Category: Tips and Tools

Every business needs something. Even the most successful corporations will have needs that they need to be working on right now. The tough thing when you’re a small business is often figuring out exactly what it is that you do need. So let’s take a look at a couple of ideas to prompt you.

A Rebrand

First of all, you really have to make sure that you’ve nailed your branding. Because if you find that you don’t even have a brand in place to begin with, it’s going to be a lot harder for consumers to trust you, or even know who you are. So whether you feel like the brand you have just isn’t strong enough, or that you have no branding in place at all, you could need an entire branding strategy.

Better Targeting

Sometimes, you’re branding is great but you’re still not getting the traction that you thought you would. This can often be because you’re just targeting the wrong audience. When you step back and think about the kind of customer that does want to buy into your business and target them, you should see results.

Traffic

And finally, you may also find that you just need more visitors to your website! It can often be as simple as that. You may have a great product idea, be a great business, and just not have lucked out where awareness is concerned. But now it’s time to change that. Just take a look at the below infographic to see what content marketing you could use to get more website visitors.

Tools to Increase Website Visitors with Content Marketing by Red-Fern Media Digital Web Design & Inbound Marketing Company.

To run your business, you always need the right tools at your fingertips. Now, what those specific tools might be are definitely subjective. Because every business will need different things. However, the one thing that all businesses will have in common is that they will need to find the right tools. Some will be mindset or personal skills that you as a business owner will need to work on or adopt, and some will be physical tools. Either way, you often need to know the best way to find them – or, in fact, what you actually need in the first place. So, you’ll want to know what resources are going to help you to find them. So let’s take a look at five different avenues you can use to locate the tools and resources you need for your business.

1. Head To Social Media

First of all, you’re going to want to head to your favourite social media sites. Because pretty much everything is promoted or sold on social media these days. A lot of the time, you’re going to find that you can find a lot out about a company, product, or service by following them on platforms such as Instagram. From your website design to finding an employee, seeking out services on Instagram can really help you.

2. Think About Personal Connections

But don’t just keep this strictly business. Although they say you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure, you should definitely look to your personal connections for recommendations. Maybe your Dad has a business and he knows a company that could help you? Maybe your best friend follows a company that provides the exact service you’re looking for. Sometimes the people closest to you will know exactly what you need.

3. Find Suppliers Online

Then, you’ve got the classic of using online searches to find the companies you need. Whether you need parts and supplies at TruckDealersAustralia.com.au or you need to find a service or piece of software, looking online is going to help you. You can often find good reviews from customers and third party sites to help you make your choice too.

4. Go To Flea Markets

You won’t always need to go new either. A lot of the time, you’ll find that used items are going to be exactly what you need – and you can save money. So head out to your favourite free market, but switch your personal needs for your business mindset. Also head to sites like eBay so that you can hunt down bargains for a fraction of the price than if you were to purchase brand new.

5. Network Offline

And finally, you’re also going to want to focus on networking online too. This is often going to be a combination of the first three points. Because you can head to social media to meet business connections who can then either recommend products to you, or you’ll find their products are perfect for what you need. You’ll want to find tips at Inc.com on how to do this effectively if you’re new. Because networking is a great way to move your business forward, if you know how to get the most out of it.

Image: Kaboompics

It is time to take control and become more influential! Remove the self-sabotaging mind games you play on yourself by following author of Unlock Your Business Voice – How to Speak As Well As You Think (£12.99, Rethink Press) and presentation coach Simon de Cintra’s top three tips on how to become more influential in the workplace. Here, Simon de CIntra will coach you with three simple tasks on how to make more of an impact at work…

• Control your breathing

If you find speaking up at work stressful you are not alone. Control your breathing is a simple method to becoming more influential, it is often a simple solution can work wonders for your confidence. Taking control of your breathing is actually the reverse of what most of us do during moments of stress such as public speaking or contacting a client. Instead, we panic breathe, which triggers the thumping-heart in mouth feeling, thereby feeding the flames rather than fighting them.  You can expect to get ‘spooked’ occasionally but as long as you take action to reset your breathing you will quickly become back on track.

• Believe in your own ability!

If you want colleagues to listen to what you have to say you need to believe in your own ability and that what you are saying is worth listening to! Thus this involves an element of internal reprogramming in our level of self-belief, convincing yourself that you are worth listening to. The delivery of your message is vital, regardless of how amazing your idea is if you do not deliver it effectively with confidence it is likely to be ignored. People are not nearly as interested in us as we think, There is a common misconception that are colleagues are constantly scrutinising are every word when in fact they do not have enough energy or time to do this. Make sure to get your ideas into the arena early – nobody is expecting perfection especially if a project or idea is in its initial stages.

• Practice how you communicate

Many of us have a tendency to race through what we’re saying, because it is the natural speed at which we think. It is important to remember that the recipient of information needs time to process it. Simply using your smartphone to record yourself speaking to see how fast you speak and consciously making an effort when delivering your ideas to slow down and breathe between each sentence will significantly help your team take notice of you helping you become one of the most influential people in the room. Over the years of working with professionals I have discovered that often individuals have a gap between their internal and external settings. Therefore, they can sound to themselves like they are almost shouting, when the audience think they are only just audible. Consequently try and focus on the dialogue in the room, not the monologue in your head and tune your internal dials such as your pace, body language and volume to the external world. You can still acknowledge your inner monologue but do not let yourself be ruled by this when trying to become influential in the workplace.

Simon de Cintra has over 25 years experience in business and provides coaching and mentoring for people who are looking to gain confidence with their public speaking skills or want to learn how to lead and influence others. For more, please take a look at  http://www.myfirsttrainers.com/author/simon/

Image: 089photoshootings

Working from home is a fantastic way to take your income into your own hands. You don’t need to rely on your employer and you can set up multiple streams of money so that you’re financially secure. However, working at home can be challenging for several reasons.

For starters, you need to actually find a way to work from home. Most people do this by working as a freelancer or being self-employed, but you can also find remote working opportunities if you look hard enough. Once you’ve finally found an at-home job, you’ll find that your home can actually affect the way you work and how productive you are.

To help you out, we’ve prepared a few clever home hacks that will help you make your at-home job easier and be more productive.

Learn to Prep Food

Food prep is something that we can all benefit from. It’s essentially a way to prepare meals in advance so that you spend less time cooking and more time doing other things. There are plenty of easy food prep ideas that are both delicious, healthy and incredibly easy to put together. You’ll spend more time cooking on a single day, but each day you eat from your stash of prepared food, you’ll spend far less time cooking and more time being productive.

Invest in Taking Care of Your Kids

There is a very good chance that you’ve chosen to work from home because of your kids. Whether you’re a single parent that wants to look over their children or just want to spend more time with your little ones, working at home is a great way to look after your kids. However, they can also be distracting and it’s important to find ways to take care of your kids more efficiently. Consider investing in quality nursery furniture sets that will make your kids more comfortable. They’ll fall asleep more quickly and you’ll spend less time monitoring them so you can focus on your work.

Stop Working in Comfortable Places

We’ve all probably tried to get some work done in bed, especially if you work from home. However, it’s actually a terrible idea to do work in comfortable places, especially your bed. This is because the more relaxed we feel, the more likely we are to procrastinate or even fall asleep. While you shouldn’t force yourself to work in horrible conditions, you don’t want to confuse your brain by trying to work in a place that you would normally sleep in.

Try your best to build your own office space. You can do this by clearing out the garage and moving your workspace there, or taking over a part of the kitchen and designating it as your working environment. The idea is to train yourself to treat certain parts of the home as the place you want to be productive in. This will lead to fewer distractions and help you be more productive at home.

If you’ve been applying for various jobs for the past few weeks, and you’ve finally bagged the important interview that you wanted – congratulations. This is a big deal! You need to know that you essentially only get one chance to impress them (no pressure!) But that’s the thing – it is a lot of pressure, and that can really get to you and cause you stress during the build-up of the big date. So how do you go about making sure you ace the interview? There are so many various pieces of advice that is available, how are you supposed to know what to listen to, and what to avoid?

Well, here are all the best tips that will secure you the job you want by making yourself seen on the day of the interview.

Take charge

You may think that the interviewer is the one that holds the power, but this is only partially the case. It’s very common for a recruiter to fall prey of unconscious biasty, allowing themselves to focus too heavily on experience rather than competence. While it is important, it’s not necessarily the be all and end all. So take it upon yourself to make sure that this doesn’t happen. Give them a reason to fall out of habit and look at the bigger picture of what you have to offer the company.

Always prepare

It’s no good turning up to an interview if you’re not thoroughly prepared. You can never put in too much of your free time into preparation. It’s your job to do as much research about the company as you can. The more you know, the better, because it will show them that you are invested and care to bother – as others won’t. Generic information isn’t enough, anyone can figure out a couple basic facts. Delve deeper and find out how the place is organised, the reason behind the business, the industry trends, and maybe even a little about the interviewer if you can. Look into the specific job challenges too so you can them give examples of why you’re the right fit.

Know your stuff

You can’t expect to get the job you want if you don’t have all the qualifications and skills that you need – this won’t get you to an interview in the first place, let alone give you a chance of getting the job. You don’t necessarily have to go back to school though to do this, you can find leadership mba online courses that fit in around your busy schedule so that you don’t have to worry about taking time out of what you normally do, as you can squeeze this into the free time that you have, be it at home, or on the move. Remember, knowledge is power, so get your credentials.

Create a strategy

Before you arrive, think about a few specific messages that you want to convey to the interviewer. Make a connection between what you’ve done previously, and how that will work towards this job role. People much prefer listening to a story than having short bits of information thrown at them like a robot. Avoid sounding monotone as this is boring and you won’t draw anyone in that way. Make everything you say interesting and exciting so they don’t want to stop conversing with you.

Highlight your potential

As much as you would like to be perfect – the perfect candidate just doesn’t exist. So rather than trying to make excuses or good reasons in the areas that you may be lacking – focus on the things that you’re awesome at. It’s far more effective to big up what you know you’re good at than trying to make up for what you don’t. If the interviewer brings up those areas, demonstrate how you have a great ability to learn and overcome struggles, and adapting to new situations that you are faced with.

The first half a minute

People always talk about the first impressions being the most important, and they are. Within the first thirty seconds, people will form an opinion about you – this isn’t their fault, it’s just what our brains do. They will watch you walk into a room, they will listen to how you speak, and they will see how comfortable you look as you take a seat, so the way you do these three things are very important. Engage in eye contact, maintain a good posture, speak clearly, and think confidently – even if you don’t necessarily feel very confident, fake it. If you’re worried about how you’ll look, record yourself at home and see how you appear. You don’t have to tell anyone you’ve done this, but it can really give you an insight into how you look to others.

Think fast when you need to

No matter how hard you prepare for an interview, you can never predict how things are going to go – you can’t envision the future, so you need to be ready for anything. In order to do that, you need to learn how to keep on your toes. You will need to learn how to tweak your performance to play to various situations of how everything will play out. You may need to mix up your answers just in case they take a different direction than you had expected them to. One good tip, is that a lot of interviewers tend to like the sound of their own voice, so give them centre stage until they pass on the torch.

The most import thing is staying focus and calm. The last thing you want to do is turn up on the day a nervous wreck who can barely speak because you’re so consumed by stress and anxiety. At the end of the day – you’re just having a chat with another human being. That’s it. So don’t overthink it. And if you don’t end up getting the job, know that there will be others.

Image: Amtec Staffing