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How Leaders Can Master the Art of Empowering Employees

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:00 AM PST

Empowering employees is an art that leaders need to master. As a business owner, your employees should be the most valuable asset you have because their performance is directly linked to your business's success.

These are the key takeaways of this article that can help you enhance the workplace culture of your company:

  • Empowering employees can drastically improve different components of your business, such as sales, marketing, production and customer service
  • Employee empowerment is a message, and delivering that message is crucial for it to work.
  • Empowerment only works if there is a culture of forgiveness; developing a forgiving culture is as important as empowering your resources.
  • Employee empowerment can also deteriorate your company culture, but you can ensure that such situations don't arise through transparency. 

So what exactly is employee empowerment, and what makes it successful? Let's take an in-depth look at what it is and how you can do it for your business.

What is employee empowerment?

Employee empowerment is about dispensing a degree of autonomy and responsibility to your resources by giving them decision-making powers, related to their specific organizational tasks. This includes limited functional autonomy for senior staff, managers, executives and junior employees.

The idea behind employee empowerment is to ensure that on a psychological level, each employee feels like their efforts hold value for the company. This increases responsibility within your teams.

Empowerment can also come in shape of allowing individuals to innovate in their area of expertise and conduct trial and error. It helps employees work in their comfort zone while continually improving their productivity.

The message of empowerment

When companies empower their employees, the message they send out needs to be precise. The message should be able to align resources to the company's long-term values and goals. The idea is to tell employees that we trust you to make the call that is in the best interest of our goals.

For this, the employees need to understand the vision of the company for which CEOs can take specific steps, but more on that later in the article.

The message you send out should reflect a sense of trust from the senior management toward employees as it helps increase the confidence and work ethic of your resources.

It also makes employees feel proud of the work they are doing, because one of the things that resources hate the most is feeling that the work they are doing is not benefitting them in any way, shape, or form.

Employees want to feel important, and when the company they work for believes in their work, they become far more productive and engaged than would otherwise be the case.

There can be a downside to blanket employee empowerment if the message is not made clear to employees.

How empowerment positively affects different aspects of a business

For each of the functions of a business, empowerment brings different benefits. Each individual within these departments, if empowered, is more likely to innovate, because they understand that they can own the results of it, rather than the success being attributed to those in higher managerial positions.

This recognition incentivizes workers to seek improvement as it adds to their value in the organization, improving their ability to grow as professionals in their field and be recognized for their efforts.

Sales

For customer-facing businesses, a sales team is one of the most important bodies that help companies to generate revenue. An empowered sales team can attract customers through different discounts or offers that capture their customer's interest immediately. If your sales representatives are not given the autonomy, their ability to convert leads remains hampered.

By empowering your team, you give them the ability to make on-the-spot decisions without depending on an approval that could benefit your company, not just for one sale but for thousands of sales during the year.

Production

For production teams, empowerment can improve product quality significantly.

We allow our team to do this because we understand that individuals have their limitations and would instead work much more productively within their comfort zone, while they continue to learn other frameworks to synchronize with the team.

Rather than forcing a framework upon them, we promote learning while ensuring that they can use the software that helps them deliver the best quality.

Similarly, our developers sometimes take initiative by executing their tasks on software that we don't usually use for development. If they can showcase in their work, improvement in quality, or shorten the development cycle, then we ensure that their innovation is not only rewarded but implemented on a wider scale.

The workspace culture we strive for is all about organic innovation through our teams. Our resources understand that if there is room for improvement, they can take that step individually and then help others in the team do the same.

This emphasizes teamwork and collaboration within our unit. Through this, we aim to foster a healthy work environment that revolves around improving ourselves and those around us.

Marketing

Probably the place where you could see the biggest impact of employee empowerment is your marketing department, because these are your employees who thrive the most on innovation and empowered decision-making autonomy. By granting your marketing team more autonomy, they can come up with ground-breaking strategies for your company.

Having autonomy also incentivizes them to come up with newer, better strategies rather than repeating the same old strategies that they have used in their last job or what they see others doing.

A chief marketing officer cannot be the only individual focused on innovation; the culture of innovation needs to trickle down to your social media handlers, brand executives and content creators.

Empowerment helps businesses grow their presence, enhance their market recognition and in return, attract a larger share of the market to engage with them.

Customer support

According to Neil Patel, 71% of consumers ended a relationship with their business of choice due to poor customer service.

Often, customer service representatives showcase powerlessness to consumers when they say things like "I'll discuss it with the manager," or "I'll see what I can do about this and get back to you."

This happens because of a lack of empowerment. These employees are too scared to decide without consulting their manager. This is a by-product of a workplace culture directed by fear, because they aren't empowered by their managers to make the call on the spot.

From a consumer's perspective, it appears that they are talking to someone who can't help them solve their problem. As a business, this is a grave mistake.

Businesses can lose a lot of potential revenue due to the inability of their customer service teams to provide immediate relief to the clients they are communicating with. In an alternate reality where they are empowered, they can rectify the error.

Imagine if you ordered food from a restaurant and received the wrong order. You call the server over, explain the issue, and the waiter asks you to wait another 15 minutes before offering you a solution.

Ask yourself, "In case of a mishap, how do I want my consumers to feel when they reach out to the support team?"

Employee empowerment can help you ensure that consumers are promptly served and remain satisfied with your service.

What can go wrong if you're not careful about employee empowerment

Until now, we've only discussed the things that can go right if your employees are empowered with the right message. But what if the message you're trying to send is unclear?

The biggest potential issue that could occur with efforts to empower employees is the cultivation of a mindset wherein employees believe that the upper management is shirking their responsibility.

If employees are making the decisions, what is the senior management doing? But this problem is also easily solvable. Communication is key. For junior employees, you must maintain a level of transparency with them. They should know at least superficially what their managers are doing, what they are trying to achieve and what their role is in helping the company achieve its goals.

This improves the company culture, promotes a healthy working environment that is based on transparency, and keeps your employees well-motivated to get their work done in the best way possible.

Nurture a culture of forgiveness and accommodation

Let's talk about the active measures managers and business owners can take to ensure that their employees feel empowered and take ownership of innovation.

  1. Providing employees with the tools and services they need to get the job done is essential. Spending money on your employees should never be a pain point for you as a business owner. At Tekrevol, some of our employees had problems with work-related burnout. What we did was pinpoint a common interest between the employees. In this case, it was chess. We purchased got an in-house chessboard that helps our team unwind when they're feeling work-related burnout. This also holds for more technical things such as purchasing tools or software that can help streamline processes. At the end of the day, these resources are your assets, and accommodating them needs to be a business priority.

  2. Be open to your employees participating in decision-making conversations. This helps them not only understand the company's vision, but it helps them align themselves with it. Moreover, as frontline resources, their insights can help C-level executives remain in touch with what is happening on the ground and make better decisions while making sure employees feel that their opinions matter. Healthy discourse is vital for an excellent workspace culture.

  3. A culture of forgiveness is a key factor. When you give employees autonomy, they are bound to make mistakes or make decisions you don't necessarily agree with. How you respond to that matters. Excusing mishaps can be a great way to encourage your employees to keep trying new things as opposed to clamping down on mistakes or micromanage their tasks. Such behavior pushes them in their shells and creates a mechanical workforce. Employees don't like to be handcuffed, so even when they make mistakes, you can guide them without aiming for retribution. Only through a culture of forgiveness can a company truly empower employees on a long-term basis, which exhibits to your resources that they too have a stake in the company's future.

  4. Conduct a session with your senior managers and train them to identify social cues. If you're unaware of them, the internet itself is a great resource to learn how to identify these behavioral cues to understand how your resources are feeling. Alternatively, hire a coach who can help you decipher people's general mindset to understand how your company culture is affecting your resources. If they are feeling burdened but are too afraid to say it, reduce that burden. But you can only do so if you understand that in the first place. Work on your ability to read people and accommodate them to ensure their productivity is not negatively impacted. 

Survey your company to see if it can benefit from employee empowerment

For some companies, employee empowerment is already present organically. For others, it might be more mechanical, and adherence to a strict chain-of-command is the standard operating procedure.

As a CEO or business owner, it's a great strategy to connect with your resources by having a casual conversation with them to assess their mood and mindset with regards to their work.

Once you have the right information about the workplace culture of your company, then you can use the strategies mentioned above to empower your resources, improve that culture, and, in some instances, increase your revenue through better quality services and products.

Revealed: 4 Customer Retention Tricks You Need to Know

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:00 AM PST

  • A high customer retention rate means that consumers are coming back to your website after their initial purchase for renewals or new products. 
  • Existing customers will make up a majority of your future sales. 
  • Success teams can identify and solve pain points for customers who have already bought something from your business. 
  • Implementing customer feedback and loyalty programs are great ways to get one-time patrons to become lifelong customers. 
  • Engagement is vital for building trust, which is a core component of retention.

If you're a marketer or business owner, your goal is to get as many customers as possible to stay invested in your company after their initial purchase. The percentage of people who come back for repeat purchases or renewals compared to your overall customers is your retention rate. 

There's a common financial adage called the 80/20 rule. This rule states that 20% of your existing customers comprise 80% of your overall sales. If you review your sales data, you'll find that it's generally true that consumers who have previously shopped at your business spend more and come back multiple times.

A high customer retention rate is hard to achieve but well worth the effort. The more customers you have invested in your brand, the better chance you have of growing your business and product line over time.

We are going to take a look at four actionable customer retention tricks you can start using today. 

Create a success team

Do you know the difference between customer service and success teams? Customer service teams help consumers when they have a problem, like a damaged product or a customer needs help with billing. A customer success team helps existing consumers get the most value from the product or service they purchased. 

Success teams are common in SaaS businesses, but some e-commerce stores have followed suit and now have customer success teams. When someone completes a purchase on your website, send them an email and let them know that you have a team available to help if they want to learn about all of the features available with their purchase. 

The result is that consumers become educated on what you're selling and see the value proposition as much more appealing than they initially thought. Now that they see all the benefits of sticking with your company, there's a better chance that customers in this position will come back, which improves your retention rate. 

Gather and implement customer feedback

Customer feedback is an essential part of growing your business. Creating new products, tweaking your website for a positive user experience, and creating detailed consumer profiles is nearly impossible without listening to subscribers and customers. 

There are several ways you can gather feedback and implement what you've learned to improve your business and customer retention rate. If you don't have a contact form on your website, you need to build one if you hope to hear from the people who browse your website. Make sure you ask specific questions on your contact and feedback forms to gather accurate data. 

For instance, you could ask people who have visited your website to tell you how you could improve the experience next time. Instead of using a multiple-choice answer, leave it open-ended so customers can tell you precisely what they expect from your brand. 

Let's say you survey visitors; you're reviewing the feedback and notice that over 50% of the people who responded said that the checkout process on your site is too complicated. Clearly, there's a problem when consumers try to complete a purchase on your site. Now you can get your development team together to find out what went wrong and solve the problem. 

The willingness to listen to consumers and their needs, while implementing these significant changes, will help you retain more people over time. 

Offer a loyalty program

Loyalty programs are a great way to entice consumers to come back to your store after their first purchase. Everyone from Starbucks to Uber implements a loyalty system where they give customers points based on their purchases.

Loyalty programs help keep consumers engaged on your website, and there are plenty of options to choose from. Some business owners may prefer a simple points system where they give consumers back a percentage of their purchase as in-store credit, which they can use at a later date. The idea here is that when the customer comes back to use their points, they will spend more than what they have, which results in an additional sale and more loyalty points for the consumer. 

Some businesses use their email marketing campaign as a tool to encourage customer loyalty. These marketers create campaigns designed to reward customers who take the time to open their email with an exclusive discount or gift. 

Engage on all platforms

Did you know that the average person spends two hours and 22 minutes on social media every single day? You can see why business owners and marketers strive to improve their social media marketing campaigns when they want to boost customer retention. 

Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are excellent tools for growing your audience and keeping customers interested in your business. A recent report revealed that 43% of consumers want more video content from brands. Many brands are repurposing their content for YouTube to ensure it resonates with consumers. 

Similarly, Facebook Groups is an excellent place to find new and existing customers and see what they are saying about your brand. You can this tool to engage with consumers in the comments sections and direct them to blog posts on your website if they have a question that your team has covered. 

While we are on the topic of blog posts, adding social share buttons to your blog helps your posts travel social media faster. The ability to share your post without leaving your website ensures that customers don't get distracted and that they stay engaged with your brand. 

Conclusion

You need people to continuously engage with your company through social media, email, and on your website. As your audience grows, you may notice a shift in your repeat customers and how much they spend. You must keep an eye on these statistics so you can stay ahead of the curve when you're planning future marketing content. Additionally, you'll learn more about your target audience in real time, which can help you train your team to meet the needs of visitors before they think about looking at one of your competitors. 

Focusing on customer success and feedback, all while engaging and rewarding loyalty, results in more people coming back to your online store after their first purchase. Every business is different; these tricks may require some tweaks, depending on your industry. Use your best judgment and trial and error to find a customer retention strategy that works for you.

SEO Strategies to Implement in 2020

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST

The success of your website is largely dependent on whether or not people visit it. If they can't even find it then any growth is going to be a real struggle. While certain search engine optimization (SEO) strategies – such as a fast-loading webpage – will always be of benefit, tactics continue to evolve from year to year. 

In order to stay ahead of competitors, it's essential that businesses keep up with SEO trends emerging on the horizon. In this article, we'll go over SEO tactics that you should consider implementing in 2020 to help turn your website into a lean, mean, SEO-friendly machine. 

Take control of your homepage's link authority

Your website's homepage is going to attract more links than likely any other page of your site, so it's important that you make it work for you. You'll definitely want to make sure your homepage is linking out to your most important and frequently visited subpages. This might be product pages or simply pages with relative information that visitors will want to know. 

If you don't have product pages, you might want to link to articles in the body of the landing page. Creating prominent HTML links on your homepage in the body and at the top navigation will help with link authority upfront.

Optimize for voice search

The keyboard is only one way people are searching for their internet queries today. It was reported in 2019 that almost half of American homes had a digital assistant in them and out of those that did, 70% used them daily.  

Is your website optimized for all those Echo, Alexa, Siri, and other voice searches that are being performed millions of times a day? When using voice searches, a search engine must work even harder to pull the relevant information a user is searching for at that very moment. This makes short, choppy words less important, and specific long-tail keywords phrased in the way people actually talk all that much more relevant.

The good news is that because voice search is already used so frequently, much of the SEO strategy you're already using will still work with voice searches. That said, there are some insights to pay attention to. For example, people tend to use voice search for local internet queries, such as "best tacos in Santa Fe."  Providing all the necessary information on your Google business page can help ensure you're not discounted by search engines in voice searches. 

Publish content often, but make sure it's valuable

Google's editorial discretion isn't perfect, but it's getting better all the time and the best content will rise to the top. Look at it this way, you wouldn't visit the movie theater very often if they only had the same three bad movies month after month, right? 

Search engines are a lot like people, in that they tend to pay attention to websites that have frequent updates. This means regularly adding content that will keep people engaged. 

This could be anything from a blog post, video, infographic, or piece of downloadable content, such as a whitepaper. It's also important you try to make the content as valuable to your intended audience as possible. You shouldn't be posting merely for the sake of throwing something up there. If your audience finds the content to be of relevance, they're more likely to share it and the more people see it, the better your site authority. 

How often you want to add new content is up to you, but you won't be pleasing the SEO gods if you go months without adding something new. Adding new content weekly – or even daily – and updating old content with new links will add value to your site. This will appeal to both readers and search engines. 

Focus on your EAT reputation

Headlines about the spread of fake news dominated much of the news cycle in 2019 and Google has said it will be taking extra measures to stop the spread of false information. If a business has poor reviews, customer service, or similar trust issues than it will likely find that it struggles with SEO down the road. 

To establish that trust, businesses will need to ensure their websites have a strong expert, authority and trustworthy (EAT) reputation. Either through demonstrated expertise and credentials or respected sources and performance.  

Don't ignore small details

Keywords are most definitely part of the nitty-gritty of SEO, but there are some other points to hit that you could be ignoring. Far too often, people forget about the importance of image optimization. You might have a fantastic photo of a bear for your article about camping in Yellowstone, but if it's saved as "bearr734388787j_zz" don't expect to do yourself any favors with Google. Search engines evaluate images on tags and ALT text, so keep that in mind. 

You'll also want to be mindful of H1, H2, and H3 heading tags. Google reads these pieces of HTML code as indicators of importance and they can have a significant impact on how your website is read by a search engine.  

Regularly check your internal links 

Everybody loves links, search engines included. As far as plugging links into your site to help with SEO, you'll want a healthy portion of links that send visitors to other pages or articles within your site. If it's good content, then visitors should see it. 

Make sure you check these links regularly. You don't want visitors to your site clicking a link and finding themselves on the dreaded 404 page. Performing a crawl to check for broken links can be done pretty easily and will go a long way in helping your website's performance. 

Optimize your site's metadata

It's always easier to find things when they're well organized and properly labeled. The web works much the same way and your metadata (title tags and descriptions) is how search engines will understand and verify your web pages. 

Say you're putting together a webpage for an upcoming sale of smartwatches. Your title tag would be how the page title appears in a web search "Labor Day Smartwatch Sale This Weekend." The meta description is a short 120 to 160 character summary of what is on the page and will be displayed below the title tag. 

Keep in mind those keywords and don't make the mistake of using the same title that could already be somewhere else on your website.  

Pat attention to the roles of CTR and dwell time

People want their internet and they want it fast, with internet speeds getting quicker all the time. As long-awaited gigabit internet speeds come to more cities, the click-thru rates (CTR) and dwell time spent on websites will carry more weight in determining the success of SEO efforts. 

A page that is slow to load on any device won't just have a negative effect on your visitor's experience, it will also hurt your search rankings. Both dwell time and CTR metrics say a lot about the satisfaction level of your website's performance and what it has to offer. It's important to note that these two things are not one-in-the-same, but of equal importance. 

CTR will track how many people follow a link based on what was found on the search engine results page (SERP) whereas, dwell time is how long they hang around after clicking through.

Bounce rates are always higher on slow-loading pages, so monitoring your website's loading speed should be the first line of defense in preventing short dwell times.

There's a lot that goes into maximizing your website's SEO, but putting into practice these strategies is a great place to start. With a little bit of effort and well-executed planning, there's no reason that your business can improve its search rankings in 2020. Keep in mind, that when it comes down to it, a good SEO strategy is really about consistency.

8 Things Not to Do When Starting a Business

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST

Starting a business from scratch is never easy. You need to plan out everything needed to turn it into reality. However, like joining a war, you have to be strategic in putting up your dream business. 

Simple mismanagement of a task can lead to a big disaster if you don't resolve it properly. You also need a backup plan if things don't work out. Having a successful business starts with a proper focus on crucial things that affect it, including having good customer experience, setting up a proper website and managing your social media. Here are the following things you should not do if you want to set your business to a good start.

1. Do everything by yourself

Solopreneurs tend to do business tasks without the help of an assistant or a henchman. This can be an ingredient for disaster afterward. Not everything can be done alone, especially in repetitive tasks. If you're not organized enough, multitasking may even affect your productivity and worsen your piling tasks.  

You should learn how to delegate tasks to your remote employees. There are three options you can choose in hiring your first team: freelancing, agencies, or business process outsourcing companies. 

The first one can be hired through different platforms in the market, such as UpWork and Fiverr, while agencies let you hire at least one person or a whole team. Outsourcing companies, meanwhile, can set up a dedicated team for you. Since they cover the expenses for the equipment you need in working, you don't need to shell out additional resources for their work.

2. Not streamlining your process

Do you or your team really need to do that? Sometimes some processes can be cut, changed, or revised for an easier workflow and client transaction.

Don't be afraid to look over your team's daily tasks and see what can be done easier and what should be left out. Instead of having three requirement verifiers, maybe you can have just one then delegate encoding and request approval to the other two. Your team can automate sending bulk newsletters for a bigger number of customers. 

This goes the same with client transactions. You can have their transaction cut to three days instead of five by sending their application forms directly to the client verification team. Lessen their paperwork by sending their requirements online. Streamlining your processes makes it easier for your employees to work and for customers to transact with your business.

3. Not planning on big expenses

You bought a few pieces of equipment for your T-shirt printing business without considering that you still don't have a proper workspace. Not to mention, you still don't have the materials you need: T-shirts, ink for printers, desktop with tools for your in-house designer. Yet, your initial capital is running out.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is managing your expenses badly. Proper cash flow is important, especially when starting a small business. One unplanned move can affect all the aspects of your startup. 

This is the reason you need to have a proper budget. List down your initial capital and all your business expenses, from big to small ones. You can also get advice from a financial expert or an accountant on how you can budget your money. When you plan to make a big move, transferring to a private office, for instance, take a look at your books and budget first to know if you're ready for it. You can set up a timeline on when you want this move to happen. Say, in 5 to 7 years.

4. Not utilizing your social media pages

Social media is the easiest way to attract and retain customers. Nowadays, people who have Facebook and Twitter interact with other users and businesses using these platforms. If you haven't set up one yet for your business, then you might be missing out.

Creating a page for your business is not enough either. You need to build and maintain your reputation in the online world if you want to expand to a bigger market in the future. Create a social media plan where you can set your target in posting, audience reach, and impressions. Learn what you can and cannot post and practice social media sensitivity. You wouldn't want your business page to be popular because of backlash from your customers and users from different countries. 

5. Not using SEO to your advantage

Another great traffic booster for your website is the search engine itself. When you rank high on Google, you get to be on the top of each search results that are relevant to your business. Your online jewelry shop will appear first in the result list once people google "jewelry based on a character" because search engines know that you're an expert on this topic. This is what search engine optimization (SEO) does.

Not properly implementing SEO can have disadvantages to your business as well. Aside from less exposure and traffic, you will have a smaller pool of audiences. It will be difficult for you to reach another market and expand. It will also affect your credibility online since only a few knows your business.

Hire an SEO expert that can help you create content for your website. They will search for keywords that relate to your content then strategize on how to gain search volumes with these.

6. Making your website too basic

Your website determines the legitimacy of your business. It's the online representation of your store, so making it presentable as possible is important. Think of it as in a job interview. You would not want your interviewee to see your hair uncombed, clothes unironed, and shoes almost worn out. You dress for your dream job and be confident enough for them to hire you. 

Don't just settle on the default templates that your website builder gave you. Hire a designer to make the logo and design of your landing page. Make your entire website presentable but not too flashy as well. Your customers will love to visit your website more often when they see that it is clean, functioning, and updated.

7. Stalling your website for too long

As time goes by, you might forget that your website needs maintenance, too. Customers like to be updated on different happenings in your business. Do you have a promotion coming up? Will there be deals for your site? Do you have new items to sell? Are you still in the business?

Updating your website also helps Google determine that your business is still active. Adding and revising content makes search engines crawl back to your site, helping you to get back in their rankings. Update even your business address and contact numbers so customers can still reach you. This also indicates that your website is still legitimate.

8. Disregarding customer interaction

Lastly, the biggest mistake you can do is to ignore customer service. Your customers want to be taken care of with their demands. Not engaging with your customers, whether in social media, web chat or other communication channels, has a negative impact on your business. You may lose customers quicker than you know it. Then all you'll read is complaints about how terrible your customer service is.

Hire a call center to keep customer satisfaction high. Use a contact center to manage different channels such as calls, emails, and live chat. Attend to their concerns as quickly as possible. Take care of your customers because they are the most important part of your business. Without them, your business won't be successful in the long run.

5 Ways to Secure Your Supply Chain

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST

Businesses focused on global expansion loathe uncertainty. Unfortunately, they're encountering a good deal of it as international markets lurch with every big shakeup on the frenetic geopolitical stage. Trade complications between China and the United States aren't resolved, and Brexit continues to languish — among other unpredictable, unforeseen problems.

These quandaries all contribute to a slowing business cycle that will eventually affect a wide range of industries with a variety of challenges, whether directly or from a trickle-down effect. Small businesses, specifically, may not have the capacity to survive significant disruptions to their supply chains, so preparing for all possibilities has never been more critical. 

With modern communication technologies, commerce is more globally interconnected than ever, and this will only continue to be more true with time. National borders do not limit the economic, environmental, and technological statuses of many countries around the world. That said, businesses of all sizes must prepare for uncertain markets and look beyond short-term factors, like immediate costs, to successfully navigate supply chain risks.

Global supply chains were mainly relevant to manufacturing companies in the past. Without the right supplies (which often came from overseas) a business couldn't create its products. This is still true today, but supply chains have now expanded to include intangible goods like data along with their physical product offerings. As a result, a much wider spectrum of industries is affected by supply chain risks, and this is especially important for small businesses.

As of 2017, data is the most valuable commodity in the world, measured by both volume and monetary value. When we see data breaches, we truly see a breach of the supply chain. If a company has to shut down its data mines or data warehouses to fix a breach in security, that doesn't only affect Google Analytics. It affects companies that are relying on that data to run their daily operations. 

When global shipping technology company Pitney Bowes fell victim to a ransomware attack and had to shut down internal systems, a huge number of companies far beyond it were disrupted. The business claims to serve 1.5 million companies around the world — including 90% of Fortune 500 businesses — so the ripple effect was massive.

Further, its shipping services are frequently used by sellers on platforms such as Etsy and Shopify, where customer service is personal and highly important. Ultimately, this disconnect caused a number of customers to publicly complain that they couldn't perform even basic tasks. Our terminology and basic understanding of suppliers have shifted as companies in the chain become more interconnected around the world. The term "supplier" is now being used across various industries, expanding which businesses classify it as part of their operations.

In September 2019, Britain's Thomas Cook, the oldest travel agency, collapsed, and the failure affected far more than just that business. Hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses were impacted by the bankruptcy, and the British government spent millions on Operation Matterhorn, which worked to get stranded travelers home. Ultimately, the singular company was a supplier to these travelers, and its failure to deliver on services that had already been paid for left a trail of disruption.

Uncertainty is unavoidable. But what can business owners do to mitigate risks and prepare for potential disruptions? Here are five strategies that will help protect you and the part you play in the international supply chain.

1. Stay on top of current issues and economic trends. 

As with any complex issue, understanding all the working parts is step one. Environmental, economic, and technological factors can all wreak havoc on supply chains and international commerce.

Environmental factors are typically natural disasters, extreme weather events, geopolitical conflicts, and trade restrictions — whereas economic issues are political or economic changes, especially sudden ones. And technological concerns are failures in transport or information infrastructure.

 Right now, Brexit and the trade war with China are two of the hottest topics affecting U.S. markets. Some industries and many businesses are already seeing the effects of these complications, but not everyone has felt the blow. All U.S. business leaders need to understand not only the current status of these situations but also how they might eventually trickle down to affect their specific supply chains.

2. Pay special attention to small businesses and early-stage companies. 

Startups and small businesses are an ever-growing part of the economy, fueling job creation with innovative solutions. They're infiltrating areas that were previously controlled by large corporations, such as cloud computing, software engineering, and product design. This development is shaping supply chains across the U.S.

However, there is some risk with young companies: They might not stand in the face of problems as well as long-established companies that have the resources to withstand the test of time. If you choose to partner with a startup or small business supplier, make sure to put them through thorough vetting before signing any agreements.

3. Don't rely on one supplier. 

The need to identify your business-critical and sole-source providers and invest in a secondary provider wherever possible is clearly critical. Should something happen to the primary provider, you need a fallback. Ideally, never have more than 30% of your supplies dependent on a single partner, and don't place the fate of your business in one partner halfway around the world.

In some cases, even the big names fall. When Hanjin Shipping, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, went bankrupt, shipping capacity fell by 3%, with over $14 billion worth of cargo that was unable to dock. Businesses that depended entirely on that cargo were hit hardest by these losses. 

4. Review suppliers frequently. 

You should already have regular performance reviews with your suppliers, but make sure they include frank conversations about their financial health. Bankruptcy, in particular, is the ultimate supply chain risk, as a company will no longer be able to provide you with goods or services.

Just like with individuals, a supplier's credit is a significant indicator of its reliability and the amount of trust you should place in it. Also, focus on making your own credit a high priority. Pay your bills on time. Set a good example, and be a reliable company. Doing so will build a partner's trust in you and can even lead to potential discounts and inside pricing as part of a lasting relationship.

5. Evaluate and update current policies. 

Procurement has always been important for businesses, but legal requirements, as well as stakeholder and consumer expectations concerning due diligence and risk screening, are increasing. Procurement now requires deeper dives into supply chains and better tools for analyzing data and enhancing visibility.

In fact, many companies are establishing procurement departments to make sure all concerns affecting risk mitigation are covered. This can include evaluating data securities and overall financial health within the company, as well as current and potential suppliers to make sure they're compliant with company ideologies, such as ensuring that the business is not inadvertently supporting human trafficking.

Unless you've found a way to predict the future reliably, uncertainty will always be a part of running a business. But by implementing the right strategies, you as a small business owner can manage risks that affect supply chains and rest easy knowing that you will have the goods and services you need to continue running a successful business — whatever circumstances come your way.

How SaaS Adoption Can Help Grow Your Businesses

Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST

These days, SaaS technology is improving nearly every aspect of how the business world is run. You can see the effects across virtually every industry and in every region. In fact, according to a recent IDC report, within the coming year, 67% of business infrastructure and software will be cloud-based offerings. The coming changes because of cloud-based software will be immense.

There are numerous benefits to implementing SaaS applications into your business' routines. For quickly growing businesses, these benefits are especially important to take advantage of. SaaS applications can be used to help you make the most of your resources and stand out against the competition. Here are some of the benefits of switching to SaaS technology.

Reduce costs and increase efficiency

The price of software subscriptions is typically much lower than alternative options. SaaS also reduces in-house infrastructure costs, because the software is hosted on the cloud. Not only does this save hosting costs, but also the setup and installation process for SaaS applications are much lower.

Additionally, most subscription software services include their own IT support as part of your monthly payment. This means you do not need to train an expert to understand the nuances of each piece of software.

When a bug in the software occurs, you can contact the SaaS company's support department for help. Usually, this means that issues are solved more quickly because your own IT department won't get backlogged with huge numbers of requests.

Cloud-based software will also help your company avoid time spent on frequently updating software. In the past, frequently required updates lead to compatibility problems with your software, as it was incredibly difficult to keep all devices in a company up-to-date.

Because SaaS applications typically do not require downloads or installations on individual devices, they can be automatically updated through no effort of your own. The updates happen simultaneously across all computers or personal devices. This will save you the headache of time spent on managing updates, which could add up to hours or even days.

Resolves the inflexibilities of data silos

Using SaaS applications for business operations allows data to be accessed anywhere and not just at the office. This allows employees more flexibility, which can lead to a greater ability for your company to recruit talent, increase employee retention, and add diversity to your team by supporting remote employees and working parents.

Increasingly, the possibility of remote work is a requirement for employees considering job offers. According to an annual IWG Global WorkSpace Survey, 80% of people said, if faced with two comparable offers, they would opt for the one with more opportunities for flexible working.

Because of the popularity of work flexibility and remote work, it will be difficult to recruit top talent without this option. SaaS makes it easier for your business to function even while employees are out of the office.

In addition to the increased recruitment potential that comes with SaaS applications, your ability to retain employees will also soar. Allowing remote work can reduce employee stress, and it increases the ability to be more flexible with vacation time, which in turn helps lower turnover rates.

Employee turnover can cost massive amounts of money. A recent study found the cost of replacing an employee can be anywhere from 10 to 30% of the employee's salary.

Not only do you have to cover the costs of training new employees, but turnover causes an interruption of workflow, which can be expensive. The more you can improve your business' retention rates, the better off you will be. Access to data from home through the use of SaaS can help you improve this.

An added benefit of allowing flexible and remote work is that you will be able to increase diversity among your team. Remote work allows you to recruit from a variety of locations, drawing a diverse range of candidates.

In addition to recruiting from various regions, you will be able to recruit more working mothers and fathers. A study from the National Academy of Sciences found that 43% of women leave full-time work for at least a portion of their careers after becoming mothers. Flexibility at work can help retain parents who need to be home with children during certain parts of the day.

Improves workflow

So many businesses spend massive amounts of time and money trying to improve workflow. The ideal workflow is organized, efficient, and involves frequent communication. When your business has a solid workflow, collaboration increases and tasks are accomplished with greater accuracy and creativity.

Rather than holding frequent meetings trying to encourage employees to increase their efforts to work efficiently, simply implement a workflow SaaS application. Workflow will naturally improve if employees are given the proper tools.

It's important when implementing workflow software services to sufficiently train each employee. The software will only be used when it is understood correctly. A misunderstood software can be seen as an extra task and employees may avoid it, but if the whole company receives the proper training, these software services can completely redesign the way your business functions.

Avoids the trap of a disorganized SaaS toolbox

SaaS technology is highly useful, but when mismanaged, it can cost businesses time and resources. Growing businesses should be cutting costs whenever possible, so it's important to have a system for good management of SaaS.

As the number of SaaS apps at your business increases, it can begin to feel overwhelming to ensure each one is being managed well. Subscription periods must be tracked, onboarding and offboarding processes must be overseen. And it is very important for payment schedules to be well managed.

One option to manage all the SaaS apps is to assign a person or team to track the details of each service. This option can be effective if your SaaS management team is highly skilled and detail-oriented, however, it can be costly to have one or more employees entirely devoted to SaaS management.

Fortunately, SaaS management tools can eliminate the need for a team devoted solely to the management of all the various SaaS apps at your business. There are tools that will help you track spending and payment schedules. These tools will also help you uncover underutilized services that may have been purchased by your company but later forgotten.

SaaS products are meant to completely change old habits in your workplace routines. Your business should function very differently after SaaS has been implemented. If you don't let that happen, the products can be wasteful. Each new piece of SaaS technology should be utilized to the peak of its potential in order to get the best use out of your money.

For example, if your company has purchased a SaaS app for communicating between employees and scheduling events, be sure each employee feels comfortable using this service. Otherwise, it will be underutilized, which will likely lead to wasted resources.

Similarly, a service that analyzes the impact marketing campaigns should be significantly impacting the way marketing is done. If the data isn't used for any purpose, it is easy for people to forget why the SaaS product was purchased in the first place. This causes apps to be forgotten, and the money spent goes to waste.

With each purchase of a new piece of SaaS technology, be aware of how it will change the way your business functions. Each employee who is affected by the changes should receive training on the new processes.

SaaS has the potential to increase growth at your business and make you a frontrunner among the competition, but far too many companies take only the first steps toward implementing these services. If you use SaaS effectively and avoid these common mistakes, you can transform your business.
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