If you are looking to lease a property for commercial reasons, it is wise to consult with your lawyers & solicitors well before you sign anything. They can ensure that the lease is drawn up properly so that you know exactly what you will have to pay. And they can add clauses to protect you from many potential problems. So how exactly is rent for a commercial property calculated? Several things are taken into consideration.
Any business means purely for selling and getting profit via that. This is the basic need and is a must for any business. The question arises that how to attain this. Oxygen Marketing say that there are various necessities to do that. Here are few to help you in getting customers and changing them into final profit.
Step 1: Create website
Nowadays the Internet is a promising medium to let people know about your business. For getting best out of your business, it is the necessity to have a business website. It is better to get it done by professionals. They know best how to create a top-notch website to attract customers. It is a must to have for any business.
Step 2: Awareness
First most is that you should be able to reach customers and this can be done by various means. As soon as you can do that then only you can plan for something else. SEO is quite significant and helpful in this. Once you understand how to be at the top of SEO list which is free of cost, then other steps will become trouble-free.
Customer satisfaction is the key to the success of any business. When customers are not happy with the brand, they not only leave the brand, but they also spread a bad word for it, which ends up ruining its online reputation. Therefore, every business that wants to be successful needs to keep its customers satisfied. Happy customers talk well about the brand and spread a good word about it amongst others.
Below are a few tips that businesses can use to keep their customers satisfied and get good reviews from them.
Respond to Customer Queries
Customers don’t hate anything more than a brand that doesn’t care about their opinion and queries. Even if the product was not satisfactory, they will not get turned off by it as much as they will feel bad about the brand not caring about them. Therefore, if a business wants to keep their customers happy, they should reply to every customer query. By answering their questions, businesses will be able to improve their image and make customers feel valued.
The present age is the age of social media, where all small and big businesses are run through the use of social media.
Is your business protected against potential legal complications you could face while promoting your products and services through social media? Are your employees aware of these issues ways to steer clear of infringing upon laws? It’s high time you were aware of the top five legal issues in social media.
Many people operate their businesses solely through the internet, using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., as their primary medium of communication. While effective, this approach does come with its own set of risks. The gains it nets are proportionate to the legal issues your business might be exposed to if not taken care of properly on time.
The most common yet the most dangerous legal issue with regard to social media, is the disclosure of confidential information. Often times, the secrets of your business or some valuable information regarding shares and policies may be leaked out by the employee or any other party with information.
Obstructions and hurdles in business is one thing. But, failure in business due to small legal mistakes and failing to get the correct legal advice is sheer foolishness.
Whether large scale or small, a business is a business and needs to be operated as such. You have invested a lot of your money and time into strengthening it. And once it is established, you reap long-term benefits out of it. The point is, not all small scale businesses reach their desired positions in the corporate environment. Faced by lots of hardships, your efforts to establish a small scale business mostly end in vain due to lack of attention to detail and responsibility on your part.
Small businesses can turn profits faster than large scale ones. But because you think of it as just a small business, you tend to avoid important legal formalities and ultimately lose your business.
Here are some of the most common legal mistakes committed by small businessmen.
Many small businesses enter into agreements without having advice from lawyers, any legal stamps or signatures by other party. People think that signing a formal contract is just a waste of resources. However, whether internal or external, a legally binding contract is very important. You may ignore the need for legal stamps in internal contracts, but when signing a paper with an external party, legalities must be invoked.
Naming your business is the moment where all your motivation and excitement reaches its absolute pinnacle. You start with a hazy idea for a business which gradually grows into a more detailed and comprehensive design and you then determine how you will manage different operations and management functions. Once you start work on your business plan, you start thinking about the best name for your brainchild. What group of alphabets will sum up all your services and values in a perfect way?
It is hard to choose a name for a business as it becomes the identity of your enterprise. A name which is difficult to relate to or remember can be a disaster, while the right name can be the perfect brand you had always wanted. So how do you make the right choice? By avoiding any major mistakes while choosing a name for your start-up!
Make sure that you don’t make any of the following mistakes while choosing your business name.
Survival of the fittest is what we are expected to focus on, in today’s fast moving Australian business community. Having a business and running it successfully combines different ingredients together. Therefore, a small business has to face many challenges and overcome innumerous hurdles on a daily basis. There is a never ending list that should be taken into account while talking about challenges and hurdles, but legal issues also take top priority. Few of the major legal problems associated with small businesses are listed below.
Not only do you have to make a choice of what exactly you are offering to the people, but also, it is immensely significant to choose the right legal structure. This decision can either make or break you in the anticipated difficult times of your business. This also directly affects your personal liability, amount of taxes your business will have to pay, and the entire future development of your business and its legal implications.
If you have put in a lot of thought, time and money in trying to set up your new business startup in Australia, then it makes sense to do your homework and avoid making any legal errors which can pour all your efforts down the drain!
Remember, a legal blunder will not only create a mountain of paperwork for you, it can also lead to case hearings and even penalties, subjected by the authorities. You might also end up damaging the company reputation, driving away customers at a time, when you need them the most. So, what is the best strategy to deal with this problem? The foolproof way to avoid any chance of a case hearing or getting penalized for a legal violation is to make sure that you go by the book and don’t leave out any legal responsibility at all.
Prepare to set up a business which conforms to all legal liabilities and thus, avoid any legal issues in the future. This simple strategy will take some effort as you make sure that all your legal obligations are met.
Following are some important points to keep in mind, which will help you avoid fines and penalties;
Register Your Business and Avoid All Trademark Infringements
When you choose a name for your company, make sure that it is not registered by any other enterprise. Get your company name registered after making sure that it is available for use, and you are not getting involved in the act of trademark infringement.
Once your name is registered, get trademark protection for yourself.
As a startup, you will likely consider whether you want to spend valuable resources and time on a logo design. A logo may cost as little as $5 to even hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a unique brand appeal. The essential goal of a logo is after all, to create a perception around the business, which is why creating a good logo in the beginning, is a good foundation for branding prospects.
When it comes to logo design, you have a wide range of options to getting it done as there are freelancers and creative design agencies that readily provide this service. However, if you want to incorporate your element into the logo, then follow these tips for a great logo design that becomes the foundation of your brand!
Focus on Simplicity
Simplicity doesn’t necessarily have to mean a stagnant logo that looks elegant, but nothing more than that. A simplistic logo could have some moving pieces, like the old Apple logo with the rainbow colours. To create a simplistic logo, focus on the colours and what emotions they are associated with. If your brand wants to focus on elegance, then grayscale and solid colours are good to work with.
On the other hand, if your brand wants to create a powerful and authoritative image, then dark red, green, yellow, and gold can work to perfection. In any case, make sure that your logo is simple and easy on the eyes as doing so will make it easy for people to remember it for a long time.
Dealing with bankruptcy is a stressful process, and with debt collectors nagging you again and again, it becomes even more nerve-racking and traumatic. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was passed in order to keep the debt collectors at bay, and guard you from the unnecessary harassment. If you are being bullied by debt collectors then it’s high time you make use of your rights.
Covered Debts
Debtors can opt for Fair Debt Collection Practices Act if they owe; household, family, and personal debts. It also includes debt on personal credit card, mortgage, medical receipt, and car loan. Debts that were acquired to accomplish a business are not a part of this act.
An individual can also limit the payments applicability to a specific debt when the collector tries to gather more than a single debt. The collector will then apply your debt payments to your selected debt. Similarly, if a debtor thinks they do not owe a particular debt, the collector cannot impose the payment to it.
If you are planning to set up a new business in Australia, there are a hundred and one things you will need to sort out before you can inaugurate the business. One of the most important things in this long list is a business trademark.
The name, brand, and logo of your business all need to be trademarked if you want your business to have its own identity in the industry and with the customers. If you don’t apply for a trademark, then there is a high chance that another business might use your logo or name and launch their own company, without any legal ramifications whatsoever. They could easily get a trademark and you might be charged for trademark infringement all because they registered it before you did.
Such are the technicalities of trademark registration. If someone uses your business identity and you didn’t bother to go to the trouble of getting it registered, you could be losing loyal customers who would unsuspectingly opt for your competitor’s services with the same name as you! And to rub salt into the wounds, you can’t file for trademark infringement since you didn’t have the brand and logo registered in the first place.
The only way to make it a win-win situation and ensure that your customers are not swindled away by anyone else is to register for a logo and business brand. Think it’s difficult? There are indeed a number of procedures involved and you can get answers to your questions below,
Gone are the days when you had to trawl through large volumes of phone books just to locate the local contact details of a business. Now, every business is where you want it to be, right in front of your target market, making it easy for them to reach out, view your offerings, and browse through them to become a loyal customer in the process. How? By being online!
The internet has made it possible for everyone to access and learn about your business. But are you making it any easier for your customers to find you on the internet? Have you listed your business on the places which will get you great customer exposure and subsequently increase conversions? Customers now conduct searches about companies on different online directories, so if you have your business listed on the top online directories, there is a high likelihood of you being able to expand your market share owing to the improved visibility these listings offer.
If you don’t know how to go about it, then read on to know the top 10 places where you need to list down your business and ensure an increase in your market share.
1. Google
If your business is not listed here, then you are invisible to more than half of your customer market! Such is the popularity of Google as an online search directory that everyday around 6 billion searches are conducted on the portal.
You can register to get a business listing for free, and get a chance to be visible to a large chunk of the target market.
There’s no doubt that many successful online businesses exist in Australia that can boast about having the biggest cut of the cake. However, with so much competition, staying ahead of the game has never been tougher than it is now.
The Forrester analyst group reported in October that at least a third of the total number of online ecommerce businesses plan to invest in improving their technology for 2016. Thus, there will be more online spending options, multichannel retail strategies, mobile solutions, and back office integration next year. This means that there will be more benefits for consumers in terms of variety and easy access to services.
Our list of ecommerce superstars in Australia include market leaders, established and leading players in the ecommerce market, and rising stars of the Australian ecommerce arena.
#1: Appliances Online
This online store began as a simple online store and today, is a multimillion-dollar business. John Winning started it singlehandedly, but today, it has 80 employees and it has proved that Australia has great potential for online retail businesses. The website sells white-goods (domestic electrical items). In the past year, the number of customers using this platform has doubled with more than 150,000 online buyers.
Getting a promotion in some businesses, whether it be as a consultant giving business advice to clients or as a property manager managing clients’ property – it takes a great deal of effort and sometimes a younger person seems to sail effortlessly over you, leaving you feeling somewhat unappreciated – and you may even worry about becoming redundant due to your age.
Here are some more tips to ensure the next promotion is more likely to be yours.
If you are anything like the average modern day man or woman, this is how a typical weekday in your life would look like – you wake up, get prepped up and all set to get to work, spend the next ten to twelve hours working from a desk, and get back home exhausted. And all the while, there is this tiny spark of an idea that is fluttering inside your head. But you are too scared to fuel it and let it grow into a fire. Well, here is the right amount of inspiration for you, and it’s just enough to inspire you to fan the flames and get your online business up and running; because here is why it is such a great idea.
A non-compete agreement or clause is a lawful contract, in the form of writing, between the boss and the worker. It is applicable after the employee leaves their current job. The necessary terms and conditions within this contract include a prohibition to work in the same industry or with a firm which is competing with the organization, for six months to 2 years, following the end of the employment.
Although a non-compete agreement is for the protection of the company’s clients and other private information which is not accessible to everyone; at some places, it is disapproved of, because it stops an individual from earning a living for themselves in the field of their choosing. For this reason, the court system closely analyzes legal disputes arising from non-compete agreements also called as covenant in restraint of trade.
Benefits of a Non-Compete Agreement
Non-compete agreement works in the favor of the employer because it forbids the ex-employees from giving out important confidential information to the competitors that will facilitate them in earning more profits. This information includes; list of clients, business plans, company’s secret of success, and industry experience and knowledge, etc.
The employees can benefit from this agreement by getting some reward which can be; a job, monetary payment, or promotion, in return for signing the clause.
According to the predictions for the retail ecommerce market, based on stats collected since 2009, we are seeing retail sales increase by 14.4%, which equals to approximately 10 billion dollars. In Australia, ecommerce sales have increased to 17.3% and account for more than 4% of the total retail sales. By the end of this year, this figure will rise by an additional 4.5%.
Based on these facts, by 2017, the world will see a double-digit increase and retail sales will increase to approximately 14.52%. This will stand for 5.6% of Australia’s retail sales. Today, Australia stands in the middle of the ecommerce market when compared to Asia-Pacific countries like India, Indonesia, China, Japan, and South Korea.
An interesting fact is that the highest number of customers for the ecommerce market in Australia are the second highest recorded in the Asia-Pacific region. EMarketer predicts that by the end of 2015, 79.4% of the total number of internet users in Australia will use ecommerce websites to purchase things. The leading country will likely be Japan, which may have approximately 82.0% internet users. Australia is a little further down the list, mainly because of its comparative population size of digital buyers.
However, investing in ecommerce businesses in Australia is a good idea because it has a crowded ecommerce market with international competitors. In fact, the country showed the highest number of retail customer visits during a week of study. Sites like eBay have also recorded the highest number of visitors, followed by Amazon, and then other ecommerce websites, like AliExpress.
Getting a property lease for your business is quite different from finding a home to rent. Whether your business is new or needs more space to accommodate the growth, you should know that the market is working in favor of business owners when it comes to commercial real estate. Hopefully, these 7 tips will help you lease the right business property for the long term!
You may be getting a commercial lease at cheaper rates, but if there is inadequate space for common areas like meeting rooms, hallways, elevators, and restrooms, then you may have to invest extensively in renovations. Also remember that commercial lease agreements will have an annual percentage-based rent increase, so don’t invest in a property you can’t sustain for the long term.
The use clause is incorporated in lease agreements to define activities the tenant will engage in on the property. Make sure that you negotiate a cap with the landlord on the rent increase in order to avoid any unmanageable costs or costs that are not controlled by you.
Choosing a name for your business is every bit as important as trying to ensure services to customers in the industry, and even more so! Since your business name is the identity of your service, it will be the name with which the market and customers will identify you. If the name is unrelated and seemingly irrelevant to the product or service you offer, then the customers will find it hard to remember, and your name will eventually be forgotten.
Remember, in an industry which is highly competitive, a name which is difficult to remember or relate to a service, is bad enough to drive away customer traffic of existing customers. This is why, if you don’t choose the right name for your business, you run a high risk of losing customers who have the potential to become loyal clients.
Do you want to know what your business name should be? Keep the following points in mind while deciding an appropriate name for your business. Read more on branding
Reinforce Key Elements of Business Value
Make sure that your potential customer doesn’t have to think twice, to understand what you have to offer. Ambiguity or vagueness in a name can prove catastrophic for the business. Make sure to have combinations of words which give the customer an idea of the value you offer.
Experts discourage the use of number strings and symbols displayed as a business name, as it might confuse the target market about your product or service portfolio.
If you have planned out everything for your new start-up; then are you ready for the challenges which lie ahead in your endeavour? There are many things to take care of in your new business, but you also need to be ready for any possible challenge which may come in your way.
Do you know what challenges you need to be ready for, and what do you need to do to tackle them? Following are some challenges that every business start-up has to face in their initial days.
Will To Persevere
The first set of problems is demanding enough to get a new business owner thinking. Many start-up owners begin to see quitting as a viable solution as compared to the problems of huge bills, negative customer reviews and unstable operations.
The key solution to deal with this challenge is to persevere and keep working hard.
Harbor Unrealistic Expectations
It is important to analyse the due demand for your business product and garner realistic expectations. Project your initial revenue with a clear idea of the realistic situation. Setting unrealistic expectations can prove to be problematic for the business in the long run.
Majority of Australians have already made the switch to digital superhighway in buying goods and services. Recent survey results from Australian Digital Economy E-commerce Trends and Statistics Report highlight the fact that people are increasingly buying goods and services online.
At the moment Australians still lag behind UK and US when it comes to online shopping. This means that there is great scope for start-up firms to build a strong base and capture untapped market.
eCommerce start-up firms stand to gain a lot from changing trends in the digital arena. Below we take a look at some of the upcoming trends that will change the way eCommerce is conducted down under.
Shift of Focus to Mobile eCommerce
Mobile eCommerce in Australia is going to increase in popularity in the coming years, Small business eCommerce retailers will be incorporating technologies that provides improved customer experience for mobile users. Some the technologies that is expected to make headway in Australia include NFC redeemable coupons, QR codes, and free Wi-Fi.
In addition, it will become increasingly important for eCommerce retailers to ensure that the shopping cart, online payment and layout are all optimised for mobile users.
It’s not very easy to build up a reputation for online businesses that reverberates with shoppers and increases the value of the arrangement of products and administrations. Sadly, a few companies- – purposely or unintentionally – can encroach on another online business’ brand and trademark, conceivably prompting real misfortune or disarray among purchasers.
Be that as it may, with cautious readiness and steady checking, online businesses can shield their brand and their business from damage.
Building a Brand
Maybe the most ideal approach to safeguard your brand is to verify you aren’t taking somebody else’s. Yes, a good point to start with.
So before building value in a brand, research to verify you aren’t unintentionally venturing on another person’s toes. Some big companies have been known to sue little companies on the simple assertion of brand infringement. Forthright research is the best protection against being blamed for infringement. In this, a quick Google search can do a lot of good. Nowadays, most businesses have a profile online. You can look up for your company name online and gather some details. If it matches with that of others, take a step back, and build your brand around some other terms – prevention is always better than cure.
Watch Out for Competitors
Effectively screen the market for indications of brand infringement. In the event that your slogan is a registered trademark, for instance, scan for the expression on well-known web crawlers, including Bing or Google. Visit contender sites to ensure that your adversary isn’t duplicating your hues, images or visual outline.
The more advance the competition grows, the harder it is to put a stop to it. Try to put this you’re your routine observation before they turn out to be sufficiently huge in the form of your lawyer’s fee.