Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

Small businesses account for 99.3% of all private sector business in the UK. There has been sustained growth in the business population over the last few years contributing to 47% of all private sector turnover, totalling £1.8 trillion.

Many growing businesses have common traits, one of which seems to be a focus on key performance indicators. KPIs not only monitor progress but can also highlight any issues which need to be addressed. Here are the top five things every small business should measure:

1 Cash flow

Operating cash flow is probably the most important short-term measurement in your business. It is the most common reason that even the most profitable small businesses run into difficulties. Essentially it is the money you have left in the bank each month and is calculated by subtracting your operating expenses from your gross margin, adding in timing issues (like when you get paid vs when you have to pay your bills) and removing non-cash items like depreciation. Negative cash flow often occurs when you have to pay your bills before some customers have paid you. SMEs that want to sell to larger corporations often get bullied on payment terms and this is worth knowing before going after this business. Banks are usually very open to providing overdrafts for working capital but only if this is pre-arranged. Also try and get all your customers on Direct Debit to mitigate the effect of the late payers. Produce a quarterly cash-flow forecast every month.

Do you have business customers asking for SIM-only bundles?

Every penny counts when you are running a small business, particularly for those just starting up. Keeping a lid on everyday bills means freeing up more cash to help a company grow. Even small changes, such as reviewing mobile contracts, can attribute considerable savings.

SMEs are moving away from long-term expensive, inflexible mobile contracts in favour of SIM-only deals, often on monthly rolling contracts.

Have you thought about adding SIMs to your product portfolio?

Jola offers the best Vodafone SIM-only deals for SMEs via partners and has doubled the data allowance on each package.

With no handsets to support and excellent service, this is an easy additional revenue stream. Our end user deals are better than any available from the mobile operators and you earn a good ongoing revenue on every penny your customers spend with us. We offer both reseller and dealer schemes.

Small businesses can use excellent service to appear bigger, in what Salesforce describes as the 'blowfish effect'. SMEs that deliver speedy, personalised and friendly customer service across multiple channels are getting the edge over larger rivals. Review our five ways to improve customer service;

1 - Focus on reducing customer complaints

In any business issues will arise and mistakes will be made. By analysing where and how mistakes are being made and the effect on your customers, you can take action to reduce errors and improve customer satisfaction.

Adoption rates of hosted telephony are increasing as SMEs look to reduce the costs and complexities of business telephony. SMEs are factoring in revenue growth, enhanced productivity and additional features but what are the top 5 drivers for SMEs to move to hosted telephony?

1 – Out of contract

SMEs with phone systems that are out of their service contract often struggle to find parts and fix faults. There are limited funds to make another large capital investment and a need for additional call features such as application integration. 

When you are looking for a partner for voice and data services, you will almost certainly be given access to a portal, but how do you know whose portal would be right for you? What makes a good dealer portal? Consider the following:

What does it do?

As a dealer you will probably be preparing the quotation, with your supplier billing, supporting and paying you a monthly commission. Does the portal generate professional co-branded proposals that can be emailed to your customer and how easy is it then for them to review and place the order? Most dealers want to see recommended prices but with the option to change them as they deem appropriate. Can your supplier do this? Is it a straightforward margin share with automated commission or do you have to invoice for a percentage each month?

If you have customers looking to buy voice and data services, you may be asking yourself this very question. To help you shortlist potential suppliers, consider these 4 Ps.

Products

Does the company provide both voice and data services? What internet services are available, at what speeds? What is the coverage like? How many carrier services do they provide, just BT, or all the major service providers? What telephony services do they offer? What hosted voice platform do they operate? Do they also offer SIP trunks, calls and lines?

The key thing to compare here is range of services available. To avoid partnering with multiple suppliers, find one that can offer the widest range of connectivity. When considering voice services look for the platform that is best supported with the widest range of call features.

LinkedIn is officially the world’s largest professional network with over 433 million members in 200 countries. Their mission is to connect professionals to make them more productive and successful. The network provides access to people, jobs, news, updates and insights, all designed to help you be better at what you do. As well as setting up your own account you can also set up company pages to attract followers, post company updates (news, opinion pieces, videos, podcasts, infographics etc.) and drive engagement.

With so many of your colleagues, customers, suppliers and competitors on LinkedIn, getting the basic etiquette right is as important as turning up to a business meeting on time.

5 ways to inspire leadership

According to the Tech Nation report, the digital economy grew 32 percent faster than the rest of the economy between 2011 and 2014. The sector accounts for 1.56m jobs across the UK, with the workforce growing by more than 10 percent over the three-year period - three times faster than the wider UK job market.

App and software development is the fastest-growing niche in the digital economy, growing by 17 percent overall in 2015. Data companies and hardware manufacturers also posted growth of more than 10 percent.

When a sector experiences ‘super-growth’ it attracts more entrants and with barriers to entry in the local supplier market now lower than ever, management and leadership become the key to continued success. 

5 ways to inspire leadership

They say bosses tell people what to do and leaders inspire them to believe in what they can do. Are you looking to inspire your team to help grow your company? Review our tips below;

A recent survey by Vanson Bourne found that 74% of small businesses embraced BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to work to improve productivity. Microsoft also recently reported that 59% of small businesses were likely to embrace the cloud to reap the productivity benefits. As productivity is such a driver for change, we decided to share our top tips for running more productive IT services.

1 – Automate

Manual processes are notorious drivers of rework and lost efficiency. For example, automation has reduced invoice processing costs by 53 percent for some companies, and decreased clerical demands by 25 percent.

Where should you start?

The first step is to determine the most arduous tasks that take up your time, whether it is an IT service responsibility or a business management task. IT, billing, monitoring, management, backup and reporting can all be improved through the use of automation. Rather than wasting time and money on manual tasks while simultaneously putting you at risk for more errors, consider automating business processes that take up more time than you can afford.

Why does there never seem to be enough time in the day? As entrepreneurs and business owners we are always busy -  products to sell, problems to solve and ideas to develop. So many people demand our time that it often feels like we are no longer in charge of our own day. Anyone who runs their own business will know the saying ‘work on your business, not in it’.

Strategic planning

How many of us actually get to leave the office and sit on our own with a coffee and think about our strategic direction, what’s happening in the market and what’s next.