Investments You Should Be Making Into Your Company Today

Having your own business is like having a retro car, you need to put the time, money, and effort into it to make it run smoothly and keep it looking at it’s best. Even if your business is successfully running, there are always ways of improving it from the inside so that it runs better and ultimately, makes you more profits. In this article, are going to be some ideas of investments that you should be making into your company today.

Social Media

Having good marketing techniques is essential for any business to run smoothly, so why not take a look and change how you’re marketing what it is you have to offer? You might have shrugged off a certain technique thinking that it won’t help business in any way, why not give it a go and see how it affects business?

The majority of companies these days use social media as their main form of marketing because it has the potential to reach millions of people with just a few clicks of a button. If you happen to know like-minded companies that are willing to share your content in return for a share of their content, you have the capacity of both your followers, and theirs too. Experiment to see which social media platform works best for your company. For example, if you’re a nail technician, Facebook is likely to work well for your company because you’re able to share videos of your work on your business page for other people to then share with their friends. The video would loop over on your profile, and you’re even able to see how many hits you have had on the video.

So where’s the investment here, I hear you ask. Well, firstly you will need to invest some time into regularly posting and interacting with your followers. If you don’t have time to do this yourself, consider hiring a VA (virtual assistant) to do this for you. Another way that you could invest into social media, is by paying for adverts to run of your company. You’re able to pick the target audience, how long the advert runs for, and even how much you spend on it. Try it, even if it’s only the once to see how the effects of advertising on social media can help your business grow. Another good platform for businesses that show off their craft is Pinterest. Although videos don’t really work well on Pinterest, it basically works as a glorified search engine. Using keywords and attractive pinned photos will be sure to get people clicking on your content.

Giving people a reason to click on your posts is something else that you could be investing in. A lot of successful businesses use competitions and giveaways to entice people into looking at their content. Consider running a giveaway that’s relevant to what you’re trying to sell and share it around all forms of social media for the best return.

Upgrades & Repairs

The equipment that you’re using to help create what it is that you’re offering your clients should be kept in the best condition possible. Not just for your sales and profits, but for you and your staff’s safety too. Make sure that you’re getting yearly (or more frequently if needed) safety checks on all of your equipment. Pc repair is one of the main repairs that go unnoticed for some time. As long as the computer works, people tend to carry on using them until they’re broken beyond repair. Make sure that your pcs are up to date and don’t need any sort of repairs.

If your equipment is on the older side or has become outdated over the years, a good investment would be to upgrade your equipment to make business run smoother, and also it will help make your team’s life much easier. For example, if you run a coffee shop, it’s likely that your coffee machines will become outdated over time so make sure that you keep an eye on when the market improves so that you can get the latest model. You will be able to make different variations of your drinks, and it will also impress your potential customers into coming in and trying what you have on offer.

If you have a store or an office that your clients visit, consider upgrading the areas that your customers see to something more modern. The world is becoming much more technically advanced these days, and self service is trending. If this is something that you’re able to incorporate into your business then that would be a great investment.

Hiring

Deciding to hire staff (or more staff) is a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Take a look at your workload and decide whether hiring someone would free up your time to concentrate on the more important aspects of your business. When it comes to hiring someone, make sure that you’re clear on what you will be expecting your new member of staff to be doing.

If you don’t think that you can afford a full time member of staff, try offering out a part time position, or even weekend work for the right candidate. This will allow you to delegate your work onto them for the days that they’re in.

Another idea that might be a little more cost effective when it comes to hiring help within your business, is to consider hiring an apprentice. There is a much lower national minimum wage for apprentices, so you will be saving money while making money. You will however, have to train your apprentice up to your level of working.

Relocating

Sometimes, all a business needs to expand and begin taking in more profits is to relocate to a larger and more suitable premises. If you’ve had the same premises from day one of your businesses then consider moving somewhere that would attract more customers. This might mean a higher rent for the premises that you’re using, but the profits that you will be making will soon make the move worth the money.

Another idea that you could go for instead of relocating, is to expand. Open up another office or chain of stores for people to visit. Of course, this would mean hiring someone else, but the investment should pay for itself before you know it. Opening up another branch in another town might also be a good idea because the reach of your business will go even further, and you may find that people come from out of town to buy what you have on offer.

Training

Training is an essential part of any successful business. It’s likely that you will have trained your staff to your standard of working, but consider paying for extra training sessions for all of you to improve the service that you’re offering.

Doing this will give you the chance to offer your customers more than you did before. For example, if you run a clinical center, whether that be a GP surgery or a clinic for physiotherapy, training even your non medical staff to know what they are talking about would benefit you and your patients.

One thing that not just your staff, but yourself too should keep yourself up to date on is customer service. Bad customer service can completely ruin the reputation of a business; therefore reducing sales and profit.

Time

As mentioned earlier with social media, investing your time into your business will greatly improve the profits you’re making and also your client base. Taking the time to personally get to know your clients (within reason, of course) will make your service feel more personal to them; therefore getting those clients to return to you when they need your service again.

Also, you can’t expect to throw money at a business and expect it to grow without putting any real effort and time into it. Make sure you’re at the office as much as your staff are so that you can not just help with the workload, but also show your staff and clients that you care about your business.

Giving your staff your time will also help your business massively. Create some incentives within the workplace like an extra day off if they reach their targets this month, or offering to buy something nice for the staff room will give your staff an even bigger reason to be as productive as possible.

The Final Say

As you can see, there are many investments that you could be making within your business to improve it in the long run. Make these changes today so that you can begin reaping in the benefits of your investments. Be sure that you’re confident of any changes you’re making before taking any drastic action.

Good luck with the investments that you’re about to make!