News

It is only natural to become accustomed to the way your office phone rings. There may be a certain day of the week where you receive more phone calls than others. Every phone call holds an opportunity that you do not want to miss out on, so each time the phone rings it is highly important that you answer it. There will be times when it is necessary to take messages for other staff members that are not currently in the office, or you may have to transfer calls to voicemail. This is only common when you work in an office, but it can really alter our day and how much work we actually get done. Many businesses have found themselves recruited the help of virtual receptionists, so other staff members are not tied up all day answering the phones. Virtual receptionists

When you need an after-hours call service, you don’t want just a machine. A machine won’t sell any type of product or take care of an emergency. However, if you choose a virtual receptionist service for your after-hours service, you will get the same personal service as you have all day long. This is a huge benefit for your business, especially if after hour calls are a normal thing. Save Business After Hours If your after-hours calls end up at a machine, the caller may never leave a message. This makes it hard to sell them any type of service or product. About 75% of callers reaching a machine will hang up and never call back. This means you could quickly miss out on many business opportunities. Hiring a virtual receptionist will ensure you never have to worry about any missed calls. There

Hiring a virtual receptionist is a big deal. This person can help you with many basic tasks and provide plenty of benefits. Here’s a look at some of the things you should know before you decide to hire a virtual receptionist to help your business run smoothly: What is a Virtual Receptionist? Before you go any further, it’s important to know what a virtual receptionist is and what they can do for you. Just as you might think, this is a person that handles your receptionist duties remotely. They don’t have to come to your place of business to answer the phones. Virtual receptionists are contract workers and they perform many of the same tasks as traditional receptionists handle. They can take messages, handle phone calls, make follow up phone calls, manage your schedule and more. How does a Virtual Receptionist Work? Since the virtual

The tax season is upon us once again. Instead of allowing it to stress you out, why not see it as an opportunity to optimise your return instead? Here are our helpful tips for getting this right: Start by ensuring that you are fully tax compliant. If you are not, along with incurring fines from SARS, you will also run into challenges when it comes to finding investors, obtaining expansion capital and attracting new clients. As a rule, whenever applicable, South African businesses are liable to pay Income Tax, Value-Added Tax, Provisional Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Secondary Tax on Companies. Know what you are entitled to claim for. Most small businesses can claim for the majority of expenses incurred through generating income for, and maintaining, their business. This includes stationery, rent for your office or business premises, ICT services,

Capital, what is it? Many people when asked this question will say that capital refers to the money you need to start a company or the money which you have in a company. Though this is not incorrect, in current times capital has come to mean more than the financial aspect of your company. There are various types of capital. Let us have a look at them. 1. Internal economic capital This capital refers to the financial capital a company has such as the funds, debt and equity. It also refers to the value of the brand of the company which is consider non-financial capital. 2. External economic capital This looks at the impact that your company has on the companies that surround it. For example: you may affect the price of property in an area if you build an office park near a

Darlene Menzies, CEO of Finfind, South Africa’s leading online access to finance solution, encourages business owners to make sure you get your business ready and well-positioned to raise finance whenever you need it. Applying for funding takes time, and time is usually the very thing you don’t have when you’re needing finance. It makes sense then that you should do everything possible to be finance ready before engaging lenders. Good preparation on the part of the finance seeker speeds up the application process. Knowing what lenders need from you is vital to knowing what you still need to do on your side to make sure you’re ready to access finance. Getting and staying organised and on top of paperwork can be tricky for entrepreneurs who already have dozens of other balls in the air. Keeping track of financial documents and then needing

Article by Darlene Menzies, CEO of Finfind. Are you a start-up or small business with an idea, product or service that addresses a large market need? Do you believe your business has the potential to achieve high growth over the next 5 years? Is your business currently struggling to survive and grow due to lack of funding? If you can answer yes to these questions, then venture capital could be a good funding option for you to explore. Venture capital (VC) is a form of funding that is provided to new or small, early-stage, emerging businesses that are considered to have high growth potential. Venture capital firms invest in early-stage companies in exchange for ownership in the business they invest in. VC’s take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they invest in will become very successful. Getting money from venture capital

Article written by Jannie Rossouw, Head: Sanlam Business Market In a previous article, namely “The roles my business fulfils”,  I suggested that it would be productive to identify the roles (eigth in total) fulfilled by your business.  Further you also have to decide which one of the roles could benefit your business most if it should improve dramatically. The focus of this article is the provision of guidelines in order to formulate goals for the eight chosen roles. A few principles apply: The planning horizon for the formulation of goals for the purposes of this exercise is 12 monthsfrom now. It would be sensible to create at least 1 goal per role. The role you chose as the focus role should have 3 to 5 goals. It is relatively easy to set goals if you adhere to the following guidelines: Use the “SMART” principles. S = Specific M = Measurable A = Appropriate

Article provided by Old Mutual The funding conundrum for small businesses requires two key questions to be asked and answered. One, are the business’ finances currently managed well? If not, why not? And what remedial actions can be put in place? Two, is there really a need for financial support and will that enable the business to actually grow.  If so, then what kind of finance? According to the SAICA 2015 SME Insights Report some of the reasons SMEs fail are: They start with less capital than needed Poor cash flow management Debtors pay them late Clients don’t pay them at all Overhead levels are too high Proper financial management in the context of an SMME means getting a few things right from the onset. Understand your business environment, the sector you are in and it’s level of maturity:  The initial funding requirements for example for a services

Article written by Aletia Oberholster from Spoor & Fisher  In the current economic climate in South Africa and abroad, securing a loan or obtaining access to capital can be challenging. Yet many undertakings have a valuable asset that may assist in accessing capital, namely, intellectual property, notably trade marks. It is called “intellectual” because it is not tangible and that is, perhaps, why it is so often overlooked. Offering valuable intellectual property as security for a debt may help in obtaining a loan. In a typical financing situation, the borrower offers an asset as security for a loan and the lender secures the debt by recording a pledge over the asset. A delivery of property to a creditor has to be done as a security for a debt or for the performance of an act. This kind of practice is referred to as