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Use Podcasts to Enhance Your Business

May 28, 2015 by Rosemary

My Apple Watch arrived a couple of weeks ago, and so far, it’’s been a wonderful tool for reminders, notifications, and fitness tracking. (Thanks for reminding me that I’’ve been parked at my desk for 2 hours!)

Unexpectedly, it’’s also helping me enjoy more podcasts, via the Overcast app. (The Apple Watch doesn’t currently support the native iPhone Podcast app, for some reason).

Podcasting is experiencing a resurgence over the last few years, having originated in the 1980’’s and dropped (mostly) from the public eye in the 1990’s. I always dabbled in podcast listening, but never really paid attention to the business possibilities until I discovered Christopher Penn and John Wall’’s Marketing Over Coffee several years ago. This was ““patient zero”” for my own podcast awakening.

In 2014, Edison Research noted that “podcasting is bigger than you think,” in its Share of Ear study. With the ever widening array of content, we are looking to audio as an easy to digest path to consumption.

Whether you’re interested in communications, marketing, PR, running a small business, or the latest crime documentary (you can slip in some Serial if you like), there is a podcast for you. Learn about anything, while working out, folding laundry, or flying to Chicago.

How do you discover new podcasts?

There is a new website built for podcast discovery: Convince & Convert’’s MarketingPodcasts.com. Type in your parameters and find the exact podcast you’’re seeking, by topic, by host name, or by popularity. It’’s basically podcast heaven.

Another great podcast resource is BlogTalkRadio, which categorizes shows, allows you to subscribe, and if you’’re feeling bold, start your own podcast. Podcasts hosted on BlogTalkRadio include a live chat feature, so that you can talk to other listeners as well.

If you’’d rather have an app for that, you can download Stitcher, which will learn your listening preferences over time and make recommendations for you. You can also use it to ““stitch”” together podcasts and shows to make your own personal radio station.

Some new podcasts to whet your appetite

If you’re ready to start listening, here are some of my favorite new podcasts. Smart people talking about business, life, taking risks, and doing it with guts.

  • The Successful Failure – hosted by Gigi Peterkin
  • 100 Proof: The Badass Radio Show – hosted by Jason Falls and Tania Dakka (this one’s somewhat NSFW)
  • The Heart of Marketing – hosted by Jayme Soulati & John Gregory Olson

Do you have a favorite new podcast? Are you considering hosting your own show? Please share with us!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

 

Filed Under: Trends Tagged With: bc

Happier Employees Make for Better Results

May 27, 2015 by Thomas

Can you say with certainty that you have a bunch of happy employees? What if it is just a few?

Whether the numbers are high, medium or low, happy employees make for a world of difference in the business world.

For those individuals running large companies, there is sometimes a disconnect with the workers. This may not be due to an unpleasant owner, but more so because there are so many employees for one to keep track of.

Meantime, those running smaller operations can have an advantage in that they oftentimes have one-on-one relations with the various employees, especially the managers of different departments.

No matter what your relationship is when it comes to owner-employee, there are a number of ways you can increase the odds of having happy employees, employees who typically will turn out to be more engaged and more productive.

Insurance Brings Peace of Mind

There are various opportunities for medical coverage, wellness, and growing with the business you can offer your employees. They include:

  • Health benefits – Next to one’’s salary, having the proper healthcare coverage in place is likely paramount for the majority of employees. Locating affordable health care plans does not have to be an agonizing chore for you as a business owner. If you don’’t like the one you currently have in place and/or are just interested in seeing what else is out there, you have several roads to travel. While your HR (human resources) head may be tasked with the assignment, you or they can network with other business owners you are friendly with to see who they use. You can also turn to the Internet and use social media and blog posts to learn more about employee health insurers’’ who may be a good fit for your company;
  • Fitness – Going hand-in-hand with health benefits, encourage your employees to stay or get fit. Not only is it for their benefit, but healthy employees are less likely to miss work days or be out of action for an extended period of time. You can offer something as simple as gym memberships to qualified and interested employees (typically after their probationary period is over). Having a solid wellness program in place benefits your employees and your overall business goals;
  • Advancement – Lastly, if you worked at a company that gave you little or no room to grow and advance, would you stay there very long? In most cases, the answer would be no, so make sure your employees have options to move up the corporate ladder no matter what size business you run. Not only is there financial incentive for employees when having the opportunity to move up in the business, but there self-esteem and ability to work better with co-workers and customers will grow too.

When you give your employees the ability to care for themselves and their families, not to mention achieve some personal professional goals, you are more likely to have an overwhelming majority of happy employees.

As a business owner, what makes your employees happy?

About the Author: Adam Griffith writes on different topics for the Internet, among which are business, health and finance.

Filed Under: Business Life, Strategy/Analysis Tagged With: bc

How To Grow Your Business By Stepping Back

May 26, 2015 by Lindsey Tolino

By Lindsey Tolino

Sometimes it can feel like you’re banging your head against an immovable wall when you’re trying to grow your business. It can be totally frustrating and stressful to find new ways to serve more clients. When it feels like that, the answer may lie not in trying to hammer through the same wall, but rather in stepping back and looking around.

When we are so focused on achieving business growth, we may miss the clues that are dangling all around us. Not only that, if we miss what is happening around us, we may suffer negative consequences.

It’s like if you’re home and all you do is stare at your computer. Not only will you miss the benefits of engaging in conversation with your family, but you might also miss the fact that your stove is on fire.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to be focused. But it’s also harmful to never step back and look at what’s happening.

Let me be the first to admit I have a hard time stepping back. It’s hard to defy my fear that everything is going to fall apart if I’m not constantly working on it. It’s hard to trust that not everything is dependent on me. It’s hard to believe that I’ll be able to get back to it if I take a break.

But slowly and surely, I’ve found freedom from the stress when I have stepped back. I’ve been able to breathe deeper and see things in a different light. Sometimes, that has made all the difference in how I handle things when I go back to the work.

The reality is that we actually cheat ourselves if we don’t step back sometimes.

For example, here are some things we may miss if we don’t stop and look around:

  • A great idea that could help you improve your business (I think of Barbara Corcoran’s epiphany – Everybody Wants What Everybody Wants)
  • News of an upcoming regulation that may affect your business
  • An emerging technology that could accelerate your business
  • A conversation with a colleague that would deepen a relationship
  • Quality time with loved ones that we might regret missing later

We know it’s best for us to stop and look around sometimes. But watching The Bachelorette may not be the best use of that time (unless that’s restful for you), so how should we do this?

We should step back and look around with intention. Here are some ideas to consider:

  • Look at the world – Check out the global news. Maybe set a Google alert for industry news. Looking at the global scale and getting a larger perspective can make me feel small, and sometimes, that’s a good thing.
  • Look at your region – Read a local news source for happenings in your area. Get outside and take photos, meet people and appreciate the area that you live in.
  • Look at people – Sometimes I don’t even ‘see’ people. Shamefully, I admit that when I’m with people, I’m often worried about myself and what I can get out of the situation, instead of truly looking at them and seeing how they can be served. To serve others well, the first step is truly seeing them.
  • Look after yourself – Take a real break. Set aside time to relax and let your mind rest in a way that is best for you.

If you feel like you’re hitting a wall with your business growth, then stop. Step back. Look around. It could make all the difference.

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino comes alongside artisans, craftsman and people monetizing their passions to help them create healthy, structured businesses. She shares business musings and tips at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Filed Under: Personal Development Tagged With: bc

Stretch your comfort zone

May 21, 2015 by Rosemary

It was drizzly.
An evening networking event at an outdoor location.
It would have been so easy to skip it, give a lame excuse the next day, and move on.

But I went anyway.

After using my drink ticket and strafing the buffet of appetizers, I found myself searching the room for someone to talk to.

Group of seven people, laughing a little too hard in the corner? No.
Intense duo exchanging business cards near the bar? No.
Dude looking around like the Terminator, scanning for prospects over the shoulders of his group? No way.

And then I saw him. A friendly looking guy standing all by himself. Yes!

I walked up and said, “I don’t know anyone here, do you?”

With that quick interaction, I stumbled upon an instant introduction to someone influential in my industry, who is extremely familiar with my niche, and who would be almost impossible to meet via a cold call.

Will this accidental conversation ever result in any business? Who knows?

What I do know is that every time I put myself outside my comfort zone, it stretches the zone a little bit.

The key is that you don’t go in with a sales mindset, go in with a plan to connect with another human being. Focus on active listening.

There was another time that I accidentally sat down next to the girlfriend of a panel speaker and ended up having a great conversation with him just before the panel started…he actually shouted out my company from the dais.

Or the other time that I made myself go down and hang out in the lobby of a conference hotel and ended up having dinner with all of the speakers.

You can’t be in the right place at the right time if you never go anywhere.

Poke at your comfort zone a bit. Make yourself do the uncomfortable thing, and see what happens.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Personal Development Tagged With: bc

Connect with the Right Business Phone System for Company Growth

May 20, 2015 by Thomas

Is your business telephone system helping you to grow?

It’s easy to overlook your business phone system and just use whatever is available, but in fact choosing the right phone system can provide your business with a valuable boost.

Picking the right telephone system is a crucial choice for your business and can help determine your success. Your business phone system can make it easier for your customers to reach you, and for your team to collaborate with each other.

The result is enhanced customer service, and better teamwork, two elements which are vital to the success of your business.

Helping Your Customers to Reach You

The right business phone system can make a noticeable difference to the quality of your customer service.

Whether they call or text, email or leave a message on your social media profiles, your customers are looking for a quick and helpful response. The right telephone system can help you give them just that.

VoIP (voice over internet protocol) phone systems often offer feature-rich solutions which you can make the most of to boost your customer service.

VoIP allows you to stay in touch wherever you are by forwarding calls to your mobile device, cutting down the amount of times your customers will have to hear “I’m sorry, I’m not at my desk right now”.

With features such as find me and follow me, you can set up calling sequences for yourself and your team that will call different numbers in sequence.

The right system can do more than just find you, however.

You can make use of auto attendants to help your customers reach the right person, or us alert features that will let you know via email when you have a new voice mail (some will even transcribe the voice mail for you).

Choosing a phone system with the right features means your customers will benefit from customer service that makes it easy for them to get in touch with you and get a response.

Keeping Your Team Connected

As the following article looks at, the same features that make the right phone systems for businesses a boon for your customer service can also help your team to stay connected, and can even help boost their performance.

As well as the features outlined above, your team can make use of VoIP phones to make conference calls or even use instant messaging apps.

Whether collaborating with a colleague in an office several hundred miles away or updating your team with vital information while you’re out and about, the right phone system makes it easier to keep in touch.

Some business phone systems can even be used to help with training. They include features that allow managers to listen to customer service calls, join in on the call if needed, or talk to their employee without the customer hearing.

Your choice of phone system can facilitate more efficient teamwork, cut down on games of “telephone tag” when employees need to get in touch with one another, and help to provide training and support for employees who take customer calls.

It’s clear that your choice of phone system can make a big impact on how you run your business and how you connect with your customers.

By choosing a system with features that you know you can make good use of, your team will able to work together more effectively, and your customers will enjoy better customer service.

That means a business that runs more smoothly, and happy customers who will return to do business with you again.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn writes on a wide variety of topics, including branding, inbound marketing, business telephone systems and how to use social media to drive sales.

Filed Under: Customer Think, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc

7 Decisive Changes to Jumpstart Your Team’s Productivity

May 19, 2015 by Rosemary

By Tracy Vides

We’ve all looked at companies like Google and Facebook and envied them secretly for their fabulous looking offices, employees who seem super motivated all the time, and products that are world beaters. As managers, we may not have much control over how our offices look or whether every product that rolls out the door is a smash hit; however, we do have control over how our employees feel at the workplace.

Here are some simple changes that go a long way towards making your employees a tad less hassled and a lot more productive.

1. Cut Those Unnecessary Meetings

It’s the bane of modern corporate life. Calling meetings and spending the better part of the day inside conference rooms while work keeps piling up on your desk is a common lament we all hear. A recent study found that 59% of all respondents polled found endless meetings to be a major cause of their wasted time at work.

Avoid unnecessary meetings like those completely pointless ‘FYI’ type meetings. Or meetings that do not directly involve each person attending it. If you do have to meet, limit your meeting time to a maximum of 30 minutes. Anything longer than that and your team’s minds will be elsewhere and you’ll not achieve anything concrete from the meeting.

To make your team a lean mean productive unit, use meetings for three clear purposes:

  1. Brainstorming
  2. Decision making
  3. Team reviews and future planning

For everything else, just stick to your collaboration tools and email.

2. Tame the Email Monster

Speaking of email, that is another huge time killer in office environments. As you read this post, over 200 billion emails have been sent out just today. No wonder intra-team emails comprise one line additions, irrelevant comments, or long winded summaries of earlier emails that effectively add zero value to the final recipients.

A good way to avoid drowning in emails is to institute a policy within your team of keeping emails brief and to the point. Avoid running over three to four sentences in one email to avoid losing the reader’s interest. For feedback on a project or communication regarding tasks, rely on an instant messenger such as HipChat or Convo, or other dedicated tools.

To avoid being overwhelmed by all the email you receive, make it a point to first focus on your immediate priorities. Check email once every few hours, ideally when you take a break from your own to-do list.

3. Empower Cross-Functional Collaboration

A key step in leadership development is to widen the perspectives of your next-gen leaders. Typically, most employees have linear growth trajectories in organizations, where they specialize in one particular function, like marketing, product development, finance, and so on. Their understanding and comfort levels with other functions is often woefully inadequate.

Living with a situation where you only have employees who are super specialized in their own fields is a recipe for succession disaster. Often, people get stuck in an unimaginative quagmire purely due to the lack of a fresh perspective. When the same problem is viewed by a new pair of eyes, solutions surface unexpectedly. An effective leader needs an overall understanding of the business with keen, unbiased insights into what makes the company tick and what are its pain points.

As W. Earl Sasser from the Harvard Business School puts it,

“Expertise in only one area — think John Sculley’s unsuccessful jump from Pepsi consumer marketing to the top of Apple — can be a handicap.”

Therefore, it’s no surprise that cross-functional collaboration that is all the rage these days. And for good reason too. A study conducted by Teresa Amabile from the Harvard Business School on corporate employees across seven companies, shows that a collaborative environment where employees work together without being pitted against each other works best for creative thinking.

Many organizations are so committed to this concept of cross functional collaboration that they build it into their office design. Katherine Vong writes about the tech startup The Flagship, which created a centrally located Piazza (town square) in the office, aiming to encourage conversations and cross-pollination of ideas across teams that wouldn’t usually have interacted with each other.

To begin with, offer your future stars exposure to other aspects of the business than what they have handled so far. Let them spend considerable amount of time learning and getting their hands dirty in new functions. This multi-functional exposure broadens their perspective, preparing them for a more strategic role in the future. Also invest in a collaboration tool like Wrike or Grexit. Such tools allow you to brainstorm ideas, assign responsibility, and annotate or comment on work completed by a team member at your own pace and from the convenience of your Gmail inbox, without the wastefulness of calling multiple meetings.

4. Create SOPs

It’s a common refrain. Too many teams reinvent the wheel with every project that they undertake. In the absence of a documented ‘right’ way to accomplish a task, every employee will try and devise a solution to problems similar to ones that have been solved multiple times before, leading to a lot of wasted unproductive time.

Counter wasting time on unnecessary, repetitive work by developing clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for common tasks that your team handles. Train your team members in becoming experts at this standard procedure, so that they can function a lot more efficiently when they next come up against a similar issue. Don’t know how to create a SOP for your team? David Grusenmeyer of Cornell University offers a scientific approach to writing the perfect SOP for your team.

5. Make Deadlines Stick

I love a relaxed work environment. However too much of a good thing can be bad for you too. Procrastination is a huge efficiency killer among teams, especially teams where bosses keep pushing the deadlines on projects in order to seem more employee friendly. I am not suggesting that your team throw flexibility out the window.

However, if your team realizes that deadlines can be extended all the time and for indefinite periods, they stop taking deadlines seriously. Which means your team’s productivity suffers and unsavory consequences follow.

Avoid all this nastiness by being clear that deadlines on various tasks are not negotiable. Your team needs to realize that a deadline that is announced is meant to be respected and will not change unless under very, very exceptional circumstances.

6. Bid Goodbye to Silos

While we hear of too many meetings being called that waste everyone’s time, we also see a large majority of workers carrying out their tasks in complete isolation, all by themselves. Independence is a great trait to have, but most office tasks are not new and have been done by someone before. Approaching a teammate for assistance on a task they probably have handled before is a great way to cut delivery timelines and improve efficiencies.

The study quoted earlier found that 32% of workers believe that insufficient collaboration with their co-workers acts as an impediment to their own productivity.

As a manager, encourage your team to always have each other’s backs. The definition of a team itself is a group of individuals who come together to accomplish a goal. Go back to basics by inspiring your team to drop their blinders and reach out and help their fellow members whenever needed.

7. Speed Up Rewards & Recognition

I saved one of the biggest contributors to productivity for the very end.

Even the most talented and efficient employee will soon lose all drive and interest in his work if his results go unnoticed.

Most organizations pay lip service to rewards and recognition by having an annual R&R ceremony where one person is felicitated for a good job done. Trouble is, a team is not made up of just one person. Every member of a team puts in effort all year long, some of which catch the public eye and many which go unnoticed in the larger scheme of things. When sincere efforts and small victories go unheralded, over time, workers become less motivated to put in their very best.

Don’t let this despair set in within your team. That will be your team’s death knell. Instead, institute a program of regular and instant recognition to make your team members feel valued. It doesn’t have to be something big or formal. Even a congratulatory email (copied to senior management) to employees on a job well done makes them feel important and appreciated.

Parting Words

High productivity is a fruit that is ripened by a positive and motivating team atmosphere as much as by an individual’s own drive. Tell us how you encourage productivity within your team. I’d love to know!

Author’s Bio: Tracy Vides is a content creator and marketer, who loves to blog about subjects as diverse as fashion, technology, and finance. She’s always raring to have a discussion on startups and entrepreneurship. Say “Hi” to her on Twitter @TracyVides. You can also find her on G+ at gplus.to/TracyVides.

Filed Under: teamwork Tagged With: bc

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