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How To Make Your Affiliate Marketing Campaign Work

With affiliate marketing, you can earn commission for every referral or sale made through your website – and it is the main source of income for most price comparison sites, casino portals, fashion bloggers and Instagram influencers.

But driving traffic to your site or brand and generating sales is not always as easy as it is sounds, especially in 2019 when more and more people are trying to do it. Tudor Lodge gives its top tips to make your affiliate marketing campaign work.

Build up a following

If you consider that only a small percentage of people will convert into sales (probably less than 10%), you realistically need to be driving thousands of visitors to your site to make any real impact.

Some of the most common ways to drive traffic are through organic search (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), social media and email marketing lists. See other digital marketing trends here.

Building up a real following can give you longevity, making your website or company into a brand where you have customer loyalty, recommendations and repeat business. For instance, if you are building up to 5k, 10k or 50k followers, you are just working towards showing your affiliate products to more people and making more sales.

Most successful sites use an authoritative figure as the face of their brand, and this can be backed up by expertise (Mumsnet, MoneySavingExpert, Tipster) or through a memorable personality (Compare The Market, Go Compare). Anything that you can do to promote trust and memorability can add that little extra to get people engaging with your site and making purchases too.

Think commercially

Companies that have affiliate marketing programmes are looking for traffic and customers, and that is why they are willing to offer commission for any sales. The rates and commission that they offer is very negotiable.

You should always ask for an incentive to get started such as a sign up bonus or increased commission e.g 15% instead of 10%.

Where possible, ask for exclusive offers that only your website can give such as a discount, free toy or nectar points (depending on the product).

You need to be commercial, if the product is not selling despite driving traffic, you may have to cut and move on.

Equally, if the commercial rates are not competitive, you need to be ruthless and feature their competitors or other products instead.

Scale

There are several ways to scale your affiliate website if it is starting to work. Whether you are price comparison website, beauty blogger or fitness influencer. One of the best ways is to get help from other people and help you produce content or videos. Finding good reliable people can be tricky, but you can ask for recommendations on social media or use platforms such as Upwork or Fiverr.

But if you are blogging and can put out 20 articles out per day, compared to just 1, this is only going to increase your following and chances of making sales. And don’t forget, push push push through social media!

Creative and legal firms collaborate to pioneer the ‘visual’ law revolution

Candour, a digital creative agency in Norwich, has collaborated with Cracknell Law, a specialist business law firm to design client-friendly business Terms and Conditions to combat the problem of customers not fully understanding legal terms of business contracts.

Terms & Conditions are essential for businesses to set out the applicable rights, obligations and expectations with its customers. After identifying that most legal documents contain lengthy information in unreadable block text, the two companies wanted to push the boundaries of what a contract can be, rather than simply accepting the traditional form.

By combining their approaches, the two companies have created a unique set of illustrated, client-friendly ‘Visual Terms’, enabling legal terms to be integrated with a business’s marketing strategy.

The move follows a consumer green paper published by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills that showed consumers are more likely to read and understand Terms and Conditions that have been shortened and simplified. *

The Visual Terms start with a two-page process flow diagram clearly mapping out the customer journey throughout the provision of services, whilst tying in the relevant legal terms at each stage. Plain English summaries of the clause text and bespoke creative illustrations also reflect the nature of the clauses, providing a transparent and understandable framework.

This new, pioneering approach is the brainchild of Ryan Cracknell, a commercial contract specialist and Managing Director of Cracknell Law, based in Norwich.

Ryan says: “Businesses spend a huge amount of time on ensuring their marketing and tone of voice are on point but then they provide a lengthy, unwieldy document for the customer to read and sign. Reading pages and pages of legal text is not an exciting proposition for any potential client!

Considerable effort has gone into assessing how we could reduce the length of clauses to make them more intelligible without losing their legal effect. This allows our Visual Terms & Conditions to become a seamless part of the sales and client onboarding process.

We are very pleased to be able to offer visual terms to our clients which can be fully customised to their business.”

John Skinner, Creative Director of Candour adds; “We are absolutely delighted with our new Terms and Conditions document. Rather than being a very dry document that feels like an onerous part of the customer journey, it now offers a further opportunity to reinforce our brand values and build the relationship with our clients.

Candour’s core ethos is one of transparency and honesty and we want to be able to reassure clients with terms that are clear and completely understandable. This document really helps us to get clients over the line in a spirit of mutual understanding.”

Businesses interested in creating bespoke Visual Terms and Conditions for their business should contact Cracknell Law on 01603 339044.  

Photo caption: John Skinner (left) from Candour with Ryan Cracknell (right) from Cracknell Law with their unique Visual Terms.

About the green paper *In March 2016 the Department for Business Innovation & Skills issued a call for evidence for recommendations for how T&Cs can be made to be more accessible for consumers: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/improving-terms-and-conditions

About Candour A digital agency that believes in the power of open minds and frank discussion, focusing on brand and digital. www.withcandour.co.uk

About Cracknell Law Cracknell Law is a niche Business Law firm based in Norwich, Duxford and London. The firm specialises in Corporate Law, Commercial Law, Data Protection, Employment and Intellectual Property Law. www.cracknelllaw.com  

Commercial Property Update: Tenant Fees Act 2019

The Tenant Fees Act came into force on 1 June 2019 and applies immediately to the grant of any new tenancy, with a grace period of one year for existing tenancies.

Important legislation

It is a very important piece of legislation for landlords and letting agents, restricting the type and amount of payments that they can require from tenants of most assured shorthold tenancies, student accommodation and under licences to occupy. Houses with multiple occupation are also potentially included.

Prohibited payments

The Act now means that various payments are prohibited unless expressly listed as a permitted payment under the Act.

Permitted payments include the following: rent, tenancy deposits (there are certain caps depending on the amount of rent payable under the tenancy agreement), a holding deposit capped at one weeks’ rent, payments on certain default events such as loss of keys or failure to pay rent, fee for a variation of the tenancy (again this is capped), payment on early termination of the tenancy, Council Tax, utilities, TV licence and payment for communications, i.e. phone, internet, etc.

However, payments that are now prohibited under the Act include tenancy set-up fees, viewing fees, credit-check fees, inventory check fees, check-out fees and fees for professional cleaning services. These prohibitions would apply to any agreement with the tenant, their guarantor or anyone acting on behalf of the tenant.

If a Tenancy Agreement has a term within it that requires a prohibited payment, this will not be binding on the tenant, although the rest of the Agreement will remain binding.

The Act also imposes certain requirements relating to repayment of holding deposits, as well as prohibited payments, but the legislation is complex and cannot be detailed fully in this article. Legal advice should be sought.

Enforcement

The Act provides for enforcement by the relevant enforcement authority by way of financial penalties of up to £5,000 for each breach of a prohibition or repayment obligation.

In addition, if a further breach is committed within five years of having had a financial penalty imposed or the landlord having received a conviction of an offence for an earlier breach, a financial penalty of up to £30,000 can be imposed.

The Act also provides the relevant enforcement authority to require a landlord or letting agent to repay the tenant any monies paid under a prohibited payment, or repay the holding deposit plus interest.

Finally, the Act gives the tenant the power to apply to the First-tier Tribunal themselves for the return of outstanding amounts in respect of prohibited payments/holding deposit.

It should also be noted that if a landlord is in breach of the prohibitions and holds a prohibited payment or deposit, then they cannot serve a Section 21 Notice to terminate the tenancy, unless and until repayment is made to the tenant or, with the tenant’s consent, the money has been applied towards rent or the tenancy deposit.

How Hatch Brenner can help

Our Commercial Property and Residential Property teams have extensive experience in advising Landlords and Tenants on their legal position. Contact 01603 660 811 to speak to one of the team or email helenbarker@hatchbrenner.co.uk.

Signs it is Time to Find a New Home

Studies and surveys held lately indicated that property owners residing within their own homes tend to shift residences once every ten years. This may sound like a super long time to you but tends to feel much shorter to others. Mate, the fact of the matter is that the decision to move out of your present home is personal. Depending on your situation, your financial circumstances and the market dynamics, we are sure you will make a well-informed choice that will be best for your household’s needs. One cannot deny that evaluating such a choice is an exciting time – full of possibilities! You can either choose to upgrade your home or sell for a profit and live in a smaller property. Here are some tips to help you get started in making what we hope is the right decision for you and your family:

  1. You want to reap benefits as the seller

Chances are that your home has leaped in monetary value since you first purchased it. The real estate sector is on fire and you wish to benefit from your investment gains whilst you still can. It seems the right time to sell, does it not? You will do your homework and be well aware that the real estate industry is constantly evolving. Hence, you want to ascertain that the time to sell is the time in your favour. Here is how you can appraise whether this is the case or not:

  • The grapevine is telling you that there are bidding wars taking place for properties similar to yours
  • The price per square foot is rising within your neighbourhood
  • Your neighbours are selling their homes and enjoying profits
  • Properties are being snatched up from the market quickly

Sure, you can study and analyse these signs. Or you could be a bit more efficient and save yourself a lot of research trouble by simply conversing with a real estate broker or agent. Try to find a reliable one through your trusted social circle of friends and family. They will be more than happy to provide you with some information and guidance on the happenings of your vicinity and what the right choice may entail. If you are trying to sell your home whilst hunting for your next dream property, do keep in mind that there will be a time lag involved. You will want to make sure that you have enough cash to buy your new home before signing the contract.

  1. You have lived in your current home for more five years or more

The general agreement in the real estate sphere is that one should abide within their home for a minimum of five years if they wish to sell without losing any value but to gain instead. As you are already a homeowner, you are well aware of the costs involved in getting or selling a new place.

If you decide to go ahead and list your property on the market, make sure you take into account that you will be handing out five to six percent of the sale price as commission to a real estate agent. Yes, you could try to sell independently but case studies have reflected higher sale prices when real estate brokers are involved in the transaction between a buyer and seller.

  1. Things around your home are deteriorating

Is your current property draining almost thirty percent of your present gross monthly income? Is that boiler acting up and you think its time to buy a new one? Sure, you could just invest a few thousand pounds into getting a new boiler, protect it with boiler insurance and do your best to maintain it. However, what if the problem lies deeper than that? What if there are structural issues with the property itself? You could get it fixed and be better off buying a whole new asset instead. You do not want to be spending more on the house than what your mortgage costs demand and fall into the clutches of additional household debt. Unless you manage to amplify your current income and meet those extra costs, you will feel super stressed, drained and possibly lose out on sleep.

  1. Your life has evolved since you bought your home

You have raised three children, sent them to college and are done with your responsibilities. Your current home is too large to maintain and too big for just you and your partner. Maybe it is time for a change that suits your present lifestyle more. No matter how much you love your home, such a time will probably arrive.

It could also be the complete opposite: you were previously single and are now married with a baby on the way. You want to move out of the 2 bed apartment you own in the city and get a bigger place in the suburbs with a backyard where you can install a sweet swing set and slide for your peanut. After all, location plays a huge role in the choice you make to buy a property or not. Moving houses can present a lot of opportunities. You could be closer to family, to friends, to better schooling and hospitals etc. Our advice? Make a complete list of the pros and cons of shifting houses so you can make the most optimal decision.

  1. Your neighbours are making profits on selling their homes

Ben next door just sold his house for a nice, fat profit! You are inspired to take similar steps. Why not? Strike whilst the iron is hot!

However, hold your horses. Is Ben’s property similar to yours? Is your home as well maintained and preserved as his? If not, then you may need some time to make some upgrades, so you can demand a similar sweet price. Are there more features, more bedrooms, more kitchen and living space? You see you need to consider all potential variables that led to that beautiful sale profit and see if you can replicate the situation with your current home. If yes, wonderful! If not, try to get the advice of a professional real estate broker to help you figure out what would be the best situation for you.

How a single page site can be good for your SEO

Single page websites are becoming more and more popular for smaller businesses and trade businesses, such as a builder or an electrician. Single page sites suit these industries more, as all of their key business information can easily be captured on one page, unlike a site with online sales or multiple services.

These single page sites get the message across easily, pointing out the benefits of that business and the services they can offer, then directing the customer to easy call to actions so they can contact that company. It’s quick and easy, something that more and more customers are looking for in websites.

How can you fit your SEO into this?

SEO can still work well for single page sites, in some cases, even better. In terms of link building, you will only ever have to direct the links to one URL, gaining some real strength and authority into that page. As you cannot add any inbound links into a single page site, these backlinks can score you some great points to jump in front of your competitors.

The down side to having a single page site, is that you are not able to have more than a handful of key words. Normally, for each landing page that you are looking to optimise for, you can add in 5 for each page, giving you a greater chance of coming up on search engines. However, this does not mean that your competitors will be ahead of the game. There is a greater chance of being able to optimise all key searches effectively, because there is only a handful of them, enabling you to really optimise the ones you do have.

When creating content, it can be a little harder to add in key words, as of course, there is less content to go on the page as there would be with a multipage site. Thinking outside the box for these search terms can be crucial for your SEO. Adding them into your ALT tags, file names, body text and the meta descriptions can often break them up a bit more, still giving you some bonus points for Google.

If you’re interested in having a single page site, take a look at our most recent designs with Electrec and Aylsham Roofing. Two great examples of how you can have a really great looking site, that’s still eye catching, but also informative and easy for the user.

How Import Export Support helped Masters make the most of a business pitch – even though they didn’t win

Everyone in our business knows bringing in new clients can mean months of work without always getting the result you deserve. I wanted to share this recent Import Export Support case study because it shows, even if you don’t win the big prize, your business can still take real value out of the process.

What was the issue? Masters is an award winning distribution and warehousing business with 120 clients across the UK. Masters’ Business & Commercial Development Manager is Mervyn Jeffery who had approached a giftware business who were considering moving their warehousing arrangements. However they needed a Government Bonded Warehouse (Bond), a customs controlled facility that allows a business to defer paying import tax. But, at that time Masters did not have a Bond facility. As Mervyn says “Government Bond is a strange thing, you can’t offer it unless you have a client that uses it”. He continues “To potentially win the business, we needed help with this”. What happened next? An online search led Masters to ImportExportSupport and IES MD Tracey Renshaw. Mervyn Jeffery says Masters are choosy about who they work with: “We ask ourselves ‘Are they Masters people'”, he continues “Tracey came across straightaway as being incredibly knowledgeable, she understood the time scales – and she also understood the Masters’ values”. Working to tight deadlines, Tracey produced a report which outlined the solutions for Masters. These included outsourcing the Bond to a bureau or setting up an internal system. Mervyn says “”Tracey gave us the options, helped us understand the costs and the exposure to the business”. This thorough planning enabled Masters to make a compelling presentation to the giftware business who were left in no doubt that Masters could give them the high level of service they needed. What was the positive take-out? Despite a protracted period of negotiation, in the end contractural obstacles meant the client stuck with their existing warehouse supplier. However for Masters this doesn’t mean the process has been wasted. Firstly, Masters now have a clear process to put a Bond in place. This means they can offer this service to existing and other potential clients. Secondly, Masters and IES have formed a useful working relationship. As Mervyn Jeffery says “When you’re dealing with HMRC you can’t make mistakes. Tracey’s background and experience is very reassuring”. And thirdly, Mervyn’s business experience tells him there is a long-term opportunity in Bonded Warehousing, a service which is likely to be increasingly important in the post-Brexit logistics industry. A PDF of this story can be downloaded from our Case Studies page here. Thanks to Mervyn Jeffery and the Masters team for their help in putting together this story. Images: Tracey Renshaw, MD of Import Export Support; Masters warehouse in Cambridgeshire

How SEO friendly is your website?

SEO is little bit of a mine-field on first look. It is an ongoing job which has to be worked on continuously, which is why it can be a little tricky for brands to keep an eye on. If you’re also not up to date or knowledgeable about SEO, then, where do you start?

Understanding SEO is the first step, and knowing if your website is SEO friendly becomes a close second, after all.. how can you know this if you don’t know what you’re looking for?

So, what is SEO?

 

SEO is built up of numerous factors and, without giving away all of our special talents, here are a few to help you determine whether your website is SEO friendly –

  • Firstly, are the content management systems SEO friendly? If not, your website will sadly never become a friend of SEO. Sites such as Wix are unfortunately not built for SEO, however, WordPress is.
  • Google loves a layout that makes sense, are your H1s, H2s and H3s in the place they should be?
  • Have you got all of your meta descriptions, title tags and ALT tags in place?
  • Finally, do you have a strong list of key search terms that are placed strategically around the site?

As above, SEO is a little bit of a mine-field. With each of our clients, such as Trott Rentals and Bromley Car Repairs, who are currently flying on Google, we have made sure that each of these steps have been undertaken, ensuring that we are consistently updating each website when needed.

Taking a search term such as “Bromley garage” which receives over 90 searches a month in London, and “van hire” which receives over 210 searches a month in Norwich, and optimising these simple key words has enabled our clients to reach the first and second place in Google for these terms, giving them a greater chance of receiving new clientele ahead of their competitors.

With such a time consuming and complex job, it is always best to hire an expert when it comes to the ins and outs of SEO and, not that we like to brag about it, but take us for example, we have a team of dedicated SEO specialists that love to know everything about SEO. We take pride in seeing our clients fly to the top of search engines. So, let us help you too; we’ll audit your site to see whether it is SEO friendly, then… we’ll go from there and help you to transform your business.

Digital Marketing Trends That Cannot Go Amiss In 2019

It is 2019, and digital marketing is a name that everyone is familiar with. It is no new kid on the block. All those ‘word-of-mouth’ business strategies and PR skills to promote any business idea have become forgotten lore of some yore. Digital marketing is the only way you can hope to further your business and thrive in a world with cut-throat competition. There are no alternative ways to it.

The internet is the place to be. Times are such that whatever you do and wherever you go, there is no way you can evade this virtual reality. The internet has you on its radar. It always has a weather-eye on all your activities, which is why there is no escaping its clutches. Come to think of it, people seem to be quite comfortable with their lives being in the constant public eye, with Facebook, Instagram and several other social media apps hovering over our existence. This thus, by default, means that the internet is the reservoir that has all our information. Whether this is a scary thing or not, is a debate that can be kept aside for some time later.

The point that we are trying to segue into is that digital marketing is that smart technique of promoting one’s business that makes use of its target audience’s interests to streamline content, derive traffic for websites and strategically convert them into loyal customers. One thing that you must understand about digital marketing is that it keeps evolving. Thus, stagnancy in the digital strategies shall be the death of your business. Therefore, we have put together a comprehensive list of some of the best trends in this domain to look out for in 2019. 

What Does 2019 Have In Store for Digital Marketing?

We shall now be concentrating on the trends in digital marketing that cannot go amiss if you want to expand your business and reach out to more people.

Social Media Conversions Shall Pique

Social Media, especially Facebook, is one of the best ways to engage your potential clients. Like we have already mentioned earlier in the article, there is hardly any soul who is off Facebook or Instagram in this age. Thus, business brands shall look forward to using social media in a bid to engage more audience and pick up hints about what they like and what works well with them. This shall enable these brands to incorporate these ideas into their products and services, frame content that reaches out effectively to these people and thus, promise a high rate of conversion.

Using techniques like surveys, questionnaires and polling on social media forums could be few of the ways in which these businesses could get a read on their target group. Social media as a part of digital marketing, thus, looks promising for 2019.

Geo-Marketing Shall be On the Rise

Geo-Marketing is the process of using geographical information (geolocation) to target potential customers as a part of marketing strategies. 2019 also looks like a good year when more effective geo-marketing strategies shall rise. Geo-fencing, for instance, is one of those geo-marketing ways where targeting audience on the basis of their location has become more accurate, precise and useful. Geo-Marketing can help businesses to concentrate on the areas thronged by their target group. Mobile ads customised for a specific geographic area can also be one of the ways used by these business organisations to improve their sales. This could be implemented by putting up mobile ads for your service, every time a potential customer walks into that particular location.

Personalised Email Marketing

Customers like it when their personal interests are reflected in the products or services they use. Therefore, brands might manoeuvre these criteria and use it to send emails to their clients and customers with effective and crisp content, one that promotes their business as well as has a personal touch to it. Businesses would rather opt for sending emails that have the promotion of products that fits the likings of their individual customers, than making the format generic. This can prove as an extremely effective marketing strategy as customers will be able to connect on a whole new level with the kind of products and services put out by these business ventures through carefully curated emails.

Refined Multimedia for SEO

Multimedia is always more engaging and fruitful than dry texts. Images and videos are liked, shared and circulated more than any other form of text. Therefore, brands might make optimal use of multimedia, videos more so, to grab more eyeballs towards their business endeavours. There are excellent ways of optimising video for search engines for a better ranking on the SERPs. Therefore, with SEO on a high rise these days, businesses might opt for using multimedia like videos to entice customers and mince money out of it.

Adding the target keywords in the Video title, URL and Description are few of the many ways of optimising your video for a better ranking.

Chatbot Use Shall Skyrocket

Chatbots are bots that help customers in their search for products and also lead them to the right place to finish off with their purchase or transaction. Everyone loves to have a little assistance while shopping or dealing with some kind of transaction. Therefore, it shall not come as a surprise if these bots simulating human beings in terms of conversation see a substantial rise in their use. It is a brilliant digital marketing strategy that businesses can make use of this year.

2019 looks propitious for digital marketing and brands need to make use of all that it has to offer so that they can scale their business, target the right audience and involve themselves in effectual planning processes. Digital marketing has been growing steadily, owing to its miraculous ways of helping businesses flourish. It is wise to acknowledge that digital marketing is here to stay and shall probably show no signs of slowing down even in the many years to come. It has become the game-changer of business expansion strategies and shall continue to be the same in the near future.   

Making Tax Digital – Act Now!

The Making Tax Digital deadline for the June VAT return is fast approaching – if you are not already signed up and registered you need to act fast.   There is currently a potential delay between people signing up to MTD and being able to then submit their MTD return. Once you sign up to file your MTD VAT return you need to wait for a message from HMRC with confirmation that you’ve been signed up, this will also include your VAT number.   Normally this message will be received in 72 hours, however on some occasions this is taking up to 6 days to come through, and until the message is received the return cannot be submitted.  The returns are due by 7 August, so if you have not yet done this, please do make sure you act now.   If you have any questions or concerns please do contact us.

How Landscaping is Important for Your Business

Landscaping is the redesigning of the visible features of an area of land. It includes planting flowers, weed trimming, mowing the lawn, shrubs and trees, and trimming hedges and trees.

How Landscaping is Important for your Business

Do you want to know how landscaping is important to your business? Here below are various reasons:

Gives a Good First Impression – An attractive exterior for your business is important because it makes a first good impression. It portrays a good reputation about your company and how well-organised it is. It’s good to make sure your business looks pretty to show that you care about how people perceive it. A well-kept commercial facility, with trimmed grass, trees, plenty of flowers and plants, clean garden, and washed sidewalks, signals a good impression. A well-maintained exterior will give a positive reaction about your employees and business while untidy and disorganized landscape will give a negative picture of your company.

Attracts Customers and Helps Employee Retention – Landscaping is used as a good way of attracting more customers to your business. More so, if it’s well designed maintained. Well pruned trees and flowers creates a happy atmosphere that’s welcoming to the customers. They feel at home and connected to nature. By planting trees and maintaining a beautiful lawn you catch the customer’s eye to your business. Studies also prove that workers with flowers in the office or placed on windows do better and less stressed than the ones who don’t have flowers. A business can lose the existing customers and potential ones through poorly maintained landscaping and exterior, such as trees, grass and flowerbeds. An outdoor area or the business surrounding that is not appealing to the eyes, gives an impression that the owners of the business cares less about their appearance or how they take part as members of their surrounding g community.

Increases Market Value – Quality landscaping and well-maintained trees around your commercial property is a plus for your business since they add the market value of your business. The value addition also applies to the surrounding community. Neighbouring residents are more likely to supporting the business when the owners help in protection of the natural beauty of the area. Moreover, other companies will embrace commercial maintenance thereby making the area valuable. The presence of shade trees in your parking lot, a well-organized landscaping and   pretty outdoor water features makes customer frequent your business. They visit for breaks, talks with friends or just to enjoy nature.

Saves Time and Money – Hiring a company that is professional in landscaping for outdoor space saves on time and money. Furthermore, it takes off the load and makes the company to concentrate more on the core business. On the site of a leading landscaping company in London, you can see the range of prices for their landscaping services. When you take a look on it, you’ll soon realise it is a better idea to hire professionals, than to try to do it yourself.

Safety and Reduction in Crime

There are a few features of a well-maintained landscape that provide security to your business. For example, the presence of a vegetation that does no help in spreading fire, security lights at the night, trees that acts as fence therefore keeping thieves and unwanted visitors away and marked pedestrian walkway. Additionally, a well-maintained landscape prevents damage and injury.

Creates a Lasting Impression

Perception matters and a professionally maintained landscape creates a lasting impression on your business. When customers are met with well-maintained landscaping, they feel happy are more likely to be regular customers to your business. This happy atmosphere has a psychological impact on your employees and visitor, thus creating a feel of comfort and at home in you commercial property. They will always be happy to pay you a visit next time and long for it.

Increases Productivity

According to a number of research findings, people work effectively in natural places. A well-maintained landscape creates a good and peaceful working condition for your employees. By planting flowers and trees, you help in making the employees happy and when the employees are happy your client is also happy and this leads to increased productivity.

Nature Can Help You with Reducing Your Energy Bills

The secret behind a well-maintained landscape is that it can help your business save in terms of energy bills. A good example is when you have trees that provide shade, they lower the summer cooling bills by 20%. Also, these trees can act as snow barriers and keep the winter warm.

The Importance of Cybersecurity for Small Businesses

Over recent years the threat of cyber-attack has become ever more prevalent with governments, large corporations and other high-profile organisations all falling victim. A common misconception is that small businesses are of no interest to cyber criminals. In fact, they’re often more vulnerable than they believe. This is why cybersecurity stocks are expected to rise – greater awareness of the problem and attempts to tackle it will lead to growth for those operating in the industry. 

There are a number of reasons why cybersecurity is growing in importance. One of the most obvious is that we’re simply conducting more of our deals and transactions online.  All that information held on distant cloud services represents a sitting duck unless it is adequately protected. Any small business that transfers data over the internet is accountable for any data breach that might take place. Additionally, employees are increasingly working from mobile devices; laptops, mobile phones and tablets, particularly those used to access public Wi-Fi, all bolster your chances of attack. When data is stolen, and money lost as a consequence, the repercussions of an attack don’t end there. Reputational damage can strangulate a small business; without your customers’ trust, how can you continue to operate? Taken together, these examples make it clear why cybersecurity stocks have been gradually rising in value.

Although the notion of tackling cyber security and protecting your small business may seem a daunting one, in fact it can be relatively easy. It’s a matter of preparation and doing all you can to make your enterprise less penetrable to cyber criminals. One of the most basic measures to take is to back up your data. That way, if hackers find their way into your system, corrupted or stolen data can be retrieved. Make backing up part of your regular routine. Malware is another watchword. There are all sorts of anti-malware products on the market, some of which are free. Find out which one is best for your type of business and introduce it before it’s too late. Enforcing rules around the use and security of mobile devices is another easy step to take, as is the promotion across your business of sensible password use. For some businesses, it may be worth investing in specialist cyber security training to make sure all staff are briefed on everything from phishing to firewalls.

While it’s not possible to define exactly how cybercrime and its opposite, cyber security, will develop in the future, they will almost certainly become an ever-greater consideration for us all, both personally and professionally. Developments will be related to the way IT systems are evermore intertwined with each other and with our daily lives. Virtual assistants, automated decision-making, internet-enabled objects like cars and white goods – all these will change the cybercrime landscape.

Although the threat of cybercrime may feel overwhelming, in fact we have many tools at our disposal both to prevent attacks and to protect our information. The most sensible approach is to arm yourself with information and stay up-to-date. We can also be comforted by the fact that there are many more people working to improve cyber security than there are those setting out to defraud organisations. The world’s best digital minds are constantly working to stay one step ahead of the cyber criminals, thwarting their efforts to profit from online misdemeanours.

Top 9 Strategies to Enhance Employee Performance in the Workplace

When employees’ disillusionments hit their tipping point, subsequent negative behavioral patterns inhibit profits. Human capital has its roots in the pre-industrial revolution economics as a vital tool for growth and a factor of production. Today, human resource management has evolved as a distinct department in a business aimed at understanding, managing, leveraging technology for productivity and the need to improve employee engagement. A high-performance workforce powerhouse requires a solid policy framework addressing employees’ demands from recruitment to pension schemes. Top-flight companies like Apple and Google go the extra mile to allot employee shares. These incentives promote worker productivity and align their interests with those of investors.

This article dissects the essential strategies for startups, giant corporations and medium-sized to boost workplace performance.

Developing Leadership to Drive Productivity

International corporate governance guidelines encourage businesses to strike a delicate balance between employees and investors. Sinking your cash into productivity programs or interventions can stir long-term benefits. You need stewardship across your business and increased awareness of investment goals among workers. For instance, businesses should ensure that their leadership sheds light to the rationale for changes that impact the workplace and teams.

Enhancing Employee Engagement

How many times do you rub shoulders with your workers? Fostering an environment with proactivity improves engagement because your workers have a sense of belonging. As noted above, an employee stock option adds an extra stream of income with tax benefits. Employees who hold shares or an interest in a business are motivated to promote the success of the enterprise. Businesses need physical or virtual workplaces that enhance teamwork, collaboration, and interaction. You have to establish a consistent flow of information among employees about entrepreneurial priorities and objectives.

Workplace Environment & Employee Flexibility

Workplaces strategies help enhance employee productivity with a broad range of abilities, inspiration, and opportunities. You also identify negative actions such as discomfort, interruptions, and safety concerns.

Although your employees spruce up their workstations, consider hiring a professional office cleaning company. They have better equipment and staff to tidy up, de-clutter, and sanitize office space. A professional cleaning specialist has in-depth knowledge of which products to apply to wipe out germs without lingering stench or toxic ingredients.

Feedback Sources

Do you pay heed to employees’ concerns, ideas or opinions? Human resource strategists link employer’s attitudes to difficulties or challenges in modern offices. Thus, business structures should tap into suggestions that their workers propose such as human resource efficiency insights. That’s why every organization must create an open and aboveboard communication platform for employees.

Managerial Relationships

Gone are the days of condescending bosses. Productivity specialists have pointed out that puritanical attitudes discourage innovation and increased productivity. In the wake of ‘gig economies’ and freelance, increased productivity comes from worker autonomy. Giving employees freedom over time, workflow, and flexibility vindicates their ethics as opposed to dominion over them. Remote workers surpass your expectations, work more hours, demand less sick leave, outperform their permanent counterparts, and get more engaged in their workplace.

Ethics in the Workplace

Barriers such as interpersonal conflicts, poor job autonomy, heavy workload, and unfavorable team atmosphere lead to hazardous organizational results. Organizational leaders who fail to detect and prevent fraud risk dishonesty or breach of trust due to lack of values or norms that guide behavior. In fact, environments where fraud, environmental degradation, waste, and corruption thrive encourage destructive behavior against businesses along with individual careers.

Recruitment & Promotion Strategies

Increasing employee satisfaction with generous perks has played a pivotal role in transforming tech giants like Google. Your human resource management should use compensatory incentives to quench their employees thirst in the job market. Research suggests businesses may enhance performance by improving strategies that create a positive mix of motivational tools or opportunities.

Collaborative decision-making between leaders and workers enhances nurtures better attitudes. Google and Facebook top the charts with famous packages like masseuse, nap pods, and extras. Propose offers that enrich employees to promote loyalty, due diligence, and increased morale. Businesses that create an enriched workplace environment reap the benefits of improved retention rates.

Leveraging Technologies

Technology has unchained modern employees from routine tasks giving them leverage to pursue strategies that provide greater returns. The internet facilitates virtual meetings for fast information transfer and cutting down traveling expenditure. Upgrading systems and integrating intuitive tools also minimizes human error, and enhances the safety and productivity of employees. Establishing employee-customer self-service platforms allow individuals to get on top of issues to resolve them immediately. If you provide easy access to virtual curriculums, your employees hone their skills at their own space and timelines.

Assessment

With data-driven ventures in the frontline of the fastest-growing companies, you will gain insight by assessing productivity with a wealth of information. Employee management tools help you value the quality, output, and existing gaps to draft policies aimed at improving performance or overall morale. Fortunately, your business has online-based productivity assessment tools at its disposal. They allow you to oversee, streamline, and control projects across your workforce intuitively.