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The Business of Workplace Wellness
Want to reduce the number of
days lost to illness among your employees? The best way to do this is to create
a healthy group of employees. People in good health are happier and more
productive, so there’s every reason to take the initiative in making your
workforce a healthy one.
You won’t be alone. A recent survey by Inc. magazine found that 51% of small- to
medium-sized growing businesses encourage employees to exercise or participate
in a company wellness program of some sort. These range across offerings such as
encouraging healthy eating, keep fit classes, smoking cessation, workplace
safety training, designing ergonomic workspaces, teaching first aid and C.P.R.,
offering coaching and counseling, running lunch and learns, and providing
on-site healthcare.
For over a decade research has been showing the effectiveness of employee
wellness programs. Returns in cost savings have consistently been greater than
the amount invested in running the program as measured through decreased
absenteeism, fewer sick days, reduced claims, lowered health and insurance
costs, and improvements to employee performance and productivity.
Your program can be customized to suit the types of work done in your business
as well as to the hours people work. The program can be based solely on the
workplace, or ideally as a combination of healthy practices at work and at home.
The aim is to meet the needs of both the organization and its people so both are
healthier as a result.
To get started there are some excellent resources available for free and some
simple programs that are easily initiated:
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You can source well
produced health education materials from not-for-profit health agencies
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Incorporate a five minute
stretching session into every meeting that lasts more than one hour
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Encourage employees and
their family members to have regular physical and dental check ups
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Provide nutritional
information on how to read food labels. Look for free booklets from
not-for-profit health based associations or government bodies.
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Arrange lunchtime seminars
on health topics such as stress management, good nutrition and back care
There are also many low cost
initiatives you can implement to achieve even greater success with your program:
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Introduce a ‘smoke free’
work environment and offer counseling to those smokers finding it difficult
to give up the habit
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Replace coffee and tea with
fresh fruit juices in meetings
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Provide fruit in the
lunchroom instead of cookies and cakes
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Provide flu shots or time
off to get one
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Provide all employees with
a free blood pressure check
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Put scales and weight
charts in the restrooms
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For birthday celebrations
in the office provide healthy snack food instead of sugar rich cakes
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Arrange an hour’s Q&A
session with a qualified nutrition expert
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Arrange a visit from a
fitness specialist who can create home-based exercise programs for
individual employees
Workplace health
promotion will enable your team members to gain the added support of their
colleagues in sticking with health improving activities. It can be simple and
easy to implement, and delivers the benefits of greater productivity along with
a reduction in the considerable costs associated with employee ill health.
Late Payment can Really Cost You
 Many
companies are carrying customer accounts that are still outstanding after 60 or
even 90 days. Sometimes this is acceptable if that’s the arrangement they’ve
made with the customer and planned for in their budgeting. But when an
outstanding account gets beyond reason you may have to bring in external agents
to help collect the debt.
Debt collection experts have identified four ‘triggers’, apart from lateness,
that are definite indicators that the time has come to call in the
professionals:
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More than one broken
promise of payment.
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More than one lie about
payment having been made.
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A check that’s bounced more
than once.
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A change of address with no
forwarding notice.
It’s reasonable to give a
debtor one chance to pay up. If they repeat a broken promise, a lie or a bad
check, they’ve had their chance. And if they move without telling you, they’re
probably hiding from you and other creditors. Your best hope of getting paid in
these circumstances is to use the services of a professional collection agency.
Working with a Collection Agency
To do their work collection agencies need documented information from you that
will enable them to recover the debt, or as much of it as possible.
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Accurate records of the
transaction and when the debt was incurred. This could be a purchase order
or a letter requesting supply, together with your paperwork that proves the
goods or services were provided.
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Copies of the original
invoice, plus all the statements you’ve sent that refer to this invoice. If
you have proof of sending them, such as a post office receipt, this will
help prove that you have gone through the normal processes of requesting
payment.
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Any correspondence between
you and the customer regarding the debt . This can include letters, emails,
faxes and even notes from telephone conversations you’ve had with them.
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Records of past
transactions with the customer that show what they’ve previously purchased
and how and when they’ve paid for their purchases.
Prevention is Better than
Collection
It’s not just that outstanding accounts are costing you money in lost interest
and other carrying charges. The process of actually chasing late payments and
dealing with bad debt itself is estimated to be costing the SME sector huge
amounts each year.
Yet, despite rising cash flow pressure on SMEs, most are still failing to
adequately protect themselves from bad debt. Many have no provisions at all in
place for an unexpected increase in bad debts and are thrown back on using their
bank overdraft facility or covering cash flow shortfalls from their personal
savings.
The reality is that chasing payment and dealing with bad debt is a fact of
business life and that what you need is a strategy to minimize the extent and
impact of having to do it. It should start when you first deal with a customer.
All new customers should complete a credit application that includes their
company name, the names of directors, how long they’ve been trading, their
address and other contact details, as well as a minimum of three referees with
whom they’ve established credit.
At the time the application is taken, the customer should be given a written
summary of your credit terms that state a credit limit, a term for payment of
any outstanding amounts, and the interest rate you’ll charge on debts that
exceed your credit terms. If you don’t already have a written summary of your
credit terms, this is a good time to create one.
Summarize your credit policy on every invoice and statement, and note that any
errors or other issues that relate to a dispute over amounts must be raised with
your company within two weeks of the date of the statement.
Your Website can be a Goldmine for Getting
Leads
Every business with a website should be using it as a source
of leads – high quality, qualified leads from people who want to know more about
what you sell. Visitors to your site are already interested in your company -
now it’s up to you to get the information you need from them and turn it into a
sale.
Your website can be easily structured to provide you with hundreds of leads each
week. Here are five ways you can turn it into a lead generating powerhouse.
1.
Offer Something That Will Encourage Visitors to Provide Contact Details
Prepare something interesting that relates to each product or group of products
that visitors can download. It might be a guide about how to use a product to
solve a particular problem, or perhaps some useful DIY instructions. All they
have to give you is their email address and they get something for nothing.
Place your offer in a prominent position on your home page and make it easy to
access. You’ll know by what they download just which product or products have
attracted their interest.
2.
Offer Free Advice About Specific Problems
Invite people to contact you through the site with help requests relating to the
jobs they will be doing using your products. Make this a separate but equally
prominent offer to any guide or other download, for example by offering an email
link. Suggest a few common queries to make it easy for them to complete, but
allow plenty of space for them to write out their own inquiry if it’s not on
your list. Tell them your ‘expert’ advisor will respond within 24 hours and be
sure you actually do this because there’s nothing worse than a broken promise of
assistance.
3. Use an Autoresponder for Inquiries
Regardless of what visitors download you can set up an autoresponder to send
them back an initial message thanking them for their interest and requesting
more information about them. The autoresponder can send either a general message
or something related to the material they’ve just downloaded. You’ll have to
give them something else as a ‘reward’ for providing this information; it could
be a free product sample, a newsletter, or something else that will show your
appreciation. The most important thing is that your response gets to them while
they’re still thinking about your company’s products.
4.
Ask for Feedback about the Website
As a general rule people will go from the home page directly to the part of your
site they’re most interested in. Ease of navigation is important so be sure to
make their options clear when they first get to your site. Then, after they’ve
selected a particular product page and before they can leave the site, have a
window pop up asking them for feedback. A typical feedback request runs ‘Were we
able to solve your problem with this information? Please tell us what you think
about our site’ . This will then take them to a feedback form from which you can
collect more information about them. You’ll increase the number of completed
forms if you offer a free gift or some other small token of appreciation. Be
sure to thank them for completing the form after they’ve sent it in.
5. Invite Visitors to Participate in
a Survey
Most people like to give you their opinion. A survey invitation can go in
several places such as on your home page, in your autoresponder email, and in a
follow-up newsletter or other communication. The survey should be brief and easy
to complete, but the answers will indicate their interests in much greater
detail. Ask them if they’ve tried any of your products or used any of the ideas
in your materials; ask for any suggestions they’d like to make that might enable
your company to be even more helpful to site visitors. A good offer to encourage
people to complete the survey is a contest - ‘Give us your opinions and win a
prize’ - with the prize being something that is related to your product range.
Each of these ways of gathering information provides you with a qualified lead.
At a minimum you’ll get a prospect’s email address and an idea of what they’re
interested in. By incorporating all of these techniques into your website you’ll
have turned it into a valuable lead-generating tool that captures information
you’d never have acquired from other sources.
Reduce Your Printing Costs
Getting printing done can be a time consuming business, as well as always
seeming to be more expensive than you’d expect. But with a bit of planning and
attention to detail you can make it a much less frustrating task. Here are some
ways to keep the costs of printing down while maintaining good standards of
quality.
Discuss the Job with your Printer
Nobody knows better than a printer how to reduce the costs of printing. It can
be done by using less expensive paper, a different graphics style, or perhaps by
subcontracting certain jobs out to a smaller, specialist operator. If your
printer is concerned about losing your business just over a pricing issue
they’ll usually find a way to meet your needs at a better price.
Watch the Way Your Artwork is Prepared
You may not need a fancy four-color printing job, depending on how the materials
have been designed. Talk this over with your graphics supplier and see if a
two-color print run would be adequate for the type of job you’re creating.
Another point to watch is that making changes after the artwork leaves the
graphics shop is expensive and likely to cause delays in delivery of the final
job. It’s your responsibility to see that everything is correct, including the
spelling and the illustrations, so make sure to check the artwork carefully
before accepting it.
Use a Printing Press Matched to Job Requirements
There are many different kinds of printing press. Some printers only have the
four-color variety, and they naturally cost more to operate than a simpler
machine. If you only need a one-color letterhead you can save money by going to
a printer with a one-color press. The reverse situation applies when a small
printer tries to do a high quality four-color job. Be sure your work is matched
to the printer’s capabilities.
Insist on Good Quality
Most printers are capable of turning out a good quality of finished product so
if the job’s not as good as you expected talk to the printer about having it
reprinted and keep an eye on the quality as the job goes through. When you’re
initially placing the job ensure you specifically mention the level of quality
you require. Get proofs for every printing job before giving the final ‘okay’,
and sign the proof when you return it to the printer so there’s no doubt about
what you’ve approved.
Keep a Samples File
Keep samples of printing that you like. If you want a particular type of paper
or special color combination then using a printed example is the best way to
show a printer or a graphic designer exactly what you mean. Just saying ‘glossy’
or ‘bright’ isn’t sufficiently meaningful to a person in the printing or
graphics trade.
Meet your Personal Deadlines
Print jobs are often rushed and important deadlines can be missed due to a
number of factors. The first thing to appreciate is that the more time you give
a printer, the more likely it is that the job will be finished on time and with
the quality you want.
If you have a deadline be sure the printer knows about it. They can take you
through all the steps and tell you whether it’s possible to meet it. Do all you
can to speed up the process by ensuring proofs are returned promptly. And always
keep in mind that making changes at the proofing stage is almost a guaranteed
way of having the job come in late.
By following these guidelines you can save money on your printing and get a
better job done as well. Buying printing doesn’t have to be time consuming or
needlessly expensive; just plan ahead and know that you too have
responsibilities that must be met to ensure the process runs smoothly.
Memorable
Quotation
“Man's
success in business today turns upon his power of getting people to believe he
has something they want.” – Gerald Stanley Lee
How to
Make the Most of Your Newsletter
Be sure to read each article with the mindset "How could this apply to our business."
Take notes as you read and commit to having the ideas implemented by the time the next edition arrives. Also, make copies for team members. To really make sure something positive happens, work with your business development specialist to talk your team through the ideas and how to set a schedule for getting them implemented.
Cornerstone Business Solutions is here to help you get started.
An Important Message
While every effort has been made to provide valuable, useful information in this publication, this firm and any related suppliers or associated companies accept no responsibility or any form of liability from reliance upon or use of its contents. Any suggestions should be considered carefully within your own particular circumstances, as they are intended as general information only.
Terms of Use
All rights to the content in this publication are reserved by RAN ONE Inc. Any use of the content outside of this format must acknowledge RAN ONE Inc. as the original source.
© 2006 RAN ONE Inc . |
