Learning business survival skills

IT has become an essential part of our lives and of the way we do business. At home, we use computers, phones and tablets to keep in touch with friends and family. At work, we use the same gadgets to arrange and hold business meetings, to manage the company and keep in touch with business partners.But what happens when we are left without them? Will our long forgotten instincts kick in? Or will we have to wander blindly through the economy?

 Learning business survival skills will help you and your company in times of need. It will help you become a better manager and make you stronger as a team player. Re-learning how to work without technology may take time, but it’s time you have to be willing to spare - if you want to be a good business owner.

If your company is small, you use just a few electronic gizmos. As the business grows, the need for technology grows exponentially. In both cases, having a good knowledge about business survival skills can save you time and money. Also it helps to have a contingency plan and a fast decision making process.

I’ve compiled a list of areas where I think the problems could be centered. I’m also providing you with some ideas on how to develop business survival skills and how to use them.

• Financial problems: One important aspect is to understand how the money are made in your business. Can you reduce the trail of paperwork and the time consumed? Also, think about the technology used when payments are being made. Can you bypass it? Make a list of strategies that will allow you to keep track of the money transfers.
• Products: Think about the ways in which your products or services reach the customer. Do you need technology to do it? If so, is there a backup plan in case you will no longer have access to electronic equipment? Compile a list of data using one of the business reporting tools on the web.
• Sales: Is your company dependent on Internet for sales? If so, have you thought about taking your business offline? There are many benefits of having a shop or a showroom in one of the nearby cities. It will probably cost you more than a website, but in the end you will see sales soaring.
• Another financial problem: keeping every information stored electronically. Most of us are thinking about keeping every information about the company on reports servers, either to save paper or just to save space. But what if one day you will not be able to access the online data pool? Make a plan to have printed documents available, just in case.

My last advice to you is to always keep your business survival skills up to date. Think about new ways in which you can keep your company safe and you will not regret it.

The new business reporting tool in town - NextReports

Reporting tools play a very important role in the development of a company. This is because all the important information that arrives from the lower branches and departments has to be synthesized in order to be passed along to the management team.Transforming raw data in easy to read and take-in information has never been an easy task: until now.

With the business intelligence software market growing day by day, managers have hundreds of reporting tools to choose from. Today I want to write about one of the products that caught my eye the other month. It’s called NextReports and I think it’s one of the most well thought reporting tools on the market.

It actually offers two separate tools for free and one at a small price.They can be combined or used separately, depending on the size of the pool of data that your company has. One is specifically tailored to fit your every report designing needs, another one is the engine, the part that helps you create, manage and schedule your reports and the last one is a special server.

Now let’s analyse them piece by piece.

First is NextReports designer. You can use the provided templates, you can customize them and even create reports templates from scratch. You can use it in connection with other platforms such as Oracle, MySql or Derby and get excellent results. And being free of charge, you can download it, test it and see if it works for your company. If not, you can always change your mind.

The NextReports engine is a bit hard to explain to the non java speaking users, but I will try. The main purpose for this software is to display reports inside websites or internal business apps. It uses a Java based library to push the reports you’ve created earlier wherever you like. It’s also free of charge - so you are one click away from having the reports your customers need on your website.

Last but not least, the NextReports server. This is the only product from NextReports that has a price tag, but no worries, it’s not as expensive as most reporting software out there are. This software will help you schedule periodical reports, send them via FTP or mail and by using the Dashboard (a very smart looking user interface) you will be able to get alerts, set alarms and even set and cancel scheduled reports.

I think it’s a great tool to use for any company, big or small. I have yet to find another tool as promising as this one and I promise you it will not let you down.

Business communication: choosing between business letters and business reports

In any business communication is crucial to conveying information. There are multiple channels trough which information can be passed on, but the most important ones are the business letter and the business report. It’s very important to know when to use one and when to use the other, because sometimes we need to keep our communication partners in the loop and sometimes they are on a need to know basis. Choosing between letters and reports can be a hard managerial decision, but that is way I’ve decided to give you some pointers in the matter.
A business letter can be used to communicate information, but in a short form - a summary. It usually has a specific recipient and it’s not meant to be seen by others or published. On the other hand, the business report it’s made out of large quantities of information and it can be used inside or outside of a company. Most of the times, it is addressed to a general audience and not to someone in particular. A business report can also be printed and because it has a template-based format, it can maintain the same format every time it is edited.

Still, business letters and reports share some common elements. Both have to be written very clear and to the point so that the reader can understand the subject. Both can have the propose of informing or persuading the receiver and both can be transmitted trough various means: printed, emailed, and so on.

When deciding which of the two you’ll need to use, these factors may be taken into account:

1. The Content - It really depends on how much information you want to pass on and what type of information it is. If you want to include graphics, tables or diagrams, it’s better to go with the business reports. If you want to send a summary of your business reporting to your partners or other branches of your company, a simple letter with a list included might do the trick.

2. The Target - Depending on who your audience is, you can simplify the information and  sent a business letter that will include easy to read phrases.But if you want to communicate specific data to a group of experts in your field, than a report is clearly needed.

3. The Length - Another important factor can be the length of the information you want to send. A business letter can normally extend to 2 or 3 pages. A business report is usually extensive and could contain footnotes and references that add a good number of pages.

Also, you can analyze this subject from another point of view: business reports can become an extension to the business letter. That is way it’s crucial to make a difference between the two communication styles and to be able to adapt the tone and type of writing to each.

One last detail to take into account is the financial state of the company. Smaller companies may not afford to use special designed reporting tools and will stick to free tools available online. This will reflect in the eyes of your business partners as it states the true value or rank of your company, so be very very careful what you want to share and how you will do it.