Category: Business

Web Design – Should You Always Follow the Latest Trends?

Web Design – Should You Always Follow the Latest Trends?

Web design is a bit like house design; different trends evolve over time. If your business website was designed 10 or more years ago and you’ve never changed it, you might be wondering if you need to upgrade. Much depends on what your website was designed to do – and if it is still performing as you would like it to.

There have been many changes in website design over just the last few years. Some are excellent; others not so good. Once it was thought that if a website had all the bells and whistles that were available and popular at the time, it would be a success. Then it was found that adding all that stuff not only confused visitors, but made the page load slowly.

Both of these results ended up turning visitors away from the website. Visitors to a website are looking for something specific and the quicker they find it the happier they are. If they have to wade through the muddy waters of too much stuff that’s not really what they are after they’ll leave. And of course, a page that loads slowly is a turn-off right from the start.

While it seems that simple is best when it comes to websites, remember that your ancestors had a simple house. They thought it was great because there was nothing else to compare it with. But it may not have had running water or electricity. Similarly, you can be too simple when it comes to websites.

(more…)

Getting Your Business Online Quickly

Getting Your Business Online Quickly

Most businesses these days have an online presence. Not only is it good for your business, but people expect it.  With the upsurge of all things Internet over the last few years, if a business has no website people tend to wonder if it is actually a bona fide business. Once the decision has been made to go online you will want to get everything set up as quickly and efficiently as possible and the best way to do that is to consult a professional digital marketing agency right from the start.

Of course, you will have to work out what you want your website to accomplish before you go ahead. Is it just to advertise the business or do you want to take orders, sell products, offer a service or just provide a contact point? The digital agency needs to know so they can set up the website properly.

An eCommerce website will need a shopping cart and a merchant that accepts credit cards and PayPal at the very least. If you are just offering a service, these won’t be needed. If you are selling products you’ll need things like a returns policy and other similar things that you will have seen when shopping online yourself. But a website that is just to harvest email addresses will not need those extra things.

So having thought about how you want your website to work, you then have to hire the digital agency to do the work. You’ll work with them and may need to fill out a brief, answering the questions they need to know. Your business name and logo will have to be sent to them so they can use them on your website, which then can be used for Internet Marketing.

(more…)

Why SEO is Essential for Your Website

Why SEO is Essential for Your Website

SEO or search engine optimisation is essential for your website. Why? If you have ever surfed the web you will know that you type in your keyword to the search engine and look through that first page of results. Then you usually choose one of the first three websites that look as if they have what you want. How do those pages turn up on the first page? Through Expert SEO techniques.

In actual fact, the search engines return many more pages of results for that keyword you typed in, but you – like most other people – know that those first pages have the most relevant information on them. You know this because you trust the search engine to find it for you. While some people choose to look at some of the results further down the page or to click on the next few pages in their search, in most cases people will choose something from the first page and even from the top of that first page. It is human nature to want a speedy experience and this is how to get it.

How to get in the top position

Digital agency experts say, to get your website in that top position, where more people are likely to click on it takes expert SEO techniques. While organic, relevant copy on your website is of the utmost importance, information that includes the right keywords and offers value to the visitor is also important. For example, if you are a landscaping business, you would need to focus your SEO for landscapers. Not just one page either; the more new information you have, the more likely it is that the search engines will deem your site to be an authority on the topic, whatever that happens to be. The result? They’ll choose your website to be one of those on the first page results.

(more…)

Web Design – Your Image, Graphic and Visual Options

Web Design – Your Image, Graphic and Visual Options

Images are one of the most effective ways of communicating knowledge and meaning. The examples exist throughout human history with cave paintings in France, hieroglyphics in Egypt and indigenous art in Australia all showing that communicating stories and ideas through images is a universal trait we all share.

Just because websites can host an unlimited amount of text, it doesn’t mean that they should. In fact, website experts say most websites could be greatly improved by paying far more attention to images and visuals.

We’ve identified the most effective ways of communicating through images and broken them down below to give you a solid overview of the different ways you could add these elements to your website to reach your customers better.

Logo Familiarity

Your logo is the ‘face’ of your business. And just like any relationship, you want people to remember your ‘face’. The simplest way you can do that is to make sure that your logo is present on every one of your web pages, and also in the footer of each page.

Sliding ‘headers’ that stay pinned to the top of the screen while browsers scroll through your pages can accomplish this goal as well.

Another neat trick you can use it to add a ‘moving’ element to your logo by animating it. Google does this to good effect to highlight important dates, holidays and people but even something as simple as having the logo unfurl as the page is opened for the first time can accomplish the job.

(more…)

7 Corporate Event Ideas That Will Motivate Your Team

7 Corporate Event Ideas That Will Motivate Your Team

There are many reasons why a business owner might wish to research corporate event ideas. It could be to garner publicity for a new product launch, to cement their relationship with important clients, to build build staff teamwork with the help of www.teamworksdevelopment.com.au, or simply to get your staff together to thank them for an outstanding year.

Whilst all of those corporate events will bring benefits to the business, there is one type of corporate event that can bring many more, and that is one that has the prime goal of motivating staff. Any successful business owner knows that no matter how good their product is, without a motivated team behind them, the success of that business will be severely hampered.

This is the main reason why corporate events designed to motivate staff have proven to be so popular and so successful with regard to the subsequent progress that business has made. Here are some corporate event ideas that will help motivate your team.

Casino Night

A great way to have a corporate event that allows your team to relax and have fun together is to have a casino themed evening. You can hire a company who will bring all the equipment and the croupiers and as well as food and drink, your team can try to win some money. You could even give each person a $100 stake courtesy of the company to thank them for their hard work.

Axe Throwing

This is definitely something most of your team are unlikely to have tried before, but when they do, they will love it. It requires a mixture of competitive spirit and skill as they compete to score the highest number of points by throwing axes at a target. This combined with some food and drink, which axe throwing centres usually have, will make it a highly enjoyable corporate event for all. Find out more at www.kissmyaxe.com.au

Team Sports Day

You can either theme this around a single sport or better still for several different sports during the day. You could include football, rugby, cricket volleyball, netball, or basketball. Where you can, try to make the teams equal so have a mix of ages, sexes, and abilities with regards to specific sports, in each team.

(more…)

Contract Termination

What Is the Difference Between Redundancy and Contract Termination?

As an employer, it’s extremely important to make sure that you’re familiar with common legal jargon to ensure you’re following the correct procedures and not unknowingly breaking the law. Consulting with employment lawyers is never a bad idea, as they will be able to explain everything and direct you if you’re not quite doing things right.

A lot of inexperienced employers get confused about the differences between redundancy and standard contract termination, and they make mistakes as a result. In the rest of this article, we’ve explored both of these, as well as what each one involves and what your obligations as an employer are.

What Is Redundancy?

Redundancy refers to removing a position because it’s no longer needed. In many cases, a person will lose their job when a position is made redundant, but it won’t always happen. Redundancies occur because:

  • A person’s job has been automated or taken over by a machine of some sort.
  • A company downsizes and therefore the position isn’t required anymore.
  • A person’s job is no longer required because the work is split between other existing positions.
  • A company goes bankrupt or insolvent and can’t afford to keep the employee on.

Unfortunately, redundancies are all too common in the modern world. But, the good news is that employees who are made redundant are usually entitled to a redundancy payout which, in some cases, can be quite large.

(more…)

Why Should I Use An Accountant Instead Of Doing It Myself?

Why Should I Use An Accountant Instead Of Doing It Myself?

When it comes to accounting, either for your personal finances or for your small business – a lot of people choose to do it themselves. While there is no laws preventing this, it is often a very good idea to at least speak with an accountant before completing your tax return. There are a lot of benefits associated with using an accountant to complete your tax return for you, including:

You will save time:

Unless you have been doing your own tax returns for years, it probably takes you a long time to fill out your return every year. Unfortunately, the paperwork that you have to fill out to complete your tax return seems to change almost yearly, which can make it hard to keep up with if you aren’t an accountant.

An experienced accountant will know exactly what sort of paperwork they need to complete your tax return, and they should be able to fill it out quickly and efficiently. This will save you time, and allow you to do other things which could be more beneficial for your business.

Everything will be done right:

If you do your tax return yourself, there is always the chance that you will make a mistake of some sort. Although this may not end up being a problem in the long run, there is the chance of penalties or fines from the ATO if you don’t do your tax return right.

If you use an experienced accountant, they should know exactly what information needs to be included and how to include it. They shouldn’t make any mistakes, which means that you will be able to rest easy with the knowledge that your tax affairs are in order.

(more…)

How to Find a Digital Agency for Your Website

How to Find a Digital Agency for Your Website

Having made the decision to take your business online, you now need to find a digital agency to design the website so it can accomplish what you have planned, whether that is to gather email addresses or sell products – or both. It is important to choose these people with care so your website can be the best ever.

Web design skills

In most cases, you’ll need to outsource the work, but don’t choose just anyone whose qualifications you cannot validate.  There are many people who can put up a website, but do they know anything about Search Engine Optimisation? SEO is an essential part of the success of your website. It is enhancing the text and many other elements in a way that will help the search engines recognise your website as a top quality one that offers value to searchers.

Online marketing skills

The people who design and build your website also need to be able to market it for you, unless you know all about how to do this in the online world. There are many ways to market a website business, from social marketing to Google adwords and each one has its own set of criteria that needs to be implemented for the best result.

(more…)

How to Ensure Your Business Contracts are Fair

How to Ensure Your Business Contracts are Fair

When you run a small business you will come across any number of standard business contracts that are essential to the day to day running of your small business. Most commercial lawyers like Rowe Bristol, that you would find on a lawyer’s list, know that in general, many of these are actually unfair to the small business because they are not drafted in favour of the larger companies that offer them.

Many standard form contracts have not been at all fair to the small business. Up until now, there was not much you could do about it, except try to have a clause put in that covered your liability, but the other party didn’t have to agree to it, so it was either sign up or lose the deal.  However, that has just changed, so you don’t have to suffer under any unfair contracts any more.

However, just so that things don’t swing the other way and become unfair to those who  offer the contract, unfair terms must be examined in a court of law to ensure they are truly unfair and will cause the small business undue financial or other kind of hardship if not removed.  It must also be proven that removing them will not adversely affect the other company.

This particular law was passed in November 2016, even though there was another similar law in place since 2010. This particular law was passed to protect the interests of small business where standard contracts are concerned. This applies to both new contracts and renewed ones. If any contract is varied after the 12th November 2016, the law also applies to that.

(more…)

Why Planning for Your Retirement is Essential

Why Planning for Your Retirement is Essential

Financial planners such as Andep, would tell you that a plan for your retirement is an essential part of any financial planning.  For a start, as we age, our health often deteriorates so we need to have the finances to cope with the additional expenses of medical treatment or a stay in the hospital. A financial advisor can help you plan for your retirement in the best way possible and the sooner this plan is implemented, the better it will be.

Of course, retirement planning is not all about health. There are many wonderful things you can do once you no longer have to work all day. Retirement gives people the chance to follow a dream they had no time to devote to when they worked. They might want to travel, have luxury holidays, start up a craft or sport, or purchase a property in the country or on the beach to retire to.

It is also necessary to plan for health aids or health care for when you get more frail or have major health problems. Being able to purchase a mobility scooter can help you remain independent and have fun outside even if you can’t walk well. You may need to put in a ramp or add a lift to your home so you don’t have to move, but can stay in it for longer if it is a home or location that you love. It could be that you need to pay for home help such as cleaning and laundry as you get older.

(more…)

What the Best Website Design will Do for Your Business

What the Best Website Design will Do for Your Business

There are many different kinds of website and not all have the best website design. For many, it doesn’t even matter because they just want a way to get their story out onto the world wide web. But for a business website the design is extremely important.  You need to have a clear goal for your website and have it designed so it succeeds in doing whatever your goal is; selling products or services, offering valuable information to gain an email address or simply advertising your offline business to the local area.

Ease of use

The best website design will include many of the latest technologies and trends to keep customers safer when using it and to ensure that traffic flows to and through it, easily finding what they want. It should integrate many elements seamlessly so that potential customers not only find what they want, but have no trouble – or hesitation – in purchasing it.

One thing everybody who goes online wants is to achieve their goal in the fastest possible time. Busy people may only have a few minutes to find out or get what they want online.  They use their iPhone to access the internet while travelling to work or standing in the checkout queue of their local supermarket.  If they can get to your website and purchase what they want in that time, then they will deal with you again, knowing that your website was one of the easiest and best to use.

(more…)

Adwords Marketing Simplified

Adwords Marketing Simplified

Business people who talk about Google Adwords marketing know that it is a way to increase their profits exponentially if done properly. But often, businesses don’t spend enough on advertising to make a profit. That’s not to say you have to spend thousands, although larger businesses can and often do. But when you are starting a new business, this kind of budget is rarely available. That doesn’t mean to say adwords marketing is out of your reach; it just means you need to set your budget properly.

If you are starting to feel a bit confused, here are 3 tips to simplify things.

  • You can get started for as little as $25 per week
  • Google adwords can be as simple or as complex as you like. Keep it simple if you are new to it.
  • Have patience. Don’t quit too soon, but watch your spend carefully.

When you start your adwords campaign you’ll have many blanks to fill in on the adwords forms. The main ones are your daily spend, the target audience, and writing your ad. The adwords website makes it all quite easy to fill in with automatic infill in some cases.

When setting your budget you have to work backwards from the profit per sale to the conversion rate cost and the cut you give to Google. But setting a low daily budget will ensure the ad is not shown after the limit is reached, so it can never ‘accidentally’ cost you more.

(more…)

Obligation of Directors in Shareholder Disputes

Obligation of Directors in Shareholder Disputes

When you run a business, things don’t always go according to plan. Instead of the plain sailing you expected, suddenly there are shareholder disputes to settle. If you are the director you have certain obligations and the first one is the consult with a commercial lawyer to ensure you take the right road to recover. If you don’t, it is possible to lose the business altogether.

The first thing to be done is to negotiate with the other parties to try and resolve the conflict. If this doesn’t work it can be taken to mediation where a neutral party helps to facilitate the discussion so that the parties can hopefully, resolve the conflict. The mediator has no say in how the parties resolve it or in seeing that the resolution is a fair one.

Where failure to resolve once again occurs the matter then must go to arbitration. The only trouble with this is that the decision for how the resolution should come about is taken out of the director’s hands and even the shareholders will have no say. Very often the company must be wound up and everyone loses out. While the resolution is enforced legally and the judge considers his decision to be the fairest for all concerned, very often the parties are still left unsatisfied with how things were worked out.

(more…)

How to Find the Right Advice and Guidance for Your Small Business

How to Find the Right Advice and Guidance for Your Small Business

Setting up your own small business may be a dream come true, but if you don’t want it to turn into a nightmare, it is essential to get the right kind of advice and guidance. There are many different types of professionals who can help you in all areas of your business, from financial advisors for financial advice to digital agencies such as www.northland.com.au for digital marketing advice. Talking with a good Perth Wills Lawyer should always be one of the first steps, in fact, it is a good idea to keep on with the same lawyers all the time so they become familiar with you and your business and can advise you quickly whenever you need it.

Apart from solicitors, who else can help you in business? Setting up a business can be a complex undertaking and you should never fly solo unless you intend to be a sole trader; even then you’ll likely need an accountant. Here is a list of people you are likely to need for advice and help.

  • Accountants – apart from lawyers, an accountant is the next most important person to have guiding your business. Having an accountant to do your books will save you time and many headaches. An accountant can also advise you on many financial issues from whether your business can afford to expand through to legally paying the least amount of tax possible.
  • Insurance advisors – having a professional insurance advisor – one who doesn’t work for any specific company – will enable you to protect your business from many risks, even those that you haven’t thought about. They can tell you just how much insurance you need as well as what kind.

(more…)

What Are The Benefits Of Using A Commercial Cleaner Vs Doing It Yourself

What Are The Benefits Of Using A Commercial Cleaner Vs Doing It Yourself

If you own or manage some sort of commercial or large residential building, you may find yourself responsible for making sure that it is cleaned properly and regularly. Although many people decide to take up this cleaning responsibility themselves, it is usually a good idea to hire a professional commercial cleaner.

Professional cleaners are usually very good at what they do – especially if you choose one with a decent reputation – and they will generally be able to get things done much quicker than you would if you did it yourself. Some of the benefits of using a commercial cleaner, instead of doing it yourself, include:

You Will Have More Time To Spend On Other Things

Imagine if you had three or four extra hours per week to spend on the things that you want to. Over the course of a year, three extra hours per week would come to almost seven full days of time – more than enough to learn a new skill or to get a whole lot accomplished!

Employing a commercial cleaner can help you free up this time. If you currently clean your own building, the chances are that you spend at least three hours per week doing so – probably more. Stop wasting your time, and employ someone else to do your dirty work for you – you will thank yourself later!

(more…)