All companies, especially small and medium sized enterprises, rely on their staff to be productive and add value. The core concept that underlines productivity is employee engagement, and if your firm doesn’t have a proactive plan for engaging with your workforce, you are behind the curve.
 
Employee engagement is the mental attitude staff take towards their job and employer. An engaged employee is invested and is motivated to perform highly.
 
A new study by Deloitte has revealed that there is a fundamental shift in the dynamic between employer and employee, with new models focussing on staffing needs as a means to enhance engagement, leading to increased productivity.
A Gallup 2014 Poll Stated that only 13 percent of employees surveyed are “highly engaged,” and 26 percent are “actively disengaged.” Remember that the 13 % of engaged employees are the ones who add value, and your small firm must increase this percentage as much as possible.
Transparency
One of the key elements to engaging on a personal (non-professional) level, is earning people’s trust by including them in your plans and sharing your thoughts and vision. This applies exactly the same to the corporate sphere. Informing your staff of short, medium and long term company  goals and strategy is a way to gain employee’s trust, making them feel included in the future of the company. It allows staff to understand how they fit in the wider company context, which is psychologically very important.
Opportunities for Growth
Whilst some people are happy performing their current job, many employees will be looking to advance their careers. If a firm is looking to retain its brightest and best, it must provide pathways to progression, making it clear that there are options open to them. For a small firm with no clear corporate structure, it is crucial to identify your best talent and find ways for them to spearhead new areas of growth.
Flexibility
Companies are increasingly using technology to allow flexible working conditions like remote working and flexible schedules. Cloud computing and bring your own device make this easy and affordable, so there is no excuse for not taking advantage. A happy employee who is able to manage their other commitments is more likely to be a productive employee.
Give Staff Decision Making Power
Many people, especially your most ambitious and talented, crave empowerment. The people who will really make a difference will never be content with simply following orders. Give employees the power to make decisions and to assume responsibility. Instead of telling staff how to do something, tell them what to do, and let them find their own way of implementing it. You may be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
Humanise Management
Authoritarian methods of management disengage staff. Turn managers into coaches and mentors who nurture and support, rather than simply demanding results. Managers must become personally invested in developing staff and understand the value of praise and performance recognition.
Define your Mission
Create a vision for your firm or department. Aside from making money, what does your company do and why does it exist? Make it clear that your company has a defined goal and that all operations or processes, no matter how small contribute to this goal. This gives even the most mundane task a purpose and value. 

You can travel for business, retaining your business travel deductions as well as personally enjoy your trip, even extending it for pleasure. Does this sound too good to be true? Well you will be surprise to know that many frequent business travelers have found ingenious ways of cramming some personal enjoyment in a trip without angering their companies or the IRS.  Here is how.
Know the Tricks of the Trade
Like anything else in life there are a few simple tricks that go a long way to making something work.  Knowing that hotels and plane tickets cost more on certain days of the week than others, can help you plan out personal vacation days before or after your company trip. 
A great suggestion is to enjoy less expensive attractions on the weekend if your business occurs during the week. 
Keep Detailed Records
When it comes to tax time and to avoid any questioning of your commitment to your employer, keep detailed records of your time and travel.  Keep all receipts digitally with the help of a scanner, which is an excellent tool.  Remember many companies will pay for things up front and then others must be reimbursed, such as meals.  Having receipts or documentation of these expenses can be the difference between receiving reimbursed in full or not at all. 
Help your employer understand the advantages
A great way to add personal travel on the back of your business trip is to help your employer understand the advantages of doing such a thing.  Maybe instead of flying home Thursday, you could stay an extra day and try to network, meeting with local clients on Friday.  The rest of the weekend could be yours as personal time for exploring as you see fit.
Employers love when their employees show initiative going above and beyond what is expected.  If you manage to show them how a change of plans can also save the company money, perhaps flying on a different day, they are more likely to entertain you mixing business with pleasure too.
Taxes and Finances
Making sure business and personal expenses are on two different credit cards, is just one way to ensure proper separation of differing expenses.  It is also important to have a strong understanding of IRS laws surrounding business deductions.  Meals are usually deductible. However, if your trip is mostly personal all your travel expenses may be no longer deductible.
It is also advisable to have some sort of tracking system that can help you reconcile expenses, so you do not lose deductions or tax credits.  Mint or an accounting program like Quicken can help with this task and even compile the information directly from your linked accounts. 
Honesty is the best policy
It is important to be open and honest with your employer about your travel plans.  If they catch you blurring the line between company and personal time they may restrict your business travel in the future.  The longer one works for a company the more leeway they generally obtain from an employer. If your work does not suffer, either at home or abroad, there may be little reason for them to object.
Conclusion
Traveling while holding a full time job can be difficult in today’s hectic and busy world.  Traveling for work may provide an excuse for you to add some personal travel while away for home.  If you follow a few simple rules and a little common sense, you can mix your personal travel with your business travel.
It is important to diligently track your personal and business expenses while traveling.  It will also make your life easier if you help your employer understand how combining these two types of travel will save them money, not affect your productivity, and is a win-win for all involved.

You might have a humble local business selling lawnmowers or painting the outside of homes in the community.  You hear and see all the big brands spending millions of dollars on fancy video advertising and retargeting ads on every corner of the web and social media.  How can you possibly compete with that?
One of the main challenges as a small business is figuring out how and where to use your limited marketing budget for maximum effectiveness.  The rise of digital marketing has replaced some local marketing techniques but others are as effective as ever.  Let’s talk about some ways you can reach local customers with your marketing efforts.
Everybody loves free stuff
If you are selling an intangible product such as legal or consulting services, it can be difficult to use free samples or giveaways for marketing purposes. However, any business that sells an actual physical product can use the time-honored strategy of simply giving some of it away for free. This works well because the friction between customer and business that normally precedes a sales transaction virtually disappears when the transaction is reframed as a simple give away or trial. Sometimes the best marketing can be the product itself.  If it works well, with the customers enjoying the product, then they will tell their friends and the word of mouth campaign blossoms. 
Local sponsorships
One of the most effective ways to sponsor something is to support a local event, relating the event to your product sales. For example, if you run a custom boat detailing company you may want to sponsor a water ski show that happens at a local lake.  Or if you sell insurance, you can sponsor a weekend radio show about investments and risk. 
The key to discovering these opportunities is to get out of your office and get involved in the community.  Many of these events are free and run by volunteers, so like your small business they struggle to market their events and would love to partner with a small business.  These sponsorships will also cost a tiny fraction of other marketing efforts; however, they will reach customers in your target area.
Use Facebook groups
Many businesses think of Facebook or other social media as a one-way street.  The business posts something and people like it or respond.  Rarely does a conversation continue past 1 or 2 postings. 
A different approach, with more potential to find and attract local customers, is to use your page to interact better with clients.  Facebook and others sites have communities within their platform, such as Facebook groups, that are organized around a theme, location, or interest.
Becoming part of your community to drive business is not just opening a physical location in that community but it also requires you to position your digital brand in the correct virtual communities.  This helps customers discover your local brand and also give you a reputation boost as a good corporate citizen.
 

 
Introduction
 
Now that virtually every business involves technology, securing that technology and data is an issue for every small business owner.
 
Small businesses, those with under 100 employees, face especially tough challenges given their limited resources and lack of full time cyber security teams.
 
Equally challenging is that many of these businesses are transitioning to the cloud.  Owners may be concerned with their data being secured when no longer kept at their place of business. Cloud providers claim a high level of security, but it may cause the owner sleepless nights of worry.
 
Here are some ways to improve your online security and keep your small business protected.
 
Risks with regular internet usage
 
One of the greatest risks is still the most common issue.  The simple liability that comes with employees or management using the internet for many aspects of their jobs raises a host of issues that must be addressed. 
 
Are your employees trained to recognize phishing emails or other online threats?
 
Basic web security steps can often be overlooked or neglected in a small business that is focused on surviving in a competitive business landscape.  However, regularly practicing safe online security can help any business weather the issues of online security. In fact, business owners should incorporate online security into their overall business plan, continually revisiting it because one breach can ruin a business or its reputation.
 
Data encryption and work device boundaries
 
Stories occasionally crop up where a work computer was misplaced or stolen, putting a huge block of business data at risk.  Often this data is not protected according to company policies.  The company, of course, thought that every employee was following company procedures.
 
Online security goes beyond just having a proper firewall or employees who can spot phishing, it also transcends into the offline realm.  Your business needs to devise and implement a clear policy on how work devices such as laptops and cell phones should be used outside of the designated workplace.
 
Proper security measures such as the use of secure VPN login servers and data encryption are crucial to allowing employees the freedom to work remotely, while ensuring the safety of crucial company data.
 
Random and frequent checks should be conducted on company owned devices to ensure all employees are following the protocols set out for encryption and other security measures.  Establishing your online security plan is not enough, it needs to be implemented and then constantly verified.  
 
 
 
Limitations and separation of online access
 
Just as the reasoning of proper internal controls protect financial assets of the company, so should the access of the internet be controlled.
 
Consider each employee's role individually and decide what the minimum access they require to perform their job is.  Maybe an individual does not need to install any new programs because they simply edit the website's blog posts, negating access to other internet activities.
 
Perhaps your Human Resources generalist needs access to databases with employee information such as health insurance or 401k contributions but does not need access to the customer sales software you use. 
 
These types of limitations may seem neurotic or a feature of a business who does not trust their employees. However, they are simple and practical steps that can be taken at a low cost to improve the security of data or online business activities without hurting productivity.
 
What products are right for my business?
 
At very minimum, most small businesses need a few products.  These include a firewall, of which there are hundreds of options available to a business owner.
 
Also important is a data backup solution.  If the code of your website is infected and you need to restore the website to a previous state, this information should be stored somewhere different then the primary code.
 
If your business uses a cloud solution, it would be a good idea to back those files up on another cloud solution or even with a physical solution like an external hard drive. 
 
Depending on your business, encryption software may be essential as well.  If you handle any kind of customer data that is sensitive, encryption is necessary to protect their information safely and securely. 
 
Lastly, becoming more popular is a two-step authentication solution.  This may mean that your employees have to do something other than type in a password to access their work.  The options available include fingerprint technology, receiving a text to their phone, or a wireless token that sends a randomly generated code that must be entered within 30 seconds.  This two-step authentication process prevents a lost or stolen password from allowing non-authorized personnel to have access to data.

 
Mint.com
 
Mint.com and the mobile Mint app are not tax apps per say, but instead are a solution for your overall financial life such as budgeting, investments, expenses, planning, etc.  The best feature as it relates to taxes is the ability to categorize all your expenses. 
 
This allows your accountant or you to identify possible deductions for business expenses such as a car, computer, supplies, or anything else related to your business and personal life that may be deductible.  Rather than having to dig through 12 months of bank and credit card statements, with a few clicks you can pull up all your categorized expenses for the year. 
 
Mint and its tracking of your entire financial life (if you let it) can also come in handy if you are the subject of an IRS audit.  Knowing precise numbers for income and expenses, as well as the dates they occurred can make preparing for an audit and surviving one that much easier. 
 
Quick Tax Reference by Bloomberg
 
This handy little tax app can help you as you prepare to file online or via the paper application.  The best features are the reminders and simple explanations for things like estate tax, Alternative Minimum Tax, and capital gains.  Also detailed are the timeframes for filing individual returns, extensions, business taxes, and other related schedules to ensure all your paperwork is in IRS hands when it should be.
 
My Pocket CPA
 
For a low $10 fee, my pocket CPA lets you ask a detailed question as it relates to taxes.  This can be much more affordable than having to hire an accountant or lawyer. Combined with your general knowledge and a free online filing software, you can get an accurate and affordable tax return prepared.  The app can provide information on simple questions, which can easily be found through a Google search.  The best feature and main point of this app is for the more complicated questions you might have that only a qualified CPA can answer.
 
IRS2GO
 
The official app of the IRS is barebones.  The main feature, however, is the ability to check the status of your tax return.  With every year having more identify theft issues, many filers now have to go through additional verification steps to ensure that they are the “true” owner of their return.  Processing times can also increase during peak times, so the ability to see what stage your return is in from a quick and simple app on your phone is a great peace of mind to have in your pocket.