Archives for 2019

Business processes, or the way that you accomplish tasks and build relationships within your company, can be split into two categories: formal and informal.

Formal business processes, also known as procedures, are processes that have documented steps toward completion that are expected to be followed by employees. For instance, you might have a certain procedure for submitting invoices.

On the other hand, informal business processes are undocumented and created based on the way an individual prefers to work. For example, an informal business process could be steps you follow when communicating with leads, carrying out meetings or performing market research. 

All business processes serve the same purpose – to streamline the way you work. The more you’ve tested and optimized the process, the fewer errors and delays your business experiences. Staff and customers will be more satisfied and you can avoid having to repeat work. Poorly defined processes can lead to numerous problems, including employee frustration, increased costs, wasted time and unhappy customers.

So, what can you do to streamline your processes and ensure that you’re getting the most out of every hour that goes into growing your business? Here are 5 simple steps to streamlining your business processes.

Visualize the Process

After identifying a process that requires improvement, use visual aids to document each step involved in carrying out that process. You can do this with a flowchart or swim lane diagram. By visualizing and exploring each step, you can determine where to make improvements. Be sure to consider any potential sub-steps for every decision point along the process. This will help you avoid the omission of potentially important steps in your process

Analyze the Process

Take the time to look closely at each step. Are there any bottlenecks? Which steps result in customer or employee frustration? Which steps take the most time to complete? Where do expenses increase? Whatever the problem is, trace the problem to its origins. If it involves employees or customers, speak to the relevant people and ask for suggestions on making improvements. 

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Formulate Solutions

When your analysis reveals problems in your business process, the next step is to formulate solutions to such problems. One way to formulate a solution is to redesign the process to eliminate the problems you identified. Seek input from those involved in the process. Then, use impact and risk analysis to determine the viability of the solutions that were provided. The more tests you carry out, the better you’ll understand the full outcome of each proposed idea. 

Implement Change

Identifying changes to the process is just the beginning of streamlining your work. You must implement changes carefully, with everyone who utilizes the process involved.  For instance, you may have to download new software or train some team members. This is a project in itself, so it’s important to properly plan and manage the task.

Review

Solutions are seldom 100% successful from the get-go. So, don’t forget to review and analyze the outcome of the changes you implemented after the fact. This will help you identify and fix problems as they arise. 

These steps can be applied to just about any aspect of your business processes. The more areas you improve, the faster your business can reach its goals.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

For Internet business ventures, you don’t need as many resources and capital as you’d need for a traditional business. Whether you just want to start up a website or you want to make your own cryptocurrency, the risks are low, and the rewards significantly high.

In short, the Internet has completely changed the world of business and entrepreneurship, redefining success and multiplying the paths to profitability.

If you believe in the power of the Internet to generate success, we present you with the best online business advice. Whether you want to provide services like writing a dissertation for someone or providing high-end solutions to companies, the steps to success with an Internet business are the same.

5 Easy Steps to Start an Internet Business

Maybe you just want to supplement your income. Or perhaps you want full financial independence. Either way, the Internet provides you with the freedom to test your ambitions. If you want to build Internet business opportunities for yourself and make money online, these are the first steps you should follow.

1. Find a Niche for Your Internet Business

The worldwide web is huge. Therefore, the first piece of advice for starting an Internet business is to choose your niche wisely. Which activities or markets interest you? The niche you choose for your business will determine its profile. Moreover, it will have a massive influence on its success or failure.

For a reasonable chance of success, choose a market that has already proven profitable by attracting large numbers of customers willing to spend good money. Selecting a lucrative niche that intersects with your own interests and preferences is one of the first keys to success with an Internet business.

2. Consult with Professionals

Before you get to work, you may feel tempted to ask for advice, information, or feedback from others. While this is a valid desire, don’t consult with friends or family when it comes to Internet business ideas, unless they have solid experience in your chosen market. Instead, consult with professionals who have achieved the success you aspire to. Finding professionals and getting inspired by them is an infallible way to grow.

Additionally, consulting with people in your niche will reveal your competitors in the sphere of Internet business you have chosen. This is important, because, even as a beginner, you need to know who is dominating your market. Then use this information to discover more about the inner workings of your industry.

So seek professionals to learn from. And if they won’t provide consultation or advice, study what they’re doing and learn to replicate their success. Don’t copy them, but let yourself be inspired by their breakthroughs.

3. Research Your Market

Research means more than a quick Google search. If you’re willing to invest time and money to build Internet business success, you must conduct extensive research of your market until you know it inside out.

You need to understand exactly who your potential customers are. Moreover, you need to understand your competitors, too. Additionally, you should know what the average rates are for the various services you plan to provide, and so on.

For example, let’s say you want to build a custom writing business on the Internet to serve the UK market. Your potential customers are asking themselves “Who could do my dissertation in the UK?” Your service must be the first they come across.

In other words, before proving yourself by writing a dissertation for a client, you must become visible to people who need your services. You’ll do this by understanding how potential customers think. Researching your specific market is thus crucial.

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4. Start a Website

The most common-sense Internet business advice is to make sure your business truly has a presence online. Many companies fail to realize the importance of having an intuitive, user-friendly, and informative website where they present their services. Your website gives customers the first impression of your Internet business, so you must invest in it accordingly.

Even with the rapid advance of social media, you still need to start up a website to serve as the Internet headquarters of your growing online business. If done correctly, the website can establish you as a professional and respectable brand. The best thing is that setting up a website takes minimal time and budget if you follow these tips:

• Choose a catchy and
  easy-to-remember domain name and register it.
• Use the popular and user-friendly
  WordPress platform to host your site.
• Invest in a good WordPress template
  or hire an affordable graphic designer.
• You can also choose a free
  professional-looking theme and add the necessary plugins for your type of
  business.
• Ensure user navigation is easy and
  straightforward.

Make sure the website for your Internet business includes important keywords so potential customers can easily find you with a quick online search.  Returning to the example above, when you’re growing a custom writing business, if someone types in “write my dissertation for me” or “do my dissertation” online, your website must come up in the first results and catch the person’s attention.

5. Focus on Marketing

Since the Internet forms such a massive landscape,
even if your business is in a highly lucrative niche, people need to find you
to spend money on your services. Online, this is harder than it seems if you
don’t have a good marketing strategy.

For healthy business performance, you need to invest seriously in promoting your Internet business venture. The most convenient way to promote your new business is to rely on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or LinkedIn, depending on your business’s profile. This will attract traffic to your website and increase brand recognition.

Starting an Internet Business Takes Smart Planning

Starting an Internet business is easy, considering the abundance of resources, tools, and free advice that floods the Web. However, it still takes a good strategy and a good amount of work to achieve success. Choose your niche and make yourself visible on the market, and you will open the doors to your entrepreneurial dreams.

Photo by Muhammad Raufan Yusup on Unsplash

The Internet is everywhere, they say. Yet it can be hard to pinpoint the right Internet Service Provider (ISP) to assist you in your journey. Whether you’re looking for a new ISP for your business or you just want a good connection for your home, there is so much to sift through.

For example, there are complicated contract details, service delivery
channels, unending bundle choices, and availability. What’s more, there is
always lots and lots of fine print—and you might still choose the wrong one!

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So go through the following guide to make this a little less of a hassle.

Determine the Right
Speed

Understanding what bandwidth or Internet speed means should be your first concern. Once that is clear it will be easier for you to choose the service that best satisfies your Internet needs.

Bandwidth is the maximum speed with which you can transfer data to and from the Internet and your device. It is usually expressed in megabits per second, or Mbps. The more you rely on data-intensive activities or the greater the number of devices you have over the same connection, the greater the bandwidth you are going to need.

The following table will assist you in determining the right speed for your personal or professional use.

What Internet Service Providers Operate in Your Area?

The first stage in selecting an Internet service provider is to find out which providers offer services in your area. This is because:

1. Not every company is operational in every region.

Service areas are different from company to company, so your options are restricted to providers that offer network in your area.

2. Rates, Internet speeds, special packages, and line-ups of products often differ according to area. 

Always check if an offer is applicable in your area before you decide on a provider. In addition, keep in mind that most distributors have variable pricing in different areas.

Once you have sorted the Internet speed you need, you can search for “Internet providers in my area” to get the best deals and offers available where you live or have your business.

If you live in an urban area, you’ll have the luxury of choosing between cable, satellite, or fiber optic providers. However, rural subscribers generally have only satellite service available to them.

Choosing the Right Internet Channel

Cable service providers generally provide the fastest, more affordable, and most reliable Internet speeds. The Internet speeds you can get from a phone company via digital subscriber lines (DSL) are a less expensive but slower alternative.

Satellite Internet is available practically everywhere. However, this is the slowest of them all. Fiber optic offers the highest speeds, but this isn’t a common channel and it can be more expensive than cable Internet.

You’ll need to choose the available option that best suits your needs in terms of consistent target bandwidth.

Finding a Company That Suits You Best

Now you need to choose from among the various packages and deals that are available to you. As we mentioned earlier, your choices can vary considerably, based on your location. Additionally, here are a couple of other important considerations before you decide on your ISP:

Promotions

You will often see offers to attract first-time customers. For example, a provider might offer the first year of broadband service at $20 per month instead of $40. While you can find good rates among these offers, just make sure that at the end of the contract period you are prepared to either pay extra or terminate your service.

Bundles

Most cable providers sell bundled packages of telephone, Internet, and TV services in various combinations. When subscribing for these bulk options, think carefully. Remember that these companies also seek to upsell their services. In other words, they will try to get you to purchase more products from them than you originally intended.

For instance, the representative might ask if you need a home phone. Or they might question your intention to get by on an Internet connection to stream television. Wouldn’t it make more sense, they might argue, to purchase a complete cable package with three services bundled?

And, indeed, it might. Bundling services can make good sense in certain cases. Just remember to consider your investment and returns before making a decision.

A Final Word

Overall, be careful about the upsell. Know exactly what you need when you place your subscription, and don’t be enticed to purchase more until you’ve done sufficient research.

Last but not least, don’t forget to negotiate with the service provider. They usually have a little wiggle room in the packages on offer. A little effort might save you a lot in the long run.

For more information about technologies available for your business, be sure to check out our blog.

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay 

A new generation of students has a wide variety of opportunities in front of them. For example, previous generations frequently saw attending a university as a privilege. However, today’s students see college as a tool. They easily initiate discussions with professors, seek unconventional ways of doing things, and add more creativity and critical thinking to the learning process.

Being a college student is no longer their sole occupation. They can easily be busy with running their own businesses while attending lectures and submitting their academic assignments. In fact, starting a business in college is even more effective because students can immediately apply the knowledge they receive at school and see it applied in practice.

Do You Already Have a Startup on Your Resume?

Many college students now have their own startups mentioned in their resumes. However, others are still hesitant about starting their own thing. However, university years are a great time to study and try each opportunity that comes along. To this end, here are several useful tips you can use to launch your business while studying at university:

Identify Your Best Niche

Finding your niche and filling it with high-quality product or service is your key to success. An in-depth understanding of what you can do to help your customers satisfy their needs comes with knowledge and experience.

However, sometimes the best ideas come unexpectedly. Still others require careful planning and thinking. Whatever your path is, give it a thought even while you’re still in college, because it really matters for your venture’s success.

Design a World-Class Business Plan

During your college years, you have enough time to make a mistake and start over. This is your greatest advantage. It gives you a wonderful opportunity to produce a brilliant business plan.

A well-thought-out business plan is one of several critical steps to starting a business. This document, where you analyze each detail carefully, is very helpful in minimizing mistakes. Once you have it on paper, ask your peers what they think. Ask them what they would add as customers to make your idea more customer-oriented.

You may think, “This is not that easy. I’d better have someone do my assignment.” However, nobody feels your idea the way you feel it. Nobody is passionate about making it work the way you are.

Therefore, take advantage of this opportunity while you’re young. Make up your mind now regarding your role in business and draft the best plan ever—while you’re still in college.

Educate Yourself

Your college years provide you with lots of opportunities to get ideas about how to start a successful business. While you’re in college, you are most likely to meet people with good business ideas who can contribute to your vision.

Moreover, they can help you with those business aspects you know little about. You can also attend courses and extracurricular activities that can help you understand better what you should focus on.

Additionally, choose
your courses critically. Decide what information can really be helpful to you
along your way to success. Spend your college years on the things that you find
useful for your business model.

Photo by Naassom Azevedo on Unsplash

Network with Bright Minds While in College

While you are a college student, you have a chance to communicate with the brightest minds. They are your peers, professors, and visiting guests who often come to give lectures. Use this opportunity to get a better idea of how the business world functions.

Additionally, try to make the most of each interaction and each conversation you have. Sometimes invaluable experience or advice can be subtle. So develop the awareness that will allow you to seize it.

Search for Funding During Your College Years

Money is always a problem when it comes to a business venture. Especially when you’re attending college, it can be difficult to save enough to invest in your idea. Therefore, you have to look for people willing to invest in your business.

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During your time at the university, keep abreast of the recent trends in fundraising and crowdfunding. Also, search for sponsors who really believe in your success. This is the time when your passion for making a difference can really help you fulfill your dreams.

Learn to Break Bad News

If you really want your business to succeed, you need to develop your skills. One of the abilities that is very helpful in running a business is learning to say “no.”

if your friends invite you to a party when you have lots of things to do, it is okay to say “no.” If somebody wants to partner with you, but you have doubts about this idea, it is okay to say “no.” In the future, you will need this skill to break bad news to your employees and colleagues, so learn to practice it now.

Make the Most of Your College Years

Running a business is a complex undertaking that requires you to be alert all day every day. However, starting it while you are in college is easier than it would be later.

While you are a college
student, you have access to people, courses, and materials that can direct you
to the best solutions. You can find your niche, develop a perfect business
plan, and network with those who can help you get the money you need to start.
Most importantly, you have time and knowledge combined with a passion for
driving changes. Seize this opportunity and make the most of your university
experience.

About the Author

Jeff Blaylock is a freelance writer who focuses on topics related to business, finance, and entrepreneurship. He often engages in independent journalistic research to shed light on the opportunities that students have while in college. In this post, he analyzes the benefits of starting a business while studying at university.

To read more inspiring articles for beginning entrepreneurs, visit our blog often.

ContractZen offers a centralized solution that helps companies keep due diligence materials up-to-date. Additionally, everyone in your organization will know how to quickly find business documents and contracts, create virtual data rooms in a matter of a few clicks, and organize fully digital meetings.

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ContractZen Facilitates Corporate Governance

Managing critical documents and contracts is never an easy task. The ever-present competition between companies within complex economic environments further complicates this task. Additionally, the various regulations every company needs to comply with make corporate governance a veritable pressure cooker for company managers. Further, the proliferation of information silos can bring on a severe drop in productivity.

However, company leadership can avoid these problems by ensuring that critical documents are kept in a centralized location. Then, employees won’t have to struggle to find those documents when they’re needed most.

Centralized Storage Maximizes Productivity

When you store your critical business documents in a safe, centralized location, you’ll be able to quickly, securely, and easily share them with trusted parties. Meanwhile, you can also maintain powerful access control.

In this article, we take a close look at ContractZen, a turnkey business software service that simplifies digital file management, sharing, and workflows.

ContractZen Is an All-in-One Solution

In a nutshell, ContractZen is an all-in-one SaaS solution. It helps companies keep due diligence materials, meeting documents, and contracts up-to-date. This makes it easier to manage workflows. This is because users can upload, store, share, and manage critical business documents from the cloud.

In addition, with ContractZen, users can easily create new virtual data rooms for all sorts of audit situations with only a few clicks. For example, the software simplifies tax audits, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and similar situations.

Key features on offer with ContractZen are:

1. Contract Management

Navigating “compliance fatigue” in a corporate environment is challenging. However, with ContractZen, you can drag-and-drop multiple files into the cloud-based system at the same time. In other words, you can quickly import your existing documents and get to work right away.

Of course, you can also easily use email with the ContractZen system as well. Additionally, you’ll have the option of setting automated email reminders on contracts. These can notify team members of important upcoming dates. Therefore, you’ll never have to worry about missing, for instance, a contract renewal date.

ContractZen Uses a Unique Metadata Tagging System

Further, ContractZen uses a unique metadata tagging system to create dynamic folders. This gives you quick access to contracts. It does this by improving on the age-old method of storing folders inside folders inside folders.

Alternatively, ContractZen’s metadata-driven storage allows you to organize data based on the type of information it contains, rather than the document it’s contained in.

This way, you can leverage visual tagging to set metadata. This makes it easier to more quickly find the the contract or document you’re looking for. For example, if you’re storing different sorts of contracts—such as NDA’s, licenses, and rentals—you can simply create a tag for each type. This makes it easy to access all related documents.

Easily Integrate an E-Signature Service into the ContractZen Platform

With ContractZen, you can also connect your e-signature service to your contract management hub. This allows you to send documents for signing. Plus, you can keep track of their progress until they’re signed and stored in your account.

ContractZen offers integration with several e-signature services. These include Assently, DocuSign, SignHero, and Adobe Sign.

Additionally, other tools within ContractZen’s suite of features support e-signature integrations as well. These include the virtual data rooms, board portal, financial administration, and meeting management.

All Your Documents Will be Easily Searchable

One of the standout features of this platform is that it’s powered by Microsoft’s Machine Vision OCR technologies.

Here’s how it works: Whenever you upload a document to ContractZen, the software transforms your document into searchable data. This way, you can simply search for what you need instead of trying to remember which document contained what information.

2. Virtual Data Rooms

Virtual data rooms are secure online spaces for storing and exchanging information. You might want to create a virtual data room for due diligence around mergers and acquisitions, for instance. This gives you the ability to effectively and securely execute deals in an online environment, instead of meeting in person to sign documents or review paperwork.

Alternatively, in cases where in-person meetings are necessary, everyone can come to the meeting prepared and with easy access to everything they need.

With ContractZen, you can set up a virtual data room with just a few clicks. Its advanced user management capabilities make it easy to grant access to authorized users. Additionally, you can choose tiered permissions, such as reading, printing, or downloading rights.

The virtual data rooms feature built-in tools for tracking users’ responsibilities by way of tagged documents and attachments. Each tagged document also has a group discussion timeline linked to it.

Documents Stored on the Platform Have Complete Audit Logs

With ContractZen, you can use the metadata tagging system to quickly find all of the documents you’re looking for. Then you can add them to a virtual data room on an ad hoc basis. For example, if you want to share documents relating to a specific company, simply search for it using the company’s name. Then add them to the virtual data room all at once.

In addition, documents circulated through virtual data rooms have complete audit logs and reports. This underrated feature can be especially useful in joint venture or merger and acquisition scenarios. ContractZen gives you insight into user actions, along with IP address tracking. Knowing who’s reviewing your documents (and when) can help companies maximize deal value.

From a technical standpoint, all documents and attachments are encrypted using RSA 256 encryption. The virtual data rooms themselves also have encrypted connections using Symantec SHA 256 RSA SSL. This means that documents stored within the ContractZen system are secure.

3. Meeting Management

Using ContractZen, you can manage board meetings, sales calls, and executive meetings. This will increase work efficiency, along with creating a better audit trail.

ContractZen’s meeting portal paves the way for a fully digital meeting process. This includes everything from scheduling the meeting to signing documents and contracts. Moreover, users can create meeting agendas and meeting minutes in mere moments. It also features a review tool for gathering feedback from attendees. All of this is done in a digital environment with no paper involved.

The Platform Includes a Built-In Meeting Scheduler

The platform also features a powerful, built-in meeting scheduler that takes the grunt work out of finding available slots that suit all stakeholders.

What’s more, it lets hosts send out invitations for meetings in a single click, then set automated email reminders. This way, there’s virtually no excuse for anyone to miss a meeting.

Use It for Task Management

ContractZen also has built-in features for effective task management and team collaboration. Specifically, it lets you create, prioritize, and follow up on tasks that have been agreed on during meetings.

Users can also securely share the meeting agenda and materials with their team. It also features a MeetingBook tool that lets users digitally add personal comments and annotations to materials.

Use the Platform on the Fly

ContractZen is a cloud-based service. This means it’s designed to work seamlessly across all devices. Therefore, corporate users have uninterrupted access to important business documents on the go.

Conclusion

ContractZen includes features like metadata-driven contract management, virtual data rooms, and meeting management capabilities, all rolled into one powerful corporate governance tool. It helps companies improve business operations by effectively reducing costs, accelerating internal and external processes, and minimizing risks with its top-notch encryption and security systems.

Its centralized solution will help to keep your company’s due diligence materials up-to-date. What’s more, everyone in your organization will be able to quickly find business documents and contracts, create virtual data rooms in a matter of a few clicks, and organize fully digital meetings.