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Helpful Tips to Manage a Remote Team

Tag: management

PayTabs

Helpful-Tips-to-Manage a-Remote-Team

Telecommuting has been gaining ground for quite some time and has become especially relevant during the present crisis. It has been estimated that nearly 50 percent of professionals are involved in telecommuting at one point of time or another. The concept of telecommuting is not only appealing to employees but also to managers. However, despite its obvious benefits, there are certain challenges associated with the concept. Here are some tips for you to handle your telecommuting team efficiently and get the best results.

Set the agenda

In order to have a successful remote team, it is important that the main purpose and goals are clear to every person in the team. As a manager, you should ensure that the goals are set in concrete terms and are clearly communicated. It is also imperative that the main or common goals are further subdivided into individual goals, so that every person in the team knows what his or her Key Result Areas are. Since remote teams do not congregate physically, the progress towards achievement of goals should be constantly measured. This can be done with the help of several online and collaborative tools. Setting up enforceable deadlines is also important to keep the entire team in line.

Regular engagements

Since remote working is still not a widely popular concept, it is necessary that the team imbibes feelings of belongingness and cohesiveness. In order to foster these traits, you should keep the team engaged. This can be done by carrying out regular meetings. Nowadays, there are several tools available for this purpose. Virtual meeting software such as Skype and Zoom can come to your rescue. Depending on the bandwidth and your requirements, you can schedule voice-based meetings or video meetings. It is advisable to plan some sort of communication every day to ensure that the entire team is working towards the same goal.

Instill team spirit and trust

The success of a remote team largely depends on the collaborative spirit and individual responsibility of the team members. In the telecommuting mode, it is difficult to constantly supervise your team. Therefore, in order to get the best possible performance, you should instill the concepts of individual responsibility and accountability. While group meetings are important for fostering team spirit, you should also conduct regular one-on-one meetings with your team members to provide them with proper guidance and feedback. Such regular interaction can be helpful for the appraisal process and for designing work processes.

Use the right tools

Telecommuting is on the rise, and so, there are newer tools coming up every day, to help you manage your remote team in a more efficient manner. While emails are good for keeping track and for regular communication, the constant back and forth mailing can become tedious after some time. It is therefore more advisable to use dedicated tools such as project trackers and meeting recording software. Project management tools such as Trello, Asana and Airtable are highly recommended in this regard. These software solutions can help you in aligning your entire team in terms of deadlines, accountability and expectations. You can also use these tools for commenting on the performance of your teammates and for reassigning tasks.

Provide proper feedback

In a remote setup, it is vital that you keep the team spirit up by keeping the communication channels open. The proper exchange of feedback is also important, along with a support system. Once you provide comments on your employees’ work, follow it up with helpful tips and guidance. With proper communication, you can ensure that the individual goals of your team members are in sync with your team goals. The process of evaluation can be further enhanced by setting up a proper communication strategy. You can schedule formal check-ins in advance to meet the requirements of your team members.

Final word

Remote working is the new normal now, and is set to become even more popular in the future. With the help of the above tips, you can ensure that your team is able to offer their best even from afar. The use of the latest technology and tools can help all of you accomplish goals in an efficient manner.

PayTabs and LimeTray join hands to offer Restaurant Management and Integration Services

PayTabs and LimeTray join hands to offer Restaurant Management and Integration Services

PayTabs is a leading B2B payment processing company in the Gulf region. The service provider constantly works towards enhancing its product portfolio. Its latest collaboration with LimeTray aims to provide better and more diverse services to clients. PayTabs clients can now look forward to making their restaurant business more efficient by optimizing their operations.

The Tie-Up

The collaboration aims to provide one stop solutions for clients to manage their restaurant business. The F&B industry is unique as it is governed by numerous health regulations and service standards. In order to run a food business successfully, it is important to optimize operations and keep the running costs low. This is where LimeTray comes to the forefront.

With the help of this tie-up, restaurant owners can now run their business online and integrate online payment services by using PayTabs payment solutions. Overall, the collaboration will ensure that restaurant business owners are not required to deal with a mishmash of services but have a well-defined set of processes, customer payment options and tools for running their operations.

 

About LimeTray

LimeTray offers a wide range of services to let restaurant owners customize and optimize their business. LimeTray offers a restaurant software suite which is equipped with many features. It offers end-to-end marketing and technology solutions for the food industry so that business owners do not need to deal with different software for varying functions.

With the help of LimeTray, a restaurant can set its own online food ordering system. As more and more people opt for the convenience of online ordering and home delivery, online food ordering systems can bring about drastic changes in the operations of a restaurant business. With the help of LimeTray, you can now set up your own food ordering website and app, harnessing the power of ecommerce on diverse platforms. The restaurant owners are not forced to join any third party aggregators for promoting their online food business, thus reducing the running costs. The feature comes with an inbuilt loyalty system which helps businesses create a niche market.

LimeTray allows the businesses to customize their discount engine, to offer unique offers to its customers based on their characteristics. Its image intensive menu ensures that you can add images and graphics to the menu to make it more appealing and intuitive. Further, the customization option allows your restaurant to display different variations of dishes. If a client wants to add extra cheese or alter the level of spice for example, then you can offer them the means to do so.

The suite offers a restaurant POS system as well. Being a cloud-based solution, LimeTray’s POS can be operated from anywhere without any constraints. As it is integrated with online and third party orders, you can manage your entire business from a single platform. The POS system has a clutter-free design and is highly efficient; it allows fast order punch-ins, data tracking and quick KOT printing that speeds up daily operations. Added to this, the system comes with an offline mode to ensure that your operations do not suffer even if there is no internet connectivity available.

A successful restaurant requires proper management of customer databases. The CRM solution offered by LimeTray is equipped with unique features such as multi-channel campaign manager and personalization. With these features, you can easily design customized promotional schemes to best meet your requirements. The automation feature of this system helps you in growing your repeat sales by sending automated emails and re-engaging dormant clients of your business.

LimeTray is a leading player in the food-tech space and its software suite is trusted by over 4500 restaurants globally, including prominent brands such as Burger King, Biryani by Kilo and Punjabi by Nature. The synergy will allow PayTabs and LimeTray to offer their clients integrated services to run their business operations more efficiently.

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6 Tips to Improve Your Business’ Cash Flow

Effective management of cash flow is crucial for any business. While you may have good turnover and profit, but you may lack liquidity if you do not manage your cash flow in an efficient manner. Cash flow management essentially entails keeping proper record of money coming in and going out. The analysis of this record may let you see the gaps and fill them accordingly. Here are some tips which will let you manage your cash flow easily.

Develop a Plan and Forecast: planning and forecasting involves you looking at your finances and then draw inferences for your future. While the task may seem daunting at first but with the availability of a number of software for cash management, your task may be eased to a certain extent. You can choose to use simple spreadsheet or some sophisticated software specially designed for this purpose, the choice is yours. You will be required to record your opening cash and bank balance and all the inflows and outflows there from. When you start seeing a pattern, you will be able to forecast your future transactions. This exercise will allow you to plan your spending accordingly.

Speed up Your Inflows: businesses need to provide credit line to their customers, which may lead to delay in cash inflow. However, curtailing such terms and conditions may lead to loss of revenue as your customers may shift to another vendor with liberal credit terms. In such cases, it is essential that you reconcile your objectives of achieving higher revenue and improving cash inflow. You may offer incentives for faster payments. Such incentives may or may not be financial in nature. For example, top fast payers may receive advance information about new product arrival. You may also institute late payment fees to discourage lax customers.

Control your Outflows: managing cash inflows is one facet of cash management system. The other side is to manage your cash outflows. The best policy is to talk with your vendors and seek more relaxed terms. You may also use your impeccable payment history to make your case. If you are able to extract a few more days for payment from your vendors, then it may work wonders for your cash flows.  However, never try to take a shortcut or default on any of your payments as it may impair your relationship with your vendors on permanent basis.

Finance your Inventory: liquidity is related to cash which is often tied up in acquiring other assets such as inventory.  Take proper record of your inventory and analyze it. You may find that your funds are unnecessarily tied up in old inventory which is not moving. In such a case, you may want to liquidate the inventory and free up your cash. Further, if you have excess of any asset including tools and raw material then re-sell them to obtain cash. You may have to sell them at deep discount but some money is better than the money tied up.

Use Professional Services: for better management of your cash flow, you may want to engage the services of professionals. This is especially important if your business is growing at a fast pace and the requirement for liquidity is high. You may engage factors for the timely collection of your invoices. Factoring works by providing you cash on the basis of invoices generated by you. It can be excellent way of availing short term finance. You are also not required to take any drastic step with regard to the collection of bills. However, factors charge fee or commission, which may not be affordable to many businesses.

Take Advance Payments: you may introduce new terms to your sales whereby you require the deposit of payment before the delivery is undertaken. This arrangement is especially helpful if you are engaging in a large order. Taking advance will lower your risk of default and will also improve your liquidity. Such advance payment may also be used for funding the transaction so that you do not have to look for alternative financing arrangements.

Cash flow management does not have to be an odious task. With these pointers you may manage your cash flows in an easy manner.

7 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting an Online Business

7 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting an Online Business

Starting an online business can be an exciting venture for any newcomer to the e-commerce industry. So while the thrill of setting an online shop and managing your online business with ease can make it seem like a walk in the park, it is important to refrain from committing the following mistakes that could set you back or ruin the chances of growing your business:

  1. Lack of planning:

The number one most important thing when starting an online business is having a business plan. Walking into a business venture without any action plan is risky and reckless.

  1. Paying attention to tiny details:

Little details can be very distracting from what’s important and can sidetrack your focus, this can lead to wasting valuable time.

  1. Not making money a concern:

You should always be wary and know where funding will be coming from, startups don’t profit from the beginning but experience a lot of losses. Financial plans are important.

  1. Not valuing your product or service:

If you are selling a product or a service, it is imperative to set a price that can end up gaining a good profit.

  1. Not prioritizing customer service:

Your customers are what will give you the profits you seek, ensure they have a good experience. Nobody wants to buy from the business with unimpressible customer service.

  1. Not hiring early:

Hiring early is a positive factor because it will allow you to match the skillsets and personalities and ensuring you have a solid team and company culture when the business picks up.

  1. Underestimating the focus and commitment needed:

It will take a lot of effort and focus to start your business, so you can only imagine the effort needed when running the business. Make sure your focused enough the achieve your goals, multi-tasking might not work for everyone. So dedicating the time for this is highly important for proper management.

All online businesses have the potential to succeed through hard work, dedication, smart planning and of course, the right online payment facilitator for their business. With PayTabs, we are dedicated to empowering and enabling our merchants with all the payment platforms required to accept payments and grow their business. To test the power of PayTabs’ platform, you can sign up for a free demo merchant account. For more useful tips and tricks, you can stay up to date with our posts by signing up for our blog alerts as well.