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Improving your LinkedIn presence as a business

Although other social media platforms can be more casual, having a strong LinkedIn presence can be helpful to form partnerships and onboard skilled team members. The steps to building an engaging and professional LinkedIn page for your business is straightforward but will require you to put time aside for it.

• Profile image and banner: Your logo should always be the profile image. You can play around with the image of your banner depending on your brand identity – it can be sleek and stylish or actionable and engaging. Make sure that both of these fit the sizing requirements listed in LinkedIn
• About us: The About us section should not be too long or difficult to read. Keep it engaging, snappy and accessible. It should tell the reader who you are as a brand, where you are based, what you offer, what your values are, what your brand voice is, how people should contact you. Don’t forget to maintain professionalism as LinkedIn is a professional space.
• Fill out the key fields: Connect links to your social media/website, add your address, details of your industry, company size. Filling out all of these will help LinkedIn show your page in response to relevant searches and make you more discoverable.
• Create showcase pages: Your main page will give people an overview of the business, but if you have multiple services, then creating showcase pages will help zoom in on day-to-day activities of each service. This will help people engage with the aspect of your business that is most relevant to them.

Overcoming public speaking anxiety in the workplace

There will come a time, where no matter how much you despise it, you will need to speak in front of an audience. Being afraid of public speaking is fairly common and there are resources and programs which may help you overcome this.

The following are tips which will help you through your public speaking fears. They may be more effective for one-off scenarios, as a more extensive program should be chosen by those who need to regularly participate in public-speaking but experience fear.

• Write out notes: Write out what you are planning to say clearly. Even though you don’t want to be reading your notes exactly, having them there can alleviate anxiety because if you lose track, you can check your notes and start where you left off.
• Get there early: It helps to be comfortable with the setting you will be presenting in. Get there when no one else is around so you can familiarise yourself with your surroundings.
• Imagine the worst: What is the worst thing that could happen to you? Identify your worst-case scenario and come up with a plan for what you would do if it happened. It isn’t going to happen – but what if it does? Most likely you’ll realise that public speaking won’t have career-ending consequences.
• Focus on the content: What’s most important is that you know what you’re talking about, and talk about it. Why are you giving the presentation? Most likely because you are talking about something you know, or feel passionate about. Focusing on your material and using your knowledge to your advantage might also put you at ease because it transfers the attention from public speaking to your domain.
• Learn relaxation techniques: The usefulness of relaxation techniques to reduce public speaking should not be underestimated. Deep breathing immediately before you present can help calm your nerves and get your breathing in control.
• Remember that it isn’t all about you: When you are presenting you are hyper-focussed on yourself and how your body might look or how you might sound. But remember that the audience isn’t going to be nearly as focussed on you as you are on yourself, and they will not notice when your hands shake or you slip up while talking

Dealing with anxiety the right way is much more effective than ignoring it. Remember that if you have to speak in public regularly then a more comprehensive approach is more appropriate.

Things you should do every time you get paid

It can be tempting to treat yourself on payday, but in the long run, planning your spending will be more rewarding. Creating a payday routine will help you pay your bills on time and save more money to put aside.

The very first step needs to be completed the night before payday. Transfer any funds you have leftover from the previous payday to your savings account. This will allow you to spend less money you consider ‘extra’ and save it for your long-term goals.

The second thing you need to do is pay as many bills as possible, rather than wait till the ‘due date’. As it is, once money comes into the account, a lot of it is earmarked for bills and payments that need to be made, so rather than holding off on them, you should pay them immediately. This will also give you a clear indication of how much money you have.

Finally, creating a to-do list on the day of your payday is an effective method of viewing or planning your expenses. This will give a clear indication of small and large expenses that need to be paid before your next payday. They will also help identify unnecessary expenses or when extra money is being spent when it shouldn’t be.

These are simple techniques that anyone can apply to get ahead of over-spending on payday.

How you can improve your company’s shipping department

Effective shipping is essential in a world where online shopping is so popular. Businesses can suffer if their orders are not being shipped on time or if they are not regularly updating their customers. The following are some ways you can improve shipping.

• Improve your communication with your shipping facility: Communicating with your warehouse and shipping team or company regularly will mean that they are updated with orders and avoid delays.
• Offer order tracking and estimated delivery times: Letting customers track the progress of their orders and track shipping reassures customers that their package is on the way. Estimate delivery times are particularly useful so that customers can plan ahead for delivery if possible.
• Shipping costs should be built into the budget: Shipping rates will change regularly, but this should not change what your customers have to pay. When creating your budget, allocate more money to shipping than you have calculated to account for potential rate changes.
• Streamline your packaging process and do standard quality checks: Invest time into creating a process which works efficiently for your business. For example, you could find software which communicates with the warehouse and creates documents which make collecting and shipping the packages easier for staff. Quality checks should also be conducted regularly to guarantee that the product the customer will receive is what they were looking at online.
• Declare items for customs ahead of time: This is especially important if you offer and regularly conduct international shipping. Declaring your package online when the order is placed will help it get through customs faster, and to your customers earlier.

Basics of SMSF investing

Setting up an SMSF fund is the simplest step. Establishing a fund which delivers you consistent returns from your investments is much more difficult.

Investing successfully involves determining precise goals and picking investments which will effectively achieve those goals. The advantage of SMSFs is that you can build a portfolio which reflects your short-term and long-term goals in response to changing market conditions.

In an SMSF fund, your investment options are:

• Australian and international shares (listed and unlisted)
• Residential or commercial property
• Cash and term deposits
• Fixed income products
• Physical commodities
• Property
• Collectibles

Before you begin investing, consider what might be the best way to diversify your portfolio. How you portion your investments will depend on your funds, the market, and your goals. Regardless of what your plan is, diversification should be a priority.

Choosing an SMSF as opposed to an industry or retail super fund provides you with more flexibility, but also with more responsibility. Researching before investing is key if you want the best out of your SMSF.

Taxation of your unused leave when leaving a job

When your job ends, whether there has been a termination of employment or redundancy you will receive a payment for unused leave. This payment will be taxed differently from your normal income.

The taxation will vary depending on the reason why you left the job and any unused entitlements that have been accrued over your employment (long service leave or sick leave).

Lump sum payments that you receive for unused annual leave or unused long service leave are taxed at a lower rate than other income. These lump sum payments will appear on your income statement or payment summary as either ‘lump sum A’ or ‘lump sum B’.

These payments may also be taxed differently if you lost your job as a result of Covid-19.

How do people use the internet?

Each person uses the internet in a different way. Whether they regularly access the internet for their job or only go on it to watch movies and shows, users have found a way to utilise the internet for their convenience.

One particular convenience that has come from the internet is being able to research a product or services and purchase them online. A snapshot of July 2020 of internet users between the age of 16-64 showed that:

• 81% of users searched online for a product or service that they wanted to purchase
• 90% visited an online store
• 74% purchased a product online

This data shows that the internet has become an important part of purchasing products and services. This also extends to users reading information about what the product/service is, what’s involved and reviews other people have provided.

Taking this into consideration, businesses should be putting in the time and effort to make their internet platforms (website or otherwise) user friendly. Customers should be able to access the information they require easily, otherwise, they will be driven towards a product/service whose information is more readily available.

Set up a website for your business if one does not already exist, and regularly update it with relevant information so that your customers have all the information they need. The more customers have to look for information, the more likely they are to opt for another product/service.

When is taking a pay cut okay?

Taking a pay cut is never easy but there are some situations where it makes sense. Focusing exclusively on the salary could prevent you from looking at other factors which are also important.

You may need to take a pay cut when you are making a career change. This is because you won’t have the relevant experience or the skills for the same pay grade in a new industry. You will need to acquire the same level of skills and experience in your new career to be able to demand or be offered the same pay. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as getting your foot in the door to a completely new industry is extremely important.

A work-life balance is desirable, although can mean that you need to make certain sacrifices. A higher pay comes with greater responsibilities and expectations, which can often be time occupying. Prioritising a balance could mean that you have to reduce responsibilities and take a pay cut.

You may come across the perfect opportunity but it may not come with the same paycheck. At times like this, it might be worth taking the reduction in pay to pursue the opportunity which involves work that you are more excited and passionate about.

Focusing exclusively on salary is tempting because there are always costs to cover and bills to pay. However, disregarding these other relevant factors could mean that you pass on a valuable opportunity for the sake of your paycheck.

Responding to negative feedback

The internet and social media have made it all too easy for customers to relay their feedback to businesses. This can be a great thing because it shows other customers or potential customers why they should choose your business.

However, this also means that if a customer has a negative experience, then their public feedback has the scope of preventing future customers. Hearing what these reviews have to say to implement change can benefit your business and responding sensitively to the reviews will help with damage control.

Follow these steps to construct an appropriate response:

• Address the customer by name: Rather than using Sir/Madam, refer to the client by name so that they know their feedback is valued and not simply a scripted and automatic response.
• Sympathise with the customer’s problem: Try to understand what happened from the perspective of the customer to find out why they might have had a bad experience. Apologising will also let the customer know that regardless of whether you agree with their review, you sympathise with their negative experience.
• Let them know you are solving the problem: Acknowledge their problem and let them know that you will be addressing it. This will let future customers know that the negative review may no longer apply so that they are not immediately driven away.

Make sure you do not ignore negative reviews and feedback. Either the review is specific to the customer or they are making a valuable contribution towards how the business can be improved. In order to identify which it is, you should listen to what the customer has to say.

Protecting yourself from super scams

Superannuation is an attractive target for scammers as a significant volume of funds are placed into super funds by Australians.

There are some straightforward steps you can take to protect yourself from super scams.

Know the rules

• Becoming familiar with the rules surrounding superannuation will alert you against scams which make false claims e.g. offering early access to your super
• Keep up to date with the relevant authorities and so that you don’t put in your personal information into the wrong websites – always check that relevant institutions have verified their authenticity!

Check your balance and contact details

• Check what your super balance is on a regular basis – if you notice something that doesn’t quite look right then immediately get into contact with your super fund and ask them about what could have happened.
• Every once in a while, check that your super fund has the right postal address, email address and mobile number – this will help them get in touch with you if they spot any suspicious activity.

Stop identity theft

• Taking the steps to stop identity theft will also help protect your super
• This does not have to be all too complicated e.g. shred important documents, change passwords every few months, etc.