Although you’ve mastered many professional skill sets – such as C++ with its wide variety of paradigms, or five-stage sales funnels – managing all the money you make is a different matter.

Still, a negative cash-flow scenario isn’t necessary. Check out some easy-to-follow suggestions that will help you manage your money better so you can focus on what matters most — running your business.

Apply for Tax Exemptions

Did you know that if you do business outside the United States, you might qualify for an exemption on your expenses there? If, for example, your company has incurred business costs in France, like hotel stays and restaurant meals, then you can claim a French VAT recovery.

When starting a new business or expanding an existing one, you can save money with tax breaks. To qualify for exemptions, keep up to date with relevant new laws and regulations both domestically and internationally.

Create Multiple Streams of Income

Owning a business often involves a feast or famine cycle. At times, you’re swamped with work. Other times, you don’t have any client projects. Creating another source of income can help you manage your finances if you run out of assignments from your existing clientele. Ideally, your second source of income should enhance your primary one.

It is unnecessary to rely on your existing business model for cash flow. If, for example, you’re a web designer, you don’t have to earn all your cash from clients. You can also make money assisting beginner web designers to upgrade their skills by setting up a profitable blog. Your advice may include visual design tips or software recommendations.

A blog is a fantastic way to build an online presence and earn passive income. Here are some tips to generate multiple revenue streams from it:

• Identify affiliate marketing opportunities. Affiliate links let you earn commissions when readers buy products or services linked to your content. For example, you can recommend online courses in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that you’ve taken.

• Offer courses in web design. You can profit from your knowledge and experience by attracting people interested in your web design hacks. Making and selling online courses is one of the most popular ways bloggers make money online.

• Create and sell an eBook. Describe how you’ve used time management, problem solving, or communication skills to improve your business. Sell your PDF on your blog.

Create a Budget and Stick to It

Budget your work-from-home business to cover all your costs. There are many financial apps that you can use to stay on top of your company’s finances.

You can budget for your home-based business by:

• Tracking expenses with small business management software

• Installing a budgeting app on your phone

• Using online subscription-based accounting software

Track Your Business Expenses

The easiest way to track business expenses is to use an online SaaS-based expense tracker. Create an account on a fiscal management website and input all your expenses. The online program will calculate your monthly, annual, and overtime spending to help you detect when you’re wasting money on unnecessary business expenses.

Manage Your Income and Expenses

Online personal finance services that link to your bank account can help you track your income and expenses. With them, you can budget, save money, and manage your cash flow more efficiently. They also offer features that help you find the best credit card, get tailored investment recommendations, and even shop for business software at the lowest prices.

Apply These Ideas

In today’s fast-paced business world, managing your home-based business finances better will give you financial stability to boost your productivity and creativity. These straightforward ideas will help you keep track of your income and expenditures, pay your bills on time, and manage your home-based finances better with them.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Financial Chaos? Managing Your Own Business Is Easier Than You Think! appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Organizations today need an IT infrastructure that is both robust and flexible so as not to inhibit growth or cause downtime during periods of high demand. The costs associated with purchasing hardware can run into the millions depending on how large an organization’s data needs are, which is why many organizations choose to rent rather than buy equipment from vendors.

Technology for Good

Technology for good companies has the ability to offer flexible cloud hosting packages that can be customized according to an organization’s needs. This is invaluable to nonprofits, especially in the current economic environment. Not only are they able to rent equipment at a significantly reduced cost when compared with buying it outright, but there are often additional benefits thrown into the mix. Many technology companies will charge zero or minimal rent fees if an organization commits to using its services exclusively over a period of time. Another benefit many of these companies offer is free setup and installation on-site which means no matter where in the world your nonprofit may operate, you don’t need to worry about infrastructure setup or maintenance costs.

Importance of Proper Management

While investments made in keeping an IT infrastructure robust are important, they are nothing without proper maintenance. All equipment will have to be replaced at some stage, which is why good relationships with your technology company are so crucial. Additionally, if you intend to use a hosted service, it is important to stay in contact with your provider when something goes wrong or doesn’t seem right. One way many organizations save money when renting their IT equipment is through an option known as ‘failover’ where another piece of rented equipment kicks in during any downtime. This means that the failure of one piece of equipment isn’t going to result in downtime for your organization, but this can only happen when you inform your hosting partner about any problems early enough for them to fix them quickly and efficiently.

The cloud offers much more than just flexible hosting and failover. It also allows organizations to add new functions such as video conferencing, document management, and online storage with minimal fuss. These functions may be necessary for your organization in the future, but if you’re only renting a small amount of equipment, it may not make sense to pay extra for them today.

Choose the Right Company to Work With

Technology companies that work with nonprofits offer all the above-mentioned benefits and more. They want to build solid relationships with their customers and will often go out of their way to ensure this is the case just so they can retain their business over time. Making technology accessible is what these companies are all about, which is why it’s crucial that your chosen company has good disaster recovery precautions put in case something does happen during times of high demand. In the end, the best company to work with is going to be one that offers a good selection of services at a price you can afford and who will work closely with your organization so as to understand your IT needs in detail.

Improve Management

Another aspect many organizations struggle with when it comes to their IT infrastructure is how they manage people’s user accounts. Two options are usually available to an organization when it comes to managing user accounts: they can either create the accounts themselves or let the hosting company do it for them. Looking for good case management software is your best bet. Something like Case Worthy can make your workflow smooth, and also be customized to fit your organization’s precise needs. While creating your own accounts may seem like a good idea, this will mean that your employees have to remember multiple passwords, all with different levels of access depending on what they need to do with each account. On the other hand, a bad idea is to let your hosting company create all of the accounts because they will have full access to your organization’s network and this may not be what you want.

Have your Employees Join a Group

The best option is somewhere in between these two extremes. Have your employees join a working group that is responsible for managing user accounts and passwords. This group should also be responsible for monitoring which services employees are using and the amount of time they spend on them, as well as what devices they’re using to access your organization’s systems (notebooks, smartphones, etc).

This is a very important step, so make sure it’s done right! Having a single person manage all of your organization’s passwords, no matter how trustworthy they are, will quickly result in a major security breach. There have been many high-profile cases where a company’s IT administrator has abused their position of trust and used employee credentials to access servers and steal confidential information without anyone else knowing about it until it was too late.

The Cloud

While the cloud is still a relatively young concept, it’s already making its mark as one of the most popular tools for businesses and nonprofits alike. The reason behind this is quite simple: the cloud offers flexible hosting solutions and all the benefits associated with working online, such as remote access and collaboration features.

One way many organizations save money when renting their IT equipment is by using a cloud service to house their most important files, such as purchase orders and customer contact lists. In the event of a disaster, these files can be automatically restored from backups without having to rely on any individual.

The cloud is also becoming an integral part of nonprofits’ daily operations because they can now use it to monitor how much time workers spend on each project, as well as the type of equipment used to work on those projects. Finally, because so much time is now being spent online, it’s easier for nonprofits to collaborate with other organizations using existing cloud-based software such as Google Calendar, iCloud, and Office 365.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post A Closer Look At Technology’s Role In The Nonprofit Sector appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

If the experts are to be believed, agricultural data holds the key to the future of the food supply chain. In this article, we share how agri data is being used today to support decision making, the potential applications of big data analysis in the future, and how it will revolutionise the agricultural supply chain.

How data analytics is being used in the agriculture sector today

The agriculture sector has been quick to embrace the various data-driven solutions that are available today. Here are some of the best applications of big data analysis in the world of agri data today.

Increasing productivity

In an effort to increase yield, farmers and agribusinesses are now leveraging data science and innovation. With the help of soil sensors, weather forecasts and GPS equipped tractors it’s not possible to optimise the operations and discover opportunities to make the most of the available resources.

Reducing wastage and increasing profits

In order to remain profitable, many agribusinesses have developed data analytics strategies that provide them with higher visibility of the supply chain, which in turn lets them make evidence-based decisions regarding pricing.

Getting better at supply chain management

With the help of data analytics, it’s now easier than ever for farmers to know where their products are in the supply chain. By having this information, farmers find it easier to communicate crucial information to the key stakeholders in the supply chain such as the retailers and distributors.

Gain a better understanding of unpredictable environmental factors

There are several unpredictable environmental factors that affect the agribusiness supply chain such as weather and insect behaviours. While it was mostly guesswork to figure out these factors in the past, farmers are now better prepared for such challenges and make use of real-time predictive analytics to make important decisions.

How data will shape the future of the agricultural supply chain

While there are several avenues of research and countless undiscovered opportunities, here are some of the most crucial applications of data analytics in the agricultural sector that are expected to transform supply chain management.

Using machine learning to improve crop management

Gone are the days when farmers had to rely on fellow workers and farming experts for advice on which crops to grow during which time of the year. In the years to come, farmers will be able to completely avoid failed growing seasons and make use of bioprospecting for the identification of plants they can grow and breed together in order to get higher yields from their fields.

Eliminate inefficiencies in the supply chain

Being able to track the movement of food products from the fields to local markets can help farmers and agribusinesses identify inefficiencies in their respective supply chains. This will not only help them stay one step ahead of the market demands but also deliver their goods in a more cost-effective and timely manner.

Providing insights for making risk assessment

With the help of satellite imagery drones and artificial intelligence, it will become easier for farmers and agribusinesses to make risk assessments based on the insights gained from big data analysis.

Predict drought with the help of artificial intelligence

Not only can artificial intelligence help farmers reduce their water and energy costs significantly, but also provide them with the right kind of insights so that they can better assess the possibility of drought and make preparations for it well in advance.

Make urban farming more accessible

Thanks to big data analysis and IoT, more and more farmers will be able to adopt urban farming and maximise their yield and profits at the same time, while also feeding the growing population. According to some estimates, it will help them produce up to 180 million metric tons of raw food products annually, which will be a major boost for the agriculture sector.

Make livestock management easier

With the help of advanced sensors, livestock farmers will soon become better at monitoring the fertility and milk production capacity of their livestock. Apart from this, it will also become easier for them to track and prevent illnesses from spreading in a herd of cattle.

Final thoughts

Considering that agriculture has always benefited from innovation and technological advancements in the past, it won’t be wrong to say that big data analytics would ensure a bright future for agribusinesses. As the global population continues to grow and food supplies remain impacted by climate change, everyone in the agriculture supply chain will be able to better utilise the available technology and overcome the challenges that the future holds for the agriculture sector.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Is Agricultural Data The Future For The Food Supply Chain? appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

What is a SWOT analysis?

In the simplest explanation, a SWOT analysis is a powerful tool for helping you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats inherent in your project situation. It can also help you determine the actions that will maximize your chances of success and those that may lead to failure.

The strength of this analysis is its simplicity – it’s easy to understand and use. At the same time, it has proven its value over many years across a wide range of industries. The method was first proposed by Albert Humphrey in a 1952 Harvard Business Review article entitled “Strategy for Manufacturing”. Since then, it has been recognized as an effective planning model by academics and professionals alike.

Use it as part of your own strategy development process or as a management technique within your organization. SWOT is especially relevant to project management because it helps both you and stakeholders focus on the key issues that will impact your project.

Strengths

Venngage

An organization’s strengths are those areas in which it appears to be particularly effective and efficient and can therefore provide a competitive advantage. They should be factors that an organization does well compared with its competitors. Attributes of strength typically include product quality, superior service, brand value, high efficiency, low cost, favorable reputation or image. In new projects, these attributes may already exist or may be developed as part of the new project plan. They shouldn’t be just empty promises.

Strengths represent an important opportunity for a business because they mean continued success but only if the business acts upon them.

Weaknesses

All organizations have weaknesses, but they are often caused by pressures to perform well in other areas. Weaknesses are usually the flip side of strengths, meaning that rather than being good at something, an organization’s weaknesses constitute those areas in which it appears particularly ineffective or inefficient. They should be factors where the organization performs poorly compared with its competitors.

Attributes of weakness typically include poor product quality, bad service, no brand value, low efficiency, high cost and a poor reputation or image. In new project situations, these attributes may not exist at all so they represent an important opportunity for improvement!.

Although it may seem depressing to think about your organization’s weaknesses, remember that conquering them is half the battle. You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.

Opportunities

Venngage

Organizational opportunities are those factors in the project environment that exist relatively independently of your organization and maybe exploited to gain a competitive edge or advantage.

They can include new technologies, increased demand for products or services, favorable changes in legislation, new business models or even your competitors’ mistakes. Opportunities represent an important chance for a business because they mean continued success, provided that the organization acts upon them.

Threats

Just as organizational opportunities come from external sources, threats arise from external factors which could have a negative impact on your organization’s fortunes if it fails to establish strategies to overcome them. Threats should not be underestimated because they can destroy an organization if the business cannot deal with them. They are often caused by changes in the project environment that are relatively independent of the organization.

Attributes of threat include price competition, new entry into market or industry, increased costs or taxes, poor quality, labor supply and unfavorable legislation. Threats represent an important chance for an organization because they mean continued success, provided that they are overcome using strategies established in response to them.

What’s Your SWOT?

Venngage

The final stage in completing a SWOT analysis is asking each team member to consider their own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to the project being undertaken by the team as a whole. To know how to do a swot analysis effectively, encourage them to answer four separate questions:

• What am I good at?
• What areas do I need to improve upon?
• What opportunities exist for me in this project? How might I make the most of them?
• What threats exist for me in this project, and how can I prepare my strengths as a safeguard against any such threats?

Sometimes, individuals have very different views about what their strengths and weaknesses are. When you have had a discussion with each team member about their own SWOTs, ask them to share their individual results. Discuss any disagreements or identify particular concerns that one or more members have raised.

At this point, it is worth bringing the rest of the team up-to-date on any relevant changes to the project environment (relating to opportunities and threats), which you discovered during your environmental review. This will help everyone get a shared understanding of where the project is situated within its wider context, and encourage them to consider what this means for their own contribution. These things should be noted when you create a timeline.

It can also be useful to pinpoint any areas in which one or more team members believe that they lack knowledge or experience, and then think about how this gap could be filled. If you’ve identified an opportunity that nobody on the team wants to take advantage of, it may mean that the task should go to someone else who is better equipped to tackle it.

To make an even more effective SWOT analysis, check out Venngage for SWOT analysis examples. Whether you’re new or a veteran in designing a SWOT chart, you won’t have any problem using the platform!

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post THE USE OF SWOT ANALYSIS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

According to this Flyaeolus flight survey, 30% of European corporate businesses travel once per month; 62% travel once a year, while 5% travel 21 to 40 times per year

These statistics tell us that trips are a recurring activity for many employees and employers. Because they are, your business requires an efficient and systematic process for adequate planning.

If you are looking to give your employees a seamless and efficient traveling process, then you need the expertise of an efficient travel management company. They’ll help streamline the preparation processes and make business trips easier and a lot more rewarding for your company.

What are travel management companies? Why do you need their services?  This article discusses what travel management companies are and the top three reasons to hire their services.

Let’s begin.

What are travel management companies?

A Travel Management Company (TMC), also known as a corporate travel provider or business travel agency, is a travel agent that oversees the business travel arrangements and activities of an individual, company, or organization.

They often offer ongoing business travel management activities using travel management tools to provide improved and enjoyable travel experiences for companies.

They perform different functions, including enforcing a company travel policy to ensure all employees comply with the company’s business trips policies. They also provide a reliable system to enable companies to enjoy the best rates for all bookings, regardless of when they book.

Top 3 reasons to employ the services of a travel management company

Source

Whether you are a small, medium, or large company, employing the services of a travel management company is critical for a smooth business travel experience.

Below are three critical reasons to hire the services of top travel management companies for all your business trips.

1.    Travel management companies cut down business travel expenses

Companies spend $111.7 billion annually on business travel. This is because business travels frequently happen every year for many businesses, which means they will consume a huge part of a company’s expenses.

A travel management company reduces your business travel expenses in several ways. First, they create or enforce an existing travel policy that enables your staff to stick to a specific budget when they travel.

This ensures your staff book the airline and hotel that works best for the company’s budget. They can also track other additional expenses to ensure they align with the company’s spending expectations.

Second, working with a time management company means you will enjoy the best discounts when you travel. They negotiate the best deals, demand loyalty programs from vendors, and harness the best tools to track promotional offers and best rates.

Sometimes, they cancel tickets to rebook for more affordable options, so you can travel at discount rates and maximize costs as you travel.

Third, many travel management companies implement a pre-trip approval process that approves trips. This ensures that the company duly approves all business trips, and no staff goes on a business trip without the company’s knowledge, mitigating unnecessary business trips and maximizing cost in the process.

Fourth, whenever you have to reschedule or cancel a business trip, many travel management companies ensure you do not pay the penalty or extra charge for your action, saving you from additional expenses and driving down costs.

On the whole, travel management companies manage your overall travel expenses through planning, tracking, and reporting tools. By doing this, you can monitor every travel expense to reduce costs while you and your staff go on business trips.

So, if you want to spend less while getting the most from your business travels, a travel management company can help you beat down expenses so you can save when you travel.

2.    They save time

Business travels often involve many processes. From finding the right vendors to negotiating the best deals and bookings, the processes can be overwhelming. Travel management companies take over the planning, scheduling, and booking of your business trips to facilitate the travel process.

They use their resources and expertise to plan your business travels to make the best choices for you.

So, rather than spend lots of time on planning, travel management companies do all the work for you. This means you can focus on other essential aspects of your trips.

Additionally, they monitor your employees’ activities while on business trips to ensure they adhere strictly to your travel policies. They also provide accurate reporting tools to keep you updated about their traveling expenses.

This way, you won’t spend time tracking your employees’ activities while they travel and can focus on running your business efficiently.

Also, travel management companies provide standardized processes for your business travels, which keeps your processes organized, so your employees can follow the right procedures and save time while they travel.

So, if you are looking for a way to spend less time planning your business travels and spend more time running other important business activities, hiring an efficient travel management company is the way to go.

3.    They provide duty care and travel risk management

If you want to ensure a high-risk management system for your employees when they travel, hiring a travel management company ensures your employees’ safety.

They put appropriate measures to ensure they have a safe and secure trip, including monitoring the weather conditions and providing timely assistance in emergency cases.

Additionally, they offer expert consultation services to help you navigate health and safety conditions for business trips. For example, they advise you on the best travel policy to create for your employees and offer the best recommendations on safety and health practices before, during, and after business travels.

Travel management companies investigate and analyze other companies’ security states to ensure they are safe to travel to, connect travel data and GPS for effective tracking and give 24/7 support to your staff when they travel.

Offering your staff duty of care and putting adequate travel risk management is critical to showing your employees how much you care about their well-being; it is also the way to ensure their safety when they travel.

Therefore, if you want to create safe and successful business travel experiences for your employees, you should consider hiring a reliable travel management company to prevent, monitor, and respond to your employees’ business travel risks.

What to look out for when hiring a business management company

Source

When hiring a travel management company, it’s critical to hire the best one that will meet your company’s needs.

By doing this, you can provide the best business travel experience for your employees and get the most from your investment.

However, to do this, you must be on the lookout for five essential qualities:

1.    Reliable customer support

An excellent travel management system offers 24/7 personalized customer support to meet their clients’ needs.

They also provide different channels for their clients to send their requests and enable communication in multiple languages for better accessibility.

By offering these customer support features, they can meet your company’s travel demands in emergencies and mitigate and control risks.

2.    Seamless booking experience

The best travel management companies provide a straightforward booking experience for their clients. This includes avoiding the time-consuming process of sending and responding to emails back and forth and creating a centralized platform to book and respond to their clients’ inquiries from one place.

A simple booking experience also enables the managers and employees to book their trips themselves without third-party interference. By creating a collaborative booking system, your managers and other staff members can book, reschedule, cancel and track their travel expenses easily.

3.    Accurate reporting and analytics

A functioning travel management company provides accurate insights on travel expenses and financial activities.

They provide detailed reports and analytics of how much your employees spend to ensure they do not exceed the company’s budget. They also provide updates on activities that are out of the company’s policy to take timely actions.

By opting for a travel management company with accurate reporting and analytics you will have access to real-time data and reports to track your employees’ expenses when they travel.

4.    Advanced technology

Travel management companies need the best tools and resources to function efficiently. With the right technology, they can automate different activities and provide a faster travel experience for you.

They also provide reliable and real-time insights to keep you in the loop about how much your employees are spending, with proper measures to ensure a hundred percent compliance with your companies’ travel regulations.

5.    Data security

It’s crucial for you to work with a travel management company that ensures the proper security of your company and employees’ information.

For example, your employees’ emails, addresses, and other contact information need to be secured to ensure their data is not breached.

Check out their data security policy to ensure they can safeguard your company’s sensitive information efficiently before you hire.

Conclusion

Hiring a travel management company offers immense advantages for your company. In this article, we explained the three most prominent reasons to hire a travel management company to manage your corporate travels.

Author Bio:
Lydia Iseh is a writer with years of experience in writing SEO content that provides value to the reader. As someone who believes in the power of SEO to transform businesses, she enjoys being part of the process that helps websites rank high on search engines.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 3 Reasons Why Your Business Should Use Travel Management Companies appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

When done correctly, pay per click (PPC) is one of the most effective and measurable marketing options available. It helps brands gain higher visibility on search engines like Bing or Google and attract visitors who are more likely to convert.

However, PPC is still a concept that eludes many marketers and business owners. If you are struggling with your PPC marketing, this guide will help you grasp PPC marketing in its entirety so you can make the most out of it. Read on!

Five PPC management tips you should know.

1.     Perform keyword research

Keyword research is critical when running a PPC campaign, particularly when running a Google AdWords campaign. Keywords refer to a set of words or phrases used when creating an ad with the search terms your desired audience is searching for.

A simple way of doing keyword research includes typing a relevant keyword on the Google or Quora search bar to see what your audience is searching for from the list of results showing at the bottom of your keyword. Additionally, you may use other effective keywords research tools such as Google keyword planner, SEMrush, and KWFinder.

2.     Track and test your PPC campaign

There is no telling if your PPC campaign is yielding its desired results unless you track its performance. Keeping track of your campaigns will help you determine how specific ads, keywords, and platforms are performing so you can plan future campaigns.

Manual tracking of your PPC campaign results can be time-consuming, resulting in increased costs of doing business. But you do not have to do it manually. Automating your PPC reporting by incorporating a software solution that provides customizable PPC report templates can be a time-saver and ensure accuracy in your reporting.

3.     Improve your content

Even with the right keywords for your PPC campaigns, your efforts may not amount to much if the content of your ad isn’t appealing. Ensure that your content addresses your audience’s pain points. When your audience gets value from your content, they will be inclined to buy from you because informative content portrays you as an authority in your field.

Make sure you follow content creation best practices. For example, you may need to avoid keyword stuffing which can make your content hard to understand. If you can’t create content on your own, you can hire a freelance copywriter to do it for you.

4.     Negative keywords

A negative keyword is a keyword targeting strategy offered by search engine advertising platforms such as google ads which allows you to filter out keywords you don’t want to be ranked for. For example, if you specialize in high-end jewelry, you may want to filter keywords like cheap jewelry. This means that your ad will not show to a person searching for cheap jewelry.

You don’t want your ad to appear to everyone because every click means more spending for you. If the wrong audience keeps clicking on your ad, your PPC campaign will cost you much but give low ROI.

5.     Fine-tune your campaign

When running a PPC campaign, you want your ads to reach a very specific audience. The best way to achieve this is by fine-tuning your PPC campaign to reach your target audience. For example, you may select your ad to appear on sites your target audience may visit or people with a certain behavior.

Some of the available targeting options include placement targeting, contextual targeting, audience targeting, and topic targeting. With these targeting options, you can be sure that your ads will be seen only by individuals most likely to buyyour product or services.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 5 Essential PPC Management Tips to Boost Your ROI appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

When your employees are under-performing, it is easy to blame them. However, they might not always be at the root of the issue. In fact, in some cases, unproductive work groups are the fault of certain managers or management as a whole. It can sometimes be difficult to identify when problems come from the top down. But this also means that you can solve many of the issues your organisation might be facing by making some adjustments to your management. Here are four signs your managers are affecting your business’s productivity.

1. Unusually High Turnover

A good measure of the company’s culture is your retention rate relative to the industry as a whole. The same measure can be an indicator of a bad manager. One Gallup report found that half of those who quit say they quit to get away from a bad boss. When there is a sudden spike in turnover, that’s a red flag. When top talent suddenly starts jumping ship, you know you have to deal with the managers causing it. We know it is typically an issue with management because managers tend to push the top performers harder. Pushing them to work overtime causes them to burn out and quit. Making promises they don’t keep costs you top talent, too.

You can get an honest assessment of the problem by asking employees for feedback on direct managers and upper management. Encourage open discussions with teams each week, though this obviously won’t work if team members are afraid of the boss. Provide anonymous surveys so that employees don’t have to worry about repercussions for honest feedback.

2. Morale Drops

Employees want to trust and respect their managers. This is essential for relationship building. A breakdown of this relationship directly impacts morale. When morale for a particular work group or department drops, the question isn’t how we can incentivise workers but what happened to cause it. After all, when morale drops, productivity stalls, too.

When you recognise the problem, there are several potential solutions. About a third of employees surveyed said they want more frequent communication. However, the manager must be honest, clear and respectful or else it is counterproductive. About two thirds of employees think they don’t get enough praise. This means that managers remembering to commend good work on a regular basis instead of only being seen criticising people can go a long way to boosting morale. This may be achievable by adjusting your recognition programmes.

3. Productivity Drops

Good managers inspire and motivate employees while providing everything they need to succeed. This leads to good performance. When there is steady positive feedback and support, performance should improve. In the opposite situation, performance stalls immediately, and it will start to fall as employees become disengaged. This can happen when managers are unavailable, too removed from the front lines, or simply fail to engage with employees.

Your organisation must be monitoring employee performance to know when productivity is dropping. If you have this data, then you can determine which managers need management training. The next step is teaching managers how to develop employees, so that productivity can improve over the long run. Perform regular performance evaluations and track individual performance based on objective goals so that employees know what they’re striving for. Having clear, realistic goals is essential for this to work.

The best solution is to invest in management training. Training programmes like the first line manager training course offered by The BCF Group can help managers learn how to work with front line employees. They will learn how to engage, persuade, educate and train people as required. You’ll improve employee morale and engagement when you send them to management training courses too. Instead of reprimanding a manager who may take it out on the team, you’ve sent them to learn a better skillset. Once their performance improves, so will everyone else’s.

4. Hours Worked are Sky-High

A good neutral metric of management performance is hours worked. While it is acceptable to occasionally push people to work overtime once in a while as deadlines require, consistent overtime – especially unpaid overtime – will lead to burnout and resignation. Some managers push it because they think it improves productivity. In reality, productivity falls once an employee hits 50 hours a week, and after 55 hours, their productivity is as bad as part-timers.

So, if you’re going to push your workers to meet objectives, make sure that they are rewarded for it. Top performing employees are always up to the challenge, as long as they feel like their effort is being valued, so make sure to show your appreciation with instant rewards as soon as you have the chance to.

Learn the warning signs when direct or upper management are the reason productivity and performance is plummeting. Then and only then will you be able to address the issue at the source and start turning your organisation around.

This is an article provided by our partners network. It might not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of our editorial team and management.

Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 4 Signs Your Managers Are Affecting Your Business’s Productivity appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Most businesses hire in experts to take over different departments or roles within them, but if you are only a small business running from a home office, there aren’t many others who are working alongside you to take things over. The answer here is outsourcing, and if you know that your business is going to have challenges within it when it comes to growth, you’re going to know that outsourcing could help it to expand in the right way.

Outsourcing isn’t just a great way to cut the costs of your business, but it’s a good way to expand your capacity as a business and get to know top talent in your industry. Growth is everything for a small business, and from managed IT services to marketing, outsourcing can be a valuable tool in your company. Growth does, however, take time and resources to happen and happen well. If you stop growing, your business starts to die and it’s important that you don’t allow that to happen if you want your business to be any kind of successful. There is one thing that you should really think about when you are running your own business, and that’s the fact that you cannot do everything and nor should you!

An entrepreneur has a great idea, but that doesn’t mean that they have all the facilities to do everything themselves. You want to protect the company that you’ve begun and understanding where to find the experts that can help your business to soar is vital to the continued success that you want to achieve. Outsourcing allows a business owner to experience the chance to free up their time for more important tasks that are designed to further the business. When you choose to outsource, you are choosing to focus on what you can do best. That may not be the inner workings of an IT department, but that may be the things that you can use to ensure that your business properly grows. You are useful to your business when you do things that help to further it, and outsourcing gives you instant access to those who can make your business better in other ways. Whether you are a start up, trading alone or a fully limited company, outsourcing is going to be something that you can do in your favor. If your content needs improving, hiring a freelancer with a quick wit who is good with words is going to work in your favor. You may not have the knack for writing – but the important thing to remember is that it’s okay not to! You need to focus on what you can do best and let the experts do the job that you need help with.

Once you recognize that you need to ask for help, your business will thrive. Relying on services that are outsourced can bring you a global talent that may not have been accessible before. Outsource where you can and where your budget allows, and you will find success.

This is an article provided by our partners’ network. It might not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of our editorial team and management.

Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post How Outsourcing Improves Your Business appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

A lot of people dream about running their own businesses, but all too often these dreams begin at the top, with the dreamer sitting in a gold-plated office on the highest story of some enormous skyscraper, making important calls, and throwing around wads of cash like it was nothing.

The reality for many people is, however, starting a small business in their home and doing what they can to optimize space and make incremental improvements, hoping to break into the market in earnest, and take that business to the next level.

Many great entrepreneurs started from very humble beginnings. So, if you want to follow their example, and start your own business from home, here are some guidelines that you should observe.

Set aside clear space boundaries to divide “work” from “private” areas

Whether your business is done entirely online, as in the case of affiliate marketing or web design ,or whether you need to store physical goods in your home, ranging from electronics, to building materials provided by a cement supplier, you need to master the art of creating a division between your “work” and “private” lives.

When your home is your office and HQ, guarding your space is equivalent to maintaining your work-life balance. While you may feel that a driven business person should work around the clock, the practical reality of not creating a division of space, is that you’re likely to face dramatic burnout sooner rather than later.

If you can, set aside a room (or two, or three) for your work, and leave the rest of your home for your “free” time. If that’s not a possibility, use tactics such as using one desk as your workstation, and doing nothing at it except for work.

Optimise your energy levels as much as possible

As an entrepreneur, your business is only as successful as you are sharp, tough, and fit.

If you burn yourself out working, and dramatically deprive yourself of sleep, your mental function will deteriorate, your motivation will drop off, your health will collapse, and everything, in short, will fall apart.

The correct approach here is to do whatever it takes to optimize your energy levels and become the most effective and vital version of yourself possible.

Get more sleep, if you need it. Eat more, if you need to. Exercise more, if you need it. Just be sure that you’re fit and energetic for the challenges that lie ahead.

Implement effective time-management systems rather than relying purely on goals

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comics, has famously advised that systems are the way to go in professional life, rather than goals.

While there’s a lot to be said in defense of goals, systems are undoubtedly important, and often play a major role in ensuring the success of a business.

A system is, in short, something that you do automatically, on a recurring basis.

If you wanted to win a new client, “get a new client” would be a goal. A system would be something like “pitch to 20 prospects a day”.

Progress towards a goal can be waylaid by external circumstances, but a system allows you to keep moving in the right direction, despite many of the obstacles you might encounter.

This is an article provided by our partners’ network. It might not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of our editorial team and management.

Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 3 Guidelines for Starting a Business from Home appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Open comms; an admirable world of voices to listen to and to watch wind blowing data!

When we think about communications for business, were is the wind blowing? Optimists can point to the introduction of new areas powered by social technologies that somehow open business towards a relation and interaction with customers, new structures of defining strategies and change management that opens a lot of new enterprise oportunities. Pessimists can point to the continuing deluge of all negative spam attention, ever-more sophisticated phishing techniques, and of course the burdens of increased regulatory compliance, legal and difficulty to reach an audience, target customers in the right way, listen to the voices around you or your business and analyse its data and analytics.

Open Communications – Open Comms are the Next generation for collaboration

Open Communications – Open Comms – is the next generation of human communications and collaboration in any organisation leading the field in delivering new ways of communicating and creating co-creation process and synergies. I am one of the positive ones looking at it. Open Comms can and is indeed shifting the way business, organisations and contries deal with their communications. And let me tell you this is hard, difficult and new, but amazing.

Some recent stats show that 57% of businesses currently monitor online conversations about the brand, products or services, according to a recent study by Capgemini. But the reality is that 20% do not listen at all and another 23% of respondents weren’t sure whether or not the company is listening to online conversations in the same study.

This reveals the importantce of a proper communication strategy and a lot about the importance and the necessity to invest in an open communications strategy.

Why am I a defender of Open Comms?

Because I believe in creating value and listening to different voices, even when sometimes we might hear things that we don’t want to hear and that are different from our own perspectives or ideas. I believe that the only way to deliver successful strategy is challenging certainty, especially our own. When you or your business might think you’re undeniably right, ask yourself “What might I be missing here in this communication?”. And when you start listening to your clients, users, customers you might want to adpat, change or evolve. (Although I must underline this does not mean forget your core values of principles).

In a world with a huge increasing variety of principles, cultures and lack of clear hegemonies things are flowing. It is rather difficult to understand everything form one’s own perspective.And social media fast adopting technologies and tools just created a world without barries: economic, politic, financial where change and continous change and evoltion has been radical.

The market of communications has been through a revolution with an entire new industry for listening services rapidly maturing with vendors such as Radian6, Spiral16, Crimson Hexagon, Research.ly, Lithium, Sysomos, Marketing Sentinel (Skyttle) and many others improving businesses communications and monitoring consumer conversations and experiences. Nevertheless the wide array of these new communications tools and capabilities are nothing less than baffling. They somehow require proper stratgey open mind set for business and expert analysis prior to committing any significant investment of finances or organizational resources now and over time.

Some perspectives for the future of Communications = Open Communications:

– The need for an Unified Communication: from internal to external, from traditional to social;
– Open IT-Based Communications, make sure software is fast in execution
– Powerful set up in a content and SEO friendly way;
– Fixed Mobile Convenience and convergence with the advent of the mobile tablets and smartphones;
– Agile Business Process Integration towards the concept of a Open Business;
– Rich User Experience and knowledge how to navigate in the data and analytics;
– Deployment of Choices, clear transparent management capable of communicate internally and externally;

– Business Continuity and Integrity, key for a good communications, the importance of a good continuity story telling.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Open comms and the future of communications? appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.