Business Planning

The business impact of the recent earthquake and aftershocks

Some interesting snippets coming out of the aftermath of the recent earthquake and aftershocks.

Forsyth Barr were caught out in Christchurch in 2011 when they couldn’t get back into their building to access paper documents that were not in electronic form.  As a Forsyth Barr director said” you have to assume you will never get back in.” Forsyth Barr arranged for computers and a place for their staff to work but couldn’t replace the original documents stuck in their condemned building in Christchurch. They did however put a plan in place that worked for them this time when their Lower Hutt office was closed after the 14 November earthquake.

Some legal firms in Christchurch only had paper copies of wills and lost them in 2011. How embarrassing!

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New Information and Records Standard for New Zealand

The new Information and Records Standard from Archives New Zealand sets the scene for lifting records and filing out of the pre-digital age of paper files and filing clerks and into 21st century thinking about what constitutes information and how we think about it.

It gives us the opportunity to consider how the information held in records and archives fits with the other information held or used by your organisation.

Why?

The new standard includes ‘information’ in its title. 

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Save your research to save time later

What is the best way to finance my growing business?

What is the best software for me to use for my business?

How do I store all the information I so I can find it next time I need it?

These questions and many more are often asked by business owners.

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Geriatric care and business information : commonalities

My mother is 93 and living in a rest home. I’m not terribly happy with her situation and I’ve been reading Atul Gawande’s book “Being Mortal” looking for better options for people like her. I was surprised in the first few chapters to find some similarities with business information systems.

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Where is the valuable intelligence in your business

Business information, whether electronic and hard copy, holds valuable intelligence about your business activities.

Losing this valuable information, or being unable to access it quickly when needed, could result in loss of contracts and lower profits.

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The value of document management systems

I’ve never been a great fan of electronic document management systems. I can see how they can be useful but I’ve seen a lot that, in spite of hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to install them, are not used effectively because the people who are expected to use them find them too hard.

Now there are many reasons for this and it’s not always the fault of the system itself.

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Give your business a flying filing start in 2015

Have you experienced one or more of these situations?

♦  Wasted time looking for information that you have filed “somewhere”?
♦  Got frustrated when you can’t find a paper or email that you know “is there somewhere”?
♦  Had to pay tax penalties because your missed a deadline due to inefficient business processes?

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Small business challenges in Ireland and New Zealand

I’ve been in Dublin recently with my daughter and her family. It was a busy time with her young children and chef/restauranteur husband but lots of fun and very different from life at home in New Zealand where I live with my husband and a cat!

What I found interesting was the similarities between Ireland and New Zealand. I’ve always been aware of the similar

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Your first step to improve your office efficiency

You can improve the way your office operates by creating efficient access to all the information that you use in your business.

Information, both electronic and hard copy, is the cornerstone of your business.  No matter what your business is you need information about stock, designs and other intellectual property, cash flow, staff, client and supplier contacts, business plans; in fact all the knowledge that is held by your business in paper files or electronic documents and systems.

Not knowing where to find all this valuable information, or being unable to access it quickly when needed, can result in loss of contracts and lower profits.

You and your staff need to get at important information quickly and efficiently

If only one person knows where and how information is filed, other people in your business won’t be able to access it when that key person is unavailable

Your systems and processes for keeping business records will reflect the information flow and ensure that everyone is able to work efficiently. This in turn will improve productivity and thus increase profits.

Think about this…

  • How you lost a contract because you couldn’t find a key tender document in time for a meeting
  • The complaints from your team because they couldn’t find something  someone else had filed
  • Information you can’t find after you have filed it
  • An important email that was deleted in error or lost in the thousands of emails in your inbox
  • The tax payment you missed and penalty you had to pay because you couldn’t find the reminder from your accountant

When was the last time you were in one of these situations?  You need to organise our business information so you can find what you need when you need it.

Our e-workbook is here to help you.  This step-by-step instruction book will give you the tools you need to build your own system for keeping your business information under control.  It won’t take you long and will save your heaps of time and money currently lost in unproductive searching for information.

Don’t waste any more time searching for elusive documents or files.  Create your own filing system using our instructional workbook.  Available online now.

You can read more hints and tips to improve your business in the free eBook.

 

Six-monthly review time

In April I launched my eWorkbook “Keeping Good Records in Small Businesses” (link to sample here).  Now after six months, it’s time for a review.

There’s been a lot of interest and enough sales for me to know there’s a need out there. From feedback I’ve had, I realise that small businesses really do need help with setting up a filing system for their business records.

When I launched the eWorkbook (link to sample) the price included one hour of my time to get people started.  That price for the eWorkbook and the consulting time was at a discounted rate at $147NZ.

I’ve contacted all the business owners who have purchased to find out how they have got on.  Some haven’t had time to do much yet and no one has taken me up on the one hour consultancy that we built into the price to get them started.

Because the purchasers so far haven’t taken advantage of the one hour consultancy   I’ve decided to offer the eWorkbook for sale without that additional extra.

Now for only $57NZ, you can have the benefit of my knowledge and experience to build your filing system.   You also get the first of six monthly updates at no extra cost.

Then if you do decide you need some help, you can get that separately if and when you decide you need it.

Plus remember to check out my free eBook and then there is my blog where you can pick up additional hints and tips about organising your business information to improve your business.

Also remember to check your email every month for all the recent blogs put together in a newsletter.

If you are frustrated because you can’t find your business information when you need it, then download the eWorkbook right now so you have a full set of instructions on how to set up a filing system for your business.

If you already have a filing system that works for you , you can use this eWorkbook to check on how you might improve your system and you will have it as a reference  for the future.

Judy Owen has been working with businesses of all sizes and complexities for more than 20 years to improve and streamline the access to their business information.  She and her team can show you how to reduce risk, improve productivity and increase profits with good business systems and processes in your business.