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…)
Resilience determines whether you succeed or fail in life. It’s true in sport, business, entertainment, and it’s true in your life.
Starting and running your own business certainly tests your resilience, so here’s how to develop your positive thinking to help beat the stresses of running your own business. (more…)
If an employee is suffering with substance addiction, this can cause real problems for a small business so needs to be dealt with promptly. However, as with all issues relating to employment law, business owners must tackle the problem very carefully, so we asked employment lawyer, Sarah Chilton to explain how employers should navigate the issue. (more…)
Stress is an inevitable part of everyday life and our bodies are hard-wired to respond to it. However, it’s clear stress is taking a negative toll on businesses across the country.
Poor mental health costs employers between £1,205 and £1,560 per employee every year. This cost is for all employees, not just those who are ill, so we asked Brendan Street of Nuffield Health to show how employers can cut the cost of stress. (more…)
My most radical prediction is that in a matter of years, the word ‘consumer’ will have lost all relevance. Look at the signs, and it’s clear that consumerism is already fading.
In its place, we’re seeing more reciprocal relationships between brands and their customers, relationships based on genuine engagement, and not merely a quick transaction. I call the people building this movement ‘post-consumers’. (more…)
Starting a new business is never easy especially in this day and age, when you may well be competing with hundreds of others offering the same service or selling similar/identical items.
If someone bad-mouths your business, you can lose sales immediately and suffer long-term damage to your reputation. So what can you do, if this happens to your business? We asked, Amanda Hamilton, CEO of NALP, to explain. (more…)
When fashion chain, Ted Baker, hit the news last year among stories of ‘forced hugging’, it’s likely that many businesses across the country began to look at how practices in their own organisation’s culture may be received by its staff.
And the key question many business owners will be asking is, can hugging at work constitute sexual harassment? (more…)
Many businesses now allocate much of their marketing budget to raising their online profile. However, this does mean that some of the more traditional methods of marketing risk being side-lined.
The printed brochure is one of those valuable sales tools that can sometimes be overlooked. Yet one of the reasons that brochures have been such an integral part of marketing for so long is that they do work – as long as you get them right. (more…)
Your domain says a lot about you and your company. It’s your address on the internet, the place people go to find you, and a name intrinsically associated with your brand.
But is one domain name enough, and what options do small businesses have when it comes to deciding on a domain strategy? (more…)
Changes in telecoms, that are already in motion, will be developing at an even faster rate over coming months. To help you understand what’s happening, we asked Mike Ianiri of independent telecoms brokerage, Equinox to explain what business owners need to know about the telecoms changes heading our way. (more…)
We are at a significant moment in our history when there is momentum building, putting increasing pressure on businesses to act in the right way. Our staff want us to change, our children need us to change and our customers expect us to change. (more…)
As business leaders, it’s easy to get consumed in the pressures of running your business. It’s stressful, but there is a consequence to that stress, and it can be damaging for business, as well as your own health. (more…)
Whilst most employers will be well versed in dealing with under-performing staff, the situation can be trickier when faced with those who appear to be coasting at work.
Given the increasing demands placed on business owners it can be easy to overlook staff who are doing just enough to get by, however failing to recognise and address this can come at a significant cost to a business. (more…)
Environmentally conscious businesses are rapidly gaining much larger audiences by providing a different kind of value, as consumers are now more likely to pay more for products with an ethical incentive.
A forward-thinking mentality can set you apart from the crowd, especially in a time where sustainability and social responsibility have become top purchasing drivers. (more…)
Having a data network has become a requirement for all modern businesses, regardless of size.
An IT network gives your workforce access to the internet and other services like VoIP, allowing employees to communicate and share files with clients, customers and each other. (more…)
If you are looking to make sales online, tackling the specialist subject of ecommerce SEO is vital to your long-term success.
With SEO for ecommerce websites requiring such specific expertise, we asked Joe Cox of Superb Digital to share his knowledge on how to grow sales through ecommerce SEO. (more…)
We’ve all been there. The team meeting where nothing is achieved. The group discussion where it feels like you can cut the air with a knife. The team that is actually a team in name only, where it’s everyone for themselves and only the most vocal, political or best-connected survives.
So how can you get a broken team back on track, and make sure everyone pulls together? (more…)
The statutory right to request flexible working is available to all employees who complete 26 weeks of continuous employment.
Whilst flexible working is certainly becoming a more common feature in the workplace, it could stand to become even more significant in 2019 as discussions continue around whether employers will be required to state whether positions can be worked flexibly in job advertisements.
In the meantime, here’s what every small business owner needs to know about flexible working rights, and how to handle flexible working requests from staff so that you don’t end up in front of an Employment Tribunal; (more…)
If your business involves selling goods to customers you will, inevitably, need to deal with a percentage of customers that want to exchange items, or are seeking a refund.
As a small business, it’s really important to know what your legal rights and duties are when it comes to customers that have bought your goods. (more…)
With each passing year, we are barraged with more and more stories of corporate scandals and wrongdoing. Recent examples include a global carmaker rigging their vehicles to cheat on emissions tests, a major bank illegally foisting accounts and credit cards on millions of customers without their knowledge or consent, and innumerable stories about sexual misconduct by powerful, entitled executives.
And these are just a few high-profile cases – the tip of the iceberg for anyone who reads the business news. (more…)
If you are thinking of starting out as a freelancer or a contractor, you will very quickly need to get a basic understanding of the IR35 rules. (more…)