Ulster Bank Young Farmer Seminar Sligo November 19th

Embracing change

Ulster Bank hosted a Young Trained Farmer seminar in Sligo on Thursday November 19th. The seminar, titled ‘Embracing Change’ sought to support agricultural producers in this era of continual change and present attendees with research findings, market insights, farmer experiences and tools to manage change irrespective of the enterprise.

The panel

Our panel included Dr Ailish Byrne (Senior Agri Manager UB), Sean O’Donnell (Young Farmer of the Year 2014), Bernard Donoghue, Martin Clarke (IFAC Accountants) and Kevin Moran (Nuffield Scholar 2015) with the discussion being facilitated by Breian Carroll of Carroll Consultancy. Brief accounts were given by the panel members on their enterprises, experience and long term goals. Questions from the floor were welcomed at all times and open and honest feedback from the panel was a feature of the discussion.

Break out

Three separate break out sessions followed and were hosted by Roberta McDonald (Aurivo), Brian Costelle (Facilitator/Farmer) and Pat Bogue (Broadmore Research). There was genuine interaction between the focus session facilitators and participants in each room with young farmers contributing greatly in all discussions. In the end we ran out of time as in depth discussions were taking place. There was a feel good factor in all rooms with huge engagement levels between all participants.

Good feedback

79 attendees participated from Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal with a number of industry experts and introducers also present. Feedback on the day from attendees was excellent and this definitely was a really worthwhile event for Ulster Bank to host and confirm our continued support and commitment to the Agri sector in the Midlands &West region.

Find out more

If you want to find out what Ulster Bank has to offer, click here.

 

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Starting A Business Abroad

The bureaucracy associated with starting a business abroad is shocking and is enough to deter even the most confident entrepreneur. European countries such as France, where many Brits now call home, is regarded as a red tape jungle and can be quite difficult to establish a business due to the amount of paperwork involved. However, having said that, Europe is traditionally a country of small businesses and individual traders where the economic philosophy actually encourages and even nurtures their creation.

Things to Consider

It’s often wise to work for someone else in the same line of business in order to gain experience, rather than jump in at the deep end. Always thoroughly investigate an existing or proposed business before investing any money. As any expert can tell you, an overseas business venture is not for amateur entrepreneurs, particularly amateurs who don’t speak the language! You should also take into consideration the culture of your host country and the prospect of increased business travel and time away from family and friends.

Buying an Existing Business

It’s much easier to buy an existing business abroad than start a new one. The paperwork for taking over an existing business is also simpler although still complex. If you plan to buy a business, obtain an independent valuation and employ an accountant to audit the books. Never sign anything you don’t understand completely; even if you think you understand it, you should still obtain unbiased professional advice.

Establishing your Business

Most people are far too optimistic about the prospects of a new business abroad and over-estimate income levels. Be realistic or even pessimistic when estimating your income. While hoping for the best you should plan for the worst and have sufficient funds to last until you’re established. New projects are rarely if ever completed within budget and you need to ensure that you have sufficient working capital and can survive until a business takes off.

Location

The location for a business is even more important than the location for a home. Depending on the type of business, you may need access to major air, road and rail links or be located in a popular tourist area. Local plans regarding communications, industry and major building developments, e.g. housing complexes and new shopping, may also be important.

Employees

Hiring employees shouldn’t be taken lightly abroad and must be taken into account before starting a business. In France for example, you enter into an employment contract under French labour law and employees enjoy extensive rights. It’s also very expensive to hire employees, as you must pay 40 to 60% of salaries in social security contributions. You may even want to give preference to those who speak English depending on the type of business you intend to own.

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A Guide to Etiquette When Handling Business Abroad

International Business Infographic Part 2

If you handle, or plan to handle, business overseas then you need to be made aware of the local customs, traditions and policies that are carried out.

This helpful infographic that was put together by WD Storage covers the etiquette to follow in the countries of Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Russia, Spain and the USA. What offends someone in one country might be a friendly greeting in another. A simple handshake can mean different things depending on what part of the world you come from. Ensuring that you know what’s what in each region will help you to close out the most business deals possible.

Stay ahead of anyone competing for a foreign client’s business by dressing correctly, buying (or not buying!) the correct gifts and talking about the right things over a business meal.

If you found this helpful but wanted to see a greater range of countries included, you can also check out Part 1 of the International Guide to Business Etiquette.

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Ensure Employee Safety in a Busy Working Environment

With so much to do at work on a daily basis, be it overseeing factory work or ordering industrial paint, it can be easy to let basic health and safety practices slip – but this is simply not acceptable. If anyone is injured on your premises you could have a costly lawsuit on your hands, so here’s how to minimise risks and ensure employees stay safe

Control hazardous substances
If you work with dangerous chemicals like acids, lubricants, detergents, chlorine or anything else considered harmful, you must do all you can to comply with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002. This might mean reading the safety data sheet of any products that are ‘dangerous to supply’ in order to really understand the risks, or it might mean implementing control measures such as reducing the amount of people who come into contact with such products. You might also decide to get rid of harmful products altogether, switching them for safer alternatives or researching those that give off less harmful fumes.

Of course, thanks to scientific research, we are now more aware of things that can cause us harm, with substances like lead paint being replaced by the more user-friendly varieties offered today. That said, there are still very toxic chemicals out there, as well as those that are explosive, flammable and dangerous to the environment. Make sure you know what you’re working with.

Carry out a thorough risk assessment
No matter what you do for a living or what business you run, you must carry out a thorough risk assessment of your premises. Not only will this help you to identify anything that could be putting staff at risk, it will enable you to make your workplace safer. Not sure how to go about this procedure? Well, the Health and Safety Executive advises employers to use the following five steps as a guide.

Step 1: Identify hazards
It’s the responsibility of all employers to assess the health and safety risks faced by workers including physical, mental, chemical and biological dangers.

Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how
When assessing staff you must take into account the risks faced by full-time and part-time staff as well as agency workers and contractors. Employers must also review what staff members do in all the different locations they are employed to ensure they’re being looked after in the best possible way.

Step 3: Assess the risks and take action
Once you’ve identified risky behaviours, activities, procedures and equipment you should take steps to lower the risk levels. This might mean lowering the hours someone works to improve their mental health or simply providing additional personal protective equipment for those faced with hazardous tasks.

What’s more, the Health and Safety (Safety Sign and Signals) Regulations 1996 require signs to be used to convey relevant messages, so investing in the correct posters and signs could be all it takes to help protect those who work for you.

Step 4: Make a record of the findings
If you hire five or more staff, the law requires you to write down all main findings from the risk assessment, so don’t forget this important detail.

Step 5: Review the risk assessment
A risk assessment is designed to keep your workforce safe, so make sure you keep it under constant review to ensure agreed safe working practices continue. You should also take into account any new working practices, machinery, job roles, more demanding work targets and other elements of work that could impact health and safety.

Minimising risk is extremely important at work, so do all you can to keep you and your staff – as well as visitors and clients – as safe as possible.

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The Personal Touch: Why Direct Mail Marketing Still Rules in the Digital Age

When everyone has access to their email in the palm of their hand at all times, does sending out physical marketing materials in the form of brochures, letters, postcards and catalogs matter anymore? It tends to come as a surprise to many that direct mail, as this marketing approach is known, continues to thrive.

While many marketing gurus have predicted the fading away of direct mail, these materials bring clear advantages to the marketing efforts of businesses both large and small, ones that are simply not possible with email. One of the most noticeable benefits is that unlike email that often ends up in spam folders or that simply gets lost among hundreds of other marketing email, brochures and catalogs usually do make their way into the hands of most recipients, and they are not easy to get rid of. Marketing materials, once they arrive in a recipient’s home or office, float around for days, which means that unlike email, they stay active for an impressive length of time.

Direct mail can be effective in many other ways, as well. 

To begin, people aren’t tired of direct mail at this point 

Years ago, when people received bunches of direct mail, it was dismissed as junk. Today, with most companies having switched to email and other forms of digital marketing, most consumers and b2b customers have a problem with it.

It’s important for marketers to take note of the change. Most people don’t even look at the marketing emails that they get. On the other hand, studies by the US postal service show that three out of four consumers will look at physical mail at least once when they receive it whether the open the envelope or not. Many direct mail marketers in printing envelopes with the most important part of their message on the outside to make sure that they do get their message across.

Direct mail gets the undivided attention of consumers

When people look at their email, they usually have many other things going on — other tabs, Twitter and Facebook notifications, and so on, all on the same screen. With email, then, it can be hard to get a consumer’s undivided attention. It’s different with physical mail — presented on a medium that is clearly distinct from the electronic screens that display distractions, it tends to hold consumers attention better. To any marketer attempting to convert someone through the force of their persuasiveness or through the personal touch, it’s likely to go through much better with physical materials.

Email comes with a limited bag of tricks 

If you want to show your email recipients the results of a study, letters of appreciation by happy customers and so on, it can be difficult to do with anything other than attachments or links; unfortunately, these methods tend to make people suspicious. With direct mail, on the other hand, you can attach anything you want. Studies show that the fatter a packet, the more trustworthy it is seen to be.

There’s far more versatility with direct mail 

With email, no matter how much effort you put into its design, all you get to attract the recipient was at first is a few words on the subject line. Not so with direct mail. From envelope color and shape to the blurb that you put on the envelope and the freebies that you get to stuff inside, there are so many choices they can help you stand out. You can even go with expensive scents and the use of high-quality paper. Direct mail is simply easier for dramatic effect.

Direct mail does get results 

According to research by the Direct Marketing Association, email tends to do with a response rate of barely 0.1%; in other words, for every 1,000 emails sent out, only one actually elicits some form of response. Direct mail on the other hand, gets a 3.4% response rate. It is 34 times as effective. It is clearly the superior medium.

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Improve Customer Service Almost Immediately With These 6 Tips

Customer service, like it or loathe it, is all the rage in business these days. Whether the hype can be blamed on every individual having access to countless eyes and ears via social media or on an actual decline in quality customer service, the businesses that are offering customers the best service are often growing leaps and bounds compared to their competitors. Whether you sell shoes or offer piano tuning, your customers expect a lot from you. Start exceeding expectations by improving your customer service almost immediately with the following six tips.

1. Get Interactive

How do your customers want to interact with you when they have a problem, a question, or a complaint? Depends on the customer, right? With a SaaS customer service solution like eGain, you won’t have to constantly monitor every channel your customers might be frequenting. Instead, you can simply inhabit their omnichannel world. Interact with your customers and potential customers everywhere and in every way they want to from email and social media to live chat and virtual assistant. There’s no need to hamstring yourself when it comes to the ways in which you can offer service. The easier you are to get a hold of, and the more readily you respond via the channels your customers prefer, the better you’ll be perceived when it comes to customer service.

2. Empower Employees

Far too often, the natural inclinations of employees to do what’s right when it comes to the customer are hampered by the rules and regulations of the company for which they work. Don’t keep your employees from solving your customers’ problems. Instead, empower them to grant customers the good service you say you want to provide. When it comes to fixes that are clear, related to errors on your part, or not too expensive, don’t require a manager to sign off. Let your customer service rep OK the change and you’ll have happier customers — and employees — almost immediately.

3. Always Be Available

Even banks don’t keep banker’s hours anymore — at least not on the World Wide Web. The days of addressing customer concerns during “business hours” have long passed. With the advent of the Internet and its global reach, customer service has become something that must occur at all times, or a business won’t be able to remain competitive. Whether you outsource it or staff it, you need to make sure that, when it comes to customer questions, complaints, or concerns, your door is never closed.

4. Use Names

In many ways, this next piece of advice should be followed in nearly every interaction one has with another human being. Use the person’s name. Regardless of whether you were contacted via email, phone, Twitter, or chat, address your customer by name (or handle), and instruct your employees to use their names as well.

What follows will be a personal exchange between people, rather than a customer service exchange between a company and a customer. Are you still a company and customer? Of course. It’s just that people enjoy being treated like the individuals they are. It’s a simple move and takes little effort, but using your customers’ names will pay big dividends in the customer service department.

5. Be Nice

While it should no longer need any mention on a list like this one, the reality of poor customer service dictates that “niceness” be given ample attention. Far too often, companies view customer needs as silly, secondary, or lacking in merit. When customers are seen in this light, they’re subject to poor treatment. Avoid this trap by always, in every circumstance, regardless of the complaint or the way in which it is made, treating your customers with kindness and respect. If your organization’s default is to be nice, even if a customer doesn’t get a demand met, he’ll at least know he was treated like an individual with value.

6. Get Feedback

Whether you routinely win accolades from customers or you’re routinely maligned, ask for feedback regarding your customer service. Customer insight is valuable — even when what they have to say stings. Allow for more than just a standardized, multiple-choice response, and when a theme emerges — or a really good idea — act on it. Nobody knows more about what the customer wants than the customer. As much as you can, give it to them.

Improving customer service can feel akin to hunting Bigfoot, but it doesn’t have to. Follow these six tips, and your organization will improve customer service almost immediately.

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Integrate Reviews to Your Website to Increase your Conversion Rate

Branding and brand image is important but the ultimate goal of any ecommerce website is to gain more targeted organic traffic that they can convert in to paying customers. No matter what your website is, this is what you are looking for at the end of the day.

But, getting conversions and sales using unhealthy tactics will not only help in the short coming but in the longer run it will also affect your brand image which definitely will hurt your overall sales and conversions.

In this post I am going to discuss few ethical ideas that you can use to improve the conversion rate of your ecommerce website at the same time it has several other websites.

  • This will minimize the pressure of customer service team on phone, emails and live chat. When potential customer will get positive reviews they tend to ask fewer questions and feel more comfortable converting.
  • Reviews not only increase conversion rate, they also help you with branding. Which simply means more reviews means better brand image.

1. Getting Feedback

When user land on your website for the first time, he moves around just to establish the fact that you are credible and trust-able business within the niche. There are tons of ways you can do that and one of the important ways is by integrating reviews section on the product pages.

Remember, if you are a credible business you will end up getting more conversions from your website and this is because more than 70% of the customers trust customer reviews. When you show them that there are other people who have already tried the product and are happy about it, chances are they will end up converting in to paying customers.

When a customer leaves a review on the website, they are actually influencing other potential customers buying decision! If the reviews will be good, chances are your conversion rate will improve to a greater extent.

Problem: Most customers usually do not leave review (neither positive nor negative) once they purchase the product from the website.

Solution: This is common but if you send an email asking for feedback of their purchases, you might start getting product based reviews. You can also gamify it by offering some special discount on their next purchase if they leave a review on the product they bought.

2. Facing negative reviews

This is one of the fundamental reasons why most ecommerce website does not integrate customer reviews at the first place. But again, if you integrate it, it will only help you increase your conversion rate.

The next step after integrating the reviews section on the website is to face the bad reviews. Not 100% customers can be happy with you but if you listen to your bad reviews and take appropriate actions accordingly, this will not only increase your conversion rate but will also help you emerge as a human friendly brand.

Reviews will also allow you to alter your featured products as per the need of your audience. If the reviews are positive just move that product to featured product section and if the reviews are bad just remove it from the featured product section and fox the problem accordingly.

Problem: People prefer leaving bad reviews more than good reviews. If they are happy they don’t really leave reviews.

Solution: Again, building relationship with your customer base is the ultimate solution this problem. This can be done by frequently communicating with them. Take example of Verizon wireless here, they tend to communicate with their customers and help them solve their problems via twitter.

3. Reviews and SEO

Customer reviews on product pages not only help you increase your brand value and allow potential customers to convert, they also have a power to push up your rankings in search engine from the relevant keyphrases.

Search Engine love new content, the problem with most product pages is that they are static and do not update on regular bases. By integrating reviews on the product pages, you will see more dynamic content that Google will love and as a result Google give you better visibility in search engines from the targeted key phrases as compare to your competitors.

If your bounce rate for the website will be balanced and below average, chances are you will be able to maintain those position and move forward. Sophie and Trey is a one brand where I worked and managed to reduce their bounce rate to around 25% as a result not only their conversion rate increased but it also help increase their rankings in search engines.

Problem: Even if people leave reviews on product pages, the rate of content updated is very slow.

Solution: We at Workplace Depot help customers about how to use website efficiently from time to time via our blog section. If you do that and include your blog section in your newsletters the rate of reviews will be increased to a good extent.

4. Reviews influences buying decision

I gave a hint about this in the first point. Selling online is tougher because when a purchaser rush in to the store they have more chances and more time to do their research before they actually buy the product.

According to marketing land, 90% of the shoppers agree that their buying decision is influenced by online reviews. This makes pretty much clear that if you integrate online reviews on your website and manage it properly, chances are you will be able to increase your conversion rate just by doing nothing.

Problem: People prefer to leave their experience on other review website but not on the website by itself.

Solution: Having reviews (especially positive) reviews on 3rd party websites is very important and if your customers are doing this, it’s great! Just reach out to them and offer them some discount on their next purchase and politely ask if they can also write their experience on the exact product they bought.

Chances are they will be happy to do that as they are already happy from your customer service.

There are tons of more ideas but if you implement above 4 ideas you will see a good increase in your conversion rate and this will happen without hiring any growth hacker for your website.

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InterTradeIreland: 84% of Companies Across the Island are Stable or Growing

Cross-border economies are growing
The latest InterTradeIreland Business Monitor Report for Quarter three (July – September 2015) shows that the economy is continuing to grow. All sectors are performing well but the professional services sector is taking the lead with 50% of businesses expanding and 95% stable or expanding.

Divergence
The report also revealed that there is now a clear divergence emerging in sales performance and employment numbers between both jurisdictions, with Ireland faring better in both areas. This is not unexpected and reflects structural differences in the two economies that differentiate their ability to take advantage of economic tailwinds.

Although relatively close in the final months of 2012, there is now an 8% difference in businesses increasing sales in the last quarter (Ireland at 41% vs Northern Ireland at 33%) which is also reflected in the number of businesses expanding employment levels with 12% in Ireland and 8% in Northern Ireland.

Capacity in firms high
In total, growth is still being driven by less than half of all firms (42%) with many companies reporting considerable spare capacity and less than one in three (31%) reporting to be working at full capacity.

Evidence of economic improvements
The economic upturn is reflected in the key challenges which businesses now say they are facing. Normal business pressures are now at the fore of issues facing firms with cash flow at 11%, new competition, late payments and internal costs all at 9%. Concerns over energy costs have dropped from 15% this time last year to 6% and business costs in general have decreased though remain significant for the manufacturing sector.

Staff salaries increase
33% of companies report that they plan to increase staff salaries with Northern Ireland (35%) leading the way from Ireland (32%). Large industry is ahead of the pack with 51% of firms of more than 50 employees planning to increase wages and 38% of manufacturing companies following suit.

This bodes well for the introduction of the National Living Wage in April 2016. The majority of firms (80%), with the exception of the hospitality industry, are not expecting this to have any negative impact. The hospitality sector continues to feel the strain of energy prices and is concerned about the impact of the Living National Wage next year. However, cash flow issues will need to be addressed before salaries can be raised across the board.

InterTradeIreland’s Business Monitor
InterTradeIreland’s quarterly Business Monitor survey is the largest and most comprehensive business survey on the island and is based on the views of more than 750 business managers across Northern Ireland and Ireland.

It differs from other surveys in that it is seen to be the ‘voice of local businesses’ feeding directly from telephone interviews conducted with a robust sample of firms of all sizes across a range of sectors to track all-island economic indicators such as sales, employment, business outlook and other specific topical research areas on a quarter by quarter basis.

Further information
For more information on InterTradeIreland and their business support programmes, please visit www.intertradeireland.com . A copy of the 2015 Q3 InterTradeIreland Business Monitor Executive Summary can be viewed at: www.intertradeireland.com/researchandpublications/business_monitor/

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EXIM Summit, Ireland’s only export import conference

EXIM Summit, Ireland’s only Export Import Conference in 2015, will take place in Croke Park Conference Centre on November 18 next.

Thought leadership

The one-day conference will provide export-import practitioners with a forum for education, innovation and thought leadership, and a platform for continued growth. Which is why we are surprised Ron is moderating one of the sessions ;). Maybe because Ulster Bank is one of the gold sponsors. Maybe it is because the international trade section of Smallbusinesscan.

Network opportunity

It presents an opportunity for strategic networking among participants who are trading beyond Ireland, giving them the opportunity to meet and interact with fellow business leaders and support bodies engaged in international trade. Attendees can also to seek out services which will help them in their export-import journey.

Who should go

The EXIM Summit is targeted at:

  • Irish Exporters and Importers
  • Globally recognised Export-Import companies and brands
  • Support Organisations
  • Government/ Support Bodies
  • Entrepreneurs and Investors
  • Industry Associations Representatives
  • Marketing professionals

Expert speakers

Expert speakers at EXIM Summit include: Stephen Brewer, Consultant and former CEO of Digcell, Joanna Murphy, CEO Connect Ireland, Jim Power, economist; Jim Fitzsimons, President of IMCA, Dr. Stephen Brennan, Chief Digital Advisor to the Irish Government and Kingsley Aikins of Diaspora Matters. EXIM Summit will be officially opened by An Tanaiste Joan Burton. To see the full list of speakers and event agenda, please see http://eximsummit.com/agenda/

Tickets

Tickets for this unmissable event can be purchased for €99 (€100 discount) at www.eximsummit.com

 

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