Business

Ever wondered what success looks like for a startup like Koyo Loans? Here are five steps that any tech startup can follow to achieve business success.

Step 1 : The right amount of process

A high level of process is the correct structure for highly repetitive tasks (think flipping burgers at McDonald’s, for instance). But building exceptional software is a different ball game. Yes, there are design patterns and best practice guidelines, but every problem and solution needs to be unique. Having the right amount of process allows for creativity and prevents bureaucracy. In other words, it’s the perfect amount of structure for successful startups to thrive in. It’s also important to note that in tech, tools are not focused on the process. Rather, the right processes and tools evolve as the team evolves and grows.

Step 2: Laziness (Really?!)

Consider this quote from Larry Wall:

“The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure.”

This is largely referring to the automation of internal tasks. In other words, if we see boring, repetitive work, a startup should be vocal about putting a stop to it. If we’re not prepared to do tasks that seem so mundane, we need to automate them. This is evidence of a company testing the status quo and thinking outside the box. A tech-led company is one that strives for automation at its heart. It is also one that can be lazy by not following the latest tech fashions without knowing when they’re actually appropriate.

Step 3: Doing the right thing

If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. This hits back at the notion of getting to market quickly and iterating, but patience is a virtue. Of course, compromises are inevitable, but short term solutions often become long term ones. In the tech world, architectural shortcuts are worse than those at the code level. After all, when you continuously take shortcuts, you end up with something like spaghetti – when you pull a strand to fix one thing, a whole host of other necessary changes become apparent.

Step 4: Hiring the best

Working with bright people means problems are more likely to be solved. In all cases, small, highly motivated teams will outperform large, demotivated teams. Although systematising the recruitment process is important, if the wrong candidate comes along, it’s important to take a pass. What’s more, if the wrong person has been hired, steps need to be taken to resolve the situation. Leaving the wrong person in situ for too long breeds resentment and can upset the entire work culture. The next person you hire needs to be better than you, and you can’t afford to get the recruitment process wrong.

Step 5: Full distribution

Hiring in the big city is a competitive process. The key to getting the best people is broadening the parameters and making sure the right people are considered. It’s about hiring within the right time zones, to ensure people are online at the right times and don’t need to work anti-social hours when they should be with their families. Slack and Zoom are key communication tools and ensure everyone is on the same page. This is what it means to be fully distributed.

Find out more about the story behind Koyo’s tech culture and what it means to be a successful startup in 2022.

 

The face of retail is changing fast. At a rate that has never been seen before. Staff shortages, changes in customer expectations, problems with the supply chain, environmental pressures, and rising product costs are all playing a role. The fact that all of these pressures are at play together is why the pace of change has to be so fast.

Retailers who are too slow to evolve are going out of business. Those involved in the industry are highly aware of this fact, which has led to them adopting technology at an unprecedented rate. A response that has created ripples within the industry that few would have predicted, a few years ago. Including the fact that the retail industry would accelerate the rate at which it adopts tech to the point where they are currently spending billions on doing so.

Below, we look at some of those effects and ask – who is benefiting from the high level of tech development within the retail sector and who is losing out. To do this we look at three types of new technology and consider the pros and cons of the early adoption of each of them.

Digital signage

Over the past few years, the use of digital signage in retail stores has become commonplace. Even small retailers are now using screens for marketing and to share important information with their customers.

Installing them does not cost much. Yet, they create immediate benefits for both the retailer and the customer.

Retailers have a marketing medium that they can edit and update whenever they like. So, if a product is about to go out of code, they can discount it. Then, draw the customer´s attention to this fact via their digital screens. The retailer benefits by not having to throw the product away and suffer the loss. While the consumer gets cheap goods and does not see prices increase over time to cover stock losses, which is what would otherwise happen.

Digital screens are an example of win-win technology. Their use means everyone wins. However, that is not always the case.

Automation technology

Some of the technology that retailers are installing is going to lead to job losses within the retail industry. According to a recent study carried out by McKinsey about half of the roles will disappear as tech takes over and automates simple processes. That´s a lot of jobs. The Aspen Institute estimates that, as of 2020, around 1 in 10 people are employed within the retail industry. There will be some negative fallout when 5% of the work-age population loses their jobs.

Interestingly, this is something that concerns consumers. In London, some retailers have met resistance when they have tried to roll out cashier-less stores.

So, while retailers eventually benefit from lower-wage bills, there is still the potential for this type of technology to hurt their bottom line. Plus, this tech is not cheap, which means only the larger firms can afford to buy and use it. This means that inevitably smaller retailers will find themselves unable to compete and end up going out of business.

Technology that benefits employees

But not all technology, including automation tech, negatively impacts the workforce. Some of it brings benefits. Letting customers use kiosks for returns or to have their queries answered frees up workers to do more interesting work on the shop floor. Lifting technology helps to protect them from injury and better in-store security makes it far less likely that they will have to deal with break-ins, hold-ups, or shoplifters. Read more about technology that benefits retail workers if you want to read this article.

Our conclusion

When it comes to who is benefiting from the tech and who is losing out because of it the picture is complicated. There are no clear winners or losers, except the retailers themselves.

After the initial investment, they stand to make higher profits. But even they are going to see that benefit eroding as their competitors do the same. Once that happens, retailers will once again find themselves in something of a price war with each other. That will eat into the bigger margins using technology created.

Customers will initially benefit from the introduction of the new technology. They can expect:

· Lower prices

· More convenience

· Fewer out of stocks

But they are also likely to see the following service-related issues:

· A loss of personal one to one service

· Difficulties in getting refunds or questions that are not regularly asked going unanswered

This is going to be a big issue for customers. They still want the personal touch. A JLL study showed that 65% of senior shoppers still wanted to be helped by a person. Something that is going to become less likely to happen as retailers replace people with machines.

Many are familiar with the term ‘options’ in the context of buying a car or house, but not so many understand how to trade options on listed assets. Options trading is complex and is best suited for professionals and advanced traders, but understanding the basics of options can be an exciting and valuable exercise in itself.

How does options trading work?

An option gives the holder the right to buy or sell a particular asset at a fixed price, called the strike price, until a pre-determined date called its expiry date. The two main types of options traded on London exchanges are ‘calls’ which allow their holders to buy, and ‘puts,’ which allow investors to sell an asset at a fixed price before expiration; all standardised according to the type of asset traded.

Options trading is considered riskier than buying or selling the underlying assets themselves but reduces risk due to potential profits being capped at pre-determined levels if executed correctly. This allows for option spreads – where traders simultaneously buy and sell options on the same stock to generate income from changes in price without ever having to own the stock itself – which are not possible with conventional trading of stocks.

If someone holds a call option, they have the right but not obligation to purchase 100 shares of XYZ company at £7 each before expiration. However, if they think that XYZ will reach above £7.50 within this time frame, then they may choose to exercise their option and buy at £7 (for example)

The same is true of the holder of a put option, which gives them the right to sell 100 shares of XYZ at £7 before expiration. If they expect XYZ to drop in price and wish to capitalise on that, they may choose to exercise their option and sell at £7 (for example). Alternatively, they may choose not to exercise their options and allow them to expire worthlessly.

Where to trade options in London?

The two major exchanges listed options that can be traded are the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Euronext.LIFFE; with LSE focusing more on US-listed stocks such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp; whereas Euronext.LIFFE focuses on European companies such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, BASF.

How to trade listed options in London?

Here are two ways investors can trade listed options in London

Market Maker

Listed options in London can be traced mainly through an equity derivatives trader within a relevant investment bank. This method is done by proposing and executing the trade to another counterparty (the market maker). The trader will require a lower level of capital than if they were to do it themselves.

The process for this is that the trader negotiates with the market maker on their “bid-offer spread” for each option they offer; where the bid price is what they are willing to pay (how much they need to spend), and their offer price is how much they want for it (what they’d like to sell it at), so anything between these two prices is suitable. Market Makers in Equity Derivatives work on commission based on the volume they trade, usually in a rebate. The more trades they do, the more commission is made.

Execution Broker

Alternatively, suppose an investor wishes to buy listed options in London. In that case, they could approach an “Execution Broker” – often found in small, private boutiques, who act as middlemen between the client and the market maker (who is also their prime broker). The Execution Broker will risk by acting as a Market Maker while not getting paid any commissions.

This allows them to keep their rates lower than if they were to pay full commission (where transactions are usually around 0.30%) but would make less money overall. This means that when dealing with Execution Brokers, one should know their actual costs before transacting.

Finally

New investors and beginner traders are recommended to use a reputable online broker from Saxo capital markets and trade on a demo account before investing real money.

Small businesses often have a limited budget for advertising and find trying to build their brand’s name is complicated. Link building offers an, at times, inexpensive way to build brand recognition and credibility: but is it the right choice for small businesses? Here’s what you should know.

It Builds Credibility

Having multiple websites, blogs, companies, and social media pages all using your website as a source will boost how consumers and companies view your business. Not only does it give you credibility, but when these individuals need to cite or source the same information, there’s a chance that they’ll use your company as their point of reference.

This encourages even further link building, which after a certain point is free since people are doing it of their own volition instead of you having to keep paying link building services.

Boosts Your SEO

Where you appear in Google search results can affect how well or poorly your company does. It would help if you worked hard to build links to gain as much customer traffic as possible.

Although it can take time to rise through the ranks, being within the top three first links that pop up when important keywords are searched will ensure that customers are more likely to click your company’s link and enter your site. Link building directly leads to a higher ranking on Google.

Increases Web Traffic

The more links that lead back to your website, the more people will click these links and visit your site. This increases web traffic drastically. Therefore, it’s important to keep a tracker on your site so that you can keep tabs on where people are visiting from, how long they’re on your site, and if they made a purchase or not.

This can help you learn where you should put most of your energy into advertising and where you should lay off of it to save your money.

More Sales and Leads

The more people who visit your site from link building: the more sales you’ll make! This should be obvious, but people can’t buy from your site if they’ve never even heard of it. Putting in the effort to build your links could be the step that pushes your company further so that it’s no longer considered a small business and is now considered a large one instead.

This isn’t just from those who follow the links directly, but also those who recognize your company and see it as credible, and from those who visit while it’s boosted in search engines.

Increases Brand Recognition

Brand recognition is vital to growing! Although it’s important to have a good website and to work to improve our company as much as possible, ensuring that people know your company by name, and possibly by the logo, will increase the number of people that seek out your company when they need work similar to what you offer.

This isn’t foolproof; if you make a big mistake that looks poorly on your company, it can be hard to get rid of that if you’ve built brand recognition. It’s important to take your company’s public image seriously.

 

One of the most challenging aspects of running a successful business is figuring out how to successfully keep your customer retention numbers high. Which is obviously critical as the higher your customer retention numbers are, the easier it will be for your business’ profits to remain steady or to increase in the coming years. If you’re interested in learning invaluable new tips that will help your business retain its valued customers, simply continue reading.

Earn your customers trust:

One way that you can retain customers is by working hard to earn and retain your customers trust. In a recent customer service satisfaction survey a whopping 59% of respondents revealed that the prevalence of online scams, make them think twice before shopping online. So it’s a great idea to look for creative ways to earn your customers trust. For example, you may want to encourage past customers to leave reviews about your business, to win the trust of potential new customers or you may want to have legitimate news sources report about your business, in order for your business to earn its customers trust.

Also make sure that your customer support staff are well trained to ensure that they don’t come across as potential scammers who may be trying to steal an individual’s private information such as their credit card information. You can also win your customers’ trust by offering chat messaging as a customer service option, directly from your business’ website, which your customers may trust over customer support via phone calls. Especially as modern generations are far more comfortable using text based messaging tools to converse with customer service agents.

Use appropriate language:

Especially if your business deals with younger clientele from generation y and generation z, it’s critical to ensure that your team members are trained to use appropriate language with their customers. Such as non binary gender terminology. This is in order to ensure that all individuals feel welcomed and accepted by your business and don’t feel ostracized by your company. You may be surprised to read that a staggering 70% of individuals between the ages of 18 to 24 are already confident with their ability to correctly use non binary gender terminology.

Respond quickly to your customer queries:

Many businesses make the mistake of taking far too long to reply to their customers requests for help, whether it’s over the phone, instant chat or email. One of the worst industries when it comes to response times is the financial services industry. If you want to retain your customer base, it’s important to increase the legitimacy of your business by responding to your customer queries as quickly as possible. Especially as if your customers feel ignored they are likely to leave your business negative reviews online which can severely impact your business’ online reputation.

So if you want to do everything in your power in order to ensure that your business retains as many of its customers as possible, it’s well worth paying attention to all of the helpful tips about customer retention that are listed above.

One of the most critical and challenging methods of maintaining your business’ efficiency is keeping your workforce happy and stress-free. There are numerous studies that show that a company that supports their staff’s happiness has significant benefits such as increased efficiency, increased creativity, and a lower turnover of staff – all of which lead to higher profits and better business.

Here are a few methods you could use to improve the positivity of your workers so you can reap the benefits – and so can they!

Team-building events

Throwing out-of-hours events can be an excellent way of building team rapport and building relationships amongst your staff. If your workforce is well acquainted with one another, it can lead to them being more efficient in the workplace. As well as this, it leads to a sense of togetherness and unity amongst the staff, which can help combat high turnover rates in your business.

You can also do in-house activities to help spread a sense of unity through your workforce, such as making sure to celebrate public holidays (Secret Santa during the festive period, a dress-up day for Halloween, etc.) in the office.

Show your employees how important they are to the business

Workers can lose morale and happiness if they feel like their work is unimportant or doesn’t matter. Therefore, it is vital to show your employees how integral their job is to the business and how they fit into the hierarchy.

Once you show your employees how much you value them, it can do wonders for their drive and morale, and once they see how they fit into the business, it can lead to higher efficiency as they know how their work can help their co-workers in the running of the company.

Offer good employee benefits

Whilst simply paying your employees more is often seen as a reliable way to increase staff happiness, you should consider the option of offering competitive benefits. The best employee benefits providers usually provide some form of rewards system which is customisable by your company’s offered benefits and requirements and are often automated to ensure efficiency.

Some of the benefits your business could offer its workforce are:

– Gym and exercise facility passes
– Sick pay
– Health insurance
– Remote working options
– Flexible hours
– Free childcare
– Company car/phone
– Free food and drink
– Paid maternity and paternity leave
– Discount schemes
– Overtime pay
– Pension funds
– Stock options

A survey carried out by the Harvard Business Review magazine found that some of the most popular benefits are often inexpensive and easy to offer. Therefore, finding the right combination of benefits is extremely important as it can attract potential employees and is an alternative to raising salaries.