Nigerian Entrepreneur

The success of your small business depends on flexibility, good planning, and solid organizational skills.  Too many small business owners think that they can just open their doors and experience success.  It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day details and forget to set your sights on the long-term, but it’s important that you don’t forget.

Improving productivity and profit

One of the most important things to remember in running an efficient business is to ensure that your company provides a quality service or product at a fair price.  In other words, don’t charge exorbitant fees just to make a buck.  Your customers know you need to make a profit, but a fair price with excellent customer service goes a really long way.  Here are some ways to improve productivity and profit overall.

1. Get online.  You’ll be hard-pressed to find a company that doesn’t already have an Internet presence.  Getting online allows customers easy access to your business 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
2. Maximize networking.  Participate in business organizations to make connections.  This may even open the doors to potential partnerships, investment opportunities, and growth.
3. Join forces.  Working with complementary businesses can be a real win-win situation.  Drive traffic to each other’s sites; engage in link and ad swaps, and work together to promote each other.  It’s effective and cost-efficient. 

Ensure smooth running

Do you know what the first step in having an efficient business is?  It’s to hire good employees.  You should be able to depend on your employees – they should know what they’re doing, what your product or service is, and be a good reflection on you.  Here are some things to help keep your business running smoothly:

1. The atmosphere.  The atmosphere at work has a big impact on how smoothly your business operates.  Make sure that the workspace is clean and welcoming.  A friendly yet professional feel can go a long way for both your customers and staff.
2. Continual training.  The direction of your business can definitely shift over time.  That means your staff’s tasks can as well.  It’s a good idea to engage in periodic training to make sure everyone is on the same page.
3. Keep updated records.  Make sure you document everything.  That means if you run a promotion, note it.  If you make updates to your website, document it.  Keep your files up to date.

Hire an Umbrella Company

There is no doubt about it, as a business owner you will typically have more responsibilities than you have time.  Running a small business takes a lot: marketing, human resources, advertising, management, and so forth.  So, what can you do to make the most of your time and resources?  Many small businesses actually hire umbrella companies.  An umbrella company can provide a number of benefits and services including, but not limited to:

• Finance management
• Accounts receivable and accounts payable services
• Human resource management
• Payroll services
• Private medical coverage and additional insurance
• Marketing and advertising services
• Business connections

Using an Umbrella Company can free up valuable time, and allow you to concentrate on making your business a successful venture. Do not expect all your problems to be instantly solved once your business is up and running; owning your own business is time-consuming and involves lots of hard work.  Ensure you employ reliable staff, and take advantage of all business opportunities offered to you. With the right time and dedication your business is sure to be a success.

About the author: Katie G. enjoys writing articles on business related topics especially small businesses.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Guest Post, small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.