Shape Your Business

How to reduce your payroll and protect your employees

Mike Reddy — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:12:15 +0000

In soft economic times cutting back on payroll usually means laying off employees.
As a tactic it works, but this strategy reduces your productivity and can end up costing you in the long run. You will have lost any investment you made in their training, lost their knowhow and will be stuck with the cost of hiring a replacement sometime in the future when business starts to pick up again, so avoid it if you can. If laying off employees is the only option, give careful thought to how you can maintain production and customer service so as not to plunge into a downward spiral of poor service leading to increasing customer desertion. Here are some suggestions for how to slim the payroll burden.

Slim the payroll
Reduce pay and eliminate raises: a reduction in pay won’t be popular but if the alternative is redundancies among the employees they might well agree to go for it. At least they keep their job (and
you save on payroll) until business picks up again.

Cut back on work hours

This will reduce payroll without entirely losing the employee. This can be done by decreasing daily hours or reducing days per week or moving to so many days per month. A reduction in hours may be viewed as preferable to having no job whatsoever. Sharing the pain out among employees will be better for morale and you get to keep people on hand for when times improve.

Replace monetary with nonmonetary incentives
Offering the use of your vacation home or extra time off in lieu of a money bonus can show that
you understand your employee’s disappointment in not receiving a cash bonus but want to reward them for their hard work.

Encourage employees to take time off without pay
Canvass employees for those who would be agreeable to taking a period of time off work
without pay. The deal must be that they are guaranteed their job back at the end of the specified period.

Incentivise employees to leave
The least unpleasant way to downsize is to let natural attrition take care of the job by not replacing employees who quit or retire. If normal attrition will be too slow to reduce numbers to what you need/can afford, then offer employees an incentive to terminate: grant early retirement with full retirement benefits or offer an attractive severance package. Make clear this is for this occasion only.

Make use of independent contractors
Hiring is a long term commitment. Until things improve, soak up extra workload using independent
contractors instead of putting on workers.

Insource
Maybe some jobs you are currently outsourcing can be economically brought back into the workplace to be done by underutilised employees. Be careful not to breach employee or supplier contracts. Do this only if there is a distinct cost/benefit advantage over the outsourcing deal.

Reduce the cost of producing payroll
The actual cost of producing the payroll (calculating pay, producing cheques or making deposits and keeping track of employee information) is itself an area where savings can be made.

1. Outsource payroll: organising each payroll is a time consuming, (= costly), process with an element of danger added because of the possibility of making a mistake with the regulations and procedures that need to be navigated and the
forms and returns to be filled in to get it right. It may be more cost effective to outsource payroll to an online service provider who will carry out all
processes in accordance with the latest regulations, insert this information into the correct forms and get salaries deposited into your employee’s bank
accounts.

2. Use direct deposit for salaries: a good way to save money is to use direct deposit of payroll (DDP) in place of issuing paper payroll cheques. There is a
significant cost differential between an online transaction and the processes around preparing and issuing cheques.

3. Extend the payroll period: switch from a weekly to a biweekly or monthly payroll period to reduce processing costs.

The best rule of thumb for implementing any restructuring of work practices is to be honest with employees upfront and lay out the reasons that make the changes necessary for business survival. You also need to be mindful of the terms of existing union agreements and work with the union to achieve a conflict free alteration of procedures. And always take expert advice in labour related decision making to avoid breaching labour regulations.

Passing your business on to your spouse

Mike Reddy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:39:32 +0000

Thinking about death is uncomfortable in itself – coldbloodedly sitting down and working out scenarios to deal with what will happen in the event of it actually happening is even more traumatic. That’s part of the reason why succession planning goes to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list for most business owners.

Even those who have gone to the effort of preparing a succession plan may not have constructed it to be in the true best interests of their spouse or the longer term viability of their business. Because of the tax benefits involved, estate and tax advisors commonly recommend leaving the business to the surviving spouse. While this makes perfect tax avoidance sense, it may not constitute a healthy family business succession planning strategy. For a number of reasons,
emotional and practical, a surviving spouse may want nothing whatsoever to do with the business in the absence of their partner. This is one reason why succession planning must begin with a frank family survey; it’s necessary to establish correctly two things - who wants to perpetuate the business and who can perpetuate the business.

The spousal partner may simply not want to take on running the business. Then the succession planning must take their reluctance into consideration. On the other hand, while many spouses have worked with their partner from the start-up of the business and involved themselves in its operations so that they have an intimate knowledge of it, many have not.

Without proper knowledge of the organisation they may not be skilled enough, or lack the financial experience, to manage it. It’s not doing the spouse or the business any favours to pass on the challenges of running a business to someone who lacks the competence to do so.

If your business has more than one owner then you need to understand the risks you may face if you die unexpectedly without having a proper buy-sell agreement in place. Looking at the situation quite objectively, if you were to make your spouse the heir of your share in the business, or, by default let that happen, would it be welcome to the other partners? Or to your spouse? A successful partnership is a delicately balanced relationship and bringing on board a
deceased partner’s spouse can be difficult. Do they get along personally? Would they see eye-to-eye about the future of the business? In the absence of any special arrangement the remaining partners cannot force the spouse to sell them their share, and the spouse cannot force the remaining partners to buy his/hers.
This sort of Mexican standoff can spoil a business and create a situation that is both unpleasant and unprofitable for your spouse.

Spousal interests might be best protected by turning your shares into cash through sale to the remaining partners. Again, lack of preparation here can have unfortunate consequences for your spouse – specifically, would they be able to sell your shares, and at a fair price, to the remaining partners? A buy-sell agreement can be structured to manage this by providing for an automatic buyout by your remaining partners upon your death. This arrangement is funded through the purchase of a life insurance policy (also called buy-sell insurance) to facilitate the buyout by them. A written succession plan would detail how the business will be valued and what your spouse’s share will be. As a result, a business succession plan with buy-sell provisions provides all owners and their spouses with legal certainty should the unforeseen occur and reduces the risk of either side becoming embroiled in legal action over a valuation or payout figure.

It’s important to realise that management (your power) and ownership (your assets) are for the purposes of succession planning, two distinct entities. You don’t need to transfer both to your spouse to protect their future. You may decide, for instance, to transfer management of the business to one of your children whose youth, enthusiasm about the challenge and skill makes them the person best suited to exercise management while maintaining an income stream for
the spouse by transferring a share of business ownership to them.

Losing a partner is a dreadful enough experience in itself. Bequeathing your spouse an interest in your business that proves to be more of a burden than a support would be tragic. The development of a business succession plan is crucial to making the business provide just the type of support you intended for them.

20 ways to make your employees detest you

Mike Reddy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:22:41 +0000

It’s all too easy to get people offside through poor communication – the careless remark that cuts to the quick, the dismissive answer. People make mistakes in how they communicate with others all the time.

Managers are no different.

Ask yourself if you deal with your employees in any of the ways listed below. Every one of them demonstrates a careless indifference to the concerns of the other person or a gap between talking the talk and actually walking the walk. Any discrepancy between the talking and the walking will get you labelled as a bad communicator and a bad boss.

1. Ask people for their opinions, ideas, and continuous improvement suggestions,
and fail to acknowledge their contribution or provide a reason for why it can’t
be implemented. Worse - acknowledge it was a good idea and then proceed to do
nothing about implementing it.
2. Tell them they are in charge of something because they have the most skills
and knowledge then step in and micromanage how they do things. Worse - undermine
or change their decisions without explaining why.

3. Ask people for their input as if their feedback mattered even though you have
already made up your mind about the final decision.

4. Call a meeting and turn up late leaving everybody frustrated with the waste
of their time. Worse – send in a message saying something more important has
come up and you can’t make it after all.

5. Bring the kids or pet dog in and let them run riot then ask an employee to
clean up the mess.

6. Badmouth employees to their colleagues. They’ll know they will be getting the
same rubbishing from you behind their back in their turn. Just as bad –
humiliate them in meetings in front of coworkers.

7. Set a strict dress code for employees then turn up in your track suit. Worse
(at least from a fashion statement point of view) – tuck them into a pair of Ugg
boots.

8. Fail to address behaviour and actions of people that are inconsistent with
company policy. Worse – apply them inconsistently or make excuses for the
shortcomings of favourites.

9. Make your priority everybody’s priority by always getting people to drop what
they were doing and help you out. Worse – then blame them for not getting their
tasks done on time.

10. Appropriate your employee’s idea and take credit for it. Worse – do it in a
team meeting (at least some of the people there will know who really came up
with the idea first).

11. Change your mind frequently about plans and timelines without good reason.
Worse - fail to communicate the changes to the people expected to do the work.

12. Allow an employee to fail when you had information that he did not and which
he might have used to make a different decision.

13. Speak loudly and rudely to intimidate people. Worse - dominate all
conversations so people don’t get the opportunity to respond to accusations and
comments.

14. Refuse to accept constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement.

15. Ignore certain people and/or favour others. Worse – be inconsistent and make
a person a superstar one day and a non event the next.

16. Let your anger show by swearing, bullying employees, shouting at them on the
phone and slamming doors on them.

17. Don’t return the calls or emails of employees – keep them wondering.

18. Slap down questions, concerns and ideas that come up in meetings. Worse –
belittle the person who dared to speak up.

19. Cut off the employee you were talking to to take a personal call no matter
how important the matter under discussion – or unimportant the personal call.

20. Misrepresent or distort conversations with your employees when discussing
them with a third party.

Retaining Skills And Knowledge As Older Workers Begin To Retire

Mike Reddy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:04:46 +0000

The average age of the workforce is steadily increasing. For employers, that means the average age of their workers is steadily increasing. Baby Boomers, who make up the majority of the workforce, are now aged 45 to 62 years. Over the next few years more and more of them will be retiring turning a trickle into a torrent.
In the past new hires would be found easily enough to replace them. In the future the shortage of replacement workers from among the younger generation, the so-called Gen-Y (currently aged 16 to 31 years old), may make finding the right, or any replacement a lot more difficult.

It’s not possible to get a handle on what issues an ageing workforce might present for your business until you have an understanding of the age grouping among your current workers and an idea of when they will start to retire, particularly those that are highly efficient, well skilled or just plain good workers. That can be discovered by carrying out a demographic study to show what percentage overall of employees will become retirement-eligible in the near future. A closer look will identify the key people whose departure would be a real loss to the business.

Next after that is to develop a strategy for tackling any problems the retirement wave might present. You can think in terms of hiring replacements and keeping current people on longer.

Hiring replacements

Most small businesses seem to prefer to hire from among Baby Boomers and Gen Xers with only a minority actually preferring to hire members of Gen-Y for their team.
Enthusiasm, a willingness to learn and technological savvy are reputedly among Gen-Y’s greatest assets but their unreliability, lack of experience, frequent job changing, know-it-all attitude and lack of team playing raise concerns for small business employers. But with Boomers going and increasing competition for the small pool of Gen-Xers there won’t be a choice. In the US, typical of advanced economies, the American Society Of Training And Development is predicting that 76 million workers will retire over the next two decades with only 46 million arriving to replace them. Most of those new workers will be Gen-Ys.
Employers will be faced with a multigenerational workforce among whom some real generational differences will exist. Generational clashes in the workplace are nothing new. What is new is the size of the gap between their different values and work styles that could threaten to lower morale, increase employee turnover and reduce productivity. Getting them to work harmoniously will be a challenge demanding more focus on enabling and encouraging the ability of different generations to work in a collaborative manner. It’s definitely time to start catching up on information about management techniques for bringing out the best in Gen-Y. On the other hand, employers will be repaid, through the better retention and integration of Gen-Yers into the workplace, for any investment in training they make relating to those basic skills that generation is perceived to be short on such as conflict resolution skills, communication, supervision skills, workplace etiquette and customer service.

Focussing on retention

Keeping on older workers provides an opportunity to retain organisational knowledge for a
time and the opportunity to pass it on. Pairing older and younger workers together in a mentoring relationship, maybe guided by some formal training, builds skill level. Having new hires company more tenured employees as they perform their day-to-day tasks, (job shadowing), provides them with an insight into the resources, techniques, and short cuts that make experienced employees
more efficient.

Of course, these schemes are predicated on having the old hands around still to pass on their knowledge or to just be doing their job. The fact that Boomers are reaching retirement age isn’t to say that they necessarily will retire. Longer life expectation, poor saving habits and a rising cost of living are keeping many people back at work well after they become eligible to retire.
Circumstantial ‘push’ drivers like these may keep people at work but attractive ‘pull’ tactics based on more flexible and innovative working conditions, which suit their needs and circumstances, will ensure you retain or attract the best.

That’s why employees need to understand what will make employment continue to be attractive
to older workers. For example, older workers tend to prefer a workplace that continues to offer them training, makes some workplace accommodations to suit their reduced physical capabilities, provides flexible scheduling (such as part time work and work from home), offers retirement and health benefits and a phased retirement package.

As the workforce continues to age, businesses that want to stay competitive will plan to retain and use the knowledge of their older workers, as well as arranging for it to get passed on to the next generation.

Economic Crisis Survey

Mike Reddy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:11:47 +0000

Well, the Credit Crunch is well and truly at our door.

And to ensure we are in the best position to continue to provide you with the knowledge to help lift the performance of your business I would be grateful if you would complete a short 5 minute survey. We have commissioned the survey in conjunction with the RAN ONE Network.

This Survey is vitally important as it allows us conclusively document your opinions and then tailor new and even better services to overcome your obstacles.

Once the survey has been completed we will publish the results by publishing a Credit Crunch report.

I’m hoping you will understand how this survey is essential to maintaining and improving our current service standards during the Credit Crunch and beyond.

Please take part in the survey by clicking here:

Shape Your Business/RAN ONE Economic Crisis Survey

The Kindness Of Strangers – Or, All About Peer-To-Peer Borrowing

Mike Reddy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:50:05 +0000

Small business owners are starting to feel the effects of the credit drought. Many may already have experienced disappointment with a loan application. Meanwhile unexpected needs for a cash injection keep coming up such as a delivery vehicle breakdown or an opportunity to pick up some normally expensive office equipment or machinery at a good price. With credit getting tighter and credit card charges going up, who can a cash strapped owner turn to for a loan?

Increasingly these days, the answer is – to a stranger. A peer-to-peer (P2P) loan (also known as ‘person to person lending’ and ‘social lending’) is a loan mediated directly with another person without using a bank or financial
institution. Would-be lenders compete with each other on the basis of the interest rate they apply. The lender willing to provide the lowest interest rate ‘wins’ the borrower’s loan. The majority of these deals bring together a borrower and lender not previously known to each other. For a flat fee, P2P lenders may also perform a ‘family and friend’ transaction helping a borrower and lender who do already know each other (family members or business associates) to sort out the terms of a loan arrangement and then formalise it in writing.

The process has become popular because it is mediated by the social networking capabilities of the internet. Popular P2P lender organisations, such as iGrin, LendingHub, Prosper, Zopa and Virgin Money, have become the eBay equivalent of the personal loan market putting borrowers in direct contact with lenders for loans up to around $25,000.

The allure of peer-to-peer lending goes beyond finding a willing lender charging a reasonable rate of interest. The process is not known as ‘social lending’ without reason. One unique aspect of P2P lending is that it gives borrowers the chance to tell their story, so applying for a loan can be as much about winning hearts and minds through mentioning shared hobbies or interests as about a compelling business plan. At LendingClub, lenders pick borrowers based not only on their credit profile, but also on their affiliations; at Prosper, users can create groups that, based on members’ repayment history, receive star ratings and can help member borrowers get lower rates.

It may be easy money but is it smart money?

The fact that money may be just a few clicks away makes P2P borrowing a very tempting proposition. But that doesn’t automatically make it a smart choice. The P2P option can be used intelligently to deal with a short term cash requirement or to trade a high rate credit card debt for a lower rate P2P loan – their lower interest loans can be used to pay off a high interest credit card balance.

However, as with all financial deals, you need to understand the rules of the road if you don’t want to crash.

Generally, the basic principle of lending - that the lower your credit score, the lower your chance of getting financed - applies just as much in P2P deals as it does with traditional lending institutions. P2P lender sites usually grade borrowers’ credit worthiness in some way, based mainly on their credit score.

Money borrowed through a P2P lender is reported to the credit bureaus as a personal loan. Paying off $10,000 in credit card debt still leaves your credit report showing a $10,000 debt – only now it will represent your personal loan.

You haven’t gained any ground in reducing your overall debt but you have lowered the interest rate you pay on the debt. That may be a good result in itself, but it doesn’t improve your credit score in any way. Loans taken out to fund business activity can even reduce your credit rating. Regardless of the purpose the borrower has in mind to use the money for, it really amounts to, and is treated by credit companies as, just another personal loan. By adding this new loan to your debt, your credit score may go down. That can affect your longer term ability to get a loan from the conventional sources or even credit from vendors or suppliers.

The new P2P lending sites, as with credit cards before them, may be making it a little too easy for a business owner to get their hands on money. P2P lending obviously addresses a gap in the credit market, but such loans can hurt personal credit scores and potentially draw business owners in over their heads. Before seeking money from a P2P site a prudent business owner should sit down and take
a really hard look at their financials and do a cash flow projection to make sure they can pay back the loan. Otherwise they could be making a bad situation even worse.

How to fire bad customers

Mike Reddy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:33:15 +0000

Every business has its share of high maintenance customers, but not every business subscribes to the
‘customer is always right’ philosophy and feels they have to go on supporting them no matter what. In fact, some businesses will actually ‘fire’ a customer they no longer want to work with and often report
being happier and financially better off once having done it.

In some instances firing a customer is a no-brainer. Those that don’t pay their bills or break the terms and conditions of sale are probably going to be more of a headache the more you deal with them. So let’s assume you have decided there is no recourse but to fire one of your customers. Is there any way to do it tactfully and without creating lasting resentment on their part?

Firing tactics

Price them out of your market: Cost conscious customers who constantly complain about price and expect service way beyond what they are paying for are likely to move on if they face a price increase from you. You can justify it by telling them that you are getting busy and have raised your rates to be more competitive and in line with your value. Give them the new price structure based on restoring the balance between the costs of serving them and the value they contribute to your business and leave it up to them to make the decision whether to stay or go.

Pass them on: Contact the customer personally and politely explain why you think you may not be the best supplier for them in future. There are a number of business related reasons you can come up with that aren’t accusing or confrontational – you are cutting back on doing that sort of work; your plate is
full and you can’t take on any more work; you intend serving a different market and they don’t now match your customer profile, whatever. Thank them for their past business. Conclude by offering them a list of alternative suppliers you feel would be a more appropriate match for their needs.

Stop rewarding them: Some customers are chronic complainers. Often their game is to rip you off by playing on your commitment to customer satisfaction. They’ll return a product they damaged knowing you replace ‘no questions asked’; or complain about something because you offer a discount on a subsequent purchase to make up for slips by your employees. When it becomes obvious a customer is
just playing the system it’s time to answer their next complaint with a simple, “Thank you! I am sorry that we did not meet your standards.” No discount voucher or any other incentive to come back to you.

Don’t let your action backfire

Get paid what’s owing: A fired customer may just take the attitude that if it’s alright for you to fire them then it’s alright for them to not pay what they owe you. Take what steps you can to recover unpaid invoices before firing them.
Don’t threaten them with what you will do if they don’t pay up within the specified time, just assume they’re going to pay and wait on events.

Complete all contract obligations: Firing a customer without having met all your contractual obligations leaves you open to legal action for breach of contract. Before giving notice, review all your written contracts to ensure you have met your end of the bargain.

Retain supporting documentation: Any record of the customer’s dealings that would support your decision to fire them, such as letters or emails in which they have threatened you, maligned your character or made a promise to pay that was subsequently broken and so on, will be valuable support if the customer does decide to take legal action.

After the break, avoid fallout

Even when it’s well handled with tact, courtesy, and professionalism a customer who realises they have been fired is likely to feel a little resentful. The best you can hope for is that they don’t complain too publicly about what happened to them. Meanwhile, you may feel like crowing over the fact that you are finally free of this albatross. Don’t! The wider you broadcast the news the more potential for damaging fallout. It could harm your professional reputation to be seen to be gloating. It could damage business – other customers you had no intention of firing may hear of it and wonder if they are next. They might take pre-emptive action and leave before being fired. Just be quietly glad that the customer from hell is no longer your customer!

Keep customers coming back

Mike Reddy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:24:16 +0000

Customer loyalty programmes work big time for big companies but SME owners are often deterred from developing one because of worries about how much it would cost or how difficult it would be to organise and manage. As a matter of fact, the very same principles that keep customers coming back to big companies can be utilised to develop an SME scale loyalty programme without a lot of cost and drama.

Make customers feel like ‘members’
Creating a ‘club’ that provides special incentives to members is one of the best ways to retain customers. This approach works because it is based on the primal human need to ‘belong’ to something – especially where belonging also makes us feel we are being treated as special.

Who gets to be a member?

A customer loyalty programme based on membership should convey a feeling of privilege for those selected so it can’t be open to all and sundry. Customers may qualify for membership either by purchasing their entrée or by dint of their past support and loyalty.

General Nutrition Centres, a specialty retailer of vitamins and supplements, offers a Gold Card membership programme that provides discounts on products, personalised mailings and email on health related topics, product news and exclusive offers. GNC found that they could even use their
programme to actively iron out lows in their sales pattern by offering a special discount on sales made on Tuesday, traditionally their slowest sales day.

Only your imagination limits the opportunities for coming up with a bundle of services around your basic product offering that some segment of your customers would find appealing – a dry cleaning business could offer a discount on cleaning, free alterations and a pickup and delivery service; a book shop could offer discounts on items purchased, a magazine of latest releases and reviews, invitations to catered book launches and author talks.

Reward customers for purchasing from you

Reward based programmes are among the most common of loyalty schemes – think frequent flyer points and coffee cards.

They provide gifts and perks that are earned according to the amount of business a customer does with you. Providing a free reward after multiple purchases is an effective enticement to keep them coming back.

Usually, all that is required to manage the programme is a card on which each purchase is registered. After a certain number of purchases, or after making purchases that add up to a certain value have been made, the customer receives their reward – after 6 cups of coffee, one free; after 10 CDs, a free CD; after 9 car washes, the 10th for free.

The reward doesn’t have to be related to what you sell.

A clothing store could reward customers who purchase above a certain dollar value of their lines with a couple of movie tickets; customers who have earned enough points can go to an online store and choose from a variety of products there.

Let customers feel good about themselves

Many customers love the idea that while purchasing something for themselves they are also doing something for someone else. Letting customers know that part of what they spend in your store helps out a good cause, whether you choose to sponsor an internationally recognised charity or the local kids’ football team, will appeal to some segment of your customers. They’ll be drawn back through their sense of charity or community spirit to make their contribution to the good work.

A customer loyalty programme reduces customer defection and may even attract new customers once word gets around about the benefits it provides. Keep the scheme simple. It shouldn’t be too hard for customers to understand how it works or to earn their reward. Put the real thinking into just what sort of reward would be encouraging to your customers - knowing what is most important to them is the secret to making a customer loyalty programme successful. Small businesses are actually in a great position to implement loyalty programmes because they can find out fairly easily what interests,
motivates or inspires their customers.

Small Ticket Cost Cuts Add Up

Mike Reddy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:14:48 +0000

There may be any number of costs lurking in your everyday activities and procedures that just don’t get noticed simply because they aren’t big ticket items. But that doesn’t mean they can’t add up to a
significant spend nonetheless. Look around and see if these tips can help drive down costs before making any drastic decisions that may come back to haunt you later.

Fuel

Organise your errands so you can take care of several on the one trip
Arrange delivery schedules, sales calls or installations according to the shortest route between them rather than zigzagging across neighbourhoods
If delivery is a courtesy rather than an integral part of your sales process, then consider cutting it out, offering it to only your best customers, scheduling it in late morning or early afternoon
when traffic is lightest, or introducing a fee for it

Utilities

Turn off equipment that’s not in use - computers, photocopiers, lights, air conditioning
Switch to energy efficient light bulbs
Use high efficiency rated appliances
Install automatic light switches and put the aircon on a time switch
Make use of natural lighting where possible

Office supplies

Put a moratorium on buying all but essential supplies
Reduce printing to essential documents and use the reverse side of paper for copying draughts and internal documents
Use recycled paper
Buy from office warehouse companies or discount stores
Purchase locally – shipping costs from distant distributors can more than double costs

Office equipment

Before buying new furniture check out second hand office supply dealers

Communications

Cut back on unnecessary phone service add-on features like music on hold
Price compare phone service providers
Consider a VoIP solution
Take away mobile phones from employees who don’t rely on them to do their job
Price compare website hosting service providers
Consider next afternoon or two- or three-day service instead of express shipments
Use email instead of postage mail whenever possible

Make cost cutting a continuous improvement programme

While you may have been pushed into a cost cutting exercise by the current economic situation it’s smart to make cost review a normal and regular part of running the business. Now that you have carried out this review, ensure the process of actively searching for cost cutting opportunities stays alive and keeps contributing to increasing your profitability.

Small Business Uses For Blogs And Wikis

Mike Reddy — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:30:36 +0000

If you spend any time at all online you can’t have failed to notice a whole set of new technologies that make up what is being referred to as ‘Web 2.0’ - wikis, blogs, rss feeds, podcasts. More and more, these are finding application in business. Here’s a simple explanation of two of the most common Web 2.0 technologies being promoted as useful to small business,
blogs and wikis.

BLOGS

Contraction of ‘web log’, a blog is a diary of the writer’s thoughts but with entries displayed in reverse chronological order.
Communication is two-way – readers who have joined (subscribed to) a particular blog can post their own responses and thoughts on the stories the author has posted there.

Examples: The Consumerist, Small Business Trends, Small Business Brief, Sales Team Tools

Business applications

Inexpensive marketing
Build web traffic
Low cost alternative to creating and maintaining a website
Chance to communicate in an immediate and personalised way with customers and prospects to get new ideas as well as feedback on products and service
Keep employees informed about business related developments
What it takes

You need to publish well written, informative content on your blog on a regular basis to enjoy the maximum search engine optimisation
benefits of blogging and keep readers coming back. More time will go into
responding to the comments you receive and checking up on the links you have provided to other sites (users will stop reading your blog if they regularly find dead links in your stories). It also needs some clever marketing to get noticed and attract subscribers in the first place. You could use your customer list to let people know you have started a blog, make prominent mention of it on your website and list with a blog directory. Also put a link to your blog in your email signature line and mention it in forum discussion replies.

WIKIS

A wiki is a website whose information can be added to, removed or edited by visitors. It derives from the Hawaiian word for ‘quick’.
Think of a wiki as a shared whiteboard and filing cabinet combined. Wikis
present a powerful opportunity for collaboration among employees and can be used to create a valuable organisational knowledge base of information people find it helpful to have handy ranging from policies and procedures to a list of product serial numbers or a directory of client websites. A wiki can be for purely internal use among employees or open to the outside world so customers and prospects can view and add to what is there as well.

Examples: SmallBusiness.com, HTC Smartphone Wiki, Corporate Underpants

Business applications

Useful repositories of information your people may need easy access to
Support for collaborative projects – keep all documents in one place accessible to all project members
Allow customers to generate content for you, for instance a bookshop could host readers’ reviews
Create a virtual call centre to answer customer FAQs
Gather customer comment on products and services
What it takes

Open access to wiki content (although some content can be locked down and untouchable) means that data is easily vandalised by removal of content or deliberate addition of misinformation. Some sort of editorial
control and content review process is recommended to keep information up to date, relevant, correct, and to prune out problematic content such as defamatory comments and advertising for other sites. It’s better to avoid this intervention as much as possible. Let contributors know the rules up front by posting a ‘terms of service’ policy outlining what is acceptable.

If sensitive information is included in your wiki, such as employee details or product designs and other intellectual property, then implement a strict gatekeeper policy to control who has access to what. Employees will need some encouragement to start using it. You’ll have to market it to make customers and prospects aware of it.