Author: Adam_Admin

Entering into a business partnership can come with conflicts and misunderstandings between you and your new associate. This is why having a written agreement that clearly outlines your rights and responsibilities is important for maintaining a healthy business relationship between partners. Here are some key areas to include in your partnership agreement:

• Name of partnership: agree on a name for your business. This may seem simple but many partners have different ideas for what they think the business should be called.
• Contributions to the partnership: work out and record how much each person initially contributes to the business, whether it’s cash, property, or services, and decide what percentage each owner will have.
• Admitting new partners: agree on a procedure for admitting new partners so that you can equally decide on a new person.
• Distribution of profits/allocation of losses: decide how profits and losses are allocated to partner shares.
• Partnership decision-making: to avoid conflict when it comes to making unanimous or individual decisions, set up a decision-making process that everyone is happy with.
• Death, disability, or withdrawal: if a member of the partnership wants to withdraw from it, or is forced to due to death or disability, then a buy/sell agreement is needed to manage the situation. Consider who you trust to make decisions on your behalf, who would inherit the shares of your company etc.
• Resolving disputes: to deal with situations where you and your partners can’t agree on something, set up a mediation clause where everyone can agree on a procedure to resolve major conflicts.
• Management duties: work out some guidelines on how the business will be managed. This can include who is responsible for dealing with customers, supervise employees, manage bookkeeping, negotiate with suppliers, etc.
• Partner time off: work out how leave will work, including paid and unpaid sick leave, vacations, annual leave etc.
• Non-competition clause: if you’re concerned about a partner leaving and then competing with the partnership’s business, you can include a clause that restricts them from doing so within a defined time period.

Using visual search technology for your business is a great way to increase customer engagement. When presented with a paragraph of black and white text, it is unlikely that customers will remember much of it. However, studies have shown that the average person can recall 65% of the visual content they see up to three days later, meaning that using visual elements in your marketing increase customer retention.

isual search technology uses images to conduct an internet search rather than keywords. This is particularly useful for businesses dealing with tangible products such as fashion items, decor, food, artworks and furniture. Visual search is expected to significantly impact the eCommerce world, with the rise of the image-based culture evident through social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest.

Online shoppers today have higher expectations on the quality of websites. If a retailer website has no images for their products, they are likely to look somewhere else. One study found that 69% of young consumers preferred to shop based on visual-oriented searches. This is mainly because visual search allows customers to find what they’re looking for five times faster than text-based searches.

Another reason why you should consider using visual search for your business is that it goes hand in hand with social influencer marketing. Influencers are the target for many brands due to their large, established follower base. They generally share image-based posts which can be used by consumers to search for the items in the picture.

Implementing visual search also makes SEO easier on your part. Visual search technology has an image-to-text feature that tags image automatically, without you having to put individual tags for each post. This way, your images are SEO ready with tags you might not have thought about yourself to be discovered by customers.

Ensuring the safety of employees in the workplace should be one of the top priorities for managers and business owners. This will not only improve your employees’ health and wellbeing but will help you avoid any arduous paperwork and legal obligations that can arise from even the smallest of injuries. Here are some technological tools you can use to improve the safety of your workplace:

Mobile devices:
Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and hand-held monitoring devices are convenient, easy to use tools that offer a range of workplace safety functions. They can be used to conduct inspections, record hazards, report accidents and communicate information instantly. These allow employees to keep up to date with on safety and health risks and ensure that everyone is aware of what is happening in the workplace. Safety apps offer functions like health and safety checklists, hazard identifications, and notifications to keep workers updated.

3D visualisation technology:
This software produces realistic images that allow you to easily recreate and imagine new or existing workplace sites. This can help employees become more closely aware of their surroundings and allow them to see any potential dangers or risks in advance. They are then able to prepare for the dangers before even being physically present on the site.

Equipment monitoring:
Internet-connected sensors can be installed on machinery used in the workplace to monitor its operation by measuring the machine’s temperature, vibrations, and noise. This helps detect any fault in the equipment, which is then sent to the manager/employer in real-time through the internet. This ensures equipment is kept in good repair and prevents employees getting injured from malfunctioning equipment.

Drones:
These are small aircraft directed by remote control and are fast and easy to use. Drones act as a safety measure as they are able to travel almost anywhere, meaning that they can inspect areas that are potentially dangerous or hard to safely access. Sending a drone to check the area prior to physically going to the site can inform workers of risks without endangering them.

Wearable technology:
These are devices that can be worn on workers’ bodies or accessories such as tool belts, watch bands, or clothing. Wearables often have sensors that can monitor the vital signs of employees (heart rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen level etc) which can be valuable for detecting health failures quickly. Some wearables can track workers’ movements and activity and send alerts to managers/employers if a worker falls or becomes unconscious. Other wearables can monitor the environment of the workplace, measuring elements such as extreme temperature, smoke, moving objects and dust.

Icebreaker activities can often be uncomfortable, especially if people are already anxious about meeting a whole new group of people at once or worried about their first day with a new team or at a new job. It is important to have icebreakers that aren’t distracting or too nerve-wracking. For example, the popular ‘tell everyone an interesting fact about yourself’ can often result in someone stressing about what interesting and appropriate to share for the entire time instead of listening to anyone else’s contributions, and feeling self-conscious about their answer. Here are some alternative icebreakers that will help new teams really get to know each other and have a smoother transition into the job.

Quizzes:
A quiz is a great way to ease the team into interacting with each other as it means that a single person doesn’t have all the attention on them at once, which can be stressful, and everyone can break into smaller groups that will make it easy for them to get to know a few people at the same time. This will also demonstrate people’s interests and can get the team bonding over similar hobbies.

Scavenger hunt:
This is another activity that will get people into smaller groups working together and can encourage teamwork and problem-solving, which will likely be skills that they’ll need to work together. Having a scavenger hunt in the workplace can also help new employees get to know their way around.

Speed networking:
Speed networking is a great way for people to get to know each other one-on-one without the pressure of prolonging a conversation until it gets awkward. Have a different question for each round (e.g. what’s your favourite holiday destination? Do you have any pets? What do you like to do in your spare time?) and give everyone 30 seconds to both answer the question. This will allow people to interact with all team members individually.

Socialise:
It can be beneficial to get out of the office and do something fun. This lets the team relax and have fun and really get to know each other on a social level. Whether it’s having a beach day, going to the local pub, having a picnic, or getting brunch, getting the team to have fun without the pressures of the workplace can be a great way for them to bond with each other.

For taxpayers wishing to access the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions for shares in a company or interests in a trust, they must first meet the standard requirements as well as further conditions in place for such entities.

A taxpayer can apply for small business CGT concessions to lower or dismiss their capital gain from the disposal of CGT assets. If the CGT asset is a share in a company or interest in a trust, further conditions that will need to be met are:

• The taxpayer must have carried on a business just before the CGT event or meet the maximum net asset value test.
• Meet the 90% test, satisfied when the CGT concession stakeholders in the company or trust where the shares or interest are held have a total small business percentage in the entity of at least 90%. The percentage can be held directly or indirectly through multiple included entities.
• The company or trust in which the shares or interests are held must either be a CGT small business entity for the income year or meet the maximum net asset value test. The rules for determining whether an entity is connected with the company or trust for this purpose are modified. Under the modified connected entity rule, the company or trust controls another entity if it has a control percentage of at least 20% or more, in that other entity.

The share or interest must satisfy the modified active asset test which looks through to the activities and assets of the underlying entities. The asset of an underlying entity will only be an active asset if the previous conditions have been met

These requirements apply to CGT events after 8 February 2018. If you made a capital gain relating to shares in a company or an interest in a trust before then, you must meet the basic conditions and just before the CGT event you must either be a CGT concession stakeholder in the company or trust or meet the 90% test.