Imagine a job where you can dictate the hours you work, work at any time and from anywhere, and your skills are needed by hundreds of firms, enterprises, and entrepreneurs all over your area or country – or even globally, for that matter. What job is this? You may already have an idea – and if you say ‘VA,’ you are correct! More people are attracted to becoming a virtual assistant because it gives them the freedom to work at their own pace and at their own time, and better yet, it pays a reasonable rate – and pays even more the more skills you have! But is it really for you? Here are the top reasons why more people are working as virtual assistants.

• You can fix your own time and schedule

Many of us would love a job where we can choose our own time and schedule – and as a virtual assistant, you can do just that! One of the best incentives for people to become virtual assistants is that they have their own schedule and their own time. You don’t have to wake up before dawn just to get to work on time, and you don’t have to suffer through a long commute. If you work as a virtual assistant, you can essentially tailor your workday according to your lifestyle. For instance, if you have a dog and like taking it out for long walks, you can do it without issue. If you like meditating or doing yoga in the middle of the day, you can do so without any worries. This gives you a healthy and ideal balance between work and life.

• You can wear anything you want!

If you’ve had to wear blouses, skirts, and high heels for years, wouldn’t it feel good to say goodbye to all of that and wear anything you want when you’re working? Who says dressing formally will make you more productive, anyway? On the contrary – if you are comfortable wearing a tracksuit or yoga pants while working, why not? Of course, if you have a Zoom meeting, it’s best to make sure your upper half is presentable – but you are likely to spend most of your days working in comfy clothes that will not limit or hamper your movements.

• You can work wherever you are

Another excellent aspect of being a virtual assistant is that you can work from wherever you are! Many people love working from anywhere because it gives them the ultimate freedom. You could be on holiday at a tropical beach, lounging around and sipping a pina colada, and your boss and co-workers will have no idea. Obviously, you can work from the comfort of your home, but if you want a change in your work environment, you don’t have to go on holiday, either – you can spend the day at a co-working space and perhaps even get to make friends.

• You can have a great network of contacts

This is not widely known by those who work as virtual assistants, but you can also have a great network of people around you. For instance, you can join online groups or be part of an agency that will support you and others. It allows you to be a part of a community and exchange ideas and experiences, the best working spots, and more.

Increasing productivity has become one of the aspects that concern companies and a priority objective to achieve if they want to become more competitive within their work environment.

Below, we detail some recommendations that can improve the labor productivity of your company to optimize its effectiveness:

Have a good internal organization that strategically plans the entire production process: objectives, procedures, goals, distribution of tasks, work teams, define times … It is necessary to create work routines and apply correct time management. It is essential that each worker knows how to properly plan their day and tasks, that they organize and schedule their projects, optimizing their time. Setting goals and setting daily goals helps you achieve maximum efficiency.

Know how to prioritize tasks. It is necessary to distinguish between the urgent and the important. You must carefully analyze which are the most important activities and not stop attending to them for urgent things that in the near future will mean nothing.

It is essential to set some tasks and finish them. For this it is essential not to postpone the most complicated or less desirable tasks. You should start your daily work by facing those more complicated and difficult issues first thing in order to solve them more quickly and forcefully.

Try to perform the tasks one at a time. Multitasking seems to offer greater benefits, but in the long run, not mixing activities and addressing each issue separately allows you to focus and concentrate better, solving issues in less time.

Divide large projects into smaller parts. By considering mini goals, simpler and shorter, in which to work separately, the brain responds better, pressure and stress are less, and the achievement of goals is faster and more satisfactory.

Learn to delegate. One cannot take care of everything, so it is necessary to know how to delegate to employees and correctly choose the people who will be responsible for each task.

Take breaks and rest every so often. In the daily planning of tasks, having your time settled is a must, and time tracking breaks on busy days is essential, small periods of free time should be permitted to allow oxygenation, stretch the legs a little, disconnect briefly … They are not a waste of time, but a necessity that will help minimize physical and mental exhaustion and improve productivity.

Maintain good internal and external communication. Properly managing communication is an essential factor for coordinating tasks, building bridges between departments, fostering teamwork, knowing and serving customers … There must be a climate of constant communication, which is not only produced in meetings.

Innovate and modernize. It is necessary to have the appropriate and updated technology. Workers must have the right environment, equipment and tools to carry out their work and be able to create new projects. It is necessary to know how to adapt to changes and have an open and innovative vision that projects the company into the future.

Stimulate, motivate, incentivize and reward workers. Increasing the level of well-being and satisfaction of workers makes them feel more valued, linked and participate in the company, which also increases their productive performance.

Therefore, to become a productive company it is necessary to have a modern and well-equipped infrastructure, an efficient organization and have a motivated and involved staff that performs at their best during their workday.

 

The employment landscape in this country has changed dramatically over the past few years, due in large part to the rapidly expanding Internet capabilities of everyday workers. The magnitude of these changes comes as a surprise, yet the direction has long been thought of as inevitable; economists had predicted for years that the expanding capitalization of the internet would lead to an ever increasing army of freelancers and small businesses.

The groundswell of interest in launching a self-directed business has taken root in urban and rural areas alike, as well as everywhere in between. While small businesses are now providing the bulk of new jobs in this competitive market, they also are lasting longer than ever. In years previous, startups often had the threat of shuttering looming over their shoulder at every step of the way. Yet today, startups are seeing growing success due to increased community support for local business and growing market penetration through innovative uses of internet marketing and broad research capabilities.

One often overlooked, yet incredibly lucrative business opportunity for entrepreneurs has always been the option to franchise an already successful business. This may seem like a complicated concept, but the idea is actually very simple. Existing establishments like McDonalds or Office Depot lend their name and business practices to an investor through a franchise opportunity. The investor then opens a new business within the same brand, but under his or her own personal management rather than working to build a competing business from the ground up. Opening a franchise location is a fantastic way for you to get your foot in the door in an industry that you are passionate about but may not have the background knowledge that will make you competitive from the starting line. Franchising is also a great way to beef up an investment portfolio for well-established business operators.

The key takeaway from a franchised business is its turnkey nature. The primary expense for new business ventures is the marketing budget. In order to make any money, you need to attract clients. But how do you draw in new customers if they have never heard of you?

Franchising solves this problem that can grow into an out of control capital drain. When you franchise, you are opening your own store—that you own outright—but you are able to slap on a well-known brand name above the door. This means that drop in business is actually a reasonable expectation rather than a pipe dream. Not many hungry lunch goers will take a chance on the new Frenchy’s Fried Chicken that just moved in to the next strip mall, but you will certainly see a steady trickle of customers interested in your offerings if you open a new Popeye’s instead.

Franchising also alleviates some of the natural pressures of competition. As a Popeye’s location you will be serving Popeye’s chicken, not your own take on it. This means that your restaurant will have its ingredients sourced from the same raw materials as all others in the chain. This is the same with other services; UPS franchises are all operated based on the same foundational principles. This means that your customers will arrive expecting a professional and familiar experience rather than passing on your operation altogether because they weren’t sure what to expect and looked elsewhere for the fulfilment of their needs.

Franchising is a great opportunity no matter where you currently find yourself in investing life. If you have ever considered building your own business, you owe it to yourself to consider launching it with all the tools, help, and branding power that comes baked in with a franchise.

 

Generating awareness and exposure for a business on a shoestring budget isn’t as tricky as some might think. It’s much more accessible these days than it ever has been. Thanks to modern technology, getting the word out to your target audience on any products or services offered can be as inexpensive as it is useful if you know how to go about the task. To this end, here are just a few low-cost marketing tips that every budget-conscious entrepreneur should know.

1. Take your business to social media

More and more companies today invest in their social media presence, and for a good reason: it works. The platform does, after all, host plenty of potential clients and customers. More importantly, this marketing strategy requires little more than sometime and effort if done in-house or a small investment of monetary resources if outsourced.

1. Use a referral system

Despite being overlooked, word-of-mouth advertising remains a powerful marketing tool that no business should ignore. After all, the majority of consumers will usually base their decisions on the recommendation of family or friends more so than any other strategy to draw attention. And by using referral systems such as discounts and rewards, not only will existing customers be appreciative, but they’re more likely to tell others about your business too.

1. Use promotional materials

With the internet being all the rage as a marketing tool, a cost-effective way to stand out from the rest of the competition is to use promotional materials like branded merchandise. From pens and mugs to even clothing, promotional products will not only get the word out and help your business boost brand recognition but do so without costing you a small fortune.

1. Develop business partnerships

It’s rare for any business, regardless of the industry, to find success on its own. And the same can be said when it comes to marketing. So if and when the opportunity presents itself, be sure to take advantage of teaming up with another company for collaborative ventures or joint events. Doing so can benefit all parties involved not only in the sales made during the collaboration but also in generating exposure towards a broader audience too.

1. Create an email newsletter

It’s not surprising that many businesses still use email newsletters as an effective marketing tool. After all, not only does it allow them to maintain a good relationship with their current customers but also keep new ones engaged. As such, so should you as doing so will allow you to nurture your subscribers and build loyalty, turning them into paying customers as a result.

While it may not be easy to market a business with a small budget, it’s not as hard to do as some might think. And by keeping the tips mentioned above in mind, not only will you increase your chances of reaching your target market but do so without putting a sizeable dent in the bank account in the process.

Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/digital-marketing-seo-google-1725340/

 

As a small business owner, growing your business is not only a primary goal, but it’s often key to the survival and financial well-being of your business. In order to successfully turn your small business into something you can be proud of, try the following strategies.

Invest in professional services

Outsourcing some tasks to automation experts can help you save time by eliminating the need to perform monotonous day-to-day tasks, like filling in forms, sending emails, and searching for documents. Automating these actions transforms repetitive business operations into a seamless flow of data across all channels of your business.

These outsourced companies work to collect, organize, and deliver data, allowing you and your employees to focus on more important tasks. You’ll be able to devote more time to improving aspects of your business, while your employees generate a higher return on investment for each hour worked.

If your small business requires help with engineering or manufacturing, specialized engineering solutions cover a variety of disciplines. These include finite element analysis, mechanical design, custom machinery, and product design.

With the help of highly skilled professionals in automation or engineering, your small business can better manufacture products and manage projects with increased levels of efficiency.

Focus on customer service

From big corporations to start-ups, customer service is paramount to the success of any business. Luckily, with the right training, you can improve customer service throughout your small business and drive new customers in.

Start by making sure your customer service team has the proper skills for managing the needs of your customers. Your employees should be able to communicate clearly and be empathetic and consistent. Additionally, employees should have thick skin and the knowledge needed to help customers solve potential issues.

Even if your staff knows how to interact with customers, adapting your customer service model to please your current customers is key. Practicing proactive customer service involves making each customer feel like they have a personalized interaction. To do this, use your social media channels to respond to and interact with customers, regardless of whether they’ve posted a comment or a bad review.

Another proven method to improve customer service is to conduct customer satisfaction surveys and set focus groups to find out how to cater to your demographic. Assigning representatives to customers can help them feel like they have a relationship with your company, while treating customers as a community helps them feel more valued.

Extend your reach

Extending your reach within your current market can help make your product or service available to a new demographic of customers. To expand your current customer base, consider opening stores in new locations.

While this may seem expensive, remember that these new locations can be online. Try selling your products or services through a new website or ecommerce store. Additionally, advertising can help you reach new customers. After identifying a new market, aim to advertise in media that targets your new market.

For instance, if you’re looking to reach a younger demographic, using social media as a platform for advertising can help raise awareness of your company. On the other hand, to boost online advertising among your current demographic, try utilizing search engine optimization strategies to rank higher in organic searches.

Many small business owners want success for their business, but fail to employ realistic strategies for growth. Ultimately, investing in professional services, improving customer service, and extending your market reach can help promote the overall growth of your business while saving you time, money, and peace of mind.

Reliable accounting software has specific features, such as integrated inventory management and POS and multichannel support. A retailer would also need core accounting to keep detailed and accurate records of financial accounts, expenditures, cash flow, income statements, taxes, and other financial information. This article presents three excellent retail accounting software solutions.

Sage 50 Cloud

Sage 50cloud combines the flexibility of a cloud platform with the power of desktop. In other words, it can be used on your computer, but you have the additional convenience of a cloud component to store and provide backup for your data anywhere and at any time. The software is ideal for small and medium businesses, which is what most retail businesses are, and offers tools to automate accounting processes as well as manage cash flow, inventory, budgeting, taxes, invoicing, and more.

Sage 50 Cloud can enhance your platform with several add-ons such as communication and office tools, credit card processing, and payroll system. Sage is one of the biggest suppliers of ERP systems in the world and the largest supplier of technology solutions to small retailers with millions of satisfied customers around the world.

Sage 50 Cloud is a great product for your accounting needs. There are Pro, Premium, and Quantum accounting plans.

Sales-optimized Accounting Software

With Sage50 Cloud, you can quickly come up with quotes and proposals, easily keep tab of all your customers, and instantly transform them to sales orders and invoices. Your retail business gains momentum with this fast process.

Full Views

The at-a-glance dashboards offer a full view of key metrics, so there is no need to go through hidden menus and buttons anymore if you want to get the info you need about your business. The key metrics that are fully viewable thanks to the dashboards include expenses, receivables, available cash, current inventory, sales performance, and revenue trend to name a few.

Zoho

Zoho is a top-rated retail accounting solution that can simplify vital financial processes. Among its perks and highlights are managing and monitoring invoices, tracking expenses, keeping tab of transactions, running expense reports, and accepting online payments . Zoho makes financial and accounting activities simpler, from automating repetitive tasks like payment reminders and sending out recurring invoices and accurately recording foreign currency expenses and invoices to facilitating sales orders.

Zoho Invoice offers wide integration with a variety of apps, customizable invoice templates, and mobile versions of the software for invoicing on the go. And that’s not all – it offers a free edition of the software and three subscription plans that cost as little as $9/month. A free trial is available as well.

Vast Integration

Of all the reasons to choose Zoho Invoice, extensive integration is perhaps the most important. Zoho Invoice works with third-party software and services such as doc management tools, payment gateways, online file storage services, and other business apps as well as other Zoho apps.

Quick and Simple

This accounting solution was developed to be quick and simple. Zoho Invoice is fast, easy to use, intuitive, and responsive just like all Zoho products. These are just some reasons why Zoho apps enjoy such great popularity as business and productivity solutions.

Great Invoice Templates

Experts have gone so far as to say Zoho makes the best invoice templates in its class. It saves users lots of time by providing a gallery of invoice templates where they can select free templates, personalize and customize them, and send them to their customers at once when complete. It takes a few seconds to complete the whole process – up to a few minutes if you’re new to this kind of thing.

Quickbooks Enterprise

There isn’t a soul in retail that hasn’t heard of QuickBooks, and for good reason. If you want to retain control of your back-end POS, this is the wide-ranging, feature-rich solution your retail business needs. The company has devised the software’s functionality and feature set skillfully, creating a suite of tools that is more like an enterprise solution than anything else.

This software tracks employee hours and commissions, handles shipping and sales orders and inventory management, keeps a master list of your customers and their contact info, manages customer credit accounts, and much more. It definitely holds its own in terms of feature matrix.

Best Choice for Retail

QuickBooks POS is solid enough to handle many service-oriented business types, but it’s best for retail. There is no way to generate integrated scales for selling items by weight, so grocery stores and other businesses selling bulk goods will find QuickBooks lacking. The integrated customer rewards program is especially easy to navigate. Setting up parameters is quite simple as well. Just input how much a customer has to spend before rewards are earned and then set the reward amount.

When you attach a customer to a sale, the main register screen displays some basic information about the person while you’re adding items.

Intuitive

It’s quite easy to get going once you’ve downloaded the software. If you’re familiar with Windows, the interface will make a lot of sense. The right side of the window shows graphically rendered sticky notes with automatic reminders of issues that need to be addressed (running out of stock, customer orders waiting to be fulfilled, etc.). There is a list of buttons down the left side of the window for quick access to commonly used tasks, such as receiving items and making a sale. You can add your own custom notes as well.

QuickBooks POS can meet the needs of businesses of almost all sizes. Mid-sized retail shops might benefit the most from what this system has to offer, while bigger chains could find the Multi-Store package most convenient.

Disadvantages

Unfortunately, QuickBooks’ closed ecosystem doesn’t leverage the equalizing power of modern technology. The basic mobile functionality and backups over the Internet that the company has added are not as great in terms of user experience compared to what other cheaper and more modern POS systems have to offer.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading our review of the best retail accounting software. We hope it’s been helpful!

To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.

 

Garment printing has been around for a long time in many different guises. Some of us wear t-shirts printed with branded logos or obscure pictures. It’s a fun way of jazzing up a boring t-shirt. But more and more businesses are recognising the value of printed garments. Take the security industry as an example. Security businesses across the country have always used garment printing to convey a clear identity of both their presence and their company image. Garment printing is the best way for fast brand recognition if you have lots of staff working outside and exposed to the community.

Charities have also used printed t-shirts to promote their presence in a community, including running marathon events for charity.

High-quality printed garments

Not all printed garments are equally made. If you are deciding to purchase printed garments, choose a reputable t-shirt and clothing printing company to complete your order. Renowned clothing printers have invested in state-of-the-art cloth printing equipment that will provide crisp and clear images regardless of the complexity of the picture.

Screen printing of t-shirts has been around for the longest time and when done correctly can produce very nice results. But today technology has advanced, and there are many other options for providing clean and clear looking prints. Most reputable garment printers also offer an embroidery service that produces a real professional appearance to any garment. You will be surprised at how little these services cost when you ask your garment printer for a quote.

What type of printing is available from a reputable garment printer?

There are many options to choose from and depending on the use of the garment. The printer will give you the best advice on what method of printing to choose.

• Screen printing. This option suits many people and what’s cool about screen printing is that you can have an eco-friendly non-polluting mix of colours added to the printing process which will protect the environment when the garment is no longer needed.
• Direct garment printing. This is the perfect choice for producing precise digital images on any garment. It’s fast and gives incredible clarity to any image regardless of background colour.
• Dye sublimation. The printer lays the image on a special paper and transfers the image using heat on to the garment. The images are crisp and durable and are perfect for fashion or work wear.
• Transfer printing. It is how it sounds! The printer lays the design on to a transfer and applies the design using heat. This technique is perfect on any colour background and is the number one choice for low volume orders.

Do I need to buy a lot of shirts to have them printed?

No, the garment printer will be happy to provide garment printing for one-offs and will select the best process for your material and image transfer.

Garment printing is within reach of all of us and is a fun way to put a little zing into our clothing regardless of the time of year and weather conditions.

To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.

All businesses want to be as efficient and productive as possible, and even the best workforces out there could make some improvements when it comes to how well they work. If any members of the team are not working as quickly and efficiently as they can, then it is likely to have significant implications for the overall business.

Many employees are now working longer hours than ever before, and even though many are exceeding a 40-hour working week, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the work they are producing is as efficient as it could be. Here are the top five ways to improve employee efficiency.

Keep Goals Focused and Clear

Often, tasks are not completed as efficiently as they could be because the goals are not made clear and focused by supervisors or management. If an employee doesn’t know exactly what is expected of them, then it is difficult for them to do the task exactly as it should be done.

Additionally, if a goal isn’t clear, then it can create confusion and make employees less dedicated and determined at meeting that goal. You may consider using SMART goals (which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely). This helps an employee to stay focused and provides them with a framework on how to achieve their goals.

Give Extra Training

Sometimes, one of the reasons why a workforce is not being as productive as they could be, is because they do not have the skills required to complete the task. Therefore, you may consider offering your staff extra training in the areas of work that are not being completed as quickly or efficiently. If your workforce is not completing a task in the way that you want them to, then you should consider going through the task step by step. This way they will know exactly what they need to do and how they need to do it.

Do Team Building Exercises

In order for your workforce to improve how efficient they are, then it could be beneficial for them to work as a team. Therefore, you may consider setting up team building activities for them to complete.

Team building activities have proven to be very popular amongst workforces in recent years as they can be a great way for individuals to learn how to communicate with each other and improve overall productivity. The activities for team building that are provided by Team Tactics are a great way to incorporate workforce development with a fun day out as a form of staff incentive.

Provide Feedback

If you are finding that a member of your workforce, or even your workforce collectively, are not being as productive or efficient as they could be, then it is important that you make them aware of this. Give them feedback wherever possible on what they did that could be improved upon in the future.

However, it is also important that you include positive feedback to your employees so as not to damage staff morale. If staff morale is low, then that can have a significant impact on worker efficiency.

Match Skills and Tasks

While it is important to have staff that are flexible, all your staff will have different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, if you know a member of staff is particularly good at a certain task, then try to assign them that task as much as possible. Work with people’s strengths and you will see an increase in efficiency.

Trying to motivate a whole workforce to work as efficiently and productively as they can may initially seem like a difficult task. But by following these top tips, you will soon see a new and improved happy and productive workforce!

To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.