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Legal Tips for Small Business Owners

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Small Business Owners|Legal Tips for Small Business OwnersAs the owner of a small business, it is essential that you consider the law in running your business as you will obviously want to make sure that you are operating above board and know how to protect your small business. A small business can struggle if they encounter any kind of legal issue, which is why it is so important to be aware of a few tips which could come in useful when it comes to abiding by the law and protecting your business. Read on to find out the best legal tips for small businesses and how they could help.

Choose the Right Business Structure

First, you need to make sure that you choose the right business structure and one which will protect your personal assets at risk if you encounter a legal issue. You will be able to protect your personal assets by forming a limited liability partnership or limited company, so it is important to spend some time researching what would be best for you.

Create Contracts for All Agreements

Many business owners make the mistake of not creating contracts for agreements, but this could prove to be costly down the line. This is why contracts need to be drawn up for every single agreement, which also helps to clarify what is expected and should stop any misunderstandings from occurring.

Create Terms and Conditions

Similarly, you need to create Ts&Cs in order to protect the business and to outline what is expected when a consumer enters an agreement with your business. Without this, you are putting yourself at risk of uncertainty and misunderstandings, so you need to establish the rules in order to protect yourself.

Protect Your Intellectual Property

You do not want other companies benefiting from your intelligence and creativity, which is why you need to use trademarks, patents, and copyrights to protect your intellectual property. Additionally, when you create a new idea, product, service, or anything else, then you should always do a patent and trademark search to avoid stealing intellectual property.

Find Reliable Lawyers

It is also important to do your research, find the best corporate lawyers in your area, and consider different potential issues. As an example, you will want to find an expert eminent domain attorney in the event of authorized companies trying to take your private property for public use, and they will be able to fight on your behalf to stop this from happening or secure the best possible amount.

Stay Current With Changing Laws and Regulations

Finally, you need to make sure that you keep up to date with changing laws and regulations as these can change and often. HR will help a business stay compliant and make necessary changes relating to employment law, which will stop you from encountering any issues.

Hopefully, these legal tips will be of use and help you to protect your business. In particular, small businesses need to be wary of the legal issues that can arise from running a business and make sure that they have the best protection in place.

3 of the Most Common Legal Issues Still Suffered by Businesses

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Legal Issues|3 of the Most Common Legal Issues Still Suffered by BusinessesRunning a business with employees, especially one with premises automatically grants you a duty of care to your staff. As an employer, you expect a certain level of professionalism from all of your staff members as much as they expect it from you and for their safety to be in your best interests.

But even the best employers and businesses run into legal issues from time to time, whether right or wrong, and even in 2021 businesses still face some of the same legal issues that have been around for a long time:

  • IP Theft
  • Health and Safety Issues
  • Discrimination or Harassment

Many businesses, especially successful ones, are often accused of stealing something from another entity such as a logo, a product idea, or even a name while employees claiming accidents at work have never been higher. Discrimination and harassment is still an issue for employers and great care should be taken to protect everyone involved.

Know Your Property

A developed piece of material work such as a patent, trademark, copyrighted work, or even a trade secret such as a manufacturing process (think Coca Cola) is known as intellectual property. That is a property that isn’t grounded in the physical world such as a car or a house but one that has been creatively generated.

Claims concerning IP happen all the time and many bigger cases include those against songwriters, patent holders, and manufacturers. Pop superstar Madonna famously lost a case against a Belgian songwriter over her hit song ‘Frozen’ while Nintendo narrowly won a case over a patent concerning how a user input device (controller) handles shared data streams.

You can initially protect your IP by identifying it, securing it, and labeling it as such with the use of official company logos, which are themselves IP. But the range of issues concerning IP is very broad and is governed by a complex set of rules so the best advice would be to contact a business law attorney should you find yourself worried about infringement or if a claim has been made against you.

Duty of Care

Business establishments of all kinds are deemed reasonably responsible for the wellbeing of everyone directly associated with them. You may have heard of people claiming accidents at work because of negligent safety measures and receiving large payouts. This happens all the time and for the most part, these could have been avoided.

Protection from claims of this nature is essential to a business as while some may be genuine, there is a culture of falsely claiming injury towards organizations which has led to some businesses becoming overly cautious, such as McDonald’s and their rigorous labeling of hot products. The cost of a successful claim against you could potentially run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, which for most companies would be unsustainable and could lead to loss of jobs, decreased productivity, or closure.

The best thing to secure against these kinds of claims is to actually develop strict health and safety procedures. Ensure all your staff are fitted with any safety gear they need and have been trained to use them, label and mark safety concerned areas of a building, and reasonably discipline staff members who don’t follow safety guidelines. Do all that you can do to adequately profess that any claim against your health and safety standards is due to the claimant and not yourself.

Everyone is Equal

The last few years have seen very high profile cases against celebrities such as Harvey Weinstein but what of claims of discrimination or harassment against companies. Well, it does happen. Recently, Viacom, the parent company of CBS, has had to suspend two executives over claims that they created a hostile work environment for women and people of color.
It boggles the mind to think that this kind of behavior still happens in this day and age, especially from grown and professional men, but the sad fact is that year on year, the US Equal Employment Opportunites Commission (EEOC) hears over 100,000 cases of discrimination in the workplace.

It would be a very sad day indeed for any business owner to hear that staff members are being discriminated against, for any reason, so you should go out of your way to educate all staff about issues of discrimination whether it’s racial, gender, religion or disability related. Proactively enforcing a “Not Safe for Work” campaign can help since everyone is going to have different beliefs and conflicting personalities, but they should be left at home and aren’t welcome in the workplace.

What Are The Different Approaches And Theories Regarding Leadership?

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Leadership|What Are The Different Approaches And Theories Regarding Leadership?While there are many definitions of leadership, it is clear that different leaders, scholars, and authors struggle to agree on a concise definition. John Gardner states that leaders step outside for change and inspire people to share their common objectives. This is a view that is shared by Bass & Stogdill, who define leadership as the art of leading others to do the right thing by sharing a consistent vision. However, through assessing great leaders of the past, we can see that there are different attitudes and opinions regarding effective leadership. Revolutionist Napoleon Bonaparte is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time, as is Martin Luther King. One was a tyrant; a fearless militant, the other inspired his followers into making them believe in an ideal world.

Leadership theories are mainly categorized into Trait Theory, Behaviour Theory, and Contingency Theory. Trait theory, also known as the ‘great man’ theory, is focused on the characteristics of leaders. In 1847, Carlyle stated in his ‘great man theory’ that leaders are born, and only those who have heroic potential could ever become leaders. This has progressed into a leadership theory whereby we attempt to identify characteristics that lead to the emergence of leadership qualities, for example, intelligence, achievements, self-confidence, personality, socio-economic background, demography, and physiological appearance.

Through research, it is evident that the term ‘trait’ is the source of significant confusion and ambiguity in the literature. Behavioral theory leadership was born out of the criticism of trait leadership. This is based on the theory that leadership qualities can be learned, rather than being inherited.

However, it is argued that learning the behavior of a leader does not always translate to results, as it does not factor in how the individual executes this theory. Some also criticize the approach by stating that it emphasizes managing organizations rather than leaders. This style of leadership provides definite conclusions while overlooking the variables in management and change.

There are also differing opinions regarding the Contingency Theory, which was created by Fred Fiedler in the 1960s. This model focuses on identifying a leadership style, with two key factors addressed: situational favourableness and least preferred co-worker scale (LPC). Some argue that leadership styles are fixed, something that has caused differing opinions. Many others argue that this simply brings confusion to the workplace.

Extensive literature research shows that the widespread criticism and perceived rigidness of these key approaches overall have led to new paradigm models, including concepts such as transformational leadership, visionary leadership, and charismatic leadership.

Despite the contrasting leadership styles that are in practice today, one thing that we can all agree on is the importance of developing your own leadership approach is imperative. This is something that industry experts like Bob J Bukowski have done well, enabling them to succeed in their industries.

So there you have it: an insight into leadership frameworks and the different approaches and theories that people use today. We hope that this will give you some inspiration for your own approach to leadership.

How To Handle Employee Cyber Security Training

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | How To Handle Employee Cyber Security Training | Cyber Security, Business, Corporate

If your employees’ financial and personal information is leaked to intruders, your company may lose a lot. Most employees in various companies have fallen victim to phishing scams, causing great losses to the company. Unfortunately, cyber attackers evolve as technology changes and make their attacks even more sophisticated.

To shield your company from attacks, you need to conduct a compromise assessment and assess where it’s more vulnerable. Setting up complicated systems to protect your business is great. But if your employees don’t know how to use the systems, you’ll still be vulnerable. That’s why every organization should give their employees basic cybersecurity training. That way, attacks targeting social engineering and phishing scams will stay out of your business.

Here are some tactics for training your employees in cybersecurity:

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | How To Handle Employee Cyber Security Training1. Avoid Blame Games

When the news of a data breach gets into the ears of the company’s executive and other people, it’s easy to attach the fault to some employee who clicked the wrong link. Though it might be true that one of your employees may have fallen for an attacker’s trap, it isn’t advisable to blame them if they don’t have the right knowledge about such attacks. In fact, it may seem that the organization is dodging is the responsibility of training employees on how to keep its data and networks secure.

Instead of blaming the employees, you should develop a plan that’ll ensure every worker has the knowledge they require to prevent attacks. You should also encourage them to ask questions and set up a department that can address their concerns.

Training isn’t only about collecting your employees in some class and lecturing them on best practices, but it could also be sharing with them new threats through SMSs and pinning informational notices on their noticeboards and offices. That way, they’ll keep interacting with the information and enhance their knowledge of cybersecurity threats.

2. Have A Budget For Employee Training

While SMSs and notices can help inform your employees about threats, you may need to conduct a training to explain how to handle some complicated threats. Cybersecurity requires constant maintenance because new attacks are created daily and monthly. Therefore, conducting monthly training can be ideal for updating them on such threats.

According to experienced IT experts, people working in your organization are assets that need continual investment. If you don’t patch them regularly, they’ll be vulnerable. That’s why when planning for your yearly budget, you should include employee training. Securing your systems and data is just as essential as marketing your products and services. So it would be best to treat employee training with seriousness as you would treat marketing.

Furthermore, you need to use many approaches to keep your staff on top of the trends. That may need a mindset shift and not viewing an employee who opened a wrong link as a source of failure even after training them but recognizing that your training and security structure needs updating.

3. Prioritize Cyber Security Awareness

Being on top of trends doesn’t prevent your company from experiencing data breaches. According to Cyber Security Hub, companies like Toyota, Walmart, and Dunkin’ Donuts have experienced attacks in the recent past despite having sophisticated security systems.

If you think that your small enterprise is safe, you need to be very worried because a 2018 cybersecurity report by Ponemon Institute revealed that about two-thirds of small businesses were attacked within a year. The only way to keep your systems secure is always to enlighten your employees about cybersecurity news. That way, they’ll understand the frequency and volume of attacks and be alert throughout the day.

Though getting your employees aware of current events is vital, you shouldn’t flood their inboxes with many emails that may be sent directly to the archives. Instead, you can attach cybersecurity information in the emails or reports news section that you can customize. Also, including messages in the links you send to your employees can help them stay updated.

4. Train Them On Password Best Practices

Having password best practices in your organization is one way of developing a robust security plan. The only problem you may face is convincing your workers to implement it.

Strong passwords should have the following qualities:

  • Be Long Enough: Lengthy passwords are difficult to crack. That’s why IT experts recommend that you set passwords with at least eight characters.
  • Have Many Character Sets: Every character set you add enhances the complexity of the password and makes it difficult to penetrate. That’s why your password should have a lower case, upper case, symbols, and numerals.
  • Have Incomplete Words: There’s no doubt that common words are easier to remember. However, they make it very simple for an attacker to crack. So it’s advisable to use incomplete words.
  • Should Be Changed Often: If you keep on using the same password on many devices, it may be compromised. To avoid that, you should change your password after a smaller window. Setting a reminder can help you know when to change your passwords.
  • Shouldn’t Be Shared Across Accounts: Using similar passwords across accounts can make it easy for an enterprising hacker to obtain your information and use it on other websites. Fortunately, there are sites where you can key in your email to know if your password has been compromised.

To ensure that all your employees have complied with password policies, you can use password managing tools. These tools will generate memorable but strong passwords for every account that your workers use. They’ll also simplify the process of sharing passwords and allow the employees to collaborate remotely.

As much as training your employees on password policies is vital, you also need to complement their knowledge with other data protection policies. Don’t assume that they know and understand them, but remind them regularly through refresher courses.

That way, they’ll always be updated on policies and rules that they need to follow. Every time you hire a new employee, you should tell them about data protection regulations and inform them about the company’s cybersecurity policies.

Final Words

You can’t prevent cyber attackers from targeting your company’s systems, but you can try as best as you can to shield them. Training your employees on best practices can help you to minimize the chances of cybercrime immensely. Their knowledge of cybersecurity threats can make your company secure or a vulnerable target.

5 Reasons Your Startup Should Be in Healthcare

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | 5 Reasons Your Startup Should Be in HealthcareWhen you think of startup companies, you may think of some obvious ones that are now household names. There are social media platforms, mobile video games, banking apps, ride-sharing services and home rental marketplaces. You know them well.

An arena that isn’t as often spoken about in the same breath as these other game-changing companies is the healthcare industry. The Patrick James Trico Group is well aware that startups in the area of medical innovation and data processing are where the biggest and most beneficial progress will be.

1. A Better Patient Experience

With technological advancements, a patient’s healthcare experience should begin long before a visit to the doctor’s office. Artificial Intelligence and wearable tech could collect analytical information for the doctor to evaluate before you even make an appointment.

The appointment itself could be scheduled by an AI-driven system in much the same way that pharmacies use software to send automated calls and texts when a patient needs a refill. There is a wide range of possibilities for improvements in all aspects of a patient’s experience.

2. Automated Data Collection

Robotic automation of data collection is an area in which many hospitals and healthcare facilities could benefit. Human administrative errors are a common occurrence, accounting for countless mistakes, which could cause someone to pay a higher price or, at worst, have the wrong procedure performed.

With data collection performed by robotic automation, many of these errors could be prevented. Other industries already use similar automated data collection and machine learning to streamline their business, creating straightforward, painless engagement and happy customers.

3. Improved Information Storage

Your healthcare information is fragmented across all the different clinics, hospitals, doctor’s offices, and any other health facility you’ve ever been to. Rarely do these entities communicate well and share that information without some complicated process of requesting that such information be sent from point A to point B.

A central ecosystem that houses data easily and safely would allow medical staff to retrieve patient records instantly, avoiding potentially harmful mistakes and allowing for accurate and timely care. An AI-driven functionality could also find and address any anomalies in patient records.

4. Creative Innovation

Medical researchers do a lot to progress healthcare and provide much-needed information by way of well-researched and thorough study. But often the solutions offered by those immersed in the healthcare field are from a calculated, linear and dogmatic approach.

Entrepreneurs are creative innovators willing to think outside the box and attack a problem from a completely new point of view. Their solutions may require some reframing of the way a facility currently does business, and therefore might never occur to a dyed-in-the-wool healthcare professional.

5. Everyone Benefits

Efficiency and progress in the healthcare space will benefit everyone involved: the healthcare providers, the patients and, of course, the startup company that provides the innovation.

Institutions with leadership that understands the need for the most effective quality care will be smart to embrace the technological advancements that startups may provide. The patient will reap the benefits of efficient and smart healthcare and the startup will reap the rewards of the market.