Ask the experts

Do you have a burning question that you would like the answer to? Or maybe you’re looking for some advice to help your business? In each edition some questions will be shared and answered by some of The Business Bulletin experts.

Q. Is GDPR still important?

A. Short answer to the question is… yes! It’s always going to be relevant until the government makes any changes to the law. Long answer to the question is…yes! GDPR is now more relevant now than it has ever been. GDPR is part of UK law and will stay that way for some time to come. Now that we have seen a massive increase in people working from home and given that in many cases the move from office to home based working was rushed through due to the UK Lockdown in March 2020, many businesses have not considered how their staff are accessing and storing data whilst working from home.

The are many things to consider when working from home. To give a brief list

1. Equipment being used.

2. Method of accessing company data i.e secure home wifi or a VPN

3. Location of equipment while not in use i.e. overnight

4. Other devices on a home wifi network.

The list goes on and on. All of the above and more will be factors in any data breach that a company might have to deal with if/when they have a breach.

If a company is not taking its GDPRand cyber Security seriously duringthese uncertain times then they areleaving themselves wide open to adata breach and a fine.

Chris Lambert Datasense Consulting

A. Yes, all businesses out there shouldbe GDPR compliant. It’s nothing morethan a best practice to follow to handlepersonal data carefully and effectively.

I strongly recommend the GDPRpolicies and audits to make sure that

you and your business follow theguidance as closely as possible andplease don’t overcomplicate the thingsas GDPR is quite simple to follow.

Ashish Kumar Web Alliance

Q. Should I have a will?

A. The short answer is yes, primarilybecause it makes it easier for thoseyou leave behind.

A will allows you to make provisionfor the inevitable and to ensurethat your wishes are known. A well

considered will should appointexecutors who are the people whosort everything out after your death.It is the executors responsibility tocollect in your assets, pay any debtsand ensure that your instructionswithin the will are followed.

Your will should also appointguardians for minor children and setout your wishes in relation to personalpossessions, including pets as well asdealing with your financial assets.

During the planning you shouldconsider any potential tax liability andalso any vulnerable beneficiaries thatyou need to protect. You should alsoconsider any potential challenges toyour will and also the different waysin which provision can be made forpeople to ensure that your estateultimately ends up where you wantit to. Passing away without a will cancause all sorts of problems, particularlyfor couples who are not married or ina civil partnership or for those peoplewith young children or blendedfamilies. The law sets out who willbenefit from the estate of a personwho dies without a will and theserules only recognise relationships ofblood, marriage, civil partnership andlegal adoption.

Rosie Wright Brixworth Wills

Q. How do I choose a CRM system?

A. Which CRM to use is really dependent upon the actual requirement of the company and which stage the business currently is at.

For start-ups with no employees and no idea of the requirements then Google sheet or Excel spreadsheets can do the trick because they offer the following benefit:

■ Easy to use and cost effective

■ Define data structure

■ Ideal for small teams

■ Low maintenance

■ Generate and manage graphs/ charts

■ Generate basic documents like invoices, quotes, etc.

■ Work well with reasonable amount of data

■ No database knowledge needed

Once the business is past the initial stage, then it can look for more stable off-the-shelf systems. When selecting an off-the-shelf CRM browse through variety of options available such as:

■ Pipedrive

■ HubSpot

■ Capsule

■ Zoho

■ Salesforce

■ Sugar CRM

■ Microsoft Dynamics

You may find that an off-the-shelfsystem doesn’t match your businessrequirements. You may then decidethat a bespoke solution could be thebest option – something that canbe designed to exactly match yourbusiness processes and systems.

Ashish Kumar Web Alliance

Got a question?

If you have a question – thenemail us and these expertswill set about answering it foryou. It can be on any businesstopic you like, be it finance,sales, marketing, operations,resources, strategy or personaldevelopment.

If you would like a moreimmediate response, then raiseyour question on the “Ask TheExperts” forum.