Steven – Page 16 – Altitude Branding

All posts by Steven

How Payroll Outsourcing Companies Can Help Businesses Meet Statutory Compliance?

Steven on October 1, 2021

In case you’re not aware, statutory compliance is for companies that help them in operating responsibly. This is done by obeying the rules that are set by the governing body of the respective area where the organisation functions, especially regarding the treatment of their employees. Furthermore, any organisation regardless of its size or stature should comply with respective labour laws laid down by the governing body, which will help to ensure the welfare of its employees.

It should be known that statutory compliance for businesses is massive rules & regulations that are not easy to follow. Furthermore, these rules & regulations are ever-changing, which is why companies need to keep themselves updated all the time.

The Significance Of Statutory Compliance

Every state or country has its labour laws that businesses have to follow. All companies must abide by the laid-down rules & regulations. Due to non-compliance, there can be several problems such as fines, penalties, legal ramifications and so on. Such is the reason why companies nowadays are investing their time, effort and money to meet statutory compliance, with the help of professional payroll companies in the UK.

From professional tax to minimum wage taxes – everything is kept updated with the help of payroll service providers.

Does Statutory Compliance Change With The Type Of Organisation?

No. It doesn’t matter if a company is an LLP, a partnership firm or a public limited – statutory compliance holds the same for all. Since all of these organisations are hiring their employees and paying their salaries, they have to comply with the respective labour laws.

The Consequences Of Not Properly Complying With Statutory Compliance

1. Loss Of Goodwill For The Company

The primary reason why most businesses stay operational is that they are trusted and known by their customers. Due to statutory non-compliance, there can be a loss of integrity & trust from the purview of the customers. As a result, it stains their reputation because customers will then doubt the organisation’s authenticity.

Even though any financial loss such as a fine or penalty due to the non-compliance can be handled easily, any criminal proceedings against the company for non-compliance will hurt the goodwill of the business. Loss of goodwill will hurt the company not only in the short-term but long-term as well.

2. Suspension Of Licenses

Businesses need certain licenses to be able to operate with the standards of the industry they’re in. Any statutory non-compliance can easily cause their licenses to get suspended – either permanently or temporarily – affecting the company’s current operations. That’s why it’s prudent to opt for professional payroll outsourcing companies in the UK.

3. Penalties To Bear

Penalties or fines are the common consequences of not complying with statutory compliance. Since there are numerous acts under statutory compliance, the penalty will also vary based on the type of non-compliance the company has committed. If any organisation fails to pay the respective fines within time, the fines will continue to collect over time and thereby leading to major losses within the company.

4. Loss Of Employees

It’s a psychological aspect of human beings of not associating with things that are morally or ethically wrong, and the same concept applies here as well. Employees will not like to associate themselves with an organisation that doesn’t comply with the statutory rules & regulations. As a result, employees will leave the company, leading to the loss of essential talent within the company. Moreover, the company will also face difficulties in hiring new employees because of the stained reputation.

However, the good news is that – professional payroll service providers can help companies avoid all these above-mentioned issues and thus focus on the core competencies of the company. Statutory compliance will not be a headache anymore with payroll outsourcing services.

Legal Branding

How to understand that your business will bring a lot of money; 3 signs of a successful entrepreneur

Steven on September 23, 2021

1. You know your customer.

You can come up with an ingenious product, but go bust because you don’t have customers willing to pay for it. This is one of the main reasons why startups fail – there is simply no need in the market for what they do. To avoid wasting time and money, don’t be lazy to do CustDev, which means getting feedback from potential customers. You can already collect feedback at the idea stage. For example, many companies start sending out demo videos about a product even before it’s born. It helps not only to get positive feedback but also to attract investors.

To understand whether the product will be in demand, it is not enough to ask your friends for their opinion – they will indeed support you in any endeavor. Find out what your target audience thinks. For example, if you are making an educational app for teenagers, you should interview teachers and parents.

2. You have assembled a strong team

“Great things in business are never done alone; a team does them,” Steve Jobs said. When people share experience and knowledge, they can tackle complex problems and find creative ways to solve problems. Like-minded people will support you in a difficult moment and help you realize your ideas.

You don’t always need stars on your team – sometimes “good guys” who will be responsible and interact effectively with each other will suffice. Be sure to think about the interchangeability of team members. There shouldn’t be situations where everything is kept on one person. He may go on vacation or quit his job, and then the work stops. To avoid this, try to create the most comfortable working conditions for employees to stay in your company. You can use the paystub generator with overtime, which calculates the salary of employees, including taxes. Or you can opt for dedicated and unified solutions, consisting of factoHR, PayUSA, Payroo, etc., tools that handle all the employee-related tasks and compliantly process their salaries. You can also use applications that count your profits, losses, and embezzlement.

Try to have employees of different genders, ages, worldviews, and cultures on the team. Because everyone will have unique experiences, they can develop more creative ideas and make the business more profitable.

3. You are ready to change

Businesses need to be able to adapt to the changing reality. Last year, for example, many companies switched to working remotely – they had to build new business processes very quickly. But in addition to difficulties, there are new opportunities, such as the ability to hire employees anywhere in the world.

Changes are needed not only in times of global crises. Many well-known companies drastically changed their business model because the old one wasn’t profitable and attracted few customers. YouTube, for example, was once a video dating service, and the founders of Android planned to create an operating system for cameras. Changing direction may seem like a waste of money. But the truth is, quitting a failed idea can save you money that you would have spent creating a dead-end product. To find new development opportunities, you need to decide to change in time.

Legal Branding

7 Reasons Startups Need a CPA

Steven on September 21, 2021

Starting a new business is always an exciting time. You anticipate all the ways your business will succeed, and if you start it off right, it will. One of things that many new business owners don’t think about right away is hiring a CPA. They consider marketing, client retention, sales, and even social media. However, they make the mistake of thinking that they only need an accountant come tax time when nothing could be further from the truth. A great CPA will offer many services that can benefit startups from idea to execution.

Set Up Your Business Correctly

An accountant can help you set up your business structure and the finance side of things before you even start making money. They can help you decide what to do with your start-up capital and help ensure you do everything by the books. Nothing is worse than getting started only to realize you needed a different structure. Many businesses start as LLC but may need to be an s-corp or other type of business instead.

Save Hours of Time

Having an accountant on hand can save you a lot of time. When you’re starting a business, time is already a precious resource that you can’t make more of. Most startup ventures have their owners working long hours already. It’s worth the money to invest in an accountant to handle the financial aspects of the business. This time saved means you can focus on the most important tasks for your business instead of all the little things.

Save Tons of Money

A good accountant will cost a pretty penny. But the money you save later on will more than make up the cost of hiring them. Accountants know all the fine details of the tax code to ensure you are getting every deduction and credit you are owed in addition to putting all the income and expenses in the right places. They make sure you don’t owe too much come tax time. Those savings add up and reveal why they are such a valuable resource.

Gain Insight Into the Financial Health of Your Startup

Not only can an accountant give you a snapshot of your financial health on any given day, they can also create important documents to give to your investors and clients as needed. An income statement simply shows the income and expenses your startup is incurring. A balance sheet will show your business finances on a specific date. And a cash flow statement shows how much liquidity you have in your business. Each of these documents gives you valuable insight into how well your new business is doing.

Help You Set Up a Business Budget

Not sure how to decide where all the money should go when it comes in? A CPA can assist you in creating your very first business budget. Since they are well-versed in all things applying to finances, they can easily help you create a working budget. This is one of the many pitfalls startups make. They don’t create or follow a budget. While the marketing for accounting firms might say they do it all, it’s important to find out if they really do. You want one who can manage all your finances in one place to simplify the process for you. It’s more difficult to hire a bookkeeper who works for a different firm than your accountant. Make sure you ask about all the different things they can do for your startup.

Avoid Expensive Mistakes

No one wants to end up owing too much in taxes. And no one wants to owe interest on tax they forgot to pay because they made a big mistake. Hiring a CPA helps to mitigate costly mistakes. When you use a professional accountant, you’ll be better prepared throughout the year to file the different taxes that the government requires. Additionally, you’ll be better prepared to avoid costly mistakes. You don’t know what you don’t know, but at the end of the day when it comes to taxes you are still responsible for it.

CPAs Help You Comply

Complying with industry regulations is about more than saving you money. It can also keep you out of jail. Tax fraud, tax evasion and other tax compliance issues are one of the reasons many businesses go under. Hiring a CPA helps you comply with all the regulations so your startup can get up and thrive.

Legal Branding

Vape Pod: What Is It & How Does It Work?

Steven on September 21, 2021

Vaping and everything related to it still sounds like a significant mystery to some people. The vape industry has undergone its fair share of evolution over the years, causing an incredible deal of confusion.

The introduction of new products is part of the evolution process, and vape pods are among them. On the bright side, the thrill of finding out more about vape pods is exciting.

One thing that’s for sure is that vape pods are far more elegant than their traditional counterparts, cigarettes. Here’s a complete guide to vape pods and how they work.

They are Fully-packed

Different brands have unique ways of packaging and delivering their products. Vape pods are not an exception and bring utmost convenience to every user who dares to give them a try.

Most vape pods come in complete packages, including a wick, vape replacement coils, and sometimes e juice. These items make up the cartridge, which spells out durability when properly utilized and maintained.

With all the essential items in place, a vape pod is as flexible as can be since it doesn’t need an atomizer to function as it should. In e juice, any amount that falls somewhere between 1 and 3ml is enough to keep it running.

Overfilling them might cause the vape pods to spiral out of control. Its performance level depends on the amount of vape juice it contains. Anything more or less than the amount stated by the manufacturer may be detrimental to its durability and overall functionality.

Its adherence to technology has seen it steal the hearts of many vapers. A quality vape pod still maintains its elegant and sleek appearance despite its unique ability to accommodate vital pieces.

Refillable and Pre-filled Vape Pods

Vape enthusiasts should expect to come across two types of vape pods; pre-filled and refillable. Despite their similarities, each of them possesses distinctive qualities.

The point of distinction lies in their names which make it easier to tell them apart. Pre-filled means that the vape pods in question already come in packages filled up with e juice.

On the other hand, the refillable vape pod gives the vaper a sense of responsibility since they have to refill them independently. The good news is that you are at liberty to pick a vape juice of your choice.

Using a pre-filled vape pod means you can’t refill once it’s empty. It is by far the safest alternative, especially for first-time vapers that are not too familiar with the refill process.

The pre-filled vape pods also help in regulating the number of times one vapes in a day. This reduces health complication cases by a considerable margin since it prevents the upsurge of toxic chemicals in the body.

Refillable vape pods also make it possible to concoct their own juices and vape them at their pleasure.

Requires Less Effort

Despite their iconic and sophisticated reputation, vape pods are quite simple to use. They are flexible and can work perfectly in the hands of both beginners and advanced vapers.

Its mode of operation depends on the type you choose to use. As stated earlier, there are refillable and pre-filled vape pods. One of them only requires the user to have it in their pockets or other belongings.

The other may need you to have separate e juices that should see you refill from time to time. The refillable vape pod only needs basic knowledge on how to operate the buttons on the device.

Some vape pods have buttons that indicate what they are for, giving the user an easy time during its use. Vape pod users don’t have to go through the demanding process of figuring out what the settings could mean.

On the contrary, they only need to know the type of vape pod they would be comfortable using. Due to its simplicity, vapers find it more relaxing to vape on the go. Advanced users see the refillable pod vapes as opportunities to explore all the available flavors of e juice on the market.

Little To No Maintenance

Its ability to function is not in any way dependent on the care and maintenance factor. Vape pods are ready for use as soon as they land in the vaper’s hands compared to vape mods.

However, refillable vape pods only require constant refills depending on how often the user puts it to the task. Otherwise, it can go for long periods without the urgent need for a checkup.

Their general design also prevents unnecessary leaks. Vape pod users can comfortably carry them around (they are portable) without fearing their messy side.

Depends on the Brand

Since the vape industry is constantly evolving, vapers should expect some changes in their favorite vape products. Vape pods are part of this list, but manufacturers strive to maintain their simplicity.

Different brands will yearn to give their products a new look but eventually yield to their client’s feedback. Vape pods function according to the original design of the manufacturers.

Conclusion

Vape pods are among the favorite vape products among vapers. Its general profile speaks for itself and ends up attracting both new and long-time vapers. Shopping around for the latest models grants exposure to interested vapers.

What’s more, staying informed on the latest developments is a walk in the park owing to technology.

Digital Branding

The Future of Workforce Management and Recruiting

Steven on September 19, 2021

A few years ago, the job market was tipped in the favor of the employer, so businesses would be the ones with the final say as to who got each position. The situation has changed over time and today, most industries are considered the employee’s playground. Yes, more businesses exist today, providing healthy competition to one another, but also offering a plethora of jobs to prospective candidates.

However, those same candidates are no longer limited by location to work for a specific industry. With remote work on the rise, companies can have their pick at workers from all over the world, but employees, too, can choose their bosses based on the job’s perks and benefits. Freelancers have also shifted the balance of power in favor of the worker, as they also have the freedom to work with multiple companies instead of a single employer.

All of these changes are reshaping the process of workforce management as well as recruiting. Your business can improve its standing in the eyes of potential workers by keeping an eye on these relevant trends and implementing the most important changes in how you manage your workers to retain the finest talent available.

Employer branding is now a necessity

Businesses normally use their digital presence to sell to customers or build partnerships in their professional realm. However, as modern-day workers also do their research online when they’re applying for a position, it’s up to you to step up your branding game and build a notable identity as an employer.

When you communicate your brand values properly, from that employer’s perspective, you can rest assured that potential workers will be more likely to engage with your business and get in touch for a position. This simplifies the scouting and recruiting processes to a great extent and enables you to build employee relationships well before someone becomes an employee at all.

Social media recruiting on the rise

Building a brand on social media is now important from another perspective: looking for candidates and doing your best to impress them enough to take an interview. Most fine candidates are already swamped with offers, so you need to make yours stand out, by working hard on building a powerful presence and ongoing interactions with candidates on social media.

Use your employer brand to communicate your core values on these networks and to present what it looks like to work within your organization. Employee-generated content such as stories, articles, and videos can all help your business earn candidate interest.

A global workforce requires global solutions

Now that remote work and flexible work models are taking over the world, brands are rapidly trying to simplify and streamline all their recruiting, hiring, and employee management procedures. For companies wanting to hire full-time staff remotely without having to set up a local presence, using global employer of record services helps them achieve all their goals.

That way, they can have a legal local representative that takes care of all the compliance and regulations regarding hiring and employee management. It’s cost-effective and it empowers businesses to hire employees no matter where they are.

Diversity and inclusivity in the spotlight

A competitive salary is no longer the deal-maker or deal-breaker for most workers. Most modern employees want an inclusive, diverse workplace where they know they are surrounded by people of different skill sets, abilities, and backgrounds. It says so much about modern businesses that are willing to change their set-in-stone models to embrace this kind of cultural shift.

In response, brands are adapting their job descriptions, contracts, and recruiting models to make themselves more widely available to differently-abled workers and people from all cultures and with various backgrounds. It’s not just about policies – it’s also about how companies are implementing new collaboration tools and models to actually make such relationships possible.

Contingent and freelance work

With the tech revolution still going strong and new tools coming out regularly, it’s no wonder that workers are no longer limited to one definition of collaborating. The pandemic alone has sped up this process even further, getting more companies to embrace flexible models of collaboration with the global workforce in mind.

Now, employers are more open-minded to working with curated freelancers, a contingent workforce for seasonal projects, and remote collaboration in general. In turn, flexible workers are more eager to work with such companies, and even more so, to work on multiple projects instead of settling for a single employer.

Ongoing training and education

Remote or not, workers need regular training and education to stay motivated and to be equipped to handle their own industry changes and fluctuations. So many innovative solutions, and new software systems, all the way to novel collaboration methodologies push professionals to keep adapting. If you, as their employer, help them adapt through regular training, you’ll be on the right track to retain them for the long haul.

Training is also becoming a key factor to attract already highly qualified experts since they are the ones always eager to learn, and they always look for a workplace that will nurture such a mindset.

AI-driven analytics

Digitalization isn’t limited to team collaboration, even though that’s the most prominent shift companies are taking notice of. Next, to project management tools and smart software tools, companies are now improving their recruiting processes and employee management with the help of AI analytics.

Employers now have the capability to recognize emerging trends in employee requirements and workload management. Spotting an uptake in projects or workload growth allows companies to prepare properly, to avoid employee burnout and dissatisfaction, while at the same time meeting their project requirements.

Workers are adapting to the new possibilities of collaboration and embracing the freedom to work with brands from all over the world more than ever. That kind of flexibility has pushed companies to adapt, digitalize their processes, and work harder on establishing their inclusivity policies.

For your business to hire the most qualified talent, you need to offer a competitive workplace worthy of that talent. Keep an eye on these trends to stay in the know and to learn what you can do better to anticipate your own employees’ needs.

Infographic provided by Goodwill Car Donations, a provider of car donation in D.C.

4 On-Page Techniques forEffective Search EngineBranding

Digital Branding

Don’t Start Your Startup Without These Three Things

Steven on August 26, 2021

Getting your startup off the ground is one of the most exciting times in the life of an entrepreneur. All the dreaming and planning and false starts and failures have finally led to the moment when the proverbial open sign lights up for the first time. You have finally arrived. Or at least, you have arrived at the starting line. The hard parts are still in front of you. But you don’t need to worry about any of that when you first get started. You want to have a smooth opening day and enjoy this moment where all your hard work has brought you. Go ahead. You deserve it.

But before you pop the cork on that bottle of Champaign, make sure you are setting yourself up for success so that you can avoid the mistakes of other startups. Thanks to your business plan, you have clear goals. But you also have to have the fortitude to stick to the plan even when things are taking a long time to develop. You can’t be tossed about by the winds of fate. Your business maturity has to be your anchor in the storm. Don’t start a business without it. Here are a few more things you will need on opening day:

Insurance

Part of your business maturity is the realization that bad things happen at the least opportune times. That is because there are no opportune times for bad things to happen. You just have to be ready for whatever life throws at you. One of the best ways to be ready is to have excellent disability insurance. If you don’t have that insurance on day one, you are putting your new business in jeopardy.

Mishaps don’t wait until you have proper coverage. Opening day is a prime time for mishaps because you don’t quite have everything nailed down. It is more of a shake-down cruise to find where the weak spots are. Once found, you can begin the process of shoring them up. What happens if you find yourself disabled and unable to work at full capacity? What will that do for your income? What if you have to hire someone on an emergency basis to fill in for you? There is no reason for you to panic over every hypothetical situation. But you should be prepared for a few of them. The best, easiest, and most affordable way to be prepared is to have disability insurance before you allow a single customer to walk through the doors.

Backup Funding

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to spend every penny of your initial round of funding when you first open. This is a little like not having insurance. If you do not have backup funding for cash flow, you are one unexpected event from being out of business before you can properly start.

If something catastrophic happens to your office, you are going to have to get the necessary repairs done as quickly as possible. It does not matter that you have insurance that will cover it. You are going to have to wait a while before getting a settlement of your claim. In the meantime, you need money to deal with the problem. Your business will not be instantly profitable. You need cash flow upfront. If it takes longer to reach profitability than you planned, you are going to need a second round of financing. You need to have that source of backup funding on speed dial before you spend a penny of the initial funding round.

The Right Technology

After you open your business is the wrong time to discover that you needed a gigabit connection instead of the cheapest consumer line you could get. You are going to need to start making transactions on day one. You can dig a pretty deep hole if you have to stop doing business and retool your tech. Some changes can’t be made overnight. It takes a while. So get your networking figured out before you bring your startup online.

Not every startup is destined for success. But yours can be if you do the following in advance: Get properly insured, procure backup funding, and settle your technology needs before you open for business.

Personal Branding

Break Diving takes online learning to the next level in a positive social media atmosphere

Steven on August 26, 2021

Online learning communities have been emerging on the internet scene for quite some time now. Even before the pandemic hit, many people joined these forums to communicate updates and queries and provide general encouragement, help, and motivation to achieve their goals.

“Given the growth of technology and the lack of geographic barriers on the internet, online communities are the new hub for innovation and learning. Like “real-life” communities, online communities have shared interests, trust, operating norms, and roles, creating the foundation for effective interactions.”[i]

Some positive aspects of these communities include membership, influence, fulfillment of individual needs, shared events, and emotional connections to a learning community. Membership in a community gives each participant a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging helps to build bonds between members, which results in encouragement for them to stay connected and keep helping one another. Additionally, for a learning community to work well, every member should react and respond to what they see. This requires them to be present not only when there is a debate but also when people need advice and ideas. Furthermore, people tend to participate in a learning community to absorb the material and ask and answer questions. They should have the ability to express their opinions openly. In this way, community members can give and receive.

In addition, members of a learning community must also be able to share positive and negative experiences. Sharing experiences can help people connect, trust one another, and learn from one another. This results in a strong sense of community among the members.

Bottom line, a learning community becomes effective when it is held together by the right elements. This includes a fundamental goal, where the purpose of the community is defined from the get-go; identity, where a person’s identity is found through belonging to the community as a member; discussion and supportive participation, where members can discuss matters in a mindful, supporting and encouraging way; and shared values, which is the general perspective that members of the learning community share. Having those shared values is what unites them and enables them to promote an evolving discourse.

Much like everything else, therefore, there are pros and cons to the establishment of an online learning community.

The first benefit is improved retention rates. Learning communities have been shown to boost student retention rates. Regardless of age, students who participate in learning communities feel considerably more inspired to study and to keep learning. This is because they don’t feel alone in the process. A community serves as a support system, guiding you through the process and making it less lonely. Furthermore, they provide an effective and safe place to seek assistance. The more community members assist one another, the more empowered they feel to accomplish more in their studies.

Many students benefit from going over class material together through discussion since it helps them remember what they’ve learned. The more that co-learners talk, the more likely they are to remember what they’ve learned and continued learning. Second, online learning platforms are more integrative. Generally, co-learners are viewed as competitors in the academic environment. However, people are considered allies in a learning community. A learning community brings people together to help one another along their path. If someone needs assistance, others will gladly provide it. The third benefit to online learning is that when done right, it provides high-quality education. Online learning communities are seen to be beneficial to students’ learning. In addition to enhancing recall rates and reinforcing information, high-quality learning is facilitated by the abundance of learning chances. Members benefit not just from their study materials but also from each other’s experiences. The ability to interact and discuss with other learners provides opportunities to learn things that weren’t included in the course material. By hearing about other people’s experiences, learners will be less likely to make the same mistakes. This saves time and effort and makes them less likely to get discouraged and stop. Other benefits include collaborative knowledge and practice-based learning.

The most significant concern for educators in learning communities is the temptation for members to lose their sense of motivation. This is relatively frequent nowadays, especially among adult learners who are too busy or exhausted to put in the effort and expect everything to come effortlessly to them. Learners may try to take advantage of others in such situations by absorbing what they share rather than making an effort to find things out for themselves. When a member is too lethargic to put in the effort to participate, other members will be hesitant to share their thoughts. This can lead to feelings of hatred and mistrust among users, suffocating the positive environment. To address this potential problem, educators must make an effort to make sure learners develop both a personal and a group identity. Personal identity refers to how people see themselves in comparison with their peers; what strengths and value do they bring? What unique attitude and personality do they have?

On the other hand, group identity is how people collectively identify themselves, including their shared values, aims, and ideals. Striking a balance between the two identities could help to create a good learning community. As a result, some online courses reward individuals with individual milestones, such as badges when they complete a specific goal. These badges include content mapping, or unlocked content. With this reward system, educators can define and recognize an individual’s achievement in isolation from the group’s achievement.

Taking all of these pros and cons into account, Break Diving has established a not-for-profit social media site (at breakdiving.io) that is dedicated to changing the current social media landscape. The organization was founded on one mission; to increase people’s success, happiness, and friendships worldwide. The team behind Break Diving understands that traditional social media is one of the biggest causes of depression, arrogance, selfishness, and loneliness in the modern world. Additionally, regardless of one’s accomplishments, most people feel like they are still inadequate and cannot shake feelings that they have failed compared to their peers. Finally, despite the Internet offering us better connections to the rest of the world, most of us still lack true friendship and camaraderie.

Break Diving is changing this. The platform has proven to be a force of inspiration and support in the world by: 1) Helping people feel more connected and supported, 2) Building a positive alternative to all other social media platforms that brings people together in harmony, 3) Helping users achieve all their life goals and encouraging them to inspire others as well, 4) Creating a global mentorship program, and 5) Expanding everyone’s global cultural perspective to promote mutual understanding.

Unlike other platforms, Break Diving has regular live events that members can attend. They also offer a “dive certification program” that allows members to get certified in hundreds of “dives” at various levels. Dives are tasks that members can complete to show their skills in particular areas. Additionally, through their peer-networking support groups and events, they offer motivation and support. Finally, through the top-down mentorship and support program infused in their community, they help provide strategy and business sense.

The platform combines the best parts of other social media platforms. Break Diving has a rigorous application process as well as a clear Diver’s Code and Member Expectations. Since they are more than a social media site, they do not just accept anyone. Break Diving cares about its community. For this reason, they only accept applicants who will fit in, enjoy the experience and make the platform better. While their plan is not to exclude anyone, their application process is designed to help people understand what Break Diving is all about so that users can be positive members of the community from day one. The supportive community is filled with coders, writers, linguaphiles, performers, investors, entrepreneurs, travelers and parents from all over the world. While the members come from all walks of life, they’re all ambitious, motivated, friendly, helpful, and committed to helping others succeed.

If you love to learn from others and share with others, improve your life, develop greater self-esteem and pursue your dreams, Break Diving is the perfect social media platform for you.

If you’re interested in applying for Break Diving, click here to start your application. You can also get more information on these platforms:

Community Site: https://www.breakdiving.io/

Corporate Site: https://www.breakdiving.org/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/breakdiving

Blog: https://breakdiving.blog/

W.Y.S.E Blog: https://wyseguidance.org/

[i] https://trainingindustry.com/articles/e-learning/the-benefits-of-online-communities-in-e-learning/

Legal Branding

6 mistakes to avoid in the early stages of a startup

Steven on August 23, 2021

Most startups fail in the first year. This is simply because this is the most crucial time in a startup’s journey: Moving from the idea stage to the market. To help your startup succeed, here are the six mistakes to avoid in the early stages of a startup.

Developing a technical prototype too soon

Technical prototypes cost money and time. It is something that you will need to do at some point. But you shouldn’t jump the gun and develop one too soon. You need to be really solid on your idea first. Instead, ensure that the financial and marketing sides of your business are in place. Then, start to look at prototyping.

Not having a knowledgeable mentor

Getting advice is crucial to the success of your startup, especially in those early stages. Yet so many entrepreneurs avoid doing this. Mentors offer valuable insights into the field that you are entering and can help to guide you through all the challenges that it presents. If you don’t know anyone who can offer you some guidance, then look online. There are so many startup communities that have forums and groups where your questions can be answered.

Lacking a well-defined business plan

In those early stages, you really need to know what the future holds for your new company. That means having a detailed business plan created that will cover all aspects of your business. It may initially seem like a boring task, but many entrepreneurs fail because they don’t do this. Hence, you should put the time and effort into making sure that you have one!

Outsourcing unnecessarily

While you need to get going, getting everything done for you is rarely the best idea. For example, outsourcing your accounting or bookkeeping can seem like a good idea at first. But in reality, it’s usually not. You really need to know what is happening with your finances if your business is to succeed! So, do as much work as you can. Another example is app-building and website building. With today’s no code technology, you can build most of these things yourself. Here’s a useful guide on everything no-code.

Picking the wrong investors

Another thing that most new entrepreneurs get wrong is who they choose as an investor. That’s because, if it isn’t done right, you could be on the end of some seriously bad advice. When you first begin looking for investors, do so by asking around. See if you know anyone who has money to invest. If not, then start researching online. Look at the Angel Investment Network and see if they can find you a potential investor.

Expanding the team too soon

When it comes to expanding your team, you need to be careful. As the old saying goes: “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” You really need to consider carefully who you bring on board as an employee or a contractor. This is because if that person isn’t 100% dedicated and committed to your company, then he or she could end up causing some serious issues.

Digital Branding

How Managed Cloud Solutions Fuel Business Growth

Steven on August 17, 2021

Even without the current pandemic, the business world would be competitive enough, but the recent global problem has put additional strain on every company around the world. New ways of working and growing had to be discovered and businesses needed to adapt to the new situation as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Naturally, solutions that are both easy to implement and cost-effective were in the spotlight and all eyes turned to technology to provide ways in which companies could continue to work and hopefully prosper. Some examples of such solutions that have witnessed a great increase in use are definitely cloud computing, managed cloud services and open-source platforms. Actually, these are now technology megatrends that drive business growth. We’re going to focus on managed cloud solutions and open source in this text and try to help you understand how you can use them to allow your business to thrive.

Source of growth

All successful businesses utilize managed cloud services and open-source solutions, mainly because the concept allows them to create more agile and flexible environments, achieve more streamlined workflows without spending a lot and, consequently, yield more profit. Namely, open-source technologies feature high transparency levels and are open to inspection, thus enabling you to use and process your own data without being restricted to the capabilities of just one vendor or product. All businesses that want to improve their TTM (time to market), increase revenue and stay future-proof simply have to use such solutions.

Benefits

To begin with, there is transparency. The end-user gets full visibility into the code base and insight into all discussions about how the open-source community creates features and solves bugs. Next, there are global communities that unite around improving open-source solutions and achieve much better results than internal teams. In terms of reliability, we can conclude that the levels of overall reliability are higher, since there is more brainpower tackling open-source code development. Finally, when it comes to money, you need to know that open-source solutions don’t require licensing fees, which means the total cost of deploying a solution will be much lower.

Managed cloud open source

Using an open-source solution does come with some challenges, which is why using managed open-source resolves is the most efficient way to deal with those issues. What most managed open-source providers do is handle the implementations, maintenance and security processes, which means in-house developers can focus on more revenue-driving activities. This in turn allows companies to move forward and grow faster. Recent studies show that the key driver for the increases in both open-source adoption and cloud enablement is the same concept – boosted business agility and increased ability to innovate faster. Logically, the most successful companies are those that manage to combine managed cloud services with efficient use of open-source.

The model of future growth

We can see that an increasing number of businesses are moving the majority of their computer architecture into the cloud, as they have become more comfortable with hosting their infrastructure and processes in the public cloud. Cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWB) are dominating the market, which means experts in providing efficient AWS professional services are those who can really help your business grow at a faster rate than ever and you can join many renowned companies already using their services and relying on their expertise.

How does it work?

Typically, open-source companies offer hosting and managing their entire stacks in the cloud, while charging subscription fees to end-users, so they can use their services and access various functionality tiers. The open-source company normally offers the most basic service tiers that include the free open core only, while upsell options are offered for paid tiers with progressively higher functionality levels and additional features. Users can spin up and manage their own environment and mitigate the need for experienced employees who can run and maintain a complex structure.

On the other hand, there are certain challenges when it comes to using a cloud services model, one of which is that an open-source company can choose to contribute its code to a foundation that supports open-source projects, which can help the company in question reach wider distribution. However, this can also cause them to lose a certain amount of control over the way users go from open-source usage to commercial feature consumption.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that cloud-based technological advancements will continue to dominate in the years to come and we can expect that that level of usability will also continue to grow. Otherwise, the adoption would be slow and much more likely to wane instead of increase. This can happen if the platforms used are hard to utilize, manage and monitor. Consequently, we can say that those platforms that are most popular and widely used will continue to develop, since that is the logical result of having an increased number of users (and developers). It seems that managed cloud solutions are the way to go, since they can offer solutions to current challenges and allow businesses to enjoy all the whole range of features offered by an open-source product.

Legal Branding

7 Awesome Automation Tools to Supercharge Your Content Creation Process

Steven on August 11, 2021

Content creation is a key function in digital marketing that demands both time and effort. The content you put out there speaks volumes about your business and your authority in your field. This is why optimizing the content creation process should be one of your top priorities. The more tools and aides your content creators have at their disposal, the more productive they are likely to be.

According to a survey by HubSpot, 68% of businesses use automation in some way. Another report by MarketingProfs says that 92% of marketing agencies are now investing more time and resources into marketing automation. use of automation tools and software has resulted in increased ROI for many marketers who have automated some of their content marketing activities.

If you are looking for the best automation tools that can give you a competitive advantage, here are 7 awesome tools you should know about.

1. Narrato – Content creation and collaboration platform

Narrato is a content creation and workflow management platform that helps you see through your content creation process from start to finish. It’s a great collaboration platform where your entire content team and stakeholders can come together to build great content.

Narrato Workspace can help you:

Collaborate with your content team – You can add your entire content team to the Workspace on Narrato, including your writers, editors, content managers, clients, partners, and other stakeholders. You can assign your team members to tasks and get them to collaborate on any piece of content. You can also share content with partners and stakeholders using public content links.

Manage a team of writers – Narrato is a perfect platform to manage your team of writers – be it your in-house staff or freelance / part-time writers. Content task assignment is super convenient (you can assign multiple tasks to a writer in one go). You can even track work done and payments due for your contract or freelance writers.

Create quality content – Narrato boasts of a powerful content editor, which allows you to optimize your content for readability and gives great content structuring suggestions. You can even run a plagiarism check on content using the editor. What’s even cooler is the ability to create custom content templates to get structured input from your writers.

Organize your content and projects – Narrato offers you a great platform to organize all your content projects in a single place. It’s structured very much like your local or cloud drive with folders and content items. But offers you several other views of your content to facilitate easy access and planning. For instance – a view of all content items without folders and a content calendar view, which is great for planning and tracking content work.

Track content and project progress – All content tasks run through workflow statuses and you can also track the overall progress of your project using project status bars.

Publish and deliver content seamlessly – Narrato Workspace integrates with WordPress and supports HTML publishing as well.

Create a guidelines and brand assets repository – This is a cool feature which allows you to create a guidelines document with attachments, and you can link it repeatedly to multiple tasks anytime.

Pricing: Free at the moment. May launch paid plans soon.

2. Automizy – Email marketing and automation software

Automizy is an email marketing automation tool that helps you distribute your content and engage with leads at the right time. Email marketing is one of the most important areas of any digital marketing strategy. But handling emails manually can be quite tedious. You have hundreds of prospective leads, each at a different stage in their journey towards conversion.

Email automation allows you to send them targeted, personalized emails at the right moment to increase your chances of conversion. With Automizy, you can build your contact list with the help of sign-up forms you create. The platform has an email automation builder that helps you define the entire process of sending an automated email, based on the actions taken by the prospect.

The drag and drop email editor also lest you create high-performing emails without any additional skill requirements. The AI tool on the platform helps by predicting the performance of your subject lines.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9 per month for 200 contacts.

3. TubeBuddy – Productivity and SEO tool for YouTube

Nearly 61% of digital marketers say they have achieved better ROI with video marketing than with Google Ads. So you can imagine how important it is that your video content performs well, particularly on platforms like YouTube.

TubeBuddy is a browser extension that helps you get more views and subscribers on YouTube faster. The tool helps you with advanced keyword research, simplifying publishing, optimizing content to rank higher in search results, promoting your videos on social media, and data analysis to identify improvement opportunities.

Pricing: They are offering a free plan with limited features. The paid plans start at $7.20 per month.

4. Typito – Video maker to create videos with text

Another amazing video content platform, with a slightly different use case, is Typito. Typito is a video creation app with an easy drag-and-drop editor. You can customize your videos with your brand colors and fonts. You can also add captions easily that are perfectly synced with the video.

The platform offers more than 20 video formats, over 600,000 free images, and 500+ motion graphic templates.

Pricing: The paid plan starts at $29 per month.

5. Jasper – AI-based copywriting software

Jasper is an AI-powered copywriting software that can create high converting copy for ads, emails, websites, blogs, and more. This could be a very useful tool to create a compelling copy during web design and development work, without having to hire a copywriter just yet. It can also be an invaluable tool for your sales, marketing, and customer support teams, saving them a lot of time on content creation.

Jasper can generate several high-converting headlines with just a little input about the product or service for which you need a copy. You can also set the tone for your copy to go with your brand image. The tool lets you translate your content to more than 25 different languages too.

Pricing: The starter plan is priced at $29 per month.

6. CreatorKit – Video tool for content creators

CreatorKit is a video creation tool for creating social marketing videos. The platform lets you create animated videos, stories, and ads for different social platforms with its easy-to-use video editor. It has thousands of templates to fit various social channels.

You can customize videos to reflect your brand and save your customized templates to use again. You can also add price tags, discounts, and other engaging text to your marketing videos.

Pricing: Pricing information not available

7. Zencastr – Podcast recording tool

According to a research report, the number of podcast listeners in the US alone has grown by 29.5% in the last 3 years. Podcasts are a high-potential marketing tool today, competing with video and written content.

Zencastr is a tool that helps you record studio-quality podcasts from anywhere. It allows you to record a lossless 16-bit 48k WAV audio track with each guest, without any time limits. Since it is local recording, the internet connection speed does not matter and you can get high-quality audio every time.

The tool has built-in VoIP that lets you chat, talk, leave live footnotes, and record at the same time. It also has a Soundboard for live editing of your podcasts and an automatic post-production tool to help you achieve the final product.

Pricing: Free plan with limited features for hobbyists. The professional plan costs $20 per month.

Conclusion

Each of these marketing and automation tools is sure to drive more engagement for your business. Content creating and marketing requires skill and effort. But it also demands the right tools and technology to deliver the best results. Try out these amazing automation tools and watch your content performance soar higher than ever before.

Author bio:

Neelam Goswami is a Content Writer at Godot Media, a leading content writing services agency. Her areas of interest include digital and content marketing. She is also an amateur artist and loves to spend time on creative work.