A key to responding to tenders is demonstrating what makes your company different to every other company. Are you showing your company as a ‘me too’ or as the leader in your field.

I know essentially you and your competitors are similar. Each of you are:

• following the same industry rules

• have staff or contractors

• have learnt your trade

• use the same tools

So how do you demonstrate that you are different to everyone else.

This is the million dollar question!

Most tenders have the following types of questions that require your answer.

How would you answer these real Tender Questions

The four questions below have been taken from different tenders as an example.

1. State your involvement in activities which involve the use of leading technologies, innovative solutions and best practice that have resulted in “value for money” improvements.

2. ABC Company is keep to support innovation and explore any “value add” option tenderers may feel could be available within the scope of the project. Tenderers are required to identify such options and express them in writing.

3. Give an example of where you have implemented an idea that resulted in benefit for your client?

4. Do you have any ideas currently that could reduce costs for ABC Company?

Essentially they all ask for the same information, just worded differently.

How you answer these questions, will determine how your business is perceived by the reviewers of the tender response.

Is your business a leader or a follower - a ”me too” business

Write down in dot points, what you think your answer would cover.

Ok Stop reading right now, come back once you have written down your answer(s).

Ok, you have written down your answers – Awesome, keep reading, otherwise don’t miss this opportunity to really think about what you would write today.

So how do you answer them?

You could use motherhood statements like

• We have the best people

• We use the best project management software to manage the project

• We have been in business for 20 years

• We are the most reliable company

• We use the best equipment

These type of statements are all “me too” follower statements, because everyone uses them.

Areas for Thought

So what is the best way to answer these types of questions?

• Think about your entire business - not just what the client sees when your onsite.

• Think about what projects you have completed, where you were able to save your client stress, headaches, time, money. You know those projects that you have gone above and beyond. Tell the story of what the problems were and what you did to solve them. Then what that meant to your business and your clients business.

• Think about what internal projects you have done that has streamlined processes. It could be finance, operational, technology, people management etc.

• Think about future projects that will save time, money, increase safety etc

• Think about if you have implemented a different use of a tool for example a tool that makes it so you don’t have to bend down and hurt your back.

• Do you use stilts?

• Do you use software programs to keep track of your licences and those of your teams

• Do you use software to schedule appropriately licensed members.

• Have you implemented an amazing induction program for new team members

• Do you do something different in toolbox meetings to ensure compliance

• You may have a different way of incenting your team for awesome work.

• Have you implemented something that will transform your industry

• How do you encourage your workers to improve your business and /or the customer experience?

• What is your vision for your business – is it to be a disruptor in the industry or just follow the norm.

• Is your business leading the way in the industry – implementing improvements?

All of the answers can be included in your innovation or value add response in your tenders.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” - Steve Jobs

Quantifying

However just saying you are innovative and add value to your clients, isn’t enough. Always make sure that you add some quantifying information as well.

What do I mean my quantifying? Great question

• Always include what problem you needed to solve.

• What you did to solve it.

• And what the end result is.

For example -

Did you notice all of the outcomes are quantifiable? To use quantifiable outcomes, you will need to keep company statistics.

Caveat: Now this is an example only. Is this possible, maybe. Please don’t use this example unless, its true. Only ever put information in a tender response that is true.

What you can do today

Do you make sure your clients, know what sets you apart from the pack?

Take a look at your answers from the above exercise, Now that you have read the rest of the article. What can you add or remove from your answers.

Have a look at your previous tender responses and look for the innovation or value added questions.

So are you a leader or follower in your industry?

Could you have responded showing your business as a leader?

If you would like to ask any questions of our Tendering Expert. Send an email to: info@winwintendering.com. Chris will happily answer those questions.

Happy successful Tendering and quoting

Chris Dennis

Win Win Tendering

0400 097 161

www.winwintendering.com

www.tenderinguniversity.com

Download Chris’s exclusive member tips. Tendering and Quoting Guide: 10 Strategies to Reduce Time and Stress

Members who sign up receive 10 emails across 10 days featuring plenty of helpful tips.

How rebranding led to a 400% revenue increase in 6 months for this marketing agency

The Certainty Principle recently rebranded in July 2016 after launching a range of new and unique service offerings to meet the changing needs of their clients. It was clear that their previous brand, ‘Bloke’ no longer reflected their innovative and full service offering. This change has been very successful, resulting in an appointment of 20 new clients and a 400% revenue increase in just six months.

Bloke was co-founded in 2011 by Matt Daunt, Tim Bloore and Mike O’Rourke, with the name of the agency being a combination of Tim and Mike’s surnames. The co-founders had formerly worked within independent agencies, each having over 25 years of experience in the advertising industry.

The directors were seeing a real shift in their clients’ requirements and it became evident the traditional agency model was not meeting their needs. Over a six month period, the team completely re-invented the delivery of the agency’s processes and services to provide their clients with what they were looking for – increased ROI with diminished budgets. Bloke was then rebranded to The Certainty Principle, a dynamic, agile and forward thinking company who understand the need to be constantly changing and meeting the market’s needs.

“Our clients were needing greater marketing certainty and a better understanding of return on investment. Many businesses lack a comprehensive view of how their business objectives are being met through marketing, and that’s where we come in. We aim to offer clients a more cost-effective and results-driven approach to marketing, design, creative and digital by using an evidence-based data rich approach to each campaign,” says Matt.

The Certainty Principle is an independent, End-to-End Creative Marketing Solution Agency. Rather than hiring a marketing assistant, businesses can simply outsource many of these functions to the agency while access compelling strategic and creative executions and streamlining the whole marketing process. While clients enjoy significant cost benefits, it also enables The Certainty Principle to be completely aligned with their business’ objectives, providing greater ROI and have more effective communication across all channels.

The agency also provide a sophisticated real-time dashboard where the results of any marketing initiative can be seen and responded to with real agility. It also includes a predictive modelling feature which allows clients to see the effect of their Cost-to-Acquire, should they decide to change the channel mix and reallocate budget accordingly. The Certainty Principle has also developed a powerful lead generation program for B2B clients, providing a pre-determined number of qualified leads at a fixed cost.

The agency’s current clientele includes the Australian National Maritime Museum, Connect Hearing, Coco Joy Coconut Water and Landcare NSW.

“In the future, we hope to continue fulfilling the needs and expectations of all our clients. Our agency is designed to evolve as change occurs, with one of our key brand values being agility. We believe we will always be successful if we remain focussed on achieving our clients’ business objectives and help give them a greater certainty of return,” says Matt.

For more information, visit www.certaintyprinciple.com.au


Marketing is well-known for being one of the most difficult areas to measure. Business owners are often met with uncertainty when they question, ‘What will be the ROI for this activity?’. Sydney-based marketing agency The Certainty Principle provides a solution to this problem. It is an independent, end-to-end, creative marketing solution agency. It streamlines the marketing process by offering compelling strategic and creative executions and media buying capabilities across all channels.

The Certainty Principle, formerly ‘Bloke’, was founded by CEO Matt Daunt, Innovations Director Tim Bloore and Executive Creative Director Mike O’Rourke. The highly knowledgeable and successful team has over 60 years’ combined experience.

“The idea for our agency came from our clients’ need for greater assurance in their investments and a better understanding of their returns,” says Matt. “Many businesses lack a comprehensive view of how their business objectives are being met through marketing, and that’s where we come in. We aim to offer clients a more cost-effective and results-driven approach to marketing, design, creative and digital by using an evidence-based approach to each campaign.”

The Certainty Principle provides clients with a wide range of services, including brand development, digital marketing, creative advertising, influencer marketing and packaging design. The agency prides itself on its agility in working across both traditional media and emerging digital platforms, ensuring maximum engagement with audiences.

As a way to ensure total visibility across all aspects of campaign performance, The Certainty Principle offers clients access to a unique ROI (Return on Investment) dashboard. The ‘Dashboard of Certainty’ is cloud-based and works with any existing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, allowing a real-time overview of the marketing activity being undertaken for the client across all channels. The dashboard also includes a predictive modelling feature which gives clients the ability to see in real-time the effects of potential alterations to their spending.

The Certainty Principle combines client data with their own research, resulting in new insights which guide the creative process. Consistent updates are made to each campaign strategy through continuous performance analysis.

The Certainty Principle has also created an innovative lead generation model called Activation Program. Unlike conventional lead generation, the Activation Program offers a fixed price for an agreed upon volume target. The agency build a range of campaign materials to enhance the messaging and promote the call-to-action which includes EDMs, direct mail and banner ads to drive traffic to a specific online landing page. The Activation Program is suitable for businesses of all sizes.

Nexdius Pty Ltd, owner of Australian sunscreen brand Solar D, has announced further expansion plans on top of its recent lucrative $30M global partnership announced late last year with KW International. Nexdius has announced a seed funding round for its global expansion under the KW International agreement as it enters markets across North America, Asia, South America and Europe.

The company has recently appointed corporate advisors View Street Partners, who are this week embarking on an institutional roadshow ahead of next month’s seed capital raising.

Solar D Sunscreen is the world’s first and patented vitamin D promoting sunscreen giving it a unique position in the global $9.3B sunscreen market. Sun care is one of the fastest growing categories of skin care due to awareness of sun damage. It contributed to ~US$10B of the US$465B global beauty and personal care market in 2014, and Euromonitor projects it will grow at a CAGR of 2.6% to US$529B in 2019.

Globally, vitamin D deficiency has risen to pandemic proportions for all age groups and continues to grow. Existing studies suggest long-term low vitamin D levels being associated to an increased risk of many diseases including autism, Alzheimer's, some cancers, heart disease, mental health conditions, autoimmune diseases and multiple sclerosis.

In November 2016, Nexdius announced the two year deal worth over $30M with KW International, a United States based supply chain and distribution company with offices in the United States, South Korea, Taiwan and China. The exclusive strategic partnership will provide distribution of Solar D throughout North America and Asia.

“We are progressing with a strategic growth plan for Solar D following its successful launch in Australia in 2014 and a new two-year global partnership with KW International. The Company is on the cusp of substantial growth and expansion into new geographies including Europe, China, India and Brazil. Additionally, new products are in development including the launch of a new skin whitening product with the patented vitamin D promoting technology,” said Solar D CEO Mathew Collett.

The vitamin D promoting sunscreen technology has been granted a patent in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and has patents pending in Brazil, Canada, European Union, and the United States. Solar D effectively filters the sun’s harmful rays, whilst permitting the passage of a spectrum of sunlight that stimulates natural production of vitamin D in our skin. A world first.

Solar D Sunscreen has been approved for sale in the proposed territories complying with the TGA, FDA and COLIPA standards.

Solar D is manufactured in Melbourne and Los Angeles and has plans to move manufacturing to destinations where Solar D is sold. There are also several licencing and private label opportunities that are in progress which are developing in 2017.

“The aim is to be eventually the ‘intel’ of all sunscreens,” says Collett.

This year, Solar D’s vitamin D promoting broad spectrum SPF 15, SPF 30 and SPF 50 sunscreens are being distributed through KW International’s 42 locations throughout the United States, Mexico, China and South Korea. The range is currently available across pharmacy and grocery outlets in Australia and New Zealand, and online in the USA through Amazon and walmart.com.

Nexdius and Solar D

Nexdius Pty Ltd was created in 2013 and is an Australian company that owns the rights, IP and patents to the Solar D technology and Solar D products.

Solar D developed and patented the world’s first vitamin D promoting sunscreen which filters the sun’s harmful rays, while permitting the passage of a spectrum of sunlight that stimulates natural production of vitamin D in our skin. The vitamin D promoting sunscreen technology has been granted a patent in New Zealand, Australia and Japan and has patents pending in Brazil, Canada, European Union, and the United States.

Solar D Sunscreen is available in Australia at Woolworths, Pharmacy Choice, Amcal, Amcal Max, Capital Chemists, Good Price, Sigma, About Life and API. In New Zealand, Solar D is sold at Life Pharmacy and Unichem Pharmacy. In the US, Solar D Sunscreen is available through Amazon and walmart.com. www.solar-d.com

View Street Partners

View Street Partners are Nexdius’ exclusive Corporate Advisers in relation to the Capital Raising and long term corporate partner. View Street Partners is a corporate advisory company of high pedigree with a differentiated business model that is highly aligned with Nexdius’ goals and objectives. www.viewstreetpartners.com.au

Leading telecommunications provider Pivotel Group, has partnered with Canada’s revolutionary LTE (4G) private network solutions company Expeto, to deliver an Australian first partnership allowing Pivotel to manage EPC core network elements in remote virtual environments. 

Pivotel this month launched its remote 4G LTE solution ecoSphere^TM, demonstrating its intention to build an ecosystem of leading sensor, device, modem, network technology and application providers to deliver state-of-the-art solutions enabled by remote 4G coverage in the mining, resources and agricultural sectors.

Unlike the big three Australian telecommunications companies who spend large on buying bulky centralized core network appliances located in substantial data centres, Pivotel Group has ensured its services remain competitive by partnering with Expeto to deliver its all software 4G LTE core network solution.

Pivotel Executive Director Robert Sakker said with Expeto as its core network technology partner, customers will benefit from security, agility and flexibility in its network deployments.

“As Australia’s fourth mobile network operator in Australia alongside Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, Pivotel is a nimble network innovator, enabling us to push the boundaries and deliver global best practice,” Mr Sakker said.

“There is considerable value in partnering with Expeto. Firstly, it allows us to deploy targeted industrial and IoT solutions under our ecoSphere^TM brand, which can be optimized for an end customer’s requirements, and secondly, customers maintain network access control at a granular level, with security forming a significant part of our service offering.

“Instead of the legacy solutions typically found only in large telco data centres, Expeto has developed an agile way for us to flexibly deploy our core network elements under a Platform as a Service model. Instead of a large upfront capex commitment, we are able to align our cost base with our revenue on an opex basis which will help us grow our 4G LTE footprint quickly,” Mr Sakker added.

The Expeto partnership will enable Pivotel to deploy the EPC core network elements in its remote virtual environments in seconds, without the need for a black box or multi-million dollar system integration. Critical customer data is kept secure, and most of the data can be processed locally, minimising expensive transfers over remote backhaul solutions.

Expeto CEO Ryley MacKenzie, said the foray into Australia helps expand the company’s global footprint.

“IoT service and solution providers such as Pivotel, are creating extremely innovative solutions. The Expeto platform ultimately enables enterprises to deploy wireless IoT and smartphone devices with more agility and configurability than ever before – all accomplished through IT methodologies, not telco complexity. We’ve built our service and reputation around the customers’ needs,” Mr MacKenzie said.

“It’s satisfying to see our developments rolled out by Pivotel in Australia. Expeto is cheaper, faster, easier and provides more control than legacy solutions. No boxes. No capex. With Expeto, Pivotel’s customers get their own network with their devices secured behind their firewall.”

The announcement comes in the lead up to Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, held in the Barcelona, 27 February - 2 March 2017.

How Gruntify is saving valuable time and money for businesses

Gruntify’s ability to solve business and process problems has managed to save companies millions of dollars by streamlining internal data management, reporting and communication activity.

If you haven’t heard, Gruntify is an innovative tasking and data management platform taking mobile, cloud and geospatial technologies by storm. Here’s how we help save valuable time and money for businesses:


Streamlining workflow processes

Many businesses, no matter what industry they are in, have similar challenges with managing data workflows between the field and the office. By incorporating Gruntify in business, we have been able to transform complex internal processes into an elegant set of logical and well-organised steps that makes previous labourious paperwork redundant.

Put simply, Gruntify allows organisations to manage workflows, assign tasks, analyse, map and report collated information through a snap-and-tap platform that reports real-time image and location data. This assists with decision-making and creates efficient teamwork and data management within businesses.

By streamlining internal processes, Gruntify has been able to save businesses valuable time and money, with one customer in particular cutting down approximately 15 minutes per report. With thousands of reports now submitted through Gruntify each month, saving employees 15 minutes per each report has ultimately enabled our client to save thousands of hours in human resources each year.


Utilising electronic forms

Most organisations still use unwieldy manual paper-based systems to capture, process and action their field data, which wastes company time, money and resources. Gruntify’s app-based interface is easy to navigate and offers simple electronic forms that utilise a combination of media and form submission to allow for easy data capture in the field.
 

Data is sent immediately to the browser-based web panel, where office staff can view, edit, and analyse each report. Key decision-makers are subsequently able to action data and send job requests to other field staff as necessary. By eradicating the need for paper-based information, Gruntify has removed the risk of human error and a doubling up of work that can occur when paper-based information is uploaded electronically. This has enabled companies to be more efficient, in turn cutting down costs and making them more profitable.

Building new forms is also super easy and is done by customers themselves – via a simple drag and drop interface with no coding required.


Applying push notifications

The Gruntify platform utilises push notifications to communicate between users in real-time. Whenever a user submits a new request via the Gruntify app, they will receive notifications to update them of progress every step of the way. This negates the need for follow up calls or emails, because users already know the status of their request, at any point in time.

Push notifications allow communication to easily be scaled from a single user to millions of users, by utilising cloud infrastructure. In scenarios it is necessary to notify users of job updates and changes numerous times on a daily basis, push notifications make sense. Many Gruntify customers had traditionally used SMS services to communicate with their client base. Push notifications significantly reduce the cost, with one of our clients managing to save more than $700,000 each year just on their internal communication alone.

Recent exciting projects we have been involved in include:

• Tracking jaguars in the Peruvian Amazon to support conservation efforts
• Monitoring real-time reef conditions on the Great Barrier Reef
• Crowdsourcing koala locations to inform conservation management
• Working with the Townsville City Council to reduce water consumption during droughts

Got a data management problem you need help with? Get in touch for an obligation free informal discussion today via our contact us page.

Gruntify is an innovative data management platform taking mobile, cloud and geospatial technologies by storm. The technology was developed when GIS People, the powerhouse team behind the idea, were tasked in 2014 to develop a solution for the Department of Transport and Main Roads’ civic issues around its facilities. That winning solution evolved into the product marketed today, now supporting government, utility and environment officers in the field, where users can snap and tap to submit a photo, their location and other details through an app-based interface, making laborious paperwork redundant. The company is in commercial ventures with Microsoft, Dubai South and the Queensland Government among others, and is set to expand into North Africa and the United States in 2017. www.gruntify.com

On multiple instances we realise that the council trash pickup service is not competent, or sometimes willing to pick up your trash. GIven that these situations do not occur everyday, but in cases when you family hosts an event, or has a renovation or construction project done, the amount and the nature of the waste is beyond what your council would agree to pick up. Additionally, for the same reasons, it is not safe to throw this kind of waste in landfills, if that is, you somehow fit it inside your car or truck.

The solution to such problems lies in hiring a skip bin for needs similar to the ones mentioned above. If you already do not know what a skip bin is, it is a trapezoid shaped container for waste. Available in multiple sizes, it is perfect for throwing in large amounts of waste. Most skip bin hire in Adelaide will not only give you the skip bin for rent, they will remove it from your property, and properly dispose off the waste after you are done using the skip. This service is efficient and hassle free, but still demands a little research before you can hire a skip bin:

Find out what size of bin you need

Skip bins are usually available in a number of size, starting from 2 or 4 cubic metres in size, and going up to enormous roll-in roll-out bins that are used to dispose industrial waste. If you are looking for a bin for domestic purposes or for an event, a bin size between 4 and 8 cubic centimetres is perfect.

However, it is best first estimate the amount of waste that will be produced and then decide upon the size of the bin. While doing the guesswork, it always helps to be a little generous. You do not want to end up in a situation where the bin is totally packed and there is no way to fit anymore of the waste you have lying around. To avoid such situations, always hire a skip one size larger than what you estimate you will need.

Make sure you understand what you can put inside the bin

As efficient and hassle free as hook bins may be, there are certain limitations to what you can put inside a bin. For instance, skip bins are ideal for throwing in rubble, construction waste material, domestic waste, plastics, and organic waste products.

On the other hand, limitations exist for electronics, asbestos, medical waste products, and batteries.

Make sure you only work with a reliable company

Whenever we rent anything, or avail a service from a business, we do it for our convenience, but working with an unreliable business might send things in the opposite direction. It is thus very important to work with a true professional.

The first quality you need to look for in the company is if they have the necessary licensing for their business. Then, check how willing is the company to go out of its way for your convenience. For the best companies, customer satisfaction is king, and they would bend over backwards to suit your schedule and necessities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to remind the readers that it is our duty to engage in responsible waste management. Hiring a skip bin is one of the easiest ways to do that. If you know of any other ways through which responsible waste management can be done more efficiently, please make sure you share them with us in the comments below.

Entrepreneurship is all the rage among the millennial these days. While most ideas got buried before they could germinate, some managed to survive for a limited time and eventually went to oblivion along with a lot of investment riding on it. Only a handful of entrepreneurs could grow and made a difference, because they followed a set of rules and did stick to it till they were able to seduce success.

Here are 5 ways to progress as an entrepreneur, regardless the kind of business you run.

Keep Track of Your Success

Whether you close a big deal or achieve certain milestone with your venture, keep measuring your success and maintain a record in the form of numbers – the numbers that you derive from reports and trends. Let's understand this concept with the help of an example. If you made 5 sales during the first week, note it down and set a different goal, say 7 sales, for the next week. If, by the end of 2^nd week, you have 12 sales, you know that you have achieved what you aimed for. This would be a great motivation booster that also leaves you wanting for more.

Grind While They Party

While your friends and peers are partying or going on vacation, you need to grind yourself to paint the bigger picture. An entrepreneur is supposed to party less and focus more on work. Also, partying till late means you have less time to sleep and less sleep leads to less productivity at work. If you are an entrepreneur, give yourself a strong reason to party – a milestone well achieved, raked in bigger profits, closed the biggest deal till date – instead of getting wasted every weekend.

Seek Referrals

The prime objective of an entrepreneur is to close as many deals as possible. But in the process of doing so, they lose out on many potential customers that would come through referrals. When you close a deal and your client is seemingly happy with your products/services, ask if they could provide any referral or recommend your business to friends and family. While you do so, try not to sound desperate; it could be a major turn off.

Learn to Delegate

Every entrepreneur has a personal life and social responsibilities to deal with. Daily activities, like cleaning, doing laundry and dishes, household rubbish removal, cooking, etc eat up a lot of productive time which could have been utilised to grow your business. It's better to delegate such task to someone who has a knack for it, so you can be available where you are needed the most.

Seek Inspiration

Now remember the moment when you were struck by the idea of being an entrepreneur for the first time. Where did the inspiration come from? Was it someone you would look up to? Or, someone who inspired you by making something big out of his venture that had a very humble beginning? If there had been an inspiration then, there has to be a source of inspiration now. You can meet successful entrepreneurs, talk to them and take inspiration for your business.

Conclusion

Any business idea, which has gotten off on the right foot, is meant to succeed somewhere down the line, sooner or later. The only way to make it happen is keep trying and never give up or give in to circumstances.

In an economy with new start-ups launching and failing every year, it is imperative for anyone hoping to succeed to stay ahead of the curve.  For Bernice Ly, Australian entrepreneur and founder of Pocketbiz, she has put together some valuable steps to help other entrepreneurs striking out on their own – regardless of the industry or the area of expertise.  "These steps are how I started my business Pocketbiz.com.au.   Pocketbiz.com.au is an App that can be downloaded on to your mobile device via Google Play and the Apple Store and used anywhere at anytime.   Pocketbiz.com.au is an on demand marketplace for businesses that want to engage professionals and expertise to deliver services for particular Gigs.  In effect, it enables businesses and service providers to buy and sell services to each other in a direct and trusted online environment - and it conveniently sits in your pocket in the form of a phone or other device," Ms Ly said today. 

"I founded the Pocketbiz.com.au App because I believe that there is an 'entrepreneur' in all of us and the Pocketbiz.com.au App allows professionals and businesses to meet. It allows professionals who want to start or grow their business, or experience the business ownership mentality as a side Gig to utilise their professional and technical expertise to start. Just like I did. Pocketbiz.com.au is my way of contributing back to the business community and help other ambitious professionals who want the freedom to grow their career and for businesses needing talent to connect.  

"My background as an innovator from a young age is why I have drawn success from the digital industry.  But, I am here to encourage anybody and everybody to find their market and have the courage to enter it. Sometimes just starting can be daunting, for me it definitely was. But, I can safely say that passion, creativity and dedication can change your outlook and your life. This is how I started my businessPocketbiz.com.au and I encourage everyone to do the same.

"I had a fair few businesses on the go, those that I set up myself and for whom I was hired as a digital consultant.  My advice to anybody wanting to strike out on their own is to know your niche and do whatever it takes to learn as much as possible about it and become the best at it.  I had never really wanted to report to somebody so I knew that being my own boss was my eventual goal. There are plenty of women in the workforce who are, or have been, in the same boat but don’t have the confidence to strike out on their own.

"For me, this meant working in IT consulting and the financial sector before launching my App Pocketbiz.com.au. I had to grow my experiences and my knowledge in complex technology to get to where I am today and it would be the same for anybody else – no matter what type of business.

"Following these steps could open doors you didn’t even realise were there:

1. Decide on an avenue – be it in aviation, accounting, finance, anything at all!  You just have to pick where you would like to be and then try to make a list of how to get there.

2. Surround yourself with people that uplift you – none of us are who we are were it not for the people around us. For me, this was my family who were always there for me when I needed them and pushed me to new heights.

3. Learn as much as you can – once you have done Steps One and Two, attach yourself to a person or a company that you can learn from.  You may not be where you need to be branch out on your own so don’t be afraid to ask questions to those who do know.

4. Try not to get too bogged down in the small things – there are going to be setbacks.  Do not let them phase you, when you get knocked back (and you will) just pick yourself up and take a day to be unhappy with it but never dwell. All setbacks are learning opportunities and you should take them as such.

5. Build strong relationships with everyone you meet.  Business is about relationships.   Every person you deal with will speak to others about you and your business. Get everyone talking about your business.  If you are good to deal with, people will refer others to you.   

6. Try to find something you do for yourself in your downtime – it could be going to the gym, or swimming or reading a book.  Whatever it is, make sure you regularly find time to do it for yourself and do it on your own. I know this is harder when you have children to look out for but if you don’t take care of yourself it is easy to get burnt out too soon.  You need to look out for yourself.  Looking out for yourself keeps you balanced, centred and a nice person to be around."

If you run a business, you probably already recognise the importance of having a website that works. You may have invested in expert ecommerce web design, but the story should not end there. In addition to ensuring that your website is well managed and optimised for use on all devices, you need to think about getting your business message out in other ways.

Creating a blog is an excellent means of doing this. Whatever, your eventual business aim is, you want people to engage with you. The best way to do this is to show them who you and what you do best. You can do this on your website, but you need to keep your content succinct. People lose interest in websites that are crammed full of text. Creating a blog helps you to build on your message; to put the icing on the cake, to use a common phrase. If you do create a blog for your business, here are some tips for getting your message across.

1. Tell a story

People enjoy stories; it helps them to understand people and what they do. You may want to feature a customer experience story on your blog, or you may decide to create a series of “A Day in the Life Of” posts, so that readers can get to know the people who work in your business.

2. Keep your finger on the pulse

Keep up to date with the latest news in your industry, and write about it. You want people to see that you have experience and expertise. Showing them that you are up to date with what is going on is a good way of achieving this. Do not just re-hash stories, remember to use your own angle and show that you have an understanding as to why the news is important.

3. Use images to create the full picture

Some people relate well to reading text, others prefer to see images as well. If you want to appeal to a wide audience, it's a good idea to include images with at least some of your blog posts. For instance, your business may have won an award and you could talk about the presentation and display images of the event.

4. Encourage interaction

If you want to engage with the people who are reading your blog, you need to encourage them to interact with you. Provide a facility for people to leave comments and ask questions. This helps people to feel more involved with you as a business.

All of these points are good ways of conveying your business message using a blog. Do not forget that a blog should be ongoing. You do not have to bombard people with new posts, but should not just abandon it for days, or weeks, on end either. Try to post three times a week or more, and remember to keep the posts interesting and relevant. Do not be tempted to post something quickly and haphazardly; if you do this you risk losing reader interest and it can be difficult to regain.

One of the key parts of running a business is making your customers feel comfortable with the business itself. Trusting a business is an important part of deciding whether or not to use its services or products, as an untrustworthy company has many competitors that will seem more interesting or appealing with the competition taken into consideration.

Making your business more trustworthy can be as simple as getting uniforms for your customer-interaction staff, which can be gotten from corporate uniform suppliers, or as complex as enforcing entirely new customer-interaction protocols and retraining all employees. There are many ways to make a business more trusted, and we have compiled 7 of them here.

Testimonials

Something people tend to trust is other customers.

If your friend tells you that a certain restaurant is really good; the staff are friendly, the food is fresh and the prices are good then you’ll likely visit that restaurant yourself. This is the strength of testimonials, and it starts with providing great service to you earliest customers.

Guarantees

For product-based companies, guarantees are a great way to increase the amount of trust people place in your brand. A company that is confident in it’s products will be confident in providing longer guarantees, hence customers being more comfortable paying for products that the company guarantees for more than the usual 12 months.

Dress Codes

Having your employees don uniforms and head out into the workplace to interact with the customers is a great way to make people feel more comfortable in your establishment. There is an inherent awkwardness to approaching someone who may or may not work at a store to ask about a product, and a person in uniform does away with that awkwardness.

Contactable

Making your business contactable at all times is another way to increase the trust placed in your product or service. Customers that can always call and ask questions or make recommendations to an actual human employee (instead of a robotic answering service) are customers that will return in the future.

Location

Having a wonderful, uniformed staff and a well-presented, contactable store won’t help much if that business is located in a run-down part of town. Unfortunately, where the rent is cheapest also tends to be where the least foot-traffic is, and having to drive way out into the middle of nowhere usually isn’t great for your image and general trustworthiness.

Graphic Design

The branding on your store can make all the difference for your trustworthiness, too. Having a unified brand on all your products and buildings and vehicles means people will feel more secure when approaching your business, instead of unsure if they’re approaching something entirely different due to the branding.

Customer Treatment

Finally, the way your customers are treated is paramount to how trusted you are as a brand. A zero tolerance policy for employees that mistreat customers is essential, as the internet has become a powerful tool for mistreated clients, and word spreads faster than ever about rude or ineffectual businesses. On top of this, people enjoy being treated nicely and with respect and dignity, and will usually return to a place that treats them well.

All in all, earning the trust of your customers is a relatively straight-forward procedure, and following these tips will see you get there in no time.

Waste removal is a part of waste management. It incorporates solid waste from the point of use and disposal to treatment and landfill. There are few companies who handle the waste management process starting from industrial waste, commercial waste, residential waste, etc.

Throwing waste material is just not the way to get rid of it, recycling and reusing is also a great option to think about. So before we call these waste management companies, why not think about the stuff that we can re-use.

To manage the rubbish removal in logan, we have listed down 5 different companies with the same aim but varied working areas.

1. Brizzy rubbish removal pvt. Ltd

They take care of almost every kind of junk, garbage, and waste. Starting from residential garbage, Brizzy also goes to commercial building like offices and industrial areas. Cleaning, collecting waste and throw it at the correct dumping area is there rightful job. Most importantly, Brizzy rubbish removal also collects garden garbage and the entire area for you. They cater to all the areas in Brisbane, so you can call them anytime and anywhere.

2. Steve’s rubbish removal

These days everyone is at loss of time especially for clearing out their garbages and garden areas. Taking this into consideration, Steve’s rubbish removal helps you to collect all the waste in one go and get the entire area cleaned.

Whether it's a residential place, commercial area (offices, shops or small businesses), and industrial waste. Everything is covered by Steve’s rubbish removal. The people are well trained for it.

3. The rubbish guy

They specialize in cleaning the entire area and provide you a well tidy place to live or work at. They not only collect your waste and throw it at the dumpyard, they get things to recycled and re-used, for example, refrigerators, washing machines, are send to scrapyards, the use furniture is sent for re-use, etc.

4. Total rubbish

Total rubbish is a small company so they have to play smart. Rather than disposing everything as waste, they dispose of things for recycle and reuse. They specialize in researching and identifying the best waste management system. So you can get your waste recycled and reused by people who need it.

Whether it's America, london, australia, or India - Waste management is a very important project. People living in houses and working in offices should really try hard to not to throw material that can be recycled or reused by someone else. If you take the initiative today, the world would be a better place to live for the generations to come!

The Australian hospitality industry is more competitive than ever, according to the landmark hospitality survey performed by Impos.

More restaurants and other hospitality businesses are opening up every day, and smaller, independent businesses are faced with a variety of challenges like lower profits, increased food waste and high regulatory penalties.

But there is hope! Today’s advanced hospitality POS systems are powerful tools – and by using the data collected from your modern POS systems, your hospitality business can enjoy a wide variety of benefits and address these difficult challenges!

Let’s take a look at 4 ways that POS data can be used to improve your business now!

1. More Information About Product Sales and Popularity

Reducing waste is a huge concern for cafes, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. And it can be hard to address excessive food waste and eliminate menu items without understanding which products are popular and which ones are not.

Modern POS systems offer an easy way to understand which products of yours are selling and which ones are lagging behind. By analysing the deep data provided, you can figure out which menu items and products are the most – and least – popular.

With this data, you can work out solutions pre-emptively. For example, if you have a few unpopular items, put them on special for a reduced price to make sure they sell out. Or choose to eliminate low-performing items altogether.

Either way, staying informed about popular food and drink items will reduce waste and help you stay profitable!

2. Detailed Data About Transaction Times

Let’s face it, your customers don’t want to wait around for their payment to be processed, which is why all good POS systems allow you to take payments, fast. That way, the customer is happy and your staff have more times to get on with important tasks.

You should ensure that your POS system allows you to monitor the total transaction time of each customer. This can help you understand typical transaction times and take steps to reduce the time customers have to wait – whether because of a slow card payment processor, over-worked staff members or any other reason.

Reducing transaction times has a proven correlation to improved customer satisfaction so this is a powerful way to use the data that your hospitality POS system provides you with!

3. Better Inventory Control Tools

Advanced POS systems can plug directly into your inventory management and control software to keep track of which products are sold out, which ones must be reordered and which ones are nearing their best before date.

But POS systems let you do much more than merely take care of stock orders. You can also handle invoices, purchase orders and vendor information from your chosen POS terminal.

Having a better understanding of your inventory also reduces the risk of employee theft and helps you simplify accounting processes and ensure you’re not misreporting your inventory.

4. Comprehensive Information About Peak Traffic Hours

With contemporary POS systems, it’s never been easier to track your hospitality peaks and troughs, when you’re at your busiest and most profitable and when you’re not.

Many POS systems have integration capabilities with your rostering and time management system, meaning you can get a detailed look at staffing from your POS terminal.

You can generate rosters based on historical staffing information so you don’t have to spend time poring over sets of spreadsheets. You’ll have everything you need to maximise staff hours and run more efficiently, which is immensely helpful for your hospitality business.

Say you’re generally slow on Thursday afternoons. You can schedule fewer employees and instead get more employees working during your peak business hours on Friday nights.

In this way, your POS system can help you provide better service to customers, minimize wasted money on unnecessary shift work, and give you more insight into the performance of your business.

In the hyper-competitive world of the Australian hospitality industry, you need every edge you can get. And an easy way to gain that edge is to invest in an effective POS system.

So don’t wait. Utilise the power of a modern hospitality POS system and see how the advanced data can help your hospitality business succeed!

No matter what type of insurance you’re trying to get, the basic rules for finding cheap deals are the same. You should never go for the cheapest deal unless it gives you everything you actually need from a policy. For example, the cheapest marine insurance might only cover you in the case of fire to your vessel, and it might restrict how far you can travel from the marina where your boat is kept. Here are some top tips for finding the cheapest marine insurance and getting the best deal.

1. Shop around

Like other types of insurance, you should shop around before coming to a decision about which policy you’re going to take out. Some policies might be a little more expensive but have a smaller amount of excess to pay in the event of a claim. Others might be cheaper but don’t cover you for very much. Always read the small print on a policy before you sign the contract.

2. Call the insurance company

There’s a lot to be said for calling an insurance company and speaking to them face to face. While you can get good deals online, you can always haggle a little bit over the phone, and in many cases, the telephone advisor will be able to knock the price down for you a little bit, particularly if you’ve found a better quote elsewhere. Many insurance companies pride themselves on being able to match cheaper quotes, so you might be able to get a policy with a more reputable company for a smaller price.

3. Try comparison websites

You’re not guaranteed to get the cheapest deal by going through comparison websites, but you should try them out to see which companies are generally the cheapest on the market. You can then take the marine insurance quote that you have gotten from the comparison website, or phone them up and get a quote directly. In most cases, you will get exactly the same quote, but some comparison websites will add on commission for themselves, so it’s always worth checking.

4. Decide what you really need from your policy

Many boat owners take out insurance with features that they don’t really need. This means that they are paying hefty amounts each month for insurance that they are never going to use. It’s important to decide beforehand what you really need from your policy and what you need to insure. For example, you might not need to insure the contents of your vessel if you don’t have anything valuable stored on it. It’s a waste of money to pay for extra insurance that you don’t need.

5. Stay with the same company

Most insurance companies will reward loyal customers for staying with them, especially if they don’t take out a claim. If you’ve been with one insurance company for a long time, call them and ask about any special deals or offers they might have for existing customers. You can also save money by checking out deals for combined insurance policies, such as if you want to insure a car and a boat with the same company. For this to work, this company must be able to provide different types of insurance rather than just marine insurance, but you can check this with an advisor.

The increasing popularity of outsourcing sites like Freelancer.com and Airtasker.com has created a booming side gig industry in accounting and bookkeeprng for many people in Australia.     According to Coco Hou, Managing Director of Platinum Professional Training, one of Australia's largest accounting and bookkeeping training companies, the arrival of these sites combined with cloud based accounting software has created the perfect opportunity for people looking to undertake extra work in the accounting and bookkeeping sector.    As an industry, the bookkeeping sector is experiencing an unprecedented boom.   Every small to medium size business needs a bookkeeper to assist them with accounts and the number of small businesses setting up across the country and using cloud based accounting systems is on the rise.   

“Demand for bookkeepers is at an all time high,” Ms Hou said today.   

"Once upon a time, businesses employed people in full time roles to undertake accounting and bookkeeping activities, but the market is changing.   Many businesses are choosing to outsource these services to consultants, contractors and specialists without incurring the expense of full time salaries.    This means there are growing opportunities for people to contract their services on a consultancy or part time basis.   

"This why we are seeing such strong demand for our online bookkeeping and accounting courses. 

"People are keen to undertake training, get their qualifications and get out into the market and get working.

“The great thing about doing an online bookkeeping or accounting course is that you can do it from home and the completion time is flexible.    Our courses are self paced and include support and other forms of assistance to help people through the courses as well. 

“Given many businesses are now using cloud based accounting systems such as Xero, bookkeepers are able to deliver services online from anywhere in the country – because cloud based systems provide this flexibility.   They are also incredibly sophisticated and can be linked to bank accounts and other software which means they capture the whole organisation's activities in one place.   This is ideal for bookkeepers working remotely.   

"Bookkeeping really is the ideal side gig for anyone wanting to earn extra income, grow a full time consultancy business or work from home in a flexible manner.

“Retirees, stay at home parents, anyone with reasonable office or administration experience can get involved in providing services.

"Our training company launched online Certificate IV courses in accounting and bookkeeping early this year and the response has been extraordinary.    The courses are offered online and participants have up to 18 months to complete the courses.  Once complete, people can use the qualifications to become freelance bookkeepers, set up their own bookkeeping business or even seek consultancy, part time or full time roles as corporate accountants. 

"I would strongly recommend to job seekers or anyone thinking about exploring work opportunities to look into the accounting sector.   Every business needs assistance in this area and with the number of new businesses starting up every day, there is strong need for accounting and bookkeeping services in the market space."

Platinum Professional Training is a national training company with offices in all major cities that offers a broad range of training courses in accounting, finance and bookkeeping including online courses.   Courses are ideal for people wanting to accelerate their advancement, enter the sector or expand their practical experience for new opportunities. 

www.platinumaccg.com.au

While the internet has changed our lives significantly, many are still developing new ways and means of utilising the technology to deliver services and initiatives - even conferences.   Melbourne entrepreneur and highly respected speaker, author, life coach and business coach, Catherine Plano is delivering the world's largest self development conference online via Zoom in October this year. The Radical Shifts Online Summit is an entirely free experience running from the 9^th to 16^th October for individuals who want to make the most of change, who want to instigate change or who are simply looking to open their mind.

Created by Catherine, the Summit will be held completely online enabling people from all over the globe to participate utilising ZOOM.  

As an experienced, educated and insightful source for professional, personal and business development with over 22 years experience working with big brand companies and over 100,000 individuals; offering life, career, team, executive and business coaching along with individualised developmental work with women and teenagers, Catherine understands how to empower and assist people to change and improve their lives.

The Summit is an entirely FREE 8-day online coming together of professionals, intellectuals and those curious about broadening their minds and widening their knowledge.  It includes sixteen thought leaders and change makers including Danielle LaPorte, Dr Bruce Lipton, Dr Joe Vitale, Dr John Demartini, Mark Waldman and a variety of others.

The Summit offers recent discoveries and teachings in the areas of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, evolutionary biology, genetics, medicine and philosophy.

"I am really proud to be delivering such a significant event.   I am truly passionate about helping others and delivery of such a forum online scales up my ability to help others across the globe to achieve their full potential, Catherine said earlier today. 

“People want to tap into their personal power and they’re turning to behavioural science to help improve their lives.

“The Summit is an information-packed intensive course that will help participants to understand the complex connection between their mindset and behaviour.

“They’ll learn how to bio hack their brain wiring to make significant changes in their lives.

“Workshops and presentations are designed with practical everyday life tips that people can easily apply at home, work and in life.”

When Catherine was stuck in the grind of life in the corporate landscape of New York City, she experienced her first panic attack.  

Stuck on a busy train, the experience was debilitating, but this moment led her to make change and set her on the path of becoming a leading professional mindset and leadership coach, and author.

Catherine chose to be an advocate for her own healing and set off down the path of becoming a passionate transformational thought leader, change instigator and creative mind.

This decision and her resultant journey has inspired Catherine to organise the Radical Shifts Summit and to pen her debut book, ‘Getting to the Heart of the Matter: The No Nonsense Guide to Personal and Professional Transformation’; a self-help guide to assist the reader in creating the mindset to achieve.

Alongside the Radical Shifts Online Summit and insightful work of Catherine Plano, readers and attendees will experience mind opening engagement with experienced speakers and may even instigate their own ‘Radical Shift’.

Already several thousand people from all over the world have registered for the Summit which is being held online via Zoom and this figure is expected to reach 10,000 by early October.

Learn more about the Radical Shifts Online Summit:

http://your.radicalshiftssummit.com/summit-information-2017

‘The Heart of the Matter’ Book

www.heartofthematterbook.com

www.catherineplano.com.au

Apps are not eliminating the importance of having a website or wiping out social media sites. Instead, they are a complimentary channel when used correctly, amplifying the value of your online content and social media. Here are three reasons your business needs its own app, including one when it becomes critical to reaching customers.

A Deep Connection with Customers

An app is a potential source of deep, continuing contact with a customer. You can reward loyalty with coupon codes sent to them via the app when they haven’t bought from you for a while, without worrying about an email landing in the customer’s spam folder. You can provide discounts to them for using your app and sharing content via your app, making them feel appreciated and rewarded for maintaining the relationship. In fact, a good way to incentivise them downloading the app is offering a significant discount on their next purchase. If someone doesn’t download the app, there’s no cost to you. If they install it and don’t use the coupon, you still created the relationship.

Expanding Your Marketing Reach

Apps are an excellent marketing tool when used correctly. For example, you can share content with them at almost any time and ask them to share it via social media, engaging them while turning them into word of mouth marketers. When they share the content sent via your app through their social media app, it also improves the brand’s weight with search engines and the backlinks increase the search engine optimisation of the content available on the internet. This marketing channel also allows you to get content spread via social media, even if search engines and social media sites are censoring you.

Personalize your Marketing and Product Offering

If you have an app on someone’s phone, you can market to them when they are close to your business and thus most likely to buy from you. Or, you can share coupon codes and discounts to move them down the sales funnel, such as when they abandoned a shopping cart or have not bought their regular weekly purchase from you. Before you decide to put a sales funnel in place, however, it would be wise to contact a leading app development Melbourne company to learn how to tie in your customer relationship management system with the app, to increase customer conversion rates.

We brought up the use of coupon codes and discounts for installing the app to convince some people to install it. You can also leverage current users to convince others to install the app by asking them to share the app store link with their friends and giving them discounts or rewards proportional to the number of new customers you get.

A web app is one of the best ways to reach consumers when they are not on the general internet and it allows you to dramatically deepen the degree of contact with the customer. If you want to improve the customer experience and gain better access to your customer base while offering personalised customer service and promotions, a web app can be the perfect tool to achieve just that.