How to Plan a CEO Getaway

Are you a busy executive who needs to go on an extended business junket? Would your family welcome a vacation with you? You may desperately need some away time, but it’s challenging to fully unplug from your office.

Unless you absolutely need to be on site, technology has come a long way. You can now provide your support from virtually anywhere by taking advantage of the Internet services that turn you into what is known as a Digital Nomad. As long as you carry an appropriate device, you don’t even have to charter a plane to carry needed office equipment with you.

It’s Easy to Stay Connected

It seems like new online conveniences become available every day. As long as you can access an Internet connection, you can do any number of things that used to require the conveniences that were only in your office. The following are some now-common activities that anyone can do while on the road.

Attend meetings

You can’t take advantage of the donuts that are offered at most meetings, but you can be there in every meaningful way. There are so many choices available for video conferencing software that you can certainly find one that performs all tasks needed to fully participate from virtually any Internet-capable device.

While some packages offer just the basics that allow you to see and hear everything and talk with the group, others permit full collaboration through screen-sharing, integration with many types of popular software, and much more.

Send faxes

Faxing may seem like antiquated technology for many people, but if you work in certain industries, it is often a necessity. The good news is that old-style machines are no longer needed for two-way document transmission. Many online fax services now only require a computer, a tablet, or even a smartphone to get your pages to their destinations.

If you’re worried about security, you can breathe easy knowing that online services are typically more secure than traditional fax machines, which have more privacy concerns than you realize — including making documents viewable to anyone at their destination.

Use your office printers

Unfortunately, we haven’t reached the level of a fully-paperless office yet. Sometimes, you need to get paper copies to co-workers or even to your most important clients. Even if you were to travel with a printer in tow, you’d face expense and time lags by using traditional methods to send the paper.

Luckily, you can use your network or the Internet to send print jobs directly to remote printers. There is some set-up involved, but once it’s done, you might even be able to send print jobs from a sailboat in the Bahamas.

Answer your office phone

With any luck, you should not have to be available to callers 24/7. If you want clients to reach your work phone number anytime — or if you’re the one person who can make critical decisions — then your smart phone needs to act just like the phone on your office desk.

The key is to have an office phone system that runs with Voice Over IP (VOIP). In a nutshell, VOIP transmits calls over the Internet, rather than traditional phone wires. For some businesses, this is a major change, but if you and other workers need to be on the road, important calls can come directly to your smartphone. In most cases, callers won’t even know that you’re not sitting at your desk, as long as they don’t hear a Calypso band playing in the background.

There are many options to choose from, so you need to do some homework to ensure that you select a safe and reliable system. Once it has been installed and set up, however, calls will get through as long as a cell tower is within range.

Run the same software that your office uses

If you’re traveling with only a tablet or a smartphone, then you probably don’t have the disk space needed to install full versions of word processing, spreadsheets, or anything else. This can make it challenging to collaborate with your team.

These days, however, most major software brands basically require you to “rent” software, rather than “own” it. Yes, you can maintain a full version on your office PCs. But, as long as you have an Internet connection, you will probably prefer running the software from the Cloud, which includes the latest and greatest features at all times. You can run these programs from your smartphone if you have to, but most people might prefer the screen space of at least a tablet.

Professional Office Space is Often Available if You Need It

So, what do you do when you need to see a client in a professional setting? What happens when you need access to basic office equipment that you didn’t bring —or even clerical support for a big project? Co-working facilities may be available to meet your needs.

These facilities provide a variety of needs for a person on the go. They allow you to rent furnished office space for as little as one day, or for extended time periods if you need it. Many co-working facilities offer basic equipment like copy machines and even phones, along with any human support that you need.

If you travel regularly, an investment in membership may make sense so you can get space when and where you need it. While the most notable facilities offer thousands of U.S. and international locations, you may not find one in Pago Pago or other remote areas. They are, however, available in most places where you’re likely to need them.

Advance Preparation is Critical

If the Digital Nomad life sounds appealing to you, understand that you can’t just throw a device in your suitcase, throw in a charger, and get on a plane. You have to plan in advance to make sure that you will have everything you need, including many of the following:

• A reliable Internet connection
• An equally-reliable power source, which may mean having appropriate power converters (and phone chargers) if you travel outside of the U.S.
• Access to all information you need from your network or the Cloud, such as client contact details or appropriate project specs that you can view on your device
• All software needs set up and tested for dependability
• A second-in-command at your home office to help alleviate the chances of too many daily interruptions

Everyone’s needs are unique, so take some time to develop a comprehensive checklist to ensure that all bases are covered.

Even the Boss Can Become a Digital Nomad

Do some of your employees already work remotely at least part of the time? These days, working exclusively from home is a common practice. Your employees might use this option when they have to keep working while they care for sick children or wait for a repair person. As long as you trust them to meet deadlines with limited supervision, it probably doesn’t matter where they get it done.

Unless you absolutely need to remain in the office to keep a watchful eye on your employees, you might be able to live the life of a Digital Nomad on a part-time basis. If you can trust employees to work responsibly, why not trust yourself as well?

The post How to Plan a CEO Getaway appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/growth/ceo-getaway

React.Native or How to Simplify e-Banking Maintenance

Gone are the days when you had to wait in line at a brick-and-mortar building to transfer money or pay your bills. Customers require convenient banking services on their fingertips. “Anytime anywhere banking” becomes a motto for banks who want to keep up with the speed of the modern world and stay in the league.

The bank branch is no longer the primary banking channel. Branch visits are declining. Physical bank branches are closing, while customers expect to do more with their banks without ever having to set foot inside an office. E-banking has surely become an important standard in the banking sector. It enables us to extend services beyond the normal working hours and outside banking halls.

According to the Federal Reserve System’s report, banking users’ expectations look as shown below:

Online banking has been around for a while compared to mobile banking, but due to the increased mobility, the widespread use of smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and the idea of constant connectivity it is slowly yielding its position to mobile banking. Downloads of finance apps in the world hit 3.4 billion in 2018 – that’s 75 % more than three years ago, says Silicon Valley analytics company App Annie. The fight for a special place in their client’s smartphone has already begun for banks.

E-banking for enterprises

E-banking is in demand not only among individuals. In this technological era, enterprise mobility solutions are becoming an integral part of the corporate world. Corporate finance mobile app solutions cover different applications, which can help businesses to transform their organizations. This trend gains in popularity both among large corporations and SMEs.

This is also true for businesses willing to optimize their banking activities and use their bank’s app instead of managing finances the old-school way. Apart from individuals, the banks’ client base includes both corporations and SMEs. They need to make all kinds of transactions and payments, manage their accounts, run payroll calculations, etc. acting as legal entities. All these can be done via the web channel and mobile applications.

In addition, using finance apps, employees can follow updates in the entire organization. They can also make their own contributions from wherever they are. As a result, the company no longer needs workers to be physically present at the head office or branch.

It comes at a cost

The cost of banking app development depends on a variety of factors: app functionality required by the client, its design (the more sophisticated it is, the higher the price), supported platforms, etc. In general, you might expect the figure to fall within the range of 20,000 to 400,000 $.

The price may be high, but with a well-developed app, the bank gets a great tool to improve customer experience and engagement, increase efficiency, cut costs, enhance its brand and image, attract customers, optimize business processes, etc. So, in the end, you’ll have to make peace with extra costs. After all, there are always ways to reduce them.

One framework to rule them all

Traditional mobile app development can be expensive, slow and disappointing. If you need a mobile app for your bank, the most obvious factor to influence your budget is the platform. At present, the most popular are iOS and Android. Considering the fact that each has its own challenges and opportunities and requires a technologically different development process, you’ll need to hire a team for each platform. Thus, we already have two different teams and a third one if you want to maintain and support your web channel (bank services portal, online banking).

You have to pay these three teams separately, and well enough to deliver a quality product. One channel requires on average 6 to 8 developers. In addition, they can be from different software development firms, which complicates the development process and reduces the chances to get equally performing products. Of course, you may stick with only one platform, but both platforms have passionate followers and that should not be excluded.

What can be done in this situation? The answer is simple – employ a hybrid mobile app development company. Of course, having the frontend created in this way won’t fit each OS perfectly, but advanced frameworks like React.Native allow creating apps that are similar to native ones in design and performance as much as possible.

Why React.Native?

React.Native is widely applied for writing cross-platform high performance apps using a single business logic codebase. Its developers were able to take the core architecture of how you design applications using reusable components and React and apply that same fundamental philosophy over to React.Native projects. In this way React developers will have a very similar experience using React.Native. If a software development company approaches the design of both web and mobile software products diligently, with online banking software written in React.JS, up to 70 % of the online banking software code can be reused for a mobile banking application. Being one of the most efficient and reliable cross-platform development tools, React.Native is used by many leading companies and tech giants to develop their mobile apps.

Of course, hybrid apps are not native apps, and they do have shortcomings. A hybrid mobile app is not as cheap as building a native app for a single platform, but it is often 30 to 50 % less expensive than building a separate native app for each platform. It varies depending on the specifics of the app. The business software developer’s speed for hybrid and native platforms is approximately the same if you build simple applications. If you add animation elements, special menus, etc., the hybrid development process becomes more complicated and may require more development efforts in comparison to the native process. However, we have further cost cuts due to the transfer of the hybrid code to the second platform. That is why we may talk about 50 % cost reduction only for less sophisticated apps, with the real figure being 30-40 %.

It’s not about development only

The core issue here is that development is just the tip of the iceberg. We should bear in mind that the price of an app is not limited to its development only, which may represent only around 35 % of the total cost. It is also about constantly improving your app, based on feedback and suggestions. Companies may oversee it in their calculations, and costs for deployment, support, and the ongoing maintenance fall into the hidden category. The math here is pretty simple. You pay for development, maintenance and support of each separate channel if you go the “native” way. Or you apply to a software development company whose team members have expertise in React and React.Native. In this case, you basically pay for a single (hybrid) process rather than three separate ones (web, iOS, and Android). Furthermore, JavaScript developers are reasonably cheaper than iOS developers.

As opposed to native app development, you will only need a single app to work across iPhone and Android phones, as well as iPads and tablets. This is the developer’s version of the “all included” approach. Not only does it cost less, but it is also significantly less time-consuming.

Less is more

Your app has to be simple enough for customers to find what they want and perform any transactions within minutes. A common mistake is thinking your business app has to be packed with all imaginable features. However, the reality is that half of them won’t even be used. Simplicity ensures a great user experience, something every mobile user demands and expects.

You might expect the vast majority of mobile banking app users to be affluent and tech-savvy young adults. The truth is, the user base is far more diverse. In order for the app to be popular and receive positive feedback from a wider audience, it should be pretty simple and user-friendly. No one actually needs sophisticated 3-D graphical elements and an extremely varied user interface when managing finances. A banking app should be efficient, reliable and secure with a simple yet attractive layout.

That is why React.Native may be the best framework for hybrid mobile app development in these cases. Basically, since it works best with simpler apps.

Stay safe

You may strengthen e-banking security with the help of embedded hardware of smartphones. Beyond traditional usernames and passwords, banks adopt new tools for protecting their customers. Among them are:

1. Biometrics:fingerprint identification; facial recognition; iris scanning.
2. Voice recognition: A number of banks now offer voice recognition as an alternative to passwords.
3. PIN/TAN systems: The PIN is a password you need to login to the app. TANs (transaction authentication numbers) are a one-time password for transaction authentication. They are usually sent separately, via SMS, email, or postal services.

React.Native directly supports standard peripheral equipment like cameras, microphones or scanners. You may need plugins for something unique, for example, for the digital signature module which operates at the hardware level.

Two birds with one stone

There is no doubt that native apps offer speed and high performance. However, developing for multiple platforms such as iOS and Android can increase mobile app development costs, and React.Native’s pros objectively outweigh its cons. In such cases, cross-platform development can significantly reduce costs. The apps developed on cross-platform can be accessed and updated easily. In its turn, it will save the app development cost and effort. Moreover, you can ensure that users access the latest version of the app.

All you need is just a professional developer with extensive experience in working on cross-platform tools. As a result, using hybrid platforms for e-banking software development will become a mutually beneficial enterprise for all the parties involved.

Mobile Apps

The post React.Native or How to Simplify e-Banking Maintenance appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/technology/business-apps/simplify-ebanking-maintenance

The Best Time of the Year to Move

Have a move in your pipeline and wondering when to schedule? Well, most of the homeowners have issues with finding a perfect date for the move. There are a lot of factors that contribute to making a move successful and the time of your move is certainly one. When you do not move at the best time, you end up losing a lot of resources along with stress. If you are worried about choosing the perfect dates for your long distance move, here is what the best nationwide movers have to share about the best time to move a house. Let us dig into the details:

Season:

The season is one of the important aspects of choosing a moving date. While it depends on personal needs and preferences, it is important that you know about what happens when you move in different times of the year.

Fall:

Fall practically is the best time to move as it offers you some great deals from the moving companies. It is basically offseason for the movers and hence they offer great price discounts to the ones who choose to move during this time of the year.

Winter:

This season is the cheapest time of the year for relocation. The demand is very low and moving companies have ample of time to take care of your requirements. They offer you choices to pick a slot of your choice as the demand is really slow. However, this isn’t a very good time to move with a large inventory. Also, moving with children should be avoided during winter.

Spring:

The weather becomes nice and hence the demand for moving rises. However, it is still lower than in the summer months. You can take advantage of this time as movers start gearing up for the summer demand. However, make sure to protect yourself from the spring allergies which you may catch while moving from one location to another.

Summer:

Summer is the most preferred time by most of the homeowners. It is also the best time to sell the home before moving as the market has great potentials. You can earn a great price for your home. This is also the time when the moving rates are highest. If you can spend some money, this is the perfect time to move with family and large inventories.

Time of the month:

Once you have settled for the best season to move, it is time that you consider the best month to plan the relocation. Yes, just like the seasons, the month also affects your move in great measures. Usually, professional movers recommend moving from mid- September through April. This is the time when you can save a lot of resources. The movers receive less demand and are flexible with their schedules. So, the time frame helps you with low rates and efforts.

If you are a college student, you may prefer moving in the early fall and late spring, as most of the leases end during this time. Early September won’t be a very good time for you to pick for the move.

Week:

Mid-month is usually recommended by professional companies. You must choose to move during mid-month and mid-week. Again, the demand gets dropped and thus you have easy access to negotiations. You should also avoid picking the first and the last week of the month as it is always a busy one. Also, as most of the leases begin during the first week, there is a lot of load with the moving companies.

Day:

If you have moved house before, you must have noticed that weekends are a big hassle while moving. Whereas, on the other hand, Monday to Thursday window is relatively free as most of the roads are empty with low traffic. Lesser number of homeowners prefer moving mid-week because of the work schedule. Take advantage of it and plan a mid-week move.

Time of the day:

The most critical aspect of scheduling a move is to pick the best time of the day. If you are a morning person, here is the good news. Taking an early start is always recommended. Morning is the time when you are fresh and so are the movers. The window from 8 am to 10 am is the best to kick start the move.

Moving is a tedious task to start. From decluttering the home to finding the best nationwide moving companies, you have a lot on your plate. Choosing the best time is very important to ensure that you do not have to make a lot of tiring efforts in making your move successful. Depending on your priorities and budget, you must choose the best time and then get going. Hire professionals for packing, loading, moving and unloading help. The best time combined with the best service can make you enjoy the move to the core and then get successful outcomes.

The post The Best Time of the Year to Move appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/management/the-best-time-of-the-year-to-move

How to Get on Top of Your Working Capital

Working capital is an essential business asset – one that every organization needs to keep day-to-day operations afloat. Money management, however, isn’t every business owners’ strong point. In some cases bad forward planning can lead to a detrimental shortfall in working capital funds, putting the integrity of your organization at risk.

In this guide to keeping on top of working capital, we look at some of the most successful strategies used to calculate and maintain working capital cash flow. All of which can make the difference between your business successfully writing its financial future, or being one of the 50% of organizations to succumb to money troubles in its first five years.

What is working capital?

Working capital is fundamental for long-term business survival. Without it, businesses can quickly run up debts, and find themselves short of cash to cover essential overheads such as staff wages, equipment, utilities, rent and/or materials – all of which are vital in keeping day-to-day operations ticking over.

What exactly is working capital? Put simply, working capital is the value of liquid assets your business has at any one time. By which we essentially mean it’s the value of all of your business’s total assets minus its liabilities.

Business assets can be anything from cash in the bank, to physical equipment owned by your business, product stock, and materials. Whilst liabilities are the outgoings your business has to meet and include things like supplier invoices, employee wages and rent to your landlord for your business premises.

Why is it important?

Working capital is what keeps your business in profit and finances its continual operation, so it’s an essential aspect of organizational success.

Businesses that fail to accurately forecast their finances and manage their incomings and outgoings put themselves at risk of collapse. Working capital ensures that even if profits unexpectedly decline or you’re presented with an outgoing you hadn’t anticipated, you still have enough disposable financial assets within your business to stay in the black.

Common mistakes

To accurately calculate working capital within your organization you need complete visibility over all of your business’s financial affairs. However, working capital management doesn’t just boil down to keeping accurate records of your company’s outgoing payments, expenses, and income.

To be successful at maintaining working capital long-term you also need to be accurate in your projections of the company’s finances in the years and months to come– and this is where the vast majority of working capital management in business falls down.

Let’s say, for example, your business has experienced sustained growth for its last three financial quarters. You might, theoretically, predict that growth is also guaranteed for the fourth quarter too, but what if that fourth quarter is when your business pays out most of its annual financial commitments? This would conversely impact on the amount of profit your company records in its fourth quarter and, had you not correctly forecasted for this in advance, you could be unexpectedly short of working capital.

The same applies to the physical assets your business owns which, as we know, contribute to the total value of your business’s working capital. Let’s say your products have a shelf life or your business follows seasonal trends. If you fail to sell your stock in time before it depreciates or goes out of date, then you might have to write off the cost of those assets, which again impacts your business’s working capital.

In these cases, working capital loans are available to help businesses recover from financial losses. However, the repayment of any such loan (plus its interest) will then be another financial commitment your business will need to factor into its outgoings.

The working capital formula and why you should use it

The best way to avoid slipping into the red, and having to turn to working capital loans for rescue, is by maintaining accurate records of your business’s net working capital in real time. This can be calculated via a simple formula, that takes into consideration your business’s total assets versus its current liabilities.

To illustrate as a mathematical formula:

Your business assets – your liabilities (outgoings) = your net working capital

So long as you keep accurate records of your financial incomings and outgoings via a business balance sheet you’ll always be able to use the above formula to calculate your company’s working capital.

For example, if your total business liabilities add up to £100,000 and your total assets equal £200,000 then your net working capital is £100,000.

We’ve deliberately used a very crude example to illustrate how the formula can be applied to calculate net working capital, but providing you have the total figures for both your business’s liabilities and its assets you can always quickly calculate your current working capital in this way.

As a key indicator of your organization’s financial health, it’s vital good business practice to be familiar with your net working capital balance. The higher the value of the liquid assets your business owns, and the lower its liabilities, the greater net working capital you will have. Giving your business a fighting chance of riding out any market uncertainty that may ensue, as well as raising its equity in the eyes of investors, shareholders, and stakeholders.

How to improve your working capital

The important thing to remember about working capital is that it’s never set in stone. That’s why it’s so fundamental to continually monitor this balance in real time and make adjustments whenever you see the value of your net working capital sliding.

Fortunately, if you are in a sales slump or quiet period, there are some actions you can take that will immediately improve your working capital, and consequently the financial health of your business.

1. Adjust your payment schedules

For your working capital to be sustainable it’s important to ensure that your outgoings don’t exceed your incomings at any given period in time. One way to correct this is by adjusting your payment cycles to guarantee your clients pay you before you need to pay your suppliers. If you can organize this cycle effectively you’ll essentially orchestrate a scenario where you’re receiving payment prior to making payments, helping to avoid negative equity or depletion in your net working capital.

2. Cut back on your outgoings

Another way to improve your working capital is by reviewing your business’s expenses and looking for areas where cost cutting can be accommodated. This might involve leasing equipment for your business premises, rather than buying it outright – saving you significant upfront expense and ensuring that you can cost-effectively upgrade your equipment as it depreciates. You could also consider hiring contractors to fill vacancies on your team rather than a salaried employee, renting shared office space or, if you own your office, renting part of it out to recoup some of the monthly overheads.

3. Reduce your stock or inventory

While inventory may be regarded as an asset owned by your business, unsold stock, or stock which you have to destroy because it’s exceeded its expiration date, counts as a liability. Each of which detrimentally affects your net working capital. Instead of holding vast quantities of inventory in-house, cost savings can be made by partnering with an external supplier who can supply you with stock on a needs-only basis. This ensures you receive stock at a sustainable rate and prevents over-investment into inventory which you’ll fail to see a return on.

4. Take out a working capital loan

If you really are in a bad place with your working capital, it may be worthwhile taking out a short or long-term loan to help you get back on your feet. Working capital loans are available on a range of term lengths and with varying rates of interest. It’s important to take time to familiarise yourself with the repayment schedule and the total value of any working capital loans you take out, to ensure you can comfortably afford the repayments. For your personal protection, and that of your business, you should also only lend from a reputable institution that’s financially underwritten and regulated.

Managing your net working capital

When it comes to working capital it never pays for businesses to be in the dark. Getting on top of your finances, and cultivating a healthy liquid assets balance is the defining difference between businesses that survive long-term and those that succumb to debt and administration.

Financial Planning

The post How to Get on Top of Your Working Capital appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/finance/financial-planning/manage-working-capital

Five Benefits of Learning Business Management Online

Managing a group of people is not as easy as it seems. There are a lot of sensitivities and principles that you have to take into consideration. Each employee you have will be different and thus will need a different kind of interaction. At the same time, handling a business, whether alone or with other people, will also be tricky.

The business industry is not a straight-up job where if you follow all the procedures, you will be guaranteed success. When you consider all the factors that go into making a business successful, you’ll realize that there are way too many aspects that have to go well for a business to float.

Competition is vicious and all your competitors are just waiting for a single slip-up for them to go ahead of you. Managing a business is risky and the smallest mistake can cause irreparable damage to your company. Clearly, you, of all people, do not want your business to fail. This is where studying Business Management enters.

There are millions of business managers and owners out in the world but not everyone is equipped with the necessary skill sets and knowledge needed to manage a company. Business Management is the effective administration of a business organization. Included in this are delegating the roles and tasks of all employees, the strategies to employ, and the optimal application of all available resources — manpower, money, and contracts.

Growth. This is the goal of all existing companies. After all, who wouldn’t want their own business to grow and multiply? Unfortunately, for you, without proper business management, scaling your company would be tricky, if not impossible. There would be a lot of obstacles: hundreds upon hundreds of contracts, multiple clients — some irrational with impossible demands —, dozens of employees, which is already difficult to handle on its own, hundreds of competitors, alongside the crashing economy.

This is the reason why most managers are recommended to have taken a course in Business Management. The course educates its students with the necessary skills in running a business organization and proper management. For example, planning and implementation of projects require a lot of attention to detail, a strong skill taught in Management. Mental strength is also trained. When running a business, you need to have a strong mental fortitude. Resilience and a never give up attitude are two common factors on successful CEOs of today.

Unfortunately, if you are already managing a business, the process of going back to school could not only be problematic but also illogical. The school takes up a lot of resources — time, money, and most importantly, your energy. School + Work? You will most likely end up exhausted and lose yourself.

At the peak of the Digital Age, the Internet has come up with a solution: Online courses. Studying Business Management online mitigates all the unnecessary factors that make going to school difficult. One Google search will tell you that there are multiple online courses available for you.

Here are some of the benefits of taking an Online Course on Business Management that might convince you of taking an online course. Guaranteed, you will be more effective in dealing with office situations after.

 

• Introduction to Business

 

You would be surprised how many managers are still shocked at normal office occurrences and not knowing what to do despite there being an obvious answer. One of the best things that Business Management will teach you is how to handle daily office procedures. It will also introduce you to the harsh realities of business and provide valuable insights as to what to do afterward.

Business Management will also supply you with the necessary experiences needed to strengthen your mental fortitude. There will be a lot of challenges that you will face where you will need mental toughness else you crumble.

You may bring up names of college dropouts which are uneducated like Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. However, know that for every success story such as theirs who got by with pure ingenuity and luck, their hundreds of thousands of failure stories. When you study Business Management, you can ensure that you are well-prepared for anything that falls on your lap.

 

• Learn How To Effectively Manage People

 

Managing people is one of the hardest things to do. Not everyone is a people person and can interact with every kind of person immediately. Social interaction is part of everyday office life and that’s one thing that you just can’t learn anywhere.

One thing you need to realize is that there is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Business Management will teach you how to effectively manage your people without looking like a dictator. At the same time, it will also let you realize that your staff isn’t robots. They are allowed to have mistakes and make up for it through their own efforts. Delegation and Supervising are also important tasks that you will be honing through learning about management.

 

• Teach You To Become A Team Player

 

Have you heard of the saying, “there is no I in Team”? You need to give your employees proper credit while also learning how to be a team player. Their success is theirs, while their failure is yours. In sports, there is this adage, “When a team wins, credit goes to the players. When a team loses, the blame goes to the coach.”

The same holds true for your company.

 

• Open Up More Career Opportunities

 

Of course, having an additional degree in Business Management will open up career opportunities for you. It will help land you any management position that you desire. Aside from a boost, career-wise, I believe that studying Business Management will also help with your own personal development.

 

• Work Around Your Schedule

 

Studying in a traditional school will take up most of your time. Aside from attending classes and doing schoolwork, you also have to count in transportation hours to and from school and then to and from work. The life of a working student is hard enough as a staff. It gets tougher as the person who manages your business.

The traditional university setting just does not allow any other activity aside from studying. Fortunately, with online learning, you can remove all of this hassle and just learn. You can also choose when you go to class. Because of the flexible schedules, you can choose to “go to class” at your convenience without disrupting your work life.

Business Management

The post Five Benefits of Learning Business Management Online appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/growth/personal-growth/learn-business-management

Understanding The Construction Industry Scheme – CIS

The UK’s Construction Industry Scheme, abbreviated as CIS, is a national tax-deduction scheme for British contractors and sub-contractors. Created to reduce tax evasion in the construction industry, the scheme falls under the jurisdiction of and reports to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Any New Developments?

As from 5th September 2018, a non-resident firm engaging in construction activities falling under CIS can register online either as a contractor or a sub-contractor. Beginning July 2016, the law requires that all non-resident persons, trusts, partnerships, and/or companies trading in, dealing in or developing land within the borders of the UK register either for income or corporation tax.

Further, as from 6th April 2019, the currently-existing security deposits’ legal regime for pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax takes into account CIS deductions. The Finance Act 2019 empowers HMRC to demand details of securities from any business entity it considers a high-risk enterprise: If an HMRC officer has a valid reason to believe this is crucial for the safeguarding of the country’s revenue.

Failing to act in accordance with an HMRC officer’s request for securities details will be considered a criminal misdemeanor liable to legal penalties. It has been proposed that as from April 2020, CIS taxes will form part of the deductions that will be considered a secondary preferential creditor in case a business becomes insolvent.

 

Overview and Examples

CIS regulations are also designed to cover any payments a contractor makes to their sub-contractor(s) under a legal construction contract, with foreign-controlled firms operating in the UK also included.

What is Construction for CIS?

CIS rules generally define construction as building, making, assembling or putting together, and its activities may include:

Groundworks and preparation of site;

General building works like brick-laying, plastering, and roofing;

Electrical works and plumbing;

Painting and decoration works;

Maintenance and general repairs;

Demolition and dismantling works;

Erecting scaffolding structures;

Extending an existing building structure;

Landscaping and tree planting when done as part of a new housing development project;

Assembling of pre-fabricated housing units either on- or off-site and site facilities;

Assembling of parts of a pre-fabricated housing structure that is then transferred to a different site for final installation.

Construction activities exclude architects, surveyors and/or building inspectors. Sometimes identification can get tricky having the expertise of qualified contractor accountants can help make the process easier.

What are Contractors for CIS

These are commercial enterprises involved in the construction business that also pay sub-contractors to perform the actual construction work.

UK law allows any legal business type (including companies, sole traders and partnerships) to be contractors. Which can include property developers, builders, and even labor agencies? A commercial enterprise that isn’t involved in the construction business may be deemed to be a contractor if it spends 1 million or more on construction work within a 3-year period. Such could include UK-registered or UK-operating housing associations.

– Exemptions to this statute include where rules have been violated due to any kind of construction works on properties that are used in the business.

– Any property that’s let out, put up for sale or otherwise held for purposes of investment isn’t considered to be used in that particular business as far as this exemption is concerned.

– Certain kinds of incidental use of the particular property for non-business use could be allowed by law.

If you are unsure about where to start or how to form a company, you need to speak to a qualified accountant in London who should be able to help you with the setup and running of your contractor or sub-contractor firm.

Registration

Before a contractor can qualify to pay any sub-contractor, they must first register with HMRC. An online service exists for this purpose and the process of registration takes approximately 2 weeks.  Even after registration, a contractor must still ensure the following before they can make any payment to a sub-contractor:

Confirm that the sub-contractor they’re dealing with has registered for self-employed as their current employment status.

If the particular sub-contractor in question is an employee of any organization, then the CIS scheme rules don’t apply to them and they’re paid via their payroll under PAYE regulations.

If a sub-contractor wasn’t included in the per-month CIS return by the contractor during the current tax year or one of the past 2 tax years, then the contractor is legally obliged to verify their details with HMRC so that an HMRC officer confirms the latest rate of deduction that needs to be applied. An online verification service exists for this purpose.

If a sub-contractor doesn’t need to go through the verification process stipulated above, then the contractor may apply the rate of deduction that they used previously when paying the sub-contractor.

Accountants that specialize working with contractors, subcontractors, and CIS are experts at offering registration and filling services to them across the UK. The services contractor accountants cover will provide you the peace of mind that will help you to focus on growing and refining the services you provide.

 

The Verification Process

Things to keep in mind by contractors, when you’re verifying a certain sub-contractor:

Make sure you have their full name correctly recorded and not abbreviations. If, for instance, you’re verifying a firm whose registration details indicate Ltd, then don’t change it to Limited, and vice versa.    If the verification system returns unknown results, check again that you’ve entered the correct details.   After successfully verifying a sub-contractor, the contractor is required by law to deduct as follows all taxes at the source from any payment due to a sub-contractor:

• 30% from sub-contractors who aren’t registered under the CIS scheme, excluding the equivalent of VAT as well as the cost of plant hire or materials.
• 20% from sub-contractors who aren’t registered under CIS but qualifying to get gross payments, excluding the equivalent of VAT as well as the cost of plant hire or materials.
• Zero deductions if a sub-contractor qualifies to get gross payments.

For any deductions made, the contractor is obliged to provide a PDS (Payment Deduction Statement) to the sub-contractor within 14 days from the last day of the current tax month.

A sub-contractor may request to be supplied with a duplicate copy of a lost or otherwise mislaid PDS document. The contractor is obliged to provide it, albeit clearly labeled as duplicate.

After duly paying and issuing sub-contractors with their respective PDS statement, a contractor will still be required by HMRC regulations to ensure the following:

CIS deductions are remitted to HMRC just like PAYE deductions; A single payment is made monthly, or quarterly, under deductions meant for PAYE, CIS, and National Insurance schemes.

The payment’s due date is either the 19th day of the month if filing manually, or the 22nd if the electronic mode of payment is used.

A CIS return filing must be done with HMRC every month, with the filing finished by the 19th day of the month. Beginning in April 2016, all filing must be performed online, prior to which one could also file using the paper return method (CIS300). Even if you never had any sub-contractors to pay during the period under review, you must still file a nil return.

– In case you aren’t expecting to have any sub-contractors underpayment for a particular time period, then you should check the Inactivity Request box on the per-month return. This will notify your HMRC office that you’re not paying any sub-contractors for up to a period of 6 months.

As a contractor, you need to notify HMRC of such business changes as:

– Change of address whether for an individual or a business;

– Change of business structure;

– Temporary cessation from using sub-contractors.

Penalties and fines apply for late filing.

A single commercial entity is allowed by law to act as both a contractor and a sub-contractor. Such a business will be obliged to separately register as both.

Speak to your Accountant to make sure all relevant filings, deductions, and verifications are being made if you are a contractor employing sub-contractors.

 

Sub-contractors – Any sub-contractor that fails to register with HMRC will have up to 30% tax deductions hived off their payments by their contractor. This rate goes down to 20% if the sub-contractor is registered with HMRC, and further to nil if they meet the eligibility conditions for gross payments.   A sub-contractor will qualify for gross payment status registration if they pass the 3 following eligibility tests:

Business test: They must be conducting business in the UK and doing this largely through a legal bank account.

Turnover test: If an individual or sole trader is involved, they need to have an annual turnover of 30,000 or higher, excluding VAT and the cost of materials. As for companies and partnerships, the turnover per partner/director per year must be 30,000 or higher, or over 200,000 if this amount is less.

Compliance test: No unsettled payments due to HMRC or tax returns should be there. While HMRC often ignores some minor compliance issues, having more than one failure reported could revoke your gross payment status (which is reviewed once per year). Sub-contractors are required by HMRC regulations to report any business changes, including:

Change of business type, private or registered address;

Change of your trading name;

Altering of business structure (for which a fresh gross payment status evaluation needs to be applied);

Addition of any new shareholders (for companies);

Termination of core trade.

A contractor accountant will help you keep ahead of such complicated compliance requirements, claim the overpaid CIS and make sure you are paying the minimum possible amount.

Payment of Taxes and Reclaiming of Any Overpayments

Sole traders and/or partners can pay or reclaim any under- or over-deductions to the CIS via self-assessment.

For companies, any such deductions must be included as part of their EPS (Employer Payment Summary) information. Any overpayments will be used as a relief to PAYE and any NIC payments due. If your company’s PAYE and NIC annual bill isn’t enough to absorb all the CIS over-deductions, then you can claim for repayment through writing to HMRC once the tax year is over.

 

Clear House Accountants are specialist Contractor Accountants in London who have experience working with a large number of construction and other industry related companies, having worked with thousands of contractors as their contractor accountants we have developed effective time and tax-saving solutions. Our contractor accounting services cover everything your business requires for complete peace of mind and business growth.

Construction

The post Understanding The Construction Industry Scheme – CIS appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/accountancy/understanding-cis

A Detailed Guide to Using Push Notifications like a Pro

As a business owner, you’re well acquainted with the challenges of attracting new customers and engaging and retaining with the existing users. The competition is at an all-time high across industries and how.

An average customer has too many choices to shop for similar products or to avail related services. This only implies how necessary aggressive marketing has become to acquire as many customers as possible.

To be in the game, brands are constantly striving to drive better results.

Defining the “push” strategy

Push notifications have emerged as a useful hack for modern marketers who believe in engaging with target customers across devices with timely and contextual messages, without asking them to reply to a text message or click open an email.

From travel sites and online beauty stores to news portals and clothing e-retailers, multiple businesses across domains have successfully enabled push notifications to nudge them to take action, which could include:

• Visiting the website
• Purchasing a product
• Subscribing to the newsletter

The need for “push” on web and mobile

80% of customers use a mobile phone, while at a physical retail store, to compare prices, read product reviews or to find alternative options to shop from. In 2018, $1.8bn people worldwide shopped online, and the number is expected to reach $2.1bn by 2021.

Therefore, now is the right time for implementing a “push” strategy for your business.

The best thing about push notifications is they are the first point of contact with customers in the digital space – whether on desktop or mobile. And they don’t nudge the latter out of their comfort zone to take action, which means you have a pretty good chance of engaging your prospective customers successfully.

What is a web push notification?

A web push notification is a pop-up message your subscriber receives on their mobile or desktop browser. The benefit of a web push notification is that they allow your brand to engage with the user even when he or she is not on the website.

https://www.truepush.com/

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What is a mobile push notification?

Mobile push notification allows you to send your customers’ links to specific pages in your mobile app. When the user clicks on the push notification, they are directed directly to that page. You can re-engage with existing customers by sending them discounts with an effective call-to-action.

If you’re planning to use push notifications to bring back inactive users or constantly engage with the customers, here are some actionable tips:

1. Cart abandonment recovery

Baymard reports an average abandonment rate of 69.23% which means out of 100 prospective customers, close to 70 of them browse through the website and add selected products in the cart and leave without completing the purchase cycle.

The “push” strategy enables e-commerce stores to hook website and app visitors with an exciting proposition they can’t say no to. A strong hook could include creating a sense of urgency in the message, offering an attractive discount or a coupon code applicable for a limited period.

The beauty brand Sephora uses notifications to remind the users about the items they browsed or added to their shopping cart but did not make the purchase. These messages could also be about the events or location-based offers along for a limited time period.

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The online retailer offers a promo code to nudge the prospective customer to come back to the shopping cart and complete the purchase cycle.

2. Location-based discounts

The tactic works best for those e-commerce players who have a brick-and-mortar presence. 34% of customers respond to push notifications comprising an offer based on their current location. The message here informs them of any ongoing sales at the store, and that increases in-store footfall and sales.

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Starbucks gives deep discounts to customers who are near their physical outlets.

3. Time-sensitive price alerts

The travel search site Kayak lets users set up price notifications. The moment the flight prices drop, the user gets the notification. They disguise the flash sale as breaking news. They can get away by sending it even at 5.55am because they understand the value a user finds in getting the best deals on flights, as soon as possible.

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4. Post-booking ancillary cross-sell

Use push notifications to cross-sell services like hotel and cab bookings to customers who have already booked their flight or train tickets from your website. Implement “push” to help them manage their trip better.

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A push notification comprising details of 10 best hotels in XYZ city or 10 things to do in ABC city will attract customers who are traveling to those locations for the first time. TravelTriangle.com, an online travel agent, makes relevant recommendations to its customers.

5. Order status updates

Once customers have shopped from you, keep updating them about the shipping status via “push.” Save them the stress of keeping a tab on their order and maintain transparent communication.

Similarly, when the order has been delivered, notify them and then ask for feedback via “push.”

GrubHub and Swiggy have incorporated a live delivery update feature that lets the customers know when their food is on its way.

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6. Personal connection

Push notifications are useful in scenarios where there is a greater need for businesses to communicate with their customers on a personal level. 12 Minute Athlete does that well. Its mobile app lets users schedule their workout reminders. When it is workout time, the brand sends a mobile push message like “You’ve got this!”

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7. Increase subscriptions

Web push notifications are useful in getting more readers to subscribe to your blog. Send alerts to new and repeat visitors and ask them to sign-up, if they haven’t already.

DigitalDeepak.com, a leading digital marketing blog, has implemented push notifications to increase its readership.

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8. Share relevant content

When you’re looking to have more people read your articles, email is not always the most preferred platform from a marketing point of view. “Push” can help get your new post alerts to reach your audience in real-time and get clicks instantly.

Online publication Foundr magazine uses web push notification about their course “How to start a profitable online store in 12 weeks or less”.

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Dos and don’ts of push notifications

Implementing a successful “push” strategy requires you to do the following:

1. General messages hardly work. Personalizing the notifications leads to click-through rates as high as 25%.
2. Too many push notifications on web or mobile in a day will frustrate your target customers. Fix a frequency according to the times your users are the most active and stick to it.
3. Bring your copywriting skills into play. Your copy should be concise, easy-to-understand and highlight the most important value proposition.
4. Use an omnichannel push strategy to increase the engagement of your notification. Ensure that the strategy includes both web and mobile push notifications.
5. Send a push notification only when you have sometimes valuable to share.
6. Emojis are in! More than 90% of internet users communicate with them. Therefore, add relevant emojis in your push notifications. But don’t overuse them.
7. A/B testing push notifications is always a great idea. The more you experiment, the better you will understand your target customers, and that will help you modify your “push” strategy for better results.
8. The ideal character limit of push notification is 20 characters. Try not to exceed that number.
9. Include “push” in your annual marketing plan. Invest in a push notification software to make the activity a success for your business.

Wrapping up

There is no doubt that “push” is an effective marketing strategy – whether your business goal is to re-engage store visitors, increase sales or boost reader engagement.

As long as you maintain a sense of personalization in your push notification copies and send them at a frequency most convenient to your subscribers, you will witness a considerable boost in engagement, sales, and revenue.

How has been your experience of implementing push notifications for your app/website?

 

Ecommerce

The post A Detailed Guide to Using Push Notifications like a Pro appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/technology/business-apps/using-push-notifications

How to Write a Winning Work at Home Job Resume

Writing a winning resume is not super-complicated, but it can get really tricky! Why lose time and money on various resume building programs when all you have to do is use the right keywords? If you don’t get this yet, you’re in the right place. Welcome. We’ll help you figure it out.

Of course, there are other details we must be careful about when writing and editing, but most companies will not have time to focus on each part of your resume meticulously. Most recruiters will scan through your accomplishments and expertise; so, if you hold the must-have qualities and know how to sell them, the world is yours! You’ll get that job in a hot second. Let’s dive into the how-to process.

1. What is Your Career Goal?

The first step to build a strong resume is asking yourself the right questions. So, what are your career goals and why do you want to accomplish them? What determines you, what excites you? Why do you like working remotely? After figuring this out for yourself, it’s time to make your prospective employer understand your reasoning.

In your cover letter, make sure to mention that your objective is working from home because of A, B, and C, where all three of these arguments are supported and well-structured. Some companies are skeptical about remote workers as they think you might lose valuable time and focus while at home. Explain to them why this is not the case in your situation. I must highlight again: bring compelling arguments!

2. You Should Include Your Home Address!

A funny yet odd question I get all the time is whether remote workers must provide their home address. The answer is obvious: of course, you must! Your home is your office, right? “The next step is writing your PVP or Personal Value Proposition,” shares Donna Watson, Career Advice Specialist at Bestdissertation. “This part must include a detailed analysis of your perspective and objectives.”

3. Describe Your Work Environment

Employers must ensure that you meet the right working conditions if applying for a remote job. You will have to provide them with a brief description of your workplace. This will only show how professional and focused you are and how serious you treat things.

Some companies are skeptical not only because of the possibility of losing valuable time but also because they might think you don’t have the necessary equipment to perform well. Proving them that you do is a big thumbs-up. For example, you could state that you’ve “coordinated and organized your company’s annual international conference through your personal CRM software and Blackberry phone that functions at maximum speed.”

4. Choose the Right Format

When there are so many options to choose from, you can’t really make quick decisions, can you? You must take some time to pick your favorite resume format. Assignmentgeek recommends the functional or hybrid resume format since they are two of the most commonly used ones. They are easy to read and quick to follow.

Choose the functional format if your focus is highlighting the skills and qualities that make you the perfect candidate for one specific job. If, on the other hand, you’d like to share your gradual career progression, choose the hybrid format, which combines reverse chronological facts with functionalities.

The font size: 12 points. The font type: Times New Roman/ Arial/ Helvetica/ Georgia. The margins: normal.

5. Including Only Relevant Facts

There’s no point in including your high-school education if you’ve just graduated college. The latter should be enough. Include both soft and life skills to give your resume a humanistic look, but don’t rely too much on them to get the job you want. Your focus should still be the job-related mandatory skills. To learn how to include those, let’s take a look at keywords selection.

6. Pick the Right Keywords

Today, many companies use the ATS or Applicant Tracking Systems to cut down the number of applicants. To get through this system, you must be well aware of the tips and tricks. The ATS scans your resume for specific keywords, so you definitely want to have them included. If, on the other hand, you won’t have them, you might not even have a chance to get a look in.

Christina Lartey, college paper writing service Coordinator at bestessays.com.au, shares her ideas with us. “Write down every single one of the skills you possess. Then, rank them! Use 1 for the least valuable skill in your field of expertise and 5 for your strongest.” Then, check the job description once more, and highlight the requirements requested for the position. Match them with your skills and see where you stand.

Tip: If you can’t find enough keywords within the job description, look up the company on social media and stalk them! Check their Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/LinkedIn accounts.

7. Proofread Your Work and Ask for Feedback

Last but not least, don’t forget to proofread your content! Check everything at least three times before submitting it. Making errors or grammar mistakes shows carelessness and will probably not get you through the door. Have someone specialized check your work as well and listen carefully to their opinion. Make the proper adjustments! Check the format, any incorrect grammar, errors in dates/phone number/name/address.

Also, remember that companies prefer reading PDFs! Use this best free pdf editor to convert your Word document to PDF format. According to professional Paper Writing Pro, you should also use Grammarly to check the content once more before submitting (you know, JUST to make sure!).

Wrapping Up

Writing the perfect resume for your favorite remote job should take a serious amount of your time. You must be careful and focused when working on it. Don’t forget to research keywords and include them in your piece, describe your work environment as well as you can, including only relevant facts, and proofread your resume before submitting! With this knowledge, you’ll definitely get invited to an interview (and ace it)! Good luck!

Resume Writing

The post How to Write a Winning Work at Home Job Resume appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/growth/virtual-office/remote-work-resume

Why Should You Have an Elegant Office Space for Your Business?

Why should a business have an elegant office space?

Well, for most business owners today, this was the question. Most entrepreneurs are clearly aware of the importance of having a graceful office space for their business, but there are still some who have this question–”Why spend heavily on office space looks? “Of course, without even analyzing whether what they are spending on is worth or not, one should not blindly squander.

If you’re one of those business owners with this question, it’s for you exactly. Here we covered the importance of commercial space and how you can add to your business elegant office space. Just look at the advantages of having a lovely office space and decide for yourself.

 

1 – Attracts Clients

Yes, having a good looking office space is the first and foremost benefit of it attracting customers and greatly enhancing your brand value. Who would even care if you were to deliver the industry’s best services, but the office space itself is so boring and uncomfortable.

Having a clean, organized and stylish office space is always a plus for you, it gives your investors or customers a great impression. Office space, in a way, tells customers a lot about your business. If it’s enticing enough, at the very first sight you’re going through your first step of impressing the customers.

 

2 – Employee Retention :

What plans can help you stay with your staff? The look of the office is one simple thing that many companies forget or take lightly. They often think that office space is just a place to work for employees and nothing else, which is their biggest misconception of office space.

Employees come to the office and spend their entire day there, and it’s certainly more than just a workplace. They expect a few minute benefits that keep them alive throughout their working day. One such thing is an attractive and pleasant office space that does not make them sick. Statistics also show that offices with a great look have retained their employees successfully

 

3 – Attract Creative Youth :

While the middle-aged and experienced people are not impressed by lavish office spaces, it certainly does its bit to attract the company’s raw and creative youth.

The business needs experienced employees, of course, but at the same time, they should never forget what young and creative talents can do to the business. They are the ones who come up with new ideas and ideas that can take you to the company

And we know what attracts young people the most. It is definitely a good atmosphere, an enjoyable working environment, and a few small advantages.

 

4 – Attracts Social Media :

These days, social media has been really powerful in keeping companies very active in keeping themselves updated about the trends and promoting themselves as an efficient service provider.

But how can social media attract good office space? Well, there are a few companies that continue to organize for their employees some or the other activities.

While some have fun on Fridays and on beer days, Few set up board games to inspire their staff. And only an update on any of these on social media gives the larger audience great exposure.

 

5 – Reflects Company Culture :

Your corporate culture shapes the space that contains your business. The culture within firms is something that is very difficult to define, and even more difficult to shape voluntarily.

When it comes to cultivating a strong sense of common identity, your environment is second only to your team. Does it mean “open, transparent and flat management structure” to put your senior team in private offices?

 

We believe that companies that want to remain flat in structure, where innovation and collaboration are the business’ lifeblood, should be in an open office environment. The common features of such spaces are open meeting areas, open kitchens, large desks, and even hot desks.

 

6 – Enhances your mood :

A positive and uplifting environment marks your creativity and attitude. It has been reported that even the color of the wall can affect your mood.

A positive environment is equivalent to a positive state of mind, and in an aesthetically pleasing office space, you are much more likely to feel stimulated. After all, shattered walls and questionable office tapes scream hardly a motivational atmosphere.

 

7 – Increases Success :

If you’re a creative agency, you’re more than likely hosting a fair amount of meetings with existing customers and potential customers or even business partners. It’s all first impressions.

We’re taught this from day one, so what about the office itself, while you might have dressed smartly in your new suit? Is this welcome? Is that stylish? Or is it simply sluggish? Ask yourself what kind of environment you want to enter if you’re the person you’re visiting and go from here.

You are going to rake in the new customers in no time.

 

 

8 – Postive Word of Mouth :

It’s a well-known thing about which we don’t have to talk much. Yes, it goes without saying that a positive word of mouth can completely change a person’s perception. When we have to choose a company, we rely on reviews from older employees, and sometimes our decisions are based solely on what we heard about the company.

 

And a happy employee would always take good things to talk about in the company. What else can give the start-up a great boost than a positive mouthpiece? Provide a good office space for your employees to talk about it, which attracts the company’s bundle of talents again.

 

So now you’re going to have a clear idea of why you should consider having a gracious office space for your business; so if you’re planning to move from your home office to office space, or if you’re relocating your business, consider having an elegant office space.

Office

The post Why Should You Have an Elegant Office Space for Your Business? appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/company-culture/elegant-office-space

SharePoint Implementation Made Easy with Effective Tips

In the past few years many collaborative platforms have popped up, but Microsoft’s SharePoint remains to be the favorite of organizations and users are also adopting the platform. With several versions and updates released, it can be very hard to keep a track of how to get the most out of the SharePoint platform. SharePoint implementation often needs careful planning and a lot of attention to infrastructure issues. The first thing that most potential clients often ask is “Where should we start?”.

On one side you have to focus on all your core business activities, manage the employees, handle crucial data, documents and content and on the other side, you have a tool called SharePoint that is capable of doing all these efficiently.

In this post. we will help you to understand the best approach that you can adopt while implementing SharePoint in various organizations that ranges from small to large enterprises.

Tip # 1: Implement SharePoint in Phases for Success:

Moving your entire business to SharePoint is a very big project and there are chances of failure. It is recommended to break the implementation phase into manageable mini projects so that there are no errors in it. If you have plans to implement SharePoint with many project sites, department sites, team sites, and various portals and repositories, then don’t roll it all at once. Ask your SharePoint development agency to start it in phases as from the user adoption perspective, implementing all at a time will be too much for your users to digest. So break it into small portions and create a plan and then implement one phase at a time.

Tip # 2:  Flat Architecture Makes it Easy:

SharePoint Online comes with a new flat architecture and this is an added bonus. Earlier, when we created lots of subsites in a site collection, it required us to consider the site architecture, take into account the site collection and the sub-site structure first before the new site could be created.  But this is not anymore. With a flat architecture and Hub Sites, you don’t have to worry about this anymore. You can just create a collection of sites and connect it to the hub and then re-organize the things later on.

Tip # 3 Cloud is Better for Large Organizations:

If your organization is large, then it is best to migrate to SharePoint Online to the cloud makes it easier for you to plan the implementation phase and execute it. With on-premises, you have to consider many things that include calculating the storage, purchase equipment, figure out server architecture, hire technical experts and do a lot of planning. With Office 365, you can be free from all these things. All you have to do is to count the number of employees and then multiply it with the SharePoint license cost and that would be your budget. Your SharePoint development agency can help you to have a better understanding and can offer the best solution to suit your business

Tip # 4 Pick an Easy Target to Start With:

Once you have decided to implement SharePoint development in phases, your next step is to choose the sites that are the most important ones. You can roll out just 1 or 2 sites initially. Since the most important site in an organization is the one that stores the company’s procedures and policies, and it needs to be accessed by almost the whole organization, you can start from here. The majority of the users will be the content consumers and so from the security standpoint, it would be relatively easy to set up. Besides this, there won’t be any external sharing involved and so you don’t have to worry much during implementation.

Tip # 5 Stop Involving to Many Decision Makers:

If your organization is big, then there will be many decision makers also and everyone would like to know how SharePoint would be set up and how it should look. It is certainly good to have a big implementation team, but you need only a few decision-makers to implement the SharePoint solution. With ten people, you will have ten different opinions and that will lead to nowhere.

Tip # 6 Shift from Folder Structure to Metadata:

If you have decided to implement SharePoint, then it’s also time to consider a few modern ways to organize your web content. It is suggested that you leverage the power of Metadata and move away from the folder structure. Metadata is a useful tool to power navigation and SharePoint is designed to leverage metadata together with views and allows the users to filter, group and also sort their repositories as they fit. This flexibility is not on an individual level, but also on the team level as well.

Sharepoint

The post SharePoint Implementation Made Easy with Effective Tips appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/technology/business-apps/effective-sharepoint-implementation

The worth of implementing a robust online management reputation strategy for businesses

Having a good business reputation is crucial in today’s online era. Online reputation makes you stand out of the crowd and provides you the potential to attract and retain more customers. Retaining your customers is essential to maintain a smooth and steady business. As per the study conducted, nearly half of the brand’s market value depends upon its reputation.

Hence, it is imperative for you to manage the search results of your business and reduce the negative elements that might be spreading misleading or false content about your business. For this, you should implement a strong reputation management strategy that creates a positive image of your business and attracts more investors and customers. How can a bad reputation impact your business?

If you own a business, you should always be ready to face the risks. But many times it becomes challenging to face critical issues that might cause great harm to your business. One of these issues might include a sudden drop in reputation.

You might have spent your whole life trying to build a business. Your company might have reached a great level of success now, and suddenly your customer base drops and your business seem to get deteriorated.

Although you are delivering the same products and offering the world-class service and your customers are satisfied with your stuff, but your business started failing gradually. This may happen as one of your competitors, or some other individual is posting negative reviews on your products to weaken your online image. This is the reason behind your business failure. And many businesses globally experience such types of situations many times.

A real-life example that depicts the criticality of ORM:

There might be many reasons why people post bad reviews online. Some people resort to offensive reviews to get free products from your company. The other case can be if you have some difficult interaction with a customer, he might try to shame you publically to ooze out his frustration.

Sometimes, your business competitors post negative and bad comments to shut down your customer base and drive away your customers.

Here I am going to quote a real-life example, where a family-owned firm namely Long Jewelers based in Boston from over 100 years had a huge customer base but suddenly experienced a sharp decline of their star rating in the year 2016 after they made progress in social media presence.

The investigation was carried out by the social media manager who revealed that the reviews were posted one after another in just a few minutes and the individuals who posted reviews resided in fictitious American towns and have also destroyed other companies by giving fake comments on their websites.

How can you fix and maintain your online reputation?

The best action you can take is to implement rigorous online reputation management strategies to have a best-in-class reputation. You must have some solution in place in case your business suffers from reputation loss. Here I’ll be elaborating some basic strategies that will help maintain your reputation:

Reviews play an important part in ORM:

Claim your business on popular review sites; this will help you to become aware of the reviews posted about your business be it positive or negative. You must pay close heed to all the reviews you are getting. A review might be the first indication of a potential issue that might be coming your way.

Whenever you get a negative review, you should respond quickly. This will be the best option to neutralize the bad effect it might have caused to your reputation. Some of the most common review sites include Google My Business, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and Yelp.

Establish a good reputation via your blog:

Start your blogging website where you can post numerous contents regarding any subject, be it related to your website or your personal experiences. You can resort to some prominent platforms such as WordPress or Tumblr to reap the benefits of their SEO-friendly methodologies to attract people to your blog’s home page.

Your blog doesn’t need to become in the limelight to get the attention of the huge customers. Also, you don’t have to put extra effort to make it more successful. Just creating a blogging website and updating it regularly will help in improving your online reputation. You just need to write relevant content that supports your products or the message you are trying to convey your audience.

It doesn’t matter whether people are interested in reading your blog, you are sharing something you consider valuable to your audience so gradually they will start liking your content and will ultimately become the permanent readers of your blog. This is a huge plus in your online reputation.

Google Alert is another way to stay updated with your online image:

Whenever Google indexes new information about your website or business, you will get notification by setting up Google Alerts. If the info is positive, you can celebrate it and work more effectively to maintain that, but if it’s negative, you should devise some solution and work on that. This will help you prevent loss of your online reputation that you’ve acquired so far.

Remove negative reviews without any delay:

If someone has posted bad comments on your products or website, you must try to remove those reviews asap. If these reviews are left as it is, they might prove to be very negative for your online reputation. If the bad reviews are on some other websites, you can push them by applying SEO strategies, creating content or by positively responding to them.

If you keep on creating content, the positive content will be pushed upwards, and negatives will move downwards.

Social media is a great way to brings more customers to your brand

In today’s internet-based world, social media has become a crucial marketing tool for various businesses. Maintaining and fixing your online reputation through social media channels is essential to make your business more successful and efficient.

Make sure you are up-to-date with your online reputation and try to maintain good relations with your customers to retain them and even attract more potential ones.

Posting the most preferred content on your social media accounts will build interest of the people in your brand and will ultimately improve your reputation.

Conclusion:

Maintaining your online reputation is not a one-day task. You have to do continuous monitoring of your online image to see how your business is presented to the outside world. Resorting to the above-explained tips can help you manage your reputation, and this will obviously take some extra effort to give you long-term benefits.

 

Reputation Management

 

online management reputation strategy for businesses

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