Bouncing Back After A Bad Decision

Bouncing Back After A Bad Decision

In the business world, a poor decision can cost you your reputation, your profit, or even your whole business.

But, as surprising as it might sound, entrepreneurs have started to develop a relaxed attitude regarding the profile of professional talents and business owners. In a world where everyone is allowed to make mistakes, this positive approach encourages those who would have typically been struck off the business environment, to dig deep and uncover their full potential.

Uncover your entrepreneur’s potential

Find someone who can help you

Indeed, first of all, it’s crucial to understand that you don’t have to face your issues alone. You can find support among professionals such as www.criminalandduilawofgeorgia.com, for instance. Indeed, when you’ve been accused of violating the law, you need an experienced attorney at your side to help you to reduce charges or even defend your rights as an individual. Ultimately, the consequences of an accusation can be devastating, emotionally and professionally – regardless of whether or not the charge is correct. Therefore, if you want to protect your future and ensure you can recover your career and business, you need someone who understands criminal defense and who can advocate your rights, whether you’ve been arrested on your way home after a night out or you’ve failed to respect a stop sign.

Can you use your story to help others?

Your story can change someone’s life. Gerald Ratner, for instance, famous for making an ill-timed joke about the quality of his jewelry manufacture, published in 2007 a book that reviews the aftermath of his unfortunate speech in 1991, The Rise and Fall … and Rise Again. The book gives a vital PR lesson to entrepreneurs. You too, you can use the publishing industry to share your story. You can seek advice from people in a similar position, asking them what they would need. Similarly, you can also find support from writing experts, such as the LCMPA.

Does it make you more valuable for business?

Did you know that your background can make you more relevant to the business world? Indeed, it’s not uncommon for someone who has been in trouble with the law for organized crimes to make a comeback as an entrepreneur, www.forbes.com. Why so? Because they’ve got a natural willingness to take risks and a great sense of leadership which can make the difference between a successful venture and a struggling startup. Indeed, for Defy, running an auto-theft gang requires the same skills than running a legal business. Consequently, the organization encourages ex-cons to redirect their talents.

Does it matter?

In the early 1970s, Bill Gates was arrested for running a stop sign. He was also arrested in 1977 for reckless driving. Ultimately, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Bill Gates is not his criminal record. Instead, his success at the head of Microsoft and his philanthropist activities with Bill and Melinda Foundation are testimonies of his worth.

Bill Gates mugshot

The idea of bouncing back is that you need to find a line of defense that protects your rights as much as possible. However, your story and experience can be the push you need to make it big. And if you don’t gain any valuable experience in the process, it’s probably that, just like for Bill Gates, it is no obstacle to your journey.

5 Signs You Can’t Trust Your Lawyer

5 Signs You Can’t Trust Your Lawyer

You can’t be successful in the business world if you don’t have trustworthy experts to help you reach the next level. From IT professionals to business analysts, you need to surround yourself with talented individuals who can guide your business forward. More often than not, the talent you need isn’t available in the business structure. Advisors, consultants, and lawyers are generally contracted in an advisory function to support strategic business decisions. As such, you need to be sure of their skills from Day One. For companies whose projects rely on a thorough understanding of the law, an unreliable business lawyer is the worst thing that could happen.

Can you trust your lawyer?

#1. They’ve been sued by clients

An attorney is a dedicated professional who works hard not only to gain the best understanding of the law but also to provide the best solution to their clients. If you discover that your legal advisor is involved in a series of lawsuits against attorneys, it might be an indication that their previous work wasn’t up to standard. Ultimately, you want someone you can trust, and that means someone who makes sure their clients are satisfied and served to the best of their knowledge.  

#2. They’re never available when you need them

You never know what the day will be made of. Whether you need to protect your brand’s reputation or to manage employee issues, no business owner can survive the challenges of the day without a lawyer on speed dial. While this shouldn’t be a test of trust when you find it tricky to get in touch with your attorney – or if they don’t return your calls –, it’s probably time to look for someone else.

Does your attorney return your calls?

#3. You’ve noticed errors in contracts

Your attorney helps you to ensure that your business contracts are beyond reproach. As a result, you expect their grammar and spelling to be on point. When you receive a contract that contains many mistakes, you need to be realistic about what it means. It’s not a matter of whether or not your lawyer is a talented writer. Ultimately, mistakes imply that your trusted legal advisor lacks time to check their work, which makes them less reliable. Misspelling a name or getting a data wrong could make your contract void. Is it a risk worth taking?

#4. They also work for your competitors

In a specific business sector, it can be difficult to find legal specialists who understand your market. In other words, your attorney might also work with your competitors. In most cases, it doesn’t represent a conflict of interest. However, if your lawyer represents your competitor in a matter of patent practice, you need to make sure they do things by the book – in a negotiation process that is related to the work of your competitor, the law firm needs to obtain the full consent of both clients, for instance. This could create a conflict of interest, which you could avoid by changing law firm.

#5. They lack experience

When it comes to lawyers, you want your advisor to have accumulated several years of practice before acting as an independent professional.

In the business world, finding a lawyer you can trust is detrimental to your growth strategy. Indeed, the right lawyer can provide the support you need to handle client, employee, and market issues effectively. Therefore, it’s vital for business owners to figure out very early in their legal relationship whether they’ve found the best attorney for their situation.

Merging Teams Without Hiccups

Merging Teams Without Hiccups

The main idea in a merger is to bring two entities together to create a more competitive and competent company. While there are plenty of excellent reasons behind a merger, more often than not, businesses that choose to merge do it in an attempt to combine force and secure their collective competitive edge against big players on the market. On paper, the addition of skills and expertise can be hugely appealing. It greatly outweighs other competitors on the market, and it can also help the new merger to reach out to a broader audience group – in theory, you add up your customers and demographics together.

But, that’s the theory. In practice, you can’t combine teams like two pieces of a Lego game. You need to create a path toward collective teamwork if you want the merger to be a success. How do you best get teams that don’t know each other to communicate and perform like one?

Merger

Share data and projects

Merging two teams with different customer bases doesn’t happen overnight. Your first priority should be to develop an IT solution that can ensure a smooth continuation of all activities. You don’t want your merger to stumble on the ground of ineffective solutions. But, more importantly, you need to introduce a cloud system in the early stage of the merger. Indeed, your cloud should serve as a source of information bot different teams. Using real-time data sharing, you can not only keep everyone updated, but you can also support collective projects. Ultimately, the purpose is to get teams to understand how their skills and expertise fit together long before they can meet in person. The cloud provides the platform of exchange as well as the sense of real-time collaboration.

Your get-together event is key

Team building events are designed to enhance productivity and cooperation within the same company. With a merger, they also serve as a get-to-know-each-other activity. Indeed, the two companies might not share the same culture. Additionally, it can be difficult for employees to accept each other – if survival instinct kicks in, employees are more likely to battle for power rather than cooperate. But team building events can provide the platform people need to create a new cultural, professional and social understanding of their mission. Activities, however, need to focus on fun and playful elements that break the ice, such as creating a sports challenge or puzzle solving games. Organizing a golf contest gives your employees plenty of time to chat and connect, for instance. You can even provide equipment for everyone – rockbottomgolf is the ideal address for affordable gear. But there are other options such as escape games or even a parkour challenge.

Team building challenges

Don’t squeeze all the productivity out of the team

Last, but not least, don’t your new team will need time to create a routine. You can’t combine two different groups of skills and expect people to hit the ground running. On the contrary, during the first months of the merger, your employees define new processes and familiarize themselves with their surroundings. In short, you shouldn’t set high goals from the start!

When the team isn’t the point of focus, even the most successful M&A on paper tend to fail. You need to create a merger strategy that works for your people if you’re going to increase your business profitability.

Working The Smart Way

Working The Smart Way

Working smarter and not harder is one of those corporate-sounding expressions that gets flung around the world of business all too often, but is it just a cliché or does it hold any real advice from the average entrepreneur?

We take a glance at some of the systems you might have in place at your world of work and see if there are any ways you can make them work harder AND smarter for you.

Software

How’s that company network working out. Are your employees constantly complaining about a lack of access to shared files and documents? Does your IT support fail to give you the service you need? If you find yourself up against it, when it comes to tech, why not consider something like Cloud computing to take your IT to the next level.

There are real, tangible benefits to Cloud computing that are more than just having everything in one place. For a start you also have the flexibility to allow employees to work remotely. They’ll be able to access their Cloud-based network from anywhere with a Wifi connection but stipulate that this connection must be secured and not open to prevent any potential security breaches.

You also have the advantage of less hardware and equipment in your office and consequently you won’t have the need to keep an in-house IT support team on standby. Cloud providers offer IT support 24-hours a day and can be accessed remotely.

Naturally, there are some negatives you’ll want to consider and that comes in the form of security. While there will be data protection measures in place, just how secure your sensitive files are on the Cloud depends entirely on the providers security measures and how regularly they are updated and patched. Your data is made all the more vulnerable when you or your employees access the Cloud on open networks, as discussed up post.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Your team

How cohesive is your team working day-to-day? If you have people working remotely are tasks getting done efficiently or are you finding crossovers and missed objectives on a regular basis? The answer to creating a smarter working environment is to have everyone with smart software. From programmes to better manage your options data to shared task software that will help keep everyone on track. Your team is your best investment but also your most costly so review how effectively they’re working and how well you’re managing them.

Yes, it is possible to work smarter, but this doesn’t necessarily fall to you as the boss, it’s a team effort and as such needs to include everyone working towards objectives to achieve your shared business goals.

Think Cloud computing, more efficient and helpful software and breathe new life into staff members who might be floundering on the side lines. Get everyone working efficiently and your business will stop limping along but rather soar towards greater and greater successes, thanks to your smart thinking and even smarter changes to your working practices.

The 5 Fundamentals of Writing Your First Book

The 5 Fundamentals of Writing Your First Book

Writing a book is something many people think about doing in their lifetime, but they never quite have the ambition or drive. If you’re a book lover why not write one of your own? Whether you’re a fan of fiction or you want to write a scientific report on some research you have done, there will always be an audience that has an interest in what you have to say. Consider the following five fundamentals of writing your first book and you will be able to get started right away.

1. Seek Advice and Do Your Research

First of all, you need to start carrying out some research on your chosen topic or story theme. If you have experience in writing before, why not seek out the advice from LCMPA. Their feedback could be incredibly valuable to you if you’re embarking on a new project. They will be able to provide you with guidance on your next piece of work so that you can be sure you’re heading in the right direction.

2. Decide Where Your Workspace Is

Being a writer can be frustrating if you don’t have a comfortable place to be creative. Whether you’re working from a cosy corner in your home or you prefer to people watch in a public coffee shop, there will always be a place that makes you feel productive. Everybody is completely different when it comes to their writing workspaces, so discover yours before you get started with your project.

Image

3. Discover Your Final Idea

Honing in on your final idea can be quite a challenge, especially when you have so many ideas all at once. Ask others for opinions on your various subject matters and narrow it down to one fantastic concept. It might take several crumpled up pieces of paper for you to get there, but you will discover the hidden gem within there somewhere.

4. Get Words onto a Page

As soon as you know where your book idea is going, you need to start getting some words onto the page. You can always go back and edit later, but you need to get the main framework down onto the paper. Consider the arc of your story, if you’re writing a fiction book. Do you want to leave the reader on a cliffhanger? Do you want to release facts slowly throughout the book so they have to piece them together like a puzzle? Understand your main goal as the writer and use your words to shape this idea.

5. Proofread and Proofread Some More

When you think you have the final product, it is very important to proofread your work. Once you have mastered the art, you will be able to carry this out a couple of times to make sure there are no glaring errors in your hard work!

Writing a book is a marathon, not a sprint so take your time and enjoy the process. You will be much more pleased by the end product if you have spent time researching, proofreading and discovering the true meaning behind your first book.

Pin It on Pinterest