Archives for November 2021

5 Legal Things You Need to Know Before Becoming a Business Owner

November 30, 2021 by Delan Cooper Leave a Comment

Starting a business is a journey many people aspire to venture. Business ownership means freedom from employment and restrictions that come with a formal job. But that does not mean that becoming a business owner is a walk in the park. They are often tough, and as a business owner, you have to adapt and learn from the challenges to succeed.

When venturing into a business, the first thing you need to know about is the legal requirements. Understanding the requirements is necessary because it helps you avoid run-ins with the authorities. Here are some legal things you need to know before becoming a business owner.

1. Choosing a Business Structure

The initial requirement during the inception of your business is defining your business structure. If you start a company, will you structure it as a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation? Making the right decision relies heavily on your understanding and analysis of the pros and cons of each business structure.

For small business owners, you will also have to define the types of business ownership you want. Here, you can choose from various options such as sole ownership, partnership, or being a franchise owner. Again, you will have to evaluate the pros and cons of each format before coming to a conclusive decision.

You can seek the services of a commercial lawyer if you have trouble understanding the different types of business formats. They will advise you on the best format for your business.

2. Registering the Business

After deciding the format of your business, it is time to register the business. For this step, a unique business name is necessary to distinguish your brand. It would be best if you considered copyrighting and patenting the names associated with your business to protect it from defamation.

3. Complying with the Federal and State Operation Requirements

For your business to operate legally, you should consider complying with set federal and state requirements set in place. Some of these requirements include registering for a tax ID at the state and federal levels. Getting these documents will allow you to conduct other important business activities such as hiring employees or opening a bank account.

4. Obtaining A Business Insurance

Before operating any business, you should first get general liability and worker’s compensation insurances. These two types of insurances will help cover any claims that may emanate from day-to-day business operations. That includes accidents, product damage, and other liability issues that you may face when running the business.

5. Getting a Lawyer

In business, anything can go wrong, especially as it scales up. You may soon start receiving lawsuits, disputes, and claims from your workers, clients, and competitors. And without legal expertise, your business could end up going under within a short time.

To protect yourself from all this, you should hire commercial litigation lawyers who can help you avoid violations and defend your business in the event of lawsuits, claims, and disputes. It is important to vet the lawyer before hiring them to ensure they have a good grasp of business law because you may need their expertise soon.

As you have seen, starting a business requires you to meet a set of legal requirements. It is important to honor all these requirements to avoid legal action from the authorities or your competitors. And since every industry has its own set of requirements, it is paramount to ensure that you understand these rules. If not, you should conduct some research into the requirements before venturing into the business. Alternatively, you can seek the services of a business lawyer. A lawyer will help explain the different sets of rules in your industry and how each of them affects your business.

Build Back Better: How to Bounce Back After the Pandemic

November 27, 2021 by Katie Conroy Leave a Comment

As the world is starting to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions are easing throughout the United States, it’s time to consider how you can bounce back. Your life may have been frantic if you are a frontline worker, or it may have felt like someone hit the pause button. The important thing now is to move forward. Whether your goal is to live more healthily, or you want a better career, you can manifest it all. Author Mike McRitchie presents the following tips that can help you bounce back.

You build what you attract

The term law of attraction refers to a concept that says our mind can translate whatever is in our thoughts into reality. Simply put, if you focus on positive things and set positive goals, you will find ways to achieve them. On the other hand, if you spend your time focused on negativity, you will continue to attract negative things or events into your life.

The key aspect to note here is that positive things will not happen automatically. According to the law of attraction concept, if you can imagine something, you can take action towards making your goal a reality.

You have to put in the work

Assuming you have a goal in mind, taking steps towards your goal often requires a degree of confidence. Confidence does not mean arrogance without foundation. Instead, it means trusting in your judgment, abilities, and capacities to achieve what you have set your mind on. Building your confidence is closely related to appearing confident. If you project confidence to others, your audience is more likely to respond favorably. In turn, this will help you grow your self-confidence.

Let’s look at two examples: Starting with work, assume you are trying to convince your superiors to back a new project. If you can present the project’s targets clearly and confidently and show how the organization will benefit, you are likely to receive the funds you need to proceed. On the other hand, if you appear doubtful during your presentation, rejection is almost inevitable.

Apply the same logic to healthy living and the outcome is similar. If your goal is to make exercise a regular part of your life, you will research and find programs that fit your lifestyle. However, if you are actually looking for excuses to prove exercise does not fit into your life, you will find those, too.

You have to roll with the punches

Whether you are setting professional or personal goals or both, it is important to remember that small steps will eventually lead towards your goal. Use every achievement – no matter how small you think it may be – as a confidence builder. Step-by-step, you will find yourself developing an all-encompassing sense of confidence.

This will also support you through inevitable setbacks along the way. The main point is to learn from those mistakes and avoid repeating them.

Don’t forget that achieving your goals will take some effort. For instance, when it comes to your work life, consider getting additional qualifications as one way of jumpstarting your career. Online study is a fantastic way of learning new skills. Not only is your schedule flexible and you progress in your own time, but you can tackle these courses in the comfort of your own home. If you can think it, you can do it or be it. Taking the time to set goals for your post-pandemic future is the first step towards bouncing back successfully. Finally, explore Manifestinator for more insightful and inspiring content and exercises to help you create the life you want.

Does A Company’s Culture Influence Your Employees’ Productivity?

November 27, 2021 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Yes, without a doubt. If you thought that good quarterly profits and timely payroll dispatch are all you need to keep a happy workforce, then maybe you need a reality check. Today, work satisfaction encompasses more than being paid on time or getting a huge raise yearly. Instead, employees view workspaces as a platform that helps them grow and values them for their skills. To put it short, your company’s culture impacts your employees’ performance and their overall productivity. And a company’s culture starts from its leaders.

Corporate culture is difficult to define, but implementing it is even more challenging. Each aspect of the company’s operations is developed and ingrained with them. Simply put, culture encompasses a company’s vision, mission, purpose, and values, reflected through its everyday interactions and operations. Having these factors helps create an environment that motivates people to work and promote positive relations between them and their workplace.

If you need more reasons to get convinced, here are

5 Ways Corporate Culture Influences Employee Productivity

Impacts the mindset

Employees’ performance is deeply influenced by the corporate culture that they are constantly exposed to. It is widely observed that a high-performance culture inspires and builds high performing teams. Experts say this tactic has been most prominently observed in sports, where athletes inspire and motivate their peers to excel. Members with a high-performance mindset are inspired from within, which helps them stay committed to doing better. When you’re surrounded by others who aspire to achieve their best, getting up and doing your best is easy and motivating.

Enhances the employee engagement

Engaging your employees is a crucial metric that determines a company’s productivity. A less engaged employee is more likely to only care about their paycheck and may only ‘just enough’ work to keep them on the payroll. Thus, even though you might use a employee monitoring tool like Flowtrack or HRapp employee monitoring software to track their performance, something might be amiss.

According to experts, this behaviour deters them from being productive. Often, low employee engagement is attributed to a loosely-knit company culture that hardly motivates employees or makes them feel connected.

If you find yourself in this situation, then it’s time to reconsider your values and vision. Your company culture should motivate your employees to view their work way beyond their paychecks. In that case, amend your approach since engagement is the key to productivity and higher results.

An enhanced collaboration

Collaborative relationships between colleagues foster a positive working environment. When a company culture prioritizes collaboration, team members are likely to compete for less and improve their collaborative outputs. Therefore, a high performer might not take laurels in a collaborative corporate culture, but a low performer will definitely learn more.

Creating a collaborative environment not only enhances employee productivity but has a tremendous impact on the organization as well. You can witness improved retention and engagement in your company.

Raises employee morale

To boost employee morale, it is essential to maintain a positive working environment. When corporate culture does not foster a positive work environment, a high probability is that employees might view their colleagues or other departments with a sense of disdain. The animosity between departments in no way motivates employees to work together.

Therefore it is crucial to build a company culture that does not encourage favouritism or biases. A negative workspace can lead to high turnovers, which can damage your business. Always strive to build a company culture where everyone is treated equally.

Offers employees a sense of direction

The corporate culture embodies the vision, mission, and values of your company. Your organization’s mission should be reflected in every interaction with your employees. Managers must ensure that their employees are directed towards achieving the goals.

You have to periodically communicate your strategies to your workforce to ensure that ideas reach them. Essentially, your employees should know what they are trying to accomplish.

Lack of productivity is also a major issue that costs businesses millions of dollars each year. Having a flawed company culture is one of the major causes of low productivity. You need to foster a positive company culture that provides employees with a sense of direction and motivation to succeed and shine. Don’t forget to use technologies and tools to supplement goals.

Wrapping up

It is important to have a strong company culture in order to establish a positive relationship between your employees and your workplace. This way, no matter what flawed strategies you may have, all employees are focused on a common goal and remain united.

Corporate culture is way beyond your employee’s happiness but is a way to boost your organization’s overall productivity. So if your corporate culture is not bringing you desired results, it’s high time you change your approach.

Is Your Business Working As Well As It Could Be?

November 26, 2021 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Is your business working as well as it could be? It’s a question that you should be asking yourself over and over as someone who owns a company. You should always try to think about the things that could be done in order to improve your business at any given time, and if you’re not then this could be a huge failure. In this article, we’re going to be looking at some of the things that you need to ask yourself whether you have or are doing, so keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.

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Productive Employees

First, you need to consider whether or not you have productive employees. It’s true to say that your employees are a major part of your business, as they are the ones who provide the service to clients. It’s for this reason that they have got to be highly trained, and working hard to ensure that they are providing the absolute best to the people who use your company. Working hard and working smart are the two things that you have got to advocate for when it comes to your business, so keep pushing that into your employees whenever you get the chance.

If you still aren’t sure about your employees, then you need to conduct a performance review for them. This will tell you everything that you need to know, so pay close attention to what is happening during this time.

Working With Partners

Are you working with partners to enhance the service that you provide? You see it all the time, some companies partner with others so that they can fill the gap as it were. If your business offers a service, but there is something that you cannot offer, partnering with a company that does makes life so much simpler. For example, if you are completing a project but you need a temporary office, Modular Genius or someone like this are where you should be looking. It means that your client doesn’t have to start looking for another service as you provide it all with your package.

The Right Tech

Finally, the right tech is essential to any business. We live in the age of tech now and there is no running away from that, we can only embrace it. Instead of not wanting to move into the digital age, you are going to have to invest in the right tech, otherwise your employees aren’t going to be able to do their jobs properly. If this was the reason for the failure of your business, it would be down to you.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you are going to need to think about when deciding whether or not your business is working as well as it could be. If you ever want to see the high levels of success when it comes to your business, then you are going to need to approach this with a critical eye. You have always got to be the one to see when things need improving, so start working on this if it’s not your best area.

When Last Did You Review Your Insurance Portfolio?

November 25, 2021 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

It seems like there are always too many things to do and never enough time. Yet, reviewing your insurance portfolio might be one of the most important items on your “to-do” list.

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Why do you need to review your policies?

First of all, it’s an opportunity to ensure that you or your business aren’t paying more than necessary for coverage;
Secondly, it could identify coverage gaps;
Thirdly, you can oftentimes find ways to save money by combining products – property and liability (general), errors & omissions (E&O) with property (commercial) policies;
Fourthly, if you have positions within some of these policy types that you don’t need anymore, there is always the potential to remove them from the policy portfolio.

In addition, if your business has been growing or changing, these changes may impact your insurance needs and how much you should be paying for coverage. For example, say that you have a D&O policy with a carrier but over time have decided to conduct all transactions internally instead of through a broker. In this case, have you actually reviewed whether or not it is necessary to keep this coverage?

The other reason to review your insurance portfolio often is because carriers do change their rates – some as frequently as every quarter. So those 20% savings you were getting one year ago might now be 60%. If nothing else, reviewing your coverage at least once a year will allow you to stay on top of rates.

The point is, whether you are reviewing your coverage twice a year or every ten years, it is well worth the time. Whether that time results in savings, just knowing what your business needs, or eliminating unnecessary expenses – it’s all good. As Yogi Berra once said, “It’s always better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”

Make sure that you review your insurance portfolio often to ensure that you are covered properly and pay less for coverage. Do not neglect this vital step. If you don’t have the expertise internally to make sure everything is completed correctly, consider hiring an independent agent or broker who should be able to help.

What if a claim is delayed or rejected?

Your insurance coverage is ineffective if you can’t get the business interruption or other claim paid. If your current carrier won’t pay what you think is covered, it’s time to investigate another insurance company that will honor their commitment to providing effective protection for you and your business.

“Bloated” policies are problematic & unnecessary – but carriers don’t always agree with that opinion. Don’t let your policy become bloated because of “excess” coverages that either cause premiums to rise or force exclusions because clearly stated limits were exceeded. A good example would be looking closely at the definition of contractors under an E&O policy (or, even better yet, ask your broker/agent about this specific issue). The same goes for other types of policies, including workers’ compensation.

What about identity theft or personal injury claims?

Many business owners are not aware that in addition to property damage or liability, many errors & omissions policies also provide identity theft coverage. Some even offer medical malpractice insurance products. Another important point here is that it is key to check your policy limits for these types of claims – if they are reasonable ($2 million/$5 million), you should consider increasing them ($5 million/$10 million). While this may increase your premium, having larger limits can be comforting when a claim does arise.

Exhausting All Appeals Available

It is important to note that if you do have any disagreements with your carrier about coverage issues, then it’s best to pursue all avenues available before considering taking legal action. Filing a suit against an insurance company can take months and cost thousands in legal fees. If you do decide to move forward, we recommend you consult with sympathetic injury lawyers as soon as possible so they can guide you through the process and potentially save you money.

Can an independent broker save you money?

One of the most common questions is whether or not an independent broker can save money on insurance coverage. The answer is “yes,” – but it’s more complicated than that question suggests. While you probably won’t find a company that will charge less for every policy, if there are multiple products, then some carriers may offer cheaper rates overall. Also, keep in mind that while one carrier might always be slightly higher on price, they could also have better service or broader product availability.

So while some brokers will still think about how to get you switched right away, others are really focused on asking questions so they can help you get the best risk protection today with competitive prices, so your business runs smoothly tomorrow.

As always, if there are questions or concerns, please get in touch with your insurance advisor.