Employees Can Now Accrue Annual Leave Whilst on Sick Leave

Minister for Business and Employment, Ged Nash, has announced that employees will be entitled to accrue annual leave while on sick leave from 01 August 2015. This is a very important update for employers and we would strongly recommend that employers review this article to ensure that they are fully aware of this key development.

What Was the Previous Rule?

Annual leave in Ireland is governed by the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, and some subsequent regulations. The 1997 Act is very explicit as to when an employee will accrue and what counts as ‘working time’ for this purpose. As a result, it had been the case in Ireland that an employee on sick leave will not accrue annual leave during a period of sickness absence.

So Why Has this Changed?

In the European cases of Stringer and Others v H.M. Revenue & Customs [C-520/06] and Schultz-Hoff [C-350/06] it was determined that an employee should continue to accrue annual leave whilst on sick leave. It was further determined that if an employee is on sick leave for the whole or part of a leave year that any leave they accrued does not disappear when the leave year has ended, and that, as such, the employee must be allowed to carry forward their annual leave.
These key European decisions applied automatically since 2009 in the Irish public sector. This is because the Irish State is bound by such European decisions and as such anybody employed by the State benefitted from this decision for the last six years. However, the private sector was still governed solely by the 1997 Act which meant that a private sector employee would not benefit from these decisions until the legislation was amended. This amendment has now been made through the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

What Are the Changes?

The Workplace Relations Act 2015 has introduced the following changes:

  • Where an employee is absent from work then that absence will count as working time where it is covered by a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner.
  • Where an employee is unable to take all or part of their annual leave during a leave year due to a medically certified illness then the employee will still be permitted to take that annual leave for up to 15 months after the leave year has ended.
  • If an employee’s employment is terminated during the 15 month period mentioned above the employee will be entitled to payment in lieu of any such outstanding annual leave.

When Do These Changes Take Effect?

The above changes are in force from 1 August 2015. However, these changes are not retrospective. Therefore, if an employee has been on sick leave before 1 August 2015 then they will not accrue annual leave over that time. However, employees will accrue annual leave over any period of certified sickness from 1 August 2015 onwards.

Potential Grey Areas

There are a number of potential grey areas in the wording of the legislation which might result in some key decisions and cases at tribunal down the line.

For example:

  • The legislation specifies that an employee will only accrue annual leave on a day where the employee was on ‘certified’ sick leave. The difficulty here could be a tribunal’s interpretation of this when viewed in conjunction with any internal company policies. For example, a lot of employers have a policy that an employee is not required to give a medical certificate for the first 3 days’ of absence. If so, does this mean that a tribunal will allow an employee to accrue annual leave for those first three days, even though they were uncertified, on the basis that the employer has stated that they don’t require a medical certificate?
  • What will the entitlement be where an employee goes AWOL but retrospectively provides a medical certificate to cover their absence?
  • What happens where the employer receives two conflicting medical reports, one saying the employee is certified as unfit to work and another saying that the employee is fully fit to work?

The above questions will likely only be answered should such matters be challenged before a tribunal. As such, whilst we know broadly what an employee’s entitlements are from 01 August 2015, we are as yet unclear how some of these grey areas will be interpreted by a tribunal.

Conclusion

This is an extremely important update for employers to be mindful of. As employees will now accrue annual leave whilst on sick leave, and will be permitted to take it for up to 15 months after the leave year, it could have major financial implications for a lot of employers. In general, a lot more employees will be entitled to take a lot more annual leave going forward as employees will now be able to accrue annual leave during times they never did before. It is strongly suggested that each employer carry out an internal audit to identify, over previous leave years, how many additional days annual leave would have been accrued by employees and how much, therefore, this might cost going forward. This should allow employers to reasonably identify any budget implications in addition to allowing employers to manage and coordinate workloads accordingly.

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The Basics of Business Process Management

Companies in today’s world find themselves faced with familiar challenges from years ago, and new ones that are unique to this modern “connected” world. How a company chooses to handle routine, everyday situations is what defines its business processes.

Consider a business with a large numberof employees. Eachstaff member has a different pay grade, pay schedule, and method of reporting his time. But it’s up to the company to make sure there’s a way for each employee to report his time, and for everyone to get paid accurately and when scheduled.

The way this is handled is a business process. And like any other system of tasks, there may be snags along the way that make the process inefficient. With just one or two employees, the process may be as simple as handing a timesheet to the payroll secretary, who cuts a check from the company’s checkbook on the spot. But when a company has 500 workers, things can get more complicated.

For example, a company may have a process in place that allows employees to enter their timesheets online. A supervisor has to approve the hours before the timesheets are sent to the payroll secretary. But what happens when the supervisor is out sick for a week? Or when the payroll secretary’s computer crashes on payday?

Business process management is a system of tools that help companies make sure their business processes are efficient, accurate, and failsafe. Whenever people interact with computers, there are multiple ways the situation can go awry. The communication between the two needs to be smooth, and it is best when there are workarounds in place. Managing this communication effectively is imperative.

How does business process management (BPM) work?

  1. IDENTIFY THE PROCESSES: It begins with first identifying the procedures already in place at the company. When a timesheet is entered online, where is that information routed? Does it go straight to the supervisor for approval, or does it go to multiple people in case the supervisor is unavailable? Who has access to the timesheet information when the employee realizes he made an error?

This first step may seem easy at first, but processes are usually made up of more steps and forks in the road than is obvious. And businesses don’t have just one process to identify. There are procedures for hiring new employees, for training new and existing workers, or for handling fire and other emergency situations. How workers are supposed to conduct daily business, whether participating in outside sales or manufacturing medications, requires multiple processes as well.

  1. ANALYZE THE PROCESSES: After identifying current procedures, the next step involves examining how well each process works. In the case of timesheets and paychecks, how often are paychecks sent out on time? How often are errors in timesheet entry occurring? Are supervisors approving hours in a timely fashion? When someone in the chain is absent, does the process come to a complete stop?

Understanding how well each process advances or hinders operations means that a company is now able to consider making changes. And it means the business knows exactly what needs to be focused on. If the problem in paycheck distribution is that there are too many employees flooding the computer system at the same time, then it wouldn’t make sense to focus on the payroll secretary’s end of the procedure. Similarly, if paychecks go out late every time a supervisor is absent, that step should be reevaluated.

  1. FIND SOLUTIONS: Now that the company knows where to start, the next step is to come up with feasible methods to fix the issues. Does it make sense to hire another payroll secretary? Should there be a chain of command where, if one supervisor is absent the computer sends the information to the next person in line? If the computers are flooded with employees entering data at the same time, should the network be improved?

 

  1. TEST SOLUTIONS: The testing phase of BPM involves implementing solutions to existing processes, or initiating new processes all together. Once that’s done, the steps essentially start over. The new or improved process needs to be identified and analyzed. Are paychecks being sent out on time now? When a supervisor was absent, did the new process reroute the data to a new person the way the company envisioned?

Most processes take a period of time to evaluate, which should be taken into consideration for the testing phase. And if a solution doesn’t work out, the cycle repeats again.

Managing business processes can be a time-consuming undertaking, but without it, companies may find that their business suffers. Just like maintaining a car or a person’s health, regular checkups should be part of the running the business.

**

Emily Hunter has been writing about business topics for many years, and currently writes on behalf of the business process management specialists at TGO Consulting.  In her spare time, she cheers for Spirit of Atlanta, Carolina Crown and Phantom Regiment, creates her own sodas, and crushes tower defense games.Follow her on Twitter at @Emily2Zen

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Seven Accounting Formulas Every Business Owner Should Know

In today’s highly competitive business world, not all math wizards have what it takes run an enterprise, Likewise, not all business owners can be expected to be accounting experts. However, quite a few entrepreneurs believe that their business efforts will be more productive if they are in control of their company’s accounting.

Business owners who have taken accounting courses, or who have some level of bookkeeping experience, will generally feel comfortable running their own books as long as their enterprise does not grow too fast. There may come a time when managing a business while also keeping its books may be too much for one person to handle, but being able to look at financial statements from an accounting point of view is something that all business owners should be able to do.

The following seven equations and formulas are essential knowledge for all business owners, not only those who want to be their own accountants. Versions of these calculations are usually found in business plans as forecasts and projections; in their most basic forms, these formulas can show just how viable a business is at any given time.

Seven Accounting Formulas

1 – Net Income

How much money does a company really make? A popular business adage is that it takes money to make money, which means that expenses must be subtracted from revenues for the purpose of calculating just how profitable a company is a at any given time. In other words, net income = revenue – expenses, and the result of this calculation must be positive in order to show profit.

2 – Cash Ratio

How much cash are is a business supposed to have in its register or operating account? This is a simple calculation: cash / liabilities = cash ratio. The cash part is easy to determine since it consists of the currency plus any investments that can be readily converted into cash. The liabilities are any debts currently in effect.

3 – Business Assets

Business ownership is typically expressed as a percentage of equity. When the general liability of a business is added to the equity that the owner holds, the result represents the assets of a business. Thus, equity held by owner + business liability = business assets. Please note that since liabilities are usually expressed as negatives, and thus this equation is actually a subtraction most of the time.

4 – Breakeven Point

How much does a business need to sell or produce in order to cover the costs of running the company? Basically, fixed costs / variable cost per unit = breakeven point. Fixed costs may range from employee salaries to lease payments, tolls, monthly loan obligations, etc. This is an equation that can be easily calculated with a Business Process Management Software (BPMS) solution, which is strongly recommended for company owners who wish to manage their businesses efficiently.

5 – Profit Margin

Calculating net income is only the beginning when trying to determine the viability of a business. The profit margin is a much better indicator of the health of an enterprise. Essentially, net income / sales = profit margin, but here’s a better example: Let’s say a restaurant holding company owns three pizzerias that together produced $1 million in sales and $100,000 in net income; this implies a 10 percent profit margin, which is low for the specific industry.

6 – Cost of Goods Sold

This formula does not apply too much to business owners that provide services; it is mostly for manufacturers, distributors and some retailers. Cost of materials – cost of outputs = cost of goods sold, which can illustrate if the materials acquired and the manufacturing or distribution efforts are in line with the revenue earned.

7 – Debt-to-Equity

This is a calculation that is used when commercial loans are sought by a business owner. Total liabilities / total equity = debt-to-equity. To obtain the ratio as a percentage, multiply by 100.

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thinkbusiness

Five Online Training Essentials

There’s a lot of buzz about online learning. From academic institutions embracing ‘blended learning’ to people sharing their knowledge via internet forums, online education is taking an increasingly central role in the way we train and educate people

As a small business person, it’s vital that you regularly upgrade your skills and those of your employees. Staying ahead of the competition is crucial for any business, but especially for the cash conscious small business, where tight margins make every penny count.

So, how do you determine the right online training program to maximize ROI and achieve long-term benefits for you and your employees?

Flexible

Online training should be flexible. You and your staff have busy schedules; your training should work with existing priorities, not dictate them.

The need for flexibility is why, without question, one of online training’s most valuable aspects is that it’s just that, online. You can do it from home or your office or wherever else your mobile signal carries.

While the flexibility is vital, you will need to find the program that’s right for you and your team. Some people need the occasional hard deadline to stay on track, while others are better with an open-ended approach.

One way to provide structure and incentives for learners while maintaining flexibility is using badges or other signals of achievement and completion. Many institutions have begun using this method, with the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) of the Republic of Ireland providing a good example of the badge system in action.

Engaging

Online learning MUST engage the students. For that matter, of course, so must in-class education. Anyone who has ever taught a class at Uni or run a corporate seminar will know how difficult maintaining engagement can be.

Online training has especial difficulty with this element, however. Many students can have difficulty staying focused and engaged with online training over the long-term. It is essential that the course you choose offers innovative means of keeping your students interested and engaged.

Engaging online learning can employ a variety of technologies to keep students invested in the program, including chat forums, Skype sessions, discussion threads, shared screens, and shared files with multiple users.

Gamification is another exciting development in learning that is especially useful in the digital environment. E=mz2’s game-based sales training, for example, offers interactive scenarios where students can apply the skills they’ve learned in class to real world scenarios.

However they do it, an online training system must keep the attention of its students if it is to achieve long-term educational gains.

Peer-Based/Community

Real world connections and training based in a community are another essential for online training success. A healthy, active community can be a huge advantage for students.

There seems to be a boundless source of help and assistance available via the internet. For all the trolls out there, and all their nastiness, it’s truly amazing how many people are willing to help total strangers out online. Chat programs, forums, wikis, and user-generated FAQs all serve to pool knowledge and create communities around subject matter.

There are many peer-managed/reviewed training programs available that provide collaborative and interactive online training. Open-sourced training programs like Codecademy, for example, leverage online communities to supplement their training software, using P2P engagement to enhance the user experience.

Standards

One of the biggest questions is whether your training program is really worthwhile? Who sets the standards for online training programs? While colleges and universities differ in their standards and curriculum, there are plenty of reviews and standards out there to ensure you have a good idea about the quality of education you’ll receive.

Online training programs sometimes, however, do not have the same sort of official accreditation as established physical institutions. It’s important that you search out a program’s accreditations, reviews, past graduates, and other information to ensure you have found a credible institution.

Fortunately, progress on standardization is being made. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) standardizes the functionality of online training, helping to ensure that most online training programs are interoperable.

Cost

The cost of online training varies widely. From professional designations and university courses, to industry specific training courses and online forums, you can find training at any budget.

In the case of higher education institutions, you likely won’t save much money directly. Despite the fact that online education doesn’t put the same requirements on a physical campus, course providers from colleges and universities often offer a similar rate for courses as equivalent courses at a physical campus. That said, students can save in terms of travel time and expenses. Without any need to commute, buy lunch, or move their residence, students save money and reduce the impact of their schooling on their day-to-day life.

Academic institutions are only one option. There are hundreds of courses offered through companies helping you develop anything from industry specific skills to improving organizational structures to personal development.

There are also a ton the free courses. There are a proliferation of courses offered by companies, individuals or groups who simply want to share their knowledge. These represent sharing knowledge in the best traditions of the web.

When choosing the right course for your company, the essential question is not of money, it’s of value. Will the investment in money, and in time, achieve ROI for your business?

Conclusion

Online training is a revolution in learning. It brings the potential to learn about anything to anyone, anywhere. With constant innovations in the approaches to learning and idea creation, online training will continue playing an important role in the modern learning experience.

When choosing the course that’s right for your business, take the time to review it by the factors above. It may be cheap, but is it engaging or accredited? Is it flexible, with a great community, but no standards?

Before committing your valuable time and energy, be sure to review the program to make sure it’s right for you and your budget.

 

 

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14 Powerhouse Tips to Build Trust on Your Landing Page

Building a lead capture landing page is not just a matter of inserting a form on a page and driving traffic to it. You can always use this strategy, but do not put your hopes so high because it wouldn’t perform well. The foundation of your landing page should be built on trust.

Try these 14 powerhouse tips and create a high-performance landing page fully optimized specifically for gathering leads.

1. Know your target market and set your marketing goals

You need to know who you are marketing to, otherwise, every strategy you will execute will be in vain. Build a database of all your existing customers, leads in your email, and prospects. Then, start to expose fresh content or product demos that may turn them from fence sitters into real and active customers. Nurture them with more content, events, and special offers that would spun their interest.

2. Write an enticing intro paragraph

Make it clear what people should understand about your service by writing a short yet persuasive introduction paragraph. This should serve as an extension of your headline and an appetizer to your bulleted content. Make each word as descriptive as possible to ensure an enticing atmosphere.

3. Address key benefits and advantages through bullet points

Given how little time visitors spend on most web pages, you only have a few seconds to garner their interest. After grabbing their attention via your headline, you need to dig into some simple benefit statements. Instead of rambling on in long paragraphs, state the benefits of signing up to your website in bullet points.

4. Be consistent in your brand and message

Your banner, landing page, and destination should belong in the same family or you will lose the opportunity to make your business grow. Ensure that your visual design complements your banner and landing page. Don’t play with the color palette and typography just because you feel like it. Show professionalism in your website layout by practicing consistency and coherence.

5. Offer something free in advance

Give something away for free in advance before asking for personal details in exchange. It could be a small portion of the materials you are providing, a newsletter, or a catalog. If what you are giving away is valuable and worth the trouble, this will greatly augment conversion rate.

6. Avoid gimmicky sales tactics

The web is already filled with irrelevant sales tactics. No matter how much you feel the desperate you are for clients and you feel like this is the perfect time to use the “Buy now to avail the best deal ever,” do not do it. Remember that authenticity rules. People are on the lookout for something trustworthy in the web and they are starting to learn when web pages are telling the truth or not.

7. Refrain from using pop ups or pop-unders

Pop ups are the easiest way to shame. Unless you want your customer base to leave you for a company with more integrity, do not give in to this cheap tactic. Pop ups and the like only promise slight and short term improvement in conversion.

8. Present verifiable facts

Bold claims about your product or service may extract anxiety on the part of your visitor. If what you are promising isn’t 100% true,don’t publish it on your web because you will eventually be caught.

9. Never underestimate the power of testimonials

Testimonials from real people are credible. Interview your previous clients. Never place overwhelming and exaggerated statements by personas grabbed from stock photo sites.Might as well, ask one of your loyal clients to share their personal experience on your web page. This will make people trust you and believe that you have affected someone else life.

10. Attach all relevant certification logos

This is an effective strategy to garner trust. If you have an association or affiliation with trusted companies, wear their logos proudly on your sleeve. Use relevant and well-known brands that have the same visions and missions as you.

11. Shout professionalism all throughout your landing page

The World Wide Web works like this: the more expensive and corporate you look, the more people will be likely to believe your cause. You still need interesting content, but a killer layout with picture perfect design.

12. Use endorsements to build reputation

If you are affiliated with famous people such as celebrities or known experts, make them endorse your product or service. Their endorsements will help your company build credibility. People are willing to spend a grand because the celebrities promoting it are placing their credibility on the line.

13. Stop extracting information you don’t really need

If certain information is not critical to product or service being requested on your landing page, then don’t risk scaring people away by getting irrelevant information. These data will not be of any good use to you anyway.

14. Show your contact details

Make sure that your visitors know that they have someone to contact for queries. Post your contact information, including your phone number, mobile number, and email address. It also shows that you are legitimate and there are real people behind the website.

Apply these tips and you are on to a successful marketing campaign.

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Making Money is Killing Your Business

I am a huge fan of the German approach to business. The mittlestand, family businesses that are homegrown, anchored in the locality, with a long term multi generational perspective, focused on creating wealth. Particularly “Hidden champions” opened my eyes.

So I was very taken with “Making money is killing your business”.

Time to grow up

It is time for a lot of business owners to grow up. It is time for businesses to grow up. Chuck Blakeman has an interesting perspective on start ups and small business. Too many do not grow up and you have created your own job, not your own business.

The tyranny of the urgent

He refers to it as the tyranny of the urgent versus the priority of the important.

Urgent is reactive, short term and defensive and is the treadmill of making money. Important is proactive and long term. It is about making money versus building a business.

Wealth

It comes down to the definition of wealth, which is the ability to choose what do with your time and your money. Can you?

  • Are you the main producer/deliverer by choice or necessity?
  • Does the business make money when you are somewhere else?
  • Are you making decision based on where you are, or where you want to be?

Chuck blames the focus on exit and selling your business. In his view that is similar to selling your children. Why would you invest all that love, time and passion to sell it off, instead of creating an ongoing stream of long term wealth?

Time and money are at a premium

Gallup research tells that the average business owners work 52 hours a week (hose are the lazy or lucky ones). They work 6 days a week, some have zero vacation and when they do over 50% still answer work related e-mails and calls. Only 3% of business owners create 86% of the revenue in the USA. So time and money are at a premium. How can you earn more money in less time?

Are you on the treadmill?

According to Blakeman there are seven stages of business

Stage 1 Concept and start up
the trick here is to move as quick as possible from dreaming to doing. Dreaming includes thinking, researching and planning. The number one indication of success is the speed of execution.

Stage 2 Survival
you have burned a lot of fuel, time is grinding, sales are difficult and you are focused on making money. You are now on treadmill of urgent.

Stage 3 Subsistence
you can pay your bills and are making money. There is little time to relax and your focus is on keeping it going. If you don’t watch it you are back in stage 2.

Stage 4 Stability
you are making a net profit and you have freedom money to spend. You can choose what you can do with your money. Time is still a big issue. You have created yourself a well paid job. You are an employee of yourself. An hostage to your own business.

Stage 1 to 4 are treadmills. You focused on the wrong question, which is “How do I make money”. Making money is NOT an empowering vision.

You need to get off the business treadmill!

The basics of a mature business are that you are not the main producer and it makes money when you are not there. Which moves us to stage 5 to 7.

Stage 5 Success
you have shifted your mindset to building a business versus building a job. You are moving from production to process. This is where Chuck introduces “freedom mapping”, which is a version of process mapping that brings clarity to what people are supposed to do and how it fits into the overall customer delivery process. It makes things consistent, repeatable and replicable.

Stage 6 Significance
you role has shifted to becoming a leader and you are less and less involved in direct delivery and production. You business is starting to make an impact. You are free. However, leadership is in place, leadership is not in charge. It is vision and guidance, which means you still need to keep an eye on the business and guide management.

Which brings you to the last stage. Stage 7 Succession. This is where leadership is in charge and you have ingrained a culture that embraces you vision. Only vision. You are truly free.

The key question

What is stopping you to get to stage 7? Chuck thinks it is only one reason. You are not asking the right question. How do you build a mature business and when do I want to get there?

What do you need to do?

It is very simple. Intentionality. Make the decision, put a date on it and go public. Going public changes everything (the Hawthorne effect (also referred to as the observer effect) is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed).

As a business owner you owe to yourself to try. Why would you not? How could you not? Particularly if you know that retirement as we know it now is bankrupt. Create your own retirement on your own terms.

Pick a date. You now have a clock ticking in your head. Define what does your business look like at maturity. Consider your lifetime goals (why, why, why, what is the transformative purpose). Consider the time and money required to create your ideal lifestyle.

More money, less time

Now back to basics I. More money in less time. How to increase revenue and continually reduce time to bring in that revenue.

The freedom questions

Is this (whatever you are doing right now), the best use of your time? If this is not the highest and best use of your time, how do you ensure you do it for the last time? Those two questions need to be asked constantly in all parts of the business. Parts such as leadership, business development, operation and delivery, financial management, customer and employee satisfaction and to community and family impact.

Systems and processes are the key. What is your yield per hour now? What should it be? Do the activities you are involved with now, warrant the yield per hour you want?

Back to basics II

  1. Back to the big why. Why are doing this? Why do you matter? Why does your business matter? Why is it significant? What do you want to be remembered by? Purpose and passion. Using time, money and energy to create significance. Every book on strategy we covered on Bookbuzz always boils down to that question. See http://www.bookbuzz.biz/the-strategist/ for example.
  1. You then need a strategic plan. You don’t need a business plan. Chuck is not a fan of business plans. Planning does not create, movement does. And the size of commitment to the intent. Straight from Do! by Kevin Kelly . Develop a two page strategic plan with key milestones and with an action plan attached. You review that strategic plan every day. You need to be able to recite that plan verbatim any time, any place within a maximum of 3 minutes. In the meantime the business maturity date is ticking in the background……
  1. You need then set of outside eyes. A group of mentors. An advisory board. Make sure you are not alone.

In the book Chuck Blakeman gives a wide range of toolsets to figure out your lifetime goals, strategic plan, your leadership profile, etc. But the most important tool is the freedom mapping. Your franchise handbook. Your process descriptions. If you do one thing, do that. Map your overall business process and then break it down.

Stop playing office

Build a business engine. Create wealth, not money. Become a master of your own destiny. Become intentional, set the date, tell the world and move.

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Small Business Secrets: Technologies To Invest In

Almost every business today, whether large or small can see the amazing effects the right technology has on total revenue. Many of today’s customers relate well to technology whether utilized for marketing and advertising, bill paying, or communicating. Although it may seem expensive to invest in at times, the initial cost of better technology will reap dividends in the future. These four options are among the best types of technology for small businesses to invest in now.

Small Business Secrets

Accounting Software

Although most large businesses have their own accounting staff or hire out for their accounting needs, small businesses don’t have the capital to invest in such large services. In addition, many small business owners, while having what it takes to run their businesses, may not have the financial knowledge it takes to keep detailed books, do end of year taxes, or payroll. Accounting software doesn’t require a large financial investment, but instead decreases the amount of time spent doing the books each week.

Cloud Storage

Speaking of online programs, a smart choice small businesses can make is to store company information in a digital cloud. While many companies have recognized the importance of changing their filing systems from paper to digital, this process can become even safer by using an online cloud. The cloud safely stores any information in a variety of off-site servers, ensuring that if anything happens to the business’s on-site computer systems the information remains safe on the cloud.

Company Website

A company website is vital in today’s marketplace, since most customers will turn to online browsing to find products or services. A website is often the first introduction consumers have to a business. Small businesses should either invest in a premium website building service, or hire an IT services company to build a unique website that includes search engine optimization. The best websites catch the eye, show up in the top search engine results, and include a blog and social media links. SEO services will help you connect with more business for an investment that’s well worth the cost.

Online Security

As with any part of your company, data and information need to be kept stored and secure. Your website and online programs that will launch you into the modern world will need to be refined with better security. A good option is to outsource here as well to IT services like the Bedrock managed services in Ottawa who work with local businesses to protect websites and programs against outside attacks. You should also consider getting new anti-spam and malware services.

Each of these technologies will take a substantial amount of money and time for any business to set up initially, and learn how to use. But because these services will save employee time and be cost-effective overall, they are each well worth the investment. As information technology and online services boom, businesses of all sizes must keep up in order to retain current clients and gain new customers.

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7 UX Tools That Simplify Web Designers’ Task

We come across various websites on the internet; some of them simply have a breathtaking view whereas some are a sheer delight to interact with. But less do we know about the efforts that go behind making those websites the way they look. Web designers toil everyday in adding a wonderful dimension to site’s user experience. But a few hit the nail on the head. Websites today are not static pages anymore that people read and move ahead. They have become playgrounds for interacting, learning and communicating. You see customers are no more pleased with a site’s look but the entire experience.

When it comes to designing websites visual quality is dominated by functionality and interface elements that constitute overall user experience. Therefore web designing is subject to guidelines falling within the realm of user experience. Here are some tools that will curtail your stress and enable creation of websites users love exploring.

UX tools can be broadly categorized in two divisions: a. Wireframing Tools and b. Research & Testing Tools

a. Wireframing Tools

In software development lifecycle system’s look and architecture is contrived in the Design phase. These tools create blueprints for screens that enable developers to emulate the form and function in the live model. It can also be called idea testing from the designing point of view as it mainly focuses on functionality. You can create a mockup from your specifications to examine its working and to visualize ideas narrated by the client. A bunch of such prototyping tools are available in the market. Let’s take a closer look at some of the chosen ones here:

1. Axure RP Pro: One of the most widely used wireframing tools it produces dynamic prototypes as well as UI specification documents. Rich UI elements called widgets help you build interactive prototypes. It provides a huge widget library for a wide number of industry websites as well as apps. A rich collection of placeholders, shapes, gradients, icons, etc. makes it a workhorse producing almost real working models. Its HTML mockup makes it convenient for people to view the wireframe without installing an RP player, on desktop as well as mobile. The inbuilt SVN client feature allows users to share their work. Its intuitive interface can emulate even very complex websites. The inline notes allow UX designers to state business rules for clients and developers (this feature can be turned off when not required). It supports Mac and Windows Operating Systems.

Axure RP Pro2. Balsamiq: It’s a quick tool for creating static mockups. If you want speedy replication of multiple wireframes then this is the tool you were looking for. However it does have certain limitations. If you want to integrate interactive elements into this wireframe, then it fails to overwhelm you, as this is ideally suited for only sketching a system’s UI and not mocking it.

Balsamiq

3. Invision: It’s not just a prototyping tool but it works as a good collaborative tool as well. It collaborates with Photoshop, illustrator and Fireworks. By uploading images and hotspots it gives an impression of an app. It is a versatile tool that creates interesting prototypes.

b. Research & Testing Tools

Information drives decisions. Our UI design is majorly derived from disseminated cognitive theories, which should be ideally based on user reviews gathered through surveys and research tools. Around 1000 papers get published every year regarding web design and usability. Still websites fail at providing the expected user experience and suffer sporadic traffic outpour.

A few accepted guidelines spur the design layout; however there are tools available to understand customer’s interaction manners and general site expectations. There are tools that perform quantitative research and those that perform qualitative research.

1. Usability Tools: It’s a comprehensive package of 9 tools to predict user demeanor. These tools are classified into 2 suites: First is the UX Suite that contains elementary methods of comprehending and connecting with users through surveys and scenario-based testing. Second is the Conversion Suite that gets you a more detailed overview of user input and analysis, especially the form-tester tool. So now instead of correlating the output from different tools, you have one tool performing most jobs. And the best part is, it does not restrict you to test a specific number of websites; instead it charges based on the data gathered from your research.

Usability Tools
2. Userzoom: This is a research and analytics tool that provides insight into customer behavior with respect to your website. You get to see your site from an end user perspective. What you get at the end is tangible reports and no guesswork. Conducting in-lab tests is not always feasible, therefore tools that provide a framework to interpret user movements throughout a website and generate analysis reports based on it simplify designers job.

3. ClickTale: This tool set visualizes customer behavior and analyses friction points in a website. Its deliverables like mouse move heatmaps, click heatmaps, scroll heatmaps, link analytics, comparisons and visitor playbacks give an astute vision of site’s usability.

ClickTale

4. Formisimo: This tool mainly revolves around web forms and checkout process. Since these checkout forms are the last step to conversion, it’s crucial to know how users relate with them. Sometimes websites experience high traffic inflow but the conversion ratio falls much below the expected figures due to complex checkout procedures. Therefore it’s important to study your checkout forms usability and this tool does just that.

What led to the discovery and acceptability of these tools in the digital industry was the need to provide web designers with actionable data for designing user centric websites, which successfully attract and sustain traffic. Select the tools that best serve your purpose and fall within your budget frame.

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You Need More Than Responsive Web Design to Improve Sales

The whole world is going gaga about responsive web design. And after Google’s new mobile friendly update, no one is even ready to take the risk of being left out. In fact, having the “mobile friendly” label matters a lot, statistically speaking. According to a recent comScore study, around 20 percent of all search activities originate from smartphones while another 9 percent comes from tablet devices. It also indicates that a large number of people are using mobile devices (46 percent using smartphone and 48 percent using tablets) for watching online videos.

Moreover, being mobile friendly is an absolute necessity if you are targeting teens. A report from Nielsen indicates that 80 percent of teens in the U.S. own smartphones and over 90 percent of them are using these devices to search the web online. Another study conducted by L2 further shows that 69 percent of global consumers aged between 18 and 39 with incomes ranging from $75,000 to $99,000 are using smartphones to research products online, whereas 44 percent are using tablets for the same purpose.

By now you are already convinced that all you need is a responsive web design to make your online business the next big hit. Wait, we are not yet finished. If you are happy and super excited after resizing the browser, we are probably going to vandalize your glee. Having responsive web design alone is not enough to improve your sales.

Why Responsive is Not Enough

Focus on responsive web design as your only solution for mobile and you will end up losing your users and money too. The goal is to apply responsive design intelligently as performance is the ultimate truth for mobile, as for web. To do it right, you need to first understand the problem.

Since the beginning of mobile, designers and developers are oversimplifying the issue. Responsive web design has become a cookie-cutter solution to all of our problems. As a result, we often overlook the real purpose of mobile web experience – speed. People browse mobile on the go and they need what they are looking for real fast. You need to therefore provide a lightning fast mobile web experience to your users. And here lies the real challenge.

Delivering a usable, fast and compatible mobile web experience across all devices is easier said than done. It remains same when implementing a responsive technique. A better and more feasible approach is to embrace performance, right from the beginning.
That being said, we are not criticizing responsive web design. It is in fact a great thing, but responsive web design isn’t a silver bullet. It cannot be your only weapon for a winning mobile strategy. Otherwise, performance issues are likely to impede your conversion rate.

According to a research by Akamai’s Guy Podjarny, only “18.7 percent of a list of 10,000 top-tier web sites is responsive.” The number decreases in accordance to the site’s traffic. In fact, the percentage comes down to 11.8 percent when analyzed the top 100 sites. The research also indicates that 72 percent of these responsive websites are delivering equal number of bytes, irrespective of screen size and mobile network connections.

But you should not forget that Internet users are known for their lack of patience and the problem is even more acute in mobile users. They won’t be waiting for your website to load, at least not all of them. The good news is that you can make things right and minimize the loss, now that you have a basic understanding of the issue.

Responsive + Speed = A Winning Mobile Strategy

There is no denying that responsive is a smart approach than an m.* subdomain but you also need to understand that responsive web design is not a replacement for mobile web sites. What we mean is that there is no hard and fast rule that you need a single URL to deliver the same content across various devices or that all devices need to download the same resources.

While responsive design has tons of benefits, it is certainly not meant to solve performance issues. There are other techniques for that. You need to design responsively in order to cater to various viewport sizes across mobile and desktop. But when it comes to mobile devices, considering only screen size will lead you nowhere. Today we have different possibilities, depending on the device type, open to us especially as the line between desktop and mobile is becoming more and more blur. As a result, responsive web design too need a few tweak to sync with the modern vision.

Long story short, responsive design is not a cookie-cutter solution, neither is it a silver bullet to be applied to all kind of documents. Rather, you need robust mobile solutions that maximize performance.
Here are a few ways to do it:

  • A mobile-first approach is a better solution, especially if you are creating something from scratch.
  • Use same content and same URL to deliver your document across all devices but do not follow the same structure.
  • Resizing your desktop browser is just a thing of past. Instead, test your website on real devices and try loading resources to see how much time it takes. What is the user experience?
  • There are several optimization tools; leverage them to measure and improve your mobile performance.
  • Use JavaScript to deliver responsive images.
  • Consider the loading time; don’t make the website heavy with unnecessary JavaScript. A better approach is to load only what you need for a particular device with conditional loading.
  • Follow above-the-fold content delivery format or inline the initial view for mobile devices.

The key techniques you need to incorporate for a smart mobile strategy include applying responsiveness according to group, conditional loading, above-the-fold content in 1 second, and a server-side layer.

Conclusion

The real challenge with responsive web design is that each designer define “responsive” differently, leading to communication issues. To address to this issue we need to first understand the broader goals we need to achieve through mobile. Responsive design is not the goal, neither it means to be mobile-compatible. The goal is “user satisfaction” as it is your happy users who lead to more conversions, the ultimate goal of any business.

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Microfinance Ireland future plans

Michael Johnston, CEO of Microfinance Ireland talking about the future plans. Next stage is to grow to lending 8 million next year (it is now 6 million) and an expected growth of 25% each year for the coming years.

 

 

If you are interested in applying for a loan, please go to http://microfinanceireland.ie/how-to-apply/

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