Administration – the mysterious ingredient

Administration is an essential ingredient to your business, but it’s also the hardest area to pin down.

Often, administration is required across many areas of a business; though in other cases an administration employee will manage all administration tasks, coordinating them across a variety of projects, services or brands.

As a profession, it’s almost always undervalued. But for a young entrepreneur, administration can be essential to your business success.

Administration spans a wide variety of skills and areas, including, but limited to:

* Processing
* Creating and coordinating business systems
* Managing the ‘traffic’ of an organisation (flow of information and documents)
* Project management
* Filing

Yep, many find this uber boring…..but it is also uber important! Setting up systems, or ordered ways of doing things early is advisable. You know when your mum says “put it away in the same spot so you will be a ble to find it again later”? Administration is a bit like that, finding a way and place for everything so that stuff can be found and processes repeated.

There aren’t a whole lot of administration courses that you take quickly and easily. Most private colleges that are business colleges may cover these basic skills, but probably don’t isolate them. The easiest way to get administration skills is to get some work experience. Volunteer as an office junior and get your hands dirty with the not-so-great jobs. Filing, processing, answering the phone and responding to mail may not be your dream job, but it sure will teach you some very valuable skills. You’ll learn about organisation and how important internal business systems are; about customer service and public relations; and about keeping good and accessible records.

The term ‘business administration’ is often used to describe business management, hence the title of the well-known and well respected Masters degree, MBA (Master of Business Administration). ‘Business administration’ generally refers to the management of the operations of a business, whilst ‘administration’ in a business context is often the coordination of information.

Bit confusing, yea we know! But now you know.

How to Source New Opportunities for Your Business

There are many reasons why businesses require ongoing opportunities to come their way. Perhaps the business is ready to expand; maybe the business requires expertise or additional services they are not trained or equipped to provide; or it could be that the business is looking for long-term relationships with potential clients and is happy to spend time with these prospects to develop good relationships.

Finding, creating and making the most of opportunities does not cost wads of money. It is about time, energy & persistence, which you have a heap of we know!

Sourcing New Opportunities

Networking

Networking is a great way to create opportunities for your business. Networking allows you to meet new people, and through them, new organisations. It keeps you up to date with industry trends and in the loop about opportunities your competitors have seized. This is an easy and fun way of keeping your finger on the pulse of opportunity. It is also a great way to encourage the next source of business opportunities, referrals.

Referrals

Referrals can bring in new business for your organisation (and even better – big business and ongoing, repeat business!). Business relationships where trust and loyalty exist are more likely to refer on other people to you, who are in turn more likely to want to establish an ongoing relationship. The easiest way to get referrals is to keep your existing customers happy. This means great service, good prices and going the extra mile on occasion to make sure they get what they want, on time. But all this is expected from a business relationship, so encourage them to talk about you by offering a reward or loyalty scheme; creating awards and competitions; or by simply treating them so well they just have to talk about you (send Christmas cards, ask how they are, send regular evaluations for them to complete about your service, hold social functions or ‘open days’).

Publicity

New business is easily attracted by good publicity, which definitely does not mean any publicity. Get some good quality, accurate media coverage (not advertorial) in a print or broadcast medium that potential clients use. Send regular, newsworthy media releases to your local media, online media in your industry and also to your local Chamber of Commerce.

Get in Front of People

People often like to know the ‘face’ of the organisation they are dealing with, so make an impression for your business by getting out to professional functions. Put a video of yourself on your website. Get on the speaking circuit and become an expert in your field and industry; then speak at conferences, workshops and business functions. If people respect your advice and see you ‘giving it freely’ to your peers at an event (even if you are getting paid), you stand in good stead for picking up some business from your new admirers.

Good old fashioned reading!

Read your local paper, industry publications, emails that come in, business books or websites. You never know where your next idea will come from.

A game a young entrepreneur we know of plays to keep himself alert to new opportunities is he takes all of the emails that come in and he has to think how with each of them(the non-spam ones) he can turn it into an opportunity. Whether it is asking for a meeting, using the information in the email for an idea for an article of your own, suggesting a partnership or forwarding it onto a contact that would find it of interest and use. Try that game for yourself!

The best piece of advice about business opportunities is to be actively looking for them. Opportunities very rarely fall in your lap, and being proactive allows you to be strategic and choosy about who you do business with, as well as when and how often.

10 Step start up guide

Breaking it down to 10 steps to get you to start up….

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