5 Tips for Choosing a Lawyer for Your Small Business

Choosing-a-Lawyer

Some small business owners tend to avoid lawyers and business consultants in an effort to save on the costs of hiring them. However, when you have great lawyers who are skilled in the legalities of setting up and running a small business, whether you are a qualified electrician or a retail shop owner you will save on costs in the long run, simply because they will know how to save your business money.  And keeping them on after the business is all set up will help you avoid all kinds of costly problems.

Rowe Bristol Lawyers have provided us with 5 tips for choosing the best lawyer for your small business: –

  • If you have a negative mindset about the reputation of lawyers, drop it. Of course, there are ‘bad’ lawyers out there who overcharge or have nefarious dealings, but most of them are honest and hardworking. Some even go the second mile, working nights and weekends to help in times of trouble or at short notice. Your relationship with your lawyer should be a positive one.

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Power of Attorney Explained

power-of-attorney

Power of Attorney is a legal document that appoints a specific person to manage the financial affairs of someone while they are alive. It can also appoint a trustee organisation to do the same thing. This person or organisation is chosen by the person whose business affairs they will administer. They can be a family member, trusted friend or another person such as a family lawyer like Robertson Hayles. You cannot appoint a Power of Attorney unless you are over 18.

Why you may need an attorney

If you are going to be out of the country or really busy doing something else, you will need an Attorney to see to all your business affairs. Or if you want to buy or sell property overseas without having to go there, you can give Power of Attorney to a person you trust who can travel or who already lives there and they can do the deal on your behalf.

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Tips for Parenting Your Primary School Child

Parenting Your Primary School Child

Good parenting and child care encompasses many elements, from communicating to teaching and from showing love to keeping the child safe. The trouble is that few parents are actually taught how to be good parents; they simply have to wing it. And their own upbringing is usually a major factor in how they raise their child, whether they want it to be or not.

When all seems to go well, most parents cope and with the resilience that children have, they turn out okay in the end. That is not to say many adults could not have benefited in some way from their parents doing something different when they were young. However, if love is shown to a child, that is one of the main things to ensure they become steady and reliable adults, with much to give to society.

The trouble comes when something goes wrong and the parent does not really think that they need to address the issue. They believe that it is a temporary problem that will resolve itself. Or they may think this is the way their child is and nothing can be done. This is especially true when it comes to education, particularly if their own parents had a laid-back attitude to education.

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How Drug Addiction Affects Your Body

How Drug Addiction Affects Your Body

Many people these days suffer from drug addiction. If you or a loved one had become involved with and suffers from substance dependency it is vital to get into drug rehab as soon as possible. Acting quickly will give the addict the best chance of recovery. If you put it off, it can quickly become too late as taking drugs affects and damages the body in many ways. Here are just a few of the ways in which taking drugs can damage your body physically.

  • It weakens the immune system and makes you susceptible to many different types of infection.
  • It causes an abnormal heart rate that can lead to heart attacks.
  • It can cause collapsed veins which leads to infections in the veins, the blood and valves of the heart.
  • Nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain are common.
  • It makes the liver work harder, trying to clear the substance from your body. This can cause liver damage and eventually, liver failure.
  • Drugs can cause seizures and strokes.
  • Worst of all perhaps, is the damage drugs do to the brain. This can alter how you think, it can impact daily life due to memory and attention deficit problems, mental confusion and poor decision making.
  • It makes your appetite swing wildly in either direction, but mostly you will find loss of weight more the normal. This can be life-threatening if it goes on for too long.

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The Divorce and Your Will

The Divorce and Your Will

A Will is a legal document that ensures your assets are given to the children, or whoever else you designate as a beneficiary. When you have just gone through the stress of a divorce, making a Will is probably the last thing on your mind, but it is one of the most important things to take care of – with the help of a family lawyer, now that you are on your own and very likely have custody of the children. Taking care of them by ensuring they get what assets you have should the worst happen, is paramount to their well-being.

Any Will that you made with your ex is now invalid and both he and you need to make new ones that takes into account your new circumstances. You will have certain assets from the marriage or partnership that need to be taken care of in a Will, if your children are to be the recipients. Of course, they may be too young yet to have full access, but if you have financial assets, you can set up a trust that will take care of their needs until they become of age. That way they will still have enough money for their education and all the things that you have planned for their future.

You might want to also make your wishes known about future care of the children if you are not there to look after them.

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6 Benefits of Professional Commercial Property Maintenance

When you have a commercial property it is essential to have it kept in spick and span order to ensure it gets rented out quickly and so pays for itself. No business owner wants to conduct his business premises that are unkempt or need a good coat of paint to brighten them up. The best way to ensure property maintenance is done on a regular basis is to hire a professional commercial cleaning team.

Here are several benefits of doing so.

  • You don’t have to try and do it all yourself when you are busy doing what you were trained for. Using your skills to increase your business is a no-brainer. If you have to spend time in other areas it will take away from the growth of your business. You wouldn’t hire an accountant to do receptionist duties, so you shouldn’t do maintenance jobs when trying to run a business. A big benefit of hiring maintenance help is that you can spend more time on growing your business.

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Why a Pre-Settlement Inspection is Essential

Pre-Settlement Inspection

Anyone who purchases a home will be eagerly anticipating settlement so they can move in. They will have already inspected the property themselves and had all the necessary inspections done for things like termite damage, other possible damage or illegal additions. So what is the pre-settlement inspection and why is it essential?

When the contracts for the buying and selling of the house are drawn up, there will often be inclusions such as specific curtains and light fittings or other goods and chattels. If there is obvious damage of some kind it is usually mentioned and if the vendor does not agree to have it repaired, the cost is usually taken off the sale price.

The contracts for the deal must be exchanged, but that is not the time when ownership of the home passes to you. First, a settlement date and time must be set for the payment to go ahead and the title deeds to be exchanged. After consulting a lawyer’s list to find a lawyer or conveyancer will take care of this and the date is usually 42 days after the contracts were exchanged.

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Steps to Contesting a Will

contesting-a-will

While a person who makes a Will has a right to dispose of their property as they see fit, they still have a responsibility to care for their family financially. Even though courts are very wary of changing a Will, it can be done in certain circumstances or when specific criteria come into play. Here are some of the reasons that a court will allow contesting of a Will.

  • If the Will was not properly written or if it seems that it may have been tampered with.
  • If the Will was found to be an old one and another one is the latest version.
  • If the person who made the Will was wrongly influenced by another person.
  • If the Will maker lacked mental capacity at the time of making the Will.
  • If the Will did not make proper provision to the family.
  • If the meaning of the Will is unclear

If you know of any of the above happening, you need to contact your lawyer immediately to have the matter looked into. However, in the case of the Will not making proper provision for the family, it would be quite clear if this was the case and so all that remains is to inform a wills lawyer like Perth Wills Lawyer what you want done.

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How to Reduce the Risk of Decay in Children

Risk of Decay in Children

Modern dental treatment is quite different from that of many years ago. These days the idea is to prevent decay rather than waiting for it to happen and then fixing it, which can often be painful. By taking your children to a dentist early, they can have some of the more modern treatment that works to reduce the risk of decay.

You may think the only thing to reduce the risk of decay is good dental hygiene. While it is true that this certainly helps, it is not the only way to avoid decay.  In fact, it may not even be the best way, given that children don’t like cleaning their teeth and get out of it whenever possible. And they don’t always do it properly anyway. It takes a lot of effort for a parent to oversee cleaning every night when everyone is tired.

New treatments

With new technology, children can have painless treatment that helps to avoid decay completely, at least in their molars. How? Molars are the chewing teeth and the flat surface is indented to ensure food stays there long enough to get properly chewed up. However, some molars have deeper indentations than others, with the result that the food gets jammed into the crevice and is difficult or even impossible to get out.

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Property and Financial Settlements after Divorce

Property and Financial Settlements after Divorce

When a relationship breaks down irretrievably it leads to separation for 12 months and then divorce. No matter who you are, if you want a divorce you have to separate for 12 months first, but in fact, you can still live in the same house. Whether this happens or not, it is wise to seek fair and equitable distribution of property and finances after the divorce, through a family law firm.

Divorce is stressful – sometimes it is even traumatic. This often causes a woman to agree to almost anything so long as she never has to see or speak to her ex again. If you are feeling like this it is wise to seek professional counselling and support from trusted friends. It is not wise to agree to anything when it comes to division of assets. If your ex is bitter, he is sure to try and con you out of your fair share and you may not even know it – or care, until later on when you’ve had time to recover emotionally.

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Birds and Butterflies

bali-bird-park

If you are even moderately interested in nature, visiting the birds and butterflies in Bali will give you hours of delight. According to Easy Bali Villas once you tear yourself away from one of the many relaxing villas on offer, head on over to The Bali Bird and Reptile park to see those exotic and colourful birds and the not so colourful but still interesting reptiles.

Bali Bird and Reptile park

In fact, there are almost one thousand beautiful birds not only from Indonesia, but from around the world in this park.

If you didn’t want to spend a whole day here, it is a really lovely place to stop at on your way to or from a day tour, or if you are going to Ubud or other central regions – maybe you want to see the silversmith or goldsmith villages of Mas and Celuk. If you are in Denpasar the capital you can reach it by taking the main Singapadu road. The Bali Zoo is only 5ks away, so you could combine the two.

There are food and snack kiosks in the park and a photo shop that will transfer your photo to a T-shirt, a terrific way to remember your visit. Right next door you will be able to visit all the reptiles from a komodo dragon through to snakes, lizards, frogs and turtles.

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Web Design Tips for Small Business

web-design-tips-for-small-business

While a professional website designer will most likely be needed for technical details, they must rely on the business owner for input on all the details about their business because no one but you knows it well enough. So don’t feel that you must accept the dictates of the designer without any input of your own when you decide to create that all-important business website.

Here are some important design tips to consider.

  • The first thing to do is decide on your branding and key message – and what you want the website to do for your business, advertise, garner a customer base or sell. These elements will dictate how your page layout is organised and many other, more technical details.
  • The most important thing is to keep your website simple. It may not need all the bells and whistles that are available; not unless they contribute to ease of use and functionality. Look at it from your customers’ point of view. If they cannot find what they want, or if the checkout gives them problems, they will leave your website and go somewhere else to get their needs met. If you’ve ever surfed for a specific reason you will very likely have done this yourself.

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Why Should You Have an Estate Plan?

Estate Plan

People who don’t have an estate plan often don’t realise the impact that this will have should they die. While it may be many years before this unfortunate event occurs, no one can be really sure so it is wise to contact your family or experienced commercial lawyers to draw up such a plan to protect your assets. An estate plan does even more than protect assets, of course. It can also detail how you want to be taken care of should you no longer be able to tell anyone, such as in the case of a stroke or debilitating injury. Here is how an estate plan can help you.

  • It will identify all those loved ones you wish to benefit by giving them some of your assets. Without an estate plan, this is unlikely to happen.
  • An estate plan will ensure that your assets and property are transferred to your heirs as soon as possible and for as little cost as possible.
  • It minimises the amount of tax your estate will have to pay before it can be transferred to your family or other beneficiaries.
  • It can utilise aids such as living trusts and special bank accounts to reduce the amount of time before a beneficiary receives your assets and it can also reduce the costs of probate.

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What is the Family Court

Family Court

The Family Court of Australia services all families in need of legal advice from a experienced family lawyer or help in legal matters pertaining to the family.  This includes parenting, child care, child welfare and many cases that originate in the breakdown of a relationship and end in divorce. They offer a great deal of information and help on their website, through which you can apply for a divorce, for custody of the children, for settlement of assets and even for restraining orders against your ex, if he is harassing you in any way.

It was established by Parliament in 1975 and its judges and other staff have helped families with many complex problems ever since. Most of its services are free, but if you apply for a divorce, there is a fee, although this can be reduced for those that qualify. If you feel in need of help, you will find that the family court offers it without judgement, being respectful of your needs as well as those of your spouse and other family members.

This gives you the assurance that matters dear to your heart can be resolved equitably and fairly and with the least stress possible. For instance, if you have to apply for a restraining order against an ex who is harassing you, the first hearing will be done privately without his presence and the police will serve it, so you won’t need to see him face to face. If your ex is abusive and violent, your address will be kept private from him so that you can have peace of mind he won’t know where you live.

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How Can Removalists Conserve Space?

Removalist

According to professional removalists, moving companies can often advise you on how to reduce the space needed for packing your household goods. This ensures that a moving vehicle will have enough room for everything you need to take. It makes packing more efficient, and items are better protected, so less damage is likely.

Consolidation is one way to help save space. This works when smaller items will go into more significant components.  Such an option may work in one of the following situations:

  • A chest of drawers might have clothing and other light items left in the drawers.
  • Small boxes may fit inside large boxes.  it is best to keep like items together if possible.
  • Any baskets, bins or other items that have nothing to go in them can be perfect for packing smaller items into.

Another way removalists use to safe space is by using vacuum seals for clothing and bedding. A seal will work in that you can add a number of items into a bag and then use a vacuum to clear out the air inside it.

The bag must be sealable to prevent air re-entering. This makes it easier for items such as Manchester to be stored without the excess air taking up storage space. This is ideal for packing clothing or doonas if you need to reduce the amount of space it takes up.

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What to Ask Before Replacing the Carpet in Your New Home

replacing-the-carpet

Moving into a new home is an exciting, fun time, in spite of all the hard work that accompanies it. You may even be looking forward to changing some things and upgrading others. For instance, that old carpet may need replacing as soon as you get your budget sorted out. But while you are waiting for that, ask some questions suggested by brilliancecleaning.com.au to ask about it, just in case that money could be better spent on some other home improvement. Here is what to find out. The neighbours might know the answers.

  • How old is the carpet? Good quality carpet lasts a long time. If the carpet in your new home is not that old yet, a professional clean might do the trick.
  • What is the carpet made from? You need to know this for cleaning purposes. If you use the wrong cleaner it could fade the carpet or damage the fibres.
  • Did the previous owner ever have inside pets? Some people have pets for years, then when they die, don’t want to purchase another one. If the home housed pets the carpets could probably do with being professionally cleaned. They may even need replacing, since dogs and cats sometimes vomit – and do other naughty things – on the carpet.

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What to do About Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

It is all too common today for women to become victims of domestic violence. The trouble is that they are often reluctant to seek help because that would mean revealing what they consider to be their own weakness and fault. This is because the very nature of such violence is directed at dominating them and making them feel that it is all their fault.

They feel ashamed to think they are the kind of person who has made their spouse abuse them. This is entirely wrong of course. None of it is their fault. And the only way to be safe is to get out of the relationship and stay out. To avoid the need for criminal lawyers, once you make the break, never go back because that just makes it more difficult to escape the second time. Your life could be in danger, not to mention the lives of your children.

So what’s the first thing to do if you are a victim of domestic violence in the form of physical abuse?

  • Seek support from family and friends. This can be difficult because part of such abuse lies in alienating you from them.
  • Call 000 and report the abuse the next time it happens. Get medical attention and have photos taken of your injuries.

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Why You Should Engage a Digital Agency

Why You Should Engage a Digital Agency

Once you decide to get a website for your business, the question will soon arise: Who will do it? You might look through your staff to see who has the right skills to whip up a website, then divert them to this important task. Meanwhile, who is going to do their work? And what happens when they can’t quite manage to do what you envisage?

Instead of depending on a person who is not qualified, it is far better to outsource the job to a suitably qualified digital agency. They will have a team of experts that can get stuck into the job and get it finished in no time just how you like it and even better, because they know more about what is needed than even you do, if you’ve had no experience with such things.

It is easy enough to put up a personal website, but a business website requires many more things if it is going to work how you want it to. You have to decide what you want it to do for your business. Some people sell stock from their websites, while others just use them as a contact point for customers. The two are quite different and need to have different components.

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Tips for Easy and Stress Free Travel

stress-free-travel

Whether you are flying or travelling by train or car, getting to that holiday destination can be a hassle. Easy Villas says that whether you are backpacking, staying in an AirBNB or staying in an upmarket villa organised by some one like Luxury Villas Bali, it takes a lot of organisation and packing to get everything together – then you tend to wonder at the last minute if you thought of everything. Here are some tips to make travel a lot less stressful.

  • Leave your house key with a trusted friend so if you forgot to turn the iron off they can easily fix it – or anything else you are worried about. Have them also pick up your mail so that passersby cannot tell the house is empty.
  • Have your travel documents with you at all times and keep them together in a special wallet. Make copies to leave with others in case you lose them.
  • Put all your travel and accommodation details into your phone for ease of access.
  • Book ahead and keep all the details handy. Write the dates on your calendar so you don’t get them wrong.
  • Lots of luggage can be a hassle, so pack less than you think you will need, especially if you are going to a hotter climate. You really don’t have to change twice a day.

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6 Upgrades that Won’t Help Your Property Sell

sell-property-upgrade

If you are looking to upgrade your home in order to sell it, it’s just as important to know what not to do as what will work. The following 5 upgrades won’t cut it when you go to sell – in fact, they may even put buyers off and then you will never be in the position to book a furniture mover like Brilliance Removalists Perth.  That said, if you intend to stay in the house, these upgrades could really make a difference to your lifestyle – if they are something you and your family would like and use.

  • Installing a swimming pool. While this is sure to excite your kids, it can very well turn other people off. Not everyone likes swimming and seeing a pool simply means ‘more maintenance’ to many people. Real estate agents agree that adding a pool to your property immediately cuts out certain people groups as potential buyers. Elderly people; couples with toddler/a baby, because they feel a pool is dangerous to them; people on a strict budget who don’t want the expense of maintenance and property investors who don’t want it because all those reasons make it harder to sell.
  • Really extravagant fixtures and fittings. While a lot of these may be seen on home renovations and improvement programmes on TV, they don’t work for the general public. Why? Not everyone likes those specific styles. They have their own idea of how the house should look and want that, so they won’t pay extra for a house that has them.

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Symptoms of Teenage Depression

Teen Depression

Teenage depression seems to be much more common these days than it was years ago. Today’s teenager is under a great deal more pressure. Not only are they expected by their parents and teachers to perform well academically, they are also expected to be good at sports, drama and many other things. Added to that, they want to be accepted by their peers and often, acceptance is not about getting good grades but actually often the very opposite.

Add their raging hormones to the mix and it is no wonder that many teens start to feel depressed. However, a person can feel depressed without actually having clinical depression or needing treatment. It is when depression starts to interfere with their everyday life that treatment should be sought. What are the symptoms of teenage depression?

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Four Principles of Criminal Law

Criminal Law

Criminal law is quite different from civil law where the people of both sides are not criminals, or not being tried for a criminal offence. Criminal lawyers will tell you that they deal with the offences of breaking laws and seek to find out if a person is guilty or not. If they are, they must be convicted and the judge must set a punishment for them.

There are four basic principles in criminal law –

  • The presumption of innocence. A person is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty. So even if they’ve been charged with the offence in question, it doesn’t mean they are guilty and they cannot be punished until the proof shows they are guilty. The judge, a magistrate or a jury must listen to all the evidence and decide whether the person is guilty or innocence.  If there is reasonable doubt that they are guilty they must be acquitted of the offence.

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Key Ingredients of a Successful Adwords Campaign

Successful Adwords Campaign

Google Adwords are a well-known way for entrepreneurs to make money for their business. The best part is that you can set a daily budget so you don’t lose more than you make.  To ensure your adwords campaign are as successful as you dream they’ll be, there are a few things you need to have in place

  • Customer demand for your keyword. If there is no demand your ad will not be successful. You can use the Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool to find out – and to discover other keywords you might want to use.
  • A budget. Each click has a cost, but what you can afford to pay is determined by your website conversion rate and estimated profit per customer.
  • Find out what you need to know about your profitable keywords by seeing what your competitors have found out before you. Using the ‘Keyword Spy’ tool’s free trial will save you doing anything illegal.
  • Utilise your USP. Your Unique Selling Proposition can be reduced to a few words and used in those adwords to get more qualified clicks and much fewer unwanted clicks. So you’ll have more traffic that becomes paying customers.

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How to Adopt a Turtle

Adopt-a-Turtle

Bali is a unique and exotic place for a holiday, with many things to be found there that are different from other places in Indonesia or Asia. Once you’ve found your villa accommodation and settled in you won’t be able to wait to get out and about to see the temples, monkeys, theme parks and beaches in the area. But not many people realise they can adopt a turtle in Bali. How?

It is a relatively new idea, since turtles have been harvested as a food for centuries on this island. The trouble is that, as in many other cases, turtles have many other predators, both in the sea and on the beach, just after they hatch. So even though many eggs may be laid, not nearly as many turtles live to grow up and lay more. Thus, the turtle population began to dwindle until there were not that many left.

When turtles and their eggs are also harvested as food for humans the odds against them increase. In fact, they have been used in temple sacrifices and their eggs have been collected to eat and sell. The shell is used to make trinkets and jewellery. All this, in addition to the declining space for eggs on the beaches due to tourist activities has all contributed to the decrease in the turtle population.

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Two Ways of Flipping Real Estate For a Profit

Flipping Real Estate

Most people interested in real estate have heard of flipping property for a profit. This is where you purchase a property and then sell it again quickly – often within 12 months – at a higher price. Experts agree that the real estate market has to be booming for this to be successful – and that you can easily just spend your life calling house removalists in and out, making a loss rather than a profit if you don’t know what you are doing.

Both of these judgements are true. However, that need not put off the eager entrepreneur. Some of us may not be cut out to be carpet cleaners or spend our lives working for someone else. It is possible to learn how to flip homes for a profit and just because you are eager to do so, it doesn’t mean you are going to be impulsive, right? Find out who is doing it and learn from them, or pay for good information if necessary, then carefully research all the necessary details before going ahead.

In fact, there are two good ways to flip property for a profit.

  • Make money when you buy the property. In this kind of flipping you purchase the property for much less than the market price. To do this you need to find a property with few competitors for the sale. It may be that it has structural damage that puts people off, or some other problem that makes people avoid it. The price you purchase at will need to be far below what the repairs and your other costs would amount to, so that when you resell there will be money left over that is all profit.
  • Do renovations that will pay for themselves. Most experts in real estate will tell you that renovations to a home will not return a 100% profit when selling. Homeowners don’t usually care about that because they are looking for lifestyle enhancement more than sale value. And they mostly intend to stay in their home for several or more years. But when you buy to flip this is not the case. The kind of renovations you do are important. Some types of renovations will lift the home into another class altogether, making it much more attractive to the buyer – even changing the demographic.

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