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This is something that has been highlighted many times, but it is amazing that lots of business people are not aware of or have not actioned it!
Many people know that companies have to put certain information on letterheads, but it is amazing how many are unaware of legal requirements for what needs to go onto a website.
Outside of what your site actually does (that could be another legal can of worms, but is not for this bit of advice!), to comply, there are several things that must be shown on your website, but it is not necessary on every page (I would say use your contact or information page):
- The name, physical address and email address of the site owner/service provider.
Note: the name needs to be the registered one, if applicable, and the trading one, if different e.g. Jon Doe Ltd t/a JonDoeDeers.co.com
- If a registered company, the registration number/place of registration and registered address
- VAT number, if applicable
- Membership to any trade or professional organisation
This information is required for almost every business related wesite, not just ecommerce!
Simple 'contact us' forms are not good enough!!!
Outlaw.com has a great page on the details of the UK's ecommerce regulations - it is worth taking a few minutes to read through it!
By the way, a business letter (and business related emails) should have, as a minimum:
- registered office
- place of registration and number
- If you show one director, you must show them all (although you do not need to show any!)
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I have just found his great plugin for Joomla 1.5 - it automatically posts content - http://www.1st-movers.com/products/autotweet/autotweet-details |
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No one goes into a business thinking they are going to lose everything. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon outcome.
When asked what my best advice for people starting a business is, I have to say it is probably "never invest more than you are prepared to lose". It almost always received with some surprise! I go on to justify this advice by describing starting a business as being similar to placing a bet on a horse race - no matter how much research you do, training both the horse and the jockey have had, how good the going is and inclement the weather is, you may not win! The jockey could be dismounted, the horse stay in the gate, a camera flash could put the horse or jockey off or a rut in the grass could cause the horse to stumble. There are so many exterior forces that can cause failure to even the best run business or idea/concept.
For what ever reason, if the business does not work or simply fails, can you afford the loss? If you can't think again. I do not want this to be seen as me trying to keep a good person down or idea hidden, but there are simply too many sad stories about a lost house, life savings being used, broken marriages and worse. I am confident that there are more sad stories than happy ones.
Whilst always prepared to take a calculated risk, I would never risk the roof over my head or my (and my families!) future - I wouldn't want you to, either! |
When you run a small business, you need to make sure that your communications, email especially, are reliable, easy to use and available everywhere!
During late 2008, I reviewed our email system, as we are based in several locations, work from home, office and on the road and internationally, and need to ensure information is to hand when needed. We ran a standard server client system, where our email server was setup with our webserver, and we used traditional clients (i.e. Outlook) to manage our emails. Sure, we had webmail, however, in many cases, when you send a webmail, it isn't recorded on Outlook and you can loose some communication. We reviewed several email providers, servers and software systems and found that there were many good options (lots of which were open source and free to get hold of, impliment and run).
gmail, in particular, google apps, won! Why?
Well there are several reasons.
- First and foremost, it was managed by google. Enough said, as far as I am concerned!
- Emails would come from our own domain, not a generic one
- It offered the ability to download emails to our desktop, via all of the normal clients (how old fashioned that now seems!), has it's own desktop client type software (so you can keep all of your emails on a PC), it's web client is second to none (it is more than ANY other webmail system and also integrates their search system, which isn't that bad, either) and it connected to our PDA's/smartphone, most importantly with push (without cost) as well as pop3 download.
- exisiting emails can be uploaded to the new system
- There are lost of other goodies in the Apps package
- Importantly, for a SME it was low cost i.e. FREE!
For small busineses, it allows upto 50 user accounts for free. Yes, free, no charge! Why? Because they want you to be impressed and upgrade to their premier accounts, at £30-40 for each user. However, for many small businesses, the standard system is more than enough.
Google Apps also includes several other handy systems, making collaberation even easier - these include online spreadsheets, word processor, presentation, calendar, file sharing and a few other handy bits and bobs.
How do you get it - easy - go to http://www.google.com/apps/ read more and sign up.
However, please note that set up of the account is easy, but you will have to make changes to your web domain/server to make it work. Do not let this put you off. If you want to switch to google Apps, I can set it up for you for £50! If you are an SME of 5 users or less, we can have you new, fancy, all singing and dancing system set up for you, normally within 24 - 48 hours. If you need further help migrating emails, contacts, setting up your phone, we will either point you in the right direction, for free, or, for a small payment, we will manage it for you.
If you want enjoy the benefits of the Premier system, which gives users increased storage (25gb instead of 7gb), unlimited users, increased support, no adverts, improved security management and a lot more (see here) the setup is identical and we can help, although the financial relationship is direct with google.
If you would like our help in moving to google Apps, you can call us on 020 7736 0150 (press 3 when it picks up) or email us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Remember, my businesses use this system everyday, so I probably understand what you want from an email and collaboration system as a user. My advice is impartial (I can help with most communication systems...) and based on experience!
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