Beyond the Cubicle: Deskless Workforce Getting Left Behind

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 billion (80%) of the global workforce now works in a deskless environment.

Deskless warehouse manager

Strange, when one considers the digital shift that’s been occurring these last two decades, with many physical labor jobs having been replaced by automation technology and apps that can do the most complicated of tasks. Traditional deskless jobs still abound with people still working while on the move in construction, transportation services, retail, and healthcare – all sans-desk.

Changing landscapes in the workplace

Gen X worked so hard to become a generation of office drones sitting at a desk and changing the world from behind their computer and talking on their old-school phones.…

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Payroll Tips for Starting 2019 Right

Payroll tasks take up around 5 hours per week for a small business owner. This time, while well-spent, could be better spent elsewhere. All small business owners who run payroll know just how much of a challenge it can be unless they’re accountants with prior experience.

Payroll tips

1. Start the Year With Employee Categorization

Employee categorization is essential to start the year. When your employees are not categorized properly, this can cause your payroll to be chaotic. Why? You need to know who will be exempt from overtime or not.

Start the year taking a look at all of your employees’ categorizations.…

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Is High-Quality Video Production a Critical Factor in Advertising?

Do companies really need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on production to create quality videos for advertising? Furthermore, does a more expensive advertisement actually provide a greater return? As a software company designed to help companies grow using video, the team here at Wistia had to find out.

Video production crew

So, we decided to perform an experiment: We commissioned an ad agency to create three ads, for the same product, with budgets of $1,000, $10,000 and $100,000. Thus, the One, Ten, One Hundred campaign and docuseries was born.

One, Ten, One Hundred takes a good hard look at the impact different budgets have on production quality; this campaign ended up being a huge creative challenge—and a lot of fun!…

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7 Things Founders Forget to Consider

Starting your own business, being your own boss, building a cool startup company, choosing your own team, etc. All of this is very exciting and for many, a dream come true scenario. What stops you really? If you have a brilliant idea, motivation, and some money aside for investment, the risk of failure should be pretty small. After all, what drives you to success is your passion.

Busy startup founder

However, in all this excitement, new founders might experience difficulties with managing expectations and seeing things in other colors than pink.

The work-life balance

At first, the idea of being your own boss is lovely because, in principle, you can choose your own work hours.…

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5 Processes Every Business Owner Should Automate

Across all industries, automation has become a critical factor in a business’ success. According to a study conducted by Gleanster, almost 80% of top-performing companies use automation for marketing and have done so for years.

Business process automation

What’s great about automation is that it can be used by companies of all types. Big corporations, startups, small companies, and even freelancers can benefit from incorporating automation in many business processes, to include capturing leads, communicating with customers, and completing routine tasks in the office.

When processes are automated, business owners can devote more time and energy towards growing the business and ensuring it stays on the right path.…

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5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Retirement Strategy

Preparing yourself with a comprehensive retirement plan is more important than ever. We are all living longer and it is vital that you have a strategy to ensure you don’t outlive your money. Here are some simple things that can help you to make the most of your retirement fund.

Busy senior businessman working on a retirement plan

Look at your 401(k) plan

A key part of a successful retirement strategy is creating an effective income stream from your savings. Keep your money in the 401(k) if your plan allows you to make regular withdrawals or pays out in instalments. If your 401(k) only allows you to take out a lump sum, it may be worth transferring the savings to a separate retirement account.…

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Still Using Manual Processes? 5 Reasons To Automate Your Systems Today

Businesses from every industry use automated systems to some degree, whether it’s automated payment processing, point-of-sale systems, or simple invoicing software. No business is too small to benefit from automation. However, many small businesses have been slow to adopt automation. Perhaps it seems too technical for some, or maybe they’re afraid of change.

Business owner using automation software

If you’re hanging onto manual methods to run your business, let the following reasons be an invitation to consider automation:

1. Not using automated systems will keep you in the past

There will come a time when your old software applications no longer function. You know, the applications you downloaded as freeware back in 1996?…

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Backing Up Your Business: How to Keep Your Important Information Safe

The last 12 months have been another huge reminder that data security and information safety is imperative to business. As you will no doubt have seen in the news many times over the last few months, even the biggest businesses in the world aren’t safe from either security breaches or the significant financial cost of not reacting to them.

Business data backup and security

As technology progresses, cybercriminals become increasingly adept at finding ways around the system. Here are several ways to make sure you don’t suffer a security breach in 2019.

Be vigilant – you will always be a target

Unfortunately, it’s not just the large businesses with the ability to pay enormous fines that are targeted, either.…

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4 Top Ways to Provide Superior Customer Service

Customer service is vital to the success of a company in any industry. Poor customer service can lead to lost customers, low levels of customer loyalty, and bad publicity. Unhappy customers tend to talk, whether to their friends and family members or in the form of online reviews.

Doing stellar customer service

No matter how you look at it, customer service should be one of your top priorities as a business owner or manager. Read on the following tips, courtesy of Nexa customer service.

Improve Response Times

In today’s digital world, people expect to receive a response quicker than ever before. One of the key factors in providing excellent customer service is responding nearly instantaneously, even if only just to say “we have received your request and will get back to you”.as…

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5 Business Vehicle Considerations You Need to Make

When using a vehicle for business purposes, there are a lot of things to consider. These include taxes, mileage deductions, depreciation expenses and whether to use a personal or business car.

Businesswoman gets out of a business car

Just like any aspect of your business and personal life, it is important to keep vehicle and other expenses separate. So before you start using a car for your business, address these five issues first.

1. The Driver

The driver is one of the most important things to consider when using a vehicle for business purposes. Will the owners, staff members or both drive the vehicle for business? Business owners obviously have more control over their driving behavior than that of staff members.…

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