Whether you work in a garage or a downtown office building, there are certain business standards that small companies simply must adopt in order to stay fresh and malleable in today’s ever-changing corporate environment. Here are some suggestions to achieve some of the most important business standards, courtesy of CEO Medium.
Updating Computer Networks Often
While there is no shortage of horror stories involving businesses targeted by hackers, discovering a breach early can save you substantially. Reducing the risk by updating network assets regularly saves companies millions and deserves to become a rigorous company standard. One of the best ways to do this is to require users to change passwords regularly, which is a sticking point for companies around the globe.
Unify Branding and Marketing
Disjointed marketing efforts undermine your company’s brand, which compromises its ability to communicate with its target customer. Make sure that the message across all channels, such as social media, PPC advertising, and on-site content, is the same.
Tracking Regulatory and Legal Changes
Keeping business out of the crosshairs of regulators and the law requires regular monitoring. This can be particularly important if you’ve formalized your business structure as you’ll need to track legal and regulatory changes.
Some states charge corporate taxes that must be paid, along with other regulatory obligations. The cost of noncompliance is at least twice as costly as staying compliant, so it’s a good idea to review your business’s local, state, and federal requirements several times throughout the year. Thankfully, some accounting software provides businesses with timely alerts and notifications.
Managing Your Finances With Accounting Software
Accounting software can help you track your income and expenses, so you always know where your business stands financially. It can also help you prepare financial statements and manage your inventory.
There are a lot of different accounting software programs out there, so it’s important to choose one that’s right for your business. Select the best accounting software by considering your business’s specific needs before making a purchase.
Recognizing and Rewarding Teams
Not only does employee turnover lower morale and productivity, but replacing employees costs at least $1,500, depending on the type of employee. One of the best ways to mitigate that loss is to regularly recognize and reward teams with valuable incentives, such as bonuses or extra PTO. Employees that are recognized are over 60% less likely to go job hunting within the next three to six months
Checking Your Insurance Policies
Yearly review of policies such as business insurance as well as cyberattack and data breach insurance needs to be a part of standard policies because:
- Conditions for needing the policy can change, resulting in either upgrading, downgrading, or new adoption to cover those gaps.
- Overpaying for insurance you no longer need adds to operations costs when you need to watch every penny.
- There could be mistakes in the policy that could cost you in the long run.
Regularly Organizing Records
Professionalism and organization go hand-in-hand. Properly maintaining your documentation, monthly, quarterly, or semiannually, provides a useful audit trail that can benefit you if you have to deal with government entities. Modern times have made it easy to automate record-keeping processes to ensure that not only can you access your documents, but that they stay secure for years.
Staying on Top of Business
Paying attention to what’s going on internally and externally and adjusting accordingly is a great way to help your business stay out of trouble. From there, making company standards a part of the corporate culture ensures that those measures become fully integrated – allowing your business to reach its true potential.
