March 6th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Informative knowledge on how to manage and apply innovative cost cutting in your business.
Innovative cost cutting that yields results – small business profit margins hit a six-year high in 2013, but maitaining or widening these margins will require creative cost-cutting measures this year. Many B2B businesses are looking for imaginative ways to reduce expenses without sacrificing talent or businesses performance. Here are innovative – and pain-free – ways to trim small business expenses.
Create test run for new hires
A one-hour interview is unlikely to show whether someone will be a good hire for your small business, so consider bringing on new employees under a 60-day contract and using that time as a trial period. This can help you avoid paying for expensive benefits before you know if a staffer will be a good long-term fit.
Cut down on in-person meetings – by reducing business travel and holding more meetings via videoconferencing, you can take a big bite out of your expenses. While it may not be appropriate for every discussion, conducting virtual meetings has become an increasingly accepted practice.
Lead management software can help improve the efficiency of this process by allowing your business to track which prospects are paying attention to your messaging and then score them based on their potential. Ultimately, you want to spend the most time and money on prospects who are more likely to become repeat customers. B2B marketing firm performs regular audits of its prospects lists and segments them according to their potential value and level of responsiveness. Purging non-responders boosts the company’s sales effectiveness by focusing outreach on the smaller but critically important segment of motivated prospects.
Purge non-responders from your prospects list – wasting time targeting unresponsive prospects is a hidden cost that often goes ignored. If your business regularly sends out direct mail but a large number of the targets never respond or are duplicates it could drive down the ROI for your campaign. You could cut mailing costs by eliminating those addresses from your list.
Work Space – Rethink. Since lease costs can be as much as 5% to 8% of sales, thinking creatively about your workspace is one of the most effective ways to cut expenses. Consider sharing extra space at your location with another business. That can mean leasing anything from a seldom-used conference room to an extra desk. Another option is using a co-working site, where businesses rent desks and space on a monthly basis. Worksite networks can be used to find these types of facilities.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Financial Services, Small Business Improvement Tagged with: b2b business, business travel, cost cutting, innovative, lead management, leasing, prospects, reduce expenses, repeat customers, small business, time and money, trim small business expenses, virtual meetings, worksite network
September 27th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Mobile Payment Bandwagon
Just this month, September 2013, a number of British retailers announced their partnership with smartphone payment application Zapp, expected to launch summer 2014. Long before that, in November 2012, global coffee chain Starbucks launched a mobile payment system using Square Wallet, allowing customers to pay for their coffees with a simple scan of their smartphone. In China, the mobile payment market tripled in size over the last year, with a growing number of retailers jumping aboard the e-payments trend. Clearly, mobile payments are the new face of commerce…both for consumers and, increasingly, within a B2B setting as well. It may not be long until every type of payment…from mortgages and business loans to utilities bills and income tax…is made through mobiles.
Though it’s a trend that’s now spreading across the globe, the rise of mobile payments can be directly traced back to Africa. It’s an example of how unique conditions give rise to innovative solutions, and how those innovations catch on. Here’s a brief look at the rise of mobile payment technology and at the role Africa has played in its success.
Africa Gets There First – this notion of exchanging funds through a mobile phone really took off in Africa. When M-Pesa was launched by Safaricom in Kenya in 2007, it was a simple solution to issues specific to the region. Kenyans who lived far from banks or couldn’t afford banking fees were given the opportunity to send and receive payments through SMS messages. M-Pesa answered these specific problems, but the concept behind the service has proven to have a far broader reach. After achieving success in Kenya, M-Pesa launched in Tanzania in 2008. Despite getting off to a slow start, the mobile payment services now has 5 million Tanzanian subscribers. It has also launched in South Africa, Afghanistan, India and there’s plans to roll it out in Egypt at some point in 2013.
At the heart of M-Pesa’s success has been efficiency and security. Removing the need to travel to a bank…or even the need to log into online banking…has made the process of transferring funds far easier and faster. Eliminating the need to write a cheque, use cash or enter credit card details has made the process far more secure. Increased efficiency and improved security are qualities that everyone…not just those in the developing world…stands to benefit from.
Thus, though today’s technology has adapted and built upon the M-Pesa model, the world still has Africa…Kenya in particular…to thank for starting the mobile payment revolution.
Posted in Financial Services, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: banking, broader, credit card, e-payments, efficiency, fees, global, innovations, innovative, messages, mobile, payment, retailers, Security, services, smartphone, sms, solution, travel
