How to Choose the Right Telephone Answering Services

With so many options available to SMEs in the area of telephone answering services currently, it might seem like finding a solution to suit yours and your customer’s needs shouldn’t be that difficult at all. Unfortunately, with so many new services popping up in the digital space each and every day, it can actually be quite tricky finding an online service that checks all the boxes.

Friendly phone ansewring service staff

Following are some great tips for choosing an affordable telephone answering service that can meet all your needs, while giving your customers the highest level of service possible on each and every call.

Can the service center meet your current and future needs?

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A Brief Guide for Setting-up an Offshore Company

Any online business is the amazing consequence of a digital era that has revolutionised business communications. You can run a business from any corner of the world; however, for security and compliance reasons, you need to experience the process of setting up a company with perfect documentation and banking account.

Offshore banking

Let’s understand with an example. If you’re into exporting goods to the UK while based in Peru, at a certain point, you need to consider opening an offshore company in the UK for smooth functioning of the business and to comply with UK taxation laws.

Here is a brief guide for setting up an offshore company.…

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How to Expand your Business into China

China is the world’s second largest economy, and is due to continue expanding, so it makes sense that businesses want to capitalise on the investment opportunities the country presents. With a population of over 1.3 billion, breaking into the Chinese market is attractive to almost every business, but there have been a number of famous companies that have tried, and failed, to expand in China.

This could be due to a lack of knowledge in how to localise and launch a business in China, or it could simply be because there simply isn’t a market for the company. According to the program director at Chinacelerator, a company which helps startups bridge the gap to the east Asian market, Oscar Ramos: “Ninety-nine per cent of companies who want to access China as a foreign company, shouldn’t.”…

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5 Things Your Accountant Should be Doing

Is your accountant giving you more than just tax advice? If not, it may be time to find a new one.

Happy accountant

Your accountant should be helping you with these five important things:

1. Helping You Prepare for Tax Season – Well in Advance

Most business owners hire an accountant purely for tax purposes, although they can offer assistance in other ways as well.

Ideally, your accountant should be helping you prepare for taxes well in advance, so there are no last-minute surprises. He or she should be helping you understand:

  • Which credits to claim
  • Which deductions to claim
  • Tax laws that can maximize your write-offs

Tax opportunities, like the R&D credit, can help reduce your tax burden, and your accountant should know if you qualify for such opportunities.…

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How to Keep Making Money When You are Injured at Work

Getting hurt on the job is a terrible way to find more time to spend at home. If an injury does occur, it is good to have a backup plan. Your financial responsibilities do not simply stop in life when you are injured, so you have to find another way to bring in money.

Injured employee on a crutch

Workers’ compensation will only pay so much of your life’s expenses. If the case gets complicated, you may even need to obtain a workers’ compensation lawyer. There is no guarantee of a speedy reimbursement, so here are a few ways to make some extra scratch from the comfort of home.…

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Clean Your Home Office, Not Your Bank Account

Home office cleaning is no one’s idea of a fun weekend. There are so many ways to procrastinate and just avoid it entirely. Hey, the vacuum cleaner is making funny noises! Guess I better not use it; I”ll just have to save up to buy another one. Should I really mop the floor today? Last time I did that, the dog kept slipping on it. I don’t want to hurt my dog; I’m not some kind of monster. And so on and so forth.

Home office cleaning

Office cleaning takes up time that you could be using to check your emails, work on projects, and even eat peanut butter cups during your ‘down time.’ …

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How to Best Prepare Your Business for a Natural Disaster: 6 Crucial Tips

The recent storms to hit the United States have been all over the media the last few weeks. Hurricane Harvey dumped enough water on southern Texas in a week to supply New York City with drinking water for sixty-nine years. That is a massive amount of water to fall in less than a week. And then there’s Hurricane Irma:

If you are like many small business owners, you are more than likely wondering how to best prepare your business for a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey or Irma. Now is a great time to review the plans your business has in place for when a natural disaster occurs in your area.…

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Do You Have Someone Who Manages Your Parts Data? If Not, Here are 4 Reasons Why You Should

As an electrical engineer, your primary goal is transforming clients’ ideas into functioning electronics. However, in designing a BOM for a project, you’ll need to manage your parts to ensure you have every requirement. Most electrical engineers admit that it’s hard to focus on product design while managing BOM parts at the same time.

Parts data management

Poor management of parts leads to lengthy delays in production, unexpected cost increases, and, production of faulty electronics. Hiring a professional who manages your parts data ensures you benefit in the following ways.

1. Keeps an updated list of prices

If your Bill of Materials (BOM) contains hundreds of parts, it will take you a lot of time to cross check the price of each listed part.…

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Using Grounding to Protect your PCB

Safe handling practices of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) are not as safe as they may seem to be so, it is better to have excellent handling practises. To avoid ingression of moisture and contamination, there is need for proper protection otherwise known as conformal coating. There is need to protect your PCB from other things like fungus, corrosion, dust, salt spray and others that can easily damage it. Besides these, there is also a lot of electrostatic discharge (ESD) during the stages of development.

printed circuit board - PCB

With the advancement of electronic components, ESD becomes more and more of a threat. Constant movement of equipment, carts and people can lead to a major build-up of static.…

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Take Notice! Why You Should Take Workplace Signs Seriously

Almost all workplaces have at least a few signs around to remind employees and visitors to stay safe, as well as to advise them how to do it. These signs are ever-present, they don’t take holidays, they speak the universal language of images and they don’t take a salary. They’re indispensable when it comes to promoting and maintaining safety in the workplace.

Wet floor caution sign

However, not everyone reacts the same way when they see a bright sign telling them how to lift a box properly, to remember their goggles, or to extinguish their cigarette before entering the warehouse.

Some people get a bit affronted – why should some sign order them around?…

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