Mohit Tater's Blog, page 618

Who’s Really Responsible For Third-Party Vendor Breaches

Working with suppliers, partners, and third-party vendors has never been riskier to your bottom line. Approximately 63 percent of data breaches come from access outside a company, according to a recent survey. Some of the most devastating cyber hacks in recent years have occurred because of vendors working with big companies. This means it is not the fault of media companies like many in the media portray.

The Reason More Data Breaches Occur because of Third-Party Vendors.

The volume of third-party contractors may be a factor be a factor in the number of data breaches. More and more big and small businesses are turning to contractors to save on costs associated with hiring full-time employees. They also turn to third-party vendors to fill specific niches such as data analysis or temporary employees. This causes companies to become trust that their data will remain safe. As you hire more and more third-party vendors, have do you ensure data from your customers and clients remain safe?

In 2015, Experian, a credit-processing agency, and other high-profile third-party vendors experienced data breaches. This shows just one data breach from a vendor, partner or supplier can damage your business. For instance, Experian’s database was hacked by cyber criminals. However, it was T-Mobile’s data they took. They confiscated personal data of T-Mobile’s 15 million cellular service customers.

T-Mobile’s CEO was “incredibly angry” about the data breach. He had a right to be angry because Experian didn’t install security patches. Whose job was it to secure data? Many class-action lawsuits are pending against T-Mobile and Experian. This means they are being equally held responsible for the breach.

Many regulators agree that the responsibility of securing and tracking collected, processed, stored and shared data is on companies. As of 2017, New York financial firms are now required to verify vendors’ cybersecurity measures are adequately secure. This is according to 23NYCRR 500.

Trust, but Verify Vendors, Partners, and Supplies

A handshake or contract is no longer the way to do business in the world of data breaches. Today, it about trusting and verifying the trustworthiness of contractors. It also requires verifying that documentation too.

Audits and assessments are the most common ways of vendor verification. Many businesses assessment is good enough. It can’t be good enough. To get the most out of the verification process, keep it simple.

Ask yourself the right questions before creating a verification assessment such as:

Does the contractor collect, process or store employee or customer data on your behalf?
What does the contractor do on your behalf?
What access does the contractor have to our systems, data, and networks?
How does a contractor ensure compliance and security measures are being followed by its subcontractors?

Each set of questions you ask yourself should be unique to each vendor you’re assessing. The questions should take into consideration the nature of your relationship with the contractor and what you believe is important to the assessment.

The Assessment is about Quality, not Quantity

It’s always important to take a risk-based approach when carefully crafting your survey. The more concise the assessment questions, the more emphasis on understanding how each vendor uses your data. This means you are better able to identify the security risks with each vendor.

For some vendors, an audit is required. Vendor audits are becoming more popular. One disadvantage is that they are a hassle. This drawback can be remedied. Find out if your vendor has SOC-2 or a comparable certification. This will put to rest many of the concerns you have and focus on your company.

If you’re sharing highly sensitive information, conduct an audit. If you spot one or two red flags in the assessment, conduct an audit. When conducting an audit, look for threats and concerns to your company. Look to see how each vendor does or doesn’t protect your company.

Trust, but Verify is the New Normal in Business

It is no longer OK to trust your vendors are protecting your client and customer data. Trusting them but verifying that trust is now the rule. Cyber criminals are upping their efforts to hack databases. They hope third-party vendors’ systems are less secure than your company’s system. That’s why you can have the strongest security, but your customers and clients are still data breach victims.

Don’t let your customers and clients become data breach victims. Don’t take the chance that your third-party vendors are compliant and secure. Always trust but verify their security and compliance.

Data is the new currency for cyber criminals. In addition, it causes your business to incur fines, reputation damage and penalties. The opinion of who is responsible for the data breach is changing. Now, you are responsible for protecting your company’s data not your third-party vendor. That’s why you must trust your vendors only after they’ve been verify.

Author Bio

Ken Lynch is an enterprise software startup veteran, who has always been fascinated about what drives workers to work and how to make work more engaging. Ken founded Reciprocity to pursue just that. He has propelled Reciprocity’s success with this mission-based goal of engaging employees with the governance, risk, and compliance goals of their company in order to create more socially minded corporate citizens. Ken earned his BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT.

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Envelopes: An Under-Utilised Resource

Granted, it’s difficult to get excited about envelopes – but many businesses of all sizes are missing out on valuable opportunities to use them to a wider potential than they currently do. A quick visit to a specialist printer such as bestbuyenvelopes.uk will highlight the wide variety of options that are available for anyone wishing to efficiently streamline their business. Here are some examples of how rethinking your use of envelopes can benefit you.

Being On Brand Using Envelopes

If you’re not using your envelopes as an opportunity to market your business with every piece of mail you send, you’re missing out. It’s so quick and easy for you to personalise your envelopes with your business logo and colour scheme, there’s no excuse not to.

Keeping Organised

Using different coloured envelopes is an easy way for you to keep track of your different mail streams. Every business will want to send different mail to different recipients, colour coding the envelopes you use to do so will save you considerable time and effort in keeping track of your outgoing mail.

Making an Impression

Mailing is a great way to give your potential customers an idea of what your business is all about – an eye-catching colour scheme gives a subtle hint that you’re a dynamic, modern business, where a more subtle choice of colours may be more appropriate if you prefer a more tactful approach to presentation.

Improving Efficiency

Not only do you have a wide choice of colours, you also have a variety of shapes and sizes. Sending a small letter in a large envelope can leave the impression on your recipients that you’re disorganised or haven’t got the correct resources. A variety of envelopes to suit every mailing need is ideal.

Keeping Costs Low

Due to the lack of physical store-front, most online printers can offer you excellent deals on customised printing – particularly if you’re ordering in bulk. This makes great sense when you also consider you can get a sample beforehand, to know exactly what you’re ordering before you order it.

Keeping these tips in mind will help you use your business envelopes to their maximum potential – you’ll quickly see the benefits.

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Here’s What You Should Know About Using Online Photo Galleries with Your Business

Online photo galleries have been around for a very long time. At first, it was all about the consumer. Digital cameras were a hit. And people went from taking 24 photos at a time to thousands, often in one outing. It was a matter of limits. Film had strict limits. But with digital, you could take as many shots as you liked.

This was a boon to businesses because photography has always been an essential part of how some businesses told their stories. They needed a way of storing and processing hundreds, even thousands of photos at a time.

Photographers have always needed a place to offload, edit, and archive photos. They also needed a place to showcase and sell photos. From there, photos could be categorized, ranked, and turned into other products such as shirts, mugs, and other consumables.

Since the consumer offerings came first to meet a consumer need, professionals tried to make the new online photo galleries work for them. But it wasn’t long before photo professionals identified the limitations in the consumer offerings and started demanding something even better. Services like SmugMug were born to meet those more professional demands.

When SmugMug recently acquired Flickr, many were uncertain about how to feel. But photo professionals cheered. Here is some of what professionals know about online photo galleries that other businesses are just now learning:

Social Is Good

Online photo galleries are social networks at the core. They may have started out as a solution for storing all those digital photos. But they also turned out to be excellent outlets for sharing photos. Arguably, sharing is the most important part of the photo-taking process.

People will share photo galleries on a gallery site in ways they wouldn’t if the photos were captive on your business site. No one goes to Ford’s corporate site for pictures of Mustangs. But they would not only visit, but share a gallery of classic Mustangs on Rout 66. Finding ways to make your corporate photos social is always a win.

Photos Are Marketing

Companies are finally realizing that photos are an integral part of their marketing strategy. They are even learning how to use consumer-facing social networks to boost sales. For years, sellers on services like Craigslist and eBay have known that a good photo gallery can make the difference between getting the desired price quickly and not getting it at all.

One of the things we know is that photos create emotional bonds. It is one thing to hear about a coworker’s new baby, and quite another to see pictures of her.

The same thing is true with products. If all you do is describe a product, you might take up a small amount of headspace. But the moment you post a picture, you start occupying space in the heart, emotional center, or whatever you want to call it. People can start picturing how that item will look in their home. They can imagine wearing it.

The thing you want to be sure to do is use high-quality photos for your galleries. This leads to large images that can effect the performance of your site. This is yet another benefit of using a professional photo gallery site. When people have the option to see full-sized image quality, there is an opportunity for a full-sized sales impression.

Microsites Make Mega Sense

A microsite is a smaller more focused site that stands alone from a company’s main site, and has it’s own branding. One of the reasons a company might use a microsite is to try new things that will not harm the main brand if they fail. It also gives a way for a company to reach out to a new demographic not reached by its current brand.

Online photo galleries are great for microsites because their can promote trending products. Pictures can be swapped out frequently. And the site can take on new themes every few days making it that much more social and sharable.

Some wonder if the trend toward businesses utilizing online galleries is a good thing. But that is the wrong question. It is a thing that is happening right now. The better question is how better to use them to enhance your social, marketing, and microsite efforts.

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Millennials and the Mobile Games: The inseparables

The Millennials love to upgrade themselves with the latest advancements in technology. It is this urge of embracing the latest developments that make them champions when it comes to knowing the length and breadth of everything about mobile phones.

One big reason as to why they are absolutely hooked on to the usage of phones is the presence of online mobile games. The games are available in millions and some of them are even available for free.  So much is the love and craze for online mobile games that they have become part and parcel of the lives of them nowadays. Let us now see in detail the role of online mobile games in the lives of the millennials.

What makes them love mobile games?

In general, the most avid users of online mobile games turn out to be millennials. There is a strong reason behind it too. The superheroes like superman, hulk, iron man, etc., that they see in the online games tend to capture their imagination as they grew up admiring them. So, when they are able to play online games where they can imagine themselves as superheroes and do all the heroics, it is only natural for them to get engrossed in them, isn’t it? So, they hardly mind spending money on downloading the games and playing them. ComScore 2017 U.S. reports that 46% of millennials have spent at least $5 on an app in the past year and incidentally most of those apps turn out to be mobile games. This scenario is no different in India and rest of the world where millennials are hooked to online mobile games. They love to play strategy games like online rummy which they can play at their own comfort and win cash on-the-go. The online gaming industry in India reached higher level since they started to play rummy a lot. Since, most of the digital games are thrilling and adventure driven, the millennials, irrespective of their gender, show immense interest in playing them tirelessly.

Other Reasons that make mobile Games so Attractive

As the millennials frequently change their phones aiming for better models, they are inclined to look for gaming apps which look good to be played on their gadgets. In fact, the delectable features added in most of the mobile games, appear better in certain high-quality phones. “Mobile gaming is undoubtedly on an upswing with every year bringing new trends and changes to the market place”, says Polygon’s video game staff in their state of the industry series. Yes, it is the new trends and changes which have helped in the mind-blowing development of mobile games making its presence felt among people of all ages, especially millennials. Taking advantage of the features in smartphones, they are able to come up with some extraordinary graphics and mechanics enticing millennials in every way possible.

Mobile gaming growth in India:

App Annie, in its latest survey stated that India has around 120 million online mobile gamers and ranks fifth in the world among mobile downloads. It is estimated that on an average minimum 30 minutes is spent by each of them on mobile gaming accounting for over 500 million downloads every month. In fact, as per an article by Shashwati Shankar from ET Bureau, India is expected to surpass Brazil and Russia which are ranked at 3rd and 4th places respectively by 2020. Till a few years back, online gaming companies used to garner bulk of their revenues only through advertisements only. But today, the gaming companies which are dealing with cash based strategy games see an increase in revenues through the players themselves. Forbes has projected the number of users to be 628 million by 2020. Hence, it is quite natural that the players are going to pump in more and more revenues for the online gaming industry. What’s more, with one of the largest millennial population at its disposal in addition to hosting the second largest online population, India is going to soon emerge as the place for the largest mobile gaming population in the world.

Localised online mobile games in India:

Other factors aside, the localisation of mobile games has been one of the main reasons for Indians, especially millennials, to get fascinated by them. The Indians, in general, love playing games like Cricket and card games like Teen Patti and Rummy in addition to games related to Bollywood and Mythology. Since these games are customised to be played on mobiles online, it adds a local flavour to them. In fact, efforts are being made to give an Indianized effect to some of the international games. As a matter of fact, Flixy games got $425,000 seed funding especially for this purpose. Ludo King, one of the popular games localised in India, topped the list with over 50 million installations on Android phones by May 2017. Similarly, the desktop version of Indian Rummy when it was customised to play through apps in Android phones, the number of registrations started exceeding unimaginably. Nasscom reports states that the fascination of online Rummy among Indians can be ascertained from the fact that over 8% of the total games developed are casino-based games including Online Rummy, Teen Patti and Poker. What is clearly seen is the preference of app-based gaming compared to regular mobile games or its desktop version. In fact, popular gaming website RummyCircle saw over 7 million rummy game download and installations showing that players prefer to experience the game on app compared to desktop. So, yes millennials are comfortable with apps and prefer to play on it whenever they want.

Conclusion:

It is needless to say that the online mobile games have become the part and parcel of the millennials. Forget about entertainment, it is just the right age for them to try these games because playing them keeps one mentally stable and healthy, sharpens one’s memory and makes one an effective decision maker and problem solver too which will help him/her a successful personality for a very longer period. Millennials are matured enough to know the virtues associated with playing online mobile games and probably that’s the reason why they stay hooked to them.

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How to Improve Your Net Promoter Score

Knowing your Net Promoter Score is important, but it’s even more important that you take the data that you’ve collected from the survey in order to improve your score. To increase your score, the main goal is to convert as many customers as possible into brand promoters. This requires increased customer loyalty and creating trust-based relationships.

The more promoters you have on your side, the more online and word-of-mouth referrals you can expect. In a world where referrals mean more than ever, improving your Net Promoter Score is critical.

Want to know how to improve your Net Promoter Score on WordPress? Here are tips and tricks you’ll want to know to give your score a boost in the right direction.

Have an Organizational Mission

Internal buy-in is a must if you want to improve your Net Promoter Score. All employees need to understand what this number means, why it’s important, and the steps you plan to take to improve it. Understanding Net Promoter Score is most important for those on your staff who directly communicate with customers, such as customer service representatives.

Remember, improving your score means increasing customer satisfaction and happiness. By getting everyone involved in the process, there can be company-wide enthusiasm and excitement for achieving the score you want.

Engage & Communicate

One of the biggest pitfalls that companies fall into is not engaging and communicating enough with their consumers. While you may send weekly or even daily emails, this isn’t enough to encourage open communication. It’s important to reach out to your customers, both old and new, to show that your care and to open a line of communication.

There are all sorts of effective ways to engage and communicate with your customers. Consider options like:

Posting and responding to social media posts
Live video streaming
Customer surveys
Direct messages and live chat

By staying in routine contact with your customers, they will trust your brand and feel as if they can openly communicate with you. This opens the door for sharing their feedback and being direct about what they like and dislike about your brand.

Make Promoting Your Brand Easy

Let’s face it, by nature we’re all extremely lazy and typically only do things that are bound to benefit us. Even if a customer is completely in love with your brand and products, they’re unlikely to share their feedback or refer others if the process is too complicated. While customers will take the time to discuss their negative experiences, it takes much more time and effort to convince them to share the positive side of things.

To boost your score, start by encouraging customers to share their experiences. Entice them to write reviews on social media by offering a discount coupon or exclusive content on your website. By creating an incentive, consumers are likely to be much more interested in sharing their thoughts.

You can also offer quick customer surveys that can be submitted. By asking just a few questions, you can get a good feel about what people think about your overall company as well as the product or service that you offer.

When customers feel like their opinion holds value, they’re much more likely to share it.

Pay Attention to Promoters

Online you’ll face a wide range of consumers. You’ll have some that purchase your product but you’ll never hear from them. Others will make a purchase and be very vocal about their likes or dislikes. While you may be inclined to focus on those who are unhappy with your product to find a way to satisfy them, you should be doing just the opposite.

Instead of worrying about detractors, focus on your promoters. These customers often have a lot of valuable insight to share. You can pinpoint why they’re loyal to your company and what can be changed to improve things.

By focusing on those who promote your brand, you may also be able to work with them to serve as influencers. The more social media buzz you can attract, the better.

Monitor Your Score

Being complacent on your Net Promoter Score can easily undo all of your hard work. When your score reaches the level you want it to be at, it’s important that you continue to monitor it. Don’t slack off on your communication, engagement, or the attention you give to consumers. Instead, keep the levels consistent so that customers see that you’re in it for the long run and that you really do care.

Conclusion

By taking the time to improve your Net Promoter Score, you’re not only able to improve your company internally, you can use these changes as ways to increase customer satisfaction. Customers that are continuously satisfied are more likely to stick with your brand versus trying out one of your competitor’s product or service.

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How to Build and Market Your Small Business Using Big Corporation Strategies

In the past, big corporations tended to have advantages over small businesses because they had more funds to play with, higher-quality teams and a better established brand name. However, these days, thanks to technology, smaller ventures can actually use most of the same tools that larger firms have access to while enjoying advantages such as being more agile, responsive and capable of taking risks.

If you’re keen to take on the “big boys” in your industry right now, you are in luck when it comes to marketing and growing your business. Read on for some top ways you can build your venture today using tech strategies available to everyone.

Big Data

Big Data has made a big impact in the business world for years, and today it is easier than ever for small firms to gather, analyze and utilize information. Big Data is incredibly helpful when it comes to analyzing which marketing avenues work best, which customers should be targeted,which products or services are selling best or bringing in the most leads, and where, when and how people shop.

You should be using data analysis to help you make more effective decisions and in quicker time frames, and to provide better customer service to your clients. It is there to help you cut costs and maximize your budget and is brilliant at streamlining processes.

To really grasp how much of a benefit Big Data can be to your business, and to work out how to use it best, it pays to consider hiring staff with online graduate degrees in business analytics and data science — or else pursuing the degree yourself. The investment can help you to grow your business much more quickly and to increase the profits you make.

Video Marketing

Another key tool not enough small businesses are using is video marketing. In the past, the cost of creating quality videos meant that only large corporations had the budget to produce them; today technological advances have reduced costs, and organizations of all types to take advantage of video marketing. Thanks to the video apps and other video software on the market, you can create a professional video in just a few minutes on your smartphone.

If you’re wondering why you should spend the time on investigating this marketing avenue, consider this: Video promotions typically achieve higher engagement levels with audiences and are shared more frequently, so you get more eyeballs on your website and products or services. They also provide more longevity than most other advertising options. In addition, videos help you improve your search engine optimization, so your company ranks higher on Google and other search engines.

To make videos work for you, try to keep most productions short, at around 30 seconds or less. You can break up longer messages into concise, focused videos and then collate them as a series. Since most people are so busy and because you’re competing for their attention, you must make content as bite-sized as possible. Add in clear calls-to-action and your contact details on each video, and always find a way to provide value for the viewer, whether that’s through being inspiring, moving, entertaining or delivering helpful information.

User-Generated Content

You may not be familiar with the term “user-generated content” (UGC), but there is no doubt you have seen it in action. This term refers to any type of content consumers create themselves about brands or products and services. User-generated content is created and shared by fans of a company and includes things like testimonials, product reviews, person-to-person recommendations, social media shout-outs, blogs, forum posts and more.

UGC is effective because rather than you “selling” your business and its wares to consumers, you let your happy customers do it for you. The benefit of this is that other shoppers are more likely to believe and be affected by messages that come from their peers. In turn, this leads to more leads and more conversions. Plus, it’s also kind to your wallet since it’s free advertising and brand recognition that you don’t have to outlay funds for.

To utilize this strategy, find ways to encourage your clients to become your ambassadors, advertisers and raving fans. Welcome your customers to upload photos of themselves with your products on social media using a set hashtag, set up a forum where people can chat amongst themselves about your wares, tell clients you’ll support them with photographs and information for any blog posts they’d like to write about your brand and make it quick and easy for customers to write reviews or testimonials.

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Choosing a Job: Private or Public Sector

When you’re thinking about a career, you have a lot of factors to consider. If you’re still in school, doing your best to plan for the future, you’ve got to think about the sort of qualifications you might need to inform your subject choices – if you have your heart set on a career in medicine, that means GCSEs and A-Levels well stocked with Maths and Science subjects. If you’re thinking about switching career in midstream, you need to think about how your experience maps on to the requirements of your target job – few people have the time and resources to go back to school and requalify in a serious way, so finding ways you can turn your existing experiencing into pluses for the job, or take short conversion courses based on the certificates you already have is vital.

You also have to think about what the job is actually like and what a successful, happy life looks like for you. Work in the public sector is largely stable, with a robust pension scheme to provide security in retirement, but the majority of workers are not highly paid with regard to the national average. Government policies have also limited resources and left many people’s pay frozen for years at a time.

Work in the private sector can be more financially rewarding (though the secret to that seems to be to break into upper management positions, which are by their natured limited in number. The proportional difference in pay between executives and new starters has never been higher!), but it’s also more volatile. There’s a greater chance of private companies going bust, winding down or moving operations abroad so you’re more likely to find yourself out of work, but a more volatile situation can also mean more opportunities.

If you’re thinking about the public sector, you need to consider the whole range of jobs on offer. If you think of it as ‘just’ doctors and nurses or ‘just’ civil servants you’re missing out not just on the social work sphere, and criminal justice jobs, but on the army of administrators, HR staff, managers and other ‘back room’ workers who keep the whole edifice working. Working for the NHS doesn’t mean an onerous doctor’s training regime. You could be as useful (and as employable) by studying statistics and using your mathematical skills to work in research, helping doctors perform tests of new drugs and treatments.

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How to Present a Meeting Room Fit for a CEO

If you find yourself hosting an important meeting at your business premises, you of course want to make sure that your meeting room is an inviting one. You wouldn’t want to welcome in your guests to an unloved conference room as this certainly doesn’t set the right tone.

You want your guests to feel welcome and comfortable in your company, which is why the setup of the meeting room is so important. Although you can’t close a deal early on, you can definitely miss out on one. To help ensure that it is you, and not a disregarded venue, that does the talking we have compiled our list of meeting room essentials.

Drink

If you expect your meeting to last for a number of hours, potentially turning into an all-day event, making drink available is a must. Jugs of iced water cost nothing while bottled water (one in each place) is also a nice touch.

For your most important meetings, consider adding variety to your drinks menu by including fruit juices such as orange, apple and pineapple assortments, as well as teas and coffees. Going that extra mile is sure to earn you bonus points with your guest(s).

Snacks

Just as drinks will be appreciated, so, too, are snacks. Visitors may not be as forthcoming to help themselves to a biscuit or pastry, so make sure to offer these at the beginning of the meeting. Be careful to only offer suitable snacks, such as pastries, biscuits and fruit as opposed to chocolate bars.

A good spread should leave enough left over, but not too much so as the entire table resembles a buffet. Along with your snacks, offer napkins for your visitors to wipe away any greasy fingers that they would rather not use on any laptops or tablets.

Decoration

The room’s décor can have an enormous effect on the meeting itself, so make sure that any ornaments and other decoration are in keeping with the tone that you are looking to strike. For example, flowers are known to have a calming effect, so placing these in a vase (such as those available from https://www.idealforever.co.uk/vases/) in the middle of the table or the windowsill may just provide the welcoming touch you are striving for.

Away from ornaments such as LSA vases, how the room itself is presented is also of the utmost importance. If your meeting room walls could benefit from a fresh lick of paint, or if there is wallpaper that is peeling away, it is better that you invite the painters and decorators into your meeting room before any potential client or business partner.

Stationery

Have you ever travelled somewhere and wished that you had brought a pen with you? We have all been there as it happens to all of us, so imagine the frustration if you turn up at a meeting having left your pen at home? A pot of pens is a simple touch that can go a long way as it shows that you and your business are prepared.

Having a pen to hand is always a good idea as you never know when you may want to just write something down. In an age where we carry smartphones, laptops and tablets everywhere with us, the pen still holds a place – probably because you don’t have to wait for it to load up before using it.

With these simple points, your business will boast the most inviting meeting room in your industry, welcoming in your prospective clients to your business and getting the meeting off on the right foot.

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New Financial Year It’s Time to Make Financial Resolutions For Your Business

The new financial year has just begun. All business owners irrespective of the size of their business must be busy making new plans for the new year. The bottom line of all these resolutions will be more sales and more revenue. So, let us check out some of the financial resolutions that you must do for your business.

Keep track of the cash flow

Small business owners normally fail to keep track of the cash flow. This year make sure that you find out about cash in and cash out. Make sure that your customers pay on time. Keep a record of all these things so that you get a better idea of your profitability.

Clear all those debts

If you have any outstanding amount or debts or small business loans, make plans to clear these liabilities. Check how much interest needs to be paid. Plan out how you can repay all these debts. Often clearing all liabilities may not be possible in one instance,but then you can always prioritise and make plans to pay for parts.

Pricing of your products and services

Now obviously you want to make a profit from your business and cover all the overheads. The pricing of products or services plays a crucial role in generating profits. Sometimes the prices will vary from customer to customer and the type of services that you are providing. It is better to get more organised and have at least a little bit standardisation of all the prices.

Payment factors

Be very clear the terms and conditions of payments. You must have complete clarity about the credit period that you will give to your customers. You need to be sure about how you will pay your employees etc. Most profitable business try to maintain their AR (Accounts Receivable) cycles lower than their AP (Accounts Payable) cycles.

Focus on taxes throughout the year

There is a general tendency to calculate the taxes that need to be paid and other related things as one starts approaching the end of the financial year. It is better if you concentrate on this factor throughout the year so that you are better prepared at the end of the year. It is important that you have updates about tax law and filing deadlines.

No repetition of past mistakes

It is important that you revisit your past year records and make sure improvements. You need to check all the details of the revenue that your business generated, mistakes that you could have avoided etc. Make sure that you do not repeat those mistakes.

Let accounting always be on your mind

If your accounting software is outdated, updating it would be the first choice. Also, check out the things where you spent unnecessarily. Think and plan out how you will reduce cost and increase the profitability of your business. This will be possible only with proper accounting.

Customer opinion

If you want to improve your sales, then you need more customers. You also need to retain your customers. So, you need to take customer feedback and work towards giving them a better experience with your products and services.

Be clear on your goals for the new year

Be very clear about your goals for this year. Analyse where you need to invest to get a better return on investments. You may also think of taking small business loans for the same from a reliable source.

Here is How You Can Get A Business Loan

Most entrepreneurs think that getting a business loan involves complicated procedure. But that is not true. These days it is possible to get a business loan quickly and that too without visiting the branch. No security required and online approval. It is that easy.

All that you need to give is your pan card, addhar number, current account statement of one year. The business has to be at least one year old. The applicant will have to give valid business proof for the same. There is hardly any paperwork,and you also get the advantage of flexible tenure.

Take your business to new heights in this new year. But for this, you need to make realistic resolutions which will help in giving a boost to your business, improve sales and give your good return on investment.

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Global Forex & Trading Regulations

The forex market is not only the largest, but also the most liquid market in the world today. Most of the traders are relying on forex brokers to handle their trading accounts and entering their trades. For this reason, it is vital that you can depend on your broker. What you’re looking for is a broker who is honest, transparent and trustworthy. But the truth is, even if your broker is your next door neighbor, it’s impossible to know if he/she is upright, honest and worthy of your trust. The good news is that even if your broker is on the other side of the world in a different time zone, there are global trading regulations set up that forex brokers and traders must adhere to.

International Brokerage Regulations

When choosing a broker that you do not know, it’s important to pay attention to the country or continent where they are licensed. By knowing the trading regulations of your broker’s home country, you will know how strictly the market is regulated. Many of the largest forex brokers across the globe are in North America. In North America, there are strict regulations and they are monitored closely. The market is hard for brokers to enter for the reason that it is quite expensive with high fees to become approved. So if your broker is from North America, you can hope that they take adherence to regulations very seriously. A new and growing market for brokers is in Chile, in South America, where the Superintendencia de Valores y Seguros (SVS) offers licensing. South Africa’s forex brokers fall under the watchful eye of the Financial Services Board (FSB). South Africa’s forex market is one of the more advanced markets in its area. Cyprus has a popular trading market, because it’s at the crossroads of the Middle East and serves as a hub to the European market.

The European market is considered to be one of the favored regions that welcomes forex brokers. If your broker is in Europe, you can assume that you will be safely protected by its regulations. For that reason, many brokers who do not have a legal framework locally will try to enter the European market. There are also some nation-specific regulators working within Europe and setting their own standards. For instanceSpain now requires an extra layer of client protection, France has banned advertising and there is a distribution ban set forth in Belgium. Added to that is the Netherlands, which has outlawed CFDs advertising and Turkey, which now has a new minimum deposit and requirements for maximum leverage.

Choosing Licensed Brokers

The bottom line here is that regulations do vary from country to country. Since you do want to be operating under a system that is being regulated, this is something that you need to monitor closely. Regimes change and strict regulations can be voided without warning so being aware is the way to place your trades with minimal risk. Choose carefully and play it safe!

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