5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Retirement Strategy

Preparing yourself with a comprehensive retirement plan is more important than ever. We are all living longer and it is vital that you have a strategy to ensure you don’t outlive your money. Here are some simple things that can help you to make the most of your retirement fund.

Busy senior businessman working on a retirement plan

Look at your 401(k) plan

A key part of a successful retirement strategy is creating an effective income stream from your savings. Keep your money in the 401(k) if your plan allows you to make regular withdrawals or pays out in instalments. If your 401(k) only allows you to take out a lump sum, it may be worth transferring the savings to a separate retirement account.…

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Still Using Manual Processes? 5 Reasons To Automate Your Systems Today

Businesses from every industry use automated systems to some degree, whether it’s automated payment processing, point-of-sale systems, or simple invoicing software. No business is too small to benefit from automation. However, many small businesses have been slow to adopt automation. Perhaps it seems too technical for some, or maybe they’re afraid of change.

Business owner using automation software

If you’re hanging onto manual methods to run your business, let the following reasons be an invitation to consider automation:

1. Not using automated systems will keep you in the past

There will come a time when your old software applications no longer function. You know, the applications you downloaded as freeware back in 1996?…

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Backing Up Your Business: How to Keep Your Important Information Safe

The last 12 months have been another huge reminder that data security and information safety is imperative to business. As you will no doubt have seen in the news many times over the last few months, even the biggest businesses in the world aren’t safe from either security breaches or the significant financial cost of not reacting to them.

Business data backup and security

As technology progresses, cybercriminals become increasingly adept at finding ways around the system. Here are several ways to make sure you don’t suffer a security breach in 2019.

Be vigilant – you will always be a target

Unfortunately, it’s not just the large businesses with the ability to pay enormous fines that are targeted, either.…

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4 Top Ways to Provide Superior Customer Service

Customer service is vital to the success of a company in any industry. Poor customer service can lead to lost customers, low levels of customer loyalty, and bad publicity. Unhappy customers tend to talk, whether to their friends and family members or in the form of online reviews.

Doing stellar customer service

No matter how you look at it, customer service should be one of your top priorities as a business owner or manager. Read on the following tips, courtesy of Nexa customer service.

Improve Response Times

In today’s digital world, people expect to receive a response quicker than ever before. One of the key factors in providing excellent customer service is responding nearly instantaneously, even if only just to say “we have received your request and will get back to you”.as…

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5 Business Vehicle Considerations You Need to Make

When using a vehicle for business purposes, there are a lot of things to consider. These include taxes, mileage deductions, depreciation expenses and whether to use a personal or business car.

Businesswoman gets out of a business car

Just like any aspect of your business and personal life, it is important to keep vehicle and other expenses separate. So before you start using a car for your business, address these five issues first.

1. The Driver

The driver is one of the most important things to consider when using a vehicle for business purposes. Will the owners, staff members or both drive the vehicle for business? Business owners obviously have more control over their driving behavior than that of staff members.…

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5 Steps to Create a Better Experience for Your Customers

There’s a lot of steps that go into offering the best service experience possible for all your customers. It isn’t enough just to have the best quality or best priced product. It isn’t about having the best service staff possible either. Companies need to dig further and constantly be digging for answers even when everything seems to be perfect.

Enhancing customer experience

Here are 5 relatively painless steps you can take to foster a better customer experience in your company:

1. Its everybody or nobody

The big problem with several companies operating out there in the world these days is that they may have a handful of employees in their ranks who don’t realize just how important they are to this service initiative because connecting with customers isn’t part of their job description.…

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Getting Started: 5 Business Startup Loans Available to You if You Have Bad Credit

Need a loan for your small business but aren’t sure how you’ll get it? Here are 5 ways to get start up business loans with bad credit.

Business people taking startup business loans

Over half a million Americans become an entrepreneur every month.

Do you have bad credit with an entrepreneurial mind? No problem! With the right strategizing and planning, you can still secure financing for your business dreams.

Let’s get into understanding the best start up business loans with bad credit.

1. Microloans

Are you a minority small business owner? Do you come from an impoverished background? If so, you may be eligible to qualify for a microloan.…

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Functionality and Looks: How Important Is It to Preserve Aesthetics in Machine Design?

Ever since the Industrial Revolution integrated functionality with design and production, the world has changed at an incredibly fast pace. Products that were once expensive, time-consuming, and cumbersome to create have become efficiently and cheaply mass-produced, making them more popular and widely distributed.

Function vs looks

But just how far does machine design take away from aesthetics? In many cheaply made, mass-produced products, beauty and durability are sacrificed for cost. Yet aesthetics are often the focal point of engineering anything, so exactly how important is it to preserve aesthetics when designing machines?

What is the Difference Between Functionality and Aesthetics?

The word “aesthetics” comes from the ancient Greek word aisthetikos, which loosely means “to perceive.”…

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Fact Or Faux? Myths About Coworking

When perusing coworking sites online, it is very easy to assume that the coworking space is one of fun and frivolity. Images of professionals standing around an after-hours cocktail bar or chatting amicably around a conference table can give the impression that coworking is a big scene. This is just one of the major misconceptions about the popular office format, which has already taken traction in places like Wellington and Auckland.

Coworking misconceptions

Other misconceptions related to coworking involve definitions of it as being shared space, which has also been around forever. Then, there is this whole idea that major cities are the only places where coworking professionals can thrive.…

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Building Credibility When You’re Small – 4 Tips

It’s never easy building a strong reputation for your small business, but the Digital Age has certainly made things easier than they used to be.

Building business credibility

In fact, if you know how to leverage the right methods, there’s absolutely no reason your small business can’t enjoy just as much credibility as your much bigger competitors do.

4 Ways to Become More Credible Than Your Larger Competitors

The online age has made it easier than ever to build a presence and market your services and products to customers. That being said, building a strong, credible reputation is more important than ever. Prospects that find you credible will find it easier to become your customers.…

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