Sponsored Article
ONE of the major costs in a business is salaries writes Tony Byrne, managing director of Wealth & Tax Management. Equally, your most important asset is your staff. Your staff are literally your business. Offer superlative levels of customer service and your business will really thrive.
So in order to increase your business’s efficiency, productivity and profitability, you need to invest in your staff heavily by paying them well, giving them lots of benefits and plenty of training both initially and ongoing.
You will need to provide them with the most effective tools for the job which means investing in excellent technology, including Artificial Intelligence. By training your staff in the use of AI you should increase their productivity hugely. This will in turn free up their time to focus on looking after your customers even more. It almost certainly will reduce your payroll costs significantly as well.
Another popular productivity tool is the hiring of virtual assistants. This can be an excellent way to increase your productivity, reduce your staff costs and improve customer service, especially if your VAs engage directly with your customers over the phone or by video call.
If you hire a VA from a country such as the Philippines, you can engage a young tech-savvy graduate on a self-employed basis for a relatively low hourly rate of, say, £5-£6 an hour and outsource time-consuming tasks, thus freeing up your staff’s time to focus on customer service.
Just think about it… no sick pay, no holiday pay, no maternity/paternity leave, no employer’s NIC, no workplace pensions etc, etc. This is because such VAs are usually recruited from lower-income countries. Once you add in all of these costs, if you were to employ someone in the UK – even on the minimum wage – your cost would be equivalent to at least £25-£30 an hour. That works out at five times more expensive.
It is a great deal for the VA too because the pay rate is more than they could typically earn in their home country, they can work from home and they have flexible hours. A true win:win. You know it makes sense.
If you are interested in ways to increase profits, take advantage of a one-hour Discovery Meeting either at our offices or via a video conference call at our expense worth £270 to each of the first three readers who contact us before March 31 2024. You know it makes sense. We offer a great cup of coffee too.
Ring us on 01908 523740 or for free on 0800 980 4516 or email wealth@wealthandtax.co.uk and quote MARCH 2024OFFER to book your free discovery meeting.
RISK WARNING The information contained within this article is for guidance only and does not constitute advice, which should be sought before taking any action or inaction. All information is based on our current understanding of taxation, legislation, regulations and case law in the current tax year. Any levels and bases of relief from taxation are subject to change. Tax treatment is based on individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future. This article is based on my own observations and opinions.
