Reliability is the name of the game in business. The show must go on, deadlines must be kept, your word is your bond! As well as a good amount of legal text dictates how we must act.
Improve Your Reliability as a Chef
Think about a chef in a busy inner-city kitchen. He is an amazing practitioner of creative art when it comes to cuisine, yes! But he must also pump out many uniform meals each night, all of them of similar high quality, without fail.
He's also not alone. He rests on his suppliers to bring him the same ingredients he has ordered, in good condition, and with the right weight.
He's expecting the reservations to turn up on time and be seated amiably. Also, he's also counting on his staff to turn up and put in a good effort. Not too hungover from the night before to continue is key!
As a small business, our reliability rests on so many little things that we must either discipline, negotiate, or ensure that it can be dizzying.
However, there's no reason to think this is outside of your potential, too. With the following advice, you'll see how:
Ensure IT Reliability
You can't be a reliable firm if you have shoddy IT networked access. Staff needs to communicate with one another. Hence, they need to stay protected, access their workflow, and manage documents in the cloud.
For this reason, it's essential to learn more about what excellent IT Support and managed IT services can do for you, and just what your business actually requires.
IT reliability is not only crucial, but it is also fundamental to being an effective and even half-way present business in 2020. Invest in this appropriately.
If you are in business online having reliable IT is truly a must! You don't want your website down at any time if you sell from it or generate leads online.
Vet Your Suppliers to Improve Your Reliability
It's very important to vet your suppliers. You cannot hope to ensure that your materials or that your ingredients, or even that your tools are effective unless they are inspected unless quality is assessed and continually expected.
You must also ensure that you are paying competitive prices for these items, and renegotiating contracts is also important.
Your business is only able to add the value on top of the value that is already there, which is why often, the most fundamental effort to vet your suppliers will able the most essential and reliable result going forward.
The same goes for folks in blogging - your suppliers maybe your content writers or SEO specialists. Make sure you choose well.
Vet New Hires
It's important to vet new hires appropriately. You are only as reliable as your least reliable staff member, and while most people are more reliable than you may expect, it's best not to take that chance.
Vetting new hires, from checking out their references to asking about blank spaces in their working history, to even having them prove their professional knowledge.
This can be done through a test case study or set of questions prescribed in the interview. These efforts can help you understand if, when, and how this person should be working for you.
This may also help you decide between two close, but not identical applicants.
Do What You Say to Show Reliability
One thing that will really make you and your business more reliable is to DO what you say! There is nothing worse than giving out empty promises. Never overpromise and under deliver!
If you are not sure you can get something done by 3 pm - tell them it will be done the next day.
Then, your clients will be happy about having it at 3 pm. Otherwise, if you were a half-hour late, they would possibly be upset and not think of you as being reliable.
How is Your Reliability Today?
With this advice, I hope you can improve your reliability as a small business, from top to bottom.
What is your business most reliable for? I'd love to know in the comments below!
