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Invest In Your Health For Business Success

March 30, 2017 by Rosemary

By Deb Bixler

Home business owners rarely think about business assets, and when they do, there is one asset they often overlook.

When you work for yourself it is not unusual to become engulfed in the pursuit of income and forget to invest in your most important asset.

Your Most Important Business Asset

Your health is your greatest business asset and you should treat it as such.

With all the activities that need attention in a home business combined with the busy lifestyle of the 21st century, it is easy for a business owner to put their health aside for future consideration, but this is a big mistake.

When your life is balanced between personal and business time, you can prioritize your health and be a more productive employee working for yourself.

Working with a schedule is often the best way to go. Create a schedule that matches the results you want in your business.

If you want a full-time income then plan to work full-time hours. Schedule 40 hours a week for business activities.

For those who want a part-time work-at-home commission schedule, your work hours need to be between 20-30 per week.

While the desired income won’t immediately start flowing, a consistent, steady and balanced schedule that you consistently and steadily work year-round will create the income you desire.

When you take personal time off, you will be more productive and focused in the office. Many major corporations are switching their work ethics to a balanced approach as science shows that fewer work hours and more personal time makes for better employees.

Less work means less stress and a more productive worker.

There is nothing more important than your health because without it, you have no life.

Take the time to exercise! You don’t have to go to the gym, just incorporate everyday activities such as a simple walk to make a big impact on your long-term health.

Health Is Your Best Business Asset

Rarely do we equate the food we eat to our work performance, but what we eat affects us more than we think!

Did you ever notice how difficult it is to concentrate when you are hungry?

Food has a direct impact on our cognitive performance, which is why a poor decision at lunch can derail an entire afternoon.

When you make poor food choices you can have a tough time staying focused and performance drops.

Make a plan to eat three small balanced meals a day and three healthy snacks in between to satisfy between-meal cravings and prioritize your health!

Your Best Business Asset

Your health is the best business asset you have. Invest in it regularly and it will pay off handsomely.

If you work hard and make a fortune it will mean nothing if you don’t protect your greatest business asset… your health.

About the Author:
Deb Bixler is a trained chef turned passionate speaker who focuses on sales education and healthy living. As a party plan trainer she focuses on systems for direct sellers at the CashFlowShowRadio.com and her healthy food website can be found at WowFoodTips.com.

Shifting your mind from consumption to reflection

March 23, 2017 by Rosemary

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of participating in a Periscope with my friend Paul O’Mahoney, one of our SOBCon/GeniusShared tribe.

It was a light-hearted, general conversation among a global group of acquaintances. (If you don’t follow Paul on Periscope, you really should; he reads Walt Whitman and shares his witty perspectives from Cork, Ireland.)

At one point, Paul asked if anyone was a reader, and we all started sharing our favorite topics and authors. Then someone (forgive me, I can’t remember who it was) asked, “does reading make you clever?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Paul responded, “no, reflection makes you clever.”

That insight has simmered in my consciousness all day.

You can read every novel, every blog post, every textbook, and not gain a thing if you don’t take time to meditate on and consider the art you’re consuming.

Yes, read. Read whatever sparks your imagination. Read voraciously and with abandon.

But take the time to reflect as well.

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

Providing Your Employees with a Safer Workplace

March 22, 2017 by Thomas

When you rely on others to help make your business a success, going out of your way for them certainly makes sense.

That said you can only do so much in and out of the office for your employees, especially when some of them might not be heeding your warnings.

Whether you try and care for them in the office with an extra amount of attention towards safety, matching that with an equal effort of care and compassion outside the workplace, always remember that you can only do so much.

With that in mind, what are you doing these days to provide your employees with a safer workplace?

Drill Home the Importance of Safety

So that you can hopefully strike a note with your employees when it comes to the importance of safety in and out of the office, remember these tips:

Workplace environment

First and foremost, you have the most interaction with your employees obviously when they are in your presence. That said do your best to promote a safe workplace environment, one where workers know that you take their safety more seriously than anyone else.

Among the ways to do this:

Having monthly safety meetings for your staff, especially if you are in an industry (construction etc.) where workers do put themselves at risk on a regular basis.
Having protocol in place in the event an employee is injured. Make sure they know what to do in terms of seeking treatment, along with reporting the injuries, and of course making sure all paperwork is handled properly.
Having a system in place where employees can report unsafe work conditions, something many may be afraid to do if their name will be provided. Have an “anonymous box” or some other method in (or out of the office) where workers can report safety concerns without fear of reprisals, including possibly losing their jobs.

Out on the road

When your employees go out on the road during part of their work responsibilities, do you do your best to ensure their safety?

Among the ways to do this:

Having safe company vehicles for your employees, vehicles that you have the utmost faith in. As an example, if you have workers who go out using company cars and/or trucks to meet with clients, make deliveries, assess projects out in the field etc. are they as safe as possible? By being properly maintained, offering backup camera systems, even lane-changing warning systems, your employees stand a better chance of staying alive.
Having a system in place where employees can check in with the home office regularly. For instance, there have unfortunately been incidents (especially in recent years) of workers being injured or even killed on the job in the real estate industry. If you work in this industry (or any business for that matter), be sure when employees go out to meet a client, they’ve alerted a co-worker as to where they are.
Having a solid set of rules in place regarding employee conduct behind the wheel. Although most employees never cross the line when it comes to operating company vehicles, some in fact do. As a result, they can put themselves, others on the road, even their employees in harm’s way. Make it clear whenever hiring someone that they are expected to operate company vehicles (or their own if they use them for work-related matters) with the utmost respect. This also means avoiding speeding and other reckless driving habits, along with not drinking and driving on the job.

As important as making a dollar is as a business owner, make sure you never take your eyes off the importance of workplace safety, notably that of your employees.

By focusing and refocusing on safety in and out of the workplace, you and your team will be the better for it.

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

Let Guest Posting Market Your Brand

March 10, 2017 by Thomas

Are you at a loss for words as to why your brand is struggling these days?

If so, the answer might be right in front of you.

For many business owners, their brands have trouble getting traction as a result of inefficient and/or ineffective marketing.

As a result, there is missed sales revenue, revenue that could very well be the difference between a solid month of sales and a lackadaisical one at best.

With that in mind, what should be you doing to give your brand a boost?

While there are a myriad of options available to you, some typically prove to be more successful than others.

One such option is guest posting.

Between guest posting on other blogs and allowing relevant and authoritative authors to provide your site with guest posts, you can oftentimes increase your site’s traffic before long.

Although there are several reasons you will likely see a spike in your website traffic, one is that your site could very well improve its search engine rankings, most notably with Google.

So, has the time come to let guest posting for your brand be the possible boost it has been missing up to this point and time?

Knowing Where to Start

In order to understand why guest posting matters to your brand, start by looking at some of your competitors and their websites.

Are they running guest posts on a regular basis and/or guest posting on other sites? If they are, what are some of the topics they are routinely covering? While there are a myriad of things to discuss, search for posts that will be most useful to your regular audience.

As an example, if you work in the real estate business, consumers would tend to want to know the following:

Current trends – What is happening in the market as of now for both buyers and sellers?
Future forecast – What are experts saying about the market’s pluses or minuses over the next six months to a year?
Home repairs – For someone looking to sell, how much time and money should they invest in repairs? Oftentimes, repairs done prior to listing the home can increase the value of the residence.

As you prepare to do guest posts, the above-mentioned topics are just a few of the many things you can discuss on other real estate and financial blogs. Likewise, encourage those looking to post on your site to hit some of those areas and more.

Lastly, no matter what industry you are in, guest blogging won’t be all that successful for you if you don’t engage your readers.

Although some comments may slip through the cracks on occasion, do your best to read all of the remarks you get from readers. If you feel there is the need for a response and/or to continue the discussion, by all means do.

Promoting Your Guest Posts

Finally, turning to social media to promote your blog posts is imperative, especially if you are new to the guest posting scene.

For the best results possible, use a variety of social networking sites, with Facebook and Twitter the top two. You can also opt for Instagram and Pinterest, though both of those platforms tend to be more focused on imagery.

Going back to Facebook and Twitter for a moment, be sure to do some cross-promoting, allowing both you and others in your industry (except for direct competitors in most cases) to benefit from helping one another out.

As with your guest posts, be sure to engage those on social media taking the time to comment about your efforts.

If you’ve been lackadaisical about using guest posting in the past to market your brand, start changing that mindset today.

As a business owner, how are you using guest posting to bring more awareness around to your brand?

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business and marketing topics on the web.

Don’t Slack on Those You Hire

March 8, 2017 by Thomas

In order to give your small business the best chance to succeed, much of course depends on those you hire.

That said are you doing the best job possible when it comes to hiring talent?

In some instances, you’re going to miss on a few choices. If you can hire 90 percent or better successfully, you can oftentimes survive those cases where you made the wrong choice.

So, what goes into hiring the best possible talent out there for your small business?

While research on your part is certainly key, a little bit of luck certainly doesn’t hurt too.

From this day forward, will you do everything possible in hiring the right people time and time again?

Put Time and Effort into Your Review Process

When the time comes again for you to hire the right employees, keep in mind the following pointers:

Experience

What employer would tell you that experience isn’t all that important? If you said very true, you’d be correct.

That said a person’s job experience up to this point can mean a myriad of things.

Were they in a position of management? Were they responsible for making key decisions for the employer or employers they worked for up to this point? Were they tasked with overseeing large sums of money? Lastly, were they someone who managed to climb the corporate ladder wherever they were at?

As you look at any candidate’s experience level, dig down deep to see just how thick it truly is.

Research

Assuming you take your time to properly screen each and every prospective employee, that research should include a number of factors.

Along with standard items like education, job experience etc. you really need to be socially active in the process.

Yes, what a potential employee does on social networking sites is having more of an impact today with employers than even just a few years ago. While you should not automatically discount a qualified individual because of political posts etc. that you disagree with, look for the obvious.

If someone exhibits signs of racism, bigotry, questionable acts like inappropriate pictures or videos, yes, those are red flags you should not overlook.

Education

Although some employers will tell you job experience is the overriding factor when it comes to hiring individuals, others certainly do not discount the importance of a quality education.

As you look at hiring educated talent for your small business, be sure you don’t neglect the value of those educations.

For instance, if you are hiring someone to work with your company in the criminal justice system, that education is as important as anything else you will review.

Hopefully, each prospective employee has used what they learned through schooling to put themselves and their experiences in the right position, the position of contributing to your business needs.

Lastly, as crucial as that education is, street smarts are imperative too.

That is especially true if you plan to offer someone a job in a field where snap decisions in law enforcement and related positions of higher responsibility are oftentimes required.

Personalities Can’t Ever Be Overlooked

Personalities

Even as important as experience, education, and social media etiquette are, don’t ever discount the value of each and every personality you come across.

While someone can have fantastic experience and an education that is second-to-none, you want personalities that will mesh with your current team of employees.

That said be sure to keep the current makeup of your office in mind whenever you interview a prospective employee.

Ask yourself if this potential team member would in fact work well with the present team you employ. Could you see any personality clashes, perhaps people with personalities that are too strong or even too weak?

Finally, look to hire those individuals who exhibit a desire to go that extra mile for you and your employees.

In many instances, employees will have to do more than they’re originally hired for. The last thing you want is someone who complains about that.

Remember, when the team effort is in place, it is hard for a company to lose.

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

5 Nifty Time Tracking Resources for Entrepreneurs (updated)

March 8, 2017 by Rosemary

One of my first jobs was as a real estate settlement coordinator, and I learned valuable lessons being thrown into the fiery brew of emotional sellers, unreliable home inspectors, and mortgage refinance. The habit that has stuck with me the longest, however, is logging how I spend my time each day at work.

In that first job, it was crucial to note my contacts, how much time was spent, and who promised to do what. On day one, my boss gave me a legal pad and told me to keep a running log of my day. She said, “trust me, you’ll be glad you did.”

The first time I got into a dispute about whether a certain termite report was supposed to be submitted, I was able to say, “on February 22nd at 10:30am, you committed to sending that report by today.” BOOM.

In a subsequent job, I worked on a government contract, where I had to designate (at an hourly level) which project I was working on. (Also on paper, pre-Internet.)

Whether you are trying to track your activities for accounting purposes or for productivity, it’s much easier now. (I still log my days in a Moleskine, though– old habits die hard.)

These five apps will help you track and manage your time much more efficiently than my old legal pad.

1. TSheets

Tsheets is one of the most popular time tracking and scheduling apps, approaching its 11th birthday.

TSheets is the only time tracking app embedded into QuickBooks Online
See who’s working, their GPS location, and what they’re working on straight from your phone or computer
Create, update, and dispatch employee schedules on the fly
Turn a tablet into a mobile punch clock on any job site with TSheets Kiosk
Take advantage of resources on gig-style time tracking on their Mobile App page

In June 2008, Liz Strauss did a 4-part interview with Matt Rissell, CEO of TSheets, with lots of insights regarding time tracking.

2. Weekplan.net

Weekplan is currently beloved by more than 300,000 users. Its simple layout is based on time-tested management techniques. They include a free multi-step online course on time management.

Uses a weekly grid based on importance and urgency to track time allotted to tasks.
Balance your time with a role-based system.
Pomodoro timer integrated to keep you focused.
Syncs with Google Calendar and provides analytics (ultimate plan).

3. Toggl

Toggl claims to “drive a stake in the heart of timesheets,” which sounds great to me! The whole point is to make it so easy that you don’t forget to use it, and Toggl succeeds.

Useful for teams, with billable rates and time audit tools.
Includes project management tools.
Integrates with lots of other tools, including Asana, Freshbooks, and Basecamp.
Track time automatically or manually, with tagging and projects.

4. Timely

I fell in love with Timely when I saw on their site that it was “meticulously designed by vikings from Oslo, Norway.” A productivity app with a sense of humor. Timely’s secret sauce is the gorgeous calendar-based interface, which makes it simple to just dive in and start tracking.

Sync meetings and calendar events into the app.
Set money or time-based project budgets and then track progress toward the goal.
Understand how the time is being spent with tags and subtags.
Integrate with other apps like Trello or email, and keep a detailed activity log.

5. Time

The guys at Blue Cocoa (two teenagers) are going to have a hard time with their SEO strategy, but their Time app is really cool. It functions mostly as a to do list, but I include it here as a time tracker because that’s how I’ve been using it.

Click any to do item to start a color-coded timer that changes as the time ticks down.
Easily just drag to reorder, add/delete, or shift the timeframe for any task.
If you take too long, it goes into “overtime” with a red timer, to push you to finish.
Stats and insights into how you’ve spent your time.
Powered by artificial intelligence, which learns your behavior and offers tailored suggestions to help.

BONUS: TimeCamp

TimeCamp is time tracking & invoicing software that helps to increase your team’s productivity. It records every minute of the task your team is working on, shows results in clear reports and allows you to square up with clients accurately.

Includes reporting, budgeting, and billable hours.
Integration with several project management platforms, including Asana, Podio, and Trello.
Track attendance and time off.
See project profitability, and see problems before they arrive.

EXTRA BONUS: ProjectManager.com

ProjectManager.com goes beyond time tracking and covers the whole waterfront of project management. It’s a complete online suite of tools to manage a project from start to finish.

Includes real-time customizable project dashboard that tells you at-a-glance whether your projects and your team are on track.
Create, monitor and share your project plans online, with multiple views for your team. As they work on tasks, your project plan updates automatically in real-time.
Create executive-ready status reports with the push of a button. You can export and share your reports as a PDF, Word or Excel file.
Manage your team’s workload across the board, and have timesheets auto-filled with last week’s tasks.

EXTRA EXTRA BONUS: HubStaff

HubStaff is time tracking software with screenshots, app & internet monitoring, employee payroll system, and 30+ integrations.

Set the maximum number of hours you want a member to be able to work in a week and the app will automatically prevent them from exceeding the limit.
GPS monitoring and time tracking apps for iOS and Android allow you to track time while on the go and reports on your location.
See which applications your team members are using and what URLs they are browsing, while tracking time.
Add your team’s one-time or recurring shifts to the work calendar easily.

SUPER EXTRA BONUS: Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a SaaS time tracking and productivity tool that helps you and your team get a lot more done each day. This software helps you see exactly where time is spent in your business, or for individuals to improve productivity.

Hubstaff and Time Doctor are the two most popular time management apps used in the market today. Learn the pros and cons of using each app in this quick guide to Hubstaff vs Time Doctor.

What’s your favorite time management tool right now?