Author: Adam_Admin

It can be exciting and reassuring when your new business venture achieves growth and success. However, it can also become hard to manage and keep under control. When things reach a certain threshold, you may no longer be able to oversee everything as a business owner. Despite the challenges, you still want your business to produce a consistently high standard of goods or services. Here are some key things to consider in order to manage the development of your business.

Key performance indicators:
As your business expands, determine some key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate certain tasks and how you will get regular data for each. This can help to inform business decisions that will continue to facilitate your organisation’s growth. Some examples include:

• Absenteeism: by creating a great working culture and attendance perks, you can encourage your staff to take less time off.
• Sales: offering bonuses or other perks to employees who exceed sales expectations could improve overall performance.
• Complaints: Implement a system for dealing with complaints individually. By examining their causes and providing solutions, you can make changes in your business to ensure they don’t happen again.

Develop your skills:
In addition to making changes that improve how your business operates, you should also focus on adjusting your own leadership style. For example, you may realise that you need to develop your skills in managing people, business innovation, or attracting second-stage investment to optimise your business’s growth. In areas where you recognise you could improve on, think about delegating tasks to your employees to maintain growth. Brainstorming with your staff and other advisors may open you up to different perspectives and insights, facilitating a diversity of ideas within your organisation.

Anticipate competition:
Growth will inevitably attract competition. If the growth of your business begins to take away your competitor’s market share, they may implement strategies to counter your success such as lowering their prices, increasing advertising or adding new products. Be prepared for this and pay attention to the other businesses in your market. To continue the growth of your business despite the competition, you may consider solutions such as customer loyalty programmes, or contracting clients for a fixed term.

Motivating employees is a large part of keeping quality standards in the workplace. When you have someone who is ‘overqualified’ for a job, some start to question if they will be pushed to work hard. Managers may be missing out on the ideal hire by eliminating those who are overqualified from consideration. When potentially hiring someone who is overqualified, it pays to look at every aspect of what they could bring to the business.

What makes a candidate overqualified?
People with a higher education level that is required for the job they are applying for are generally what would be considered overqualified. There are also those individuals who have had a number of years experience in the industry that would make a starting position seem like a step down the career ladder.

The Pros:
The overqualified candidate will require less training than those who are inexperienced, saving you time and money not having to train new staff. They could be left unsupervised for longer periods as they will have more industry knowledge to get them through a task and can provide assistance and guidance to other new members of the team. Overqualified candidates are also a good source of new ideas and expertise, demonstrating creating problem-solving in ways that you may not have considered.

The Cons:
While overqualified candidates may save you money in regards to training, they may request a higher salary overall. If you advertise a job with a certain pay rate then it is assumed applicants are willing to comply with this, but those who have more experience may want a bit more for their work. There is also the risk that overqualified workers will be dissatisfied with a lower level role as they are more than capable to handle the workload and are not challenged. This could lead to boredom and low morale, potentially affecting others in the workplace.

Whichever way you decide to go, it is important not to rule out a candidate simply because they have more knowledge or experience required for the position. Getting to know an individual’s motivation and personality during the interview process will give you a look at what kind of worker they will be, which will be different from the side that shows on paper.

When starting a new business, there are many elements you need to consider. Careful planning is essential to ensuring the longevity of your business, but what exactly goes into a good business plan?

A good business plan is one that is detailed. Sections should include; an executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service or product, marketing and sales, funding request and financial projections. These topics cover as much of the business as you can in the planning stage.

Showing attention to detail in your written plan demonstrates commitment to the business going forward. When writing a business plan, there are a few ways to ensure you are creating the best guide for your idea. Researching the industry and other companies in the market you are looking to step into can give you an insight into more than just the competition. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to know how and if audiences will respond to you.

Backup your information where you can with relevant files and supporting documentation. This provides sources to strengthen your plan and justify data. You should also keep records of your resume and any permits you may need if presenting your plan to an investor, this will help to support your commitment and ideas.

If you aren’t presenting your plan to investors or potential partners, determine what purpose your business plan will serve. A good business plan can be used not only as a sales document but a map for the business into its future. Writing a business plan that makes projections for the first five years can keep you on track and show you areas in which you need to focus on.

A business plan is a guide to help you create and maintain the best business you can. Even if things don’t go exactly as planned, a successful business plan is one that teaches you the things you want to get out of the business and ways in which you can achieve them.

Content should be produced with the intention of it going viral and being shared across a broad number of platforms. Although this sounds ambitious, it is a good practice to help ensure solid planning is being incorporated into creating content to make an impact on readers. With that in mind, do not be discouraged if your content isn’t reaching large volumes of people, as there is a lot of luck behind creating viral content. Here are some ways you can get the most out of your social media presence.

Composition:
Careful thought needs to go into how you choose to display your content. The best way of composing your content will depend on a number of factors, such as your target audience, the seriousness of the content, and whether it is better presented using text, images or videos. Try using a mix of different ways when composing content such as lists, videos, infographics, photo essays, memes or written how to/opinion pieces.

Content:
The content you share should have a “wow” factor. It should be engaging, thought-provoking and above all, credible. Before coming up with a content idea or committing to writing about it, conduct research to work out what is already being said about the topic and how you can provide something new to the discussion. If your competition is doing the same thing as you, you can’t expect your content to stand out. Provide your audience with something extra that no one else is doing.

Conversation:
Great and shareable content sparks discussion. The internet is flooded with information so to stand out and prevent being lost amongst the noise online, your content should generate a point of dialogue. Directing your audience to some kind of action or being intriguing enough to make people tell others about it is a good thing to keep in mind when creating and posting content. Incentives, such as giveaways, are another way to get your audience talking and sharing content. The cost to you is minimal, but the potential benefits are great.

Consistency:
To build not only shareable content but a popular voice in your industry that people keep coming back to, you need consistency. Consistency can be achieved by using the same tone (sarcastic, humorous, informative, etc), regular posting or using a theme (reviewing a TV show relevant to your industry, weekly wrap-up of news, etc). By posting regularly, you can connect with your audience frequently and build a better relationship.

As a business owner, making the most of your day to optimise productivity is crucial to your success. The most efficient businesses are those that can create more with less and are driven by highly motivated employees and inspiring leaders. To maximise efficiency within your business, it is necessary to understand the importance of time management, organisation, and managing resources.

Tackle the hardest things first:
Ticking off the jobs that will require the most effort are usually done more effectively first thing in the morning. Also known as ‘eating the frog’, this can help you to avoid procrastination. Once you have done these tasks, all subsequent jobs will seem much more manageable, allowing you to get into a more productive workflow.

Avoid multitasking:
While trying to do many jobs at once may seem like an important skill for increasing efficiency, in reality, it may have the opposite effect. Attempting to multitask can result in lost time and reduced productivity, as you are not focusing properly on each task. Instead, consider making a habit of committing to a single job, completing it thoroughly, and then move on to the next project.

Set manageable goals:
It a common problem for business owners is not having a solid understanding of whether their employees are performing highly or not. This can be caused by a lack of achievable and motivational goals. By offering manageable deadlines for tasks to be completed, it can provide your staff with an incentive to stay on track. Giving clear direction to your employees can assist in clarifying your expectations of the business, helping to increase efficiency.

Work in intervals:
Rather than working in large blocks of time that can be mentally exhausting, try to work in short intervals instead. Studies have suggested that this can be effective in boosting concentration and overall productivity. Encourage your staff to take regular breaks. This will benefit your business, as everyone will be able to work at higher levels of creativity, quality and skill.