7 Ways To Give Your Business Signs The ‘WOW’ Factor

If you have ever wondered why book publishers spend so much on amazing book cover designs or online businesses pay top dollar for eye-catching home page web design, it is to attract attention, and that is exactly why businesses invest in top-quality sign installaters for on and outside their business premises.

Imagine entering a retail park with a dozen or so retail outlets; which one is going to turn your head and induce you to walk in? The answer is the one whose signage stands out from all the others. Even driving along the road, you will see signs and billboards, and we guarantee that the one that will stick in your mind is the one that catches your eye due to its colours, typography, or even its size.

What this means for your business is that if your signage is dull, dated, and far from being memorable it is easily ignored, and so it hardly contributes to your business. After all, who is going to want to enter a business’s premises when the signs outside act as a deterrent rather than a magnet?

So, hopefully, you accept that having amazing business signage is crucial, but the question is what does it take to make such signs? Well, there are professional sign installation companies who can help, but they will want your input. It is your business and who knows what attracts your customers better than you?

To help you give your sign installation company as many ideas as possible, we thought it would be useful to highlight some ways to make business signs memorable. As such here are seven ways to give your business signs the “WOW” factor that will have heads turning to see them and then hopefully more people visiting the business that has those incredible signs, namely, your business.

(more…)

What Landscaping Business Owners Must Know About Using Fixed-Term Contracts Of Employment

If you own a landscaping company, we assume that you do not have to do every task and job yourself and as such you employ others within your business. When employing landscapers you have several options as to what type of employment you offer them which includes full-time or part-time positions, and you can also offer either a normal employment contract or a fixed-term contract. It is the latter, a fixed-term contract, that we are going to examine further.

Fixed Term Contracts Explained

The concept is very simple and more or less explained by what they are called. A fixed-term contract is one where the period over which the individual’s employment with you has finite time which is defined within their contract. Their use includes when a business has periods when it is extremely busy and others when they are quieter. A prime example of this is a retailer who may employ fixed-term staff to help over the busy Christmas period but no longer than that.

Whilst landscaping can be somewhat seasonal, with such a business you are more likely to use a fixed-term contract based on specific projects. For example, you might have a landscape design project which requires more manpower than most jobs so you might take on one or two more employees to work on that landscaping project until its completion with a fixed-term contract as the basis of their employment.

(more…)

7 Reasons Why Commercial Cleaning Has An Important Role In Pest Control And Prevention

There are several reasons why a business might call upon the services of Professional Office Cleaners. Apart from the obvious, which is to have their business premises cleaned, and also not wanting to employ cleaners on their payroll, it can often be the case that they have had an infestation of pests or vermin.

Those pests or vermin might include mould on walls or pigeons nesting in the roof and everything in between, including mice and rats. Regardless of what form the particular pests causing the problems may take, professional cleaning is the answer to getting rid of them. There are seven reasons why that is so important, as you will discover as you read further.

Reason #1 – Creating A Clean Environment

You do not have to be an expert in pest control and cleanliness to understand that a clean workplace will be less appealing to pests than an unclean one. This points to the fact that by using a commercial cleaning company, your business premises will be cleaned to the highest standards, which means they will be less likely to attract pests and vermin.

(more…)

The Objectives And Benefits Of Investment Planning

The Objectives And Benefits Of Investment Planning

One of the many ways in which entrepreneurs and business owners diversify their income is via investments. Investment planning, which is supported by professional financial advisors, is an excellent way to create multiple streams of income and can allow you to focus on building your business, whilst your investments contribute to building your wealth.

If you have never considered having an investment portfolio or are unsure what sorts of investments you can make, then the first port of call should be financial advisors, as their services will almost certainly include investment planning. In simple terms, investment planning is a means of identifying your financial goals and aspirations and marrying them to investment opportunities based on your financial resources.

Beyond that explanation, your financial advisors should go into detail about what the objectives of investment planning are, ensure you know why it is required, and also explain some of the many benefits that investment planning can produce. To get you one step ahead of that discussion, below we have briefly outlined some the of points your financial advisors may cover.

Objectives Of Investment Planning

To Minimize Risk: One of the key objectives your financial advisors have when they are investment planning with you is to ensure that your risk of losses is minimised to the lowest level possible.

To Generate Income: A core objective of any investment is that it should produce income and by shrewd investment planning, opportunities for generating income can be identified based on your financial goals and resources.

To Grow Your Capital Investment: Whilst some investments are made to generate ongoing income, others can be identified as a means of growing your capital investment. These tend to be low-risk investments designed to be kept over the long term.

To Reduce Your Tax Liability: Everyone want sot to pay fewer taxes (we hope) and during the discussions you have with your financial advisors, they will be able to explain how certain investment strategies can reduce your tax liability.

(more…)

5 Ways To Reduce Your Exposure Under A Personal Guarantee

5 Ways To Reduce Your Exposure Under A Personal Guarantee

One of the many formal and financial agreements or contracts you can be a party to as a company director is a personal guarantee, and it is a commitment that you should always seek guidance about from your commercial lawyers. This is especially the case because agreeing to a personal guarantee can place a huge legal and financial burden upon yourself, and it is a burden that can have huge financial implications for you and your family

For those who may never have come across a personal guarantee, they are an agreement by an induvial to guarantee to pay a debt of a third party. In the business world, the most common example is a company director making a personal guarantee for a loan taken out by a business they own or for which they are a director.

Under a personal guarantee, your assets including your income, savings, stocks, shares, land, and property may all be liable to be used or liquidated to clear the debt in question, if the third party that owes it defaults. You also may want to speak to property lawyers about your land and property involved.

Given the significant impact a personal guarantee can have on your finances, we repeat that if ever you are considering entering such an agreement that you seek advice from a commercial lawyer. In addition, there are several ways in which you can reduce your exposure under a personal guarantee before you sign it. Here are five of those ways.

(more…)

5 Ways Web Designers Can Perfect Their Elevator Pitch

5 Ways Web Designers Can Perfect Their Elevator Pitch

For web designers who have read the title and wondering what an elevator pitch is, here is an explanation. Unfortunately, we cannot give credit to anyone for first using the term “elevator pitch” because there are numerous names suggested as to who was the first person to use it, and the list includes an elevator safety device inventor, journalists, authors, and a telecoms technician.

However, what is not in dispute is the definition of an elevator pitch which is how you would try to advocate a product or service to someone in an elevator, with the main constraint being that most elevator rides take no longer than 30 seconds to 60 minutes on average. In other words, your elevator pitch has to be concise.

So, have you ever considered how you would pitch your web design services to a person beside you in an elevator, and could you deliver that pitch in the time that the elevator takes to complete its ascent or descent? What you must appreciate is an elevator pitch is not just for pitching your services when in an elevator, but in all circumstances and locations where you only have a short time to explain what you do and how it can benefit the person you are talking to.

An excellent elevator pitch can be an extremely useful tool for you to promote your web design skills and services to people you meet in all sorts of places such as a bar, a restaurant, an aircraft, a train, or simply standing in a queue at the bank. The opportunities are limitless, but even so, they will be for nothing if your elevator pitch is poor. That is why we have outlined 5 ways you can make your elevator pitch as close to perfect as it can be.

(more…)

Your Website's Bounce Rate and How to Reduce It

Your Website’s Bounce Rate and How to Reduce It

Bounce rate has nothing to do with springs or sponge balls but is instead is a measure which indicates how people engage with a website. For SEO purposes it specifically tells you how many visitors effectively take one look at your site and then leave, versus how many visitors click through to other pages and take other actions on the website.

Unfortunately, Google, as they do with many ranking factors, keep their cards close to their chest. Despite some statements from their representatives claiming bounce rate doesn’t influence their ranking scores, all test evidence and case studies indicate clearly that it does in some way.

For example, analysis from Wordstream showed that for one particular niche keyword search, websites that had a bounce rate of less than 76%, were more likely to find themselves in positions 1 to 4 if all other factors were equal. However, once that bounce rate got higher than 78%, website rankings were more likely to found at the lower half of the results.


(more…)

First Steps In Setting Up A Business Partnership

Partnership is a word that can be used in all kinds of contexts such as personal relationships, sports, such as cricket, and there are also business partnerships. As your commercial lawyers at www.rowebristol.com.au will tell you, forming a business partnership is not necessarily a difficult process, but you do need to fully understand the legal obligations that apply to them and the different types of partnerships that exist.

In the context of the commercial enterprises, the definition of a partnership is two or more persons carrying on a business together, in a common purpose to jointly benefit, in the main with a view to profit. The legislation which applies to business partnerships is the Partnership Act of 1895, although the Limited Partnerships Act 2016 may also apply, depending on the type of partnership that is formed.

There are certain key phrases and words within that last paragraph that go to the core of partnerships, and which have a specific meaning in that respect.

(more…)

Product Images And Descriptions

What Ways Can The Product Images And Descriptions Be Optimised On My Website?

When it comes to on-site optimisation, images are one of the most missed opportunities and one which many website owners get completely wrong with regards to SEO.  What you need to be aware of is that when Google crawls a website, its spiders do not see images, only text.

For example, if you were a local dog groomer, and had an image of a beautifully groomed German Shepherd on your website as an illustration of your great grooming skills, if that image file was simply called ‘image1’, that is what Google takes it to be; image number 1. It doesn’t see a German Shepherd; in fact, it doesn’t see a dog at all.

Now, if you name the image file ‘German-Shepherd’ and upload it to your website, Google will see those words, and better still is if you utilise the alt-text function. Alt-text is what you might see on your screen if your mouse hovers over an image, but more importantly, it is what Google’s spiders send back when they come across an image.

(more…)

Accessible Business

Top Tips For Choosing The Right Font Pairings For Your Website

Although web design is a complicated and time-consuming process, it can be broken down into smaller steps to make it easier. One of the most important of these steps is defining your brand.

As you might already know, your brand image is essentially your online persona, and it’s closely related to the way people perceive you and your website. It can be influenced by things like your overall design, colour schemes, font pairings and more.

Font pairings and selection is one of the most important parts of the entire web design process, but it’s one that we don’t often talk about. Because of this, I decided to put together a list of a few tips to help you choose the perfect fonts for your new website.

  1. Think About The Message You’re Trying To Convey

Although you might not realise it, different fonts can be extremely effective to convey different messages. Some websites are best with more serious fonts, while others work well with fun or creative styles.

For example, if you’re building a new small business website for your up and coming law firm, you will want to build a professional image. In this case, it would be best to use serious, somewhat boring fonts.

On the other hand, entertainment or social type sites are often better suited to more creative fonts. Depending on your overall design, you might decide to use a font which really stand out at unique.

(more…)