Retention is one of those slippery stats that can reveal a major weakness. You are just spinning in place if you are bleeding customers as fast as you get them in the door. An audit could find that your customers are having buyers remorse after having a frustrating time with blister packaging. A small adjustment in packaging could make the difference between poor customer retention and rich customer growth. As with physical health, minor issues become big problems when they are not audited by a professional. Here are a few audits you should schedule right away if your business is not on track:

Logistics Audit

What kind of parcel and freight audit software are you using? A FedEx audit can make a big difference in your profitability. Without a strong logistics audit, you could be, and probably are missing out on eligible refunds and shipment credits that are rightfully yours. 

Logistics is not all about refunds and credits. It is also about time of delivery. Right now, Amazon is the gold standard. Your customers know about Amazon and will be comparing your service. Amazon has made it difficult for everyone. You order something and it is at your door in two days or less. It is often easier to return a product you bought from Amazon than it is to return products locally. This is what you have to live up to.

What you can’t offer in price and speed of delivery, you can make up in service and satisfaction guarantees. You can use better shipping packages so that your products suffer less damage during shipment. Even if the product arrives safely, the customer will not feel good about the experience if the box is badly damaged. That is not all down to the delivery company. That is often a matter of poor packaging. When you audit every part of your logistics, you might find the boost you’ve been lacking.

Audit Your Website

There are a lot of things about your website you will need to audit. It is not just about checking to make sure everything is spelled correctly. That said, you would be surprised at how many websites have spelling errors, even in the large print. Even so, that is not your biggest problem.

Driving the funnel with link building is the kind of thing you can only do well when you do a full link audit. If you make the right kind of back linking error, you can find yourself delisted by Google. If your Google placement is not what you hoped it would be, it is probably because of something to do with your site. How is your mobile responsiveness? You could have a worse ranking because of a website unoptimized for mobile. A full website audit by a professional auditor can make all the difference.

Inventory Audit

Apple CEO, Tim Cook’s superpower is inventory and supply chain management. Apple used to have a major problem with inventory control until Cook came on board. He moved the company to a just in time model and the rest is stock market history. Of course, this method is not without risks and up front costs. Apple often has to buy out a company’s entire manufacturing capabilities for years in advance. That is both risky and expensive. 

You might not be sitting on top of a two trillion dollar company. But you can eke out a bit more profit by doing a proper inventory audit. How many weeks of inventory do you carry? Do you even know? Too much inventory can represent loss in the form of opportunity cost. When you are tied to weeks or even months of slow-moving inventory, you either have to write it off or let your business stall while you sell through it.

Productivity Audit

Your company will suffer its biggest challenges when you become complacent. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with being satisfied with how your business is going. Sales are steady, customers are happy. And profits are acceptable. On the other hand, when things are acceptable, you tend to lower your guard. That is when you fail to notice the little things that can be problematic. Even when you start to notice them, you don’t react the way you should because everything is fine. 

When things are fine, you should ask yourself why things aren’t excellent. In business, “fine” is a euphemism for stagnant. Stagnation is the first of a few short steps to ruin. You need to do a productivity audit to discover why things are only fine. Is your salesforce content? Are they easily hitting their goals? If everyone on your team is hitting their quotas, your quotas aren’t high enough. If workers can get all their work done and still waste half a day at the water cooler discussing the latest episode of Ted Lasso, they don’t have enough to do. If everyone’s desk is spotless and all the paperwork is in order, Your workers had too much time for mundane tasks. Things don’t need to be frantic to be productive. But there are always signs that you are not getting all of what you are paying for. If you really don’t have more for your workers to do, you should cut hours. Stop bleeding money with the paper cuts of inefficiency. Audit every part of your business and start realizing that “fine” is not good enough.

In business, auditing is not just for taxes. If you want to get your business out of a slump, be sure to audit your logistics, your website, your inventory and your business processes.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post This Is What You Need to Audit to Turn Your Business Around appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

All companies have inefficiencies. As long as companies are powered by humans, that will always be the case. Some companies make the mistake of trying to eliminate all inefficiencies. To do that, one would also have to eradicate the humanity from the business. The true beauty and uniqueness of art can be found in its minor imperfections. That is one of the things that distinguishes it from something extruded from a machine.

Your business should never feel like it has lost its humanity. Customers will not reward you for that. There will always be a balancing act between being so mechanized that you lose the human touch, and being so sloppily human that you start losing money. Here are a handful of inefficiencies that start out small but can hit the bottom line big time:

Warehousing

If you deal in bulky, less-than-pallet-load, and non-conveyable items like crates and oversized inventory items, they have to be stored someplace. There is no 100% efficient process that keeps you fully stocked and moves that inventory from the warehouse, kits it together, and sends it to shipping. This is especially true if you need to assign two to three workers to handle bulky, non-conveyable goods like refrigerators, furniture, and basketball backboards.

The Guardian XO full-body exoskeleton suit, 

is designed to boost productivity, minimize the risk of workplace injury, and enable employees to lift and move heavier loads by themselves. Engineered for heavy lifting, the suit utilizes robotics, sensors, and software to help workers move goods up to 200 pounds (90 kg) in warehouses and distribution centers.

According to the manufacturer, these tools “combine human intelligence, instinct, and judgment with the power, endurance, and precision of machines.” They also say this about the product’s capabilities:

Set to transform the way work gets done, the Guardian XO industrial exoskeleton augments operator strength without restricting freedom of movement to boost productivity while dramatically reducing injuries.

This is a great way to upgrade your warehouse operations.

Software

If you are not running the best software to help grow your business and cut internal costs, you are losing money. If you are running your software locally, you also need fast hardware to take full advantage of it. Without that hardware, each operation takes longer than it has to.

You can read about real-world examples of how the right software can make a big difference, especially SaaS delivered via cloud computing. You would be surprised at how being able to automate little things like application completion can make a huge difference. There are secondary benefits beyond the initial speed. All sales teams are bad at paperwork. A certain amount of it has to come back for corrections. Sales can be lost in that process. When the paperwork is automated, it is less likely to have costly errors.

Training

A lot of the IT budget is spent on training new employees on a system with which they are unfamiliar. After the onboarding, things continue to go downhill because of user errors. There is also inefficiency whenever a person is forced to use the unfamiliar. They will be more hesitant. In many cases, this cannot be helped because of proprietary software.

That said, if workers are given a choice of PC or Mac, they can use whatever system they know best. Suddenly, onboarding is reduced dramatically. A worker can get up to speed much faster. And there will be fewer calls to tech support. Make work computing feel more like home computing and you will reduce a major pain point and inefficiency in your company.

No system is perfect, there will always be inefficiencies to deal with. And not all of them will cost you a noticeable amount of money. But keep an eye out for inefficiencies in warehousing, software, and training. These can cost you a lot more money than you think.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Here Are 3 Small Inefficiencies That Could Be Hurting Sales appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

All criminal defense lawyers want to increase the chances of success, but some aren’t sure how to do this. You know it’ll take a while to grow your business, but you want to improve your chances. The following are five tips you should remember on this journey.

Build Credibility

One crucial step to take to improve your law firm is to build credibility. Yes, your law degree is good, but every lawyer has that. You need to become a member of local, state, and national organizations within your law niche. The more you do this, the more you’ll be able to claim. People love seeing that you’re a part of organizations, even if they’ve never heard of them. Having all these logos makes people feel like you’re a law firm to trust.

Marketing Power

Marketing is a big deal, which you probably know. You’ve probably invested in some good ads to reach folks locally, but you need to do more than that. In today’s modern age, you also have to worry about your online presence. You have to be aware that digital platforms play a critical role in criminal lawyer marketing techniques, and you have to take action. This means investing in an excellent digital marketing team that’ll help put your law firm out there. You want name recognition. You want client history. You want more referrals, and all this happens with good traditional/digital marketing.

Website Importance

Your website is your online storefront, and it needs to be flawless. If you want to give your small law firm a chance, you need to invest as much as you can in your website. You want good website developers. You should hire a photographer to take high-quality photographs of your law firm and the lawyers in your firm. The developers must create a good UX because visitors love when a site is intuitive. Continually update your site every few years because online users can tell when a site is a little dated, which hurts your reputation.

Brick and Mortar

You need to put some thought into your business’s physical location. It’s essential that the establishment feels traditional and professional. A law firm won’t look right if it’s next to various retail stores or inside a shopping mall. A good law firm usually has its own standalone location or is inside a large professional building and other professional offices. People just expect that from you, and you have to deliver. You lose credibility if your office doesn’t look the part, so make sure you invest in a good location you can grow with.

Work on the Infrastructure

Don’t skimp on the overall infrastructure of your law firm. If you work hard on getting folks to come to your business, you have to be ready to take everyone on, which means organization is vital. The good thing is there are many software programs perfectly suited to help you with cases, record keeping, and much more. You should also accept any type of payment since you never know what people are going to come with. You’ll need a digital document filing system with at least one backup just in case.

You’ve got five good tips to help you grow your law firm. It’s going to take a while to do everything, but at least you’re starting on the right foot.

You can visit Sexner & Associates LLC if you need a dui lawyer, they can help you fight the charge or reduce your sentence.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 5 Small Business Tips for Criminal Defense Lawyers appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Expert identifies 4 cornerstones of retailer’s cyber security

PwC’s 2020 US Holiday Outlook indicates that 61% of those surveyed will do most of their shopping online, as 55% mentioned the pandemic being the biggest concern preparing for Christmas this year. Accenture provides similar estimations with 75% respondents claiming  they would at least partially shop for Christmas online.

Ecommerce vendors aim to grow their profits due to increased traffic in online stores, but this puts them in the spotlight of cyber criminals, who use similar tactics every year. If the website goes down for a day, retailers lose as much as £19,000 of revenue (£134,850 per week) and in the midst of the holiday shopping spree the numbers are supposedly higher.

“Due to more people shopping online, the number of cyber attacks are projected to increase. 57% of retailers say the surge in online sales has made cyber security especially difficult and 83% of the top US retailers have connections to vulnerable third-party assets. Hackers try to take advantage of increased traffic in the online stores to trigger the Denial of Service (DoS) attack and temporarily shut down the website or gain access to user account information. They may, for example, utilize bots, some of which are programmed to snatch the best deals, while others try to break into the user’s account and obtain sensitive data” says Juta Gurinaviciute, the Chief Technology Officer at NordVPN Teams.

Last year, Magecart group managed to implant a card-skimming code on Macy’s website and leak crucial payment information, including, but not limited to, name, address and credit card number.  This year, Magecart attacks are also considered as one of the most dangerous client-side vulnerabilities.

Hackers also leverage social engineering techniques as the online communication in holiday time surges. “Using hijacked vendors’ emails, criminals can distribute scams through reputable and trusted channels and acquire sensitive client data. Remote work also multiplies the risk.” warns NordVPN Teams expert.

Think about private information. Employees should only be able to access the internal systems through two-factor authentication and guest checkouts shouldn’t be allowed. “Some of the hackers use so-called ‘friendly fraud’. They purchase the products and then require a refund after the items have reached their hands. More sophisticated ones make use of traditional social engineering practices and attempt to breach ecommerce websites” says Gurinaviciute.

Be careful with third-party solutions. Many smaller retailers depend on the content management systems (CMS) and various ecommerce plugins. They require some degree of system integration, which can become a gateway for criminals in the event of cyber attack. It is thus wise to limit third party access to any consumer’s private and payment information, a policy known as a “least privilege”. However, third-party solutions are indispensable while handling the payments, as established providers ensure trustworthy encrypted tunnels for financial operations.

Take a good look at your website. There are various signs that websites can be trusted and one of the most important is the presence of a secure socket layer (SSL) certificate, which safeguards any data that flows in and out of the website. It is indicated by the ‘https’ at the beginning of the URL or a lock icon in some of the browsers. Don’t forget that the website theme and general appearance are also telling.  Updating a website’s plugins is also relevant as cyber attackers try to leverage their bugs to infiltrate web pages. Important data on servers has to be backed up every once in a while or an automatic backup has to be set, preferably on the offline storage.

Teach and learn. Cyber security and tech landscape changes quickly and constant learning is necessary to keep up with the advancements. The best way to avoid a disaster caused by cyber attack is to ensure businesses have an up-to-date and functioning crisis management strategy and all workers are instructed about necessary actions they should take in the case of emergency. Risk and security awareness training  is crucial, especially if they work remotely.

About NordVPN Teams

NordVPN Teams is a cloud-based VPN for business from the world’s most advanced VPN service provider, NordVPN. NordVPN Teams has a full range of features to ensure convenience and powerful digital protection for organizations of all sizes, freelancers, and remote teams. NordVPN Teams offers advanced 256-bit encryption, secure remote access, malware blocking, two-factor authentication, unsecured traffic prevention, automatic connection on Wi-Fi networks, and 24/7 customer support. NordVPN Teams is available on all major platforms.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Cyber Criminals Leverage The Spike In Online Sales During Holiday Season appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

As we enter a new decade, 58% of small businesses in the UK anticipate a plateau, or for their SMEs to struggle to stay in business. Only 1 in 4 predict to see growth. But not everything is bad news, here we also provide 5 tips that businesses can use to stay afloat in the digital era.

A new report, which surveyed 1,000 small business owners and sole traders across the country has been carried out by financial technology experts, Takepayments Limited, unveiling a snapshot of the small business landscape in the UK. It uncovers key challenges for small businesse and tips on how business owners can secure a more consistent cash flow.

Below the report unveils the five biggest reasons why SMEs are struggling to stay afloat in a digital era.

Why SMEs are struggling to stay afloat in a digital era

Needing to chase late payments

Even if you are a business to consumer (B2C) company, the likelihood is you will still need to manage some partnerships and affiliations with suppliers etc. Perhaps you are providing a service or a product to another business and therefore, charging for the exchange. One worrying issue for small businesses that have to deal in a B2B scenario, is waiting for others to pay their invoices for the sale of your goods/service.

Whilst wanting to maintain a positive working relationship between your business and theirs, when people do not pay their invoice on time, it leaves you short-handed for that months revenue and cash flow can become tight.

46% of small businesses have admitted to consistently needing to chase late payments with over half of them claiming that late payments have a worrying impact on cash flow.

The Uncertainty of Invoicing

As a small business, you do not have the luxury of sending all your money related tasks to the tax & finance department and will most likely have to do this yourself, unless you have someone externally handling all your businesses finance.

For those running a small business, well over half  (63%) claim that they are “self-taught” about tax and invoicing. All whilst, 39% say that they aren’t confident using online banking for work. Struggling to invoice effectively can result in a much slower process of receiving money, especially if the invoice needs to be amended and sent back to the supplier or there are important details missing.

Therefore, it will come at no surprise that the better part of half (45%) of business owners say that finding funding to grow their business is holding it back.

Little to no tech support

Over half of SME’s have claimed that they have little to no tech support, and are having to figure things out for themselves as they go along. Unlike a larger corporate who have entire teams to solve all types of IT or development issues, they must press on and do what they can with limited knowledge.

With 47% having a lack in website creation and management skills, it is apparent that it is one of the key problems that is holding small business owners back in a digital era, where consumers expect to be able to find everything they need in the click of a finger.

From issues with having poor WI-FI in their business location (39%) to struggling with online competition (45%), SME’s are now expected to be tech guru’s to stay in business.

The fear of a cashless society

Digital payment systems such as EPOS and pin machines are an expected method of payment to consumers now, with contactless limits getting higher and minimum spend becoming lower, there is a burden and expectation for small businesses to support the payment process of a becoming cashless society.

Sandra Rowley, Head of Marketing at Takepayments Limited, commented about this that:“Pricing structure and cash flow are both key to driving a business forward and yet for small businesses, many have had no or very little training. There are plenty of online courses available but, it’s not just training that can help.

Technology such as Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) systems can be beneficial in giving key insights real-time to business performance, saving time on accounts and getting a true reflection of what products and services achieve the best margin.

Our study revealed that 49% of small businesses have seen a decrease in consumer spending and so implementing technology to improve your business could be a smart step to help overcome a variety of finance-related challenges.”

42% of SME’s said that turning into a cashless society will negatively impact their business. This majority comes from the 40% that feel l overwhelmed by digital payment systems such as EPOS and chip and pin machines. If there is little advice, training and aftercare in the setup, it can be a daunting task tracking your income from EPOS machines, over counting cold hard cash.

A lack of social media marketing knowledge

The report revealed that Facebook was the most preferred social media network to market a business. The popularity of social media such as Instagram and more image/video-led content, like TikTok, are very high engagement sites but must be utilised properly from a business perspective.

Nearly HALF (47%) of small business owners are struggling to do little if any social media marketing due to their lack of knowledge. Social media can be a cheap we to extend and gauge new audiences, however, with little knowledge small business owners are worried about keeping up on social media marketing and therefore, missing out on sales opportunities.

From the results in the report, it will come at no surprise that the better part of half (45%) of business owners say that finding funding to grow their business is holding it back and they will struggle just to stay afloat.

5 Tips For Small Businesses

Sandra Rowley, Head of Marketing at Takepayments Limited provides 5 tips for small businesses

1. Face technology head-on:

Technology can be daunting but, it brings with it so many advantages. Whether you look to implement new systems or improve old ones, businesses need to make sure they are adapting alongside the rest of society. You could be alienating some customers by not keeping up.

2. Review company sustainability and ethics:

51% of small businesses have noticed clients/customers are caring more about sustainability over the past year. This trend is set to grow further in 2020 and businesses need to make it a consideration in all areas, from supply chain to décor, employee wellbeing and product packaging.

3. Get online:

With the local high street struggling, businesses need to look to other platforms to grow such as online channels. 52% say social media has helped their business grow and gain new customers but a lack of knowledge in how to do this is holding people back.

4. Take care of your work-life balance:

Small business owners are known for being hard workers, 1 in 6 do not take 2 rest days (non-workdays) per week and only around half (57%) stick to a 48-hour working week or less. Make 2020 the year you implement a healthier work-life balance for yourself and your team. Though your working less, productivity levels are likely to improve.

5. Keep up to date on EU news and changes:

There will be plenty of change over the year following Britain’s exit from the EU, so make sure to stay up to date with news. Especially if your business is reliant on imports and exports. 42% are worried about potential changes to rules regarding this.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 5 Reasons Why SMEs Struggle To Stay In Business (And 5 Tips To Stay Afloat) appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Criminals are turning to sophisticated methods of scamming businesses out of money, convincingly posing as regular suppliers to trick them into changing supplier bank account payee details.

A recent survey by UK Finance show that fraudsters stole almost £93m from UK firms last year through this type of scam. There were 3,280 invoice and mandate fraud cases involving businesses, while the average payment made was £20,750, showing how costly these scams can be. Invoice fraud typically involves criminals targeting businesses by email, posing as a regular supplier and then making a request for their bank account details to be changed. Firms are then tricked into sending money to an account controlled by the fraudster rather than the genuine supplier. But despite these £93m being lost to invoice fraud last year, over 43% of businesses aren’t even aware of it, let alone the threat it poses.

Invoice fraud should be major concern and the process of changing the bank details should always be treated with extreme caution. And Barclays, one the largest banks in the UK has released a series of tips to make people stay safe and aware of this type of fraud.

How it works

But before jumping on the tips, let’s explain how this fraud method works. Firs of all, a criminal contacts you, posing as a genuine supplier, and asks you to change the bank details you use to pay them. It’s not hard for criminals to investigate your invoice details, even down to payment dates, to make their approach look more convincing. The message will often have a sense of urgency, and ask you to act immediately.

The fraudulent letters and emails they send are well-written, so the fraud is difficult to spot if you don’t have strong operating processes and controls. Email addresses are easy to spoof. If a PC is infected with malware, criminals can access genuine email addresses and take over existing email conversations. Requests made in writing often come on paper with a company’s letterhead to make them look convincing.

Four tips to help you stay safe

1. When you get bank account details by email or letter for making a payment, paying an invoice, or as part of for a notice telling you about a change of bank details, always verbally confirm changes by calling a known contact at the company to confirm the request is genuine, using details you have on file and not the ones in the message.

2. Build a process to check new bank details on invoices. Have a clear procedure for making payments in your business, and make sure all your staff know how these scams occur, particularly those responsible for making payments. If you feel pressured or anxious, take your time and ask for help.

3. Criminals can access or alter emails to make them look genuine – hacking real email addresses is on the increase. Do not use the contact details in an email. Instead, check the supplier’s official website or documents you know are real. Keep vital security software up to date to help protect your company’s devices from viruses and hackers.

4. Help protect yourself against all fraud by making sure we have up-to-date contact details for you and your business. You can update them in your Barclays app, in Online Banking or through your relationship team.

As always regarding cyber security matters, common sense and awareness are two essential security tools. Most of these scams can be spotted in advance and can be avoided if measures are in properly in place, both from the technology side and, more importantly, from the human perspective.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 4 Tips For Businesses To Stay Safe Against Invoice Fraud appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Starting a small business can be a daunting prospect. Taking an idea and turning it to fruition takes many steps and precautions in order to be successful. Here is a short guide to aid in growing that seed of ambition into a money-making tree.

Do some research

Start with doing your research. Market research will allow you to look at other businesses that have started or are about to start and tell you if there is an opportunity to turn your unique plan into a successful trade. It is a way to gather information about potential consumers and pursuits already up and running in your market or area. You can use that information to compete and gain an advantage for your business.

In order to get the best results from your research, you need to come up with a plan.  You must ask yourself certain questions about your services and/or products. Ask if there is a need for this product or service in the market. If you live in a hot climate, there is probably no need for a snow clearing company. If you live in an area where there are an abundance of packaging companies, maybe it’s a good idea to invest on softgel blister packaging. Likewise, if you live in a dry state (no or little alcohol is consumed or bought) you probably don’t want to open a bar. Ask what are the general needs of the market you are trying to target and how can you improve or add to the lives of the people you are trying to sell to. You can do research fairly easily with the advent of the internet. Get online and google that stuff! There are many online publications that you can read in every aspect of business and business conduct so choose the one that fits your particular endeavor the best. Go to the stores that sell something similar to what you have in mind. Eat at restaurants that you believe could be your competition. Most likely there is an idea out there that mirrors yours unless you are really lucky and the idea has not been done yet.

Think about your pricing

The main reason why a consumer might leave you for your competition is that your pricing may not be fair or competitive. Maximize your profit by making yourself aware of what your competitors are doing and how the really successful businesses beat out the competition. Stay on the cutting edge even after you begin your business and don’t stop doing research even after you have been in business. The ideas and businesses that stay up and running are the ones that change with the tide. Even a novel idea can become outdated and boring in the ever-changing world we live in. It won’t happen overnight but if you keep yourself aware of your competition and what is changing out there it will help you have a greater understanding of your audience and what you can do to keep your head above water. Starting out is often the hardest part but if you stick with it, it should eventually pay off. If the idea and goal you started out with do not fly like you thought it would do not give up, try modifying your plan and keep going! No one who made it big and it lasted began quickly. Good things take time.

Formulate your Business Plan

Think of it as a guide to anyone reading it as selling them the idea for your business and why it would be successful. A good plan will guide you through each stage of managing and starting your new venture. It is a great way to sift through the key elements of your goal and help ensure your safety out in the big bad world of business. It is also important to think about the type of company structure you will use when setting up your new business.  You will use your plan to grow, run and structure your thoughts and think through the elemental foundation of what you are trying to accomplish. A well-formulated plan will help you get funding or bring together new investors or partners. Your plan is the tool you will use to convince people that they want to work with you or invest in your project.

There is not a right or wrong way to write your plan, what is important is that it meets your needs. One of the most important aspects of your plan is to outline your funding requirements. Your goal is to explain how much you’ll need over the onset of your project, which will usually be a five-year process, and what you will use the funding for. Anyone who wants to invest in you needs to know that they will eventually have a return on their investment. This is where you will detail how they are going to be reimbursed and be profited from investing in your business.  Give a detailed description of how the funds will be used. Specify if funds are needed to buy materials and equipment, cover specific bills like insurance, and pay salaries.  Be sure to include a detailed description of the future plans, like selling your business or paying off debtors.

Assess your Finances

This is one of the most important steps in starting out. You need to determine how you are going to cover the costs of starting up and if you will need to borrow money. Most people that start need to borrow or get investors. You need to decide whether you can afford to leave your current job to focus your energy on this project. You will have to be able to support yourself until a profit can be made and will possibly have to adjust your current way of living to supplement your goal. Put away the money now with your future goal in mind. Most small business start-ups fail because of lack of funding before they start to turn a profit. Overestimate what you believe you will need to carry through before a sustainable revenue flow supports your idea. Financial assistance is almost always necessary in beginning a new project so doing research on loans is usually a step in the process.

Register with the Government

This step is necessary in order to become a recognized business entity. Your business purpose, name, corporate structure, and other information about your company is necessary to become a corporation. Otherwise, you will just need to register your business name or name you have come up with for your company like a “Doing Business As.” You may want to take the steps to trademark your name for extra protection in the future and to protect against theft. This is done by sending a trademark application to either USPTO or the state office, depending on if you are applying for a state or federal trademark registration. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to consult with a trademark attorney before you get started in the process. After registering you will need an EIN number from the IRS. This step is not required for sole proprietorships with no employees but you may want to apply for one to keep your business and personal taxes separate to save you the trouble later on. The IRS has provided a checklist to determine whether you need an EIN to run your business and you can register online for free. Certain forms need to be filled out and the forms you need will be determined by your business structure.

Purchasing an insurance policy

It may seem to be something you will eventually get around to doing, but in actuality, it is one of the key elements in starting your business. Purchasing the right coverage and insurance policy, from the right insurance company, for your business is an important step that needs to happen before you even start a launch. Dealing with incidents like theft, customer lawsuits, or business property damage can be so costly, it can shut you down before any of your dreams have been realized. If your business has any employees you need to purchase, at a minimum, unemployment insurance, and workers compensation insurance. You may need other types of additional coverage as well depending on industry and location. Most small businesses are advised to purchase a business owners policy or general liability insurance. General liability covers bodily injury to yourself or a third party and/or property damage. Professional liability insurance is something that you would want to purchase if your business provides a service. It covers you if something is done wrong or neglect to do something causes a chain of events that could lead to a lawsuit. Without this insurance coverage, your business could fail with one small mistake.

When you’re starting a business you are more likely to focus on what must go right instead of what could go wrong. Both considerations need to be brought up. The risk is an inherent part of dealing with customers and it is a part of any type of business ownership. You need to account for risk and purchasing a small business insurance policy is the best way for an entrepreneur to manage and mitigate some of the risks of day-to-day operations. Each insurance company is different with different limits of protection and price points, so avoid the confusion by asking an agent which insurance coverage is the best for your type of endeavour.

Build your brand

Before you start selling your professional service or product, you need to build a following and brand to get people ready to come to your new business or buy your new service. A logo that can help people easily identify your brand and can be consistently used throughout your advertising platform will help leave a mark on people’s minds. Using a company website and social media to help spread the word is a key promotional tool. Use coupons and deals to offer discounts to new users and followers once you launch. Spread the word with the internet and make sure to use keywords to pop up in search engines when a new customer is looking for a service or product. A marketing plan goes hand in hand with the business plan to get the word out about your business. This process is just as important as providing a quality experience for the consumer. Without proper marketing tools, there is no consumer to sell to. If people don’t know you exist it is impossible to gain customers.

Your first sales and launch are just the beginning steps of your tasks as a small business owner in order to stay afloat and make the profit you need to be able to grow your new business. You will get out of your business what you want if you put the effort to continue to grow it. These are just some of the beginning steps of becoming an entrepreneur. It is an ongoing process that takes many years to get to a successful and profitable point. The main point is, DO NOT GIVE UP! If it fails the first time, you must try again, as in every aspect of life.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

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