How to Get Your Employees to Like You

Business owners and managers worldwide all know there are few things easier in this world than the ability to get your employees to HATE you. In fact, it often requires no effort at all.

The fact that you’re at the top and they’re at the bottom, or somewhere in between, is enough reason for most employees to sneer at you behind your back and act with a certain level of defiance when you address them.

Bad management by a bad boss

Getting employees to LIKE you is a skill that is naturally in-born to some. To the rest of us, there’s an inevitable learning curve. Some employees are going to hate you no matter how hard you try.…

Continue reading →

Software Law Students Should Start Learning to Use

Being a student has its perks: you get structure with freedom; people don’t judge you if you still live with your parents; and companies and organizations still offer you a whole lot of freebies. To make the most of your time in university and get ahead of your cohort, take advantage of those freebies – especially by learning to use software and programs that practicing lawyers employ every day. It will give you a leg up on your competition because you will have already developed an efficient way of working when it comes to your articling years.

Blacks Law Dictionary for iOS

Here are some of the most common applications and software that you should start using while studying:

Research and Note-Taking

Research will continue to be an integral part of your legal practice, so why not make it more efficient?…

Continue reading →

Growing Your Text Marketing List: 6 Essential Tips

If you want to grow a text marketing list into one that’s truly successful, don’t assume that you know all the right ingredients. All too often marketers make the mistake of assuming, and their efforts end up wasted. If you want to ensure success now and in the future, consider these 6 text message marketing musts.

Texting in a cafe

Offer an Incentive

But not just any kind of incentive. Ensure that you are offering something truly valuable to those who opt in to receive your messages. Most businesses find that offering something free is a great way to get people to opt in. That free offer pays off long –term, as long as you continue providing valuable offers.…

Continue reading →

How to Blog Regularly When You Don’t Have Time

We all know we need to be producing content regularly, right? But are you getting the job done? If you find there simply are not enough hours in the day to write consistently, you do have options.

We can blog it!

Buy PLR Content

While you could buy PLR (private label rights) content, you would need to have it rewritten to be original. Even if you could find high quality PLR content that is relevant, it could be as beneficial to hire a writer or blogger.

Content alone does not a great blog post make. The best posts include at least one image, possibly a video and/or infographic, and links to supporting material.…

Continue reading →

How to Use What you Have to Fund Your Business Venture

Where I live, small business funding is not that accessible compared to other countries. We do have funding via banks and other lending institutions, but choices are limited. There are some risky choices, e.g. borrowing from questionable lenders, but I wouldn’t take that path, typically due to the unfavorable terms and the lender’s reputation.

Creative business funding methods

Small business owners need to be creative to secure funding, typically for keeping their businesses to run like well-oiled machines, especially due to seasonality that may exist in their industries.

I am lucky enough to know some smart small business owners who know creative ways to fund their business activities.…

Continue reading →

I have Just Started My Own Business. Why Do I Need An Accountant?

So, you’ve decided to start your own business. Do you really need an accountant? After all, there are numerous apps such as Easy Books, Kashoo, and Shoeboxed easily and cheaply available online. These can help the small business owner track transactions, create invoices and keep financial documents organised.

Accountant

But that’s not all it takes to manage your business’ finances. The small business still does need an experienced, dedicated accountant. In 2014, an accountant is no longer simply a bookkeeper. The accountant’s role has changed.

Accountant As Business Advisor

Due to the ongoing developments in technology, accountants have adapted to remain valuable.…

Continue reading →

Financing for Businesses

You are about to realize the dream of a lifetime : starting a business. For a company, particularly a start-up one, financing is a crucial step, essential to the survival of the business. For your project to be successful, a variety of options are offered for you to acquire the necessary funds.

Business growth funding

Bank loan

Self-explanatory, this term means to loan a specific amount to the bank in order to finance customer accounts, inventories, purchase of equipment or other expenses related to the business. It is an easy path; however, it has its limitations, particularly when it comes to your borrowing capacity.…

Continue reading →

Covering Yourself Legally as a Business Owner

When you take the plunge and become a business owner, no matter what size that business may be, there are certain aspects you leave yourself accountable for. This is what’s known as Management Liability. You might not think it, but even the more virtual, computer-based professions can be faced with an expensive court-battle, so it isn’t just the high risk professions that are open to this.

Business legal coverage

Things are bound to go wrong, and they so often will, so ensuring you’ve got the correct insurance to cover you is extremely important. Although when you begin to research these insurance options, the whole process can seem more than a little intimidating, it is often more straight forward than you think.…

Continue reading →

Building Up Your Construction Company

After laying the foundations, things are finally starting to place. Here’s what to do now your construction company has left the start-up stage behind.

Construction business

Staffing

Now that you are ready to expand your construction business, you may be considering hiring full or part-time assistants where previously you have used other contractors. This is a good choice early on since it is a risk to have staff members on your pay-roll when you aren’t assured of any large income. However, if you have taken on enough clients and are assured that you can handle the risks, taking on an employee can be a much cheaper source of labour than involving other contactors.…

Continue reading →

Why SEO is an Important Investment for Your Business

Marketing is amongst one of the most important considerations that you should have a small business owner. While your product or service could be amazing, without the right marketing, no one will know about it, and no one will buy. There are several aspects to the marketing mix, but one of the most important is SEO.

SEO for small business

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the act of optimising your website in order for the search engines to rank it higher and higher in the search engine results pages (the SERPs).

When you search for something online, for example “cake makers in Essex”, a series of different results appear.…

Continue reading →