increasing profits

Bartercard Talk About Remuneration: Using Trade as an Incentive

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We know competition is fierce when it comes to recruiting the right individuals – there’s so much to consider. However, according to Forbes Magazine’s, Alan Hall, there are some basic rules to follow, including ensuring competency, and measuring capability and creativity. To hire an exceptional employee, ensure that they can demonstrate from experience, that they can come up with creative and innovative ways in which to increase productivity or problem-solving in a particular area.

You also need to ensure that they are compatible with you, the job and other staff, and calling past employers is a good way of finding out about team functioning. Similarly, you need to know that they are committed to you and your success. Team culture is important, being sure they fit in from the start.
It is also important to compensate staff according to award conditions and rates, as dissatisfied employees can adversely affect the mood of your business.

However, what also needs to be considered is how employers reward their teams and the impact on payroll. How do you incentivise employees, both new and loyal, to keep them motivated? For most businesses, retention of good staff members is important but finding ways to reward staff that go the extra mile for the business, without increasing wages or salaries can be tricky (and anything that goes through the payroll will incur PAYE).

Bartercard is a great tool to reward, provide incentives and support wage levels, and with the intelligent use of Bartercard, you have an incredible tool with which to select, maintain, up-skill and retain staff.

Take a small manufacturing company who wants to reward their top sales person with an incentive, but budgets are tight. Working with the Bartercard trade exchange the business can gift that staff member by purchasing a reward (such as a dinner out) through the Bartercard network using accumulated Trade Dollars. The business preserves their cash, while saying thank you to that employee, and better still gifts under $300/per employee, per quarter are exempt from tax under Fringe Benefit rules.

Bartercard’s eBook How to use Bartercard to grow your business offers helpful advice on how to use Bartercard to incentivise and reward your staff so you can ensure you make sure your employees are the secret to your long-term success.

For more information on increasing profits, excess stock and getting new customers please go to www.bartercard.co.nz.

Bartercard Discuss The Real Cost of Discounting

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With such fierce competition and all consumers looking to bag a bargain, it’s no wonder we turn to discount websites such as GrabOne, TreatMe and Groupon for offers. Why wouldn’t you? But as a merchant and small business owner, have you worked out the real cost of discounting and the impact it has on your business? Daily deal websites charge a fee of approximately 15-20% of the sale price and stipulate that the offer presented must be at least 50% off the original sale price.

It’s easy to think by offering a discount you’ll attract new customers and they’ll leave happy because they haven’t paid full price, but discounts cost money, and not just to your bottom line. So, by reducing your price by just 10% on a margin of 40%, your sales have to increase by 33% in order to make the same profit.

That’s a big ask in a competitive market, especially when you add a fee onto that.

Discounting can also have an impact on your brand reputation as highlighted in an article, when an Auckland pizzeria refused to accept a customer’s GrabOne voucher. All these aspects impact your bottom line.

Bartercard is not a discount service, and while there are fees associated with being a member of the network, it’s a mere 7.5% in comparison. Bartercard allows members to grow sales by 10% or more within the first 12 months of becoming a member and they can prove it – no discounts are required!

So, do your sums. Does it add up to offer discounts both from a profit and customer perspective? Ask yourself this – are your customers loyal or are they just hunting for the next deal? As a merchant, are you wanting more customers or have excess capacity you want to utilise? Bartercard suggest you download their eBook Eight ways to attract new customers which shows you how you can implement new techniques to increase your market share, gain competitive advantage and achieve financial success, so for more information on increasing sales, increasing profits and increased profits please go to www.bartercard.co.nz .

Bartercard Discuss the New AML Changes That Came Into Effect on 1 July 2018

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As Bartercard explain, legislation is constantly changing, to keep up with the fast paced and ever evolving business world and latest technology advances.  As they say, “You can’t plan for every eventuality, but there are some things you can plan for,” and one of them is the changes that have just occurred to the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) & Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Act, which was first introduced in 2013.

The original act imposed a series of obligations on banks, fund managers, financial advisers, debt collectors, safe deposit box vaults and numerous other entities, and was designed to ensure such businesses and financial instructions were able to detect and report potentially criminal origins or purposes of money.

However, this year, these legislative requirements are being extended to include the legal, real estate, sports betting, and high value goods industries (jewelry, precious metals, precious stones, watches, motor vehicles, boats, art, or antiques where cash payments of $15,000 or more are taken).  It is estimated the impact will more than quadruple the number of businesses in New Zealand required to contend with The AML Legislationrequirements.

Bartercard warn that with a shift from warning to prosecution, it’s imperative businesses understand their obligations in ensuring AML processes and structures are in place ahead of the legislation which has now come into force for their industry.

The Compliance Officer role is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the AML/CFT system, and as Bartercard explain, an employee must be designated to administer and maintain a business’ AML/CFT programme.  It doesn’t have to be a standalone position; however, the role must report to a senior manager of the reporting entity with access to any board of directors or relevant management committee.

The CFT and AML Compliance Officer has a substantial stake in the business to meet legislative requirements with them becoming personally liable for breaches of the Act, the penalties for which can be up to $200,000 per breach.

Monitoring Suspicious Activity in addition to Transaction Reporting to the Police Financial Intelligence Unit is also an important component of the legislation. International wire transfers of $1,000 or more and any physical cash transaction of $10,000 or more must be reported to the Police Financial Intelligence Unit. For high value goods dealers, they will have to file reports on any cash transaction of $15,000 or greater and may file a report on suspicious activity that does not result in a transaction.

For more detailed information on the AML & CFT Act, download Bartercard’s free eBook (https://bit.ly/2tgwXOb).  Formore information on increased sales, increased profits and increasing profits please go to www.bartercard.co.nz

Bartercard Explain The Importance of ORM in a Digital World

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Online Reputation Management (ORM) is all about brand awareness, and is the

process of measuring, monitoring, tracking and creating constructive conversations about your brand, corporate and personal identity, on the Internet. In summary, it encompasses monitoring online conversation about your brand and corporate or personal identity, understanding what is being said about it and critically analyzing the reasons behind the discussions.

It is about devising a methodical strategy, and interacting with your consumers to mitigate any damage to your brand that could potentially arise as a result of negative feedback about your company, product or business methods, ensuring that no further negative repercussions occur by maintaining a strong positive online presence.

ORM plays a crucial role in Digital Marketing, helping to get rid of negative reviews about a company, person and brand from search engines, taking away harmful hidden content. For a brand, reputation is their first priority, and ORM involves inserting new content on-line that pushes previous or unwanted content lower in search results.

Online Reputation Management has become an essential component of any brand reputation management strategy, and protecting a brand’s image is the most important thing a company can do. A brand’s name and goodwill is earned through years of hard work, and losing it might take just minutes in the online world. In today’s reality, businesses are steadily falling prey to negative scam allegations that can damage their web reputation drastically. Slander feedback or negative remarks can topple the online reputation of your business which will lead to negative impact to your online credibility and result in significant loss of sales, maybe even of the business itself.

Bartercard is all about helping businesses to grow and prosper, so for more information on increasing profits, increasing business profits and increasing sales please go to www.bartercard.co.nz .