Tag: operations

6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Selling Your Business | Entrepreneur
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Owning a business is a big decision and choosing to sell it can be just as significant.

Selling your business comes with many considerations, including the value of it and any financial prospects, what a potential buyer is looking for, if you’re actually done with your business and what you’ll do after it’s sold. If you’re considering selling your business, ask yourself these six questions to assess your options and identify the next best step.

Related: Selling Your Business? Do These 6 Things Right Now.

1. Am I ready to sell?

Start by outlining your reasons for selling. What’s driving your decision to sell? Maybe you’re burned out post-pandemic and you need to get a fresh perspective. Maybe you feel stuck, like a hamster on a wheel who can’t find its way out. In these cases, selling may not be the answer. Consider your goals for the sale and what a positive outcome would look like. It can be helpful to write down your thoughts or list the pros and cons.

Once you answer these questions, seek an opinion from someone you trust. Selling your business is not just a financial consideration, but it’s also an emotional one. Take time to get to the bottom of what’s fueling your feelings and then get into how it’s done (if you still want to sell).

2. What is the value of my company?

As a business owner, you should have an excellent (and realistic) understanding of what your business can get in the open market. My experience with many business owners has been that they value their business at least 50% higher than the actual value. It’s essential to get a third party to evaluate your business.

You can look into programs that provide a back-of-the-envelope calculation or you can go to a professional business valuator. A back-of-the-envelope estimate typically focuses on the return on investment (ROI), a quick, practical way of reaching a selling price. Although it is universally utilized, an ROI calculation overlooks factors such as time, capital appreciation, risk, potential and inflation, among other factors.

Utilizing a professional business valuator will provide a more accurate number, which can result from different approaches and considerations (including assets, market comparison, income, etc.). The challenge with this route is finding the right valuator for your business and industry who will charge a fair appraisal price.

Related: 6 Proven Ways to Sell Your Business for 10x or More

3. Is knowing the value enough?

Understanding the value of your business includes more than just how much you should sell it for. To prepare for business transfer ownership, you should organize your finances, including your tax filings, licenses, deeds and profit and loss statements.

It would be best if you also took inventory of your tangible and intangible assets and any liabilities. Taking the time to outline your business plan and model will benefit you and potential buyers, so they understand the full context of the company and how it generates revenue.

4. Who will I sell to?

It’s likely that you will have many alternatives to choose from. For example, you can sell your company to your employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which has many advantages but some hoops to jump through; or maybe you have family members that are capable and want to take on the responsibility of running the company. If you are looking outside your circle, consider an individual investor, private equity firm or strategic buyers.

5. What professionals will I need?

It takes a village to sell a company. There are many components and complexities to each deal. The team of professionals you’ll need will depend on the specifics of your business, such as the industry, size and nature. Here are some professional’s business owners will want to have on their exit planning team:
- A Certified Public Accountant. Look for one experienced in dealmaking to help ensure the sale and transfer are done correctly. There are several tax-related aspects to selling a business and you want to help ensure you’re up on the latest regulations and opportunities for saving money.
- A Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA). They can help ensure you’re getting the maximum benefits when you sell, and they’ll consider your personal and financial objectives.
- A Certified Financial Planner (CFP). They can help with the financial aspects of the deal, including what your financial future looks like.
- A business attorney. They will create legal plans to carry out the sale and look to keep you out of trouble.
- An estate attorney. There are very big advantages that you can take advantage of in your pre-liquidity planning.
- A business valuation expert. They can give a more accurate idea of what your company is valued at. That’s if you don’t want a back of the envelope number.
- M&A advisors. They will look for strategic or financial buyers of your business. They will generally help mid-market and above companies.
- A business broker. They will contact potential buyers and can screen interested parties for financial ability or other qualifications. They generally help the lower middle market.
- An insurance professional. They can review your insurance and make alignments based on your needs.
Some professionals may assist in overlapping areas, but it’s best to use a team approach to help ensure you’ve got the necessary support. Working with the right people will help achieve a successful outcome and a seamless transition.

Related: Know When and How to Sell Your Business

6. What will I do after I sell?

Preparing and understanding what you want to do post-sale is essential for your mental well-being, primarily since most small business owners I know (myself included) are defined by their business.

They are only looking at their business, growing it and looking to sell the company for the best offer. I ask them what they will do with all the extra time they will have. I get surprising answers such as “I haven’t thought about that,” and “I guess I’ll spend time with my grandkids.” While it’s great to spend time with family, they have their lives and soon you will be looking for other things to do.

Asking yourself these six questions will likely raise additional questions. Taking time to consider your answer to each question is an excellent opportunity to explore the next steps — whether that’s selling your business or not. Answering these questions honestly and engaging the right professionals at the right time will help ensure that you get the most value for your life’s work.
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Mark Kravietz

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May 12, 2023
Reduce Fleet Downtime With These 5 Strategies | Entrepreneur

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Fleet downtime is a huge problem for any business that operates automobiles. When a vehicle is down for repairs or maintenance, it can result in lost productivity, missed deadlines, and unhappy customers. It can happen in a planned or unplanned manner. Irrespective of the timing or cause, there are strategies or approaches to effectively managing and decreasing fleet downtime. These include the following:

Conduct routine and comprehensive inspection

One vital step toward effectively reducing fleet downtime is conducting routine vehicle inspections.

You can ensure your vehicles are risk-free and compliant by utilizing manual daily vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs) as you take proactive measures to prevent unplanned downtime. However, despite their advantages, they’re time-consuming and prone to errors. Physical forms can get damaged or lost, and it can take hours to get the results to the maintenance team, slowing down the process.

Related: 5 of the Biggest Productivity Challenges Fleet Managers Face in Fleet Management

On the other hand, electronic DVIR (eDVIR) enhances efficiency and ensures that drivers provide clarity and accuracy. With this, you can receive inspection results in real-time, eliminating communication holdups between fleet managers and drivers. Any problem encountered is immediately registered in your fleet management software, enabling you to quickly address and sort out the issue.

Effective communication ensures that even though a vehicle has a problem, the maintenance process can start promptly. This allows the vehicle to get back on the road as soon as possible.

Additionally, a frequent reason for unscheduled downtime is a part failure. Thus, a crucial step in parts monitoring is to verify that they’re in good condition during routine quality control.

In some cases, you may encounter a repeated failure of a particular part in several vehicles. Such patterns may go unnoticed and result in unnecessary expenditure if you lack a simple, all-inclusive approach to assessing your fleet’s status.

Furthermore, routine part maintenance allows you to determine the most suitable vehicle parts. For instance, comparing OEM and aftermarket gaskets can help you decide which option is better for your fleet.

By monitoring and tracking your parts in person and through your fleet management software, you can ensure they are in excellent condition, thereby preventing downtime and reducing recurring expenditures.

Utilize fleet management software

You can utilize fleet management software if your fleet businesses struggle to minimize vehicle downtime and keep smooth operations. This tool can help manage inspections, shop operations, driver activities, and preventive maintenance schedules.

This software uses data analytics and reporting features to identify patterns in servicing or breakdowns and determine their underlying causes. You can use this information to predict recurring problems and develop effective mitigation strategies. This approach can help eliminate future issues, reducing downtime and allowing more productive and efficient business operations.

Related: Fleet Tools Will Help You Get More Done In Less Time

A preventive maintenance schedule lets you stay ahead of routine servicing requirements. Fleet management software can help you set reminders based on specific intervals, such as mileage and usage hours, guaranteeing you never miss a servicing appointment.

Numerous fleets delegate maintenance duties to a third-party service provider. Conventionally, external repair requests are prepared by hand, resulting in blockages and a restricted understanding of vehicle health patterns. On the one hand, automating outsourced maintenance through fleet management software enables you to handle repair tasks efficiently, monitor maintenance trends, and integrate billing, which all contribute to unnecessary downtimes.

Improve service management procedure

Reducing downtime necessitates streamlined and effective management practices. Fleet managers may be surprised to discover that a significant part of the downtime is mainly unrelated to the actual repairs themselves but, rather, the ineffectiveness of the service management procedure.

To ensure the effectiveness of preventative maintenance, all relevant departments must collaborate to optimize their work schedules and tasks. Internally, efficiently utilizing resources to simplify service procedures eradicates any accumulation of work and reduces errors.

Conduct regular driver training

To achieve a profitable fleet, it’s crucial to ensure that the most appropriate drivers are trained to handle your vehicles, reducing breakdowns and unplanned servicing. For one, a well-instructed, well-informed, and self-assured driver is less likely to be involved in a collision.

Ensuring proper driver behavior can contribute to the reduction of fleet downtimes. Undergoing a brief but comprehensive training period, drivers may identify and eliminate detrimental behaviors that adversely affect the vehicles’ performance, such as forceful or sudden gear shifts, aggressive lane changes, and abrupt turns. Getting rid of such habits promotes road safety and reduces strain on the vehicle.

In addition, properly trained fleet drivers can accurately report any issues they encounter while driving. This feature helps you take note of repairs or replacements you ought to carry out promptly.

Select The Right Vehicles

The choice of vehicles for your fleet can significantly impact the frequency of downtime.

That said, go for the most suitable vehicles for their intended purpose. Never make the mistake of deciding solely based on what your competitors use. Also, don’t let the flashy features touted by the industry’s leading brands fool you.

For instance, you need to make your choice based on the carrying capacity you require. Overburdening a vehicle may exacerbate problems, such as wear and tear, and increase the need for repairs. For instance, if you’re running a garbage collection company, you need fleet vehicles that can carry loads of waste materials you expect to deal with.

Furthermore, it’s advisable to choose newer vehicles equipped with advanced technology. These types of vehicles demand less maintenance and can alert you about emerging problems.

Conclusion

Unplanned fleet downtime is a huge stumbling block to maintaining a profitable and efficient business. There are many methods to minimize such occurrences and maximize fleet efficiency. These methods include leasing appropriate vehicles, performing regular inspections, carrying out preventive maintenance, and promoting team member responsibility is essential.

Additionally, effective communication and collaboration between maintenance, operational, dispatch, and administrative teams are a must to ensure maximum fleet operations at all times. Also, consider investing in fleet management technologies to track your fleet vehicles’ conditions more accurately.

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Under30CEO

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March 31, 2023
The Overlooked Solution to Labor Shortage | Entrepreneur
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
We’re yet to see the impact of Generative AIs like Dall-E and Chat-GPT on the future job market.

However, here and now, the Western world is dealing with a persistent labor shortage. There is a lack of nurses and doctors to meet the rising demand for care. This summer, flights were canceled due to a lack of airport staff. There is a plumber shortage, a soldier shortage and a shortage of engineers to deliver the green transition of our infrastructure.

It’s a question of demographics; The generations leaving the job market are larger than the ones entering it. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that there are 3 million fewer Americans working today compared to 2020. That leaves only 5.7 million unemployed to fill the 10 million job openings. In my native Denmark, 33 % of all companies report a labor shortage. In Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, it’s more than half.

Companies can’t meet the growing demand and will have to reject deals due to lacking capacity. We’re missing out on growth.

We can deal with this in multiple ways. Migration could work if the public mood allows it. We can try to make people work more; scrap some public holidays, force the young to join the workforce earlier and the elderly to stay longer. Tech can solve a large part of the problem. We can automate more tasks and apply more bots. And then, we can increase our productivity with sticks and carrots. We can be bossier, invest more in employee satisfaction, experiment with 4-day work weeks or whatever works.

Related: How Leaders Can Beat the Labor Crisis

The EverythingOps movement

An often overlooked solution is what I call the EverythingOps movement. In the past few years, modern tech companies have relied heavily on ops teams to streamline internal processes, optimize workflows and embed the strategic goals of the company in all parts of the company.

We’ve seen DevOps teams deliver new products at high velocity. We’ve seen RevOps teams creating more efficient workflows in the commercial departments. And we’ve seen LegalOps teams turning legal departments from cost centers into value creators. All these ops movements have in common that they use technology and data to optimize processes and drive workflow efficiency in busy organizations. They break down silos and force every function to contribute to the commercial goals of a company.

They’ve been incremental through the bull run as they help scaling organizations to stay on track, and they’re maybe even more important to ensure cost-effectiveness in a bear economy. With that in mind, I also see the following three ways the ops philosophy can help companies with a low labor supply.

The revenue mindset

Historically, the legal department has been a cost center focused on risk mitigation and compliance. However, modern legal departments generate revenue and contribute to the commercial goals of the company. They automate sales contracts, so the reps get more time on the floor. They streamline commercial terms to shorten sales cycles and increase growth rates. And they use technology to identify opportunities in existing contracts.

As silos break, the distinction between commercial and service organizations becomes blurry. Applying the ops mindset to the legal function has revealed its capacity to unlock growth and increase revenue.

Related: Apple Makes Major Moves to Combat Labor Shortage

Efficiency goals

While service functions must begin to support the revenue targets of a company, the commercial teams must optimize for efficiency. Operations teams have always been used to streamline internal processes and ensure that every part of a company operates smoothly.

The RevOps movement has embedded this philosophy deeper into commercial teams and at a much grander scale to drive revenue growth. Modern commercial teams are trimmed and well-oiled machines augmented by workflow automation. They leverage digital technologies to make data-driven decisions, and they apply the RevOps approach that works holistically with the entire customer journey.

Data and tech

The main reason that the EverythingOps movement comes at this moment in time is the current state of tech:
1. Digital technologies have enabled organizations to become much more data-driven. It’s never been easier to track and analyze a performance which creates a foundation for more informed decisions.
2. We’ve seen a new wave of workflow automation software that makes the ops function much more effective. Operations teams have a higher chance of making a difference today than they had before.
3. All these new digital products have created a need for synchronization. We need ops more than ever to ensure all departments are aligned and use digital technologies to their advantage.
Related: US Businesses Turn to Automation Amid Labor Shortage

The EverythingOps movement has been successful in larger corporations and the most modern and innovative companies, but we are still far from mass adoption. Too many companies are yet to benefit from the RevOps approach, and the LegalOps approach is niche. Most companies — large and small — have unnecessary silos to demolish and workflow automation to implement.

In other words, EverythingOps can secure some of the productivity and efficiency gains we need to secure growth in a tight labor market.
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Niels Martin Brøchner

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March 14, 2023
Free Up Your Finances By Avoiding the Pitfalls of Excess Inventory | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Most companies have a lot on their plates currently. The rapid shifting of societal and economic elements has brought challenges to getting funds, sustaining cash flow, finding partners and dealing with essentially every other aspect of running a startup.

Supply chains usually don’t make it into the startup headlines. But in today’s climate, the chaos of global supply and demand means that supply chain management is one of the most crucial skills early-stage teams need to get right.

Even the largest retail companies — such as Target — have recently gone public about their supply chain issues and the impact of excess inventory. They are announcing drastic strategies of cutting prices and canceling orders to regain their inventory equilibrium and free up warehouse revenue.

And if giants like Target are having trouble demand forecasting, smaller businesses and startups are in even more precarious situations, often without cash buffers to support wasted materials and orders.

Related: How Advanced Analytics Can Put an End to the $50 Billion Retail Overstock Problem

How does excess inventory happen?

When your inventory strategy hinges on fulfilling demand, rather than considering lead times for replenishment, you end up over-ordering. Bulk buying seems cheaper in the short term and less risky than letting orders go unfulfilled. Still, eventually, you’ll probably end up with a case of musical chairs: You can’t shift inventory quickly enough, it piles up and you need to store or shift it because no room remains for the new product you’re trying to impress the market with.

This also happens because of a lack of accurate demand forecasting, but forecasting tools only work when they can find patterns. When you have an inventory management solution to make deliveries and consumption more predictable, you can order more frequently in smaller batches. This way, you’ll have less inventory tied up and sitting around, and you’ll have more ability to be nimble — to intervene and course-correct — without saturating your warehouses. The biggest gap in demand forecasting and planning systems is their inability to support real-time intervention.

Why is excess inventory significantly impacting early-stage companies?

A stunning number of startups find that the money tied up in excess inventory could equate to a round of funding. That’s funding that could support the startup’s research, survival, growth or next development phase. What might seem like a temporary glitch becomes a significant hindrance to a startup’s long-term success and life expectancy.

Managing material goods should be vitally important to startup founders; without it, they just won’t be able to stay financially nimble enough to take chances and grow.

Take Peloton, for example. This VC-backed company found itself with products with huge physical components (bikes and treadmills) that were no longer selling in droves. Peloton faced dire financial consequences because of this wasted inventory and had to take emergency measures, including laying off thousands of employees and canceling plans for a new manufacturing facility.

Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer, is the latest casualty of excess inventory. An inability to sell its physical product meant it had to hike prices before it had even developed enough to sell at scale. The final nail in the coffin? The company made the critical mistake of asking customers who had already ordered the lower-priced vehicle to make up the difference.

The sad thing is that this could have been a very different story; the company admits that if it hadn’t struggled so much with its supply chain issues, it could have produced two times more units.

Related: 3 Ways Small Businesses Can Survive the Supply-Chain Crisis

How should startups deal with the immediate problem of excess inventory?

Before startup leaders can begin practicing better demand forecasting, they’ll need to deal with the immediate problem of excess inventory and insufficient cash.

How startups resolve this initial state of affairs will depend on their unique financial situation. If they need the cash to stay alive, faster cash velocity is better than inventory as an asset on their balance sheet. For most inventory-heavy startups, there are more excess and wasteful dollars tied in inventory than the savings they are gaining from laying off employees right now.

One immediate step that can lighten the load is to cancel all upcoming orders that are in excess of your needs. If you can access real lead time data, you can reroute or cancel inventory. You shouldn’t have to consider laying off employees when there’s excess inventory that could be monetized.

How do you know when it’s time to make this kind of intervention? You might be seeing changes in demand, abnormally long lead times, changes in on-shelf availability, etc. Keep an eye on the materials passing through (and getting stuck) in your supply chain.

Related: How Better Inventory Management Can Improve Your Finances

How can startups use AI to forecast demand?

Newer retailers and early-stage startups can use AI-powered tools to better plan demand going forward, and it needn’t mean retraining or relearning everything you know about supply chains. Consider these strategies:

1. Keep an eye on lead time estimates

Looking ahead at real lead time estimations for your goods can help you plan for potential excess inventory. Understand how often a supplier can deliver. Look at global shipments to determine if you will get your materials on time to either distribute or manufacture. This information can set up more accurate expectations for the rest of production and beyond. It also helps you advise customers ahead of time rather than apologizing after you’ve let them down.

2. Don’t undersell your clearance inventory

Price your clearances properly; there is no need to price something 50% off when a 40% discount would result in the same purchase volume. The great thing about awareness of lead times is that you don’t need to go to desperate measures. You can see ahead at the whole picture and put more gradual, smaller measures in place to deal with excess inventory.

3. Actively manage inventory buffers

Inventory buffers shouldn’t just stagnate because excess inventory (even in the form of a planned buffer) can oversaturate your supply chain, causing the flow of goods to grind to a halt. If you can actively manage inventory buffers for critical goods, factoring carrier and demand disruption patterns, you can create a healthier flow even when the market environment is in turmoil.

Excess inventory happens to the best (and biggest) of us. But when you’re an early-stage company fighting to fuel your way ahead with VC funding and struggling to find enough spare cash to make changes, then excess inventory can drag your business down and threaten its future. By focusing on your supply chain and reading lead time estimates to manage the flow of your material goods, you can take back control and free up your finances.

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Ali Hassan

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February 24, 2023
Inside look: PNC looks to client feedback for innovation, inspiration | Bank Automation News

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Successful innovation in business requires much more than just a good idea. Strategic planning and having the proper teams and technology are also key, but what might be the most important element is listening to what the client wants. Banks need to listen to specific client feedback to determine where to invest time and capital […]

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Whitney McDonald

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January 26, 2023
Learn to Model Your Business on Sustainable Practices with This Course Bundle

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Running a business is expensive, but shifting to a sustainable, more environmentally friendly strategy could lower your operating cost by as much as 60%. U.S.-based companies can also benefit from tax breaks and rebates for incorporating sustainable practices. You could hire a sustainability expert to consult on your business practices, or you could become one yourself. The 2023 Complete Renewable and Electrical Energy Engineer Preparation Bundle could help you stay informed on the latest sustainable-energy practices you can use in your business.

StackCommerce

This 38-hour informational bundle may help you create large and small-scale changes in your business. An understanding of wind turbines could help you invest in green energy solutions. A few lessons in the Basics of Solar Energy course may help you create an energy model that actually has you selling energy back to the power companies. And operating a brick-and-mortar may not have the same high cost if you can create your own solar water pumping system.

While these courses will not make you an electrical or environmental engineer overnight, they could help you learn about the feasibility of converting your business to a more sustainable model. As intense storms become more common, finding a way to ensure your business does not rely on an inconsistent power grid may become more valuable over time. Keeping the electricity on during a blackout could even mean preserving your frozen inventory and keeping the doors open after a disaster if you’re in the food industry. In addition, all course materials are available to you for life.

If you want to learn the basics principles behind solar and wind, get the 2023 Complete Renewable Energy Engineer Preparation Bundle on sale for $39.99 (reg. $2,400).

Prices subject to change.

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Entrepreneur Store

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January 14, 2023
3 Ways Consumers are Driving Change in Retail Logistics for 2023

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Consumers are increasingly exhibiting preferences for ethical products, transparency, sustainable practices, personalization, convenience and digitization — and it’s driving big changes across the retail industry as brands take note and adapt.

Across the board, consumer expectations are raising the bar for retailers. This leaves leaders with two choices: hesitate, reach a tipping point and be forced to pivot (and risk losing customers along the way), or stay in sync with consumers and make impactful operational changes now.

On the logistics front, here are three ways retailers can embrace consumer cues on sustainability, transparency and customer service in 2023 and beyond:

1. Sustainable shipping

Consumers have come to expect environmental responsibility from the brands they shop. Across generations, consumers are even willing to pay more for sustainable products. In fact, 90% of Gen Z consumers said they are inclined to spend an extra 10% on sustainable options.

Yet, despite this number being up from just over 34% two years prior, two-thirds of retail executives believe consumers wouldn’t pay more for sustainable products. Disconnects such as this present an opportunity for retailers to listen to what consumers are saying about the importance of sustainability and take action.

For starters, consumers are growing mindful of the long-term impacts of their purchasing decisions, especially in this era of ecommerce and next-day offerings that increase delivery vehicle traffic, carbon emissions and packaging. According to Forrester, some 68% of highly empowered consumers plan to increase their efforts to identify brands that reduce their environmental impact, and 61% seek out energy-efficient labels when shopping.

With retail supply chains responsible for roughly 25% of global emissions, brands have an opportunity to share in consumer values and adopt environmentally sound practices at every stage in their supply chain. This spans sourcing renewable or recycled materials, utilizing clean energy sources, adopting reusable bags and committing to sustainable last-mile deliveries.

Take the Montreal-based sustainable fashion brand, Frank And Oak, for example. The company recently partnered with a sustainability-minded third-party logistics (3PL) provider to move its warehousing closer to its customers and offer shoppers carbon-neutral, same-day and next-day deliveries. Across major Canadian and U.S. markets, shoppers’ packages will be delivered via electric vehicles, and where EV deliveries aren’t possible, carbon offsets will be calculated and bought.

Port to porch, retailers can execute greener shipping practices with 3PL providers that align their services with both brand and consumer sustainability goals.

2. Increased transparency

Increased transparency, such as from where materials are sourced to the environmental and actual costs of making products, helps shoppers decide whether to click “purchase” or not. The American clothing retailer, Everlane, calls this high level of visibility “radical transparency.” Founded on the mission of selling clothing with transparent pricing, Everlane reveals the true costs behind producing all of its products and provides insight into its sustainability initiatives and conscientious business practices across its operations.

Consumers are now accustomed to this degree of transparency, and it goes beyond clicking “buy.” Once they’ve placed an online order, shoppers want to know exactly where their order is and when it will arrive at their doorstep.

Within logistics, retailers can deliver complete transparency of their fulfillment and delivery operations. Tech-enabled 3PLs give retailers the ability to track thousands of SKUs housed, packed and shipped from centralized warehouses, then grant consumers access to in-depth order tracking right up until the minute their order is delivered.

3. Better customer service

Consumers are vocal about their experiences — especially when it comes to deliveries —and share their opinions by posting reviews, tagging brands on social media and flexing their spending muscle.

Nearly 80% of U.S. consumers say speed, convenience, friendly service and knowledgeable help are key to a positive customer service experience. In fact, 32% of global consumers would walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience.

When retailers partner with a 3PL that supports every facet of their inventory, warehousing, order fulfillment, delivery and returns, companies remain in control of their entire logistics operation. And with so many pain points along the fulfillment journey where issues can arise, retailers need supply-chain partners with brand knowledge who can offer quick issue resolution at every step. By partnering with a 3PL that manages its end-to-end logistics, retailers can effectively deliver seamless customer service experiences from the time an order is placed to when it arrives at a consumer’s door.

Consumers have always been powerful agents of progress. In response to the pandemic, supply chain issues and climate change, consumer needs and desires have shifted. Retailers would be wise to meet consumers where they are and embrace change, especially around sustainability, transparency and customer service.

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Mark Ang

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December 9, 2022
Do You Have the Right Insurance for Your Business? Here’s How to Understand Your Options

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You’ve likely pursued traditional business insurance. But when it comes to protecting your business from a myriad of outside threats in today’s complex and ever-changing environment, is traditional insurance enough — or even the right fit?

With the hardening of the insurance market and costly premiums, it’s a timely question, especially as more and more businesses are looking to alternative risk transfer. And an increasingly trending option is captive insurance as worldwide more than 100 captives formed last year as reported by Business Insider.

Related: 4 Ways to Protect Your Business From Inflation

Background of traditional and captive insurance

Traditional insurance has built up a portfolio of coverage offerings and options for businesses. Some components of traditional insurance include risk distribution, tax deductibles on premiums and many blanket insurance coverages such as general liability insurance, business income insurance and worker compensation insurance.

Captive insurance is a wholly owned subsidiary that exists to protect your business from unique threats and provide the dynamic and unique plan your business needs. Captive insurance may be right for your business if it can’t receive the insurance coverage it needs from the traditional insurance market.

For instance, business interruption insurance is a coverage that insulates your business from disasters such as floods and earthquakes. This coverage does not, however, protect businesses from fires or tornadoes — and to activate this insurance, there must be an event that “triggers” your policy.

Businesses that shut down during the pandemic lost money while they were closed, and they needed to be fully shut down to trigger their business interruption policies. With captive insurance, however, businesses can access their stored cash reserves and cover losses during instances of extended partial shutdowns that are not covered in a traditional insurance policy. Unlike this policy language with its many coverage exclusions, captive policy language is geared to protect the business owner.

Captive insurance also doesn’t penalize for other firms’ bad behavior and the cost you pay for insurance isn’t based on other similar businesses filing claims. Other considerations for possibly leaving traditional insurance are in the hardening of premiums, and companies looking to have less expensive coverage.

Keeping that in mind, companies seeking more control over their current coverages and insurance programs can craft a bespoke insurance plan built around their business’s unique risk profile with their captive plan.

Related: How Businesses Can Navigate the Treacherous Waters of Trade Wars

Premiums aren’t a sunk cost with captives

High premiums with traditional insurance providers can handcuff your business to hardening monthly rates and can leave your business feeling the impact of those high expenses. With captive insurance, however, your business can retain profits when claims aren’t paid.

These retained profits see deferment of taxes on loss reserves as well, allowing for the accumulation of a larger pool of funds for investment or unforeseen financially impactful situations such as litigation. These funds can also be utilized to insulate your business from losses during economic downturns or similarly fiscally challenging situations.

For a small business, this can help with scalability as expensive premiums paid with traditional providers can mean less money spent on expanding your business. Additionally, as your business scales in size and needs, so do the coverages required for your business to be adequately protected. Comparatively, Kiplinger pointed out that captive insurance can provide these necessary adaptive coverages as the need for them comes up along the way.

Related: 5 Trending Captive Insurance Considerations for 2022

Policy differences and FAQs

If your business faces potential cyberattacks, medical malpractice suits and many other costly risks, the deductibles associated with these protections are growing with traditional providers. Premiums for cyber insurance have increased by as much as 50% and 100%.

Relating back to the earlier example, flexibility in captive insurance policy language would help. As evidenced by the civil unrest of 2020, whereby areas of the country experienced protests, riots and sit-ins that destroyed neighborhoods. If the area around a business was damaged and inaccessible, but the business itself was not, again, the traditional insurance policy would not be triggered, meaning your business can be left paying out of pocket.

Related: 5 Ways to Protect Your Business Against Cyber Attacks

So how much time does it take to create a new policy?

With constant changes in what businesses need in their insurance protections, traditional insurance providers can often be behind the curve. Where new threats form, it also means new policies need to be made to cover vulnerable parts of your business.

According to Deloitte, traditional insurance takes 12 to 18 months to create and release new insurance products. With the rate at which threats arise and can potentially harm your business, that is not an acceptable timeframe.

Additionally, when buying traditional insurance coverage, startup costs are limited to the premium. Starting a captive insurance company, however, requires start-up costs and capitalization requirements with formation fees including legal costs. This is because a captive insurance company is a legally formed corporation. Additionally, with captive insurance, you are building upon your risk mitigation strategies to accrue funds for potential losses.

While forming a captive may be daunting to a non-insurance professional, there are many captive management companies that will serve as a business owner’s insurance front office, that help companies form and manage their own wholly owned captives.

Captive insurance can be a viable option for businesses large and small. Businesses best served by implementing captive insurance are those with complex, evolving, difficult or costly risks to insure through traditional plans and those who would benefit from increased cash flow, liquidity and profitability. Traditional insurance and captive insurance both have distinct features and one isn’t necessarily a better fit than the other. Regardless of what you choose, protecting your business with the right insurance plan is a necessity.

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Randy Sadler

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November 21, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | Future of APA!: A Letter to Our Stakeholders

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Aug 24, 2021

Friends,

In 2017, the Austin City Council passed a resolution that APA! could stay on the Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC) property for three 25-year agreements (75 years!). City staff and APA! were directed to negotiate and execute an agreement over the next three years.

Since then, APA!, with the amazing help of our pro-bono attorneys at Drenner Group, and the City has been in intense negotiations, resulting in two emergency extensions to allow both sides more time to come to a consensus. This has proven very difficult and our exact future is unknown. We want to make sure that you, as a valued APA! partner, are being brought along more thoroughly as this unfolds and a final decision is reached in the months ahead. What is crucial for you to know today is that it is impossible for APA! to operate with the TLAC facility service agreement currently in place, and due to the state of our facility, we have no choice but to either renegotiate those terms or find a new facility. We want you to be aware of this as we continue to work with the City of Austin to determine our future in the months ahead.

I’m sure you are asking: why can’t you just keep your current terms? The top-line answer to that is that it’s complicated. The complications involve requirements around the parkland that TLAC sits upon, the campus buildings in various stages of disrepair, the City’s Lamar Beach Master Plan, operations at both Austin Animal Center and APA!, and our vision for the future of No Kill. It is too much to pack into one letter. In an effort to keep you informed but not overwhelmed, we will be sharing this information in pieces over the next few weeks. We welcome your questions and thoughts as you hear our plans unfold.

When we started APA!, our goal was to make Austin a sustainable, No Kill city. We envisioned a place where all pets would be truly safe from death and where euthanasia due to space and time limits would no longer exist. Now, more than a decade and nearly 100,000 lives saved later, we have succeeded in fulfilling that mission year-over-year, making Austin the safest place in America for lost and homeless pets, and spreading that territory into the rest of Texas. This will not change, no matter the outcome of our relationship with the City.

As we are sustained entirely on donations and rely heavily on fosters and volunteers, we could never have accomplished making, and keeping, Austin No Kill without your tireless support. Your ongoing investment has helped us transform Austin and show the world what it looks like when a community comes together to work towards one goal. Every dollar you’ve given, every hour you’ve spent volunteering, and every pet you’ve fostered or adopted have resulted in what has come to seem normal but is truly extraordinary.

Thank you,

Ellen Jefferson, DVM
President and CEO
Austin Pets Alive!/American Pets Alive!

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August 24, 2021
Trisotech Named Among 10 Best Performing BPM Solution Providers by Insights Success Magazine

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Press Release
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updated: Nov 9, 2017

MONTREAL, November 9, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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Trisotech (http://www.trisotech.com) today announced that Insights Success Magazine has named it among the 10 Best Performing BPM Solution Providers of 2017.

Insights Success Magazine presents each year the most innovative and unique companies, highlighting the ones who are bringing revolution to the world of BPM technology. This year, Trisotech is rewarded for: its unique integration of the three leading standards for process improvement, its innovative bridge between strategy and operations and its leading-edge Decision Management solution. This particular list of the magazine rewards companies offering solutions that meet the demands of savvy customers. It acknowledges that “to meet and exceed the requirements of consumers, the need for genuine and trustworthy solution providers with world-class services and products is tremendous.” Trisotech has been selected as one the few solution providers that can both innovate in product development and fulfill the needs of its clients.

One of the main elements that distinguished Trisotech from other solution providers is its ability to shift focus from a business-centric to a customer-centric thinking. “Trisotech believes that Digital Transformation is a strategy and that value creation and benefits to customers should shape that strategy. Trisotech, with its Digital Enterprise Suite, is helping organizations of all scales to reinvent their business model from strategy to operations and to become more agile in delivering and improving the customer experience,” says the publication.

In addition, the magazine highlights Trisotech’s international presence and growth, allowing organizations all around the world to benefit from its unique solution. “Trisotech is on a continuous path to expand its organization and customer support across the globe and to provide an ever-growing set of tools to enable business people and IT people alike to define and control organizational transformations.”

About Trisotech

Trisotech is a global leader in digital enterprise transformation solutions, offering innovative and easy-to-use software tools that allow customers to visualize, innovate, transform and improve their digital enterprise processes and business decisions. Trisotech customers use The Digital Enterprise Suite to provide new and revolutionary ways for their knowledge workers to collaborate and succeed in an increasingly global, connected and competitive world. Trisotech products are providing digital transformation help to communications, agriculture, manufacturing, financial, healthcare, insurance, energy, distribution, government, and many other types of organizations.

Trisotech is a privately held company.

Website: http://www.trisotech.com

About Insights Success Magazine

Insights Success is the Best Business Magazine in the world for enterprises. Being a platform, it focuses distinctively on emerging as well as leading fastest-growing companies, their confrontational style of doing business and way of delivering effective and collaborative solutions to strengthen market share. Here, we talk about leader’s viewpoints and ideas, latest products/services, etc. Insights Success magazine reaches out to all the “C” Level professional, VPs, Consultants, VCs, Managers and HRs of various industries.

Website: http://www.insightssuccess.com

For information
Jonathan L’Ecuyer
Marketing Manager
Trisotech
514 990-6639 ext. 501

All registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Source: Trisotech

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November 9, 2017