The World Business

Archive for June, 2011

Office cleaning Sydney, is big business. Another great source of income for commercial cleaning Sydney operators is paid accommodation. There are thousands of top hotels, hostels and budget accommodation all looking for a way to keep their premises clean and their costs down. Here is a look at why they are looking to outsource their needs.

As more jobs in our Australian market continue to dry up, more individuals are forced to reinvent themselves. A small to medium commercial cleaning Sydney can earn considerable money. As with any other business, looking for long term and stable clients is the key to a good business. Hotels in Sydney are shifting to outsourcing many of their business operations along much in the way as many other businesses are. Here is a look at some of the reasons why hotels and other paid accommodation are choosing to do this.

• Cost. Commercial cleaning services provide a flat fee for getting the job done. This is a simple contractual arrangement by the cleaning company and the hotel.
• Tax Deductable. The cost of cleaning is a legitimate expense. Employing their own staff to do the same job can also be considered a legitimate expense, but there are a range of other issues that make the cost of a contractor easier to justify compared with the cost of employees.
• Ease of Business. Employing your own staff is a little more complicated than just paying a company to clean your rooms and hotel. There are a huge number of health and safety laws, let alone all the complicated calculations to do with sick pay, holiday pay, to mention a few, that hotels will have to deal with. Outsourcing can be a very effective way to get the same job done, and even when it costs a little more, the reduction in the need to employ individuals is reduced, and therefore, all those complications that come with that are also eliminated.
• Termination. If a hotel is not satisfied with the work of a contractor, simply cancelling the contract is very easy. Compare this with the hotel having to hire and fire people, and you can see why a hotel would want to choose the contractor option. Employment laws and the regulations in relation to termination and the like are very complicated to say the least. It is not attractive for companies to employ people anymore. They want to get a job done, and they want the right to choose who is doing it. They also want the choice of termination without the hassles of firing people.
• Quality. Owner operators generally tend to do a job better than employees. They have more pride in their work, and they understand the business angle of their contract. They know they are getting paid to do a top quality job. They understand the contract can be terminated if their service does not meet the expectations of their client and what is written in their contract.

If your cleaning services are looking for steady and long term clients in Sydney, all forms of paid accommodation and hotels are always a great source of business. Ramp up your marketing and build up your steady income.

Business sites can be complex things. They may have to operate a range of databases, transactions, email and enterprise projects as well. This can be an administrative issue, and a big one, unless it’s well organized right from the start. The best practice solution is business web hosting with additional services like server management, to keep everything (and everyone) on the same page.

If you’re setting up a new site, a combination hosting/server management option will do the job for you. This is also an opportunity to create a site management system which will be a more efficient business arrangement. It may well also be a much cheaper, cost-efficient arrangement.

Business site operational setup

If your business site is going to need multiple servers and will be running continuously, you will need a combination hosting/server administrative setup. The fact is that business sites can’t run efficiently or securely on an ad hoc system of servers for any length of time.

You will require:

• Dedicated servers for administration of specific business roles- This is best practice admin, using a series of servers to deal with data loads.

• Server management, security and backup systems- Essential services, and if the server crashes, you will need restoration work done, ASAP.

• A single-stream site management system- Site management needs to be seamless, keeping your site up to date and editing as required. It’s easier and much cheaper to link the server management to the site management to ensure that the site runs smoothly.

• Secure servers for business transactions- This is compulsory, not optional; financial institutions will insist on this.

• Firewalls for the servers- To protect them against attack and software which can affect their performance

• Server monitoring- Server issues can play havoc with a business, shutting down operations and literally costing a fortune in downtime. With a monitoring service, you can be up and running, with your backup in place to get back to normal.

Existing business site upgrades

If you already have a business site and aren’t happy with the service from the web host, an upgrade is the easy option. Your site simply moves from one web host to another. You may need to reload your site materials, however, for the new host.

The upgrade pays for itself, particularly if you’re upgrading to a combination site hosting/server management package. You’re actually cutting costs, because the site management package and server management package, even if separate, reduce the real costs of administration and doing business.

With your upgrade, you will get:

• Rid of the old web host, to start with.

• Better service for your vital dedicated servers, particularly if your new host/server manager has the new Windows or Linux servers.

• Very probably a much better cost base for your site management. The business site management services are extremely competitive, and getting a good deal is really pretty easy, if you’re prepared to do the research.

Put it this way- You can get a full site management service for less than $500 a year, and full-spectrum server management for about the same sort of costs. You save money from day one, as well as getting better service and multiple site options. Start looking for a better deal, and you will find one.

Creating a checklist is a great way to ensure your meeting is a success. Check out our ultimate business meeting checklist right here.

Creating a checklist before a meeting is a great way to ensure that you achieve the required outcomes. Here, weʼve created the ultimate meeting checklist. From setting up a suitable time to making sure your business card printing needs are met well in advance, weʼve got the tips to help your business meeting achieve your desired result:

1.    Set a date and time: Check everyoneʼs availability well in advance. Everyone has busy schedules so the earlier you can book the meeting in the better.

2.    Determine you budget for the meeting: You donʼt want to go overboard with the spending if you are on a strict budget. Work out how you can make the meeting happen with the amount you have allocated to you.

3.    Meeting location: There is no point in checking to see if everyone is free next Friday for the meeting if the location you want to host the meeting is booked that day. Enquire in advance about the availability of the boardroom or function space at the venue of your choosing.

4.    Create an agenda: Once you have a set meeting time and location and know of everyone’s attendance, creating an agenda is really the next step. You may create this agenda as a simple guide to how the meeting/day will run and show available times where attendees are able to present if that is something you want to happen.

5.    Make sure everyone is on the same page: The agenda should be clear and concise so that there is no confusion about the way that the meeting is going to run.

6.    Arrive early to the meeting room: By arriving early you can set up the room and make sure that all technology that will be required during the meeting is up and running when the meeting begins.

7.    Make sure you start the meeting on time: If your agenda is tight, this is even more important. You don’t want to run over time so sticking to the time frames allocated is essential. This is why you also may want to consider having a time keeper to make sure that everyone sticks to their allocated time slots.

8.    Have all collateral ready well in advance: If you have some booklet printing or business card printing to do, make sure itʼs done well in advance. Allow for human error so that if something doesnʼt look right with what you had printed you have time to rectify it.

9.    Allow time at the end for discussion: You should always make sure that if members of the meeting want to discuss something at the end of the meeting they are able to.

10.  At the end of the meeting: Thank everyone for attending.

11. Send everyone a follow up email with all of the notes and outcomes from the meeting.

12. Ask for feedback on the outcomes of the meeting and if necessary arrange for a follow up discussion.

As long as you stick to something similar to the checklist above, youʼll be ensuring that your colleagues will be impressed and all of the outcomes required of the meeting will be met.

The big story now hitting the employment market is employee retention. The New Economy is making outsourcers out of former employees, and the entire job market is changing. Employee surveys are being used regularly in the US as a “barometer” of pressures and influences on staff. The results aren’t always what businesses expect, either.

The big issues for employers

The new job market is changing so rapidly that keeping up with the options can be difficult. The New Economy is creating a very different dynamic to the old career progression. New graduates can go into business for themselves with an internship and a good professional portfolio, usually generated during the qualification years.

All of which leaves businesses in a difficult position, trying to compete with New Economy entrepreneurs for new skilled workers coming on the market while retaining their skills and knowledge base. Retaining staff in such a fluid market isn’t easy, particularly for businesses where technical and professional skills are the core business issues.

Employee retention strategies

The new business reality needs strategic planning. This means specific employment schemes and management initiatives to both retain and attract staff.

These schemes are created on a systematic basis, involving these elements:

• Employee opinion surveys
• Leadership effectiveness surveys
• Team effectiveness surveys
• Sales effectiveness surveys

Specific employee retention strategies are built on this information. This is a targeting methodology, identifying key skills and knowledge bases integrated with business plans.

How employee retention works

This can be a very productive, as well as profitable process. It’s becoming one of the main features of upmarket businesses, locking in career progression and incentives while simultaneously optimizing business organizational and operational needs.

For example:

A sales team is the primary focus of concern for a major car distributor. This is a highly competitive industry, and good sales people really don’t grow on trees.

The employee survey indicates some issues for the sales team:

• Lack of incentives in the areas of commission and retainers
• The team structure has a lot of salespeople, but only one main manager, who has to deal with their issues on a daily basis.
• Lack of clear career paths in the organization. Salespeople basically remain salespeople.

The Leadership, Team and Sales effectiveness surveys bear out the employee survey. It’s an outdated (circa 1980s) organizational structure. It doesn’t make the best use of skills and experience. It doesn’t reward initiative and it creates management bottlenecks in dealing with team and individual issues.

The solution is simple, but elegant:

The sales team is broken up into 5 sales teams

• Five senior, respected sales people become team managers reporting to the main manager.
• Commission bonuses are introduced on specified sales targets.
• Staff are encouraged to use their initiative to lock in distribution deals on a measured basis,
• Retainers are increased on a percentage basis of sales per year.
• Employer-sponsored training schemes and incentives are introduced for sales staff to develop key business management skills and provide a clear career path inside the organization.

The result:

• Profits increase thanks to the new sales initiatives
• Management bottlenecks in the sales team disappear
• All staff take up the qualifications options, adding to the skills base

That’s the really good news about staff retention – It works.