Zinc Blog

Some people say it’s never okay to be satisfied with your business. You should always search for improvement to make your business more valuable to your customers and society. But when is enough, enough? When can you settle in and grind it out without a constant eye toward the future? Today, we thought we’d talk about the fear of complacency and how it can both help and hinder your intentions. 

You must make difficult decisions in any walk of life, especially in running a business. The most critical decisions will focus on policies that help you keep employees and ensure they are motivated. Today, we want to discuss some of the problems associated with employee churn, or turnover, and what you can do to combat it in today’s modern business environment.

Managing a business poses considerable challenges, with a myriad of tasks demanding attention daily just to sustain the status quo. If you want to have a workforce that is not just present but genuinely invested in the enterprise, you will need to actively do more than just go through the motions. The question then becomes: How can one cultivate such dedication? This month, we will take a look at that very question.

Running a business is rarely easy. There are a lot of moving parts that require attention and there are only so many hours in the day to get everything done. As technology professionals, we often notice that small business owners can do themselves a disservice by not truly understanding their business—whether that be by having delusions of grandeur or by not having the proper perspective that would allow them to do more to build sustained and consistent prosperity. In this week’s blog we take a look at some of the ways that business owners hinder their chance of success.

One of the more challenging issues to deal with as a business owner is bridging the gap with your unhappy employees. While it’s certainly true that unhappy employees could be upset for any number of reasons, some of which are completely unrelated to work, there are others that you might have complete control over without necessarily realizing it. Let’s go over how you can help your employees be happier and more fulfilled during their time with your business and, thereby, more productive as a result.

Businesses have been utilizing flexible working conditions in increasing droves, due in no small part to the pandemic, but many continue to hold onto these policies in at least some capacity. Businesses, therefore, need to be very cognizant of data retrieval policies and security measures that can keep their organization safe.

Make no mistake, you want your business to grow. There is no better sign that you are resonating with customers and providing the value you set out to deliver. Unfortunately, for a lot of companies, they simply aren’t prepared when their product or service takes off and it ends up ruining what could be a very good thing. Today, we’ll take a look at three actions you can take to keep your business humming along when it sees extraordinary growth. 

Entrepreneurship is extremely frightening to a lot of people, and that’s probably why a lot of people make the choice to work for others. If you think about it, a lot can go wrong; a lot more than can go right. Today, we thought we’d highlight how business owners are able to get through all of the problems to forge ahead and create successful companies.

You may have heard of the RICE prioritization framework for developing new products, but we believe that it can be applied to not just products, but also to services and even project implementation practices. What is this framework, and how can you use it when developing new ideas for your business?

The traditional 40-hour workweek feels like a staple in the business world, where employees work 8 hour shifts and then head home for the day. This was not always the case, however, and there can be a case made that even the 40-hour workweek should be adjusted to at least some degree. Let’s take a look at the modern workplace, how it has changed, and how it can still be changed to better employees of all levels—including you.

The future can be unpredictable at best, especially in today’s times. You never know when your company will suffer from circumstances beyond your control, whether it’s a disaster that uproots your office or a pandemic that forces your entire workforce to transition to remote operations. Thankfully, even in today’s trying times, technology presents opportunities to overcome these challenges.

The modern office has a ton of devices that need to be tracked and monitored, but how do you do it? How do you make sure that you are keeping track of each device, such as what they are, who is using them, and how they are being used? If you are not currently tracking your technology, it’s time to start doing so. An inventory management system can make this task much easier and more efficient.

For many businesses, keeping on top of their inventory is crucial to the profitability of their operations. Inventory management thus becomes incredibly important. Today there are tools being developed that can make managing your inventory and supply chain easier and more efficient. Let’s take a look at three tools that can help you manage your inventory more effectively. 

Building business strategies that actually work to promote productivity has to be a core consideration for every business. Some business owners will try about anything to get there, and their stories will get other business owners to try them out, often with much less success. One of the best ways to build more productive and sustainable business processes is to ensure that they are repeatable. Today, we’ll discuss how building more consistency can really benefit your business.

COVID-19 has been pretty rough on the small business. Millions of businesses have either been forced to suspend or alter operations. Today, we wanted to point out that you may be distracted with a lot of things, but your business’ cybersecurity efforts need to be a priority.

The security of your business’ digital assets is extremely important, which is why it is disheartening when we see so few organizations taking the steps they need to sufficiently protect them. We thought we would go through some practices that will help you protect these assets and start you on your way to developing a security strategy of your own. 

Businesses deal in relationships. They have to create a relationship with their clients and customers to keep them coming in the door, whether they are serving other business needs or consumer ones. Of course, it can be hard enough to manage all of the relationships in one’s personal life… how can one possibly add business relationships into the mix?

Employees are without a doubt the most unpredictable resource within your business. Nothing can be more catastrophic to data security than a careless or untrained worker. Enforcing safe practices and policies doesn’t have to feel like a chore, if training is handled properly. In fact, employees typically become eager to learn how to avoid the latest and greatest cyber-related threats. These threats plague not just our work lives, but our everyday lives as well. Today, we will discuss what you and your employees should be aware of in today’s connected world. 

There are many obstacles that any business owner needs to avoid in order to keep themselves from backsliding like Sisyphus did in Greek myth. Some of these obstacles may not be the first that come to mind, either. Here, we’ll review six mistakes that a business owner can make that can prevent them from reaching their goals. 

When you run a successful business, you accrue a large client base. It eventually becomes impossible to please everyone, leading to some negative online reviews. With the rise of social media making it easier than ever before to take negative thoughts into the public’s view, you need to take a step back and consider your organization’s stance on how it deals with online reputation management.