One Up Solutions Northwest Blog

The idea of a four-day workweek has been popular for some time now, to the point where it is actively being tested in practical settings. Let’s discuss how successful this approach has been (spoiler alert: it’s been quite successful indeed).

How many of your employees do you think hold a second job? This isn’t a particularly outlandish concept, but one thing that has come about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its surge of remote work is that some employees hold two jobs at the same time, and not in the way that you might expect.

No matter how big your business is, you’ll always have technology expenses. It’s just a fact of the current workplace, and your profits will be inexorably tied to how well your IT works for you. Furthermore, the more IT costs rise, the more impact small and medium-sized businesses will feel from them. Today, we wanted to address this issue and how you can minimize the frustrations that stem from seemingly uncontrollable technology costs.

If you become the victim of a hacking attack today, how would the hackers go about it? Would they try to find vulnerabilities in your network and infrastructure? You need to do what you can to answer the questions surrounding the strength of your existing network and infrastructure so you don’t have to deal with potential hacks. This month, we will talk about one really great way to find out where your security is light: by getting a penetration test completed on your business’ IT.

Business continuity is one of those topics that is frustrating to confront. It’s not terribly interesting and has very little practical value in the context of day-to-day operations, but it is intrinsically important to the sustainability of any business that happens to deal with problems. Consider for a minute how many businesses fared when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full force. There weren’t many businesses that had contingency plans for a “global pandemic.” The businesses that were quick to respond and adapt often came out on top, compared to businesses that struggled to commit.

Digital transformation is projected to make huge waves in the business environment, with an anticipated value of approximately $767 billion by the year 2026. It’s clear that businesses have lofty ambitions and expectations for their digital transformation initiatives, but there is a shadow that is cast on this number that holds many companies back: many of these initiatives fail, and fail hard. Why is this the case? We explore these reasons in this month’s newsletter. 

When many businesses look to hire new staff, they typically have a series of qualifications they need each applicant to meet before they grant interviews. They make their selection, do their entrance training, and then expect that the new hire will settle in and be as productive as possible as soon as possible.

Every expense that your business takes on needs consideration. When you are looking to keep your business productive, you need to focus on keeping downtime to a minimum. In order to do that you need to have tools that don’t take a lot of work-time maintenance and have professional perspectives available that can help keep operations running when issues with your business’ technology do happen.

There are many ways that you can invest in your business. You can hire additional people with a strategy to get more done; you can diversify and try to cultivate different types of revenue; and you revitalize your business through the use of technology. This month, we thought we would discuss how deploying certain technologies can help grow your business fast. 

Being productive is the goal of most people, not only to do a task well in a set time, but to do multiple tasks equally well in the same timeframe. Many experts and consultants have devised strategies meant to boost an employee’s productivity, and a handful of them actually work. This month, we’ll review a few of these strategies so you can give them a try.

Technology can have a very real impact on your company’s ability to churn out a quality product, but it can also get in the way of doing so. The difference between the two is understanding what technology you need to ensure that your business is churning out quality goods and services. This month, we thought we would take a look at quality control automation strategies for three separate parts of a business

Sales. HR. Customer Service. IT. Accounting. Management. These different business departments have (for the most part) been categorized and compartmentalized for decades, cooperating to some extent but largely operating independently of one another. The question is, will this remain to be the case, with so many people now working remotely and communicating with their teammates as needed? Let’s try to make a few predictions as to the future of the departments we are all so familiar with.

While we certainly have a lot to say about the benefits of the right IT solutions, even we can acknowledge that there is a point of diminishing returns. So, how much technology is too much technology, specifically in terms of the software your team relies on? Let’s explore some of the warning signs.

The Google My Business application has assisted business owners in managing their online presence for some time now, having gone through numerous name changes in its time. However, Google has one final change planned for its application. 

Unfortunately, we are not yet rid of the concern of COVID-19 and the impact that it has had on business survivability. With “business as usual” requiring a few drastic adjustments to continue, it is important that small businesses are able and willing to embrace these changes. Research conducted by Salesforce presented in their fourth Small & Medium Business Trends Report shows that many businesses are seeing the importance of these changes.

Bad things happen. If your business fails to plan for the worst, when something terrible does happen, you could be looking at disaster. If you have a comprehensive continuity plan in place, however, you have a fighting chance. Let’s discuss some of the elements you absolutely need to address when making your business’ continuity plan. 

If you haven’t kept your most up-to-date policies and procedures written down somewhere, you absolutely must correct this as soon as possible. A written guide to your business’ policies and procedures is crucial, as it is intended to give your team a resource to turn to for an answer to any questions concerning their employment. Let’s go over some things you must include in your written employee handbook.

“Stuff” happens. While this may not be the kind of thing you want to consider in terms of your business’ operations, it is something that must be done if you want to be prepared for the moment when all of that “stuff” hits the fan (as so many businesses are now learning firsthand). We wanted to share a few best practices and tips to help you stay positive during this, and other, serious crises.

While COVID-19 has largely dominated the public awareness and created huge shifts and interruptions to businesses of all sizes, small businesses have clearly been impacted the most--essential and non-essential businesses alike. Of course, this doesn’t mean that large enterprises and corporations aren’t also affected. The difference is, these enterprises and corporations are sometimes better equipped to do something about it… which many have.