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Between 60 and 63% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Britain suffered a hacking attack last year, according to a recent study. The report by the firm specialising in cybersecurity notes that the lack of interest is the main reason for the attacks, since most SMEs think that they won`t be targeted because of their size. Therefore the situation is exploited by criminals to steal information.The report's findings ensure that smaller organisations implement less IT security measures than that of larger companies. Only 19% of small companies and 15% of midsize companies are reactive against cyber-attacks.In order for your business to prevent and mitigate IT risks, we share the following recommendations.

Delimit access

To prevent leakage of information or hacker attacks, you should define which employees have access to certain applications.

Put in passwords

This requires each of the members of your team using passwords on all devices from which to access information in your company. To reinforce this activity, you need to explain to them what consequences there would be if information is stolen from the company.

Always alert

Make sure your employees are aware of the most frequent threats to prevent them from becoming lackadaisical. This can be done through small notices by mail.

Protect

Ask the manager of your business systems to install data protection tools on mobile devices and so blocking the download of applications from dubious sources.

Say no to public networks

Prohibit your staff mobile devices from connecting to corporate and public networks that are risky. This is best done from the cellular network, whilst using a virtual private connection.

Ask to report any eventuality

Explain to your staff that it is their obligation to immediately report any suspicion of a security incident.

Put locks on social networks

To do this you must restrict disclosure of corporate information on social networks, unless it is through the manager. This avoids the danger of clicks on malicious links that have appeared.

Get cyber insurance

Businesses can now obtain specialist insurance to help limit the damage caused from breaches in cyber security. More firms are now choosing to take up insruance to ensure they can help mitigate any potential breaches with a well covered insurance policy.

Boost profits

As an entrepreneur, one of your biggest challenges concerns how and when to make your customers pay more for products or services of your company. This is because the way you increase price or reduce it can mean the potential loss of customers and put you in a vulnerable position before your main competitors.However, in most cases your company has no alternative but to continue with rising prices. Therefore, here are some tips and smart alternatives to raise prices.

Do not delete promotions

While most consumers know the exact price they paid for an item, it is common to remember if it was a good purchase decision and from that generate a position on the product or service.According to the business section of the newspaper Wall Street Journal, companies must maintain their prices and reduce the time in which they offer promotions or discounts in order to prevent rising prices and mitigate the decline in earnings caused by offers.

Keep or raise the quality and quantity

Never try to make more profits by lowering the quality of your main products or services, because that attitude will irritate consumers of your brand.In this case, experts recommend that you keep the quality of your product and serve to market a cheaper, lower-quality product online, so you can meet the needs of other sectors of society.Another initiative that rarely succeeds is to reduce the amount of product that the customer receives but in a similar package at the same price. A soft drink can lose a few millilitres or there may be a few less biscuits in a packet. The price does not go up, but what you pay per unit.The reason this does not work is that most of the cost of a product is usually with the packaging, transportation and other aspects of production outside the product itself. As a result, reducing the amount is unlikely to influence the results of the company.

Price Up

When you decide it is time to increase the cost of your product or service, you will need to take into account the expenses that you incur at the time and how they may affect you in the future.Companies should also make it as clear as possible the reason for the increase. They should tell customers if it is due to higher costs of ingredients or transport, for example.Research shows that consumers respond not only to the price, but what they believe is right. If they feel that a price increase is linked to your desire to increase their profits, they will consider it unfair.

Increase Your Appeal

Improve the image customers will have of your business, develop stronger brand assetts, show off a prestigious office location and show the value you can offer to your clients.

Keep an eye on the competition

When you take a new product to market, ask yourself if it is a good time to raise your prices, because consumers will know that your business is doing its best to meet their needs.At this point you need to keep an eye on the decisions of your main competitors, as the rise can be converted into a price battle where no one wants to take the first step, even if the whole market is facing the same cost pressures.

Subscribing strategic alliances with other productive agents and exploring new markets are tasks that require employers to move from one place to another. There is a phrase in popular culture: "If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed goes to the mountain." In relation, corporate leaders must make numerous trips to extend the scope of their customer base while optimizing business expenses.This dynamic represents certain costs, which can increase or decrease depending on two key concepts:

Financial discipline

Employers should be prepared to settle expenses directly related to their business and especially these three areas: transport, accommodation and food. But they also have to be ready to solve unforeseen circumstances during this journey; therefore, they must have sufficient financial freedom, that is, the ability to meet needs and to make the trip run smoothly.However, the fact that entrepreneurs possess surplus capital to meet the requirements inherent in these movements does not mean you can spend the available resources at will. At this point, the financial discipline becomes important.Men and women in business should understand that their movements are due to corporate objectives and not to holiday purposes. Thus, any excess or personal spending will have to be discarded, except that there are unique resources for it. Therefore, operating in the opposite direction could generate financial irregularities in the company.

To avoid such a scenario, there are these tips to entrepreneurs:

1. Plan trips in advance. Preparing shipments well in advance is essential to optimise costs. This involves exploring all alternatives in transportation, room and board, so shop around and check out promotions.2. Research destinations. Before traveling, employers should familiarise themselves with the places visited. It is essential to inquire about customs, habits and living costs.3. Differentiate costs. Employers must make a clear distinction between personal and corporate resources to rule out any possibility of financial turmoil. Specialists explain that the market has financial instruments that can help them serve this purpose, specifically, business cards. With a debit card, for example, they can afford the costs of their travel safely and accurately, while maintaining the line between the capital of the business and individual.4. Employers must reflect on what expenses are essential in a business trip and what contingencies they may face accordingly, they must establish the ceiling of capital use. They should remember that personal outlays come at their own expense.For any business, access to finance becomes a highly positive tool; especially if such funding means having an accessible means for consolidation and growth support to help you keep up and seize the opportunities within their productive activity.It is important to remember that making a good approach is essential to gaining access to credit.A largely positive response from a bank to grant a loan depends on the employer knowing how to clearly communicate its purpose, the potential of their business, the effectiveness of its infrastructure, as well as the positive results. In short, make your business viable.Enjoying credit is definitely a well-earned privilege. To properly size and assess affordability elements (flow and solvency); generated profit (profitability); operation and collection efficiencies (liquidity); evaluation of real business needs (present and future); and analyse the proper performance of its obligations, employers can optimally determine their credit requirements and translate them in amount, term, destination and use of the loan, using conditions that suit their capabilities and plans.The more experience you have with a business loan, the greater the opportunities for financing. Remember that the history of the company is recorded in the credit information, so having good references is essential to obtaining any financing.

The capital of a company is one of the first things that you must obtain to crystallise your dream of opening a business. Therefore, it is important to know how to attract investors to your start-up.The creator of iRobot, Rodney Brooks, had the idea of building a low-cost robot that could collaborate with workers in a safe, intelligent, low-cost way for companies who purchase the invention.It may only be an idea, but Brooks made an analogy between computers and robots with the argument that the adoption of worker robots would be similar to the introduction of personal computers in workplaces. This would result in higher office efficiency, more productivity and more jobs. This is why investors gave him $62 million to fund its start-up.So that your business idea has the support of more investors, we share a list of tips to help you create a connection with them.

Talk to the right people

The first step is to understand the interests of each investor, so we suggest you investigate your potential investors before talking to them about the ideas you have.This step will help you know if your company can adapt to and will thrive in the investment industry.

Create contacts

Once you determine who may be interested in investing in your business, you should look at ways in which the manager of one of the start-ups can present you with the investor.

Make a presentation

This refers to when you agree to an interview with the prospective investor and make a presentation that will tell your story in non-technical terms. In the presentation, you should talk about your team, the opportunity in the market, the need for the product, its value to the customer, your position against competition, how much capital you require to create the company and have a financial plan to present also.

Acknowledge your areas of opportunity

During the interview with the potential investor you must be honest in answering each of the questions you ask. If you do not have an answer, you should admit it and not lie about something you know about.

Listen carefully

It is possible that in the first meetings with potential investors, you fail to capture the interest of any of them; however, you should not discard the tips that they share.The best practice in such cases is to listen to feedback, absorb information and tailor your pitch.If you enjoyed this blog from Your Virtual Office London you can read more business tips and advice in our startup blog.

Advertising is a factor that helps companies to position their brands on the market. To make this possible, it is necessary to identify the sector that will be addressed, how well it will perform, as well as the duration and knowing what is the competition, among other factors.To make a successful ad campaign, you need to customise it according to the audience you want to reach. In this way, there will be immediate identification with it, which will ensure a good brand positioning.However, sometimes the audience does not identify with advertising messages that are released to the market, leading the campaign to not yield the expected results.To prevent this from happening to your company's products and to make sure the promotion is successful.

8 Different Advertising methods

1. Online Advertising
2. Newspaper Ads
3. Radio Advertising
4. Television Advertising
5. Public Speaking
6. Door Hangers and Flyers
7. Event Sponsorship
8. Word-of-Mouth Advertising

6 tips for an advertising campaign

• Before starting your planning, it is necessary to know in detail the brand and the product that will be positioned in the market; find out who are the main consumers, think of messages that suit them etc.
• During the creative process, think about an idea that suits different communication channels; if your concept is different in each medium, it will be difficult for the audience to understand that this is the same campaign or the same product.
• Setting goals is essential for brand an advertising campaign. These could be: win customers, market identification, make the product memorable, etc.
• Make a preliminary investigation of the location where you will place the ads, because it can determine the level of impact and scope that the audience has. Also take into account that there are media tactics, which can be of low investment such as the Internet or radio that the campaign can operate through satisfactorily.
• Monitor the responses of the audience, as this is key to understanding its impact among consumers. Use analysis tools depending on the environment in which the message is spread.
• Finally, never forget that advertising is a comprehensive set of strategies which if applied correctly will ensure the success or positioning of a product or brand on the market.

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Companies constantly launch new products or services after market research, because this kind of activity is a tactic to renew its validity in the market. However, before committing to this strategy, you should ensure that new items will be well accepted by customers.To understand their customers, companies often use market research, consisting of three elements: competition, consumer and strategy; which serve to determine the viability of a product before making them available to customers.Such studies provide insight into accurate data on numbers and percentages of sales between certain types of consumers or areas where data favours the process of planning a more accepted marketing strategy.Conducting personal interviews via online or phone calls will let you know the opinion of prospective consumers and who are the main source of feedback. This is because they express the acceptance or rejection of the product, and the places where you will have greater penetration.Market research also helps a company to learn about the areas of sales, production and distribution; in this way you will know what the most profitable markets are and which need further attention.Always remember to use your market research to complement your sales strategy that fits your needs in the market.The information obtained through scientific market research is usually reliable and should be used as a guide for developing business strategies.

Market research is a guide to communicating with customers and prospects

If you make good research, the results will help you design an effective marketing campaign, giving to potential consumers the information with which they are interested.

The research will help identify market opportunities

For example, if you plan to start a business in a certain geographic location and discover that there is little competition there, then you already identified an opportunity. Opportunities for success increase if the region in which you plan to do business is highly populated and residents have the characteristics of the selected group.

Market research minimizes risk

If instead of identifying market opportunities, the results of the investigation indicate that you should not continue with the plan of action, then it's time to make adjustments. For example, if the findings show that the market is saturated with the type of service or product you plan to offer, then you know that it might be better to move to another location.

Market research identifies future problems

Through research you may discover, for example, that in the place where you want to establish your business, the council plans to build an bypass or an alternate route in order to relieve traffic congestion. You have identified a possible problem!

Market research helps you evaluate the results of your efforts

With research you can determine whether you have achieved the goals and objectives you set out to start the business.Demographics: This is specific information about a population. It includes:

• age
• sex
• approximate income
• academic preparation
• marital status
• family composition
• nationality
• residential zone

Demographic data is based on findings from the national census, government agencies and private companies engaged in collecting such information.Psychological data: The data collected information is in the consumer's mind:

• attitudes
• lifestyles
• interests
• values
• culture

By obtaining this information, we will either determine what factors motivate the consumer to buy your product or service, identify any willingness by consumers for cultural or environmental reasons, and meet consumer preferences.Obtaining demographic and psychological data save time and money for the company. The information used will help to delineate the profile of our client.If you found this article interesting you can read more on our blog here.

Workers today are constantly looking for new challenges and professional growth, a situation that generates a large percentage of turnover in a business and therefore the loss of talent within them.To avoid this situation, the HR manager must locate those people who always confer an added value to their work and are committed to the company, to reward them. Such incentives do not always have to be economic, as companies are not always in sound financial times; however, a company can implement the following activities to motivate and retain staff:

• Flexible work schedules: What employee would not want a better balance between work and personal life? Today, this desire is one of the most popular. Allowing employees to work one day a week from home can be very motivating.
• Professional Development Programs: This is when a worker receives an evolution in their professional growth activities and reaffirms their commitment to the company. Offering relevant training to update their knowledge is a great option.
• Time to engage in projects of interest: Allowing employees to occupy 20% of their working time on projects that appeal to them and have nothing to do with their regular duties. Various innovative products have emerged from this line of working.
• Entertainment programs: An environment that allows distraction from the stress and workload encourages creativity and a sense of wellbeing. Therefore, recreation rooms are a great ally for employees.
• Rest days: These are not the same as annual leave to which the employee is entitled by law. A day off as a reward for a great result or effort is healthy and well received by workers.
• Activities outside the office. In addition to promoting integration, leaving the usual place of work refreshes the working environment. It will be an action that will stay long in the minds of people and can differentiate your company from others.

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When starting a business, an entrepreneur may not always have an office to conduct operations, since this would mean paying monthly rent, plus all the services like water, electricity and telephone, among others. One option to solve this problem is to start as homeworkers. However, doing so implies certain responsibilities and rules to establish from the outset, to maximise time and not fall into the routine.For starters, someone who works from home should enjoy what they do, so it is important to fully believe in the project or task in which they are involved. Personal image is another aspect that should not be neglected, since you must constantly remember that even spending a lot of time at home means you can`t spend all day in panamas. If so, then this situation will eventually be counterproductive to your motivation.Establish work schedules and respect others around you, as if this is not done, you`ll gradually lose the personal life and everything becomes work. Choose an area to work that is away from distractions like television. This will be helpful to avoid pausing while working, so it's easier to concentrate on customers or suppliers.Talking about your business some of the time with your family and friends can be a good option to vent your problems; however, if you want solutions, it`s better to surround yourself with entrepreneurs or a coach you occasionally can contact about business.If you have people working with you, the best way to avoid problems in the future is to establish rules from the start, because if not, it will invade the space of your family, which in the long term will be annoying for everyone.If you are looking to increase your client base a virtual office is often an affordable option for a homeworker. A virtual office can help improve your companies image through the use of a mail forwarding address and a telephone answering service. A mail forwarding service allows you to obtain a prestigious address in a prominent area for the fraction of a real office address. Your clients are given the impression the office address is real and you are located from this premises. A telephone answering service which involves a virtual PA taking you calls can help increase productivity especially if taking calls can distract you from your main work.Finally, organise your time developing methods and organise processes to help you avoid deliveries outside of your work time and make your work more efficient.If you enjoyed your this article you can read more on our start-up business blog.

Today, work environment has changed and it is increasingly common for teams within a company to collaborate in new ways. This helps employees subjected to high amounts of stress to create and implement different things.According to experts, currently for a company to be successful, there is a need for innovation; however, the fact that their workers are not creative could stop their growth.Fortunately there are techniques that help improve the mood and performance of workers, which are directly related to fun, because when a person enjoys their work, they turnabout proposing new things.To do this, companies must make their employees feel confident to innovate and create fun in their environments.

• In the market there are already companies that do not require their workers to abide to a set schedule to work; i.e., they do not start and finish at rigid times every day, but are left to organise their time to work as they see fit, in order to meet their objectives.
• There are also companies that offer their workers a playroom in order to enable them to overcome stress and thus coexist with each other to achieve and establish new projects.
• Another way to achieve a friendly atmosphere is decorating the office with bright colours and funny pictures, in common areas where everyone can see them.
• The HR department from time to time should implement some dynamic activity with all members of the company, as this will be vital to promote integration and creativity of workers.

Remember that the conduct in meetings where all your employees participate could enhance the sense of teamwork, generating an atmosphere of trust where you can be more fun and so innovative.Your Virtual Office London are experts in helping start-ups become successful. A new business needs a lot of support to help it to reach its maximum potential, Your Virtual Office London provide mail forwarding address services including registered office address services, directors service address and telephone answering services.According to Fortune many businesses are ditching the normal office replacing it with a virtual office. This has huge benefits which include a large reduction of overheads which include office rent, full time staff pay and associated accounting and insurance fees.

E-commerce is growing rapidly and represents invaluable opportunities for sale for large, medium and small businesses. This medium helps many business owners to entice new consumers.However, this trend does not imply that the offline trade has become obsolete. Proof of this is that over 70% of purchasing decisions yet- happens in physical spaces, according to information from the global association of retail Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI).These data presents a need that businesses must address: integrating two apparently antagonistic environments, digital and physical, in a global marketing and sales strategy.The idea is to arouse consumer interest and detonate its intention to purchase from both sides. To achieve this, it is essential that firms exploit the specific features of the two environments.

In the virtual realm, companies should consider the following:

• The design of a website. Through the balance between content, product information and technical features like usability, use of links and loading speed, allows them to create brand awareness in online users and generate a buying attitude.
• Using social media to create conversations with customers and promote direct actions, including the purchase.
• Search and use of electronic payment platforms that enable Internet users to complete their online transactions.

In the physical point of sale, you must take into account these aspects:

• Location of the property, based on a thorough market study.
• Visual Merchandising, a marketing technique in situ, which aims to captivate customers through organising various material elements, ranging from decor and lighting of the establishment, to the presentation of goods on shelves and spatial distribution the furniture.
• A sales team perfectly aligned with the business concept and prepared to meet efficiently the needs of customers.
• Using Point of Sale (POS), enabling businesses to receive payments through credit cards and debit cards, and take advantage of the market cardholder has not stopped growing in recent years.
• Interactive installations make the stay more enjoyable for user in the sales point.