Quick Eco-Friendly Alterations You Can Make To Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Eco-Friendly|Quick Eco-Friendly Alterations You Can Make To Your BusinessWith finite resources, a polluted sea, and the greenhouse effect looming over, the world needs saving – and fast!

Thankfully some people are starting to adapt and make changes in their lives to support the planet. Moreover, multiple governments worldwide are setting new goals to reach to reduce carbon emissions. With that, businesses are taking a stance to reduce their carbon footprint too. However, while every effort helps, there’s always room for improvement.

If you’re looking for new tips to add to your existing eco-friendly business processes, this post can help give you a few ideas.

Recycle Cooking Oil

Would you believe businesses out there are prepared to purchase and recycle your leftover oil to save it from going to waste?

From vegetable oil to soya bean oil, used cooking oils recycling by GF commodities provides various oils a new life lease. If you’re in the food industry, this is a great way to manage waste and support the environment.

Switch It off

The amount of devices, PCs, lights, and so forth we’re guilty of intentionally and unintentionally leaving on in the workplace is phenomenal.

Wasted energy is bad for the environment, not to mention costly for the business. And so, from now on, if you or any of your employees aren’t using an electronic device at work, or light, for instance, encourage each other to switch it off.

Switching equipment off at work is particularly crucial at the end of the day when workers are likely to keep their PCs on standby or forget to turn off machinery in the factory.

While some laptops, PCs, printers, and other workplace machinery may take a while to power up the following morning, it’s much better than leaving a range of computers on all night to drain power.

Switch To Recycled Paper

If there’s anything mostly all companies are guilty of using too much of, it’s paper! Numerous trees are chopped down for businesses to scribble down food orders, draft architectural designs, and write out to-do lists for the day.

While paper may be necessary, newly processed paper isn’t especially when you can get recycled paper instead! By using recycled paper, your business can help to reduce the number of trees that need to be cut down for paper.

Renewable Energy Sources

Another way to protect the environment is to switch energy providers. Multiple energy providers today are using renewable energy to cater to an environmentally conscious world.

It may be something you haven’t yet thought about, but it’s quick and easy to do. You just need to find a suitable provider and ask to switch!

Your new supplier usually contacts your old supplier for you, so you won’t have to do much else.

The best way to begin making sustainable business changes is to start small and slowly integrate new eco-friendly practices as you go along. In doing so, the pressure to make your company completely green is less disruptive and overwhelming, and much more easy to do.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Business’s Online Presence

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Online Presence|How to Get the Most Out of Your Business's Online PresenceThese days, one of the most important aspects of any business is its online presence. Without thinking about how your business is perceived online and how it delivers first impressions to target customers, you’ll always end up falling short. If you’re looking to get more out of your business’s online presence, you’re in the right place. Learn more about all this below.

Create a Fully Formed Social Media Strategy

Creating a fully formed social media strategy has got to be one of your number one priorities if you’re serious about taking your business to the next level. These days, customers expect the businesses they use and buy from to be active on social media. And more than that, it helps you to reach more customers and sell to people who might not otherwise know you exist.

Ensure Your Domain is Up to Scratch

Your domain is something that you need to work on if it’s currently turning customers away. It should be clear, easy to understand and not too long. A bad domain is not just confusing for customers but also damaging for SEO purposes and can suggest a lack of professionalism in the eyes of customers as well. That’s why making sure your domain is up to scratch is so important.

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Put a Tailor Made Website in Place

Putting a tailor made website in place is vital if you want to get ahead. There are lots of ways in which you can do this and there are people out there who can help you make it happen. For example, insurance companies can turn to specialist insurance website builders if they want to get a website that’s right for them. And there’s similar opportunities in all industries and niches too.

Use Ads, Reviews and Partnerships to Reach New People

Using ads, reviews and partnerships with other businesses can help you to reach new people online. The right ad campaign can pull people in and increase traffic levels on your website. And reaching out to websites and garnering reviews of your products or services will help build confidence and awareness of what your business has to offer. And partnerships can be harnessed in a wide variety of ways.

Establish Yourself as an Expert Voice

Establishing your business as an expert voice in your particular industry and niche can help to show people that you know what you’re talking about and that you can be trusted. People want to know that the companies they’re buying from know they can be trusted to deliver the goods in a competent way, so be sure to do what you can to give them that peace of mind.

If your business is struggling online right now, it’s important to take steps in the right direction. Right now, there’s a big shift to online commerce and your business needs to be a part of it. The tips above will allow you to position your business’s online presence, boost your social media presence, and reach more target customers.

The Best WordPress Strategies for Digital Marketing

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Wordpress Strategies|The Best WordPress Strategies for Digital MarketingIf you want to build a website, you will have multiple choices, but many will recommend that you choose WordPress. It’s a great website building tool that’s free to use, as well as filled to the brim with useful extensions that mean you don’t have to write a word of code. Not only that, but it’s an excellent website builder for succeeding at digital marketing if you follow some simple strategies.

Why WordPress?

If you’ve never heard of WordPress, you will have encountered websites built with it at some point when browsing online. Chances are, you’ve been on a WordPress website today. According to Sculpt, a specialist WordPress Agency, 30% of the internet is built using WordPress. That gives some indication about how easy it is, as well as reassurance that the troubleshooting community is huge.

1.Pick a Theme That’s Mobile-Responsive

A vital part of modern Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is that your site is fully optimized for mobile devices. Don’t fall at the first hurdle, though; if you pick a WordPress theme that isn’t mobile-responsive, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Whichever long-term digital marketing strategy you choose, make sure this is your first step and also make sure you think about mobile devices at every stage afterwards (you can test this using Google).

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2. Include Testing

Website testing, specifically A/B testing can do great things for your website and be extraordinarily helpful if your conversion rate is low and you’re not sure why. It does, however, take up a lot of time. The basics of it are as follows:

  • Find a page that could be improved
  • Create a duplicate page with a separate design element (or several different pages)
  • Test the different pages with different audiences
  • Choose the design that leads to the higher conversion rate.

It can be tiring to include testing into your WordPress digital marketing strategy, but it’s a great way of changing how well your website converts.

3. Monitor for Broken Links

Content marketing is one of the more impactful digital marketing strategies; if you’ve taken a basic course in digital marketing they will tell you it’s essential for SEO to have high-quality content with links to your sources and other good quality pages. This is picked up on by Google’s crawlers. However, what are also picked up on by crawlers are broken links, which are links that worked when you originally inserted them, but now link to 404 Not Found pages. Luckily, you can get a broken link checker plugin automatically, which will check your posts regularly and inform you if you have any broken links. Handy, right?

4. Prioritize Visitor Engagement

Google will prioritize your website if it seems like you’re an expert at something and if people keep coming back for more. When you encourage a question and answer environment on your posts, you not only add to word counts and allow you to connect with influencers, but they create a community based around your content which helps to drive more traffic. You can use the plugin Disqus to encourage commenters to log in and subscribe to your comments.

Maximize Tax Savings Using This One Simple Trick

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Management Article | Tax Savings| Maximize Tax Savings Using This One Simple TrickThe San Francisco-based tax law firm of Moskowitz LLP explains how to save big using the new aggregation rules of Section 199A

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) instituted last year could mean substantial tax savings for many American businesses. This year, savvy entrepreneurs, business owners and certain investors in real estate can maximize deductions and save big on taxes by putting one of the best features of the new tax law to work the “aggregation rules.”

These updated rules allow taxpayers to combine their trades or businesses, rather than calculating deductions separately for each entity. By treating them as a single unit, owners can maximize deductions of up to 20% and reap potentially huge tax savings – but not all businesses or trades qualify and careful considereation must be made to determine if this will decrease or increase taxes in each particular case.

Moskowitz LLP offers three crucial questions to help determine eligibility:

  1. Do the entities share ownership? In order to qualify for aggregation, the same person or group of persons must own 50% or more of each trade or business, or (in the case of a partnership), must own 50% or more of the capital or profits.
  2. Does ownership change from year to year? Aggregation applies only to those entities where the ownership remains the same for the majority of the taxable year – including the last day of the taxable year.
  3. Are the entities interdependent? Taxpayers can aggregate businesses or trades which abide by at least one of the following:
    • They provide products, property, or services that are the same or customarily offered together;
    • They share facilities or significant centralized business elements (like personnel, accounting, legal and/ or information technology resources);
    • They operate in coordination with, or reliance upon, one or more of the businesses in the aggregated group (like supply chain interdependencies).

If the answer is “yes” to any of the above questions, the businesses or trades may be eligible for aggregation. Seeking help from a qualified tax attorney is an essential next step, as aggregation may not be the best solution for every unique situation, and many investments don’t qualify for benefits under these new rules. Qualifying taxpayers must also follow certain guidelines annually in order to qualify for (and maintain) aggregate status, and a seasoned tax attorney can help clarify these.

About the Author

Tax attorney, Steve Moskowitz, founded what would become Moskowitz LLP over 30 years ago, offering clients a full variety of services that include domestic, international, and criminal tax law representation, tax planning, and tax preparation of current and delinquent filings. Having practiced as a CPA for a “Big 8” (now “Big 4”) firm, as well as teaching tax, law and accounting in law school, graduate school and university, Steve has served as a legal analyst for top media outlets, where he appears daily on the radio. Steve knows his profession inside and out, and his message is simple: Don’t go it alone against the IRS. Passionate about helping clients navigate the complex intricacies of tax law, Steve practices as the founding partner of Moskowitz LLP in San Francisco, overseeing a growing team of accomplished tax attorneys and accountants. Visit www.MoskowitzLLP.com or call 415-394-7200 for more information about legal services, valuable tax resources, and to request a consultation.

3 Legal Pitfalls You Should Avoid on Social Media

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 3 Legal Pitfalls You Should Avoid on Social MediaMany people use social media for private and business communications without knowing that what they post online can have serious legal ramifications. John Branca, an attorney who has represented pop superstars like Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake, warns that even people who don’t have a media empire at stake should be aware of the pitfalls.

Revealing Others’ Personal Information

Be careful not to reveal personal information without permission, especially if you’re using your social media platforms for a business venture. For example, if you’re trying to promote your cosmetic dentistry practice, you shouldn’t post before and after photos of one of your patients without his or her consent. Be aware that the same privacy laws apply for your patients even when you’re trying to advertise your work on a satisfied client.

Committing Defamation

What you post on social media about others can be considered defamation if it is untrue and causes harm to their reputation. By sharing something negative about another person, you may be opening yourself up to legal action, even if you think it’s true but have no evidence.

Every entertainment lawyer can attest to times that major publications have paid dearly for posting rumors and falsehoods about famous clients. However, regular folks are at even greater risk for legal action because private citizens enjoy stricter protections against public calumny. Therefore, the best course of action is simply to keep any harmful information about others to yourself.

Using Copyrighted Material

Whenever you use a photo from someone else’s website or play music you don’t own the rights for in a post, the law considers it theft. Although you may not think about as you blare your favorite song in your latest dance video, it is illegal unless you have the artist’s consent. This can be a costly mistake if you’re forced to pay the artist.

Social media is a relatively new way to communicate, but the platforms require the same responsibility and knowledge of the law to shield you or your business from legal action.