Business Plus Baby

August 20, 2017February 7, 2018

Figuring Out the Ideal Side Job For You

If you’re feeling stressed out from work, getting a side job may seem like the last thing that you want to do. However, it’s a mistake to discount this option because of your current feelings. Rather than added headaches, a side hustle can be whatever you need it to be—an outlet for your passion, chance to try something out, simple revenue stream—with you in complete control. Instead of thinking “why would I want a side job?” you should be thinking “what side job best fits my life and desires?” Here’s how you can start narrowing things down.

Benefits of A Side Job

The obvious benefit of a side job is the money that it brings, but it’s understated how much this versatility can add to your budget. If you are a recent student, you can choose to put more money on your student loans or even start putting more into your retirement account. If you have a family, this can go into saving for something recreational like a vacation that you otherwise couldn’t afford. Or if nothing else, this can allow for savings for a rainy day, something that just about anyone can use.

However, there are other benefits. If you’re feeling in a rut at your current job, starting a side job in a field of interest for you allows you a chance to indulge your passions without putting the pressure of your daily finances on it. Many have found that doing a side job they love allows them to feel less stressed in their everyday lives, even if they are spending time on. Sometimes, in a dream scenario, people’s side jobs become so successful that they have the opportunity to pursue it full time.

Even if this doesn’t come to pass, or you end up having to fold the side job for various reasons, just the act of doing so has already created a very real benefit for your career in the form of something great to put on your resume. In addition, running any sort of business or side job creates connections—the type that may end up helping you out later on, even if you don’t feel like doing it right away.

Finding The Right Fit

With this in mind, you may find yourself asking the question of what side job to do. The best response to start with is “do you have anything in mind?” If you’re not in dire financial straits, a side job is a chance for you to experiment, spend a little time working on something you’ve had an interest in but were reluctant to go all the way with. For example, many people with writing ambitions but difficulty finding work become freelancers on the side, taking projects as time allows. Teaching music, taking photographs, babysitting, tutoring, there are an unlimited amount of side jobs that don’t require a lot of startup money to do. Take a survey of your skills and interests and the perfect idea may just come to you.

Sometimes, if you don’t have an obvious idea for a side job of your own creation, it pays to try and keep an eye out for companies that fit a similar niche of a side job. Vector Marketing offers flexible schedules, which will allow you to keep to your regular schedule while getting a potential second income stream going. Many other companies have similar options, or you can try and look for work by the project on freelancing platforms. These days, many companies don’t want to pay for a full time member of staff, but still need services in certain areas. This can be to your benefit.

Putting together a side job or business to yourself may seem like an act of desperation, but this could not be further from the truth. Not only is there the potential for you to get a second stream of money which could be put towards a variety of uses, but you also expand your network and skill set while doing so. The potential to enhance your career and get paid for it is enough reason for anyone to give this a try.

Image: PourquoiPas

August 10, 2017

Away days for small groups

Away days are a great way to reward your staff for all their hard work, and encourage them to continue working hard. But with so many options to choose from, it might feel a little difficult deciding on the right events to provide. To help you make the decision, CR Events have put together this guide on providing a corporate away day for small groups.

Try something different

With small groups, you might be able to organise more smaller scale and unique events that might be unsuitable for a much larger group. When putting together a corporate away day for small groups, it may mean that the budget for what you want to do is a little more forgiving, allowing you a lot more choice and freedom with what you want to do.

For example, you could take 5-6 staff members to a local escape room for a cerebral challenge that’ll serve as a brilliant team building exercise. With fewer people, it’ll really encourage the idea of effective team working and collaboration to come to a solution.

Keeping active

Instead of just a staff away day, you could make the event a lot more inclusive by inviting some of your staff’s family members to an away day. Whether you only have two or three staff members, meaning there will only be a handful more people coming, or you offer an away day as a reward to one particular staff member and their family as a reward for exceptional customer service or exceeding sales targets, bringing family along can help reassure staff that you care about them, meaning they want to continue succeeding.

You could take the staff and family members to a local outdoor adventure park, where they’ll be able to climb around treetop assault courses, ensuring they have a great time as a family while being surrounding by the beauty of nature, and feeling supremely valued as an employee throughout.

Paintballing could be an interestingly hectic option for small groups or families. Bring out the competitive sides of everyone by pitting two teams against each other, with a prize for the victors. The messy, fast-paced nature of paintballing will help provide a little catharsis to the whole event for staff, while tiring out any little ones involved.

Targeted events

For a more educational twist on an away day for a small group, you could break up a larger workforce into individual teams, and offer a conference tailored to their professional development.

For example, your sales team head to a hotel for a fancy dinner with some champagne, before taking part in a conference led by a keynote speaker who is a thought leader in the industry if the event attracts a lot of attendees, then it’ll also serve as a brilliant networking event too, helping to attract people towards your business. The next week, you can offer a similar event to your marketing team, and so on.

The benefits of providing a smaller event such as this are that it will be much more targeted towards the skills, knowledge, and best practises within your industry for that specific group of staff, meaning it’s directly beneficial to everyone in attendance, and it can also help foster more internal discussion on how your staff can work better and more effectively within your business, or perhaps even unearth some ways to improve business processes.

By the end of the event, it’s a surety that your staff will feel more engaged with their work, and be extremely pleased at the effort that the business has gone to to reward them for doing so well, meaning they’ll want to continue performing well for you.

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August 8, 2017

How long does it take to sell a house?

When it comes to selling a house, most homeowners are aware that the process is not necessarily a fast one and can cause a significant amount of stress, despite the best of intentions to stay calm during the ‘moving’ period.
In fact, the average length of time it takes for a homeowner to move to a new house, after putting their property on the market, is 5-6 months.

Of course, even if you’re simply moving to a new house to upsize, downsize or have a slight change in location, the process of moving house can be a time of unrest and uneasiness. What’s more, if there are additional reasons to your moving, such as getting a divorce or relocating for a career, you may feel additional pressure during the stages of moving house.

So, what should you expect from moving, and how long does it really take to sell a house? Are there certain ways you can make the moving house period less pressured on yourself for a smoother transition into your new home?

Ultimately, the average time that a property is on the market for is 90 days, however, it is necessary to allow for a further 2-3 months from the point of having your offer accepted. This allows for conveyancing, property checks, the drawing up and exchanges of contracts, any mortgage agreements to be finalised and any other complications associated with the sale.

What can slow down the sale of a house?

There are several factors that can cause the sale of a house to slow down or even come to a complete halt. In fact, 31% of house sales fall through before completion which shows how changeable and fluid the property market can be, many people can be devastated at the loss of their dream home and, unfortunately, a significant amount of cash during the moving process.

One reason for a house sale to slow down is when you are selling and are part of a property chain. Being part of a chain means if one element of somebody’s move is slowed down, perhaps there are further enquiries needed into the state or value of the property, the process is slowed down for the whole of the property chain. Likewise, if one homeowner pulls out of the property chain, the process can be disrupted for everybody involved.

Furthermore, if you are selling around the Christmas period and don’t manage to get your completion date before your conveyancers or solicitors are off work for their festive break, a further two weeks would be added to your move. You may want to consider putting your house on the market much earlier in the year, perhaps February or March, to make the effort to avoid the process of moving over the Christmas period. That said, since there are some properties that take much longer than 5-6 months to complete, putting your house on the market earlier will not 100% guarantee you have moved before Christmas.

Are there any ways of speeding up the process of moving house?

Although as a general rule moving house is a lengthy process, there are a few ways you can speed up the process of selling your house and moving to a new home:

1. Have your mortgage already in place: Make sure you have your mortgage lender ready to lend before putting an offer on your new home. You should aim to have a Mortgage in Principle when you make your offer on a property.

2. Choose a reputable estate agent from the word go: A good (and not necessarily pushy!) estate agent can help you have a smoother house moving process. Before actually putting your property on the market, have your home valued by a few estate agents and choose the one that you feel most confident in. Remember: The estate agent that values your property most highly is not always the best one to go for.

3. Use a Cash Home Buyer. A Cash Home Buyer can provide you with an immediate cash offer on your home which can significantly decrease the length of time it takes to sell your home.

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August 8, 2017

Setting up a business in the healthcare sector

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Health is important, from keeping in shape to treating disease the healthcare sector is incredibly varied.

With people increasingly putting more focus into their health and wellbeing more and more businesses within the sector are cropping up, but what do you need when setting up a business which deals with some aspect of the public’s health?

What sort of business are you running?

Healthcare covers so many areas. Your decision to open a business might fall into a number of areas including:

Gym
Health Centre
Beauty Salon
NHS Treatment Provider

Depending on the sorts of services you offer the steps involved in setting up your business will vary in terms of what you need to do.

Permissions, licenses and legislation

Aside from staff, premises, equipment and the other more obvious requirements for running a business you also need to consider the different licenses and legislation you need to contend with.

For example, if you’re planning on opening a beauty salon which offers different cosmetic treatments such as sunbeds or electrolysis it is important to check if they require a premises licence from your local council.

The costs for licenses will vary from council to council and could require inspections to ensure your premises are suitable.

You should also ensure that if there are any special accreditations that your business can gain that shows they operate a quality service which is safe and monitored that you do so. This can help create a sense of quality around your business which could be crucial as you establish yourself in a crowded sector.

You should also ensure that any staff are qualified to provide treatment, and have demonstrable expertise. For example, if you run a gym and you offer a personal trainer service you should be certain your personal trainers are highly qualified and not going to suggest anything to your customers likely to cause injury or long term problems.

Infection Control

If your business offers medical or cosmetic procedures then cleanliness and preventing the spread of germs and bacteria is crucial.

Infection control involves a number of steps, from ensuring surfaces are clean to having healthcare uniforms which are designed to reduce the spread of infection and being easy to clean to kill germs and avoid staff taking them home with them inadvertently.

A healthcare business can be incredibly rewarding, helping people to feel better about themselves or make positive changes in their lives. Taking the right steps to ensure you set your business up correctly and allow you to present yourself as a qualified, safe place to seek to improve your health is crucial to ensuring long-term success.

August 4, 2017

Keep Your Business Agile – or Watch It Collapse

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We all want to improve our companies, right? Well, how many of us are focused on both improving and protecting our companies? Probably not as many as there should be.

One of the best ways to do both is to improve the market agility of your business. If your business isn’t agile enough, then you could find yourself running into a lot of trouble down the line. As in much of life, keeping yourself flexible could really pay off in the long run.

Wait. What the heck is market agility?

Market agility refers to a company’s ability to change with the times. Remaining agile in the world of business is extremely important. Perhaps the best way to highlight to you the importance of market agility is to take a look at some companies that didn’t do it very well. A famous example is that of Blockbuster. They are, perhaps, the best example, here. Simply put, their lack of agility made it difficult for them to face the competition of Netflix.

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Optimizing your resources

One of the most important (and underrated) ways of increasing agility is to watch where your company are putting their efforts. There are some areas that may be extremely important but could be done much more effectively if you outsource the task and allow your in-house resources free for other tasks. Social media management is a good example of this; you can read more at https://ignitedigital.com/service/community-management/. If you have an entire department that is dedicated to a particular job, then that’s costing you at least a hundred thousand a year. You’ve also paid for all the equipment they use. If the task isn’t being completed as well as it could be, or if the need for that task declines, then you’re going to be in trouble.

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Always have your eyes on trends

Usually, a lack of agility can destroy a business when that business faces two things at the same time. The first is the rise in popularity of a particular piece of technology. The second is a competitor that springs out of nowhere, taking advantage of that technology. You need to keep a sharp eye on both the technological environment and the competitive environment. Tracking customer behavior along with these three are also important. As you can read about at http://uk.businessinsider.com/uber-versus-taxi-best-deal-cheaper, ignoring all three of these elements is exactly what is causing many cab services to be in trouble with the rise of Uber.

Consider where your profits come from

Of course, the reason Blockbuster failed against Netflix wasn’t as simple as “they weren’t as on-demand as Netflix”. There was a problem inherent in their business strategy. A huge chunk of their profits came from charging their customers late fees. Services like Netflix made the need for late fees obsolete; you can read more about how this affected the businesses around it at https://forbes.com/a-look-back-at-why-blockbuster-really-failed-and-why-it-didnt-have-to. So remember to take a critical eye to the areas where you make profit. If it’s even slightly possible that another company could negate it? Then you might need to make serious changes to your structure before it’s too late.