Nibletz Staff - 35/87 - Serious Startups

97 Percent Of Online Startups Fail, Here’s Why

You might think that this statistic is exaggerated but it isn’t, and it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. After all, there are always going to be more losers than winners. That’s just the way the market operates, and already you should be asking yourself an important question. Why do the majority of these online companies fail? Well, you’ll be happy to hear that we have the answers that you seek.

No Target, No Market

Who is your product or service aimed at? What businesses are interested in working with your company? If you can’t answer these questions immediately, you have no idea who your target market is, and that’s a problem. Essentially, it means that you can’t focus your marketing around a group of people who would be interested in buying your products. Don’t forget that certain groups act differently online. They will come on at certain times during the day, respond better to different types of promotional materials and react to marketing in various ways. You need to know everything about your target market because then you can offer them exactly what you’re looking for.

Cheap Costs, Low Performance

There are a few ways business owners try and cut down their online costs. One of the possibilities is to avoid web hosting. Web hosting does cost small amounts of money each month, that’s certainly true. But these aren’t the bills that are going to break the bank. In fact hosting your site is often priced to be incredibly valuable, particularly when you take the benefits into consideration. You’ll have a higher ranking, and you’ll be able to use your site in a variety of ways, adding plenty of data. But this isn’t the only way business owners save costs.

Rather than bothering to hire a marketer for their company, they instead try DIY marketing. DIY marketing is dangerous because it will usually lead you towards black hat marketing tactics like link stuffing. If your site is filled with links, you will see a slight instant rise in your ranking. But as soon as the Google spiders crawl across your site the ranking will drop. You won’t even be on page 10 of the SERPs. Sometimes it’s better to spend a little more and get a quality service.

Low Socializing, No Customers

Finally, you need to make sure that you are keeping your business social online. Make sure that you are providing customers with the possibility of interacting with your company online through networks such as Facebook and even Instagram. If your product or service is visually impressive, you should definitely be adding images to Instagram. This is an easy way to get shares and generate some interest in your company.

Remember, these days customers want to have access to everything, and they expect to be kept up to date and in the loop. It’s important that they don’t feel as though they are being neglected by your business. Or, that your company isn’t providing the updates that they need. If this happens, you can bet customers will look to other companies who always update users on the latest occurrences in their business.

Stem The IT Tide Before It Reaches Shore

As a start up, it can be very difficult to make sure that you have the very best procedures and processes in place to run your business well. And, one of the biggest areas affected by this difficulty is IT. You may not see it now, as your business is still quite small. But, after a short amount of time; you will find that daily IT problems start to become far too much to deal with. If you don’t have the right systems in place, or you invested in the wrong options; this could be catastrophic for your business. So, to help you out, this post will be going through some of the best ways to make sure that your IT is started off right.

To start this off, you’re going to need to do some research. Your business will be unique the work that it does. So, there’s no easy way to get this sort of research done. You have to think about the tasks that your employees will have to perform. And, try to find the very best option for the job. But, while doing this, you also have to make sure that all of the tools you choose work together. So, now, it’s probably quite easy to see how hard this research can be. Most companies will benefit from a little bit of help here. So, you may need to get the advice of a consultant before you start signing up to things. This sort of professional will also be able to help you when it comes to making sure that you have the right hardware in your business. This can make a huge difference, especially for businesses on a small budget.

Consultants in the modern age will often advise that you start using as many off-site services as possible. This greatly reduces the amount of servers and hardware that you have to buy yourself. And, will also benefit you when it comes to security. There are loads of options out there for things like file storage and backups. But, the best ones offer a little bit of everything that your business will needs. Google’s GSuite is a great example of a service like this. It enables businesses to have all of their files in the same place. And, even gives staff access to industry leading software, like Google Docs. So, it’s a good idea to listen to anyone who is offering this sort of advice.

Of course, not everything will be able to be handled by another company. Ideally, you’ll want to have control over your own computers. And, this will mean that you have to own them. Along with this, employees will need to be able to connect to the internet. This will mean that you need to have at least some basic networking gear to get started. Thankfully, though, you don’t have to do this by yourself. And, you don’t have to hire someone to do it for you. Instead, you can use another business. There are loads of IT support companies out there. And, most will be able to help you with all of your IT needs; big or small.

Hopefully, this will give you a good idea of what needs to be done if you want to avoid some bad IT problems before they come. Preparing for things like this is often the very best way to deal with them.

Get Your Startup’s Website Right In One Shot

At long last, you are ready to get your startup off the ground. You’ve designed a product/service that you are confident people want, you’ve laid out a marketing plan that is sure to make your business stand out from the crowd, and you are more than excited to start spreading the word about your brand.

But, before you launch your business into the world, you need to ensure that you have the perfect web presence. Simply put: you need to build a professional looking website.

Here’s the thing: you only have one shot to make a good impression. Your website acts as a virtual front door for your startup. If people come in and don’t like what they see or have a difficult time finding their way around, they will bounce, erasing your name from their heads forever.

That’s why you need to make sure that you’re designing and building your website right the first time. Here’s how:

Design with Visual Hierarchy in Mind

Your goal is to lead visitors to take the desired action (buy, subscribe, share, etc.) but in a way that feels natural and voluntary. Here’s where visual hierarchy comes into play.

If you want visitors to notice your call to action buttons, opt-in form or navigation bar, you need to organize elements in a way that makes it obvious that some are more important than others. Use different color schemes and bold contrasts to tell people where to look. Make important elements, such as the CTA button, noticeable bigger and place it so that it draws people’s attention.

If you’re confused about how and where you should place important elements so that your visitors gravitate toward them naturally, don’t fret. Sites like SITE123.com can help you build a professional looking website with ready-made styles and layouts. You don’t need to have any coding or design skills to create a website with SITE123; anyone can do it, but the results are nonetheless amazing.

Keep It Simple

While the way your website looks is important, people aren’t coming to your site to evaluate its aesthetics. What they want is to find a solution to their problems or information related to their needs.

If you want to convert visitors into leads and, thus, increase your web presence, you need to keep things simple. Don’t use too many colors – a maximum of five should be more than enough. Only use high-quality images and graphics – obviously, stock photos and random pictures found on Google are out of the question.

Make Sure the Navigation Is Intuitive

One of the elements that can make or break visitors’ experience on-site is the navigation menu. Here’s the hard truth: people aren’t going to spend too much time on your website if they can’t find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.

Try to keep the navigation menu as intuitive and straightforward as possible. Don’t offer too many options as it might confuse visitors. Use breadcrumb trails to aid users to keep track of their location and get back to the homepage quickly. Don’t forget to include a search bar near the top of your site so that users can look for products using keywords.

Don’t Forget to Include Your Contact Information

Make it easy for people to get in touch with you by creating a “Contact Us” page with detailed information, such as email address, phone number, physical address, and so on. Believe it or not, offering some contact details to your prospects makes your business look trustworthy.

Device Compatibility

We live in a mobile world. People are spending more and more time on their mobile devices as opposed to desktop computers. In fact, as of May 2015, mobile searches have surpassed desktop queries. So, it’s only natural to ensure that your site can deliver a consistent experience across multiple devices, regardless of the screen size.

A lot of moving pieces go into building an exceptional website. Getting it right the first time is hard, but not impossible. Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll design a site that people will love to explore.

3 Cyber Threats Posed To Your Startup

As with everything, there are pros and cons, good things and bad, and that is no different when it comes to technology. You see, the digital age has made it easier and cheaper than ever to launch a business, but with this ease comes an increased level of threat. That is the major downside. As such, it is imperative to protect your business, and that means knowing what threats are out there.

Take a look at the most prominent cyber security risks to your startup business, and learn what you can do to protect yourself from them.

The Rise Of The Internet Of Things

This has been the biggest buzzword over the past year or so, and continues to be because the internet is constantly evolving and at a truly unstoppable pace. Everyday items are now harnessing the power of the internet, from smart fridges to toasters to heating systems; everything is now using the internet. This has opened up new opportunities for hackers, which is mainly because smart devices aren’t very smart when it comes to security. It has all too often been an afterthought, and so they are often an easy way into your business networks.

To protect yourself you need to know what smart devices are used by your business and then do your research on what security flaws they possess. Once this is done, get your IT support team to protect them with firewalls and encryption software like you would any other piece of software using your network.

The Challenge Of Human Error

It is said that almost three-quarters of all data breach incidents occur simply because of human error. There are a lot of risks out there, and a lot of sophisticated techniques are now being used to get entry to a business’ database. In fact, there have been increased reports of spear phishing, file ransom investigation and social engineering.

In order to better protect yourself on this front, you need to educate your staff about the risks and that is best achieved through regular training. By having proper procedures in place and a checklist that employees can work off, you will better protect yourself from any threat. Training will also highlight bad habits and improve them, such as using weak passwords or unprotected WiFi routers.

The Rise In Bring Your Own Device To Work

Employees now bring their own devices to work and connect them to your business network on a daily basis. These could be phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches or just about anything else that uses the internet. In short, this poses a big threat to your security because it drastically increases your chances of allowing unauthorized access to your networks and being attacked by malware.

To protect yourself on this front, it is imperative that you carry out a risk assessment to understand what risks pose a threat to you and from where. From here, it is a matter of communication and setting out an employee policy that prevents sensitive data from being shared, stolen or accessed. This can be done by educating your staff on their responsibilities on this front, and that if the policy isn’t followed then this privilege won’t be continued.

Don’t Let It Slip, Maintain Workplace Safety Instead

The safety of your employees is vital. If they’re not secure at work, it can harm the company as well as the workforce. Employee lawsuits are no laughing matter, after all. But, even if you take health and safety seriously, you can still end up on the wrong side of the law. It isn’t enough for a company to create protocols – they have to maintain them too. A business that places emphasis on maintenance is one that respects its worker’s rights. With that in mind, this post is going to guide you through the tricks of the trade.

Inspect Hardware

Every business has equipment which they keep in case of an emergency. A fire extinguisher or sprinklers are two of the main examples. However, they are used very little because fires aren’t common in offices. So, when the time does come, there is a chance they might not work correctly. According to ECSCorrosion.com/dry-pipe-faq, an inspection will ensure that everything goes to plan. Every once in awhile, you need to test the equipment so that you know it works. And by equipment, that means every piece in the workplace that involves health and safety.

Adjust Protocols

Creating safety measures is a good first step, but it is only a first step. To ensure that they are current, you need to adjust them at regular intervals. The landscape of the health and safety industry changes every year. That means that new measures are put in place, measures which companies have to adhere to if they want a safe working environment. As the boss, it’s your responsibility to understand what needs changing and how to change it. At the least, you need to put someone in charge that can keep up with the latest processes.

Involve Employees

Sites from https://ishm.org to http://www.hsa.ie understand that employees have a major role to play in their safety. Workers, though, aren’t always as bright. The reason for this is that most of the responsibility is with the employer. You are the one that has to make sure everything is safe. Employees, then, now think that all of the blame lies at the feet of the company. The truth is that they are just as liable. Their actions have consequences, so they need to understand their involvement in the process. A clever tactic is to involve them so that they begin to appreciate their role. Also, the workforce is a handy tool to help maintain workplace safety.

Train Everyone

Everyone in the office needs to know how to react when they face hazards. If they don’t know what to do, accidents will happen. The only way to teach the office is to train every single person. And, that means people like you and the rest of the higher ups in the firm. Anyone that steps foot in the building is a potential danger, but training negates the risk.

Finally, remember that when your methods slip, people in the office start to slip. When that happens, it can be costly.

Shh, We’ve Got Local Marketing Secrets

Trying to market your business locally online? Then you’ve come to the right place because we’ve got the tips that will make sure you get the interest from those local customers. Contrary to popular belief, marketing a business locally online isn’t quite the same as an international campaign. You still use many of the same tactics, but they are approached in different ways. We can give you a quick example of this and then look at some of the other possibilities in more detail.

Local SEO

Local search engine optimization means that you’re hoping to attract traffic to your site from a specific region or location. Customers in Hong Kong aren’t going to be beneficial to a local service company in Perth. But how do you target those customers? Well, you might be using a form of PPC SEO. If that’s the case, you need to think about choosing your keywords carefully. Sometimes, long tail keywords are more beneficial and they might even be cheaper to bid on. For instance, rather than bidding on ‘used cars’ you might instead bid for ‘used cars in Sydney.’ By doing this, your site will rank, but it will also rank with people who are close to your business.

You can approach optimizing your site in the same way. Make sure you are using regional identifiers within your content if you are hoping to attract local customers. Google will match sites with specific regions to customers in that area. If you’re not sure how to approach optimizing your site for a local customer base, a local digital SEO agency could help you out a lot. They’ll make sure that your business is guaranteed to find the interest you need from the specific customers you want online.

Hacking Google Business

There are a few different secrets on how to maximise the potential of Google Business. You might not know what Google business is if you’ve only just opened your company. It’s a digital address book online, and it’s key to marketing your company. You can provide lots of information about your company here and even link it back to your site. Once you have done this, you will start to see more customers for your company. But how many will depend on how well you are using this tool. For instance, you can play around with the opening times for your company. Longer opening times will mean that your ad is seen by more customers than a business that is only open six hours a day. The location settings are important too. This will determine how large your business reach is online.

Going Mobile

Finally, make sure that your site online is optimized for mobile use. This is crucial when marketing local companies because the majority of users are going to be operating a mobile device. You need to make sure they can use it to find out any information they want about your business. Don’t forget that design issues like this also affect your ranking and how many local customers see your company online.

Tucking Into The Restaurant Industry Starts With A Successful Workplace

The fine dining industry is one that offers some truly wonderful opportunities. After all, it’s one business sector that is guaranteed to last forever. Quite frankly, there’s no greater way to earn a crust. And it all starts with getting the working environment in great health.

It could be easily argued that the quality of your workplace is greater in this environment than any other. Let’s face it; your restaurant space serves as the heartbeat of the operation as well as the shop floor. So what are the killer ingredients in the recipe for a successful arena?

Here’s all you need to know.

Focus on safety and organization at all times. A messy and unsafe environment could lead to accidents that result in injuries. Meanwhile, dropped food will eat into your profits badly too. Utilizing the space with a lift installation from Hin Chong can be a very useful option. If nothing else, it can prevent the need for quite so many people in the commercial kitchen. As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth. Above all else, remember to keep those space clean too. The potential repercussions are far too big to ignore.
Build a team of quality by starting with a successful recruitment drive. The right team of chefs will ensure that your dishes generate the type of reaction that brings long-term loyalty. It’s equally important to remember that the experience needs positive interactions with the waiting staff. Be a boss that continually invests in creating a positive atmosphere throughout the workspace, and you will not regret it.
Invest in the best point-of-sale terminals. A poor transaction could genuinely ruin an otherwise amazing trip. Using advanced systems opens up more payment types and smoother transactions. Moreover, the faster processes make life easier for the staff too. This enables them to get through more customers in a quicker space. In addition to reduced waiting times, it can actively allow the restaurant to serve more people throughout a shift. Meanwhile, similar tech can be used to digitally handle orders.
Encourage food to last longer to reduce waste and maximize profits. Tools from It’s Fresh can work wonders for the business. However, you can also try finding uses for old ingredients. This could range from using them in other recipes to letting them serve another job altogether. Of course, you’ll still encounter some food waste. In those cases, donating to food banks and similar causes is well worth your time and effort. Aside from the direct benefits of helping others, that news could spread to boost your reputation.
Design the dining area in an effective manner. Setting the right tone with lighting and wall decorations is vital for the atmosphere. Moreover, you need to think about getting the right balance for the seating plan. You don’t want the restaurant to feel cramped. However, missing out on potential diners by not having enough seats could be extremely damaging. Get this job right, and your hopes of maximized sale and profit can only soar. The taste of sweet success beckons.

3 Technology Startups Programmed For Success

Want a great business idea? Well, how about three?! Below, we’ve listed three great business ideas in the very profitable technology industry:

Software Developer

The first idea we have is to create a software development company. This idea is pretty straightforward, you put time and effort into developing a piece (or pieces) of software than other people can download. It’s a proven business model, as almost everyone needs software in some way or another. Businesses require software that’s tailored to help them with certain things like HR, marketing, or accounting. Schools need software to help them with things like attendance tracking. Then, you have individuals that need software to help with things like graphic design, word processing, etc. Your hardest task is deciding what software you’re going to develop. Our advice is to create something worthwhile that people will want to download. Look at the current market and try to spot a gap that you can exploit.

Smartphone Manufacturer

More and more small, independent, smartphone manufacturers are popping up these days. People realize how profitable this idea is, and are deciding to try cut themselves a slice of the cake. You could start a business that makes a new smartphone for people to buy. It’s a fairly easy concept, and there are loads of places like digsemi.com where you can get your hands on the electrical components required. Mainly, you want to create a phone that offers something different to others on the market. A good idea is creating a good and powerful device that’s extremely affordable. Or, creating a device that can be adapted and altered is a good idea too. For example, you can make a phone where you can remove certain parts of it and swap them for different parts. So, you could remove the camera and attach a better one. Or, you could go all out and try to create a real top level smartphone to compete with other flagship devices.

Cloud Provider

Another business idea that can bring a lot of success is starting a cloud computing business. This is where you provide companies/people with cloud computing services. They go to you for cloud storage, cloud applications; you name it! It’s a very popular idea as the cloud is getting more and more popular. As you can see from this article on salesforce.com, lots of businesses are moving to the cloud. So, there’s demand for your service, and you can earn a lot of money.

Any of these business ideas will lead to great things for you. Remember, it’s very important that you tread carefully around all the legal matters when starting a company. We touched on a few of them in this article here http://seriousstartups.com/2017/03/30/ if you want to learn more. A good business idea is nothing if you don’t know how to properly set things up and register your company, so, bear that in mind.

If you’re interested in starting your first business and have a lot of knowledge in the tech industry, then these three ideas could be perfect for you.

Good Business Practice Starts Early

Starting a new business is like doing anything for the first time: there are a lot of unknowns. First, you can never be sure that your idea is any good until you go out into the world and find out. Consumers will not have any problem letting you know if you have something that they’re not interested in. Secondly, and especially if you haven’t run your own business before, you will not know how you will perform in that role. Shakespeare was right four hundred years ago when he said ‘uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’. You will quickly have to learn how to improve on all the things that you aren’t great at. Thirdly, and as strange as it sounds, you will not be aware of all of the things that you don’t know yet. It is one thing to work on the faults you recognize in yourself but quite another to try and fix things that you don’t even realise are going wrong. Running a startup is going to be stressful.

It is not until you are actually in the thick of your business that you start to appreciate just how many costs are associated with running it. Everything will cost something, whether it is your time or your money. You will find that things break and need repairing or that a law will change that means you have to pay your employees more. Whatever it is, you will want to save as much money as possible. Here a few tips for trying to keep everything as under control as you can:

Organisation is key to any business and it can save you a lot more money than you expect. To get off to a great start, you should implement good practice from your first day. For some people that means investing in a way of labeling everything so you can always know its place (check out Dial A Label) but for others it could mean that the office is a complete mess but the person who runs it knows exactly where everything is. As long as you have a system that works for you, it will be cheaper than getting everything mixed up and being stymied by it.

Since your business will likely start small and hopefully grow, in the first few years, you will probably know everyone who works for you. You’ll work alongside them on a day to day basis and that can present challenges of its own. If there is a problem, you will not have an entire HR department to help you. That is why you should be completely clear and honest about every aspect of your business. You do not want anyone to have any feelings of resentment or antipathy towards you. Remember: happy employees are more effective employees.

Finally, work hard but remember to have fun sometimes as well. To be at your fighting weight, making the best decisions for you and your business, you need to be relaxed and feeling good. Working too hard will not always produce better results. Besides, life is too short to spend at the office all day.

Easy As Pie Tips for Starting A Hospitality Business

If you have ever dreamed about setting up your own business, chances are that at some point you have thought about going into the hospitality industry. Most likely while sitting in a restaurant while frustratedly waiting for your meal to arrive or in a bar after a beer or two too many! For most people it remains a pipe dream, but some actually take the plunge and start a very rewarding business.

Obviously all startups need a great deal of hard work and determination, but the food and drink industry is particularly tough to break into. If you are looking to enter this world but don’t really know where to begin, here are a few things you need to think about before starting a hospitality business.

Make Sure the Products are First Class

People go to particular restaurant or bar because they know what they are getting there is special – whether this is a delicious menu cooked by a master chef or an extensive range of hand-crafted cocktails. Before you think about investing in premises, make sure you know what products you will be serving and how you will differentiate yourself from the competition. Also, do some taste testing before so that other people can confirm or deny your thoughts about how good your products actually are!

Find the Right Premises

You may find that your business is suited to a busy high street where there is a particularly high footfall. You may want to be based in a more exclusive location in which case you will need to work harder with the marketing and actually getting your name out there. When you find a place, make sure to scout out the competition so you know exactly who you are competing against.

Think About the Decor

Obviously the food and drink itself will play a central role in the business, but so will the actual layout and decor of the place. Many food and drink establishments follow a certain theme. Often this theme is dictated by the type of clientele you will welcome, so try to profile exactly what type of person you expect to attract. Once you have worked out your target audience, you will be better able to cater to them.

Day to Day Running

The food, drink, decor and location are all the bigger picture things you will need to consider, but you should also think about what you will need to actually run the place on a daily basis. You will certainly need some specific equipment, so check butlerequipment.com.au for some different options. You will also need a strong team, so consider how many staff members you will need initially as well as the training programme and company structure.

Brand the Business

Branding plays a central role in every business so make sure your company name is strong, as well as the logo and colour scheme. You will also likely have all sorts of branded items such as uniforms and menus so take the time to get these exactly as you would like them.

The Future Of Your In-House IT Looks Bleak

If you haven’t yet realized that data is the new currency, it is only a matter of time. Just think about it for a moment. Everything is linked by some form of data management tool or system. Data has even got so big and complex that we are having to call it Big Data. But the fact it is becoming increasingly hard to manage is just one of the reasons why companies are now choosing to outsource their IT and computing needs.

So let’s take a quick look at what the biggest benefits are when it comes to outsourcing your needs to a third-party supplier:

Money Is Massive

It doesn’t matter what business you operate in, you operate in business, and that means you have to think about your bottom-line and make decisions that are going to save you money. Well, that’s where outsourcing your IT needs comes in. It is just a lot more cost-effective to have a company specialize in IT, and one that has other contracts to keep them successful, than it is to employ an in-house team. That’s what makes this the biggest benefit, and the number one reason why companies are making the switch.

Access To Experts

The world of technology is the fastest changing industry out there. Advancements are made everyday and the next generation of things comes out every week. As such, it is unlikely that you are going to be able to keep up, not will your budget allow your in-house team too. That’s where outsourcing comes in. Not only will they be able to take on tasks like data recovery, they will also be able to provide you with access to latest technology and resources. This will allow you to stay competitive without having to shell out a ton of money.

State Of The Art

For a third-party IT company to stay at the top of their game, and stay competitive, they are going to have to stay up to date with the latest techniques, software, and hardware. That cost is on them, though, not you. Sure, their premiums will match their capabilities and offerings, but this will be a fraction of the cost compared to trying to keep up with the changes yourself.

Broader Shoulders

When you bring on an external IT support provider, you are instantly relieving yourself of some of the burdens you carried as a company. The reason for this is, you are now sharing a lot of the infrastructural risk that came with the IT side of your business. This will see you lap up the increased flexibility granted to you, and allow you to become a more agile and dynamic company. What does that mean? It means your customers and clients will experience the benefits of a better product and/or service.

Back To Your Priorities

Whether you care to admit it or not, your business relies on your IT capabilities, which means that a lot of your focus is on the maintenance of this area. Once you offload that responsibility to an expert provider, you will be able to refocus your priorities on the things that really matter. Typically that means growing your business and improving your service.

How To Run A Recruitment Drive

New-Year-–-New-Employees-Energize-Your-Recruitment-Marketing-Strategy-in-2017

If you are a recent startup and are now running a recruitment drive then congratulations are in order. Your business is clearly growing, meaning you have made it a success. Something to be proud of considering most fail in their first year. A recruitment drive isn’t an easy thing to manage, in fact it is quite tough, depending on the amount of people you are recruiting of course. You want them to be good, well vetted and committed to your business and the only way you are going to ensure this is by doing proper checks on everyone you have considered and ensuring the interview process satisfies all the questions you want answers to.

Get a Plan Together

First you need to get a plan together. You don’t want to over recruit or under recruit, check the exact amount of people you really need in your business. You don’t want to end up spending more money than you need. Analyse where you are going to recruit from, the level of experience and qualification needed and think about using an applicant tracking system to make sure everything is done smoothly and so you have everyone who has applied in one place. The organisation will see you through and help you make the right decisions.

Set Appropriate Interview Parameters

First, don’t do it alone. Even if you are the only person in the business. You will need a second opinion here. They could see something you don’t. It could be someone with interview experience. A friend or ex-colleague. Just someone else to sit their with you and help assess the candidate. You need to set questions that are pertinent, but not invasive. Be careful what you ask. There are things you should never ask at interview. Don’t forget you can set little tests too. They can be role playing test or specific tests set to find out whether the candidate would be appropriate for the role offered. Be thorough and ask all questions you feel necessary without being invasive. Remember you aren’t just checking their qualifications and references you are also looking into their attitude and working out whether you would work well together. They need to fit in more than anything else to encourage a good working relationship. They need to have a good work ethic too, if you are careful during the interview you can work all of this out.

Ensure Your Vetting Is Good

This is important. You must ensure your vetting is done right otherwise you could end up with someone that has lied and slipped through the net. Check everything they say, especially their references and their degree or other relevant qualifications. Call the university and previous employers and ask about their conduct and the way they worked. You could check absence, behavior and the like too. Check up on everything they say, even if it seems meaningless. You want to make sure you get the right person who fits in with you and the business. You would be doing your business a dis-justice if you didn’t do the proper checks.

Start-Up Success: Keeping On The Right Side Of The Law

As you probably know, it’s now easier than ever to start a business. The wide accessibility people have to the internet, and the various collaborative resources that come with it, means that all you really need to start trading is a device and an internet connection. This shift may sound great on the surface, but it’s really something of a double-edged sword. The sheer ease with which you can start a business has led to a lot of complacency in all the wrong areas. Here are a few legal blunders business owners need to avoid like the plague…

Choosing the Wrong Structure

If you don’t choose the best legal structure for your business, you may wind up becoming personally liable if the company makes a significant loss, or a claim is brought against you (although it’s possible to insure yourself against this). The right structure to adopt will depend heavily on the nature of the business you’re starting. Some of the most common are; sole trader, a partnership (which can be a limited liability), or a limited company (more legal responsibility, but you get more hedging between your finances and the company’s). Do your research into what each of these structures mean, and choose the one that’s right for you. You can start with this helpful Entrepreneur article.

Not Knowing your Industry’s Regulations

While there are certain universal laws that all businesses have to stick to, there are going to be regulations which are exclusive to the business niche you’re planning to tackle. Most businesses will need to hire in services like Analogue Electrics Ltd to make sure they’re keeping to legal safety standards, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Cafés, for instance, exist in one of the tightest regulatory environments in the UK in terms of health and sanitation standards. Any company that has to dispose of hazardous waste will also be subject to extreme scrutiny, and businesses whose operations represent any kind of threat to the environment are under an increasing amount of pressure to follow the law to a tee. Ignorance is no defence for brushing over your industry’s regulations, so don’t let this mistake slip through the net.

Lack of Solid Contracts and Workplace Policies

Your entire workforce may be made up of close friends and associates, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with not having formal employment arrangements. Things may be fine now, but if you hit some rough waters at some point in the future, you could find yourself facing a massive claim. You need to have contracts in writing that include all the basic necessary details such as the rate of pay, holiday entitlement, obligatory working hours and necessary notice periods. You also need to make sure you have properly documented policies outlining the minimum statutory requirements, such as flexible working and maternity or adoption leave. You should also outline the company’s disciplinary and dismissal procedures in an employee handbook, and make sure this information is readily available to your staff.

How to Maximise Profit in the Construction Industry

house-plan-chp-47112-at-coolhouseplans-com_original

Running a construction business can be very lucrative. A good contractor with a healthy customer base can bring in a large profit every year. Unfortunately there are some things that could damage your profits. Here are some things to watch out for if you are running a construction business.

Supply Costs

The cost of the materials you need to complete jobs will be constantly fluctuating. If you do not factor this into your pricing, you could end up reducing your profit margins drastically. There are a few ways to avoid this; firstly, buy all of your materials for a project at the beginning. It will cost you more upfront, but you might get halfway through the project and find that the supplies you need have jumped up in price. You have already agreed a price with the customer and they can’t be expected to pay more, so you will end up eating into your profits to pay the difference.

It is also a good idea to be aware of price levels at all times. This way, if prices start to creep up, you can buy the supplies for future projects while the price is still relatively low. If prices are exceptionally low on materials that you use often, it may be worth buying in bulk before the prices rise again.

Health and Safety

You might not think that Health and Safety has anything to do with your profit margins. It doesn’t, but only if you abide by regulations to the letter. If you are caught operating outside of health and safety procedures you could be hit with a big fine, and work could be halted. This means you’ve probably lost all of the profit you would have earned from the project, and you’ll be behind time finishing it. Health and Safety is often ignored because workers don’t realise that accidents happen as often as they do.

Every year there are thousands of deaths on construction sites. Nearly forty percent of workplace deaths in 2014 were caused by falling. So, you need to make sure that, when using ladders, scaffolding and aerial work platforms, you are following safe working practices.

If anything were to happen, and you were liable, you could be in store for a huge fine or even time in prison. Depending on the seriousness of the accident, you may be ordered to pay up to $10 million, or spend as long as two years in prison if you cannot pay. It only takes one incident to completely cripple a construction company.

Time

When giving prices for projects, you aren’t charging by the day or the hour. You’ll get paid a fixed amount on completion. The longer you take to complete a project, the less money you’ll be earning on each one. However, you do need to be careful not to rush jobs as this will increase the risk of workplace injury as well as sacrificing the quality of work. If the work is bad, you will lose custom, regardless of how quickly you completed it. Try to strike a good balance when giving estimates, so everything is done professionally in as little time as possible, then you can move onto the next project and get paid again.

Using these tips, you can maximize the profits of your construction company.