Tips & Advice

Crowdfunding - also called collective financing or collective microfinance is to get multiple small donations to raise money or other resources to finance projects.

Small but effective contributions

British rock group Marillion are usually considered as the pioneers of crowdfunding when in 1997, they were able to finance their first US tour with contributions from fans.So began massive funding appearing in the artistic environments, and thus was born the website Kickstarter, a web platform to fund creative projects. The widespread success of the Kickstarter crowdfunding concept is used today for many purposes, such as financing of political, social or charitable campaigns or to finance new businesses.After Kickstarter, other platforms have emerged as RocketHub , P2P Financial or Potlatch , specialising in social entrepreneurs.

Crowdfunding basically works like this:

1. The creator posts on one of the platforms all the information of the project, its aims and objectives of the funding.2. Contributions made by the public may correspond with different rewards: from a minimum contribution with a corresponding "thank you very much" through average contributions that report for the donor to be named. This goes up to a level of most important patronage that can be rewarded with more exclusive things like dinner with the creators, an exclusive edition or original work, etc.3. Only if the entire amount requested is collected, will the creator receive the money and keep the rewards.4. If the entire amount is not met, the project is postponed or cancelled, and the funds are not allocated to the project.At a time when everyone wonders how to fund your business plan, crowdfunding can be a good alternative. But even with a platform to publish your project, you cannot expect to have pouring donations coming in straight away. On the contrary, to be successful, it is very important to organise a system of diffusion in online and offline networks to publicise the project and the possibility of financing it.This form of financing is another example of how the network can collaborate and cooperate with other people and organisations to take forward projects. Another example would be the crowdsourcing (in which a function is outsourced to a community or group of people).

When one of the partners of a limited liability company dies, the other fellow members may take any of the following acts:If otherwise not stated in the partnership agreement, they should continue with one or more heirs of the deceased.If a term is established in the bylaws for any of the partners who could obtain shares of the deceased partner within the term, then partners may acquire these.The shares of the deceased partner who wishes to acquire these can be purchased by the commercial value of these at death.The company will continue with one or more heirs of the deceased partner, unless otherwise specified. However, the bylaws may provide that within those mentioned, one or more of the surviving partners are entitled to acquire shares of the deceased, the market value at the date of their death. If there is not a reached agreement on the price and payment, terms will be determined by experts appointed by the parties.If there are several partners involved who will acquire the shares, they will be distributed among them in proportion to those held in society.Keep in mind that when acquiring shares of the deceased by the other partners, it is necessary under the necessary provisions that the period provided in the bylaws is met, so that other members can acquire the shares.Make preparations for these kinds of events. The resolution of shares within a private business if one of the shareholders dies is a crucial problem that company directors and owners need to discuss and have correctly recognised. It is not the kind of thing that anguished families and co-directors should need to deal with after a death. There are lots of different possible provisions, which include:

• A previous arrangement that the shares can pass to specific people, such as the shareholder's spouse or children and so on.
• Pre-emption rights in support of current shareholders (or some of them)
• Measures to buy the deceased shareholder's interest, to make estimates on the valuation and possibly time to pay
• A cross-option contract. This is made amongst the shareholders for the sale and acquisition of a late shareholder's shares and also occasionally those of the family members too. This in tandem with life insurance policies to deliver the money that pays for the shares, should the situation arise.

If you found this article helpful you can read more insightful blog posts in our company formation blog section.

The life of an entrepreneur is full of choices, whose significance is palpable beyond the corporate universe. Driving your own business is the realisation of a dream that invariably has an impact on your personal instance.In fact, experts in entrepreneurship and business management say that creating a company that is able to grow and make an impact on the market, is a journey that begins with a dream and ends with success or failure. This depends on the acuity, sweat, self-criticism and conviction of an entrepreneur.Men and women in business have to face a host of challenges daily between which are: a needs assessment, identifying opportunities, exploiting these elements and, of course, decisions to be taken to solve problems. However, one of the main challenges facing all corporate leaders is self-analysis. The specialist in corporate psychology describes some characteristics of entrepreneurs, which, as a coin show two faces, will have one positive and one negative.Optimism, for example, can help you keep on fighting, but is also able to lead you to overestimate your power to predict the future and predict illogically promising scenarios.Confidence and conviction, which are essential aspects in any business personality, can quickly transform into presumption and apprehension, respectively.It can be helpful to split the business venture in three phases. Here we present them:1. Birth Sleep / Contemplation. At this stage, the future entrepreneur identifies a need that can be met with a business project. The way it detects that opportunity is unpredictable, the truth is that it becomes a thought in your head; is incubated and leads them to wonder what would happen if a business developed from it? Do you have what it takes to undertake it? Can you combine it with another activity?2. Preparation. At this stage, you should research absolutely everything that relates to your business idea from the target to its competition, not forgetting financing options. This is also a key moment of self-evaluation, because it is at this point that you should identify if the initiative is sound and feasible, and if you are really committed to it.3. Implementation. In this period, the theory turns into practice. It`s when you`re officially open for business and start to operate. Here you begin to have contact with the public and to demonstrate the real impact you can have on consumers.At this stage, self-criticism will help to find flaws or areas for improvement. It is all part of the daily challenges on the road to becoming a successful leader.This post was brought to you by Robert Carter, you can read more helpful blog articles here.

Inside and outside the Internet, people are exposed to thousands of advertising impacts. According recent studies, over 90% of domestic UK Internet users have seen an advertisement online. Other experts in digital marketing indicate that, on average, Brits received more than 3,000 daily advertising impacts, whose origin is traced to the efforts of hundreds of brands looking to capture our attention and transform them into customers.This work takes the form of advertising campaigns, which are a very important part of the overall communication strategy of companies. Marketers are defined as those strategically aligned to expose and promote attractive themes and messages with a double intention: to inform and persuade consumers.

The question is: how is an advertising campaign built?

There are multiple positions on the matter. However, you might find some essential points in all advertising campaigns that seek to gravitate to the public, which is equal to forging a lasting relationship between brands and users.

Would you like to know the steps?

1. Evaluate your brand. A successful advertising campaign is not only concerned with spreading the qualities of a particular deal, but also with clearly expressing the personality and brand. Therefore, before creating a campaign, you must ensure that the message associated with your product reflects not only the virtues of it, but the qualities and the daily life of the company.2. Defining objectives. Basically it comes to you to clarify what the reason is that underlines the development of the campaign. You can strengthen your brand in the minds of users, attract new customers, promote actions and so on. This is important because you will need to create specific and related purposes towards your market.3. Creativity. After defining the advertising goals, you must work on the strategy that lets you meet them. In short, you must implement actions that will help you realise the goals.To design the plan of action, experts say you should ask yourself several questions: What's different about my offer to others? What audiences should be directed by my campaign? What elements should I include in the message of my campaign for maximum impact? What means do I need for that message to reach the right people?4. Prospecting impact. It's easy to say that your ad campaign has to benefit your business. However, you have to project how this work will affect communication in your sales and your income. This kind of survey allows you to make a more detailed and effective evaluation of results.5. Final Analysis. Once you have completed the above aspects, you need to take another look at the work done, with the aim of finding errors that may alter the plotted course to the campaign before its launch.

Whenever the calendar welcomes a new year, it also welcomes a number of purposes and desires that people seek to meet. 2015 is no exception and, as such, will witness a host of changes in routines of individuals who try to suppress some habits and implement new practices in order to achieve their successes.The business world is no exception to these transformative dynamics; In fact, experts in business management say it is essential that corporate leaders implement actions to renew their vigour and enable them to meet the challenges of a new cycle with the five senses on alert.

Want to know some of these practices and apply them in your daily events? Then check out the following notes:

1. Relax. Stress is present at all times, even when you wake up. If you are enslaved by phone or alarm clock, and the first thing you do is get up to turn it off after a hurry and go for a cup of coffee, then you're not forcing your body to react in moments without any preparation. That is harmful to your body, so take a few minutes to open your eyes and stretch first thing.2. Do not waste valuable time with your phone. Upon awakening or at bedtime, the worst thing you can do is to succumb to the temptation of your smartphone. Thinking of your apps or Social Media at that time only will produce additional stress. When you go to sleep, try to leave your phone in another room and, at dawn, worry about breakfast or stretch before interacting with technology. This will allow you to conserve valuable energy to focus on your business projects.3. Hydrate. In 2015, reduce your coffee consumption and increase water intake. Drinking water is critical to maintaining processes and to rehydrate your body after hours of sleep.4. Eat breakfast properly. One of the keys to having a successful day in business is food. Breakfast is the basis of a system of healthy living. If you do not eat protein and carbohydrates in the morning, your metabolism will hurt your digestive system and will lack energy to support the work. Therefore occupational health experts recommend you prepare a good breakfast (which mixes all food groups) to start the day.5. Get active physically. There`s no need to run 10 km when you wake, but it is important to activate your body with a short walk. This practice will enliven your senses and prepare your muscles to move throughout the day.6. Avoid unexpected stresses in the morning. If you do not want to be in a rush before embarking on a new day, know in advance and organise yourself the night before. Before going to bed, ready your clothes and work belongings to perform the next day`s activities. In this way, you will cut off the road to unnecessary pressure.This article was brought to you by Your Virtual Office London, you can read more insightful posts in our business blog.

In a demanding and competitive world, accelerating the pace of work time and having enough time to share with friends and family time are seemingly unattainable illusions; however, to those skilled in management it is feasible if the time is properly delegated - that is, implementing some practises that should become habits.

Here we offer some clues to arrange the time in the office optimally:

- Regular breaks. Concentrating for too long in an activity weakens your attention, resulting in reductions in your productivity levels. To avoid this, there is a strategy in the corporate universe to take breaks between activities.According to experts, pausing for 15 minutes in your day is essential and means your mental capacity doesn`t diminish and will be available when you need it most. The suggestion is to do it every two hours.- Review e-mails. One of the most demanding activities in terms of time is to review the email. Hence, many management experts recommend setting schedules to check it and avoid large losses of time.The recommendation is to select three periods not exceeding one hour to manage your mails and abandon the paradigm that an email be answered immediately.- Administration of social media. Social Media platforms are a double-edged sword. They offer great benefits to your company in terms of visibility and interaction, but you can steal a lot of time when the focus of their use is personal. This assumption is valid for you and your collaborators.- Creating routines. The practises outlined above should be part of a routine. This means that its implementation must be habitual. This is particularly relevant if you take into account that 80% of your activities are subject to programming.Read more interesting business tips, tricks and advice is our business blog.

The main objective of business owners is that their businesses increase in profitability and productivity. But what is the formula to achieve this? There are many factors that affect the success of companies, but not all are valued in the same way as in the case of interpersonal relationships, which usually occupy a secondary role compared with topics of financial and commercial.This is explained by the fact that, in the eyes of many business leaders, the emotional connection between employees is harmful to their roles. However, specialists in management and human factors explain that the friendly ties between employees can improve productivity and provide a sense of purpose.Data from the pollster Gallup confirm this argument. According to the survey titled, "I have a best friend at work" employees that forged a friendship with colleagues made it beneficial to their job performance.The survey of 80,000 people found that these kind of links between partners is essential for creating a warm and friendly atmosphere in the office, and hence for organisational cohesion.For many, having friends at work is an incentive to get up every day and meet their daily work routines, and to overcome difficulties associated with them.It also represents a decisive reason for when employees are considering a job change. So much so that at least half of respondents found in friendship a renewed source of commitment and 25% decided to extend their stay in their jobs.Statistical work also yielded important information on the characteristics of workers. Specifically, they distinguished three types:- Lonely Employees: those who make a clear line between work activities and friendship.- Employees moderately sociable: manage to create emotional bonds with their peers through the months.- Socially active Employees: within short deadlines establish ties of friendship and affection with colleagues.What should business owners think of this information? The importance of appealing to emotional intelligence to strengthen relations within their organisations.Therefore, experts in human resources management, recommend companies to establish rules ensuring the durability of these links and finding a healthy balance between friendship and work.Some suggestions for achieving this are:- Set limits. Friendship does not exempt anyone from carrying out their tasks in a timely manner. Project implementation and delivery dates must adhere to the objectives of the company, not effective guidelines.- Create a culture of punctuality. Friendship should be a work stimulant and not a hindrance. Each member must do their part and make them endure relationships within the organisation.If you are thinking of starting a new business venture Capital Office can help get your idea off to a great start. We provide new businesses with important services that can really help boost client confidence. Our range of virtual office services include mail forwarding, call answering and company formation services. If you would like help or advice please do get in touch with our team today.

Company owners seeking to make history in the business world need to operate with a winning attitude and understand that success or failure are the product of their own choices.The true corporate leaders have to avoid some practices to move in the right direction. Would you like to know? Here we present what not to do:1. Envy. Being obsessed with other people's success is a big waste of time and limits the progress of companies. The idea is that you, as a business leader, should focus your attention on the development of your company and not the performance of your rivals.2. Look to the past. The key to progress is to make mistakes and use learning resources for your company. You should not waste time on regrets.3. Make excuses. If you mess up, you have no choice but to assume the error. Look at how to remove and learn the lesson - not to repeat it in the future. Doing the opposite only guarantees the perpetuation of faults.4. Give up too soon. Success in life and business is the result of a long journey that requires strength, determination and willingness for owners to learn more. Inspired billionaires and successful businessmen never give up the fight to win.5. Associate with bad people. If you are already making excuses, bringing individuals into your circle who make excuses too is even worse. Instead, surround yourself with good attitude and commitment. Seek talented and committed people to join your projects and resize favourably.6. Lack of a plan. It is essential to set goals and define activities in advance, in order to get the most of each day.7. Have fear of change. Changes in the environment define the demands that men and business women will have to adjust. Entrepreneurs have to adapt to change and find ways to redefine their approach and their offer if necessary.8. Speaking without acting. To materialise your dreams, you have to fight for them, so you will have no choice but to transform your thoughts into actions.9. Concentrate on numbers. Making money is the goal of any company, but the major unresolved issue is how to achieve it. Therefore, think about your offer and your services on money, because that way the chances of success will multiply.10. Allow failure to stop you. Before reaching the summit, falls are frequent, but if you learn to get out of each dilemma and understand the cause of these setbacks, you can learn from the mistakes. There are people who after failing thousands of times, matched and transformed into stories worthy of replication.This was a blog brought to you by Capital Office Your Virtual Office London.

For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), creating a public relations (PR) plan and efficient marketing represents a challenge, if not an impossibility, given the budget constraints and inexperience in the business world.However, all is not lost for new companies as they can implement some actions to attract potential customers, spread their offerings, increase base consumers and gain reputation, without decapitalising.

Would you like to know how? Here we present them:

1. Strengthen ties with your customers via e-mail. Be sure to keep your customers informed on current events involving your business and your new products. The key to maximizing this is to nurture your mailing list and be informative as well as using engaging content.2. Connect with your consumers on Social Media. Social media harnesses invaluable components of a solid marketing strategy. In addition to spreading your offers, these digital platforms allow you to interact with your users and get the feedback you need.In parallel with the use of social networks, think about building a website to help you strengthen your online presence and gain visibility. With a website list you can perform various actions, such as the application of SEO techniques for search engine optimisation and links to other sites.3. Using blogs for branding. Creating a blog will help you expand the scope of your brand in the digital world and establish ties with digital "influencers", who can offer you a space on their sites. This will be an important source of advertising for your company, without using your capital.4. Join in with online conversation. Try and use management tools and monitoring of digital presences, in order to manage content and publications according to your needs, and eliminate traditional dissemination practices.5. Maintain a relationship with the press. Ask some media to cover your events and launches. Maybe some will reject your invitation, but there will always be some stakeholders in the development of companies like yours.If you are thinking about starting a business our range of mail address services which include virtual offices can be a great way of boosting your presence.

1: Look at the trade mark database closely to make sure there are no matching or comparable trade marks that have been registered for the same kinds of products and/or services you want to register. You can, though, seek permission to register a related trade mark from the owner of a current one – this necessitates a ‘letter of consent` and this should be added in with your application. You might want to hire a trade mark solicitor to help with the search and registration procedure.2: Send an application online or by post to the IPO. This must contain details of what you wish to register, the trade mark classes you want, as well as a completed fee sheet.3: You should receive an examination report within twenty days of sending an application – this will give feedback and notice of any issues that need resolving. You need to deal with any issues within two months. If there are no other objections, your application will be available in the trade marks journal for a period of two months to let third-parties to contest the registration.4: If all is well, your trade mark will get registered and you`ll be given a certificate as verification. If any opposition is raised, you have the choice to remove your application, talk about the objection with the said party, or support the application.

Registering a trade mark abroad

The protection of a trade mark is only true in the country where it was registered; consequently, if you list a trade mark with the IPO, it will only be protected within the UK.To both look after and use your trade mark in EU countries, you can send off for a Community Trade Mark (CTM). This comes from the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM). You can post an application straight away or else, you can apply through the IPO.If you want to register your trade mark in countries outside the EU, you could apply to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).If you are thinking about forming a company we can help. We have helped over 5000 UK businesses start up, we provide many supportive and administrative services for fledgling businesses. Our services include mail forwarding and address services, virtual offices, call answering and company formations.We are open Monday to Friday 9.00 am - 5.00pm and can be contacted on the phone, email and face to face. Get in touch with us today if you would like to discuss your business ideas.