They say nothing is perfect. In business, this rings true. Even if you’re getting rave reviews from customers and your sales are soaring, there is always room for improvement. Every entrepreneur should aspire to improve on a continual basis. The future may look bright, but if you rest on your laurels, you may get left behind. The world of business is always spinning, and what works one day may not the next. If you’re an aspiring mogul, here are some failsafe ways you could improve your business.
Prioritizing research
There is nothing more important for a business owner than understanding the marketplace. It doesn’t matter if you have a new business or you’ve been around for years, research is an incredibly valuable means of ascertaining what people want and how you can ensure your company stands the test of time. Without research, business can become a stab in the dark, and there’s a higher risk of failure. Carrying out market research can provide you with all kinds of valuable information from data related to price points and promotions that will work to the kinds of features, programs, products or services your customers would like to see from you in the future. Keep your ear to the ground, send out surveys and organize focus groups and use the information you obtain wisely. Don’t pick and choose when it comes to polls and studies. If people give you negative feedback, this is likely to be even more valuable than positive comments.
If you lead a team of people, the relationship you have with your staff will have an impact on the success of the company. As the business owner, you may choose to appoint others to manage teams and sub-teams, and that’s fine, but if you want to lead from the front and assume control, it’s essential to do a good job. The people you employ will look to you for inspiration and advice. There are no right or wrong answers when it comes to being the boss, and people have different leadership styles. Some people prefer to be more authoritarian while others are more laid-back. Whatever your leadership style, be aware of the importance of your role. Having a happy team is likely to boost productivity. Nobody wants to go to work filled with dread on a daily basis. As the boss, you don’t want everyone sat at their desk watching the hours tick by waiting for the end of the day. You want your team to relish the challenges, work together and tackle jobs with enthusiasm. Try and make it your mission to keep morale high and get the best out of your employees. You don’t need to hang out with them in your spare time or reward them with huge bonuses you can’t afford, but bear in mind that a valued workforce will work harder. If you expect maximum effort, make it worth your team’s while.
Listening to your customers is of paramount importance. You may assume that you’ve got clients for life, but if you ignore feedback or you’re not delivering on promises, there is nothing to stop even the most loyal customers looking elsewhere. Use customer satisfaction surveys and encourage your clients to provide ideas and comments to enable you to gauge how you’re doing and how you could improve going forward. Using software and features like a ticket satisfaction tool for Zendesk make it easy to access customer feedback and identify potential problems, which can then be rectified. Make an effort to reach out to new and existing customers, talk to them about what you do and how you operate and take their ideas on board. If they’ve been shopping at your store for years, for example, they may have ideas about how you could improve the experience in the future. Perhaps they’d like the option to shop online, or they’d appreciate extended opening hours so they can visit after work, for example. If you don’t ask questions, you won’t know what your customers are thinking and what they want. If you can’t cater for their needs or preferences, they may be swayed by competitors who can do this.
When you first started jotting down ideas about your business, you probably had a very clear vision of what you wanted to achieve. Now that you’re months or years down the line, don’t let this vision become clouded. It’s so important to have goals and objectives to aim towards. Maybe one of your goals was to help grow your restaurant business and ensure that it is financially stable. If this is the case, having a look at a site like https://restaurantaccountingservices.com/resources/ could help you reach at least one of your business goals. The same goes for any other business that you are running. Having goals allows you to have something to work towards.
Of course, as time goes by, your ideas may change, and the goalposts may move slightly, but don’t lose sight of the importance of having plans and aiming to improve continually. If you get complacent or lazy, you may soon find that others are overtaking you.
It takes a lot of time and effort to get a business up and running, and this is why it’s so important that you’re passionate about what you do. Having passion for the business isn’t just important in the early stages. Taking an interest in your staff and customers and showing how much you care about the company will stand you in good stead for years to come. Customers, buyers and investors will be impressed by your commitment to the cause and your employees will be motivated by your enthusiasm and energy. If you lose interest in what you do, you can’t expect clients or members of staff to maintain their passion for the business.
You may think that the moguls of this world go to bed thinking that everything is perfect, but you’d be wrong. It’s highly likely that the names and faces you recognize have got to to the top of the tree by realizing that perfection doesn’t exist and understanding that there’s always room for improvement. If you’re keen to take your business to the next level, there’s no time to rest. Hopefully, this guide has given you inspiration to keep going and working towards your goals.
When it comes to building a business from scratch, many entrepreneurs become overwhelmed with the tasks ahead and forget to pay attention to small details that make a huge difference in their reputation and branding. Below you can find out more about the commonly forgotten details that can potentially change the outlook of your new business.
Business Stationery
You might think that in the digital age, you don’t need a business card or a leaflet, let alone invoice pads. You are likely to come across customers who prefer written communication, and are not techies. To accommodate their needs, you might want to invest in some cheap business checks and add some branding messages. You need to grab the opportunity to get your name out everywhere you can, let it be the internet or a printed magazine.
You must look and act professional at all times. This means that you need to create a professional page on LinkedIn and other sites, including directories and social media. The more information you show your potential customers about your company, the more likely they will trust you. The main issue with online businesses is that anyone can claim fame without having to prove it. If you can showcase your skills online and offline, you are more likely to gain your customers.
Requesting Feedback
When you make your first sales or get your first customers, you are likely to be too preoccupied with the job, and fail to request a feedback. This is a huge mistake. To make your business more successful, you need to overcome the fear of asking for recommendations and feedback. Today’s customers are looking for reviews on social media, and if you have none, your search engine rankings and reputation will suffer.
We all want a flashy website that captures the attention of the customer, but hardly ever create it wearing the potential client’s head. Make sure you know what their main concerns and questions are and answer them on the landing page, instead of forcing them to scroll through several pages. The sooner they can get the answer to their question, the more likely they will be to contact you for a quote or place an order.
A Clear Social Media Account
Some entrepreneurs fail to review their personal social media account before they start a business. When their potential customers look them up, they don’t look professional, at all. Clear up your profile from negative comments, bad language,and those drunk night out photos if you are serious about your business. Make sure your personal profile reflects your brand’s values and mission, as much as it can.
It is important that you pay attention to the details and maintain the good reputation of your startup business. Make sure that you check your social media posts, build a professional profile on LinkedIn, and focus on increasing your brand’s reputation every day. Make your website straightforward and transparent, and you will beat the competition.
Some people believe that the hiring process is the same for every business. While the concept of searching for candidates and hiring them to be employees is the same, the actual process you go through can differ greatly.
In fact, it’s often something that separates the best from the rest. With the perfect process, you will hire the best candidates without needing to spend lots of money doing so. You should also see a relatively quick and smooth process from start to finish, without it dragging out for months on end.
That’s what the bulk of this article is going to focus on; how can you devise the perfect hiring process? I’ll provide a comprehensive guide, but first, let’s look at a few reasons why it’s important you sort this process out.
The Importance Of A Good Hiring Process
There are a few key benefits you see from developing a good process by which to hire new employees. These are listed below:
Save money: with the right process you can avoid spending too much money when it comes to hiring new team members
Hire better people: improve your business on the whole by finding the best candidates possible and not hiring people that aren’t worthy of their wage
Waste less time: don’t spend months looking for one role, wasting time you could devote to your business
All these things will ultimately add up to lead to a better, more productive, and more fruitful business. Now, let’s start looking at how you can improve your hiring process from start to finish.
Step one is creating the right adverts for the jobs you’re offering. This is key if you want to attract as many people as possible to the role, while also enabling you to syphon out the best from the rest.
There are three main considerations here: the attractiveness of the ad, the ad placement, and the job explanation.
Advert Attractiveness
Here, you need to think about creating your job advertisement, so it catches the attention of prospective job seekers. The key to this is using certain buzzwords that leap out from the page. Mainly, you should state the job title nice and clear. This will help when people search for jobs like yours, and also ensures you get the specific candidates finding your advert. If you have a specific role like Marketing Assistant, but you advertise it as Admin Assistant, then you’ll have loads of under-qualified people finding your advert. So, get the title down properly and the list the main roles that the candidate will be expected to do. This gets them intrigued as they’ll see things they can do. Finally, make sure to include information about your company and why they’d want to work for you. This helps create excitement and make your business seem a desirable place to work.
Advert Placement
You will be pleased to know that this is one of the most straightforward parts of the process. Essentially, you need to place your advert in places where it will be seen. Your best bet here is job websites. Companies can place job listings on websites for free, and loads of job seekers will find them. What’s more, a lot of these websites send job seekers emails when new roles are advertised that might interest them. So, the sites do most of the initial work for you in finding people that might be keen to apply.
Job Description
This is similar to the job attractiveness but it focuses more on the explicit details of the role, and the skills required. Instead of saying the job involves ‘computer skills’ get specific about what software they need to use and what skills are essential. List all the essentials, including any qualifications and experience too. This is the best way to ensure you get the right candidates for the job. Only people that tick everything off the essential list will be seriously considered for this job.
Choosing The Candidates For Interviews
Next, it’s time to figure out who you will pick to take part in an interview. What’s more, you also need to consider how the interview will be laid out, and who will conduct it. These are the main things to think about in this part of the process.
Selecting The Interviewees
Here, you need to go through all the applications and measure them up against your parameters. It’s a simple case of comparing what’s on a resume and job application to what’s on your job description list. Do they tick all the right boxes? If so, consider inviting them down. Also, think about where they live too. If they’re not from close by then, transport might be an issue leading to repetitive lateness that you can’t afford to have. You also want to ensure you have a decent amount of candidates to choose from here. Ideally, pick all the people that pass the test and cross everything off your list.
The Interview Itself
The way you structure the interview plays a key role in determining if you hire the right person. Simply conducting a conversation about their life and experience isn’t enough. Yes, you need to ask the important questions like what they did in their old job and how their experience or skills will help them in this role. However, it’s highly recommended you incorporate a situational judgement test in there too. Ask them questions about certain situations they may end up in at work, and see how they solve the problems. There are some great examples of questions you can use on The National Center For The Middle Market’s website. Questions like these are designed to make candidates get into the zone of working for your company. Furthermore, they help catch out people that might be trying to bluff their way through everything and claim to have experience or know-how that simply isn’t there. Always end the interview by asking if they have any questions. This is a sneaky way to find out who’s the most eager for the job and has prepared some stuff to ask you.
Who Conducts The Interview?
As for who conducts the interview, well, there’s one idea that’s perfect. Often, there’s the struggle of deciding whether you’ll conduct it or hire a recruitment agency to do it for you. Personally, I think a recruitment agency is worth the expense. By investing in them, you can go about your daily tasks and keep working on your business, limiting any downtime. They find the candidates for you, post the advert, conduct the interview to your desires, then tell you who they like the best. If you want, you could also sit in on the interviews, though it’s not necessary.
Finally, we’ve reached the last stage; finalizing everything and completing the process. There are a couple of things you can add at the end of your hiring process to further ensure you find the right candidates.
Background Checks
Before you get them to sign any contract, you should run a background check on them. See if they have a criminal record that they’ve hidden from you, or if there’s any more info you should know. Now is a good time to check their references too so you can be sure all the dates of previous employment add up. Also, ask previous employers how they performed and why they might have been let go.
Training
While your choice of candidate may well have the right skills and qualifications for your job, they still need to be trained a little bit beforehand. Train them to use the systems you implement on your computers, and just help them learn how everything runs around here. There are companies like ej4 that offer e-Learning videos for employees, which could come in handy. Videos are a very easy way to get your new employees to learn things without taking up too much time. Essentially, they can learn on the job.
Trial Period
Finally, it makes sense to incorporate a trial period into your hiring process. This coincides with their training and is basically a period to help them settle in. Or, more accurately, to see if they settle into their role. You may find after a couple of weeks that they just aren’t the fit you’d thought they would be. This is rare, particularly if you followed all the other steps, but it can happen. Incorporating a trial period into their contract, where you have the right to let them go, will help you deal with a tough situation should they not live up to your high standards.
On that note, we’ve come to the end of this guide. I know it’s a lot to take in, but if you’ve made it this far then, I applaud you. Hopefully, you’ve been able to digest the information and pick up on the advice given. Now, you can restructure your hiring process to make it perfect from start to finish. This will result in better hires, an improved team dynamic, and more business success.
We’re not sure if we would go so far as to call it a minimalist revolution (not just yet!), but the world has certainly been hit by a decluttering tidal wave. It’s a buzz word that has taken off with more force than an Apollo mission and, from what we can tell through our regular online scrolling, every other person has become obsessed with it. It has become the focus of many a household the world over.
People are using it as part of their “new year, new me” rituals, others are finally understanding that the more stuff you own the more your stuff starts to own you, some have just realised that a messy house equals a messy mind, while a hefty amount of people have accepted the fewer tidbits they own the more space they have. Basically, this tidal wave is not without reason.
However, before you start pulling out bin bags and calling up skip companies and tossing all your unwanted-slash-unused stuff out, we thought you would like to know that you could be making money out of it. That’s right, we’re talking about that age-old saying, “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure”.
Now, we’re not saying you are going to make a fortune from this stuff, nor is it likely that the urn holding your great-grandfather’s ashes is from the Ming Dynasty. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a tidy bob and either work off your debt faster or spend your winnings on a meal for two at the Lobster Shack.
Of course, you may be thinking, “if it is so easy to do, then why isn’t everyone doing it? Why isn’t the Lobster Shack always fully-booked?” It’s a good question, but there is an answer to be had: people don’t know what they are looking for, where to sell it or how to get a good price, which is where we swoop in like a bird of prey that’s spotted a mouse in the open.
So, without further ado, here are our top tips for making money from your old clutter. Don’t spend it all at once.
This is pretty much the default thought of most people when the word “clutter” pops up in conversation. It doesn’t matter whether you are a parent or not; toys and kiddie clothes are always high on the list. Now, if you’re one of those human-unicorns that a) has a successful store on somewhere like eBay or b) is a whizz at selling things, we would recommend you steer clear of these kinds of online stores. Chances are, you have too much stuff to make it worth the effort. All that photographing and uploading and writing descriptions and working out what you want for them which, let’s be honest, won’t be a lot, and answering questions from buyers and posting them.
Instead, your best option is to give everything to a consignment service and just let them deal with it all. They’ll take care of those horrid chores we mentioned and they’ll be able to fetch the best price for the better things.
There is, of course, an exception to every rule and, in this instance, it is specialist clothing. They can fetch a pretty penny on sites like eBay. Waterproofs, wetsuits, that sort of stuff. Anyway, that said, no matter what you are selling or who you are using, always read the terms and conditions and know what the costs are. Always.
Your Bygone Generations Of Electronics
Thanks to Apple somehow being able to release a new phone every two weeks and still create a buzz around them despite nothing has changed since the iPhone 5 came out, we all have piles and piles of old electronics that we keep for a) sentimental sake, b) reasons to do with laziness and c) the fact all our photos are still on them. We’re talking phones, tablets, laptops, computers, smart watches and all those non-universal charges too. We’re like squirrels hoarding for the winter.
Well, this needs to stop – it needs to stop right now – and the best way to do that is to sell these electronic bits to sites like Buyback Express that will transfer you your money on the same day. Of course, how much you actually receive will be dependent on a few criteria, such as the condition of said electronics, how old they are, what size the memory is on them and what make they are. It is also worth mentioning that you’re not going to get a great deal of cash thanks to old technology becoming so redundant so quickly. That said, the money you get could offset how much an upgrade costs.
We get it, your car is a 2005 model, which means it still has a space for six CDs to be stored at once. But, come on, when was the last time you popped in Bryan Adams instead of just listening to the radio. Exactly. And as for that DVD collection you were so proud of in the early 2000s, you have Netflix now. What we are saying is, “why do you still have these things?” (We can’t actually hear you but we’re presuming you are stuttering and failing to find an answer.
Well, to help them find a use again, we suggest you empty your cupboards and drawers and shelves and make money from them. It doesn’t matter if they’re ancient or dreadful, if they play someone will pay, such as that Buback Express company we mentioned above. Once again, you’re not going to be able to retire on the amount you receive but, if you do have an almighty collection, then you may find that it all adds up, especially if they offer you store credit.
Sell According To The Season
When you sell can be the biggest factor in how much money you make. This is one of those little pieces of advice that can really add some value to your collection of clutter. That is why you need to be smart about the bigger and better things you are thinking of selling. It could be that you have a whole stash of Burberry raincoats you have never worn because, well, you’re forty now and you can’t fit into them anymore. To put it bluntly, these are going to fetch a higher price in the fall – when people are actively searching for raincoats – than they are in the summer – when everyone is wearing next to nothing.
This approach can be used for almost anything. Beach toys, garden furniture, bikes, sunglasses, anything. We’re not just talking a few cents or a dollar here either; we’re talking about items having the potential to double their value. So, when you are bagging items, always have the seasonal thought in your mind and then decide when the best time to sell is.
Oldies Can Be The Goodies
About four times a year we stumble across a story in national newspapers about someone making tens of thousands of dollars from a doorstop they had never given any thought to before because, as it turns out, it once belonged to King George V. Sure, this is rare. But that doesn’t mean you should nonchalantly dismiss what you have. Your chances of winning the lotto are 175,000,000 to one, but you still check your numbers every week. The point is this, you don’t know what your old stuff is worth or how much someone else may be willing to pay for it. You don’t.
It could be that you’ve found some old books in an old tuck box in your old attic, in which case it is well worth popping on to Abe Books to see how much they are selling for, or you might have come across some old china that is well worth investigating and even having a specialist valuer come around and give their verdict or a hand-operated Singer sewing machine from the 50s.
Yes, you will probably be disappointed, and your hopes of getting thousands for something will more likely be hundreds, if not tens. However, it would be absolutely soul-destroying to get rid of something willy-nilly and then find out the buyer has moved into a castle after coming across a large wad of money. Basically, what we are saying is, always get your hunches checked professionally.
With that said and done, there is only one thing left for us to do: tell you not to underestimate the value of your time. After all, it is the most valuable commodity any of us own. Cleaning up, snapping photos, parcelling everything securely, heading to the post office, accepting returns and all of that stuff. By working out how much time is needed, you will be able to work out if the effort is worth it. On this note, heading to a local car boot sale or holding a yard sale of your own could be a better use of your time. It’s one of those things options that can see you get rid of huge lumps at a time. Sure, it may not fetch the best price but, like we said, nothing is more valuable than your time.
Participating in sports is a hobby for some, and a lifestyle for others. However you view your attitude towards it, you can’t deny that participating in sporting activities is a wonderful way to stay active, have fun, connect with others, feel like a part of a team, and more. There are untold benefits to spending time this way.
However, spending time playing a sport isn’t as fun if you’re just not getting the hang of it. You can expect to be an amateur when just starting out – not everybody is naturally ‘talented’ but it can be learnt. That being said, this can put many people off. A few games of football or basketball that have gone terribly may be enough to put somebody off playing for life. But fear not: while you can’t expect to be an expert in your first few games, you can get better really quickly with the right advice.
In this post, we’re going to talk about the secrets that can help you to master any sport in a matter of months. They may seem strange, but it won’t hurt to try them – before you know it, your name could be up there with the greats.
Read on to learn more!
Practice And Plan
The first thing you need to make sure you’re doing, is practicing and planning your approach to the sport. Now, you may have heard of the 10,000 hour rule, that claims anybody can become an expert at anything after 10,000 hours practice. However, recent studies have found this to be false. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice. Ideally, you should practice the skill you’re looking to learn for at least a small amount of time every day. This can mean planning when you’re going to practice, if you struggle to fit the things you want to do into your day.
Set goals when you can, but make sure they’re realistic. What do you want to accomplish in the first week? What about the second week? Where do you want to be in a few months? Reaching for the stars is great, but you don’t want to say you want to be able to a slam dunk while playing basketball in your first week if you’ve never played before. Find the right balance between challenging yourself and being realistic. With goals, you can tick them off and see how far you’ve come. Some don’t agree and say that goals aren’t productive, so it’s up to you to figure out what actually motivates you to work hard and do better.
Visualization
Visualization is used by so many athletes and people in other professions to get better at their chosen skills. Want to be able to do a pull up or 10? Visualize it. What does it feel like? What muscles is it working? How do you feel after you’ve done it? Feeling the feelings you expect to feel during and after what you want to accomplish is the key to successfully visualizing. They say this works because it tricks the mind into thinking you’ve already accomplished something. The mind can’t tell the difference between what is real and imagined, so the more you imagine yourself doing something, the more your mind will strengthen those neural pathways that will help you along the way to doing it!
Get The Right Equipment
Don’t get this point confused with the ‘false starts’ that many people make when trying to achieve something new. They think that buying a new fitness gadget or a pair of sports shoes will make them a world class runner when they’ve never ran before in their lives. Unfortunately, these things often go unused. However, buying the right equipment once you’ve stuck with a certain sport for a while can definitely help you. If you want to be the next Tiger Woods, look at Golf world for your next club. If you want to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, look for some great shoes, straps, and other bits and pieces to support your heavy lifting.
Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreaming is even more powerful than visualizing, although it can be much harder to achieve. A lucid dream is a dream in which you realize that you’re dreaming. In these dreams, you can then stay lucid and make whatever you want happen. Why not practice your chosen sport in your dreams, and repeat affirmations to really get it into your subconscious that you’re the next awesome sportsman? This is something else that takes practice, but it really works!
Play Video Games
Video games have been scientifically proven to help with things like coordination and focus when used in the right amounts. It doesn’t even have to be a game based on your chosen sport!
Apparently, practicing just one skill at once is a mistake. This makes the brain commit certain things to short term memory, when we want them to be committed to long term memory. Learning multiple skills at once is thought to be the best way to remember things.
Work On Other Areas Of Your Life
If you’re trying to master a sport but you’re not working on areas of your life that complement it, you’re not going to do very well. For example, you want to be a sports legend, but you’re not getting the right amount of sleep each night? Then it’s probably not going to happen!
Get A Mentor
A mentor is a great way to get better at a sport. These people not only care about your sports performance; they can look at your life objectively and give you lots of ways to improve. Take your time in the hunt for a mentor, and remember that this is another investment in your personal development.
Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
The key to getting better at something is to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. You need to be ok with feeling exposed, vulnerable, and a bit silly. These are good feelings and will help you to improve and grow!
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