Category Archives: Running A Business

What’s the best business insurance for you?

There are many different types of business insurance. What are the best options for you, your business and your staff?

Risk is an inevitable part of life. We can’t predict what’s going to happen with complete certainty but we do try to prepare for consequences. We routinely wear a coat, in anticipation of a sudden turn in the weather, while wearing our seatbelts when driving or as a passenger is standard practice.

Running a business is no different. We cannot be sure of everything that will happen, but we can take steps to offset some of the consequences of events outside our control, such as the damage caused by a flood or an injury at work sustained by an employee.

Whatever the cause, it is important to have an understanding of the different types of insurance that a business can take out to reduce the financial and business impact of something going wrong.

Your insurance company or broker will also give you advice on how to manage your business risks better, from suggestions on how to improve premises security to highlighting hidden risks for you to manage by improving your business processes.

Type of insurance

There are many different types of insurance available for businesses. The question is which ones are right for you.

It is useful to think of insurance covering three different types of eventuality:

  • Property insurance: This covers damage caused to buildings or equipment from hazards such as fire or flooding. You can also protect against the disruption that such an event could have on the business. Imagine if the premises had to shut down totally or if valuable equipment had to be replaced. Business interruption insurance would cover the cost of operating from a temporary location while your own building is under repair.
  • Liabilities: Your business faces a range of potential liabilities to members of the public, employees and customers. For example, a visitor to your premises falling over a cable, an employee being electrocuted by a faulty piece of equipment or a customer being seriously injured by a defective product. While insurance won’t protect against these events happening, liability insurance can meet the cost of compensation and the legal fees involved. Legal expenses insurance can pay for the legal costs involved in defending or pursuing a claim. If you are a professional, like an engineer or accountant, professional indemnity can cover the cost of compensation to your clients if they lose money as a result of the advice you gave them.
  • Financial risks: Your business also runs financial risks, and it is important to consider how to best protect against them. We have all read newspaper stories about trusted employees stealing large amounts of money from their employer or about small businesses that were forced to close when large customers went into liquidation unexpectedly. Fidelity insurance and credit insurance, respectively, can deal with these risks.

Compulsory insurance

In Ireland, the only legally required form of insurance that a business is obliged to take out is if your business uses a motor vehicle. In this case, like other road users, you are required to have third party motor insurance in place to cover someone getting injured, or if their property is damaged as a result of your (or an employee’s) use of a motor vehicle.

Additional cover often taken out by motorists includes third party fire and theft insurance, which covers third party motor liabilities, as well as loss or damage to your vehicle caused by fire or theft.

Comprehensive insurance, which covers third party fire and theft, as well as accidental damage to your vehicle, can also be taken out. Some comprehensive policies provide useful personal accident benefits, or cover against theft of personal belongings from the vehicle.

Make sure that if you are using a car or other vehicles in connection with your business, you have the right cover in place. Most insurers will offer policies specifically designed to meet the requirements of your type of business, be it a taxi, farm, distributor, building firm etc.

What to buy

As you can see, there are many different types of insurance. It can be difficult to work out exactly what to buy, given your business’s particular needs, not to mention your budget. Like any other purchase, it really pays to shop around and understand the different products offered by insurers, the risks covered by their policies, and the risks that are excluded.

It is important to to understand the fine print. Some policies will require you to bear more of any loss that occurs than a competing policy, so that may be one reason why the first policy looks so cheap.

Many insurance companies have put together special package policies, which contain the different types of insurance usually needed by a particular type of business. For example, insurance companies will offer a shopkeeper’s ‘combined’ policy, which covers the usual risks that retailers will wish to insure against.

Thankfully, plenty of advice is at hand to guide you through the insurance maze. This comes from the insurance companies themselves, many of whom will deal directly with businesses, by phone or via their website, or from insurance brokers, who are independent insurance professionals who advise their clients on the most suitable insurance cover for their needs.

You can check that the insurer or insurance broker that you are thinking of using is authorised, by checking the Central Bank of Ireland register.

 

4 Action Points

1

Work out what risks you most need to cover against.

2

Work out your sums insured accurately. Don’t waste money by over-insuring and remember that “cheapest” does not necessarily mean “best”. Be careful about what is covered and what is excluded.

3

Describe your business fully and accurately, including full details of any claims. You are obliged to answer any questions from an insurer honestly and to the best of your knowledge. If you don’t, your insurance company may refuse to pay a claim under the policy.

4

Take steps to fix any known risks e.g. defective safety guards, and to manage other risks e.g. additional security precautions for your premises. Consider how much of any claim you would be willing to bear, as a higher claims “excess” could help reduce your insurance premium.

 

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/best-business-insurance-ireland/ on
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The staff Christmas party – a survival guide

As an employer, you can be held liable for any injury or other health incident resulting from a work-related social event such as a Christmas party.

What is considered a work-related social event?

1: An event hosted on your premises.

2: An event sponsored or promoted by your business.

3: An event held during worktime, whether by your business or your employees.

4: An event organised elsewhere where an employee has been invited in their work capacity.

5: An event organised by you or your employees outside your premises.

Christmas parties

Gently remind everyone they are attending as employees

You should assess whether an event can be considered work-related and circulate details to all employees. Without being heavy-handed, you may also consider reminding everyone that they are attending such events as employees of your business. You should say that this comes under the code of conduct expected of employees and issue a reminder, if necessary, of what that means.

You should:

1: Circulate details of the venue in advance.

2: Consider whether it is best for staff that they arrive and leave an event together.

3: Organise transport to and from the venue.

4: Ensure the venue has public liability insurance if using an off-site premises.

5: Make yourself aware of local emergency numbers and distance to hospitals.

6: Check the exits and emergency routes on arrival.

7: Store all work equipment safely if using the business premises.

8: Check the hygiene standard of caterers if they bring food to the premises.

9: Drink moderately and monitor if anyone is drinking excessively.

10: Be aware if anyone is acting inappropriately.

11: Make sure staff aged under 18 are not served alcohol.

And finally, have a good time and avoid the bores and the moaners.

VIDEO: No probably about it, one of the best beers in the world is made in Wicklow.

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/christmas-party-survival-guide/ on
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Killowen Farm is dazzling the world

Killowen Farm’s yogurt is the only yogurt sold in the world’s most luxurious hotel, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. How did this small Irish firm achieve this?

A small Wexford firm, Killowen Farm, transformed its traditional farm assets and diversified into the yogurt market.

It now successfully sells its products around the world against lots of global brands with big marketing budgets. The company is doing this with authority and conviction in the premium segment in particular. Alan O’Neill joins them to discuss how a small firm can still dazzle the world’s best.

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/killowen-yogurt-alan-oneill/ on
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Small businesses must prepare for a ‘less cash’ society

SMEs need to be prepared for a society where consumers use much less cash.

While we may not be ‘hurtling towards a cashless society’, we are certainly moving quickly towards a society where less cash will be used.

Remember cheques, those sheets of paper that came in a little book that you had to write on and date and sign? Well, cash is going the way of the cheque.

There will be a lot less cash floating around in the next few years as more people adopt ‘tap & go’ and mobile payments.

Cash is not ‘free’

There are now many ways for customers to pay retailers and suppliers and it is vital, as a small business owner, that you are ready for the less cash world.

Many smaller retailers and business owners don’t want to pay the charges that are incurred to accept card payments – and they wrongly assume that cash is ‘free’.

For every small business the costs of accepting, processing and banking cash are high. Handling cash is not ‘free of charge’. The security costs associated with handling cash are also very real.

Card and mobile payment solutions are safe and cost effective.

debit card payments

Don’t lose your customers

However, for the small business owner, it’s the loss of customers that should concern them most.

The ‘customer is always right’ and small businesses need to give their customers flexible payment options.

The limit for ‘tap & go’ payments in Ireland now stands at €30. Two contactless, ‘tap & go’ transactions are made every second in Ireland and retailers are beginning to see strong results. Not to offer your customers non-cash payment options is simply bad for business.

According to the Central Bank of Ireland, in May 2016, total transactions on debit cards hit €4.2 billion, the highest recorded figure since December 2015. Just over €2.6 billion of this was at the point of sale (POS), while the remaining €1.6 billion was at ATMs.

Welcome to the less cash society. Be prepared.

READ MORE: Debit & credit card terminals for businesses of all sizes.

Did you know?

In 1661 Sweden became the first European nation to issue banknotes, but today cash is disappearing from the country.

It is forecast Sweden could become a cashless society by 2030.

Out of the 1,600 commercial bank branches in Sweden, over 900 no longer offer cash-handling services. Many banks have discarded cash services in their branches completely.

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/debit-credit-card-payments-small-business/ on
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A cash flow calculator

Calculate your monthly cash flow with this free, interactive cash flow planner from ThinkBusiness. (Download a visual chart using the three lines on the top right).

 

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This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/cash-flow-calculator/ on
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The perils and joys of a family business

 

Running a family business presents a unique set of challenges as blood is thicker than water. Clodagh O’Leary reports. 

In a family business, many of your ‘employees’ are literally part of the family. Spanning generations, overcoming conflict and dealing with succession are just some of the issues facing family business owners.

Tomas Conefrey took over Conefrey’s Pharmacy in 1998. His late father Caillin opened the doors on Dublin’s Pearse Street in 1955.

“You’re thrown in at the deep end is the best way to describe it because it’s a family business, there’s no formal initiation, you just show up one day and start from there,” said Tomas.

“I grew up working in the business as a young person. I was in college for a few years and worked in England. When I came back to Ireland, I more or less went straight into the business; it was a very steep learning curve. It took probably about three or four years to relax into it.”

Tomas Conefrey

When Tomas (left) took up the reins there were no direct family business supports available to him. 

“At the time there wasn’t anybody since then I’ve become aware of a lot more groups I could have approached, but at the time, it was literally a case of going in at the deep end, showing up one day and meeting the challenge head-on,” he says.

The level of support for family-owned businesses in Ireland improved dramatically in 2013 with the opening of DCU Centre for Family Business (DCU CFB), which aims to lead national and international research in the area.

In its relatively short history, it has gone from strength-to-strength receiving plaudits for its research work to date. 

It has widened its engagement with businesses considerably, says the director of the centre, Dr Eric Clinton, going from 250 businesses to a total of 1,500 to date.

The centre focuses on three ‘pillars’: research (looking at best practice in management and sustainability of Irish family business and looking at examples in Europe and the US); engagement (the centre holds up to eight events annually featuring academics and successful family business owners); and education.

Managing the family in a family business

“The most interesting thing is families learning from families, for example, a second generation learning from a fourth. There’s very much a learning communication that’s been established. There’s nothing like this in Ireland,” says Clinton. 

“There is support at SME level, but you’d almost be guaranteed to speak with family businesses in Ireland, they’d say ‘yes we are an SME’, but they’d also say they are a family business. So they want to know most about managing the family in a family business, for example, things like succession planning, in-law involvement, preparing the next generation, maintaining the size and the scale as the family gets bigger,” says Clinton, who is also a lecturer in entrepreneurship at DCU’s Business School. He says that 62% of his final year students come from family business backgrounds, which reflects the prevalence in Ireland today.

 
running a family business

It’s business, not personal 

One of the biggest challenges facing those in a family business is working with their parents or siblings.

Tomas, who works in the pharmacy with his mother Peggy and brother Caillin, said that it took some time to adjust to working with family, particularly in times of disagreement.

“It took me a long time to get my head around that, but now I hopefully have learned to deal with these situations. I suppose when I first came in, maybe it was immaturity; perhaps it was inexperience, but I didn’t know the best way to deal with those situations. It took me a while to realise it was just doing business; it wasn’t personal,” he says.

Now, he says he focuses on the business. “You have to get on and keep the show on the road.”

The raw topics  

Back in DCU, the centre aims to engage and educate with family businesses through their workshops, which are free to attend, and open to all business sizes. They tend to book up quickly.

On a recent roadshow tour of Irish cities, the centre took a unique approach to dealing with more sensitive issues encountered by families in business.

“We had actors to do role plays,” explained Dr Clinton, “we got five raw topics in family business, that nobody wanted to talk about, we had a fictitious company and got actors to role play the scenarios. Everyone in the room had, or has, or will have that experience; it was a safe means to have the conversation,” he says. 

 
running a family business

Another family member, in a way 

For all of the challenges faced by those running businesses with their families, there are some positives. 

Tomas is currently particularly busy, in the middle of a relaunch of the pharmacy and running the pharmacy’s active social media accounts.

“There’s great support there, especially when it’s hard going, it’s great to have people like that looking out for you. I suppose we have grown up with the business in a way; it’s another family member is probably the best way to describe it,” he says.

To sign up for the Centre for Family Business newsletter or to register for upcoming events, visit its site.

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/help-running-a-family-business/ on
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Inheriting a farm in Ireland – a quick guide

What should you consider when inheriting a farm? Lorna Sixsmith, author of ‘Would you marry a farmer?’, gives some sound advice.

 
lorna sixsmith

Congratulations, you’re inheriting the family farm. The farm isn’t just a financial asset. It will provide you with a business, a home, a wonderful lifestyle and a sense of history as you become the next generation to farm the land you love. The process isn’t always smooth but will be easier if you consider these issues first.

 Your age

While it’s never too late to run your own business, do recognise what is achievable within a given time scale. While farmers are viewed as being asset-rich, very few sell the land. They see themselves as being a custodian of the family farm with the responsibility of improving it before handing it on to the next generation – this takes time. If you can, allow at least three decades to plan, build, improve, pay off loans, and still have a chance to enjoy the fruits of your labours before handing it on. 

inheriting a farm in Ireland

Enjoyment

Farmers have to work hard for their income so choose a type of farming that suits your land and your lifestyle. You don’t have to do it the way it has always been done. One of the highlights of being self-employed is setting challenges, celebrating each one as it is achieved before moving on to the next. It’s often the journey that is as enjoyable as reaching the goal.  

DOWNLOAD: A free farm cash flow planner. 

Income and expenditure

The cost of transferring the farm will be significant. Be realistic about your future revenues and expenses. Having a forthright chat with a good accountant will help you make decisions about your future. Is there enough income for you to farm full-time? If you are working in a full-time job off-farm, how will you include farming into your day when you have young children? If your spouse is working full-time too, how will you share the housework and the childcare?

“If you are working in a full-time job off-farm, how will you include farming into your day when you have young children?”

Your parents’ retirement

It’s important to discuss your parents’ retirement plans with them. Will they continue to work on the farm? Their knowledge and assistance will be useful, but safety issues become more important as they get older. Will their pension provide for them or will you be assisting them financially? Paying for expenses such as their health insurance, household bills or fuel might be all right for a while. However, do recognise these bills will eat a bigger hole in your income when you have farm improvement loans, children, and a mortgage. Your spouse might just start to wonder if they are going to live forever. 

Living accommodation

If you’re not in a relationship, it probably makes sense to share the farmhouse with your parents. If you are, remember choices about living accommodation can affect your relationships.

If you move into the farmhouse and build your parents a bungalow, your mother may love her new kitchen, but she might continue to make comments on any changes to the farmhouse. It’s unlikely these will be appreciated by you or your partner.

“Farming practices often have to change to be profitable so seek the advice of agricultural advisors, your accountant and your bank manager when planning your future.”

If they stay in the farmhouse and your home is half a mile away, it can make it more difficult for your partner and children to get involved in the farm. The distance could reduce the time you spend with your kids.

If the farmhouse is large, does it seem to make more sense to extend and divide it? This would save money and provide the older couple with more security but means privacy could be in short supply. Life can be very rosy until you all get tetchy from living in each other’s pockets.

inheriting a farm in ireland

Farming with family without killing each other

When the Early Retirement Scheme was introduced in 2007, it was intended to encourage the transfer of farms from parents to adult children.  Perhaps it also recognised the attitude “you can do what you want as long as you don’t change anything” curtailed progress as one condition insisted the older farmer couldn’t work on the farm.  Your dad might still offer an opinion on everything from asking “what do you need that for?” to saying “that one paid a lot of bills” when you mention that you’re thinking of culling one of his favourite cows. Seek his knowledge and expertise but remember, you’re the one paying the bills so don’t be afraid to make firm decisions. Farming practices often have to change to be profitable so seek the advice of agricultural advisors, your accountant and your bank manager when planning your future.

It can be a beautiful life

Plan and enjoy. Even on the bad days (and there will be some), appreciate your environment. There aren’t many careers that provide your very own meandering lanes, grassy hills, shady glades, flowing streams, beautiful views, and hedges full of autumnal forage. 

Lorna Sixsmith is an author and is also married to a farmer. Her books include: ‘How to be the perfect farm wife’; ‘Would you marry a farmer?’; and ‘An ideal farm husband’. Follow Lorna on Twitter @IrishFarmerette. 

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/inheriting-a-farm-lorna-sixsmith/ on
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The mobile revolution in Irish farming

Ireland’s farmers are leading a mobile revolution. Gráinne Byrne takes a closer look at the apps that are changing the lives of Irish farmers for the better.

What are the best apps for Irish farmers, apps that save real time and money? 

First up is the giant in the Irish farming community, DoneDeal. Although the transparency of the traditional auctioneering process still appeals to many farmers, DoneDeal has confirmed that goods and services to the value of more than €28 million were sold through the farming section of its mobile app in 2015. Livestock alone amounted to €22 million of that figure. Economist David McWilliams describes this mass retail movement as a sort of ‘cyber-bazaar’, in which we have seen huge growth – an indicator of increased trust, by Irish farmers, in digital markets and mobile apps.

DoneDeal’s first farming report in 2013 revealed that out of the 9,000 farm ads published on the platform every month, 20% were placed from iPhones, and 33% were sent from Android smartphones, which is proof that the farming community is increasingly mobile and digital savvy.  

“I think we’re on the crest of an agri-tech wave, and from a sustainability perspective, if we don’t adopt new technologies, we’re going to struggle.”

Banking

Banking apps have simplified and sped up the payment process for farmers. Enniscorthy dairy farmer Aidan Murphy talked to ThinkBusiness about the practicality of banking with his mobile. “First of all, my banking app is simple and straightforward to set up and use. People are naturally cautious about giving card details over the phone, and now you can avoid that. Recently I went to pay a guy, and all I needed were his BIC and BAN numbers. I verified it by text, and he was paid in a matter of minutes.”

Murphy also highlights the transparency and convenience of the banking app he uses. “You can see exactly how much has been lodged or taken out of your account. It’s also handy because you don’t need to go to your house to write a cheque or go to the bank in town. It’s all in your hand.”

farming apps

Cattle farming 

Apps that help and add real value to cattle farmers have also experienced a massive uptake since their launch. Dairymaster’s MooMonitor is a small device that hangs around a cow’s neck and senses changes in the animal’s behaviour. The farmer is then notified if the cow is in heat or ready for milking by app notification or SMS. 

According to Teagasc research, the economic cost of a missed heat is approximately €250. The MooMonitor intends to minimise that potential loss by keeping a close on the cattle’s fertility cycle, which is highly significant for milk production. 

Moocall is a calving sensor device, this time; it is placed on a cow’s tail, which notifies the farmer one hour before calving. It gets rid of the hassle of always having to check CCTV or visit calving sheds, while also ensuring that both calf and cow are looked after in the event of a difficult birth.

Alanya’s HerdInsights is a heat detection and health analysis solution app connected to a collar on a cow.  The cow’s behaviour is analysed by a multi-metric system, and farmers can gain heat detection rates of up to 97%. In addition to heat detection, HerdInsights also provides an insight into an individual cow’s health status which allows for early detection of health problems such as ketosis and mastitis, and intervention at subclinical stages.

farming apps

Farm compliance

When the tractor seat is also your office chair, record-keeping can become a reduced priority and updating the books may become a nightmare task by the end of the year. However, with farm compliance apps such as Farmflo and Herdwatch, both crop and livestock farmers can conveniently record details on their smartphone in the field, so all boxes are ticked when inspection time comes around.

The Farmflo Agronomy Tool is a new product from Farmflo, providing Agronomists with a tool to make observations and recommendations on crops from the field. The ability to share their information in real-time with their farmer customers creates a digital link, which aims to increase efficiency by providing quality and accurate advice to enhance the performance of crops and profitability for farmers.

The Herdwatch Sales Ring is an extension of the original Herdwatch app and enables farmers to trade animals quickly and safely, with the automatic creation of movement certificates when livestock are moved from the seller to the buyer’s herd.

farming apps

Optimising soil fertility 

Irish farmers spent €565m on fertiliser in 2015, yet only 10% of the soils tested by Teagasc were of optimum fertility. Over the last two years, Teagasc has been developing NMP-online, a nutrient management package to provide farmers with the relevant information in the form of maps to increase fertiliser efficiency. 

By the end of 2017, it is hoped that more than 50,000 farms will be utilising the package to improve fertiliser usage. It seems appropriate that with all this soil fertility data being generated, that it should be integrated seamlessly into apps that can easily be used by farmers and agronomists, and in turn, help to drive the usage of apps on Irish farms.

EU animal health law

One very positive step towards increasing the digital documentation of herd health is the EU Animal Health Law, which was passed in March. Sinéad Quealy of VirtualVet remarks how it “supports a drive towards the near real-time capturing of information, through technology.” One of the law’s primary objectives is to increase early detection of and the control of animal diseases, including emerging diseases linked to climate change. It also aims to reduce the occurrence and effects of animal epidemics.

Quealy says that it will also serve as an impetus for a re-think by the state agencies responsible for food safety and “utterly change for the better how farm records are kept in this country”. 

Tommy Heffernan of Co-Farm has been working as a vet for 15 years, and says that he has witnessed a massive transformation in veterinary medicine: “We’re doing more herd based medicine nowadays, as well as continuously using more data to make better decisions.” 

Heffernan claims that this a result of changes in legislation and because farm sizes are increasing. 

“I think we’re on the crest of an agri-tech wave, and from a sustainability perspective, if we don’t adopt new technologies, we’re going to struggle.”

farming apps

App helps farmers prepare for rainy day 

A part-time farmer from County Clare has developed a unique weather app tailored for Irish farmers.

FarmHedge, a free smart-phone app, gives farmers on-farm alerts directly relevant to farming activities.

“The weather alerts are unique to the farm location, and they relate short-term forecasts to the ten-year normal for that area to provide information on grass growth, animal health risks and other farm activities,” says Dr John Garvey, senior lecturer in risk management and insurance at the University of Limerick, who created the app. 

“I wanted farmers to have highly local and accurate weather information that gives them a snapshot of what will happen over the coming days. We’re using the best forecasting model available (called the ECMWF model), and we relate that forecast to the ten-year typical weather for that location,” says Dr Garvey. 

“We will be introducing a system that helps farmers protect against the cost of inclement weather. If your farm experiences wetter or colder conditions than are average for any period then you may have to use a higher volume of concentrate feed to supplement low dry matter production,” says Garvey.

“We are exploring ways in which feed can be booked via the app with farmers benefiting from deep discounts on their feed bill if weather conditions are worse than average. The idea of transferring the costs associated with adverse weather is common in other weather-sensitive industries like energy and marine transport. I want to bring these benefits to Irish farmers to help stabilise farm incomes.” 

READ MORE: The economic pulse of Irish farming.

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/apps-for-farmers/ on
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Forecast your sales – free template

This free ThinkBusiness Sales Forecast Template will help you to forecast your sales when you are business planning.  

It has three inter-related resources, each of which is on separate tabs within the document. The tabs are as follows:

  1. Unit sales price template. This allows you to vary your pricing and see the impact. The figures you input into this tab will be reflected in the second tab, which is a sales forecast
  2. Forecast of sales. This allows you to forecast your sales on a month by month basis over a period of 12 months. Figures you input into that spreadsheet will be picked up in the next spreadsheet, which is the P&L
  3. P&L template. This will show you a net profit or loss for your business

Not only you can easily create a sales forecast but you can test out different scenarios based on the data you input.

This template is a valuable resource, which should be used in conjunction with our free and beautiful Business Plan Template to give an overall view of your business and its performance.

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/sales-forecast-template/ on
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How to spot a lie on a CV

Here are five of the best ways to spot a CV bluff. 

Many employers expect an exaggeration or two on a CV, but being able to spot an outright lie can be crucial to hiring the right candidate or getting a dud employee. Below are top tips on how to spot a CV lie.

Go online 

The most obvious way to check if a candidate is bluffing on his or her CV is to go online and have a look around. A glance at someone’s social media profile can be very revealing, but your search shouldn’t be limited to Facebook. If they claim to have worked for a particular company, do their connections on their LinkedIn page reflect this? Furthermore, do the details on their CV match with what they have on their LinkedIn page? Likewise, a candidate might claim to hold a particular position in their current company, but a visit to that company’s website’s ‘Meet the team’ page may reveal something entirely different. 

See them in person 

It’s easy to lie on paper or from behind a keyboard, but get someone in person and it’s much easier to separate fact from fiction. Simple things like body language or a verbal tick might reveal the truth, otherwise asking specific questions about past roles should quickly catch a liar out. 

A competency based test during the interview will also be useful in verifying if a candidate has the skills and know-how they profess to have. If a role has a specific language requirement, there is no better test than getting the applicant in front of you and seeing exactly how fluent they are. 

how to tell a lie on a CV

Ask to see the Certs

Depending on the role, there are a lot of employers out there who won’t seek proof of a candidate’s educational qualifications, and some candidates will take advantage of this oversight. A 2.2 can become a 2.1, and some fishy schools can masquerade as legitimate academic institutions. Where the role requires certain minimum educational achievements, ask the candidate to furnish you with copies of their college transcripts and eliminate any doubts. 

Don’t call the number provided 

Putting down a fake reference is the oldest trick in the book, and it can be difficult sometimes to discern if a reference is who they say they are. 

The person you are calling could be the applicant’s friend or family member, or indeed a colleague who does not hold a managerial position. Where possible, just call the company and ask to speak to the person named. This will ensure the person you’re talking to is who they say they are.

Fill the gaps

Finding out a candidate’s reasons for leaving a previous job is important, but sometimes applicants may not be entirely honest with you on this point, especially if they’ve been fired. 

Therefore, it’s important to read between the lines with a CV and try and identify gaps; where a gap of say a couple of months is common between roles, it’s possible this person may have a history of being dismissed. 

RELATED: How to hire a dream team. 

Article by Peter Flanagan.

Images from Shutterstock.

This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/how-to-spot-a-cv-lie/ on
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