Business

Are you a member of the food industry? Perhaps you’re wanting to join it? Either way, you’ll no doubt want to make your mark on the sector – and very often, the best way to do this is with a unique business idea. Once you’ve kitted out your kitchen, it’s time to start thinking some up. With this in mind, we explore some truly original market trends…

Zero-waste kitchens

As profitable as the food market is, many restaurant owners are guilty of not managing their kitchen waste effectively. As you’ll no doubt know already, plastic takes an extremely long time to biodegrade – send it to landfill, and it will contribute to land, water and air pollution. And of course, the restaurant trade has typically relied on plastic containers for food storage- until now, that is. A growing movement is seeing caterers ditch non-renewable packaging for more eco-friendly solutions. So, why not join this planet-centred cooking trend?

No to low alcohol options

If you offer alcohol to your clients, you may have noted that more young adults are opting for soft drinks. No to low alcohol options are a booming trend among Brits. A study led by University College London involving 10, 000 16 – 24-year-olds from the UK found a drop in the number of young Brits choosing to drink alcohol. Why? Scientists suggest a greater awareness of the health effects that alcohol can have as a leading cause. Unsurprisingly, a number of bars and restaurants across the country have begun to expand their mocktail and no alcohol drinks menu, in order to attract more young customers.

Fermented food (and drink!)

Yes, you read that right! Fermented food and drink have been introduced to several menus across the UK. Why? It’s fairly simple! Fermented produce is filled with good bacteria; eating it could hugely benefit your gut. As nutritionists are keen to underline, a healthy gut is vital for our general health and helps to boost both our physical and mental wellbeing. And so, many forward-thinking restaurants have begun to serve an array of fermented delights, from sour-milk Kefir to tempeh-based meals. Get yourself on the health food map by offering similar treats to your customers!

Though it may seem like a crowded market, it’s easy to stand out in the food industry. All you need to do is give your diners a culinary experience to remember!

As you now know, online ecommerce retailers can grow exponentially if they can establish a strong and reliable product supply base, can brand themselves effectively, market themselves successfully, and deliver great customer service. But as an ecommerce business grows, issues related to scale emerge, and often they find that their efficiency decreases resulting in customer complaints centered around the right product being delivered on time. This highlights how important the ecommerce order management process flow is to an online business, it is like the cardiac system, if its not flowing properly then the business will falter and die. All it takes is a handful of negative reviews and suddenly your business goes from hero to zero.

How to Improve Your Ecommerce Order Management Process Flow

So if the order management process flow is so key to the operation of a successful business, what can you do to make it more efficient and fix all the inefficiencies revealed by scalability. The core solution to this is to automate the link between the ecommerce platform used and an ERP system which manages fulfillment of the order. The automation of this process cuts out time, human and error and cost from the order process and should exceed your customer’s expectations as well.

Whether you’re using Magento, Shopify, Amazon Marketplace or a WooCommerce solution, you can buy a software solution which will integrate it directly with your ERP solution and other systems such as SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Quickbooks, Xero, or Acumatica.

What these software solutions do is integrate your online orders directly and rapidly into your ERP and accounting systems so that you eliminate the labor costs of accounting book keeping, and manual data entry which slows down order processing and often results in occasional errors. This can also reduce compliance-related penalties and allow for integration and validation of EDI data creating a unified system.

Fulfillment of orders can be delivered through your own warehouse or direct to your suppliers if you also integrate dropship software. Inventory updates are instant and can be queried at any point, with re-ordering automated based on thresholds and rules set by users. Inventory levels can also be integrated with your e-commerce platform and with your ecommerce partners such as Amazon and Buy.com, allowing your end customer to check if the product is in stock and have a realistic idea of delivery date, even setting their own delivery date.

Integration with transport suppliers and fulfillment services allows for quicker fulfilment and order tracking for you and for your end customer, enabling even real-time viewing of the order track and delivery time within an hour slot. This is particularly good when you are using a drop-ship vendor, because you will no longer need to contact the vendor for information on the order when a customer enquires about timeliness of delivery, the customer can see themselves the whole supply chain and be given a realistic delivery time.

So the time could be right now to improve your ecommerce order management process flow.

Despite the extra attention which is now being given to cybersecurity there is still a huge number of business owners who don’t quite understand what the damage which a cyber attack could really be and how it could affect their company. This is one of the biggest threats which is facing businesses at the moment yet there are still so many who believe that increasing security looks like adding new cameras and more guards. To help us understand a little more about the clear dangers which a cyberattack can have on your business, we must first realize just what could happen in the event of a system breach from a cyber criminal. To help us with that, we spoke to industry expert Bharat Bhise HNA, who knows only too well what these risks are.

Personal Details

Very often we see hackers who are looking to break into systems in order to obtain personal details. These can be details of the clients who you look after or your own staff. In many cases they will do this in order to sell the information on, to people who will then use such details to commit identity fraud. In many criminal cases where people have traveled to other countries or passed through certain systems, they have done so using fake names and passports, they get the information from hackers who have taken it from business owners just like you. This is one of the biggest risks to your business, the loss of the personal details which people have entrusted you with.

Expense

The cost of a cyber attack, even for a small business can be huge. You must remember that once you have been hacked you will need to have your entire system reviewed, locked down and then beefed up in terms of security. Any damage to software or hardware which has been caused will also need to be fixed, and the price will just keep rising. Something else which is going to cost you a lot of money is the fact that your business is going to be out of action for at least a day, perhaps more. The cost of reparations and the fall out after an attack is huge, which is why it makes so much more sense to invest now and prevent it from happening. The investment in cybersecurity will be significantly cheaper than the cost of fixing things after it has happened.

Loss of Trust

The trust between you and your customers and other businesses who you work with is so incredibly hard to gain, yet so easy to throw away. If your systems are breached and important personal details or trade secrets are stolen, you are going to completely lose the trust of your partners and your customers. This will be something which takes years to recover from and certainly something which no business needs.

Don’t run the risk, invest in cybersecurity today.

If you wish to become a leader but you haven’t quite had the breaks that you deserve then you need to do something about this. Not everyone has the desire to become a leader like Misha Kaura which is why those who do should take affirmative action in order to make it happen. Misha is the leader of her own business and she has spent many years working hard on her leadership to get to where she is today. If you really have that desire to become a great leader then here are Misha’s top tips on helping you to get there.

Honing Your Skills

Not all of us are natural born leaders which is why it is so important that we take every opportunity to work on our own leadership skills. Each and every leader around the world has the same core set of skills which help them to be good at what they do. These skills are things like communication, the ability to inspire and motivate, taking responsibility, making decisions and ultimately taking ownership of the team or people who you are in charge of. If you aren’t in a leadership position this doesn’t mean that you can’t hone your skills, you just need to find opportunities in the workplace to do it.

Taking Responsibility

If an opportunity comes up in your workplace, be it a project or a job position, which involves leadership you should take that opportunity with both hands. It doesn’t matter how big or small this opportunity is, you should still look to take it on. When you get a chance like this you are going to be able to use it to both practice and implement your leadership skills, as well as trying to impress those who have given you the opportunity. It only takes one chance for you to show what you can do and people will start talking about your prospects as a leader. Find the opportunity and grab it.

Deliver

If you do get an opportunity to display your leadership skills then you have to deliver, no matter what the target is. Let’s say that you work in sales and they break up the workforce into teams to see who can sell the most, if you are leading one of those small teams then you most certainly are going to have to deliver. See this as your chance to shine and don’t let it go to waste, not if you want to become a leader one day.

Be A Leader

Something which Misha always did in her past employment was to act like a leader even if she wasn’t, and you can do the same. Just because people are getting paid the same as you doesn’t mean that you can’t take on a leadership role with them. Give training, give instruction and show that you have what it takes to be a great leader, you will get your chance.