Corporate Vision January 2017

NEWS , 3. Re-evaluate your business tools The beginning of the year is an opportune time to calculate all tools your business subscribes to, and analyse what’s working and what’s not. It could be that you’re paying for three different tools that can all be done by one, this will drive costs way down. For instance, Xero is a tool that allows you to take control of payroll, pay bills, send invoices, creating POs and more – it’s time to research what tools out there will optimise your business. 4. 2017 will be the year of net- working Business owners will need to keep their finger on the pulse of trends that result from Article 50 being triggered. You can make predictions based on what you’ve read online and how your busi- ness has been performing, but to get a deeper understand and grasp on where trends will head, you will need to discuss the in- dustry with your peers. Like Open Data, everyone will benefit from each other’s learnings and can adapt accordingly. SMBs are the backbone of the UK economy, and a united effort to thrive this year will help us prosper as we leave Europe. TripCenter.net is a new ground-break- ing service set to completely trans- form the way GTOs (Group Travel Organisations) book group travel tours. The rev- olutionary portal condenses a complicated booking process into a straight-forward, time efficient system that will save time and money throughout the group trav- el sector in a way that has never been seen before. This first of its kind service will transform the travel marketplace and provide a much-needed bridge between global demand and local supply. Whatever the requirement, whether a coach trip around the UK or another conti- nent, TripCenter.net will offer a live, real-time solution for group tours. TripCenter.net will change the way coaches are booked across the globe and access to the platform is completely FREE to tour operators around the world. Traditionally, GTOs are forced to spend precious time and resourc- es manually searching for local coach operators and tour guides across the globe. TripCenter.net collates a complete selection of verified and approved coach and tour operators, eliminating the need for pain-staking research and completely re-inventing the way GTOs book their itineraries. Chirag Golwala, travel tech inno- vator & entrepreneur has spent two and a half years developing the platform. He says: “We know that coach operators currently function at around a 62% utili- sation rate throughout the year. TripCenter.net will help optimise coach utilisation rates for own- ers and businesses. We want to bring more business and expo- sure to operators all around the world.” The cost of a trip is firmly agreed during the instantaneous booking process, reducing the risk of loss of earnings. This is a challenge in current industry practise for GTOs, where post-trip payment can leave room for confusion over costs. However, with TripCenter. net, once a booking is made a 10% deposit is taken and the re- maining balance paid prior to de- parture, eliminating uncertainty. While the back-end of TripCenter. net is highly complex, years of work have gone into making the site as easy to use as possible. The interface for users is simple yet comprehensive. There is no charge for GTOs and suppliers pay only a small commission upon confirmed bookings. All us- ers are verified by TripCenter.net to ensure a quality standard of service. The time-consuming process of booking group tours across the globe once acted as a deterrent to those wanting to explore. Trip- Center.net eliminates this issue, empowering users with the ability to organise global travel with the click of a button. 5. Prioritise your employees’ hap- piness Hard workers are hard to come by. You’ll remember sitting in your office interviewing countless candidates who simply weren’t right for your company, so use that experience to treasure what you have now. Research what the larger organisations are do- ing and you’ll see a host of perk packages, health schemes and away days. While this is great and a real morale booster, employees really respond to one-on-one time with their boss. Simply showing your appreciation of their work and reassurance of their career path will give them the confidence to work for you, and the ambition to achieve for you. 6. Protect yourself against secu- rity threats Hackers and cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated by the day, and the threat of a data breach is more likely than ever before. It’s vital that businesses of all sizes who use online and financial services ensure they have strong security practices. Using the most up to date virus protection and firewalls is a given, but extra layers of security such as multi-factor authentication (requiring a username and pass- word as well as a piece of infor- mation that only the user knows) can help your accounts from be- ing compromised by phishing and malware. Gary Turner is co-founder and managing director at Xero. The World’s First LIVE Global Platform Connecting Coach & Tour Operators N TripCenter.net Revolutionises the Group Travel Organisation Booking Process

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