When you introduce tech to your business, it is unlikely that the entire process will go smoothly at all times. Along with the many benefits of using technology within your company, there are also many challenges. To make sure that you can combat these, here is a guide to ensuring that your use of tech and digital platforms can reach success in 2020.

Get External Support

One of the major ways that you can combat any issues with your digital transformation project is to hire external support that can help you to boost a particular aspect of your online presence and tech usage. For instance, hiring a web design agency such as ALT Agency can help you to create a secure and easy to access site that can increase your customer satisfaction levels without needing you to have the right skills yourself. This will help you to create a professional interface and will make sure that there are experts on hand at all times to help you to overcome any issues that occur with your website or online presence, such as crashes and cyber-attacks.

Stay Secure

When you are operating your business online, you expose your company to many risks that you would not come into contact with within a physical store. This includes cyber threats, such as hackers, viruses, and phishing, many of which are difficult to spot with the use of basic cybersecurity software and plans. However, you can make sure that your company stays secure online and protects its customers by creating a complex password, choosing your payment provider wisely, making sure your coding is secure, and getting an SSL certificate. You should also run security checks on your website regularly.

Get an In-House IT Team

However, to overcome many of the issues that you may face as quickly as possible, you should hire an in-house tech and IT team. When you do this, you should make your requirements and the skills that will be needed overtly clear on your job applications, and you might even be able to connect with tech schools and colleges to find the right employees. If this is not possible, you should train up the staff that you have as much as possible to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that they can contribute effectively to the running of your business online.

Introduce Tech Gradually

Using technology and getting online can be difficult to get used to. However, one of the top ways in which you can ensure that your staff and your customers can get used to tech and ensure that you can avoid common problems is to introduce tech gradually. For instance, you might start off with creating one social media account for your business, having both an online and physical store, or by running your usual operations alongside your new software. You might also want to introduce certain technologies in a couple of departments first, before making it widespread. This will ensure that you can test your new strategy and ensure that everyone is comfortable with it before you implement it business-wide.

A great website is so important for both personal and business ventures. We all spend hours and hours tweaking our websites and trying to deliver the best possible content for our visitors but for so many websites, this just isn’t enough to help them stand out in the massively crowded online world. With so many millions of websites all focusing on similar topics, it is no wonder that ranking near the top of search engine results pages is so difficult. 

Many people who don’t have much experience or knowledge of website design and building do not understand why their website, which looks absolutely amazing, does not figure at all near the top of the rankings. There are various factors that decide this, and each needs to be addressed systematically in order to give your website a boost. To help out everyone whose website is not performing as they want it to, here are the top reasons why your website is not ranking well.

1. Technical Issues

The first reason why your website may not be ranking well is because it has technical issues. Google does not like to recommend its users to websites that are not user-friendly so if its spiders detect problems like rough scrolling, delayed page loading, or broken links, it will negatively affect your website’s rankings. The SEO experts at this company explain that the first thing you should do to try and improve your website’s ranking is to put yourself in the position of your users. Try to imagine that you are visiting your website for the first time ever and check whether it is an enjoyable experience. Does your website run smoothly? Are there any links that go to broken pages or are unclickable. Google’s algorithms are very smart and they will penalize you for a technically poor website.

2. Inadequate Content

At the end of the day, a website needs to provide quality content to its visitors if it is going to be successful. You can create a website that works perfectly, has 10,000 backlinks, and is supported by every social media platform, but if your content is no good, your website will not rank well. People these days are always on the lookout for the next big thing. If your website provides boring, unengaging content to your audience, they will just click onto the next website down the list. If you want visitors to stay on your website and to return later, you have to give them something to come back for.

3. SEO Keyword Issues

Keywords are absolutely vital in SEO and identifying the common search terms which are relatable to your site is a huge part of SEO. It is what you do with those keywords, however, which has an enormous bearing on the ranking of your website. There are two major mistakes that many websites make.

The first is to not do any keyword research and so have none of the important words for the Google algorithms to detect during relevant searches. The second big mistake is to overload your website’s content with the keywords in an unnatural fashion so that you are penalized for trying to game the system.

Working with a trusted SEO agency can help you find the right balance between keyword optimization and high-quality content. Even if you have the most amazing content, it is of no use if it cannot be found by your target audience.

4. No Backlinks

One of the ways in which Google decides whether your website should rank highly for search terms related to a particular topic is the number of backlinks to your website, and more importantly, the number of backlinks on websites that Google does judge to be an authority on the subject. Backlinks are vital because it shows that your site is respected and can be trusted. No backlinks at all will stop you from registering with the algorithms whilst backlinks on poor websites will be flagged up as you have just paid for links. Backlinks should be built link by link of quality sites for maximum ranking effect.

Designing an attractive website and designing a successful website are two very different things. What most people don’t realize is that there is so much that goes on in the background which decides where your website is going to rank. Google has more than one billion websites to scan and rank and so it is vital that your website ticks all the boxes if you want it to stand out. It is important to be aware that SEO is a gradual process and so your website is not suddenly going to leap to number one once you start implementing your SEO. Make sure that you address all the issues laid out in this guide and speak to a professional SEO and website design team to help you take your website to the top.

How would you feel if someone stole an idea you spent years and invested tens of thousands of dollars developing? In today’s ultra-dynamic market, piracy and property infringement issues are quite common. So, whether you’ve come up with a revolutionary consumer product or have developed a new cybersecurity business software, you might risk losing your competitive advantage as well as tons of market shares if you’re not vigilant enough. This is where patents come in handy. In the following guide, we will explain what patents are and why it is imperative to protect your newest invention by filing one at the earliest opportunity.

What is a Patent?

In essence, a patent is a type of intellectual property that guarantees the protection of a product, service, design, or process. The owner of said property is given sole ownership, meaning only they can manufacture, market, export, and sell it. Patents are essential across all industries, from automobiles to high tech. According to the business laws in effect in a state or country, a patent will be valid for a limited period, usually around 20 years, after which it must be filed for again. There are 3 main types broken down into utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.

Patent Granting Procedure

Filing for a patent is a notoriously lengthy and costly process. It can take up to two years and cost anywhere between $10,000 and $25,000. That said, these figures shouldn’t discourage you; on the contrary, acquiring a patent will do wonders for your business portfolio by showcasing your potential for innovation and creativity. Now, irrespective of the nature of your invention, it’s important that you refer to your local patent delivery authority to get a comprehensive idea of what is required, essential paperwork, and fees. Remember that, once granted, it’s an investment that will basically pay for itself.

Protection from Copycats

One of the main advantages of having your invention patented is ensuring its protection against intellectual theft. Developing a product or a service is complicated and time-consuming enough without having ill-intentioned individuals copy your idea and profit from it. When it comes to tech services, the IT experts at solutionpartner.com go to great lengths in explaining that a new piece of software, for instance, must always be patented. Information travels fast online, and it would only take a few days for your invention to be duplicated and commercialized. However, if you own the patent to said product, you’ll be able to sue anyone who infringes on your intellectual property rights.

A Sizeable Competitive Advantage

Companies and brands with patented inventions tend to fare relatively better than their unprotected counterparts, on both the commercial and financial fronts. This owes to the fact that a patent grants your business authority. With this, you’ll enjoy a far better market positioning, which will help you capture valuable opportunities to grow your customer base, bring in new investors, expand your operations, and turn a profit. This gives you a leg up over your direct competitors, no matter how niche your industry is.

Legal Protection

A common mistake many business owners make is publicizing their inventions too early. Whether it’s in a presentation or a featured article on a public forum, they risk giving off that novelty for others to exploit. Once that’s underway, there isn’t much you can do to prove that you have in fact pioneered that property. By contrast, keeping your invention under the radar until you’ve been delivered a patent places you under the protection of the law. As such, any entity that attempts to duplicate your product or service for commercial purposes exposes themselves to greater legal sanctions, from hefty fines to prison sentences.

Striking Business Deals

Aside from initial expansion, selling or licensing is often the end goal of company owners. Now, what happens to your expensive patents once you decide to part ways with your ventures? In practice, patents can be traded just as any other commodity; you can include it in your licensing deal for a fee and under certain conditions, which grants others the right to exploit your invention or sell the patent altogether at a profit. At this point, you may want to enlist the services of a specialized intellectual property lawyer to help you weigh your options and decide on a course of action.

In a world that thrives on market competition, no business owner or entrepreneur is safe from having their ideas plagiarized and hard work undermined. This is why patents are an extremely useful legal tool that you should use to protect your invention, develop your venture, and fulfill your strategic objectives.

Stickers come in many shapes and sizes. Take a look around you, you will see that you will find stickers everywhere. One of the most printed stickers are stickers rolls (translation: stickers op rol). The advantage of stickers on a roll is that you can use them for many applications. Would you like to discover more advantages of sticker rolls? Then read on.

Your Own Sticker Rolls

The biggest advantage of sticker rolls is that you don’t have loose stickers everywhere. Stickers rolls are easy to store and are always at hand. In addition, the sticker rolls fit in dispensers and labeling machines. This makes it easy to remove the stickers from the roll and stick them on.

Sticker rolls can be used for many different applications. For example, the sticker rolls are often used in the kitchen of large companies and the hospitality industry. They are ideal as preservatives stickers. You can also use them for safety reasons such as inspection stickers or warning stickers. Another way stickers on rolls are often used as labels on products or packages.

Stickers on a roll are available in many different varieties. So you can choose the material, the finish and the shape yourself. For example, round stickers on a roll are often used as closing stickers for parcels. And rectangular stickers on rolls as name and address stickers. You can also have the shape cut to your liking, such as the shape of your logo.

Create Your Own Stickers

Would you like to make your own stickers (translation: stickers maken) for promotional purposes? Stickers on a roll is just one example of the many existing sticker products. You can have stickers printed on floors, windows, cars and walls. You also have a choice of sustainable variants if you want to make an environmentally friendly choice. 

Logo stickers are always handy to have at home. They are multifunctional, because you can stick them on anything. With logo stickers you can easily and inexpensively promote your brand. Stick them on packaging, laptops, notebooks and other objects where your logo should not be missing. Besides that logo stickers are a nice and inexpensive give-away at fairs and events.

This includes bumper stickers and stickers that people use to paste on computers and books at school. You can carry your brand image on custom stickers and that increases awareness of your product and service.

Stickers are also very suitable to convey a temporary message. This is useful if you want to promote a temporary campaign or discount campaign. For example, you can have window stickers made with a discount percentage and stick them on your store window. In this way (future) customers walking down the shopping street can see that there are sales.

Do you already use stickers on rolls or other stickers within your company?

What “Work-Life Balance” Means

Having a work-life balance is an idea that’s been thrown a lot around the lifestyle scene, especially with the current “work-from-home” arrangements some of us are facing. The new workforce comprising of millennial workers seems to hold this aspect as a core part of the work environment.

How to Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance

To maintain this work-life balance, you need to separate your work and life responsibilities from each other. Let your work worries stay in the office, and let your worries stay at home, with none of them encroaching on each other. This new shift towards maintaining this balance can benefit workers by cutting down on their stress and lessening the chance of burnout.

Stress is the 5th biggest killer in the United States, with a quarter of Americans saying that the jobs they have are their 1st and foremost source of stress. Healthcare software development by companies like this have produced lifestyle apps that can help you rein in the body you want. This might come from their heavy workloads, or maybe an internal feeling of having no control over their work-life balance.

Setting Priorities, and Learning Your Strengths

When balancing your work and life, you need to set your priorities. Find what things are truly important to you, and stick to them. Drop anything that might add unneeded pressure onto your already busy lifestyle. Plan out what your career path is, and take steps towards your end goals. Lastly, simplify any part of your life, and find whatever part that you can change for the better.

Playing to your strengths can also be a great move towards a better work-life balance. Instead of focusing to become everything, focus on the few things you know you can do confidently. Use your skills to find a workflow that you can use. This will save you from headaches later on.

Stay Realistic and Grounded

While you chase the career goals you’ve set for yourself, it’s important to keep yourself grounded in reality. A little self-analysis can go a long way when planning for the long-term. In the face of a problem, ask yourself what caused it and what you can do to prevent it from happening next time. Ask your friends and peers for help in managing yourself and your time. Ask them what you could do to better yourself. Remember that life in itself is a learning process, and we can only know what we’ve learned. 

Take Breaks When Needed

Take time for yourself, even when it’s tempting to take on your work with everything you’ve got. The people you give your time to can be a great support when you experience hardships in your work. It’s crucial as well to look into your health, and the steps you can take to make sure you’re in top shape. Take time to exercise, and make sure to prioritize it. A healthy mind and body can be an amazing tool in landing the deals that you want.

Use Health Management Applications

With today’s technology, you can use applications to help in managing every aspect of your life. Management apps can help to plan out your day in the most efficient way possible. Lastly, messaging apps can get your word across to clients all across the globe and help you create a network. It can even help you stay close to the friends and family members you hold dear.

Manage Your Mental State

Last, manage your mind and your mental state. You can do this in a variety of ways, whether that’s through a hobby or maybe a long-needed vacation. When anxiety creeps into your mind, do some exercises to reassure yourself that you can achieve what you set out to do.

The Effort to Change

This will require a massive effort to change up what you’re already used to, but in the end, it’ll be worth it. Work-life balance isn’t just a matter of managing your time; it’s about managing your mindset around it as well. Some people can be immersed in work so much that they spend less time on themselves. At that point, anyone would want a change in their lives.

Work-life balance is about finding a purpose and meaning in living your life. It means to be confident in yourself and to have peace of mind with regards to how you spend your time and energy.

Amazon is one of the most reputable e-commerce platforms available in the digital world. The success of Jeff Bezos is undeniably legendary for creating such a major hub for online purchasing, selling, and shipping. Anyone can sell products online, but not all of them can say they master the process. Selling on Amazon needs patience, consistency, and reliable tools that streamline every step effortlessly. If you want to start selling on this platform effectively, then read on to know more about some of the tools that you must master.

Brand Gate Checkers

Using a brand gate checker is highly convenient for researching keywords and product development. You will have a tool that is designed for optimizing listings effectively with minimal mistakes. Strategically and consistently generating long-term sales will always be beneficial, increasing your monthly profits using Amazon tremendously. Using a brand gate checker tool will help sellers leverage the specifics surrounding optimization, making it easy for them regardless of the scope of their plans. The most convenient aspect of tools that provide these features is that they’re versatile and a great value for their money, increasing ROI levels significantly. Another competitive advantage of a brand gate checker tool is that you get to monitor the rest of the industry. It allows you to research what your competitors are doing to be one step ahead of them.  

Niche Hunting Tools

The idea of effortlessly streamlining product research is quite appealing, and you can do it with a nice niche hunting tool. You can use these tools to your advantage to find the optimal sale opportunities on Amazon, making the process tremendously easier than traditional methods. Advice from the fulfillment by Amazon specialists at Infinite FBA suggests that taking a seller’s business to the next level is achievable by utilizing features that find top-rated niches and products. This tool helps you find the rankings of bestsellers, reviews, and price points of a specific niche product. 

When you’re able to find how lucrative and marketable a certain product can be, you can use that to your advantage and get a piece of the profits by selling it too. Whenever you feel hesitant or doubtful of a specific niche, an FBA revenue calculator tool helps you track and gather the sales data with one click. This is possible thanks to due diligence steps that allow you to review and confirm specific facts about that product. When you examine that data, you will have all the proof you need that this niche is a great choice to make some money. 

Feedback Tracker 

Another tool that can be quite useful to master is a feedback tracker tool. It compiles every customer review and feedback into one spot for you to check, getting more info on how good a specific product really is. The importance of customer feedback is vital to your sales goals because analyzing the data you get will help you determine which products are loved the most by customers. These tools also have features where they can help you with your own sales and product choices, allowing you to create custom and personal emails to those customers. This approach will help you get more context from customers, fixing any negative feedback, and solving people’s problems with orders. This tool helps you increase customer satisfaction levels, allowing the products you sell to get more positive feedback to generate more sales.

PPC and Competitor Analysis  

Using PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and competitor analysis tools will help you determine which products are profitable and lucrative based on the number of clicks it got. It allows you to analyze sales data of every competitor in the market that sells the same product or targets the same niche. This tool is convenient for beginners because it allows them to calculate fees, making the process easier if they don’t have a high budget. It helps sellers avoid products that will be difficult to maintain on the listings page. Also, categorizing the sales data of specific products by seasonal periods is convenient for choosing the right time to list something.

Making money online is possible when you have the right tools in your arsenal. Researching and finding the right steps to reach a point of excellent returns is worth the effort and time spent. All you need is a computer, laptop, or even a smartphone to start your ecommerce journey right. Evaluate the market, choose the best sellers, and capitalize on the opportunities for more sales. Product research is key, especially if you’re planning to dive into the e-commerce world full-time. Focusing on bankable or best-selling products will always increase your profits tremendously. Consider using these tools to make your money-making goals a reality.

Being an entrepreneur and running your own company seems like a rather fun experience. A lot of business owners would agree. However, it’s also a challenge. There are many different factors involved, and a business owner has to deal with many tasks on a daily basis. Some of those tasks require creativity or problem-solving abilities, while others are pretty mundane and boring. Those brainless tasks usually kill productivity in the office. No one likes to do them, but they still have to be done. This is exactly why you need automation.

One of the best ways to automate specific processes in your company is to utilize the power of the Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). Having a good workflow in the office is paramount if you want to be successful, and this software can help you achieve that. Here are the six processes you can automate with CRM.

Data Entry

It doesn’t matter what line of work you are in and what your company is about; data entry is definitely a significant aspect of your day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, entering data and keeping track of important daily numbers can be a bit tedious. More importantly, it takes a lot of time to do, and it usually leaves you exhausted. This can be a problem, especially if you don’t have enough human resources, and your primary job requires creativity. Fortunately, this is where CRM can come to the rescue. As experts from https://crm.webfletch.co.uk/ say, the automation of the data entry process can save you a lot of time and money. Leave the boring jobs to your computer. This way, you can work on creative tasks in your company, and the machines can crunch data.

Email Marketing

Even though email marketing should be personalized, especially if you don’t have a lot of customers, some aspects of it are generic. For example, promotions, limited offers, and follow-up emails can be automated This will save you and your employees a considerable amount of time on a daily basis. The time that can be spent on improving the company.

Customer Support

Conversations with customer support agents regarding complex problems can’t be automated, of course, but simpler issues can be fixed with things like chatbots, for example. If you are selling a product or offering a service to your customers, you will probably answer thousands of similar questions every day. This can be frustrating, but more importantly, it can be rather time-consuming. Therefore, if the customer doesn’t have a complex problem, it’s a good thing to leave a computer to provide a user with an answer. If you want this method to provide you with good results, you have to know what the most frequently asked questions are and make sure you have the answers to them. 

Reports

When you own a company, you have to deal with a lot of different reports on a regular basis. Every time your employee makes a sale, every time you get a new client, and every time you pay your workers. Filling those reports can be rather boring and exhausting, especially if you have other work to do. This is one of the mundane tasks CRM can help you with. If you have a lot of reports that don’t require detailed analysis and checking, make sure to automate them. Automated reports are one of the best ways to save time and resources.

Documentation Management

It doesn’t matter what you are selling or what kind of service you are offering to your customers; if you want to keep things in order, you must have proper documentation. Every sale and every payment has to be documented. This means there will be a lot of files like invoices and receipts you have to enter every single day. This is a lot of work, even if you have a good accountant in your office. However, a good organization and automation can make this process simpler and easier.

Appointment Scheduling

If you are meeting with clients and customers on a daily basis, the receptionist in your office probably has a lot on their plate. However, if you are a small company, you probably don’t have a receptionist or a personal assistant to take care of your appointments. Doing this yourself can be time-consuming. Therefore, your best option is to automate this process. It will save you a lot of time, and you definitely won’t forget a meeting.

Summary

Being an entrepreneur is not a simple thing to do, especially in today’s competitive market. If you want to find your place and succeed, you must find a way to organize your workflow better and save time. Using the right CRM Software can help. Automating your key tasks will definitely help you achieve better efficiency.

Productivity has become a hot button topic. People are making crazy amounts of money by writing guides for productivity for people of all ages (some starting as young as middle school). While finishing the tasks you want to is an admirable goal, we have found that often it is the smaller, quieter things that most influence productivity.

A new area of research called environmental psychology has emerged and has been finding very interesting results. Consistently, studies are showing that people’s environment affects their mood, creativity, focus, and, you guessed it, productivity. You might not need to force yourself to sit and do things that you despise. You might just need to tweak up your space a little bit so that it is more encouraging for productive work. The following will explore some of the things you can do to your workspace to make sure that you can get your work done when you need to.

Clean Up Your Room Or Workspace

Not to nag you, but maybe you should clean up your workspace. Studies have found that people are far more productive in clean spaces than in messy ones. Beyond productivity, a messy room has been shown to correlate with depression. Clean rooms reduce allergies, boost your self-esteem, and build a sense of productivity within you that makes you feel excited to feel more productive. This seems like a very small point, but it can make a huge difference regarding how much work you get done and how easy it feels to get it done.

Take some time to pick up anything that isn’t where it should be. Change the garbage. Wipe down your surfaces. Vacuum or mop and, if you are able, let in some fresh air through the windows. While you’re cleaning, consider how much clutter needs to be out on display and which items you can put away for a sleeker feeling.

Make Sure All Your Tools Are Within Reach

If you keep all the things you need to finish your work nearby, let’s say at your desk, you minimize the number of times you need to get up and go looking for something that you need to finish your work. If it’s schoolwork we’re talking about, you’ll need your class notes, your textbooks, and some pens or pencils. If you’re working remotely you’ll need your computer or laptop, your mouse, and keyboard. Check out Emeril pressure air fryer reviews to make healthy snacks so you can focus on productive activities.

If just thinking about all these items makes you want to run in the other direction, consider adding a bit of fun to them. Maybe you find a book cover with your favorite anime character on it to ease the dread of opening that textbook. Maybe you could find a custom playmat for your keyboard and mouse. For some people, all it takes to lighten the work mood is their favorite type of pen with colorful ink. Figure out what little joys you can hide in your daily work.

Think About Colors

The color of the walls around you or the color of large items like rugs, curtains, bedding, and furniture, can have a big impact on your mental state. Take a few moments to read about color psychology and you’ll begin to understand how influential colors are on the human mind. Studies have even found that the color of a placebo pill (a sugar pill designed to do nothing to the body) alters how effective people feel the pill is. During sports matches, the team wearing a black uniform is more likely to be given penalties. People driving red cars are given tickets more often than people driving cars of other colors. It may seem a little strange to start looking at the impact of color, but it can be incredibly helpful not only when you’re designing a space ideal for productivity, but when you’re choosing outfits for dates or job interviews or icing for your friend’s birthday cake.

Add A Houseplant

House plants are pretty, and often require minimal work for maintenance. Beyond this, they have been shown to increase the levels of oxygen in the room (this can help with focus and concentration) and they reduce stress and anxiety (which are two of the big inhibitors to productive work). Studies have found that indoor plants boost productivity by up to 15%. That’s a big improvement for such a little alteration!

The above tips should help you set up a workspace that helps you finish the work you need done. Of course, it is important to make sure that you are not pushing yourself too hard. Make sure you’re getting adequate sleep and eating high-energy foods. All the employee productivity advice in the world isn’t going to help you battle exhaustion. Your life is about far more than what you can get done in a day.

Introduction

Workforces around the globe have hailed Microsoft Teams as a force for collaborative good. In April 2020 MS Teams recorded a user base of 75 million users daily, meaning it must be doing something right. One of the things the communication platform has done incredibly well is its application integration. By allowing such a level of integration with third-party applications we have seen an astronomical rise in said applications. What follows is a brief list of the top applications for improving workflow and the work environment.

Planner

There are several third-party project management apps that integrate seamlessly with MS teams, however, one of the easiest to get the ball rolling is Planner. When scouring the Internet for the best teams apps, Planner has the advantage of already being integrated with MS Teams by default and is a lifesaver when working with multiple teams. Each team will have its panel and navigating between panels is just as easy as creating a new one. Onboarding teams is also a simple task making sure everyone is on the same page.

ScrumGenius

For development teams who apply agile scrum methods to development cycles sometimes post it’s on a whiteboard just doesn’t cut it anymore. These minefields of neon colors can be just as confusing as the jumbled meeting schedule. ScrumGenius is an app that looks to clear up the whiteboard mess and allow team leaders to automate meetings and recurring tasks. Further, this higher level of automation can be used to help take minutes during those daily meetings.

Polly

This app is as simple as it is brilliant. Polly allows for the creation of polls within Teams channels. The upside of this is that it allows teams to quickly decide on a wide range of things from the more mundane like lunch orders, or quickly deciding on what documentation to send stakeholders without the need for taking up valuable meeting time.

Health Hero

The global pandemic has thrust health, mental and physical into the spotlight. With many employees now working remotely, keeping tabs on the well-being of staff has been harder given that they barely physically see each other with their own eyes. An app that looks to improve the health of teams is Health Hero which allows the linking of health-tracking devices to the app as well as providing challenges and leader boards designed to help keep your team healthy.

Mio

Not all projects can be assigned to one team within one company, often projects can span multiple partners who invariably use different platforms to communicate. Mio looks to help connect teams using MS Teams with others using Slack or Cisco WebEx Teams, for example, helping ensure communication and collaboration by preventing teams from working in bubbles. This has a nasty habit of generating problems that are thoroughly preventable and deadlines being missed.

Conclusion

This is certainly not a comprehensive be all and end all list of apps to improve your MS Teams experience, it certainly shows a wide range of applications that can be tailored to a team’s needs without a massive outlay of capital.

Hiring tech-talent has become a new norm in IT and software development fields. Initially, hiring software developers was very popular; but nowadays, hiring C-level executives has become a new trend in the industry. Recently, a sizable number of dedicated websites and portals such as FindVirtualCTO.com for hiring CTO or Chief Technology Officer for startup businesses have emerged in the marketplace.

Why Are More Startups Turning to Hiring Remote CTOs?

According to the Flexjobs information, more than 159% of growth in the remote work market has been noticed during 2005 and 2017 in the US only. A massive uptrend in hiring remote tech-talent is highly prevalent worldwide. Meanwhile, the State of Remote Work 2019 report reveals that software development and IT services are the top 2 industries making over 56% of the entire remote workforce.

Hiring a C-level executive, especially a remote CTO is becoming a new uptrend in startups and SMEs due to numerous reasons. A few important ones are listed below.

• Cost-saving – The cost of dedicated CTO at the office is huge as compared to hiring a remote CTO. Normally, startups are in cash-crunch. So, they turn to this option due to a competitive remote CTO salary.
• Increased ROI – Hiring CTO is faster and he/she can increase the speed of technological transformation in the technical infrastructure and resources quicker to improve ROI much faster.
• Skills and Experience – You can hire a highly skilled CTO with diverse experience in revamping and streamlining resources and infrastructure more effectively at a very affordable price.
• Flexibility – Hiring a virtual CTO offers huge flexibility to choose from a large pool of experts from across the world. You can choose the right tech-talent for filling a C-level technical position without any constraints and problems. You can also replace your existing CTO with a new one easily if required.  

Responsibilities of a Remote CTO?

A Chief Technology Officer CTO is the head of the engineering or technological department in an organization. He is responsible for fulfilling the technological requirements for achieving the best possible performance of the company. 

The major responsibilities of an expert chief technology officer include the management and utilization of the company’s technological resources including human resources and technical infrastructure efficiently. The effective use of existing resources and adding new technologies that are needed for developing a competitive-edge with the market competitor also form the fundamentals of a CTO’s responsibilities.

The detailed list of responsibilities of a virtual CTO is given below.  

• Professional assessment of the existing resources and infrastructure
• Devising strategy for technology use and identifying suitable technologies for the same
• Implementing cutting-edge technologies to increase business competitiveness
• Identifying flaws in business process and patching them up with the modern technologies
• Devising an effective strategy for efficient use of the power of the latest technologies
• Effective investment in technology and technical resource to improve Return on Investment ROI
• Reducing business dependency on manual processes and automating them through technology
• Making business processes in line with industry best practices and standards
• Devising policy for phase-in, phase-out, migration, and implementation of modern technologies

Top Skills to Look for While Hiring a Virtual CTO?

Hiring a CTO is a very critical process, which needs professional-level expertise to access the skills, experience, and qualifications of a CTO candidate. A remote CTO in startups is supposed to take responsibility for all technical aspects of the company. So, he/she should possess all major skills to achieve those objectives in startups. A few very important skills to look for while hiring a virtual CTO are mentioned below.

Technical Skills

• Knowledge of network and IT infrastructures such as OS, cloud, internet, and telecom
• Artificial intelligence AI, automation, data analytics
• Knowledge of business process management
• Extensive knowledge of different software tools for process automation
• Knowledge of communication and collaboration platforms
• Infrastructure assessment, analytics, and auditing
• Knowledge of all trending technologies in the IT domain
• Developing technical requirements – short term and long term
• Developing the state of the art business solutions powered by the latest technology tools

Soft Skills

• Detailed-oriented and solution-oriented approach
• Innovative and creative thinking
• Great interpersonal communication skills
• Effective technical understanding
• Team leader and thinker
• Problem-solving and pressure handling
• Professional commitment
• Motivator and supportive
• Strategic thinking

Management Skills

• Budgeting and planning different projects and business processes
• Conflict management and change management
• Project planning, implementation, and monitoring
• Project management methodologies
• Team management and collaboration
• Effective reporting and presentation

Top 7 Mistakes to Avoid While Hiring a Remote CTO

A Chief Technical Officer (CTO) plays a pivotal role in the progressive future of modern businesses. So, hiring the wrong person would result in complete devastation. So, a remote CTO should be hired very carefully to avoid the following top mistakes while hiring a remote CTO.

1. Considering cost as the top priority – Without any doubt, cost is a big factor in any competitive business, but considering cost as the top priority is a big mistake while hiring a remote CTO. You should make a better trade-off between cost, quality, experience, and skills to avoid this mistake. A CTO acts as the technical spine of the company so he/she should not be measured in salary at all.
2. Focusing on narrow Picture – While hiring a virtual CTO always consider a broader picture of your business and the entire business ecosystem. Don’t confine your thinking to a certain domain such as enhancing existing infrastructure, cutting cost, or adding process automation. Consider the broader picture to improve the performance and business outcome thoroughly.
3. Overrating skills over experience – Many times, hiring managers make a mistake by focusing unduly on the technical skills rather than counting the experience at large. A CTO is not supposed to work with technical things but he has to plan the effective use of those technologies. In such circumstances, always focus on a balance between skills and experience. 
4. Missing experience in the relevant field – Experience should be in the field exactly in a similar environment that your company works in. Sometimes, this point is missed, which leads to undesirable results. Always focus on the relevancy of the experience.
5. Skipping portfolio analysis and feedback – Analyzing portfolios and taking recommendations from past employers is very important in hiring a CTO for startups. This factor is missed in some cases, which may lead to disastrous outcomes.
6. Forgetting about business acumen – The position of a virtual CTO is not all about the knowledge of technology but the effective use of technology through business acumen to increase the performance, competitiveness, and business process efficiency. Normally, hiring managers commit a mistake to miss this domain during the hiring process.
7. Mixing rhetoric with creativity – Creativity is not all about talking beautiful quotes and experience. Solving common problems with the most efficient way and thinking out of the box is the most fundamental item for developing innovative solutions. Don’t miss to check-out the creative approach of the CTO.

Final Takeaway

Hiring a professional CTO remotely is possible for startups to earn numerous business advantages such as cost-efficiency, better ROI, and flexibility. The hiring process should be accomplished professionally by finding the right skills and avoiding the most common mistakes while hiring a virtual CTO as mentioned in this article.

What are the pillars of any business? Some may refer to adequate security, strategy, and communication. Each of them matters, while the last two can significantly improve your income. If the security issues may be managed by choosing the best computer security software for small business, questions related to communication and strategy may need more exciting solutions.

What may be a progressive one? The phone app! Trends show that it is a powerful instrument contributing to marketing strategy and communication capabilities. Before all, they help create an image of the business, improve communication with stakeholders, and bring new customers. In this post, we will consider how it may be useful for small businesses.

Mobile Application Types

Phone applications are entering and taking root in many business spheres, even those once far from the web. One may personalize their TikTok to promote the product, others can develop their own app to help their customers. Such apps are efficient in such business areas as tourism, fitness centers, e-commerce, services, etc, and corporate culture. That’s why you should know how they can be used and if it applied to your operations.

Mobile business applications can be divided into two basic types:

• To facilitate the company’s internal needs (increase teamwork productivity, for example, file share, adding social messengers and accounts into the local network, and project and job management systems).
• For commerce, trademark, and sales increase (as an addition to the company’s leading online services, such as advertising, publications, tickets buying apps, e-banking, delivery goods tracker, loyal customers program, and so on).

If the first type is about using third-party apps, facilitating the management of your tasks within an organization, the second type might be very efficient for business marketing and interaction with the customers. You can use both, but we’ll focus on the second one.

Consider an App for Your Sales

According to online marketing statistics, nowadays, almost 70% of users make purchases via smartphones. It’s no surprise that this is a reasonably effective sales channel that shouldn’t be neglected. So, here are some vital functions adding value to your product and satisfying the customer:

Receiving notifications

Mobile apps let you interact with your clients via notifications. Information about various events, such as promotions, discounts, and new product launches, can be sent to customers as push notifications.

This is how you remind about your brand and provide relevant and useful information that encourages customers to buy what you propose.

Ease of Purchasing

Having a choice between a website and a mobile application, customers often choose the latter. It is more accessible, more straightforward, intuitive, and doesn’t have anything unnecessary. By installing the application, the client gets access to the entire catalog of goods or services. Interestingly, you may get data about your clients and their preferences regarding your goods.

Besides, within the app, the necessary information is displayed clearly and fits the screen (not all sites can ensure qualitative web versions and ease of viewing on mobile devices). The order payment process can also be optimized and integrated into the application.

How To Know If App Is Good Idea For Business

Nevertheless, getting an app may be a hasty decision. It will work only if you get the message right and provide the value for the customer. This means that you should do your homework thoroughly. The customer needs to be satisfied, an application secure and convenient, while you should understand its contribution to your goals.

To realize if your company needs phone apps, you’d better consider the following questions:

• Do you need it? You should understand the applicability and opportunity, as well as the tasks you want to solve with the application. How do you or your customers benefit from it? It should be mutual.
• What is your target market? Do your customers use mobile devices? Maybe your target audience can be satisfied with a mobile version of the site. This information can be obtained using Google and other web analytics tools that should be implemented on your webpage. Thus, research the background and ask your customers.
• Think about mobile app promotion? Will you handle it? This will demand extra marketing efforts, website upgrading, loyalty program realization, and extra expenses for context-based advertising, with the Google Play, App Store, and promotion. Therefore, add it to your budget, alongside the app development.
• How will you rate the validity of a phone application? What are the indicators of success for you?

In the end, the price of developing, servicing, and updating may be high. Will it be worth it? Yes, if everything is done right. However, it is also necessary to understand that this is a long-term investment, as you need time to develop it, launch, and see the results.

Phone Application Development

If you are still interested, there are four main stages of phone application development. They are crucial and reflect the questions above.

Typically, it starts with the meticulous business analysis that will allow you to understand your business needs and target audience’s characteristics. It is a starting point for you to have the function of the app. Depending on the type of business, it may have a delivery, catalog, informative or entertaining option. Why not use imagination?

After this, there is a stage of developing specific solutions, which will clearly determine the application’s architecture and its look. It derives from a business goal and reflects the characteristics of your audience. The duration of the development process, as a rule, depends on the specifics of the business and the wishes of the customer, as well as on the type of mobile platform, iOS, or Android.

The next step is the direct implementation of the technological part, its control, and its launch. You’d probably ask some developers to design it, test it, and launch. At this point, you understand that the consultation or help from the experts is inevitable.

Lastly, there are marketing efforts after launching the app to persuade users to use it. It is as crucial as other stages, and the success of the whole plan depends on it as well.

As one can, a phone app today is an important business tool. It can improve communication and sales by facilitating trust and loyal relationships with customers. If you want to keep your business competitive, you need a mobile app.

Whether you have worked your whole life or inherited an estate, one of the most important things about being a parent is passing on your wealth to your children. This is why most parents will make a will when they start feeling older and more vulnerable – to ensure that hard work doesn’t go to waste. The issue is that non-parents, or parents that are still young, often neglect the necessity of having a will. 

The reason for this is because it’s traditionally an expensive ordeal. Having to spend several hundreds, or even thousands, when you can’t comprehend a scenario in which you will need a will anytime soon is easy to procrastinate on. With the invention of online will makers, this is no longer an excuse.

Not only should we always be aware that anything can happen in order to appreciate our time on this uncertain earth, where pandemics and catastrophes happen, but the cost of planning your own wealth estate after death is now under a hundred bucks. This article will explore the benefits of online wills, and then detail the onlinewillmakers.com’s best rated list.

What are online wills and are the benefits?

When using an online will software you essentially pay either a fixed or monthly fee, far below the going rate for a lawyer, and complete the will yourself using the template provided. This means that the user is given a blueprint of a will, with some pieces of information missing. The user answers basic questions, jargon-free, and the answers automatically fill into the will document. 

Generally, it takes under an hour to complete an online will from start to finish. Some are reviewed to have taken 10 minutes to complete. This is far from the traditional route of making an appointment with a lawyer, visiting their office and so on.

The biggest benefit of an online will maker is that you can legitimately ensure that your possessions are distributed to whomever you choose. Not only this, but you can appoint a power of an Executor and Trustee. This will allow you to choose someone who can manage the distribution of your estate. This gives extra peace of mind, knowing your wishes will be fulfilled. 

In fact, some companies may even allow you to appoint a guardian for a minor, as well as specifying your nuanced funeral wishes, which can help take the stress off of loved ones. Whilst some companies specialise in wills alone, others are more general and cover far reaching legal services.

Arguably the most prominent benefit of online wills is the cost. Paying a lawyer to help you through will creation can be upwards of $1,000, though if the estate is small and simple it may only be a few hundred. Online will software, however, usually range from $20 to $100 for a basic document. There are often options for on-going payment if there’s a lot of other services to use, or perhaps the ability to alter the will details in the future.

Which are the best online will makers currently in the USA?

There are plenty of online will making companies to choose from in the USA, but here are the five leading ones:

Quicken Nolo

Quicken Nolo have been recognized as the very best will makers in the USA. Besides Nolo being overall the most popularly used will making software, it also has a lot of advantages making it the leading will provider. Quicken Nolo is extremely easy to use, has multiple add-ons options available, allows for multiple users and has great customer support with help resources. Not only that, but Quicken Nolo services are also at an attractive price point, that is not much higher than the average industry price point. 

U.S. Legal Wills

Another excellent choice for an online will maker, as U.S. Legal Wills offers great value for the money. The prices for the U.S. Legal Wills are very competitive and you only need to pay a one time fee, meaning that there won’t be any unexpected costs later on. The biggest benefit of the software is how easy and user-friendly it is, with great customer support available. A basic will takes only about 20 minutes to create and most of it is customizable. 

Trust & Will

With only a couple years of existence, Trust & Will may not seem like the most credible choice, however, there is nothing that would make you doubt their credibility. The company has been gaining increasing amounts of popularity due to its low price point, money back guarantee option and the ease-of-use with the software. This is a good choice if you just need a basic will, although it may not be suitable for more complicated situations, as Trust & Will do not have attorneys you could consult. 

Total Legal

Founded in 2003, Total Legal has been around for nearly two decades and they’ve been one of the leading will makers due to their admirable transparency, brilliant help center and lots of choices for different documents. Besides, their services come at a good cost and you have the option of paying monthly, with no payments in advance. The reason Total Legal is lower on the list, however, is because they are a lot less UI friendly than others and also very limited for wills. 

Final Word

Deciding to opt for an online will as opposed to a traditional lawyer’s one isn’t an easy option, but it makes sense for those with simple estates and relationships. What’s more difficult perhaps is deciding on a company, as the industry is exploding right now with new services, pricing schemes and features.