Michael Levitt's Blog, page 115

Considering A Career Change? Why Not Try This

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If you are bored of sitting in an office, day after day, completing a nine-to-five job, you aren’t alone. All over the world, people are tired of their cookie-cutter lifestyles, and are seeking a way out of their mundane routines. Okay, this is where the disclaimer comes in: quitting your day job and getting some excitement doesn’t mean turning to a life of crime and destitution. Let’s just get that out of the way. There are ways you can live your life which provide a change of scene, the opportunity to see the world, all while bringing home a competitive salary.

Have you ever considered becoming a driver? It ticks all the boxes. You can see your country like never before; your office is your own truck cab; you get to go out on the open road, just you and the horizon, every day. There are downsides, of course - you might miss the banter and camaraderie of office life, and the hours are long. But if you want a change of scene, this is it, right here. 

There are, however, some things to consider before diving into this job. Here are some considerations to make if you want to become a professional driver.

The Company You Work For

You might assume that all driving jobs are relatively similar, but you would be wrong. Some truck companies value their drivers much more highly than others; these are the companies you should be seeking out. Companies such as Barr-Nunn Transportation are offering innovative pay packages for drivers, so that they can achieve a better quality of life, outside of work. If that sounds up your street, read further to find out the 6 Advantages of OTR Truck Driving for Barr-Nunn Transportation.

Your Location

One of the most amazing things about working as a driver is being able to see the world. Depending on where you live, you could be opened up to a wealth of new travel opportunities outside your state, city or country. Particularly if you live in Europe, as a driver you will experience the landscapes of many different countries, taste the foods of new cultures and meet people from these countries too. If you are bored of staying in one place and want a life on the road, this is the job for you.

Other Commitments

The main downside of driving professionally is, of course, the irregularity of the job. While your nine-to-five is probably boring you, the beauty of it is the ability to see your family every evening and wake up at a reasonable time each morning. This luxury might be sorely missed once you begin working through nights, early mornings and long hours. If you want a life on the road, make sure your other commitments such as family are well prepared for the change!

It is not too late to change the course of your life. If you find your job is wearing you thin, make a change today and shake up your routine.

3 Ways Small Businesses Can Get To Grips With SEO

SEO is one of the most talked-about digital marketing techniques in the modern age. As a brief description, it's the art of improving your website's search engine performance. Good SEO means you rank highly in relevant searches and see more clicks. It sounds simple, but it's anything but that!

For big businesses, SEO is simple - they can hire a full-time marketing team to handle all of it. As a small business owner, your resources are much smaller than others. Additionally, you may lack the knowledge of SEO and how to apply it to your marketing strategy. So, how can small businesses get to grips with SEO? Here are some pointers to follow:

Start with keywords

Keywords are the backbone of every SEO strategy. Essentially, they represent the words and phrases that are most closely linked to your business. These are the things people will type into Google when they want to find a company like yours. Part of your SEO strategy will revolve around adding keywords to your website, page titles, headings, and so on. Therefore, you must target the correct ones! Target the wrong keywords, and you will appear in the wrong results, bringing in the wrong audience. So, the best way to start your SEO campaign is with some keyword research. 

Focus on the user experience

Loads of factors come together to decide how a website ranks in search engines. However, you can boil a lot of them down to the user experience of your website. For small business owners, this is the perfect thing to focus on. You don't have to worry about overly technical things, just create a website that appeals to the user. Some examples of great user experience are fast loading pages, excellent website navigation, fantastic content, etc. All of these things merge together to create a website that naturally performs well in search engines. You keep users engaged, which helps with things like the bounce rate - a key ranking factor. 

Consider working with an SEO agency

While you may lack the funds to put together a full-time marketing team, you could afford an SEO agency. If you outsource this job to them, they will help run a strategy that's easy for you to follow. Loads of SEO agencies exist across the country, so be sure to do your research before choosing one. I recently saw an article that reviewed 438 SEO companies across the US, and it's worth checking out reviews like this to settle on the best options. From here, you will learn a lot more about SEO, allowing you to potentially handle things without an agency afterwards. At the very least, you will see a good return on your investment thanks to more web traffic and more leads. 

There you have it; how can small businesses get to grips with SEO? It's a strange concept as SEO is both simple and complex. The idea behind it is simple; you improve your search ranking and get more web traffic. However, the nuances run deep and it is very complicated. Hopefully, these tips set you off on a path to get started.

Challenging Your Leadership Style

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If you are a leader in any capacity in your life, you have likely cultivated a specific leadership style - whether you realise it or not. There are many different leadership styles which usually reflect your personality; perhaps you are a headstrong leader who bulldozes through problems, or on the other hand, you could be a soft leader who prefers to help the whole team find their own way. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ leadership style, but there are certain ways to effectively lead a team which can benefit everyone. 

If you have never thought about this before, now is the time to start. Whether you are a leader at work, or you are a parent leading your children through life, or you play sports as a team captain - here is how to challenge your leadership style.

Identifying Your Leadership Style

First up is identifying how you lead a team. There are quizzes you can take which ask a series of questions and tell you your leadership styles based on your answers. It’s advisable to take a few different quizzes to see if you get similar answers across the board. 

Another way to identify your leadership style is to ask those you lead in life what they think. How do they perceive you as a leader? This opens you up to a vulnerable state in which you might have to accept some constructive criticism. This brings us to the next stage: your willingness to change.

Allowing Room For Change

As CEO and business leader Deepak Agarwal says, ‘Some situations require leadership to pause.’ This is one of the most helpful lessons you can learn as a human being, let alone a leader. If you constantly charge full steam ahead, you might lose sight of what is truly happening around you. Pausing is always important - but it does make you vulnerable.

If you are going to improve your leadership style, you must first open yourself up to criticism. This is easier said than done. You may consider yourself thick-skinned, but this is put to the test when you encounter pushback against your leadership style. Try to think of it as a kindness; the person providing feedback wants you to be the best version of yourself. Growth can be uncomfortable, but in the end, it is always the best thing.

Why Challenge Your Leadership Style?

It’s not that your leadership style necessarily needs to change completely - it is a part of your personality, and will never truly change. But challenging and recognising your leadership style will help you grow within it. It might be that you need to hone your leadership skills into a more evolved version of what they were before. We could all do with growth and learning, and it’s best not to shy away from this evolution. Take the road less travelled and dedicate yourself to being the most effective leader you can possibly be!

Do You Always Need A College Education For Career Domination? Nope!

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The cost of getting a college education is tremendous. People earning degrees must often go tens of thousands of dollars into debt - something that acts like a millstone around the necks for the first ten years of employment, and usually longer. 

We're told, though, that it's all worth it. Once we get our degrees, we have a ticket to a whole new life - something better than anything we could expect trying to make our own way in the free market. 

Now, though, more and more people are asking themselves whether this is true. The cost of education is so high that the cost-benefit doesn't seem as compelling as before. Sure - when colleges charged just a couple of thousand dollars a year, it was worth giving up four years of your adult life to get on a higher wage trajectory. But now that it's often ten times as much as that, people are wondering whether it is worth it. Does it really matter for your career? 

Professional Training Versus College

There's a big difference between professional training and getting a college degree. The former involves doing things that actively help you improve your work quality and boost your skills. You become more proficient at your trade. And the return on investment is easy to measure. 

College offers no such advantages. You hope that having a particular school on your CV will help you land the top jobs, but there's no guarantee that it will. Similarly, you never quite know how your education is helping you in your position. You have a vague sense that you learned something at college, but the contents of most scientific papers aren't relevant. 

Why You Don't Need A College Education For Career Domination

According to statistics, average levels of college indebtedness are exploding. The average person owes more than $40,000, with some needing to pay back more than $200,000. But you don't always need a college education, according to DTSS.us reviews, to be successful in the marketplace. In fact, the statistics on the matter may be misleading. 

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Think about it. College education appears to be a necessity because people who go to university make more money than those who don't. But consider more carefully what's going on here. Those who were already more likely to be successful are the ones most likely to attend college. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that having a degree appears to boost your chances of having a high income. It's not the higher education that made you valuable. It was your pre-existing characteristics - such as your intelligence - that made the difference. 

Also, know this: the market rewards rarity and value. If you can carve a niche for yourself in some area, you'll automatically earn much more money than your peers. If you have a skill that they don't, the market will pay you a higher rate. 

And here's the critical point: that skill could be in anything - not just a formal subject. 

Key Things To Remember When Growing Your Brand Internationally

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You’ve conquered your local market, making mincemeat of the competition. You next set your sights on national dominance, stepping up to the plate to tangle with the big boys. Like David facing off against Goliath, you knew that what you lacked in stature you more than made up for in agility, wits and ambition. But after expanding your reach internationally, you wept like Alexander The Great because there were no worlds left to conquer. Or were there? With some trepidation, you’re considering expanding your brand’s reach to international markets. China, India, Latin America, Europe. Wherever you set your sights, you can expect to find a host of opportunities… but you can also expect every international market to bring its own unique set of challenges. If you’re serious about conquering international markets, you’ll need to reinvent some parts of the wheel that you’ve spent years creating.

Here are some key things to remember when growing your brand internationally...

It starts with market research

Market research should be an ongoing part of your business operations anyway. How can you be the best in your field if you don’t have your finger on the pulse of what your audience wants? You likely carried out exhaustive market research when building your brand. But if it’s been a while, you may need to take yourself back to school. The better you know the attitudes, values and aspirations of your target market, the better placed you are to appeal to them. Which brings us to...

You’ll need to rethink your approach to advertising overseas

Think you can slap some new text on your existing advertising copy and roll it out overseas? Think again! That kind of attitude has led to a wide range of embarrassing cultural insensitivities and tone deaf campaigns from brands that should know better. You need to understand your overseas prospects as well as you understand your existing customers to find international success. And you may need some insider help to do so. An international agency can help you to better understand how to advertise in China or wherever your sights are set. Don’t make the mistake of assuming knowledge of territories that are new to you. While some facets of consumer behavior are  universal, you’ll need to account for cultural biases, history, different socio economic climates and myriad other factors which can influence how advertising copy is perceived by international markets. 

International SEO is a slightly different beast

It goes without saying that if you want to get noticed by international clients, you’ll need to invest in Search Engine Optimization for the territories you’re targeting. But SEO is not a one-size-fits-all game. You’ll need to get to know a number of technical and non-technical techniques to tailor your content to better appeal to overseas search engines. From international-friendly URL structures to language tags to learning new optimized keywords you’ll need to re-learn much of what you take for granted in the world of SEO. 

When you are well prepared, open minded and aided by the right partners, you can make the dream of international reach a reality!

How Can Financial Advisors Evolve Post-Covid-19

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If you run a financial advice company, learning how to adapt to different situations will be one of the most important parts of running your business successfully. After all, different clients have vastly different circumstances and needs, and financial planning is not a one-size-fits-all solution. However, with the world changing so drastically in the space of just a few months, it’s no surprise that many financial advisors are finding it difficult to keep up with the new demands being placed upon them. Businesses that once were booming are now struggling, and vice versa, the market feels more unstable than ever, and predicting the future has become more than just impossible - it is downright dangerous. So how can financial advisors evolve to help their clients navigate this new and changing world?

Listen and React

There has never been an easy solution to financial concerns, and this is even more true now. Many clients will be dealing with unique situations brought on as a result of the pandemic, and simply regurgitating the same advice you would have given last year may not work anymore. It’s important to genuinely listen to the individual cases of each client, and work with them to find a new solution. Developing this skill will improve your business, and provide much more satisfying outcomes for both you and your clients.

Use Software

Sometimes, though we don’t like to admit it, computers can have an edge on people. If you don’t use one already, investing in an online financial planning tool can seriously help you to engage your clients and give them meaningful, clear routes to success. Using impressive algorithms and calculations to adapt a plan based on circumstances, these tools are an invaluable way to streamline your process, freeing up your energies to support your clients through their planning in this difficult time.

Keep Up to Date

One of the key consequences of recent events has been simply that legislation is constantly changing. If it was difficult to keep up beforehand, it most certainly is now. However, as a financial advisor, it is your duty to ensure you are completely up to date with all new government advice and legislation, so you can keep your clients informed and compliant. Sign up to newsletters, listen to the news, and keep checking the relevant sites for updated information. Failure to do this could be catastrophic, but if you can stay on top of it all, you will be making yourself into an invaluable resource for those you work with.

Communication

Now is a time when communication is key. Make sure to check in with all your clients and get an updated picture from them about where they are and how they are doing. Sometimes, a personal touch can be really appreciated, and your clients will be glad to know you are thinking of them. Some of them might have undergone massive changes, and it’s important you know about these as soon as possible so you can evolve your own practice in response, and offer the best advice you can.

Amazing Health Hacks to make 2020 Work for You

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2020 has been a pretty crazy year for many of us, and it is important to make sure we do as much as possible to sort out the way we live our lives. Health and well-being need to be a major focal point of 2020, and there are a lot of ways in which you can look to improve your health this year. One of the biggest things to keep in mind is the fact that you need to work on doing as much as possible to improve your health here.

You have so much to keep in mind when it comes to improving this, and you need to make sure you focus on the right ways of doing this. Try to understand what it takes to bring things to the next level, and this is something that you are going to need to work on right now. These are some of the amazing things you can look to do when you are trying to improve your health for 2020.

Improve Your Financial Health

When it comes to making the right decisions about your health a great place to begin is with your financial health. This is something that you need to make sure you work on as much as possible, and there are a lot of ideas that will play a part in getting this right. Make sure you focus on what you can do to make better financial decisions in order to improve and benefit your bank balance right now.

Shed Some Pounds

Doing as much as you can to come up with ideas that are going to help you improve your health is so important. There are so many ideas you need to come up with that will help you to make the most of this, and it is important to make sure you think carefully about how to achieve this. Whether you are hitting the gym or selecting a health & wellness pack, it is important that you do as much as you can to take this to the next level. 

Love Yourself More

Loving yourself is so important, and you should do what you can to make self-care a major focal point for you in your life. There are a lot of things that people can do to make the most of this, and you need to make sure you focus on coming up with ideal ways of improving your health and well-being. A focus on mental health is one of the key components of self-care, and this is something to keep in mind. 

Go on a Body Detox

A body detox is one of the most important ways of looking after your health, and this is something you should be looking to get right as much as you possibly can. There are a lot of things you can do to improve this, and it is essential that you make sure you get this right as much as possible. Google ‘drug testing near me’ if you are serious about finding the perfect way to detox your body right now. 

These are some of the key things you are going to need to focus on as much as possible, and this is an important consideration. You should be thinking about what steps you can take to improve health and well-being, and the best ways of being able to achieve this right now. Come up with ideas that will let you improve this approach, and it is well worth your while.

How Do Transport Companies Keep Control Of Their Team

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It’s easy to see why it would be a challenge to manage a transport team. While drivers tend to be very hardworking people, they also spend a huge amount of time away from their boss’s watchful eye. This can cause issues without the right tools in place to make sure that the managers still have control, but how exactly do transport companies keep themselves on the right track with this? To give you an idea of how this works, this post will be exploring some of the work that can go into keeping a transport team under control.

Radios

Communication is key when it comes to keeping employees on the right track. Drivers need to be able to talk to their managers, but they aren’t allowed to use a phone when they are driving. Instead, many transport companies will use radios in their vehicles to communicate. This can help the driver to ask for support if they encounter something they weren’t expecting, while also giving the bosses the chance to give new instructions if a job changes. In some cases, truck drivers will even use this tool to talk to one another, warning other drivers about potential hazards up ahead.

Tachographs

While talking to a drive is important, it can also be very helpful to use a tachograph inside a modern truck. Devices like this are able to record speed and distance, giving transport company owners the chance to make sure that drivers are doing their job properly. If it looks like they are going too far each trip, they could be wasting time, and you could easily find your drivers speeding when you look at information like this. A tachograph can give a company everything they need to make sure that their drivers are compliant with the laws you have to follow. This is much better than them getting caught by the police.

GPS

In the past, transport companies would have to rely on reports from their drivers to let them know where they are. This has changed a lot over the last few years, with tools like GPS providing transport companies with the ability to watch over all of their team members. Tools like this can also measure distance and speed but are best used to find a truck’s location. This can be excellent in emergencies, giving ambulance and fire crews an exact location. Alongside this, it can also help you truck drivers to navigate, as you will be able to look up new routes for them without forcing them to stop and get out of the truck.

With all of this in mind, you should have a much better understanding of the work that goes into keeping truck companies under control. This sort of work can be tricky, with a lot of people finding it hard when they first get started, but there are loads of tools that can help a business when they are going through this.

Opening A Restaurant? Here Are 10 Things You Need

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Every single restaurant is different - even those that serve the same cuisine. They are run in different ways and they are built differently. A sushi place isn't going to be run or managed in the same way a steakhouse would be, and if you want to be successful in your restaurant adventure, then you need to know this first and foremost. 

You need to take time to learn how you can manage your business to success, rather than to failure. There is a good reason that so many businesses fail in their first year, and there’s an even better reason most of those are restaurants and bars. This is a high-turnover industry, and that goes for how many of each restaurant there is in built up areas as well as how many people use hospitality as a temporary door stop. So many people think opening a restaurant is going to be easy, but they don't consider that they may need the help of Gfcommodities.com for their cooking grease removal. They don't imagine the impact their cooking may have on the wider community. But with this article, you can learn these things. So, if you are looking to open your own restaurant business, you need to look at these ten things to make it a success.

Know Your Market

The assumption is that you are opening a restaurant for a specific cuisine or culture, and if that’s the case, you need to get to know your market. You can’t appeal to your ideal customer if you don't know who they are. Get out there and learn their age, income level and lifestyle, and get to know what they value in an eatery. Once you know these things, you can make sure that you gear your business in the right direction.

Your Unique Selling Point (USP)

You want to sell hamburgers. What restaurants are in your area that also sell hamburgers that makes you different from any of them? You need to know what your unique selling points are and then you need to make this your biggest factor in yoru marketing. If you are great with burgers, why not be different to the rest of the establishments doing the same and run a food truck? You can study what the regular patrons to the area would want and offer them something new.

Location Counts

There is no use in opening a restaurant on the outskirts of the cities and towns. You need to be accessible to people, and you can only do that if you are central to where your customers are. Most restaurants fail due to lack of footfall, and you can ensure that this doesn't happen to you by doing enough research on location before you get started. You need to have a lot of business if you want to break even throughout the year, and you need to make sure that you are located close enough for people to get to you.

How Do You Take Payments?

Cash is one thing, but more and more people like to pay with contactless, Apple pay and card payments. You need to look into the expense of a point of sale system. Investing in the right technology will make a huge difference to your restaurant success. Consider the system carefully and incorporate this into your market research. You need to ensure that you appeal to your customers.

Restaurant Policies

You have to ensure that you are clear on your company policies and procedures when you open a restaurant. You need to make sure that you and your team members all live up to them and abide by them. Restaurants can be dangerous workplaces if you’re all not careful enough, and you can ensure that you keep it as safe as possible!

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Cleaning Practice

We talked about removing cooking grease, but in the light of the pandemic - and the fact you are running a food business - you need to ensure that your business is invested in workplace cleanliness. Hiring the right kitchen cleaning company that deals with industrial cleaning is going to be a huge investment, but it’s a must! Cleanliness is vital when cooking.

Your Menu Prices

It doesn't matter the type of cuisine you are offering, you need to know what you plan to price each item as. You have to consider the direct costs, overheads, preparation costs and food costs when you are pricing your menu. You need to come up with a pricing system that doesn't short your business or make your customers go elsewhere. Being fair and being undercut are both very different things, so choose your prices wisely.

Mock Your Menu

What do you want to serve? There needs to be a unique cuisine that you serve, but you don't want to serve every dish from that one cuisine. If you sell hamburgers, focus on hamburgers. Don't focus on the full range of all things burger! You can make your menu unique with fillings, types of buns, weight of the meat and more, but you don't have to do every single burger type out there.

Your People

Turnover is high in hospitality, as we mentioned earlier. At any given time, people are moving in and out of the industry without thinking about it, and it’s important that you have the right people working with you to keep your restaurant successful. You need servers, bar workers and chefs, and you need to hire the best for the type of restaurant you have. Burger flipping geniuses aren't going to be much good in a haute couture place! Everyone works together to play a role in your restaurant, so make a list of who you need and start hiring based on that.

Customer Service

The one thing that you need to have a successful restaurant is excellent customer service. You need to have a team who are committed to the customer being first, and you need to ensure that every single team member is up to speed on how you want to be considered by the public.

5 Ways To Prioritize Employees’ Health And Safety

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It is essential to stay safe and healthy at work. In every job, measures have to be taken to reduce the risk of injury and illness. Statistics reveal that a worker is injured on the job every seven seconds, which is mostly avoidable. How do you make your employees' health and safety a priority? Let’s take a look at five ways.

Make first aid kits available

Every workplace should have first aid kits. As an employer, you are responsible for your workers' safety, so you should see that they receive attention quickly when they take in ill or get injured. Accidents can happen anytime, and a first aid kit needs to be available and at a vantage point always. Before arrangements are made for first aid procedures at your company, you should consider the circumstances inside the company. Make assessments to know everything that your first aid kit should contain. The first aid kit should be fully stocked, and someone assigned to take charge in case of an accident.

Take frequent risk assessments

It is always safer and healthier to assess risk when it comes to business. A risk assessment will involve examining anything or circumstance that can lead to your business’s injury or harm. This will then inform you of the actions or inactions that should be made to make the work environment safer and healthier. 

Employees should be involved in the process to provide you with additional knowledge and steps you need to take to make the workplace safer.

Carry out fire safety measures

As an employer, you must ensure that your employees follow fire safety measures. It should be reviewed and updated regularly. Appropriate fire safety measures should then be put in place after making findings. This will reduce the risk of injuries when there is a fire. The measures you implement must be able to protect your employees. Install fire exits, escape routes, display of fire signage, emergency lighting, and alarm systems. There should be training and fire drills once in a while.

Invest in proper equipment  

Every safety equipment necessary for safety around the workplace should be installed, and regular checks are conducted to ensure they are working correctly. Providing the right tools and equipment will make the work environment safer.  Machines should be inspected, serviced, and cleaned regularly to avoid malfunctions, leading to injuries. Injuries will be reduced if gears such as safety goggles, full face masks, hard hats, earmuffs, and gloves are available to each worker when needed. Police officers, security guards, firefighters, truck drivers, and other vehicle operators need to ensure their safety by using LED lights to increase visibility and reduce risk when operating vehicles. Tcsupfitting provides a wide range of personal safety equipment like LED Flashlights, making it a great place to buy guardian angel LED lights.

Ensuring the safety of your employees should not be taken for granted. Being able to keep your workers safe and healthy is sure to create a happy work environment and increased productivity.