4 Things You Can Do To Make Sure That You Are Following The Tax Rules

4 Things You Can Do To Make Sure That You Are Following The Tax Rules

When it comes to accounting and bookkeeping, it is very easy to make mistakes, especially if you aren’t very experienced. Unfortunately, even small mistakes can have big consequences when it comes to tax time, and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) won’t hesitate in penalising you.

Accountants Australia advise that it is therefore very important to make sure that you do everything in your power to follow the Australian tax rules, even if they seem complicated. There are a lot of different ways that you can do this. Four of the simplest things that you can do to make sure you are keeping up with your tax obligations include:

  • Use an accountant!

If you are a new business owner or you don’t really understand what is required of you when it comes to keeping records for tax time, then you should consider at least speaking to an accountant. A decent accountant will know the Australian taxation system back to front, and they should be able to make sure that you don’t make any mistakes. If you are somewhat short on money and don’t think that you can afford to employ an accountant regularly, then at least speak to one once or twice to give you an idea of what you need to do.

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The Power of Google AdWords for Business Success

The Power of Google AdWords for Business Success

If you run a business that wants to become an online success story, then you have to make Google AdWords your best friend. By definition, Google AdWords is a comprehensive online advertising tool/service that allows people to display ad copies to users. In other words, it makes marketing much easier than it has ever been, especially when it comes to targeted audiences.

Google AdWords marketing enables advertisers, marketers, and websites to get measurable results from their ad campaigns, and is integrated seamlessly with the search engine. What makes it practical is the fact that unlike television ads and industry directories, it helps you get measurable results that can further improve your ad campaigns in the future.

Quality Leads

SMEs to large organizations today use Google AdWords to increase their online presence. As a paid advertising platform, Google makes sure that your advertisement copies get high rankings in local and international search directories on its search engine.

For instance, when you type ‘best Irish bar in Melbourne’, three paid ads will appear on top of the search results, typically highlighted in yellow. Most of the time, people will find what they’re looking for by clicking one of the three links, which increases the conversion potential by many folds. Unlike organic results, this allows you to gain qualified leads and increases the revenue potential.

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How SEO Can Take Your Business to New Heights of Success

How SEO Can Take Your Business to New Heights of Success

When it comes to online marketing, a crucial aspect for the imminent success of a website, business, or ecommerce store is the SEO strategy. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is basically the actions and steps that improve the visibility of a web page or website in the search engine’s unpaid results. This is also known as organic or natural SEO.

SEO not only incorporates technical elements, but creative elements as well, that improve search engine ranking, boost traffic, and drive awareness. Let’s take a look at some of the ways SEO helps drive business success on the internet that can translate to real time growth!

Traffic Potential

When your websites, its pages, content, Meta data, and other elements are optimized for search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, you will be awarded with a higher ranking. Depending on the keywords that are used, your website or web pages may make it to the first page of search engine results. As a result, your visibility increases, which increases the potential of traffic.

Let’s say that you recently posted a blog on ‘How to Start a YouTube Channel’. Now practically speaking, your goal is to get this post on the first page of search engine results. Provided that you use the right keywords, Meta data, and write a quality post, your post will be able to climb the search engine rankings ladder naturally.

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Having An Effective Branding Strategy

Having An Effective Branding Strategy

When any business starts to think about its corporate branding, it must first understand what exactly makes a branding strategy successful. This applies whether that business is new or an existing one that needs to overhaul its brand.

Successful branding of a company helps everyone involved with it to have greater confidence in its products and services. This confidence should be felt throughout the business, from the CEO, the management, the staff and crucially the customers of that business. With confidence being an intangible, it is difficult to measure the level that exists in relation to a business. Discussions with staff and their feedback will give some indication internally of how confident they are in the business they work for, and how much the brand helps that.

In respect of customer confidence, there is a much clearer measure of its level and that is via sales data. When customers have faith and confidence in a brand, they tend to buy more. If your branding strategy is working then sales performance will reflect that.

To create a successful branding strategy for your business, the first task must be to carry out research within your industry, which should include looking at your competitors. Obviously, customer research will be a part of this initial process to help you form a full understanding of the market you are entering, and to subsequently determine how to position your brand within it.

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3 Advantages of a Buy Sell Agreement

3 Advantages of a Buy Sell Agreement

There are many agreements needed in business. In fact, commercial lawyers would tell you that almost every contract is an agreement of some kind and all are important parts of running a business. But when it comes to the Buy Sell Agreement, some businesses don’t have one and this can really complicate matters. What is a Buy Sell Agreement?

It is a document that details what will happen should one partner suddenly die or be incapacitated. Other names for the document are Business Succession Agreement and Business Will. Having it in place will enable the business to continue running smoothly when and if a partner dies or has a stroke so that they are mentally incapacitated.

Having this document means the partners have agreed to buy out the share of the person who has died or become incapacitated. The funds that are paid will go to the family of the deceased and can really help them in their time of need. However, they may go to another person that is specified in the document.

It is important to have advice from a legal professional in drawing up such a document. What should it contain?

  • The value of the agreement – what should be paid? This can be defined through an independent valuation, a specified formula or an agreed value that is revised periodically.
  • The trigger for the payment – usually death or incapacity of some kind.
  • In what way the payment will be funded – there are many possibilities.
  • Tax consequences.

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A Grey Area in Property Contracts

A Grey Area in Property Contracts

When buying a property, few people fully understand every aspect of the contract, partly due to the terms that are used in it. This is why it is essential to have your property lawyers go over the contract and explain everything to you. Even then, they may miss something thinking it is obvious because they are used to it, whereas to the first home buyer especially, it may not be the least bit obvious.

One term that may seem obvious when given due consideration is often missed in amongst all the other terms and that is buying “as inspected’.  If the term is hidden amongst a lot of other jargon it can be less than clear – or people just don’t think about it. Even if they realise it means that the property they purchase will be in the same condition it was when they inspected it, they may not realise what the ramifications are.

In actual terms, it means that if something was broken or not working properly when you looked at the home, you can’t expect it to be fixed when you sign on the dotted line – or even before then. If the floors were in a dirty state or the flyscreen was torn when you inspected the property and agreed to buy it, the seller has no legal obligation to clean or fix it.

According to Clause 6. 1 (b) 2 of the General Conditions on the property contract all the seller is required to do is move their possessions, vehicles, chattels and rubbish from the property, leaving the property ‘chattels’ in place.

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7 Tips on Consumer Law for New Business Owners

7 Tips on Consumer Law for New Business Owners

The advent of the Internet has allowed many people to start up business buying and selling. These people are often not trained in business, so don’t know all the laws that govern them. Without commercial lawyers to help them they can easily break a consumer law without realising it, but ignorance is not considered an excuse, so they may still find themselves in trouble.

Since many of those Internet businesses are to do with selling goods of some kind to the public, here are 7 tips on Australian Consumer Law (ACL) that you may not have known, if you are a new start-up business.

  • If a customer finds a small defect or flaw in the good they purchased, they can ask for a refund, repair or replacement. Most will want the former, but in fact, your customer must accept the free repair if it is offered to them. It is only if the flaw makes the product dangerous or unsafe, if the product is different from what was advertised or displayed, if the product can’t be fixed easily or if the person would not have bought the product had they known about it, that your business must replace or refund it.

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The Most Important Part of a Business Plan

The Most Important Part of a Business Plan

Any financial planner will tell you that to start up a business, you need to draw up a business plan. But as important as the plan is, it is the financial section of it that is the most important. Without this section, all the rest is basically just a concept – an idea. Without the financial planning – that includes estimates of cost and income, no lender of finance will be interested in offering you a loan.

People with a dream of starting up their own business are often more interested in the other parts of the plan. Where their business will be located, what kind of tools and equipment they will need and even what colour scheme the place will have. These things are of great importance to the prospective business owner, but not to the bank manager. A financial advisor is the best person to help you with the financial part of your business plan, so lenders can see it is going to be a viable business; one that won’t go broke in the first year.

How is a financial plan different from accounting? While accounting is an essential part of any business, it uses numbers from the past. Until you actually start your business there will be no figures to use in accounting. While the financial plan looks similar to accounting figures, it is a forecast of the future you expect to see for your business. However, the figures used won’t be totally accurate because they are based on research, your own knowledge of the market and what you expect and hope to see for your business.

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Legal Guidance for Ecommerce Businesses in Australia

Legal Guidance for Ecommerce Businesses in Australia

As Australia is witnessing a boom in the ecommerce industry, whether you are just starting the business with a new brand, or whether you’ve been a retailer but are now taking your business online; you need be aware of the legal issues that surround ecommerce. There is no doubt that ecommerce has an exciting rate of success and growth, and it offers a great future for your business. However, playing by the rules will just make things safer.

While there are many advantages of ecommerce, the complex legal issues can make your ride to success a bumpy one and have you calling in commercial lawyers to help you. Different countries have different rules; which is why, as a business in Australia; it is important for you to know what to expect and what applies. Keep in mind that the law is fluid, which means that it is subject to change with time. Therefore, you must remain up-to-date all the time so that you can continue to reap the fruits of success.

To know if you can conduct electronic business in different parts of Australia, check the legislation regarding electronic transactions in the following territories:

  • Australian Capital Territory
  • Western Australia
  • South Australia
  • Northern Territory
  • New South Wales
  • Queensland
  • Victoria
  • Tasmania

First off, prepare to take the necessary steps to ensure that everything you do meets the officially permitted requirements for establishing and running online businesses in Australia. If necessary, talk to good lawyers for professional legal advice and prepare accordingly. Here are some simple details to point you in the right direction:

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How To Promote Your Website on a Budget

How To Promote Your Website on a Budget

Building your website is the easy part; getting it out there in front of the eyes of the people who you want to see it is the most difficult challenge facing any webmaster or small business owner today. There is now so much competition and so many websites vying for the short attention span of a global audience that knowing what tricks you can use can seem extremely daunting. It’s true, big web marketing and promotion budgets often result in more visitors. But what do you do if you simply cannot compete with the big guns in your industry? It certainly does not mean giving up. Using some imagination and creativity can however give you the breakthrough you need to get eyes to your website, and turn those visitors into customers.

Thankfully there are now more opportunities than ever to promote a website on a small budget. With the growing popularity of social media, whereby anyone is able to reach an audience for little or no cost, the chance of being able to promote yourself to a huge worldwide audience has never been better. This still means having to be creative in order to stand out from the crowd, but with such a large potential audience at your fingertips, it is an exciting time to be involved in website marketing. Using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google Plus and other social websites, you can build a following and create unique promotional plans to attract the attention of potential customers and fans.

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WordPress Features that can take your Web Presence to the Next Level

WordPress Features that can take your Web Presence to the Next Level

Making a website is not a big deal but getting it noticed among hundreds and thousands is what counts. You may have the best content on your site but if it doesn’t get the right traffic and presence, all your efforts will go south.

WordPress has been around for more than a decade now and is widely used in improving websites and web presence by most bloggers and business owners. The things that attract users towards this CMS is that it is completely free, easy to use and manageable. A data revealed that around 600 million websites make use of WordPress. With numerous tools, plug-ins and themes that make your website look creative, it also has features which will get your website recognized and known, some of which are discussed below.

SEO Friendly

Sites that are constructed through WordPress are SEO friendly, which increases their chances of  being ranked higher and appearing in the top results on search engine. With the added bonus of new content, you can easily crawl up the ladder and get your site in the limelight. This will increase the traffic and eventually make your brand renowned.

Fast Loading

Since a WordPress site loads rapidly, this reduces the risk of visitors leaving because of slow speed and poor user experience. With a quality browsing experience, more and more people will visit the site and make the most of it.

Manageable

When the website is easy to manage for the owner, they will keep updating it by adding new content and blogs. This will expand your business and as a result, it will also increase the digital brand awareness.

Responsive Website

WordPress not only lets the user access the website on their computers, but also on other devices, like cellphones, iPhones, iPads, tablets and many others. This makes your site a responsive website. These days, people prefer using mobile phones to browse online and as a result, you will be able to target the audience in this category as well.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Go For Secure Web Hosting

5 Reasons Why You Should Go For Secure Web Hosting

With modern advancements, all the dealings are being done through the Internet and eCommerce is now a common concept. Thus, security of online data is becoming more challenging. As a result, businesses are shifting towards sites that have secure hosts. In short, the value of privacy is increasing and people are ready to invest in it as well.

Following are five reasons you should select secure Slinky Web Hosting when choosing a host for your website:

1.     Encryption and Decryption

Hacking of databases, leakage of private information, such as postal addresses and credit card numbers, are becoming a norm.  To avoid such occurrences, the demand for secured web hosting is increasing. With it, a proper and secure encryption is made to protect the data transmission between two parties. Decryption of data is provided only to the owner; therefore, even if the data is hacked, it won’t be readable as it is present in code.

2.     Protection and Recognition

SSL certification is provided to sites when they pay for secure web hosting which secures the data of their previous customers. It also helps in attracting new clients as the security of data encryption is promising protection from hacking and malware. Updating the technology that protects data makes you renowned and popular among your clients. Another factor that adds more credibility is your domain name URL that has the S in HTTPS:// which is a sign of a secured website.

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How WordPress Can Be Used To Create Brand Recognition

How WordPress Can Be Used To Create Brand Recognition

Brand awareness plays an important role in any business because awareness of a product determines its performance and marketing success. Over time, it increases the presence of your goods and services and hence, boosts your sales. Hence, every business needs brand recognition to survive. Even if you manufacture top notch products and services, but without brand recognition, it will negatively affect your business and will not earn you loyal consumers.

WordPress can help you build websites which will contribute to the recognition of your brand with its following features:

Blog Content

WordPress initiated as a platform for bloggers; therefore this feature is the strongest among all.  Blogs, in general, play an important role in reaching your target audience and telling them about the products and services your business deals with, to enhance their awareness. It is a marketing tool used by many to portray themselves as leaders in their businesses. Blogging high quality content from time to time will thus, boost the presence of users on your website.

Blogging through WordPress will provide you with creative tools to manage your content professionally. It is easy to post, edit and publish on WordPress because it has a built in blogging system. It also provides users with subscription and feedback options which will help your business gain loyal consumers and improve your reputation accordingly.

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The Secrets of a Good Shopping Cart Website

The Secrets of a Good Shopping Cart Website

Whether you own a brand-centric eCommerce store or just a small shop on Etsy selling homemade items, you will always try to convert as many browsers into buyers as possible, right? That is basically the lifeline for your business and the easier you make their shopping experience, the more they will want to click on that checkout button.

Of course, if they abandon their shopping carts midway, then you won’t experience the profits you need. Since your success will depend on how engaged your browsers are in your website, you have to make sure that they remain interested till they actually turn into buyers and beyond. The following are a few secrets on how you can increase those chances:

Keep it Mobile Friendly

According to a study conducted by Google, more than 93% of smartphone users prefer to use their mobiles to research a product before making a purchase. Since they are already on their smartphones, you know they would instantly search for online stores where they can buy said items. If you make your eCommerce store more mobile friendly and responsive, they will be attracted to your shop. This means making the site’s visual presence more appealing by:

  • Adding bigger buttons for easy clicks
  • Bigger web pages that can fit on a smartphone’s screen without zooming in
  • Making sure the pages load quickly on current mobile internet speeds

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The Secret to a Responsive Web Design

The Secret to a Responsive Web Design

Let’s face it, if you don’t have a responsive web design then your website might as well be invisible online! A responsive web design has become a standard in eCommerce due to the rapidly shifting perception of consumers and their increasing dependence on smart technology.

This also includes current workflows which call for web designs that are as pleasing to the eye as they are easy to use. The good news is that all of this is possible with a single trick: using percentages instead of pixels to measure page size for the following:

Images and Grid Systems

According to a report, smart devices outnumber U.S. consumers (which number 125 million approximately) and more than 50 million of them depend on tablets to take care of daily tasks. In other words, consumers and users are more connected than ever before and web design has to follow suit to attract them. The best way to do that today is to use magazine style grid systems or column structures as well as background images.

However, in order to ensure the design remains flexible, the measurements have to be made in percentages rather than pixels. For example, a page that is 50% wide will cover half the screen no matter how large or small it is. This is what will make that page responsive and it can be made more attractive with the addition of background images. However, only illustrations that can be tiled in the grid system should be chosen for obvious reasons.

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5 Tips For Growing Your Business Using YouTube

5 Tips For Growing Your Business Using YouTube

Digital marketing, including things like search engine marketing, social media marketing and email marketing, is extremely important if you want to become successful in the online space. In the past, anyone with a half-decent website and a willingness to work could make a decent amount of money online without too much trouble. However, this has changed in the past decade or so, as the internet has expanded exponentially – to over 650 million websites – and everyone has tried to take their slice of the digital pie.

This means that, if you are serious about becoming a successful online business person in the modern world, you need to learn how to use digital marketing. One of the most cost-effective ways to increase your online presence using digital marketing is via social media marketing (SMM). Platforms like YouTube are often overlooked when it comes to SMM, but they can actually be extremely effective.

Below are our top 5 tips for growing your online business using YouTube:

  1. Create a dedicated business channel:

First off, it is important to realise that you need to create your own dedicated business channel on YouTube. Don’t try and promote your business via your personal channel or some other channel, as this is unprofessional, and will be seen as such by potential clients.

  1. Upload a business introduction:

Unless you already have an established YouTube channel which your business has been operating through for some time, you should consider uploading a business introduction video. Include information about who you are, what you do and why you believe that you are good at what you do. Remember to link to this from your main business website.

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Google Update Regarding the Future of Web Design

Google Update Regarding the Future of Web Design

Importance of mobile-friendly web design is increasing as people are getting involved in marketing their business. The reason behind is that these web designs get greater viewers and produce more sales. Like in past, Google has again startled webmasters, marketers, and business owners. A new update is added by Google and it affects your website ranking. If your web design is mobile-friendly then you don’t have to worry. But if your web design is built in a way that it is non-responsive i.e. not mobile-friendly then it is time you change it to a responsive design.

Google has started labeling all the websites, which are created on responsive design, as ‘mobile-friendly’. All the websites whose functioning is reviewed by Google search algorithm .will have the same tag attach to it. These labels will be visible on the mobile devices and their search results. When the person surfing the internet through cell phone comes across website which are not labeled as mobile friendly, he will not open that link. This will save them time and increase their satisfaction which is threatened when websites take too long to load.

What features determine if the web design is mobile friendly or not?

The basis of mobile ‘friendliness’ is on the following features:

  • If the buttons and links on the website allows space so that it’s easier to tap them then it is mobile friendly.
  • If the visitors can view the page on the phone without scrolling them horizontally i.e. if the page fit to the screen in a horizontal manner, it is accepted as mobile friendly.
  • As the mobile phones do not support Flash websites, the absence of them in web design makes them responsive.
  • The web design is mobile friendly if the words are clearly visible and do not require zooming in.

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Flash Storage Playing a Vital Role in the Era of Digital Business

Flash Storage Playing a Vital Role in the Era of Digital Business

Businesses and service providers are aware that currently customers are more likely to use mobile devices and gadgets at a high rate. This has led companies to rush up their services to match up to the consumer demand for services that are available round the clock.

The conventional rules are changing for better. Fresh service expectation, communication and potential capacity marks the departure of ‘flash memory’ and welcomes the ‘flash storage’. A huge number of customers are adopting mobility and Flash Storage is playing a significant role in this mobile revolution by allowing slim smart gadgets to offer bulk services. Customers demand for highly developed, refined and responsive services have led to the rush in the technology developments. A mobile app offering awful experience supremely affects the brand and the business. A customer won’t wait for the app to get better, rather would switch to a better competent app immediately.

Businesses are facing complex storage demands. All the information that is being produced is shifting to the cloud, which calls for storage virtualization. To manage this difficult requirement efficiently, enterprises should majorly concentrate upon customer’s privacy and data security. A present expectation is the guarantee that serious customer and company details will be safe and conveniently accessible. This has to be readily fulfilled.

Flash storage supports the digital business era and works to convert enterprise platforms into proficient and high-performing engines. Flash storage doesn’t have moving parts. It uses sophisticated chip technology which makes it quicker, stronger, dependable and efficient.

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