Have you ever heard the phrase – by failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail? Well, this isn’t just true when it comes to life. It’s also crucial when it comes to business. You could have the best idea in the world, but if you don’t have a game plan, it’s not going to work out.

After all, a football team doesn’t go into a big game without tactics and an offensive strategy – so why would you attempt to promote your business idea without a plan?

Having a project strategy makes you think out and plan the steps you need to transform your business vision and idea into a reality. Of course, in the business world, you need backing and investment, which is where having a detailed business case comes into play.

A business case is the bread and butter of any successful business venture. Senior managers are always concerned with the stability of their organization and its future success – any new proposal that creates change needs to be examined carefully.

The people at the top always need convincing and you’ve got to show your idea’s potential. Your business case is going to be the powerful selling tool that will put you in the driving seat and show your project is exactly what they need.

Today’s competitive business market calls for good strategy and a persuasive business case to get the ball rolling.

That’s why it’s important to offer employees the chance to learn how they can implement their bright ideas into successful business ventures through project strategy and a business case.

This Project Strategy and Business Case course is all about how you can get your idea off the ground and running and make it stand out from the crowd. 

Project Strategy and Business Case Trailer

The interactive e-learning materials explain how important strategy is and advises how you can plan and implement a business case to secure resources, backing and investment.

The course is delivered through easy to understand video sections:

This section demonstrates the importance of having a game plan, comparing business to a game of chess and poker. It’s all about having a plan that lets the player win the game.

This also applies to managing projects – you need a strategy to plan your actions and deal with any situations that arise in the course of business.

The course highlights how problems and implications can arise at any time, but a strategy will prepare you for handling anything and still let you achieve your goals.

This next topic discusses how your business case will be the key document that senior management looks at to figure out the success of a project.

Your business case is how you persuade everybody about the benefits of your project and how it justifies using precious resources and investment.

This section points out that some organizations have their own template and format for businesses cases and you should check this out before you start yours.

The content details the six important sections of all business cases:

An Executive Summary – this is the quick and snappy abstract of the project, which covers all the main objectives.

The Objectives – this sets out the reasons for the project and what problems it’s setting out to solve.

Possible Options – this is where you lay out all the options for addressing the problems, with benefits, costs and risks, as well as using data to support your answers.

Your Recommendation – here you give your audience the best option you’ve chosen for solving the problem.

Implementation Plan – this is where you’ll share an outline of your project and the resources it needs, with cost and risk analysis, as well as a realistic timescale.

Conclusion – this section will be the last chance to persuade everybody your project is the best.

Project Strategy and Business Case – Summary

This section helps employees digest the information they’ve learned in the course videos, overviewing the importance of using project strategy as a way to communicate your business plan.

Project Strategy and Business Case – Actionable Advice

The material ends with a way to use the knowledge learned in this e-learning course. It advices to start with your own small project to test your skills and build up towards getting ready for larger projects.

This interactive e-learning course boasts animated and colorful videos to portray its message, as well as an engaging voice-over to inspire employees and keep their interest with the content. The slides are also easy to read for understanding information effectively.

Why project strategy and having a business case is important

They say a goal without a plan is just a wish. That’s why you’ve to have a well-planned strategy for your business project, in order for it to work and be successful.

Having a strategy’s important for moving in the right direction and handling any unexpected problems that come your way. After creating your path, you can use your business case to communicate your ideas people further up the chain.

A thorough business case will give your project the best possible start and allow key stakeholders to see your plans clearly. It’s your one chance to sell your project and prove why it should be backed and why it deserves investment.

If you’re employees know the importance of using project strategy and creating a detailed business case, your organization will enjoy an endless supply of new and credible business ventures that might just be the next big thing.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

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Today’s competitive business market calls for good strategy and a persuasive business case to get the ball rolling. Here's how.

Why it's important to have a project strategy and business case

Today’s competitive business market calls for good strategy and a persuasive business case to get the ball rolling. Here's how. 

With an increasing number of organisations adopting online learning for staff training, eLearning has become a very popular and effective tool for employee learning and development. If you’ve recently made the switch to a new LMS or online training system, you’ll no doubt want to achieve a smooth and successful deployment of the solution to your staff.

It’s no good simply rolling out a new training product and hoping staff use it. Before deploying a new system across your organisation, you need to develop a solid plan for how you’re going to introduce it to your employees.

There are many things to consider before rolling out your online training program if you want to avoid any stress or hiccups. You’ll need to have a clear and concise deployment plan, that allows you to achieve the desired outcomes.

Today, we’ll share with you some tips that will help you plan for a smooth, successful deployment, whether you’re a small company of 10 employees or a large global organisation.

The best way to achieve the desired outcome is to have it clearly defined right from the start. So before deployment, think about your goals and objectives.

You’ll want employees to use and accept the training solution, and become proficient in it. You’ll need individual staff members to be able to complete certain tasks within the system. You'll expect them to know why the LMS is being used and what purpose it serves, as well as how it will benefit their work life. If you’re using an LMS for compliance or safety training, think about the workplace safety figures you want to start seeing across the company.

Be really clear and drill down to the specific business objectives you want to achieve after rollout. Once you have an end goal in sight, it’s much easier to map out your plan to get there. You can then create a detailed rollout schedule that clearly outlines every step along the way to deployment.

As Nikos Andriotis, writing for eFront Learning, says, “your online corporate training programs will only be successful if you can pinpoint how your business operates, what it needs and how it can grow.”

There’s no harm in admitting that it can be challenging to get employees excited about workplace training. But knowing your audience gives you a far greater chance of success, as you’ll know the benefits that speak to their needs.

Identifying your audience (or audiences) helps you to plan how you’re going to deliver an online training solution to your employees.

There are three distinct groups that you need to consider: your end-users, the operations staff responsible for running the software once it is in production, and the support staff who will be there to help your learners use the software. And it’s important to tailor your deployment to each specific group. Your key messages and communication style throughout the rollout will be targeted to these target audiences.

On that note, this is also the time to think about the change management aspect of deployment.

The fact is, many people are quite change-resistant, particularly in the workplace. We get used to performing tasks in certain ways, using certain systems that are familiar to us. When faced with a new system or software, you’ll often need to convince employees exactly why they should embrace a new system.

Before deployment, make sure you’ve taken the time to speak with all levels of management and employees about the role and benefits of the new LMS. Address any questions or concerns that staff might have about the new product and keep referring back to its benefits. Your goal is to minimise business disruption and ensure that all corporate stakeholders are on board.

“This is crucial,” Andriotis says, “because not only do you don’t want them to sabotage or downplay your training program’s importance, but you also need their full support in getting the employees they manage engaged and fully cooperative with their training.”

Venga Global has this good advice for your deployment strategy:

“Talk to other departments about their experiences with software deployment. Identify the change management issues they encountered and learn from their mistakes and successes navigating social nuances within the company.”

And remember, just because you’ve completed deployment of your new LMS or online training program, it doesn’t mean your work is done. You’ll need to measure the success and ROI of your new training solution, to show senior management that the money the company is spending on employee training is getting a solid return on investment.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.


If you’ve recently made the switch to a new LMS or online training system, you’ll no doubt want a smooth and successful deployment plan for your staff. Here's how.

Tips to plan smooth training deployment

If you’ve recently made the switch to a new LMS or online training system, you’ll no doubt want a smooth and successful deployment plan for your staff. Here's how. 

In a digital content landscape where online ads, flashy videos, images, and other interactive elements are essential to engage users, a working knowledge of iFrames is a handy tool in any L&D professional’s kitbag. 

At this stage, you might be wondering, ‘what are iFrames?’ No, it’s not an Apple product designed to replace picture frames. The good news is you probably know far more about iFrames than you might expect.

In fact, if you’ve spent anytime online in the last decade, you’re probably already familiar with using iFrames without even realising it. Every time you add externally hosted images to a blog or embed videos from media streaming sites into online content, you’re using iFrames. Every time you see a targeted ad online? You guessed it, that’s probably an iFrame. Feeling more confident already?

With this in mind, we thought now was the perfect time to take a look closer at how iFrames work. We’ll start by asking what an iFrame is, before looking at how you can use iFrames to improve eLearning content, particularly assessments in online courses.

An iFrame, also known as an Inline Frame, is an HTML document that is embedded inside another document on a website, allowing you to include content from external sources on your pages. iFrames can be used for almost anything, from articles, to website homepages, to learning modules and beyond. 

As Tech Target explains, “an inline frame (iFrame) is a HTML element that loads another HTML page within the document. It essentially puts another webpage within the parent page. They are commonly used for advertisements, embedded videos, web analytics and interactive content.” 

iFrames are used to insert a piece of content from another source into a web page — it’s like an extra window on a page, showing external sources within it. Think embedding Youtube videos, sharing external images, embedding a map on your ‘Contact Us’ page to help customers find you, or hosting online ads — anything that supplements your content and helps engages users. 

Finally, it’s worth noting that iFrames are the only type of frame allowed in HTML5. Google Maps, photo hosting site Flickr, and streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo all use iFrames, while the advertisements you see on web pages are also typically iFrames.

As you can see, iFrames allow course creators to create better content for their learners. They open up a whole world of options beyond the same old, same old multiple-choice text quizzes. 

As eLearning Industry notes, without iFrames, L&D professionals are severely limited in the type of content they can create. They elaborate, adding, “the scope of assessment variation is reduced to whether to use a Boolean, multiple choice, or multiple answer question type. We might stretch to the odd use of basic text formatting, emphasising a particular word or phrase, or maybe even using still images.” In contrast, iFrames open up a whole world of possibilities. 

Just as we use colour, fonts, animation, and elements of instructional design to spice things up in our content, we can embed dynamic and interactive media from social media streaming sites through iFrames. Basically, if you want to cut through and engage learners, iFrames are now essential. 

Put it this way, if you want to grab learners’ attention and ensure learning transfer occurs, which is more likely to work: a few pieces of tactically bolded text or an easily-digestible infographic that reiterates your point? 

In particular, using video elements is fantastic for capturing people’s attention, allowing you to convey information quickly and easily, which is increasingly important as our attention spans continue to decrease. We want information and we want it fast! Embedding videos through iFrames can help you achieve that goal.

Ultimately, eLearning Industry explains that “one way to improve the learner experience is to aim to improve engagement in our assessments by addressing the variety and format of the questions and answers we use. An easy, quick and effective way to address this is to look to the use of embedded streaming media via the use of iFrames.”

Imagine you’re assigned a piece of learning content. You keep clicking through, trying to race ahead to the end, but it seems to keep going on and on, like a vast, intimidating wall of text. There’s nothing to break it up. No images. No videos. Nothing. Eventually, your mind starts to wander. You disengage and stop taking in the information.

Now, imagine injecting a few eye-catching infographics into that same learning module. Maybe a few videos and a couple of other interactive elements, too, as a cherry on top. Suddenly, it’s far more engaging — a breeze to complete. That is the benefit of iFrames in eLearning. iFrames can help you take your learning content to the next level by adding engaging, eye-catching interactive content that keeps learners interested throughout the entire module. 

Think of adding iFrames to your learning modules as taking the step from black and white to colour or stereo to surround sound. It is the next step to fully engaging learners. Without it, your L&D content is likely to be left behind. 

How iFrames enhance eLearning assessments

Finally, let's examine how you can use iFrames to improve course assessments.

When it comes to eLearning assessments, they can often be thought of as somewhat separate from the actual online courses — something that’s tacked on at the end of the learning materials as a necessary evil. 

However, as James Shiel, Head of WBT Systems’ LMS Product User Experience & Design, says, “we invest a lot of time and energy creating rich, engaging content, only to present a bland final impression of the overall eLearning experience via the final assessment.” 

At Go1, we think this is a shame. Assessments are an integral part of learning. We believe they should be treated as one of the most crucial aspects of our learning material, rather than an afterthought. However, too often in L&D, we see the same uninspiring final assessments. In other words, a bland final assessment can make or break your learning module. If you need a quick refresher on eLearning assessments, check out our article on The most effective online learning assessment types. 

As Mr Shiel puts it, “Our eLearning assessments should aim to engage the learner and improve the overall quality of the instructional material.” 

The information and data obtained from assessments are valuable to your organisation, helping you assess the overall impact of the online course on individual learners, gauge the effectiveness of course content, and measure the ROI of the learning itself.

So, it’s worth investing some time and effort into creating eLearning assessments. Once again, you guessed it, iFrames can help. iFrames will help you enhance your assessments and allow students or employees to be involved in a more engaging, effective learning experience.

Want to know more about using iFrames in eLearning content? We'll explore why iFrames can help create more visually engaging content for your learners.

What’s an iFrame and how can I use it?

If you work in the eLearning industry, you probably hear a lot of talk about automation – a popular eLearning tool that can bring plenty of benefits to online learning.

If you’re already across automation and know all its ins and outs, this article might not be for you. But for anyone new to the world of online learning, and looking to understand the practice of automation, this will tell you what you need to know.

So let’s get started, with some insight into how automation works and the ways it can benefit the eLearning process – for both you and your learners.

What’s Automation in eLearning All About? 

Think about what the word itself means – automation is a process that minimises or eliminates human interaction. And that’s exactly what automation is used for in eLearning, helping to make your work life much easier.

Do you regularly create online learning courses in your role? It can be a very time-consuming, and often tricky, process. In the same way that you use eLearning templates or online libraries to develop an online course, automation helps to simplify online course creation.

If you’re someone who creates online courses, but isn’t involved in coding or programming, you probably think of automation as something that happens behind the scenes. And that’s correct – automation works in the background of your online learning course.

Essentially, automation uses algorithms, a set of computer codes and instructions, to generate eLearning content. These algorithms control what eLearning content is displayed, being triggered by the actions of individual learners – they work as a response on command, set in motion by the person completing the online course.

Christoforos Pappas, of eLearning Industry, gives a good example of automation in eLearning, where “a particular piece of eLearning content displays when an online learner passes the eLearning assessment. If they don't meet the minimum requirements, the code may generate a resource list they can use to improve.”

In this way, your online course is perfectly meeting the needs of your learners, at every step of the way. And it’s automation that is helping you do that.

As Pappas says, “think of eLearning automation as a robot who can help you with rudimentary tasks around the house … making your life easier in many respects.”

Personalising eLearning Content for Users 

In the example above, you can see how automation has the potential to change the process of eLearning, personalising learning content for users.

You could use automation to develop a short online quiz that employees take before launching into a course. This would help determine the subject matter relevant to their position, and areas they may need (or want) to work on. Automation will then adjust the course content to suit, dropping or adding modules to match the learner’s needs and objectives.

Automation can also be used to create an online quiz at the end of a course, to assess learner knowledge and identify any skill or knowledge gaps. You can even keep track of individual learners throughout the course, monitoring their progress.

Helping You to Improve Your eLearning Content

Automation also helps you to make improvements to your online course, to make it more effective for learners.

With automation, you can see which parts of your course need more detail and which teaching methods are working best for learners. In this way, automation in eLearning can work as a feedback loop to test and measure knowledge and, in turn, create effective and relevant new content for learners.

Can you see how useful this tool can be for both content creators and learners?

eLearning automation allows you to automatically generate online assessments and content for your course, saving you time and effort, while providing a much better learning experience for users.

Want to stay up-to-date with eLearning trends? Learn more about another important eLearning trend, Top eLearning Trends: Using Gamification in the Workplace.


Automation is increasingly changing eLearning and the way in which we create educational content for learners. It can help you to develop more personalised, tailored content, leading to higher engagement, more effective learning materials and better results.

Top eLearning trends: what you need to know about automation

Automation is increasingly changing eLearning and the way in which we create educational content for learners. It can help you to develop more personalised, tailored content, leading to higher engagement, more effective learning materials and better results. 

Whistleblowers often get a bad name, but without their actions, serious illegality would remain undiscovered.

Whistleblowers should be praised and commended for their bravery, as well as their invaluable service to their organization.

Whether it’s another employee abusing their sick leave or fraudulently stealing money from public clients, whistleblowing exposes the wrongdoing and brings the perpetrators to justice.

That’s why it’s important for organizations to educate their employees on how whistleblowing really works, why it can benefit the workplace and how the law will protect you in the process. This will dispel the negativity unfairly attached to whistleblowing.

This section explains the importance of whistleblowing for the safety and integrity of an organization, as well as how it can safeguard employees and the wider public from wrongdoing.

The content gives helpful examples of how misconduct can be a variety of dishonest, illegal and dangerous practices - ranging from minor to complex issues. In addition, wrongdoing can be internal or external, committed by any employee of an organization.

The course also addresses the stigma that’s attached to whistleblowing. For example, an employee can initially feel like a ‘snitch’ and speaking out can at first seem disloyal to their employer.

But, there are many good reasons for whistleblowing, such as saving lives, money and reputation. This section looks to cement the understanding that whistleblowing is important and the responsibility of all employees.

This next topic clarifies that any worker who speaks out against wrongdoing in their organization is protected by law from victimisation, putting to bed the rumours that you’ll expose yourself to trouble.

The content explains that the meaning of ‘worker’ has a wide interpretation, which also extends to self-employed, agency workers and trainees.

Revealing the misconduct is viewed as a qualifying disclosure, which becomes a protected disclosure if it’s communicated to the right person in an appropriate way.

It’s important to know the difference between making a complaint where you have been poorly treated personally and voicing a concern about an illegal or dangerous practice taking place in an organization.

This topic looks to illustrate this difference and allow employees to understand how a personal complaint can be upsetting for you, but won’t secure qualifying disclosure.

This section explains how employees can raise their issues about a wrongdoing that has happened in the past, is happening currently or could happen in the future, so it’s clear what to do.

The law will protect a whistleblower that’s reported criminal offences, failures to comply with legal obligations, health and safety threats, damage to the environment, and miscarriages of justice (or cover-up actions).

For whistleblowers to be protected by law, there’s a certain process that they must go through. This section details that you have to make sure to inform the right person in good faith about the situation.

There’s a variety of people you can tell depending on the situation, such as a health and safety representative or another prescribed body. You can always seek professional advice prior to raising a concern to ensure no mistakes are made.

What your employer or a prescribed person will do

This section explains how an employer or prescribed person will listen to an employee’s concern and take this matter further, based on the information they are given.

In particular, you should let the professional know straight away if you want to remain anonymous. While you can be kept informed about the action that’s taken, not all details will be communicated to you, due to confidentiality.

If an employee is unsatisfied with how their concern has been handled, you can express this discrepancy to an independent body, such as ACAS or a trade union who can provide you with support.

This finalizing section will tie loose ends together and provide a succinct summary of all the information covered about whistleblowing that the employee has learned.

It will recap how you must be a worker to blow the whistle and the concern you seek to voice is in the public interest. In addition, the law will protect you if you communicate your concern to the right person in the correct way.

Your employer or prescribed person must listen to your concern and if you are unsatisfied in how they deal with your information, you can seek support from an independent body.

This interactive e-learning course uses animated videos to explain content, with an engaging voice-over and easy to read slides. In addition, there’s a short quiz at the end for employees to test their whistleblowing knowledge.

Whistleblowing is the only real and effective way to combat illegal or dangerous wrongdoing in the workplace. After all, your employees are your eyes and ears in the day-to-day running of business.

When an employee brings any misconduct to light, it protects other employees, clients and potentially, the organization itself.

An open-door policy on whistleblowing can start the road to important corporate changes that will allow an organization to thrive, without any damaging illegality lurking undetected in the background. This will lead to the promotion of good business ethics.

Whistleblowing is actually essential for a transparent and efficient working environment. By encouraging employees to feel safe and confident enough to speak up honestly, having a whistleblowing policy means organizations can safeguard their integrity and reputation.

How whistleblowers could save your business

When we read about e-learning, ‘xAPI’ is a buzzword that pops up all the time. So, what exactly is it?

Well, first it’s important to recognize that in today’s world, learning happens everywhere. We absorb information from interactions with people, educational textbooks and e-learning programs. The possibilities are endless.

Yet, this has meant that employers using SCORM for their Learning Management Systems (LMS) simply can’t keep up with tracking employee development; or at least, accurately. This is where xAPI comes into play.

xAPI, Tin Can and Experience API are all synonymous with one software specification that has the ability to let different programs speak to each other. It allows organizations to collect and track all of the experiences of learning that matter in the 21st century.

xAPI opens up a new world of learning that benefits employees and organizations.

xAPI is a revolutionary open source application programming interface (API), which records employee activities from a variety of programs and software.

Unlike SCORM, this software specification tracks all kinds of activities from inside and outside the LMS. It adds a beneficial communicative layer to your system, connecting the employee and the organization.

This means trackable learning is no longer confined to what happens on the LMS. xAPI lets you track employee development online and offline, as well as from other mobile devices.

From online quizzes and webinars to reading a textbook and playing educational games, xAPI captures it all and you can see everything.

xAPI works by producing simple statements, consisting of a noun, verb and object. For example, Jack has completed Basic Business Math.

The statement that’s produced lets you know what e-learning Jack has accessed and exactly when it was completed. This information is stored in the Learning Record Store (LRS). An organization can then use analytic tools to evaluate their future employee development.

All you need for xAPI to function is sources for the statements, such as an e-learning course or application. In addition, somewhere for the LRS.

xAPI has a variety of uses that’s made it a huge asset to businesses and organizations of all sizes.

While it doesn’t change the design or content of courses and materials, xAPI transforms the way learning experiences can be seen; data becomes knowledge that’s quantifiable and learning becomes more effective.

Using xAPI for your LMS allows you to connect all programs and software that employees can learn from into one place. It solves the headache of disjointed data and captures everything that’s fueling development in the modern workplace.

It doesn’t matter whether the user is online or using a mobile device, organizations can track all learning and see a richer and bigger picture of employee training.

In addition, xAPI isn’t just beneficial for organizations - employees can learn anywhere and at any time, on whatever interface they choose. Flexibility in learning encourages the user to engage, allowing an employee to choose a time and location that suits them best.

The ability to track everything from attendance at a webinar to playing in a virtual world means an increased interest and engagement with learning content.

After all, there’s no doubt employees would rather play an educational game than read an e-book with the same information!

Since xAPI collects and tracks all learning into one place, this allows an organization to understand data in a way SCORM never could.

Firstly, you can now see how individual employees are learning; whether they are completing that mandatory Team Working program you set or achieving satisfactory scores on the compulsory training exams.

In addition, you can see how teams and groups are working. You can see if training is effective for achieving business goals and whether employees are responding to the targets you set on the LMS.

 xAPI gives organizations the power to understand learning behavior and performance like never before. xAPI data is produced in a simple way that allows you to analyze the results.

This software specification acts as your own scientific experiment that produces quantifiable results and this means xAPI allows you to make conclusions and business decisions for the future.

With a deeper insight into employee development, organizations can now implement changes to enhance training and upgrade the support open to users.

The experiences that xAPI tracks and stores is the holy grail for future employee development and achieving overall business objectives.

For example, you notice that your business has dropped in sales this month, despite the launch of a new product. Instead of assuming that customers just don’t want to buy this month, you can use xAPI data to understand why this might be happening.

Your xAPI data may find that employees haven’t been scoring well on their customer service training. You can then draw conclusions on what the problems are before it’s too late.

xAPI data doesn’t just let you understand what’s happening within your organization, but it also lets you do something about it. You can use this information to introduce a new course focusing on How To Understand Customer Needs or prioritize a Persuasion Skills e-learning course, for example.

In addition, you can introduce feedback on the LMS to hear directly from employees and how you can improve the support open to them.

Thus, the recorded and tracked xAPI data provides you with the information your organization needs to make decisions. It lets you find effective learning solutions and improve training open to your employees to achieve overall business success.

It’s important to recognize that in today’s world, learning happens everywhere. We absorb information from interactions with people, educational textbooks and e-learning programs. The possibilities are endless.

What is xAPI and how do we use it?

Below are types of inexpensive small business growth hacking tools you can use. They are divided into five categories. Check out each section to learn more about the small business tool and how it can make your business more efficient and better positioned to grow.

All businesses must do accounting. It’s how you can compare what your business is earning to what it’s spending. 

You could hire someone to do the accounting for you. But, you might not have the budget to bring someone on full time. Accounting software is a great low-cost alternative, especially if your accounting books aren’t complex. 

Accounting software will create reports for you, saving you time. The reports can help you get a better idea of your cash flow. You can see where your money is coming from and where you are losing it. 

If you know how to choose accounting software that is tailored to your needs, you could save a considerable amount of time and money. You can find simple accounting systems, meaning you don’t need to be an expert to use it. And, if you purchase software with fewer features, it’s cheaper than a bigger software program. 

For your business to grow, people need to know about it. Otherwise, you’ll never have customers. You need to be easily visible online. 

When people search for your business or similar businesses, your business should show up in the search results. You should claim your business in search results to make sure information is accurate and displayed the best way possible. For example, you will use Google My Business to update your business information for Google search results. This is a free service.

You should also list your business on business directories. You can list on online Yellow Pages, local business directories, and review sites. 

Potential customers should be able to see all important information about your business, such as your hours, location, and website. You might also include pictures and reviews to further convince people to choose you. 

Once you establish your business online, more people will find it, you will gain more customers, and your business will grow.

If you have employees, you must run payroll. You have to pay employees and handle payroll taxes correctly. If you don’t, you can face penalties, fines, and even jail time. 

Payroll can take a lot of time and money to run. Fortunately, online payroll software can reduce the amount of each. 

Payroll software will do all payroll calculations for you. You simply enter employee time and let the software do the math. You can even pay employees through the software if you use direct deposit. You don’t have to do anything by hand or hire a specialist. Some payroll software companies will even file and remit payroll taxes for you, saving you even more time. When you use online payroll software, you can finish payroll in minutes. 

Payroll software isn’t free, but you can reduce the amount you spend on it. Look for software that is designed for small businesses. Small business payroll software doesn’t come with big-business bells and whistles, making it cheaper. 

When you start using payroll software, you save both time and money. You can invest those into your business to grow even more. 

You can grow and improve your business through your employees. You can help them develop their skills, which will help them become better at their jobs. 

But, what if you don’t have the time or knowledge to train your employees? You can use online courses and learning resources.

When you use an online learning platform, you have access to hundreds of courses. And, you can add your own material to easily share the same information with several employees. You can assign training to your employees, make assessments, and track results. 

You can incorporate training during onboarding. Or, you can add training at any time based on your business’s needs and your employee’s skills. When you use business tools and resources to better equip your employees, your business is better able to grow. 

If you have employees, you need to set up effective methods of communication. And if some of your team is remote, communication tools are even more important. 

The communication tools you need will depend on your team. You might need a simple email system. You might need a chat messaging, document sharing, and video conferencing. 

Many online communication tools are free. Everyone just needs an internet connection. You can pay to get premium features, but you might be able to make do with the free options. 

When your employees can better communicate, things will get done faster and with fewer mistakes. Workers can stay up to date even if they work remotely. When your team is better connected, your business is more efficient.

Kaylee Riley is a writer for Patriot Software, LLC and Top Echelon, LLC. Kaylee writes about payroll, accounting, recruiting systems, and other small business topics.

Wouldn’t you love to grow your business fast but without spending a ton of money? Lucky for you, there are thousands of free and low-cost small business tools and resources available online that can help.