Business Plus Baby

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Businesses have always been subject to crime and they likely always will be. Whether it is financial crimes like Ponzi schemes, or racketeering, or money laundering, the risk is always there and as a responsible business owner, it is incumbent upon you to try to prevent it whenever you can. Sometimes it is simple things like employees that steal office supplies, or someone parking illegally outside the building. However, it can often be rather more serious such as embezzlement. In that case, you should speak to a forensic accountant to assess the nature of the crime and then contact the relevant local law enforcement agency.

An area in which many businesses are now particularly vulnerable is cyberspace. The threat that is posed by hackers is serious and should not be taken lightly. They are also quite hard to track and even harder to prosecute, especially if they live in a different jurisdiction or country to you. In any case, there are a few things that you can do. For one, when it comes to something like your company emails, which may contain sensitive information, you should add a layer of encryption. This will not make it impossible for a persistent hacker to get your information but it will make it somewhat more inconvenient. With only a minority of businesses using encryption to protect their data, there isn’t a shortage of potential good targets. It stands to reason that a company that is easier to hack will likely be subject to more attacks than one which is more difficult. Preventing cybercrime against your business is quite obviously in your interests but it also has a broader use which is that if it becomes easier and more acceptable to target businesses, it will become more common. By trying to prevent this particular crime, you establish a deterrent of a sort to those considering committing the same crime in the future.

However, it is not just strangers that you need to be concerned about. People who pose as your customers may wish to use you or your business to commit crimes. One of these may be money laundering. This particular crime is sometimes misunderstood because many people’s only knowledge of it comes from its representation in films. The idea is quite simple: criminals will try to disguise the origins of their money (because they are criminal) and establish what is a seemingly legitimate source. They may wish to wash their money through your business. To help prevent this, you should consider checking their credentials. You can ensure an ID is legitimate with ID scanning services from Jumio. It may seem simple but if a person is committing crimes that require them to launder their money, the chances are that they will also stretch to using a fake ID. If this is the case, you can quickly and efficiently find out and deal with the problem.

Lastly, and perhaps most obviously, you should ensure that you and your employees change their passwords regularly and never use any word or phrase that could be guessed. It is simple advice but it effective and could save you a lot of money in the long run.

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Without cash, what is your business? When you start losing money, you could end up in serious danger of losing your company. There are a few red flags when you’re hemorrhaging money – it doesn’t just disappear, after all. If any of the following things apply to you and your business, you could be throwing money down the drain and putting an unnecessary strain on your finances.

You’re not tracking your expenditure

Outgoings such as utilities, payroll, office rental, and business rates are usually around the same, month in, month out. However, despite their stability, it’s common for businesses not to follow them. This makes it impossible to follow how much you’re spending, and therefore impossible to see the bigger financial picture. How can you know if you’re in profit or loss when you don’t even know how much is leaving your account each month? Keeping a close eye on expenditure will also alert you if anything’s amiss.

You’re drowning in credit card debt

If you have a business credit card, whatever you do, make sure it’s paid off by direct debit every single month. Credit card debt spells bad news, and chances are, once it starts it will just keep on growing. Nobody ever got rich on credit cards, and paying off the interest is a serious financial drain that your business just doesn’t need. If you’re in debt, make paying that off your number one priority by paying more than the bare minimum towards it each month.

You’re paying bills late

Late fees are dead money – they go out of your account for absolutely no reason other than the fact that you didn’t pay your invoices or bills on time, for whatever reason. This means, in the best case scenario you’re paying over the odds for your goods or utilities, but in worst case scenario, your accounts could be cut off, and you could be referred to a collection agency.

Image: George Hodan

You don’t have an emergency fund

Whether it’s your business money or your personal account, it always pays to have a little bit of extra cash aside for a rainy day, or for when the servers blow up, and you need to fork out for a replacement. Rather than force yourself into debt, make sure you’ve always got a little bit set aside, just in case.

You’re not shopping around

Chances are, the first offer you get isn’t going to be the best offer. Negotiating and shopping around guarantees you the best deals, whether it’s for your business telephones, ensuring you get a great deal on your line rates and support, or your gas and electric supplier. If you’re accepting the first offer, you could be paying hundreds of pounds a year in cash that just doesn’t need spending.

You’re letting vanity get the most of you

When you spend too much time comparing your company to competitors, you can start to let vanity overtake your decisions. That means that you stop making sound investments, and start looking for the snazziest equipment instead. Just because your competitor has snazzy equipment, doesn’t mean their company is in a better financial situation. Focus on you and your customers, not them.

Keeping a close eye on your cash and understanding its fluctuations is the best way to stop the bleed.

Hudl

Hudl is a unique start-up and tool that benefits most athletes and their teams by allowing them to communicate better and in turn, win more often. It gives coaches the power to form strategies and share them with their players through the app, along with videos and other data. In addition to plans, the coach can also offer perfect nutrition tips and other ideas about how to improve the team and help perform their best.

Heptio

Heption is involved in the container business and is a start-up that takes advantage of the Kubernetes program that was released by Google. They’re not only improving the program but also making it more accessible for companies all over the world.

Nucleus

Nucleus is a start-up that focuses on home intercoms. What you might think is a thing of the past has actually been gaining a lot of traction lately as new technologies allow intercoms to be monitored through Amazon’s Alexa, as well as making calls between neighbours possible.

Pindrop

Pindrop is a start-up and tool that improves mobile security. More specifically, it prevents theft of data and identity on mobile devices. Already big corporations, legal advisors and banks are taking advantage of it and it seems to have a promising future in 2017.

Nowait

This app that is directly connected with Yelp, allows users to queue up for a restaurant or other popular places without actually having to be at the physical location of the place. This means you don’t have to wait at all as you can enter the line from home while you’re still getting ready, with frequent notifications about how soon you’ll be able to enter.

Accompany

Accompany is an impressive start-up that allows users to better prepare before a business meeting or conference. It pulls data from social media and other databases in order to fill you in on who you’re about to see and suggests you topics for discussion and other data to make you ready for the encounter.

Abalo Publicidad

Abalo Publicidad is a business and e-shop that focuses on office equipment such as agendas, pendrives, work gifts and even work clothes. It’s a great place for other companies and businesses to outfit themselves with the best quality of items for work. Abalo Publicidad has the prospects to be one of the best start-ups of 2017.

Wine Outlet

Wine outlet is a wine e-shop and provider that offers a great variety of wines. The start-up not only sells and delivers wines but also has a vast database of them that includes detailed data about each and reviews from customers rating the wines. This helps prospective clients make informed orders while shopping. Wine Outlet has been doing so well that the demand for its wines has been constantly increasing making it to the top 10 start-ups of 2017.

Leade.rs

Do you want to be able to discover and following some of the most innovative and leading personalities of the business, science and technological world. Leade.rs makes this possible and allows users to find the biggest influencers in the world.

Lola

Lola is a start-up and app that helps you during trips just like a travel agent or tour guide would. It revolutionises trips by bringing travellers and travel consultants together. Then you can receive help and advice about your travel plan as well as suggestions on where and how to go.

We think it’s highly recommended to follow the start-ups above because they’ve shown a lot of potential and promise for 2017.

Trying to keep on top of a family budget is difficult, and a new arrival can add a lot of financial strain to the family. Although it may seem like it is impossible to stay on top of mounting costs, there are things you can do to keep your expenses down and stay in control. Here are some of the ways that you can cope with the costs of a new baby.

Plan Your Meals

Photo credit: Blairwang

A lot of families waste unnecessary by buying food from expensive convenience stores because they have run out of the cheaper food from the supermarket. They might also be eating out because of bad planning. If you make a weekly meal plan, you can buy all of the ingredients you need at the cheapest prices possible, without having to pop out to expensive shops everyday. This will also help the whole family to eat a lot healthier so it is a win win situation.

Making one weekly trip to the shops will also help you to save money on gas. Taking a daily drive, even if it is only a short journey, can soon add up to a large amount of money.

Clothing

If you have children already, you can use some of their old clothes for the new baby, rather than buying lots of brand new stuff. You should also ask friends and family if they have anything spare that you could use, this way you can get all of the things you need for the new baby without having to spend a penny.

Pear285 at English Wikipedia [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

If you do need to buy new stuff, try buying wholesale clothing, that are a lot cheaper than buying from standard shops. It is also a good idea to practice your sewing skills and repair small tears in the clothes. This will help you to keep them for longer before needing to buy new ones.

Buy Secondhand

The financial strain of a new baby can be difficult for the whole family, but it doesn’t mean that the rest of the kids have to miss out. Brand new books and toys are very expensive but if you buy them second-hand, you can get them so much cheaper. The quality of second-hand goods needs to be questioned though, because you don’t want to waste money on something that will just break.

Photo credit: Bob N Renee

Good places to get second-hand things are thrift stores and garage sales, and you’ll be helping somebody clear their house out by buying it too.

Be Energy Smart

One of the biggest outgoing for any family is energy bills, but that doesn’t have to be the case. If you are conscious of the amount of energy that you are using, you can really push those bills down. You can make it into a game for the whole family, seeing if you can beat last month’s record. It is also worth shopping around to see if you can get a better deal from a different provider.

If you follow these steps, you should be able to take on the financial strain of a new baby without sacrificing quality of life.

From launching a new service to working on business websites and hiring staff, small business owners have a lot to do. With so much to think about, it’s easy to let important tasks like bookkeeping and accounting fall to the wayside. If you’re having trouble staying on top of all the administrative work, don’t fret — there are a few simple ways to get your accounting back on track. Check out these useful tips for categorizing your business expenses, tracking your time, and invoicing clients.

Keep Personal Expenses Separate

Use a separate bank account for making personal purchases. If you don’t have a personal bank account, open one at your local bank. If your bank offers a low-fee or no-fee plan, consider opening several accounts. Separating your personal expenses from your business expenses can be a time-consuming task if you don’t stay on top of it, so keep things as easy as possible by using different accounts and cards for personal expenditure.

Get a Business Credit Card

Using a business credit card is the easiest way to keep your personal and business expenses separate. A business credit card can also help you build business credit, which is different from your personal credit.  This can come in handy if you ever want to get a business loan, lower your business insurance rates, or apply for a business grant. A 2012 survey conducted by the National Small Business Association found that credit cards were the second most popular source of financing for small businesses. Whether you’re a freelancer, a sole proprietor, or a corporation, it’s worth the hassle to get business credit.

Use an Online Accounting Program

One of the top benefits of running your own business is being able to deduct business expenses from your income tax. It’s important to properly track these expenses during the fiscal year so that you can file an accurate report come tax time. Not only will tracking your business expenditure help you lower your taxes, but it can also prepare you for a potential audit. There are many online services available for tracking time and expenses. Some programs, like let you invoice clients directly from the app. If you just want a simple expense tracker, try Receipts by Wave, a free app that lets you upload images of your receipts and categorize your purchases.

Invest in a Payroll System

Whether you have five employees or a staff of 500, you’ll need to have a proper payroll system in place to keep track of your labor costs. Keep in mind that labor costs account for the majority of a small business’ expenditure. Be sure to track all labor expenses, including overtime, benefits, and perks. Pay your employees on a fixed schedule, and make sure you’re withholding the right amount of taxes.

In the digital age, there’s no excuse for using the shoebox method of organizing your business receipts. The tips above should help you get your accounting in order so you can get back to running your business.

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