Startup Tips

There is every chance there’s a whole world of information out there that you’re not currently making the most of. In an age where there’s more data available than ever before, in details and quantities that in the pre-internet age would be unthinkable, every company should be using the data available to them to determine where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. It’s simply a smart way to use your time.

Finding the Right People

You don’t want everyone to come to your business. If you had a store and the whole town paid you a visit then that’d be great, but wouldn’t it be better if your employees were interacting with people who might actually give you business. With the right data, you can establish where you should be focusing your energies. If you were in the hospitality business, then timeshare owner leads would give you a concentrated collection of people who might use your service. Similarly, a home contractor would benefit from a list of new homeowners. Don’t go after everybody; go after the worthwhile ones.

Honing In

Data has a whole bunch of purposes, from finding new leads to reaffirming your relationships with your existing customers. It tells you how how they spend their money, how much they’re earning, their typical goals, and so on. It’s not just enough to have the data, however: you need to also analyse what you have and determine how it applies to your business. By doing that, you’ll naturally find a path you should be taking. It can also help you determine how much you should be charging and what kind of promotions you should be having – and when you should be having them.

And for the Employees

Data doesn’t just have the potential to boost your revenue – it can also boost your productivity. You can bring big data to your workplace to monitor how effectively your employees are working, where they’re falling short and the areas they’re doing well in. As a company looking to move forward, knowing exactly what your strengths and weaknesses are will enable you to make better use of your time. You might also find that you’re spending too much time having meetings, or not enough time discussing plans for the future. Whatever it is, it’ll all help, though only if you pay attention to what the data says!

Other Factors

You should be monitoring just about everything to do with your business. For instance, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be keeping tabs on your website – how it’s used, how many people visit, where they click, and so forth. This will help you to develop your website as you move forward, getting rid of certain pages and adding other features. You can also establish from where on the internet your internet visitors come from. How many come through search engines, and how many through your newsletters and so forth? Find this out and you’ll know which areas of your marketing tactics need more work.

Something that we all have to do in life is learn how to deal with rejection. Whether it’s on a personal or professional level, getting rejected isn’t much fun. Of course, it’s how you handle that rejection that helps to strengthen your personality.

When you run a new business, it’s likely that your startup will face such negativity from day one. You might get rejected for a loan, for example. Or, you might find that some of your target audience aren’t interested in what you have to offer. If your startup is struggling with rejection, it’s time to step back and find out where you are going wrong!

In today’s post, I will share with you some proven strategies for dealing with rejection. They are actually quite simple things to follow, and you’ll wonder why you never thought of them in the first place!

Find out why you’ve been rejected

When it comes to selling stuff, startups will need to learn how to deal with a “no” response on a regular basis. But, did you know that it’s possible to turn around such replies so that you get a better conclusion?

Prospective customers will tell you they aren’t interested in what you’re selling for a variety of reasons. Usually, they fall into one of these categories:

• They can’t afford what you are selling right now;
• They don’t understand your products or services;
• They aren’t convinced your offerings can solve their problems.

It’s crucial that you can interpret the reason why they said no. And don’t forget that you CAN just ask your customers for the reason why! For a start, you’ll get a clearer reason for their rejection (and you can turn it around). And, second, you’ll gain some valuable feedback.

Learning the reasons for rejection will help you improve your sales closing techniques. If you don’t master such a fundamental sales skill, your startup could be at risk of failing.

Analyze your sales pitch

You might have something amazing to offer your target audience, and you’re sure what your startup offers will sell at a rapid pace. What happens if, in reality, you have little take-up of your products and services?

To find out the answer, you should take a look at your sales pitch. In other words, scrutinize how you sell your products. Is your communication not strong enough or clear? Do your prospects feel intimidated by your pitch?

They say that “practice makes perfect,” and nothing could be truer with your startup’s sales pitch! Find some willing test subjects and pitch what you’re selling to them. You’ll gain an insight into the good (and bad) points of your pitch so that you can refine how you sell.

Make sure you are selling via the right channels

It’s no secret that most companies use a variety of channels to promote their products and services. Still, that doesn’t mean your startup should use just one (or ALL of them)! For instance, if you sell digital services, selling online is the best channel. If you offer something to a niche audience, a more direct approach might be needed.

Thanks for reading; I hope it’s given you some food for thought!

If you’re a startup that’s serious about succeeding, you’ve probably done hours and hours of research. With hours and hours of research, you’ve probably stumbled across the term SEO. Search engine optimization is absolutely imperative for making sure you offer the best experience to customers, and the search engines are able to index your site and present it to people who are looking for what you offer. Make sure you never forget these things about SEO if you want to be successful!

SEO Is Always Changing

SEO is constantly updating to offer a better user experience to those looking for products and services. A search engine has something called an ‘algorithm’ which is basically the ‘rules’ it is using to help rank and sort through different sites. These algorithms are always being tweaked to offer a better, more authentic experience.

You might remember a time when SEO was more about tricking the search engines into ranking sites in the top few spots, even if the site was spammy and unhelpful. As the algorithms have improved to make sure these sites aren’t able to manipulate them, people have been forced to improve their sites and SEO strategies. This is why taking the time to get genuine, long-term results is so much better than trying to rush results by being spammy and doing shady things.

There are always updates and posts about algorithm changes, and they all have funny names too – e.g. Panda and Penguin. By understanding the basics and staying up to date with these changes, you can make sure your strategy keeps up too.

SEO Is An Investment

SEO is truly an investment, so make sure you look at it that way. No, it isn’t compulsory. There’s no business legislation out there that says you have to have it. However, you should see it as compulsory. It’s an investment because you won’t see results right away. You just have to trust that they are coming.

Sure, you could spend hours and hours researching, and attempting to come up with a strategy yourself. However, you have to keep on top of it and continue to spend time on it. This means you have less time to do what you set out to do in business. You have less time to work on growing your business. That’s why you should look into a professional to help you. Make sure you’re not only considering how much you have to dedicate to SEO, but what this person offers too. They should be transparent – some SEO professionals may try to confuse you with fancy lingo. They should also be able to give you examples of what they’ve done for other people. Reading reviews and testimonials from others is a bonus too. Make sure you choose who you will invest in wisely!

SEO Is Mostly About The Visitor Experience

As mentioned before, SEO used to be about manipulating the search engines, but this doesn’t fly in this day and age. SEO is now about the visitor experience. You need to make sure that your site is easy to navigate, has all of the relevant information on it, and looks great. You must consider your visitor in everything you do. This is what will eventually drive them to buy and come back at a later time. Here you can find 4 Tips for Learning How To Optimize Images For SEO to make sure you get that right. Posts with images get 94% more views than those without, and search engines can use your images to help rank your page. Make sure you’re using images not only for the visitor, but for the search engines too.

SEO Goes Hand In Hand With Social Media

You probably know just how important social media is too. SEO goes hand in hand with social media. Search engines tend to rank social media profiles based on how important they think they are, and ensuring you are consistent with your social media campaigns you can get incredible results. It’s great for local SEO too. Review sites like Yelp are super helpful to people who are thinking of working with you, and you can also ask for reviews on Facebook. Just remember; it’s never worth paying somebody to get hundreds of fake reviews for you. You can see right through these, and you may have to start all over again eventually. Instead, offer an amazing product/service and the positive reviews should roll in by themselves.

Don’t forget these things about SEO and your startup should get off to a flying start!

It can be easy to get into relaxation mode once you’ve gotten out of the startup phase of your business. You’ve tasted success now. And, it feels as though it will be smooth sailing from here. But, this is rarely the case. In fact, you’ve probably got more work to do now than ever. And, this time can be extremely important to a young business. Growth is very important. But, you need to be growing in the right way. Otherwise, you could face some issues. To help you out, this post will be going through some of the important things to consider at this time.

Once a business has had some success, it’s important for it to grow. Growth enables a company to reach out and serve more customers; ultimately, enabling them to make more money. Of course, it can be hard to know what you need to do during this stage. One of the most important things you need for your growth will be employees. They will make it easier for your business to handle more work. To get the ball rolling, have a look at a new hire checklist. And, make sure that you’re ready to handle the job. You have more to think about, as well. So, you need to be doing plenty of research. You also need to consider the time that you begin your growth very carefully.

A lot of companies hold off on their growth because it feels too early to be doing it. But, this can make your life very hard. By the time that you get round to raising your capacity, you’ll probably already be experiencing issues completing all of the work that you have. In this case, you’ll be losing money, because you’ll have to be turning down customers. By the time you grow, those customers probably won’t be looking for your services anymore. So, you won’t be able to get them back. In the long run, this can mean that you don’t manage to grow much further at all. Or, it may mean that you end up having stop business altogether.

Growing too early can be just as bad as starting the process too late. In this case, hiring staff or getting more space before you’re ready will mean that you can’t afford to do the work. This sort of thing can occur with a business when they have a sudden uptake of customers. They get excited about the new business and assume it’s enough to make some changes. But, the uptake may not last long. So, in the future, you might not be able to afford the growth of your business. In this case, it will be hard for you to shrink back down. Instead, most businesses in this position end up having to shut down their operations.

Hopefully, this won’t scare you out of the idea of business. Sometimes, it’s best to be realistic about these things. With the correct help and guidance, you’ll be able to complete the journey without a hitch. But, you also need to do plenty of research yourself.

Employees can be one of the greatest strengths of the business. However, they can also be a big vulnerability. In most cases, you’re going to be able to solve the little problems they bring with them by helping them better tackle their workload and ensuring their needs, such as the need for a safe environment, are met. But when problem employees come along, it can be a touch more difficult.

Give them a chance to mend their ways

Even if you are completely justified, getting rid of someone can sometimes impact the rest of the business in a negative way. That’s why, in most cases, you should give employees a chance to grow from their mistakes, recognize where they’ve gone wrong and focus on positively reinforcing the right behaviour. Of course, in instances where they are harmful to the work environment, such as being involved in harassment or bullying, team morale is better boosted by protecting the rest of the team from that presence.

Have a policy

A good HR policy is going to be able to shut down a lot of the trouble that a problem employee can bring to the business. It’s a good idea to get HR specialists on board to make sure you’re finding the most compliant and sensitive means to allow employees to formally lodge complaints, as well as the best process for addressing the issue with said problem employee. One of the most crucial aspects of an HR policy is that anyone dealing with complaints, disciplinary measures, termination and the like need to diligently document every part of the process.

Protecting the business

That documentation is going to serve as proof that you’ve done everything you could have to make any action against an employee fair. That’s necessary, because legal action from disgruntled employees, trying to prove unfair dismissal or other legal infringements on your end, aren’t too uncommon. That’s why it’s always a good idea to keep a legal team like Pearce Webster Dugdales in your contact book. The right legal team won’t only protect you in the courtroom, but often they can communicate with the complainant in much clearer terms that can often lead to cases being settled on if not dropped entirely. But it’s a good idea to have that aforementioned documentation ready as your legal team’s greatest weapon.

Keep them happy

When you have to let employees go, it doesn’t always have to be a huge bust-up, of course. Many companies go out of their way to help those employees transition in a way that keeps both sides pacified, if not happy. For one, you can offer them a temporary contracting position that allows them to get paid to take care of their duties while you look for a replacement and they look for a new job. You can offer office space as part of an outplacement deal to help them find employment, not to mention access to good recruitment agencies.

A disgruntled employee making a big exit can be damaging to team morale, so you need to make sure you’re looking after the rest of team even better for a while. While prevention is the best cure, you have to be ready for some fallout.

Getting finance for your startup can be a daunting task, especially if you know that you’ve got a significant need for capital. But many startups, even those financed by vast amounts of venture capital, can run into problems if their burn rate is too high and they’re not making any significant money.

If you want a startup that lasts, you need to get to grips with your finances. Here are some words of wisdom to avoid debt from crushing your startup before it’s even gotten off the ground.

Source Minimally

Many small business owners operate under the assumption that the need the best of everything when they start up. For instance, they need the best office furniture and the best computers to make their business run how they want it to. But it turns out that this strategy usually ends in disaster. A lot of the equipment you though you’d need just winds up going unused, sitting in the back room, not doing much at all. A much better strategy – and one that will reduce your burn rate – is to only buy office equipment as and when you need it.

Get Flexible Finance

Another way that startups get crushed by debt is when their credit lines are non-negotiable. Often, startups will be making money, but they’ll be “cash poor” meaning that they aren’t getting money in fast enough to cover their loans. In some cases, even though the business is viable, it can end up going under, simply because it isn’t able to make payments in the short term because of its loan repayment schedule.

Suppose, for instance, your company had been promised a million dollars worth of business by another firm, but that money would only arrive in dribs and drabs over the following year. Now imagine that same startup has very little cash on hand to remain in operation. Rigid lenders could send that company out of business if they demand payment today and prevent the company paying its staff or suppliers.

This is why Colbeck Capital, an investment firm, recommends that startups choose loans with in-built flexibility. Flexible loans provide relief when it is most needed, allowing startups to restore their cash flow and continue in business.

Look For Bartering Opportunities

When cash is tight, it really matters. So it’s a good idea, where possible, to look for opportunities to barter and skip out cash entirely. For instance, perhaps you could trade internet access with a neighboring firm to use their car parking space or storage facilities.

Buy Used Equipment

According to estimates from Epic Launch, second-hand office equipment can be up to 75 percent cheaper than buying it brand new. Sometimes these items of furniture will be a bit beaten up, but that doesn’t matter, so long as only employees of your firm see them.

If you’re worried about what clients think, don’t go to the expense of making your office look super swanky. Instead, hire out meeting rooms in a separate office at a much lower cost.

While many talented writers choose to start a blog as a business, blogging isn’t just a great startup idea; it can also be a great marketing method for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The question is, of course, why are many businesses adding a blog to their websites?

It’s pretty simple really, to boost your website’s search engine ranking, the answer is to add a blog, because sites that frequently have new content added to them, such as via a blog section, tend to rank higher on search engines like Google.

Plus, companies that create their own content to share with their customers and social media followers, tend to be more successful than businesses that don’t have a blog. This is because sharing interesting and informative articles about the area in which your business focuses, creates a sense that you are an expert in your field, and so, are seen as being a good company to buy products or services from.

We’ve established that blogging is a good thing for businesses, but what we haven’t discussed is what it takes to create a successful business-related blog. With that in mind, below are seven truths about adding a blog to your business website, to help you get to grips with what it takes for a business-related blog to be a success. Read on for everything that you need to know.

1. SEO is crucial for success

First and foremost, when it comes to content creation, as you can learn at Poet.co/poet-media/seo/, SEO – aka search engine optimization, is crucial for success. If you’re not clued up on what SEO is or how it works, don’t worry it’s fairly easy to get your head around. SEO focuses on increasing a page’s rank in Google and other search engines, making a website more likely to get high amounts of pageviews. SEO is, in its most basic form, picking out a selection of keywords or phrases that people are likely to search on Google about the topic that you’re writing about and then incorporating them into your content. However, if you incorporate too many keywords, Google may penalize you for it, lowering your page rank. To check that you’re using a suitable amount of keywords, there are plenty of online tools that you can use.

2. Well written content is a must

If you want to ensure that people will return to your blog, again and again, you need to make sure that any content that you post is well written. Not everyone is a born writer, and that’s perfectly fine – we all have our own strengths and weakness, but don’t attempt to write content for your blog if you’re not someone who has a way with words. A badly written blog post can have a serious impact on your success as a business as your quality of writing reflects on your company, so it’s important to only create blog content if you’ve got the skills and knowledge to do so. If not, then perhaps outsourcing the task to a content creation agency could be the answer?

3. Interesting, informative and unique articles are important

For people to want to read your blog posts, they need to have value to them. No one wants to read content that has no value or is boring, so it’s important to think carefully about what you write about. The content that you share on your blog needs to link to the industry that you’re in and have value so that your posts are worth reading. Getting ideas for posts and titles can sometimes be hard at times – the key to article success is thinking about what your audience want to read about and what would be helpful for them.

4. Images are just as important

They say that a photo is worth a 1000 words, when it comes to blog posts this couldn’t be more true. If you want to ensure that your posts get lots of pageviews, using interesting and unique photos is a must. You want the photos that you add to your blog posts to link to the article, be clear and blur-free, and be of a high quality. You can get lots of good quality photos for free online from sites like Flickr, Pixabay, and Pexels, or you can create a Shutterstock account and pay for them – it’s up to you.

5. Regular posting is vital

One of the most important things when it comes to adding a blog to your business website is that you’re able to post regularly to it. There’s no point having a blog section on your website if you’re not going to regularly post to it, as if you don’t post to it, it has no use. Ideally, you want to get into the habit of posting at least twice a week and sharing new posts on the same days each week, so that your readers know when to expect new posts. However, if twice a week is too much, once a week will do.

6. Don’t try and make sales

A mistake that you don’t want to make when it comes to your business blog posts is trying to make sales via them. Yes, your blog might be aimed at your customers, but while that’s all well and good, that doesn’t mean that you should focus on posts that advertise your products or services. Instead, your blog should be more general and should focus on the industry that your business is in – this increases your chances of success.

7. Steer clear of a formal tone and style

Last but not least, steer clear of writing in a formal tone and style. The fact is that the blogs that tend to do best are the ones that are written in a more relaxed and chatty style – this is because they are easier for people to relate to.

There you have it, seven truths about blogging that all businesses adding a blog section to their website, should know about.

Once you open up your new business, you might think that 100 days is a milestone far into the distance. But it’s closer than you think and if you want to reach that point in good standing, you have to make the right decision from the start. Here are some of the steps you need to take if you want to ensure your business is the hit you know it can be.

Strong As Your Weakest Member

You need to make sure that there’s a great team behind your company. If you don’t, it is going to bring your business crashing down. Even a single employee not pulling their weight will damage the potential of your company. To get the best team from the beginning, it’s recommended you use recruiters. They have access to some of the best talent on the market.

Get A USP

If you want your business to blow the competition away you need something that separates you from them completely. This is a USP and it could be anything from a super fast delivery time to a fresh way to approach customer service. Once you have identified your USP it should be present in all your marketing.

Don’t Be A Mad Marketer

Finally, make sure that there’s a plan in place for marketing and promotion. You can’t make decisions about presenting your business on a whim. Instead, make sure that you have a clear plan to follow. You can find more about the importance of this in the infographic which follows.

Infographic Designed By Professional Marketing Services

One of the most difficult parts of running a business is getting your name out there. While some larger companies resort to elaborate branding campaigns or glitzy launch parties, getting your business noticed doesn’t have to cost the earth. The internet has opened up a range of opportunities for businesses of all type to grow at warp speed if you know the best ways in which to harness it.

Here are just a few affordable ways of getting your business noticed.

Utilize Social Media

While many businesses have social media accounts, few use them to their full potential. As well as promoting your services, you should also use these accounts to engage with your customers directly. Try to post interesting stories and links to any blogs you have written, encouraging people to get involved with their own feedback and thoughts. As well as Facebook and Twitter, you should think about engaging with Instagram and other social media which may be relevant to your business. This may give you an opportunity to tap into new markets which you had previously missed out on.

Create Fresh Content

You should have a blog on which you post sharable content on a regular basis, remembering to post these links on social media. Rather that sharing bland content, try to engage with current trends, solve problems and post offers and competitions. Anything that gets people involved and brings you in more followers can only be a positive thing. As well as this, it is extremely important for the SEO of your website to post fresh content on a regular basis. You should also try to contribute guest blogs on other established websites. Not only have these got a stronger chance of being read, you can also include backlinks which are central to boosting your rankings.

Branding

It’s not essential that you spend thousands upon thousands on a rebranding exercise, but you should make sure your brand is consistent throughout all your materials. Always refer to your business the same way, and make sure to use your logo and colour scheme throughout everything. Remember to always clearly display your contact information. If you’re looking to impress, consider a virtual office in the heart of London available through https://www.hoxtonmix.com.  Your business should have a distinctive tone of voice which you should use throughout all materials.

Make SEO A Focus

We’ve already mentioned what a major impact SEO has on the modern business, but this really cannot be overstated. It’s worth hiring an expert to give your website a thorough review to find out any ways in which it could be improved. We’ve already talked about the importance of creating fresh content and gaining backlinks. However, you should avoid paying for backlinks as you can end up being ranked negatively as a result.

These pieces of advice are just a few affordable tips that you can implement to considerably improve your chances of getting your business noticed and helping it to grow.

Social media has revolutionized the way business owners can interact with customers and market their products and services. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are huge platforms that can deliver real results if they are used correctly.

Here are some simple social media hacks, which if implemented will boost your business:

Keep Up to Date with What’s Hot

If you want people to pay attention to your social media accounts, you need to know what is hot and what is not in your particular niche and to your target demographic. If you are posting out of date, irrelevant content, few readers will come back for a second go and you will be missing out on the opportunity to sell to them.

Utilize as Many Sites as Possible

Facebook and Twitter might be the big guns, but websites like Instagram and Pinterest are hot on their heels, and in many cases, are even better at spreading the word about your company, engaging readers and making sales, depending on who you are trying to target. Instagram, for example, is great for targeting young, creative types, whilst Facebook can be used more generally – target your posts to the right sites and you cannot fail.

Increase Your Reach

Reaching as many people as possible is crucial if you want to run a successful social media campaign. Luckily, there are many things you can do to increase your reach. For example, you could run a competition to encourage likes and follows on Facebook, or if you could use a service like the one here to increase comments follows and shares. Of course, the most important thing you can do to increase your reach is create valuable content that people will be happy to share for no other reason than it is useful, interesting or valuable.

Hire a Social Media Manager

If you have the money to do so, it is well worth investing in a dedicated social media manager, whose job it is to write and publish regular content on a range of platforms. The more engaged you are with your demographic, the more invested they will be in your company, and this should convert to more sales, so on time, a good social media manager will pay for themselves.

Engage with Your Followers

There is absolutely no point amassing thousands of followers if you do little to engage with them. The companies who most successfully use social media to their advantage are the ones who take time to answer customer questions, run competitions, engage in witty banter and generally have fun with their follower, rather than just trying to sell to them all the time.

Embrace Change

The world of social media changes so fast that you have to be ready to change your strategy and learn new ways of connecting all the time. For example, Facebook recently added an option to live stream videos. Businesses who learn how to use this to their advantage by offering on the spot streaming competitions, giveaways, like the ones here,on and viral marketing will do much better than those who fastidiously stick to text-based posts.

If you take the time to set up social media accounts, make sure you also take the time to engage your followers and strike up a mutually beneficial relationship and you will soon find social media working for you!

It’s easy to forget about your customers once they’ve paid their bill and left the door, but a good business will find ways to focus on its customers in and out of the store. Every store needs return customers to keep business ticking over throughout the year. Employ some of the following tricks of the trade and you’ll soon be seeing regular faces (so much so, you may even get sick of them!).

Get to know your customers

No customer likes to feel like they’re just another pay cheque on a conveyor belt. Get to know customers by engaging in small talk during non-busy periods. You’ll connect with them on a personal level, which will encourage them to come back. Invite people to open up about themselves by letting them know about you and your business background. Some regulars may develop such a rapport that they’ll become advocates for your business, coming in with their own friends and families and effectively marketing your business for you.

Encourage customer feedback

Customer feedback can make happy customers reflect on their good experience and remind them to come back, whilst it can also allow unhappy customers to vent their bad feelings and allow you to entice them back through promotional deals and apologies. Not everyone will tell you how they feel face-to-face, so encourage written feedback cards or online reviews. If you have customers’ emails you can even send them feedback forms to fill in privately. There are many types of online reputation management software such as RenegadeWorks that can keep you on top of online reviews – good and bad – whilst also encouraging more conversation on places such as social media.

Introduce loyalty schemes

A loyalty scheme encourages customers to return by giving them a reward after a certain amount of visits or money that has been spent. This could include a points card that gives you a discount after a certain amount of uses, or a loyalty card that gives you a free drink after having bought a certain amount. People love freebies and discounts, so give them this as an incentive.

Keep previous customers updated

Remind previous customers that you’re still there by constantly advertising new deals and changes. You can do this with outdoor signage, by advertising in local news outlets, by telling people on social media and by emailing customers with news (if you have their email address). If you offer a delivery service, you may even be able to post a leaflet through their door (a thank you note to loyal customers can go a long way – especially if it comes with voucher or some kind of complementary treat).

Beat the competition

You may lose some customers to competition, in which case you need to win them back by beating the deals offered by these rival businesses. Competition can be healthy if you’re a good sport about it. Keep tabs on competitive business and either try to outdo what they’re offering, or make yourself stand out by offering a promotion on something unique to you.

Starting a small business can be demanding enough. You have to take your knowledge of the industry and, from it, grow a knowledge of the market, of marketing, of customer service and all the different gears that keep the business running. But it’s also essential you know the law since it’s one of the aspects of business that can be most damaging when you get it wrong. Let’s take a look at some of the most major concerns you need to have with the law as a business owner.

Health & safety

Your responsibility for the safety of the working premises is one of your most important since it directly influences the well-being of other people, mostly your employees and customers. It’s also one of the most common ways to find your business in legal trouble. This isn’t because a lot of business owners aren’t concerned about things like fire risks and tripping hazards, however. More often than not, it’s because they have failed to consider something that they didn’t realize was their responsibility. Health and safety rules cover all kinds of risks, from accidents to environmental health impacts like ventilation and noise. Make sure you brush up on not only the most obvious risks, but all that fall under your legal obligations.

Labour

How you use and treat your workforce matters in a lot of different ways. One of the most important rights of an employee is their right to fair pay in fair terms. This means that a late cheque or invoice that breaks your obligatory statement of terms of employment can give someone reason to pursue legal action against your business. Holidays, bank holidays, sickness, training needs, and the right to ask for flexible working conditions are all covered by those rights as well. But it’s not just about making sure you meet your employees’ rights but ensuring the responsible use of unpaid interns and volunteers as well. They each have their own labour laws that you need to ensure you cover.

Discrimination and harassment

Where malicious behavior and discrimination against people of certain ages, genders, races, disability and so on can be argued, your business is at more risk than ever. The damage to the public image as well as the legal charges can easily cause any business to struggle. You shouldn’t only codify how you treat cases of interpersonal harassment within the workplace. You should make sure that you are not vulnerable to cases of institutional discrimination, like a gender pay gap within the business. Whether you mean to be part of that kind of discriminatory practice will not matter if it’s proven that you are. From now one, things like the pay gap will have to be reported annually, so it’s best to ensure that you are treating employees as equally as possible in all manners.

Disgruntled employees

When you’ve done nothing wrong, you should have nothing to fear. However, if you terminate an employee or take disciplinary action that they feel is biased against them, that might not necessarily matter. Disgruntled employees can just as easily be those behind a discrimination or harassment claim as those who have genuine grievances. Your best protection against disgruntled employees is to take in-depth notes of employee interactions. From the recognition of issues at work to any corrective or disciplinary measures to the content and context of meetings themselves. This evidence is crucial to show that discrimination is not a contributing factor in your actions. A disgruntled employee, when they can’t take legal action, may choose to take public action instead, attacking the reputation of the business. In those cases, you might be able to launch your own action based on claims of defamation.

Disgruntled customers

If your customers are displeased, you might also find yourself in for a legal fight there. It’s not about cases where customers aren’t happy about their product, but rather it’s about cases where their consumer rights have been violated. Every business owner needs to understand the in-depth facts on consumer rights. From their right to clear advertising free of misleading material to their right to goods that are satisfactory quality. Recently, laws have expanded to include digital goods, too, so even if your business runs solely in the digital world, you need to make sure you’re not inadvertently stepping on consumer rights.

There are a lot more legal factors to consider than just the ones mentioned above. Many of them will be industry specific, for instance. But these are some of the most common ways a business can find itself in legal hot water. Make sure you’ve got yourself covered from every angle or it could cost you the business if you’re not careful.

The people who work at startups are invariably hard working and dedicated to the cause. They have to be: after all, nobody else is going to get the money rolling in. As a result, it’s a good idea for bosses to show a bit of gratitude for what their teams have put in, besides their paychecks. Here are some ways you can say “thank you” to year team for all the hard work they do.

Let Them Choose What Project To Work On Next

The startup bosses that tend to succeed are those who are best at delegating activities to their team. Bosses can’t do everything: nor should they.

Sometimes a good way to reward your team and to show that you trust them is to allow them to pick their next move., Often the people working in your company will have a better idea of what needs to be done next than you do, so this can often be a win-win situation. Giving employees more autonomy is a surefire way to improve morale in your organization and get people fired up for the work that they are doing.

Plan A Team Happy Hour

Happy hours can involve anything, from cooking to paintballing, so long as they are fun. Organizing a happy hour after work is a surefire way to get your team to know each other better in a social setting, improving their overall commitment to each other and your business.

You can also use happy hours to create something together with your team, like a painting you can put up in the office, or a slap up meal everybody can enjoy together.

Give Them Their Holidays

Nothing is more annoying or more damaging to morale than having to work on the holidays. This is why it is so important for startups to use a staff holiday planner to make sure that they adequately arrange for absences in the future. Get your employees to plan their vacation time with you early on in the year (now is a good time) so that they don’t end up disappointed later on when they find out that they’ve missed the boat to book time off. Make sure that they know you’re doing everything you can to ensure that they have time off they deserve with their families.

Write A Letter

Letter writing is seen as old-fashioned these days, especially in the working environment. As a result, when somebody receives a handwritten note, thanking them for all their hard work, it has a giant effect. Handwritten notes are way more effective than emails or instant messages over Slack.

Acknowledge Individuals In Your Newsletter

The best leaders are quick to recognize all the people who have helped them achieve their goals. Plus, they understand the role of incentives, and how public praise can help others strive harder and achieve more in their own work. This is why it’s such a good idea to send out company-wide newsletters thanking individuals personally for all their hard work. Whether it’s helping make a project a success, or simply being there for other team members when things got tough, it’s worth acknowledging this at the company level.

We all make mistakes, but in marketing, it can be the difference between winning over a large group of customers and failing to make any sort of impression. It may mean that your startup never find a footing on the market and drops out of the running within the first year. If you want the solution, you just need to be aware of some of the most common errors and then dodge them completely.

Simplifying SEO

Simplifying SEO is a rookie mistake, but it’s one that is quite common on the market. If you do this, you are likely to earn yourself a Google penalty at worst and very little results at best. You won’t get very far using keywords and links as your only form of marketing. SEO has expanded a lot since those days of simplistic marketing. Instead, you need to think about social media, content production and even re-marketing.

Forgetting To Target

Anything that you release related to content and marketing should be targeted. What this means is that you need to know the type of individual who is going to be most interested in your content or products. If you have this information, you should easily be able to get large sales numbers straight out the gate.

Forgetting Images And Video

Remember, one of the worst things you can do with your content is making is a blank wall of text. This will make it look terribly bland and can be boring for readers or users online. As such, you do need to fit images and videos in, selecting them carefully. You may also want to think about optimizing any images you use. The infographic that follows has more information on this.

By Digitalico Agency