A power of attorney (POA) has certain authority if the principal becomes incapacitated and allows their business operations to run uninterrupted.
A power of attorney is an important piece of document that legally appoints and allows an agent or attorney to make decisions on the principal’s behalf. Depending on the type of POA, an agent will have the authority over a set of matters. This could be related to healthcare, finances, business, or even legal matters.
A POA is activated when the principal or owner is unable to make decisions on his own due to illness, incapacity, or other specified reasons. People with long-term goals need to plan out all the uncertainties. A power of attorney can be extremely useful for switching a set of responsibilities to someone you trust for a limited time.
The POA used to secure or protect your business is called the Lasting Power of Attorney or LPA. It allows an agent to make decisions related to the principal’s business interests when they are unable to or are suffering from mental incapacity. A business LPA is different from financial and property LPAs.
General power of attorneys is widely used in businesses to handle a range of business decisions. Furthermore, a business LPA is an extended version of it that gives the appointed agent more authority over managing business interests, risks, and personal finances.
A business LPA remains effective even after the death of the principal, and it can be extremely helpful in mitigating business risks when the founder or owner is incapacitated. It can also protect the business’s future claims and insurance costs. If you are wondering how to obtain power of attorney, it is pretty straightforward. Contact an estate planning lawyer, and they will guide you the way.
Why Do You Need a Business LPA?
Let’s dive into the specifics of actually why, how, and when a business LPA can secure your business.
According to the Mental Health Act of 2013, partnerships or companies cannot remove someone from the board of directors based on mental incapacity. This means mentally unstable people can make important business decisions and people will have to abide by them.
This is further bolstered by the Equality Act of 2011. This act prevents discrimination against partners or directors on the grounds of mental disability. This leaves the company in a grey area. Thus, it is extremely risky to leave important decision-making to an incapacitated person. If you have a business lasting power of attorney, you can hand over those roles and responsibilities to someone in a stable condition.
What Happens to Your Business?
Assuming you have become incapacitated and do not have an LPA or POA, what happens to your business now?
First, all decision-making activities will be postponed, and your partners will be put in a difficult situation. Your shareholder’s agreement and company’s working capital and operating agreements will need your input for any decisions. Since you will temporarily be unable to make these decisions, your company will come to a standstill. If this goes on any longer, banks will freeze your accounts, cease overdraft facilities, and call in loans.
What Happens to Your Family?
This directly affects your family as well. If you become incapacitated without an LPA or a power of attorney, then you will have to legally appoint someone to act on the incapacitated person’s behalf.
This procedure is called guardianship. It is usually time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally challenging to appoint someone during that time. Also, the process of guardianship varies from state to state. Without a pre-organized LPA, your entire business can come to a standstill for an undefined period.
How to Choose a Business LPA
The most important trait of your chosen attorney will be loyalty. They have to decide what is best for you and the company. Your attorney will be responsible for all of your business affairs. If you wish to appoint multiple attorneys, they can work individually, but in some instances, they will also have to work together, so communication is another important trait.
Last, they will need the right skill sets, knowledge, and qualifications to manage your business affairs. Without being competent, they may become subject to claim because of their unsuitability.
Multiple people can benefit from creating a business lasting power of attorney such as the following:
Partners
Partnership agreements usually consult about provisions related to incapacity. Since the equality act and mental health act prevent the process of removing a partner with mental incapacity, partners can consider each other as business LPAs. This works for general, limited, and limited liability partners, and the right business partner can ensure everything runs smoothly even in your absence.
Sole Traders
Unlike corporations, sole proprietorship businesses do not have a separate entity. So, if the owner suddenly becomes ill or suffers from mental incapacity, risks could infiltrate the business.
Company Directors
You can no longer issue a court order to remove a director suffering from an incapacity. They can be removed from the position by a shareholders meeting, but even then, they will be given the chance to defend themselves. Again, the discrimination and equality act can prevent this from happening. To protect the company’s best interests, it would be wise to simply arrange a business LPA before any unfortunate incidents.
How to Arrange an LPA
Organizing a business LPA is pretty straightforward. First, you will have to complete and sign an LPF1 form. Signing take place under the presence of the chosen attorney, a certificate provider, and a witness. The OPG, or Office of the Public Guardian, registers the form.
It’s important to make sure your LPA states that your attorney only has authority over your business affairs.
Final Thoughts
A business lasting power of attorney protects your business from unexpected risks. It protects the company’s best interests. So, even without the presence of the owner, an attorney can handle the operations and ensure stable conditions.
Successful completion of a construction project takes more than discussing it at the dining table. A manager also has to develop solid strategies that account for all the project’s complexities and provide valid solutions that bring the desired results.
Are you managing a construction project and want to ensure you don’t make any blunders? Then keep reading this article to learn about five common mistakes managers of construction projects must avoid.
1. Not Having a Proper Plan for Your Construction Project
The most important thing you need to make your construction project a success is an actionable plan. But if you and your team don’t know what you want to achieve with your construction plan, your project will be a complete mess.
Additionally, it’s always better gain clarity about the final goal you want to achieve. As with many other things, you can use technology to plan your construction project with construction project management software. This software will ensure that you miss no details, and you will therefore complete your project on time.
2. Not Using a Risk-Management Process
One of the essentials of project management is keeping the risk factors in mind. It’s quite natural to fall short of your project expectations, and you might even have to face unexpected problems. So how can you ensure that you continue your project and complete it when this happens?
The only way you can lead your team toward successfully completing your construction project is by having a proper risk-management plan. This plan will allow you to account for any sudden changes in the workflow. Then you will be able to overcome such hurdles by falling back on the planning you did earlier.
3. Failing to Train Construction Project Employees
The rapid pace at which industries are developing in today’s world calls for specific attention. Therefore, there is no benefit to working with strategies that don’t bring desired results. Moreover, they will keep you from enjoying the wonders of the latest technologies.
So how can you ensure that everyone involved in the project knows about the latest developments in the construction industry? The best way to ensure this is to train your employees. To this end, hold regular training sessions in which you let your employees know about recent developments in the construction industry. Naturally, this also means you’ll need to keep up with your own career training as well.
Managers sometimes make the mistake of thinking they know everything about the construction industry and the project at hand. Therefore, they don’t find it necessary to take suggestions from members of their teams. But the problem with this approach is that it rarely leads to the successful completion of a project.
To avoid this type of scenario, work to improve communication with and among your team. Find out what your workers and colleagues know about the progress of the project. Continuing the feedback loop and listening to the opinions of others will allow you to better lead the project toward success. What’s more, it will also enable you to learn things you didn’t know before about the construction workflow on this particular project.
5. Not Listening to Construction Project Field Workers
Who spends their whole day in the field working toward the successful completion of your project? Your field workers, that’s who. And it’s essential for you to stay in touch with the people who are working on the project. This will ensure that you don’t miss out on any important details.
Field workers have a better sense of where on the path a project is at any given time. In fact, they often have a much better understanding of the project than a manager does, especially if the manager sits in an air-conditioned office making uninformed decisions.
So never underestimate the importance of listening to feedback from your field workers. Get their thoughts and opinions about aiming toward the completion of the project every single day. Only in this way will you have a full understanding of what works and what doesn’t.
Hey Divi Nation! Thanks for joining us for the next installment of our weekly Divi Design Initiative where each week, we give away brand new freebies. This Monday, we shared a brand new Dietitian Layout Pack. To help you get your website up and running as soon as possible, we’re sharing a global header & footer template that matches this layout pack perfectly as well! Hope you enjoy it.
Check Out The Dietitian Global Header & Footer Template Below
Download The Global Header & Footer Template For The Dietitian Layout Pack
To lay your hands on the free global header & footer template, you will first need to download it using the button below. To gain access to the download you will need to subscribe to our Divi Daily email list by using the form below. As a new subscriber, you will receive even more Divi goodness and a free Divi Layout pack every Monday! If you’re already on the list, simply enter your email address below and click download. You will not be “resubscribed” or receive extra emails.
Join the Divi Newsletter and we will email you a copy of the ultimate Divi Landing Page Layout Pack, plus tons of other amazing and free Divi resources, tips and tricks. Follow along and you will be a Divi master in no time. If you are already subscribed simply type in your email address below and click download to access the layout pack.
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How to Upload The Template
Go to Divi Theme Builder
To upload the template, navigate to the Divi Theme Builder in the backend of your WordPress website.
Upload Global Default Website Template
Then, in the top right corner, you’ll see an icon with two arrows. Click on the icon.
Navigate to the import tab, upload the JSON file which you were able to download in this post and click on ‘Import Divi Theme Builder Templates’.
Save Divi Theme Builder Changes
Once you’ve uploaded the file, you’ll notice a new global header and footer in your default website template. Save the Divi Theme Builder changes as soon as you want the template to be activated.
How to Modify The Template
Open Header Template
To modify the global header template’s elements, start by opening the template.
Select Menu of Choice
Select a menu of your choice in the Menu Module.
Add CTA Link URLs
This header has a button on the top right. Open the settings of each to update the link URL to the destination of your choice.
Update Social Media Follow Links
You will also need to update the social media follow module with your own networks and account URLs.
Open Footer Template
Continue by opening the global footer inside the default website template.
Update Email Optin with Email Account/List
Then, update the Email Optin with an Email Account and List.
Update Footer Content
You will also need to go through and update the content of the footer, including adding your own text, link URLs, and social media networks. Don’t forget about the copyright text at the bottom of the footer as well.
New Freebies Every Week!
We hope you’ve enjoyed the Dietitian Layout Pack and the Header & Footer freebie that goes along with it. We look forward to hearing your opinions in the comment section below. Make sure you check back next week for more freebies!
WordPress offers a wide variety of user roles and capabilities. You can have Administrators, Authors, Editors, and more on your site. What’s more, if you use WooCommerce you get access to even more options. Understanding what WooCommerce roles and capabilities are available is key if you’re going to build a successful online store.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to the WooCommerce roles and capabilities you need to know. We’ll discuss the new roles the plugin adds, and what permissions they have access to.
Let’s get to it!
What Are WordPress User Roles?
By default, WordPress ships with six pre-defined user roles. These are classifications that you can assign to each new account on your website. At the top of the pyramid, there’s the administrator, who has full control over every setting and option within your website.
Each user role comes with its own set of permissions. While the administrator can do whatever he or she wants, most of the user roles have very limited permissions for security reasons. Here’s a quick overview of the rest of the default WordPress user roles:
Editor: The editor can access and update other users’ posts, delete them, moderate comments, and more.
Author: This user role can publish new content or delete their own, but they can’t edit other users’ posts.
Contributor: This user role can edit or delete specific posts and read others, but that’s it.
Subscriber: With this user role, you only get to read posts, but you can’t edit them in any way.
The default WordPress user roles are geared towards blogging. Having clearly defined roles is key to a content-focused website with multiple users, as it enables you to decide who has access to what data and who can modify each page and post.
A lot of WordPress plugins add new user roles and capabilities, in order to better serve non-blogging purposes. You can even create new roles manually and assign them any permissions you want. With WooCommerce, you get access to two new user roles, which we’re going to explore in the next section.
An Introduction to WooCommerce User Roles and Capabilities
The WooCommerce plugin takes WordPress and transforms it into an e-commerce platform. You don’t lose access to any of the CMS’ core features, instead getting the new features and functionality needed to build an online storefront.
The same applies to user roles. WooCommerce doesn’t delete any existing roles, but it does add two new options to the roster. Those new WooCommerce user roles are:
Customer: A customer is the WooCommerce version of a Subscriber. This type of account can access products, edit account information, and review past orders.
Shop manager: The WooCommerce shop manager is similar to the default Editor role. Shop managers can manage WooCommerce settings, create and edit products, and access shop reports.
Beyond the core capabilities of the Shop manager role, those users also have access to all the permissions that regular customers do. As a rule of thumb, “higher” user roles have the permissions of lower roles, as well as additional capabilities.
It’s worth noting that although WooCommerce sets up a new Customer role, you can enable visitors to make purchases without signing up on your site. Those users are “guests”, and don’t have a specific user role or capabilities beyond the ability to navigate your site and buy from you:
Whether you enable users to buy from your store without signing up is a personal choice. Enabling guest checkout can lead to additional sales, but it also means you miss out on collecting user data that you can leverage for marketing purposes.
What About Additional WooCommerce User Roles and Capabilities?
WooCommerce is an incredibly popular plugin, with hundreds of other plugins designed to extend its functionality. A lot of those tools add new WooCommerce user roles and capabilities of their own, giving you access to new features.
One example is wholesale plugins. In most cases, these solutions include new user roles designed specifically for wholesale customers, so you can assign special pricing for them:
Generally speaking, WooCommerce works well enough with its two core user roles. If an extension adds new user roles into the mix, we recommend that you check out its documentation carefully to understand what capabilities and permissions those roles will have access to. That way, you’ll know exactly what role to assign to each user.
Frequently Asked Questions About WooCommerce User Roles
As you can see, WooCommerce user roles are pretty simple. However, there are a few frequently asked questions about how these user roles fit into WordPress. Let’s go over those questions now.
Do Users Need to Register to Buy From My Store?
WooCommerce adds a new user role called Customer to your site. Regular users who register on your website are assigned that role by default, and they can buy products, check out past purchases, and edit account information. However, WooCommerce also includes a feature that enables non-registered users to buy from your store.
Should I Assign a Shop Manager In WooCommerce?
If you run a WooCommerce store on your own, you can simply use your Administrator account, which has access to all the permissions that shop managers do. However, if you want to designate someone else to create and update products, they’ll need to have the Shop Manager user role.
How Do I Assign WooCommerce User Roles and Capabilities?
The WordPress Users tab enables you to edit any user’s account information. When you do this, you’ll be able to change their role if you have administrative privileges.
Conclusion
WooCommerce user roles and capabilities are very straightforward. The plugin adds two new roles to choose from, bringing the total set of defualt options from six to eight. However, there are plenty of other plugins that can add new WooCommerce user roles, depending on what features you’re looking for.
Here’s a quick review of the two user roles that WooCommerce adds to WordPress:
Customer: These are regular users who can make purchases, edit their profiles, and review past transactions.
Shop manager: This type of user can create and update items, access sales reports, and change WooCommerce settings.
Do you have any questions about WooCommerce user roles and capabilities? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!
Featured Image via Graphic farm / shutterstock.com
PWA or Progressive Web Applications is a modern and high-tech concept that was developed by Google in 2015. With the help of PWA, the owner can turn his web resource into a convenient app that will work directly from the browser of the mobile device. In order to integrate Magento 2 PWA, you need to […]
