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Organizing Your Startup
Sudhakar Kandanala • February 22, 2021
Organizing Your Startup
When a business is in the startup phase, companies often lack the ability to assign and hire staff for individual and specialized roles, which means at one point, staff is taking on multiple roles, which leads to mismanagement, misinformation, and inefficiencies.
Establish SOPs
Step one to scaling and growing a company is make sure that your daily operations are organized and under control, and that can be efficiently done with creating and improving your standard operating procedures (SOPs).
There should be two important things that are involved when it comes to creating a good SOP. Include processes and procedures that have worked with companies similar to your competitors, companies similar to yours, and companies/competitors that are more established and larger. Mimicking these procedures often leads to a more efficient procedure. After you have a base SOP set up, then you can start to infuse what makes your company unique into your SOP. You need to be able keep the same level of customer service as your company grows, and that can only be done with organization and standard operating procedures.
These can be implemented into every department. Operations can use these so every time a customer/client comes on board, or for sales so every prospect goes through the perfect sales cycle and maximize close rates.
Position Your People Correctly
In the end, the staff is going to be the ones that are running your processes. Therefore, the culture, context, and policy will affect how well your company runs its operations. The way you define your culture impacts operations. If you explicitly state the rules of your company, you create a low-context culture. On the other hand, companies where the culture is transmitted through contextual clues – like body language, status, behavior, etc. – have high-context cultures.
In the latter, people use emotions over facts to complete tasks. They perform with people as the heart of all actions and center the customer in all operations. On the other hand, low-context cultures are process focused, relying on facts instead of emotions. They need validation in tasks and adherence to processes in all operations.
Whether you want your startup operations to be process focused or people focused depends on the cultural context. If you're selling a low-ticket product, centering your culture and SOPs around low context will ensure that you can scale at volume while maintaining organization. If you're selling a high-ticket product, then you are likely going to be giving the customer more attention, and you will have more interactions and engagement with the customer. In this case a high context culture will ensure every customer gets the attention they need, without sacrificing efficiency.
Project Management & Records
Once you have the SOPs set up and you develop a culture, it is important that these pillars of business are maintained so that your operations are smooth. Consolidation is key, and that should only be done within one platform.
The ideal platform that is capable of serving businesses of all types is Zoho’s CRM plus. Zoho’s CRM is a platform that enables omni channel communication and makes it easy to integrate all your internal team efforts while simultaneously delivering a unified experience to all your customers, which will improve closing rates and the average value of a customer. This will allow you to establish processes and scale your company.
However, there are several risks associated with migrating a business to another platform. If a company already has an established clientele, then it needs to make sure that the daily processes are running smoothly, while it is upgrading its customer experience platform. And that’s where an implementation process comes in.
Here at Sliver, we leverage Zoho to have the lowest implementation time in the business, at 50% shorter than the industry average. Whether a small business, an enterprise, or something in between, that needs onboarding assistance, our full-service consulting and professional services will help map out its unique implementation requirements. By implementing software that improves customer experience efficiently, a company can make sure that it is unifying sales, marketing, and product departments under one platform.
That is, organizing or systemizing your startup using an enabling technology platform can help make the most efficient and effective use of your most precious commodity: Time.
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For more information on how Sliver can implement an integrated Customer Experience platform and help your company improve customer relations, email us at info@sliverusa.com.
For a free 14-day trial of Zoho CRM Plus, the most versatile and integrated customer experience platform, use the link Zoho CRM Plus. Once you sign up, email us and we will double your trial period.
In today’s digital world, your startup’s online presence can make or break your success. Whether you’re just starting or trying to scale, having a strong, consistent brand presence across social media platforms is critical. Sliver Business Services understands the unique challenges startups face in building visibility online, which is why we’ve incorporated Zoho Social into our Marketing-to-Lead process. This powerful social media management tool helps startups maximize their reach, engage with their audience, and convert followers into qualified leads. The Power of Social Media for Startups For startups, social media is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow a brand, engage with customers, and promote products or services. With the right tools and strategy, social media can quickly become your primary driver for generating leads. But it requires consistent management and monitoring, which can be overwhelming for growing businesses. Zoho Social changes the game by simplifying the way startups manage their social media accounts, allowing for more effective marketing campaigns with minimal effort. How Zoho Social Fits into the Marketing-to-Lead Process At Sliver Business Services, our Marketing-to-Lead process is designed to optimize every step of your customer acquisition funnel. Here’s how Zoho Social fits into that process: 1. Streamlined Social Media Management Managing multiple social media accounts is challenging for any business. With Zoho Social, you can control all your profiles from a single platform. Whether you’re posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Google My Business, Zoho Social lets you schedule and publish posts across all channels in one place. For startups, this is invaluable. Instead of logging into multiple accounts and posting manually in each, Zoho Social lets you save time and ensure consistent messaging across platforms. This streamlined approach helps to increase brand awareness and maintain an active presence online, which is essential for lead generation. 2. Real-Time Monitoring & Engagement In today’s fast-paced digital environment, customers expect quick responses to their inquiries and comments. Zoho Social’s real-time monitoring feature enables you to keep track of all interactions on your posts across different platforms. You can reply to comments, engage with followers, and monitor brand mentions—everything you need to keep your audience engaged. At Sliver Business Services, we use this real-time engagement to foster relationships with potential leads. Social media is no longer just about broadcasting content; it’s about having meaningful conversations that help move prospects down the sales funnel. 3. Data-Driven Insights One of the biggest challenges startups face is knowing what’s working and what’s not. Zoho Social provides detailed analytics and reports, showing you which posts are driving the most engagement, which platforms are performing the best, and how your audience is responding. This data allows you to make informed decisions about your social media strategy. For Sliver Business Services, this information is essential in optimizing our clients’ Marketing-to-Lead process. By analyzing the performance of social campaigns, we can adjust our messaging and targeting to ensure we’re generating the highest-quality leads. 4. Collaboration Across Teams Many startups operate with small teams where marketing tasks are shared across members. Zoho Social’s collaboration tools make it easy for teams to work together on social media management. You can assign roles, review posts, and collaborate on content, ensuring that every piece of communication aligns with your brand’s overall strategy. For businesses working with Sliver Business Services, we ensure that social media management fits seamlessly into their broader marketing efforts, aligning with email marketing, SEO, and other lead generation activities. Why Zoho Social Is Ideal for Startups Zoho Social is particularly well-suited for startups due to its affordability, ease of use, and scalability. Startups need marketing tools that don’t just meet their needs today but can grow with them as their audience and customer base expand. Zoho Social delivers this by offering features that range from basic social media management to advanced analytics and automation, all in one place. Key Benefits for Startups: • Cost-Effective: Affordable pricing options for growing businesses. • Time-Saving: Manage multiple platforms from one dashboard. • Scalable: Advanced features that grow with your business. • Data-Driven: Insights that help you optimize performance and results. At Sliver Business Services, we’ve seen firsthand how Zoho Social can elevate a startup’s online presence and integrate into a broader Marketing-to-Lead strategy that drives growth and success. The best part about Zoho Social is that it is part of the comprehensive business management suite: Zoho One . Zoho One is a set of fully integrate suite of 50+ business applications under one affordable subscription that any startup or business would need to operate and scale up efficiently. How we Help? In today’s competitive landscape, a strong online presence is critical for startups aiming to stand out and generate leads. Zoho Social provides the tools you need to manage and optimize your social media channels effectively, saving time and improving engagement with potential customers. At Sliver Business Services, we incorporate Zoho Social into our Marketing-to-Lead process to ensure that startups can reach their audience, engage meaningfully, and turn followers into leads. With the right strategy and tools like Zoho Social, your startup’s online presence can be a powerful asset in achieving long-term success. For more information visit us at www.sliverusa.com to learn more about how we can help you implement Zoho Social to optimize your marketing strategies and fuel your business growth. For more information visit us at https://www.sliverusa.com/systems-for-startups. You can also email us at info@sliverusa.com or call us at +1 331.888.2627.
Key Marketing Assets That Every Business Needs To Convey Their Story
Sustain and Retain refers to the ongoing management of customer contacts in order to keep their attention and get repeat business from them.
To develop your product and service, you'll require raw materials, tools, or services. You obtain some of these raw ingredients and tools. After that, you must reimburse your vendors for the items or services they provided. Procure to Pay is a system that streamlines vendor management and helps turn your vendors into business advocates.
Startups must establish a system to manage the legalese. Incorporate to Dissolve system helps manage the lifecycle of a business from incorporation to dissolution.
Hire to Retire system helps the business with finding and hire the right employees. It also helps onboard them, manage them, appraise them, and finally retire or exit them.
The Issue to Resolve system is about providing customer support using an issue resolution system. It provides the needed tools for problem logging, assignment, tracking, and reporting.
Record to Report system is about taming financials using an integrated cash-in and cash-out process. It helps maintain company accounts and report them in the form of financial statements and tax returns.
Lead to Cash is a process that integrates marketing, CRM, project management, and financial books. A lead is just a lead. The lead needs to become interested and then become an opportunity. The business needs to convince the customer to place an order for its offering. Finally, the customer needs to pay for the service/product and the business be able to collect the payment.
Marketing to Lead is a system for Lead Generation. It helps announce to market what your business offers and attract potential customers to your business.