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November 2021

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Business travels involve various reasons why they take place. Firms often do this to close a business deal. Aside from that, it is a way to create a good partnership with another firm. But then again, these trips need proper planning. Some trips may be out of town or out of the country.

Given this point, you have to make sure that everything’s settled. This post will provide a guide on how you can achieve hassle-free business travel. It is best to prepare to avoid travel mishaps that can affect the purpose of the business trip.

Ways to Secure a Smooth Business Trip

Keep in mind that you have a good reason why this trip has to take place. Its success will mean something for your business. In this case, the tips below can help you ensure smooth corporate travel:

Check the company’s corporate travel policy.

It is best to read the policy before you depart for a business trip. In this case, the policy includes how reimbursements will take place. That includes repay for the following items:

  • Hotel stays
  • Rental cars
  • Meals
  • Work-related incidents
  • Wi-Fi’s connection

You have to ensure that your travel arrangements follow what’s written in the policy. This way, you will not deal with any issues once you come back. For this reason, it is best to clear things up before you leave.

Create a detailed itinerary.

It is best to have a clear schedule of how your business trip will go. In this case, an itinerary is your number one option to make your travel successful. You can type it using Word or Excel, then print a copy that you can have along with you. In effect, you can prevent stress upon arriving at your destination.

Prepare business cards.

This business trip can open up more opportunities to expand connections. Various firms from the industry will come as well. For this reason, it is best to bring a stack of business cards with you. Handing these cards out to everyone you meet may require effort. However, you are helping your company grow its relationship with other business sectors.

Organize your documents.

Be sure to keep all the vital records in one place. It is best to keep a scanned or photocopy of these documents. That includes the following items:

  • Plane tickets
  • Passport
  • Visa (if there’s any)
  • Confirmations from the hotel
  • Car rental receipts

Keep in mind that losing any of these items can get you in trouble. So, put everything in a safe place for your travel.

Think about safety and security during your business trip.

You have to act accordingly while on the trip. It is best to keep yourself and your colleagues safe at all costs. The following can help ensure safe and secure corporate travel:

  • Use a digital wallet or e-wallet instead of bringing too much cash with you.
  • Always let others know your whereabouts and provide details of how they can contact you.
  • Don’t engage yourself in any criminal activity or violence. Instead, choose to walk away from it.
  • If you traveled as a team, make sure to account for everyone in case of split-ups. Be sure no one’s left behind.

During your trip, keep in mind that it’s not for leisure. It is a corporate trip. You are carrying the name of your company, so act accordingly. This way, you can prevent putting yourself and the company at risk.

Pack efficiently.

Don’t pack too much. Excess baggage can incur additional costs. In this case, it is best to limit your outfits, not unless the itinerary requires you various attires. This way, you can prevent over-packing. You can also avoid the need to pay for it.

Always have a backup plan.

Sometimes, things may get out of the way you planned them. In this case, it is best to have a contingency plan if things go wrong. These issues are often beyond your control, so you need to come prepared for these scenarios. One of the usual issues is a flight delay. You have to make it up with your client, such as a virtual meeting or sending a proxy.

Business trips are essential to make your firm expand its connection with other firms. But then again, preparing beforehand is a vital aspect to ensure smooth corporate travel. Aside from that, your preparedness can save you from stress.

Meanwhile, if something goes wrong, keep your calm and don’t panic. You have to think of a way to solve what’s wrong. Panicking can’t help you at all in your situation. So, if you target to have the best business trip, make a concrete plan for it.

No matter how much we ruminate about what has passed, the pandemic has already happened and its damage cannot be reversed. Looking back should not be the only option, though. Here is how your business can charge forward from the destructive effects of the pandemic:

Revisit the Vision Board

For the past two years, your team might have been too caught up with putting out day-by-day fires to the point of obscuring your vision of the bigger things you have laid out for the immediate and distant future. Still, with all the challenges you have never encountered before until the pandemic, it should be no surprise that those market analyses and strategies your team has consolidated in the past would barely even be relevant in today’s business climate.

The pandemic accelerated industrial change in speeds we not once imagined possible. The global supply chain being stifled in the earlier stages of the pandemic, for instance, pushed logistics companies to bridge the automation gap. And, businesses that for so long relied on the brick and mortar retail model were pushed to get over their e-commerce resistance.

That is why, if you’re set on mending the damage caused by the pandemic, it is best to go back to your business’s core. Perhaps, there are elements in your vision and mission statements that are already outdated and need some tweaking to better guide people down the lines about how your clients today prefer to be approached and what it takes for a company today to compete in the advanced playing field.

Then, you can proceed with drafting more concrete marketing, sales, product development, and training objectives and their corresponding measures of success based on current industry averages. Nevertheless, there’s no right time to revisit your vision board as the pandemic is not the only problem to be worried about.

Clearance Sale

After you’ve revised your company’s vision and subsequent strategies, it must be tempting to jump onto rebranding or launching new products. But, if your company has incurred major losses in the past months, appearing larger than life should be the least of your priorities. Rather, it is saving what is left when things have calmed down.

You may have stocked surplus after intermittent interruptions to your store operations. With the help of your quality assurance team, separate those items that are still good for sale and consumption and announce a clearance sale. You lost a significant amount of time, but before you can make up for it, at least realize that other resources can still be maximized.

Besides, a clearance sale is a perfect channel for you to reconnect with your patrons. Through this event, you can make it known that you’re coming up with greater and fresher things and that they should anticipate. You can drive the hype and, in turn, bank on this for your upcoming releases.

Downsizing

At this crucial point in your business, most of your efforts should be dedicated to your audience. Right now, you are not exactly in a position to expand or invest a lot of time on big-ticket purchases even if these would help your machinery to move more efficiently. Make sure that your team is on the same page, and so decisions like downsizing would be easy for them to process.

If so, moving to a smaller office or plant should not be an issue. The sooner you can hire a moving company, the more you could save on rent or amortization. Having done so, you could now redirect your precious funds into boosting production, marketing campaigns, or up-to-date training, whichever you think is of the highest priority.

Cost Consciousness

Strategically speaking, the easiest to control when the business is at threat are operational expenses. Enjoining employees in saving office supplies, energy, and water would help a lot.

Printing could be limited to documents that require physical signatures and notarization by legal representatives. You could also require that all lights and electronics be turned off during lunch breaks. Limiting company vehicle use for travels categorized as important could also help you save a lot.

A Grand Comeback

A high budget allocation for new product launches does not necessarily produce an outstanding outcome. Likewise, just because you underspent for a new product does not mean it would not be met with massive support. The key is to thoroughly plan your comeback plan considering your limited resources at the moment.

Sometimes, promoting a product idea before it is produced in bulk could be the most practical idea because you get to gauge audience response before you even spend on raw materials and production expenses. Think of this particular product conception phase as your last to prove to your audience that you’re still very much up for the challenge of innovating and adapting to their changing needs.

The pandemic leaves businesses with many questions but also reveals a lot of new ideas. For your business, recovering may seem like a lost cause but, if you can look past the seemingly insurmountable problems you can get a hold of opportunities.

The fees charged by recruiters generally vary based on the company.

When considering fee models for permanent placement and contract, freelance, and staffing candidates, it is important to keep this in mind.

Staffing recruiters are rarely called headhunters.

If you hire a sales headhunter, you’re looking for someone who can find a long-term, full-time employee.

There are headhunters who work for organizations looking for high-level talent, generally at the director or above level.

Fee Model for Initial Session

As part of an offer letter, headhunter fees are always negotiated based on the candidate’s first-year salary.

If the headhunter includes a sign-on bonus or any other compensation in the first year, then the salary for that first year will also be included.

Sales commissions and bonuses are typically not included in the first year’s compensation.

There is usually only one bonus included in the recruiter’s fee — the sign-on bonus.

Relocation expenses are not included in the calculation.

Recurring Fee Schedule

Headhunters charge fees based on the salary of the first year in the job.

Accordingly, if a Director of Marketing is offered a $100,000 salary and a recruiter’s fee is 20%, the recruiter would receive $20,000 in fees.

Fees for legal work vary from firm to firm and from position to position.

You can pay anywhere from 15% to 40% or even 50%.

Typical industry standards range between 20 and 25%.

You always get what you pay for when hiring a headhunter.

The average fee these days is 15%, while others are charging 30-40-50%.

Getting better service when you pay 25% is not guaranteed.

Retained recruiting

There are several ways to retain a recruiter, but it is similar to retaining a lawyer.

If you hire a lawyer, you’re usually paying them a monthly fee for their services.

Typically, this isn’t how recruiters are retained, although you can do so if you have a substantial recruiting need.

Generally, retained headhunters only work on one or two positions at a time.

Recruiters will typically charge you an upfront fee, also known as an engagement fee.

In exchange for working on a search for you, you’re paying that recruiter, and it’s typically that recruiter who has exclusive rights to work on that role.

A retainer recruiter will receive all of the money you pay upfront on your final invoice.

An alternative way of investment that generally consists of capital and money that are not listed in a public exchange is defined as private equity. In private equity, the investors or buyers directly place their investment in the desired private companies or sometimes would be involved in the buying of public companies. However, in both cases, it would result in the removal of the acquired company names from the public equity list.

To make the process of this acquisition less deleterious on both sides, companies often do hire a private equity consultancy, which would help the company to properly choose a company to buy, and also will assist in considering under what terms and price the company have to be bought out. They, in addition to these, provide a proper plan and priority listings to curtail any cultural issues prevailing inside the company. So, if you are looking for an equity consultancy, then you must know which consultancy to choose.

So, what are the best private equity consultants in the U.S?

With consideration of the clients’ response to the company’s work, peer reviews from consultants themselves, the intense capabilities manifested in aiding a private company and their consulting projects’ success.

  • Maine Pointe – A US-based management consultancy company that is firmly trusted by many chief executives and private equity firms. Being a member of SGS Group, they are more welcomed by many companies since they waxed the financial returns for the companies they have been consulted.
  • Bain & Company – Again a US-based company in Boston is one among the “big three” private equity and management consultancy. Their service extends to the public, or private, or even non-profit organizations too on handling a proper acquisition. They also focus on investments to be made in the private equity, strategies to enhance the corporate both culturally as well as financially, improving their finance and operations; also they provide proper analysis on the market they have to compete in.
  • Ernst & Young – A UK-based company residing in London holds the third position in providing insightful private equity consulting. This is considered to be one of the largest in the world to provide a professionally good service network. With four levels of consultant management, namely a consultant, senior consultant, principal, and executive director, the company provides consultancy services in taxes, risks in businesses, human capital and their services, technology and cybersecurity risks, and so.

These are the best private equity consultants in the U.S, to assist companies in mergers and to maintain an amicable culture.

When you know you’re meant to have money in your account soon, it’s natural to become antsy, which is why it’s totally acceptable to begin to question if a deposit is waiting, can you utilize the money. After all, you’ve undoubtedly got great plans for that money! As a result, not knowing when you’ll be able to utilize it might be a huge test of patience. Fortunately, we’ve done all of the research on that pending deposit you have, so we can answer any of your questions regarding what it means to have a pending direct deposit.

Can you utilize the money if a deposit is pending?

You cannot utilize the money while a deposit is pending since your bank is most likely validating the deposit. Once validated, the money will be added to your available balance and can be spent. This might be inconvenient if you need the money right now, but it is ultimately for your benefit. This is because if the deposit isn’t accepted but you’ve already used the funds, you risk overdrawing your account. You’d be on the hook for the amount you spent if you used money in advance that weren’t ultimately able to be transferred to your account.

What does it mean if you have a pending deposit?

If your account shows that a deposit is pending, it signifies that the money has been received but is being held, generally because your bank is validating the validity of the deposit. The reason your account will display that a deposit is pending is to let you know that the deposit has been received and is being processed. Otherwise, you won’t know whether or not the bank got it.

Is it possible to remove a pending direct deposit?

A pending direct deposit cannot be withdrawn because the deposit is still being validated by your bank. Once the deposit has been authorized, you will be able to use and withdraw the funds. This is to avoid the situation described above, in which you remove money that is not later credited to your account, perhaps resulting in overdraft costs. Instead, as inconvenient as it may be to be patient, waiting an extra day or so for the pending direct deposit to be cleared is preferable in the long run. And, while you’re waiting for that deposit, why not have it come into a bank account with a six-month interest rate and no extra costs?

Is your available balance affected by pending transactions?

Pending transactions do not count toward your available balance, but they do display your current balance. This is due to the fact that your available balance reveals how much money you have accessible to utilize, whilst your current balance reflects your whole financial picture. This is one reason why it’s critical to grasp the distinction between your available balance and your current balance, as only the latter may be spent or otherwise used. This is especially crucial for financial planning purposes, since if you’re ready to make a large financial commitment, remember that you can only count on having the amount of your accessible balance on hand.