As a business owner, there’s no telling when an urgent matter will suddenly rear its head. Whether it’s a website going down or a delay to an important delivery, you’ll need staff to rally around to put things right.
But what if some key stakeholders are away from the office, maybe working from home? There’s no time to call everyone into the workplace. That’s where a conference call can help out.
If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably been worried about soaring energy bills. The government’s new Energy Bills Discount Scheme took effect on April 1 but, just like the scheme it replaced, it’s not a price cap – so how does it work?
Cybercrime has been on the rise since the pandemic. More of us have had to make online purchases, which means scammers have more opportunity to defraud us.
If you regularly make online payments, whether for goods or services, you’ll need to watch out for the latest technique fraudsters are using to get their hands on your money – push payment fraud.
Figures from UK Finance, the banking trade body, have revealed that £236 million was lost to push payment fraud, with banks unable to return nearly three-quarters (74%) of the lost money.
In the vast majority of cases (88%) it was individual consumers who were conned out of their money, with an average loss of £2,784. The remaining cases were made up of businesses, who lost an average of £24,335 each.
If your business is planning Christmas drinks and parties while getting ready for the seasonal wind-down, the atmosphere around the office will be getting very Christmassy over the next couple of weeks. But spare a thought for those freelancers who work tirelessly all year but never get to see any of the fun stuff.
OK, they don’t have to contend with the commute or the office politics, and they can work in their pyjamas should the fancy take them, but that doesn’t mean those that work from home should be left out of the festive revelry.
So, this year, why not get your freelancers involved in the festive fun?
Given the problems that business owners have had over the past few years, from the pandemic to the current cost of living crisis, there’s a good chance that many have used up some or all of their emergency fund or taken out credit to keep ticking over.
If you’ve ever tried to get a loan or credit card, you’ll be well aware the importance that your personal credit score plays – if you’re after the best deals, you have to work hard to get your score up to the required level. But what about your business credit score?
It looks like we’re headed for a heatwave next week, with temperatures in London set to hit 24°C – not ideal for life in an office. If you have to endure a suffocating commute, or your packed into a crowded office for the best part of the day, then you’ll be well within your rights to complain that it’s just too hot – especially if you’re forced to wear a suit for work.
So, as an employer, is it time you implemented a summer dress code, to lighten the mood and help keep things cool as the temperature rises? And should non-customer facing staff be able to wear what they like to work in, as they can when they work from home?
If your business offers remote working, you’ll understand that the security of your data is paramount, especially when employees are working away from the office – something that is arguably more important now than ever, given the coronavirus lockdown means more of us are working from home, with employees potentially using their own equipment.
A virtual private network (VPN) is essential to keep your company’s network and data secure – here’s everything you need to know about this essential piece of security kit for your company…
The pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have both pushed the climate crisis from the headlines over the lats couple of years. But the need to be more environmentally friendly is still a huge priority for all of us, both individually and collectively.
The trouble is, not only can going green take a lot of effort, the latest data from the British Business Bank shows the vast majority of smaller businesses in the UK don’t understand common environmental terms such as ‘net zero’, ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘carbon footprint’ or how they apply to their businesses.
Let’s cut through the jargon and give you some useful tips to help cut your carbon footprint and fight climate change from your office.
It’s impossible to avoid talking about energy prices right now – the 54% increase in the energy price cap has got households across the country on the brink of a cost of living crisis (if not already embroiled in one).
But it’s not just households that are feeling the squeeze, these are worrying times for business owners across the country – we’re still recovering from the pandemic, Brexit could be biting for decades, and now we’re facing ridiculously high business energy bills.
Here’s what some business owners have to say about the impending energy bills crisis.
Energy prices are barely out of the news these days – soaring wholesale gas prices have put household and business energy prices up to record levels. And today’s energy price cap announcement means domestic energy bills will increase by £693 for millions of households from April 1 this year.
But if you’re a business owner and you have a dedicated premises for your business, you won’t be protected by the price cap. This situation has seen some commercial suppliers put their out of contract rates up by as much as 120%.
In this instance, it makes sense to compare business energy and switch if you can get better rates. If you run a large business or SME, it makes sense to take out a business energy deal as you can often negotiate cheaper gas and electricity rates than if you have a domestic energy deal at your business premises. But what if you work from home or run a micro business?