Author: Stephen Huck

With the rise of technology and electronic tools, businesses’ attention has shifted towards electronic means of distributing their products globally. In this way, the need for intelligent payment gateways is increasing rapidly.  

A payment gateway is a system that facilitates international payments for your business or e-commerce store. It processes the cash transaction from a website, enabling merchants to accept and manage payments and securely lessens fraud. In other words, you can contemplate it as a cash journal for your online business. 

When examining “payment gateways,” you’ll instantly come across the term “Merchant accounts.” A merchant account is a specific bank account used to receive debit and credit card payments. This account should be separate from your joint bank account as it holds funds from the debit and credit cards for a particular accounting period. Remember that financial institutions generally charge merchant accounts for setting up account keeping and transactions. 

The Need for Payment Gateways

Every business varies from the other. While some operate purely online, others opt for physical outlets and serve a multi-channel shopping experience to their customers. Therefore, it is essential to acknowledge their operational requirements to access their business’s most relevant payment gateway. 

Here are seven main factors to acknowledge when considering a payment gateway. 

Type of Payments

 Numerous payment gateways have now become commonplace for many businesses. The most relevant is the traditional key entry debit card or scheme credit card purchases. However, other feasible options are also becoming popular. 

One example of an easy payment gateway is PayPal, where only a password is required to complete the online cash transaction rather than entering the entire billing and shipping details. Also, you won’t need to register a merchant account with it. 

Encryption Standards 

Next, you’ll need to contemplate the encryption standards of the payment gateway you choose. This company will handle your client’s confidential payment data, and even a slight error could adversely influence your company’s reputation. Some payment gateways often promote their encryption standards. One of these standards includes tokenization, which entirely removes card data and adds another level of security. 

Prioritize Compatibility

Some payment gateways are easier to consolidate than others, though most strive for compatibility with as many technological mechanisms as possible to maximize their user bases. However, you might have unique requirements or requests, such as associating your payment gateway with the invoicing software or with another financial management platform you utilize. 

Security Against Frauds

Unfortunately, online fraud is a leading issue that every e-commerce business goes through at least once. Deceiving can become a high cost and can also ruin your business’s reputation. That’s why one must select a gateway that provides maximum security so that you’ll be saving your company’s funds in the long run. 

Immediate Payment Policies

Cash takes time to reach your bank account with any payment gateway because the funds must clear first. Payment gateways provide a payout session to be completed weekly or monthly to avoid a transfer every time a purchase is made. If your business is prone to refunds and cancellations, it is suggested that you select a monthly payout, as it will be more feasible. 

Budget-Friendly

The majority of payment gateways arrive at a cost equal to transaction fees. To examine whether the price is reasonable, take a sneak peek at the features you’re getting with it. Essential providers might enable you to process online payments cheaply or freely, but you can also enjoy multiple benefits against a fee. 

Reliability and Support

A payment process plays a pivotal role in your business’s success. You must prioritize reliability in high-volume implementations to ensure constant updates even during peak seasons. With any supplier engagement, it is essential to cultivate the offered support continually. Payment gateways are a significant process as issues could affect your ability to precede sales. Customer support can vary from instant 24/7 support to several days via email. 

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.

Implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity system was easy when employees worked in an office, and all sensitive data was held on-site. However, organizations have struggled to adapt their traditional cybersecurity strategy to the new paradigm with changing work attitudes and the increasing necessity of remote work policies. Customer data protection remains a critical component of every organization’s cybersecurity strategy.

Businesses must tackle cybersecurity differently in this new work environment. Most employees may access company network data via insecure workstations, exposing the organization to potential intrusion.

Methods To Preserve Security in Remote Work Environments

Cybersecurity is complex, even in normal circumstances. However, the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown have posed additional challenges for IT and security experts. With the movement to remote work, you must protect and secure all employees, data, and devices not on-site. Additionally, a hybrid environment, or where employees work both in and out of the office, maybe even more vulnerable. 

Clearly State Your Policy and Provide Training

Small businesses require a high level of security. Implementing a remote work policy and security strategy should be the initial step, as it will guide the business’s approach to ensuring employee security. The next stage is to educate staff about cybersecurity concerns. Finally, deploy technologies and processes, such as two-factor authentication, virtual private networks (VPNs), and administrator user account restrictions.

Specific Objectives-Oriented Policy

Maintain realism. A well-defined, stringent policy that is not adhered to is ineffective. Employees may be more inclined to develop workarounds outside of defined systems and processes by onerous security regulations. Define the objectives that must be met and adjust your policy to those criteria. Balance the procedure in such a way that it encourages users to adhere.

Examine the Software Requirements for Remote Employees

Specific licenses for Office 365 subscribers allow installing the Office suite on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets, or five smartphones. Those with volume licenses can enable their staff to purchase offices for personal use. Depending on the platform and version of the office where you currently have a license, you may need to check your licensing options and alternatives.

If your users’ remote systems are not currently under your control, you may wish to add the capacity to administer and monitor them. Examine your current antivirus vendor’s options to determine if they offer cloud consoles that can be more readily used to manage these remote devices. Alternatively, if you are a subscriber to Office 365, you can use Intune with the appropriate licenses. Finally, contact any consultants you work with; they may be able to supply temporary permits for the screen connection software they already use to operate your network remotely.

Two-Factor Authentication Should be Implemented (2FA)

Consider adding 2FA to remote access solutions as you add more. You may easily integrate two-factor authentication solutions such as DUO.com with your existing on-premises remote access systems. DUO.com can incorporate two-factor authentication into its RDGateway and Remote Web Access products. While your organization may need to act swiftly to enable remote work for its employees, you can still ensure that only authorized administrators and users gain access, not attackers.

Employees Should Be Educated Against COVID-19 Fraud

The National Cyber Awareness system warned of the spread of COVID-19 scams. Instruct your users to avoid clicking on unwanted emails and to visit only authorized websites. Ascertain that the corporation maintains a central internet bulletin board for official communication and notification, particularly if any organization members become infected.

Maintain Work-Related Data on Office Computers

Perhaps you like attending to a few emails at home before you sleep. This habit may be completely acceptable if you take safeguards such as using your work computer, secure Wi-Fi, a VPN, encrypted data, antivirus, and endpoint protection. With that stated, it can be tempting to use your personal computer if your work computer is in another room or if you forget to bring your laptop charger from work. This simple mistake may pose a risk for both you and the business.

If you work for a firm with a competent IT team, these tasks may be apparent, such as installing frequent updates, running antivirus scans, and blocking harmful websites. There is a strong probability that you have not followed the same security precautions required at work on your computer. Additionally, your organization can afford more sophisticated technology controls than you can.

Without those running in the background, your personal computer is not secure for work-related information due to the possibility of third-party intrusions and compromise. In essence, by connecting a personal computer to a work network, even remotely, you are putting the company networks in danger, as well as yourself, by accepting the possibility of severe corporate damages due to policy, practice, or infractions.

Conclusion

While sound technologies and regulations are beneficial, the reality is that remote employees are a vital source of security risk. General work from home and small policies for computer and internet use can be beneficial, and technological and administrative restrictions can enforce these restrictions.

These security awareness methods and strategies will assist employees in safely operating company equipment and information regardless of location. These work-from-home security measures can be implemented into official employee and cybersecurity policies by CISOs and IT administrators. We propose that organizations train employees on these rules during new hire orientation as part of ongoing security awareness training, significantly when organizations alter their security and remote work policies.

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.

Novel branding is the most challenging problem for an individual, raising your author profile and lifting your book above the vast competition. Expecting to gain more exposure, you’re still already using a dozen or more tools and tactics, and then someone drops the word ‘brand’ into the conversation.

Indeed, it would help if you didn’t waste your time on false publicity.

But there you go, you’ve got a brand already! Whether you like it or not, even though you’ve never given it a single thought, you’ve already branded yourself. Additionally, you have a powerful and identifiable brand that reflects how you imagine your writing grabs the reader’s attention and grabs them to read your novel.

A genuine brand of an author will make you stand out from the audience and give you the attention you desire.

Identify the Brand

The brand is all that individuals understand. It’s your character, each word you compose, the text styles and shadings you use, and how you cause individuals to feel when they read your books or visit your site.

Numerous people think a brand is a brand to a logo or site tones. Although these are brand components, a brand is significantly more than merely these realistic points of view.

A brand is a predictable guarantee to a client about what they will get, regarding item quality, client support, the limit from there, and how they will be unique from the competitors.

When you begin constructing a stage (author platform) and putting yourself out into the world, individuals will feel your identity and what you do and structure an assessment based on that.

Whether you’ve never intentionally thought about which ones to use on your site, the ones you’re presently utilizing are saying something about you.

So it’s wise to assume responsibility for your image and assist individuals with accepting the things you need them to get about you as a creator before they reach their analysis.

Recognize the Reader

When you write about the audience, try to learn as much as you can about the reader, mainly the age group you are targeting. You should see the reader’s personas, so you must write according to your target audience’s interests and brand your novel.

Characterizing your ideal reader can require some investment and effort, yet it will be justified despite any trouble. When you find out about them, where they go on the web, and their favorite tone, you can effectively address them in such a way that they will like.

Develop Your Brand Voice

When you know whom your brand is attempting to address, it’s an ideal opportunity to examine yourself internally.

• How would you need others to see you?
• What do you need individuals to think when they hear your name?

You can direct much of this by building up your unique brand voice. Similarly, as finding your author’s voice can require some investment and rehearsal and be hard to recognize from the outset, setting up a steady brand voice will take some effort.

You get the thought. If you generally post motivational and inspirational content, it would be ‘off-brand’ to out of your tone. The audience who follow you doesn’t read or even load your content.

To build up your voice, consider your qualities seriously and what you need to address.

Find Out Your USPS

Knowing your USP or unique selling point is fundamental if you need to tell the audience why they should purchase your books. How are you unique? If you’re a sentiment author, what makes you diverse to the wide range of various sentiment authors? There are shows to follow regarding classification composing and cover plan, yet past that, what makes you stand out?

• Do you realize why individuals read your books?
• Is it the nature of the composition, your solid characters, or your superb pacing?
• What are your novel qualities?
• If you think it’s hard to tell what is considered a strength, ponder what you love about a different author. Do you share any of those characteristics?

Appearance

The general appearance is the part that the vast majority reflect when considering the brand. It includes the shading range, designs, clear prompts, photographs, and typeface.

While picking a search for your image, there’s no need to be excessive or to pay significantly for it; make sure to be predictable.

Pick textual styles and tones that help your image, voice, and message. For instance, if you’re a horror novel author, you may think about dark tones for your site.

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.

Starting a product or service-based business can be quite a daunting task. While you may have the funding, investment, and business plan sorted already, there will surely be several unpredictable bumps on the road that you will never be prepared for.

One of the critical challenges any SME faces is the limited budget for many things a business owner might want to change. These changes could include expansion in product and service lines, improvement of the technology infrastructure, addition of amenities to employee packages, and incentivizing specific clients with the prospect of significant business returns.

These challenges are worsened if your business is financed by someone else who keeps a keen eye on the regular business operations and refuses to invest in your ideas. This could potentially increase the risk of losing money earlier than expected (if all goes wrong, your business needs to flourish).

Here are some top strategies to help SMEs address business challenges more efficiently.

Retaining Profitable Clients 

Your foremost approach should be to find your unique selling point and then focus on finding targeted customers for that USP. If you already have a few clients on board, try analyzing their net worth for your business and tweaking your services and products according to their valuable feedback to maintain a long-term and retainable business relationship with them. While searching for a new client is pivotal to business growth, retaining the ones you already have is equally essential for the sustainability of your business.

A Pool of Experienced & Fresh Human Resource

Most entrepreneurs believe hiring the most experienced talent from the market is the perfect way to succeed. Experts believe otherwise. A professional and fresh human resource pool allows you to capitalize on the market experience. Training new employees per your ideologies and product base helps you better project your USPs in the diverse marketplace. According to a North American survey, over 82% of entrepreneurs in the region prioritize training fresh employees. They believe that investing in the exercise of their workforces promises better growth for SMEs.

Another finding from the same survey suggests that SMEs focus on hiring experienced managers with fresh workforces to delegate key responsibilities to experienced individuals who can foresee possible shortcomings in a business plan while benefiting from the enthusiasm and innovation of new blood.

Keep up with the Trends

 While digitalization has made businesses easier by clearing the ruffles in the communication between customers, clients, and business owners and making products a piece of cake, it has also become more competitive. Every other day, you see a new trend evolving. Be it a service or a product, inspirations and ideas dynamically lead to the innovation of products, thus making the market quite competitive.

Any SME needs to keep up with dynamically changing trends and innovate in its products and services to improve its retention ratios and position itself among the market leaders of its industry.

Automate Processes

Gone are the days when customer communication, procurement, and advertisement were managed on manual sheets and databases. Save time and valuable money by investing in good accounting, CRM, and procurement software to reduce the brunt of work and automate processes. With technologically advanced infrastructure and operations streamlined and well-versed, SMEs can easily overcome many challenges.

Grow Business Partnerships

Offering all the services related to your product in-house is not reasonable. A more appropriate approach is to make business partnerships with service-providing vendors to help you significantly cut costs. This measure is handy in the budding phases of your SME when business is considerably low and hiring human resources for little work can dramatically impact your business’ finances. Growing partnerships save that extra cost and establish a reputation for your brand in the market.

Consider Acquisitions

If your SME has already passed the budding phase and you are planning an expansion, it is best to look for potential businesses you could acquire. The acquisition doesn’t necessarily mean taking over a million-dollar business. You could start slowing down by looking at competitive SMEs going through operational crises. This approach automatically helps you grow your business better.

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.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological innovation that has grown into an essential phenomenon for businesses over a short period. IoT is a simple term that entails devices or gadgets connected to the internet, such as remote TV devices, smartwatches, etc. This advancement has allowed homes and offices to be innovative workspaces at the touch of buttons.

IoT gadgets can swiftly share data and workflow, making our lives easier. They store our essential tasks and dates, reducing the need to carry extra devices for storage and collection. Gadgets also come with storage solutions that help you store vast amounts of data and save space.

However, because there is so much going on between devices, such as sharing information and storing essential work files and personal user data, a security risk of interruption by third-party members always exists in IoT devices. Unauthorized gains can be for various reasons, such as insider trading, manipulating data by competitive parties, and exposing personal information. To avoid fraud and malicious intentions, one must always stay vigilant to protect data over IoT devices.

Securing your Internet of Things devices

There are many ways to protect your devices and the information stored in them to avoid the hassle of losing them. Let’s discuss a few easy ways to ensure the security of your devices.

Frequent Password Update

This suggestion is easily the most overlooked of them all. Changing passwords on your devices at least once every six months reduces the risk of losing information and data to network interceptors. While changing passwords can be tricky, as you might forget them, a password manager helps update and store your passwords in one place.

You can also use the old paper and pen to note down your passwords and keep them safe. It is essential to realize that every device must have a unique password.

Encryption of Data

Anonymizing your data is an excellent way to prevent hackers or third-party devices from understanding the information they have illegitimately extracted. Using safe hosting platforms will also prevent inconveniences. Add good encryption software to your to-do list immediately and get one step closer to securing your devices and the information they encase.

Keep Devices from Starting Network Connections

Enable permission requests on your devices before connecting to open and unsecured devices. Most IoT companies will already do this for you, but to be solid, ensure you prohibit your devices from initiating any such connection before your permission first. One-way connection settings for built-in devices will keep your privacy intact.

Pick a Safe Hosting Platform

A secure hosting platform for your IoT product development will integrate applications, security, and scalability. This step is one of the initial steps to safety for you and your technological devices.

Restrict Cloud Storage Use

Many IoT providers offer free cloud computing solutions to store vast amounts of data and information for their audiences. Cloud storage solutions are a brand of artificial intelligence that helps brands and individuals one less thing to worry about. However, excessive use of this storage space has some issues. For instance, you need an active connection to access your stored data every time. Secondly, you need to ensure your data is completely secure before using the cloud. It is advisable to thoroughly read the terms and conditions before using any cloud storage.

Get Device-Based Permission Certificates

Certificates restrict the access IoT gadgets have to a particular network. You can configure the certification according to devices, networks, use cases, and clients. These certificates allow devices to communicate with the backend, and limiting devices means retaining the network’s security. Only some devices with an IP connection can access the backend.

Maintain Secure Backups

Users can set up an advanced network backed by security that maintains data and information backup to use it with complete confidence. The IoT company must secure all devices with certificates and should provide security backups to the customer to recover from any mishaps that may take place.

Get Your Hands on Internet Security Software

Installing trustworthy, popular third-party software for your IoT devices – tablets, mobile phones, computers, and Fitbits- will protect them against malicious viruses and hackers. There are many safe options available.

Conclusion 

Internet of Things (IoT) devices provide many benefits to users, including sharing information, remote access to data, and much more. With technology evolving daily, businesses and individuals must keep themselves updated to stay relevant and float in their respective environments. However, because of the constant data exchange between devices, networks can sometimes experience a breach that you can avoid by taking a few precautions.

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.

You can only invoice your internal and external customers if you know the costs of individual processes and services. With process cost accounting, you determine the charges for sub-processes in overhead expenses, determine transfer prices, and identify the potential for improvement.

Activity-based Costing Makes Overhead Costs Transparent

Process cost accounting is a method of controlling costs to get more transparency. The focus is on overhead or indirect costs. Companies have the peculiarity of regularly increasing over the years. They are usually distributed to products or services, the cost objects, with flat-rate surcharge rates. Distribution makes products and services too expensive and others too cheap.

Classic cost and performance accounting are no longer sufficient for a differentiated pricing policy on the market. 

Activity-Based Costing

Process cost accounting determines and analyzes processes and associated costs (process costs) in the indirect company areas. Activity-based costing should enable the causal allocation of all charges to products, services, orders, or customers.

Goals of Process Cost Accounting

The main goals to be achieved with the use of process cost accounting are:

• The costs of a process, a service, or a product cause should be determined as precisely as possible.
• The total cost of a company or division must be appropriately attributed and offset against the processes, services, or products that cause it.
• Cost structures and cost drivers should become more transparent.
• Potential should be visible where you can improve performance or save costs.
• It would help if you pursued a strategic pricing policy on the market.
• It would help if you sharpened the cost awareness among the employees.

These goals show that process cost accounting can provide beneficial results for both strategic and operational control.

Screen Processes and Identify Cost Drivers

In process cost accounting, the company will view a value chain in which processes create direct value for the customer and, thus, for the company; these are the value-adding processes. Other methods indirectly generate this value, as they are auxiliary processes for those who add value. These aid processes take place in the so-called indirect areas. Research and development, HR departments, information services, or management are examples.

To identify the reasons for inflated costs in such areas, you should take three steps:

Step 1: Narrow down the search area for cost drivers.

Those using process cost accounting want more transparency in these indirect company areas. First, you need to analyze the processes, procedures, and activities. The central initial question is: “What does it cost us?” Methods whose costs are unknown can be, for example:

• Planning and execution of orders
• Processing customer complaints
• Vacancies and selection of applicants
• Conducting training
• Participation in a fair

Step 2: identify cost drivers.

In the second step, the cost drivers are determined. These are the factors that determine how expensive such a process will be. It depends on the amount of power. Example: In the area of personnel development with the implementation of training courses and seminars, the number of workshops or seminar participants can be the number of services and thus cost drivers. Criteria for defining cost drivers are:

• The cost drivers must be measurable, predictable, and, therefore, calculable.
• There must be a correlation with process costs; the total costs (all cost types) in this process are directly dependent on the number or quantity of the cost drivers.
• The effort to measure and record the cost drivers must be reasonable.
• The employees should recognize from the cost drivers that they significantly impact the total costs, which sharpens their cost awareness.

Step 3: Allocate the process costs to the cost drivers.

In the third step, the total process costs are fixated on the cost driver. The allocation results in the process cost rate that you can use to plan and optimize processes and billing.

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.

All restaurants need more new clients. A constant flow of new people implies that more verbal referrals result in more business. However, getting new clients can be difficult. The following are some ideas for business owners to attract more restaurant clients.

Click Remarkable Pictures

A restaurant’s food is the main thing that attracts clients as they are there to eat. The business owner should invest in an efficient camera. If you cannot click pictures to your liking, hire a photographer to take photos of the delicious food that your restaurant makes. These pictures can be used everywhere: on the website, social media accounts, flyers, and other advertisements. Advertisements will get people to develop a longing for your food. As a plus point, photos on social media are easily shared, which will pull new clients into the restaurant.

Provide Free Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi has become an essential part of the life of today’s youth, and it has also become a necessity for some restaurants. Numerous individuals decide where to eat based on Wi-Fi if the restaurant has free Wi-Fi. The clients want to keep socializing on their mobiles even while eating or having work they need to do. That is why a restaurant must have free Wi-Fi as an incentive for clients to come.

Offer Discounts for Special Days

Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve, sports season, and holiday parties are ideal for restaurants to exploit. Individuals continuously look for places that provide discounts on special occasions that people could spend with their loved ones. Ensure that the restaurant starts the advertising and booking a few weeks before any event and offers hearty discounts so that the customers will want to visit again. There would be a significant increase in the number of regular clients of the restaurant if they could get people to at least try their restaurant on a special occasion.

Lead a Charity Campaign  

Restaurants should ensure they generate generosity in their neighborhood by giving something back. Make sure that your restaurant hosts charity events that will boost the restaurant’s goodwill and turn the present clientele into long-lasting regulars while also bringing in new customers.

Be Active on Social Media

One of the best and easiest ways to advertise and promote something is through social media, whether through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or others. Most, if not all, of the restaurant’s clients are always searching on social media for new places to eat. Make sure you update your page and profile daily so that the clients see what you offer. Often, the restaurant with the best online presence is the most frequented by the clients. Your restaurant should be on the clients’ minds when discussing where to eat.

Partner with Neighboring Businesses

Begin a discussion with the businesses in your neighborhood. Many companies regularly need catering for meetings or special lunches. Show them the full menu yourself and assure them they will get whatever they want at a discount.

Offer Online Ordering

Most people do not have the time to go to restaurants to eat. Some do not even have the time to pick up their mobile phones and order food. Also, picking up and answering phones at the restaurant will waste the employees’ precious time there. Therefore, the restaurant should have an easy-to-use website where customers can easily order their food. The procedure could be made less tiresome by also accepting online payments.

Last Words

Make sure to employ these tips to get new customers to your restaurant.

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 many personnel selection processes, aspects that are not of concern to the company are questioned, nor do they affect performance in the position offered. Some of them are even illegal. This article will center on the realization of unlawful questions in a job interview.

The Personnel Selection Process

We live in a world in which the labor market is competitive, and many people are interested in practically any possible job you can create. Thus, when a company needs to fill a vacancy or expand and make that demand visible, it usually receives hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of answers. And in that situation, he must choose between the candidates systematically filtering the opponents, something that has happened for thousands of years.

The selection of personnel is the process through which a company, having defined criteria for the type of worker needed and the required knowledge for the specific position undertakes the task of identifying and choosing the candidate who best aligns with the specified requirements. Different techniques are used, such as psychometric tests that measure the subject’s capacity in certain areas. Another of the main pillars in the selection of personnel is the interview.

In a job interview, a subject belonging to the corporation or company in question or directly interested in hiring a worker establishes an interaction in which they can observe the characteristics or aptitudes of the candidate and assess whether it may be appropriate to the sense goes through a series of questions or even activities.

The functions of the job interview are first to contact the applicant and collect information about their suitability as a candidate in terms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and attitudes that may be useful in the position offered in question. However, they should limit themselves to that: they should not enter the subject’s personal life unless it is essential to exercise the position.

What are Questions Illegal in a Job Interview?

Sometimes, the questions posed by the interviewer can go beyond these limits and refer to aspects that have nothing to do with the job’s functions or the individual’s skills. These questions are illegal because they violate the right to privacy, in addition to being able to suppose discrimination and exclusion for reasons unrelated to one’s professional competence.

Among the aspects that you should not question are marital status, sexual orientation, the expectations of having physical characteristics or not, the presence of physical or mental illnesses, the race of belonging or nationality, religious or political beliefs, or details of personal life irrelevant to the exercise of the profession examples of situations in which you had to use a required skill, for example.

In this way, questions as frequently as ” Do you want to have children soon? ” or ” Are you married? ” are illegal. You should use different strategies if other aspects are to be evaluated from these questions. Even something innocuous as age is irrelevant (the same does not apply to professional experience).

In addition, these questions can generate a bias that leads to discrimination for ideological reasons, gender, sexual orientation, race, or religion, which is contrary to what is established by law. For this reason, although we can decide to answer them, we also have the option of denying ourselves without having to harm us. It is also possible to file a demand for labor inspection, resulting in a sanction or fine to the company or company in question.

Why do They do Them?

Due to the high prevalence of this type of question, it is legitimate to ask the reason for its realization.

In some cases, they can be done to observe the candidate’s reaction to the question in question. It would help if you considered that it is a selection process and, considering the importance of attitude when carrying out a specific project, observing how a subject behaves when faced with a strange situation or an uncomfortable or unexpected question can serve to elicit the way of thinking and acting in the face of pressure or surprise. 

As written in an article on Coursework help online, in these cases, the response’s content is not relevant, but what would be assessed would be how the candidate answers it or even how it is not responded to. That does not mean that it remains an illegal question.

However, on most occasions, these types of questions are intended to obtain direct information regarding a person’s life to predict their productivity. For example, suppose a woman is pregnant or plans to have children shortly. In that case, the company may think it is better to hire someone without such plans, avoid maternity leave, or find possible substitutes.  

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.

Automation and artificial intelligence are frequently used when discussing the future of the technological world. Combining both technologies, i.e., Intelligent Automation, is one of the hottest topics of this age and will take the world by storm in the future.

Intelligent automation deals with robotic process automation and operational analytics to operate tasks that involve artificial intelligence algorithms and automated workflows. Let’s dig in to see how our future is automated and intelligent.

Benefits of Intelligent Automation

Businesses and enterprises can achieve new feats by adapting intelligent automation. IA can help them achieve the goals that human beings cannot and bring them to an increased efficiency rate. 

Various organizations worldwide are turning towards intelligent automation, and this trend will continue in the coming years. Most businesses these days are trying to transform their processes with the help of automation. This growing number is due to the countless benefits of automation and how it can change a business in a limited period. 

Intelligent automation can do what seems impossible, from doing hundreds and thousands of tasks and making calculated decisions to giving customers a personalized experience. 

How Intelligent Automation Will Change the Future

In just a few years, the world will witness a rapid growth of IA, which IA will use to make significant business decisions, create preventive measures, and produce helpful business insights.

According to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, the retailers who utilized customization plans saw 6-10 percent revenue gains, two to three times as much as other retailers.

The following technological solutions will help the vendors in countless ways in the future.

Intelligent Visual Search Engine

According to David Jaeger, almost 50% to 80% of new e-commerce retailers come from visual search. As humans, we buy from experience; visual experience is the closest that imagination can prompt. 

At times, we all struggle to search for something of which we have incomplete details. Visual search engines alleviate all problems and improve the search with a nice snap. 

All you need is a picture clicked in or downloaded from the Internet via your cell phone or stored on social networks. Once inserted in a program or search engine, the user figures out which items precisely fit the concept or are identical.

Enhanced Customer Service

A recent survey suggested that 75% of the customers opt for the brands that provide the best customer service. Let intelligent automation jump in here, as BOTs can make a considerable contribution provided the knowledge and awareness of user profiles and interests. 

The Chatbot’s 24/7 availability and the instant feedback platform add a special touch to interaction. The conversation will go beyond knowing the consumer’s purchasing preferences, including specific product details and getting feedback that will motivate them to stick with the brand for a long time.

Hyper-targeting

Marketers can attract consumers well outside high populations. Machine learning algorithms can identify online and offline trends to analyze what customers may want to purchase. 

The potential customers are easier to find for marketers who can gain insight from their results. Search history, purchasing history, contact information, connections, and geolocation are gold mines for customer knowledge. 

Deep learning enables consumer experiences to blend with potential sales. Targeting is reliable and subjective with the aid of machine learning. Through machine intelligence, retailers can know what pages their potential clients follow and their order history. All this data may fuel purchasing reviews on blogs, email, or social media through marketers.

Inventory Management

Intelligent automation helps make future demand forecasts much more accurate. IA enables you to regulate your supply chain easily and guarantees you understand more about your clients and their behavior. Regulation reduces the shrinkage and saves you time and money. Forty-six percent of U.S. companies confessed to not monitoring their inventory, while more than $1 trillion of capital is stocked. 

Using a stock management tool to make wise choices based on your products’ past performance would be best. Use your device to prevent you from overstocking and understocking.

Virtual Buying Assistants

You may use IA to build a virtual shopping assistant to help shoppers select which goods or services to order. Digital assistants can notify the consumer whether the price of the product in which the customer expressed interest drops. If led, they will even purchase the item on behalf of the customer. 

Using intelligent automation programs may also be personalized with a promotional message meeting the right client on time. 

Final Words

Ignoring emerging technologies that will maximize production and expand sales will only leave you behind. You should welcome intelligent automation and let the IA innovations help you transition to the modern age of interactive digital consumption.

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.

Are you tired of doing business the old way? If so, now is the time to do it differently, so get started already. Entrepreneurs who can see far and beyond are likely to incorporate modern business concepts. Your business will thrive if it has a presence on social media. In other words, the business may not survive long without modern concepts of business for long.

We are Doing Business in a More Connected World

Marketing concepts combined with modern social media tech will rule the business world. Even then, the ever-changing marketing concepts will continue to change. Effectively, we are in a world where marketing and business concepts are changing forever. The next era of social media is here or is about to enter elegantly.

Think about the old ways of using social media platforms. Back in the day, only a few platforms were available. Social media is no longer the situation as we have numerous platforms where businesses feel their presence big time. So, is this the end of the road, or have we just begun? Mark Zuckerberg is on record saying he wants to see a digital living room happening soon.

Perhaps he hinted that social media’s early days are now long gone. Operating without social media marketing is a no-brainer. It is just a matter of time before media marketers develop fresh ideas for innovation to achieve better business results. As social media expands into our lives in a big way, we are about to witness a boom in marketing and promotion.

Use of AR

Augmented reality is becoming more common these days. Companies are using VR and AR to train employees and arrange conferences due to pandemics. Augmented reality is fundamental in social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. One social media platform has added AR functionality during video calls.

Live to Stream

It started as entertainment, but live streaming is now more mainstream in social media marketing due to its popularity. A recent study explains that marketers look to include live streaming when running social media campaigns. A unique social media platform, Instagram, has included live streaming in the list of features for its users.

Live streaming continues to be popular, and social media marketers constantly tap into solutions that attract the masses and show interest. Live streaming channels such as YouTube are among the most popular globally, with over a billion users worldwide. Marketers actively use social media channels that host live streaming and allow users to upload videos or host streaming sessions on their accounts.

Influencer Marketing

It is trendy among corporations. Companies love to attract social media users using various techniques. They do not hesitate to use methods such as influencer marketing. For this purpose, they hire tremendously popular social media influencers. These fans would follow anything their beloved influencer asks them to do.

This way, companies get access to millions of users that influence others to use their services and products. Influencer marketing can be costly, but it is one of the quickest ways of getting noticed and attracting a sizeable audience.

Storytelling

Did you know that Instagram stories attract a minimum audience of 500 million every single day? Storytelling goes to show how many users read stories. Storytelling is also equally common on other social media platforms. Storytellers have 24 hours to come up with stories that are highly engaging and attract readers. Millennials show great interest in stories as they find them engaging and readable. They are interactive, so they attract those who may not initially be interested.

Transparency

Social media marketers can establish a large fan following by ensuring excellent transparency. For one reason or another, social media has had its share of controversy. Most of this was related to privacy, which Companies addressed through different means. Media platforms have worked hard to ensure users’ privacy and have successfully achieved this for the most part. Social media users show satisfaction over these measures.

Using the next generation of social media marketing will likely give your business better recognition while raising your return on investment in little 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.