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Understanding Aggravating Features & The Employer’s That Use Them

There are many reasons why employees may face disciplinary action. In some cases boredom or resentment causes people to act differently from normal. Other times, the detrimental act is more planned. Being invited to a disciplinary meeting is challenging but can be beneficial, providing the employer behaves fairly.

This is often the problem that employees face. They feel that they have been unfairly treated and reprimanded, often with no apparent avenue open to them. It is worth noting that if you feel unfairly treated you should contact a reputable unfair dismissal lawyer and discuss the situation. You don’t have to be fired to do this. In fact, the right lawyer can even help you to avoid job loss.

Of course, the law is complex and one area that can be difficult to understand is aggravating factors.

What Are Aggravating Factors?

When an employee is being disciplined all the facts in the case need to be reviewed. This includes whether the behaviour is typical for the person or whether they have been supported enough in their role.

Some factors will help the employee receive a favourable outcome, others lean toward an unfavourable outcome. Anything that makes the outcome harsher can be considered an aggravating factor.

For example, an employee that has been accused of misconduct multiple times and has worked for the company for many years should know better. Because of past experiences, the employer can refer to these as aggravating factors and impose a harsher punishment than may seem fair.

Dealing With Aggravating Factors

To an employee, it is likely to seem like unfair treatment. After all, if they have always received the same response for their minor misconducts then why is the employer suddenly being harsher?

In order to protest the issue, it is necessary to get a mediator. Their role is to assess the reasons for a specific punishment and evaluate each reason, specifically the role it played in deciding punishment. It can help to have an unfair dismissal lawyer argue your case and you’ll certainly need one if the issue has resulted in job loss.

It’s important to note that past experience is important. In the majority of cases a lack of improper behaviour before means only a low-level punishment should be issued.

Equally, the role of an employee makes a difference. The more responsibility they have the harsher the punishment is likely to be, simply because they should know better.

The Bottom Line

But, regardless of mitigating or aggravating factors, the punishment must be appropriate for the action. If an employer gets carried away and inflicts an excessively strict punishment then they can be held liable by the mediator or the court.

In this instance, the employee would be entitled to reinstatement in the workplace and compensation for the mental and physical effects of the ordeal.

It can be challenging to decide what is relevant to a disciplinary and how to deal with all the information fairly, that’s why it is always best to get expert assistance, regardless of whether you’re the employer or the employee.




Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Timofeev) and Other Investors About Successful Ukrainian Investments in US Startups in 2021

Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Timofeev)

The Ukrainian IT industry, as well as the investment area, made significant strides in 2021. Grammarly was the first decacorn the industry received. Its total amount of venture investments exceeded $1 billion in 2021. In addition, Ukrainian venture funds reached a new trajectory by entering the American market. Adventures Lab Founding Partner Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Timofeev) and other investors speak about outstanding US projects the Ukrainian funds invested in 2021.

AI solutions for marketers

The Ukrainian funds Digital Future and Adventures Lab invested in Narrative BI last November, a B2B advanced analytics platform. The San Francisco-based startup could raise a $1.2 million pre-seed funding round. In the round, Ukrainian companies were also joined by US funds.

The founder of Narrative BI, Michael Rumiantsau, believes broad analytics plays a crucial role in making decisions instead of intuition. This project represents a no-code analytics platform for Marketing/Growth/Sales teams. It enables them to automatically generate data insights based on company statistics. Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Timofeev), Founding Partner at Adventures Lab, notes that the personal qualities of the startup founder played a crucial role in picking up this startup for investing. This year, the project creators are working on launching a full-fledged version.

AI communicate with customers

The Ukrainian fund Digital Future invested in the Ukraine/US project Outloud.ai, an AI-based retail platform that enables users to automate voice communication with customers. This project includes several American restaurant chains as clients. Burger King is among them. The Digital Future Alex Vitchenko founder notices that Outloud.ai integrates a better interaction between a client and a service by implementing voice analysis technology.

Real estate service in the USA

The Ukrainian fund Pragmatech Ventures invested $1 million in an American startup Propertymate, at the beginning of last year. The project was established in 2018 by Ukrainians, Bohdan Hnatkovsky and Sofia Vyshnevska. It has offices in New York, Austin, Kyiv, and Lviv.

Propertymate is a platform where buyers can find all information about primary real estate in new construction homes. The service charges a commission from a transaction only with clients who have carried out a purchase.

The platform is used by major players in the American real estate market like Compass, Keller Williams, and eXp Realty. Its client base incorporates Pulte Homes, D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison, and Lennar. Over the past two years, the total number of clients has risen 65 times. This project works currently in Austin. It is planning to scale up in Houston and Dallas in the nearest future.

Online notary services

Another American startup OneNotary got investments from some Ukrainian funds like Adventures Lab, U.Ventures, Digital Future, and domestic venture capital funds. It raised $1.75 million in investments last year. The project’s founder and CEO is Ivan Zinkov from Ukraine.

OneNotary is an online US notarization platform that allows one to certify documents remotely. Previously, online notarization was legal only in a few states. Currently, it has been adopted in 39 states. Ruslan Tymofieiev draws special attention to the high motivation of the project team. They strive to enter the global market.

AI assistance for developers

A Seattle-based startup, Spice AI, raised $1 million in investments from the Ukrainian venture fund TA Ventures and other foundations and angels from GitHub and Microsoft.

This platform allows developers to leverage integrated machine learning algorithms in applications. So, they can save time and effort in building software development. The founder is Luke Kim, who previously worked at Microsoft for 10 years.




Ethical Economy – 5 Essentials for Running an Ethical Business

Photo: fauxels/Pexels

Ethical entrepreneurship is the next big thing, and for good reason. More and more customers are voting with their dollars and supporting companies that genuinely live by the values they promote. You don’t have to be operating a vegan, fair-trade, organic coffee roastery to get in on the ethical action. Take the following five steps, and you’ll find yourself in a state of ethical-economic alignment:

1. Commit to your values

Most businesses have a set of core values that they espouse. It’s rare for them to be anything short of admirable. The thing is, these values must be more than just window dressing for your website. They need to inform every decision you make and every new process you implement in your business. From training staff to developing new product lines, a strong set of ethical values can act as a silent mentor, guiding your moves and helping you do the right thing.

2. Value people over profits

To some business owners, this will seem like an obvious statement. However, if we look at the state of the business world, it’s clear that it has to be repeated until it sinks in. Profits will always be central to business in a capitalist society. However, if you wish to run an ethical operation, paying a living wage to your employees must be a top priority. Even if you work with freelancers or contractors, it’s essential to ensure you’re valuing them by paying competitive rates.

To take this ethos a step further, it’s well worth your while to foster inclusion and diversity in the workplace by employing people from a range of different backgrounds. You may also wish to include social procurement in your business model. This involves spending your business dollars in a way that benefits the community. Some examples include hiring through a rehabilitation program that helps former prison inmates rebuild their lives or sourcing organic, fair-trade ingredients for your products.

3. Be transparent

Whether it’s with staff, customers, suppliers, investors, or stakeholders, transparency is essential at every level of business. Supply chain transparency is vital for you and your suppliers. When you have clear communication through every link in the chain, you’re far less likely to face ethical dilemmas. Meanwhile, honest communication is central to building trust with customers, and in today’s economy, trust is as valuable as currency.

4. Partner with like-minded businesses

Running an ethical business is about more than just managing what goes on within your own walls. By doing business with someone, you accept a level of responsibility for their practices. A fashion boutique may, for example, use a diverse range of models and treat staff impeccably. But if its garment supplier is guilty of human rights violations, the brand is indelibly attached to the ethical issues. This is why it’s essential to find suppliers and contractors that share your values and insist on the same transparency that you offer to your customers or clients.

5. Never stop learning

Ethical entrepreneurship isn’t a journey that comes with a final destination. There will always be something more you can do to have an even greater positive impact. That’s the beauty of the ethical economy. It demands that you keep an open mind and that you actively seek out opportunities to learn about social changes, new initiatives, and other ethical essentials.

Work these ideas into your business plan, and you’ll be a few steps closer to counting yourself among the new class of ethical entrepreneurs.




Sergey Tokarev: A True Investor Acts, Not Watches

Roosh founder Sergey Tokarev

The IT industry is booming with entry into the market becoming increasingly difficult. Young entrepreneurs have to drastically change existing niches or create some new ones. Sergey Tokarev, the founder of technology company Roosh, shared at the Cyprus IT Forum how startups and their investors can avoid fatal errors.

Sergey is an investor with perennial experience and more than 100 implemented projects. To tell the truth, there are real stars among them. For example, Elon Mask’s well-loved mobile app Reface for swapping faces on your photos and videos.

Since its establishment by Sergey Tokarev, the Roosh Venture Fund has made lots of investments, none of which are banal or prosaic. These include smart tracker Oura Ring, no-code games developer Playco, and the 3D avatar creation company Facemoji, which may soon turn social networks into a full digital universe. The so-called Metaverse is not a madman’s fiction, it is the future, Sergey says.

However, behind the loud success stories lie dozens of mistakes and miscalculations. Sergey Tokarev is not shy about his own defeats. On the contrary, the investor believes them to be the prerequisite for future victories. Since no one is safe from failure. Especially newcomers. The key is to learn the right lessons.

“Your failures will determine your further actions. What wealth of knowledge and expertise you will use in solving new problems. It is pure mathematics: more fails—more new attempts with improved expertise—more success,” Tokarev explains.

Evaluating a startup at the idea stage is always difficult. 99% of the problems lie in the people themselves as well as their vision. Often, startupers are obsessed with immediate profits. Few people care about creating long-term value. Hence incorrect calculations, unrealistic numbers, and fatal errors.

“Your first question for all the founders should be: ‘How do you see the next 10 years of your life within the framework of this project?’ If you get an answer, ‘I’ll do everything quickly in 2 years, and that is all,’ this is definitely a reason to run away. Real success comes to companies only at the age of 6-8,” Tokarev notes.

No less important is the problem the startup seeks to solve. Even the most brilliant idea, at first glance, is worth nothing unless it improves someone’s life. It is easy to check, Sergey says. Talk to people around you, share your vision. Friends and family’s reactions will tell you the right direction.

Let’s move from the idea to the more complex matter, namely analytics. You cannot do this alone. Founders often focus exclusively on the technological side of their product, neglecting other equally important components. To mention only marketing. Even with a finished product on your hand, you still need to know how and where to sell it. Sergey Tokarev advises young entrepreneurs to focus on building a high-quality team of experts from different spheres.

One of such specialists should be a risk manager. He and his team will monitor the situation in your chosen industry and in the market in general 24/7.

“For each company, we always select benchmark companies from the same area and monitor their performance, comparing with ours. When we find significant deviations, we start exploring the reason. We put questions and form a knowledge base. We have a dossier for every investment. Line by line, important parameters are added to it, which then allow us to make appropriate decisions,” shares the founder of technological company Roosh.

Sergey Tokarev advises novice investors to roll up their sleeves and get their heads into work with the selected project. Do not observe from the outside. Because a startup does not need motivational speeches (though sometimes they are the right option), but rather your networks, expertise, and experience. That is true support.




Efficient Ways to Manage Your Rapidly Growing Business

So, you’ve got a winning business formula, and now your venture is performing beyond expectations. Fast growth can be difficult to manage, but this is a welcome challenge for any business. You need to properly manage your growth, so you won’t damage the things that made you successful in the first place.

Here are a couple of ways to manage your rapidly growing business.

Assess your finances. Rapid growth will naturally expose any weaknesses your company has. Carefully find and evaluate them to cut any problem areas before aggravating issues. The most vital piece for this preparation is knowing your financial status.

Consider whether you are efficiently protecting your cash flow and if you have a robust payroll system in place that lets you hire more employees with ease. You also need to know if your profit is growing equally with the sales growth. If you’re having issues focusing on finances, it can help to get a CFO on board for assistance.

A fast-growing organization commonly means higher amounts of money generated by the business.

Do you have a plan for all that extra money? If you own a funded startup, your first obligation is towards the investors. Skyrocketing sales entails you getting smarter about where you put those funds. You can start with paying down debt faster to reduce interest or create a cash reserve for emergencies.

Working with a financial strategist or a bookkeeper will help you maximize your revenue during your businesses’ rapid growth. These experts can also aid in finding ways to streamline your offerings and trim your budget.

Consider your processes. Rapid growth demands clear-cut processes. Your business required an SOP in place for items such as employee onboarding and training, client/contractor onboarding, inventory management, project management, and sales process.

Choose your team wisely. Simply hire the best people available. Be selective yet open with hires to get the right fit from the start. Your decisions towards hires will be crucial to your company’s short and long-term expansion and success.

Prioritize your customers and clients. The customer base is one of the biggest casualties of poorly managed growth. Regardless of your size, you won’t be a viable business for long if buyers leave you. Losing attention to your existing customers will cause them to either be unsatisfied or ultimately leave you. As consumers, you probably experienced this where your favorite little restaurant suddenly becomes famous, and the quality deteriorates, causing you to find another.

Don’t disregard your current clients as your business experiences rapid growth. Keep them top of mind, maintain best practices, and communicate with your customers.

Get the refinancing you need

While growth is always welcome for new businesses and veteran executives alike, it always brings challenges. Acquiring a business account with a strong financial partner will help you manage your finances safer and give you that extra financial for expansion when you’re ready for the future.

Company growth may not always be smooth and straightforward, but as stated earlier – it’s a welcome challenge! With some planning and good execution, you can ensure your business financials are seamless.




How Partner Funds Management Platforms Help Businesses Drive New Market Opportunities

Image Source: PFM Platforms

Only by using a dedicated platform can your business hope to gain exemplary marketing opportunities from their partner funds.

Your business is in a state of constant evolution. If you are not consistently retrieving new ways to manage your lead generation skills, are you even really still in business? Those that want to survive will move with the times. Those that don’t move with the times, tend not to survive. The most recent example of this was in the mass mobilization towards the digital marketplace during Covid-19 [i]. Partner funds management platforms help you capture that momentum and keep it going, even while you oversee the day-to-day operations.

Let’s discuss partner funds and how the platforms that support them can help your business discover new leads and opportunities.

What’s a Partner Fund Management Platform?

Let’s start with the basics. We need to know what a partner fund management platform is before we can move on to discussing the opportunities it drives towards your organization. A partner fund management platform is an online digital workspace that facilitates the project team and needs of both members of a co-selling partnership. The fund is set up either by both partners contributing towards a startup pool of cash, or it is incentive-driven. In the latter model, the fund accrues when the partnership is productive.

Whichever way you set it up, a partner fund management platform lets both partners have an equal standing in one new arrangement. The platform comes with a set of unique advantages. For example, it ensures data compliance, encourages an ecosystem of trust and respect, and leads to co-solutions which drive profitability of the co-selling arrangement.

To learn more about how WorkSpan partner funds management platforms help businesses drive new market opportunities, click here.

How Partner Fund Management Platforms Drive Revenue to Businesses?

Partner fund management platforms allow you to integrate all of your co-selling partner projects, teams, sales, and opportunities into one place. Just like using one platform to collate all of your cloud computing tasks can help you boost productivity, so too can a partner fund management platform help you keep track of comings and goings to any co-selling projects your business has involvement in.

These funds operate in a variety of ways. You and the partner business might contribute towards it from the outset in a Big Bet Fund, to encourage collaboration in start-up and idea generation aspects of your market. You might even start with a small fund that feeds itself proportionately, depending on how much business it attracts to itself. This way, team members are encouraged to be successful through incentivized rewards. If the project does well, the fund grows. If it does poorly, they have less to speculate on new projects.

Collaborative efforts like this allow both parties to generate interest in one another’s branding. By working together, you can identify areas of your market or sector that you previously hadn’t tapped into yet. You gain referrals from them, and they gain referrals from you. When used correctly, the partner fund management platform facilitates all of this and more. You just have to make that initial investment to get it off the ground.


[i] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401220310264




How Starting a Podcast Can Grow Your Business

Podcasting nowadays is more than just a talk show; several businesses have built a strong brand using the medium. It’s one of the easiest and cheapest ways to market your product to the masses. If you have someone who can talk and engage with the audience, your business can grow exponentially. Moreover, you can visit https://melonapp.com/how-to-start-a-podcast/ to learn how to start a podcast. Following are some ways a podcast can positively affect your business.

1. Marketing

Podcasts are all about talking to your listeners. No other medium has the potential of marketing like podcasts. You can talk about the product in detail while also engaging your clients. Their feedback and queries can help your brand get recognition in new markets. Since podcasts are listened to worldwide, it offers a unique opportunity to market your brand globally without massive investments. Additionally, if you host a video podcast, you can post it to video-sharing platforms, an excellent way to market your brand.

2. Website Traffic

If you are running a podcast for your business, several of your listeners will be compelled to visit your website. This increases web traffic and helps in the growth of sales. An increase in web traffic directly affects the Google rankings, which also places your website higher in search results. Therefore, an excellent eCommerce-related podcast can help you find new customers in more than one way.

3. Connection with Customers

Starting a podcast for your business can offer a direct connection with your clients. A podcast also acts as a customer care forum for your business where they can voice their opinions about the product and offer suggestions to make it better. You can also learn about customer preferences and fulfill them to attract new ones. Unfortunately, most businesses fail to develop this direct connection with clients, resulting in slow growth. However, you should not make your podcast an advertisement show; instead, it should engage the listeners to grow their trust in the brand.

4. Incentives Drive Sales

If you have just started a podcast for the business, offering listeners, an incentive can increase your sales. You can offer discounts and promotions to your listeners as an incentive for listening. No one can turn down a good deal, and if your business is offering special deals that are only available to your listeners, it might increase the public interest in your product. Remember to make the incentives exclusive for your podcast listeners; otherwise, it might not have the same effect.

5. Sponsorship

Once your podcast gets some attention, it may get sponsors. Brand recognition from another business is a massive boost to the sales and image of your brand. It not only develops trust in your brand but also finds new clients for it. There are also chances that some other business or a podcast will endorse your brand. Either way, you will see the rapid growth of your business.

The internet is showing new ways to run a business successfully. For example, podcasting is quickly overtaking the traditional ways of marketing, and more businesses are taking an interest in this platform.




7 Tips to Keep Employees Healthy and Happy

Happiness and health are major considerations for many people nowadays, and this is especially true for employees. Money isn’t the only motivator for employees to stay with a firm. They need to feel like they’re a member of the family at work. Nobody wants to drag oneself through each of their working days.

You spend the bulk of your waking hours at work, so it’s normal for you to want to be happy. It may take more work on your behalf to lead employees in greater pursuit of pleasure and better health, but the rewards are just as spectacular.

Employees that are happy are more productive, satisfied, and better team players. These are just a few of the advantages that having healthy and happy staff may provide for your business.

This post will provide you with seven of the finest ideas and strategies for keeping your staff happy and healthy.

Make Work-Life Balance a Priority for Employees

To keep your staff, it’s no longer enough to pay them a high wage or provide them with a raise and competitive benefits. Many employees increasingly choose to work for organizations that promote a healthy work-life balance. No employee, no matter how appealing the money, wants to feel like they’re drowning from work on a regular basis.

Employees who have a good work-life balance are more likely to be healthy and happy because they have time for themselves, their families, and their interests. With that said, here are some suggestions for providing a better work-life balance for your employees:

  • Set a schedule for yourself and stick to it. Avoid asking your staff to work extra if it isn’t really essential.
  • Make a pleasant working environment for your staff so that they may relax during their shifts. Start by thinking about LaunchPad Center, a coworking space, for meetings and other events.
  • Automate wherever feasible, especially now that virtual meetings are so common. This entails giving employees who don’t have to travel to the office every day the choice to work from home.

The emphasis is on disease prevention in general.

Being proactive about your employees’ health is always the best strategy. There’s a lot of truth to the saying “prevention is better than cure.” It is less expensive to take care of your employees and keep them healthy than it is to cover their medical expenditures when they become unwell.

Most significantly, when your staff is healthy, their absence rate decreases. This can help to minimize undesirable consequences such as job interruption and decreased productivity caused by missing staff.

These are some of the procedures to take for illness prevention in general:

  • Make good health insurance incentives available to your staff.
  • Allow a doctor to visit your company on a regular basis to conduct general health checks on your personnel.
  • Keep your company’s facilities clean by sanitizing and cleaning on a regular basis.
  • Organize annual immunizations for common diseases such as the flu on-site.

Employees should be given vacation time.

Perhaps it’s time to reconsider your vacation incentives, particularly for long-term and entrenched personnel. If your organization can afford it, you may go beyond just providing paid time off. You may also begin to provide vacation leave packages and discounts to employees who consistently perform well or have been with you for a long period.

Collaboration with travel agents is a smart method to do this. When your company becomes a frequent customer, they will be able to be more generous with their offers and discounts. You may also request that the travel agency customize holiday arrangements for workers in order to keep costs down while providing a memorable and valuable trip. You may not be able to cover the full cost of their vacation, but a discount tailored just for your staff is already a kind offer.

Taking frequent breaks or vacations might help your employees’ physical and emotional health. When those workers return to work after their break, you’ll notice that they’re more productive and happier.

Recognize Employee Success

Your staff doesn’t have to accomplish anything extraordinary to merit special praise.

Even if they have just little accomplishments, go ahead and congratulate them. Progress, no matter how modest, is still progress. Recognize employees for their efforts, especially if you know they have spent a significant amount of time working on a certain project.

This is necessary so that employees feel valued for their efforts. They shouldn’t have to feel as though their efforts are in vain because you can’t see them. Incentives for exceptional achievement are also available. A basic supermarket discount voucher or a free massage will suffice.

Your sales performance management program may help avoid turnover by ensuring that your team members receive improved training, coaching, and assistance in meeting their objectives and quotas.

Promote Healthy Eating in the Workplace

You are what you consume, and this certainly holds true for your employees. If kids eat junk food on a regular basis, they will undoubtedly become unwell. Employees spend at least one meal and one snack at work, which is important enough to have a considerable influence on creating good and healthy eating habits.

A nutritious diet is the foundation of good health. It is also a vital basis for avoiding the possibility of future lifestyle disorders. Healthy employees are also productive employees, so it’s a win-win situation for your company.

Having said that, here are some suggestions you may do to have healthy employees:

  • Choose to have on-site vending machines that sell water and healthful fruit juice rather than simply drinks.
  • Provide a refrigerator in your pantry for staff to store their packed meals from home.
  • When planning workplace lunches or dinners, look for caterers who also provide healthy meal alternatives.
  • In your workplace pantry, provide complimentary fruits in addition to coffee and water.

Money Is Important

Compensation packages are important when hiring new personnel, but once a contract is reached, the source of motivation shifts. The drive stems from everything I’ve been talking about—the difficulty of the job, the purpose of the work, the chance to learn, and the opportunity to contribute.

When it comes to selecting a wage that will give your employees the impression that they are being adequately compensated, don’t go out of your way to underpay them. If you do, they will ultimately find out and be displeased. “Would the salary be defensible if it were open?”

Give them success tools

While policy may be the primary emphasis at first, remember to consider innovative solutions as well. Instead of providing severe standards, attempt to encourage problem-solving. Make it possible for workers to communicate their opinions and ideas about the organization in a secure setting.

Fortunately, you can now utilize an online paystub generator to assist lessen your effort. They let employees log in and obtain their pay stubs without having to request them from their company. Employers have less paperwork since they no longer need to print or store paper copies.

The suggestions above are not the only strategies to increase employee happiness and health in the workplace, but they are a fantastic place to start for your firm. Because workers are the most valuable asset in any organization, it is critical that you do all possible to take care of them.

Employees are more inclined to stay if they feel happy and comfortable where they work. This allows your company to retain good employees who can contribute to overall business success. It is worthwhile to begin implementing the aforementioned suggestions.




Open Banking Referencing – All You Need to Know About it

Open Banking is a new initiative and conceptual financial ideology that enables you to share your transaction data securely with third parties of your choice. This means that instead of releasing all banking information to all third-party companies, open banking allows access only to the specific services you need and want based on what you authorize and allow. This means great innovation for all consumers. But, there are some terms and things that more people need to understand. One of which is open banking referencing. Here’s all you need to know about that.

Open Banking Referencing – Meaning, Pros, Cons, etc.

Open banking referencing is all about the Open Banking Initiative (OBI) that aims to give you control of your financial data by making it easy for individuals and businesses to share access with third parties. It is important because this will help you compare offers on your own, make more informed decisions on what services you want and need, and ultimately save money.

Pros of Open banking referencing are clear right from the get-go. Users get a better, more tailored product and/or service, whilst the providers can better evaluate their customers and offer what represents their best interest. Open banking referencing means exactly what it says: all transaction data should be open and shared among banks and service providers. This means great innovation for all consumers. Open banking is a way of using your transaction data in order to have the ability to compare offers from various banks and providers. Open banking means the end of having to go around to various banks and providers, filling out numerous forms in order to get new accounts (credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc). Open banking referencing will make the whole process of comparing offers super easy. You can easily switch financial accounts between banks if better rates become available elsewhere, for example.

The cons of this technology are that it’s new and it lacks trust from customers. When the majority of consumers adjust to this new norm, open banking referencing and the concept, in general, should quickly revolutionize the world of consumer financing.

State of Referencing in Open Banking

Open banking is currently in its infancy, but implementing Open Banking referencing throughout the many markets is definitely the next step for this technology.

In most EU countries, this conceptual initiative is already working very well, however, there is a dispersion between different member states and how well open banking is integrated.

The United Kingdom (albeit outside the EU), Baltic States of Lithuania and Latvia, Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavian Countries, and France seem to be the leaders of open banking adoption. At the same time, other countries in the bloc are slightly behind with innovation but still miles ahead of the rest of the world.

When fully implemented, referencing can help every one of us save hefty amounts of money every day or whenever consumers find the need to take out loans, mortgages, etc. It does this by helping find the best banking and financial products.

Conclusion

Open banking referencing aims to give you control of your financial data by making it easy for individuals and businesses to share it. People decide who they share it with and when they do it. From the business standpoint, open banking is about bringing competition into the market, therefore enabling consumers to embrace innovation and to make better decisions based on larger, more accurate amounts of information. The legislators noticed that the financial sector was stagnating and that new entrants into the market couldn’t get a solid foothold, even with innovation. Hence, open banking was introduced and technology, such as open banking referencing came to be!




How HRM Can Help Organize Your Businesses

Businesses and their success is a complicated venture and it is hard to facilitate and organize each valuable facet. Each department obtains its own set of key responsibilities and each department requires consistent attention to ensure its progress is exact. To meet expectations is not an easy process and that is where HRMatrix steps in to guide businesses to reach potentials and even exceed them.

The many key attributes of a business require an in-depth analysis to properly engage and understand the functions. You cannot skim through the general progress of a department and deem it adequate if your business’s intention is to grow and succeed. HRM is software that provides you with all of the important tools to organize and manage your businesses without missing a beat. You are able to overall all of the fundamental operations of your businesses without being overwhelmed as HRMatrix offers easy, simple, and centralized information at your fingertips. The goal of HRMatrix is to provide businesses of any operation and any size to function digitally as digitized information is the future and we want to get you there faster than your competitors. We offer a sleek and progressive attitude through our functional features. Our tools manage unlimited data, employee information, project costs and overall schedules for each department.

We understand the task of managing a company is very, very difficult and we want to simplify the oversight of this matter to help you gauge the efficiencies of each department and execute appropriate decisions. The idea of executing decisions that are appropriate and necessary for a business to succeed must not be taken lightly, as a minor slip-up can result in a costly result. That is why we offer the facilities that break-down employee and data information to help you acquire and understand the functions of your business in a matter of seconds. We even offer a dashboard so you can reach important and crucial information right at your fingertips.

We have designed HRMatrix as an efficient software to immediately meet your needs at the click of a button. Managing a business and overseeing all of your departments is a hard thing to do regardless of positions that handle these departments separately. It is ultimately your job to lead the business to success and the pressure increases as the responsibilities and total growth of the company increases.

Take a look at our helpful tools that we offer as they make a dramatic difference in your business.

HRMatrix Tools:

  • Employee Data Management
  • Hiring
  • Application Tracking
  • Project Cost Tracking
  • Onboarding
  • Organization
  • File Management
  • Electronic Signature
  • Time and Attendance
  • Time Off Management
  • Expense Tracking
  • Enterprise Learning
  • Project Timesheet Management

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is extremely beneficial to bring HRM software onboard to your business. The leading qualities of this software will help enhance the operations of your businesses, making it easier for you to manage your department and organize your company-related priorities so that you can meet and even exceed expectations right on time. HRMatrix’s goal is for your business to succeed under efficient and convenient terms.




What You Need to Know About Senior Care Services

As people get older, they require additional care to stay healthy and happy. Sometimes they also require reminders to take their medication and keep up with other routines for optimum health. From seniors to their families, everyone is part of choosing how to take care of older family members. Find out what you need to know about senior care services to make an educated decision for yourself or your loved ones.

Home Care for Seniors

Many seniors prefer to stay in their own homes as long as possible. After all, seniors feel comfortable in a familiar environment where they have all their memories and things. Keeping older people comfortable may include providing home care via a respected service such as Carepoint, Professional caregivers are well-trained to provide exactly what each senior needs. From medication management to personal hygiene, a caregiver helps seniors remain confident to lead their lives at home with the help they need to be well. 

Families Help Each Other

Some seniors request senior care services such as a caregiver who is a family member. This is another viable option for those who have someone available to provide assistance. Often family caregivers are provided training and money to provide for a loved one’s health care needs. Whether seniors choose a family member or professional caregiver, there are options that help them stay at home and have peace of mind they are getting the essential care they need. Plus, family members regain the freedom to focus on their lives, knowing their loved one is in the right hands. 

Senior Living Facilities

Other seniors might want to leave the responsibilities of owning a family home behind. Others could require assistance throughout the day and night. Either way, seniors living facilities might be a good choice for these older people. Some senior living facilities provide independent living with resources to keep seniors healthy and sociable. Others offer assisted living for older people who need around-the-clock care. Ask about touring a senior living community before many any final decisions. Talk to the staff during the tour to find out exactly what they offer to senior residents. 

Make a Decision Together

Seniors often ask their loved ones to help them make a choice about suitable living and health care conditions. Review the options with the senior to determine which one is best now. In the future, the decision may change depending on the senior’s overall health and the availability of family members who provide ongoing care. Enlist the assistance of medical providers, local community senior advisers, and other educated professionals to make an educated choice. When everyone works together, seniors comfortably grow older with the care they need every step of the way.

Senior care services become essential as people live longer and develop related health conditions. Some seniors require little care and can safely remain in their homes with minimal medical intervention. Others may require a higher level of attention, such as a home health care aide to make meals and provide showers. Finally, as people get older, they may need 24-hour access to medical professionals to stay safe and well. Understanding these levels of care and the current health condition of the senior helps everyone make the right choice to ensure older people are comfortable through all the phases of life. 




Ascending the Corporate Ladder Becomes Easier If You Have a Rock Climber’s Approach

Rock climbing made its debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan (postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The decision was based on a single, but critical factor – the International Federation of Sport Climbing, in 2015, estimated that there were 35 million climbers worldwide. It was a more than enough indication of the popularity the sport has garnered over the years.

Considering its rich history, its inclusion as an Olympic sport was a long time coming, though.

Although rock climbing was an important component of Victorian mountaineering in the Alps, it’s generally believed that rock climbing began in the last quarter of the 19th century. Gradually, it evolved from an alpine necessity to an athletic sport in its own right. It’s no more a fringe activity.

Almost 150 years later, rock climbing has gone from being a niche sport to a global sensation, attracting men and women of all ages who are thronging to the many new climbing centers that have sprung up across Europe.

So, what’s the big deal about rock climbing?

“It’s the ultimate full-body workout, engaging your hips, torso, thighs, calves, biceps, quads, heart, and more. But what sets it apart is the mental and emotional benefits it offers. When a climber regularly spends time on the wall, they will likely notice improved mental strength and insight. The problem-solving aspect of climbing actively engages the brain in a way that, over time, can help develop focus even when applied to other tasks”, says 35-year-old Luxembourg-based Rajat Khare, who was drawn to rock climbing and yoga at the age of 12.

This makes sense. When climbing, people learn to focus on attaining specific goals, like completing a new route or reaching a challenging hold. This logical cognitive process allows climbers to be intentional in their pursuit of other things in life, too.

Drawing corporate lessons from rock climbing is one such benefit.

Focus is key in rock climbing, as it is in business too. Rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgensen best exemplify this. In 2015, they climbed the Dawn Wall, a 3,000-foot rock face in Yosemite National Park, California, widely considered the world’s hardest climb. It took the duo six years of thorough preparation, training drills, and mostly falling. They didn’t just turn up one day and made the ascent.

It’s the same way in business – it will take time to achieve your goals. You can’t just expect overnight results. Planning, time, consistent effort, failure, and even heartache, are what’s going to drive you to the summit.

Donovan Williamson, a Paris-based professional rock climber and a successful entrepreneur, owes his professional prosperity to climbing. “When I first started in business, failure felt like it shouldn’t be part of the process at all. Climbing has taught me the truth.

“They say only about 3% of a market is ready to buy at any point in time, which means if I talk to 100 people, chances are 97 people aren’t interested in what I have to offer. And that’s okay! There are three that are! And those three are where the gold is”.

Failure is a guide, helping us to continually improve the process, communicate more efficiently, and relax when things go awry. Understanding that falling and failing are natural and crucial will help us enjoy the process rather than run away from it.




Tips to Follow So You Can Learn to Let Go of Your Sunk Costs

When you’re running a business, it can be difficult to look at your sunk costs and walk away from things that aren’t working. Sometimes, we put a lot of money into a product, service, or investment that just doesn’t end up working out. And the better option would be to leave it behind you and focus on the future.

But when we put money into these investments, it’s easy to stick it out due to the idea of sunk costs. If you’re finding it impossible to walk away from your sunk costs here are three tips you can follow to help yourself let them go.

1. Look Towards the Future

One of the most difficult parts about letting go of sunk costs is thinking about the money that you spent in the past. No one wants to feel like they’ve wasted money. But any expense that you have in your business got it to where it is now. So instead of thinking about how much money you’ve spent, think about how that expense was a step in the right direction.

A good example of looking towards the future is that you just bought a new project management software for $5,000 to help your employees. However, this software has actually been making workflow more difficult for your employees.

A newer software just launched that can help improve the workflow and fit into your employees day to day better. But instead of investing in new software, you hold on to the old one because you already spent the $5,000

It’s better to make a new investment for the betterment of your employees and the potential to speed up their workflow. This way you can get more done and make more money. The $5,000 is already gone. So look towards the future rather than being stuck on the sunk cost in the past.

You can also try to think about the overarching goals of your business. Where do you want to be long-term? And will this sunk cost really affect that in the long run? Understanding that there is more at stake than one sunk cost can make moving on from them a little easier to stomach.

2. Try Using Technology in Your Decision Making

One of the reasons it’s so hard to let go of sunk costs is because of the psychology behind it. We feel that things we have paid money for are worth keeping around. Or that it’s a waste to move on from a particular investment because we put money into it, even if it isn’t adding any value to our business.

When it comes to making financial decisions for your business, try using cost calculators. Technology won’t be susceptible to the same psychological decision-making. Seeing the raw data can help you make a better decision when it comes to moving on from sunk costs.

3. Reframe Your Mindset

One of the hardest things for humans to do is accept a “loss”. But when you run a business or are managing investments, sometimes you have to reframe your mindset.

Accepting a loss doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve lost too much. In investing, a loss can even be a good thing and help you out in the long run. A loss is only going to be negative when we accept it as such.

Trying to reframe your mindset about sunk costs can help you let go of them and continue looking towards the future of your business. When it comes to the future of your business, you should always be looking for more opportunities to push you ahead.

There are tons of grants for small businesses that can help you get your business ahead. Maybe your sunk cost will be not getting a grant, but instead of taking that as a loss, consider how you can apply for other opportunities that may work better for your business.

Conclusion

It can be incredibly difficult to let go of sunk costs. When it comes to psychology, we don’t want to accept losses. But as a business person, there is always going to be room for loss. You will have to accept these losses to allow your business to grow. So be sure to look towards the future and understand how your sunk costs can be a benefit to your business.




5 Ways Business Lawyers Can Be Helpful For Small Business Owners

Starting a new business could be exciting, but at the same time, it could be equally challenging. Even a single minor mistake, in the beginning, could lead to some unfavorable consequences. This is why some successful businessmen emphasize hiring a business lawyer, especially for those business owners who have just stepped in. You can hire a Scottsdale business lawyer who would assist and help run your business safely from the beginning. Below are five reasons why hiring business lawyers could be a great idea for small business owners.

Writing and Reviewing Contracts

A business lawyer can be very helpful when writing contracts or reviewing them. He knows the tone and language that needs to be used and won’t take much time to complete the task. Not only this, but he will even go through contracts that your partner or any other company wants you to sign. In this way, your lawyer would be able to protect you from any misunderstanding or confusion that might arise because of not understanding the contract properly.

Providing Guidance

Your business lawyer would guide you properly at almost every step. In addition, he will provide suggestions and ideas that could make your firm’s project more profitable and successful. Besides this, at times, he may handle the task of an accountant as well, such as monitoring and observing the current state and performance of your business which is very important.

Protecting your Property

Your lawyer would even protect your business property, such as the logo, machinery, products, brand image, and land, etc., by introducing some effective strategies and plans. Of course, all these things are very valuable and are always at a risk of getting an impact with time or due to market competition. But, if you have hired a business lawyer, then you don’t have to worry about anything at all.

Resolving Conflicts within Organization

At times, small business owners have to deal with external problems and even internal conflicts and problems that arise now and then. However, your business lawyer can help you resolve these conflicts and avoid them from occurring in the future. In addition, your lawyer would create policies and practices to ensure that the employees’ rights are not being violated. This would even help build strong and long-term relations between the employee and the company.

Maintaining the Company’s Status

Last but not least, your business lawyer could help improve and enhance your brand image and company’s status. In addition, he would make sure that your business complies with all the required legal demands.

These reasons are strong enough for any business to hire an experienced lawyer. A business lawyer could be extremely beneficial, especially for small business owners. Your business lawyer will take care of all the situations, upfront, that might put your business at risk. Hence you can focus on your goal and dreams. Therefore, hiring a lawyer for your small business would help you accelerate towards growth and success.




3 Tips For Generating Income From Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a simple concept that some bloggers have been able to leverage to generate vast amounts of income. Guest bloggers write articles that appear on another blog and are paid for their services. Getting started is the most difficult part as you try to establish a market presence, but a few simple tips will help.

#1 Build a following first

The most popular guest bloggers (who can therefore charge the highest fees) are those with big follower counts. The reasons for this are clear. A big blog enjoys traffic, and the blogger has proven themselves to be an effective marketer and an adept writer. You won’t have much success trying to source clients if you’ve only just started blogging, don’t have many articles online, and only a small pool of readers.

It can be frustrating, but you need to work on building your follower count before you diversify into guest blogging. Gaining followers isn’t easy, but a basic strategy involves frequently blogging (multiple times per week), implementing effective SEO, including a healthy link profile, and integrating social media with your blog. The latter might be the most important tip of all, as a strong social media following invariably translates into more readers.

#2 Work with an agency

Content agencies like clickintelligence.co.uk offer guest blogging services as standard, and working with these is a fantastic way to kickstart your career. Professional guest blogging services do more than just guarantee the quality of your work. They integrate proper SEO, build a good link profile, drive higher traffic levels, and are fully scalable to accommodate your needs.

Better still, these services allow you to place bulk orders of multiple guest posts, each unique. Search engines penalize plagiarized or recycled content, but it’s time-consuming and difficult to produce a huge range of new blog posts. Agencies help you generate guest posts and drive traffic to your own blog, boosting your profile.

#3 Don’t be afraid to pitch

Pitching in any form is a scary prospect, and cold pitches are even more daunting. Reaching out to popular blogs and offering your services as a guest blogger seems like a massive hurdle, and it’s one that many bloggers find themselves unable to overcome. Cold pitching is, though, the only way that you’ll be able to launch your guest blogging career in the early days, so, as frightening as it might seem, it is essential. After all, the worst the other blog can say is no, and then you can move on to the next.

Getting the tone of the cold pitch right is difficult. Too many bloggers focus on themselves, their qualifications, portfolio, and ability as writers. While this is important (and you absolutely should sell yourself in the cold pitch) more focus should be placed upon how you can help the other blog. Why should they choose you? What advantages will you give them? How will you help them to grow their audience? Focussing on these questions gives your cold pitch the best chance of success.