Articles
Helpful Office Cleaning & Safety Tips
Having a clean and neat office space is an essential part of helping to keep yourself organized, a relaxing space to work in, and lastly a clean office is a more sanitary office. A clean office helps to keep your employees healthy and not sick. Avoid germ buildup and dirty spaces with these simple tips to keep your office space clean. So what are some of the hotspots that you should be aware of and how you can help to maintain cleanliness of them? Below are some helpful tips for cleaning these spaces and to help stop the spread of germs. Clean your computer & mouse on a daily basis Your computer, mouse and phone are often one of the most overlooked places to clean by employees. Therefore these are one of the places that sometimes harbour the highest amount of germs and bacteria. In every office, there should be [...]
Helpful Tips To Simplify Your Small Business Life
Business owners are always looking for new ways of streamlining everything they do, to save time, money, and energy. If being busy has dominated your life, it’s time to regain control. Below are some helpful tips to simplify your small business so you’ll have time for what matters within your small business. Take your business digital Your website is potentially a main access point for any client. When it comes to the website, don't worry as much about fancy graphics, the focus should be making sure visitors can get the information they need. Setting up an FAQ page on your website can help with reducing the number of potential clients calling you and asking you basic questions. This page can also prevent a frustrated client going to another business. Many web hosting companies can provide reliable websites for relatively little money, as well as provide helpful tools for setting up [...]
Transitioning To A Virtual Office
Preparing to transfer your business to a virtual office So you have decided to make the switch from your traditional office space to a virtual office. This is a great way to save some money, expand your professional network, and gain some flexibility, but it is still important to prepare your company for the transition if you want to implement this change successfully. By following some of our helpful guidelines, suggestions, and tips. Learn what to expect from a virtual office Virtual offices offer a whole host of different features and services including: A professional business address and/or phone number Mail receipt and forwarding Call answering by a live receptionist and call forwarding Access to physical office space, including private offices and conference rooms Essential business services at the physical office space, including: High-speed WiFi Printing Fax Audio/visual presentation hardware Basic catering, such as coffee, tea, and light snacks Access [...]
Things are changing around Yonge and Queen’s Quay – but Telsec is here to stay
If you haven't been down to the Harbourfront area of Toronto in a while, you'll be quite surprised at all of the changes that are happening from Yonge Street to Parliament Street along Queen's Quay. While new buildings like Corus Quay (home of Corus Entertainment’s Radio, TV and educational content creations) and George Brown College have been completed for several years at their Sugar Beach location, more buildings are going up on the same property. Several new condos have also been completed and people have moved into the area west of the Redpath Sugar complex. And, more are being built. There are also plenty of other mixed-use buildings under construction along the north side of Queen's Quay. With all the development that's underway and more development planned for an area that was traditionally shipping docks, warehouses and light manufacturing, this growing area has truly come into its own as a [...]
Time to start looking professional and ditch the pajamas
With today's technology, working from home is much easier than it was 5 or 10 years ago. But is working from home always best for your small business? Yes, it’s convenient to begin your working day and not even have to get out of your pajamas in the morning. And while many small businesses get their start by working out of their homes, as their businesses mature and becomes full-time ventures, working from home is not always best in terms of reflecting a professional appearance and stability. Even having a more ‘business-like’ address is better than using your home address. One of the first steps that many small businesses are taking, is to move out of their homes and into an office that doesn’t always require a physical space. Today, small businesses have many options to have a professional address, but where to start and where expansion can take place [...]
Toronto is becoming more and more expensive – and that’s why you need to use a shared office space
As the population of Toronto grows and the demand for housing grows, so does the demand for office space by expanding businesses. Economic growth is a great thing for the city and the small businesses that operate out of it. But with the increased demand for office space the leasing rates also go up. In fact, Toronto is becoming almost as expensive to do business in as Manhattan! Acording to RENX.ca (Rental Estate News Exchange): “In the absence of new supply, and with relocation options in existing buildings severely restricted for tenants of all sizes, rental rates continue to climb. Competition is also heated in the sublet market, where rental rates rival or even surpass what’s being offered directly by landlords.” Also in that same April, 2019 RENX.ca article Toronto office market: Landlords can ‘name their price’, “Downtown Toronto had a 1.9% vacancy rate, which was down 60 basis points [...]
Coworking versus Shared Office Space: Which is better for your small business?
Coworking has been all the rage for the past decade, but there’s a lot that small business owners don’t know about the differences between coworking and shared office space facilities (also called office business centres or executive suites). The main reason for this confusion is that some large corporate chains of business centres and executive suites have started to claim that what they’re offering are coworking spaces – without really knowing what the original coworking philosophy was all about. When you look coworking up on Wikipedia, you’ll find this explanation: “Coworking is a social gathering of a group of people who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with people who value working in the same place alongside each other.” Notice that the key words are “social gathering” and “share values” – meaning that true coworking is [...]
News Roundup for SME Businesses & Startups
Hiring Remotely? Here’s How to Change Your Hiring Strategy to Get the Best Candidates Drawing on a decade of experience of hiring remote employees, the author shares the process she and her team have refined to hire “best of the best”. She breaks down the process she uses into four strategies, discussing each in detail: post on job boards that attract remote job-seekers; set up prescreening questions that specifically assess the candidate’s ability to work remotely; interview candidates with a video meeting tool multiple times to really get to know them; and finally, if needed, take additional steps to ensure you truly get to know the candidate before offering them a full-time role. 5 Mistakes That Sabotage Your Company’s Bank Credit Score In this article, the author begins with defining what bank vs. business credit is, how they’re intertwined, and how bank credit works. She then discusses five common mistakes […]
News Roundup for SME Businesses & Startups
Facts About Trademarks You Might Not Have Known You’ve likely heard of trademarks, “words that distinguish one organization from the rest in its niche,” the author says, but you may not have known seven facts about them. Besides the fun fact that trademarks have their roots in the Roman empire, the other six have some bearing for entrepreneurs and businesses looking into establishing their own: you can trademark more than words, such as designs; you cannot trademark descriptive phrases; forming a business entity is not the same as acquiring a trademark; trademarks are distinct from copyrights and patents; your trademark application could be rejected; and finally, trademarks are national rights, which is important if you intend to take your business international. Netflix Avoids Rules Like the Plague. Here’s What It Does Instead In his new book “Great Leaders Have No Rules”, the author (Kevin Kruse) cites Netflix for its success […]
News Roundup for SME Businesses & Startups
What is Your SEO Location Strategy? A location strategy is usually associated with brick and mortar businesses. However, the author explains that depending on the business, the SEO location strategy could be far more important – especially if its lead generation or sales is dependent on the web. The most important part of a local SEO campaign is the NAP (Name, Address and Phone) that is listed on GoogleMyBusiness (GMB) and local directories. Here, he discusses why a consistent business centre virtual address and a VoIP account is the best SEO location strategy for search engine rankings, and for your professional image. 8 TED Talks That Will Change Your Life Changing your life is a tall order, but sometimes “all you need is a flash of insight that shifts your perspective or rewires your thinking,” the author notes. She then shares eight TED talks that Reddit users say changed their […]
September 2020
Helpful Tips To Simplify Your Small Business Life
Business owners are always looking for new ways of streamlining everything they do, to save time, money, and energy. If being busy has dominated your life, it’s time to regain control. Below are some helpful [...]
May 2020
Transitioning To A Virtual Office
Preparing to transfer your business to a virtual office So you have decided to make the switch from your traditional office space to a virtual office. This is a great way to save some money, [...]
August 2019
Things are changing around Yonge and Queen’s Quay – but Telsec is here to stay
If you haven't been down to the Harbourfront area of Toronto in a while, you'll be quite surprised at all of the changes that are happening from Yonge Street to Parliament Street along Queen's Quay. [...]
June 2019
Time to start looking professional and ditch the pajamas
With today's technology, working from home is much easier than it was 5 or 10 years ago. But is working from home always best for your small business? Yes, it’s convenient to begin your working [...]
Toronto is becoming more and more expensive – and that’s why you need to use a shared office space
As the population of Toronto grows and the demand for housing grows, so does the demand for office space by expanding businesses. Economic growth is a great thing for the city and the small businesses [...]
May 2019
Coworking versus Shared Office Space: Which is better for your small business?
Coworking has been all the rage for the past decade, but there’s a lot that small business owners don’t know about the differences between coworking and shared office space facilities (also called office business centres [...]
April 2019
News Roundup for SME Businesses & Startups
Hiring Remotely? Here’s How to Change Your Hiring Strategy to Get the Best Candidates Drawing on a decade of experience of hiring remote employees, the author shares the process she and her team have refined to hire “best of the best”. She breaks down the process she uses into four strategies, discussing each in detail: post on job boards that attract remote job-seekers; set up prescreening questions that specifically assess the candidate’s ability to work remotely; interview candidates with a video meeting tool multiple times to really get to know them; and finally, if needed, take additional steps to ensure you truly get to know the candidate before offering them a full-time role. 5 Mistakes That Sabotage Your Company’s Bank Credit Score In this article, the author begins with defining what bank vs. business credit is, how they’re intertwined, and how bank credit works. She then discusses five common mistakes […]
News Roundup for SME Businesses & Startups
Facts About Trademarks You Might Not Have Known You’ve likely heard of trademarks, “words that distinguish one organization from the rest in its niche,” the author says, but you may not have known seven facts about them. Besides the fun fact that trademarks have their roots in the Roman empire, the other six have some bearing for entrepreneurs and businesses looking into establishing their own: you can trademark more than words, such as designs; you cannot trademark descriptive phrases; forming a business entity is not the same as acquiring a trademark; trademarks are distinct from copyrights and patents; your trademark application could be rejected; and finally, trademarks are national rights, which is important if you intend to take your business international. Netflix Avoids Rules Like the Plague. Here’s What It Does Instead In his new book “Great Leaders Have No Rules”, the author (Kevin Kruse) cites Netflix for its success […]
