Customer Satisfaction – How Convenient Is Your Business?

Customer satisfaction is crucial for the success of any business. If your company is continually disappointing the consumer, how long can you expect to keep your doors open? On the other side, if clients leave amazed by the service they received, they’re more likely to refer their friends and family to you.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, businesses were forced to learn and innovate ways to keep operating. As we’ve moved forward, there are several business tactics that will stay long-term, and one of those is convenience.

In a world where strangers try to remain six feet apart from one another, prefer not to shake hands anymore, and limit contact with those outside their bubble, it’s more important than ever that your business is convenient in multiple ways. To help with that, reviews for Corporate Business Solutions have three tips to make your business more convenient.

From Online Booking to Online Payments           

Although this isn’t a new feature, it’s worth reiterating the importance of offering online features. From booking clients to online shopping and receiving payments, giving the customer more power to do things virtually is essential.

Ensure that your company has a website that provides a list of all the services you offer and their prices. Offer an online scheduling and booking system so that people don’t need to visit your store or call to book. Lastly, ensure that you have contactless payment, whether it’s prepaying online or a device for tapping a credit card.

Virtual Chat Options

How you communicate with your customers plays an important role. It’s not just a phone call anymore. Being able to correspond through email and virtual chat options adds to the convenience of your business.

Virtual chat options also include any meetings or assessments you do with clients. Offering the possibility to meet through a video chat rather than in person all the time helps with busy schedules, those who are isolating, not comfortable meeting in person, or for a whole list of reasons.

Be Open for Suggestions

Who better tell you ways to make your business more convenient than from the customers themselves? If you’ve never sent out a survey or asked the question on social media, it may be worth doing. When you give your customers a chance to provide feedback that could make their lives easier, you not only learn a lot, but you also please the consumer.

When you do ask for suggestions, though, ensure that you’re ready for them. Not every suggestion will be something you agree with, nor is it possible for you to accommodate every suggestion. So, keep an open mind and try not to take them too personally.

We live in a world where convenience is critical. We’re used to having access to information right at our fingertips and parcels arriving at our doorsteps the next day. Keeping up with convenience is a crucial step to take with your business.

The three suggestions above are a good starting point if you’re not already doing so.

3 Tips to Keep Your Business Afloat During Challenging Times

It’s been well over a year now that we’ve maneuvered through a global pandemic. Through this pandemic, many businesses have learned the hard way how to adapt on the fly. Unfortunately, many other companies could not make ends meet through rolling shutdowns and, ultimately, closed their doors for good.

Now, as the world rolls out the Covid-19 vaccines in hopes of gaining control over the rapid virus, many business owners look back at 2020 as a way to help prepare for other challenges they may face down the road.

Although we hope not to implement backup plans, it’s a good idea to have a plan for challenging times ahead that many businesses are likely to face. To help, your Corporate Business Solutions consultants have three tips to keep your business afloat during challenging times.

Avoid Reacting to the Situation

It’s common for people to react to a situation. When someone reacts to a challenge in front of them, they often do so with emotion, leading to an irrational reaction rather than a thoughtful process. Reacting head-on may work in some situations, but not all.

When faced with challenging times, it’s best to slow down and look at the big picture before doing anything. The issue with immediately reacting to what’s in front of you is that a quick decision now could have even more damaging effects later on. Instead, take the time to think things through, develop a thoughtful plan and then react with a calm mind.

A good example would be you have an employee that keeps messing up with inventory. Frustration may take over, and your initial reaction could be to let the employee go. However, if you take a moment to dig into what’s going on, you could find that the training process wasn’t thorough enough and the mistakes the employee is making aren’t actually their fault.

Have an Emergency Fund

When faced with difficulties, many businesses find themselves nervous about not having enough profits to pay the bills. Having a cash reserve meant for emergencies is a crucial backup plan to have. That way, if you end up having to close your doors for a bit, you’ll be able to make ends meet with your emergency funds.

Revamp Your Marketing Strategy

As the world goes in and out of challenging times, your marketing strategy needs to reflect that. If you continue to push the same marketing strategy regardless of the situation around you, your return may not be what it was a few months ago.

Have a couple of different marketing strategies to implement based on what is going on worldwide (or in your industry). For the recent year with the pandemic, businesses could benefit by changing their marketing strategy to showcase the value in what you offer, even if the budget is tight.

The point being, it’s about reflecting and being sensitive to what is going on around you and adapting your marketing strategy to reflect that.

No matter how prepared a business may be to face difficult times, our plans do not always work. However, by preparing for the “what ifs,” you could save your business and stay afloat.

5 Habits Every Entrepreneur Should Incorporate in Their Day

What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? It looks different for each person. Some have different situations and circumstances than others that help boost their success. Even though success looks different for each entrepreneur, there are some everyday habits many share that can be helpful.

If you’re an entrepreneur working hard towards a goal, reviews for Corporate Business Solutions have five habits that every entrepreneur should incorporate in their day.

Getting Enough Sleep

One of the most overlooked habits to incorporate into your life that can significantly impact your day is getting enough sleep. Many entrepreneurs face having to hustle almost every hour of the day for them to be successful. That mentality doesn’t leave much room for a good night’s sleep.

If you want to be the most focused, productive, happy, and stress-free, getting seven to nine hours of sleep is essential. Continuously lacking sleep can actually make your day-to-day activities much harder, and it can lead to health issues down the road.

Incorporating Exercise

How do you approach fitness? Is it solely for looks, or does it go deeper? Many successful entrepreneurs make time to exercise daily (or at least a few times a week). They don’t necessarily exercise to look like a model. Instead, they exercise for the physical and mental benefits it provides them.

Research has proven that regular exercise can help mentally by lowering stress, boosting your focus and memory, and releasing endorphins that make you feel fantastic.

Staying Organized

Organization is a vital part of success. As your business grows, so too will your workload and responsibilities. If you’re not keeping yourself organized, everything you have to do in a day becomes overwhelming and stressful.

Staying organized helps keep you on top of the important tasks in your day. When you prioritize as part of your organizational skills, you’ll find that you can efficiently get more work done and realize when it’s time to hire help.

Be Thankful Everyday

Successful entrepreneurs know that the team behind them is what keeps driving their success further forward. That’s because you can only wear every hat in a company for so long before you have to hire employees.

Being thankful for your team, showing support and appreciation to them, and also being grateful for how far you’ve come will keep you in a positive mindset. Plus, when your team knows how much you appreciate them, they’ll be more likely to stay with you and be productive.

Learn to Slow Down

At first, it might seem like you have to be running at full speed every minute of the day to reach success. Although at the start of running a business, this is true to a point, it’s still important to slow down at times and relax.

Ensure that you’re incorporating time for friends, family, and yourself. Whether it’s first thing in the morning when having your coffee or designating the weekends for catching up with people, taking time to slow down and connect with what’s important to you is an essential part of success.

 

When you start looking at successful people’s habits, you’ll notice that not every one of them focuses on just work. Many are about incorporating time for yourself, taking care of your physical and mental wellbeing, and appreciating your surroundings.

5 Signs Your Business Might Go Under

We often talk about ways to grow your business and help it become more successful. That’s because your goal is likely just that – to grow and be successful. The last thing you probably want to read about are ways your business is failing.

Part of running a successful business, though, is understanding the warning signs that could mean your business is about to go under. When you know them and can identify those red flags, you’ll be able to respond accordingly, rather than stressfully reacting.

So, as part of your business plan and check-ups, Corporate Business Solutions encourages you to look for the following five signs that might mean your business is on the verge of closing.

Inconsistent Positive Cash Flow

Likely one of the best ways to tell how your business is performing comes from your cash flow. It’s pretty easy to determine your success level if you’re constantly in the red (although this is only a snapshot of your true success).

Make it a habit to regularly follow up with your company’s finances. Do you see a downward trend forming? Are there outside influences beyond your control contributing to the trend? Are you on the verge of not having enough cash flow to pay your bills? If so, it’s time to go to the drawing board and see how you can increase your profits to save your business.

You’re Not As Invested

How do you feel about your business? Although being passionate about your company will only get you so far, if you don’t have that passion for motivating you, chances are your business will start to suffer.

Think about why you started your company. Does that reason give you the same boost of motivation and passion as it once did? Keep in mind if you’re not as passionate about your company anymore, it could be a sign to sell rather than letting it crumble.

You’re Not Keeping Up With the Trends

Part of being successful is innovation and moving forward. Those that get left behind ultimately close their doors eventually. That’s because trends and innovation help solve customer’s problems right now and down the road.

If your company lags behind your competitors in innovation, it’s only a matter of time before you shut down. Keeping up with the trends is a way to stay ahead of the competition and keep customers coming to you rather than someone else.

Lack of Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is huge, especially on social media. When you can engage with your customers, they’re more likely to share what you’re posting and spread the word about your business. No customer engagement likely means no one is talking about you.

If you’re struggling to engage your customers, it’s time to revamp your marketing strategy. Something isn’t working anymore, and it’s time to bring in fresh ideas.

No One Wants to Work for You

Are you struggling to hire new employees or have a high turnover rate? It could be a red flag that the business isn’t functioning very well. Having to continually hire and train new employees is quite costly. Plus, it doesn’t look good from the outside.

If you’re noticing employees are frequently quitting, or you’re struggling to hire, take a look at what’s happening internally. What’s your management style like? Ask your current employees (or have an exit interview) to see what’s working or not working.

Paying attention to the warning signs of a failing business could help keep you afloat and thriving. Ignoring them will likely cost you considerably shortly.

4 Tips to Help Boost the Comfort Level of Your Office

How comfortable are you working at your office? We’re talking about your surroundings and the items you frequently use. From the chair, you sit at to how your office functions, various things affect your office’s comfort level.

When you feel more comfortable, you’re more likely to stay there and be more productive. Those who work at a desk that leaves them feeling stiff and sore after would likely rather be anywhere else.

Help your productivity levels by making sure you’re working out of a comfortable environment. Your Corporate Business Solutions Consultants have four tips that can boost the comfort level in your office.

Focus on Ergonomics

Is your office set up in a way that is ergonomically correct for you? If not, keep reading.

Ergonomics is when you design the job to fit the worker. Rather than sitting at a desk crunched over due to lack of back support, the desk and chair used would suit the person using it for proper position.

Focusing on ergonomics is essential to help reduce the stress on your body. Frequently performing an uncomfortable task for your body can lead to pain and discomfort in your muscles and joints and even lead to musculoskeletal disorders. Instead, purchase a chair that gives you proper body support, has your desk at a comfortable level for your arms and shoulders, and even ensures the temperature is at a comfortable level.

Incorporate Plants

Plants serve many purposes in life besides being aesthetically pleasing. They actually can be beneficial to our health by removing toxins from the air (which allows you to breathe better), give your surroundings a humidity boost (less dryness in the air), and add a pop of color.

Try adding in a few plants that are excellent for office décor to get the added benefits. Just make sure the ones you pick are ones you can take care of easily.

Use Headphones to Quiet Distractions

Do you work in a setting with multiple people having meetings or phone calls? Sometimes background noise can be a good thing. However, if the background noise is other people’s conversations, it can make it quite challenging to concentrate on your work.

Investing in a good and comfortable set of headphones is one way to tune out distractions. Whether you plug them in for music or not, they can quiet the environment around you so you can focus more on your work. Plus, if you struggle with coworkers interrupting you, headphones are like a universal symbol that tells people you don’t want to be disrupted right now.

Stay Clean and Organized

A cluttered desk may look like you’ve been busy and have lots on the go, but the mess can actually be distracting. You may not even realize it is happening, but the clutter around you does catch your attention. The more you have in your surroundings, the more draining it becomes on you.

Make tidying your desk a routine habit before you finish your workday. Put away papers, throw away garbage and organize your priorities for the following day. Not only that, weekly dusting is a way to stay on top of allergens that can add to the discomfort, especially if you have allergies.

Making your office surroundings more comfortable doesn’t mean an extensive renovation. Even the smallest changes listed above can have a drastic impact on your comfort levels each day.

4 Productivity Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know

4 Productivity Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Productivity is a skill that we can constantly improve on. It’s a skill that can take your day from being overwhelming to one of the most efficient days you’ve had in a very long time. Simply put, productivity is one of the main pillars of your success.

How do you become more productive? Keep in mind that it’s not an overnight fix. It takes time, dedication, and practicing new habits and routines that fit your lifestyle. Once you find the perfect mix, though, you’ll see your productivity skyrocket and your life feel less stressful.

Ready to boost your productivity when trying to balance everyday life with your business? CBS-CBS.com has four tips that every entrepreneur (or anyone, really) should know.

Start Your Morning By Planning the Day

A popular trick that successful entrepreneurs often reveal is how they start their day. Waking up to what you’re doing while enjoying your morning coffee can set the mood for your day.

Include a moment to plan out the rest of your day as part of your morning routine. What are the top priority tasks that have to get done today? Organize those first within your working hours. You can then have another list handy with tasks that should get done at some point this week but aren’t a pressing matter today.

Love the List

Lists are an excellent way to stay organized. Have you tried managing your day without writing anything down? You’re relying on your memory to ensure you get everything done? Maybe this works right now. However, at some point, you’re going to forget important tasks and ultimately cause more stress in your life.

Create a few lists that you have readily available throughout the day. Start with your priority list – these are the tasks that you need to complete before anything else. You can then have a list of medium important tasks that you can schedule throughout your week. Basically, you can turn anything into a list.

Incorporate Breaks Into Your Day

Now, this may seem counterintuitive at first glance. The point of productivity is to get work done, not slack off. However, if you’re working every minute of the day without any breaks, you’re actually hurting your productivity levels.

Taking a break is like a quick recharge to your system. It allows you to relax your mind for a moment, stretch the body out, and even prevent stress from creeping in. Adding breaks does wonders for your mental health, which in return helps you become more productive through the rest of the day.

Remember Your Why

Many productivity tips out there often include technology and points above to help give you that boost. However, there are a few tricks that don’t require much from you besides taking a moment to think.

What is your why for what you’re doing? We all have it. From wanting to run a successful business to ensure you have enough family time at the end of the day, reflect on why you’re doing everything. When you remember that, it can give you that quick mental boost to get your work done.

Part of being productive focuses on your overall health. Include a balanced and healthy diet with enough sleep, and a quick workout will all contribute to your productivity levels.

Remember, it takes time to get in the groove and start noticing the benefits. Once you do, though, you’ll be more inclined to continue with those habits.

Stressed Every Day? 6 Stress Management Tips for Business Owners

Stress is part of our everyday lives. There’s good stress that can help prevent you from doing something you should. Then, there’s the bad stress that can cause harm to both your physical and mental health.

Uncontrolled stress can lead to mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. On the physical side, too much stress can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and eating disorders. Too much stress can cause many health issues that make your everyday life difficult to go through, especially if you’re a business owner.

Keep your stress under control so you can work to the best of your abilities. Reviews for Corporate Business Solutions has six stress management tips for business owners.

Learn Your Symptoms of Being Overly Stressed

Everyone has their own symptoms that tell you when there’s too much stress in your life. However, there are several common symptoms of stress that it’s important you’re aware of.

Stress manifests itself in various ways, including headaches, acne, frequent sickness, chronic fatigue, digestive issues, and decrease sex drive. Pay attention to these types of symptoms if they’re frequently happening. It could be your body telling you to slow down and relax.

Take Breaks Throughout the Day

Breaks are essential but often overlooked. Many long and stressful days could be eased up a bit by knowing when it’s time to take a break. That is also why it’s important to know the symptoms of stress to take those breaks when symptoms appear.

Taking a break can look different per person. Some may prefer to go for a walk around the block and breath in some fresh air, while others might need to exit their email and get lost in a quick game. Whatever your break looks like, just make sure to take them when you start feeling stressed.

Stay Active

Physical activity is an effective aid against stress and even prevents it from flaring up. Staying active has a positive effect on the brain. It reduces the stress hormones while stimulating endorphins (those “feel good” hormones). When you feel good and strong, you’re more likely to have a better handle on stress when it does appear.

Learn to Delegate

Is your stress coming from being overwhelmed with work? If that’s the case, it’s time to learn how to delegate or start hiring a trusted team. If you’re constantly drowning in tasks and never feel like you can get caught up, it’ll be challenging to get your stress under control.

Take a Vacation

Many entrepreneurs are stressed because they have too much work. So, taking a vacation may seem counterintuitive. However, sometimes when you take a step away from the job and focus on relaxing, it can help clear your head so you can come back and tackle your day with a more positive perspective.

Get a Good Night’s Rest

Sleep is essential for everyone. Although it may seem tempting to stay up late to catch up on work for the next day, running off too little sleep can actually do the opposite. Not having enough sleep will lead to chronic exhaustion, which can cause mind fogginess and slow you down. So, get a good night’s rest as much as you can.

Stress management seems simple. However, it does take some practice to develop the habits that will help keep your stress under control.

Growing a Business and a Family? 4 Tips for Balancing Your Work and Life

A common question entrepreneurs face is balancing their work life and home life in a day. When do you know it’s time to put the computer down and spend time with your loved ones? What do you do to even get to the point that you can have a balance between the two?

Learning to balance your business and a family isn’t always easy. Depending on how the day goes, one will often be a higher priority than the other. Which one goes first in your day often comes down to what’s most important in your life.

For entrepreneurs who want to manage a healthy balance between growing their business and growing their family, we have four tips from CBS-CBS.com that can help.

Use Your Family As Daily Motivation

Finding the motivation to get work done throughout the day can be challenging. We often get used to the idea that we need to wait for motivation and inspiration to strike before getting the ball rolling. However, motivation often comes from within and outside influences.

If you struggle with taking work home, late nights, and not being fully present with your family, use them as your fuel throughout your day. Remind yourself that you need to get your work done to be fully present at the supper table and into the evenings with your family. It can help you stay focused and determined to complete your to-do list for the day.

Prioritize Your Day

Speaking of to-do lists, if you don’t use them already, you’ll want to start. A daily to-do list is an excellent way to organize what you need to accomplish right now and what can’t wait until later in the week.

A good tip is to start each morning making a list of what you need to achieve in your working hours. Start with the essential tasks that absolutely need to get done. That way, if something takes you longer and you have a few more tasks left, they’re likely not as high of a priority and could even wait until the next working day.

Don’t Shut Your Family Out

There’s a difference between separating your work and family life versus balancing the two together. Unless you and your partner both agree it’s best to keep any work talk at the office and not at the house, keep your family involved in your day-to-day activities with the business.

For starters, your partner can be your biggest supporter and cheerleader for your business (and the motivation we mentioned in our first point). Communicating with your partner about the company can also help solve problems that are frustrating you that could help make your next workday a little less stressful.

Learn to Delegate

When you’re first starting a business, you may not have the luxury to delegate tasks as you’ll likely be the only person involved in the business. As you grow, though, and work becomes more demanding, you’ll need to start delegating tasks to employees and managers. Learn the signs of when it’s time to hire support, especially if it’s cutting into your precious family time.

The above four tips can help you find some balance between growing your family and growing your business. Many of the ideas come from simple changes like how you start your day in the morning. It’ll be trial and error to find what works best for you.

Conquer Your Mind: 3 Tips to Manage Self-Doubt as an Entrepreneur

We all experience self-doubt at some point in our lives. For entrepreneurs, it can become even more prominent as you move forward with your business. Self-doubt can hinder your daily decision-making to even take your business down a path that would lead to success.

Along with self-doubt often comes impostor syndrome. If you’ve ever felt like you’re not fit for what you do, other people in your field are more competent than you are, or that you’re faking what people see, you likely are going through imposter syndrome. It’s an internal experience that ultimately makes you feel like a phony, even if you deserve to be where you are.

Trying to overcome something like impostor syndrome and self-doubt takes time. It’s about building your confidence and letting yourself accept that you deserve to be the entrepreneur you are today. To help, Corporate Business Solutions has three tips to try.

Find the Root Cause

There are likely certain areas when your self-doubt is at an all-time high. If you can pinpoint when you feel this doubt the most, you can start to unravel the cause to find the solution. For example, if you’re presenting information on a particular topic but feel you’re not fit to do the job, ask yourself why? Is it because you don’t know the information, or is it because you’re nervous about speaking in front of people?

When you find the root cause of the self-doubt, you can then form your solution to overcome it. In our example above, it may be that you need to spend a bit more time reviewing the information or finding resources to help with public speaking. You may have all the skills you need; you just need a bit of confidence in yourself.

Build Your Confidence Up

Having confidence is vital when running a business. If you doubt yourself and every decision you make constantly, it starts to seep into the rest of your business. How do you expect to move your company forward if you are unsure about where you’re at right now?

Spend some time building up your confidence. Find a mentor to guide you in the business world, focus on your previous success and failures as a way to grow, and always have a plan. When you have a plan, you’re more organized and more likely to feel confident in what you’re doing.

Watch What You Say and to Who

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you told someone about upcoming plans, only for them to have a weird reaction? When that happens, you may feel that your plans aren’t a good idea and start to doubt your choices. No matter what the intentions were of the person you spoke to, if they have a poor reaction to what you say, it can affect what you do next and how you feel.

Instead of letting self-doubt take over from something like this, prevent this type of situation from happening in the first place. When it comes to your business, be picky about what you say and who you say it to. Of course, having a few people to bounce ideas off is good to have, but that doesn’t mean you tell everyone what your plans are.

Managing self-doubt as an entrepreneur is an ongoing process. No matter how many years you’ve been in the business, you’ll have moments where self-doubt takes over. It takes time and practice, but you can overcome it.

4 Business Strategies for Female Entrepreneurs

There have been many strides forward in the business world for female entrepreneurs. In fact, four out of every ten businesses in the United States are owned by women. That number continues to grow as more and more opportunities present themselves for female entrepreneurs.

With that said, many female-led businesses still face unique challenges. Many challenges come down to having confidence in what they’re doing and being taken seriously in their field. In today’s world, though, there are various tips and suggestions available to help female entrepreneurs succeed in the business world.

Are you a female entrepreneur? Your Corporate Business Solutions consultants have four business strategies to help with your success.

Advocate for Yourself

Advocating for yourself can be one of the hardest things to do as an entrepreneur, especially for female business owners. As entrepreneurs soon find out, the business world is highly competitive and can be pretty intimidating.

Remember that you’re here for a reason, and you have the skills and knowledge to be successful in the business world. If you find yourself being overshadowed when you know you have the skills, speak up.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

With that said, it’s essential to know when it’s time to get help. Entrepreneurs just starting often have to wear all the hats in the business. However, you can only do that for so long until you have to build a team. The tricky part is knowing when’s the right time to start building that team.

Asking for help also comes in other forms too, like your home. When you’re trying to grow your business, it requires much of your time. Women are often still the primary caregiver at home while working, whether employed or the employer. If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to ask for help from your partner at home.

Always Be Learning

There’s never a downfall to continuing with your education and developing your skills. When you know more and have the education to back up what you do and say, you can open up new possibilities for you as an entrepreneur.

Always learning can also come from when mistakes. Every entrepreneur is going to make a mistake at some point. The difference, however, is what you do afterwards. Spend some time reflecting on what happened, what went wrong and how you can overcome the setback. It can help prevent the same mistake in the future, though make sure to not dwell for too long on the past.

Work Hard at Every Opportunity

Sometimes, when an opportunity presents itself, it may not be exactly what you hoped for. You could have planned for option A, only for option B to be what is the most feasible at this moment. No matter what route you take your business, work hard at it and work to the best of your ability. Even better opportunities can present themselves in ways you least expect it.

Female entrepreneurs continue to make strides in the business world. It’s not always easy, but being a business owner can be an enriching experience.