Category: business coach

What You Need To Do To Rise Up The Ranks

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

There’s not one business owner across the globe that isn’t interested in marketing, and there’s a good reason why. Without a strong marketing team and a stronger marketing plan, your business cannot thrive as well as it could. Search engine optimisation (and if you’re not familiar with the term, look here), should be a big part of your marketing plan. The whole idea of being online is to be seen, and as you may have deduced, Google has thousands of hits for every conceivable search. SEO involves editing the HTML code to make your company search engine friendly, thus rising you up the search ranks.

With good SEO comes quality traffic, and it’s this traffic that will improve your revenue streams and give your business more publicity – and who doesn’t want more publicity? Business is all about making a good profit and being a force of nature in the industry you want to thrive in, so you need to be looking to your marketing team to ensure that your company is ready to take on the challenge. Rising up the ranks is not always straightforward, but there are a lot of things that you can do to increase those search engine rankings and make sure that you are visible. Other than having a marketing team that is spot on, you could hire in experts like Inner Spark Creative, who can manage your SEO for you. We’ve put some of those things together for you here:

Tag, Tag, Tag

Implementing meta tags and title tags into your content and background HTML is so important for your company visibility. Title tags are important because this is what conveys your skills in marketing to the customers who look you up. The title tags that you use are going to be the key in getting your message across to the audience, and all the important information that you need to get out there into the world shines from this little area of space on your website. Every single page of your dedicated website should have these tags in them, so make a note for your next marketing meeting!

Content To Be Contented

Everyone, business owner or not, knows that it’s important to have good content on your business website. Content gets picked up in the search engines, keywords get picked up in the search engines, and you want to be able to offer something to your audience to make them want to buy from you. The one thing that’s important about content is that you don’t want to overdo it. Overstuffing your content with keywords can actually see your website as blacklisted from search engines, which is the last thing you want to do!

Links Are More Than Chains

Most companies embed links within their websites and content for clicks. Links are very valuable for gaining search engine ranks, and this is a tool you should be using throughout your company website. The more quality links you have in your website, the more popular your site can be in the search engines that people are looking for you in. Ensuring link acquisition is from reputable, relevant websites is going to make the difference that you need to have for increased rankings. Don’t just fit random links into your site, though, as all links should be relevant to what your business does!

Domain-ate Your Name

Before your company goes all out with the purchase of a domain name, you have to look for URLs that have the right keywords for your company. Confusing the search engines is not a good idea, as this then confuses the people that come to your site. You want your domain to be simple, effective and not overloaded with symbols. Make your domain name dominate the search engines and keep its relevancy to your website.

Coding, Coding, Coding

You may not be particularly IT literate, but your marketing team should be. There should be at least one HTML fluent member of your main marketing team, as HTML is the code you should be using to be found. Search engine spiders are simple, which means they need simple writing (ie, HTML) to be able to read the code. Writing your website in Flash is far more likely to confuse the search engine spider, so stick to HTML and make your website stand out.

Make It Easy

People will visit your website expecting to be able to find all the information that they need with relative ease. It’s up to you to provide them the means to be able to do this. This means having a sitemap on your website, good drop-down menus and a search bar so that you can give your site visitors the easiest and best experience possible. If you have links in your website that are broke and mashed together, you’re going to put people off. It’s important to remember that sitemaps are a search engine necessity, and a good, solid sitemap will be more beneficial than anything else.

Blogarific

A business with a blog is a business with a purpose. If you have a blog, you’re telling the world that you know you have something relevant to say. Your blog is your platform to discuss what you’re doing and how you’re doing it and it gives your business a personality. Having a blog on your website increases your likeability, and the links you can embed in the blog are all going to go a long way to attracting the right audience. Blog posts get indexed throughout search engines, and if you’re using the right keywords, you can rise the ranks and people can find you.

SEO is important, but you have to make sure that you are tailoring your website to people and not just the search engine bots. Aiming your website in the right way to the right people should be able to keep you up the top of the search engine listings, and rising through the ranks of the web pages can only serve your company well. Get your marketing team on the ball and make your website stand out there. Be a big fish in a big pond!

Increasing Blog Traffic

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

If you’ve recently started a blog or set up an online business, you are probably wondering why no one is reading it. You’ve put hours of work into the design, photography and writing. Your posts look and read great, yet no one is viewing them. Before you started your blog, you’d probably read others, seen how many views they were getting, that they are working with brands and that they had thousands of followers on social media and wanted the same for yourself. You assumed you’d published a post and people would read it. You imagined yourself going viral and becoming a famous blogger in the first few months.

Then, a few months in, even with a growing social media following, you find that very few people actually read your blog. Don’t worry; you are not alone. Most people that start blogs give up within the first year because it isn’t what they expected. To gain consistent traffic takes a lot of time and hard work. Let’s take a look at some ways to help.

SEO

When you start a blog, most of your viewers will come from social media promotion. Very few will simply stumble upon your content. But, that’s what you want. Most people that come over from social media are fellow bloggers and friends. If you want to reach a wider audience, who are actively searching for content like yours, you need to work on your SEO and start bringing in search engine hits.

SEO is a complex thing, that changes all of the time, so if you want fast results, it’s a good idea to look at SEO Expert Brad Blog for advice and help, not only on SEO but all aspects of blogging. In the meantime, make sure you are using long-tail keywords, filling in the alt text on pictures and adding meta descriptions to all of your posts.

Social Media

If this is what’s bringing in a lot of your traffic, you need to make the most of it. Make sure you are on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter at least and that you are actively using them. Join relevant groups on Facebook, promote old posts, engage with your audience and share other people’s work for the best results.

Remember, a huge following is nowhere near as important as an engaged following. So, get chatting with people and make friends.

Tell Your Friends

Many new bloggers feel a little embarrassed and so avoid telling people they know. The truth is, you probably will tell them one day, most do. So, get it out of the way and ask for their advice, feedback and help sharing content. If they don’t blog themselves, they’ll be pretty impressed.

Keep Going

One of the best bits of advice for a new blogger struggling to gain traffic is just to keep going. If you are writing well, promoting in the right places and engaging with your audience, the traffic will come. Just keep going, picking up tips and making changes along the way.

There are so many blogs out there today that the completion is tough. But, you can stand out from the crowd by finding your own voice and offering new ideas. Don’t give up; you’ll get there.

Employees: It’s Time To Take A Stand

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

As an employee we should feel valued and respected every day that we come into work. But as employee’s we know this isn’t always the case. There are so many things wrong with some companies that make them truly terrible placed to work for. Yet the chances are we put up with everything thrown at us simply because we don’t want to lose our jobs. But this isn’t how things should work. Any workplace should be free of hassle and everyone should have mutual respect for each other. If you’re fed up of some of the things going on in the company you work for, then take a stand!

Discrimination

Discrimination happens in every company in many different ways. It doesn’t necessarily have to be racial discrimination, this is really uncommon now. The discrimination we’re talking about is gender and favoritism. Gender discrimination is still really prominent in the workplace. Often males are chosen for the better roles, or given the better tasks during the day. If it is a mainly male based company then this is likely going to be happening often. But it does work both ways, if the office is mainly women, it is easy for a male to be discriminated. It isn’t right to be spending your days doing the jobs nobody else wants to do. If you’ve got designated job role, take a stand and stick to it all day. Don’t keep saying yes in fear of losing a job. If this did happen you could look into unfair dismissal charges. It can also be the case that with gender discrimination comes wage discrimination, more information of which can be found on this employment law blog. Favoritism is huge in companies all over the world. If you’re the favorite one then lucky you, if not it can make working days so annoying. If you feel someone is getting special treatment, mention it to your manager and try to get it evenly spread out through the office.

Rights

As employees we do have a lot of rights that sometimes aren’t respected. For example, if you work at computers all day, you do have the right to take a 5-10 minute break for every 60 minutes you’re at the computer. This doesn’t necessarily mean a break from working, but you should be able to be away from the computer. You also have the right to fair treatment and respect, which a lot of companies lack. You should come into work and be spoken to with respect like you’d expect in any other walk of life. But once some bosses get the power in their hands, the turn nasty rather than nice. If you feel you’re being spoken to unfairly, just have a word and let them know how you’re feeling. You also have the right to feeling safe in your working environment, again another thing some people don’t feel. If there are continuous hazards you need to report them to your manager, if they’re aware and don’t care, you need to take it further and ask for outside advice on whether a health and safety official can pay a visit to your company.

How To Cut Costs When Running A Small Business

Scott Asai1 Comment
Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

When it comes to business, time is money, but, then again, money is also money. If you happen to run out of cash when running a small business, you could be in a lot of trouble, and may even end up going under. Unfortunately, there are lots of hidden costs of running a small business, as well as plenty of obvious ones, so you need to make sure that you save as much money as you possibly can. Luckily, there are plenty of ways that you can do this; Here are a few popular ones for you to try out.

Shop Around

The most obvious way to save money is to actually put some effort into researching where you can get the best rates and deals for the things you need. Often, you can find anything from your electricity to your coffee cheaper elsewhere, so it makes sense to invest some time into getting things for cheaper. However, some things are worth the money. Your insurance is a good example; Never go for the cheapest insurance policy on offer, as this is unlikely to offer you very much protection.

Buy Used Furniture & Equipment

There are plenty of places that you can find good quality office equipment and furniture for a fraction of the price, simply because it’s been sued for a little while by someone else. eBay and Facebook marketplace are two great examples. You can also check out local auctions, car boot sales, and ads in your local newspaper. If you wanted to give back a little, charity shops also stock plenty of great finds.

Rent A Postage Meter

If you spend a large amount of money on postage each month, then you will benefit from renting a postage meter. It will print neat and professional postage for your letters and parcels, which means you can avoid wasting your precious time on trips to the post office every other day. You will likely be surprised how little the postage meter cost is to rent every month; It’s only a fraction of what you’d be paying by visiting the post office to send all of your letters.

Send Postcards

If you’re only sending a short message to your clients or customers, such as about a meeting, a conference, appointment, or sale, then there is no point in you wasting paper and money on posting an entire letter. Instead, consider buying pre-stamped postcards from your local post office. You can then simply write or print your message onto these postcards and send them for much less than you would have had to pay to post a whole letter.

Go Green

Being eco-friendly isn’t just great for the environment, it saves you cash too. It doesn’t matter if the space you use is a home office, a store, or something else, the more energy efficient you can make it, the less you’ll have to pay on energy. Therefore, it makes plenty of sense to go out and buy energy saving light bulbs, instead of keep putting it off. You should also recycle everything that you can; Some recycling centres will even pay you for this. It might also be a great idea to go paperless so that you can save money on paper, printing ink, postage, and much more. Instead, send out emails, and store any important information on your computer, instead of in a filing cabinet (Just be sure to back up your storage!).

Use Own Brand

If you frequently buy something, such as paper, or coffee, then you should look into ways of saving money on this. Shopping around is one way, but you could also try the own brand versions of the products. The box may not look as appealing, but generally, the product inside the packaging is pretty much the same. You won’t notice a massive difference to your savings straight away, but every penny adds up quickly.

Cut Back On Non-Essentials

As well as buying own brand goods, you may want to consider cutting back on a thing or two. If you know that there is something that you definitely need, then, by all means, buy it, especially if it’s necessary for your business to function properly. However, if you’re not sure whether or not to buy something, it makes more sense to leave it for now, and think it through properly before buying it. For example, the carpet in your office may not be in the best shape, but you might not necessarily need a new one, especially if you have all of your important business meetings elsewhere.

Hire Less Experience

It may seem counterproductive to hire employees that have little experience, but it does make a lot of sense. Everyone needs to start somewhere, and if no one ever gave someone that didn’t have experience a job, then no one would have ever been given a job. While someone applying to work for you may not work experience, they may have plenty of knowledge from their education, and a willingness to learn more. Even better than this is the fact that you can pay them less for having less experience, and they will understand this. However, if it makes sense to hire someone more experienced, then you should definitely do that instead.

Get An Accountant

Hiring an extra employee might not sound like the best money-saving technique on the planet, but I assure you that an accountant is absolutely essential, especially if you are looking to save money. An accountant can make your life a million times easier, especially if you don’t have much experience with finances. They can find ways to help you save some extra cash here and there, and will make sure that your taxes are done properly so that you don’t end up with a large and nasty fine.

Running your own small business isn’t easy, and it definitely isn’t cheap, but hopefully, these tips can help you out with running yours. Not everything is going to work for you, but some will work great, so try out a few different ones to see which helps you out the most.

Here’s Why Your Small Business Is Losing Money

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

A business needs profit to survive: it’s a simple concept. Without generating a profit, your company cannot hope to thrive in their industry and will become one of many businesses that fail in the first year. It’s a difficult thing – building and then maintaining a profit – but it’s something that your business can be sure it can do before you get off the ground.

In business, there are a good few things that can eat into your company income and those may be small at first, but each of the small losses adds up to big ones that can often be quite difficult to overcome. The faster you work out where you are losing money, the faster you can fix the problem and keep things moving forward, the better off your business will be in the long run. There are some very common reasons your business is losing cash, and we’ve got some of those examples below for you.

  1. Bad Accounting. You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to run a business, but you do have to know where your money is going and how much is coming in. Be smart here and outsource your accounting to an outside firm that specialises in accounting. There is absolutely no room for financial slip-ups in business. Suppliers need paying, clients need paying and staff need paying. You could be losing money in late fines by not paying your bills on time, and you need to be on top of the accounts so that you can monitor any issues.
  2. Technology Mistakes. Security is so important for a business. By not updating your network security services, you are risking cyberattack and having your data stolen. This type of theft may not be financial on the surface, but it is one that could lead to significant financial demise if you haven’t got the right technological security in place.
  3. Poor Pricing. If you are offering a product or service, you need to make sure you’re charging what your service or product is worth. You could be undercutting yourself by hundreds each year, simply by underestimating how much your offerings should cost. If you advertise for too much money, you risk people not buying your product. If you advertise for too little, you lose money. It’s for this reason that market research and focus groups could be vital for your company!
  4. Lack Of Investment. You run a business, and you know that if you don’t pile money into it occasionally for marketing or upgrading your IT systems, you can fall behind in your efforts to beat out the competition. By investing cash into your business, you can ensure you get something back from it. Ensure that you put your money into things that will help your business grow, as this will mean you don’t waste your time or cash!

No business wants to lose money, nor do they endeavor to do what they can to make it fail. So, the answer for you would be to watch your cash and make it count!

Is A Website Really All You Need To Set Up A Business?

Scott Asai3 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

There are so many articles and courses out there that encourage bored workers stuck in their nine-to-fives to start a business. And the good news is all you need is a laptop, right? No outlay, no skills, no experience? The reality of setting up a business is a little different. For a start, there are a few ways just to get started. You need to consider what you want to do and how you’ll ease out of guaranteed employed income to self-sufficiency.

But you can become a millionaire and start earning straight away, can’t you? Probably not. From a humble blog to an eStore, you still need visitors to your website. You need a site that keeps these visitors engaged. And then you need to convince these same people to part with cash to support this lavish lifestyle you envisage. It might be a long road to get here, and most never make past the first few months.  

What’s Your Specialism?

Your area of expertise might not be related to the job you’re employed to do right now. Perhaps you have expert knowledge of a favorite hobby or pastime? Maybe you fancy taking your parenting experience to publish a blog of anecdotes supporting other parents? You specialism can be anything at all, but you need to make it special to others.

You need to have a deeper knowledge than the people that will come to your website. This often means you have to go and find out more, do some research, and up your game. If you wish to become a voice of authority, then some letters after your name from recognized qualifications will help. Experience is nearly always essential. And a little evidence to support your claims or ideas would be highly beneficial.

Of course, you might be a retailer with a specialism in electronics, fashion, baby gear, or anything at all. If you can throw some deeper knowledge in when it comes to the product descriptions, chances are a customer will buy from you. Know your stuff and customers will recognise that. Now all you need to do is figure out how to be approachable to deliver that next-level insight.

What Type Of Website Would Best Serve Your Business?

The answer to this question depends on your business model. If you’ve decided to become a therapist, then you might want a few blog articles about the different types of therapy. Perhaps you can include a few case studies? Information is key in this case, so a content-rich website would be helpful.

Such a business might also want to use the website for booking appointments or answering queries. Of course, if you sell products to support your holistic approach, you will also need a secure ordering system. You’ll need plenty of product information on the sales pages. It’s essential you use well-recognized payment platforms and high-security data capture on your website. This builds trust with the customer and prevents fraud.

Some websites are set up as forums, inviting visitors to discuss issues freely. This is also a very handy marketing tool for the company that is developing eBooks or products for a niche market. Essentially, you’re creating focus groups! If you’re an artist, you might not have any customer engagement strategy at all. Instead, you might post your different exhibitions, or sell your art directly.

How Can You Set Up A Website That Works Well For You?

Finding the best approach to a website needs to start long before you engage any web developers. In fact, if you know exactly what you need, chances are you can set much of it up yourself. Hosting is the first thing you need to worry about. There are often very good offers for the first year, but subsequent years might be more costly.

You need to consider what kind of hosting service you require as well. If you need a shopping cart facility make sure you choose a host that can serve you securely. Some deals are tied into the domain registration too. It’s worth considering a package when you’re ready. Your online marketing resources are essential to your company’s success, so be certain about the direction you want to take your company.

The domain name you choose might be your company name or a reference to the products or services you provide. It might be your name if you are setting yourself up as a freelancer. Double check the spelling and look at it as a single word. Can it be misread? Will it be difficult to remember? What does it look like your business is all about? Checking everything about the domain name helps you to avoid costly mistakes.

What Goes Into A Successful Company Website?

Successful companies keep adding content to their website every week. This provides more interest and fresh ideas for your visitors. They’ll keep coming back to see the latest article or promotion. You should also have at least one contact form so visitors can engage with you in different ways.

Social media sharing buttons are an essential part of your digital marketing campaign. You should be sharing your new content automatically across all your favorite platforms. The website might be the central hub for your business, but ignore social media opportunities at your peril.

You should have a detailed bio and portfolio if you’re a freelancer or creative. You should also have a company motto or tagline and a full page devoted to a press kit or media page. If you sell products or services, then make sure there are plenty of details. You might also include an FAQ page. Images, podcasts, videos and infographics are all valuable website assets and resources for your potential customers.

Your website should act as a sales funnel. You want to channel your visitors through that funnel, offering them more and more to get them to the checkout. You might offer free publications and eBooks. Perhaps you can share useful information and industry insights? Each step toward that purchase decision must be considered, planned, and catered for with your content.

How Can Customers Find You?

Once your website is up and running and full of interesting and entertaining content, you need to figure out how you’re going to get the traffic to increase. You might try PPC campaigns on keywords relevant to your products or services. It’s usually best to design a landing page for this type of marketing. It makes monitoring a lot easier and helps you to more accurately measure your ROI. Of course, that landing page needs to be part of the sales funnel, enabling the customer to undertake a successful journey all the way to the checkout.

Sometimes a hard sell is not the best approach. If you want to attract visitors and you want to build subscribers or email list, you need to offer something for free. Information and insight are usually enough. You’re building knowledge, interest and desire in a step process that should never begin with a hard sell. Whet their appetite to entice them to come back again.

Why Should Customers Use Your Website?

The answer to this question is your raison d’etre. But answering it accurately means you need to think of it from the customer’s point of view. Why are they there? Do they want customer services, to buy, or to gather information? Maybe they’re looking for entertainment, or saw a photo that interests them?

You need to be clear about what a customer can get out of your website. How does it benefit them? What will make them come back again? And what would convince them to buy from you? Your USP is a big part of this, but ultimately you need to consider design, functionality, usability and likability. Branding is a big part of that too.

You’re putting a lot of time and effort and thought into this website. Of course, you are probably going to need to put a lot of money in too. Third party services like copywriters, web designers, social media experts, and IT specialists will become a big part of your business. Your success might depend on them. The website might be your biggest asset, but it’s unlikely to be the simple, easy, quick money making machine you thought.

What Can Your Website Tell You About Your Customers?

Of course, websites do far more than sell your goods and services. They can also provide you plenty of information about your customers. You can drill deep into each customer’s journey to find out what they clicked on and when they left your site. You can also collect personal data, contact data, and survey their preferences. You might even get ideas for your next product or service.

The website is there to engage your customers. It’s there to sell your products and services. It’s there as a PR tool, and it’s there to support your other marketing campaigns. Is it all you need to set up your business?

Hidden Costs of Running a Small Business

Scott Asai2 Comments

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

When running a small business, there is a lot that needs to be taken into account. Of course, one of the most important aspects is the financial side of things. If you don’t manage your finances well, this could quite easily spell the end of your company. Unfortunately, this happens more often than you’d think, and one of the reasons for this is because business owners underestimate the costs they face. So, with that being said, let’s take a look at some of the hidden costs associated with running a small company.

  1. Credit card fees – It is wise to give your customers the option of paying by credit card. After all, the more payment options that are available to a customer, the more likely they are going to be to place an order with you. Nevertheless, you do need to account for the fact that there are going to be fees in place if someone does make a credit card payment. In most cases, this will be around three percent of total charges.
  2. Cleaning and janitorial services – A lot of business owners forget about the fact that they are going to have to upkeep their business premises. After all, no one wants to be working in a mountain of dust. Plus, the way your company looks says a lot about your brand image. This is why you need to factor in janitorial services when working out your budget. Shop around for the best price and see if you can secure a good discount by paying a company on a yearly basis and taking on a long-term contract.
  3. Time – You know what they say, time is money, and that is most certainly the case. Time is one of your business’ most valuable resources, so you need to make sure you are using it effectively. If you are spending too much energy and time on tasks that could be delegated to another employee, then you could be costing your business money.
  4. Payment delays – Payment delays can significantly hurt your bottom line. It is as simple as that. When someone does not pay your business on time, it slows down your business, meaning you are unable to take on new orders or work as efficiently. The problem becomes even worse when you were waiting on the said payment in order to cover costs. After all, this can lead to interest charges, as well as fees for using your overdraft or bounced payments.
  5. Insurance – This is another cost that a lot of business owners simply forget to include in their financial plan. Your business is going to need public liability and employer liability at a very minimum. You then may also need insurance for injuries and illnesses, property, and negligence. Don’t make the mistake of simply going for the cheapest policy you can find. You need to have the right level of protection. After all, you are going to cost your business much, much more money in the end if you choose an insurance plan that does not cover you effectively.  

Save Space in Your Small Office

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Small businesses don’t always have a lot of office space. But as your business and your team grow, you might not be ready to move to a bigger office for a while. So you need to make the most of the space you have available if you want to avoid raising your overheads. Luckily, there are a few things you can consider to help your business save space. Try these ideas to make sure you use your office space as efficiently as possible.

Digitize As Much As Possible

Most things don’t need to be on paper anymore. It can be useful to have some things written down or as printed documents, but there are so many types of information that are better stored digitally. You won’t need to take up valuable space with filing cabinets anymore if you digitize as much as you can.

Consider Going Open-plan

Open-plan offices are somewhat controversial. They began to get very trendy for a while, but some people are now saying they’re not conducive to higher productivity. However, if you’re willing to try out an open-plan office, it could help you save space. You might also consider long desks that several people can use, especially for those working as a team.

Create Flexible Meeting Spaces

If your business has one or two meeting spaces that you use a lot, you should think about how to make them as flexible as possible. If you can configure one meeting space to serve several different purposes, you’ll be able to use it for everything from team meetings to one-on-one meetings.

Move Your Records Out

As well as digitizing, you can also get someone else to manage your business information. You won’t have to have filing cabinets or servers so you’ll be able to make better use of your space.


Infographic Design By COR365

Important Changes To Make To Your Business

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

With the end of the year drawing to a close, you need to start thinking about some important changes that you might need to make to your business to improve it. Some of these changes you need to do by law, some are just going to improve the overall running of your business. Without them you’re either going to face fines, or fall behind your competition. You should always be striving to be the best you can be, so follow the advice below to make sure you enter 2018 the right way.

New Laws

As a business owner you might feel invincible, but there are certain laws that you need to follow if you want to avoid facing some serious fines. Take Steve Jobs and Apple at the minute. Apple is being investigated for tax fraud as there are claims being made that billions of dollars worth of tax payments have been dodged by going through overseas accounts. But why would such a big wealthy company avoid paying their tax payments? Well, it’s all down to greed. The more money they can pocket the better. But as soon as they get found out they face enormous fines, as well as having to pay the dodged tax back. So, if you’re a business owner and you’re think, I might try and get a bit of extra money here and there, then stop! You will be found out eventually. There’s also new changes being made the IRS rules, if you need information on this you can find it through Corporate Direct. It is an important matter, and it does need to be addressed before the 31st of December. Getting tax right in business is so important so make sure you’re clued up about it, especially if you’re a new business.

Improvements

So, from the essential to the non essential. If you want to stay ahead of the game you need to keep things fresh. Try making some office improvements to try and boost productivity. The one thing that makes the mood drop in an office is the atmosphere. If things are too regimented it can make the working day go a little slower. Bring in fun working policies such as dress down every day. Some people like dressing smart for work, but being able to come in wearing what you want (to an extent) creates a much more relaxed atmosphere. Even something like a longer lunch hour to give your staff time to recharge will boost productivity. You need your employees to be happy in their job for your company to succeed. You also need to look at how you can do better than your competitors. Where they’re failing you can succeed. If they’re bad for customer service, use this to your advantage and thrive in this area. If they’re selling cheaper, yet better products you need to find a way to reduce your production costs and do the same. No customer is going to chose you over a cheaper, more reliable product.