Business Blog Archives - Page 44 of 49 -

Why Downsizing Your Office May Make Sense

Moving to a smaller office might seem like a backward step on the surface, but it can actually be a great way of progressing your company forward. Downsizing offers both financial and practical advantages. Here are just a few reasons to consider choosing a smaller office.

It will save you a lot of money

Downsizing office is the most effective cutback you can make. On top of not paying as much rent, you’ll likely not be paying as much in utility bills as there’ll be less space to power up and keep warm/cool. It doesn’t have to just be a way of getting out of debt (although it can certainly help in that regard). It could also give you a means of saving up, which could then allow you to expand your business without having to take out a loan. With the help of a commercial removals company, you can put some of your items and storage and then take them out when you can afford to move into a bigger premises. Alternatively, you may be content with your smaller office and could sell some of your excess belongings for money.

It could allow you to move to a better location

Alternatively, if you’re happy paying the same lease rates as you are now, you could consider downsizing to a smaller office in a better area. Prime locations such as high streets and city office zones often come with expensive rental costs which might not allow you to afford a regular sized office, but you could possibly be able to afford a smaller office. This location could improve business for you and be worth the sacrifice of space.

Your employees can work remotely

Many office jobs are computer and phone-based and can be performed from home. Cloud technology has allowed for simple sharing of information over the web rather than having to store information on an individual computer or local server. Your employees may value being able to work remotely – in fact it could have many benefits such as increased productivity and lower stress due to no commute. You can still allow the option to work at the office, but may not need to supply as many desks and computers, making it more practical to move to a smaller premises.

It could improve communication

A smaller office could help to bring everyone in the office closer together, which could improve communication and teamwork. If your employees are spread out or in separate cubicles, it could be encouraging them to be more insular. This may be healthy for a job which require a lot of individual concentration or a job that requires privacy, however it might not be positive for a job in which employees have to be constantly talking to one another. Obviously, you don’t want to be so cramped that it’s impractical.

Office Moving Checklist for Busy Managers

Whether you will need to move your business to relocate to a new area, or you are expanding, you need to make sure that you reduce the distractions and complete the transition as soon as possible. There are certain important things you need to take care of before the movers come and everything gets packed and shifted to the new location. Below you will find a few tips on how to take care of crucial tasks when your company moves to new premises.

Letterheads and Stationery

You must get rid of all the old stationery and order the new ones before you move to the new location. You don’t want your customers to look for you at the old address. Make sure you talk to your web developer to get your business information updated on your website and different directories. This way, you can make sure that your suppliers and potential customers are able to find you.

Tax Registration and Accounts

Updating your business information on your incorporation and taxation documents and registration should be one of your priority tasks. You can get a penalty if you fail to notify the tax office about your move, and if you don’t get reminders because you moved, you can only blame yourself. Get in touch with a corporate accountant or attorney to find out what the simplest and fastest way of updating your company address is.

Letting Customers Know

If you have an email ist, you could send out an update about the move, but don’t rely on this form of communication alone. You might want to send letters on the post, and call your most important and largest clients, making them aware of your new location. Get a notice put on your website by your web developer about your move telling customers and visitors about the date and linking to Google Maps, showing your new offices.

Arranging Insurance

It is important that you arrange the insurance for the new business property as soon as possible. Get quotes and compare the different levels of cover, to make sure that the policy suits your business needs. If you are using shipping container transport to deliver your office equipment and furniture, make sure that the company offers insurance for the freight, loading, and unloading.

Remote Working Arrangements for Employees

To make everything go smoothly, you can get your employees to work from home remotely while the office is being relocated. This way, you can keep answering phone calls and online queries, so you don’t lose customers or have to deal with excess workload once you have moved into your shiny new offices.

While arranging transportation and managing employees is important when you move your business to a new property, you must take care of the above tasks first, to ensure everything goes smoothly, and you can get back to normal operation as soon as possible, without your customers trying to get hold of you without knowing your new address and contact details.

The Secret Sauce to Getting Noticed

The world today is completely overcrowded with marketing messages and social media notifications to the point we are totally bombarded with distractions vying for our attention. This has created a social phenomenon known as information overload, which is something you want to be particularly mindful of as a business owner in today’s landscape… the term has a number of applications, such as as

The point is, there’s a lot of marketing “noise” out there, and if you’re going to stand out you need to cut through the noise and get noticed for a good reason. Imagine yourself as an exhibition stand contractor whose job it is to build exhibition stands that get the exhibitor noticed; it’s a tough gig because in a trade show context, there are so many other stands hungry for the attention of the crowd.

What is found, time and time again in a cross section of marketing reports is that relevance is the key differentiator. If you want to stand out from the crowd, then you need to be relevant to the audience you are trying to attract. That’s the secret sauce!

The good new is that within social media, and particularly now with facebook’s hyper-personalised targeting it’s never been easier to connect with your specific target audience and send a niche message that is relevant to their interests.

Within the theme of relevancy, it’s advisable that you focus on a particular niche and become an expert within a narrow market rather than a generalist within a broad market.

To better understand this, think of a niche as a focused subset of a particular market group. If you were to think about a personal training business, for example, there are many generic personal trainers that help anyone with their goal to lose weight. Given the sheer number of personal training businesses out there, this generality makes the service feel somewhat of a commodity meaning consumers will look for the cheapest price.

If, however, we were to look at a personal trainer focusing exclusively on new mum’s, for example, there is huge relevancy and appeal to that specific audience… rather than a mild appeal to everyone interested in losing weight. It means this personal trainer would be viewed as a specialist in their area of expertise and can build a business around a set of core competencies – where they will soon become known as the “go to expert” rather than a jack of all trades and master of none.

In summary, the most important thing is that you stand out from the competition, and there’s no better way to do this, than to focus on solving one particular and very specific problem – so that you are perceived as the “go to expert” in that area.

When you stop focusing on the product you offer and start focusing on the solution you offer to a particular problem – you begin to stand out from the competition in a way that is much more sustainable than competing on price, special offers, or the fact you have a huge colourful banner outside your shop window. The key tip is to start focusing on resolving a pain or struggle your customer faces and market your business in a way that marks you out as the solution provider that can solve their pain, and give them what they want, in very specific “end result” terms.