Are you considering permanent home working for your business?

Pre-coronavirus, some employers may have thought that homeworking would not be suitable for their business. Or perhaps, had considered testing the waters of remote work but hadn’t found the time to put a trial into motion.BLOG1
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How can I make my staff’s work easier ? Some Practical ideas on Productivity…

There are only 24 hours in each day, so making the most of your work time is essential to free you up NOT to work. There are 2 ways increase your work output – either put in more work hours or work smarter – I prefer to be Smarter, don’t you?
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What is productivity and why is small company productivity the weakest link?

In simple terms, ‘Productivity’ is defined as the ability of businesses and their staff to ‘output’ more work for the same or less ‘input’! This could be a receptionist being able to answer more calls per hour, a salesperson able to make more daily appointment or a company finance team able to complete all their year end accounting in 3 weeks instead of 4!

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Productivity is a core component of any company’s profitability, small or large! Research has shown that small companies rarely even bother to measure the productivity of their staff, let alone encourage, reward and foster it. Clearly companies who do more (sell more, produce more, create more, deliver more) with less time and effort or using the same resources are not only going to be more profitable but much more valuable as well.

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So, how do small businesses make their staff more competent and productive? Well, to the trained eye it’s not rocket science! In the case of the salesperson, you could ask them to help train up the other sales staff and share tips on why and how they manage to sell more! Or you could help make all the sales staff more productive by reducing the paperwork they each have to do and employ a junior member of staff to do it all for them, releasing them to spend more time doing what they do best – selling!

You could train the finance team how to use their IT better – whether it be Excel or their new digital accounting software! Or, you could migrate all your customer over to electronic payments to avoid cheques being “lost in the post”, avoiding time consuming sales ledger reconciliations!

Small companies under value training and even worse substantially under estimate the ‘benefits’ impact training someone to do their job better can have – not just in terms of the amount of additional work they can do, but often with the added bonus of making them feel more valued – resulting in lower staff turnover through a greater sense of empowerment and ownership!

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Having each person in your company specialise in doing one particular job for the whole team allows them to also become an expert in that job – perhaps learning to use some new technology better, perhaps change the layout of their work space, rearranging the sequence of that work so their job gets done with much less effort and more quickly. So, if everyone in the team specialised and learnt how to do that one part of the job better and with less effort, they would not only feel better at how much better they were at their job but they would also be doing that job better, more efficiently and could do their job more and more each day!

If you would like an objective, expert eye cast over your small business to determine where the quick productivity gains to be had are, please contact me John Mather at EMC Associates. I offer a FREE initial consultation to understand more about your business and your Productivity pain points!

As a business owner, how much time do you think your office staff waste? 10% …. 20% …. 30% …. more?

If you think your staff waste 20% of their time at work, why not give them a whole day off, regularly, just work four days each week and give everyone in the Office Friday off ??? Pay them exactly the same but have a 3-day weekend, every single weekend…
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Continue reading As a business owner, how much time do you think your office staff waste? 10% …. 20% …. 30% …. more?

How Creative Artwork can ‘Work’ for your Business…

I have suffered from Mental Health since I was in my early twenty’s, it is something that I thought I could manage on my own. I would have a few days of feeling low and tell myself to pull myself together and this worked for a while. I had children – it morphed into Post Natal depression. Sound familiar?
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High growth using technology…

It’s a good feeling when your business grows. But growth can also lead to unforeseen problems. Effective use of technology is the foundation of many successful business growth strategies. Yet finding and implementing the appropriate technology solutions can often be a challenge…
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Tis the season of change!

We are approaching a season of change…The evenings are getting darker, supermarket shelves are clearing of kids’ black trousers and filling up with tubs of Heroes and Quality Street!
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The seasons change with the inevitable and relentless march of time, but when it comes to making changes in our business it’s easy to put them off to a later date because we don’t think of them as ‘business critical’ today!

Our business software is a key example. We know that if we change our software we could improve our productivity and create time through efficiency gains – yet we postpone doing anything about it by kidding ourselves we don’t have enough time! Over the years business accounting software has changed massively and with so many new software solutions being introduced into the market, and so much functionality now available, how do we even know what software our business really needs and if we are missing out?

So where do you start?
At o-a-sys we recommend taking the time to evaluate your exiting business process fully. Your business may well have changed significantly over the years and by creating a list of requirements that your new software solution must have and a list of nice to have’s, it’s a great way to create a potential shortlist of software providers with whom to meet and request a demo!
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Creating a nice to have list helps you find functionality that you may not be aware is available and how to search for it. By providing check lists to companies, they can save you time by saying yes or no to functionality you require before scheduling a demo.

Demos can then be based on your requirements so you get a feel for how the software will fit into your business rather than your business fitting in with the software. Don’t forget to ask questions about the implementation process. Find out if the system can be phased into the business so that departments can get use to the switch over. Find out how and when your employees will be trained to use the software and the support options available once the system is in place.
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The decision can then be based on the number of requirements fulfilled, how user friendly the system is and the relationship developed with the provider.

Changing software is a long-term commitment for any business so you need to be comfortable phoning for support and knowing you will receive high standards.

If you are thinking of changing your software then give the o-a-sys team a call on 01233 812050 and we can discuss your list of requirements and see if we have a solution that is right for your business not just your industry!

How a Managed Service Provider can help your business…

Running a successful business in a competitive market takes more than just mere luck. You need to make the best, most strategic use of all the tools at your disposal! As a small to midsize business, you aren’t only attempting to stand out against similarly sized companies, but to level the playing field against large corporations dominating the industry at a national and global level.
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