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01/30/2019 By Jason Bean Leave a Comment

What Motivates Successful Business Philanthropists

While some might argue that business philanthropy is a duty or is done simply out of a desire to help others, the real reasons behind the philanthropic efforts of America's top business people are often more complex. Certainly they feel the same human urge to give to charity as anyone else, but this is augmented by the motivation to change the world and make a difference that drove them to become successful in their chosen business field in the first place.

Supporting communities

Business philanthropy takes place for many reasons. Often when people become successful they want to give something back to the community they've come from. This also helps them to feel connected to that community. By giving something back they become more deeply rooted; and it helps them to feel a sense of empathy and belonging. Success and great wealth may have benefits, but can also be extremely isolating. Philanthropy is one of the best ways to overcome this feeling.

Business philanthropists may also give to causes that they have no direct connection to, but which are nevertheless close to their hearts. Examples might include endowments to the hearts or aid projects in the developing world. Again this gives a sense of fulfillment, of making a real difference to the world. This sense of personal fulfillment is a key factor in individual happiness. In the case of rich philanthropists, it comes down to knowing that all of the money in the world is as good as worthless if you can't do something good with it.

A hands-on approach

Many philanthropists want to get more directly involved with the causes they support. These individuals often set up their own charitable foundations and, as well as giving money, apply the knowledge and instincts that have served them so well in business to achieving the charity's aims. The innovative thinking and business acumen they bring to charity work can often be as important as the millions of dollars they raise.

There is also the matter of courting public opinion. No matter how selfless your philanthropy might be, or how much you avoid publicizing it, good deeds and charity work will inevitably reflect well on your company. This can't help but improve the standing of your brand in the eyes of the public.

Involving employees in hands-on community engagement, such as tree-planting days or outreach events with the elderly, can also boost staff morale and make your workers feel they're involved in something nobler and more important than simply earning a paycheck.

Big spenders

In 2017 America's wealthiest individuals donated $14.7 billion to good causes, more than double that of the previous year. Some of these philanthropists are well known. The Hungarian-American investor George Soros has a personal net worth of over $8 billion but has donated over $32 billion to Open Society Foundations, the organization via which he funnels his fortune to initiatives to reduce poverty, increase educational opportunities and promote transparency in business and politics.

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates established the William H Gates Foundation in 1994, relaunching it as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation six years later. In 2006 Gates announced that he intended to spend less time on the day to day running of Microsoft and to devote more of his energies to the Foundation's activities. With over $50 billion in assets it is considered the largest private Foundation in the US, and works towards improving healthcare, educational opportunities and access to IT, as well as tackling extreme poverty worldwide.

As of 2013, Bill Gates had personally donated $28 billion to the Foundation. It has also worked closely with Warren Buffett, at one time considered the world's wealthiest individual, who in 2006 pledged to give 10 million class B shares in Berkshire Hathaway to the Foundation over several years. The first year's donation alone was valued at $1.5 billion.

Relevant causes

Charles Phillips' charity foundation, the Phillips Charitable Organizations, was established when the Infor CEO and his wife Karen combined their existing charitable organizations under one umbrella. The private non-profit gives financial support directly to wounded veterans, single parents and students in engineering and technology. Phillips' own background in the US marines obviously underlies his support for those injured while serving their country, while the direction of student support reflects the technology specialisms of Infor, the global software provider.

The CEO of New York asset management firm Blackstone Group, Jonathan D Gray, is a billionaire whose Gray Foundation supports research, improved treatment and raising awareness of BRSA mutations that could lead to genetically inherited cancers. Grey's sister-in-law, Faith Basser, died of ovarian cancer, and Gray and his wife Mindy also founded the Basser Research Center in 2012 to tackle BRSA-related cancers, and established the Basser Global Prize for ground-breaking cancer research.

All of these business philanthropists give for different reasons, but all are making a huge difference to the lives of millions of people around the world. In many cases they are also supporting research that will benefit generations to come. This in itself is surely a source of satisfaction and fulfillment and is money well spent.

01/09/2019 By Jason Bean Leave a Comment

Your End Of Year ERP Checklist

Running ERP software in your business will make it much more efficient, and you will be able to get a lot more done this way. Many of the systems and processes that used to take a lot of time, or that you had to delegate either to a staff member or to a third party (which could be expensive) can now be done automatically by whichever ERP you are running.

It doesn’t mean, however, that you can just ‘set and forget’ at this time of year. As the year draws to a close, you should take the opportunity before heading off on your holiday break, to make sure that your ERP is working exactly as you want it to. Follow our handy checklist, and you can go home for the holidays without worrying about it at all.

Back It Up

Although everything you do on an ERP program should automatically be stored in the cloud, it is worth checking this to ensure that it actually is happening. If not, and something was to happy to your office and computers, would you be able to recover those files? It would be unlikely unless there were another backup somewhere.

Backing up your work is one of the most critical elements to being prepared and in control and Dobson.net offers some great reasons why. You do it in the hopes that you never have to use that backup, but it is there if you do need it and that offers you complete peace of mind. Plus, it is no longer such a time-consuming task. You can even leave it running in the background while you use the computer for other things such as online Christmas shopping or Unibet games.

It’s not just a matter of hitting the button and thinking it’s all done though; you should check that the file is readable and complete once the backup is finished. Then you can step away knowing that the backup is ready.

Check The Automation

The point of an ERP is to automate many processes. This could include, amongst other things:

Contract renewals
Customers data updates
Newsletters (check out TriDigital Marketing for why a newsletter will benefit your business)
Price changes across your business

However, when was the last time you checked that your automation was doing what you want it to do? Now is the perfect time to do just that. You can ensure that newsletters are being posted with the right information and that your lists are up to date. You can also check the frequency of any updates and backups. It won’t take more than a few minutes to check that everything is working in the way you want it to, but that check can save a lot of problems further down the line.

Make Hard Copies

Although this is not something that you will normally find advocated on many cloud pages, making a hard copy of the most important contracts, invoices, and other documents is a good idea. Print them out and keep them in a secure, fireproof safe, ideally away from the office if you can. It could include payroll information and financial records that will be needed for tax purposes. It is better to be safe than sorry, and having one extra copy of the most important documents for your business certainly can’t hurt. If the absolute worst were to happen, you could still continue trading.

01/07/2019 By Jason Bean 1 Comment

Managing Money Transfers With International Clients

Today, transferring money has become easier than ever – at least within your own country. Cross-border transfers, however, can come with added complexity and costs. It’s important to learn how to navigate them if you’re going to trade or invest internationally with success.

Establish the client’s preferences

Some companies have a very rigid approach to international business and like to handle all their transfers the same way. This is problematic in some situations, especially for small businesses who can face proportionally higher transfer costs. It’s important to be clear about how a transfer is going to be handled before you sign on the dotted line, because in some cases it may mean you’re better off not taking the deal at all and working with a different company. In other cases you may be able to persuade the company in question to make special arrangements for you.

Assess your options

There are three different principal ways to move money internationally:

A bank or building society transfer – this is easy to arrange and very safe. You’ll need your IBAN and BIC to make it happen – often these are included on bank statements but in some cases you will need to ask your bank for them. The exchange rate offered can be poor, however, especially if you’re dealing in larger amounts of money, as they don’t usually offer discounts. The process is also slow – unless expedited, transfers can take up to six days to be completed.
A forex transfer – making forex transfers generally gives you access to the best exchange rates available and it’s fairly quick – most transfers are completed within 24 hours. If you’re transferring larger amounts of money, then you may not even need to pay a fee. You will need to have an account with a broker, however, and this can take time to set up. In many cases you will have no protection if the broker becomes bankrupt, so there’s a slim but real risk that you could lose your money.
A popular money transfer company – some well-known companies specialize in moving money internationally and can do so very quickly. They’re very easy to use but the rates they offer change continually and they often charge high fees, with complicated fee structures that can lead to you incurring hidden costs. Transfers are often uninsured and there’s usually no protection available for you if the company goes bust while it has your money.

Rates and fees

As you’ll see from the above, there are two sets of costs you need to be alert to here: rates and fees. The latter can be complicated and it’s important to be clear about them before you make a transfer. Sometimes this is easier to do by reading reviews than by reading through all the small print issued by the companies themselves. Exchange rates are much easier to understand but they fluctuate, so if you’re making a simple transfer, you could find that it costs you more at the point when it goes through than it looked as if it would at the point when you arranged it.

Hedging your transfers

One way to avoid exchange rate-related losses on international money transfers is to hedge them using forex – another reason why it can be worth setting up an account with a broker. You can do this by taking a position on the currency pair you’re dealing with that is opposite to the outcome you want – i.e. if you’re hoping that the dollar will stay high against the euro, you take a position on it falling. This means that any losses from a change in the rate are offset by the gains you make through forex. In effect, it makes the exchange rate issue neutral – you won’t gain either, but there will be no nasty surprises.

Stay clear of scams

As in every area of business, there are scammers out there looking to take advantage of the inexperienced. Be wary of dealing with companies you haven’t heard of before, check with registration bodies to make sure they’re legitimate and don’t trust anybody who comes looking for you rather than the other way around.

Stay flexible

Ultimately, the best arrangement for you is likely to be different on different occasions. Some companies make it easy to set up regular international payments and this can make things a lot simpler, but because this is a volatile area you should still review your arrangements from time to time to make sure you’re getting the best available deal. It may be to your benefit to use multiple types of service – just stick with the ones you know you can trust.