You may have anti-virus software and firewalls for your computer network, but what about your PDA or smartphone? Any policy for safe online practices on your computer network also applies to PDAs and phones that have access to the internet, so make sure you protect your mobile fleet with the same defences.
Regular meetings don’t have to be regular in every way. Encourage creativity in your staff by holding meetings at different times of the day or on a different day of the week or in different locations, if you can. Cafes, libraries, lobbies and even parks can play host to more stimulating meetings than your average […]
While occupational health and safety compliance is a burden for most businesses, it can alert you to inefficient or dangerous practices that you might look to change. One way of doing this is keeping a ‘near miss’ logbook for incidents that might have resulted in physical injury but didn’t. After logging a near miss, you […]
Personal selling, for products or services, is often ignored in favour of volume, but you can often score plenty of quality leads and repeat business from showing a friendly face in initial interactions. Treat every enquiry or browser as a potential customer. They may not buy right then, but if you treat them courteously, they […]
If you’re looking to protect your intellectual property (IP), consider whether non-disclosure agreements with your employees will suit your business better than a patent. Apart from being more expensive than an agreement, a patent has an expiry date and your IP will be available in detail for others to see, whereas a trade secret can […]
‘Would you like fries with that?’ has become a cliche, but selling complementary items to existing customers is often overlooked as a selling technique for both personal and online selling. Placing complementary items near the checkout works as an impulse technique: think of bookmarks positioned at the register of a bookstore. Suggesting or prompting the […]
If you’ve ever thought about a member of staff as invaluable, consider getting key man insurance should anything ever happen to him or her. Many SME functions are built by a handful of people, so it might be wise to identify whether or not you can survive if someone were absent for a long period. […]
Make it a habit to shut down your computer and turn off your screen as opposed to just putting it in ‘sleep’ mode when you finish work for the day. Sleep mode still uses electricity, so if you and your staff shut down completely your business could save between five and 15 percent off your […]
When you’ve been in business a while, it is important to keep track of your customer base, particularly your repeat customers, so you understand your priority market. One way to do this is to develop and maintain an updated customer file that tracks information such as enquiries, types and times of purchases made, average spend […]
If your business is going well but you want to do more, consider donating staff labour to alleviate poverty, help the environment, or advance health research. Ask not-for-profit organisations if they have a corporate program: it may be for a couple of hours a week, which you can rotate among your staff; or you could […]
