It’s a fact that the future of marketing is digital. While you can market the product/services on your own, you are highly discouraged from doing it. The best way of going about it is hiring a digital marketing agency. The benefits of hiring an agency include:Save time and moneyIf you are a small business owner chances are that you are too busy. You have meetings to attend to, phone calls to make, and other business issues. This leaves you little to no time to concentrate on the marketing aspects of the business.When you hire a digital marketing agency you don’t have to worry of marketing your business as you will have left the work to professionals.It might sound absurd saying that you save money when you hire an agency to market the business for you, but its true-you save money.If you were to hire an in-house marketer, you will pay him/her up to $70,000 a year. Hiring an agency costs a fraction of that amount.You achieve results fastWhen you are handling the marketing part of your business you most likely don’t know what works and what doesn’t – you are gambling and guessing. This results to you making many mistakes before you see results.Digital marketing agencies specialize in marketing; therefore, they understand the inns and outs of every niche. Since the digital marketing mediums change every day, the agencies keep up with the mediums and ensure that they work with the best and most effective medium in the market. Due to this, you see results fast.Save on technology and toolsTo undertake effective digital marketing you need to have the right tools to monitor your accounts, track data and undertake other marketing tasks. As a small business owner, you most likely can’t afford the necessary tools and technology.When you hire an agency you not only save time and money, you also save on purchasing marketing tools and technology. The tools which can get expensive especially when you have to upgrade them.Professional experienceDigital marketing agencies are run by educated, trained and experienced professionals. When you hire the agency you bring the knowledge into your business. This results to fast growth of your company.ConclusionFrom the above benefits, it’s paramount that you invest in a digital marketing agency.For you to hire the right agency you need to consider a number of factors. One of the factors is the experience of the agency. A good agency should have reports and case studies of previous clients. A good agency should also be certified to operate in your local area.To find the right professionals to work with, you should take your time.
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You have home improvement plans but you just cannot seem to find the right budget scheme to be able to finance a few works around the house. This scenario is not rare as more and more people have to put up their homes for sale due to the recent economic crisis. Some others just want to move out and need their houses to be put up for a price. To be able for the house to become more valuable, renovations and improvement are both musts to raise the home selling price. Or simply, you have grown tired of the same color of wall for the longest time, a good repaint job can make it all the better or the patio needs some repair and improvement of facilities.The reality of people setting up their homes up for sale is no longer out of the ordinary for most people. The real estate sector health has not been that good to since the recession a few years back. Houses for sale was either too cheap or too expensive for most home buyers. And the greatest factor to close a sale of residence is the condition of the house itself. Getting the house in up and running condition with a few interior improvements can greatly improve its tag price or simply just get a new look for its home dwellers. But to get the money in order to be able to do so can be done without too much hassle or too many red tags to comply. Below are some of the financing efforts you can give your home.Create some funds for home improvement. You might have a place, say an attic, where you can put up old items for a garage sale. You can rally up the family members to get creative in disposing the stock items around the house. Old clothes, furniture, books, furniture and many other stored stuffs can fetch handsome prices. Pooling money and cleaning up unused objects can be quite rewarding. Or at times, due to home improvement, some auxiliary properties like a boat or another car can be sold in order to have considerable amount of money.Store credit card can also be an answer for financing your minor home improvement projects ranging from $1,000-$10,000. Membership requires no credit background check as long as you keep in mind they happen to also have higher credit rates and service fees. While picking out the credit card, watch out for the hidden charges and keep notes of your account summary.Home equity can be tricky as it has many financial obligations but can create more amount of money for your home renovations or improvement. It is also recommended to check your local bank home loans as they are easier to manage and keep track. Home loan rates are quite higher in interest rate compared to mortgages as they have little time for pay outs. Do not be afraid to ask the loan officer about your loans as this would help you in making the final decision.Finding the financial capacity to afford your home improvement does not mean you have to break the bank. The best way to get around with it is to stick with a certain budget and approach the improvement with a part by part section. Your home can be more pleasing in time without you having to face additional debts and obligations.

Any market has a standard law being old products, views, system, strategy would be replaced with new and improved versions. With increasing popularity of internet globally, popularity of digital marketing is beaming high. Millennial have changed the way market runs, traditional tools is still prevailing in the market but its popularity has been impacted due to internet.Traditional Marketing (TM) has stronger roots and have been in run for a long term and therefore older generations still have blind trust on the tools, but with newer generations coming in the market is now a mixture of both the tools, traditional as well as digital.Though in the initial stages traditional tools are a great choice, to expand globally digitalization is needed. Where traditional tools such as newspapers, and hoardings help in local advertisements digital tools like social media, helps reach out to a wider customer base, and interact with them.TM though being an older form of marketing is not so ecofriendly as it includes wastage of resources and is costlier. Digital Marketing (DM) has not replaced traditional way but surely has provided with effective and efficient options.Digital ways and traditional ways could be made to work together for a better form of marketing which benefits the firm for a longer time period. Social media marketing and print media could work together to reach out to a huge prospective market, and attract a great number of customers.Different objectives of marketing lead to usage of different tools, at times a mixture of tools are used to market a product or product line in order to make the effect more effective on the customer’s mind which would persuade them to buy.Branding and advertising are two main objectives for marketing whichever the reason may be, in today’s digital savvy market, it’s important to place your products in the customer’s head properly.With increasing usage of internet for everything it’s important to have a virtual image and presence in front of the target audience. Which is formulated through digital marketing tools such as social media marketing, SEO, Mobile Advertising and many more.Multiple Marketing Options with Digital MarketingThere are so many options to work with DM, you will plan strategic process according to budget. DM pursue different options like Email Marketing, SEM, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Web Analytics, Copywriting, Advertising and Mobile Marketing. You can keep watch on each and every activities and consider which promotional activities will best meet your marketing needs.Changing times demand a change the strategies running in the market, and as the market is moving towards digitalization, the marketing needs to move in the direction too. DM provides with ample options to search through and find the best alternative according to the objective of marketing.Marketing is a pillar to expand, attract and search for target audience and therefore, decisions regarding it needs to be well planned, and digital tools help you to plan accordingly for each platform, which saves cost and facilitate proper use of resources.DM is the new and international way to grow, none of the businessman dreams to be stuck to the point from where they started, they always aspire to grown, and in order to grow you need to be in touch with the most significant part of the market: THE AUDIENCE, and that’s what digital marketing tools excel in.Conclusion being, significance of internet and digital marketing has increased over the last few years which have negatively impacted on the popularity of traditional marketing.Significance of traditional marketing in the initial stages is not neglected, but in order to grow digitalization is the key.

To new business owners, starting a business is often its own reward. They are thrilled to be able to be their own bosses, and to successfully get a business up and running. Often they are happy just to keep the dream alive.But every business needs to grow. That doesn’t mean you have to reach out to a larger market – it means working toward increasing your share of the one you are targeting. This will keep your business healthy enough to survive obstacles such as tough economic times.In order to keep moving forward, we need to market our businesses constantly. We need to dedicate a certain percentage of our resources to building our brand and reaching our target market. Here are some simple things you can do to help your business grow.Have a clear picture of your target market. Find out what types of people use the products and services you provide and respond to your business philosophies. If you’re not marketing to the right people, all will be lost.Research, research, research. Determine how to best reach your target market and what they expect out of your offerings. Study your competition carefully, and make note of what they’re doing right and wrong.Choose your marketing channels wisely.If your target market rarely reads, there’s no point in advertising in a magazine. Use what you’ve learned about them to find the best possible outlets for your message, and focus your marketing efforts there.Give your advertising a chance. Studies show that consumers require repeated exposure to a product before they will even consider buying. So don’t be surprised if one ad run doesn’t bring spectacular results. If you’ve done your homework and found a viable way to reach your market, run the ad at least two more times before you evaluate the results.Take advantage of free publicity. Sending out press releases and finding other ways to attract the media will give you high-quality exposure, and it won’t eat into your budget.Keep track of the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. If what you’re doing is working, you should be generating more revenue. Use some of that revenue to do more marketing. If it isn’t working, make adjustments and try again.Sometimes you’ll have to take a step back with your marketing plans. But that’s not a sign you’ve failed. It’s a sign that you’re a smart marketer. Sometimes the market changes, and it’s up to us to monitor those changes and adjust our marketing plans accordingly. No successful company markets the same way forever. By evolving with our target market, we can make our marketing work better.

Regardless of size and industry, every enterprise is dependent upon information technology, and must have a strategy for how to employ it, especially as the internet becomes more pervasive. Information technology strategy is an enabler of business strategy. Not only must an enterprise manage relationships with its constituencies, but it must be able to connect with them electronically through data arteries – information supply, value, and demand chains. The information supply and demand chains are external; the information value chains are internal.An information technology strategy is a special case functional strategy because every function in the enterprise requires electronic information delivery capabilities, and many require electronic process control also. In very large enterprises, strategy may be formulated at both the enterprise and organizational unit levels.As websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Plaxo, and Twitter become more pervasive in business, linkages between application systems and databases and social networking websites will be more important to enable constituencies to communicate both collaboratively and cooperatively. Just as email has become a primary method of communication between enterprises and their constituencies, so will social networking sites especially for advertising and ecommerce.Business intelligence information can be used to identify opportunities for competitive advantage. However, information technology itself can be an enabler of competitive advantage, especially when there are opportunities to digitize products or deliver information products electronically. In such cases, business strategy is inseparable from information technology strategy.Information technology comprises the analytical and operational application systems, databases, and technical infrastructure (hardware and networks) of an enterprise. Not all computer technologies are information based. Computer technology is used for process control applications in special purpose equipment. However, connectivity is essential as applications become more integrated. As digital construction and manufacturing practices develop through such technologies as computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), the processes, the control of processes, and the products and/or services delivered by processes all rely upon information technology for connectivity.For example, in the manufacturing industry, not only can design and manufacturing work be conducted through integrated CAD/CAM processes with electronic linkages to carriers, such as FedEx and UPS, but the entire project and process management activities can be monitored electronically from ideation to product delivery.Through technologies such as electronic data interchange and electronic funds transfer, data and both digital and information products flow through information supply and demand chains in parallel to material supply and product and/or service demand chains. Within the enterprise, data flows through information value chains from supply chains and to demand chains.Developing an information technology strategy document is essential for describing the requirements and for educating users because:

The impact is enterprise or organizational unit wide and other elements of strategy cannot be implemented without it Administrative activities, such as legal, finance, and human resources, and operational activities, such as research and development, procurement, manufacturing or equivalent, distribution, marketing, sales, and service depend on information technology – analytical and operational systems support both administrative and operational functions The time frames, expenditures, risks, and magnitude of efforts are usually larger and more complicated than other initiatives and must be clearly understood; information technology projects have a tendency to go out of control and under deliver – therefore, contingency plans are always necessary The subject matter can be complicated if not well explained Information technology strategy is usually packaged as a separate but related document to the strategic plan. It is deployed and executed through specific programs and projects that develop new or enhance or maintain existing application systems, databases, and technical infrastructure.Large information technology development projects are usually cross-functional, and may be part of a broader initiative sponsored by multiple functions collectively. Broader initiatives that have information technology components include:

Market research and development Product research and development Infrastructure research and development for processes and information delivery For example – for the development of a:

Digital manufacturing system integrating both research and development and sales and production activities (sponsors: Manufacturing and Sales functions – impact is on Research and Development, Procurement, Manufacturing, Distribution, Sales, and Service functions) Financial, managerial, and regulatory accounting and reporting system (sponsor: Finance function – impact is enterprise wide) Human resource management system (sponsor: Human Resources function – impact is enterprise wide) Sales tracking system (sponsor: Sales function – impact is on all salespeople enterprise wide) Some projects can be solely for the Information Technology function, in which case it is a customer of itself.Steering committees should be established for major programs and projects representing the various impacted functions in order to resolve cross-functional barriers. Major programs should come under the review of a planning and policy committee at the enterprise level.Information technology strategy formulation is a project in its own right at the enterprise or organizational unit level. Very large projects are grouped as a program of inter-related components under a program manager. Projects can be stand alone also. A single project can deliver one or more application systems and related databases and technical infrastructure, or multiple projects may be required depending upon complexity.For example, when launching a new product, it may be necessary to conduct marketing, product, and infrastructure development projects that include the delivery of new systems, and upgrades to existing systems. However, if an addition to the product line is launched at a later time, a new project or set of projects may be required to enhance or maintain the current systems, or even develop new ones.The work breakdown structure for downstream development, enhancement, and maintenance projects decomposes into planning, analysis, design, construction, implementation, and performance measurement phases. The performance measurement phase can be conducted in parallel with the other phases, and each must end with a performance review. A feedback loop to future planning activities must be established so that lessons learned from the past can be reflected in future initiatives.Meeting the cost and schedule requirements is always a major consideration. Hence, “meeting the date” is a frequent requirement for project success. However, after implementation, the scope of what was delivered and its quality is usually remembered more than when. In anticipation of the need to make changes after implementation, an adaption project may be necessary to tune, standardize, and integrate the deliverables.The planning phase is conducted at the enterprise, organizational unit, or program levels for one or more projects depending upon size and complexity. However, each application system and related databases and technical infrastructure is delivered through a project with distinct analysis, design, construction, and implementation phases. Each phase always begins with a detailed planning activity to ensure that resources are allocated appropriately. The work breakdown structure does not preclude the use of iterative methodologies within each phase for rapid application development and prototyping. Development, enhancement, and maintenance of websites can be very rapid, and heavily interactive with user involvement, when the appropriate tools are used.Key questions and deliverables by information technology strategy project and downstream phases include:Strategy project (enterprise and organizational unit levels):Key questions:

How does information technology enable business strategy? What are the investment priorities? Deliverables include:

Information technology architecture (applications, data and databases, and technical infrastructure) High level project phasing and plans Planning phase (enterprise, organizational unit, and program levels):Key questions:

What are the administrative functions’ systems and information needs? What are the operational functions’ systems and information needs? What are the priorities for the candidate analytical systems? What are the priorities for the candidate operational systems? Deliverables include:

Process models Function models Data models Information models Economic evaluation Scope of analysis projects and schedules Analysis phase (project level):Key questions:

How do processes, functions, and systems fit together? How do systems processes and functions relate to enterprise processes and functions? How do systems processes and functions and enterprise processes and functions fit together? Deliverables include:

Functional requirements Economic evaluation Scope of design projects and schedules Design phase (project level):Key questions (by system):

What are the system’s functional requirements? What are the system’s technical requirements? What is the total cost of ownership and benefits (tangible and intangible)? Deliverables include (by system):

Application system specifications Data and database specifications Technical infrastructure specifications Scope of construction project and schedule Total cost of ownership/benefit analysis Construction phase (project level):Key questions (by system):

Is the system being constructed according to design? If not, what change orders are required, and why? Deliverables include (by system):

Tested application system and interfaces, databases, and technical infrastructure Trained users Implementation phase (project level):Key questions (by system):

What are the costs and schedule relative to plan? What is the scope relative to plan? What is the quality relative to plan When will the benefits be realized relative to plan? What adjustments for tuning, standardization, and integration are required relative to plan? What are the current anticipated enhancement requests? What are the current anticipated maintenance requests? What are the lessons learned for the future? Deliverables include (by system):

Working application system and interfaces, databases, and technical infrastructure List of enhancement requests List of maintenance requests Performance measurement report As enterprises become more dependent upon the internet for connectivity with constituencies, it is essential to develop, enhance, and maintain the information technology strategy on an ongoing basis. The strategy must emphasize connectivity through the data arteries as digital and information products become more pervasive.Formulating information technology strategy is an enterpriship (entrepreneurship, leadership, and management) competency.

Maintain staff productivityNo news is definitely not good news from an employee communications perspective. October 2008 research from Weber Shandwick showed that 71% of people felt that their company should be communicating more about current economic problems. Unfortunately, the uncertainty caused by lack of internal communications can cause staff to be less productive. In fact, Workforce Week reported in October 08 that 48 percent of staff said that the economic uncertainty has caused them to be less productive at work.Maintain operational effectivenessUncertainty due to a lack of effective internal communication can cause high performing employees to jump ship. Low morale within remaining staff can impact customer interactions and damage brand identity. Uncertainty can also damage a company’s culture. Competition for internal resources can increase between (and inside of) departments. Focus can shift onto projects that ‘look good’ but don’t really contribute towards real business objectives. Good employee communications can enable you to retain your best employees, protect your company culture and maintain the strength of your brand. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, it costs at least one-third of a new hire’s annual salary to replace them. There are also associated opportunity costs such as lower productivity during re-training to consider. It is much more cost-effective to retain good staff and profitable customers than to replace them.Retain revenues in a shrinking marketIf demand for your organization’s products or services is reducing, in order to keep revenues healthy, it becomes even more important to drive organizational performance to increase your share of a shrinking market. In a competitive marketplace, organizations need to be agile, to reduce process inefficiencies and to increase effectiveness across the business. Effective employee communications plays a critical role in achieving these goals with an investment that’s small compared to value gained. Good employee communication is a competitive advantage.Employee communication tips during an economic downturn:Don’t cut employee communicationsWhen budgets are tight and the future looks uncertain a knee-jerk reaction can be to pull back to the bare essentials and not try anything new. Organizations may be tempted to cut costs in areas such as Internal Communications at a time when effective employee communications are even more essential. The Return On Investment (ROI) of effective employee communications can be huge. Watson Wyatt’s 2007/2008 Communication ROI Study showed that: “Effective employee communication is a leading indicator of financial performance…a significant improvement in communication effectiveness is associated with a 15.7 percent increase in market value”. Firms that communicate effectively are also four times as likely to report high levels of employee engagement as firms that communicate less effectively. Good employee communications can also help create an advantage that competitors aren’t likely to have. Involve your Internal Communications team in strategic planning sessions. They will be able to make proactive recommendations on items that have a communication component along with suggested employee communications strategies. Internal communications breakdown can be a major source of inefficiency. As can inaccurate, slow-moving, or non-existent information and mixed messages. Breakdowns cause people and processes to under perform. A good internal communications team can help to identify and eliminate the root cause of communications breakdowns.Internal Communications Channels – Tips:Engaging. Use engaging employee communications channels. Overt tools such as Desktop Alerts can be used to achieve maximum cut through for important and/or urgent messages and updates. Digital Signage on screensavers provides a more passive and visual way to raise awareness of key themes. Web 2.0 channels allow you to quickly and easily set up secure online blogs, discussion forums and interactive helpdesks with little budget or IT resource.Measurable. Ensure the channels you use provide full reporting on message cut-though and readership. This can be particularly important for HR communications during uncertain times.Track performance. Use staff surveys and polls as a way to assess what’s working, measure attitudes and levels of understanding as well as tracking trends.Targeted. Use channels that allows messages to be customized and targeted to specific staff groups.Repetition. Use a range of different ways to communicate and repeat key themes so that messages do not become ‘wall paper’.Reduce information overload. Use a staff Emag to aggregate ‘news and admin’ updates in order to reduce email overload and the impact it has on productivity.Drive performance. Use staff quizzes to gather cost savings or efficiency initiatives, reinforce messages and new behaviors.Build community. Use staff electronic magazines to allow staff to tell their own stories in their own words. Social media channels should be authenticated to employees computers to allow staff to securely participate in online discussion forums and blogs.Be visible, honest and open “By stepping up and communicating more with their employees, company leaders will enhance their company’s standing, consolidate their position of trust in challenging times and head off any inaccurate rumors or fears.” Harris Diamond, CEO of Weber Shandwick Be willing to communicate before you have all the answers. Employees need communication ‘right now’ to remove uncertainty that may be hindering their productivity. Not communicating with employees does not mean that they are not communicating. It means that you have lost control over any positive messaging and the chances are excellent that your employees are painting a far worse picture than is actually occurring. Tell employees what you know, what you don’t know, and when you will provide further information. Explain the steps the organization is taking to identify issues and resolve problems. Don’t make promises you may not be able to keep. Be open and transparent with performance data. Candor helps gain public support for necessary actions that may follow. Employees rarely feel worse after having positive contact with a genuine, candid leader. A CEO / senior managers blog can act as an ongoing ‘town hall meeting’ that makes senior managers more accessible to staff. Staff can ask questions and seek clarification in a format that is similar to open dialogue.Internal Communications Channels – Tips:An RSVP Desktop Alert is an ideal channel for maximising employee attendance of face to face briefing sessions. Such desktop alerts can provide available date, time and venues options and automatically populate the employee’s outlook calendar with the selected appointment. Reporting tools make it easy to see which staff are attending which sessions. You can plan room sizes, catering etc and close off specific date/time options as rooms become filled. Video: Credibility, conviction and passion are best conveyed by visual cues. When face to face is not possible, staff can benefit from seeing engaged and informed senior leaders through video. Consider delivering video messages with a pop up alert notification. Recurrence and/or click through options can be specified to ensure maximum visibility and ROI for video messages. Use Web 2.0 channels that have been specifically built for internal employee communications. Ensure they are easy to use meaning and little IT resource, training or budget is required to implement them.Be timely Coordinate your internal and external messages and be timely. Employees should hear company news from the company first. Nothing is worse to an employee’s moral than hearing about changes to their organization from media sources or family and friends before they have been informed by their employer. Keep track of when employees last heard from you and schedule when you’ll send updates, regardless of developments.Internal Communications Channels – Tips: Pre-schedule messages: Pre-schedule messages to coincide with market or media releases. Formats like desktop alerts and scrolling news feeds achieve high message cut-through. Scrolling news feeds: If you use RSS feeds in your press releases/newsroom or website, set up an employee scrolling news ticker so staff automatically receive the news releases the second they become public. This is especially important for publicly listed companies as this can be a good way to make sure you keep employees in the loop as much as possible. Use a channel that that doesn’t require staff to take the time to opt in to important RSS feeds. Alternatively, if you want to personalize announcements to staff, you can also easily create an internal news ticker and schedule it to appear at an appropriate time.Manage Rumors Manage rumors. Get information out early and explain that you will provide regular updates, rather than letting rumors proliferate whilst you wait. In the absence of alternative information, staff may accept available rumors as “the truth” (if the rumors weren’t true they would have said so) causing you to lose your best people first. Some organizations set up an online discussion forum specifically as a ‘rumor mill’ where staff can anonymously post anything they have heard. Executives may not want to sanction a rumor mill. However, rumors exist regardless of the channel and a discussion forum provides an opportunity to correct them quickly. Limit potential damage from managers’ informal conversations that are overheard and serve only to undermine other communications efforts or create rumors. Use secure channels for electronic ‘manager only’ communications. “Today, whatever you say inside of a company will end up on a blog, So you have a choice as a company – you can either be proactive and take the offensive and say, ‘Here’s what’s going on,’ or you can let someone else write the story for you.” Rusty Rueff, a former HR executive at PepsiCo.Internal Communications Channels – Tips:Web 2.0 channels: set up secure online forums that are authenticated to individual employee’s computers. Ensure that the level of access, moderation and anonymity can be easily specified for each forum and/or specific staff groups. Set up automated desktop alerts to notify specified moderators that new posts require moderation or an answer which can help ensure responsiveness.Involve managers in delivering messages Employees prefer communicating with their immediate manager than with any other level of management. This is especially relevant during times of uncertainty. So use your team. Make sure they know how and what to communicate, and that no one is a bystander. It is also helpful to get a wider communications support team in place – not just the core communications or management team, but a wider network of champions, supporters and coordinators. What will the company look like if it’s successful? This vision needs to be expressed at a high level and then translated down to individual departments and staff in terms of what it means to them. Line managers and supervisors are a great resource for providing this context. Measure and manage the effectiveness of line manager communication with employees. What gets measured gets done.Internal Communications Channels – Tips:Staff surveys and employee polls can help you measure the effectiveness of managers as communicators. A short poll to assess how well each employee understands key messages can be related back to individual managers to provide a measure of the manager’s communications effectiveness. What gets measured usually gets focus and priority. Blogs: Get with it and get key managers to blog about the current economic situation and related initiatives. Encourage staff to ask questions and seek clarification. Staff blogs will help staff realize that managers are human too and they are doing all they can to minimize the impact upon the organization. Interactive secure helpdesks. Set up secure web 2.0 channels as staff helpdesks. Managers can meet online to discuss strategies, share ideas and to plan. This is especially useful when managers are in different locations. Schedule and target messages so that, when appropriate, mangers can be targeted with updates, via a desktop alert or scrolling news ticker ahead of their teams. This allows them plan how they will react and provide further context when their team are subsequently updated, and to prepare answers to possible questions from staff.Provide 2 way communications channels Provide opportunities for two-way communication. Invite employees’ questions, concerns and suggestions. Welcome all kinds of feedback including negative comments…sometimes people simply need a place to vent frustrations before they emotionally move on. Acknowledge emotions and probe deeper to understand the real issues. Use face to face meetings for sensitive issues and allow plenty of time to hear responses and answer questions. Staff may think of additional questions later on, therefore channels should be in place to address these subsequent questions. Web 2.0 tools can provide an opportunity for a genuine conversation as an alternative to ongoing face to face meetings. Other alternatives such as opinion polls and suggestion boxes can also be put in place.Internal Communications Channels – Tips:Staff opinion polls allow you to ask for information on specific issues. Even though it is not face to face, they can be used effectively to keep information channels open. Online staff discussion forums can provide a virtual meeting where people can share their ideas, opinions, and if necessary, let off steam. Staff Discussion Forums allow people to post ideas anonymously. This is a good option for finding out what staff really think. In case this all sounds too risky, use a highly secure platform that provides a range of moderation options to allow you to keep a close eye on the conversations. Targeting options will also mean that you can set up specific secure forums targeted to specific groups (meaning that negative feeling doesn’t have to ‘infect’ the whole organization).Focus on outcomes and drive performanceDon’t overly focus on cost cutting and productivity messages. These messages are clearly important but it is also necessary to help staff stay positive by inspiring them, highlighting genuine good news stories and keeping focus on future opportunities rather than just the current pain. Show your strengths. Reinforce the core competencies and values that make your organization successful. Talk about how they will help the organization thrive in the future. Maintain a positive focus on achieving performance targets. Don’t let negative views of the economy be an excuse for failure to meet targets.Internal Communications Channels – Tips:Use a staff electronic magazine format that makes it easy for anyone in your organization to contribute news items. Include articles showing how employees are modeling new values or implementing new strategies Screensavers as digital signage: Use screensavers as a communications channel to paint a picture of the future, promote top performers, show visual representations of achievement against target, carry motivational images etc. Countdown clocks on screensavers can also be a great motivational tool to create a sense of urgency when the end of the financial year is in sight. Scrolling news tickers: A daily news ticker for targeted employee’s computers carrying the latest sales, production or performance figures. Staff Quizzes: Use staff quizzes to increase capability and motivate staff (injected with some humorous options and with a prize incentive). Web 2.0 channels: Provide an interactive online helpdesk to allow staff to ask questions about any aspect of the business or their role. Nominated moderators can provide support in an evolving, tag-able and searchable repository of knowledge.Engage Staff in reducing inefficienciesInvolve staff and solicit their ideas for cost reduction and efficiency campaigns. Enlisting the help of employees to cut costs lets them know that ‘we are all in this together’. Once a few success stories are found, highlight them in staff communications channels (printed magazines, newsletters, E-Mags, etc). Tell stories about what departments or individuals are doing to reduce cost or increase efficiencies. Offer rewards or a personal thank you for good ideas and initiatives.Internal Communications Channels – Tips: Staff Surveys: push staff surveys and opinion polls directly to employee computer screens. Use this format to get staff to submit cost savings and efficiency ideas. The level of persistence for uncompleted surveys can be specified thereby ensuring maximum staff participation. Often the ideas and suggestions received can have a dramatic and positive impact on the business. Online staff forums: use a platform which allow secure discussions to be set up for targeted groups of employees. Discussion forums of this nature can be an excellent way to gather business improvement ideas and suggestions Staff e-mags: Select an easy to use format that allows any member of staff to submit articles. Encourage staff to submit short updates about what they or their department are doing to reduce cost and/or inefficiencies.

Enterprise Investment SchemesAn EIS is an investment vehicle that provides funds and capital to small businesses that, due to the tightening of the credit market, cannot otherwise get financing from traditional sources. An EIS is an unquoted company that is not on a stock exchange and is most likely managed by a venture capital firm. These firms manage the investment objectives to protect investors and maximize investment returns. A good firm will have been involved in venture capital investing for a number of years and be able to provide a solid track record of protecting principle and securing returns. Firms operate their EISes differently, some offering investments into single companies while others operate EIS funds in which you could invest into a fund of multiple companies, therefore diversifying your risk.The benefit of tax protection that EISes offer has resulted in an increased demand among wealthier investors, with EIS being utilized as a strategic tool within their portfolios. The UK government increased tax relief from 20% to 30% and the annual investment amount has been increased from £500,000 to £1,000,000. With the added benefit that the investment is exempt from capital gains tax and inheritance tax, EIS is increasingly the perfect vehicle for certain investors. More and more EISes have become essential within many investment portfolios as an integral tax relief tactic.Seed Enterprise Investment SchemesNot quite as large as the EIS, the SEIS provides a similar benefit and experience. The main difference being the investment amount allowed annually which currently stands at a maximum of £100,000, but offers an unprecedented 50% tax relief on the investment’s gains and value. However this 50% is only applicable if the SEIS continues to comply with the SEIS rules and providing the investment is left for a minimum of three years. After three years the investor can sell their stake, incurring no capital gains tax against profit realized. Furthermore, loss relief applies to any losses incurred.As of 2014, the upfront tax relief for the highest tax bracket investors equates to a 64% tax break and, when combined with a loss relief tax break of a further potential of 22.5%, equates to a total of 86.5% tax relief. The downside tax protection of almost 90% is unprecedented amongst all other investment vehicles and provides significant tactical value to certain investors.Careful ConsiderationAs with any investment decision, you need to be careful in your consideration when choosing to use EIS or SEIS for your portfolio. You should be considering these tax relief options in your portfolio after you have exhausted other forms of tax mitigation. The first two that should be utilized are your pension and annual Individual Savings Account (ISA) allowance. These primary tax savings vehicles provide secure investment vehicles; ISAs offer amazing investment flexibility not available through EIS or SEIS. Another option includes VCTs – Venture Capital Trusts – which have similar strategic benefits to EIS or SEIS but are limited to £200,000 per year.In deciding on further tax mitigation, you need to consider the portion of your portfolio that these tactical investments would make up. Conventional wisdom dictates that you should not put more than 20% of your holdings into risky opportunities, but that 20% could realistically be surpassed with correct use of the right investment vehicles. If you are hedging your portfolio against a known event that will increase your capital gains taxes or inheritance taxes, EIS and SEIS would be a viable way to mitigate those taxes in a given year. In this way you could max out your contributions to these two tactical strategies in order to mitigate the known tax implications from another portion of your investment portfolio. It is these considerations that you should be aware of before deciding on a specific EIS or SEIS company.Another concern that you should be aware of is the fact that EISes and SEISes are essentially “locked-in” products. You need to be able to leave the investments locked in for a period of at least three years (and in some cases longer) in order to access the tax relief benefits – managers will generally look for an exit in or around year 4, but an exit could realistically take longer and is subject to market conditions. In this way, many EIS and SEIS companies are illiquid and the secondary market for selling EIS/SEIS shares is therefore small. Taking the long view on these investments should be a natural consideration.Choosing the Right EIS/SEISWhen deciding on the right company to invest for the purpose of tax mitigation, not all EIS/SEIS companies are the same. Choosing a company should not be done on impulse and requires effective due diligence to ensure that their investment philosophy is in line with your own. At the time of consideration, ask all the same questions of the company as you would when investing in any stock. By ensuring the company has a solid and proven track record of investments, open reporting functions that promote transparency and an investment philosophy you agree with, you can feel comfortable with your investment.By considering an EIS/SEIS investment you are considering an investment option that has a real potential for investment loss. It can be the right option for those looking for a high risk option with an effective tax mitigation strategy as a small portion of their overall portfolio. EIS and SEIS investments can also be an excellent way for investors to dabble in venture capital investing without having to put up too much capital.For more information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-enterprise-investment-scheme-introductionhttps://www.gov.uk/seed-enterprise-investment-scheme-background