Business

The best time to start planning to protect your business assets is before disaster strikes. From business information to databases, data and systems documentation, there’s lots of risk in your business assets. The risk is real, but protecting what you’ve built or what you are building can be difficult. Follow our advice on how to protect your business assets and stay protected.

Here, we look at 5 simple but essential steps to start protecting your business assets today. But first, the basics.

What are your business assets?

Business assets are what you have that makes your business unique and valuable. From trademarks, patents and copyrights to customer lists, equipment and other physical assets, these are the key ingredients of your business success.

Assessing and protecting your business assets is vital to help keep your enterprise functioning smoothly, make it easier to acquire additional capital, and can be a critical factor in asset acquisition for a business owner who may want to sell or transfer the ownership of the business.

Why should you protect your business assets?

Your business is your life’s work. A business interruption could be devastating to your livelihood. Protecting your business assets is the best way to make sure you can keep working, growing and converting customers. Whether you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting out with a new business idea, the last thing you need is to lose money because one thing went wrong. When you do the right things at the right time, you are putting your business in the right position for success.

How to protect your business assets?

Protecting your business assets is one of the most important things you can do to safeguard your business for a successful future. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.

1. Choose the right business entity

To succeed, you need the right business structure for your mission and goals. There are several business entities to choose from including a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or corporation. Your choice has serious legal implications on things like asset ownership, liability protection, tax status and even loan eligibility.

Business Entity Selection can have a dramatic impact on your finances and level of risk. If you’re starting a new business, it’s very important to choose the right type of entity.

2. Make sure all your paperwork is in order

Government intervention can have a negative impact on your business operations. In fact, if you fail to follow the right processes, you will be putting your business and its assets at risk. You need to register your business to have the proper licenses and registration. To do this, you will likely need a work permit, tax identification number, business license and a whole host of other permits in order to make sure that you can run your business with minimal interference by government agencies.

Everything about setting up a business involves compiling the right information and documenting everything in the correct way. Legal documentation is a must-have when it comes to setting up any business.

3. Purchase the proper insurance

You are in business to protect your assets, to create a competitive edge and to grow your business. When you open up shop, whether that be a brick and mortar storefront or an online store, you are monetising what you know. That information is useful to others, so protecting it is necessary. The right insurance policy will give you the tools to do just that.

There are quite a number of insurance policies for business, but not all of them are vital. Some of the more important business covers can be found at https://www.ami.co.nz/all-insurance so you can have a good idea of where to start from.

Business insurance is a vital solution to protect your business assets and the business itself from risk. The right policy can help safeguard against damage or destruction due to catastrophes, as well as cover legal fees resulting from internal or external legal action brought against the company.

4. Sign confidentiality agreements

Protecting your business assets is a necessity. As soon as you have an idea, it’s time to check the ground rules. By signing a confidentiality agreement, you can protect yourself and your ideas from competitors looking to strike while the iron is hot. Business information isn’t just limited to trade secrets – intellectual property and your valuable business assets also fall under this umbrella.

It is also important to maintain the confidentiality of the information you share with customers. By signing a separate non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for each party involved in your business or project, you are not only protecting yourself from copyright infringement but also gaining a competitive edge.

5. Secure all your business information

Business information is your most valuable asset despite the fact that you may not have tangible items like real estate, equipment, or inventory on your balance sheet. Electronic information is vulnerable to theft. When a thief takes your business information, the penalties may be greater than any other type of theft because it’s easy to create a new identity from a stolen social security number and people use their identity for everything from credit cards to jobs. With so many ways for hackers to get in, from phishing emails to malicious apps on employees’ devices, it’s up to you to protect your employees, sensitive data and reputation from threats.

Make sure your business stands out from the competition by taking security matters seriously. There’s more to it than physical security. Without the right cybersecurity, you could be putting your company at risk. Protect your sensitive information and take steps to prevent cyber-attacks against your business.

Final thoughts

Business is built on trust, and one of the most important elements to maintaining that trust is protecting your business assets against loss or theft. There are many ways to protect your company’s assets, some may be more effective for you than others. It’s up to you as the business owner to decide what makes sense for your operations.

Hopefully, the tips in this article will give you a good place to start from, or you can speak with a professional about how to protect your business assets.

 

Most of us want another source of income to facilitate our daily desires. And as much as the plenty of options that serve this purpose, you should work with the most efficient ones.

The internet is a platform that facilitates a lot of things. Today, there are over 1 billion online users who share files, communicate with other parties efficiently, and most importantly make money using the right channels. Ever since it’s discovery, the online market has transformed tremendously.

Initially, we were operating on slow speed connections. But now, you will find most countries with 5G internet connectivity.

Nonetheless, this article will primarily focus on the top-5 ways to make money online.

5. Writing

Writing is among the oldest methods that have been in existence to make some few extra bucks online. Most of the online writing platforms have today employed thousands of fresh talent and also enriched the economy.

The writing services are a great alternative if you are looking for a platform that keeps you busy all day. You can even write reviews about different things, including casino reviews. Like reviews in meta.reviews.

On average, you can make up to $100 in a single day with the correct and unique skills highly-demanded in the industry.

• A few legitimate writing platforms: Legiit, Fiverr, iwriter, Hemingway, Freelancer, and Upwork

4. Youtube Channels

YouTube is a video sharing online platform that has been in existence for about 15 years now. You can take advantage of their offers and start generating revenue ASAP with the correct knowledge.

1. How is that? Anyone can start a YouTube channel today. Even without content, you can still do it. However, if you want to start generating income through your YouTube channel, you should focus on delivering fresh and unique content to get more likes and plenty of subscribers.

ii. How it works. Grow your YouTube channel and reach the required amount of viewers and subscribers to be eligible to commercialize your YouTube channel and start generating extra cash.

3. Reselling items on different e-commerce websites

As more and more shoppers shift gears into the digital world, it will be profitable for you to resell items on different eCommerce platforms.

First and foremost, you should have multiple genuine accounts on different platforms like the Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and many more.

Next, you should find out the price difference of a specific commodity in all the platforms. For instance, if a coffee table is going for $30 on eBay, it would go for $40 on Walmart and Amazon. So, you can purchase it and resell at $40 on Amazon.

2. Publishing an eBook

EBooks are a great way to share your talents. If you have written books or like writing and publishing books, recipes, journals, and manuscripts, you should know that it is another ideal alternative to make extra cash online.

The only thing you have to do is market your eBooks through the right channel and start making money.

1. Freelancing

Freelancing is an open term that means a lot of things. It can include many services not limited to Virtual Assistance, transcription, captioning, App development, translation, graphic designing, and so much more.

Only use reliable freelancing platforms like Upwork, SDL, Gengo, and PeoplePerHour to make the best out of your time.

Read the latest news, publications, and comments on centreforum.

 

To stand out online is no easy task because of the stiff competition. This is where SEO or Search Engine Optimization proves to be an invaluable tool. SEO is a process wherein a website is created that search engines such as Google’s algorithms find difficult to resist. When a site is visited by a search engine crawler, it looks through the site’s pages, searching for relevant content for users. It proceeds to put these contents into its index so that as soon as a user has a query, its algorithms goes into the index and locates pages that have the relevant answers. Search engines want to deliver the best quality results or lose their users.

Because Google and other search engines are continuously updating their algorithms, making changes here and there to ensure that their users are provided with the best results, it is always best to partner with a professional digital marketing agency like SEO Brisbane that knows the ins and outs of SEO and is abreast with its updates to help a site bypass competition.

Here are 5 tips that SEO strategy experts offer.

Come up with high-quality content

It only takes a few seconds to capture the interest of a user. When a site is unable to do that, the user leaves the site and probably never returns. The problem here is that Google pays close attention to the clicks that drive away the user and includes them in the site’s bounce rate. When a bounce rate is elevated, Google sees it as a sign that the site does not provide the information the user is looking for so that delivering the page in its search results becomes highly unlikely. The best way to capture the user’s interest is through excellent content, whether text, image, video, etc., related to the site’s products or services. A business owner can seek help from professionals like Oklahoma City Digital Marketing Agency to ensure the most relevant content for the site.

Ask help from a digital marketing agency to make the site user friendly

The website is meant for its users, so it must be user-friendly. Google is not only concerned about useful information for users on a site. It also focuses on the user experience. Any search engine focuses on providing users with high-quality results, including most enjoyable sites for users. To create a good user experience, a site must understand its users. The site is a potential client’s way of connecting and providing the business for the site. This means that it should be simple to navigate.

Maintain consistency

SEO is not something that happens instantaneously. Once a commitment is made, it should be expected to take time. If results are not immediately seen, it is important to stick it out or risk making all that hard work go nowhere. Instead, continue updating the site, offering posts and other interesting content to show Google and other search engines that it is always active.

With a digital marketing agency, ensure that people’s queries are answered

When a site cannot respond usefully to a user’s query, it isn’t serving its purpose, and Google recognizes that. When it does, it will not deliver the site nor put it on top. For this reason, a site’s pages must be able to respond to queries and satisfy the users. When a website creates its content, it is essential to know what users are looking for and give them the answers they need.

Make it mobile-friendly

A lot of users are more likely to use mobile devices to access websites, which is why it is important that they have an enjoyable experience no matter what device they use to get to the site. When a website is not easily accessible through a mobile device or takes a long time downloading, potential customers can be turned off and look for other options instead. A mobile-friendly website offers a lot of advantages that include better search visibility, user experience, and improved brand identity. A mobile-optimized site is capable of adjusting to smaller screen sizes, offering easy to read texts, speedier download speeds, and easier navigation.

Whatever product or service any company would be offering, no matter how useful or interesting it may be, it can go nowhere when people are not aware of it and do not find it online. Although a company could work on its SEO, it is still a good idea to have a professional Oklahoma City Digital Marketing Agency by its side to help it grow.

 

In today’s pandemic times, many people are worried about their livelihood, as there is a real risk of losing their job. For this reason, more and more people are wondering how they can deal with loss of work during covid-19. There are industries that are particularly prone to problems. Tourism or gastronomy are experiencing a real crisis, which results in the fact that current employees are looking for opportunities to change the industry and occupation. How can they handle it?

Start with skills

It must be clearly stated that specialists with extraordinary skills do not usually have to worry about unemployment even in such crazy times as today. For this reason, people who specialize in electronics, automation and computer science will easily find another job. Due to the fact that the possibility of remote work has developed so dynamically recently, you can try to look for employment even in foreign companies. However, it is worth remembering that the time zone may be a problem, for example while working in US company being an European.

For this reason, people working in endangered industries, such as tourism, gastronomy or sales, should consider changing their occupation. Higher education requires a lot of work, time and resources, so it is worth considering whether it is a good choice. In such difficult times, it is worth thinking about a course, e.g. welding, which can give you a real job. Professionals in this field are very much needed, even in such difficult times. In general, you have to be prepared for the fact that the only available job will be the physical one, so it is not worth being picky and understand that in such difficult times you must first of all survive.

I have acquired new skills, what to do now?

It must be stated that with the collapse of some industries, many people looking for job will appear on the labor market and they will also want to find their place. For this reason, you have to be well prepared. The first step is a strong CV that perfectly illustrates all our strengths and skills. For this purpose, it is worth using generators that are able to create an ideal CV in a short time. Most often, it is possible to use the CV template in electronic form, which is very easy to fill in.

After preparing your CV, it is worth considering how to do well during the job interview. For this reason, it is worth considering the most frequently asked questions in these interviews. Among them, there will surely be a question about strengths and weaknesses and why you are the best candidate. With that in mind, you can come up with some pretty clever answers that will appeal to recruiters.

 

Nobody likes having to fire an employee. However, sometimes this is a necessity. You could be wasting your company’s hard-earned money paying someone who doesn’t care about the position, or someone who undermines your management skills at every turn.

Many business leaders struggle to know when exactly it’s time to fire a worker, though – especially because they don’t want to be accused of wrongful dismissal. As such, we’re hoping to give our readers a little more clarification on this issue today. Read on to find out the different signs that indicate when it’s finally time to fire your worker.

Complaints from Customers/Clients

If you have started to receive complaints from your customers or clients about a certain employee, this is a big indicator that something is amiss. It’s particularly problematic because people rarely complain without reason.

You don’t know how many customers have had a problem with your employee before and just haven’t said anything. This leads us to the question; how much business have you lost because of that person?

Always Central to Office Drama

It’s no coincidence when one person is consistently at the centre of drama in the office. They might try to blame this on other people, but there must be something about them that attracts this kind of negative attention. Some characteristics of a toxic employee include gossiping, belittling other workers or management, and always involving themselves in conflict even when the issue didn’t arise with them.

Having a toxic person in your organisation can significantly impact the work environment, even leading to a high staff turnover if you don’t detect the problem soon enough.

Flouting the Company’s Policies

Sometimes, your staff might violate the company’s rules and regulations (which keep your business in line with the law) without realising it. This is perfectly okay, so long as they’re given a formal reminder and don’t do it again.

However, if one employee is consistently flouting the same legal policies, then you need to discipline them. In these circumstances, it’s worth talking with employment solicitors. They will consult you on what disciplinary action needs to be taken and help you to navigate any legal cases or conflict that might arise from this.

Tardiness and Absenteeism

As most business owners know, time is money. So, if employees are consistently turning up late to work, this will be costing your organisation money. Prolific absenteeism is also a massive indicator that you might need to fire a worker. When it feels like you can’t rely on them to actually turn up for their shifts and you find yourself frequently understaffed, there needs to be an intervention. If nothing changes – even after speaking to the employee in question – you will need to fire them.

These are some of the key indicators that it’s time to fire your employee. The main thing to focus on is whether they are willing to change. If the same issues keep arising despite your intervention, then you need to let them go.

While many people dream of owning their own home, there are responsibilities that come along with that. Most of the time, a landlord will need to know how to handle things like balancing tenant relations and ensuring the proper upkeep of the property.

Whether you’re venturing into being a landlord for the first time or are just looking for tips for better management, this article gives you a fast, comprehensive look at what to know about rental properties.

Think about hiring a property manager

You are a landlord for the first time and want to do your best by your tenants. You’re torn – should you ask a friend or family member to help you manage your investment? Or should you use a screening company and a professional property manager? With so much on the line, it can be both overwhelming and intimidating to tackle the process of becoming a landlord.

It can be hard to decide what to do – but it’s important that you do. If you are overwhelmed by any of this, hire a professional property manager. They don’t cost much, and they can save a lot of time, energy and money.

Having someone you trust to manage your properties can help ease some of that stress and give you more time to focus on what matters most – growing your business.

Treat your rental property as a business

There are many things to consider when becoming a landlord, but one of the most important is that you treat your rental property as you would a regular business. This means ensuring your offer the best experience you can and keeping on top of everything your ‘client’ aka the tenant, may need. After all, they are the one who pays your ‘wages’ through their rent.

Set up and apply a tenant screening process

The very important step in preparing for a high income from your property rental business is getting the right tenant into your home. By performing a thorough tenant screening process, you are able to weed out those people who may not be worth the rent they pay you.

When you’re trying to find a tenant for your rental property, the most effective way is always to do reference checks. Like we said before, your property is your like your business, so vet any potential tenant like you would a client.

Ensure the rental price is right

Setting the right price for rent is the most important part of being a landlord. It needs to be high enough to cover the costs of your mortgage and repairs, while also providing you with enough income to make it worthwhile.

It is very important to set the right rent price when you start as a landlord. There are many factors that go into determining how to price your rental property. It requires skill, knowledge and experience to determine the rent price that will generate the desired profit.

The process of becoming a landlord can be a complicated and stressful one. There are many factors that need to be considered before taking the leap. Knowing the best course of action at every step can make all the difference when it comes to keeping your tenants happy and your wallet full.

 

Seeing the business idea you’ve put into reality suddenly fail can be heartbreaking. The rate of business failure is getting high annually, with most having a 50/50 chance of hitting a five-year mark less than one-third of businesses make it to a decade.

We’ve been weathering Covid-19 for months now. Worldwide, people are grappling with the new normal we’re in. For businesses that started before or during the pandemic, the reality of operating in such a dynamic environment can be tricky. Some start-up businesses end up closing early or not proceeding with the planned opening. No one knows how the current situation will develop or what the outcome for many businesses is.

Treating business failure as a learning experiencecan be your stepping stone to success.FedEx released Zapmail in the mid-80s, offering electronic deliveries. It ended costing the company nearly $350 million after two years. As you know, FedEx didn’t fold and kept going. They had $35 billion in revenue just in 2010.

Here are a couple of ways you can bounce back through the lessons of “failure”.

Use this time to reflect and strategize. What happened? Where’s the issue? Is it your approach? Did you choose the wrong market? Did you choose the cheapest hosting instead of a reliable cloud hosting solution? Did you lack guidance or support from experts? Evaluate your learnings – this might be hard, but extremely necessary if you are to bounce back. Transparency is vital to your customers and sharing an honest account of the issue can paint your business in an authentic light with your customers.

Get feedback/reviews. Many start-ups fail due to a lack of feedback. Entrepreneurs sometimes take their ideas and make them unavailable to others. Reasons include fear of the idea being stolen by a competitor or striving for perfection with the hope of catching an investor’s attention. Now that your business is struggling or lost, it’s high time to ask your providers, partners, employees, and even your audience for feedback. Encourage them to be honest about how the business operated on your products.

Plan your next move into a new business.

After reflecting on what went wrong the first time, now it’s time to avoid the same issues. Consider these. If you run out of money, focus on your ROI. Studies revealed that over half of businesses collapse because they are under-capitalized or lack profit from the start.

If you have ineffective partners, try doing it alone in your next venture. A start-up needs its entire team’s commitment, from employees to partners to set it up for success.

And avoid “get rich quick” schemes. You might be carrying some debt, like a small business loan, and are looking to pay back quickly. However, placing on these schemes can backfire and cause greater pain to your business and goals. Your start-up is a seed that requires a lot of time and energy, so make it something that you’re excited about, and that solves a problem your audience care about too.

Don’t skimp on business essentials.Any business worth its salt requires the right foundation to get started. If you’re currently on the brink of losing your business due to a problematic hosting provider, then it’s a must to consult a reliable business website hosting that offers the combination of reliability, security, and flexibility.

Find a good web development company to help you create the right website and get a consultation. Use modern cloud hosting solutions, apply search engine optimization (SEO), create social media pages, focus on your product’s quality, and relate its value to your audience. All of these are the foundation of any successful business.

In the end, it will be your choice to make – whatever you do, don’t be compelled to rush in blind. Your motivation and passion should propel you forward naturally. Pace yourself, create a strategy, and focus on your calling. As with any worthwhile aspiration, yours may need time. The next business you start may just be the perfect one for you all along!

 

Anyone can start a business these days. The barriers to entry are incredibly low and you can go from idea to full-fledged company in a matter of hours. But there’s a difference between launching a business and growing one. If you want to achieve rapid growth, you must pay attention to the details.

5 Things You Can Do to Scale Your Biz Like the Big Guys

While no two businesses are the same, the underlying principles of growth tend to be fairly consistent from one organization or industry to the next. And if you want to enjoy rapid growth, you should take a page out of the book of other fast scaling companies and implement the following principles and tactics:

• Pursue Radical Innovation

According to researcher Joe Glavin, high-growth companies are 39 percent more likely to develop new processes to improve their existing products and services. But it goes much further than this.

“High-growth companies are also 37 percent more likely to rely on radical innovations — the kinds of breakthroughs that give the world something it’s not seen before,” Galvin writes. “Risky? Maybe. Rewarding? Definitely: They are 50 percent more likely to provide new products and services, and 58 percent more likely to develop patentable technologies.”

It’s not always easy – and most new ideas will fail – but a long-term commitment to innovation will eventually yield fruit. And that fruit tends to be a whole lot juicer than the low-hanging type that most companies focus on.

• Invest in People

Products and services – no matter how innovative – will only get you so far. If you don’t have the right people on your team, you’ll never make it.

Most businesses start with an idea or product and then hire people to complement that product. But the better approach may be to invest in people and then pursue innovation. After all, people are the lifeblood of radical innovation and growth.

Start by getting very clear on who you want to work for your company. Create a shortlist of traits, skills, and values that you deem important. From there, you can begin the process of finding, vetting, and onboarding people who align with your growth-oriented vision.

• Invest in Link Building

It’s impossible to grow in today’s business world without emphasizing your digital presence or online brand. And link building is one of the best kept secrets for success.

Link building isn’t cheap, but it’s one of the primary driving factors in improving search rankings, scaling website traffic, and ultimately filling the top of your funnel so that you have more conversions at the bottom.

While you can technically do it on your own, companies like Link.Build make it easy by providing white glove, white label link building services that generate noteworthy results over time.

• Wow With Customer Service

The best companies in the world – or the fastest growing at least – emphasize customer service as part of their value proposition. They do more than just go through the motions – they blow people away.

Zappos is a classic example of this. Early on (and still today), the company would encourage people to contact them with anything they needed, and were known for following through. Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was so proud of his company’s ability to wow people with customer service that he once dared a friend to call the Zappos customer service line and order pizza. The customer service was confused, but she obliged.

You don’t have to take things that far, but it shows how important it is to wow people with every interaction. Whether they’re approaching you with a problem, concern, or praise, it’s your job to make sure they walk away feeling like you care. One thing you can do to ensure that your customers feel heard and understood is to outsource a call centre to the Philippines or a company that could assist you in handling your customers’ concerns. It’s important to have customer representatives who can connect with your customers and feel empathy to their needs.

• Implement Data-Driven Decision Making

Businesses are swimming in data these days. And whether you realize it or not, you have access to rich information that can help you move the needle on growth. But to excel, you have to do more than collect data. You actually need to implement the insights that you uncover.

Develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and tie them into specific elements of your strategy. As you notice significant changes in the data, you can adjust your strategy to reflect the new information that you’ve unearthed.

Push Your Business to the Next Level

Growth is something that all businesses want, but few are able to achieve (at least not at the pace that they would like). However, if you’re willing to implement the right building blocks, you can scale at a rate that’s much faster than the average. Using the tips outlined in this article, begin formulating your plan. It might not be perfect, but you can iterate as you go.

Smart cards are an incredibly useful form of technology, helping businesses from across the world to maximise their productivity. However, some organisations have yet to implement smart card systems into their operations, believing this technology is gimmicky as opposed to genuinely useful. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As such, we’ve written this article today to compile all the different reasons why smart cards are a worthwhile investment. Read on if you need convincing or would simply like to find out more about this innovative technology that is currently taking the world by storm.

1.) Access Control

Keeping your customers and colleagues safe should be a priority for business leaders. Smart card technology can help you do exactly that. These portable little devices can interact with readers which can be integrated with access control systems. Essentially, this means anyone who doesn’t have your company’s smart card/the proper authority won’t be able to use certain applications or enter the premises. This prevents both external and internal theft within your organisation, plus keeps everyone safe from any threatening persons.

2.) Cashless Vending

Thanks to the pandemic, there has been a surge in demand for cashless vending. People now want transactions to be quick, easy and contactless. Smart cards like the HID Prox provide exactly that. Organisations are now able to develop systems which allow their customers or employees to load credit onto an account paired with their smart card. This credit can then be used to purchase items without exchanging cash or touching anything. Cashless vending also prevents money from being lost or stolen from the tills.

3.) Loyalty Schemes

Every successful businessperson knows that the key to success is building a good relationship with customers. Believe it or not, smart card systems can help you with this. Hundreds of companies across the world are now integrating smart cards into their loyalty schemes. These devices can store information on how much a person has spent in the shop, then translate amount this into store credit or special perks. As such, smart cards can help to ensure that customers return to your business.

4.) Identification

On top of everything else, smart cards are also perfect for identification. Using specialist printers, companies can produce cards with high-quality photographs of those within the organisation. This is particularly useful for larger businesses or educational institutions like universities. For instance, you can confirm the identity of a student with their ID card before allowing them access to the premises.

5.) Quick Ticketing

Smart cards are brilliant when it comes to ticketing for organisations like transport stations and events stadiums. People can use their smart card to pay for trips or tickets in advance so they can swiftly enter the premises, preventing queues from forming. Take the example of the Glasgow Subway Smartcard or Oyster Card for the London Underground.

We have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of smart card systems. Invest in some today and see how they could revolutionise your organisation.

If there’s something every business needs in our 21st century, it’s power. If you’re plugged in, you’re getting it from the power point, and when that fails, switch on the generator. For everything else, we’re rapidly becoming reliant on batteries.

In the past decade, battery demand and production has surged, leading to an almost 90% drop in battery prices. Beyond your mobile, your flashlight and your starter motor, the next generation of batteries will power your electric vehicles and even store your energy as we race away from fossil fuels. And with greater battery use comes greater battery testing.

And for businesses that depend on batteries for efficiency, productivity, mobility, sustainability and a raft of other essential benefits, battery testing is in fact nothing short of crucial.

What are battery testers?

“What are battery testers” is a little like the question “What are sports?” In other words, as the list of battery technologies grows, so too does the list of battery tester types. Some batteries last a week; others years. Some require a lot of power to charge; others much less. Some store a lot of energy; others an awful lot more than that. Some are big; some are small. Some are lithium; others lead-acid. You get the picture.

So while it’s tempting to just say battery testers test the health and energy-storage capacities of batteries, it’s more complex than that as we head into the future. Sophisticated battery testing routines might be looking into energy capacity at various charging or discharging rates, others will investigate internal resistance or impedance, while cycle life, battery robustness, heat generation and more are also relevant.

Therefore, a more pertinent question to pose is: Why does your business need to get the right battery testers up and running and part of your daily operations?

1. Continuity

Have you ever showed up for work, pressed the on-button on the computer or turned the key on the forklift … and nothing happens? With battery testing as part of normal maintenance operations, it means you’re keeping an eye on one of the key metrics that keeps the heart of your business beating. Get it wrong, and fail to see a failing battery in the works before it actually runs out of juice, and the word ‘downtime’ simply means ‘lost dollars’. Get it right, and even looming battery failures won’t stop your production or profits for even a minute, because routine battery maintenance is simply a part of the plan.

2. Troubleshooting

But as suggested earlier, battery testing does more than just give an early warning about a looming flat. There are now modern, digital and fully affordable battery testers on the market that as well as testing voltage and current also monitor things like internal resistance, strap resistance and even installation problems. These testers can give a visual representation of a range of battery performance metrics that make equipment troubleshooting easy, especially as these metrics can be stored and tracked over time in a database that can be shared.

3. Differentiation

When a vital piece of business equipment does fail suddenly, that’s bad news. But even worse news is when you’re not sure why. It’s never a given that when that forklift won’t turn over, it’s definitely the battery that has let you down. For other systems that run through battery usage at a greater rate, it can be even more tempting to throw away a perfectly good set of batteries even though the problem was caused by something completely different. By the time you’ve figured it out, you haven’t just wasted perfectly good money, you’ve thrown away a lot of productive time, too.

Routine and regular battery testing is also a wise business operation for worker safety (in the event of dangerous failures), liability (if those failures lead to injury or damage), and just common-sense diligence and cost efficiency (because emergency repairs are always more expensive and disruptive than routine ones). Healthy batteries are also simply better and more efficient for your expensive and productive equipment, which when all put together means that a suite of battery testers is in fact just as important as the batteries, tools and machines that make your operations happen.