Business

These days, more and more people are being educated on protection of the environment and how to make sustainable development a reality. Do you also want to make your office greener? There are many benefits you can reap by making this decision. Below are some of the ways you can “go green” when it comes to business.

Less Paper Products

Too many papers in the office? Decide to implement a paperless working operation! Make use of Cloud systems to scan necessary documents, thus decreasing the amount of paper waste. Remember, paper is made from wood. Less paper use means less deforestation. Plus, save money in purchasing less waste items, like paper or ink for printers.

Opt for Post-Consumer Waste (PCW) recycled paper whose manufacturing uses 45% less energy than normal paper. Watch out for the label “100% PCW” to make sure you are using papers with the least impact. Otherwise, look for as much PCW content as possible and recycle all the paper scraps.

Water Dispensing Systems

Does your company provide bottled water for employees? However, not all plastic bottles are sent for recycling as some of them are non-recyclable. Instead, they are taken directly to the dump. Bottled water is also quite costly in the long run. Plus, 25% of bottled water comes from the municipal water supply. It is thus filtered tap water!

Instead of providing bottles of water to all employees, install a filtration and dispensing system for their daily use. This helps in reducing waste and saving money. In this way, you are protecting the environment and saving money for more important expenses. It also provides a cleaner water, free from the contaminants often found in normal tap water.

Alternative Energy

Imagine how much energy you can save by making your office greener! Do you know that you can purchase “green power” from your current utility provider? Green power is generated from renewable sources, like solar power or geothermal. It helps reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. With these renewable sources of energy, you can expect an inexhaustible and continuous supply.

Along with the environmental and health benefits of alternative energy resources, you can also differentiate your brand from others. While demonstrating civic leadership, you generate more customer or investor loyalty and employee pride. It enhances the public image of your company and creates more positive publicity. Alternative energy also helps in reducing your electricity costs.

Recycling

Recycling is the best way to make your office “greener”! You can recycle not only plastic bottles and paper, but simply everything that is recyclable. For instance, how about used or vintage office furniture instead of new ones? These can also be purchased online at a better price. Thus, contribute in reducing deforestation.

Many employees love to have coffee at different times of the day. Single-cup pod coffee makers are now trends in offices. But imagine how many empty coffee cups end up in the bin! Instead, provide a large tin of regular coffee that can make over a hundred cups, compared to the non-recyclable single-serving coffee pods. It is also a great idea to provide recycling bins.

Greener Public Transportation

Wondering how air pollution has increased so much? It is mainly due to the exhaust fumes from vehicles! How about leaving your car at home to go to work? If your office is not too far, you can even walk or bike to work. In this way, you also get some good exercise in the morning while breathing fresh air instead of the AC in your car. Are you a nature lover? Check out Animal and Nature themed slots at Regal Wins Casino, such as: Secret Garden Slot, Flowers Slot or Rainbow Magic Slot.

Encourage other employees in your office to leave their cars at home and walk or bike to work. Organise special events to promote it, such as car-free days. Also, reward all those who participate in the event. All this greatly helps to protect the environment from pollution and reduces the amount of mileage allowances to cater for the cost of fuel.

These are some of the ways to go green while developing your business. They help create a positive image of your company, which respects and protects the environment. Reducing costs also helps in a more sustainable development of your business.

 

Receivables Performance Management, LLC is a company in Lynnwood, WA that offers accounts receivable management services. In 2002, the company incorporated and they have grown from strength to strength since then. Not only do they offer accounts receivable management services, they complete research on investing as well. Indeed, they are the example of best practice in terms of what to look for in a company that helps with accounts receivable. Let’s take a look at what it is that people should look for.

Receivables Performance Management on What to Look for in an Accounts Receivable Management Company

There are a number of things that businesses should look for in this type of company. They need to make sure that they will receive the highest quality of service and that all their needs are met. This means that some of the key things to look for include:

1. The level of commission that the company charges.

Naturally, outsourcing to a company like Receivables Performance Management isn’t free. However, that doesn’t mean they should charge ridiculous prices either. Usually, they will deduct a certain percentage for each invoice they collect on. Some companies consider this percentage much too high. However, they fail to remember that if they don’t pay that percentage, they may never see any of their money collected at all. It is all about finding a balance, in other words. You must also question, therefore, whether the cheapest company will actually give the best service.

2. How much money they will forward.

The main reason why businesses work with an accounts receivable management company is because they will be able to quickly access quite a lot of money. However, different companies are happy to provide different amounts, which tend to be percentages of the value of the invoice itself. That is another percentage that must be taken into consideration, in other words. How much is right all depends on the business’ own needs. Perhaps they are interested in investing, for instance, in which case they may not need as much because they anticipate growth. But if they need the money to pay for salaries or materials, then they will have a much more specific figure in mind.

3. The company’s reputation.

Reputation is absolutely vital. Any business that wants to hire an accounts receivables company should ensure that they have a solid reputation of delivering an excellent quality service. This is where Receivables Performance Management really sets itself apart, as they are known to be fair, professional, and incredibly good at what they do. At the end of the day, in the world of business, everything is about money, which means accounts receivables must be managed properly if enough money is to be generated and the business can survive.

With these three tips in mind, anyone should be able to find a company like Receivables Performance Management. Naturally, those in Lynnwood, WA can simply contact them directly and know they will receive a fantastic service.

All year round, consumers purchase goods and pay for services to live comfortably – and within their budget. This means businesses must come up with unique ways to promote their brand, products and services to meet customers’ needs.

With the right social media advertising techniques, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools, and relevant digital content, any small business can stand its own – even in the midst of major competitors. If you run a small growing business, here are 5 proven marketing strategies and ideas to help your brand succeed.

Discounts and free giveaways

As a small business, you might fear giving out your products for free or half price. But this has proven to be effective for most brands you can think of. It must not be done weekly or monthly, to avoid customer expectation. Instead, it could be on Christmas day, Valentine’s Day, a day commemorating the launch of your business or a product. You can ask your consumers to drop comments on your page or tweet you what these days mean to them. Then reward the best replies. This gives them a notion that you respect their feelings and that way, they’re likely to recommend your brand to other consumers; thereby driving traffic to your site and generating leads.

Partner with a big non-competing brand

As a small business, it’s good to collaborate with larger businesses that have a big customer base – so long as they aren’t competing in the same niche. For example, if you run a business that produces and sells customised vehicle rims, you can partner with a car manufacturing brand. This way, when people purchase cars from the bigger brand, they can get to see the quality of your product. This will help promote your brand, establishing reliability.

Be active on social media

The importance of social media to business brands these days can’t be ignored. With over 2 billion active social media accounts worldwide, your customers will also expect you to be active – especially to make purchases or answer queries. When they’re certain of how reliable you are (online), these loyal customers will repost and share your content for other people to access and benefit from. This leads to increased sales, profit and online presence.

Organise or sponsor small online events

Organising an event online – especially via your social media accounts – makes interaction between you and your customers better. It could be a beauty pageant, a quiz, a “first to like” competition or anything creative and engaging. Prospective clients are also likely to take part, in that way helping to boost your consumer base.

Do something nice for loyal customers

Make your loyal customers feel special once in a while. You can take them out to lunch, send them gifts, give them exclusive discounts during purchases or even make personalised products for them. This helps build a long lasting relationship with them and they will indirectly promote your brand via word of mouth, recommendations and online content sharing.

Recruiting can be an expensive process, and not just because of the actual cash costs of advertising for a new position and locating the right candidate. It can also eat up time your staff needs to spend on projects that make you money, and the loss of productivity while a position is unfilled also costs you money. That’s why companies seek to reduce turnovers. Luckily, there is one well-known way you can do that for your firm, and that is by hiring people who are a good fit for your corporate culture from the beginning. That sounds simpler than it is, but Chicago finance recruiting firms can streamline the process and help you make sure your new hires are a good fit.

How to Use Top Staffing Agencies to Reduce Turnover

If you have positions that need to be filled on a temporary or short-term basis, you can always work with a staffing company to find you the talent you need. They pre-screen for positions, ensuring everyone who hits the floor is qualified, and they work with your human resources to find candidates that fit your company’s culture. You can use them for temporary work, to find full-time candidates, or even to help your company build a system of contractor labor and recruitment that lets you really test someone’s performance before investing in them as a full-time employee.

Benefits From Reduced Turnover

• More unified corporate culture and longer lasting working relationships
• Employees with thorough knowledge of their position and experience in it
• Reduced costs affiliated with recruitment
• Increased productivity
• Increased rapport between employees and management

The top staffing agencies in Chicago work with you to make sure you are getting top talent when you recruit, no matter what position you are looking to fill. Check out Beacon Resources for an example of one top firm that has a track record of placing the best talent in the area with the biggest companies recruiting.

Are you getting all you could out of your employees? When you look around your workplace do you see happy, enthusiastic people working hard and enjoying what they do, or do you see tired, stressed people watching the clock? Employee morale matters, and not just because it’s a nice thing to strive for. It makes your own business experience more pleasurable and it can have a pronounced effect on the bottom line – even if workers who are smiling, chatting from time to time and looking relaxed might not seem to be doing as much, they’re significantly more productive. They need less time off, they get through more work, and the work they do is of a higher quality. What can you do to help bring all this about?

Be ready to listen – and learn!

If you ask stressed employees what really frustrates them about their work, the most common answer you’ll receive is that they don’t feel they’re appreciated. Showing employees that you appreciate their efforts isn’t so much about praising them as it is about listening to them – and that has additional benefits because they often have good ideas. For instance, processes that you might think work just fine when you look down on them from above may have obvious flaws to those on the ground, so that fixing them makes the workplace more efficient and your employees feel that their input is valued.

Be flexible

Another thing that workers often flag up as a problem is working long hours, a culture that leaves them with little time to do the other things that matter to them in life. Still more of an issue, however, is the inflexibility of many employers when it comes to working arrangements. Having more control over which days they work and what time they come in makes a big difference to many people; for instance, being able to start at ten instead of nine means single parents can take their kids to school first. Some businesses even set up virtual offices so that staff can more easily work from home, and allowing some work to be home-based can actually lead to increased productivity as employees adjust their schedules to fit in work when they feel most alert.

Work and play together

Team building is vital to creating a happy, healthy office culture. That doesn’t mean smothering each other with lots of social events outside office hours, and it doesn’t mean trying to make ‘fun’ compulsory (which is often counterproductive), but it does mean that creating opportunities to do things as a group is beneficial. Picking lucky numbers together in a lottery syndicate means that you can share the excitement when the lottery numbers come in and share out any winnings. Few things create such an effective team bond as when everybody is celebrating the same thing at the same time.

Provide treats

Can’t afford to raise your employees’ pay? Then there are other ways to make them feel a little bit spoiled at work. Simple things like ordering pizza for everyone on a Friday afternoon can create a happy atmosphere and make workers feel they have been lucky in their choice of employer. Rewards make a good incentive for hard work but can be dispiriting to those employees who never quite make the grade despite their efforts, but good things that everybody gets to share brings the team together rather than creating favorites. Having good coffee or fruit juice available all day also boosts performance by raising energy levels.

Provide opportunity

In the long-term, what many employees really value about their jobs is the opportunities they get to develop their skills and improve their resumes. This could come from workplace training, from the learning opportunities provided by secondments, or simply from being assigned to a variety of tasks in the workplace. Some employers choose to sponsor their workers to study part time at college, enabling them to gain new skills which are then brought back into the workplace. Some worry that improved skills will lead to workers looking for opportunities elsewhere, but in fact studies show that they tend to increase employee loyalty.

With all these techniques at your disposal, there’s no reason why you should feel helpless about low morale in your workplace. Even a small investment of time and effort can give your employees a big boost and help re-energize your organization. You’ll know if you’re getting it right because you’ll find that it makes you feel happier too.