Financial Literacy and Money – Page 137

Helping Hands That Could Make Your Business Workflow More Efficient

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. In the Rich Dad Poor Dad series, Robert T. Kiyosaki often refers businesses as a ‘team sports’. Likewise a key to growing your business is recruiting the right professional talent to help you with the important tasks. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Helping Hands That Could Make Your Business Workflow More Efficient.

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You try your best to keep your business running smoothly on a day to day basis, but recently you have noticed a strange spike in you workload and it’s becoming more and more difficult to keep up. Your business needs that extra push to keep it going above and beyond your expectations, but how are you going to achieve this? Accepting help when you’re an entrepreneur can be a tough pill to swallow, but it’s actually a great sign of growth. Widening your horizons and getting more people on board with your business will not only set your business up for greater success, but it will also give you the opportunity to relax a little more. It’s time to lighten your load and finally make your business workflow more efficient.

Bookkeeping Assistance

When it comes to calculating your taxes, you are certainly no expert. You spend days and weeks of your life every year trying to decipher various receipts and payments. You will never enjoy doing your taxes, so why continue to suffer? You can visit gudorftaxgroup.com and they will help you by producing detailed reports about your business. Understand where your money is being spent and how you could be small changes here and there. If financial data is baffling to you, then you won’t have to worry any longer if you seek assistance from reputable bookkeepers.

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Marketing Help

You spend a lot of time working on the advertising and marketing methods for your company. Although you do have a creative eye and you enjoy getting stuck into the process of building campaigns, you need to spend more time on the actual business itself. This is why you should definitely consider hiring a professional marketing manager, who can take charge of your businesses advertisements. You will always be able to have the final say, but you will have more free time to finish the jobs that are urgently waiting on your to-do list.

More Employees

When you run a small business is can seem pretty odd to be thinking about hiring employees; you have always worked by yourself and you have always liked it that way. Putting your trust into other people to help you run your business is a little daunting, but this might just be the next step that your business need. Imagine having an office assistant who can answer calls or reply to emails. This would allow your workload to lighten so that you can actually enjoy the job you are doing. Consider the roles you might require in the company right now and start thinking about hiring a workforce soon.

You have always been a proud business owner who is able to handle anything that is thrown your way. As your company gets bigger and bigger you have realised that you can’t do everything by yourself, so it is definitely time to start thinking about hiring some extra helping hands. Take all of these ideas on board and consider where your business needs that extra lift. You will soon notice an improvement to your workflow as soon as you have made these changes.

Why Storytelling Is Your Most Valuable Asset

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“From our very first years, humans are designed to be almost magnetically drawn to a well crafted story.”

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Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, Business and Entrepreneurship, and Blogging/Writing. A key to growing your business is growing your brand and telling a story that resonates with your customers. This in large part helps them to connect to your product and service. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Why Storytelling Is Your Most Valuable Asset.

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From the legendary John Lewis Christmas ad defining the season to iconic Pepsi promos with music superstars, to public safety announcements that drive real behaviour change and the cinematic elegance of Chanel’s fragrance campaigns, advertising can have a huge impact on our lives. But aside from recognisable brands, the thread that all of these advertising strategies have in common? A compelling story to tell.

From our very first years, humans are designed to be almost magnetically drawn to a well crafted story. Folk wisdom, life lessons and valuable knowledge have been passed down the generations since the dawn of time in this manner. Engaging, emotional, and holding the listener completely spellbound, the sheer magic of telling a story can shape our behaviour – and successful brands know this. But why is a good story so compelling that it should act as the key to every content marketing strategy?

A Universal Experience

Advertising has come a long way since the soap box days of listing the features and benefits of a product and hoping people listen. Basing marketing efforts on a great story is a far better approach, as it relates the product or service to emotions within the customer, and that can be far more powerful a connection than the fleeting drivers of price or even product innovation. When people see a glimpse of themselves in a brand, they become loyal, and customer loyalty is the marketing holy grail.

The Hallmark of A Brand

From titans of a auto world like Audi to the illustrious heritage of luxury brands like Valentino, storytelling is a huge differentiator in a crowded global marketplace. Getting your message across and the brand values that you stand for can be really hard with all the cognitive noise and rival brands, but crafting a great narrative is a shortcut to standing out and is something that has the power to stick with people and even shape culture- just look at Coca Cola and their impact on the colour of Santa’s clothes!

The Human Touch

When it comes to mega-brands like Starbucks or Apple, they operate on such a large scale that there is a very real danger of being perceived as completely out of touch and abstract to the person on the street. Storytelling is the magic that bridges this gap so effectively and allows their customers to buy into the brand ethos. All businesses are set up to solve a problem with their product or service offer. The human element that storytelling weavers into this allows customers that share the same problems to see how they could be solved with the solution the company is offering. The power of case studies, especially in the business to business world, never seems to wane. People want to see themselves reflected in the mirror of the story. They can then begin to associate themselves with the brand and it’s values and form a connection.

If this can apply to coffee shops and other nice, optional luxuries, just imagine how well this can work with services and brands that speak to us all. As you can see from Heritage Reforestation Inc reviews, being able to communicate the most important and necessary stories correctly doesn’t have to dilute your message, it will expand the worth of the narrative and permit more people to access it.

The Soft Approach

Today’s consumers are hyper aware of being sold to, so any campaign that comes across as too blatantly ‘salesy’ is likely not to go down so well. In fact, taking too pushy or aggressive or a tone can have an extremely negative effect. It’s a far better approach to simply share an experience or a set of values and leave the decision up to the judgement of the customer.

Save Your Business Ship From Sinking Into The Abyss

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. Starting any business venture is like setting off on a voyage across the ocean or the sea. As such it’s critical to understand what provisions to load onto your ship, and what protocols to use in various circumstances. The following contributed post is thus titled; Save Your Business Ship From Sinking Into The Abyss.

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Over ninety percent of startups will fail within their first year. This means that many business owners won’t even get out the gates with their company. You have to be prepared for this possibility. You have to know how to right a sinking ship. Luckily, there are a few possible courses you can take here, and we’re going to check a few out right now.

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Manage What You Owe

If your business is starting to sink there’s a good chance, it’s being submerged in debt. When you start a business, you may have to borrow a lot of money, and you probably won’t be able to pay it all back at once. That leaves debt to build up more and more in different areas. The fact it’s in different areas can make it seem smaller and less significant when in reality, it’s eating away at your company. How do you handle this?

Well, you can think about consolidating your debt. Debt consolidation lenders are brilliant because they will provide you with the tools to put all the your debt into one sum that’s easier to pay off. You can start to treat it like another monthly bill. Be aware though, this is a loan, and you have to make sure that you understand the conditions before taking it on.

Alternatively, consider getting the help of an accountant. They’ll be able to make sure that you find out where the money is leaking out and whether you have unpaid invoices from clients. This can help shift some of the weight.

Cut The Costs Right Back

You might find that your company is struggling because it’s just too darn expensive. If that’s the case, it’s time to think about cutting the cost, bringing them in line with the level of demand you’re getting rather than what you hoped to claim when you entered on the market.

There are many ways to cut costs, but if you’re running your business from an office, that is definitely the place to start. Consider whether you can instead move towards a home business model with mobile workers who can come in and help when the needs arise. Or, just move to a smaller office and move most of your workers back to their own homes. This is possible with most company models thanks to the latest tech available on the market.

Go For Broke
Or, go in a completely different direction and push your costs right up, throwing most of the weight into new marketing campaigns. By doing this, you can give one last hit and try and get your audience to grow to the point you need it to be. Yes, this is definitely going to drive up the debt that you might already be facing. But if it’s successful, this could be the risk you had to take to save your company from doom. Make no mistake though, this is a seriously risky move, and it’s one that a lot of businesses won’t survive.

We hope this helps provide you with some choices of how to stop your business from sinking completely.

Managing Your Debt More Effectively

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money. From experience, losing control of debt or misusing it can adversely affect your financial and even personal health. It’s thus important not to get involved with it in the first place, or to get rid of it as quickly as possible if you have. The following contributed post is thus titled; Managing Your Debt More Effectively.

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If you have a great deal of debt, it is no doubt affecting your life in a number of ways. Anyone who has ever experienced being in debt will testify to the fact that it can be incredibly worrying and damaging, an it’s one of those situations that you wouldn’t wish on even your worst enemy. However, the truth is that even the worst debt in the world can be improved by being managed more effectively, and that effective management begins with a proper understanding of debt, how it works, and what you can do to try and improve or fix it. In this post, we will take a look at some of the things you can do to manage your debt much more effectively and fully in the future.

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Understand Your Options

Something that can really help with the psychological part of debt is understanding what options you have, so that you are much less likely to feel as though all is lost. As it turns out, this is something which you will be able to do pretty easily, and it will mean that you will immediately feel a lot better about your debt in the process too. One of the options always available is consolidation, which can be a hugely helpful way of lumping all your debt into one. This then gets the other creditors off your back, and ensures you can start paying it all back in manageable portions. Sometimes a company will also allow you to call debt forgiveness, which can be the best option if you are able to get it. And other times, there is the bankruptcy route, which can help you to get back on track.

Take It Slow

Once you know what the route is that you are likely to take, you need to start taking it – but somewhat slowly. If you rush into anything, it is likely that you will only cause yourself further and further stress, so it’s something that you definitely want to avoid doing if you can help it. By taking it slow, you make it that much easier to keep on to of things and not let yourself get too stressed, and it means that you will be in a much better position at the end of it too. Remember this important advice if you are wondering what you can do to make it all seem a little easier, as this ensure that psychological side of it is considerably less stressful and worrisome.

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Get Help

Sometimes all it takes is to have a little help from those around you, so this is an option which you should absolutely consider too. You need to make sure that you are aware of what options you have in terms of who can help you, as knowing that is central to being able to get to a better financial position faster. Bear that in mind, and it will make a huge difference in the long run.

How To Grow Your One-Person Business

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. Many people have business ideas and eventually become motivated to pursue their entrepreneurial idea. Some people create businesses that thrive while others eventually fold. What are the keys to success? The following contributed post is entitled; How To Grow Your One-Person Business.

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Anyone who has tried to get a business underway knows just how difficult it can be. There are a million and one tasks to take care, and new ones are being added to the list all the time. But in most cases, there’s a team of people around the CEO who are helping to lighten the load and make growing the business more manageable. When you’re running things completely by yourself, then it’s extra difficult. Below, we take a look at some tips that’ll make it easier to grow your company – even if you’re the only employee.

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Start Small

You might have grand plans for your business, but you’re not going to reach the end game of your empire overnight, or at least not with bags of luck. In any case, what’s the rush? Everything will run much smoother if you start small. You’ll feel more control if things aren’t moving beyond your reach. In time, you might want to step up, but you’ll know that when you do, you’re able to handle things yourself. If you take on too much work before you’re ready, you’ll just find that you’re drowning under the pressure. Swim easy!

Outsource Some Tasks

You might be technically a one-person business, but that doesn’t mean you have to do all of the tasks yourself. And you don’t have to hire an employee, either. Instead, look at working with other companies. There are companies who offer outsourced IT support, marketing, accounting, and much more. These can be time-consuming, complicated tasks, and by passing the responsibility onto someone else, you’ll be able to focus on your skills, and grow your business knowing that the important duties are being taken care of by professionals.

Be Committed

It’s possible to cut corners in certain areas of your business, but alas, there’s no substitute for hard work. If you want your business to be a success, you need to put the hours in! And that means being committed. There’ll be times when you have the choice between working on your business or, say, joining friends for a drink at the bar. Here’s where a little bit of discipline will go a long way. If you’re able to reject socializing and stay in to get some work done, you’ll be much more likely to have a successful business. It’s all about selecting deferred gratification over instant gratification. You might miss out on some fun now, but it’ll come back to you in good ways if you get down to work.

Set Monthly Targets

But of course, it’s all good and well sitting in front of a laptop, trying to grow your business, but the proof is in the pudding. To make sure you’re making progress from your efforts, have monthly targets in your sights. It’s much easier to work an extra hour in the evening if you know you have a target to reach.

Stay committed, work hard, and good things will come – for everything else, maybe you can draft in free labor from your friends and family

Everything a Small Business Owner Needs to Know About Tax

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. No matter what your business idea is, navigating the tax laws is critical to give your enterprise every chance to thrive. Likewise not understanding this component of your business plan can make things harder. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Everything a Small Business Owner Needs to Know About Tax.

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Chances are that when you first set up your small business, you’ve never had to deal with taxes yourself before. The majority of people spend most of their lives in employed positions and their employer automatically deducts taxes from their pay and pays them to the government on their behalf. But when you are running a business and become self-employed, working for yourself, you gain a whole lot more responsibility. Now, as long as your business is making money, you’re going to have to pay a whole host of taxes – there’s’ no choice in the matter, as it is a legal requirement of you. So, it’s something that you’re going to have to get to grips with relatively quickly. Here are just a few sage pieces of advice to help you along the way!

What Are Your Taxes Used For?

Seeing as you’re paying taxes, you’re going to want to know exactly where they are going. Generally speaking, governments take taxes as a percentage out of all of their citizens’ pay. Most countries use a graded scale, so the more money you earn, the larger the percentage of tax that you pay. The money taken is then put towards improving the country, its services (such as healthcare systems, emergency services, and educational systems), its transport, its infrastructure, and its defence.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay?

As we have mentioned, paying taxes is a legal requirement. If you do not declare how much you are earning, and / or do not pay the percentage of tax required of you, you could be in for a whole lot of trouble. If you file your return late, you may be charged an extra five percent of your overall owed amount for every month that your return remains unsubmitted. If you fail to pay your taxes, you can face a failure to pay penalty, which amounts to an extra 0.5 percent of the money that you owe being added to your bill on a monthly basis until you have forked out the full figure.

In terms of corporation tax, you may also find yourself incurring:

● Delinquency fines
● Accuracy related penalties
● Information reporting fines
● Protestor, preparer, or promoter penalties

Paying Your Taxes

Using a Professional Accountant

Perhaps the easiest way to file your taxes correctly is to work hand in hand with professional accountants like Brown Smith & Wallace. Accountants have received extended educations and have trained for years specialising in all things related to tax. They know the system inside out, so will be certain of what you need to pay, what you don’t need to pay, and when you need to pay. This helps to minimise chances of errors and mistakes on your yearly fiscal report and prevents problems from developing down the line. This is generally recommended for any small business owner, as not only does filing the wrong sum of money, filing the wrong return, or filing the wrong receipts and other papers pose the potential of lumping you with fines or even jail time, but tax scandal can have an extremely detrimental effect on your business’ image to the public.

Doing It Yourself

While you will generally find yourself having a much easier time using professional services such as accountancy, you don’t necessarily have to engage with accountants and can complete and file your tax return yourself. If you have only just started out in business and are looking for an area to save money, cutting accountancy fees can be a good area to save. However, you do need to ensure that you know what you’re doing and that you follow the process properly.

● Take a short course – there are many short courses out there surrounding accountancy for small business owners. They are not as thorough as degree programmes which qualify you to become a fully chartered accountant, but they are extremely effective in endowing you with an understanding of the basics. They are also a lot cheaper and less time consuming than a full time degree. Consider enrolling on a course in your local area to get to grips with everything that you have to do in order to correctly file a tax return.

● Research deadlines – information regarding the deadlines for returns that you need to file are generally available through government help websites. Make sure to put these dates in your calendar and make sure to start filling in your return well in advance of the deadline. There will probably be too much work to do to get away with leaving filling things in until the day before the deadline.

● Follow instructions – most tax return forms come with a full list of instructions. So make use of them. Follow each step through and complete the return in the order that it is presented to you. This will help to simplify the process for you. If possible, complete the return online. This tends to make things easier, as you can generally click for further information if you feel that the questions asked of you are unclear.

● Use helplines – most governments also provide helplines that you can contact to speak to someone about any issues you are having with filing your return. If you feel confused, do not hesitate to call and ask for a little help.

● Consider expenses – if you have forked out for any tax deductible expenses, seek out receipts and add them to your return. This can help to minimise the amount of money that you owe, saving you a little extra money as you go along.

As you can see, there’s a whole to learn and bear in mind when it comes to completing your taxes at the end of each fiscal year. Sure, it’s a little dull. It may well be complex. Chances are there are a thousand other things you’d rather spend your time doing. But, it is a legal requirement of you and your business, so you might as well make the inevitable process as simple as possible for yourself. Hopefully, the above pieces of advice will help you to achieve this!

Experts On Your Side: Three Business Pros You Can’t Live Without

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. A major key creating a successful business is hiring knowledgeable and talented professionals in key areas. This contributed post is thus entitled; Experts On Your Side: Three Business Pros You Can’t Live Without.

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It’s tempting and potentially even inviting, isn’t it? The idea that you could run your company without any outside help. But it’s also dangerous. Without expert attention, your business could quickly run into issues that you may not be equipped to handle. An example of this would a problem with tax.

When you’re running your business, you probably think very little about the amount you pay in tax, until that dreaded time of year. At that point, you handle your books as quickly and accurately as you possibly can and more or less hope for the best. Sound familiar? But what happens if a few months later or potentially even a few years, you get a letter from the IRS. There’s something wrong with your records, and they are eager to complete an investigation. Now, you’re in trouble, and if they find a serious issue, you could be hit with a massive fine.

This could have been avoided if you hired an accountant to handle your taxes. Remember, a chartered accountant is an expert so they won’t make any mistakes with your taxes. More importantly, they’ll know how to save you a lot of money, without needing to enter any legally grey areas.

That’s not the only way an accountant could help you out either. But let’s move on and explore two other pros that your business really does need.

The IT Expert

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You do want to make sure that you have an IT professional to handle the computer and technical side of your company. Why is this? A lot of people think that IT pros are there to handle issues when they develop, but this isn’t true. If you use the right service or an IT consulting company for your business, you’ll find you never actually need to handle a disaster. That’s because they’ll focus on preventing them in your business before they could possibly arise. While they can’t predict the future, IT experts can spot when issues are about to develop and get to work on a quick fix.

The Legal Pro

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You probably think that you’ll never fall on the wrong side of the law with your company. But we’ve already given you an example of how this can happen, purely by accident. It’s certainly not the only legal problem you could run into with your business either. You might have dealings with companies in Europe, and if so, it will be impossible to escape the ramifications of the GDPR. Data regulations are actually nothing new though and no matter where you are in the world, you will need to remain compliant with them for your business to stay on the right side of the law.

That’s where a legal pro can help. They can make sure that you are up to date with the latest changes and regulations. They can also help you adapt to ensure that there are no legal issues in your business model. Data protection is just one area where a legal pro can help. There’s also employee management, hiring practices and business to business contracts.

As you can see then, these experts can be all you need to prevent massive disasters in your business model.

What’s The Best Way To Fund Your Start Up?

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. No matter what your business idea is, figuring out how fund its startup is key. Likewise many new businesses don’t successfully get off the ground do to difficulties securing startup capital. The following contributed post is thus entitled; What’s The Best Way To Fund Your Start Up?

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Starting a business can be expensive. Whilst some companies can started from home with nothing more than a computer and a phone, others require specialist equipment, licensing, inventory, insurance, work premises and a team of employees. The right type of funding for you depends on your circumstances and the type of business you’ve got planned. Here are just three of the main options available when funding your startup.

Take out a loan

For most people with expensive startup costs, a loan is the best option. This can give you instant access to the funds you need, allowing you to get your business set up straight away. It pays to have a good credit score – this will allow you access to lower interest loans. Banks and peer-to-peer lending sites offer some of the cheapest interest rates. For some people, there may be specialist loans available such as these personal loans of veterans at https://personalloan.co/personal-loans-for-veterans/. Other options could include an equity release or accessing your 401(k) early. Borrowing money is the best option for those that want to get started as soon as possible – you’ll soon be paying off monthly loan repayments, so you want to be putting this loaned money into action quickly so that you’re making an income to pay off this loan.

Seek investment

An alternative option to borrowing money is to seek investment. This involves finding someone willing to give you the funds you need in exchange for shares in future business profits. Seeking out investment can be a longer process than taking out a loan, however unlike a loan in which you have to start paying back interest straight away, you won’t have to start paying shares to investors until your company is up and running making a profit giving you a little more time. You could seek out an individual investor or investment company willing to give you the entire amount you need or you could look into crowdfunding which involves raising the funds from lots of different people. The latter option is most popular and there are sites such as https://www.indiegogo.com/ for doing this. Encouraging investors to fund your business involves having a good business plan – you may want to hire a financial advisor to help you generate projected costs. Having business experience behind you can also help your cause.

Save up

The final option is to save up the funds yourself. By using your own savings, you won’t have to pay any interest fees or shares in the long run. It is however the longest way of raising funds and not ideal for people that want to get their businesses started straight away (it’s probably only best for startups that require a small amount of funding, otherwise you could be saving up for years). There are business savings accounts out there that can collect interest and allow you to build up funds more quickly – it’s shopping around at sites such as https://www.businesscomparison.com/bank-accounts to find the best account for you. Bonds and CDs can also be a good option.

How You Can Start Allowing Your Staff More Flexibility Today

Some of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and both Business and Entrepreneurship. A major key to running any business or organization is recruitment and retention of talent. A major part of talent retention is creating an optimal work environment. This contributed post is thus entitled; How You Can Start Allowing Your Staff More Flexibility Today.

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Allowing your staff more flexibility can be a fantastic way to build a better company reputation, make it more enjoyable for your staff to come to work, get a higher quality of work, and much more. It’s far more modern to allow your staff to work flexibly these days, as we all lead busy lives and may have appointments to keep up with, or may want to work from home for whatever reason.

Flexible working doesn’t just mean working from home. It can mean making the most of the commute and working from there, coming in a little later and making the time up later on in the day, doing some work in a cafe, and much more. Working flexibly can mean different things for different people. It won’t suit all businesses, but it can definitely help a huge number of businesses to move forward and get better results. Below is a quick rundown of what flexibility can mean for different businesses:

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• Flexible arrival and departure times
• Full-time work from home or location independence
• Choice and control in work shifts
• Part-time work from home
• Compressed shifts or workweek
• Opportunity for sabbaticals or career breaks (e.g., extended time off)
• Unlimited paid time off
• Caregiving leave

Staff who can work flexibly tend to take less sick days, feel happier and more productive at work, and become advocates for your business. They also feel more loyal to you and you should find you improve employee retention. Below are some ideas to help you implement more flexibility today:

Speak To Your Employees
Speak to your employees and see what they think about working flexibly. How do they think it could help and how would they like to do it? Getting their opinion will give you an insight into what they really want.

Start Using The Cloud
Using the cloud means your employees will be able to access data any time, anywhere. If you’re not currently using it, you’re already behind! What would you do if you lost important data, or there was a natural disaster? Cloud Migration Services can help with this, whether your employees want to start work on the commute or whether they’d like to do it from home.

Make Everybody Play By The Same Rules
Having flexibility in the workplace is great, but it can’t be one rule for one person and one rule for another. For example, you’ll find in many workplaces parents are allowed to leave early to pick up their kids, go to a school play, or take time off and have benefits for other family related things. Single people and those without kids should not be treated any differently! Have the same rules in place for everybody.

Allow More Flexibility Within The Workplace
Don’t have the mindset of ‘employees must be at their desks from the hours of 9-5’. Let them take breaks. Let them play games. Let them talk. Heck, even let them take naps. Make the workplace fun and flexible and you’ll seriously benefit.

Make A Gradual Transition
Do these things gradually so it’s not a shock to the system. What can you implement today to make the workplace more flexible?

Unexpected Disasters: Preventative Measures For Your Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and Business and Entrepreneurship. A key aspect of running any business is putting preventative measures in place to protect against unforeseen disasters and issues. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Unexpected Disasters: Preventative Measures For Your Business.

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Business owners tend to spend a lot of time creating an enterprise, however only a small portion of this planning to protect the business they have built. The examples to follow feature likely disasters that could occur when you least expect it, accompanied with solutions on how to avert these eventualities.

Power Cut

The lights cut out, pitch black fills the office, the familiar whirring noise from your PC’s slows down to a halt, complete silence ensues, you’re experiencing a power cut. What do you do now? The right answer is to prevent this situation from happening in the first place. Power cuts are destructive to a business’s livelihood. Hours of no power for your PC’s, lighting and equipment could prevent several of your employees securing sales deal, contacting new customers, submitting new stock orders, etc. Without power, your business is disconnected from a world that thrives on remaining connected by technology. Attempting to rectify this scenario without a plan in place is highly stressful for you and damaging for your company.

Prevent your business practices coming to a halt when the likely event of a power cut takes over. Instead, think about purchasing a backup power outlet to provide your company with a few hours of electric to keep your business running smoothly. In addition to this, hire a technology company who are experts in situations such as these, giving you an additional safety net when the lights go out.

Cyber Crime

Cybercriminals may wreck the progress and reputation of your business, steal your customer’s bank details and personal data, take private company information or just choose to cause havoc on your system. Protecting confidential information with a password is no longer a sufficient defense mechanism for shielding your business’s intel online. You owe it to yourself and your customers to avoid a cyber attack at all costs and maintain the relationships and integrity amongst customers you’ve worked so hard to gain. Although some business owners feel the event of an attack is unlikely because they’ve only just set up their business online recently, statistically, 30,000 websites are hacked every day. Some of which by using sophisticated software to assess the webs most vulnerable sites. This is one of the reasons why you need to seek adequate protection to suit an ever-changing cybersphere. A company such as Red Key Solutions can help to identify and defend your company from a cyber attack.

Natural Disaster

In consideration of yourself and your employees first and foremost, this affects more than your business livelihood, it affects lives. The safety and security of your employees is your duty as an owner and manager to ensure health and safety regulations are met.

Never assume your plan for a natural disaster is adequate. Consistently invest in improving your program by practicing your safety regime for different emergencies and strive to educate employees of any new policies or procedures to follow in the name of safety.

After the safety of your employees, your business is at stake. For instance, if a fire were to occur, how would your recover burnt documents? If there was a flood, how would you plan to fix a waterlogged server? If you’re unsure of the answers to these questions, there may be gaps in your disaster recovery plan. Consider options for backup servers located away from the building, storing information in cyberspace to protect your data. You could also apply for business insurance which includes safeguarding your business in the event of a natural disaster.

Extensive preparation for a likely catastrophe is just as necessary as the time and effort you invest in your business’s growth. Failing to prepare for the unexpected events could leave you without a company altogether, which is why it’s detrimental to implement a strategy to save your business from future harm.