If you want to successfully work from home, you need to make sure you have the all the same equipment, apps, and logins you have in the office – there are few things more frustrating than spending half the day trying get things up and running, and constantly phoning IT to make sure you have the right logins.
So once you’ve got the work laptop sorted and the VPN, here are some essential work from home apps to make your work from home life even easier…
Bahrain is one of the most important economic partners and bases for UK companies in the Gulf and the two nations have always had a very strong bilateral commercial relationship.
It can be notoriously difficult to do business in certain areas of the Middle East but Bahrain is relatively relaxed, having the freest economy in the area and the most liberalised in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
(Check out the GCC website here for a look at how the internet used to look – looks like something you’d get from an Alta Vista search).
Around 100 UK companies have set up base in Bahrain as the country is a major trading hub and financial centre in the region, with one of the most open economies and a liberal tax regime.
So if you’re in a position to join them do business in Bahrain, you’ll need a cost-effective, easy to use and reliable international conference call provider – and that’s where ConferenceCall.co.uk comes in…
In order to keep up with increasingly advanced technology, cyber criminals and scams are getting more and more sophisticated – so much so, that it’s unlikely any systems can ever be considered to be 100% secure.
Is artificial intelligence (AI) key to the future of cyber security?
We all want our employees to be as productive as possible, and finding the right work/life balance can be key to keeping employees happy – and happy employees are generally more productive.
The trouble is, finding the right work/life balance can be tricky – while having the option of working from home will be enough for some, remote working doesn’t agree with everyone, even though advances in mobile technology mean that working from anywhere is easier than ever before.
So, how can you improve the work/life balance of your employees?
How engaged are your employees? If your staff are kept motivated and challenged, either as part of the work itself or the culture your business is built upon, and feel valued, then there’s a good chance there will be high levels of employee engagement.
Similarly, if your product or service is something everyone believes in and can get behind, then it’s likely that engagement levels will be high and staff will work hard and pull in the same direction.
But what if employee engagement is low and staff appear to lack motivation? Here’s how to improve employee engagement.
If business is booming, it’s down to the hard work of both you and your employees. And when things are going well, it’s always good to reward staff for their hard work, maybe with some extra time off, a bonus or even a pay rise.
But while it’s relatively straightforward to offer an employee a pay rise on your own terms, what if an employee comes to you asking for a pay rise, or even demanding one?
Last week, we showed you how to ask for a pay rise, here’s the flip-side – how to deal with a pay rise request.
2018 was a big year for cyber attacks, with nearly half of businesses (43%) and a fifth of charities (19%) in the UK experiencing a cyber breach. As if those figures weren’t concerning enough, fewer than a third of businesses (27%) and less than a quarter of charities (21%) have formal cyber security policies in place, according to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2018 from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Here’s how to make sure your company’s cyber security procedures are all up to scratch…
India and the UK have strong cultural and trade links – but trade has deteriorated over recent years and the two countries are no longer strong trade partners, and many big businesses have been put off trading with the country following billion pound tax rows and unpaid fees.
Even so, India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and the UK has a lot to offer India as far as universities, infrastructure and engineering goes, so if you’re not already trading with India, it could be time to start thinking about it.
Sat over 4,000 miles to the east though and keeping in touch could be a problem – but not if you do so via teleconference, or conference call, and ConferenceCall.co.uk is one of the few operators offering low-cost dial-in numbers to India.
And a conference call can be set up in a few simple steps, here’s how…
Business is still booming in Britain – in spite of the ongoing Brexit confusion and the increasing likelihood we’ll slide towards leaving with no deal in place.
The vote to leave the EU had an almost immediate impact on the UK, as the pound drop sharply against other currencies, and we’ve seen significant amount of big businesses, including BMW and Land Rover, threaten to pull out of the UK. And it’s not insignificant that Barclays has announced it’ll be moving its HQ to Dublin.
Most worrying of all though, is that there is less than six months to go until the divorce from the EU is complete, and there are still so many unanswered questions! And, despite the rhetoric, no one has any idea what impact leaving the EU will have on businesses – worrying times, especially for the estimated 5.4 million currently plying their trade in the UK, almost all of which (99.3%) are made up microbusinesses and SMEs.
If you’re a business owner, you might feel you need all the help you can get to keep things ticking over, and building your brand is a good way to cement your market share. So if you think you may need a leg up the business ladder, GoDaddy, the world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, has come up with 11 top tips to help build your brand.
The third largest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten Southeast Asian countries that promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and socio-cultural integration among its members – Thailand is home to over 50,000 British residents, and the export of UK goods is worth around £1.96 billion a year. Service exports from the UK are worth around £708 million annually.
Top exports from the UK to Thailand include:
If you think the Thai market could be good for your business, here’s everything you need to know about exporting to Thailand.