In a world where everything is intertwined with technology, a data security breach is like an unexpected rain on your parade—definitely not a fun surprise.
But here’s the thing: you can’t just brush it off like nothing happened.
Cyberattacks are ramping up, no doubt about it. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of cybercrime is likely to hit a whopping $10.5 trillion?? by 2025.
So, let’s get into it. In this complete guide, we’re diving deep into data breaches, breaking down what they mean, the domino effect they set off, and, most importantly, how to pick yourself up when things get messy.
So settle in—we’re making data breaches as easy to understand and handle as a walk in the park.
What is a Data Breach?
Think of a data breach as a digital break-in. It’s when hackers manage to sneak into a company’s databases and nab sensitive info.
Now, these cyberattacks happen because there are holes in data security. Companies don’t always have the right locks and alarms, leaving their data and customers’ info vulnerable.
Types of Breaches
There’s a whole range of data breach flavors out there, like:
Phishing: Tricking someone into revealing info via fake emails or websites.
Ransomware: Holding data hostage until a ransom is paid.
Social Engineering Scams: Manipulating people into sharing sensitive details.
Software Misconfigurations: Getting in through poorly set up software.
Weak Passwords: Guessing easy-to-crack passwords.
Physical Device Theft: Yep, sometimes they steal the actual devices.
Third-Party Breaches: When a company’s partner gets hacked, cybercriminals sneak through the backdoor.
Suppose you work at a cloud communications platform company. One day, the headlines scream—hackers just broke into your system. They’re now holding customer data, like contact numbers and communication history, hostage. These hackers could start sending messages that look legit, but they’re loaded with malware. So when customers click, boom—their devices are infected with a computer virus or malware.
You see, data breaches aren’t just faraway stories. They’re real and messy, affecting real people and real businesses. This is why understanding breaches and how to react is super important.
What Happens When a Company Suffers a Data Breach?
Now that you have a better idea of what data breaches are, let’s discuss the aftermath of a data breach and look at some of the problems that they can cause:
Think of your customer’s trust being like a vase. A data security breach would smash it to pieces. Customers start worrying about their personal information—and they’re not alone. KPMG revealed that 86% of people have growing concerns about their data privacy.
Government Fines
The law gets involved. Data breaches often come with regulatory fines in the U.S. For instance, HIPAA violations can lead to fines ranging from $100 to $50,000 per violation.
A Dip in Stock Price
Money talks. News of a data breach can spook investors. Share prices of breached companies hit a low point of approximately 110 market days following a breach. Share prices fall -3.5% on average and underperform the NASDAQ by -3.5%, as reported by Comparitech.
How Can Companies Prevent Data Breaches?
Preventing data breaches is essential for keeping your valuable stuff safe. Here are some ways to increase data security in your business:
Implement Cybersecurity Measures: Invest in robust cybersecurity measures like firewalls, encryption, and intrusion detection systems. Multi-factor authentication is a great way to fortify access to sensitive info.
Stay Up-to-Date with Software and Patch Management: Keep your software up-to-date, and don’t snooze on those patches. Hackers often exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software.
Train Your Troops: Make sure your team knows the drill. Regularly train employees about cybersecurity best practices. A well-informed workforce can be your first line of defense. You can even hold personalized training sessions on topics like how to create strong passwords and the importance of archiving for data privacy.
Limit Access: Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): Not everyone needs access to everything. Follow the principle of least privilege—grant employees the minimum access required to perform their roles.
Partner Wisely with Third-Party Vendors: Your partners’ security matters too. Before collaborating, assess their data security practices.
Regular Checkups: Just like a health checkup, your digital health needs one too. Regularly conduct security audits and assessments to spot vulnerabilities before they become gateways for hackers.
Stay tuned—we’re delving deeper into the battle plan against data breaches. From recovery tactics to ensuring legal compliance, we’ve got you covered.
What Should You Do About a Data Breach?
Alright, the inevitable has happened—a data security breach slipped through the cracks, even after all your best efforts to increase data security. Here’s your playbook on what to do when facing a data breach:
Act Fast to Contain the Breach
Image sourced from IBM
Imagine you’re in charge of a tech company that relies on secure remote access solutions, like VPNs. The moment you get wind of a breach, rally your response team into action.
Together, you can identify how the breach happened and take immediate steps to contain it. This can include disconnecting compromised systems, changing passwords, isolating affected areas, and temporarily shutting down remote access. Acting fast means you can slam the brakes on the breach’s impact and put up roadblocks to stop it from spreading.
According to IBM, spotting a breach takes about 204 days on average. Containing the chaos? That’s another story—roughly 73 days. Add it all up, and you’re staring at a whopping 277 days. Yup, that’s nearly a year. But with quick thinking and speedy action, you’re on track to slam the brakes on that breach’s rampage.
Notify Authorities
In many scenarios, data security breach incidents require reporting to regulatory authorities. It’s crucial to familiarize yourself with the laws and requirements governing breach notifications in your country. Just like you wouldn’t miss a red light on the road, don’t overlook your responsibility to notify the appropriate channels.
Alert Affected Parties
When a breach occurs, swift and transparent communication is paramount. Data breaches can damage your reputation with your customers or clients. Imagine being in a position where you’re responsible for a company’s response to a breach. You promptly reach out to the individuals whose data has been compromised. You don’t delay or sugarcoat—you provide clear information about the breach, the type of data exposed, and the potential risks they might face. By doing so, you’re not only meeting a legal obligation but demonstrating respect for their privacy and fostering trust.
Seek Legal and PR Guidance
Navigating legal waters can be complex. When a breach hits, it’s time to consult legal experts to grasp your obligations and potential liabilities. Additionally, engaging your PR team is akin to switching on your headlights in a fog—it ensures clarity and honesty in your communication. The result? A clear path forward amidst the confusion.
This is your wake-up call. Bolster your security measures. Implement stronger access controls, regular security audits, and ongoing employee training.
Suppose you work at a law firm, and a recent breach shakes things up. In response, you tighten the reins and introduce solutions like Assembly Software that protect your data for improved security. You enhance access controls, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access sensitive data. You schedule regular security audits to catch vulnerabilities before they become gateways. Taking these measures becomes your shield against future breaches and a testament to your commitment to safeguarding client information.
By leveraging digital signage solutions, you can consistently remind and educate your employees about best practices and the importance of data security.
Provide Support
Think of the aftermath of a breach as a storm that leaves individuals shaken. Now, envision being the helping hand that offers assistance. If you work at a company that’s just experienced a breach, provide resources to those affected, like credit monitoring or identity theft protection services. By doing this, you’re not just addressing the immediate fallout. You’re showing empathy and commitment to helping them navigate the breach. In a time of vulnerability, your support becomes a lifeline that helps individuals regain control and security.
Plan for the Future
The age-old wisdom of “hope for the best, prepare for the worst” couldn’t be more fitting here. Data breaches serve as a stark reminder that being proactive is key. So, you roll up your sleeves and create an incident response plan. This plan should include a clear chain of command, communication protocols, technical procedures, legal requirements, and contact details of relevant stakeholders, including legal counsel, PR experts, and cybersecurity specialists.
Facing a data breach is no walk in the park, but with a clear plan and swift action, you can navigate the storm and come out stronger on the other side.
Data Breaches: Prevent, Prepare, and Be Proactive
So there you have it—the full scoop on data breaches and how to bounce back from them.
We’ve covered the scary stuff, the fallout, and the steps to take when a breach comes knocking.
From acting quickly to getting legal and PR help, boosting security, and lending a hand to those affected—each move is like a piece of a puzzle that helps you sail through a breach. And don’t forget, the secret sauce for the future is a solid plan.
By knowing the risks, getting ready for the worst, and reacting with precision, you can actually turn the tables on a data security breach. So, as you move ahead in the digital world, remember while data breaches are tough cookies, your power to tackle them is even tougher.
It’s that time of the year again! If you were looking for a new tool to use to elevate your business, now is the time. Black Friday is just around the corner and we have gathered our favorite tools that have special discounts all throughout this week.
Make sure to close in on these deals before it’s too late! Whether it’s email marketing tools or WordPress plugins, you can find a suitable product for your business and workflow.
Jotform
Jotform is one of the most widely-used form builders out there. Create surveys, collect payments, and automate workflows with this versatile tool.
Use their many templates to get started on your forms and integrate them with your favorite apps to help your business grow. All of its features are free but if you would like to upgrade your limits and storage, the paid plans are %50 off during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Offer
Jotform has a free starter plan that includes all features.
The paid plans are %50 off during Black Friday.
The offer is valid from 13th Nov – 27 Nov 2023.
Sender
Looking to grow your sales? With Sender, you’re set for success. The platform’s intuitive drag-and-drop email builder and premade templates help you craft professional emails in minutes. Plus, with high-converting popups, you can attract quality leads, convert them into customers, and grow your brand. Engage your audience, drive traffic, and watch your sales soar with personalized email and SMS marketing campaigns from Sender.
Offer
Get 20% off all paid plans during Black Friday with the promo code PARTNER20.
SocialBee
SocialBee is a social media management tool that allows users to create, schedule, and post content to every major social platform from one place.
Say goodbye to manual posting and time-consuming tasks—it’s time to centralize all your tasks within one platform and maintain a consistent posting schedule with utmost ease.
Pair SocialBee’s social media tool with their concierge services for social media creation, content writing, and engaged growth to take the hassle out of your work and improve your marketing strategy in no time.
Offer
Get your SocialBee (social media management tool) plan with a “cant-miss” discount: 70% off for 3 months.
Promotion availability: 21-28 November
Discount code:SOCIALBEEBF22
Newoldstamp
Newoldstamp is the leading email signature management platform that enables businesses to create, customize and deploy brand-consistent signatures across the entire company.
Newoldstamp turns emails into a powerful marketing tool. It allows you to drive traffic to your website, generate leads, upsell products, and announce online and offline events by adding clickable links, beautiful banners with CTAs, and interactive buttons to your email signature.
This email signature software offers seamless integrations with Google Workspace, Exchange, and Microsoft 365. Use Newoldstamp to create an online email signature that will look awesome on most email clients and all devices.
Offer
Newoldstamp offers its customers 25% off on any plan with the promo code BF2023NOS.
POWR
POWR is a leading suite of 60+ affordable, easy-to-use, customizable website apps that require no code like Popups, Image Galleries, Video Sliders, Social Feed Embed, and Customer Reviews, to name a few!
POWR integrates with hundreds of platforms such as Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Mailchimp, Zapier, and more or can be added directly to an HTML website.
Offer
50% off any yearly subscription
Enter this coupon code at checkout: POWRBFCM2022
The offer expires on 30th November 2022
There is also a 30% discount available for monthly subscriptions. No code is required. Visit our homepage to claim.
MySignature
MySignature is an all-in-one email signature and email tracking platform. It allows you to easily create professional email signatures and make your business emails stand out from the crowd.
With MySignature you can build brand recognition by turning yourself and your team into brand ambassadors. Embedding a unique email signature will help you advertise the products or services in a more efficient way. Increase brand awareness, create trust, and boost credibility by creating personalized email signatures with your logo/photo, banner, contact information, links to social profiles, and calls-to-action.
Offer
MySignature offers its customers 50% off for the first payment for all yearly plans during Black Friday.
Use the promo code BF2023MS.
SmartrMail
SmartrMail is the highest-rated email app on the Shopify app store. Its easy email composer paired with its powerful automation builder makes it the best tool to increase your sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Discover why so many Shopify merchants rave about our customer support experience and book a call with our team to discover the app here.
Key features
Advanced tools to automatically send the right products to the right subscribers at the right time
Pop-up builder and pop-up integrations to quickly grow your list.
150+ Premade templates and 10+ Premade series of automated emails.
All best-practice automation and a customer support team to help you enable them within your first 20 minutes.
Most affordable advanced email app on the Shopify app store.
Offer
Install SmartrMail now to get 30% Off your first 6 months on all paid plans as well as the free migration of all of your subscribers, your email design, and all your existing email automation. Redeem this offer via this link. Noted: This BFCM offer applies to new users only.
Wappalyzer
Wappalyzer’s products provide sales and marketing teams with tech stack insights and tools for lead generation, market analysis, and competitor research.
We track thousands of web technologies across millions of websites. We know who uses your software and that of your competitors.
Offer
Use code “NoupeBF75” at checkout to take $75/month off any of our plans:
Starter
Team
Business
Enterprise
Discount valid for the first 12 months of your subscription. There are no contracts and you may cancel at any time. See their pricing page for more details.
ZeroBounce
ZeroBounce is an email validation and deliverability platform. Validate your email list with 98% accuracy, test your emails to see if they land in the inbox, and get useful subscriber insights with this award-winning tool. ZeroBounce has validated 13+ billion emails and serves more than 200,000 companies around the world – including Amazon, Netflix, and Sephora. Verify 100 email addresses free, every month.
Offer
This Black Friday, ZeroBounce offers 40% free extra credits, on top of any number you buy. The credits never expire and you can use them to validate, score, or get subscriber activity data on your email list. Bonus applied automatically. Valid November 22 – November 30.
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is an all-in-one AI-powered online course platform that helps you create, market, and sell online courses. It comes with some robust features and advanced capabilities like an AI Assistant, an Assessment Builder, a Website Builder, and a Mobile App Builder that allows you to deliver mobile learning, live sessions, in-depth reporting, SCORM compliance, and many more!
Offer
Get up to 39% off for a year of LearnWorlds’ top online course platform and two mobile apps.
Early birds get up to 35% on Learning Center Plans and Learning Center plus mobile apps for a year. After this, the discount will drop, so claim your offer fast!
Hive
Hive is a leading project management tool that helps thousands of teams work faster in today’s hybrid work environment. Hive brings all of your workplace tools to one single dashboard, so you can manage projects, chat with coworkers, send emails, and even start Zoom calls without ever leaving the window. Hive is more than just your classic project management software – it’s the future of work productivity.
Offer
Hive is offering 22% off annual subscriptions of Hive Teams, the all-in-one plan including project management, task-tracking, note-taking, and many other collaborative features. Use the following promo code at checkout to redeem the offer: BLACKFRIDAY22
The All-in-One eCommerce Toolkit For Brand Owners. We’re on a mission to give you all the sales and marketing tools you need —at every stage of your eCommerce journey.
Empower eCommerce Entrepreneurs
Focus on Revenue
Seamless Integration
Reliable Support
Offer
Use the promo code DEBUTIFY15 for 15% OFF first 4 Months
Use the promo code DEBUTIFY30 for 30% OFF first 2 Months
SendPost
SendPost is an email delivery service. It provides developers, businesses, and ESPs with a solution to reliably deliver, measure, and optimize emails. They have API SDKs in 14+ programming languages. You can use their API to send and validate emails, measure stats and manage domains/IPs. You can get detailed deliverability stats to keep an eye on your deliverability and fix it before it dips down.
Offer
Grab the deal: Get credits to send a million emails for free
Mailtrap Email Delivery Platform is an end-to-end sending and testing solution built for developers. Mailtrap Email API allows you to timely deliver emails from any application and monitor deliverability via insight while storing 60 days of email logs for better troubleshooting.
Offer
Get 3 months of free email testing with the promo code BLACKFRIDAY2023, applicable for the Team Plan.
CrankWheel
CrankWheel is the easiest screen-sharing app out there, designed for sales agents. Share your screen instantly to any device and any browser in just seconds. Hand the control over to your viewer. Show full HQ videos in a screen share. Record your screen and/or your webcam and embed it with an animated thumbnail in your emails.
Offer
75% off the first three months of Monthly individual plans.
Anyone who creates a new account and upgrades to a Monthly Individual Plan will get the first three months at a 75% discount. No payment info is required to create an account. Offer is only available through the landing site.
TemplateMonster
TemplateMonster is the go-to digital marketplace for all your web project needs. With a vast selection of premium and free products, this platform caters to web designers and developers of all skill levels.
Offer
Discover the best Black Friday & Cyber Monday TemplateMonster discounts throughout the year – up to 50% off! Check out our great deals up to November, 30!
WP Social Ninja
WP Social Ninja is a customizable, responsive, and lightweight social media plugin to help you achieve even more leads or followers by showcasing your social feeds and reviews and keeping chat support on your WordPress website. It is the most user-friendly plugin built to facilitate integration and reduce the time to market your brands.
Offer
40% off their annual plans.
The offer is valid from 15 November – 2 December.
FS Poster
FS Poster is WordPress’s scheduler plugin that will enable you to automatically post to 21 social networks and services straight from your WordPress dashboard. Additionally, this software will let you republish existing content, and facilitate the direct sharing of individual posts across all platforms.
Offer
FS Poster offers customers 30% off forever with their Black Friday deal.
This offer is valid from November 20th to December 2nd.
FindThatLead
FindThatLead is an all-in-one lead-generation tool that allows you to contact people, local businesses, and companies in a given industry. The platform provides you with contact information from public sources with its search and prospecting tools and helps you run email campaigns to contact leads – all in one tool.
Offer
FindThatLead offers 50% off all their plans forever during Black Friday with the promo code BF2023.
Scrab.in
Scrab.in helps you automate your LinkedIn lead generation using your LinkedIn profile to send invitations and messages in order to generate new clients.
Offer
Scrab.in offers 50% off all their plans forever during Black Friday with the promo code BF2023.
ThemeSelection offers premium quality, developer-friendly & easy-to-use Admin Template & UI Kits for web developers & web designers. Using these professionally developed Admin templates you can develop responsive web apps.
You can create any kind of web app such as SaaS apps, Fitness Apps, Educational Apps, E-commerce apps, etc.
Offer
ThemeSelection is giving 30% OFF on this Black Friday & Cyber Monday.
The offer is valid from November 9th – November 30th
Cloudways hosting offers a managed cloud solution, enabling peak performance and scalability without complex server management. With a user-friendly platform, it provides access to top cloud providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud, offering powerful servers, automated backups, and robust security. Whether launching a new site or optimizing an existing one, Cloudways streamlines the hosting experience, so you can focus on your content and audience.
Offer
Enjoy a 40% discount for 4 Months on all hosting plans + 40 free migrations
The Code: BFCM4040
Validity: 13th Nov – 1st Dec
LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a top-notch help desk software that centralizes customer support communication channels. With multi-channel support, ticket management, real-time chat, and a knowledge base system, it streamlines customer interactions. Its user-friendly interface and robust reporting tools make it an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes seeking to provide exceptional support and maintain a seamless customer experience. Enhance support, resolve queries faster, and boost customer satisfaction with LiveAgent.
Offer
Get 75% off any plan for 3 months with the promo code BLACKFRIDAY75.
This offer is valid from November 25th to December 15th.
WP Swings
WP Swings is a comprehensive eCommerce solution provider that handles basic WooCommerce development, including offering merchants third-party solutions and interfaces with platforms linked to ESPs, CRMs, and other SaaS services.
They primarily concentrate on WooCommerce-related critical eCommerce extensions and solutions that may enhance the WooCommerce store’s merchant experience. Their active clientele consists of merchants who collaborate with them on WooCommerce projects.
Tidio is a customer communication platform with live chat, Lyro AI chatbot, ticketing, email marketing, and more. You can install Tidio in minutes, immediately offering outstanding customer service, as well as boosting customer satisfaction and skyrocketing revenue. Tidio does it all – check it out.
Offer
Get up to 30% off Tidio tools including Lyro during Black Friday.
This offer is valid from November 16th to November 28th.
Pixpa
Pixpa is an all-in-one, no-code website builder for creatives and small businesses to create beautiful, professional websites with an in-built online store, a dynamic blog, client galleries, ecommerce galleries, a photo gallery app, and marketing tools. Pixpa’s versatile platform has everything you need to showcase your work, share ideas, and sell your work online without any coding knowledge.
Planly is an all-in-one social media management tool, thanks to which you can easily manage your social media profiles across 7 platforms: Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Mastodon. It offers the following innovative features – scheduling posts via multiple platforms, AI-generated captions, hashtag suggestions, optimal posting times, comprehensive analytics, a unified digital portfolio feature called Addto.bio, and seamless integrations with Unsplash, Dropbox, and Google Drive.
Get 50% of for the first month of your subscription and 30% off for an annual subscription during Black Friday.
Booknetic
Booknetic is a WordPress appointment scheduling plugin that allows customization and automation of online bookings. With 15+ integrations, Booknetic is the perfect fit for law firms, consulting firms, fitness trainers, educational courses, medical institutions, and other business types in any industry.
Offer
Get 50% off forever and 30% off all add-ons during Black Friday.
This offer is valid from November 20th to December 2nd.
Consolto
Consolto redefines the conferencing experience for customer meetings, merging the power of live chat, appointment scheduling, and video chat into one unified platform. Tailored exclusively for enriched customer interactions, imagine the best of Zoom, Calendly, and Intercom seamlessly integrated into one transformative tool.
Offer
Get 50% off yearly subscriptions for your 1st year during Black Friday.
FooGallery
FooGallery is an easy-to-use WordPress photo gallery plugin that lets you create stunning and effective galleries. There are 3 Pro plans, from Starter to Commerce, allowing you to select the gallery features you need. The Commerce plan integrates with WooCommerce, allowing you to sell photos or products directly from your gallery.
Offer
From 15-30 November 2023, save 30% on all annual FooGallery PRO licenses for 2, 5 or 25 sites. This discount is applied to your first purchase and renewals.
Use the promo code FooBF30.
Document360
Document360 is an AI-powered knowledge base platform enabling the creation of a robust self-service knowledge base catering to both external customers and internal users. The new AI Concierge, Eddy serves as a sophisticated AI-driven search expert equipped with natural language processing (NLP) capabilities enabling users to find information quickly and accurately.
Key Features: Rich Text Editor, Version Control, Custom Domain and Branding Content Organization, Multi-language Support, Analytics and Reporting, Granular accessibility.
Offer
Save up to 50% on all annual plans.
6th Nov -8th Dec 2023
BLACKFRIDAY2023
ControlHippo
ControlHippo is a comprehensive shared inbox designed to empower businesses in seamlessly handling customer communications across diverse channels, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and beyond, all within a unified dashboard.
Offer
Get 20% off on all plans.
Use the promo code: BF20
Vadoo.tv
Vadoo.tv allows creators and brands to host videos and make marketing easy. It stands as a sophisticated video hosting platform designed with the fundamental goal of fostering the expansion of businesses and creators through harnessing the compelling potential of videos.
Offer
Use code BLACKFRIDAY30 to get 30% off the yearly Pro Plan.
Apploye
Apploye is a time tracking and employee monitoring software. It will help you manage your in-house and remote teams. Along with time tracking, Apploye includes features such as timesheets, screenshots, app, URL tracking, activity levels, payroll, invoicing, team, projects & budgets. It is suitable for small to large businesses, especially for remote teams.
Offer
Apploye presents a special 15% lifetime discount on all plans, whether you opt for monthly or annual subscriptions.
Brand24
Brand24 is an AI-driven media monitoring and social listening tool. This tool aids in capturing online brand mentions and delivers significant insights into your brand reputation. Brand24 provides a variety of data and analytics associated with the collected mentions, including: Social and non-social reach Sentiment analysis Comparisons Influential authors Context of discussions Popular hashtags It provides real-time data allowing you to track mentions of your competitors across the Internet.
Offer
Get 50% off of any plan for 3 months, paid monthly. The price will be automatically reduced on the pricing page.
CallPage
CallPage is a lead capture tool that allows visitors to a website to request a callback or schedule a meeting quickly. Using the CallPage widget, the number of leads generated from the website can increase by an average of 35%–120%, resulting in a 30-125% lead gain. Additionally, CallPage is designed to be mobile-friendly, responsive, and visually appealing on all screens.
Post Affiliate Pro is a game-changer in affiliate marketing. It’s easy to use, helping you manage programs, track conversions, and optimize commissions. You’ll soar to new heights in the digital landscape, achieving unparalleled success. The platform is the cornerstone for a thriving affiliate ecosystem, fostering partnerships and maximizing revenue opportunities. If you want to take your affiliate marketing strategy to the next level, Post Affiliate Pro is the go-to solution.
Use promo code BLACKFRIDAY75 to get 75% off any plan for 3 months.
This offer is valid from November 27th till December 15th.
Linguise
Linguise is an automatic AI translation service that offers instant translations in over 85 languages. It integrates seamlessly with popular CMS platforms on the market, including both self-hosted PHP systems like WordPress and various cloud-hosted platforms. Translating a website has never been this easy.
Offer
Get a special offer of 30% off for your multilingual website with Linguise’s automatic AI translation service on all new subscriptions with the coupon code BLACKLINGUISE.
This offer is valid through November 21st – November 27th.
JoomUnited
JoomUnited provides a large range of WordPress plugins, including the most popular advanced WordPress media manager “WP Media Folder,” and the file manager “WP File Download”.
Offer
Get a special 40% off on all memberships, including bundles and renewals with the coupon code BFJU40.
Storydoc
Storydoc is an interactive AI pitch deck creator that is a truly effective storytelling tool for startups looking to secure investments funds, sales reps struggling to engage with more prospects and marketers alike.
We hope this list saves you time by using these productivity-inducing tools and saves you money this holiday season by taking advantage of their offers! We believe all of these products deserve to be looked into as they can genuinely help with your workflow and boost your business.
No matter what industry you’re working in, you don’t want to get on the IRS’ bad side. Whether it’s misclassifying an employee by mistake, or not keeping up-to-date records, there are lots of little ways you can make mistakes with payroll.
Not to mention, with inflation on the rise, over half of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That means all it takes is one small error and you’d have (deservedly!) unhappy staff on your hands. Luckily, many common payroll errors are entirely preventable – especially if you implement strong payroll system management.
What is payroll system management?
Payroll system management encompasses the payroll process that ensures employees receive their salaries from their employers. It also involves ensuring that both the business and the employees meet any required fiscal responsibilities to state or federal authorities. These can range from Social Security and Medicare taxes to FUTA (Federal Unemployment Tax Act) payments.
There are a number of reasons why efficient payroll management is important. Not only does it keep the organization’s financial records up to date, but it also ensures that a business is complying with relevant regulations. It helps a business pay their employees on time and with the right amount, as well as covering the various tax requirements and maintaining their records. Without that efficiency, organizations can face salary claims and government penalties.
Managing these payroll challenges is essential to ensure smooth operations and compliance.
Common payroll mistakes to avoid
Mistakes happen, but payroll-related mistakes can be costly to both the business and the employee. Here are some of the most common errors – and how to avoid them.
Employee classification
One easy-to-make mistake is misclassifying the employees you have. It’s important to understand the difference between an employee and an independent contractor as the tax requirements differ between them. Generally speaking, an independent contractor would submit their own invoices, pay their own tax, and aren’t under anyone’s immediate management. However, the definition can vary from state to state.
If your payroll department is unsure how to classify a worker, they can ask the IRS to help determine status (form SS-8). Alternatively, if you have already made errors in this area, you can seek help, again from the IRS, through their Voluntary Classification Settlement Program.
Data and information mistakes are the most common type of payroll errors. One thing to note is that there are certain employee documents you are required by law to keep for four years or more:
Tax forms
Timesheets
Proof of payments
Any canceled checks
To ensure efficient payroll system management, you need the correct information. Your initial data collection happens when an employee fills out a W-2. You need to be sure the following information is accurate:
Full name. Check spelling and include any middle names. Also, update this if there is any change of name.
Social security number. Every American has a unique social security number which helps identify them.
Address. This needs to be their current home address and should be updated in your records if they move.
Date of birth.
Employment dates. Your records should show when the person started working for you and, if applicable, the date on which employment ended.
Employment details. This section should cover factors such as hourly rates, overtime rates, and any bonus details.
Additionally, make sure you have up-to-date bank details and payment methods, as missing this information can delay payments to your employees.
Missed deadlines
It’s crucial that your business complies with any set deadlines. There are two deadlines you need to consider. The first is the monthly (or biweekly) deadline set for you to deposit your share of taxes and any withholding taxes. You may face penalties of up to 15% if you miss these deadlines. There are also quarterly and annual returns that your business should file with your W-2s.
Withholding issues
Taxes can be complicated, there’s no denying that. With so many different rules and regulations to consider, it’s no surprise that there are regular issues with the withholding process. Some of the common mistakes you should be aware of include:
Erroneous calculations of deductions (both pre and post-tax).
Missing out taxable benefits such as bonuses or gift cards.
Failing to withhold taxes at the state or federal level.
Taking the wrong deductions from exempt employees.
This can be an area that causes real confusion. Your non-exempt employees, who are usually hourly ones, are entitled to overtime payments while your non-exempt ones are not. If a non-exempt employee works more than 40 hours in any given week, then you need to pay them time and a half. Trying to avoid any related obligations violates the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) and you could face a lawsuit.
There are three main conditions to meet to be classified as exempt:
Have earnings that equal or exceed $684 per week or $35,568 annually (as of August 2023).
Be in a managerial or administrative role or have a professional degree (for example, an engineer).
Be receiving a salary (or a consistent hourly schedule) where their final salary is relatively unchanged).
How your payroll management system should work
It is likely that every process within your organization has guidelines in place, and payroll management should be no different. By following these guidelines, you reduce the risk of errors and regulatory non-compliance.
Collect relevant data
Gone are the days of payroll being a purely manual process. There are now even systems that can help employers manage the payroll process for one employee! So, whatever system or software you are using, the first step is to collect and enter all the data you need to both pay any taxes and provide accurate paychecks.
Your system should be able to calculate and pay all taxes due before it processes payroll for a particular time period. The data you enter into your system should include employee grades, state and federal deductions, any applicable allowances, and details of any loans or advances made.
Additionally, consider leveraging modern technology to enhance your payroll management. Incorporating AI for accounting can streamline data entry, reduce errors, and improve overall efficiency in managing your financial and payroll records.
Compile all necessary documents
Documenting each employee should start during the onboarding process – using an online form builder that links to your payment management system can ensure your payroll department has all the necessary information. This can include:
A list of Federal withholdings that apply to your employees.
Eligibility forms that contain all the professional and personal information about each employee.
Forms for state income tax and any other relevant withholding details.
Ensure you have all the required company information
You need to make sure that all the details of your company are contained in the system. If you operate in more than one state, you also need to include every state tax ID number that applies to the locations you operate in. You also need to set the frequency of when salaries are paid, and by which method (cheque, direct deposit, etc).
Integrated time tracking
To pay the correct salaries, you need to know the hours worked by employees. Investing in time-tracking software that can be integrated can make this much easier. While it can be tempting to stick with manual time tracking, especially if you’re running payroll for small business, it can be very prone to human error.
You may operate separate company and payroll bank accounts. By linking these, and setting up compliance norms, your payroll system can reconcile all of your payroll details and can help ensure that salary payments are free of errors. It can also help you avoid potential penalties that would be applied if you failed to meet certain regulatory requirements.
Gross salary
With accurate data and a properly set up payroll management system, the first thing it will normally calculate is gross pay. It should take note of total hours worked including overtime, as well as any bonuses that may be due for that time period. This should mean that you now have a gross figure for each employee and your system can move to the next step.
Net salary
Once you have a gross figure, you can apply any deductions such as pre-tax and tax withholdings. Efficient payment system management means that these figures are deducted from the employee’s gross salary and will provide a net figure which is what employees receive.
Employer responsibilities
Your system should recognize the various employer responsibilities such as paying withheld tax, as well as employer contributions for things like Medicare and Social Security.
Regularly check that your payroll software is working properly and that any updates have been installed. Reconcile all your figures and verify their accuracy. It can be helpful if your payroll system is integrated with any accounting software you use.
Generate reports and documents
The penultimate stage in the process is to generate reports and documents and send them to any relevant departments and managers such as your finance department. If you feel overburdened by documentation, you can utilize a document-understanding solution. You should also let employees know any necessary details and if there are any expected delays.
Paycheck details
Depending on the state you operate in, you should be issuing a statement to employees when they receive their salary. These statements should show all pertinent details such as hours worked, gross and net figures, and all deductions made.
The Takeaway
It’s important to remember that efficient payroll system management is not just about complying with the various tax laws, it’s also about ensuring your employees are not inconvenienced.
With so many software solutions available, the likelihood of human error is vastly reduced. However, the employer still has a responsibility to ensure that tax deadlines are met and that accurate data is put into the system they use so that salaries are paid on time and that the figures are correct.
In today’s fast-paced digital world, TikTok has emerged as a powerhouse in the realm of social media marketing. With its rapidly growing user base and engaging content, TikTok offers a unique opportunity for businesses to showcase their products and services through TikTok ads. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know to create outstanding TikTok ads that captivate your audience and boost your brand’s visibility.
What are TikTok Ads?
TikTok ads are a form of paid advertising on the TikTok platform. They allow businesses and brands to promote their products, services, or campaigns to a vast and diverse audience of users. TikTok offers several ad formats that cater to different marketing goals, ensuring that there’s an option for every business. These ads appear seamlessly in users’ feeds, making them an integral part of the TikTok experience.
To create a successful TikTok marketing strategy, it’s essential to understand the various ad formats available. Here are the primary types of TikTok ads:
1. In-Feed Ads
In-feed ads are short video ads that appear in users’ feeds as they scroll through the app. These ads are skippable and can be up to 60 seconds long. They are a fantastic option for increasing brand awareness and engagement.
2. Branded Hashtag Challenges
Branded hashtag challenges encourage users to create content related to your brand or campaign. These challenges often go viral, amplifying your reach. They can include a banner on the Discover page to drive participation.
3. Branded Effects
Branded effects involve creating custom filters and effects that users can use in their videos. This interactive approach increases user engagement with your brand.
4. TopView Ads
TopView ads are the first thing users see when they open the TikTok app. These are 60-second videos that grab the user’s attention and can lead to higher click-through rates.
5. Branded AR Content
Augmented reality (AR) ads allow users to interact with your product in a virtual environment. These ads can be highly immersive and drive user engagement.
TikTok ads’ cost can vary widely based on factors like your target audience, ad format, and campaign objectives. On average, businesses can expect to pay between $10 and $300 per 1000 views (CPM) for in-feed ads. Branded hashtag challenges may cost anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000, depending on the level of promotion you require. Remember that TikTok allows you to set a daily or lifetime budget to control your spending.
TikTok Ad Specs
Each type of TikTok ad has specific requirements to ensure your content displays correctly and effectively. Here are the general ad specifications you need to keep in mind:
Aspect Ratio: 9:16 is the recommended aspect ratio for TikTok ads.
Video Length: Most TikTok ads should be between 15 to 60 seconds in length.
File Format: Use MP4 or MOV video file formats.
Resolution: A minimum resolution of 720p is recommended for high-quality visuals.
File Size: Keep your video file size below 500MB.
Sound: Ensure your ad works both with and without sound, as many users watch videos on mute.
Captions: Include clear and concise captions for accessibility.
How to Set Up a TikTok Ad Campaign
Creating a TikTok ad campaign involves several steps:
1. Create a TikTok Ads Account
Go to TikTok Ads Manager and sign up for an account.
Verify your email address and complete your profile.
2. Select Your Campaign Objective
Choose the primary goal of your campaign, such as website clicks, app installations, or video views.
3. Define Your Target Audience
Specify the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your target audience to reach the right users.
4. Set Your Budget and Schedule
Determine your daily or lifetime budget and choose your campaign start and end dates.
5. Choose Ad Format
Select the most suitable ad format for your campaign goals.
6. Plan Your Ad Ahead
Use a task tracker to organize and schedule your ad creation process efficiently.
7. Create Ad Creative
Develop compelling video content that aligns with your chosen ad format and campaign objectives.
8. Launch Your Campaign
Review your campaign settings and creative, then launch your TikTok ad campaign.
9. Monitor and Optimize
Continuously monitor your campaign’s performance and make adjustments to improve results.
5 TikTok Ads Examples
To inspire your TikTok ad creation, let’s take a look at five standout TikTok ad examples:
1. Fenty Beauty’s In-Feed Ad
Fenty Beauty’s in-feed ad showcased their makeup products with a catchy soundtrack, capturing the essence of their brand.
2. Guess’s Branded Hashtag Challenge
Guess encouraged users to participate in a branded challenge, driving user-generated content and engagement.
3. NBA’s Branded AR Content
The NBA used augmented reality to let users virtually dunk a basketball, creating an immersive ad experience.
4. GrubHub’s TopView Ad
GrubHub’s TopView ad presented mouth-watering food visuals to promote their food delivery service.
5. Pepsi’s Branded Effects
Pepsi created custom filters that turned users into dancing emojis, adding a fun and interactive element to their ad campaign.
TikTok Advertising Best Practices
To make your TikTok ads truly great, follow these best practices:
Keep it Short and Sweet: TikTok users have short attention spans, so make your content engaging from the start.
Use Popular Music: Incorporate trending songs to increase the chances of your ad going viral.
User-Generated Content: Encourage user-generated content through challenges and contests.
Tell a Story: Craft a compelling narrative or showcase a unique aspect of your product.
Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your ad looks and works well on mobile devices.
A/B Testing: Experiment with different ad creatives to discover what resonates best with your audience.
Engage with Comments: Respond to user comments to foster a sense of community and trust.
Conclusion
TikTok ads are a dynamic and effective way to promote your brand to a vast and engaged audience. By understanding the various ad formats, following best practices, and continuously optimizing your campaigns, you can create great TikTok ads that resonate with users and drive business growth in 2023 and beyond. So, seize the opportunity and let your creativity shine on TikTok!
Imagine you’ve just launched a fantastic new app and then boom! Overnight, it’s a hit. Thousands, maybe even millions, flock to download it. You’re thrilled, but then reality sets in. Your servers start groaning under the pressure and the dreaded “Server Unavailable” messages start popping up.
In the online world, patience is rare, and users will switch to a competitor at the slightest inconvenience.
The key to avoiding such pitfalls lies in one crucial concept – scalability. But scalability isn’t just about bracing for an avalanche of users. It’s about ensuring your application boasts quick page loads, zero downtime, and flawless user experience, no matter the number of users.
So, if you’re ready to elevate your app game, keep reading as we deep-dive into eight techniques so your application thrives as it grows. Let’s get started!
What is application scaling?
Think of scalability like a high-speed elevator in a skyscraper. It’s all about getting you from the ground floor (your app’s launch) to the penthouse suite (massive user growth) smoothly and efficiently.
If you’re wondering why scaling matters, it ensures that your application can seamlessly adapt to changing circumstances, such as increased demand, improved performance, cost-effectiveness, resilience, and future-proofing your business.
When it comes to constructing this high-speed elevator for your application, you generally have two paths:
Vertical scaling: Akin to swapping out your current elevator with a more powerful one. You’re essentially enhancing the capabilities of your existing server, adding more speed, power, and capacity to the system you already have. It’s a quick fix but has limits – there’s only so much you can upgrade a single machine.
Horizontal scaling: Imagine if, instead of upgrading your existing elevator, you decide to install multiple new ones. You’re essentially adding more servers to distribute the work. This approach is more flexible but requires strategic architecture to manage the increased complexity.
Remember, don’t start thinking about scalability when your elevator is already jam-packed. Plan for it right from the design phase. Ignoring scalability during these stages is like building a skyscraper on a shaky foundation. Sooner or later, it’ll crumble under the weight of its own success.
Finding slow points in your applications
Before you start tinkering with your application’s scalability, you should identify the bottlenecks slowing you down. Imagine your high-speed elevator is now experiencing delays – you wouldn’t just start replacing cables or motors without knowing what’s causing the slowdown, right?
Identifying bottlenecks is the diagnostic phase where you pinpoint the weaknesses that could hamper performance when you scale. Thankfully, various tools and methods can help:
Performance monitoring tools: Software like New Relic or Grafana provides real-time insights into your application’s performance, helping you identify slow database queries, memory leaks, or CPU limitations.
Message queuing: For applications that deal with real-time data processing, using a message broker like RabbitMQ helps isolate bottlenecks related to message handling.
Load testing: Use tools like Apache JMeter or LoadRunner to simulate high traffic and monitor how your application responds. This can expose weak points that may not be visible under normal conditions.
Code profiling: Tools like VisualVM for Java or Py-Spy for Python allow you to analyze the code execution, helping you find broken algorithms that could slow you down.
Understanding where the bottlenecks are is the first step toward effective scaling. Once you know what you’re up against, tailoring your scaling strategy to combat these issues is easy.
8 Must-know techniques to scale your web applications
In web development – ensuring applications adapt to user demand is as crucial as a morning cup of coffee. To help lift your web app’s performance, here are eight techniques for you to consider:
1. Load balancing
Load balancing orchestrates the distribution of incoming network or application traffic across multiple servers, ensuring no single server gets overwhelmed. This is important for complex e-commerce platforms like Magento enterprise hosting, where high traffic volumes are the norm.
Load balancing allows for better resource utilization, maximizes throughput, and minimizes response time. Popular strategies include:
Round robin: Distributes requests sequentially to each server in the list.
Least connections: Routes new requests to the server with the fewest current connections.
IP Hash: Directs requests from the same IP address to the same server, ensuring session persistence.
By effectively distributing the traffic, load balancing enhances performance and makes your application more resilient.
2. Database sharding
Sharding your database is another effective technique for making your application scalable. In this approach, you distribute a single dataset across multiple databases. This means handling all read requests is divided among several databases called “shards” rather than overloading a single one.
Both horizontal and vertical scaling play a role. With horizontal scaling, you introduce new nodes to help distribute read operations. In contrast, vertical scaling involves beefing up a single database server by adding more CPUs or increasing the RAM and storage capacity.
Caching is like keeping a notepad of your most frequently used calculations. Instead of re-doing the math every time, you can refer to your notepad for quick answers. In applications, caching stores copies of frequently accessed data in “high-speed” storage, allowing rapid data retrieval.
Types of caching include:
Data caching: Stores pieces of data to reduce redundant data operations.
Full-page caching: Stores the entire HTML of a page to avoid repetitive rendering.
Caching improves application performance by reducing the need to fetch data from the source repeatedly, thereby saving time and resources.
4. Microservice architecture
In a microservices architecture, each component focuses on a specific function and operates independently. This architectural approach boasts several benefits, such as easier debugging processes, the flexibility to use different technologies for different services, and increased resilience for your overall system.
5. Asynchronous processing
Asynchronous processing allows for the distribution of tasks to be handled independently of the main application thread. This means heavier tasks can be processed in the background, freeing up the application to handle other tasks in real-time.
For example, tasks like image uploads can consume vast resources and time if processed sequentially. By using asynchronous processes, tasks can be offloaded to background processes. Thereby improving the overall performance and efficiency of your application.
6. Autoscaling
Autoscaling is a technique that dynamically allocates resources according to the real-time needs of an application. This involves adjusting resources like CPU and RAM on the fly to meet demand.
Cloud platforms such as AWS Auto Scaling or Google Cloud’s Compute Engine offer easy-to-implement autoscaling solutions. These platforms allow you to set predefined policies to automatically scale resources up or down, ensuring your application performs optimally.
A Content Delivery Network, or CDN, is a network of servers that communicate to deliver internet content more quickly. These servers store copies of your application’s resources and are located near end-users. This minimizes the distance the data travels – improving access times.
The use of a CDN is crucial for scalability. It shortens the load on your primary server by distributing traffic across multiple locations. Users experience quicker load times and reduced latency, which enhances their overall experience.
By effectively managing sudden traffic surges, a CDN ensures that your web application remains robust and scalable.
8. Optimize code and queries
Optimizing your application’s code and database queries is crucial for optimal performance. As your application scales, inefficient code can quickly become a significant bottleneck. This leads to slow load times and poor user experience.
Various tools assist in identifying these inefficiencies. Query analyzers help locate slow database queries, while code profiling tools identify which parts of the code are resource-intensive.
Best practices for optimization include database indexes and caching frequently-used queries. These measures enhance your application’s performance and allow for more efficient use of server resources. In the long run, this makes your application far more scalable.
The benefits of application scalability
Improved performance: Handles increased traffic without slowing down, enhancing user experience. Faster load times significantly improve customer satisfaction and overall engagement.
Cost-effectiveness: Optimized server usage reduces operational costs as you only pay for the resources used. This leads to better financial efficiency, freeing up your budget for other business needs.
Resilience and high availability: Distributed resources across multiple servers improve system reliability and minimize downtime – ensuring your application remains accessible during peak usage or server failures.
Easier management and updates: Scalable architecture allows for easy deployment of updates and new features with minimal disruption. This flexibility simplifies ongoing maintenance and enhances the agility of your development team.
Future-proofing: A scalable system can grow and adapt, making it easier to meet evolving needs and market changes, thereby protecting your investment.
Your scaling journey begins here
So, let’s bring it back to that elevator, shall we? Just like a top-notch elevator must adapt to varying levels of demand, so must your scaling strategies. Remember, scaling isn’t a one-time event but rather a continuous journey.
As your user base expands and technology evolves, your scaling strategies should adapt to meet new challenges. By staying committed to ongoing iteration and optimization, you’re ensuring that your application remains speedy, resilient, and cost-effective.
