How effective is your workplace’s communications equipment? In this day and age, people expect businesses to connect immediately with their clients, and even the slightest outage can set productivity back. Whether your office holds five employees, fifty, or more, it’s important to maintain your telecommunications and Internet functionality at optimal levels. You may have hired an outside firm to set you up, or maybe you plan to staff a team for daily troubleshooting. Either way, you may wish to regularly check your equipment for preventative maintenance.IT ChecklistWhat needs to be inspected to ensure quality communication? Here’s a short list to assist you in regular check-ups of your equipment.Telephones1) If you rely on a multi-line phone system for your office, make sure all the lines work. Seriously, there’s always the possibility somebody could work in his office and wonder why his line doesn’t light up. Especially if you bring new people into the fold, test lines and make sure clients can get through to anybody on staff.2) Speaking of hiring newcomers, don’t forget to make changes to your automated directory to reflect new hires and remove people no longer working at the office. Make sure everybody has recorded an away message where applicable, and that emergency numbers are directed to the correct people.3) If you are set up to have your business line forward to your mobile phone or email, test it regularly. You don’t want to miss an important call while you’re out of the office.Computer1) Update anti-virus software programs on all computers as needed. Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a rogue virus to cause problems for everybody.2) Test connections and servers periodically to ensure the Internet works quickly for everybody. There’s nothing more irritating than slow page loads when you’re trying to get work done.3) Test e-mail filters to make sure all spam messages are held at bay. Also check to see that messages you would typically whitelist aren’t being sent to your junk folders.It is always a good idea to look at your business telecommunications from the point of view of a potential client. Take the time to test phone calls and e-mails into the system, and listen for any anomalies with the voice directory or voice mail. Listen, too, for interference over the phone line and send test e-mails to yourself and note how quickly they get to your inbox. Inspect your equipment with regularity and you are less likely to have problems, particularly with clients.
Author Archives: admin
The Primary Cause Of Business Financing Frustration
Finding proper business financing is not easy at the best of times for most small and medium sized business owners and managers.There are a number of reasons that collectively explain why the business financing market can be so difficult to understand and navigate.But probably the single biggest reason is the lack of useful information about how the business financing market actually works.Business financing information and education sources predominantly come in two forms: 1) Text books; 2) Major bank advertising.If you’ve ever read through a educational finance text book or taken a business financing course, you already know how difficult it can be to apply the theories, principles, and strategies to a small or medium sized business.Our formal education system provides limited information as to how the market place works, how to plan for financing requirements, how to manage periods of growth, decline, transition, start up, etc.Sure academic books and courses can go through all these areas in great detail, but is the information practical, real world, something you can relate to and apply yourself as a manager or owner of a small or medium sized business?In most cases, the answer is a resounding NO.Most finance text books speak to big business financing dynamics that are not easily transferable to small and medium sized business scenarios.Outside of the formal education system, the next great source of business financing information is the information provided by the major banks, which they tend to make available to you by the boat load through their broad based marketing campaigns.Unfortunately, the information by itself seldom helps you determine if a particular institution would be able to provide you with financing, or what would be required to qualify for a loan.The good news is that business financing sources continue to grow in numbers as more and more lenders carve out a particular piece of the market to service.In order to take advantage of these alternatives, you need to have a solid approach in place when seeking business financing.Here’s a short list of things to consider>>> Develop a solid, ongoing, understanding of both your personal and business assets, income, and cash flow.Regardless of the business financing model, these elements will always come into play to some degree.Being able to demonstrate a solid understanding of your business financials is also an indication of your ability to manage the underlying business.>>> Monitor and manage your personal and business credit.Small and medium sized business financing is focused on both personal and business credit histories.Regular reviews of both personal and business credit reports from the major credit reporting agencies are important to avoid errors and credit practices that can severely damage your borrowing power.>>> Develop your marketing position.Yes, seeking business financing is a marketing exercise.When applying for business financing, you’re marketing your business to lending sources and they in turn are marketing their business financing programs to you.Think of the lender as a customer to better understand what they’re looking for. Then, develop a business proposal that addresses all their potential needs and concerns.>>> Research Lending SourcesThere are lots of business financing sources. But there is also lots of variation in the types of business applications each one is prepared to consider.Broad based lenders rely on credit history and net worth. As you get more specific in terms of financing application and industry, lender programs become more narrow and can be harder to locate.You need to consider things like industry, sector, and geography when looking for business financing sources.Financing consultants and business loan brokers can be an excellent source of information to aid you in this process.>>> Qualify The LenderBefore you make a formal application, find out if the lender has the programs and lending track record to meet your specific needs.Too often, the lender is doing all the qualifying.>>> Compare your optionsDepending on the scenario, there can be several financing strategies that could work for your business.Make sure you take the time to compare before making a decision. The extra time spent could save you considerable time and money in the long run.>>> Start TodayRegardless of what your business financing needs are right now, you should regularly invest time staying on top of your business financials, monitoring your credit, and researching financing sources that fit your industry and potential future requirements.When the time comes to acquire capital, your proactive efforts can make all the difference in getting the capital you need with terms and timing that are acceptable to your business.
Five Questions to Answer the Advertising 4.0 Concept
In the last chapter, I briefly introduced the concept of Advertising 4.0. In this article, I would like to extract a few questions and answers come from my clients and me.Question 1: Which version would be after the Advertising 4.0?I told my client, “it would be version 1.0 after version 4.0, because it is a cycle from 1.0 to 4.0, I mean that represents the life cycle of a product when it has completed, there is a new product comes out to replace the old one.”Question 2: Why do some brands always be stay in the version 1.0, 2.0, or even 3.0?In fact, there are many brands will die after experienced the Advertising 1.0 and 2.0, only a few excellent brands can survive to be 3.0 and then go to be 4.0, which are full of powerful vitality that are we often say whom can survive today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.Only those brands that can live to version 4.0, then have the ability to share some good ideas or spirit with their customers in the market.Question 3: As a new product or brand, can we choose any of the version 2.0,3.0 or 4.0 to use in advertising creativity?This answer is also very clear. We often say that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, but a new product or brand has various limitations. If you want to tell the customers your products are perfect, or share your proud achievements with the public, can your consumers believe it? No.There are exceptions, of course, which is that you have to be good enough to handle the creative approach of Advertising 4.0.Question 4: Is the 4.0 more advanced than 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0?Of course not. Any one of the versions is just the mark as well as the Wechat, Twitter, or App versions, in another word, the it just stands for a brand’s milestone of growth. Whether it is advanced or not depends on how do you deal with the advertising creativity.Below are four examples:
Advertising 1.0, Nongfu Mountain Spring’s slogan “We Are the Porters of Nature” emphasizing What It Is;
Advertising 2.0, Oreo has an AD that says “Twit, Lick and Bubble” emphasizing How to Eat;
Advertising 3.0, I have said JD’s AdWords “Fast, Better and Save”;
Advertising 4.0, you may head of one sport brand’s advertising says “Everything is Possible”, “Just Do It”, which is the sharing of brand spirit.
Question 5: Is the creative logic of the Advertising 4.0 applicable to all brands?The answer is No. In the autumn of 2017, I released its final scope of application. Your products, team or personal brand all can use it except policy advertising.Because the policy advertising is aimed at the goals that may be achieved in the future, but other products and services’ Advertising must emphasize what can be done at present. If your products and services can’t do it at all, it’s cheating.This is an important point, especially which should be paid attention to by whom engaged in advertising creativity. Although there is not clear distinction between the two in the current advertising textbooks, books, and even laws, the difference is really exited in life.In all, the Advertising 4.0 is not only the basic framework of advertising creativity, but also the boundary of advertising management.However, this theory and practice is under the background of the rise of Internet, Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence, so I named it as Advertising 4.0. Compared with the traditional advertising creativity, I proud of it taking a step forward than the past years without internet.Although it is a small step, it is also a small big step towards advertising civilization. Of course, the content of Advertising 4.0 is more than above, as well as the elements of advertisement languages, color codes, the differences between various types of advertising, and so on.Thank you!