The Checklist for MaintainingOperations for Your Company


The Checklist for MaintainingOperations for Your Company

With the growing threat posed by COVID-19, businesses everywhere are scrambling to maintain their operations.During this difficult economic period, those companies who can weather the storm will be best positioned to maintain their growth coming out of the other side. 

For this reason, here is a checklist of a few of the most critical things you need to do to position yourself to stay afloat and eventually keep growing.

Using Outsourced Companies to Streamline Operations and Cut Costs

Small and medium sized companies that are serious about their growth always look for the most effective ways to handle their company processes and important issues. In some cases, this means building internal departments that tend to a particular issue. In other cases, it means hiring an outsourced company that can do a much better job than building a division to cover that issue in house.

To determine which path your company should venture down, you should be honest about your internal capabilities. Do you have the personnel? Do you have the start-up and training capital? Are you operating at capacity at the moment and bringing on more people will upset a good balance you have. Can you gain the expertise you need quickly by bringing on an in-house team? Will you save money by building rather than buying? You might find that the answers to these questions lead you to outsourcing a key aspect of your business. Certainly if you can get better service, cheaper and faster by outsourcing, it is a no brainer. One area where outsourcing definitely achieves these benefits is with Information Technology or IT support. 

An outsourced IT support company will serve several key benefits to a company. First, it will give you access to the latest IT tools that are critical for any company that engages in any way with the internet. Second, it will give you a partner that will take on the role of keeping your employees, and data your company controls safe while interacting with the internet. Also, you will be kept up to date on all of the new and effective information technology tools and strategies.

One of the often overlooked benefits in hiring a top notch IT support firm, like London-based EC-MSP, is the confidence that it will give you your customers, vendors, and strategic partners. They will gain confidence in your company knowing that you have engaged a professional IT support company to handle information technology issues. 

Fast Access to Capital

One area that is critical for growing a business, but that smaller companies often overlook to their detriment, is to always maintain direct access to fast capital. 

Raising capital for a company is typically such a painstaking process for an entrepreneur, that once they raise their initial capital, they do not invest additional energy in setting up those same investors to provide more capital and engaging other financiers who might be needed. 

This is a critical error for new businesses, because if the business does poorly and does not meet its business plan projections, they will likely need more capital. Conversely, if the company beats expectations, it will likely need more capital to keep up with the growth. So gaining and maintaining quick access to capital is mandatory for smaller companies.

Owners of small companies should regularly take meetings with individual investors, thanks, and finance companies to keep them updated on activities going on in the company, growth, and any new goals. Financiers can get a clear picture of where the company is, and can offer great advice on how to position the company so that it is investment worthy. It is likely that raising additional capital will be a process that takes a period of time. By knowing what is needed and getting potential funding sources abreast of your situation, you can cut down the time needed to secure the capital.  

Increase Bonuses to Key Employees

The growth you are expecting is going to happen because your employees will increase their productivity and level of success for your company. You should gather them around, or speak to them individually and let them know how important they are to your organization and your expectations for their rate of success this year. It is likely that your top employees are as anxious for hyper growth as you are. What they need is an incentive that you can provide. 

Let your key employees know that you intend to tie an increased bonus to their increased performance over the year and that this bonus will be open ended and solely dependent on how well they as a team perform. You can also offer individual bonuses as an added incentive, and the key is to let them know how valuable and needed they are. They will feel grateful for your confidence and generosity and you will gain motivated employees who will work harder for your company. 

Invest in Employee Training

If you want to know how small companies become big ones, look at their approach to employee training. The best companies understand that things change quickly in the business world and the only way to keep up is to make sure that your employees are well educated on their job areas. Employee training is not a luxury today, it is an essential. You should hire an online company that has an extensive library of training courses that fit your industry and then make it mandatory that your employees take classes. The best online schools can track your employee’s progress and even report back to you on how they are doing. In the end you will have happier and better trained employees who learn new skills that will benefit your company and help with your growth plans.

Growing a business is difficult under any circumstances, but when you want big growth things become even more difficult. It is possible however and certainly more likely when you follow a checklist like the one laid out here.