Demystifying the Duty of a Company Secretary in Hong Kong

17 June 2020

The Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, Chapter 622, makes it mandatory for every company to be registered in Hong Kong to have a company secretary. So important is the company secretary that indeed, your company will not be registered without one. In this post, we will look at the duties of a company secretary in a Hong Kong company.

What is a Company Secretary?

First, it is important to appreciate that a company secretary is completely different from common clerks who do clerical work. According to the Companies Ordinance, a company secretary is a senior officer in a company who is responsible for efficient administration, especially with respect to ensuring compliance with statutory requirements. So, you need to ensure that only the most qualified and committed person gets the job.

The Main Duties of Company Secretary

From the definition of a company secretary, there is no doubt that the roles he does and how he does them will greatly impact the company’s success. So, let us start by understanding the duties of a company secretary.

Fulfilling the Company’s Tax Obligation

When opening a company in Hong Kong, it is important to understand that the administration runs a business economy because the registered enterprises serve as the primary source of revenue. Therefore, the administration takes tax matters very seriously. Your company secretary is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the company meets all its tax obligations. Some of these obligations include:

Overseeing the filing of the tax returns correctly and on time.
Seeking additional approval or clarifications on tax-related matters.
Registering the company with IRD (Inland Revenue Department).

Keeping Statutory Books

The Hong Kong Companies Ordinance also designates the company secretary as the custodian of the statutory books. This implies that the secretary should have every document that the government might need to inspect. In addition to keeping these books of account, the company secretary is also responsible for:

Updating the details on statutory books.
Producing and distributing company accounts and reports.

Planning and Attending Company Meetings

As we indicated earlier, the company secretary is involved with top-level management, and one of that roles is planning the company’s meetings. This is considered an important role because it is in these meetings that actions to be taken on different areas, such as books of accounts and employment, are made. Here is a breakdown of these duties:

Organize board meetings.
Participate in board meetings.
Prepare the agenda of the company meetings.
Implement the decisions made during meetings in compliance with laws.
Advise the company on compliance with the law.

Other Duties of a Company Secretary

While the roles we have outlined above are considered the core for a company secretary, they are not the only ones. Other administrative duties include:

Communicating with shareholders, the Stock Exchange, and regulatory bodies on behalf of the company.
Observing the company developments and giving advice to the board of directors.
Guiding the company through the process of liquidation.

If you are planning to incorporate a company in Hong Kong, the position of a company secretary is very important and should only be entrusted to a qualified and experienced person. With the best company secretary, you can rest assured that the business will make the best decisions and grow into the multinational of your dreams.

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Mashum Mollah

Mashum Mollah is the feature writer of Search Engine Magazine and an SEO Analyst at Real Wealth Business. Over the last 3 years, He has successfully developed and implemented online marketing, SEO, and conversion campaigns for 50+ businesses of all sizes. He is the co-founder of Social Media Magazine.

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Importance Of A Project Manager In An Organization

A Project manager is a person who plays a major role in planning, executing, controlling, monitoring, and closing out projects. They are responsible for leading and managing the project with the project team on a day-to-day basis. Companies in healthcare, software development, education, insurance, finance, marketing, real estate, and many more need project managers. Every business needs a project manager that has a PMP Certification. A person who will have a combination of skills to detect unstated assumptions, resolve conflicts to make a project successful. Leadership Without a project manager, a team can be like a ship without a rudder, moving without any direction and purpose. Leadership makes team members bring out their best work. The project manager provides leadership, motivation and inspires the team to put out their best work. The project manager serves as the line of accountability of the team and the project. With the project manager, there will be no conflict between who’s in charge and control of the work. They keep everyone in a direction and ultimately carry responsibility if the project fails or succeeds. Better business decisions With the presence of a project manager, they will be a person that will keep a clear record of the progress of the project. They have that deeper understanding of where to spend the resources, what needs to focus on, and when. A good project manager forecasts issues before they become issues. make smarter and data-driven decisions. Quality assurance There’s always enormous pressure to complete the project on time. Where deadlines get missed, the schedule gets tight, workload increases. All this results in poor quality work. The project manager is the one who makes sure that everything is in control and there’s no unnecessary last moment rush. A good project manager manages the time in a way that gives control over the timelines and resources. Methodologies like Agile separate phases for examining and testing by ensuring the quality of the product. Project success The project manager helps to scale high performance and build on the team’s best practices. By using the learnings and experience from previous projects, they will pinpoint where the team is lacking and excelling. Clear strategy and objectives The project manager ensures that there’s a proper plan for executing strategic goals. Without a project manager, the team will not have proper briefs and a Project management methodology. You can achieve a project management methodology with Project Management Professional Training. Project managers position themselves where they break up a project into tasks for the team. This makes sure to prevent any situation where they are not able to do the tasks. They organize a weekly or lunch or happy hour to keep them productive and happy. Risk management The project manager ensures that any risks are properly managed and works on them to avoid becoming issues. Risk management is critical to project success. Especially in complex projects, the value of project management comes into play in dealing with the risk without any hustle. A project manager carefully analyzes all the potential risks, evaluates them, and reduces them eventually. It needs to know the right questions to raise to discover risks early. Schematic process The project manager ensures the right person to do the right things, at the right time. They ensure proper project management. A project manager with PMP certification will know proper planning and process can make a big difference by knowing the team’s strengths and weaknesses. The proper process helps to clarify roles, inputs, expect risks and align project continuity. Without a project manager’s organized process, companies risk project failure, weakening of business relationships. Project managers turn to timesheets to remain on track. Budgeting For small-scale projects, cost estimation is necessary. Cost estimation maybe a weekly or even monthly task. It is the role of the project manager to make sure to raise the budget, resource allocation, scope, and other miscellaneous issues. Customer satisfaction Retaining clients is more important than getting new ones. a guaranteed way of doing it by offering good services. A project manager focuses on quality and efficiency which would leave the clients satisfied. This means more business in the future from the client. Communication with clients or stakeholders can take many forms, weekly or monthly reports, regular updates, emails, calls, or meetings. A satisfied client refers the organization to other potential businessmen. Free marketing! Conclusion A project manager creates and makes the team happy and motivated. A project manager must have the necessary skills to execute tasks. Without a project manager, the team and client will be exposed to a chaotic environment, unclear objectives, and failure of the project. Read Also: Top Ways Contract Management Software Helps to Mitigate Contract Risk Why Should I Get Started With Event Management Software? Which Marketing Mix Element Deals Specifically With Retailing And Marketing Channel Management?

5 Ways Construction Businesses Can Gain New Clients

Construction companies have historically gotten new clients primarily through referrals. However, sometimes referrals are not enough – but unfortunately, companies cannot expect customers to magically appear on their doorstep. Luckily, there are other creative ways that contractors can boost their clientele. If your business is struggling to engage new clients, then consider the following tips to reach more potential customers and increase your profits. 1. Introduce Yourself to the Neighborhood : When working on a project don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to the residents of the neighboring houses. Showing concern for the wellbeing and satisfaction of the whole neighborhood lets everyone know that you run a caring organization. If those neighbors ever need any services in the future they will remember the personal interactions that they had with your company. Additionally, if any neighbors need work done immediately you could offer them a neighbor discount. You will save money on transportation by working on two projects near each other so that the discount will not hurt your profits. 2. Educate the Public : Organize meetings with members of the public to teach them about construction techniques or anything related to your field that you have expertise in. Investing in the education of the general public increases your profile. It also helps your business for the public to see you as an expert in your line of work. You do not need to try to specifically market your business. When they have questions or concerns in the future about construction projects they will come to you for advice and possibly to even do the job. You could potentially partner with a local restaurant to provide food to engage with the public even further. 3. Follow-Up with Your Current Clients : Offer to be of service to your past and current clients. See how the project you did for them is holding up. Offer to make touch-ups. Keeping up with connections you have made in the past will keep you in the forefront of your clients’ minds. This will make your clients more likely to think of you again for future projects and to recommend you to anyone else they know who may need contracting help. This is a roundabout way to get referrals without directly asking for them. 4. Focus on Achieving Accreditations : Accreditations can help build the prestige of your company; especially if you study for and gain a contractor’s license. The more you can show your clients that you are qualified and experienced the more likely they will be to employ your services. Learning more things can never hurt you either. Getting more training can really help you to get ahead in business. You will be better able to serve your clients and your clients will easily be able to see that you have the qualifications to get the job done right. Additionally, it may be a good idea to send out press releases when you do receive an accolade to make sure that the public is aware of your recent achievement. 5. Attend Industry Events : Attending industry events can help you to stay up to date with the latest trends in the construction industry. They also can help renew your motivation and interest in your field. Being surrounded by like-minded individuals can help you to feed off their industry. Additionally, the right events can help to introduce you to people who can expand your business and help you to get in contact with new potential clients. The construction industry needs to acquire new clients just like any other industry does. However, since many contractors spend a significant amount of time out in the field, they cannot spend as much time in the office or in prospecting meetings. They may need to employ some more creative tactics such as the ones above. Hopefully, the techniques described above will help you and your business to come in contact with some new potential customers that will help your company to grow and prosper. Read Also: Construction Safety – What You Didn’t Know! All You Must Know About Construction Business Management Software

7 Ways To Communicate With Customers In A Better Way!

When it comes to earning references and retaining the client, effective communication is key. It's about building and nurturing the personal and professional relationship to help gain loyalty- leading to repeat clients, good referrals, and positive word of mouth. However, on the flip side, ineffective communication can evoke frustration, dissatisfaction, and can decline sales. And in the age of digitization, negative reviews and communication can hamper business image. Irrespective of the medium you communicate with clients, here are some effective ways that help you communicate with clients: 7 Ways To Communicate With Customers In A Better Way: 1. Set Business Rules: Whether you run a small company or it’s a large organization, set specific guidelines on how your employees should react to clients. Whether it's on a voice call, video conversation, or through text messaging services like Quiq, it is important to communicate effectively. You can also provide training for your employees to prepare them for meetings. Also, have an effective and simple process of managing client communications. 2. Minimize Wait Times: Whether it's about reverting on the phone, mail, or sending a text message, making customers wait can make them feel frustrated. In fact, as per stats, a slow revert is found to be one of the top reasons for frustration among customer support. So, instead of getting things manually, have an automated system that will help route calls to the support representatives. Some apps also offer the capability of informing customers about the expected wait times. 3. Make Things Less Frustrated: Having the right tools will help increase client productivity and make things less frustrated. Let's say, if someone contact to ask about any issues, your team should be quick in pulling up previous records to minimize wait time. Also, your team should have the client’s records so that they would know about their purchase history and other interactions with the team. To minimize this, including live chat with customer relationship management tools. 4. When Doing In-Person Meetings, Do Your Homework: When getting ready to meet new clients, make sure you do your homework. If you are dealing with a new client, research about the client and their needs. However, if it’s a longer-lasting client, review its work task and discuss it with the team. No matter what you do, how you schedule your meeting, make sure to give yourself enough time to get things done beforehand. 5. Conclude Your Meetings Effectively: Conclusions are as important as the first impression, so make sure you do that effectively. Too often, when dealing with many clients, employees or representatives run in a hurry to attend the next person. However, this can ruin the overall experience and can affect overall sales. So, make sure representatives make effective communication and also send them to a nice conclusion. Just make sure your client is happy on the other side of the conversation. 6. Stay Relevant To The Preparation: Apart from the preparation, you are doing to understand your client, make sure you have good knowledge of what you are going to discuss and what your business is offering. Just be familiar with the company’s services, the price you are offering, and the overall time you will take to deliver things to the client. Also, be soft-spoken and humble when delineating the policies and services to the clients. Additionally, anything that you can't keep in mind should be written down. If there are confusing stats, make a presentation to let clients understand what you are delivering. 7. Ask For Feedback: You will not improve if you will not get feedback. So, ask your clients how they rate communications and interaction with the employees. Additionally, if you are running a large business, prepare a questionnaire, or have someone to prepare follow-ups. Irrespective of the mode of communication you use, just make sure that your clients get quality. After all, your clients are paying you for the services and effective communication comes along with it! Read Also: 7 Ways Technology Can Help In Customer Management And Sales How Portal Software Improves Communication Between Board Members 3 Ways To Boost Employee Engagement In Your Business 5 Ways Construction Businesses Can Gain New Clients

Demystifying the Duty of a Company Secretary in Hong Kong

What is a Company Secretary?