Small Business Tips for the New Year

Global Resources helps put small and medium – size businesses on the path to success.  As we enter 2017, we know many business owners around the country are looking to improve upon their business practices.  Below are simple tips that can be incorporated into your routine to help reach your goals:

1. Set Business Resolutions - New Year’s resolutions are not all about losing weight. It is beneficial to lay out what you want for your business in the coming 12 months. Be specific, so you can actually measure results and see whether you accomplished them by year’s end.
2. Build a Promotions Calendar - Sit down with a calendar and start looking at all the holidays or events you want to build promotions around. This will give you ample time to plan your social media updates, blog posts, advertising campaigns, etc.
3. Invest in Technology - If you’ve been putting off that computer or software purchase, now’s the time to go ahead with it. You’ll be more efficient, if you have a computer that doesn’t take an hour to load. 
4. Create a Conference Plan - Attending conferences and industry trade shows can be so beneficial for you as a business owner. Not only can you meet others in your field (or potential customers) but you also learn from leading experts. 
5. Reevaluate Your Online Brand - This is a great time to tweak your online strategy so that you identify the tools that helped your business grow, and cut back on those that don’t.
6. Refresh Your Employees’ Skills – The New Year is a great time to offer supplementary training to refresh employee’s skills or help them learn new ones. 
7. Further Your Knowledge - Your employees aren’t the only ones who could learn more. Read industry blogs, books, magazines, and anything else you can get your hands on to be on top of the trends in your industry.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266. 

Business Loyalty Programs

Global Resources is a full-service business development group and general management consulting firm focused on small and medium-size privately-held companies in North America. We help business owners access the information that is often necessary for growth.

Many businesses have been growing by creating successful loyalty programs for customers.  Here are tips, along with examples of how big-name companies have implemented these tactics: 

1. Integrate loyalty into the full experience:  Starbucks, the brand that created loyalty by differentiating the ordinary experience of drinking coffee, has also managed to create a strongly differentiated loyalty program. To do this, the company integrated payments and mobile technology with the Starbucks shop experience to make the transaction more enjoyable. 
2. Use the data: The Target REDcard combines loyalty and a valuable discount program – 5 percent at the point of sale. They have moved past the flat “discount-only” model by building out industry- leading data capabilities, using the data to target highest-value consumers (e.g., future moms). 
3. Solve customer and industry pain points: Amazon’s largest success in loyalty is built around solving one of online shoppers’ primary pain points: delivery. For $79 a year, members of the online retailer’s “Prime” program get free two-day shipping, plus free digital content. Prime not only integrates tightly with Amazon’s customer and convenience-focused brand, it also creates a loyalty program for suppliers, who rely on Fulfillment By Amazon for access to Prime customers. While Prime’s stand-alone profitability is a closely guarded secret, it is estimated that members spend over four times more with Amazon than non-members. 
4. Maximize difference between perceived value and real cost: Like most hotel loyalty programs, the major focus of the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program is to attract high-value travelers by offering rewards for personal leisure travel. Redemptions generally occur on weekends, when these hotels have relatively low occupancy and incur limited incremental cost. Starwood has also developed a series of offerings (e.g., upgrades, flexible check-in, Internet) that are highly valuable to their top customers, but bear little marginal cost. Overall, Starwood’s loyalty program has improved its brand appeal and helped the chain achieve above market growth, despite relatively low overall guest satisfaction scores. 

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266. 

Tips to Increase Business During the Slow Season

Global Resources is a full-service business development group and general management consulting firm focused on small and medium-size privately-held companies in North America. We help business owners access the information that is often necessary for growth.

Many small businesses experience a slow season from November through January.  For those trying to increase sales through the holidays, we have suggestions that may help:

1. Revisit old leads- If you are organized with your sales leads, you probably have a list of old leads to market to. Start contacting these old leads to see if they still have a need for any work. You would be surprised what one follow up call or email can do even for leads that are a few months old. 

2. Create a seasonal promotion - During the holiday season people are looking for a deal. Create a special holiday discount that is only valid through your slow season!

3. Make the most of the leads coming in - Unlike the busy season when you may be booked for months and can be more selective about the jobs you take, in the slow season you need to try and book every job you can. That means changing your sales and follow-up style to be more aggressive. Every job won really counts in the winter when you are struggling for work. That means you should call every lead faster and follow up more times.

4. Launch a referral program - Create an incentive for customers to recommend you to friends and neighbors. Post the promotion on your website, send an email to your contact list and call loyal customers to tell them about the new promotion.

5. Diversify your services- Many small businesses add extra services during the holiday season. For example, many contractors will start a Christmas light hanging business a month before and after Christmas. Think outside the box and use tips 1-5 to alert your past customers about your new offerings.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266. 

Reasons to Hire a Business Consultant in the New Year

Global Resources is a full-service business development group and general management consulting firm focused on small and medium-size privately-held companies in North America. We help business owners access the information that is often necessary for growth.  During the New Year, there is typically an increase in small and medium – size businesses looking to partner with business consultants. If you’re a business owner considering hiring a consulting firm, here are reasons why it may be in your best interest: 

1. External change- It can be hard for companies to do what’s right, particularly when it comes to job layoffs, salary and benefit changes/reduction, and major operational and strategic shifts. Hiring consultants can be a way to reach the desired conclusions with sufficient political cover in case certain parties are unhappy.
2. Best practices across industries and functions– consultants have the rare privilege of serving multiple clients in the same sector and serving multiple clients facing similar problems across different sectors. This enables them to recognize common attributes of effective solutions, applying lessons learned in applicable situations. This knowledge is partially institutionalized at each consulting firm (in the form of white papers, databases, post-project reviews, etc.); however, much of the information exists in the collective heads of partners and to a lesser extent, senior consultants.
3. Analytical horsepower - Companies may need help solving issues and executing strategies where their skillsets and knowledge are insufficient. Consultants can be of great value given their training and capabilities. 
4. Fresh perspective - Companies often need a fresh set of eyes.  In fact, you’d be amazed at the amount of value consultants can add based on the most mundane observations and insights. Critics contend that this is an example of consultants selling “glorified common sense,” but for front-line client employees, it can be easy to fall into daily routines without a critical eye towards measurement, analysis, and improvement.
5. Training and skillset augmentation - Every consulting project – particularly ones with heavy client interaction – incorporates client training as a major ingredient. The best recommendations are worthless if clients can’t implement and maintain suggested changes. Thus, a large part of what consultants do is to educate client employees on necessary knowledge, skills, and mindsets.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266. 

Social Media Tips for the New Year

Global Resources is a full-service business development group and general management consulting firm focused on small and medium-size privately-held companies in North America. We help business owners access the information that is often critical for growth.  

Social media is a tremendous outlet for business owners today. With the approaching New Year, it’s important to consider factors in social media:

• Maintain a Consistent Brand Message – Review your brand mission and vision. Online customers are becoming more discerning when it comes to messaging, so you must ensure that your entire team is aligned when it comes to the company mission. Once this is settled, solidify your company voice since it is the focal point of your social media and customer engagement strategy. 
• Track Your Online Visits and Sales- If your audience is growing, so are your segments and this will affect how you approach your social media strategy. User personas will change. How people interact with your brand may have changed. All of this is pure speculation though if you are not tracking your traffic and conversion with analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Hootsuite, etc. It’s not good enough to see growth. You need to know why and how your business has grown to make a robust roadmap for 2017.
• Budget for More Resources- If you want to keep your marketing budget realistic, you’ll need to research where online trends are heading. Social media has become a cost-effective channel which deserves a team of its own. How do you approach this in your forecast? Make sure you allot enough resources to focus on upcoming trends which will take a bit more time than you may expect. Real-time engagement is becoming a norm on social media now, so a dedicated resource is vital to making this work for your small business.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266. 

Tips to eliminate Workplace Holiday Stress

The business consultants at Global Resources have the expertise to help small and medium – size businesses achieve success.  During the busy holiday season, we know that the office may become a battleground of stress.   Here are 5 tips to help some eliminate some workplace stress, for both owners and employees:

1. Breathe: We often need reminders, especially around the busy holiday season. Put a Post-it with the word “Breathe” on your computer screen, or set an alarm for the top of the hour, when it strikes, and take three deep breathes, releasing slowly. Then hold out the last breath for a few seconds. You’ll be surprised how energizing it can be, while calming your nerves. 

2. Determine what can wait: We tend to overextend ourselves during the holidays. Often there’s a desire to do that last minute report, answer those last few e-mails or squeeze one more meeting into the afternoon. Ask yourself, “can it wait?” Now sometimes it can’t, especially if you want to hold onto your job. That’s not a light matter. But in some cases, depending on the urgency, have a plan in place to execute within a reasonable amount of time.

3. Respond with kindness and compassion: It’s so easy to write those words; a heck of a lot more difficult to practice them. Rule of thumb is to give people the benefit of the doubt. At least during the holidays! It’s really about you and how you choose to respond to conflict in the workplace. We should never allow ourselves to be stepped on, but sometimes walking away from conflict speaks volumes. This is a good time to set aside differences at work.

4. Recharge your battery: There’s a lot of excess running around and stress related tension in the simple daily activity in the office. The holidays can send you right over the top. Whether it’s meditation or exercise – figure out a way to wind down, such as taking a walk away from your desk. 

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business consultants at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266. 

4 End-of-Year Accounting Tips for Small Business Owners

At Global Resources, we specialize in many areas of business, including accounting systems and information systems that help predict cash flow. We also realize that this is the time of year that small business owners must pay special attention to accounting. Managing your financial records is critical throughout the year, but even more so in December. By maintaining excellent records and keeping them in order, you’ll help yourself when tax time rolls around. This also sets you up for starting off the next year on the right foot.

Here are four tips for business owners to help keep on track with accounting tasks: 

1. Run a Few Standard Reports - Take time to assess where you stand financially and how that compares to previous years. Using your accounting software or looking through spreadsheets or other records you keep, you want to generate a complete financial report, which typically consists of a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet and your cash flow statement. Your profit and loss report is one of the keys. However, a business owner also has to develop key performance indicators that will help him manage the business by identifying the critical variables which will determine the financial performance of the business.  These key performance indicators and critical variables are the key to both operational and financial performance for the next year. 

2. Analyze Your Cash Flow Statements - Cash flow is the best way to tell how your money was spent throughout the year. You’ll want to take a look at three specific aspects of your business’ cash flow:

• Cash flow from operating activities (i.e. revenue and expenses)
• Cash flow from investing activities (i.e. assets purchased and assets sold)
• Cash flow from financial activities (i.e. loans and repayments)

3. Reconcile Accounts Receivable - You should have a running list of what invoices are still unpaid or which clients still owe you money for work already completed. If possible, chase these outstanding bills and try to collect before the end of the year. This will help with cash flow and give you a clean start for the upcoming year.

4. Double-Check Your Payroll and Benefits - It’s better to stay on top of any issues or corrections that need to be made to your payroll before year’s end. Ensure that taxable fringe benefits, such as third-party sick pay or a company car are accounted for. Other benefits that are easy to forget include educational reimbursement, health and life insurance, and transportation subsidies.

To learn more about us and / or to schedule your complimentary appointment with the business experts at Global Resources LLC, call us at 855-338-0266.