Under-Rated Skills Every Small Business Owner Should Have

Under-Rated Skills Every Small Business Owner Should Have

Article credit: Sage 

No one can confidently say that they have nothing to learn. Technology is advancing rapidly, and we don’t yet know what the future of work will look like or what skills we’ll need to stay competitive and relevant. Our best defence against uncertainty is to ensure that we’re always learning something new.

Learning can take one of two forms:

  • Learning for intellectual edification, where you go where your attention takes you, like reading books or listening to podcasts on topics that interest you; and
  • Learning to acquire practical competence in something new. This is deliberate skills development with the aim of gaining a functional understanding of practical actions that can enhance your life or take you on a different career path.

As a small business owner, you probably already know a bit about sales and marketing, financial management, customer service, and project management. While you can certainly tap into resources that will help you perform these functions better and faster, you should also make time to learn something you don’t know. Think of it as an investment in your future self and your future business.

Here are a few ideas:

  1. Get comfortable with data

Learn how to capture, process, and analyse your business’s data. It might sound daunting but data analytics is no longer just for data scientists. Modern analytic solutions have been designed with business users in mind, to make it easy for anyone to experiment with data and create useful, visual reports.

For example, knowing exactly when customers enter your sales funnel, from what sources, and when they drop off and no longer engage with you, is invaluable when planning your communication and engagement strategies.

skills-for-small-business

2.  Become a modern marketer

By capturing and analysing customer data, you can build a solid database that makes email and direct marketing a breeze. Knowing who your customers are and how they like to be contacted lets you plan everything from mailing lists and social media posts, to search engine optimisation and display advertising, for maximum impact.

3.  Think differently about business structure

A typical top-down hierarchy can stifle your business’s growth and hamper innovation. Aim to implement a business structure that allows for the free, frictionless flow of information across your organisation. Build a culture that rewards people for trying new things and makes employees feel like they’re vested in the future of the business.

4.  Look on the softer side

With many jobs being automated, our ability to relate to, engage with, and work well with others will be crucial to our success. These ‘soft skills’ create connections between people, helping us to build relationships based on trust and common ground. Here are some of the softer skills that I believe will become critical in future:

  • Negotiation: Poor negotiation skills could land you situations that cost unnecessary time and money. Get the upper hand by ensuring you have complete awareness of your own situation, while gathering as much information as possible about the person or entity you’re negotiating with. Know what you want from the negotiation but be willing to compromise if it benefits both parties.
  • Communication: Clearly communicating your intentions and extracting relevant information from others will boost team collaboration and productivity.
  • Teamwork: Organisations thrive when everyone works towards the same goals. If your team is not aligned and isn’t willing to put in extra effort, failure will be unavoidable.
  • Adaptability: Change happens quickly and often – especially in the digital age. If you’re not flexible when faced with change, you could get stuck in a rut. When things change, adapt quickly and early, learn from failures, and get ready for the next round of change because things will never be stagnant again.
  • Problemsolving. When faced with a challenge, you have two options: complain and do nothing, or accept it and take action to solve it.
  • Critical thinking: Don’t take everything you see at face value – dig deeper, ask more questions, and try to understand why things are the way they are. Seek out fresh perspectives and innovative thinkers, especially when faced with a problem.
  • Conflict resolution: Conflict is bound to arise in an organisation that embraces diversity. But not all disagreements are bad if they get people thinking differently and considering other perspectives. Know when to let conflict run its course and when to step in to douse the flames. Be sensitive when addressing issues and maintain open, non-judgemental channels of communication throughout your business.
  • Leadership: In times of uncertainty, people desperately need guidance and assurance from those in power. Confidently communicate your vision for the business, promote transparency and visibility, inspire and motivate others to achieve their potential, and always be on the lookout for leaders within your own team.

In the digital age, it’s no longer business as usual and soon it will be business as unusual. Start preparing for it now.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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The Import File Failed The Hash Check Validation

The Import File Failed The Hash Check Validation

Article credit: Sage 

INTRODUCTION IMPORT FILE FAILED:

The following error message may be received when attempting to import an EFTS Export file using the Nedbank online banking facility:

Example 1

SOLUTION:

In a recent incident the following solution resolved the Import FIle Failed problem:

  1. On the Common | Maintenance | EFTS File Layout screen, copy the relevant Nedbank EFTS Export record and open the newly copied record
  2. Then change the Trailer Records | Hash Value field length value to 40. This value might perhaps be of a lower or higher value.

NED 2

 

Disclaimer: These articles refer to possible solutions and a platform to share information. Each article describes a method that solved a query (knowledge gathered from previous sites) and how Sage Evolution should operate. These articles make reference to a specific Sage Evolution version, however the thought process can be generalised. Please note the information contained in these articles should be treated as guidelines and adapted to accommodate differences in business processes and IT environments. Articles may not be applicable to all environments. If this article did not resolve your query please contact Kiteview Technologies Support Department on:  (+27) 010 005 6678.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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10 Steps To Grow Your Customer Base

10 Steps To Grow Your Customer Base

Article credit: Sage 

Customers are the lifeblood of any business, so it’s vital you can keep generating leads and retaining your existing customers. But doing so is often a concern for businesses, with more than one in three companies saying that generating new business is their biggest worry.

We spoke to two small business owners and asked them to share their experiences of growing their customer base.

1. Get to know your prospects and customers

There’s a lot of talk about personalization and customer insight – that’s because it works.

Understanding your customers’ needs can lead to better insights into your audience and allows you to develop services that are matched to your clients’ needs.

It can also help you stand out from your competitors, something that Alice Boden understand. She’s managing director of Bodice of Holt, which offers a home delivery service for fruit and vegetables. “We know our customers really well and know their preferences so we can tell them when certain things are coming – when they’re in season and in stock. Our service is completely personalized to their needs.

“This is where we have an advantage over bigger suppliers. I have a good relationship with our customers and I know the business. Because I source the produce and pack the boxes, I know exactly what’s happening and can provide a fully personalized service.”

And it’s not just consumers who like this approach. It also works for business clients too.

Mike Cockburn, Director at Sogno, a positive psychology coaching company, says, “It’s important that we understand what our clients are trying to achieve: their mission, their goals. Then we look at how we can accelerate that and customize our services to meet their needs. It leads to a more balanced relationship.”

2. Divide your time: support existing clients and look for new work

In simple terms, there are two ways to get more business – win new business or get your existing customers to spend more. It’s important to ensure you don’t focus on one at the expense of the other, as both are important for growing your customer base.

Mike says, “We do have a lot of repeat business and feel we offer the most value to long-term clients. But you need to keep bringing in new business too. Old business can falter if budgets change or people move on, so it’s important to look for new opportunities. You need to start a relationship early so that it’s mature enough to deliver new business when your other work is completed.”

3. Offer great customer service

To keep your existing customers coming back, it’s important you offer great customer service. In fact, research shows that 78% of people have walked away from a sale as a result of poor customer service.

But if you get it right, it has a positive impact on your customer base and your bottom line. Loyal customers are worth up to ten times the amount they originally spent.

Take the time out to evaluate your customer service, make sure you respond to your customers quickly and keep an eye on social media so you can offer great service online too. Your customer numbers should grow as a result.

4. Make the most of your networks

Ask a business owner where their customers come from and most will tell you that word of mouth is their main source.

Recommendations from others are valuable: “It’s the idea of social capital – the value of relationships,” says Mike. “If I know people that they know, then there’s an implied trust.”

Most of his clients come from networking, something he’s passionate about.

“I think people sometimes equate networking with sales and prospects can be sensitive to a sales approach. But if you recognize that only so many contacts will go on to be clients, then it reduces the pressure. The work we do is based on trust and openness so the way we make contact is a good opportunity to demonstrate that. I meet up with loads of people and if I can help, they remember that. That can open new doors.”

Alice agrees. “Networking is really useful. It’s not just about selling, it’s about what you can do for people.”

5. Look for partnerships with other businesses

Your ideal customer will already have relationships with other businesses and this offers a great opportunity.

By partnering with other firms which offer complementary services, you can not only reach a new audience but also potentially offer more to your customers.

It’s something that Bodice of Holt are looking into at the moment: “There’s a body development firm in Bath, which offers personal training and nutrition advice. Part of their service is to help their customers to understand what they should be eating when they’re training, which includes fruit and vegetables. They are recommending us to their clients – and we’re looking at delivering directly to the gym once a week.

“It’s about looking around and keeping your eyes peeled for opportunities. Be open to new ideas and speak to people to see if they’re interested.”

6. Make use of social media

Social media has revolutionized the way customers and businesses can share information and have conversations.

From online customer service to using social media to get insights into your audience, there are now excellent opportunities for businesses to reach out via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other networks. Which ones work for you will depend on your business, your audience and the way you like to communicate.

7. Think big

If you’re a small business, can you work with a big company? The simple answer is yes.

But many small companies find it intimidating to make contact. Mike has a range of big clients, from Greggs to Kia, and says it’s worthwhile approaching large corporates.

“Our success with clients goes back to developing a network of long-term connections. But small businesses now have more opportunities to work with big clients. I think that’s changed since the credit crunch. Big corporates may have been suspicious of smaller businesses in the past but they now recognize that they offer value and have lower costs too. There is less prejudice now.”

8. Play to your strengths

It’s definitely worth testing a range of marketing approaches and seeing what works. But remember that every business is different, so you may find that some approaches don’t work. Don’t be afraid to drop these.

9. Adapt as your business grows

It’s important to keep trying new ways of reaching your audience and don’t automatically reject things that might not have worked in the past.

As your company becomes established, you may find your customers come from different sources. This is why it’s important to keep track of business analytics and your financials.

“We get new customers from a wider mixture of places as the business has grown,” says Alice. “We’ve been going for about two years and at the start, it was through friends and family. Now we get people through word of mouth, advertising and from attending markets. We also get people through Google and the website.”

10. Measure what works for you

As you try out new approaches, be sure to monitor where your customers come from and which sources offer the most value.

You can then keep refining your approach or scale up activities that work to grow your customer base further.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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Ten Good Reasons To Choose Sage 200 Evolution

Ten Good Reasons To Choose Sage 200 Evolution

Article credit: Sage 

Are you looking for an integrated and holistic software solution for a dynamic business environment? These ten reasons below show why Sage 200 Evolution is exactly what is needed for you to optimise and streamline your business.

1 Accountants recommend Sage pastel accounting

 

2 Fully integrated business management application

 

3 The lowest total cost of ownership

 

4 Easy to use

 

5 Specialised modules for industry-specific requirements

 

6 Simplified reporting

 

7 Improve and enhance customer and supplier relations

 

8 Access to skills

 

9 Increased productivity

 

10 Backed by an extensive national service and support infrastructure

Sage 200 Evolution delivers an entire business management solution

Features

  • General Ledger
  • Unit of Measure
  • Dimension Items
  • Cash Book
  • Goods Received Voucher
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Alert Management
  • Accounts Payable
  • Advanced Security
  • Inventory Control
  • Microsoft® Office Integration
  • Import Cost Allocations
  • Graphs
  • Central Search and KPI Dashboards
  • Invoicing
  • System Audit Manager
  • Sales & Purchase Order Entry
  • Tax Module
  • Visual Reports
  • Project Tracking
  • Report Writer & Stationery
  • Customisation
  • SagePay (SA Users)

*The above features and modules are referred to as the core Sage Evolution system.

Add-on Modules

Annuity Billing
Lot Tracking
Bank Statement Manager
Manufacturing
Bill of Materials
Sage Evolution Mobile
Branch Accounting
Multi-Currency
Business Gateway
Multi-Warehousing
Sage Evolution Intelligence Reporting
Municipal Billing
Debtors Manager
Payroll*
Customer Account Consolidations
Point of Sale
Customer Credit Risk Management
Pricing Matrix
Delivery Management
Procurement **
E-Business & E-Billing
Advanced Procurement**
Fixed Assets*
Sage Evolution CRM Standard
Retail Point of Sale
Sage Evolution CRM Premium*
Job Costing
Serial Number Tracking
Voucher Management
Service Manager
Global Tax
Mobile Sales
mSCOA

* These modules can be purchased as stand-alone applications.
** Requires Sage Evolution CRM Premium module.

Isn’t it time you evolved to something sleeker and simpler to implement?

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

Contact Us

For An Obligation Free Quote

Four Common Payroll Pitfalls To Avoid

Four Common Payroll Pitfalls To Avoid

Article credit: Sage 

Payroll management sounds simple, but it is surprisingly easy for a growing business to make payroll mistakes if it does not have robust processes and systems in place. In some cases, an error can have serious consequences for a business, ranging from damaging employee morale, to fraud losses, and tax penalties for late or incorrect tax payments and submissions.

Here are a few of the common errors South African businesses make in managing their payrolls:

1. Failing to automate

I’m putting this one right at the top of the list because poor systems and controls are the root cause of most of the other payroll mistakes I list below. If you don’t have an automated system in place, you can easily make errors in calculating employees’ salaries and deductions, compiling your tax submissions, and recording employee information and transactional data.

It can also be challenging to stay on top of the deductions, levies and tax incentives you need to cater for your payroll calculations, ranging from UIF and the skills development levy to the employment tax incentive. What’s more, you also need to keep track of yearly changes to SARS’ regulations that will impact on your payroll tax calculations.

Failing to automate also means that the payroll team spends all their time on compliance and admin—when they should be focusing on helping the business to understand payroll costs, identifying trends, enabling better employee experiences and providing strategic advice to finance and management teams.

What to do about it: Simply sign up for Kiteview Technologies’ payroll services. Kiteview Technologies will keep track of all your required annual, bi-annual and monthly submissions to both SARS and the Department of Labour. Kiteview offers a payroll solution that is 100% compliant with South African tax legislation and regulations and that can grow alongside your business.

2. Not putting checks and balances in place

Payroll fraud is a major risk for Businesses and it is often discovered by accident only after the company has lost a vast amount of money. Many Small & Medium Businesses are vulnerable to payroll fraud because they don’t put appropriate checks in place—for example, they give one accountant or payroll manager complete access to the payroll system and company bank account.

What to do about it: The simplest way to prevent most incidences of payroll fraud is to enforce segregation of duties in the payroll department. The people who calculate pay rates and accumulated hours for the payroll should ideally not be the same ones who process the payments. Different people should have responsibility for capturing payroll data and for managing access to the system as well as adding and removing employees from the payroll. Yet another person could be tasked with checking that the numbers add up.

3. Poor control over leave days

It can be easy to lose track of leave days if an employee takes leave without proper authorisation. The result can be that an employee benefits from extra paid leave or loses leave days due to errors in data capture or that their holiday leave payment could be inaccurately calculated when they leave the company. Other issues could include two critical team members applying and getting leave, when at least one should be in the office.

What to do about it: An automated payroll system allows you to take the sweat out of processing leave. It enables you to manage leave administration, enforce company specific leave policies and ensure the records are correct. You can also introduce employee self-service to streamline the process of leave applications and approvals for employees and managers.

4. Travel allowance pitfalls

Reimbursements and allowances for employee business travel are a minefield for the unwary. A travel allowance is a regular monthly amount the employer pays an employee to compensate them for monthly travel in a privately-owned motor vehicle.

The employer must include either 80% (low business travel) or 20% (high business travel) of this allowance into the remuneration on which PAYE is calculated. The employee keeps a logbook of business travel, submits it to SARS at the end of the tax year, and SARS does the final income tax calculation.

Under reimbursement, the employee logs his or her business travel kilometres and submits it to the employer for reimbursement. The employer decides on the rate per km at which it will reimburse the employee. The tax rules can be complicated but if the employer uses the SARS prescribed rate of R3,61 per km, then there is no tax in the payroll or on assessment.

The rules and calculations can be tricky to keep track of and incorrect capturing can result in employees paying too little or too much tax.

What to do about it: There are different SARS IRP5 codes and reporting rules for travel allowances (3701), reimbursement above the prescribed rate (3702 and 3722) and reimbursement at or below the prescribed rate (3703). Double check that you are using the right codes and withholding the right amount of tax. Persuade team members to opt for reimbursements rather than travel allowances because they are easier to understand. And once again, an automated payroll solution will do the calculations for you and help you to capture the right data using the right categorisations.

Closing words

We are only entering the second month of a new tax year, so now is the perfect time for companies that use manual payroll processes or old payroll technology to modernise with a cloud-based business solution. There is no reason today for payroll to be a headache or distraction—the right tools can take care of most of the red tape so you can focus on growth, strategy and talent development.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

Contact Us

For An Obligation Free Quote

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