Sexual Harassment

Business Advice: Sexual Harassment Complaints – Take It Step By Step

Sexual harassment in the work place is a topic discussed in every board room and by the lawyers that represent them.  The last year has soon an explosion of information about workplace misbehavior and untold stories of abuse and exploitation.  It’s important to take a step back and examine some of the rules and considerations when addressing an allegation of sexual harassment in the work environment.

First, only employers of a certain size are covered by these guidelines.  It’s important to check in your jurisdiction to understand exactly what the requirements are.

Secondly, not all employees are covered under most harassment laws.  For example, unpaid interns and independent contractors do not qualify.

There are also caps on damages that can be recovered in these types of cases, both for compensatory damages (damages designed to compensate a person for harm or distress) and punitive damages (damages designed to “punish” someone who’s done something wrong).

Other remedies may also be available which need to be “exhausted” (ie; tried before moving to litigation).  And deadlines for filing a case are also an important consideration.

According to legal experts, sexual discrimination can take the form of a “hostile work environment”, created by severe or pervasive sexual harassment or it can involve a “quid pro quo” where sexual favors are required in exchange for some other work benefit (such as a promotion).  This includes both same-sex harassment and opposite-sex harassment.  LGBTQ individuals are protected under these guidelines who are discriminated against based on their sexual orientation.

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Legal Contracts

Too Busy to Read Lengthy Legal Contracts?

Expert lawyers can help Safeguard your Business Interests

When you are just starting your own business, you can expect to be extremely busy with multiple tasks. It’s natural that you may have no time to wade through detailed business contracts and scan the terms and conditions contained in them. By hiring trustworthy commercial lawyers such as Rowe Bristol, you can ensure that your business interests are protected from legal consequences. By hiring competent lawyers right from the start, you can devote your energies to growing your business and feel confident that your lawyer is looking after your best interests.

The problem is that starting or operating a business invariably involves creation and preparation of legal contracts. After all, how does a busy business entrepreneur have the time to read through all the fine print contained in lengthy business contracts? Unfortunately, failure to pay attention to legal terms can result in unforeseen and often unfavourable circumstances. It’s very important to understand the implications of every sentence contained in a legal contract especially if money is involved. As the stakes get high, it’s important to hire reliable lawyers who will explain the conditions of the legally binding financial agreements clearly; he or she will also explain the expectations of you as well as terms of compliance with the agreement.

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Bookkeeping Software

What Sort Of Bookkeeping Software Should I Be Using?

When it comes to record keeping or bookkeeping for your business or company, decent computer software can make the process a lot easier. In the past, most records were kept on paper in a filing cabinet or in files. However, this leaves them susceptible to things like fires and water damages. Physical records can also take up a lot of space, especially after a couple of years.

In the modern age of technology, more and more people are choosing to keep electronic records rather than physical ones. When it comes to doing this, there are a whole lot of different computer programs out there that are designed to make it easier than ever to keep accurate, useful records. Some of the more popular include:

Xero:

Xero is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best accounting program out there. It is used by small businesses everywhere every single day. Although it was originally designed to be used solely by businesses to keep records, it has recently been upgraded to include functionalities that allow accountants to import a client’s records directly.

One of the main downsides of Xero is its cost. For any sort of decent bookkeeping functionality, you will have to pay upwards of $50 per month, which is understandably out of some people’s price range. However, it does comes with a free trial, so it could be worth testing out before you buy.

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Legal Issues to Consider When Designing a Logo for Your Business

With the explosion of business web pages and businesses dominating the internet, the need to address the growing number of issues related to logo designing, trademarks, patents and copyright laws infringement, is at an all time high. The advancement in the digital arena has given rise to more innovative ways of infringement being employed by those with malicious intent, or those who profit by exploiting policies of established businesses. This has necessitated increased consideration of potential legal issues and having holistic policies in place.

At this point in time, you need to have strong evidence to provide your association to the brand and logo. Without proof that is admissible legally, consider yourself handicapped. Logo designing is one such process, and  there are certain legal issues you must consider when going about it.

Copyright Issues

This is the first issue that business owners face. Without having copyrights to their own logo, they cannot legally claim infringement if a third party is using their logo as their own. Copyrights will ensure you that your business entity is secured and its identity cannot be infringed upon by anyone.

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mergers-acquisition-tips

Mergers & Acquisition Tips and Advice

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) are often an extremely important part of a business so it is vital to ensure your commercial lawyers are on board and ready to help you in any way they can. Whether you are selling your company, merging with another one or buying one to add to yours you need to close that deal and get all the benefits you want – or most of them, in the deal.

Here are some tips and advice for those M&As.

  • Get an impartial M&A adviser who can help you through the process and see that everything is done properly without being controlled by their emotions as you well might be. M&A are often a rocky ride with things changing from one day to the next and just when you were almost ready to give up, suddenly everything straightens out and you have success at your fingertips. An impartial adviser or mentor can really help you along the way.
  • Make logic and facts your friends. No amount of screaming or pulling your hair is going to help, so keep your calm. It is important not to grab the first offer given because it can so easily be bettered. A little hesitation can work wonders and options should always be sought. They are likely to increase your chance of a great deal.

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dispute-resolution-in-business

5 Tips for Dispute Resolution in Business

There are often disputes in business that if not handled correctly and resolved can lead on to litigation, a long drawn out procedure that can cost a business dearly. In some cases, small businesses may never recover. But before you bring lawyers & solicitors on board to give legal advice, see if some of these dispute resolution techniques can help.

  • If the dispute is with another business such as a supplier, contact their company to see if they have and dispute resolution procedure in place to follow. Always word your correspondence tactfully and politely. Use that to deal with the dispute.
  • If there is not, contact the supplier and ask them to discuss the matter with you. If they agree try to keep the discussion unheated and listen to them carefully to see if what they say is right. See what they want to happen about the problem.
  • If the above doesn’t work, bring in a professional mediator. A mediator can offer neutral advice that does not favour one or the other. They can defuse a situation that is in danger of getting out of control and often know how to bring about a solution to the problem.

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Trademark Infringement and Social Media

While the nigh countless advantages and benefits of social media for business success cannot be denied, companies today face many challenges in the playing field as well. These challenges originate both within and outside the company, making it quite complicated for the relevant authorities to deal with them. The growth and increased use of social networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc has not only made the interaction between the user and company easier but has also brought with them a number of risks.

Organizations aim at streamlining communication between the consumer and seller. But having their trademarks infringed by consumers or even their own employees on social media would be utterly devastating and lead to hiring lawyers and expensive court cases.

As Daniel J. Boorstin said,

“An image… is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service”.

A company for example, needs to bear in mind the two most important aspects with respect to social media’s infringement on trademark. Firstly, the different ways your trademarks can potentially be infringed by others. Secondly, how your social media actions may unintentionally result in a breach of some other company’s trademark rights.

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Benefits of SEO

The Benefits SEO Gives To Your Business

If you know anything about marketing and commerce you will be aware that every business which wants to be taken seriously should have a website. More than that, it needs a website which can be found online, and to achieve this in the search engines, SEO is the primary tool which is used. However, SEO can do much more for your website and business than simply help them to be found on Google.

Branding plays a huge part in today’s world of commerce, with some of the biggest companies in the world spending millions of dollars to build. promote and maintain their brand recognition. Assuming you do not have millions to spend on branding you need to look at alternative means to boost your brand, and this is where SEO can come to the rescue.

By ranking your business’s website higher in the search engines your business will firstly get a boost in its brand’s credibility, especially if you get it onto at least page 2 of the results. After all, having a ranking your blog posts and pages on the first couple of pages in Google is something only 20 websites or businesses can achieve, so imagine the kudos of this compared to a business lost, and virtually invisible, on page 20.

Appearing higher in the rankings also makes your brand more visible to those searching within your niche or business sector for relevant keywords especially when your website appears in the results consistently. Any prospect looking for the sort of products or services you offer will have more confidence in your brand if it shows up time and time again when they are searching.

SEO, leading to better search engine rankings, also gives you a very strong competitive edge over other similar businesses and websites. This manifests not just in your ranking, but with the research which will have taken place as part of the process.

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Violation of Minority Shareholder Rights can be Resolved

Minority shareholders often face issues related to oppression or violation of minority rights. Competent commercial lawyers can help you resolve problems and assert your lawful rights in the company. In any business or company, the directors, officers and majority shareholders have a duty to work for the best interests of all shareholders (a minority shareholder is an individual who owns less than 50% stock in a company). An important component of this duty is to ensure that minority shareholder rights are not violated. For example, employees of a company who are also minority shareholders can be terminated from employment (just like other employees). However, in the absence of a shareholder agreement, the matter is usually debated in court and may take a longer time to resolve.

The court will then examine the circumstances and balance the duties of the majority shareholders against the claim of the minority shareholders. The process is not only complex, time consuming and tedious but also involves steep legal costs. Minority shareholders typically face a set of common problems which include but are not restricted to:

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Beware Of These Legal Issues As These May Sink Your Business

There are multiple legal and ethical matters you need to consider when starting your business. A firm check and balance of legal formalities will lay a strong foundation for your business. On the other hand, violations in any legal matter may doom your business. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to pay close attention to legal matters before they become an issue.

Lawyers List provide some of the important legal and ethical issues you must pay heed to, when building the foundation of your business.

Not Registering the Name and Structure of Your Business

This is the first and the most important legal issue that can lead to the downfall of your business within seconds. By not getting your company name registered, you are at the verge of sinking your business. This is because, chances are you’ll later find another company with the same name already registered. This could become the ‘sole reason’ for your business’ downfall as all your local and foreign clients will retreat from investing in your business, causing you millions of loss.

Similarly, not registering the business structure in the start of your business is another fatal mistake at your end. Without registration, you are a nobody in the field of business.

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Common Legal Issues Faced by Tech Startups

Prevention is better than Cure. Therefore, if you would like to avoid the need to hire a law firm, be wise and learn in time the common legal issues faced by tech start-ups to avoid all upcoming legal problems.

For tech start-ups, there is already so much going on in the early stages of their business that they become oblivious to some really important legal issues. These issues can become soul crushing mistakes and pose serious threats to your business, resulting in its failure.

However, it’s not that these issues are impossible or complex to handle. But because these are overlooked while dealing with other affairs of your start-up company, you ultimately forget them and later face unbearable consequences.

So here’re some of the lawyers issues highlighted for tech start-ups to help you save your company from legal issues and expensive lawyers which could permanently ruin your great idea.

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Good Financial Plan

How Financial Planning Can Help You Accumulate Wealth

Everyone wants to accumulate wealth but few people actually seem to do it, at least not to any great extent. Most accrue debt much more successfully, even if they are not paying off a home. Financial planning is the best way to make the most of your income. A financial advisor can show you many ways to reduce your debt and make the most of your money. It is important to sometimes take a step back and evaluate your financial health.

When you consult with a financial planner like Andep, it means you are serious about saving money or finding ways to increase your income. It means you are willing to discipline yourself to spend less than you make over your lifetime; the only way to really accrue wealth. Once you get into the habit of saving – and of spending less of what you save – you will be well on your way to becoming much wealthier than most people.

Financial planning doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. In fact, the easier your plan is, the more likely you are to stick with it. Sometimes it just takes that first step of getting advice to start the ball rolling and you can then see what you are capable of. Most people don’t grasp this concept.

If they cannot achieve any worthwhile financial goals in one year, they think that it is impossible to ever succeed in them. But one year is only a tiny amount of time when it comes to finances. While it is good to have some short term goals, you have to think in the long term as well. What you would be able to achieve in six or ten years with a good financial plan is far greater and may even shock you.

Anyone who is serious about accumulating wealth must discipline their spending. They must realise that the newest and latest car, mobile phone, electronic device, television, stereo, outfit or even DVD is not essential to life. Those things are luxuries that once, nobody had and they were none the worse for it. Of course, it is nice to have certain things and a mobile phone may be a necessity in your line of work.

It’s not necessary to go without everything, but it’s also not necessary to keep on changing to the latest thing all the time if the first one still works fine. Once you start looking closely at your life, you’ll be able to see where your money is going and if it seems like it’s leaking out of a leaky bucket, start to plug up the holes by changing your lifestyle. Value what you have and take good care of it, then it won’t need to be replaced all the time and you’ll be able to get free of debt and start to accrue wealth instead.

Why Is A Responsive Web Design Important For Your Business?

The need of site optimization for desktop computers has now become thing of the past. With the advancement in technology, the importance of a responsive web design for businesses is increasing at a fast rate.

The use of tablets and smart phones has extraordinarily replaced the old trends. These electronic devices have become the top-most source of interaction and knowledge among people. This eventually gave rise to the importance of the term ‘responsive web design’ for businesses. Because live today is becoming more and more hectic and busy, people prefer accessing these websites from electronic devices within their reach. Therefore, the importance of a responsive web design is urgent and must be well understood to be able to incorporate it the right way in already existing sites of businesses.

A responsive web design is a smart approach of programming a website in a way that it provides the best viewing experience to its users with comfortable features of scrolling, reading, resizing in a broad range of devices.

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What Can Be Included In My Will

What Can Be Included In My Will?

Good family lawyers are the best people to deal with when making a Will. They’ll ensure it is all done in a way that is legal and they can also keep the Will in a safe place for you.  However, a Will can still be valid when it is drawn up by you alone, so long as it is signed, dated and signed by at least two witnesses.  That said, there are some things that cannot be included in a Will and others that can be, but you may not even think about them.

Two things that cannot be include in a Will

  • Life insurance payout. You will have to name a beneficiary when you take out the insurance and this will supersede any Will.
  • This too, has to have a beneficiary named on it, so it is not included in a Will.

A Will is not always about cash and property.  Other things that can be included in a Will

  • Organ transplants and disposal of your body
  • Executor’s payment
  • Who should occupy your home – if it’s not to be sold
  • Gifts to charities
  • You can release a debt that is owed to you
  • You can also appoint a guardian for a minor, but this may not be done according to your Will.

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site-speed-tips

Web Design Tips to Reduce Loading Time

Reducing the loading time of a website has always been one of the top priorities for web designers. A couple of years ago, an average user would wait 7 seconds for the website to load, and if the website took longer than that, the user would cancel the window and move on. Recently, that time has been reduced to 3 seconds. Whether you are designing an ecommerce website, a blog, a social networking platform, or any other type of website, you have to make sure it has a loading time of less than 3 seconds.

To minimise loading time, you can use the following tactics:

Avoid Heavy Images and Animations

Images and animations are unavoidable in some websites, but web designers should be careful when adding GIF animations and heavy image files. If the client’s website is based entirely on images, use Photoshop or a similar software application to optimise the images. You can also move all the images to a ‘galleries’ section, so the home page can load faster and the users can then move towards the galleries with a realistic expectation of a longer loading time.

When adding animations, be conservative and follow the ‘less is more’ mantra. You can use flash animations instead of GIF to reduce the loading time and to give the website a slicker appearance. We recommend you avoid animations altogether unless the nature of the website demands it.

Avoid Table Based Web Designs

Table based web designs have longer loading times, especially if there tables nested within other tables. By using DIV and CSS tags, such designs can be avoided. Sometimes, the customer will ask you specifically for a table based design and in such cases you will have no choice but to go for full page tables. In such cases, avoid using nested tables. And try to reduce website loading time by optimising the heavier content.

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Common Legal Issues Faced By E-Commerce Businesses

With the advanced and increased use of online media, online business is becoming a fast emerging trend. Every five in eight companies are operating online, conducting e-commerce business. But being functional online doesn’t mean you can escape legal matters.

There are various legal issues associated with eCommerce businesses as well. And if these issues are not taken care of in time, they can lead to serious problems for your business.

Described below are some of the common legal issues an e-commerce business faces.

Incorporation Problem

If you are a company operated merely via a website, not being incorporated is a crucial problem. Any purchase and selling activity related to your products will be considered illegal and you can’t claim your right in case of any fraud and corruption. Without incorporation, your business has no shelter.

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Latest Trends in Web Design

“Web design is a magnet that attracts customers to your business website. It is the strongest tool in strengthening customer- seller relationship”

With the increased use of internet and social media, businesses today have begun publishing and promoting their ideas on internet. This is because majority of the people use online means to make purchases. Thus, businesses have started to focus on improving the quality of their websites.

For better website, businesses must know which track to follow for their website’s improvement because only by following the right and recent way, you can reach your desired results.

Here’re some of the latest trends in website design:

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5 Companies that were Penalised by Google

Google has always been strict in its rules and regulations, making sure that SEO companies and brands, big or small use legitimate SEO tactics don’t go unnoticed if they violate the rules. These rules don’t just apply to websites all over the web, they equally apply to Google as well. Thus, Google has also punished itself quite a many times.

Below are five companies, including Google itself, who were penalised for violating the rules of Google.

1.     Google.co.jp

Google Japan got penalised by Google for buying links for promotion of a Google widget. As soon as the news was out, the search spam team of Google who looks after such actions immediately lowered the rank of Google Japan from PR9 to PR5.

After the time period of 11 months, the penalty was lifted because people searching for Google Japan were able to find it. This indicated that the penalty time has been completed.

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Social Media for Business – Some Legal Issues Faced By Employees

The extensive use of social media today, by almost all businesses and organizations, has introduced several challenges along with ease. It has become the best source of customer interaction, sales and internet marketing and the most essential tool for business’s expansion globally. However, with the prevailing use of this media, there are certain challenges that are faced by employees of a company, other than the company itself.

As everything comes at a price, the use of social media also involves multiple risks. Its increased use has blurred the line between private and personal space. Similarly, the excessive use of social media by employees at workplaces causes problems for employers. This resulted in certain limitation and issues for employees.

Here’re some of the legal issues faced by employees due to the use of social media.

Termination of Employees

The increased use of social media by employees at workplace can lead to termination of an employee, according to Fair Work Australia (FWA). This is because the excess use of these sites doesn’t only affect the work performance of an employee but also poses threat to company’s development.

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Web design

5 Tips to Make Your Website More Engaging

When employing the services of a professional digital agency to help you with your business strategy, the importance of an attractive and engaging websites can not be ignored. Businesses of all types and sizes should be concerned with their website traffic and how much traffic is generated on their sites. They tend to pay a great deal of attention on making their websites more attractive and engaging by hiring professionals for web design and content management, which of course works. However, there are some fundamentals that organizations need to keep in mind when designing website so to make them user friendly (not too complicated to navigate their way around information) and to make it engaging for the site visitors to spend adequate amount of time and effort on your website.

There are certain tips to keep in consideration so to make your business website more engaging.

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Can a Visually Attractive Website Help Attract Traffic?

Ever wondered how colours affect your mood? Both, in physical and the virtual world, colours, ambience, graphics and design are greatly appealing to the human mind and are one of the major reasons why many venues prosper in terms of customer engagement and likelihood. Aesthetically appealing web design have the power to attract customers and that might lead to successful generation of desired traffic and increased click through rates.

A website is usually the customer’s first interaction with the brand/company in today’s fast paced technological era. It defines not only the quality of design but also how much attention is paid to the details and how much effort is pooled in to engage site visitors. The look of the website says a lot about the company, the brands or its overall business.

Often dull shades are not very appealing, very loud mismatched fonts; unnecessary blank space and other faults in web design are noticed and definitely not garner a positive response. Easily remembered sites and those where the visitor would at least stay to read the information or view files have to be attractive.

Website design has a great impact on attracting website traffic, even if the content is of high quality, being embedded in wrong design would result in it losing all its charm.

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Web Design Infographics On IMGUR

Our Favorite Web Design Infographics On IMGUR

We’re very, very grateful for Imgur.com. We can remember when Flickr was the main image-host on the web. Flickr was so slow it was like they’d be better off printing the pictures out and mailing them to you. If you’re looking for image hosting on the web, Imgur is the new Flickr. That being said, here’s a little break time fun where we share some interesting web design posts in Imgur.

  • HTML5 vs Flash – Humorously presenting the “never-ending argument” – actually, it’s just that we’re in a transitional period. Flash is losing ground to HTML5 daily. Good statistics to know anyway.

  • Dropbox’s charming 404 page – While we’re at it, does your site have a custom 404 page? They’re always fun, and useful to bounce misguided hits back to your site’s front page.

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Can Your Website Be Penalised? 3 Risks You Need to Check

If you are a business owner, you need to make sure your website is not being penalised by Google or any other search engine.

With the introduction of Google’s panda, penguin and hummingbird algorithms, the rankings of different websites have drastically changed. Every time a new algorithm is rolled out, many websites go from the first page to the abyssal depths of the 10th, 100th, or 1000th page, losing traffic and visibility.

Before we really get into the details, let’s get one thing out of the way – your brand’s popularity isn’t the parameter to decide if you can be penalized or not. This could happen to any website. However, by being informed beforehand about the actions leading to such consequences, you can save your site’s credibility and reputation.

For this, you need to know the risks involved so that you can minimise the probability of your website getting penalised in the future.

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Legal/Ethical Issues to Consider When Starting a Business

When starting a business, there are numerous ethical and legal issues that must be considered by a business owner. Taking legal and ethical issues into account in the beginning of your business doesn’t only ensure your quick progress but it also provides your business with long-term benefits.

But in this fast paced world of today, startup companies concentrate more on their clientele instead of making policies for their company. This has been one of the main flaws, which has greatly affected the performance and progress of new-born businesses. There are, however, some other legal issues as well that businesses must try to avoid. These are:

Not Getting Business Licenses

Business licenses are the permit from the government of your country. Without getting a legal work permit, there is no authenticity of your business. So being caught up in challenges of a new business, ignoring this legal document can halt your business activities permanently. You must consider the collection of business license as your first priority.

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Common trademark issues – What your Business Needs to Know

Branding your business through a trademark is one of the most common business techniques, yet one with proven effectiveness. Every company or business in Australia has its trademark, serving as the differentiating factor between brands. This is the identity of your brand and encompasses all aspects of your business. This branding strategy ensures your brand’s and business’ protection. Therefore, you must take certain trademark issues into account before finalizing one for your company.

According to Dr. Linus Pauling, the famous American chemist, ‘The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas’. So, do not linger on just one idea. Look for more ideas and you will be flooded with hundreds of them. Ponder over the pros and cons of each, then choose the best.

Selecting a Trademark without Research

Even the most professional businesspeople, at times, jump into the decision to finalize their trademark, skipping all the research, brushing it all off as mere formalities. What if, after all the work that goes into designing and registering a trademark, you find out that some other company is already using a similar one? You certainly won’t be able to use it then, essentially rendering all of the effort and time that went into the process useless.

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Intellectual Property Rights – What You Need To Know

Before understanding about Intellectual property rights, you should first know the basics of intellectual property (IP). Intellectual property is defined as the creation of your mind i.e. ideas, innovations, inventions, literary and even artistic works, designs, names etc. in the field of commerce. IP can be seen everywhere around you. The trademarks, trade secrets, films, music and even the shape of a product, everything falls in the category of intellectual rights.

What Is Intellectual Property Rights?

The intellectual property rights are for the protection of your work, reserving rights limited to you only. Having these rights, you can easily financially benefit yourself and earn recognition based on your work. Once you have these rights, no one else can ever be entitled to your work.

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Choosing the Right Ownership Structure for Your Business

A business startup is actually incomplete without the decision of its structure. The structure of a business has a lot to say about its legal position and size of the organization and number of members (with every option having its own set of details). It is highly important to keep in consideration all the pros and cons associated with the options so the decision could be made keeping in view all the necessary aspects. The amount of formalities, taxation and liabilities all depend on the type of business structure that is selected.

The nature of business and its future goals also play an important role in selection of business structure. There are three main types of business structures widely followed.

Sole Proprietorship

The one man show – Sole proprietorship is said to be the simplest business structure. It is also one of the most common forms of business as it is easy to form and dissolve; also the proceedings are rather simple and not much regulations to follow. Not only it is simple to form, it also seldom gets complicated if run smoothly. But the sole proprietor is responsible and personally liable for any loss, as he/she benefits from all the profits.

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eurologo.org customer-satisfaction-really-need

Is Customer Satisfaction Really All You Need?

Many companies might believe that their customers depend upon them for products and services that they require in their daily lives, but in fact it is the companies that depend on their customers. Customers are the heart of every business and if they are not happy with your service, then there is a high chance that you will lose your place in the market. Let’s find out why it is important to focus on customer satisfaction the most.

Helps Businesses Get Good Reviews

When a business pays close attention to its customers, they are able to keep them satisfied and put a smile on their face. The customers that leave the business happily are the ones who will write good reviews for the business, making a great impression of a brand in the eyes of other customers.

Mostly customers don’t write reviews for businesses on their own, but when they have an exceptional experience with a brand, they are willing to tell others about. They are so delighted that they want others to know how well the business treated them. However, if a business doesn’t treat its customers well and doesn’t provide them the service that they expect, then they will get bad reviews from them, which will harm their reputation.

Helps Spread Positive Word-of-Mouth

Word-of-mouth marketing is growing in popularity and the reason is that customers tend to believe other customers when it comes to brands and products/services. When a business treats its customers nicely, they tell others about their experience and spread a positive word whether it be in person or on their personal social media about the brand which helps it get more customers.

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How to Protect Your Company in Social Media Environment

With networking and social media prevalence burning all engines, the legal and social challenges that the global business community has been facing have reached new heights. The privacy and confidentiality of businesses is being breached readily, posing serious threats to their credibility.

At present, when social media has become the most easily accessible interface between the user and company, not having your bases covered legally can damage your business’s reputation, what with the increasing threats of cybercrime and cyber stalking. Threats such as bad word of mouth (WoM) marketing or inappropriate comment posting have also caused serious damage to companies.

Therefore, the global business community has advanced towards taking measures to keep their reputation stable and data confidential. Some of these steps involve the following.

Security within Company

The first step to protect your company’s integrity and reputation is start within. This is done by developing healthy relations with both the upper and lower staff, promoting a sense of equality among all employees. They feel a part of your organization. Once they begin owning it, chances are, your private data and information won’t be leaked through social media.

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Copyright Explained – What’s The Fair Use Rule?

Copyright violation has been a much debated topic and also it has been under spotlight, what does and does not fall under the category of copyright violation. Many a times content is used without authorization in the name of fair use. But is that fair use or unauthorized use? There’s a difference between the two which needs to be kept in mind to avoid any mishaps.

Copyright

Defining in literal terms, copyright is the safeguarding right of the creator of intellectual property to authorize its use by whoever he/she allows. The country’s laws regulate policies of copyright protection and are aimed at promoting original work of art or writing or any other form of creativity. The creator of the work is granted exclusive right for the distribution of the work. The intellectual property is safeguarded this way so that anyone does not copy it without explicit permission from the creator of the original work. For copyright, the work has to be fixated somewhere, which means it has to be written on paper, recorded, saved on computer etc.

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Debunking 5 Copyright Myths

Copyright laws have been much talked about and many individuals violating it have been seen presenting lame excuses to justify their act. Much is being debated about and there are also some misconceptions about the copyright laws which need to be cleared in order to have a clear picture of what is actually acceptable when it comes to intellectual property of any kind.

Some myths are associated with copyright practices for such a long time that they’re almost believed to be true, nonetheless, they’re myths.

Myth #1: If credit is given to the author, it is not illegal.

It is not true, giving credit is merely the acknowledgement but under any circumstances this does not give anyone the right to copy someone’s brainchild and present it as one’s own work. Without explicit permission, it would be considered illegal to use someone’s work.

Myth #2: No Charges, No Violation.

It is a copyright violation if you are presenting someone’s written piece as yours. Whether or not you sell it or are charging for it in any way, it would still be regarded as an unethical and illegal practice. Some people actually think that they’re doing a great favour to the owner of the work if they’re advertising it around, but that is not even proper.

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Debt collection for small business owners – The legal implications

Businesses keep a certain amount of funding for bad debts or contingencies. However, too much of everything hurts, especially bad debts. Bad debt collection is a problem for small businesses that need majority of their time focusing on the core functions instead of running after the debtors, while debtors prolong the time with brush off emails and calls going straight to voice mails.  Debt collection becomes a difficult task for small businesses that have limited time and resources for growth and stability.

There are customers or clients that are not habitually debt defaulters but fail to comply with the agreed dates for genuine reasons. While some customers/clients either go by not paying off at all or paying in small chunks causing trouble (with delayed payments)- in both the cases, your business needs to pool in efforts for debt collection which is both time consuming and frustrating.

How to Avoid Bad Debts?

Bad debts could not be avoided by 100%; however the chances of it could be reduced with some of the tactics by business, such as:

  • Keep the due date lists organized and marked on calendar. Also, list the due dates on all the bills for a reminder for both parties.
  • Abide by strict payment policies that could include late payment fee and surcharges (include this in your policy so the debtors may know).
  • Ask for half of the amount in advance so if the debt is never paid back, it’s only half of the total amount.
  • Keep constant contact with the client, via phone, mails or face to face meetings.

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Botox-Treatment

How Botox treatment Can Help Your Business Career

Botox treatment from a medical practice such as botox are great for removing crow’s feet and other lines on the face that make you look older or as if you are frowning when you’re not. The latter is important if you are working in sales or have to deal with the public in any way.  Frowning denotes disapproval or may warn people you are having a bad day and to be careful around you.  Many people tend to be put off or even afraid when the person they are dealing with seems to be constantly frowning.

Even when you smile, without treatment those frown lines come back very quickly, so the person you are dealing with is then getting mixed messages.  Closing a sale may not be possible due to this simple fact.  Even your boss may pass you over for a promotion if you seem to be frowning all the time.

You can be proactive and have something done to remove those frown lines and smooth out your facial expression so the true you shows through.  Once you decide to go ahead, it’s important to know your cosmetic surgeon is trained to Australian standards.  That way your Botox treatment is far more likely to have the effect you desire.

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