Mohit Tater's Blog, page 655

Unique Ways to Effectively Promote a Product

There’s a lot of work that goes into setting up a new business or company, or even just introducing a new product or service. Not only will you have to make sure the quality is top-notch, you’ll also need to promote it. For how else can you get word of your new product to the people who will be using it?

With the many ingenious innovations of varying use out in the market, you’ll need to come up with creative methods of marketing in order to get noticed. We’ve listed some of the unique ways by which you can effectively promote your product below:

Submit a video contest

Not a lot people typically enter video contests, and those who do tend to be more serious about the craft. This means that you’re likely to get a high caliber of video content sent in, which can be very valuable to your business in the future.

Online Voting Contests

The upside to voting contests is that they’re fairly easy to to participate in. Just a click, and your vote is submitted! So you can anticipate a lot of entries coming in, the data of which you can also use to create a mini-study for succeeding marketing strategies.

Don’t underestimate the power of hashtags.

Building your social media following is in itself a business strategy. To do so, you’ll need to actively participate in the online community, which translates to regular postings and fun interactions with other customers over the internet. Using hashtags to promote your product is a very effective way to get word of your business out there, and can streamline relevant posts about your products, as well.

Commission a new mural

We live in an urban jungle – so why not utilize the walls and buildings that you see around you to commission a new mural for that promotes your business? Remember to choose a prominent area (and get permission!) so that a lot of people can pass by it and see your mural. You can even have custom pop up tents manned by staff around the area for a day or two to answer any questions that passersby might have regarding the mural and what its promoting.

Uncommon Sponsors

Partner up with sponsors that, on first thought, might not be in line with your products or business, but actually makes creative sense. This can even be a fun opportunity to spread awareness of your product to people who would otherwise not have found your company.

Get help from bloggers and fellow entrepreneurs.

Networking is an important aspect of businesses, whether it be over the internet or offline. There are a lot of bloggers on cyberspace, each with their own strong followings, so it’s a great resource to tap into when you need to promote a new product. Similarly, your fellow entrepreneurs – who happen to not be your competitors in business – can also help promote what you’re trying to offer via their own network of customers and friends.

Social media has added to the growing number of ways by which business owners can market their own products. But with the huge number of like-minded individuals and companies making use of various marketing platforms to promote their products or services, find unique ways to stand out can be a challenge. How do you promote your product?

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How Long Does It Take to Find an Opportunity Through Beacon Resources?

How long have you been searching for accounting jobs in Orange County? After three or six months of searching, many people still don’t have work. Fortunately, the estimated completion time through Beacon Resources is not three or six months. In fact, it could take only a few days from the time you apply for a job to the time you are hired. Here’s how.

A Stable of Candidates

One reason employers turn again and again to Beacon Resources is that the company has a stable of qualified and vetted candidates ready to go. Thus, there is no need for a lengthy hiring process that involves posting a job description to many boards, sifting through resumes, narrowing them down, conducting interviews and so on. It is easier to simply turn to the company that employs many of the top finance headhunters in Los Angeles.

From Discussing Job Details to Making a Hire

Once a company talks over the details of a job with Beacon Resources, the aim is to present a few qualified candidates within a day or two. If the company knows exactly what type of candidate it wants, it may be able to make a decision after a quick round of interviews. Sometimes, though, the process does take longer.

Areas of High Demand

It goes without saying that high-demand openings fill more quickly. So, if your skill sets match such positions, you could be employed in no time at all. On the other hand, if your skill set is extremely niche, there are still employers out there for you. Patience on your part is likely to result in a great match.

As of April 2017, high-demand job openings were for accounting managers, technical accountants, financial analysts and finance directors, among others.

Preliminary Work

You must submit a resume to Beacon Resources and discuss your skills and goals with an Executive Recruiter. You’ll also undergo background and reference checks. From there, it could be a matter of days before you get a job.

The post How Long Does It Take to Find an Opportunity Through Beacon Resources? appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

How To Ensure Your Startup Is A Success

There are a lot of things you might find yourself worrying about when it comes to the beginning of your startup company. There are certain things that you need to put in place in order to ensure that you will not run into too many problems.

Finding The Best Services

You never want to make the mistake of assuming that you are going to be able to manage every single aspect of your company and the security of it without any outside help. In order to ensure that your company is going to have the chance to really take off as a success, you will need to make use of the skills and expertise of other professionals and other companies. Startup owners that work well with others will become the most successful and their companies will remain some of the most protected.

When you are first starting with various services, you will want to consider making use of the disaster recovery as a service first. With their assistance, you will find that you will have the flexibility to have your workloads spun so your business can get all of the assistance it needs.

Be Prepared To Be A Target

You might have never thought that you are going to be the target of a cyber-attack. However, even if you have always been nice and you really do not have any enemies, your business can be the target. It could be due to the fact that you are likely to have a lot of banking information for many of your customers or clients. It could be that your company is in charge of major systems that a criminal would simply like to mess with. Either way, whether it is to intentionally mess with you as an individual or against your company as a whole, you will want to make sure that you are well protected from targeted cybercrimes.

Go After An Adaptive Workforce

As much as you need to have a good security system running behind the scenes, you will want to have a strong workforce that is adaptive and that you can fully trust. You may never really notice how important it is to have the highest level of staff that you can personally get until you do not have them anymore. Remember, some of them may have access to private and secure information so you have to know that they will not abuse their access to such information.

To help you with finding the best staff, you might want to conduct highly-intensive background checks, including criminal checks and a credit check. This will tell you everything you could need to know about the people that you are thinking of hiring.

Covering The Expense

Between the disaster recovery, backup solutions, and getting a recovery system in place – you might find yourself spending a little bit of money. Now, you will want to still move forward with protecting your business in every way possible. This way, you will not have to worry about risking your business. If you need to, you can look into some additional financing options in order to give you the extra cash needed to cover these expenses.

With this knowledge in hand, you will want to make sure that you are moving forward in the best possible manner for your company. This way, you will not have to worry as much about its level of security being compromised.

The post How To Ensure Your Startup Is A Success appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Key Ways to Increase the Customer Experience and Your Sales to Boot

If you have a fledgling business that you’re just trying to get off the ground, or a venture that has hit a plateau, one of the best ways to turn things around sales-wise is to really hone in on the customer-service experience you provide.

However, this means more than just being pleasant when dealing with potential clients, or answering the phone or emails quickly; it involves thinking about what you offer customers at every step along the way in the browsing and buying process. Read on for some of the key ways that you can really increase the experience you offer consumers today, and enjoy sales growth as a result.

Know Who Your Ideal Customers Are and What They’re After

First up, it’s important to be clear on exactly who your ideal clients are so that you know how best to serve them. You should understand the demographics of your target market, plus their motivations, needs, lifestyle, shopping preferences, preferred forms of contact, and more.

Once you know this kind of information, you can then examine your customer service and think about how best to design it so that it aligns with the desires of your customers. For example, think about where, how and when people will want to get in touch with your business, and what they might need.

Do your customers want to shop in person generally, or online?
Does your target market prefer to make a phone call, send an email, utilize a live chat conversation, pose a question on social media, or engage with your customer service team in another way?
Do you need to have support staff available 24 hours a day, or is a more typical nine-to-five support option enough?
How much information do your customers need about products and services, and do they prefer that information to be in the form of text, videos, pictures, or some other format?

Make notes about the various times and ways that customers want to interact with your business, from the first time they might ever need to get in touch, to the after-sales period when they might need some assistance with their purchase. From there, tailor all processes to suit the people you’re targeting. This will get potential customers more engaged with your business, and make it much more likely that they will finalize their purchases too.

Provide Payment Choice, Security and Ease

Next, if you want to keep your clients happy you need to carefully consider the experience you provide when it comes to payments. For example, in this day and age, people expect to have a variety of choices when they go to finalize transactions. They prefer to have the chance to select the type of payment that suits their needs best at the time of purchase.

As such, to provide the best service possible to your customers, you should try to expand on the payment methods you currently offer. In addition to accepting cash and credit or debit card transactions, for example, you could also allow shoppers to pay by gift card, PayPal, loyalty points, mobile wallets, individual or recurring ACH payment processing, virtual currency, pay-by-phone solutions, electronic checks, and the like.

 

 

Incorporate Self-Service Support Options

Another good way to increase the customer experience you provide to people is to incorporate self-service support options into your business. Consumers want to be able to get answers to their questions, complete tasks, and source information at any time of the day or night they choose, without having to wait to hear from a company’s customer service reps. As such, self-service tools are an important factor in saving people time and energy, and ensuring that they are more satisfied.

For starters, it’s important to have a comprehensive website that customers can go to when they need help. It pays to incorporate dynamic FAQs and Instant Answers. Dynamic FAQs are searchable and make use of Natural Language Search technology to help people locate the information they need in a hurry.

The tech works by analyzing the questions typed in by users as they go, and then presenting people with the most relevant answers. This allows customers to get what they they’re after quickly, so that they can then go ahead and buy the product or service they’re interested in, or solve some type of problem.

Instant Answers are also helpful in customer support. They are designed to allow people to serve themselves by directing them straight to the information they require. Using semantic search, Instant Answer technology analyzes typed-in text (usually inputted into help-desks), and then presents relevant content.

Another self-service option that’s worth considering is Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology. IVR is used when people interact directly with computers via the phone, through speech-recognition software or programs which interpret the tones sent from a keypad.

Interactive Voice Response technology increases the customer experience because it means that, when people call your business, they can be quickly directed to the right person, without having to wait for long or be transferred from department to department.

IVR is also used to allow people to make a fast payment over the phone at any time of day or night, or to find out a variety of basic account and other information when they require it (such as account balances, bill due dates, business trading hours, payment options, and the like).

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When It Makes Sense to Use A Private Jet

One of the best alternatives to flying commercial airlines is a private jet charter. In fact, jet charter services are quite affordable today, thanks to the contribution of high-tech innovations such as torque seal f 900. However, you cannot charter a private jet simply because you can’t stand the long queues at the airport. There are situations where a private jet is worth the splurge.

In light of this, we explore various situations when it makes sense using a private jet.

You Have a Large Group of VIPs

According to Michael Chase, an executive at a leading aviation consulting firm, the more people that need to travel, the more it begins to make financial sense to charter a private jet.  For a team of 15 highly paid executives, whose only alternative is flying business class, the time saved using a private jet can justify the difference in cost.

Moreover, group flying enhances productivity. Namely, if you are flying together with several colleagues, you can work with in complete privacy. This is unlike if you are flying first class, where you may not even be knowing the person sitting next to you.

You Have Several Stops at Limited Timeframe

Another great advantage of using a private jet is that it saves significant time and stress. This is extremely beneficial when you have several stops to make in a limited timeframe.  A perfect example of this situation is flying New York to Green Bay to Chicago to New York in a single day.

For a team of four employees, this will set you back about $30,000 on a private jet. When you factor in their salaries and accommodation in each city, it makes perfect sense in light of the fact that it can’t be achieved in a single day using a commercial aircraft.

You Will be Using an Often Discounted Route

When it comes to air travel, some routes normally cost less compared to others. For instance, if you are flying from Santa Monica to San Jose, you are highly likely to strike an amazing deal. The same applies if you are traveling from Teterboro Airport in New York to West Palm Beach.

A Route has Limited or No Commercial Airline Service

Sometimes commercial airlines just don’t work, or are inconvenient. For instance, it’s extremely difficult to get to Amangiri in Utah. You can choose to fly to Phoenix or Vegas and then travel by road about five hours or take a small regional connection.

The most convenient and efficient option, however, is to charter a private jet that will get you to Page, Ariz., airport, which is only about 20-minute drive from Amangiri.

You Will Be Dealing with Stormy Weather

Sometimes you have to make it to a meeting without fail. Whereas a private jet can often manoeuvre through bad weather when bad local storms usually ground commercial planes. Hence, you will not miss that crucial meeting, thanks to private jet charter services.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot of evidence that using private jet makes good economic sense in certain situations, but there are situations when it’s absolutely not worth it.

Likewise, research shows that organizations that make use of private jet charter services outdo their competitors who use commercial airlines for all their business trips. Therefore, you should know when it’s worth to fly privately and when to endure the hassles that come with flying commercial.

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Spinal Ergonomics : How to Protect Your Posture in the Workplace

 
Are you slouching right now?

Go on, be honest. We won’t dob you in. The only thing that will dob you in is the constant, niggling soreness in your neck and shoulders. But slouching is something that we all do, even though studies have shown that a bad posture can lead to increased feelings of depression, and poor energy.

If you are one of the lucky ones who have a desk job then you are going to be at risk for slouching even more than the usual worker. So how do you combat it? We have come up with some handy tips to make sure that if you are slouching that you combat it, brought to you by the leaders in all things ergonomics, Colebrook Bosson Saunders.

Keep your ears in line with your shoulders

It seems so simple, and yet it’s got some great repercussions.

If you find that you are sitting too far forward or too far back at your desk simply drag your ears back in line with your shoulders and you’ll find posture perfection. It can help if you tape something to the top of your computer or your laptop screen to make sure that you are remembering to be posture-conscious throughout your day. Something as simple as “ears = shoulders” would do the trick and would have the added benefit of confusing the heck out of anyone else who read your reminder.

Do some shoulder exercises

Many of us struggle with weak shoulders or with other shoulder problems.

Make sure you make time to strengthen your shoulders with some simple exercises like shrugging or pulling your shoulders back and down. This easy exercise will help to loosen up your neck and shoulders and will make you aware of the motion you need to practice.

Uncross your legs! Do it now!

We are all guilty of this one at time to time.

If you are a habitual leg crosser then you need to stop it right now. If you have short legs then place some books underneath your feet to make sure that you can rest comfortably. Crossing your legs causes problems with your spinal alignment and is bad for your sitting overall.

Pull back your shoulders

We mentioned this one above, but make sure you are keeping your shoulders pulled back and down, as this will help to bring your chest up and out, and will avoid problems like rounded shoulders. You want to be able to keep them drawn back for a good long while as this will ensure your overall shoulder strength.

Get up and move around

A big part of the ergonomic workplace is getting up and moving around every now and then. You don’t want to be sitting down for a long period of time without moving; this is really bad for your body. Blood flow is decreased and there are a whole raft of issues like abdominal muscle weakening and so forth. We don’t need to go on, just get up and walk around – trust us. It’s good for you

Use a lumbar support pillow

If you are still struggling with your back or having pain even after working at these exercises then you might need to get a little help from a lumbar support pillow. A folded or rolled up towel will work just as well if you need to use it, just make sure you’re still working at the posture and not expecting the pillow to do all the work for you!

Stay straight and tall in the office, and don’t forget to invest your time and energy in the exercises that will make you stronger and straighter. Back pain is very difficult to combat, but with a bit of attention to your office posture you’ll find the results you’re after.

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How To Beat Your Early-Morning Alarm

Another day has gone by with you rushing out the door, your hair messy and your clothes unkempt. Why can’t you wake up on time? Even though you have five alarms to scream you awake at some ungodly hour in the morning? Well, our bodies love sleep too much to let it end abruptly, but that is no excuse to frustrate our plans of an early morning jog, study session or project review before the big meeting. Here are some tips to make sure that you wake up on time tomorrow.

Part 1: Getting enough sleep

Get to bed on time – You may have pulled one too many all-nighters for your body to know that bedtime is 10.00 PM, not 3.00 AM. You don’t have to toss and turn in bed hoping that you’ll fall asleep if you can learn how to reset your internal biological clock. Yes, you read that right! A variety of guides on the internet promise to help you sleep as soon as you hit the sack, with one article on WiseBread claiming you can do it overnight. You need not always take such extreme measures, though. Make a strict schedule for yourself, marking bedtime at least 8 hours before you have to wake up. Lay still in bed for 15 minutes, breathing quietly. Don’t think about getting to sleep, it’ll happen eventually. Try playing out scenes in your head or the age-old trick of counting sheep. The aim is to tire your brain out.

Avoid stimulants – No coffee before bed – everyone knows that! Also starring on that list are computers, TV and phones. The blue light from these devices suppresses melatonin (an essential component to a good night’s sleep). Blue light tricks your brain into thinking that it is daytime, which makes your brain alert and you less likely to nod off. Avoid using electronic gadgets at least up to an hour before bed. Instead, try sipping a relaxing tea like chamomile and reading a book the old-fashioned way.

Carve out a cave – Light, whether from the sun or LEDs, makes your brain alert. Not all of us go to bed early enough to wake up with the sun. The solution? Make your room dark – really dark. Draw your blinds, turn off strong lights and use a mild lamp if you must have some light in the room. And when you wake up, throw your curtains open and flood your senses with the glorious sunshine.

Part 2: Actually waking up

Tell your pillow – Self-suggestion is a powerful tool to use for any task, not just sleeping. By telling yourself (or your pillow) to wake up at a certain time, you are quietly instructing your mind to wake up at the right time.

The right alarm clock – Gone are the days of the old alarm clock which you could slap into silence. If your biggest problem is snoozing your alarm in a fit of anger, get a better alarm clock. An example is the Puzzle Alarm Clock. It shoots three geometrical shapes out and you must assemble them correctly in order to turn it off. You can always get such demanding alarm clocks on your smart phone, such as Puzzle Alarm Clock for Android (the same name is a coincidence, I hope).

And if all that is too much work… At the very least, make your alarm annoying. Nails on chalkboard, Justin Bieber’s latest single… no matter what sound you find unbearable, make it your alarm tone. It’s not advisable to feel annoyed first thing in the morning, but desperate times call for desperate measures, don’t they? And when you finally wake up, hit the ground running.

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How to Accessorize for Spring

It may still be cool in some parts of the country, but one thing is for sure:  summer is fast approaching.  It’s time to shed those extra layers of clothing and spring forth in the season’s fresh and bright new looks.  Whether you’re a guy who likes to stand on the edge of trends, or stick to a classic go-to, there is no better way to celebrate the longer and warmer days than with a few new accessories to keep your wardrobe up to date.  Below are just a few accessories to step up your wardrobe for spring.

1. The sun is out, and that means one thing—harmful UV rays. We may love to bask in the sunshine, but it is still important to protect our eyes.  Of course, sunglasses need not be dull.  Get yourself the trendiest set of aviators with a variety of reflective lenses, or stick to classic Ray-Bans.  Whatever your style, keep a pair or two of sunglasses on hand to be ready for the sunshine.

2. Dress Socks.As the snow melts, you can go back to your lower-profile shoes. Give your classic black and brown dress shoes a twist with dress socks in the spring fashion.  Pantone’s color of the year is called “Greenery,” and it offers a refreshing, youthful, and lively burst of color that you can incorporate into your accessories, even to your socks.  Get dress socks with subtle hints of green to celebrate the spring season.

3. A New Watch.We’ve sprung forward, and while that means losing an hour of sleep, it also means gaining an extra hour of sunshine. Invest in a new watch that will complement your spring wardrobe.  For spring, ditch the somber winter-tones of dark brown leather, and go for a light tan effect.  Alternatively, go for an eye-catching color such as rose-gold or go for the classic look by shopping for silver watches.

4. In spring, the sweet aroma of flowers fills the air like natural perfume, so why not incorporate a fresh scent into your daily look as well? Shopping for cologne can be a fun experience.  Take your date out to your local department store and peruse the cologne section to find your signature scent. While not every cologne wears well on everyone, you can walk away with a signature scent that will carry you through the spring days and summer nights.

5. A New Leather Belt.Belts are a staple in any man’s wardrobe. The classic colors are always deep brown and black.  However, in the spirit of the brightness of the spring season, consider a light tan belt.  You may also want to consider a woven belt in charcoal, navy, or khaki varieties.  This season, the sporty look returns, so a bright woven belt with athletic stripes is a fun twist.  Pair this belt with a short-sleeved polo or oxford shirt, casual shorts, and a pair of boat shoes to polish your look.

6. A Lightweight Sports Jacket.It is time to store away those heavy winter coats and break out some lighter-weight varieties. Blue is always a classic color that looks good on every man, but breakout into a brighter blue or opt for a chambray fabric.  Looking for something different?  Go for linen.  Linen sport coats are light and breezy, and come in a wide array of colors, including grey, light brown, and even white.  This spring, go for low profile pockets and narrow lapels to follow the latest look.

7. A Recipe Book.Spring is busting out all over, and so are the varieties of fruits and vegetables you can cook. Dress smart for your at-home dinner date, and please their palette with the season’s greatest accessory: food.  Invest in a cookbook that utilizes seasonal fruits and vegetables at the local farmer’s market and dress up your dinner to impress your date. Who says accessorizing is boring?

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5 Tips for Effective Twitter Marketing

Marketing your product through social media has become a rage amongst entrepreneurs. Why they do this is simply because they know that social networking websites are the best platforms for making their products reach millions out there. Since this platform serves as the most feasible way of reaching out to a lot of people, it must be implemented effectively. Choosing the right platform, spreading the word in a right manner, advertising your products appropriately and doing all this befittingly and creatively are the keys to successful marketing through social media. So, when we talk about effective marketing for entrepreneurs, Twitter comes to the rescue. Twitter serves as the right platform for entrepreneurs, brands and start-ups to effectively launch their products amongst their targeted consumers. Let’s learn the 5 tips for effective Twitter marketing-

#1 Knowing your objectives

Why are you on Twitter? Know the reason for your presence; know the unerring ways of promoting your product and understand that you have to sell your products and services without being salesy. Don’t try to use those flashy lines, cheesy and annoying promotional techniques and be straightforward. In short, DON’T BE SALESY.

# 2 Tweeting for a purpose, not for spamming

Once you are there on the platform and you know your objective, start with the action. Tweet, but remember not to spam your consumers. Understand that spamming would neither do well to your firm nor to your product. You don’t have to irritate your consumers; rather, you have to attract them towards your product. Tweet with a purpose, keep it valid and substantial and try not to beg to your consumers. You are out there to promote your product, not to beg. Always remember that!

#3 Vary your Tweets

Tweeting one thing over and over won’t make your product attractive, rather, consumers start losing interest. For instance, if you are sharing the links of your website repeatedly, that might hamper your marketing strategy. Your consumers will develop apathy and this is not good for your product. Keep it edgy; vary the content that you tweet, upload pictures, links, PDFs and different media and make it all interesting. Think like a consumer, not like a seller!

#4 Communicate effectively- Don’t over-tweet

Tweeting 50 times a day won’t get you the desired attention of your targeted consumers. Rather, they’ll start developing the ignorance that is something which you don’t want. So, don’t over-tweet because that makes you a desperate seller and annoys your consumers. But when I say don’t over-tweet it doesn’t mean that you won’t be active on the platform. Reply to your consumers actively; try to understand their expectations from the brand or from your idea and always welcome the criticism that you get. Criticism will ultimately lead to the betterment of your product and targeted consumers are always the best critics!

#5 Talk as a person, not as a brand

Being grammatically incorrect, using slang and inappropriate language are things a firm cannot afford because you are out there for a professional purpose. But then, this doesn’t mean that you have to interact with your consumers like you are in a board meeting. No! Be interactive, talk openly about your product, get involved in your community, make your product a part of your conversations while communicating with other businesses, your targeted consumers and even talk about it to your friends. Start communicating and stop being a representative of your brand because people get involved only when you make them do so, your brand is just secondary.

Try these tips, make it effective, plan your objectives, communicate well and as I am mentioning it again, don’t be salesy!

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How Improper Record Retention Can Stop a Growing Business in Its Tracks

Paperwork, record copies, emails—they’re all a part of the day-to-day operations for business. Some you may want to be keep for later reference, some you may want to toss aside after a few minutes, but despite this, businesses need to be conscious of record retention and the delicate balance between keeping documents too long, and keeping them for not long enough.

A double-edged sword, when businesses do comply with record retention regulations and laws and regularly maintain a policy to destroy documents once they pass their retention period, document retention serves as an insurance. Significant fines are avoided, while unneeded documents aren’t putting the company at risk.

To give an idea of just how dangerous failing to follow record retention guidelines can be, here’s a few examples of the lessons to be learned by organizations who found out the hard way:

Not Retaining Records Long Enough

While some businesses on one hand may want to get rid of documents just for sake of saving space, and avoiding clutter, failing to retain necessary documents for their required period can jeopardize the company in the event of an legal or civil claims.

Early disposal of records can lead to serious financial penalties. Just ask banking giant Morgan Stanley, who was handed a bill for a $15 million fine after they failed to produce emails and electronic records to the SEC during several investigations.

Retaining Records for Too Long

On the flip side of failing to retain records for long enough and leaving the business at risk for legal penalties, some companies instead keep and archive any and everything for a “just in case” strategy.

Like early disposal of records however, keeping documents and files beyond their retention period can be equally comprising for companies. As Edward McNicholas, a partner at the Washington-based law firm Sidley Austin points out, “If you retain too long, it’s very expensive, you expose yourself to litigation risks, and you might be violating privacy rights.”

Furthermore, the growing number and cost of data breaches is another factor to consider—especially since the more documents being unnecessarily retained there are, the greater the likelihood that one will lead to a company wide breach.

Target and Yahoos’ breaches in the last several years are a poignant reminder of the financial impact breaches leave. From the direct costs of fines and legal penalties, to the indirect costs of a damaged company reputation in the public eye, failing to properly retain and regularly dispose records can lead to serious and potentially irreversible damage.

How to Ensure You’re Retaining Records Appropriately.

Different types of information and businesses are subject to different retention policies in accordance with applicable laws. For instance, publicly-traded large companies have retention policies governed by the SEC and its regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

For small medical practices, health clinics, and hospitals, there’s the HHS, which also comes with retention periods for PHI per HIPAA. From OSHA to the EEOC, there’s a wide-ranging list of record retention periods for individual documents and information.

Additionally, these laws are often changed and updated regularly—as with the accompanying fines they bring for noncompliance with retention laws, making it even more important companies carefully develop, maintain, and periodically audit their retention policies to keep their companies moving in the right direction, rather than being tied down by lawsuits and hefty fines.

For reference on applicable document retention periods and laws for your industry, find more information at:

http://www.cpa.net/resources/retengde.pdf
http://www.businessarchives.com/document-retention-requirements.asp
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/how-long-should-i-keep-records
http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-2400.html

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