How Online Apparel Retailers Can Use Customer Reviews to Drive Sales and Reduce Returns

Online apparel retailers face two hurdles that are traditionally considered tough to overcome. For one, almost 20% of UK consumers are reluctant to shop online for products like clothing, shoes or jewellery, because they cannot try the items on. Secondly, apparel has a much higher return rate than products like electronics, books or beauty products, because customers will almost always return items that don't look or feel how they expected them to.

The solution to both problems may lie in online customer reviews – but only if e-commerce stores understand how to capitalise on consumer feedback.

According to Statista.com, 66.5% of UK consumers in 2015 read reviews before purchasing an item online. People shopping for fashion goods on the web read an average of 1.7 reviews before buying a product. The UK Competition and Markets Authority released a report last June stating that around £23 billion per year spent by UK consumers is potentially influenced by online reviews.

Customer reviews bring the online retail environment closer to an in-store experience. People who shop for apparel online want to be reassured of the fit, look and feel of the product. Reviews answer questions that buyers have about quality, materials and size – as well as the store's level of customer service.

“But there are additional steps you can take if you want reviews to positively impact your sales and returns,” says Gary Ingram, CEO of the online jewellery retailer, TheDiamondStore.co.uk, that was recently awarded its third consecutive Gold Merchant badge by the review site Feefo.

Ingram has six tips for online retailers who want to leverage their reviews.

1. Invest in a 'closed' review system. On 'open' sites like TripAdvisor or TrustPilot anyone can leave an opinion, whether they've purchased or not. Because of recent press, UK consumers are highly aware of how exposed these sites are to fake reviews. By contrast, on 'closed' review systems like Amazon or Feefo, you must make a purchase before being allowed to review. This reassures customers you haven't manipulated the results.

2. Publish review details, not just the star rating. Customers want the nitty gritty to help them make a decision. This also plays in your favour if you have a five-star product that's dropped its rating because of one negative comment. The customer who leaves an angry one-star review because he hated “the wavy pattern on the soles of the shoes” was probably having a bad day. Trust your customers to be discerning enough to read reviews within their context.

3. Generate reviews, don't wait for them. It's been proven that most consumer reviews are prompted by post-sales emails. Follow up each purchase with an email that looks attractive and makes reviewing as easy as possible with a direct URL link to the review page. This also means making your review system accessible via mobile devices.

4. Mobile optimise your review system. According to the Centre for Retail Research for RetailMeNot, UK shoppers will be spending £60 billion online this year. 36% of these will shop via their mobile phone or tablet. 77% read online reviews while they're out shopping. If you mobile-optimise your ratings system your customers can access information while they're out shopping or leave a review while watching TV.

5. Analyse reviews. If you study your customers' comments, you'll understand their shopping habits. Reviews also give you a unique opportunity to fix issues. For example, if you consistently get the same complaint about a flaw in one product, you can address the problem with your supplier or manufacturer before your returns rate soars.

6. Reply to reviews. It's simple. If you take the time to respond to reviews, good or bad, your customers will feel you value their opinion.

The conclusion? A review system is a great tool for customers to leave opinions about your products and services. But it's a two way street. If you take an active approach, invite comments, analyse information, and respond to issues, you can harness reviews so that they have a positive impact on your bottom line.

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Leaving It to the Pros: Choosing the Best Commercial Cleaning Company for Your Business

If you are looking for a commercial cleaning company that can provide you the service level you want at a fair price, you are often spoilt for choice.

When evaluating the services on offer and researching the company, you can view online at www.Atkinsinc.com for more information, and as an example of the sort of professional business that can help you with your cleaning and maintenance tasks.

The benefits of hiring a professional

There are a number of viable reasons why hiring a professional cleaning and maintenance company would be beneficial for your business.

One aspect that should never be underestimated is employee happiness. A workplace that is not clean and tidy and smelling fresh, will soon have a detrimental impact on the employees who have to put up with the mess around them.

It generally follows that a clean office is a happier and more productive environment. If the trash bins are consistently full and and the washroom areas are grimy and smelly, that is hardly conducive towards a positive workplace atmosphere.

Another positive aspect of using a professional cleaning company to keep your building fresh and clean, is that a clean workplace promotes better health and helps to keep your building less susceptible to germs.

It is also a matter of how your customers judge you if you have regular visitors to the building. A clean and tidy building tends to suggest a well run and caring company, which will always leave a better impression on a visitor than if the washrooms left a lot to be desired when they went in there.

How to decide who to use

Now that you have decided that it would be a great idea to employ the services of a professional to help you with your cleaning and maintenance tasks, you need to work out who you are going to use.

There is great deal of choice of companies out there, so you will probably need to ask a few pertinent questions in order to find the right partner that you can work with and trust to do a good job.

It often helps if the business is large enough to be able to offer you a variety of different services. It can be a bit of a logistical headache when you have to employ one company to do the office cleaning, another for the window cleaning etc. Try to find a business that offers you a one-stop solution, so that you can get all of your tasks quickly and efficiently, all within one price and with less administration involved.

Look for a company that offers flexibility and tries to accommodate you with what you are looking for, rather than providing a stock service that you have to fit around. A good cleaning company will often be prepared to offer you a plan and a solution that meets your task requirements and fits in with your budget limitations, as long as your demands are reasonable.

References and reviews

Service businesses thrive on keeping their customers happy and getting good referrals, so the cleaning company you are thinking of hiring, should be able to provide you with some references to back up the reviews you may have read about them already.

People are often more than willing to share their views and opinions online about a product or service, so you should be able to find some online reviews that give you an unbiased and honest appraisal of the sort of service you can expect from the company in question.

Quotes

Price should not always be your deciding factor, especially if you want a professional and consistent job being done, but of course, it is still an important factor.

Aim to invite about three companies that you are thinking of appointing, into your building, so that they can look at what needs to be done and provide you with an accurate work that reflects this.

Ask for a detailed breakdown of what they are charging for and request a list of the services and tasks that they will be performing on a daily and weekly basis. To be able to compare the different prices from each separate company, you need to compare exactly what they are going to be doing for the money.

Once you have decided what tasks you need the company to do, invited some potential companies in to quote, and evaluated their response and references provided, you should soon be able to enjoy a clean workplace that everyone working there enjoys and appreciates.

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Freelance Careers to Consider

When you think of freelancers, what's the first thing that comes to mind? It might be someone who makes a living by writing, marketing, or virtually assisting others, right? Most people think of freelancers as professionals who work in creative, business, or marketing services, but that's not always the case. There is a whole world of freelancers who work in other industries, but who are these people? First, let's look at the term “freelancer” to get an idea of what it really means.

A “freelancer” is someone who is self-employed and offers their services to a variety of companies at the same time, rather than being employed by a single company in a permanent position. They are independent contractors who have the freedom to set their own hours and who must provide their own equipment to perform the job.

That said, there are no constraints in the definition about which industries freelancers have to work in, and the advent of newer and better technologies has only helped to make the variety of industries more broad. Here, we take a look at a variety of freelance careers that you might not have considered.

Field Service Technicians

It's commonly assumed that freelancers work from home. While this is true of freelancers in certain positions, this doesn't always hold true for every industry. Field service technicians are one example of professionals who must travel and work on-site with their clients.

A field service technician is someone who provides maintenance and repair services for various electronic issues. For example, they might service computers, point-of-sale (POS) systems, security systems, appliances, televisions, stereos, and other equipment. They might also work with individuals who need personal repairs done or with businesses that need their company equipment installed, maintained, or serviced.

Although most field service technicians find themselves utilized by large corporations, others have found plenty of work on their own. With the proper knowledge and skills, you can find opportunities as a freelance field service technician, too.

Property Preservation Professionals

Like field service technicians, property preservation professionals must travel to their clients' homes or places of business to perform the work. This category of professionals includes:

• Landscapers


• Gardeners


• Carpenters


• Painters

However, not everyone who falls into this category is a freelancer. For example, you can hire a company rather than a single freelancer to do your landscaping. Other people like gardeners might fall under the category of “domestic employee,” rather than “freelancer.”

Though there are many employment avenues in this field, there are opportunities for freelancers in the property preservation industry as well.

Hospitality Workers

When you think of jobs in the hospitality industry, you probably think of people who work in hotels, restaurants, and casinos, but some of these same positions can be performed on a freelance basis – like private caterers and event planners. Although you won't find these people employed by hotels or cruise lines, they can find work with businesses and individuals who require their services on an as-needed basis.

According to BLS.gov, the event planner job outlook is good and is expected to grow by 10 percent from 2014 to 2024. Event planners make, on average, $46,490 per year, but the potential is higher for individuals who run their own businesses.

Health and Wellness Professionals

There are countless opportunities for health and wellness professionals in today's market, but few who think of going freelance. However, it's actually fairly easy to offer health and wellness services on a freelance basis. Examples of freelance careers in this industry include:

• Wellness coaches


• Personal trainers


• Group fitness instructors


• Dieticians


• Public health educator

Keep in mind that you might need a degree and/or certification to practice in one of these areas, even if you are planning to work on your own. Once you have those credentials, however, working with private clients or with a variety of companies is possible, since the demand for wellness and education programs increase.

For example, while you can be employed by a school or community organization as a public health educator, you may choose to work with a variety of companies on a contract basis instead. You can charge for speaking at conferences, visiting schools to educate the students about health and wellness, or collaborating with specialists within a community to help boost the overall community's health.

As another example, a personal trainer may work independently with several gyms and companies in their area or with private clients in their homes.

Teachers and Tutors

You might think of teachers as being employed by various school districts, but more and more teachers are taking their knowledge and skills and turning them into a freelance practice. For example, a previously full-time schoolteacher might decide to go freelance and start selling their own online training courses or begin tutoring students in their home.

As a freelance instructor or tutor, however, you'll have more control over your rates to earn above the average for employed teachers.

Lawyers

Lawyers and paralegals often work at legal firms, although some lawyers might choose to start their own practice. Still, we don't generally think of them as “freelancers.” There are lawyers, however, who work with various firms on a freelance basis from time to time.

As described by Donna Seyle from AttorneyatWork.com, “freelance lawyers fill the void between primary or in-house counsel and legal process outsourcing.” She goes on to say that freelance lawyers, “often play a hands-on role in the development of case theory, and they can make court appearances and attend depositions.”

Although these “contract lawyers” were once seen as less successful professionals, Seyle points out that times have changed and there is now more respect for lawyers who choose to take the freelance route.

Freelance Careers You Didn't Think Of

Being a freelancer doesn't necessarily mean you're a writer, designer, or other creative or marketing professional. It simply means that you're working independently with a variety of businesses or in a number of different industries. There are countless opportunities for freelancers in numerous fields, so don't be afraid to explore the possibility of working for yourself with multiple clients if you like the idea of going freelance.

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Take Your Home Business to the Street with a Pop Up Shop

Three Tips for Launching One Successfully

Online sales continue to explode and exceed growth expectations. In 2015, retailers reported $11 billion in online sales, up 15 percent from 2014, as compared to brick-and-mortar sales, which were generally down. While this is great news for home business owners, carrying out much of their commerce online, many online giants are eyeing the brick-and-mortar world for marketing and customer loyalty purposes. Even Google and Amazon are opening brick-and-mortar stores. Pop-up shops are growing quickly; they present less risk and are less expensive than committing to a permanent brick-and-mortar location. Here are three things for home business owners to consider in the execution of a pop-up shop:

1. Cultivate an experience.

Face-to-face interaction with customers may be an uncommon occurrence for many home business owners. Pop-up shops allow home business owners to use spatial experiences to express their online brand and build personal relationships with customers. As customers can already order the home business owner's products or services online with ease, a pop-up shop should add a value to the transaction unavailable online, through services such as free fittings, visually appealing displays, or even food and beverages. This is your opportunity to deepen customer relationships, take advantage of it.

2. Spread the word and get feedback.

After creating a unique in-store experience, market it. Many people who conduct business from their homes have a global customer base and therefore may question the effectiveness of pop-up shops, or underestimate the value of targeting a hyperlocal demographic. However, sharing pop-up shop happenings on social channels and in marketing collateral is a valuable way to communicate appreciation to all customers, regardless of location. Pop-up shops are also vehicles for gathering customer testimonials, new product testing and feedback. For home business owners, it's often easy to gather quantitative customer feedback and demographics online, while attaining qualitative feedback and testimonials may be more difficult. Also, as online shoppers expect convenience, they may view online surveys and questionnaires as hindrances. Pop-up shops, however, are an effective method of acquiring the feedback home business owners may lack.

3. Invest in an mPOS.

For home business owners with no prior need for a physical point of sale (POS) device, a mobile point of sale (mPOS) may be the ideal solution. Mobility is conducive to the temporary physical location and often hands-on nature of pop-up shops. Online shoppers may have previously avoided brick-and-mortar stores in the interest of time. mPOS solutions expedite transactions, enabling cashiers to accept payments from anywhere in the store, in lieu of behind a counter after a long line. Home business owners should consider an mPOS that:

• Accepts all payment types. Home business owners deal primarily with credit and debit online payments and now need a solution that can accept mobile payments, cash, checks and EMV (chip and PIN, chip and signature) payments. The mPOS should also have barcode and QR code scanning capabilities for coupons and gift cards.

• Offers an App Market. The operational and managerial requirements of a brick-and-mortar store differ from those of a home business, which means that there may be facets of running a pop-up shop that home business owners may have not anticipated. This is why an mPOS that offers an app market with apps for everything from accounting to customer feedback and employee management, is an advantage. POS App Markets may also enable home business owners to synchronize their online presence with their physical presence, so that aspects that may cross over between pop-up shop and online store, such as inventory, are carefully tracked.

• Simplifies set up. For pop-up shop purposes, home business owner should find an mPOS they can remove from the box and put to immediate use. In the fast-paced environment of pop-up shops, where most employees are being trained on the spot, technical difficulties are major setbacks. Home business owners may consider an mPOS that not only offers IT support at the touch of a button, but that also is user-friendly, so that its immediate use is intuitive for new employees.

For home business owners looking to unlock customer engagement and bolster marketing efforts, pop-up shops may be the ideal solution. However, in order to avoid a pop-up shop flop, home business owners must consider what the shop will offer customers that they can't find online, disseminate pop-up shop happenings to their global customer-base, gain useful customer feedback and find an mPOS solution that can grow with and anticipate their fluctuating needs.

The post Take Your Home Business to the Street with a Pop Up Shop appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Time to Launch a Multi-Seller Web Shopping Mall

It's very difficult not to notice that our world and societies consist of various business connections and trade transactions, which help countries, enterprises, nations and groups implement their particular tasks, improve their living conditions, solve their problems and increase their budgets. Businessmen, entrepreneurs and traders can be compared with powerful engines, which change time and history. As a rule, implementing their business activities and providing client audiences with new useful inventions, such people get impressive revenues, high popularity and large bases of return customers. This is rather obvious, as consumers always require and pay for top-notch products, which could satisfy their sophisticated needs and preferences.

In our age of informational and communicational technologies, businessmen possess even more chances to earn significant funds and become popular vendors with assistance of online stores. These business projects attract large numbers of clients, as they possess wider ranges of different products compared to traditional brick-and-mortars. But not all people are able to become successful businessmen, as they can't handle with high responsibility and possible financial risks. Moreover, after establishing their ventures and companies, plenty of entrepreneurs and sellers have to stop their business activities, as they don't have enough financial resources. The same concerns to online businessmen, who also have to spend their funds on developing and growing their ecommerce projects.

Notwithstanding the problems I have mentioned above, more and more businessmen aspire to implement their business operations online. However, as simple brick-and-mortar owners, online businessmen also have to promote their products, strengthen their business brands and especially compete against various business companies and corporations. Trying to reach these goals, web entrepreneurs and online vendors decide to provide their clients with all possible products, impress them with beautiful website design styles and create persuasive advertisements. Some web merchants think that they can build strong relationships with customer segments with the help of promotional campaigns. Of course, these techniques are very effective, but they usually require impressive funds from ecommerce merchants.

As a result, most online vendors spend all money they possess and think how to save their web business projects from collapse. There are also such web entrepreneurs, who are able to solve the most difficult problems and achieve leading positions in their business fields. As these businessmen constantly want to get high profits and grow their influence within the online business environment, they decide to launch online multiple marketplaces.

Being a web shopping mall owner, a person possesses the chance to get really huge profits and compete against well-known business companies. In practice, organizing internet malls, even successful and mature web businessmen can make serious mistakes, which can cost them much money and damage their stainless reputations. Therefore, I want to help online businessmen find out when they should forget about simple web shops to launch their own web marketplaces.

Large Budgets and Effective Business Strategies

Launching a web store, every online vendor should understand that he will become a part of the large competitive business environment. This implies that web businessmen must write full descriptions for their products, create truthful business stories and organize professional advertising campaigns, if they want to stand out of the crowd of competitors. To gain customers' loyalty, online merchants will also have to spend their time and money on choosing and buying ecommerce software for their web business projects. Frequently, as at the beginning of their business careers web shop owners can't boast of having high funds, so they simply don't possess time for occupying new business heights within the ecommerce marketplace.

As you know, the online business world can not only take away entrepreneurs' funds, but also provide them with new benefits and opportunities. Attentive and curious web businessmen aspire to find out their business niches and increase their financial assets. To get successful results, online vendors have to determine their business goals, serve a large number of customer audiences and cooperate with various business companies. When vendors get solid experience and possess strong bases of return customers, they may think that it's time to organize their own web shopping malls to take their ecommerce projects to a newer business level. Nevertheless, everything is not as simple as it may seem. All potential web marketplace owners must get stable and high profits, as they will have to participate in expensive competitive races and manage large business projects. Furthermore, being an internet mall owner, you should work out an effective business plan, which will be able to help you solve a wide range of problems and avoid unpleasant situations.

Plenty of Customers

Well-known and authoritative business companies get significant revenues and high popularity, as they know how to attract and retain thousands of clients. Joining the business environment, most entrepreneurs think that they are also able to increase their budgets and create large bases of shoppers in a short period of time. In reality, such businessmen usually fail and lose all to the last cent, as customers don't know anything about them and their production. Vendors should realize that they will have to interact and listen to their customers, if they want to create a noticeable business brand and continue implementing their business activities. As for online businessmen, they also must remember that shoppers will not rush to buy their products right after launching their online stores.

Very often, web vendors can't interest buyers in visiting their online stores, as their ecommerce websites possess poor design styles and slowly working customer services and applications. In this case, online clients can't get rich customer experience and enjoy fast shopping procedures, what makes them look for more responsible vendors and reliable online stores. Taking these facts into consideration, modern web merchants try not only to provide their customer audiences with high website speed and performance, but also help them solve their complaints and give them a useful advice. Using such techniques, plenty of web businessmen have already increased their client bases drastically. If you are one of these vendors, then you have high chances to launch a successful and profitable web shopping mall.

Solid Experience

Plenty of people think that it's very easy to be an entrepreneur, accomplish trade transactions and hold negotiations. In fact, establishing a venture, a person will have to face with different problems, such as high taxes, unexpected costs, unfair competitors and unfulfilled obligations. So, starting and performing their business activities, plenty of businessmen don't know how to solve these issues, as they don't possess required knowledge. To avoid unsatisfactory business results, all potential and existing traders and entrepreneurs must accumulate and develop useful skills during all their business careers. This is especially important for online businessmen, as they serve a large number of customers from all over the world, implement online transactions, choose ecommerce software and mange virtual business projects on their own.

Currently, online businessmen want to create large ecommerce business companies like Amazon and eBay, as more and more web customers prefer to shop at these online marketplaces. Usually, web shopping malls consist of hundreds of independent sellers and individual online store departments. This means that virtual mall owners face with extremely high website loads, dangerous cyber threats and difficult business challenges. In such a situation, if an online businessman decides to launch a web multiple marketplace, he must possess high skills and solid experience in management and marketing fields, as he will have to track and control plenty of processes and events that happen within their ecommerce projects.

Advertising Opportunities

When businessmen and traders establish their ventures, they should remember that their main duty is to serve customers and meet their requirements. However, modern vendors want only to get high profits and solve their own problems in short terms. But after all, businessmen understand that they will not be able to make their business dreams come true without interacting with clients. In this case, some merchants think that they can build strong relationships with their customer audiences with the help of various products, while others decide to use creative advertisements to grab buyers' attention. In practice, even resorting to these business techniques, plenty of entrepreneurs can't find a common language with their customers, as they don't know anything about their needs and preferences.

As simple brick-and-mortar owners, online businessmen also want to become well-known and rich vendors. Trying to reach these goals, web entrepreneurs may organize their own multi-seller web shopping malls, as these projects are rather noticeable and attract thousands of customers every day. To tell the truth, this variant will not suit those merchants, who have recently started their online business activities. As a rule, internet multiple marketplaces are launched by mature online businessmen, as they constantly research ecommerce news, know how to cooperate with SEO agencies, spend much time on creating promotional campaigns, collect facts about customer audiences and analyze new marketing and business trends. If this is your case, then it's high time to organize your personal web shopping mall.

Development Skills

As I have mentioned above, online multiple marketplaces consist of plenty of ecommerce merchants, who sell their products via separate web store departments. Joining a web shopping mall, merchants can forget about financial risks, impressive costs and high competition, though they will have to pay commissions to an internet mall owner for the right to accomplish their online business activities and selling operations. Nevertheless, online multiple marketplace owners shouldn't think that they will get revenues and do nothing. Being a web mall owner, you will have to be ready to develop, update and customize your ecommerce website on your own, as well as spend much money on hiring highly-paid web designers and website developers.

Have you noticed more signs, which can help online businessmen define the right time to launch their own web shopping mall?

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Public Speaking Vs a Business Presentation

It's easy to see the similarities between a speech and a business presentation. They both involve a person talking to multiple people at once, having their thoughts known out loud and expecting a response from them. But this is where the similarities end. Believe it or not, a “speech” and a “presentation” are not the same thing. Its one thing to present something in front of a group of people and it's a whole different thing to get up on a stage and hold a speech.

Presentations are a bit more technical. They're focused on a single subject and they're centered on a major idea or concept. A speech on the other hand, feels like a more natural kind of presentation. You may have your ideas laid out and organized, but you must also be prepared to improvise, answer questions on the spot and act more natural. Here are some guidelines on the main differences between a speech and a presentation.

The Head

A business presentation often involves a person who's supported by a single thing that differentiates it from any other form of public speech – a presentation. That's right, whether it's a few slides with diagrams or a yearly report, it always comes down to being backed up by visual stimuli for the group of people you're addressing. And that's where we come to the second thing that divides “a speech” and “a business presentation” – a group of people. Not a crowd, a group. It's usually a group of investors, sales technicians or just an intern's report of the company's state of affairs. A business presentation is targeted at a small, well-known group of individuals who know what they're in for, and for whom you specifically prepare a presentation. It takes knowledge of a certain field to successfully prepare a business presentation, so this is something that caters to, as the name says, business people seeking to make profit and develop their work.

The Tail

At the other end of the spectrum we have “a speech”. Given what we know about presentations so far, it's easy to fill in the gaps and form a clear picture of what a speech is. A speech is targeted at a crowd, and it involves the speaker creating a vivid picture in the listeners' heads by telling them about a certain topic. Whether it's their vision of a better tomorrow, a straight-forward healthcare system for all, or man's journey into the stars, the speaker engages the listeners and never lets them go. How? By something we call “persuasion”. Throughout history, we have examples of great speakers shaking the world with their words. Those words were often used to do both great and terrible things, but one thing they all had in common, was that they were persuasive. A speech is always intended to invoke action.

It doesn't matter which sort of action; a donation to a children's home or being a more responsible driver; the speaker concentrates on one topic and gives you his ideas, also known as his “What-How-Why”. These people are called “thought leaders”, because they think differently than most. It takes guts to walk up to a stage and talk to a murmur of a crowd, but more than that, it takes courage to express original ideas. We all remember Gandhi, but unfortunately, not everyone remembers Mike from down the street. A speech is only as effective as its speaker. Confidence equals influence.

The Choice

Now that we've looked at what “a speech” and what “a business presentation” means, we can easily choose which one we'll use when expressing ourselves. They are far from the same, and learning to effectively pick and use different techniques of public speaking will often make a difference between a failed contract and a successful business venture.

Honing your skills and practicing to become a skilled speaker is fundamental in the business environment. A good presenter and public speaker is someone charismatic, eloquent and calm. If you can do that and not think about your fears, than you have the highest chances of succeeding and attaining your goals. Use your fear to your advantage, and make it a trump card. This is a sure way to achieve greatness in every endeavor.

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The Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make in Disaster Continuity Planning

The statistics are alarming: More than 40 percent of small businesses that experience a disaster, whether natural or manmade (i.e., a data breach) never recover and end up going out of business within a year. There are several reasons for these failures, ranging from the high costs associated with disaster recovery to the business owner simply deciding to move in a different direction.

However, one of the most common reasons for a business's failure to bounce back after a disaster is poor planning. A comprehensive disaster continuity or recover plan is vital to staying in business after things go wrong, but all too often, small businesses either do not have a plan at all, or have a plan that is inadequate or plagued by serious errors.

If you are a small business owner and you do not have a disaster continuity plan based on a careful risk analysis, it's important that you put one together right away. If you do have a plan, take the time to review it and determine whether any of these mistakes need to be corrected.

Mistake #1: The Plan Hasn't Been Updated

Disaster planning is not something that you can do once, check off the list, and forget about. As your business grows and changes, so should your disaster plan. Ideally, your plan should be reviewed at least annually (if not more often) to ensure that it accurately reflects your current status, addresses all potential risks, and is accurate in terms of contacts, procedures, and equipment. In the event of a disaster, a plan that contains outdated contact information or an incomplete list of equipment is not going to do you any good.

Mistake #2: The Plan Hasn't Been Tested

Any plan can look good on paper. But unless you test the plan to be sure that it works, you could be setting your company up for failure. Conducting both planned and “surprise” drills based on a variety of scenarios that could potentially affect your company allows you to determine which parts of the plan work and which need some refinement or changes. With testing, you also help improve the “people element” of the plan. Often, the weakest aspect of any disaster plan execution are the people involved. When your team doesn't understand their roles or have the skills necessary to execute the plan, the plan falls apart. Testing identifies these deficiencies so you can correct them before a real disaster.

Mistake #3: You Created Your Plan Yourself

You know your business better than anyone else. That doesn't mean, though, that you have insight into every possible thing that could go wrong and how to mitigate those risks. Even if you have an IT department with responsibility for developing the plan, it shouldn't fall entirely to them. Because disaster recovery involves all mission critical applications and data, planning needs to involve leaders from all aspects of your company, who can help identify and prioritize the aspects of your business that need attention in the event of a disaster.

Most small businesses are also well-serve to work with outside IT and disaster recovery consultants who can help develop a plan that addresses all needs and priorities. Working with a Virginia IT services company will avoid gaps in your plan and ensure that it's properly developed and tested.

Mistake #4: Only One Person Has the Plan

In the event of a disaster, you can never be certain who will be available to implement the plan. What happens if disaster strikes while you are on vacation, and you're the only person with knowledge of the plan or authority to carry it out? Even if you only have a few employees, you need to create a disaster recovery team, in which everyone understands the plan and can put it into motion if necessary.

If you are a sole proprietor, this is where working with an IT consultant or managed IT services firm comes into play, as they can begin the recovery process, often before you even have a handle on the scope of the problem.

Mistake #5: Ignoring Potential Scenarios

Identifying all possible risks is a cornerstone of disaster continuity planning. It's always the disaster that you didn't plan for that destroys your business, so take the time to conduct a thorough risk analysis. While the likelihood of some scenarios may seem small, the consequences may not be, so it's important to identify and plan for everything.

No one likes to think about the possibility of things going wrong, but they can and often do. Investing the time and resources into planning now can prevent devastating consequences if disaster strikes, and avoiding common mistakes may even make the difference between lost profits and productivity and no consequences at all.

The post The Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make in Disaster Continuity Planning appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

The Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make in Disaster Continuity Planning

The statistics are alarming: More than 40 percent of small businesses that experience a disaster, whether natural or manmade (i.e., a data breach) never recover and end up going out of business within a year. There are several reasons for these failures, ranging from the high costs associated with disaster recovery to the business owner simply deciding to move in a different direction.

However, one of the most common reasons for a business's failure to bounce back after a disaster is poor planning. A comprehensive disaster continuity or recover plan is vital to staying in business after things go wrong, but all too often, small businesses either do not have a plan at all, or have a plan that is inadequate or plagued by serious errors.

If you are a small business owner and you do not have a disaster continuity plan based on a careful risk analysis, it's important that you put one together right away. If you do have a plan, take the time to review it and determine whether any of these mistakes need to be corrected.

Mistake #1: The Plan Hasn't Been Updated

Disaster planning is not something that you can do once, check off the list, and forget about. As your business grows and changes, so should your disaster plan. Ideally, your plan should be reviewed at least annually (if not more often) to ensure that it accurately reflects your current status, addresses all potential risks, and is accurate in terms of contacts, procedures, and equipment. In the event of a disaster, a plan that contains outdated contact information or an incomplete list of equipment is not going to do you any good.

Mistake #2: The Plan Hasn't Been Tested

Any plan can look good on paper. But unless you test the plan to be sure that it works, you could be setting your company up for failure. Conducting both planned and “surprise” drills based on a variety of scenarios that could potentially affect your company allows you to determine which parts of the plan work and which need some refinement or changes. With testing, you also help improve the “people element” of the plan. Often, the weakest aspect of any disaster plan execution are the people involved. When your team doesn't understand their roles or have the skills necessary to execute the plan, the plan falls apart. Testing identifies these deficiencies so you can correct them before a real disaster.

Mistake #3: You Created Your Plan Yourself

You know your business better than anyone else. That doesn't mean, though, that you have insight into every possible thing that could go wrong and how to mitigate those risks. Even if you have an IT department with responsibility for developing the plan, it shouldn't fall entirely to them. Because disaster recovery involves all mission critical applications and data, planning needs to involve leaders from all aspects of your company, who can help identify and prioritize the aspects of your business that need attention in the event of a disaster.

Most small businesses are also well-serve to work with outside IT and disaster recovery consultants who can help develop a plan that addresses all needs and priorities. Working with a Virginia IT services company will avoid gaps in your plan and ensure that it's properly developed and tested.

Mistake #4: Only One Person Has the Plan

In the event of a disaster, you can never be certain who will be available to implement the plan. What happens if disaster strikes while you are on vacation, and you're the only person with knowledge of the plan or authority to carry it out? Even if you only have a few employees, you need to create a disaster recovery team, in which everyone understands the plan and can put it into motion if necessary.

If you are a sole proprietor, this is where working with an IT consultant or managed IT services firm comes into play, as they can begin the recovery process, often before you even have a handle on the scope of the problem.

Mistake #5: Ignoring Potential Scenarios

Identifying all possible risks is a cornerstone of disaster continuity planning. It's always the disaster that you didn't plan for that destroys your business, so take the time to conduct a thorough risk analysis. While the likelihood of some scenarios may seem small, the consequences may not be, so it's important to identify and plan for everything.

No one likes to think about the possibility of things going wrong, but they can and often do. Investing the time and resources into planning now can prevent devastating consequences if disaster strikes, and avoiding common mistakes may even make the difference between lost profits and productivity and no consequences at all.

The post The Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make in Disaster Continuity Planning appeared first on Home Business Magazine.