Ingenious Ways You Can Improve Your Office’s Workflow Without Compromising On Productivity

As an employer, you need to make sure that your business has a smooth workflow. Not only that, but you are also responsible for your office’s productivity levels and how much your employees contribute to the company’s functions and overall workflow. Work can be frustrating for many of us, but there’s always room for office improvements that can help make the daily routine less stressful. This is why the top brands and companies integrate the latest communication methods and offer advanced training for their employees; There are many productive ways office environments can maintain a steady flow of work, including frequent training, establishing an organized workflow, and prioritizing difficult tasks, along with many other innovative techniques and ideas that can help improve your office’s workflow. 

In this article, we highlight the top ways you can increase workflow without overlooking your workspace’s productivity.

Become More Organized 

Whether you’re an employee or an employer, you’ll benefit from being organized in your work and in your life in general. Being organized helps make the business environment less stressful and decreases the amount of time wasted between daily tasks and work processes. If you run your own business, try to communicate the importance of organization with your staff and help them fix their daily schedules according to their specific roles in the company. Keep in mind that workflow automation may be able to handle routine tasks.

Make sure they understand that having a daily plan gives them more time to focus at the beginning of their working day rather than wasting time taking care of the mess from the day before. As a worker or businessman, you should spend at least 10 minutes at the end of your working day sorting through the papers and documents that need to be filed. Before making your to-do list for the next day, try to delete all opened emails and get rid of any papers you no longer need. While office organization does not just refer to how clean your office is, it’s important to eliminate any chances of wasting time looking for things in your office or computer.

Communicate Clearly 

Communication is the most important dynamic for the survival and success of any business. Communication in business means making sure that everyone in the office understands the processes and rules of the workplace. This is why most businesses and companies encourage their employees to maintain open lines of communication with each other to confirm the tasks they are working on and report their progress to management. It’s easier to get work done when everyone knows their role and their assigned tasks. On the other hand, lack of proper communication can lead workers to ignore important tasks — especially if they believe someone else is already working on them  Open communication also minimizes time wastage and helps to prevent employee errors. When you and your employees are connected, you’ll be able to track progress, ensure a smooth workflow, and monitor all tasks to make sure they are completed accurately and on time.

Enhance Your Email Structure

One important aspect of almost any business email services. Due to the frequent and essential use of email in the processes of all businesses, you need to learn how you can streamline this process and increase its efficiency. Emails – especially those going to customers and clients – represent your business, no matter how simple or repetitive the message is. While it may seem more efficient to send out mass emails of a repetitive nature, taking your time to learn how to connect with those reading your emails can have a significant, positive impact on your success as a business. Emails have special structures and key components that need to be included in order to build your business email message. Think of addressing customers by their name and always respond to emails, even if your reply will be short. Your clients should never feel like they’re wasting your time when reading an email or a reply from you, so it’s important to reply to their emails promptly. Make it a standard for your company emails to inform your customers that their feedback is appreciated and valuable to your business.

Make Use of Collaboration Tools

While email makes up the majority of work and business communications, it can interfere with your workers’ productivity. Emails help in the collaboration process between you and your clients and/or you and your employees, so they are a great source of communication;  they can also interrupt you every now and then and slow down your flow, affecting both productivity and income levels Sometimes, feeling the pressure of responding quickly to an email can prompt poor business decisions. Software specialists at DevOps suggest using cloud-based tools that can help you separate your emails and streamline the entire process. These tools will help you access all the important things in one place while moving the less important things to another place so that you can organize on the basis of your priorities. Using similar cloud-based tools can also help you schedule when to read your email messages rather than having to waste a lot of time going through thousands of accumulated email messages and notifications.

Encourage Breaks

It’s not easy for anyone to stay focused on a particular task for a long time.  Text messages, social interactions, and browsing the internet, along with many other distractions, can slow down the workday. Once attention and focus are lost, it can be very difficult to attain them again. Breaks help reduce distractions by giving employees designated times to think of something else other than work, giving them the chance to clear their minds for a while. As a business or company owner, make sure you encourage your employees to take their breaks. Your workers will be more able to concentrate on work tasks when they have time to rest. They’ll also work at a faster pace when on the clock. More breaks lead to increased productivity and concentration.

Keep Your Network Clean of Viruses and Avoid Breaches

Computer malware and viruses can sabotage your workflow significantly and lead to costly damages. Social engineering has the power to convince many of your workers to click on phishing links or reply to emails from scam cyber entities with malicious intentions.  It’s important to educate your working team on the risks of cybercrime. Give them proper instructions on how to deal with emails that contain phishing links and teach them how they can check the source of their downloads, links, and files before clicking on any suspicious messages or URLs. You can also seek the help of professional IT services and teams who can handle the technological affairs of your company on your behalf. Understand that viruses, phishing attempts, and data breaches of business social networks are very common. If any of your account data is leaked in a security breach that targeted one of the services your business uses, all of your other accounts and data are exposed to risk as well. It’s important for your business to work with an experienced IT staff to prevent such network breaches. Losing any of your company’s data or having one of your systems attacked by cybercrime can lead to disastrous consequences when it comes to your office’s productivity and workflow.

Tackle Difficult Tasks First

To run your business effectively, you have to come to terms with what you’re capable of doing and what you ultimately cannot do. Understand that you can’t attempt to tackle all of your work-related tasks simultaneously. You need to prioritize the important or difficult ones first so that you would have more time and freedom to focus on the other less important ones as the day progresses. When you start with the most important tasks, you’ll not only be able to give them the energy and focus they require, but you’ll also have a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to address less important, less stressful tasks as the day progresses. Aim to start your day with a to-do list ranked by order of importance and urgency. Checking off those initial tasks one-by-one will provide you with peace of mind as you work through the rest of your list. 

Regulate Frequent Training 

Employees’ productivity tends to decrease proportionately with increases in workload; the more overwhelmed they feel with ongoing projects and responsibilities, the poorer their work performance. When you provide your staff with adequate training and educate them about your company’s processes, they feel less intimidated by their pending workload and feel more comfortable and capable as they engage in daily work projects and assignments. Even if your employees are already trained in certain processes, going over the same processes again can answer many of their questions, prevent them from feeling overwhelmed, and encourage them to get involved in tougher work projects. Training provides essential knowledge to your employees regarding your system, company processes, and rules. 

Managing your workflow is very important for the success of your business. However, the toughest part is improving your company’s workflow without interfering with your office’s productivity. To promote productivity and increase workflow efficiency, you need to communicate with your workers and engage them in your business processes so that they feel less intimidated by their ongoing tasks and projects. Make sure you also find ways to streamline basic business processes such as emails and employee communication platforms.

Best Tools to Simplify Your eCommerce Business

Operating an e-commerce business is both thrilling and exhausting at the same time, and you may be able to handle all the basic tasks for getting it off the ground; you will require more help as you begin to develop.

It makes sense to invest in anything that code simplifies the task and makes it easy for everyone to help a business achieve its goals.

Whenever it has something to do with order management, product inventory, customer service, or web design and marketing, the good news is that there are convenient tools for getting the work done. Below are some of the popular and efficient E-Commerce business tools that you may consider for scaling your business at a much fleeter pace.

1. Quickbooks

One of the essential aspects of running a business is knowing how the money is moving in your business. It would help if you had a good idea of where your money goes, how much you spend, how much you earn, and how much goes into various aspects of the business. Quickbook provides a 360-degree view of your complete business by taking care of all your accounting needs. Using its multi user login and comprehensive analytics and reporting features, the program helps you be on top of things in the easiest possible way.

2. DesignBro

Designbro is an online graphic designing platform that blends high-quality professional designers with clients worldwide. Packaging design has eternally been overpriced due to inadequate processes. Designbro delivers an affordable and high-quality packaging design at scale by automating these processes.

There are different branches for every project, each with its alternatives. It is not very surprising how the tremendous number of choices doesn’t confound people?

It doesn’t stop the purchasing experience for you, and your eyes instantly stand for your favorite brands. More often, the packaging enables a ketchup brand for standing out in every food section. Good candle packaging should be enough if you want your goods to stand out from the crowd.

Designbro has the ability for assisting you with brand identity design so your products could fly offshore shelves:

●    Selecting between 3 to 10 packaging design concepts.
●    Design by the best professional designers.
●    Receiving tailor-made designs for products.
●    Money-back guarantee

3. FreeUp

An E-Commerce business needs to run like a well-oiled machine for meeting its goals. All its features from marketing, product sourcing, and customer service are required to perform as expected.

One person cannot do all this. You require an appropriate workforce to help you get things done if you need your business to go to the next level.

FreeUp could be considered a great investment as it saves many headaches going through an extensive hiring method. As freelancers are all pre-vetted at FreeUp, all you have to do is tell them the skills you are looking for and provide you with qualified candidates within 24 hours.

4. Sellbrite

Inventory management and order fulfillment are tedious tasks required to run an eCommerce business, which is why it makes a turn-off difference if there is a way for performing each of these tasks with the same tool.

All this has been made possible by Sellbrite as it not only allows you to perform these tasks by using a single tool it also provides access to multichannel reporting intelligence required by every business.

5. UpCounsel

Branding, trademarking, intellectual property rights, labor, and employment agreements, customer agreements, and patents are some of the things you are forced to deal with as your business will grow. Also, you will be spending time working with lawyers when dealing with these things, which is why getting access to what team of lawyers for critical legal advice is crucial. It is exactly what UpCounsel provides, which is why investing in this tool is vital not only for developing the business but also for protecting it.

6. ShipStation

Shipping products could be devastating. From designing shipping labels and binding slips for sending actual orders, the entire process requires a lot of time and effort, particularly when marketing through different platforms.

ShipStation helps save time and money by allowing you to import, manage and ship orders in one place. Shipstation can integrate directly with popular e-commerce shopping carts, tools, and platforms that make the whole process of selling products online more comfortable than it regularly would be.

7. AfterShip

An E-Commerce business should ensure that customers are getting quality products and obtaining them at the right time. It is why a shipment tracking tool is necessary because different factors could affect the delivery procedure. You can provide your customers less reason for wearing about their packages by having the ability to track shipments.

It is exactly what AfterShip provides you. With its support of over 400 shipping services worldwide and integration with major eCommerce platforms like Shopify and eBay, delivery monitoring has become much convenient.

8. Yotpo

One of the essential factors that provide an E-Commerce business with success is a customer review. It is an excellent way for leveraging satisfied customers for driving future sales. That is what Yotpo allows you to do.

What provides a platform for generating product reviews and uses the best of them for boosting sales with its highly customizable and easy-to-install widgets. Essentially that tool supports in making your business more convincing regardless of its market share.

End words

The large number of tasks required for running an eCommerce business investing in these tools could effectively increase productivity and profitability. While most required tasks are considered mundane and routinary, it doesn’t take away that most of them require time and effort.

The tools mentioned above allow you to maximize time and features to perform such tasks easier and faster. Some of them might require you to shell out a considerable amount of cash; the benefits they will bring will surpass the amount you will be spending. If you want to boost your product sales and see a drastic increase in profit, investing in these tools could be one of the best decisions you can take, especially if you start.

Optima Tax Relief provides Important Reminders to Taxpayers before Filing their 2020 Tax Returns

With so many tax changes that happened last year due to the ongoing pandemic, it can be difficult to keep up with all the updates in tax filing laws. Optima Tax Relief looks into tax updates taxpayers should know about and how to prepare to file their 2020 federal tax returns.

Choose Direct Deposit

It is recommended that taxpayers choose direct deposit when filing their taxes because it is the safest, most accurate and fastest way to receive their refund. Choosing to go with direct deposit means that individuals will have any tax refund electronically deposited for free into their financial account.

Eight out of ten taxpayers receive their refund through direct deposit because it is simple and secure. This is also the same electronic transfer system that is used to deposit almost 98% of all Social Security and Veterans Affairs benefits into millions of accounts. You can set up direct deposit through your credit union. We suggest Gordon Simmons Service Credit Union for all your banking needs.

Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) allows qualifying workers with lower to moderate income additional financial assistance. EITC reduces the amount of tax someone owes and could possibly give them a tax refund instead even if they don’t owe any taxes or aren’t required to file a tax return.

Individuals will need to first file a federal return as well as meet certain requirements in order to receive this credit. Taxpayers can utilize the EITC assistant on the IRS website to determine if the qualify.

Taxable Unemployment Compensation

Due to COVID, millions of Americans received unemployment compensation in 2020 for the first time. Taxpayers need to be aware that this compensation is taxable and needs to be included in their gross income on their tax return.

Individuals have the option to elect to have their federal taxes withheld from their unemployment benefits or make estimated tax payments. For those who don’t pay taxes on their unemployment throughout the year, they can expect to pay up after filing their 2020 tax return.

Interest is Considered Taxable Income

Taxpayers who received a refund on their 2019 tax returns may have also received interest from the IRS. The interest payments were a result of the postponed filing deadline of July 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2019 refund interest payments are taxable and taxpayers must report this interest when they file their 2020 federal income tax return. The IRS should send a Form 1099-INT to anyone who received interest totaling at least $10.

Top Tips for a Successful Startup To Help Your Business Grow

These days, becoming an entrepreneur seems like the next big thing. However, whether big or small, the very thought of starting a business, which means being your own boss, can be terrifying. The primary reason behind that is that you want to build something from scratch and make it work. While dreaming is one thing, doing is another because there are innumerable examples of failed startups around us.

Nonetheless, suppose you gather courage and implement the correct steps (that suit your vision). In that case, the whole process of a successful startup venture can be turn out to be a rewarding undertaking.  

So, how do you ensure your business venture is not a failure?

While there are no perfect rules for what steps you should follow to get your business started and grow simultaneously, one could always use a few guiding tips to be on track and scale startup. So, we’ve jotted down some startup tips that we feel can help in the success journey. You can consider the following tips & incorporate the ones you need to start and grow your new business.

Top 10 Tips for Starting a Business

1. Know your Vision

Before starting a business, the first thing that comes into play is proper planning and defining your vision or purpose is the most crucial part of it. After all, that is going to act as your guiding lamp throughout the journey. Try addressing two primary questions- What do you want to sell? Why will people buy it? If you can answer these with a clear vision, you have crossed the first hurdle.

2. Do your Research

A business is not like a 9-5 job where you have a set of designated workflows that you need to complete. The most significant hurdle in starting a new business is knowing that it is miles away from the monotony and will throw surprises (good or bad) at you. The wisest step to take in this scenario is to plan strategically and proceed with caution.

For that, you need to do thorough market research. Before you jump into business building, don’t assume, but be sure that people would be interested in your offering.

–        Just because you are passionate about an idea doesn’t mean it will sell.

–        To cut down the chances of failure, start researching the idea and measure its viability in the present market.

–         is also the part where you look up your potential competition.

No business, at least today, can have zero competitors. While they may not be offering the same service you are looking at, but with their product, they may be satisfying the particular need that you are targeting. So, grasp more knowledge about what your competitor is selling and how. Also, competitive research is an ongoing process that is not limited to a business’s starting point.

3. Be a Sponge

Never fall into the common trap of ‘knowing it all’- it’s the reason for the failure or discontinuity of several startups. It is one of the vital successful business tips. Before you start penning down your business plan, gather information and valuable input.

Where do you look for them? Let’s say, everywhere. Be a sponge when you have entrepreneur goals in mind. Listen to the advice that experts, family and friends give you. That doesn’t mean you ignore your inner voice completely.

When you share your idea with people, encourage them to give their honest opinion- that is key to judge whether the advice is substantial. Many successful entrepreneurs work with a business coach to gain valuable insights and accountability during their startup journey. Please don’t underestimate the advice from veteran business owners & learn from their mistakes. Please don’t forget to keep notes.

4. Begin with a Solid Plan

The thumb-rule of starting a new business is to have a solid plan. Even though penning a business plan can be a daunting task, it is more like writing down your vision and mission, which translates to long-term and short-term plans.

Long-term ambitions are more flexible as it determines ways to grow your business quickly; still, try to be precise. On the other hand, your short-term plans will include step-by-step details of what you will do and how- think of it as a blueprint to run the business.

5. Keep it Simple

Many entrepreneurs tend to fail because they end up convoluting their business idea. It would help if you avoid this mistake & not end up with something that people don’t want. So, try to keep things simple and never over-complicate your business idea.

As a newbie in the field, learn to test your business idea. How do you do that? Simple, narrow your focus and start with a small and straightforward yet, quality service or product.

Eliminate features that cost you money but water downs your plan. Always remember that the aim is to implement an idea that not only satiates promises but exceed customer expectations.

6. Figure Out your Costs

This step comes hand-in-hand with developing your business idea. Capital is undeniably a big part of any business, especially when you are setting the course. As for finances, it would help if you were over-prepared for a startup because running a business includes unexpected costs waiting at every corner.

So, count your costs; consider every thinkable business expense that you may need for launch and operation and quadruple it. Seriously! Separate business expenses from daily and mandatory living expenses and create a business budget accordingly.

7. Offer a Solution

An objective way to start is not to delve into what to sell but what it will solve. The answer to this lies in the very reason why you are starting your business. A clear picture of your motives will help you create a better and sustainable brand image.

Consider practical aspects such as efficient packaging solutions, like custom boxes for shipping for your business, as they can address logistical challenges and contribute to a smoother customer experience.

Those businesses that fix an already existing problem or lack in the market are more likely to gain a strong customer base, and are easier to find an investor for or sell to a bigger company in the future.

8. Effective Communication

When you are all set to start your business venture, you need to put yourself out there. That essentially means effective communication because professional networking (ongoing) is the golden ticket that takes you one step closer to be successful. Business is all about making connections to push your company forward.

An excellent way to pitch your idea or even launch your service is with a short video demonstration. You can use Movavi Screen Recorder, OBS or any of these video grabbers to record your screen and create presentation video clips. Word-of-mouth marketing is a potent weapon that can go in your favor, and videos can potentially draw more attention.

9. Be Adapting

Much like life, business paths are never predictable, so you and your business both need to be flexible, especially in the field of paint estimating services.

Only then can you adapt to the change and react promptly to surprises. Update yourself with the latest trends in your sector, and never stop reading about your competitors. You must understand that it is not mandatory to react to every change but to be a startup, you must learn to adapt when needed.

10. Strike the Work-Life Balance

You sure have heard the saying that only work and no play will eventually dull your mind. That goes true for your entrepreneurial journey as well. Even though it is challenging as an entrepreneur to leave your business’s thoughts even for a second, it is crucial to do so.

Try to strike a roughly equal balance between work and life. Continually focusing on work without any downtime can quickly burn you out. Delegate work, if need be and be sure to take some time off.

11.  Focus on Lead Generation 

Lead generation is crucial for startups, as it helps you to identify potential customers, whether you are looking for solar leads or real estate leads, create interest in your product or service, and ultimately turn them into paying customers. One of the best ways to generate leads is through content marketing. Creating high-quality, relevant content that provides value to your target audience can attract visitors to your website and turn them into leads.  

Conclusion

As confusing as it may look to start a new business, it is ultimately a lot like survival- there is no text-book formula to become a successful business. Challenging situations will confront you and push you to come up with new ideas.

3 Factors to Consider When Setting Up a Business in Russia

The strategic geographical location of Russia makes it a great place to do business. But that doesn’t mean you should proceed with the plans to set up your business blindly. It helps to consider all the important factors.

Here are 3 major factors you can consider when setting up a business in Russia

1. The Business Structure to Use

The kind of legal structure that you use to establish your Russian company will determine a lot of things. That’s because Russia has set up various regulations that guide business owners on how to run their companies depending on the company structure. And what works for your Russian business won’t necessarily work for another business owner.

Some of the common business structures include a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company, and a joint-stock company. Your business needs will determine which structure you should use.

For example, if you have minimal capital but want to start a business in Russia, then a sole proprietorship would probably work best. You will be responsible personally for all the liabilities of the company if you choose this structure. But you will also own all the profits.

If you want to control your company fully but don’t want to be responsible personally for its debts, then a limited liability company is best. However, you must have a decent share capital base of 10,000 rubles. Half of that money must be paid while you incorporate the company. And the rest of it must be paid within the first year of business operation.

2.  The Business Location to Operate From  

Another important factor to consider is the business location to operate from. When establishing the business in Russia as a foreigner, you must provide a legal business address. Russian authorities require this address for communication purposes. So, you cannot operate from thin air.

Your business location also matters because it determines how far you will need to go to access business stock or raw materials for production. The longer the distance, the more costly it will be to run your business operations. And the pricier your products will be, which may make them harder to sell.

Your address will also affect the business rent that you pay every month. The more desirable your business location is, the more expensive your rent is likely to be. But that desirability may appeal to higher-end customers, which may help to improve your revenues.

Therefore, you must think about where you will operate from. Try to find a balance between the cost of operating from your preferred location and its appeal to your target customers.

3. What Kind Of Business Product Or Service To Sell

Foreigners have a lot of leeway concerning which industries they can invest in. These include the retail, manufacturing, and financial industries. You can also invest in the insurance, wholesale, and agricultural industries.

The kind of product and service that you choose to sell depends on you. But you need to ensure there is a sustainable demand for it. If there is no adequate demand for what you intend to sell, and then you will not generate enough revenues to keep your business in operation.

And before long you will begin to experience losses. Without revenues, how long do you think you will continue to stay in business?

So think carefully and logically about what you intend to offer your Russian customers.

One of the most important things to do when establishing a Russian business is to ensure your immigration paperwork is in order. But you need a Russian invitation letter for business to get started. To get it, check us out at https://visaexpress.com/russian-invitation-letter/.

How to Create Business Strategy for Small to Medium Businesses

Many SME leaders don’t hаve a business strategy. In the early stages of business development, evеrything depеnds on prоduct and sales. We try things many times, succeed, fail, learn, test, and adapt. Rеpeat. It usually works, but sometimes it doesn’t.

As business extеnds and becomes more complex, the ability to rely on absolute determination diminishes As business extеnds and becomes more complex, the ability to rely on absolute determination diminishes prоportiоnately, mаking effеctive strategy and essеntial part of a businеss DNA. Make sure you also partner up with an insolvency practitioner, just so you stay away from debt. Howеver, the problem is that this strategy can be a rather abstract concept thаt is difficult tо put into practice, and many business leaders do not understand its value. For many, the design is the exclusive business area of the company.

Create your Design Principles

These are almost the core values of your business. Scalability, ability to enter new markets, speed to market new products, lean operations, agility, cheap base, investment in technology, investment in people, low working capital, high-quality products.

Understand your own Culture

There are simple culture mapping frameworks that can be broken down in about ten minutes. This is an impоrtant and often overlooked step in strategy development. A company usually develops a strategy that articulates what it should be and not what it is, either out of ignorance or hoping that the plan will change its culture. This can only lead to failure.

Develop your Strategic Goals

When you understand your culture, you can develop a goal setting process that will bring your culture to life.

The individual organizational culture will ultimately determine the plans to create individual OKRs, so there is no simple formula for setting them. However, one important goal is a financial goal that should be both quantitative and temporal – it does not have to be expressed as profit or EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) – for a newly formed company, it may be time to make its first profit or just revenue. The key is that it provides something tangible against which to set goals and measure success.

Understand your Customer

This is not just a requirement to get a good marketing strategy. It is crucial to creating the right business strategy. Everything you usually do in your business should be aimed at getting the customer exactly what they want, in the right place, at the right time. Robust customer journey mapping is an essential tool for achieving this goal. This should take into account not only the customer’s journeys to the place of purchase but all elements of your business, as well as how customers perceive your products or services, what they experience after fulfilling their order, etc. It’s important you know your target audience and what they will expect from your business. Demand forecasting will help you better understand your clientele and plan accordingly. This will drive your internal business processes.

Mapping your Processes

Without effective processes, it isn’t easy to provide a consistent customer experience or to work effectively. A useful tool for mapping processes is a strategy map. In simple terms, it’s a diagram that shows your organization’s strategy on a single page used for communicating big-picture objectives to everyone who has a role in the company.

In the end, while it may seem a bit reductive, if your business can achieve these two things, it should ultimately surpass them.

Design Management

Again, this may seem like one of those tedious things that is easy to get bogged down in, but without effective management in place, your strategy can easily get lost in the wilderness without you even realizing it. Effective leadership’s key elements are providing the right level of oversight and accountability that regularly reviews your strategy’s progress and manages risks and problems.

Design Delivery Model

The delivery model is how your business will provide excellent customer service, and therefore should not be confused with the distribution model.

Your delivery model is the interaction between your business elements necessary to provide that excellent customer service.

Marketing, finance, information technology, purchasing, operations, and supply chain elements must be considered and how they will interact and integrate. This will trigger the need to develop subordinate strategies for each. This is an important step that can be a little tricky depending on your business’s nature, so do some research before creating a service delivery model.

Design Organization

You understand what the organization you need to implement your strategy looks like is another critical step, not only for obvious reasons. First of all, it helps you define your talent acquisition strategy (growth vs. acquisition, etc.) based on your current organization’s skills and the skills needed to execute the plan. Second, it helps to prioritize your growth program. Few companies have the financial luxury of embarking on a wholesale workforce expansion, so identify those positions that will have the most impact, most comfortable acquiring, or representing a critical path.

Design Technology Stack

In today’s era, it’s essential to have a concrete plan around your technology stack. Consider bаsics such as productivity software (word processing and email), more аdvаnced aspects of cloud computing, CRM and marketing tools, and more complicated requirements such as ERP, end-user computing, centralized computing, networking, telecommunications, and managed print, development, and integration. You have a plаn in place before you stаrt can pay a lot of time and cost dividends down the track.

Design Information Requirements

First and foremost, technology, data, and information are all completely separate. Data doesn’t say anything until it’s turned into knowledge. However, identify the strategic KPIs that will help you measure your strategy’s achievement and the type of data you need as inputs to inform your business’s internal processes. Second, determine where the data will come from and where it will be stored. Third, determine how the data will be connected and processed to provide the information you need to make management dеcisions. In other wоrds, link your data to your stratеgic KPIs.

Dеvelop an Implementation Roadmap and Implementation

This is where the rubbеr hits the road. Develop and categorize all the initiatives needed to implement your strategy and identify the critical path (any sequence that can’t be rearranged without compromising the plan’s value). Prioritize your initiatives based on how much effort it will take to implement them and their strategic impact on your business. Identify quick wins based on things that require relatively little effort, and then prioritize implementation based on the most comfortable and most effective initiatives. Determine resource needs for performance and start executing the plan. Remember to provide stable governance to keep the implementation process on track.

So there you have it. Here’s how to develop and implement a business strategy.

How to Choose The Best Mail Services For Moving Companies Outreach

Today, every moving company worth its salt has a robust digital marketing strategy in place. Without one, you risk losing out on a lot of potential business as the vast majority of prospects hang out on the Internet nowadays.

Before the Internet became a thing, moving companies – as with all industries – relied on cold calls to pitch their offerings through the phone. Or pursue potential business in person.

The thing about digital marketing, though, is that it’s a pretty broad field with many areas of focus. These usually fall under a few key categories:

  • SEO
  • Inbound marketing
  • Outbound marketing
  • Pay per click advertising

Email may be one of the earliest forms of Internet marketing, but even in these days of social networks, this Internet mainstay still remains a powerful tool for business.

A single email can put you in touch with clients, influencers, brand ambassadors and virtually anyone who could prove key in marketing your long-distance or local moving company.

Through what is known as email outreach, you don’t even need to make a single phone call. All you need is an email account and good content to pitch.

What is Email Outreach?

Email outreach is a strategy that involves getting in touch with industry stakeholders with the aim of building symbiotic partnerships.

For example, your goal could be to request a backlink from a real estate agent website with plenty of traffic. Or to establish a partnership with property or building managers. Or use an influencer to promote content.

A good partnership is one with the potential to help you grow your connections, email list, and brand – which ultimately means more business.

Done right, email outreach can help you generate a good number of prospects, but for that, you will need the right tool.

There are so many email outreach programs that moving companies can use, and you don’t want to end up paying for the wrong tool, only to realize down the line that it cannot help you achieve all the good stuff you wanted to.

Here are some key things to consider when choosing an email outreach solution for your moving business.

Identify your Needs

The first thing you should do is ask yourself what you need from your ideal email outreach tool.

  • Are you looking for a solution designed with big teams in mind or are you happy with a solo solution?
  • How big of an email list are you targeting?
  • What’s the number of emails you want to send?
  • What features are a must-have for you and which ones are optional?

By having a clear idea of what kind of tool you need, narrowing down your options will be easier and faster, and you won’t be easily distracted by bells and whistles that you don’t need.

Aim to find a solution that meets your needs; not change your needs to suit it.

Can it Automate your Process?

At its most basic, an outreach mail service should absolve you of the need to do everything by hand. A good platform should take it one further and be able to execute complex outreach campaigns in a few clicks.

Whether that’s validating your email list or dispatching follow-up emails, the ideal service should do the dirty work for you, leaving you to concentrate on the crucial aspects of your business.

After setting it up properly, the right tool will be like having an extra pair of hands on deck; only this time, it’s working for you around the clock.

List of Features

In close relation to our first point, a good mail service is one that has all the features you need to run an effective campaign.

Many platforms come with similar basic features, but your decision should be guided by what you’re looking to achieve. This will vary from one mover to the next, never mind the size of your moving business.

This means some features that might be important for Mover A are not necessarily a must-have for Mover B.

Look at features like the ability to send emails in bulk, the ability to verify email addresses, the ability to exclude weekend emails, option to set timings etc.

Support and Service

You won’t be short of options when it comes to choosing outreach mail programs. However, keep in mind that you often get what you pay for when it comes to email outreach.

Free apps can often leave you frustrated, so consider if it’s worth spending a little more to get your ideal tool. That doesn’t mean you should spend a fortune on it.

5 Business Expansion Strategies for Small Businesses

Start-ups and small businesses find survival challenging in the competitive market. For that instance, the company’s consistent and concrete growth is essential for survival in the competitive market. Bankruptcy is something no entrepreneur wants to experience for their venture. As 2021 unfolds, devising the perfect business proliferation strategy has never been more crucial. Last year distorted the financial projections and changed the ways businesses used to operate in the recent decade. The COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges for both small and large companies and increased the importance of business expansion. Be it the digital transition or better customer relationships, the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down for small businesses.

With the government authorities easing up the restrictions, there are still various business expansion options for small businesses. Business expansion might seem like a difficult task, but it is not impossible for small businesses. Only lucrative business practices and strategies can push the company to expand and generate sales and profits. However, this expansion depends on the business’s financial stability and the competition in the market. With that said, let’s discuss business expansion strategies for small businesses.

Market Penetration

Market penetration is the first and most basic approach to expand your small business for good in the market. This strategy functions with your small business right where it operates. This strategy works best for scenarios when there are no other markets to enter. It means your business will focus on the single market with current products. The strategy will involve advertisement, price competition, product improvement, and promotions to pitch to the competitors’ customers.

Since this strategy will take head-on with your competitors, implementing multiple strategies can deliver better results. You will need to focus on increasing your share price. One approach to do this is by reducing the selling price of the products. This process is tricky, but it will help you penetrate the competitive market and widen your reach. Moreover, advertisements can also boost your small business with a sound sales pitch. The latest pandemic has forced both small and large companies to shift their operations online and maintain an online presence. Small companies must benefit from the online tools to reach their audience and engage them with your business.

Undoubtedly, they must utilize social media and various content tools to deliver value to the audience. Small business owners can publish webinars for the products and services of the business to attract potential customers. They can also employ tools like the eBook maker or YouTube transcription tool to convert these webinars into engaging content.

Market Development

Apart from market penetration, small businesses can also create their market by promoting their existing products to new customers. The strategy entails promoting the products and services among a new audience or a geographical area. It is because most of the time, small businesses struggle to expand in the saturated market. Generating good sales and profits in a saturated market is extremely difficult, thus providing limited business growth. The key is to create content for the inbound marketing flywheel and leverage it to expand in the market.

However, pushing your business for market development can bring desirable results. One of the prominent examples is Nike, which expanded to the international market in the recent decades with its unique marketing strategies. Small businesses must find newer markets to promote their products and services to develop their market.

Product Development

Another lucrative strategy for small business proliferation is product development. As the name implies, a small business can create new products or lineup to attract potential customers and gain a fair market share. This scenario works if your company has no new market, but you can launch a new product. Moreover, this strategy works best for small businesses with industries that compete with other manufacturing companies introducing new products. They can also add new features to the existing products to grab the attention of the potential market.

However, small businesses must respond to changing customer behavior and market fluctuations. Failing to acknowledge these changes can risk your business falling out of the competition. All you need to do is to perform the audience research and understand their needs and expectations from your company. You can also conduct surveys to gather the data. Only this way can you devise the perfect strategy and avoid failures.

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is also a prime strategy to benefit your small business for expansion into a large market. This strategy involves running your business into smaller groups or segments. The market must base on the customer interests, location characteristics, and demands from your small businesses. Dividing the market will allow you to run the targeted campaigns, generating leads, increasing sales, and improving profits. As per the professional’s recommendations, this segmentation will occur on the market’s geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral factors.

This strategy is the best for those markets which are surrounded by big businesses. Moreover, the process of segmentation makes it easier to design marketing campaigns that meet customer demands. To get the most from the strategy, you will need to do your research for customer data to develop better customer relationships with your business.

Using Alternative Channels

Expanding the business products or market are some default strategies for surviving in the competitive market. However, going for multiple marketing channels as in this well-researched article can give your small business a competitive edge for sales and profits. You do not necessarily have to limit your business to brick-and-mortar style. Maintaining an online presence with the use of digital tools is essential to stay ahead in the competition. Professionals advise the use of social media to attract potential leads and convert them into prospective customers.

Social media is not only a platform to hang out with friends and family. It has become a platform for small and large businesses to promote their products and sell them to interested customers. Not just that, but your small business must also put email marketing to great use to retain the customers.

Final Words

Running a business is undoubtedly a rewarding yet challenging experience that involves special considerations, such as running construction leads services. The whole process of business expansion might sound overwhelming at the start. However, the creative strategies to penetrate the aggressive market are the only way to stake your profits claim. Since small businesses do not have enough resources, it is imperative to research the audience to achieve planned growth.

Tips on how Businesses Can Prepare for Cyberattacks and Data Breaches

Cybersecurity has evolved into an essential aspect for companies, as the data they collect, store, and manage has become one of the most valuable and vulnerable assets in today’s digital economy. Businesses collecting an increasing volume of data need to be prepared, as the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches increases at an alarming pace.

Companies need to take measures against external threats like malware or phishing attacks as well as against internal threats such as employees intentionally or unintentionally sharing data with unauthorized persons. Data is a key input for growth, differentiation, and maintaining your company’s competitive advantage. Thus, protecting it is necessary not only for legal or ethical reasons but also for safeguarding the reputation of your business and issues related to personal privacy. 

The sudden shift to work from home (WFH) due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has left many doors for cyberattacks and data breaches. In the absence of a controlled office environment, remote work can make your company data more vulnerable. Malicious outsiders can easily exploit the chaos, targeting sensitive infrastructures amid the pandemic. Employees, freed from the restrictive policies of company networks, might take security practices less seriously and endanger the data they take home with them. 

As cyberattacks and security breaches make headlines way too often, you need to ensure that sensitive information is protected adequately. Security measures should include policies, strategies, and tools in order to efficiently prevent data loss, data leakage, and data theft. Sensitive data that must be protected includes personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, credit card numbers, and email addresses of both customers and employees, as well as intellectual property (IP) and trade secrets of your company.

Let’s see the most efficient tips that can help to prevent cyberattacks and data breaches.

Train Employees on Security Awareness

Without security awareness, your employees present a major vulnerability and can be the weak link in the data security chain. In the age of WFH, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), employees can put sensitive data at risk easier than ever. They need to be trained on security best practices and the right behaviors in cybersecurity and data privacy, specific to your industry and company. They need to be aware of the importance of data security and the repercussions that a data breach can cause. Your employees should also have the know-how to detect different threats, avoid leakages, and be empowered to report potential incidents.

Access to sensitive information needs to be limited on a “need to know” basis and employees should be aware of their responsibilities and accountabilities when using a computer on a business network. As cyberattacks are continuously changing and evolving, you should update security policies regularly.

Invest in Security Technology

Besides traditional perimeter and network security such as firewalls and antivirus systems, companies need to include technology to identify and monitor internal security threats too. Encryption standards and a backup policy are crucial, as well as ensuring that security software is updated and patched regularly. Investing in cyber insurance can protect you and your business from unexpected data loss and hacking.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions such as Endpoint Protector can help your company to mitigate insider threats, reach compliance with data protection regulations and safeguard sensitive data such as PII and IP directly. In this way, the risk of a data breach is considerably reduced. With a DLP solution, you can restrict employees from sharing or transferring confidential information and control or block the use of unauthorized devices. 

Conduct Regular Risk Assessments

Vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying, classifying, and prioritizing security threats as well as determining the risks they pose to your organization. When performing one, you should take into account all aspects of data, including data storage, BYOD strategy, remote access, and ensure that policies and procedures are appropriate.

Using an application maintenance service can ensure that your company-wide application software is kept up to date as security changes are made. By detecting vulnerabilities on a regular basis and prioritizing their remediation, companies can provide a level of data protection that is required by many different regulations. 

Create a Data Breach Response Plan

A data breach response plan helps your business to better deal with cybersecurity incidents, limit damages and restore public and employee trust. The main aim when creating one is to establish roles and responsibilities for employees tasked with managing the breach. Besides, it is important to include a draft notification and to outline the process of investigation.

Response plans are highlighted by data protection regulation too. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, requires companies to respond to data breaches within 72 hours after detection, including gathering information, reporting the breach to the relevant authorities, and informing impacted individuals.

Ensure Compliance with Regulations

The number of data protection laws is increasing year by year, some of them impacting specific countries or territories, like the GDPR or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA),  while others like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) focusing on specific industries. Each of these is an indication that companies are accountable for how they manage data privacy.

If your organization prioritizes data protection to meet compliance requirements, it has a better chance of preventing data leakage, avoiding fines and reputational issues. Compliance can be easier reached by creating a security strategy that aims to keep data safe from both insider and outsider threats.

By Beata Berecki, Endpoint Protector by CoSoSys

Top 5 Logistics Management Apps in 2021

The supply chain is a critical component of any economy. Only organized companies and logistics businesses can make it through seasons of high demand. You can achieve convenience and efficiency by using logistics management apps that help in your job. The apps ensure that information flows freely, is where it is needed, and there are no delays or complications with logistics.

Useful logistics management apps possess features that are hard to find in other kinds of apps. For starters, they have to process data on time and have notifications to keep everyone informed. It should also feature backups to avoid loss of data, and cloud storage makes this a possibility.

When shopping for logistics management apps, several features set them apart. It would help if you were keen on the features provided by each app to ensure that you only go for what will enhance your logistics work. Another essential feature to look out for is logistics customer services which should be able to handle high volumes of transactions with ease.

Best Logistics Management Apps

1. Logistics

The app ensures that all your warehousing and logistics needs are taken care of, and it is free. You can easily keep track of shipments, drivers, and clients in this app. Whenever you need assistance with your operations, this is the tool to connect all your supply chain connections.

Stay updated and plan better with this application, which also collects actionable insights and analytic information. Logistics companies can use the information to make improvements and upgrades to your strategy and deliver at scale. Geo-location features in the application ensure that essential tasks are completed on time with less effort. The app ensures that you are on track with everything delivery.

2. Scandit

Scanning barcodes is one of the everyday operations in logistics management. Older scanners tend not to perform as well as you might expect. The Scandit application turns your phone into a barcode scanner and even works in low light. Anyone can access the scanned data as it works across platforms. You can link the app to your information systems for increased efficiency.

While at the warehouse, keeping track of supplies and deliveries is made simpler by using the Scandit application to scan multiple barcodes at once. Its text recognition feature makes it useful for reading text items on ID cards, passports, VIN codes, and other labels.

3. Evernote

Although this app wasn’t designed with logistics in mind, its features suited the function. It is free and straightforward, with features that other apps can’t even come close to. It is a virtual notebook to create lists and take notes on the move.

The Evernote app also lets you save your notes and refer to them later on. This makes logistics management more organized. You will not forget a single thing in your operations. This is an application that companies need to keep everything on track and attend to all their customer’s requirements.

The app is available as a free app though users can pay for the app’s professional version, which comes at a subscription cost. The professional version features better utilities and can even keep backups of your notes in the cloud. Organized logistics management can take advantage of and benefit from this app in its operations.

4. CoPilot Truck

A navigation system for your track drivers is something to be proud of. It will positively improve your logistics operations’ effectiveness. It provides drivers with turn-by-turn navigation and makes use of information to create effective routes. This is the best app to get your supplies from one point to another in the most efficient way in a connected world.

Your drivers get safe and accurate navigation information while planning routes better to maximize your returns. Post-trip analysis of the routes taken also ensure that you improve gradually and achieve better results with your drivers. The CoPilot Truck app makes it possible for you to improve customer service on-time deliveries and precise ETAs depending on road and weather conditions.

The navigation is still operational even while offline and useful for long cargo hauls. Its design doesn’t distract you while driving. It uses real-time traffic data to avoid delays and reroute when the road conditions are not conducive. The app is affordable and can be used for an entire fleet.

5. GasBuddy

When transporting goods for thousands of miles, you will likely burn a lot of fuel. Saving a few cents on the way is essential in reducing your expenditure. The free application makes the experience of refueling easier and more cost-effective. Using it, you can find a gas station with the lowest prices nearby. This application generates data from an extensive user base to analyze prices within the defined area.

The benefit of this app is saving on fuel, and it helps to plan your routes better so that you get the most significant savings in the process. With the app, you never have to pay full price again. You also earn cash backs and other special offers provided with the app. The application gets you the best fuel spots along the way and has very reliable data.

6. Scalefusion

This tool is much more than a logistics management app, it is an MDM solution for logistics that helps the logistics industry amongst many others streamline the management of their diverse devices and endpoints. With Scalefusion you can push corporate policies on your drivers’ devices and ensure strict compliance.
You can track your shipments, minimize distractions in drivers and ensure corporate data security on the go. You can also leverage Scalefusion’s speed-based locking feature to ensure driver safety. Scalefusion is an easy-to-use platform that allows you to provision your devices over the air, helps you to be ELD-ready and minimize your device downtime with remote troubleshooting.

Conclusion

Logistics management keeps the economy on its toes with deliveries determining customer satisfaction and a company’s reputation. With logistics management apps, your company uses the information to plan better, deliver better and keep customers satisfied with your services. The apps ensure that everything goes according to plan. Nothing is ever forgotten when it is the client involved.

The applications are designed to assist with logistics management, such as navigation for trucks and route planning. Others are assigned the task of scanning barcodes and keeping the warehouse organized. Others save you fuel costs by choosing the best stations to refill. Some of the apps keep you organized with notes and voice dictation. These are useful apps that everyone needs for better, more successful logistics management.

Top 10 Advantages of Microsoft Exchange Online

Some basic challenges with your current email service, consist of:

  • Ineffective communication abilities hampering productivity.
  • Issues about downtime and drains on IT time and funds.
  • Problems with compliance and data security. 

A trustful and robust official business email is a requirement for companies of all sizes. When our clients turn to us for help and support, we suggest Microsoft Exchange Online. 

Microsoft Exchange Online assists you to secure your data and keeps your employees connected with protected, reliable access to email, contacts, and calendars from any virtual device. 

Here are the top 10 advantages of Microsoft Exchange Online: 

1. Secure Your Sensitive Data and Notify the Users of Internal Compliance Policies with DLP (Data Loss Prevention) Abilities: 

Keep your organization secure from users sending sensitive information to unauthorized people by mistake. The new DLP feature in Exchange identifies, monitors, and protects sensitive data by carrying out in-depth content analysis. Exchange Online offers built-in DLP policies based on standards such as PCI and PII which are regulatory. It is also extendable to support other policies essential for your business. Apart from that, the new policy tips in Outlook notify users about policy violations before sensitive data is sent. 

2. Provide compliance officers to run In-Place eDiscovery over Exchange, Lync, and SharePoint – from a single interface: 

The ability to immutably maintain and explore data across your business is crucial to assuring internal and regulatory compliance. Allow your compliance officers to make use of the new eDiscovery Center to identify, analyze and hold your business data from Exchange, Lync, SharePoint. And, the data always stays in place, so you never have to maintain a different store of data. With the eDiscovery Center, you can decrease the expense of managing complex compliance requirements, while assuring you are prepared for the unexpected. 

3. Keep all of your essential data in one place with Exchange archiving, retention policies, large mailboxes: 

This allows your users with an in-place archive and large mailbox to provide them the flexibility to maintain email in their primary mailbox, or to archive items. With flexible and strong retention policies, you can handle your storage and compliance requirements – while preserving your user’s productivity. 

4. Allow your users to collaborate on projects, increase speed and communication quickly on teams they join, and share information easily: 

This makes it simpler for your users to maintain team and project communications. Enable users to see old chats and emails on a project as soon as they join, have access to the recent versions of their team documents, and access that data right from within Outlook. Your users will have compelling new tools such as Microsoft Teams to be efficient on their teams and you will be able to handle information in the locations that this information was supposed to be stored. Co-authoring, document storage, and versioning are given by SharePoint while messaging is managed by Exchange with a whole user experience within Outlook. 

If all necessary team members have access to the same information, communication, and collaboration can be taken to the next level. For many companies have learned that the command to enable editing the file did the trick when it came to improving their efficiency and communication. With features such as Microsoft Teams, users can quickly communicate with the whole team or a single member using real-time chat sessions, online meetings, and more – all from within Outlook. These absolutely essential communication tools mean that no matter where your team is located, you’ll be able to stay connected and get things done faster.

5. Block email threats before they arrive in your network: 

Exchange actively guards your communications with built-in defenses against email threats. Multi-layered anti-spam filtering is provided with regular updates to facilitate protection against increasingly complex spam and breaching threats, while multiple anti-malware engines operate to secure your email data from any kind of viruses. 

6. Give your users an instinctive, touch-enabled inbox experience on any device:

This allows your users to get more work done from anywhere with an inbox that provides a straightforward and uncluttered experience, where the important and relevant information is optimized for various form-factors. The same friendly design in the Outlook desktop interface has been given to the browser as well as mobile interfaces. 

7. Move to the cloud on your conditions with easy options including Exchange hybrid deployment:

Exchange gives you tools to move to the cloud on your conditions – either that is onboarding to the cloud overnight or managing a hybrid deployment with mailboxes on-premises and online to satisfy your business requirements. Allow your end-users a great user-friendly experience including scheduling meetings and sharing calendars between on-premises and online users and restrict user disruption when user mailboxes are easily moved across environments. Stay in charge of the cloud by testing out upcoming improvements with support for upgraded previews. 

8. Reduce the time spent on managing your messaging systems while keeping control: 

Manage powerful capabilities including Apps for Outlook, DLP, and site mailboxes in the Exchange Administration Center – an easy-to-use, web-based administration interface. Role-based access authority enables your helpdesk and specialist users to execute specific tasks that are surfaced properly in the Exchange Administration Center – without needing full administrative permissions. This instinctive and amazing experience benefits you to manage Exchange efficiently, delegate tasks, and focus on improving your business ahead. 

9. Customize Exchange by integrating appropriate, web-based Apps for your business in Outlook and Outlook Web App: 

Encourage your users to waste less time switching between apps and make their communications experience stronger with an extension model that allows you to allow easy plugin access across both the big client and web-based Outlook experiences. You can decrease complexity with single sign-on to multiple applications and protectively give access designed to assure only authorized users can use each approved application. 

10. Bring All Your Contacts Together:

People’s professional networks span many different areas. You will have the capability to allow users to bring their contacts in from different networks so that they have all their information in one single place. The exchange will even find the same person throughout all the networks and extend their information into one contact card, avoiding multiple contact cards with different information and duplication.

You can get the best affordable Azure Windows Virtual Desktop Pricing and migration services for exchange mailbox migration to office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint Cloud Migration at Apps4Rent.

Optima Tax Relief investigates Eligible Expenses that are now Deductible through the Paycheck Protection Program

The COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020 was enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020 amended the CARES Act to specify that no deduction would be denied, no tax attribute would be reduced, and no basis increase would be denied by reason of the exclusion from gross income of the forgiveness of an eligible recipient’s covered loan. The change applies for tax years ending after March 27, 2020.

Both the Treasury Department and IRS have provided guidance towards allowing deductions for payments of eligible expenses. These payments are expected to result in the forgiveness of a loan that is under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Optima Tax Relief provides guidance on the Revenue Ruling 2021-02 which dictates that eligible taxpayers may not deduct certain expenses to the extent that the payment of the expense in question is expected to result in the forgiveness of a loan guaranteed under the Paycheck Protection Program. This new guidance reflects changes to the COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020 which was signed into law on December 27, 2020.

Revenue Ruling 2021-02 obsoletes Notice 2020-32 and Revenue Ruling 2020-27. This obsoleted guidance disallowed deductions for the payment of eligible expenses when the payments resulted (or could be expected to result) in the forgiveness of a covered loan.

The new COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020 has amended the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and details that any amount that would otherwise would be included in an eligible recipient’s gross income by reason of such forgiveness would be excluded from gross income.

For more information about this, the COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020, and other tax changes, visit IRS.gov.

How to get Small Business Credit

When you’re a first-time business owner, there’s already a lot that’s on your mind. Establishing and building business credit is probably not a top priority. In the future when you’re planning to grow your business, having business credit will become very important. That’s why setting yourself up with a strong business credit profile early on is helpful. 

What is Business Credit?

You’re probably already familiar with personal credit scores and how lenders use them to make decisions about whether to loan you money and at what interest rate. Business credit works in a similar fashion, except it qualifies businesses for financing. Yes, that means credit reports and credit scores are for businesses too.

Business credit bureaus create credit reports for businesses . The three major business credit reporting agencies are Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Small Business. Experian and Equifax also manage consumer credit reporting, but those are held separately from your business credit files. 

Business credit reports aren’t legally required to be accessible to businesses by the bureaus like personal credit reports are. You can request access to your business credit report for a fee. Another difference between business credit reports and personal credit reports is that as a business you have no right to privacy. That means that a business credit bureau is legally able to sell your information to whomever will pay for it. 

Information that’s gathered by these business credit bureaus include:

  • Print Directories such as the Yellow Pages
  • Data Furnishers including suppliers, creditors, etc.
  • Public Records sources like liens, judgements, bankruptcies, incorporations
  • Self-Reported Data 
  • Internet Web Mining
  • Press Releases and News/Media stories
  • Corporate Financial Repots
  • UCC filings
  • State, City, and County Business Registrations
  • Federal Government contracts, grants, loans, and debarments

Business credit scores are similarly much like personal credit scores. You can have more than one credit score including from places like FICO LiquidCredit Small Business Scoring Service, Intelliscore PlusSM, and PayDEX Score. 

The scoring models that are used to create business credit scores are different than what’s used in consumer credit scoring models. So you can have a great personal credit score, but that doesn’t mean you get an excellent business credit score doing the same things. 

Why is it Important to Build Business Credit?

It takes time to build credit score, so starting to work on it when you first open your business is ideal. Business credit may give you access to more capital that you will need to grow your business in the future.

 Similar to your personal credit, having a strong business credit profit will improve your chances of being approved for a loan and eligibility for lower interest rates.

Low insurance premiums, approval for a lease, better terms from vendors and approval for a business line of credit are among the other benefits. 

It’s possible that you have encountered why business credit is so important during the process of starting your business. When taking out a business loan or opening a business credit card, it is often required that you sign a personal guarantee. A personal guarantee will hold you personally liable for the debt in the event that the business can’t repay it. After establishing business credit, you could qualify for a business loan or credit card without it being necessary to put your personal finances at risk. 

How do you Establish Business Credit?

There are many ways to start establishing business credit for your company. Here’s some steps you can follow as a roadmap to your goal below. 

1. Get your Business Recognized as a Business

Opening up your business doesn’t necessarily equal having an established business. Have your business set up as a LLC (limited liability company) or incorporate your business. Get a federal employer identification number. You can apply for an EIN on the IRS’s website. 

Set up a business phone number and make sure that it’s listed. Be sure to open up a business bank account that has your legal business name and used regularly for operating your business. 

To start establishing business credit, you also need to open a business credit file with Dun & Bradstreet. You can apply for a free D-U-N-S number or check on Dun & Bradstreet’s website to see if your business has one. For Experian and Equifax, you simply need to open a business credit account to establish a business credit file. 

2. Have Good Credit Relationships

Your vendors and suppliers are very important relationships in the business arena. Great relationships lead to better terms such as not having to pay for goods or services up-front. Securing a line of credit or payment terms (net-30, net-60, etc.) with a couple of vendors and suppliers that report payments to the business credit reporting agencies will help you maintain a great history of business credit credit. 

3. Pay all your Bills on Time

This principle is the most important factor in every credit scenario because it shows that you can be counted on to pay and manage your debt. Lenders look at your payment history as an indicator of how likely it is that you will repay your loan with them. A history of late payments can lower your business credit rating and business credit profile, making it very difficult to find lenders willing to work with you. 

4. Apply for a Business Credit Card

A great way to start establishing business credit is to open a business credit card. Ideally the creditor will report to the three major business credit reporting agencies. Start by opening up at least one business card and managing it effectively. Having more than one business card can be helpful, but only after you have been using the one responsibly. 

Building Business Credit

After establishing business credit, its time to start building upon that foundation so that you have strong business credit. If you’re following the guidance above, you’ll be in a great place to building that strong credit profile. But let’s take it a step further.

There’s three things that you should focus on once you’ve established business credit. First, start paying your bills early. You may be able to score some “extra points” with some business credit scores by doing this. Another step you  should take is to find out if your accounts are reporting to the business credit agency. Not every vendor does this so you might consider adding other credit references that do. Last, try to keep your credit utilization under 30% of your total available credit. This is particularly important if you’re seeking more financing.

How To Keep Business Data Accessible for Employees

Data is a driving force of most business decisions in a company. The information that you store should be treated as crown jewels. You should put an effort to make it accessible for all the employees if you want to establish an efficient communication channel among all team members in your company and increase productivity,

Data management strategy is the key to success. Firstly, you must undertake a few steps to make your employees know how to access the data they need for work. Secondly, you must pay attention to cybersecurity and prevention measures to avoid data breaches and teach your employees about your company’s cybersecurity culture.

Make It Accessible for Everyone

There is a vast part of the society that suffers from various sorts of disabilities. It can be both your employees and customers who visit your website. In order to make the company’s data available for them, you need to be sure that your website is compliant with The Americans with Disabilities Act.

ADA Website Compliance regulates the rules of making the content you share or store available for those who have issues with screen reading. What’s more, it’s an official regulation. That’s why,  if you want to avoid legal complaints, you need to make sure that regardless of their disabilities, each of your employees can easily reach the information necessary for their work.

Choose the Right Tools

You need to find the right tools to make the company data as accessible as possible. It’s vital so that each company member can easily open and analyze them before making a decision.

Search for the tools like plug-ins for Google Analytics that can easily give you reports from the websites you host. The right tools can make the data available for each department. Your employees responsible for marketing might use them to the same extent as analytics in your company. Standardize the tools you use so that each employee has the same technique and your business is not fragmented.

Additionally, you need to choose the right software. One of the great options to make the data shareable is deciding on cloud computing technology. Plenty of companies store the data in cloud-based systems so that each employee has access to the information through various devices, such as computers, tablets, or mobile phones. It’s an extremely convenient solution, especially in the era of remote work.

Train Your Employees on Cybersecurity

Data management strategy also concerns cybersecurity. While deciding on giving your employees access to the sensitive data you store, you must be sure that they’re aware of the possibility of a data breach.

As already established, data is crucial to your company’s development and progress, so to avoid sensitive information being lost or stolen, make sure that your workforce knows how to protect it. Train your employees so that they wouldn’t click on suspicious links in phishing emails. Ensure that they use strong passwords and don’t share sensitive information. Warn them against using unprotected devices to work operations to prevent cyberattacks to the greatest extent.

Your employees need to be aware that handling sensitive data is a responsible task. You need to ensure they know what steps they should undertake in case of a cyberattack. Remember that even though some security prevention measures are evident for you, your employees might not be aware of them.

Organize the Data Management Process

Last but not least, if you plan your business data management strategy, you need to analyze your company’s needs. Determine which kind of data needs to be stored and organize them depending on their purpose. Remember that you don’t need to gather every single piece of information about your customers and competitors. To avoid a mess in the databases, establish the data-gathering plan that meets your objectives.

By creating transparent yet secure databases, you are assured that your employees would find useful information in a shorter time that contributes to your company’s efficiency.

Collect valuable data and prepare them so that they’re ready for further analysis. Categorize them and determine which one is structured and unstructured. Don’t forget to regularly inform your employees about the changes in your data management strategy.

Conclusion

83% of organizations see data as an integral part of their business strategy. Data is a knowledge base. You need to be sure that each employee knows how to value it and handle it correctly. Regardless of your business’s size, data management strategy is crucial for small businesses, medium-sized companies, and big corporations.

Remember that when you make your data accessible for your company members, you need to make it secure. Invest in data protection software, and create a data protection system that would be a standard in your working environment. Your data is too precious to get to hackers’ hands unprotected – any cyber attack might seriously disrupt your business continuity plan.

5 Things To Avoid When Building Brand Equity

Every entrepreneur wants to see their enterprise grow. Nonetheless, it is much easier said than done. Even some new and exciting ideas cannot come to fruition because of different reasons.

Building trust in your customers and boosting your client retention rates takes time. After all, creating a brand people respect was never said to be easy. Additionally, there are many obstacles that careless businesspeople may not spot until it is too late.

Sometimes all it takes for some business to fail is one unaddressed problem. Before you know it, one can become two, then two can become three, and you have suddenly found yourself in the wrong spot with lots of problems to deal with.

To avoid such a scenario, we have prepared for you five tips on building brand equity. What should you NOT do as an entrepreneur? Let’s get started.

Implementing Poor Translation

Of course, English is a dominant language in our world. However, when you expect your company to grow worldwide, reaching the markets where other languages prevail might prove to be indispensable.

In such a case, look for translation services near your company’s location. For example, if you live in England, looking for translation services in Manchester is an option you should consider.

Remember that your competitors are also looking towards other markets. Ensure that your brand is well-perceived everywhere on Earth by relying on quality translations!

Not Defining Your Focus

Successful brands know what they are all about. Make sure that yours does too, and you should be well.

Think about the primary value of your company, something that differs it from others. Perhaps you value loyalty and treat your long-term clients exceptionally well? Maybe you aspire to be the most transparent or positive brand on the market?

When you create a niche for yourself, you will notice that customers can relate to your business more easily. Build your marketing strategy around your focus and reap the benefits today!

Not Delivering on Promises

One of the worst things that can happen to any company is not bringing its customers the quality they seek. If you do not want to ruin your brand value, make sure to fulfill all the promises you make.

Moreover, maybe you do not have to overhype the product you are selling to your audience? Add some level-headed marketing and do not create unrealistic expectations as it happened in CD Projekt Red’s case!

Remember that consumers can oversell a product to themselves with almost no help from you. Be honest about everything you do, and your customer base will only grow.

Overcomplicating

Of course, every business wants to stand out. Nonetheless, this process should never come at the expense of your customers’ convenience. Sometimes, a more straightforward way is the right one.

How many times, while coming up with a branding strategy, you noticed that the message you want to send does not seem as strong as you would like it to be? Perhaps the best way to combat this problem would be to keep everything simple?

Do not blindly assume that every client has some prior experience that will help them understand your offer! Instead, let your brand loyalty increase naturally by being more approachable than your competitors.

Expecting Instant Results

Doing some social media marketing will not immediately lead you into the brand’s upper echelon. Remember that you have to work for your success for years as this is the price every business has to pay to build their brand awareness.

Take, for example, Amazon. It has built its position through years of hard work. If you desire to join the big leagues, you must be prepared for a long journey.

Additionally, ensure that your brand equity is constantly getting bigger. Read the latest reports and monitor the feedback you are given, both positive and negative! It is very important not to stay complacent and keep pushing forward.

Nevertheless, do not expect a miracle because none is coming your way. Learn from your mistakes, share your company’s plans with your customer base, and patiently wait for the results! If you are persistent in your branding and passionate about what you do, success will find you sooner or later.

The Bottom Line

When you build brand equity, it is easy to overlook some things. However, after reading this article, you know how to avoid the most common mistakes and not share some brands’ fate!

Remember to keep matters related to your brand name simple! Additionally, be customer-oriented by sacrificing some time to brush out your social media marketing. You can also focus on your foreign consumer more by enlisting professional translation services.

If you want to establish solid brand awareness, be prepared that it might take some time. However, if you will use your assets right, you should boost your brand equity without facing daunting challenges. Good luck!

Effective Apps That Will Help Workers Monitor How Healthy They Are

It’s not enough to keep your employees happy with a good salary and amazing benefits. It’s also a must that you ensure that they are working under the best conditions possible and that they are always in good shape. A lot of companies tend to forget to manage their employee’s health but luckily, some apps are able to help those companies out.

If companies are going to make key changes in their work environment, then one of those should be with regards to employee health. Aside from offering good insurance and healthcare plans, companies can also try using a selection of health and wellness apps to keep in touch with their employee’s well-being.

Specialized Tracking Apps

Some industries should have better safety precautions than others such as the healthcare industry. Employee health in the sector is an even bigger priority now with the pandemic still active. Specialized tracking apps cater to the health monitoring needs of certain industries which is a must nowadays.

For hospitals and medical institutions, such apps are crucial to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19. At the same time, these apps help healthcare workers continue on with their job of treating the infected. These apps come with symptom monitoring features that make it easier for management to detect if something’s amidst.

Fitness Trackers

The best cure will always be prevention. In this light, companies should invest in organizational fitness trackers. These function similarly to any other fitness trackers. They take note of calorie intake, calorie loss, heart rate, and a few other crucial metrics on a deeper scale. Some apps even allow workers to manage their dieting habits.

Fitness trackers are a great way to boost one’s overall health and heart health. Employees don’t always have the time to work out and keep track of their health. You can encourage your employees to try out fitness trackers by giving them subscriptions to the top options on the market.

Trackers do a great job of measuring your movement. But care should be taken to fully understand how accurate is Fitbit calorie burn.

Fitness trackers usually go well with smartwatches. It might be a great idea to invest in these gadgets as well. Fitness trackers like Apple Watch are water resistant and are meant to be worn at all times to track your overall health and activity, which may leave you wondering, can you shower with your apple watch?

Mental Health Focused Apps

Health isn’t just about the physical aspects of the body. It’s also about mental health. Employees go through stress and fatigue on a daily basis. Poor mental health makes it harder for them to focus on work and become more productive. This is especially the case now considering that people also have the pandemic to worry about.

Mental health apps can help your employees effectively manage the other spectrum of one’s well-being. Aside from giving your employees access to mind relaxing puzzles, audio,  and self-help guides, these mental health apps can also check in on your employees regularly if they are undergoing something serious like anxiety or depression.

Being the top company is no longer about giving your employees the best benefits and healthcare plans. It’s also about making sure that they are fit and healthy all year-round. These apps are going to be great additions to your company’s healthcare plans and these also help you manage their health on a deeper level.