It’s one thing to start a business, and it’s another to run it efficiently. As a business owner, you must have good planning and organizational skills to scale a small business into an enterprise organization. As a matter of fact, many business startups fail due to inadequate planning. Want some help in running a better business? These key tips have got you covered.
Create a comfortable work environment
Companies with a healthy and comfortable work environment usually have engaged and fulfilled employees. The human factor plays a critical role in the success of a business. Creating a safe and comfortable work environment will significantly impact your employees’ efficiency, engagement, and productivity. In addition, it strengthens workplace relationships and improves customer service delivery.
You should incorporate practices and processes that promote social responsibility, wellness, and team collaboration. For instance, an inefficient HVAC system or furnace can make work unbearable for your employees who rely on it to stay warm during frigid winter months. It behooves you to look for ways to improve commercial HVAC efficiency for your business. Having an HVAC system or an air conditioner unit in top condition will ensure your on-site location is comfortable round the clock. You may also want to conduct indoor air quality testing to ensure your employees are breathing quality air. Plus, as an added benefit, an HVAC unit that’s running at peak performance will save you on energy costs, adding more money to your business account at the end of the month.
Experts recommend getting a licensed HVAC technician or contractor to inspect your company’s HVAC system and duct system thoroughly. You may want them to install a programmable thermostat while they’re at it to help condition the temperature of your work environment. Remember, indoor air pollution opens you and your employees to multiple health risk factors like lung disease, lung cancer, respiratory disease, and throat infection.
Open a business checking account
Running your business transactions through a personal checking account does not make good business sense. Ideally, creditors only go after company assets if the LLC or corporation defaults on a debt servicing agreement. Conversely, creditors can leverage the fact that you combine your personal and business finances to go after assets to collect debts owed to them. Any business registered as a corporation or a limited liability company (LLC) is legally required to have a dedicated business account. Separate accounts allow business owners to track expenses and file tax returns faster.
Want to find the best chequing account for your business? Like most things in life, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all to checking accounts. Firstly, a checking account is a transactional bank account held at a bank or a credit union, which often allows for unlimited transactions. Most people prefer opening a checking account with a brick-and-mortar bank while opening a high-yield savings account with an online bank. Today, financially savvy business leaders opt for digital banks to facilitate their business transactions. Besides, an online bank can compare favorably with a traditional bank.
If you decide to go with an online bank, choose a member of the Global ATM Alliance so you can make ATM withdrawals, pay utility bills, and cash deposits using the ATM networks of fellow members. Make sure your credit score is on the up-and-up so you can apply for a line of credit with your checking account. Checking accounts come with many hidden fees, including monthly maintenance fee, monthly service fee, ATM fee, foreign transaction fee, and an overdraft fee. With that in mind, opt for a checking account with no minimum balance and comparatively low fees.
Organize executive coaching sessions regularly
When it comes to human resource management, your work doesn’t end after the hiring and onboarding process. There’s an increasing demand for training to improve the skill set and performance of your employees. Many enterprise-level organizations occasionally create comprehensive training programs to help their staff stay ahead of the latest market trends and technologies. You may also want to invest in an HR solution that syncs with a learning management software (LMS) to train your regular staff.
As a business owner, you should prioritize coaching. Take the initiative and organize an executive leadership coaching program for your business leaders. It’ll help them see leadership from a whole new perspective and in decision making. There’s no gainsaying that conducting regular executive coaching programs can improve leader performance and drive positive business outcomes.
Understand the risks and rewards
Every successful business thrives on taking calculated risks. Business risk refers to anything that poses a threat to a company’s ability to achieve its goals. Sometimes, these risk factors impact a company’s bottom line and make it impossible for the company to meet its obligations to stakeholders and investors. Several factors influence business risk, including consumer demand, competition, government regulations, and market trends.
Just so you know, there are many types of business risks such as compliance risk, reputational risk, market risk, and operational risk. While entrepreneurs tend to be risk-takers, make sure you don’t throw caution to the wind when taking risks, as it could have devastating effects on your business. You may also want to develop a foolproof risk management strategy to mitigate any identifiable risks.
Learn from the competition
There’s a great deal that you can learn from your competitors. Studying your competition is integral to building a successful business. You can leverage the insights gained from the successes and failures of your competitors to improve your business model.
First, you need to identify your competitors, including any business that shares a similar product or service and target audience.
You may want to visit their offices to get first-hand knowledge of their workflows and compare notes. While competitor-based pricing works in a highly saturated market, consider a value-based pricing method to maintain your profit margin. To help you understand your competition, you can conduct a SWOT analysis on all your competitors.
