Discover effective sales coaching tips for 2023 that can elevate your team's performance. Learn how to build trust, use data insights, personalize approaches, and provide ongoing motivation to drive sales success. Find expert guidance and resources at SMEBrother to empower your small or medium-sized business.
Scaling a business must have strong fundamentals and have the ability to see it through. Expanding business takes lots of effort and a lot to learn. It means we have to learn about sales, marketing, taxes, or corporate compliance. Many business owners feel that they are struggling to expand their business, and don't know what to do.
There is always a way for you to succeed in your business. Let's try to clear our own mind, look at things in perspective, and try to identify what steps we can take to expand our business. This article will discuss several business growth strategies quickly and efficiently. Stay till the end.
Why is expanding a business important?
The main reason of business expansion is the opportunity to get potential customers in a wider range. Expanding business can help you to become the top level in market niches. You can get new geographic markets, provide next level of service, and acquire more customers.
Expansion can be an impression of growing financial viability. When your business goes according to plan and gets a lot of revenue, it's time for you to introduce your brand to a wider environment and try to compete at the top level.
What is the indicators that it's time to expand your business?
There are several following factors that become a reference for you to expand your business. When viewed from the customer factor, you have a loyal customer base, customers ask you to grow, customers give positive or negative feedback for the progress of your business.
If you look at the company, you have a solid team to support expansion, the business has been profitable for more than a year, steady and positive cash flow. Sometimes expanding business can be seen from your business needing related products or services, and you are running out of room.
10 strategies for quickly expanding business in 2023
If several indicators have been seen in your business, then you need strategies to direct your business to the next level. Let's take a look for some quick business strategies in 2023.
Research the competitors
You have to know who you are competing with. Do research about the product or service that you are going to market, and how your competitors are doing it in the market. You can use the platform to uncover what competitors are doing for their online strategy. Find a way that has a plus value in your product or service compared to your competitors.
10 Excellent Tips to Grow Business Quickly
Don't hesitate to enter the market, and increase brand awareness while improving your product or service so that you get positive feedback.
Identify opportunities
First, you must understand your business demographic. Align with customer demand and look for opportunities to add products or services. Do market research and ask current customers for opinions on what offerings they would like to see in your business and what they are willing to pay for you. But be careful, don't let the pivot get too far from your core business. The key to opportunities is to diversify your offerings that can complement your product or service.
Optimize existing market
Sometimes a marketing strategy doesn't have to be to attract new customers. You can focus on selling more to your existing customers by offering other services that they might need, or other products that can complement what your customers buy. To start with, you need to segment the market and identify what customers buy from you.
The analysis can be divided into several criteria, such as location, gender, age, and buying history. After you find which part is the most profitable in your market, focus your sales and marketing strategy on that segment.
Claim a niche market
It's a method to grow a business by narrowing down the market to very specific types of customers. The niche market only focuses on a specific subset of the market with products or services that focus on that market.
The function of focusing on niche markets is less competition, and only requires fewer resources. You can experience higher word-of-mouth growth and higher brand loyalty.
Create a loyal customer program
Create specific ideas to focus on existing customers and provide certain features when they order your product or services again. For example, for the third purchase, you will get free merchandise or a price discount. Or you can create a membership with a cheaper selling price or provide special benefits to member owners.
If you calculate aqcuiring new customers by selling something to existing customers, the marketing strategy costs 3x more to new customers. Creating a loyalty program including great ways to increase sales, and customers will be more interested in buying your product or service.
Online sales channels
Online method is a must. Make your product available to buy online to extend your market reach. You can choose between creating a business website using an e-commerce website, or using digital advertising to support a broader market. Another option is to sell your items on e-commerce marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, or special websites that can discover your services.
Don't forget to always update your products and services on social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest for brand awareness.
Franchise model
If you see your business growing rapidly, consider franchising it. You can start calculating the fees for the franchise and how the permits are. Learn about the franchise model and marketing knowledge, because this is one quick step to raise your business level.
Having a new market
Moving into a new market by selling your existing products or services. The new market is a different location and a different market segment, but not far from your existing location. It means opening up a branch and focusing your marketing efforts for locations and new customers.
The cost involved is quite high, but it can introduce your products and services to a new location. If you have succeeded in the existing location, you can achieve the same achievement in the new location, it's only a matter of time.
Seek referals
Seeking out customer referrals will help you gain brand awareness and expand your business even better. A personal recommendation is a powerful weapon in a marketing strategy, because referred customers are easier to buy than non-referred customers. A suitable way to increase word-of-mouth marketing is to create a customer referral program.
Strategic partnerships
Partnering with other businesses will pave your way into new markets. Choose the right partner by contacting them, and propose opportunities to collaborate. Find a partner who can complement your business and different fields. You and your partner can benefit each other and can get new customers simultaneously.
Growing a business requires lots of efforts as well as costs. If you're looking for a reliable source of information and resources for small and medium-sized businesses, look no further than smebrother.com. Our website offers a wide range of articles, guides, and services to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and overcome challenges.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.
Every business model needs marketing to promote its business. Marketing is like a vehicle for companies to drive leads and sales. There are several types of marketing that can be used in every business, such as traditional marketing, digital marketing, field marketing, and others. Even though each type of marketing provides the same results, each company has its own steps to choose which type, and match it with the type of business.
This time, SMEBrothers will discuss what you need to know about field marketing, and how to implement it in your business.
What is field marketing?
Field marketing is a number of activities sought out by marketers to build brands, lead generation, and customer relationships for a company or client. The method uses a measurable process, and involves face-to-face interactions with customers and other leads.
Some examples of field marketing activities are direct sales promotions, product demonstrations, roadshows, events, and webinars. The goal is to influence, inform, persuade and educate customers to buy the services or products offered.
Types of field marketing campaigns
There are several common methods that are often used for campaigns by field marketers. Some of these things can be done according to business needs, or just a few of them can be done.
Product demos
The most common activity by field marketers is by giving free samples, product giveaways, and hands-on experiences. Its use is to introduce products or services directly. Often used by big brands in providing new product variants.
Guerilla marketing
Field marketers are being more creative with their approach by selecting an atypical location, a unique method that they want to develop themselves, with the element of surprise. The tactics are unconventional, and depend on plenty of imagination and energy.
Retail audits
Field marketers visit stores to collect data about promotional materials, signage, products, etc., to determine whether retailer partnerships meet the needs or need to be improved.
Direct selling
After doing product demos, sometimes field marketers must be ready if there are actual sales, and every filed marketer must be ready with a stock of items that are ready and sold right away.
Tradeshows
Businesses have time to showcase their products and services to potential partners or prospective customers.
Conferences
The company provides an educational experience to attract B2B audiences to your brand by holding events.
What does field marketer do?
Field marketers have more roles in sales, making it feel more like a salesperson than a marketing one. Simply put, field marketers can be the best in both sales and marketing. A field marketer helps to reach sales and marketing goals by offering samples, meeting with prospects, and building relationships.
Three common field marketers activities are improving brand awareness, boosting sales while on location, and increasing engagement at targeted locations. You will often see field marketers in the field at local networking events, and carry out activities such as offering samples and making direct sales to customers and prospects.
What Is Affiliate Marketing, And What Are The Benefits?
There is a slight difference between B2C and B2B field marketing. B2C field marketers are more common in local venues, such as restaurants, shopping malls, gyms, marathons, street corners, and other similar events. While B2B field marketers engage with clients in various touchpoints, such as webinars, events, trade shows, conferences, and meetings.
Responsibilities of field marketers
Field marketers are skilled both in marketing and sales. When viewed from the two things that must be mastered, they have quite a lot of responsibilities. Field marketers must make plans and complete the field marketing campaigns, after making previous preparations by conducting preliminary research.
Every field marketer must have in-depth knowledge of product lines and services, ready to answer any questions prospects or customers have about services or products at any level. During field marketing events, field marketers produce various signage, marketing collateral, literature, merchandise, etc. They need to maintain relationships with retailers, third-party vendors and venues.
If there are competitors in the same location, field marketers must monitor and analyze how competitors offer their products and services, and always learn new things about industry trends. Not only expert in offline marketing and sales, but also managing social media for field marketing campaigns.
Field marketers must come to relevant conferences, trade shows, and other events to share customer and lead intel with the sales team. After everything is done, field marketers create reports for any activities and results.
Benefits of field marketing
With many responsibilities as field marketers, we can expect many benefits to be gained. Field marketers are specially trained for meeting and meeting the needs of the target audience, as well as being perfect in knowing the brand's values, goals and inner workings. Let's take a look at some of the benefits of field marketing.
Improve brand perception
Brand perception is a positive light for every business. Customers are starting to see your brand as something to consider or buy. If field marketers can be successful in bringing the target audience to see our brand, then you can build a reputation and gain their trust from people who only see your brand to prospective customers.
Getting out your brand into the field can help you to improve brand perception. This is better than placing banner ads, because not many people see banner ads and focus on them. In contrast to the existence of field marketers who can directly interact with prospective buyers and introduce your product directly.
Handles customers
It is natural for customers to be skeptical with a new brand or a brand they have not known before. One way to introduce them is with field marketing. By having a special person who is directly in the field, your brand has wider opportunities to answer what customers say about your company or products, up to answering any hard or harsh questions about anything related to your business.
Field marketers are trained to answer any questions regarding brands and product demonstrations directly in front of their customers. If done right, this can change the outlook for customers who were initially skeptical, to become convinced of your brand.
Accurate targeting
Face-to-face activity by field marketers has many opportunities to learn about what customers like and don't like in certain products. If you combine quantitative data with information obtained from the fields, you can target your audience in more detail. Field marketing that has got the right location and understands what customers want will find it easier to get leads and sales.
Builds relationship with customers
Field marketers have the opportunity to create memorable experiences with customers by giving samples, explaining products or services in detail, or talking a lot about your product until these customers feel connected. This leaves positive impressions for your prospects, and can be a great opportunity for future sales.
Do you understand what you can get from field marketing? Immediately negotiate with the team and start looking for the right field marketers to level up your business. If you're looking for a reliable source of information and resources for small and medium-sized businesses, look no further than smebrother.com.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.
One of the ways to advance the company is through employee training. Having employees who just stay without progress in the last few years can also be a burden for the company, especially if you let them go and find new people and need some time to teach new employees. The best thing that the company does is having corporate training programs for benefit both business owners and employees. Employee training can add several years of experience to a person's skill set, and accelerate the growth of individuals and companies.
Every company definitely needs employees who are growing better at their jobs, and adding internal talent with a growing marketing strategy, as well as saving recruiting costs and time. Let's learn why we need training programs for employees.
What is the corporate training?
Corporate training is special training provided by the company to increase the skills and knowledge of employees. Training employees can use a system of activities that can educate employees and adjust to business objectives and align with the company goals.
The main objective of corporate training is improving various aspects of employees, starting from expanding their knowledge, adding experience, and performing their jobs at a high level.
What are benefits of corporate training for employees?
Corporate training programs provide a lot of company-wide benefits. The corporate training is one way to boost company-wide competencies to facilitate progress toward business goals. These programs can target any level of performance you want to hit, whether you want to complete challenges or meet stretch objectives.
The programs can save companies from a lot of money which might be wasteful for turnover. Besides, if there is a company that provides professional development opportunities, of course employees will not waste it.
Both employees and companies will get their respective benefits, such as employees will develop communication, higher soft skills, collaboration skills, and increasing productivity. With higher-performing sales teams, companies can increase profits and expand their business even faster.
Basically, corporate training will motivate employees to perform better, and help companies to have internal talent specially trained to be experts in each specific role.
Best corporate training programs that your employee should be provided with
Now let's find out what forms of training are suitable for your employees, and align them with your business goals.
Communication skills training
In a working environment, communication is the main thing. We all communicate with each other in work by talking, using body language, and understand each other both consciously and unconsciously. A strong communication skill set is a foundation for business success.
Employees will be able to master conflict resolution, improve their ability to convey ideas and receive other ideas, sending clear messages through verbal or emails. While the company will get a stronger form of team building. Companies will get employees who can problem-solve, better engagement, and teams will be working effectively together.
Mindfulness training
The corporate world must think about employees' wellness from a physical and mental perspective. Paying attention to employees is one of the best ways to retain staff. This corporate training will enable employees to make better decisions in their organizations by observing clearly every situation, always being objective in every matter, and cultivating a rational mind.
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The mindfulness training will make employees understand how to reduce stress, anxiety, and tension. Employees can rebound more easily from conflict, failure, and adversity because they are calmer and wiser in solving all kinds of problems. Overall, this training will gain health and wellness for every employee.
Delegation skill training
For managers and higher ups, delegation skills is needed. You don't need to be brilliant at everything, because every task needs to be delegated so that it can be completed faster and on target. Knowing how to delegate and understanding the capabilities of team members is the key to success.
For this reason, delegation skills training is a must, because managers and higher ups must identify team members' talents and skills, how to delegate tasks effectively and efficiently, as well as proper training for following up on tasks and when you can provide proper support right on target.
Collaborative team dynamic training
Team dynamic training will provide courses on navigating the complexities of team interactions, and giving groups the skills and knowledge they need to. This training is perfect for fostering teams and giving them space to collaborate, communicate, and work better together. Employees will feel how exciting it is to work with a team, and also feel part of a team. They will build trust with each other, and begin to understand the communication styles that each member has.
The benefit for the company is that there is no need for intervention for dysfunctional teams, and there is no need for trial and error. Let the corporate training be the initial incestment, and see how the team can work well together.
Active listening skills training
As team members, listening to managers or other members is essential. Active listening skills training includes straightforward short courses but can produce great results. Miscommunication and conflict in the workplace can be minimized after employees can understand the simple act of listening properly.
Employees will get a number of fun activities to improve their listening skills which can have a positive impact on their work. In the end of the day, paying more attention to what other people are saying is more useful than simply listening to it, because that can lead to misunderstanding and incorrect information.
Conflict management training
Resolving conflict is something that is needed in every company. Did you know that there are methods and techniques for dealing with conflicts when they arise? It would be a good idea to provide this corporate training to managers, sales staff, team leaders, human resources staff and customer care employees.
The training will focus on providing a scenario of how the team deals with conflict. Employees must be able to find solutions together, and not be preoccupied with each other's arguments, while collaborating to resolve conflicts with a calm mind.
Presentation skills training
Practicing vocal modulation with presentations is a good step to improve the soft skills of employees. Not everyone can speak in front of a crowd, but that doesn't mean they can't be learned. Presentation skills are all about how to convey presentation material well with eye contact, a loud voice, clear delivery, and confidence.
Employees will find ways to gain their confidence when they are up on stage, and ways to convey presentation points in a straightforward and clear manner. However, companies will rest easy because they have employees who are ready to present their products or services with charm and grace to attract collaborators, funders, and clients.
Confident decision making
One of the great courses to start is decision making training. It has in-depth mental modeling that can improve the process of making decisions and how to take reliable steps to make the right call. Sometimes employees will be faced with bad calls or negative feedback from their decisions. But through this training, employees will be in a safe environment to carry out games with the concept of choosing the right decision and pinpointing the right problem.
Companies that have employees with the right decision making, they will have higher trust. It is because the results of employee choices are in accordance with logic, and good informed decisions will make it easier for companies to delegate tasks.
Time management training
Time is a very valuable commodity in every workplace. Having corporate training on time management is useful for increasing productivity and completing any deadline without being late. Managing time will be useful for all employees, because they can handle any tasks from minor to major tasks, and know how to prioritize tasks.
Companies will get a lot of benefits when their employees really appreciate working time, and don't spend time on things that have nothing to do with work.
Emotional intelligence
EQ or Emotional intelligence has been an individual's interpersonal success for years. EQ is a critical driver of career performance, and can influence job success. EQ training will teach employees to be self-awareness, understanding what they should improve by regulating their own behaviors. Employees will be calmer after having emotional intelligence, to work with their optimal performance.
Have you chosen which corporate training programs are suitable for employees and company needs? Immediately find corporate training that can add to the skills of each employee, and will optimize the ability of each team member to pursue goals and success.
If you need other information about small and medium-sized business, our website offers a wide range of articles, guides, and tools to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and overcome challenges. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.
Project management is one of the essential things for an organization, because it helps every part of the business run according to plan effectively and efficiently. If project management is done correctly, each objective will be fulfilled, deliver on time, and on the right budget. But how to do project management properly? You can use project management tools.
Not all companies know about the existence of special tools designed to meet unique company needs and according to preferences. Let's go into detail about the tools in 2023 that you can use for project management.
What are project management tools?
Tools with a set of software to help project teams to plan, track, and manage projects and achieving the defined project, and ensure certain constraints such as budget, time, and quality are as desired. The tools have key solutions for some of the main managing project challenges, such as time-consuming and lead to errors.
There are many choices of software or tools that companies can choose by either purchasing or using it for free online. Each tool and software has its own features and uniqueness, so companies must be observant in adjusting to the needs of their projects.
Are project management software or tools important?
Yes, because project management tools and software will empower users to focus on work and streamline communication with the team to get the project done on time. There are many other benefits that you can get, such as effective task delegation, easier file access and sharing, improved planning and scheduling, effective risk mitigation, and excellent budget management.
Perfect Guide About Management vs Leadership For You
But remember, not all software or tools have the same features. You have to see what you can get in the software or tools you use, and whether it fits your needs. Sometimes free tools or free software only provide limited features, such as storage or working procedures. You need to pay to get full access and more storage.
We will distinguish several tools based on their performance, namely tools for managing multiple projects and tools with time tracking.
Project management tools for managing multiple projects
Monday.com
This is probably the most usable tools you can find, because every aspect of project management is available here. Starting from planning to tracking progress in a user-friendly and visually pleasing manner. Monday.com presents you tools with an attractive interface, complete work organization tools, and easy to use.
If most of project management platforms only have one or two mainstay things, but not for Monday.com, because all aspects of your work are available with dozens of integrations and automations.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a collaborative productivity platform that builds for teams, because it brings everyone together with visibility, context and clear priorities. This is a great collaboration tool for companies that want more productivity while saving time to complete projects flawlessly.
Some of the features you can use in ClickUp are Data-driven dashboards to track progress with real-time reporting, advanced automations for team's workflows, collaborative docs for teams to stay aligned from strategy to implementation, and customizable tasks to breakdown projects up to several actionable items .
Teamwork
Teamwork includes an enterprise project management platform that can manage client work, including time tracking, invoicing, up to unlimited client access. It's a comprehensive platform that gives you reports about what you need to maximize in resources and not wasting time.
The main feature of Teamwork is All-in-one management, with one place for everything about projects, freelancers, clients, and teams. This tool can track every detail by breaking projects into tasks, and tasks into subtasks, so that no employee misses it. It also has integrated chat with colleagues and clients in real time, without having to replace it on other platforms which take longer.
Paymo
Paymo is a suitable tool for project transparency to collaborate effectively between you as the project implementer, with contributors and stakeholders. Paymo has project management features such as client communication and invoicing, as well as details on team tasks and schedules. It's a centralized project management for those of you who like to keep track of everything.
Paymo has features, including task budgets with appropriate hour levels, tracking projects with start and finish times, alerts for milestones, and sorting tasks for deadlines and priority for any projects.
Project management tools with time tracking
Time tracking is needed by users to visualize time spent on projects and every task. This enhances long-term strategic planning and saves on billing for more effective performance.
Wrike
Write is suitable for project management because it's easy to use, great for collaboration and communication. Features from Wrike, including dynamic request forms, custom workflows, dashboards with clear pictures of work, proof tools for soliciting and feedback, and comprehensive templates for those of you who want to launch any kind of project.
Mavenlink
Mavenlink helps project management to bring people together. The separate teams do unified project work without having to use redundant team communication tools. Mavenlink uses CRM integration features to keep your work running smoothly, complemented by resource management for planning projects to be more detailed and organized.
You can see the task progress to make it easy to check how far the project is running, and how healthy the project is running. There are collaboration features to keep everyone in touch, and business intelligence features to help you make decisions using data leverage. You can try Mavenlink with a free trial period, then you can see how many plans per month at an affordable cost.
Nutcache
Nutcache is a tool that focuses on teamwork. The model is specifically designed for how teams work together and helps teams to work together efficiently. Nutcache focuses on enhancing collaboration with the goal that every project must always be successful with good teamwork.
Nutcache has features, like a visual board to manage tasks and track projects, alerts to remind the team about deadlines, billing features, and project progress with flow diagrams.
GanttPro
The tool that uses classic Gantt chats as the foundation for work strategies. GanttPro focuses on project management that let the team view everything. Teams can track changes, deadline updates, view comments, etc. Teams always know how far the project is going, and what the situation is.
The features of GanttPro are templates that are user-friendly and make planning a project easier, cloud format for team members who can check in anywhere and anytime, real-time comments to reduce team meetings and more communication, sharing features to make communication easier with clients and what you want, as well as workload features for balancing the assignment distribution.
Have you found which tools or software are best for your project management? Immediately check the software and tools that are suitable for your project, and see what features are offered, from the trial period to the premium features.
If you want other information about things that are needed for small business to medium level businesses, visit SMEBrother.com. Websites that offer guides and tools for entrepreneurs struggling to grow their businesses and overcome challenges. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.
Leaders and managers are different roles, but did you know that both are critical for business success? Many people use the terms leadership and management interchangeably, even though they don't know that these are two different concepts. The term "leader" is actions without dictating, and inspires others to try their best through their words, and the term "manager" is someone who directs the work of others. Many people choose the term leader over manager, but in fact, both are needed to achieve success.
SMEBrother will explain in this article about the nuances between management vs leadership, starting from definitions, differences, examples, and everything you need to know.
Is lead and manage the same?
Lead and manage describe two separate concepts. Lead is guiding on a way by going in advance, while managing is handling or directing with a degree of skill. If examined in depth, both descriptions share much in common, but the explanations show the differences between the two.
Every company needs leaders and managers, but it doesn't have to be in the same person or in the same capacity. Simply leaders lead people, managers manage tasks.
Leadership and management definitions
Management is the idea of control and is responsible for using any available resources to be implemented to get the right action and coordinate it to the business towards its goals. Management is responsible for organizing actions and implementing tactics to move a business to achieve goals, while leadership sets those goals.
Leadership is a position that looks at the larger picture to focus on influencing, aligning, and motivating team members to support their vision. Leadeship understands how to motivate and choreograph their team to achieve high-performance and achieving goals together.
The skill sets of management vs leadership are identical, but these two roles will get different outcomes. Managers tend to be more focused on completing specific tasks and building effective teams, while leaders focus on inspiring and motivating employees to get their best potential.
Management vs leadership examples
If you are still confused about the difference between leadership and management, we made up some scenarios that will help to illustrate the difference between them.
Avengers get the award for the best security, in part of the Avengers efforts to protect the earth. Representatives of the presidents of the worlds thanks to the head of the team during the world meeting.
Manager : Tony "Iron-Man" Stark says thank you, and will tell the team when he returns back to the Avengers compound.
Leader : Steve "Captain America" Rogers insists that the team effort and mentions several highlights and specific contributions of team members, giving his teammates well-praised for the hard work.
Team Gryffindor is having a hard time because they lost several Quidditch matches and made their competitor, Team Slytherine, ranked first.
Manager: Harry tells the team that their performance need to improve warns of the consequences if the results of the game are losing continuously. Harry provided additional training to prepare for the next match, and promised a vacation with the team if he managed to return to the top of the standings.
Leader: Ron is closer to the team members, and he knows which members need to play better and how to motivate the other members to stay focused and enthusiastic. Ron also opens the conversation about Ron's opinion for each member for the past game, which tactics worked, and which ones needed improvement. Ron also listens to the team members' opinions, offers suggestions, and accepts criticism for his play on the games.
The Kowloon branch of Justice League is a small team that works well, always on target compared to other branches.
Manager: Superman says nice job, but no need to praise the staff excessively. He notifies the team when the team achieves targets or on good sales days, but also tells the team when the team is screwed up, and needs to deal with it.
Leader: Batman expresses his gratitude to his colleagues on a regular basis. He praises specific achievements and which areas have succeeded in making this branch progress. He facilitates coworkers by giving compliments and bonuses to encourage others to get the same achievements.
At the car dealer "Andy's Best Car," employees Rex and Potato Head respectively ask their bosses Sheriff Woody for a raise.
Manager: Buzz Lightyear informs Rex and Mr. Potato Head that salary increases are standard and depend on the annual evaluation. The company can only provide pay increases from the performance review period. When Rex reminds Buzz that this year's raises were frozen because there were several poor performances, Buzz says he will reconsider raising but makes no promises.
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Leader: Woody hears his employees by agreeing with his team members' justification and logic. Woody negotiates with executives and insists his employees get a raise in the near future, with promises of evaluation in a few months motivating Rex and Mr. Potato Head to work with chasing targets.
The Monsters Inc. is facing staffing challenges. The demand for electrical power is increasing, and the team is dividing up the tasks for everyone, but the result is longer than expected. The staff is exhausted because they are overworked, and there are many other unexpected problems.
Manager: Mike Wazowski tells the team to increase their performance to deal with the problem of electric power demand until it is fulfilled. He knows that his employees are overwhelmed, but that is what it is and tells the employees to hold on until that period is over. He says that everyone can rest after the target is met.
Leader: James P. Sullivan asks what resources or what help can be done for his team, and tries to make the journey alongside teammates. He adds extra manpower to the team, and does other things to ease the burden, and finds ways to figure out solutions to reduce the stress of his employees.
Which is more important leadership vs management?
Both leadership and management are crucial for organizational needs. But, leadership is more important and must be in the core organization. Management regulates the student process, leadership handles the vision and passion of employees and building a successful business.
But even though leadership is more ahead than management, it doesn't mean management is not needed. Both must exist and be sustainable to achieve goals, because management vs leadership is something that cannot be separated.
That's all about what you need to know about management vs leadership. If you want to know about other reliable sources of information for small and medium-sized businesses, look no further than smebrother.com. Our website offers a wide range of articles, guides, and services to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and overcome challenges. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.
Every business owner who launches their business for the first time will focus on establishing their brand and start growing. Not a few business owners want to know how to grow a business quickly and easily, without researching that growth is an ongoing process that requires patience, hard work and dedication.
There is no special recipe or secret way to grow business and achieve immediate success. However, there are proven ways from small business leaders who share their tips to accelerate growth. Let's take a look in this article.
How do you describe business growth?
Business growth can be seen when a business reaches a point where it needs to expand and requires more avenues to generate any profit. Grow business can happen from many factors, such as increasing the amount of production or service, increasing consumer demand, increasing company revenue, and expanding the customer base.
The majority of business views growth as the main objective. Every business decision will be reviewed whether it contributes to the company's growth and overall success. The growth is seen continuously and not just in one moment. Every business owner hopes that the company's growth will escalate quickly with minimal obstacles. But every business will experience its own challenges, and they need to overcome them.
How to measure business growth?
The growth rate can be calculated by dividing the difference between the current period value and the previous one. A percentage of the difference will appear, and you can see whether this month is better than before, or vice versa. Indicators for company growth are sales growth, high gross profit growth rate, good cash flow, and improved customer retention rate.
If a business refers to the national growth rate, then try to make sure that the percentage of the company's growth rate is slightly higher than the national rate.
10 tips to grow business quickly
There's a lot you can do to accelerate growth. These tips are steps that have been taken by some small business owners and the methods they've used to scale up, for businesses in any field.
Hire qualified employee
Company's growth can be seen from how your team performs. Good team performance can be obtained from having solid staff who focus on goals. Hiring the best people with perfect qualifications can be a major factor to ensure fast growth.
Top Ways To Improve Employee Productivity
Imagine you have employees who are dedicated to the company's success, are hard workers, and can collaborate with their team. You can delegate tasks and focus on important work without having to waste a lot of time and energy, allowing you and your team to perform at your best and achieve goals as fast as possible.
Reduce business risks
Every business that is launched will have its own risks. It's impossible for every owner to control everything, but there are still many things that can be prevented or researched to reduce risk. You need to have resources for business insurance providers.
Small businesses need to find insurance products to help them cover online data breaches, and cover the cost of remediation and lawsuits. When business growth has begun to show, business owners need to review the policy to ensure they get the right coverage for their expansion.
Always adapt
Adapting to changes in the market and looking for current marketing strategies is one of the steps to growing a business in an efficient way. With adaptations and quick changes, you can do trial and error to find what is the best step.
In this digital era, every product or service will be more easily known through the internet. Business owners must be able to adapt to new things and adjust their product or service according to what is currently trending.
Research your competitors
Analyze the competition by seeing how competitors do their business. Ask yourself who your competitors are, what are the good things about them, and what are your plus points. You can get answers on which parts need to be improved so that you are not inferior to your competitors.
Although this step is not elicit immediate growth, by looking at your competitors you can better recognize how your products and services compare to theirs, and what you should do to introspect and try to be better.
Customer experience is important
Small businesses need to respond to their customer needs. Engaging with customers is crucial because you strengthen the relationship with them and understand what they want. Customer's perception is also the key to the rapid development of a business, because the more they are satisfied with your product or service, they will not hesitate to offer it to their friends, family or co-workers.
But if you can't deliver the best, customers can break your business with their bad comments. Ensure you get praise from customers and make your current or your potential customers happy.
Providing excellent customer service
Customers will be more loyal to your products and services if you exceed their expectations. You can appreciate customers by providing excellent service, such as offering discounts, additional services, or free products after several purchases.
Sometimes customers feel relieved when there is a follow up from the company to ensure a client was satisfied or not with your service or product. They feel heard and trust you back if there is something they don't like. Ensure you have a customer service team that can listen to what customers want or have to say.
Plan your next step
Planning the next step is a step to anticipate all scenarios that might occur. Thinking ahead can be done by means of comparing rates, reviewing all ongoing contracts, research for better negotiate deals, or further ideas for new products and services. Thinking about possible problems can be your benchmark in making a decision.
Social media platforms
Having a website alone is not enough to introduce your product or service. Add it by creating profiles on all major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The active profile helps you to communicate with customers and interact with more potential customers.
Update regularly on several social media platforms so as to increase the potential for new people to see your brand.
Go to networking events
Connect with new people in networking events. Many people have insights and unique perspectives that can help you grow your business. The relationships and connections can be forged when you attend networking events, and can be beneficial for years to come.
You can learn many things from others, starting from facing the same problems, to the possibility of future cooperation and offers a wealth of opportunities.
Invest early
First, determine which parts of your business need attention. Do you need more employees? expand the marketing efforts? or securing additional funding? If you find a crucial area that requires fast completion, then invest in it to accelerate growth.
You can start financial support from your own money, because the early stages of every business are no profit or very lean profit margin. Any money that you can get can be an investment to help your business grow.
Hope these 10 tips can be your steps to accelerate your success. Don't forget to balance the business growth with auditing. If you need professional auditors who can help you with the financial condition of your business up to the next business steps, SMEbrother is the answer. Check our website for your reliable source of information and resources for small and medium-sized businesses. Check out SMEbrother now for auditing or accounting purposes, or anything that can help your business thrive.
Small businesses always have new things that become challenges for them, and must be tackled to survive. It's not uncommon for small businesses to experience accounting challenges, and some small business owners fear that their businesses will have to bear the same burden as accounting challenges in corporations.
While accounting challenges might be frightening for many startups, we will discuss what are the possible accounting problems faced by entrepreneurs in the early days of opening their business. Hope this article will help you to tackle the accounting problems and give you an idea of what you might be facing.
How does accounting impact small businesses?
Accounting is an extremely beneficial thing for business, it helps owners, investors, managers, and stakeholders to keep track of the financial performance and track assets, liabilities, cash flow, and income. When business owners understand how their financial condition is, it enables them to make the next accounting decisions.
Businesses that do not track their financial condition will result in unnecessary expenses, greater expenses than income, or even bankruptcy. To avoid these things, we need to know some of the accounting challenges that are often faced by small businesses.
10 accounting challenges entrepreneurs must deal with
Managing cash flow
It's a big challenge for small businesses in managing cash flow. The percentage of businesses that fail because cash flow is higher than other problems. Small businesses find it challenging to keep the cash flow steady, because they find it challenging to cover recurring costs and try to stay on business.
An easy way to stay on top of cash flow, is to analyze bills carefully. Pay attention to the monthly expenses, and try to cut costs where you think they can be reduced. If there is inventory that is rarely used, you can sell it to generate cash.
Unexpected expenses
Some examples of unexpected expenses are employee health insurance costs when they fall or slip while working, one-time government taxes, essential office inventory that is suddenly damaged, etc. If a small business earns more than usual and might be in good shape, set aside some for emergencies or unexpected expenses.
Don't forget to always record how much you save, and how much you spend on an expense. If you have a lot of records about unexpected expenses, you can estimate how much it costs to be prepared each month for unexpected things.
Using accounting software
Although small businesses need good records for bookkeeping, using accounting software is sometimes unnecessary. In order to run accounting software, you need to have a basic understanding of accounting, and you will need to do a lot of installation. You need to learn about financial health to utilize accounting software properly.
If you are satisfied with manual recording and can be checked periodically, then using accounting software can be postponed until you need it. Some software requires an annual rental fee or purchase of a license, and is a significant problem for small businesses.
Reporting finances
Every business in Hong Kong must prepare financial statements by submitting their profit tax return and the adjacent reports. The annual filing needs to be studied, or company owners are advised to seek professional services to ensure that the company complies with the regulations. Professionals will help you with various legal services, including tax compliance for individuals and companies.
Errors and miscalculations
If the recording is only done once and does not use accounting software, there is a possibility of miscalculations or transactions that are forgotten to be recorded. This is common in small businesses where they often postpone income or expenses because they feel that the amount is small. No matter how small your income and expenses are, you must record it as soon as you can prevent unrecorded financial data.
How to Reduce Common Accounting Errors in Small Business
Lots of errors and miscalculations will create an unmatched balance sheet, and can be a big disaster. Never let anything go unchecked, and record every single detail of a transaction as soon as it happens.
Regulating payroll
Managing payroll is important in small businesses, because each employee must be classified properly. Each employee has a different salary amount, and it affects taxes. Ensuring employees are paid according to the agreement, and properly tracking when employees have holidays. Now there are many accounting software that can make it easier for payroll, but you must have good and thorough records.
Analyzing finances
Reconciling or analyzing your finances may be annoying, but it's a must. You have to check if there is an error that leads to incorrect data. If you do not use accounting software, you must verify all of your transactions on a monthly basis. Don't forget to run through the accounting books every end of the day to ensure no transactions are forgotten. Financial decisions can exist because you are analyzing and advising.
Securing data
Secure your financial data whether it's online or offline. If your financial data is put online, there are many possibilities for your data getting targeted by hackers. You can use cybersecurity for online data. If the data is online, you can only entrust financial data to a few important people. Not all employees are allowed to know, because this is a company secret. Besides you writing in a journal, you can put financial data in excel or accounting software.
Bank accounts
A common mistake small businesses make is combining bank accounts. The owners cannot distinguish between office income and their personal income. It's impossible to track all of the finances. Personal and business expenses may not be combined into one bank account. If it continues, then it's a major accounting problem that can lead to bankruptcy or fraud.
Business financial health
Bookkeeping perfectly, maintaining and operating the business's accounting is not enough. You need to analyze, assign a specific budget that derives to the next steps, and do careful analysis. You can ask an accountant or conduct an audit with a professional to determine the next financial step. The business's financial health can be seen from how you process and also continue to develop the business.
How do you fix accounting problems?
Fixing accounting problems can be done in several ways. First, you can hire someone qualified for detailed bookkeeping of all financial company data. Next, you can use accounting software if there are a lot of transactions, income and expenses. Don't forget to do an audit and hire a professional accountant for your next step.
If you're looking for a reliable auditor and accountant for small and medium-sized businesses, look no further than smebrother.com. We offer a wide range of guides and services to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and overcome challenges. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.
Starting a business has many challenges as well as achievements for entrepreneurs, but maintaining the business is the bigger challenge. Every business will face common, small or large challenges. If entrepreneurs are unable to persist in solving business challenges, they will fail faster, and not a few small businesses fail in their first year.
Learning strategies about surviving the many common business problems is a must for progressing your business from small business to the next level. But how can we strategize if we don't know what to expect? Let's learn what makes small business struggle.
What are the challenges of small business?
Opening a business from scratch is a challenge in itself for small business owners. But after going through this milestone, other challenges will come, such as lack of funds, cash flow problems, lack of business plan, lack of time, hard to get good employees, having trouble introducing oneself to the market, even losing passion for the business.
All of this can happen due to many factors, such as lack of preparation, not having learned about the target market, or running a business without a clear vision and mission. Small businesses can have a great opportunity to develop quickly if they have a good marketing strategy and do experiments before investing.
For example, before you sell a product, you need to create and share your product with family, acquaintances, co-workers or neighbors. Look for feedback on your product, until you find their honest opinion about what needs to be improved, and what is the added value of your product.
Even though this first step will cost money, it is better if you know what we are selling and how people respond to our products than gambling to sell products directly without experimenting and getting to know people around.
But the problems that small businesses can experience are not only that. Let's look at 7 business challenges that must be faced by small business owners.
7 business challenges that small small business struggle with
Finding customers
Although this problem is not only for small businesses, it is still one of the problems that cause small businesses to struggle. Every marketer working hard everyday to find new customers. If even large companies are still looking for new customers every day in different ways and strategies, then the challenge for small businesses is more significant.
Small businesses have to introduce their brand first before they can get customers. There are many other things besides brand recognition that every small business must prepare, so it is difficult to determine which ones should be prioritized.
Money management
Having enough cash to cover expenses and bills is a must for every business. Small business owners often experience difficulties in financial accounting, and it is not uncommon for them to combine personal income with business or vice versa. Not all business owners can handle business accounting and taxes, most of them need professional help and the costs are not cheap.
Knowing The Importance of Accounting Services for Your Business
What many small businesses do is bookkeeping manually or by using an accounting application, although there are still many things that must be learned starting from the basics of bookkeeping.
Labor quality
Every company needs a team that can work together to understand business goals and achieve them. Hiring a qualified staff is the biggest challenge for small businesses, because not all business owners want to pay a premium for their new employees because there are still many costs to think about.
While getting low-quality labor, it takes quite a long time for them to adjust to understand what the business owner wants, and it takes a long time to teach knowledge according to their field until they get used to it.
Balancing quality and growth
Businesses must always be monitored for developments and the quality of the products or services offered to buyers. Never feel satisfied with what is produced, because there is always room to grow. Small business owners often focus on sales figures rather than quality.
Sometimes business owners also don't want to listen to good opinions from employees or customers about the shortcomings of the products or services offered. Focusing too much on one's own opinion can be detrimental to brand development.
Look for a middle ground between obsession with quality balance, because business owners must be willing to listen to the opinions of others for the betterment of their own business. Business owners can still navigate the process for a middle ground that allows for change and growth without destroying the brand.
Managing workflow
After hiring qualified employees, the next challenge is managing workflow. You have to balance your team's performance with any tools and processes to gain efficiency. Business owners cannot be on all fronts at one time, but they must remain focused to ensure everyone is working in the right path. Small businesses that cannot manage the employee's workflow will find it difficult to direct their employees towards the intended goal.
Business owners who have almost no time to hold meetings or listen to what employees say are also a big problem. Employee's workflow can be maintained with employee satisfaction surveys, periodic meetings, and one-on-one meetings with direct reports.
Fatigue
Many business owners are stuck working longer hours than employees. Many think that their business will stall in their absence, and set aside time to rest and recharge. Many small business owners want totality in developing their business by sacrificing their rest time even though this is not so urgent.
Fatigue can cause mistakes in making decisions such as decisions that are too hasty, or decisions that are not thought through carefully. This can make a fatal mistake in business, because a lack of focus can make business owners overlook small things that can have a big effect one day.
Marketing
Even large businesses will still have a marketing strategy to win the market and expand their reach. But many small businesses feel secure about their accomplishments and feel they don't have to rush into brand awareness or take the next marketing step.
Many think that marketing steps require a lot of money and are not very productive, or don't even try to enlarge the reach of their brand. As a result, the small business will remain small because it cannot go any further, because business owners limit themselves to introducing their products or services.
How can small businesses overcome challenges?
Small businesses can survive every challenge if they are surrounded by talented people and support each other for the progress of the business together. If it's still difficult for small business owners to find qualified employees according to their needs, then you should still take steps to hire someone professional to keep the business running.
The problem of financial arrangements and how to develop a strategy to keep the business running is a must. If you're looking for a reliable source of information and resources for small and medium-sized businesses, look no further than smebrother.com.
Our website offers a wide range of articles, guides, and services to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and overcome challenges. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.