Reginald Chan

Category: Business

  • Just How Safe are VPNs for Work?

    Just How Safe are VPNs for Work?

    Browsing the internet in modern days can be risky. For instance, when you are using public Wi-Fi, any person on the same network with a little tech know-how can easily access your online activity and location. 

    Luckily, virtual private networks, better-known VPNs, provide a good way for remote and in-office workers to mask their online activity and keep prying eyes off their employer’s information. But just how safe are VPNs for work? 

    Keep reading to discover the common cons of using VPNs.

    Complicated setup

    The process of VPN access setup, management, and configuration can be pretty complicated and time-consuming.

    Considering that most employees are not tech-savvy, using VPN networks can become a big challenge and often calls for increased labor in terms of IT support staff. Additionally, the complicated configuration and setup processes translate to more time loss, which could have otherwise been used to engage in other productive activities.

    Luckily, investing in a simple file server access solution such as Triofox can ensure your remote team easily and safely access your network or file server. The best bit about such tools is that they provide secure, remote access without a VPN and still ensure that everyone who accesses your file server is authenticated and uses a secure internet connection.

    VPN hinders collaboration among workers

    Apart from contributing to IT complexity in its setup, VPNs can hinder collaboration among remote workers. Most VPNs are not designed to support entire organizations operating remotely.

    With a large volume of employees connecting over a VPN network remotely, most networks will be overwhelmed. In other words, you are likely to experience a delay in content syncing and file sharing, which are the two most critical aspects of an effective remote work model. 

    Such performance challenges can ultimately affect your business’s productivity which calls for finding more effective ways of securing your work remotely other than VPN.

    Complexity hinders scalability

    As businesses start to experience growth, most enterprises try to solve the overload issues with additional VPN appliances and concentrators. 

    However, this approach only serves to add to the cost and the complexity of the already complex system. These complications become a hindrance to scalability and can only be overcome by finding other options for securing your company data without relying on a VPN. 

    Security loopholes

    While most VPNs may promise maximum security, they may not be entirely secure, and users are always at a risk of having their IP addresses leaked. 

    Therefore, if you intend to invest in a VPN for your workers, it would be important to check online reviews on the provider to see if they have had a history of IP leakage. Free VPNs are especially prone to leaks and must never be used for work.

    Dropped connections

    Dropped connections are a nightmare for any business owner who depends on a virtual private network for their online security. 

    A dropped VPN connection should not be confused with losing your internet connection. Instead, a dropped VPN connection means that you cannot connect to the servers hiding your identity, leaving your true network and IP information on display for everyone putting your company at risk of a cyber-attack.

    Slow speeds

    Because a VPN network is a virtual connection inside a physical network, your internet speeds will be negatively affected. Slow speeds are especially a problem with free VPN, which must be avoided by all means.

    Final words

    VPNs are not developed equally, and you may find them useful for certain purposes in your organization. However, you can find many other alternatives to VPNs, such as file server access solutions, that effectively ensure your business remains safe from cyberattacks.

  • Ideas to Implement When Throwing a Football-Themed Party

    Ideas to Implement When Throwing a Football-Themed Party

    Everybody loves letting their hair down at a party every once in a while, though as time goes on you might find that opportunities for parties are somewhat thinner than they might have been in a certain window of your life. That’s okay though; that’s just how things go. All this means is that you might have to be the one to put the party together in the first place, and when you do, you might want to add a spin that makes your party all the more memorable.

    A reliable twist to apply is that of a theme. Themed parties add a bit more focus and cohesion, and can allow you and your friends to all relish in something that you enjoy. With the Euros here, you might find it a topical idea to throw a football-themed party, so long as you have some good ideas backing it up.

    Play the Game

    This might seem obvious but it’s something that people might forget about if they’re stuck in the frame of mind that a party has to only contain certain activities. Not only will playing the game with a bunch of your friends help to get you all much more in the spirit of things, but it might help you build a better relationship with the game itself. This could mean that by the time major events such as the World Cup roll around, you’re in a much more eager mindset and engage with the games that much more.

    If you don’t have the means to play the physical game or it just isn’t realistic for whatever reason, you might want to consider playing a video game version of the game instead. While you might initially think that this doesn’t offer quite the same experience, what it offers instead has its own unique benefits. It might be much more suited to the party atmosphere as you can drink as you play, and the ability to play games with your friends and take turns going head-to-head might mean that everyone has a better chance of getting involved rather than just the most athletic among you.

    Get Directly Involved with the Euros

    With the Euros having kicked off, tying your party directly in with the tournament could work to tremendous results. How exactly you go about this is up to you and you have several choices in how you proceed. First of all, you could make your party a viewing party and get your friends over to watch a game, which could help you all get involved and kick the tournament off to a great start.

    Alternatively, you could get more personally involved by betting on the Euros and putting yourself in a position where you’re more actively engaged with the games, feeling a connection to what’s happening on-screen that you might not achieve were you just viewing them normally.

    This can help especially if you aren’t as into the game as others, and can help you feel some of the community spirit that these events can bring.

  • How to Choose and Appoint the Right Corporate Trustee?

    How to Choose and Appoint the Right Corporate Trustee?

    Planning for your money and property after your demise is not an exciting thing to do. It raises feelings of fear and anxiety. Nevertheless, it is an essential process we all must undergo. You must determine how your assets are shared after you pass. A vital aspect in this process is choosing who acts as your trustee—the person or body assigned to manage, invest, and hand out monies and properties owned by the trust. A majority usually consider trusted friends and family members for this critical role. However, this sometimes turns out to be a poor decision. In some instances, corporate trustees may be best at managing your assets after your demise or impairment.

    The obligations and roles of the trustee are specifically time-consuming and require specific specialized skills. For example, trustees need to manage the trust’s money and property, execute to the latter the instructions listed in the trust agreement, settle bills linked with the various assets, and keep complete and accurate records of all the transactions. These processes are naturally time-consuming without considering the more complex asset types. It is common to see business management, property monitoring in multiple states, and monitoring unique accounts and property like art collections and stock portfolios included in trustee roles. Family members and friends may lack the necessary knowledge to embark on such vital and elaborate tasks.

    How do you know what corporate trustee is best for you? Well, here are a few points to consider when choosing a corporate trustee.

    Minimum Trust Account Requirements

    Many corporate trustees own a wide range of minimum amounts thresholds for accounts. It ranges from $0 to $1 million and is dependent on the institution. There are also some cases where the minimum amounts vary depending on the account or property’s size. You must be aware of the trust’s accounts and property value to evaluate each institution adequately.

    Recordkeeping and Reporting

    For accounting purposes, trusts must maintain separate income and principal records, and they must annually file an income tax return at the IRS. For example, expert trustees at Trust Point report income, deductions, income accumulated or held for future distribution, gains and losses, income tax liability, and employment taxes paid from wages to household employees. Additionally, they handle multiple tax schedules that may be needed. Family members, friends, or other selected individuals may find this responsibility daunting and time-consuming. Any errors, omissions, and late filings carry heavy fines for the trustees and personal liability if the beneficiaries are negatively affected by false accounting.

    Sufficient Experience

    Experience in handling trusts with accounts and properties like yours is an essential qualification to consider. Some corporate trustees prefer not to take real estate. Trustees that feel this way will either turn down the appointment or may eventually liquidate the real estate and manage the transaction’s profits instead. Pay close attention to such details because they can readily impact what accounts or properties your beneficiaries may eventually have access to.

    Cost

    There’s a general narrative that institutions are costlier than individual trustees. This is false. Individual trustees have to hire other professionals. Individual trustees hire CPAs, Attorneys, custodians, and investment managers to assist with trust-related duties. When you incorporate the cost of the other respective services, you may end up paying more than the fees of a corporate trustee who has all the other professional services in-house. Often these fees are summed up as a whole. Additionally, consideration needs to be given to tax costs and state trust laws. The trustee residence may determine the governing law and the income taxation of a trust.

    Effective Communication Between Trustees And Beneficiaries

    It is vital to consider how effectively the trustee works with and communicates with beneficiaries. A common fear affiliated with corporate trustees is that they practice a more hands-off approach, resulting in a shortage of genuine care, but this is rarely the reality. Corporate trustees usually prioritize regular effective communication and are highly responsive to the needs of beneficiaries. Due to their professionalism as trustees, their job is to manage your trust and manage it optimally. Suppose you end up choosing a close friend or family member. In that case, that person is very likely to have priorities or biases that will most definitely interfere with the adequate management of your trust.

    Lastly, an individual trustee could also die. In such an instance, the trustee’s estate would necessitate appointing a new representative. Before taking up the responsibility, the representative may request an account report to exonerate the trustee for their actions during their term of managing the trust. The new trustee may be advised to hold on till the exoneration happens before stepping into the position. In this period, the trust is left unattended. If the financial markets witness a shift during this period, there may be a costly setback in adjusting the trust portfolio. Such breaks are non-existent with corporate trustees since corporate trustees are always available and devote their time and focus to the expected duties and responsibilities of managing your trust. Unlike an individual trustee, a corporate trustee does not have vacations, predecease you, or experience other situations that make them unable to administer the trust.

  • 6 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Start Using More IT Services

    6 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Start Using More IT Services

    As a small business owner, you quickly learn what your limitations are when it comes to making investments in your business. It’s not that you don’t want to make them. You just don’t want to spend the money, only to find the solution that is not adaptable to your business and you lose money on it.

    That said, you are unlikely to go wrong investing in an IT service as a small business owner. Increasingly, services are being computerized and automated and you don’t want your business to be left behind.

    What are IT services?

    According to the Gartner IT Glossary, IT services are “the application of business and technical expertise to enable organizations in the creation, management, and optimization of or access to information and business processes.”

    That’s quite a mouthful. Breaking this down means that IT services are goods or services that help users optimize their business or service offerings. You read that right. An IT service can actually help you make your product or service delivery better for you and your customers.

    There are different types of IT services depending on whether you want to build or design a system or install software for your business. Some common IT services are:

    • Backup services
    • Cloud services
    • Network security
    • Help desk services
    • Consultancy
    • Training

    6 ways your business can benefit from using more IT services

    1.You can save on new equipment and software

    As a small business owner, every penny counts. As much as you’d like to, you can’t afford to spend money on purchasing expensive specialist hardware or software for your business. 

    “Cloud” based software services are the latest technological innovation to come to your rescue. This is essentially a service that can be accessed from anywhere over the Internet, like this cloud based veterinary software, which helps organize the practice’s information in a form that is easily accessible to vet and staff alike.

    When you have a cloud based service, you are also freed from storing and backing up your information as well as updating your security. A cloud service will do all of this for you.

    2.You don’t have to hire a separate IT department

    When you are a small business owner, you wear many hats. The primary reason you double up is you can’t always afford to hire the specific skillset that you need.

    IT is a very specific set of specialist skills. This is not a hat it’s advised you wear because of the kind of damage that could be done to your system from the outside, or even your own well-meaning efforts. 

    When you hire an IT service to pick up one or more functions that an in-house IT department would normally do, you pay one flat monthly fee. You have access to the service and supporting advice as needed.

    3.You can easily recover lost information

    There are various scenarios a business owner can lose data in, all of the potential nightmares. There could be a natural disaster in your area which damages your computers. You could be attacked by a hacker, virus, or malware. Or, in one of those things that just happens, your computer just stops working.

    If you’ve contracted an IT service provider, your information is safe and backed up for your use on one of their servers. No need to worry about your precious business data.

    4.They can tell you how to set up your infrastructure

    If you’re thinking of expanding your business, probably hiring a few new employees or offering customers a new service, have you ever thought about what is required for a successful office network? Or if you’re a remote business, what would it take to keep everyone communicating and give them access to the necessary company data?

    It’s a lot. First, you’d have to decide what hardware components you’d buy, then you’d have to decide what software was necessary and best for your needs and install that. You’d have to figure out where your data was going to be stored, on your own servers or externally. You’d have to figure out how to network all of this. And then you’d have to keep this network running properly.

    Perhaps most importantly, you’d have to worry about how to keep all of it secure.

    You read that and your head is probably swimming. This is why it’s better to hire an IT service to provide any or all of these services for you.

    5. They can do your training for you.

    Your small business takes up much of your time. You certainly don’t have time to get new employees set up in the system,  or to train older ones to use new software.

    You can get an IT service to do this for you as well. One of the hallmarks of a good training program is that they are led by people who know the hardware or software components. You can’t train anyone if you are becoming familiar with the components or software yourself.

    You can also leave the IT aspect of your new employee orientation to them. You can have an IT service prepare a prepackaged video that can get all new employees set up on your network, including setting up their passwords and emails. 

    They can also give your business packaged literature to troubleshoot common problems or set up a hotline for employees to call when they have issues with hardware or software. 

    6. Improve employee productivity and retention

    You are not the only person that needs to focus to keep your business afloat. Your employees also need to keep on top of their duties and you do them a disservice if they have to worry about the network going down, or the printer jamming at the most inopportune times. Worse if they are the ones who have to troubleshoot the issues themselves once they happen.

    This can eventually cost you big in two ways. Your productivity is decreased because your employees’ attention is divided and you may have trouble keeping staff as they become frustrated with a job environment where nothing works.

    Solve both problems by outsourcing to an IT service.

    Look at the kinds of problems an IT service can solve for your business. Hiring an IT service is therefore a solid investment that can take your business forward.

  • Why It Is Important That Workers Know Their Rights?

    Why It Is Important That Workers Know Their Rights?

    A few months into the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people lost their jobs. Some had to work from home taking home only a portion of what they usually make. This was understandable because the entire globe was dealing with a similar challenge as an impact of the measure put in place to put the spread of the virus in check.

    However, people lose their jobs every day in the normal world. Some employees are discriminated against by their colleagues and seniors based on race, color, gender, background, or even fitness levels. Bullying is also not unheard of in the standard workplace. Still, some people work under extremely harsh and hazardous conditions with zero concern about their safety from the employer. While you need the money to put groceries on the table, you are not a slave or a robot. You are also human and your rights should be respected. To get an extra pinch on this, the following pointers should paint the picture of why employees should know their rights. 

    1. Workplace Safety and Health

    At the federal level, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is the entity tasked with the responsibility to regulate workplace safety in the United States. The organization works tirelessly to ensure workers have safe working conditions. OSHA ensures manufacturing facilities are inspected and won’t hesitate to levy large fines to any employer subjecting their workers to unsafe working conditions.

    This goes a long way in preventing workplace injuries and work-related health issues. When injured in a workplace accident, the folks at joyelawfirm.com/north-charleston/workers-compensation-attorney/ say that worker’s comp should cover your medical expenses and a significant portion of your lost wages. With the guidance of an experienced attorney and perhaps some help from OSHA, dodgy employees can be brought to book as you recover your deserved financial damages. In a nutshell, below are a few examples of unsafe work conditions:

    • Exposing workers to hazardous or infectious material without proper safety gear
    • Lack of safeguard on dangerous machinery
    • Exposure to toxic or corrosive chemicals without protective clothing  
    • Slippery floors and oil spills out of negligence
    • And much more

    2. Employment Laws against Discrimination

    Every worker needs to know and understand his/her rights to stay safe from any form of work-related discrimination. According to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, every worker is protected from any form of workplace discrimination whether based on color, creed, nation of origin, gender, age, or religion. Some states have also provided workers with protection against workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation, disability, marital status, and pregnancy-even though the federal law is yet to adopt these protection rights. Moreover, employers are not supposed to deny you a job opportunity or promotion based on any protected classifications mentioned whether under federal or state law.

    Workplace discrimination laws are applicable in a wide range of areas, including:

    • Hiring
    • Firing and layoffs
    • Job promotion
    • Task allocation
    • Training and career development

    It can sometimes be quite difficult to pinpoint unless the victim comes forward. It can sometimes even manifest in the form of sexual harassment where senior members of staff take advantage of fresh-out-of-college staff or ask for sexual advances from a staff member from an “inferior race or gender” in return for favors at the workplace. Nonetheless, it is easier to seek help if you know and understand your employment rights like the palm of your hand.

    3. Workers Deserve To Be Paid A Fair Wage

    Workers have the right to be paid a fair wage for the work they perform. However, some employers will always try to cut corners when it comes to rewarding their workers for the work done. That’s why every employee needs to know and understand the amount of payment they deserve after working for a given number of hours. In the US, the federal government and states have an established law that dictates the minimum wage for different categories of workers.

    Alongside a ton of scientific research out there, multiple arguments have also been raised regarding why employees should take home more than the minimum wage. This is because, in most cases, the minimum wage is set based on assumptions that anyone can survive comfortably when earning such a wage weekly or monthly.

    Also, the law tends to have a few loopholes regarding compensation. An employer may choose to pay their workers in commissions as is usually witnessed in many sales and marketing departments. This commission may or may not be in addition to a salary, usually called a retainer. Sometimes you may lose even the retainer salary in case you fail to achieve certain targets. Before taking such a job, the employee needs to carefully scrutinize the contract and ascertain whether they can cope without a guaranteed minimum wage.

    4. Workers must be Paid for Overtime Hours

    The federal law requires every employer to pay their workers for the extended time working. Every worker is eligible for bonus pay, usually, a 50% increase for every hour worked over forty hours in a week. States such as California mandate overtime pay if a worker works for more than 8 hours in one workday. Note – extra overtime compensation is always not optional but mandatory. Therefore, any employer who denies workers overtime pay risks being at loggerheads with the state or federal employment laws. Additionally, an employer is not supposed to release a worker from employment while sorting out their increased wages.

    5. Right to Family Leave

    According to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, workers are provided with job security and time off when there is a need to take care of, say, a seriously ill family member, newborn, or an adopted baby. Factually, the employer is not only mandated to provide workers with up to 12 weeks off but also with guaranteed job protection. Even if the time off is unpaid, as a worker you won’t lose your position at work.

    In conclusion, understanding your rights as an employee can have numerous benefits. It can give you the peace of mind to stay productive and prosper in your career. The chances of hating your job are also greatly minimized. The next time you drop a successful job application at company A or B, make sure they are compliant with employment laws and regulations before signing the contract.

  • Flywheel Growth Suite: An introduction and powerful tool for website developers

    Flywheel Growth Suite: An introduction and powerful tool for website developers

    Grow your business by leveraging a personalized customer experience that helps drive conversions.

    Flywheel Growth Suite is a set of tools to help you do just that. With the suite, you can help your customers find what they’re looking for quickly and smoothly. Flywheel offers everything in one place so you don’t have to manage multiple platforms or make changes on each site when things change at Flywheel. Not only will this save time and ensure all users are getting the experience they want, but it will also provide consistency across channels – making sure all parts of your marketing strategy work together effectively.

    What are the advantages of using Growth Suite by Flywheel?

    1. Personalized Dashboard

    Your Account Manager will help create a personalized dashboard that shows all of your client sites in one place. From here, you can see metrics for each site as well as customize the display to show only what’s important to you. For example, if you want to be sure that all of your clients’ sites are in tip-top shape, you can check each of their pages to see page speed, load time, and how many posts they have.

    The Flywheel team will also include site speed as a factor when reviewing your reviews. This means Flywheel will only publish sites that pass the “3 second test.”

    2. Site and Content Management

    With Flywheel, you’ll be able to put your clients in control of their content. Using Flywheel’s client dashboard, they can login and make changes to their site’s blog posts, pages, and images. You no longer have to worry about remembering what needs updating or taking time away from working on other projects or clients for the updates.

    This also means Flywheel will be able to restore sites that have been accidentally deleted – even if you don’t notice it right away.

    3. Automated Notifications and Reports

    Flywheel management tools create automated notifications for everything from site traffic, page speed, and load time to errors in code on your client’s site. But Flywheel goes further with reports for your clients and you.

    At the same time, Flywheel will also provide analysis on what content performs best which is great for guiding your client when creating a new site or revamping an existing one.

    As you can see, Flywheel management tools put everything you need to run a successful WordPress business in one place, making it easier for you. In easier words, Flywheel can take care of the technology while you focus on what really matters, growing your business.

    You’ll love Flywheel Growth Suite if:

    • You have a team and want an all-inclusive package that covers everything from hosting to billing to client management.
    • You are looking for more than just site hosting so you don’t have to manage multiple companies or platforms.
    • You are looking for tools that will enable you to provide your clients the best experience possible by helping them find anything they need quickly and easily. Flywheel Growth Suite can help you with all of this and more!

    More information about Flywheel’s WordPress hosting

    • Flywheel’s WordPress hosting provides a complete environment for your clients’ sites. That means you’ll get:
    • Instant scaling – Flywheel will instantly spin up additional resources as needed to handle traffic spikes, so your client’s sites never slow down during peak hours.
    • Automatic backups – Flywheel Backup backs up all of your customer sites every night, ensuring that your sites will always be in safe hands.
    • Free SSL – Flywheel offers free SSL for all customers so they know their information is always secure when they check out on your site.
    • Optimized hosting – Flywheel servers are optimized to handle the high traffic volume WordPress can generate. They’re also designed specifically for fast WordPress hosting. Flywheel also auto-installs security updates and core WordPress updates daily, so you always have the latest protection against hackers.
    • Free migration – Flywheel handles everything from your domain name transfer to your content transfers, so you can focus on growing your business instead of worrying about technology issues.
    • “Flywheel will take care of everything for you”
    • Flywheel WordPress Hosting makes it easy to grow a business.
    • You no longer have to worry about updating your clients’ website and site speed. Flywheel will handle this and it will also back up all of your customer sites every night (nightly backups)
    • Flywheel Growth Suite provides you with tools to not only help grow your business, but help your clients’ websites grow as well. Flywheel growth suite puts you in control with reports and notifications for things such as site speed and traffic. The Flywheel team can also help you with things such as automated notifications and reports. The best part? Flywheel will even provide analysis on what content performs best which is great for guiding your client when creating a new site or revamping an existing one.
    • Flywheel Growth Suite makes it easy to run a successful WordPress business, unlike many other platforms.
    • Flywheel Growth Suite includes everything you need to run your business in one place. In other words, Flywheel Growth Suite includes Flywheel management tools, WordPress hosting and subscription billing, working together to help you grow your WordPress web development agency

    Summary

    Flywheel Growth Suite is the first all-inclusive package for agencies and freelancers that includes everything from hosting to billing to client management. The suite also comes with tools such as automatic notifications, reports, analysis on what content performs best which helps clients create a new site or revamp an existing one. Flywheel offers free SSL for all customers so they know their information is always secure when they check out on your site.  If you’re looking for more than just site hosting so you don’t have to manage multiple companies or platforms, Flywheel Growth Suite can help you with all of this and more!

    Take Flywheel Growth Suite for a spin today!