The trucking and logistics sector stands as the backbone of the global economy, ensuring the seamless flow of goods across borders and within nations. This pivotal industry not only supports commerce but also plays a crucial role in sustaining economic growth momentum. While the significance of this sector is often understated, its contributions are monumental, driving advancements and facilitating trade on a global scale. However, despite its critical role, the trucking and logistics sector faces a myriad of challenges that threaten its efficiency and sustainability.

The Offering of the Trucking and Logistics Sector

At its core, the trucking and logistics sector transports and delivers goods. It encompasses a wide range of services, from freight transportation, warehousing, inventory management, and shipping and receiving. This sector ensures that products reach their destinations promptly and efficiently, making it indispensable for businesses across various industries.

The trucking sector, in particular, is renowned for its flexibility and reliability. It offers door-to-door service and can transport a diverse array of goods. It’s the lifeblood of trade, supporting both domestic and international markets. Logistics, however, involves the strategic planning and execution of transportation and storage of goods. It’s about optimizing routes, managing supply chains, and reducing costs while ensuring the goods arrive safely and on time.

Importance of the Trucking and Logistics Sector

The economic significance of the trucking and logistics sector cannot be overstated. It is a critical growth driver, providing employment to millions worldwide and contributing significantly to global GDP. The efficient movement of goods is essential for the operation of businesses, impacting everything from the local grocery store’s inventory to international trade.

Moreover, the sector is a critical player in promoting globalization. It enables businesses to expand their reach, access new markets, and source materials from across the globe. This not only fosters international trade but also stimulates economic development and competitiveness.

Challenges and Difficulties

Despite its contributions, the trucking and logistics sector faces significant challenges. One of the most pressing issues is the environmental impact, with transportation being a substantial source of greenhouse gas emissions. This has spurred a push towards sustainability, with the industry exploring alternative fuels and more efficient logistics practices.

Another challenge is the increasing demand and expectations for faster delivery times, primarily driven by the e-commerce boom. This puts immense pressure on the sector to optimize operations, invest in technology, and manage costs.

Furthermore, the industry grapples with regulatory compliance, navigating a complex web of laws and regulations across different jurisdictions. This adds to the operational burden and impacts international logistics, complicating cross-border trade.

Labor shortages, particularly of qualified truck drivers, pose another significant hurdle. This has been exacerbated by an aging workforce and the perceived unattractiveness of trucking careers to younger generations, leading to increased costs and operational challenges.

Intriguing Industry Facts

• The trucking industry transports over 70% of all freight in the United States, highlighting its critical role in the country’s economy.
• Globally, the logistics market is expected to reach a staggering value of over $12 trillion by 2027, underscoring the sector’s growth potential.
• The introduction of autonomous trucks could revolutionize the industry, potentially reducing operating costs by up to 45%.
• The logistics sector is increasingly leveraging big data and AI to predict demand, optimize routes, and improve efficiency, marking a significant shift towards digitalization.
• An intriguing fact is that if the global logistics sector were a country, it would have the 5th largest GDP in the world, showcasing its monumental economic impact.

Conclusion

The trucking and logistics sector is undoubtedly a cornerstone of the global economy, facilitating trade, supporting businesses, and driving economic growth. Its ability to adapt and innovate amidst its challenges is a testament to the sector’s resilience and importance. As the industry continues to evolve, leveraging technology and embracing sustainability, its role in shaping the future of commerce and trade becomes even more significant. The challenges ahead are formidable, but so are the opportunities for growth and transformation, making the trucking and logistics sector a fascinating field to watch in the years to come. About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

In the 1960s, self-storage development started with pioneers who identified the increasing demand for commercial and residential storage. They were the real estate developers who produced the stage for the self-storage industry.

The self-storage industry is not much different from those dealing with demand and supply economics. Commercial and residential storage have increased the facilities that supply it. The increased growth of the industry has contributed to increased public awareness of the personal and economic advantages of the product. The continuous increase in demand is always teamed with excellent potential, making self-storage one of the leading growth industries since 1978.

The importance of the self-storage industry cannot be denied. Commercial development of the industry started back in the 1960s. Real estate will always be one of the major assets for households, governments, and businesses. They are affected by the economic law of supply and demand; however, opening a self-storage business is never guaranteed success.

Key Factors of a Self-Storage Business

The critical factors that must be considered in a self-storage business model include the following:

Cash Flow Analysis

A cash flow analysis helps determine the business’s total profit, which is an important part of any business. There are various factors which must be considered. They include the considerable amount of leasable space, projected percentage of occupancy, loss due to vacancy collection problems, and the income of gross annual rents.

Development Costs

Developmental costs must be obtained before entering any business, and the total costs must be considered before making any major decisions. Bookkeeping can be used to track any information related to the major costs related to the business. The area of the purchased land should not reflect the full amount of the leasable space upon completion. In addition, the significant factors that help determine the leasable coverage include the utilities, easements, building codes, and physical land features.

The figures linked to the construction costs completely depend on the type of facility. Almost 67% of the development budget goes towards construction and comprises of equipment, labor costs, and many other items. Self-storage businesses require more than half of the developmental costs of multifamily properties, including co-housing properties and apartments.

Financial Analysis

A financial analysis is an important part of a self-storage business. A cash flow analysis helps determine the ROI just after the development costs. The target occupancy percentage must be developed and is usually around 90%. Other than the target occupancy percentage, the break-even occupancy must be identified to cover the debt services and operational costs.

Self-storage businesses believe that the occupancy rate should be between 60%-72%. A low break-even percentage is always ideal for investors because it provides an extra cushion for fluctuations in the market.

End Users of the Self-Storage Business

An increase in business-minded individuals mainly powers the self-storage industry. These parts of every normal start-up require a mobile workspace and temporary storage. Companies like e-commerce stores use self-storage units as an important part of their inventory facilities. Besides the commercial market, many people move into new homes and avail self-storage units to store their belongings, whether short- or long-term.

The market developed rental rates for many self-storage consumers operating within these rates. It is the key to competitive sales of self-storage units. A self-storage business is beneficial as it is one of the greatest investments compared to other major real estate developments. The growth of online businesses and start-ups is expected to help expand the number of self-storage businesses and the industry. 

Rents

Rents are an important part of a self-storage business. The average annual rent charges for real estate were surveyed in many studies. Self-storage units are similar to multifamily and real estate properties regarding rent prices. The rents and prices of storage services are as follows:

• Multi-family: $7.5 to $12 per square foot
• Offices: $14 to $24 per square foot
• Retail: $16 to $20 per square foot
• Self-storage: $6.5 to $12 per square foot

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

It is a bitter reality that an employee hired by you and working with you can steal from you. Taking discounts more than allowed or carrying office supplies home often happens in offices. But, if this stealing rises to embezzlement, it is alarming for business owners. Embezzlement in accounting is not suitable for the health of your business.

Many organizations and individual business owners face employee theft and embezzlement each year. Embezzlement is theft or immoral actions by employees. According to a 2012 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) report, “the typical U.S. business loses 7% of its annual revenues to employee fraud,” and small businesses have the most cases and the highest losses.

Embezzlement is unavoidable and happens in small, big, profitable, and non-profit companies. No business owner wants to be the victim of embezzlement. Fraud affects the finances, image, and morale of the company. All factors decline after a fraudulent case. Most organizations adopt shortcuts for fraud prevention. These tactics only decrease the opportunity for fraud. Fraud deterrence is essential for all organizations. The bigger the organization, the more the chances of fraud increases. Frauds are as old as human history and can happen to any company or business despite the organizational structure and the number of workers. Small business managers trust their workers more than usual, and because of that, there may be weaker internal controls.

Studies show that embezzlement is the product of certain behaviors. In the ACFE’s report, 92% of fraudsters in cases studied exhibit behavioral warning signs before being detected. So, before instigating a full-scale witch stalk for possible fraudsters, observe and look for the understated behavioral warning signs of embezzlement in your organization.

The following are the signs of embezzlement in accounting: 

Unexplainable Records

Any unexplained and unjustified changes in bookkeeping records are warning signs for embezzlement in accounting. Suppose there is a decrease in the revenues despite continuous payments from the business bank account. There are various pending payments for long periods without any justified reason. Unexplainable increases in expenses and a decrease in profits mean that money is draining out of the company to a place it is not supposed to go.

The Over-Efficient Workaholics

An accountant fraudster will go to any extent to hide their crime. More often than not, they want to work off-hours when everyone has gone home or refused vacations. They may also try to take work home. All of these activities are red alerts and need to be addressed. Keep an eye on such workaholics. In today’s busy and selfish world, some unfortunate individuals exert extra hours with bad intentions.

Unsatisfactory Answers

Fraudsters try to hide many documents and processes from managers and others. Managers or others become offended if they try to get involved in their work. They give unsatisfactory explanations and answers on any fault.

They are overprotective. They work alone and don’t like any involvement or interference. Records maintained by them become inaccessible and untouchable to others. When asked questions, they become overly defensive. They know their records will unveil their embezzlement, and their answers will be suspicious and unrealistic.

Financial Stress

If any accountant faces any financial stress in their life, they are more likely to plan embezzlement by using accounting records. Any unexpected financial loss like divorce, mortgage, or debt acts as the trigger for embezzlement. Know your employees by taking time for small discussions about their current situation. This way, you can detect sudden changes in their behavior and activities.

Conclusion

Embezzlement in accounting and bookkeeping can happen to any organization. The signs mentioned above are helpful in early detection.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Fixing things has never been easy, especially when they are messed up. When things reach this point with a business’ bookkeeping records, they have two options to decide the fate of the business. 1. Close the business and file for bankruptcy if it is a corporation. or 2. Uplift the image of the company from scratch with several revitalization strategies.

Why do Most Businesses Fail to Manage their Business Books?

Being an entrepreneur, you may be more excited about establishing your business and less excited about managing its back-office operations. Entrepreneurs start with the best intentions to make their business successful, hopefully bringing significant gains in return. Quite too often, front-office responsibilities and busy schedules cause back-office tasks, such as bookkeeping and accounting, to fall to the back burner. This creates a lot of problems for the business. 

You can’t expect to put your business on the right track and earn significant gains if you lack the financial wisdom to tackle important aspects of business, such as filing tax returns, debt repayments, financial forecasting, projections, and more.

Bookkeeping may be an intimidating task for entrepreneurs. However, now they have many options to manage their business books with online accounting services, automated software, etc. Since most start-ups and entrepreneurs lack the expertise to handle back-office operations, business accounting consultancy services can employ the best practices, tools, and techniques to provide a clear snapshot of cash flow and finances for better decision-making. 

Gone are the days when businesses tended to avoid acquiring such services as they lacked professional audits, accountability, and the concealment of sensitive information. Now, businesses have developed faith in these companies and consider them a pivotal tool for their start-up’s success.

First Thing First—Hire a Professional Accountant to Balance Out Business Books

Back-office tasks of every business are complicated as they involve tax requirements, debt repayments, financial reporting and forecasting, vendor invoicing, management, and other similar things. So, the first thing that must be done when the business books become redundant is to hire an accounting professional who will fix things for you. 

Getting a business out of crisis is extremely difficult, especially when embroiled in financial distress. Therefore, only a person with relevant skills and profound accounting knowledge can lift the business out of turmoil. This further intensifies the need to hire a qualified and seasoned accounting and bookkeeping expert.

Separate Your Personal and Business Account

Studies show that most start-ups fail because they do not separate their personal and business accounts. It would help if you went through messy business books to find the correct amounts before filing tax returns and debt repayments. By keeping your personal and business accounts separate, you will get a clear picture of your finances and cash flow, which means you can tally all the sources of income and expenses.

Track Every Expense Incurred

You need to label and categorize every expense incurred in the past and make a comprehensive plan to deal with tax and debt-related requirements. Therefore, you must record every single transaction if you expect to avoid unnecessary income taxes. Sole proprietors can afford to record financial transactions manually, but corporations cannot afford to conduct such practices. 

Hence, they must use accounting software with a suitable capacity to record and track all sources of income and expenditures for better decision-making.

Reconcile Your Business Books

It is all about achieving the right strategic fit and balancing your finances. You need to reconcile your business books with actual spending and expenses incurred to get your business on the right track. Getting out of crises is difficult, especially when your business is at stake. 

Although reconciliation will likely take a lot of time, by hiring a seasoned accountant and employing the best accounting practices, software, and techniques, you can face-lift the image of your company and perhaps give it a new positive image. Reviewing your finances and business books at least once a quarter can help you determine the financial health of your business to make better financial and business decisions.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Your work life can get much more manageable with cloud storage. Because of cloud storage, a user can access data and information from anywhere with internet access. In a law firm, it can help a lawyer answer their client’s question quickly while the other lawyer is waiting in the courtroom to represent the other client. Cloud storage is an online model in which data is stored on numerous distributed servers on the network, provided for use by customers, mostly by a third party. From the client’s point of view, data is stored and processed on one large virtual server known as cloud data storage.

Suppose you are tired of running between work and home with a flash drive, always carrying a laptop with the right files, and want your important files to be accessible to you or your team on any computer or mobile device. In that case, cloud storage can come to your rescue. Law firms use cloud storage to save information and client data while managing all their work in the best way possible.

Advantages of Cloud Storage

• You will always have seamless data access across any internet-connected computer.
• Securing the data
• Data safety is highly probable, even in case of hardware failures.
• The client pays only for their specific use.
• The client does not have to deal with acquiring, supporting, and maintaining its own data storage infrastructure, ultimately reducing total maintenance costs.
• The provider makes all procedures for reserving and preserving the integrity of data of the “cloud” center, which does not involve the client in this process.

We can easily store data with the ease of access anytime, anywhere through cloud storage. It is purchased as a service and provided on demand, which allows you to get the required amount of storage with payment after use. Cloud storage eliminates the need to buy and manage your storage infrastructure, increases flexibility, and provides global scaling and the ability to deliver data to any place at any time. Cloud storage has made it amazingly easy to store and access all data whenever possible. Many law firms have started using cloud storage. Most law firms choose this option because they can easily store their clients’ data and information to access securely at any time.

Cloud storage providers create and maintain an infrastructure to manage resources, security, and reliability, making data available for applications worldwide.

Importance of Cloud Storage Usage in Law Firms

Data storage in the cloud allows law firms to fundamentally review three aspects of their activities: the total cost of ownership, time to deployment, and information management.

The Total Cost of Ownership

Because of cloud storage, you do not need to purchase equipment, allocate resources for storage, or spend money on something that “someday will come in handy.” You can add or remove resources on-demand, quickly change performance and storage time, and pay only for the resources used. Data that is not used can be automatically moved to more economical levels by rules that are easy to control. This allows for economies of large volumes.

Time to Deployment

Cloud storage allows IT professionals to quickly allocate the necessary space to store data exactly when required. As a result, IT professionals can focus on solving complex application-related problems, not on managing storage systems. 

Information Management

Centralized storage in the cloud creates huge opportunities. Using life cycle management policies in cloud storage, you can solve essential tasks related to information management, including automatic leveling or data locking for compliance purposes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, cloud storage revolutionizes work life by providing seamless access, enhancing security, and reducing costs for law firms. It ensures efficient data management, offering flexibility and scalability. The advantages include ease of access, cost-effectiveness, and eliminating the need for personal storage infrastructure. Cloud storage has become integral for law firms, facilitating secure data storage, global accessibility, and streamlined information management. Embracing cloud storage transforms the total cost of ownership, deployment time, and information management for law firms, marking a significant shift in data storage practices.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity. Reviewed By: Brittany McMillen

Brittany McMillen

Brittany McMillen is a seasoned Marketing Manager with a sharp eye for strategy and storytelling. With a background in digital marketing, brand development, and customer engagement, she brings a results-driven mindset to every project. Brittany specializes in crafting compelling content and optimizing user experiences that convert. When she’s not reviewing content, she’s exploring the latest marketing trends or championing small business success.

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Bookkeeping can be painful. Freelancers and small businesses tend to avoid the topic of accounting as it is too exasperating, time-consuming, and tedious. Fortunately, various innovative companies are solving accounting problems for specific freelancers and large enterprises. A big part of bookkeeping is payroll; a big part of payroll is tracking time and validating expenditures. The significance of time-tracking might be apparent. 

Small companies usually have workers who are salaried hourly. Make sure you know where and how your money gets spent. Similarly, handling and verifying expenses that you and your employees make on behalf of your commercial will help you spend money on what you need and save on what you do not. And you still need to trail and categorize your expenses for tax purposes. Look at these accounting tools to track time and expenses while managing your employees.

TSheets

TSheets is an online labor and time management software program that can save your business time and money. It is an operational and easy-to-use time-tracking tool. You can track time from the workplace or in the field with mobile-compatible time-tracking applications.

• TSheets offers a fresh interface free of needless clutter.
• The virtual timesheets are easy to use.
• The retailer provides free training and setup via live chat and phone.
• You can use the online knowledge base to learn the system independently.
• TSheets automatically trail and update both time-off requests and accrual tracking.
• If you do not need the automatic system, you can manually fill in timesheets.
• Email and phone support are offered to clients free of cost.
• Top-notch consumer support, averaging 4.9 out of 5 ratings.

TSheets also makes it easy to control a shift-based schedule, altering it week-to-week according to your and your operatives’ needs. The publishing supervisor is intuitive; your employees will get notifications when their shifts are posted or changed. Moreover, you can even accord specific tasks, projects, or jobs to these shifts, minimizing misperception and maximizing efficiency.

Expensify

Expensify is a business structure that manages expenses, transactions, and money matters through real-time data and reporting procedures. The bookkeeping functions performed by the user-friendly interface of Expensify come in handy for many money management issues. It allows companies to maintain summaries of different accounts along with calendars. Transparency can be obtained, and different ratios, such as debt-to-income ratios, can be balanced at the right time, averting any crisis or undesirable situation.

Expensify can also track your travel expenses based on the miles traveled or time spent on a particular project. You can change currencies for international traveling, and it records the information in the accurate text fields. It offers a simple resolution to recording expenses using the information provided through photos.

Neat

Like Expensify, Neat excerpts the key information from your receipts and documents; it assimilates with popular accounting and business software and simplifies your work. Neat lets you scan receipts and financial documents. Neat allows you to use a smartphone, a desktop camera, or a real scanner. You can securely access your files from any device anywhere. Neat also incorporates your other bookkeeping tools so that you can transfer your expense documents directly. You can build expense reports, track bills, and share financial data with your co-owners and accountants.

With Neat, you can also easily add contact information and sync these new contacts with your email marketing platform. It eliminates the slow, laborious manual entry normally associated with expense filing and gives you an easy-to-use online process.

Conclusion

While a bit more limited in functionality than many apps, time-tracking and expense-management accounting tools can still be an integral part of your suite of accounting tools.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Protecting your digital assets, such as your website and your company’s online network, is extremely important. As digitization accelerates, companies must shore up their defenses against potential online threats to ensure data is well protected. 

There is no denying the fact that the cybersecurity landscape is constantly shifting, and business owners often have no clue how to deal with the ever-growing cybersecurity challenges. Today, businesses are discovering that to stay ahead with cyber security, they need to employ the right tools and techniques and hire the right people to ensure their protection.

Although there are countless viruses, malware, and online threats, the prevention tools are almost always there. It would be best to integrate the proper cyber security options that you feel are right for protecting your business.

Staying Ahead of the Game

Staying ahead with cybersecurity can only be possible if you constantly learn and explore new techniques to protect your network. Besides adopting a DIY strategy, you can hire someone to expose your cyber security flaws. The ‘ethical hacking’ concept prevailing today has undoubtedly answered the unspoken cyber security needs of business security flaws and network imperfections.

This has become a professional career for those who are good at identifying cyber errors. Businesses that generally rely on their online presence can avail of this golden opportunity to hire the services of a professional, ethical hacker who can prevent the leakage of important data or bookkeeping records from a company’s servers.

Come Up with a Sound Data Prevention Plan

The data breaches in MNCs such as eBay, Yahoo, Target, Sony, and many other reputable brands bear testimony to the fact that cyber security threats are certain, and you need to come up with a data prevention plan to ensure your business data is secured and well-protected against all cyber threats. Data breaches negatively impact and hurt the integrity of a business.



If it continues, no business can expect to survive in the market for long. How? It slowly and gradually diminishes its market share, eventually kicking the business out of the competitive race. Moreover, breaches in MNCs teach us that no company is safe from the potential dangers of the internet. We must organize our servers and strengthen our cybersecurity systems to mitigate risks. 

Always Keep Learning

Trying to stay on top of cybersecurity requires you to always be on your toes. It would help if you continued learning how cybercriminals can enter your system, servers, or network to steal vital information from your company and know what tactics they generally use. To be resilient in today’s business climate, you need to fine-tune your plan of action and develop a comprehensive cybersecurity plan to protect your company from threats and potential dangers.

Arguably, we may be unable to understand or comprehend many multifaceted aspects of cybersecurity, making it clear that hiring a professional cybersecurity expert is a wise choice for any business. They are experts in their field and know how things work practically.

Learn from the Mistakes of Others

Besides learning what potential threats are out there, you also need to learn from the mistakes of others. It would help if you learned those lessons to draft an amazing cybersecurity strategy for your company that works for you. Staying updated with newer and advanced insights from the industry helps you know what’s right for your business.

Suppose your business is too small and cannot afford to hire a professional IT expert. In that case, you can use a DIY strategy and install antiviruses and firewalls to prevent cyber criminals from attacking your servers and stealing sensitive data.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Companies that use cloud hosting are facing a multitude of issues. Most of these issues are related to security threats and data breaches within the cloud network. The threat of a data breach is so high that 53% of companies believe that cloud hosting poses many general security risks. The risks are the essential barriers to cloud hosting. Companies must follow the best practices in cloud hosting, as highlighted below.

Services Accessible by Cloud Hosting

Before selecting a cloud hosting service, ensure that the company and IT officers know the services they are getting. An important point in choosing a suitable cloud hosting service for business is Software as a Service (SaaS). Most cloud hosting companies provide access through the web. Cloud hosting offers different services, such as:

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
• SaaS (Software as a Service)
• Platform-based services or Platform as a Service (PaaS)

SaaS is a well-known service that makes software applications accessible through web sources. Infrastructure-as-a-service refers to remote access to servers or storage capabilities. At the same time, Platform-as-a-service is a software-based computing platform that enables developers to design, build, and deploy web applications on a hosted infrastructure.

Applications Included in Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting allows companies to put an application into the cloud. Each application can be charged differently depending on the sources it uses. Businesses should put the applications that they frequently need on the cloud. More importantly, regulatory and compliance issues prevent companies from putting specific applications into the cloud, especially those that involve sensitive user data. 

IDC surveys show that the primary uses of Clouds are:

• IT management
• Collaboration
• Personal or enterprise applications
• Application development
• Server and storage capabilities

Transferability of Applications

An essential aspect of a cloud hosting service is allowing easy access and transfer of different applications. Application transfer services from one cloud platform to another and in-house cloud data centers must be easy and quick.

Cloud hosting services will have to adapt standard technologies to ensure true interoperability. The recent “Open Cloud Manifesto” supports the interoperability of data and applications. The Open Cloud Consortium advocates for frameworks that allow different companies that provide cloud-hosting services to work seamlessly between them. The goal is to move an application from one cloud to another without having to rewrite it.

The Security Offered by Cloud Hosting Providers

The cloud-hosting provider must offer adequate security measures to protect the client’s sensitive data. In the past, there have been several data breaches. These breaches resulted in the loss of sensitive data and millions of dollars. While keeping data on a cloud has risks, many hosting companies offer proper security measures to keep your data safe.

Before choosing a cloud hosting service, be careful when reviewing the SLA. Understanding all the concepts discussed before making a final decision is essential. The terms and conditions must be easy to understand. Reading through all publicly available data is necessary. Amazon, for example, maintains a dashboard that shows the state of operation of the various services and their history.

There will always be latencies on the network with a cloud service, making applications slower than running on your data center. Many third-party vendors, such as RightScale, are developing additional services to the cloud to ensure that applications evolve and work well.

Companies that need cloud hosting services must ensure that the company is ready to adopt the principles of cloud computing. The service must have open data centers. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, cloud hosting brings various challenges, primarily around security threats and data breaches. The high-risk perception, as indicated by 53% of companies, underscores the importance of robust security measures. Best practices in cloud hosting encompass understanding available services, including IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS, and strategically selecting applications to address regulatory concerns. The transferability of applications and the assurance of interoperability play a pivotal role.

Security remains paramount, with providers needing to uphold stringent measures to safeguard sensitive data. Prospective users must scrutinize service level agreements, ensuring clarity in terms and conditions. As the cloud hosting landscape evolves, companies venturing into this realm must be well-prepared to embrace the principles of cloud computing and ensure open data center integration for a seamless experience.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Whether you are a bookkeeper or looking to become one, bookkeepers have seven traits that make them outstanding at what they do. Before you start a bookkeeping business or become a bookkeeper, ensure that you have these 7-character traits.

A Positive Attitude

To boil it down, a bookkeeper must overcome many challenges as they try to construct and develop their business. As a business owner, it can be lonely when there is no higher authority to turn to when things go south. You, alone, will be responsible for figuring out and resolving any problems. It would help if you didn’t get down with a negative outlook and that you always address issues with optimism. 

A Difference Maker

Being a difference-maker simply means caring about your job. Make sure that you satisfy your clients and do everything favorable for them. It will not help you to be a bookkeeper who just does data entry. Make a difference by being someone who breaks everything down to look for the possibility of saving money within your client’s business. If you can do this, you will be considered extremely valuable.

Hard Working

As with any job, this trait is essential. Whether it is bookkeeping or not, starting your own business requires tons and tons of hard work and patience. While having your own business has a lot of benefits, you should be ready to put in your hard work to kick it off effectively. You can never become a great bookkeeper if your bookkeeping skills are not up to the mark and you are not working hard to ensure that all your clients are happy and satisfied with you as their bookkeeper.

Organized

Any job probably requires you to be somewhat organized. However, when it comes to bookkeeping, it is essential for a variety of reasons. Being a slob automatically means you will not be great with bookkeeping. Being organized is key to being more efficient and ensuring things run smoothly.

Another reason being organized is essential in bookkeeping is that, in many instances, you will be required to do “house cleaning” after signing on with new clients. This requires you to be capable of organizing and cleaning out the issues in their finances before you even start with the actual bookkeeping. 

Able to Work Effectively on Multiple Projects

Not to be confused with the ability to multi-task, being able to work on multiple projects at one time means having the ability to determine the projects you are required to do first and the priority order you will be completing your tasks. You will constantly have more than one client, and they all will require your undivided attention. Moreover, your clients’ businesses will be at different stages and require you to work on different levels as their bookkeeper.

Detail Oriented

The importance of this trait in a bookkeeper is understandable. Ultimately, you are supposed to deal with your client’s finances. Apart from that, if you are also capable of finding or suggesting ways your clients can improve their profits, it is a huge possibility that you will retain those clients for an extended time.

Personable

Relationships are an essential part of the bookkeeping business. This is a significant reason why clients choose you. If the people you work for cannot connect with you, they will find it difficult to develop trust with you. Being personable is one of any great bookkeeper’s most important character traits.

As a bookkeeper, you are supposed to do more than crunch numbers. You must crunch numbers while caring what those numbers mean and communicating with your clients as a human being, not just as an individual who just does the bookkeeping for their business.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Start-ups have been the hyped-up success story of the former decade, with a few new companies hitting it big and changing the face of business development. But for every successful start-up, countless others fail, sometimes mysteriously and often unobserved. No one enters business expecting to fail, yet many new start-ups do. To understand what causes failures, listed below are the top five reasons why start-ups tend to fail.

Market Problems

A major reason why new businesses fail is that they run into the problem of having little or no market for the product they have built. Here are some common indications:

1. There is not a convincing enough value proposition to cause the buyer to commit to procuring. Good sales reps will tell you that to get an order in today’s tough circumstances, you must find buyers who have their “hair on fire” or are “in thrilling pain.” 

2. The market timing is not right. You could be ahead of your market by a few years, and the public may not be ready for your specific resolution at this step.

3. Luckily, you may have had the funding to last through the early stages, but the market size of people who need your services and have funds to come to you is simply not large enough.

Business Model Failure

One of the most common causes of failure in the start-up world is that entrepreneurs are too optimistic about how easy it will be to acquire customers. They assume that clientele will beat a path to their door because they will build an interesting website, product, or service. That may happen with the first few customers, but it quickly becomes an expensive task to attract and win customers if you do not have a proper business model in place.

The Capital Efficiency “Rule”

 If you want a capital-efficient business, it is believed to be important to recover the cost of acquiring your customers in less than 12 months. Wireless carriers and banks break this rule but have the luxury of access to cheap capital.

Poor Management Team

An incredibly common problem that causes start-ups to fail is a weak management team. A good management team will be smart enough to avoid Reasons 2, 4, and 5. Weak administration teams make errors in multiple regions:

1. They are frequently weak on strategy, building a product that no one wants to buy, as they failed to do enough work to validate the ideas before and during development.

2. They are usually poor at execution, which leads to issues with the product not getting built correctly or on time. The go-to-market execution will be poorly instigated.

Running out of Cash

A fourth major reason start-ups fail is that they run out of cash. A key job of the CEO is to understand how much cash is left and whether that will carry the company to a milestone that can lead to successful financing or cash flow.

Product Problems

Another reason new businesses fail is to improve in developing a product that meets the market’s needs. It can be due to simple execution, a far more strategic problem, or failure to achieve product/market fit. Most of the time, the first product a start-up brings won’t meet the market need. In the best cases, getting the product/market fit right will take a few revisions. In the worst cases, the product will be way off base, and a complete re-think is obligatory.

Conclusion

Some start-ups prosper, yet so many fail. And it is failure that teaches us the best lessons. There are many other reasons start-ups fail, but these six were the most common when inquiring about the founders and team members involved in the start-up ecosystem. Should your start-up fail, it’s worth trying to understand what went wrong and learn from your mistakes to make it the next time. 

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.