as possible, be sure to give as much detail in your application as you can. Also, get at least three quotes to compare. So you know you will be picking the one that is the best value for money.
Add to Flipboard Magazine. We all hear about how important location is when it comes to choosing the right headquarters for your company. But it’s important not to forget that this is not the only thing that matters. In fact, there are plenty of other things that matter even more than the location of your business’s commercial property. A good location won’t hide the shortcomings in other areas, so don’t make the mistake of focusing on one thing alone.
If you are running a business and you’re about to start the hunt for a new HQ, the information you’ll find below is going to be essential. If you want to get further and make your business as good as it can be, it needs to working in the right way and from the right headquarters. There are so many things that can be negatively affected by a poor workplace and base camp. Read on to find out about some of the other issues that matter a lot when you’re choosing the right HQ for your company.
Affordability
No business can afford to ignore the issue of affordability. It doesn’t matter if you are aiming to buy or rent commercial properties for your business; you can’t just spend a pile of money that you don’t have. Many business’s value the importance of a good location so much that they get the company into financial trouble by pursuing that dream of a city centre location. But that’s a tactic that rarely pays off. Yes, a good location can be important. But those financial matters will catch up with you sooner or later if you take big risks like this.
The Age of the Building
The age of the building you choose to buy matters a lot. If you are spending your money on a headquarters, you want to make sure that it retains its value. This is something that only really applies to companies that choose to buy rather than rent. If you buy an old building with a tumbling value, it will be worth even less in a few years. And you might also start to experience problems with the building that are linked to its age. This is something that you should be very careful about because no business can afford to carry out big building repairs and still find success.
Transport links can be very important if you run a business that relies quite heavily on deliveries. You need delivery companies to be able to bring things to you quickly and easily. But you also need to make sure that your products can be sent out to customers swiftly and easily as well. If those things don’t happen, you will just face problems with your business’s processes slowing down and being held up. This does link to the location of the headquarters in a way, but not many people think about how transportation issues affect the company.
The Length of the Lease
If you are renting, you definitely need to give some thought to the length of the lease that you have. You can’t allow it to be too short if you want your business to have any kind of stability and security. If you’re at the mercy of a landlord who can kick you out at short notice, then that’s not going to be good for your business. You will spend far too much time moving from place to place. Time is money, so when you waste time, you also waste money. Moving around and not having a settled base for your business is just disruptive all-round.
Exterior Appearances
You may not think the way your business looks from the outside matters all that much, but it really does. When you are not able to get the outside appearance of the headquarters right, people could be turned off immediately. If it looks shoddy or messy in any way, people might also start to think of your entire business in those terms. I’m sure that’s not what you want to happen, but that’s the possibility you will be facing if you don’t choose an HQ that looks great from the curb. If you are able to make changes and invest money to make it look better, this is something that could be overlooked when buying.
Accessibility
The accessibility that’s offered up by your company matters a lot as well. I’m sure you want your workplace to be fair and inclusive to everyone. But if the business is old, it might not be suitable for people in wheelchairs or people with other kinds of mobility problems. You need to make sure that your workplace has ramp access and is modern and complete in terms of its accessibility. This might not seem like a big issue to you right now, but it could be in the future. And not having these measures in place could turn out to be very embarrassing for you.
The size and layout of your business’s headquarters will dictate how it’s used. If it’s simply too small and cramped to offer your employees the space they need to get their work done, that’s not going to be good for them or the business as a whole. It’s an issue that you really can’t afford to ignore if you want your business to operate functionally and successfully in the years ahead. Think very carefully about the needs of your team before making a final decision.
The Amount of Natural Light
This is another one of those things that might seem relatively small and unimportant right now. But in the future, it could have a bigger impact on your business than you imagine. Do you want your employees to be enclosed in a dark, dull and depressing workplace for the duration of their day? Or do you want them to enjoy coming to work and spending time in the office working alongside their colleagues? If you’d prefer the latter, you need to make sure that your new headquarters is light and bright enough.
Thanks to the abundance of technology we all have at our fingertips, we are seeing somewhat of a revolution in the workplace as more and more companies allow their employees to work from home, at least some of the time.
If you’re a business owner, and you’re wondering whether it makes sense to allow your employees to telecommute, take a look at these very compelling reasons why home working makes sense:
Home Workers are Less Stressed
Employees who work from home do not have to commute long hours, they don’t have to worry about getting ready in a rush, and they don’t have to worry about conflicts with colleagues, well not as much as they do when they’re working in the office anyway. All of these things, help to lower their stress levels and workers who aren’t stressed out are likely to be more productive and take fewer sick days.
Remote Workers are More Cost Effective
Thanks to technologies like Dediseedbox, cloud computing, and Skype, which allow home workers to access, edit and upload documents, participate in meetings and talk to clients remotely, allowing employees to work from home makes sense. Not only because these technologies tend to be cheaper than traditional options, but also because when you’re staff are working from home, your running costs for rent and utilities will naturally fall.
When you work in the office, you know that you will need to be at your desk seen to be doing something for at least 8 hours a day. This can encourage some employees to work more slowly than they are capable of. On the other hand, when working from home, staff are likely to get things done more quickly so that they can play with the dogs, collect the kids from school or put their feet up the second they’re finished. Some employers worry remote workers will slack off, but that is rarely the case, and you’re more likely to notice office workers doing that thanks to the trend of ‘presenteeism.’
Home Working Gives Your More Choice
If you put the option of home working on the table, not only does it give your staff more choice to work in a way that suits them, especially when they have young children to consider, but it enables you to make executive decisions with more ease, knowing that you have it as an option.
Commuting is Bad for Everyone
Perhaps, the best benefit of remote working, out of them all is the fact that people who work from home do not have to commute. Not only has the daily commute been found to be bad for commuters’ health, making them less happy, more stressed and anxious and more susceptible to sickness and infections, but commuting also pollutes the environment, which is a problem for everyone. By allowing your commuters to work from home, you’ll boost their health and boost your company’s green credentials in one fell swoop.
If you’re still not sure whether allowing your staff to work from home is a good idea, why not try out flexible working, allowing staff to work from home a couple of days a week for a trial period? This will let you see how the land lies, iron out and kinks and work out if home working is right for your company. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Add to Flipboard Magazine. Whether you’re running a startup or an established firm, outsourcing could benefit your operation. It’s a process used by some of the most successful companies in the world. With that in mind, we’re going to outline some of the benefits of outsourcing in this article. Hopefully, the information will assist you in understanding how it could help your operation to progress. There are lots of misconceptions amongst people who’ve never tried the process before. So, this article will contribute towards setting the record straight once and for all. With a bit of luck, your company will excel during the next few months if you take this advice.
In most instances, the only way to boost productivity is to employ more staff. However, outsourcing offers a different approach that could produce the same results. There are many specialist companies out there that focus on a range of different jobs. For example, you could outsource your customer service department and handle more correspondence. You could also outsource part of your manufacturing process and create more products. The possibilities are endless. You just need to identify the right specialists and get in touch with them as soon as possible. Explain your requirements, and they will provide you with a quote for the work.
Lots of people think that outsourcing is an expensive option. Even so, that couldn’t be further from the truth. That is something companies like those in the ADP Group know all too well. They have shown their clients time and time again how much money that can help them to save. The same goes for many processes within your operation. That is the case regardless of the nature of your company. You only have to pay for the work you need completing. That means you don’t have to worry about holiday pay or sending payments when your orders drop. It’s like employing agency staff except you benefit from the expertise of professionals.
Outsourcing will leave you free to concentrate on growth
Many business owners make the mistake of trying to do too much. You only have one pair of hands, and so you need to delegate. Outsourcing time-consuming tasks within your operation will mean you have more time to focus on growth. At the end of the day, you need to push your business to the next level and boost your profits. You’ll never achieve that goal if you spend all your time performing manual tasks. That is why you employ people to work for your company. However, it’s also why you need to start outsourcing as soon as possible.
Now you know the benefits of outsourcing, you should start looking into the idea right now. The longer you leave it; the more money and time you will waste. Your competitors outsource some of their processes already. So, you’ll never steal the lion’s share of the market if you don’t follow suit. Do yourself a favor and work out which jobs you could outsource. Research potential partners, and get in touch to explain your requirements. It could be the best thing you ever do for the future prosperity of your business.
Add to Flipboard Magazine. Every business is unique. Anyone who's ever tried to copy another business's model will know that for a fact. Even if two businesses seem incredibly similar, whether that's in structure, size, or purpose, there are always going to be significant differences which will greatly impact the things that each business really needs. Trying to fit a business into a specific model without understanding the unique quirks and idiosyncrasies of that business is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. So what should you do? Well, as with just about anything in business, the key is research. You need to be able to look at your business and carefully analyze what it is that it really needs. Your assumptions might be completely correct, but unless you actually do some research, you're never actually going to know. With that in mind, here are some things that you can do in order to figure out what the needs of your business really are.
Every business needs equipment, but the kind of equipment that you need is going to depend very heavily of the kind of business that you’re running. If your business is office based and focuses mainly on web-based work, you’re probably not going to need much in the way of dedicated heavy machinery. By the same token, a manufacturing business is probably going to have little use for the kinds of tools and technology that a digital marketing business would benefit from. Look carefully at the environment of your business and the kind of work that you do and ask yourself what do you really need. Your warehouse workers benefit more from safety equipment like an industrial swing gate than they would from something like a standing desk or advanced storage solutions. At the same time, your office workers certainly will benefit from those things but aren’t going to need the same kind of health and safety equipment that someone who works with heavy machinery will need.
Employees
https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-suit-jacket-facing-man-in-blue-denim-dress-shirt-same-standing-165907/ One thing just about every business has in common is the fact that it simply isn’t able to function without people. No matter what your business is, you’re unlikely ever to get anything done without the help of your employees. Of course, that doesn’t mean that every business will benefit from the same employees. It’s important to look carefully at the kinds of skills that certain employees are bringing to your business. If someone has a lot of experience working with their hands, then they probably aren’t going to feel that comfortable in the marketing department. Likewise, someone with a humanities degree and a ton of experience working in office environments is probably going to be pretty out of their depth when faced with heavy machinery. The best thing that you can do is to carefully vet each candidate to see if they really are the right fit for your business. It’s not just a matter of their skills and experience either. Do their personal goals and beliefs align with those of your business? A question like that might not seem that important but it really can make a big difference when you’re trying to put together the best and most effective workforce possible.
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