Is Technology Revolutionizing Employees Training?

Jun23

Talents Education Training Skills Hand Can LeaveThe rapid developments in technology that we see every year are changing every aspect of our lives. The way that employees are trained at work is no exception. Traditionally, employees would sit down and watch a boring training video or listen to a lecture and then complete workbook style tasks to learn new things.

This was a pretty ineffective method because, although it didn’t cost the company much, it wasn’t very engaging at all and lots of employees would come away not having learned much at all. Now technology is bringing us newer, more effective ways of improving our skills. Here are some of the ways that technology is revolutionizing employee training.

Online Qualifications

If employees wanted to get promotions in the past, they often found that they were unqualified and their career progression came to a grinding halt. There was no way that they could take a few years out of their job to get the qualifications that they needed so they had no option but to watch new employees overtake them and rise to new heights that were unavailable to them.

Now that is all changing. You can do complete online mba programs these days, so you can get qualified at your own pace from home and get the promotion that you deserve. There are so many different qualifications that you can take online so you don’t need to be worried about taking time off work.

Access To Information

Employee training no longer needs to be limited to specific sessions, or even to work hours. With improved access to information, they can learn anything that they need to at the click of a button.

That means if they are unsure of a certain process, they don’t need to wait until the next training session to learn it, they can just bring up the information on their computer and read it at their leisure. They can also access it on their own time at home if they feel that they need to brush up on certain things.

This allows employees to start training before they have even started their new job. As long as they have access to company portals, they can turn up on their first day fully prepared, meaning that employers don’t need to pay somebody for a week of training when they won’t be doing anything productive within the company.

Social Learning

Having a social platform at work which employees can use to communicate with one another is a valuable training tool. Collaboration with others is the best way to be effective in business and social platforms improve this no end.

Everybody will have their own set of skills and knowledge so being able to consult each other on various areas that might be a shortfall of yours is a great way to ensure that everybody knows everything that they need to as well as creating a better working culture in the office.

Blended Approach   

Lots of companies are now opting for a blended approach between traditional forms of training and new technologies. For example, employees can watch an instructional video and then try out those new skills on a mock-up version of the systems that they will eventually be using when they start their job. This method is much better for retaining information because they are actively participating rather than just watching.

Easy ways of making Money Without Leaving Your House

Jun22

Making money without leaving the house – sounds like a dream doesn’t it? You might think that this isn’t something that you can really do, but in fact, it’s something all kinds of people are doing right this very minute! If you want a few creative ways you can make money without leaving your house, read on…

Writing An E-book

Writing an Ebook might sound like something other people do, but it’s becoming a popular option for those who want more cash. You do the work once, and then as people buy it, you make money. Simple! You should write about something you’re knowledgeable in, as well as something people are actually interested in. That being said, you could make money creative writing, it just might be a little harder!

Becoming A Pro At Photoshop

When you’re a pro at photoshop, you can make money as a graphic designer, or something to that effects. With the plethora of free resource online, you can teach yourself too!

Selling Your Wares

You don’t need to go to car boot sales or set up shop to sell your wares anymore. You can use sites like Depop, Etsy, and Facebook. If you’re creative and you love making things, this is the way to go.

Investing In Startups

Have you considered investing your money? This could be a smart way to use your money if you want big pay offs in the future. You just need to be patient! The infographic below can give you tips and advice!


Credit to Fortunate Investor

5 Essential Free Products & Services Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know

Jun20

Launching a startup company tends to be wrought with an endless stream of overheads and expenses, all of which can start heaping the pressure on you as an entrepreneur. There are equipment costs, website fees, supplies and insurance and so much more. Yeah, it is daunting, but it is worth getting your head around early on to save yourself from being caught in the headlights.entreprenuer

However, being the superheroes we are, we have compiled a list of helpful tips for you to utilize free services and products, which will hopefully relieve some of the pressures on you in those all-important first few months.

  1. The Website

A lot of the time the fees associated with websites are only small, but it all adds up very quickly so it is better to know where the free ones are. That’s where designing and hosting your website with Google Sites comes in handy.

The reason for this is simple: Google Sites allows it’s users to create sites using their pre-existing templates for free, after this it is just a matter of knowing the essential website tips. If you want to have a website that is a little less basic, though, then we recommend you look at Intuit, which offers free site-building tools and hosting for a year, which should be long enough to get up and running.

  1. The Accounting

It is one of those tasks that you are going to need to do, but one of those tasks that you aren’t going to want to do at all. To start with the more positive side of things, the invoicing, you can get free invoice templates for Word, Excel, and PDF, which is handy because it will mean more profit when collecting your money.

As for free and easy to use accounting software, we recommend you have a look at Wave, which is grabbing the attention of a lot of small businesses.

  1. The Analytics

Success in business these days seems to be about collecting data and going through the metrics to make sure you know what is working and what is failing. You want to know who’s been on your website, how they found it, and what they spent their time doing once there. The best way to gather this information for free is to use Google Analytics free version, which presents your information in lovely charts and graphs.

  1. The Office Furniture

People always underestimate the cost of furniture. This is both in home life and business. Well, instead of forking out a load of cash on office furniture which, let’s be honest, is just office furniture, why not have a little look at Freecycle. This is ideal for those looking to keep costs down because it is a platform by which local people can get rid of things they no longer want or need. It’s perfect.

  1. The Conference Call

No business is legit without the ability to engage in conference calls, and that means hosting them too. The great news is, you can get around paying for this requirement by using any number of free conference call services. The best of the bunch in our opinion is GroupMe, which is part of Skype, while Fring does video conferencing. So take your pick.

5 Effective Website Tips For All Business Owners

Jun10

graphic designIf you have formed your own business, it is likely you already have a website up and running. There are many advantages to having an online presence, not least of which is free marketing for your product.

However, if you don’t look after your website, your business is going to suffer.

 

Here are some valuable tips to help you maintain your website, ensuring it serves your business well.

Create a great looking website

You may have built your website from the ground up, used a free software tool to create one, or hired a third party web designer to create something for you. That’s great, you have something up and running, but it needs to look the part to make you stand out from the competition.

To begin with, we need to look at the aesthetics. Is your website eye-catching or does it suffer from drab coloring and a poor use of fonts? You want people to visit your site, enjoy their stay, and come back at a later date. If your web page is cluttered with unnecessary information, too many links, and a dull design, people aren’t going to stay very long.

Do a little research and compare your website to that of other companies. Have a look at the coloring they use, the fonts in descriptive texts, and the placement of photographs to showcase their product. Learn not only from the best but also from the worst.

Make your website look professional

You want to be taken seriously, so a quickly thrown together website isn’t going to do you any favors. Considering your company is just one of many in a competitive market, you need to create something that will make you stand out from the crowd.

First of all, if you have used free web-building software, you are going to be stuck with their company name in your URL. You will be taken far more seriously if you buy your own personal domain. You will have to pay for the privilege, but you will have more credibility in the world of business.

Check out other company websites, and you will notice testimonial pages. They use quotes from the feedback of their customers to promote their service. You should do the same. Once you have built up a client base, ask your customers to provide a quote for you. For example, you could ask for a short review of the product they have bought or a recommendation as to why others should buy from you.

Go to each page of your website, and double check your spelling and grammar. You won’t inspire confidence if there are a lot of mistakes. If writing isn’t your strongest suit, copy and paste your text into a service such as Grammarly, and it will highlight mistakes and help you correct any errors.

Maintain your website

It’s important that you look after your website, and keep it maintained regularly. On the surface, there are several things you should check. For example, make sure no dead links are pointing to defunct websites or internal pages on your site.

Click on every link, and also check any buttons you have embedded, such as those used for social media. If you find anything that isn’t working, you need to correct it as soon as possible to avoid your customers getting frustrated.

If you have designed your own website, you will have some technical know-how in keeping it up and running. Before your site has gone live, you will need to know how to monitor IIS performance to alleviate any problems and CPU issues. You need your site running at its optimum, especially if you rely on it for business, so any sudden crashes will cause problems for you and your customers.

You should make sure you backup all your files, in the event that you have major issues with your site. For example, despite any installed firewall, your website may still be vulnerable to hackers.

This is particularly distressing if your bank account details, or that of your customers, are stored on your website. You are also susceptible to viruses and malware, from third party plugins and software.

You should regularly back your files up by using a cloud service, or you could also email them to yourself if the file size isn’t too big for your email provider. You don’t want to delay on this, so be sensible and back your files up as soon as possible.

Boost your website

Just because you have a website, it doesn’t mean people are going to find it easily. Once your site has gone live, you need to shout it from the rooftops to let people know you exist. There are several ways to do this.

Firstly, use social media and point your followers to your website’s direction. Considering the billions of people who use networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, you are able to reach a higher number of people than ever before.

When sending out promotional material, such as flyers, business cards, and newsletters, make sure your website is printed on them. It is also worth taking out ad space in the local media, be it printed or radio, to attract new customers.

People won’t necessarily find your website on Google, so you want to improve your search engine rankings through SEO (search engine optimization). SEO is a tool that every website owner should get to grips with.

By using the effective placement of keywords on your site, you can emulate the possible search terms that internet users might enter into a search engine. The process is quite complicated for beginners, so you may want to hire a specialist company to help you.

Update regularly

Finally, your website needs updating on a regular basis to keep customers coming back. Highlight new products, offer discounts and update your blog to keep your website relevant and interesting.

Putting the work into your site might take some time, but you should reap the financial rewards eventually.

 

 

 

Making A Career From Your Talents

Jun9

business-stormsThinking about the future can be depressing. It’s just the whole scope of the thing, really. We can see too many paths, too many options and it can get too much. We want the best from our lives and our abilities, so choosing and finding the right choice can be a big ask of us – of course, that’s a perfect recipe for stress, isn’t it?

When it’s all laid out like that, we do wish someone would come along and give us direction, but in most circumstances, we have to provide that direction ourselves and look within. Who are we? What do we excel at? What do we want to do?

If we can answer those questions, the paths might become a little more clear, and we might find it a lot easier to direct ourselves forward. For anyone looking to make a career from their creative talents, this is a must. Will you take your abilities seriously and attempt to carve a career from them, or will you keep them as hobbies and something on the back-burner?

Charge to Demonstrate your talent

Of course, if you’ve got a talent, you should expect something in return should you perform that talent. Exposure is great, especially in the infantile and early stages of any career, but it’s not something tangible. You should only offer up your skills for free if it’s something that really appeals to you.

You can make money from your talents, whatever they are. Don’t be put off by the fact that ‘freebie’ opportunities are more plentiful and common to come across – that’s only natural. For paid work, you’ll have to search hard and market yourself well.

Network and Collaborate

When you’re asked to do something for free – check and see if it’s something you really want to do, something worthy of your time. If it’s not – offer a polite refusal. You have the power to do that. If you want to get involved with free work and exposure – do the work yourself in a project you’re heavily involved with.

This is a great way to meet collaborators and network. Get exposure by involving yourself with passion projects with like-minded people instead of offering your skills up for free. Of course, you might be inclined to consider a more traditional career path – but your skills will never be enough.

You’ll need qualifications. You can take a marketing MBA online though, so degrees are accessible to anyone with the time, patience, and funds. Creative mindsets work well at solving modern problems, so think about this!

Market your talents

If you are a creative worker with talents that can be sold, you’ll need to put a lot of groundwork in. You’ll need to market and present yourself well with your work and your branding. You will also need to actively find work.

There are plenty of sites where you can find jobs and work; you just need to go out and look for them. Working with clients is hard work, but aim to please and always be polite – any business you lose will have a big impact!

 

 

Starting A Business At Home: How To Make It Work

Jun9

work from homeAt the beginning of your company, it’s unlikely that you will have the funds to pay out for an office. After all, with the costs of launching, it can leave you with little money left behind.

And an office building can be an expensive monthly cost that you don’t really need when it’s just you working for your company. But working at home can be easier said than done. Therefore, here is how you can make starting a business at home work.

Keep your business and personal phone lines separate

There is nothing more embarrassing than your kids answering a business phone call. After all, you might not even realize until too late that your little one is chatting away to a client. And while some clients will find it funny, there will be others who won’t work with you as it doesn’t look professional.

Therefore, to ensure this doesn’t happen, you should get a second phone line fitted with a different number for your business. That way, you will be able to differentiate whether it’s a call from a client or a friend. And then when you are off-duty, you can leave phone calls on the business line to go to answer machine.

Don’t forget to get a work mobile too. That way, you can answer messages and calls while on the go.

You need a good home office

Your business is not going to work if you are running it from your kitchen table. After all, you are likely to get disturbed by your family members as they go about their day. So you might lose your train of thought when you are trying to complete an important project.

And it’s easy to lose motivation and get distracted when you are not doing it in a particular place. Therefore, to ensure you can make your business work, you need to make a good home office you can work in. It might be the case you just use a spare bedroom which you can turn into an office.

Or even an outbuilding might be a great place to run your business from. If you have little space in your current property, you might want to look for a new home using sites like http://www.manausa.com/. After all, you can hunt down a property which has a good amount of space for you to run your business while enjoying your family life!

Don’t give out your address

Despite the fact you might be working from home, it’s important that you don’t put your address details out there. After all, if you are speaking with clients who you have never met before, you can’t be sure they are legitimate. So your address details might end up in the wrong hands.

And you don’t want to give out your address if the client might show up at your house. After all, you don’t want to let them into your family humble abode. It’s not very professional, and it could be awkward with your family.

As it says on https://www.legalzoom.com/, you can find many sites online which will let you rent an online address. They will then forward you any post that gets sent to that address.

And remember to get good internet. That way, you can run your business efficiently from your home.

 

 

 

Essential Skills You Need To Work On Before Starting Your Business

Jun8

businessA lot of entrepreneurs are beginners when it comes to starting a business. They might have worked before inventing products for a company. But they have never actually managed a business before.

So they can often be clueless when it comes to things like bookkeeping and employing staff. In fact, it can lead them to make errors which might end their business. Therefore, you should consider doing some training before going any further.

In fact, here are some essential skills you need to work on before starting your business.

You should work on your managerial skills

As your business progresses, you are likely to want to hire a few people to work for you. After all, it can help you to manage the workload. And ensure you can concentrate on securing new clients while they work on the service or product. However, it can be a challenge managing people if you have never done it before.

After all, hiring employees comes with a lot of responsibility. You need to ensure their safety and happiness at the workplace. You also need to have the skills to be able to do meetings and also dismissals if it comes down to it.

Therefore, before you hire anyone to work for your company, you should look at working on your managerial skills. Go on a course which can equip you with the skills you need when taking on employees. You can also outsource an HR assistant to work for you. After all, they can take over the employee side of your business to make it easier for you.

You need to work on your bookkeeping skills

You might currently have some basic financial skills. After all, we need some in our life to manage our own finances. But you might not have had to do bookkeeping before. And this can be an important part of your business.

After all, it can ensure you keep on top of your company’s finances. And ensure you are making a profit from your business. Therefore, you need to go for some training to work on your bookkeeping skills. In fact, there are lots of companies like Business Advice Specialist Group who can ensure you know how to use accounting software.

And you can go to them for further financial advice as your business progresses. That way, you can avoid any financial mistakes with your company.

You need to work on your marketing skills

It’s so important that you work on marketing your business. After all, it’s what helps you to draw business to your company. And it can ensure you have clients aplenty, so the work keeps rolling in. But a lot of entrepreneurs don’t know where to get started when it comes to marketing.

Therefore, you should go on a short course for marketing. After all, it will teach you the basics, so you know how to get your company out there to the public. And it can ensure you make a website which sells your business well! And as your company progresses, you might want to get a marketing manager. That way, they will take control of this area of your business.

And don’t forget to build on your public speaking skills. After all, you will be putting these into a lot of practice when starting your business.