Inheritance tax is due at 40% on anything above the threshold of £325,000 with a reduced rate of 36% if the person leaves more than 10% of their estate to charity. The rules around trusts are complex, and will require that you seek professional advice, but can be a way of reducing your inheritance tax liability.
When we think about great companies, like Apple, Google and Microsoft, we think of excellence in terms of results and performance year after year.
We forget that they weren’t always the giants they have become. So what is it that has set them apart form other startup companies? We’d argue that their biggest asset is their incredible company culture. If you want to be more successful, you have to build a culture. The culture you create impacts everything that you do and how you do it.
Here’s how to do it:
- Have a written statement that outlines what you believe in (your mission) and where you are headed (your vision). Get this right and your team will buy in, and support it.
- Communicate it! You can do this through team meetings, one-to-one calls and by email.
- Develop behavioural standards. If your mission is to be a world class provider, then what does that mean in terms of how your team interacts with customers in person, over the phone, by email? What observable, measurable standards should your team adopt? A smile when they meet clients? Answering the phone by the 3rd ring?
- Implementing behavioural standards training. Obsessively train staff on their standards and measure how they deliver against them.
- Introduce rewards and consequences. In practice you will need to reinforce these behaviours. Consistently rewarding performance for meeting and exceeding the standards and taking employees to task that don’t will quickly start to ensure standards are maintained.
- Include your mission, vision and behavioural standards into your performance reviews. People only pay attention to what gets measured and evaluated.
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