From flexible hours to an easier commute, working from home seems like an ideal option for many employees and it can have a lot of benefits for business owners too.
In this article, Peter Watton of matched betting start-up OddsMonkey, offers his advice to businesses who might be considering offering a working from home policy. (more…)
Take a close look at any business that has been thriving over the last few years, and there’s a very strong chance you’ll see it has a clear USP, or Unique Selling Point.
Your USP is something you need to develop as you start your own business. So here’s how you can work on your USP to help draw more customers to your business. (more…)
Regularly reviewing employee performance is vital for businesses, as it provides both employer and employee with important information about the employee’s progress, needs and skills.
It can also help improve employee productivity – but only if it’s done in the right way. (more…)
While a large corporation can absorb the damage of a handful of negative reviews, for startups and small businesses, negative reviews can often seriously harm your reputation.
By dealing with bad reviews in the right way, you will show that you care about customer service, and take feedback on board to improve your business as a whole. (more…)
As a small business owner, your legal responsibilities when taking on staff can be somewhat daunting but with a little help you can soon get your head around what’s needed.
One of your first duties as a new employer is to ensure you comply with employment contract law. To help you understand your legal obligations, here’s a guide to employment contracts for small business owners. (more…)
Building morale in teams is a key part of making them function better, with more motivation and with greater efficiency.
Of course, low morale is something that can impact negatively on both individual managers as well as team members, so it is something that needs to be addressed right across the board of a business structure. (more…)
As a start-up, every piece of data; whether it’s information about a new customer, a networking contact, your sales brochure or invoicing data, is hard won and valuable. As your business matures much of this can be re-purposed and re-used to save time, and cut costs – but only if you’ve kept it safe.
So, what happens if you have a critical failure and lose some, or all, of this data? (more…)
As a smaller business or startup, it is important to be economical in all of your actions and processes. That way, the money you save can be spent elsewhere to help expand your business.
However, sometimes it can be difficult to know in which areas it’s possible to save money; especially if they aren’t frequently talked about. (more…)
Loyalty programs have been around for decades and are still very popular with the public.
More than three-quarters of UK customers surveyed were a member of a loyalty program and roughly half agree that a loyalty program encouraged them to return to a particular brand. (more…)
Content is at the heart of every modern marketer’s toolkit. But aligning this material with sales departments is a common problem many organisations face.
Your marketing team might be well-armed with blog posts, case studies and whitepapers to generate leads and brand awareness, but you need a well-equipped and driven sales team to nurture leads over the finish line. (more…)
With the inevitable ups and downs a small business faces, there may be times when you need to lose some staff.
To stay on the right side of UK employment laws, employers must understand how to carry out the redundancy procedure correctly, so here’s a step-by-step guide to the redundancy process, and how to negotiate it safely. (more…)
Stress, business failure, differences of opinion and personal clashes can all contribute to SME businesses relationships breaking down. But where do you stand if you co-own a business with your partner and you are facing a shareholder dispute?
Louise Hebborn, Commercial Partner at Stephensons Solicitors LLP, looks at shareholder’s legal rights when the relationship between business owners breaks down. (more…)
Feedback is critical in every arena of life. For good or ill, it can permanently alter our self-perception, businesses and relationships.
Failing to take on board good feedback can lose companies customers, investors and revenue, whilst a preoccupation with negative feedback can do just as much damage. (more…)
When asked whether SME businesses need to protect themselves from cyber attacks, the response is easy: 43% of cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses.
If you are a small business and aren’t protecting yourself, you need to review this and put suitable protection in place. Mike Ianiri, Redsquid explains what you should do. (more…)
Everyone wants to get the best deal on their telecoms – but buying just on price, is unlikely to give you a great return. Not all telecoms solutions are the same; so, it’s important you ask the right questions to ensure you get the best deal.
We asked, telecoms specialist, Dave Millett to reveal the key questions to ask when getting broadband, lines, mobiles and VOIP solutions for your business. (more…)
“Let me tell you a story.” These are six very powerful words. Six powerful words which immediately invoke curiosity and anticipation. Six powerful words from which multi-billion-dollar industries have been built.
Beyond film, TV and books, storytelling has become an intentional tool in many of the most successful organisations. How can you use it in your business? (more…)
You’ve done your market research, you’ve got a solid business plan, you’ve registered your company and pulled together funding, suppliers and everything else you need to start your new business. You’re ready to trade – you just need some customers.
However, not all customers are created equal; some are a delight to deal with, while others seem to have crept from the depths just to torment you. (more…)
The Summer is half over but British weather means that you’re never actually sure when the warm weather will come and go.
Summer holidays can cause staffing problems for small businesses, so we asked Gary Young of Equinox to share some ways you can use technology smartly to keep staff and customers happy when the sun is shining. (more…)
There’s no denying telecommunications play an important role for businesses. Your telecoms facilitate interaction between you and your customers, as well as keeping your employees connected. So, when it comes to your telephone infrastructure, you want to make sure it’s strong and stress-free. (more…)
A productive business is a profitable business. A simple, but very true statement. But, according to a Close Brothers report (PDF), the UK lags behind the rest of the G7 countries by 16%.
So what is holding back productivity, and what can British businesses do to become more productive? (more…)
If your business has a physical presence of any kind, or you exhibit or attend branded events, it’s imperative to invest in quality business signage that stands out from the crowd.
The right signage and logo design will help build brand recognition, both offline and online, and ultimately increase footfall and conversions. (more…)
A lot of small businesses start using Google AdWords in the hope that it will help them increase sales with small investment. This isn’t true.
Yes, AdWords can help you increase sales but only with the right investment. To get the return on investment you’re hoping for, you will need to set up your account properly and invest the right amount of money. (more…)
As a business owner, it’s likely that you struggle to find time to do the performance appraisals for your team. You are not the only one.
Surveys have indicated that owners and managers hate doing performance reviews and as many as 58% think it is a waste of time. (more…)
While cyberattacks on companies that are household names are often highly publicised and reported on, attacks on small businesses often go unnoticed by the media despite accounting for 43% of targeted attacks. These attacks might not hit the front page, but they are having a significant impact on small businesses across the globe. (more…)
All workers are entitled to receive a minimum of 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave. Whilst this is a benefit for staff, employers can find themselves struggling to manage staff holidays around their business needs.
To help make sure your business runs smoothly, here is an overview of how to successfully manage staff holidays. (more…)
In April 2020 the Parental Bereavement (Pay and Leave) Act, is due to come into force. This will place legal requirements on businesses to give employees who have suffered a bereavement time off work so we asked HR Consultant, Kirsten Cluer, to explain what businesses should do to prepare for the new legislation. (more…)
Virtually every business now relies on technology to trade successfully so need to invest in the right technology. For large businesses, this is rarely an issue, but for early stage and small businesses, these can be big decisions and the wrong ones can cause real problems. This guide aims to help you make the right decisions when it comes to IT and telecoms. (more…)
Even in an age of digital marketing, the use of direct mail as a way of attracting and converting new customers as well as touching base with previous clients remains a tried and tested technique. However, if you make any of these common direct mail mistakes, you will almost certainly be wasting time, paper, ink and postage. (more…)
For some people, power (and therefore impact) sits in symbols of power such as a corner office, a nice company car or an executive assistant.
Symbols can, at times, play an impactful role but real and lasting impact is so much bigger than that. It’s how you conduct yourself, your actions and behaviours, that will speak the loudest. And if you do that effectively, you definitely don’t need to have the biggest office to have an impact. (more…)
5G is the word on everyone’s lips at the moment, with the UK recently taking strides to develop its network infrastructure. The technology is expected to be rolled out properly by 2020 and hit over one billion connections by 2025.
The fifth generation of mobile networks promises even faster download speeds, less lag and a more stable connection than existing 3 and 4G. But what does this mean for businesses, and how can they prepare for its arrival to get first-mover advantage? (more…)
Whether you are pitching for new business, updating a client on their project or doing some face-to-face business networking, you need to act fast.
As Lyn Roseaman of Toastmasters International explains, you have less than 10 seconds to grab your audience’s attention, and show them you’re going to talk about something they’ll value or that you are someone they’ll want to work with. (more…)
Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) play a part in improving your business telecoms? Will it impact landline, VoIP, Mobile or fibre/copper broadband services? Mike Ianiri, of Equinox looks at where developments in AI can benefit business telecoms. (more…)
In a competitive marketplace you can’t always give staff cash bonuses or pay rises. Rewarding employees with other forms of incentives can help you to overcome this and also lead to a more productive workplace where people want to work. (more…)
Is your company an authority in its chosen market? If it’s not — it should be.
Being seen as an authority in your line of work is a key part of attracting customers, so here are 4 ways you can build your authority and get yourself ahead of the competition. (more…)
Networking is a skill you can acquire just like any other. Sure, while you’re learning you might make some mistakes but the reality is, mistakes are lessons to learn from.
To help you quickly master the skills you’ll need, here are 5 networking hacks. (more…)
Copper is dead. Long live fibre broadband – or so the ISPs will have you believe.
But as Mike Ianiri of Equinox, explains, fibre broadband will soon be overtaken by better alternatives so businesses should not be tempted to install it. (more…)