Michael Levitt's Blog, page 7

Goals To Consider for Your Laboratory Business

At every stage of your lab’s development, you can improve your business to increase efficiency, raise physician satisfaction, and improve patient outcomes. Consider the following goals for your laboratory business.

Reduce Errors

Laboratory errors can lead to wasted resources and time. Pinpoint the timing and causes of errors in your lab so you can address the root problems. Some common ways of improving a lab’s error rate include clarifying your procedures, improving staff training, and improving cooperation among employees.

Another effective way to reduce errors is to use automation. Automated processes typically take less time than manually completed ones and have fewer errors. And automation can reduce employee stress while improving their workflow.

If you’re wondering how to reduce errors in your lab or upgrade your technology and automation, consider partnering with a lab consulting service. One of the best benefits of ongoing consulting is receiving technical support. By understanding your lab and the equipment and technology you use, a consulting service can help you achieve your goals.

Lower Turnaround Time

The next goal to consider for your laboratory business is lowering turnaround time. By reducing the time between receiving a sample and releasing the sample’s testing results, you increase physician satisfaction and improve patient outcomes.

Just as with the goal of reducing errors, examine what processes in your lab take the most time so you can brainstorm and implement solutions to the problem. You might have to change your laboratory layout, upgrade equipment, or improve automation.

Boost Compliance

Another fantastic goal you can set for your lab is to boost compliance with regulatory standards. Aside from legal requirements for maintaining standards, compliance improves the quality of your lab results and how your business functions.

Training lab professionals to understand the relevant laws, regulations, and site policies is crucial for compliance. And building a respect for compliance in your workplace culture will ensure that employees at every level in your lab remain flexible and committed to compliance.

The Top 3 Reasons To Upgrade Your Forklift

Forklift safety and efficiency rely heavily on the skills of the operator behind the wheel. Moreover, the quality of the forklift also affects safety and efficiency. These details reflect why constant training and equipment upgrading is critical for any workplace utilizing forklifts. But there’s more to explore if you want to improve your business. Read our top reasons to upgrade your forklift and decide how you should proceed to keep your business running successfully.

Upgrading Your Capabilities

Your current forklifts may work fantastically. But if you’re planning to expand your operations in ways that will affect the equipment, your forklifts need to expand too. For instance, using diesel forklifts outside is ideal because the gas in the air won’t accumulate in one spot.

Thus, if you need that forklift to operate in a tighter indoor space, you may need to switch to an electric model that won’t create such hazardous buildups inside. Sometimes, upgrading a single component is all it takes to meet your new requirements. If you need your forklift to have a longer reach, browse forklift booms online that will help you reach the distances necessary for the operator to complete their work safely.

Prioritizing Productive Environments

Primary reasons to upgrade your forklift also include safety enhancements. If your current fleet features forklifts that consistently break down, perform inefficiently, or feature damaged parts, it’s time for an upgrade.

Damage is certainly a telling sign because worn parts, fluid leaks, and other mechanical problems require immediate attention. However, there’s another factor to consider, and that’s the frequency of maintenance. If your forklifts are seeing more downtime than usual for repairs, then sit back and consider upgrading your entire fleet to newer, powerful models.

Utilizing Modern Innovations

Even if your current fleet functions fabulously, you should always keep your ear to the ground of the forklift industry to learn about the current innovations happening at any given moment. Forklift news may not be the most exciting information you read that day. However, you can ensure you make the most of your operations by learning the hardware and software standards in the current market.

For example, if you see new forklifts with better safety capabilities than your current fleet, you should find out how to use them to make your workplace safer. New isn’t always better, so pay attention to the technical specifications and feedback from others in the industry to learn if the modern upgrade you’re looking at is worth investing in. In fact, now that you’re familiar with the reasons above, you can start learning about modern innovations in forklifts right now.

3 Easy Ways To Make Your Office More Welcoming

Image Credit: WagnerAnne from Pixabay.

If you have an office, you’ll need to take care of it. That goes beyond simply making sure it’s somewhere your employees can work productively. You’ll need to make sure it’s welcoming, both for employees and for any third-parties that visit.

Once you do, you should notice your employees will be happier at work, and you’ll leave a better impression on any visitors. There are more than a few ways to make your office more welcoming you could use.

Three options stand out with this, as they don’t take much effort, despite the impact they’ll have.

Ways To Make Your Office More Welcoming: 3 Top Options

1. Add Texture

Texture is an unsung hero when it comes to interior office design. It adds dimension and visual interest without taking up a lot of space or needing a lot of work. In many cases, it can be as simple as having some cushions in the right place to bounce off planer areas.

Upholstery and window treatments can also be recommended. They’ll not only add the right amount of texture, but they shouldn’t take up too much space or distract your employees. Balance this with more neutral and understated decorations.

2. Make The Entrance Nice

Your office’s entrance will naturally make the first impression, so you’ll need to spend a bit of time on it. That could mean hiring a Michigan commercial door company near me to install a better-looking and more functional door for you.

At the same time, it’s worth adding a few accessories around the entrance. Even some potted plants can be an effective way to help make your office entrance more welcoming. Since this is an area everyone needs to go through regularly, it’s worth investing in.

If your office is open late, make sure to add a few lights.

3. Get Dramatic

Art can be a difficult thing to pick for an office. You’ll want to choose something appropriate, but you mightn’t want to be overly formal with it. Getting dramatic with the art you pick can be an effective option for this.

Going with something large creates more of an impression than having several small pieces. It creates an appealing focal point on a wall while helping tie everything together. Make sure to keep the scale of your office in mind when doing this.

While bigger is better in this regard, there’s a point where artwork can be too big for your office. Go with something big, but make sure to leave some white space around it to balance everything out.

Ways To Make Your Office More Welcoming: Wrapping Up

There are countless ways to make your office more welcoming, each of which can be appealing. Picking and choosing the right ones for your specific office is recommended, as your office will stand out much more and make more of an impression.

By getting dramatic, making the entrance appealing, and adding texture, you can get there quickly and easily. You shouldn’t have to put too much effort into this, but make sure you put in enough to create a positive impression.

Why Fashion E-Commerce Companies Need PPC

Most industries can benefit in some way from investing in digital marketing. E-commerce is a tough market that is nearing saturation—especially in the fashion realm. With the influx of e-commerce companies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, investing in digital marketing is no longer an extra step but a requirement to succeed. Learn why fashion e-commerce companies need PPC.

Keeping Up With the Competition

If you run a fashion e-commerce company in today’s world, you must run PPC ads to keep up with the competition. In this cut-throat type of industry, if potential customers aren’t able to see you, you cannot make sales and survive.

Investing in pay-per-click advertising on Google boosts your ability to stay toe-to-toe with your biggest competitor because, more than likely, they’re also investing heavily in PPC ads.

Increasing Sales

PPC ads can help you increase your sales for many reasons. The primary reason is that Google serves your ads to potential customers at the moment when they are looking to purchase. When a user searches for a keyword, populating one of your ads, it means they are searching for something very similar to what you offer.

For example, if a person searches “green ¾-sleeve jacket” and your store offers something matching that description, showing them an ad for your green ¾-sleeve jacket has a high likelihood of conversion. A great way to accomplish this is dynamic search ads. Google can aid your PPC campaign to work best for what you need through automation, which is quickly increasing in popularity.

Increasing Brand Awareness

Investing in PPC ads also increases the brand awareness your business enjoys. There are countless brands competing within the market, and the secret to building brand-loyal customers is allowing and encouraging them to know you. When more users see your brand name and products in PPC ads, they slowly become aware of your brand and the types of products you offer.

The real reason why fashion e-commerce companies need PPC is to succeed in the intense industry and build a lasting customer base.

Show Your Employees You Care With These Tips

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When you're in charge of a small company, your primary objective should be to ensure that business operations continue to generate profits and can be maintained over time. Having employees who are responsible for managing different aspects of your company's day-to-day operations is, of course, the most effective way to achieve this goal.

The most valuable asset that any organisation possesses is its workforce. Sadly, some businesses do not see things in this light, and as a result, they have a high staff turnover rate and a low employee retention rate.

Because respect and appreciation for one's workforce are the two factors that contribute most to high rates of worker retention, it is your duty as a responsible employer to ensure that your employees have a positive experience working for you.

Keeping this in mind, there are specific strategies that can be implemented to assist your employees in developing a greater sense of value in their work. They might not be common, but despite this, they are helpful in working toward the achievement of the objective that has been set. Investigate them in detail:

Create An Employee Social Network 

The majority of your coworkers, if not all of them, are familiar with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Alternatively, you could build an online community for your employees to participate in.

It is also highly probable that they will make use of them while they are at work. The fact of the matter is that they most likely do not use those social networks in order to communicate with their coworkers, particularly if those coworkers are located in other areas of your facility or elsewhere.

In order to make your employees feel valued in a way that is both novel and uncommon, you should encourage them to use an internal social network that is available company-wide. It is a wonderful opportunity for managers to interact with members of the team, and it also affords employees the chance to make new friends outside of work.

Add Some Fun Into The Working Environment

When it comes to the management of personnel, you have probably given some thought to various topics, such as the creation of employee handbooks, the communication with workers regarding benefits, such as discounts on company products, and so on.

Have you given any thought to the possibility of including a "fun" working environment as one of those rewards? If you haven't completed this step yet, now is the time to do it!

A fun and enjoyable working environment can be created by using color schemes, furniture, and other furnishings that encourage creativity. It is also possible for there to be a recreation room there where employees can go to relax and take some time off. You could order some branded bags for company picnics in the summer, or arrange an annual Christmas party. 

It is also possible for there to be a recreation room there where employees can go to relax and take some time off. 

Be Flexible

In the most recent years, one of the most talked about topics is workplace flexibility. This is largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of businesses around the world have adopted the "new normal" of allowing their employees to perform some or all of their duties from the comfort of their own homes. Despite the fact that social distance restrictions are beginning to relax, a large number of workers find that they prefer this innovative approach to their employment.

One way to make your workers feel valued is to pay attention to and respond to any complaints they may have regarding the length of their workdays. A great number of workers require some degree of adaptability in order to balance their professional and personal obligations. For example, certain workers have the daily responsibility of transporting their own children to and from school.

You have the potential to become a leader in workplace flexibility by providing such opportunities for employees. One alternative is to give workers the opportunity to complete their tasks outside of regular business hours, such as on days when their children are out of school for vacations or other special occasions.

Make Free Additional Education Available

Even though some of the things that employees want to learn have nothing to do with their jobs, there is no denying that the majority of workers are always looking for new ways to improve their knowledge and expertise.

One way to increase worker retention and prove to your teams that they are valuable assets is to provide them with opportunities to further their education at no cost.

This could include academic programs that lead to degrees that are recognized around the world, in addition to programs that lead to certifications that are recognized in the industry.

These are four creative approaches that can be used to make your staff members feel valued. Are there any others that you can think of that could be included? We ask that you add them to the list of comments.

The 4 Most Common Office Design Mistakes

Whether starting from scratch or redesigning, you should ensure your office space reflects the intentions and values of your company. Even if your business isn’t client-facing, the atmosphere in the office can influence employee attitudes and productivity. With that in mind, read on to learn more about the four most common office design mistakes and how to avoid them.

Cubicle Workspaces

Although many offices still use cubicles to organize their workspaces, this format is becoming a thing of the past. If you want to boost your team’s cooperation and creativity, consider ditching the cubicles and opting for pod workspaces instead. Cubicles make your employees feel isolated at work, but incorporating tables and common areas into your office design is the perfect way to encourage collaboration and teamwork.

Poor Lighting

There’s nothing worse than trying to do your job in lighting that is too bright or too dark. Therefore, striving for appropriate lighting is incredibly important for your business’s productivity. If you have the ability, try utilizing natural light by opening blinds or curtains and turning off the overhead lights. Of course, overhead lights are necessary for the darker days, but having them on a dimmer provides the opportunity to make the office brighter or darker as needed.

Unappealing and Uncomfortable Furniture

Believe it or not, your furniture is arguably the most essential factor when it comes to your office design. While you can reuse old, worn furniture to save a little money, upgrading your chairs, tables, and desks is one of the best tips for cultivating a professional office design. Your office furniture should be comfortable and ergonomic for people of all shapes and sizes, but it should also match the rest of your office’s décor, paint colors, and flooring.

Insufficient Storage

Every business needs adequate storage, and things can get out of hand if you don’t. Having excessive clutter all over the office not only looks unprofessional but can also overwhelm you and your employees. Whether you have a designated storage room or use decorative storage solutions throughout the office, you won’t regret keeping your clutter at bay.

After learning the four most common office design mistakes, you can create an excellent, well-designed workspace for your employees. Whether your space is big or small, avoiding these mistakes is the best way to ensure your business is successful and professional.

Benefits of Team-Building Activities for Engineers

Day in and day out, corporate staff must punch in their eight hours of work to get tasks done and help the company progress toward success. Even if the numbers are good, corporate team members need to become familiar with one another to foster a collaborative and beneficial environment.

Rewarding your staff with team-building activities helps them pull away from the daily grind of drafting emails, completing tasks, and reviewing reports. It’s beneficial for hardworking engineers who don’t have time for themselves. Read on to explore the benefits of team-building activities for engineers and why every workplace should try them.

Teach Role Responsibility

In many cases, corporate staff members strive to work their way up the company ladder, taking on more responsibilities and aiming for promotions. However, while getting a promotion to a leadership or management role sounds good on paper, it can feel overwhelming.

Team-building activities allow workers to take on leadership roles and help guide their group seamlessly and collaboratively toward their goals. Additionally, it will help workers bring out their inner strengths to become quality leaders, giving them a peek into what a leadership role may be like.

Creates Friendships in the Workplace

Perhaps your engineering department isn’t the most social nor the most connected. With team-building activities, they’ll learn more about their coworkers and find themselves on equal grounds to create new friendships.

There are plenty of team-building activities that can bring engineers together and create lifelong friendships. One team-building activity engineers will love is a building contest. This can be anything, from teaming up to solve an engineering puzzle, creating the strongest structure out of office supplies, or even crafting fighting robots. Software engineers can also compete in coding contests! Team building helps break down barriers and bring your teams closer together in a collaborative and friendly way.

Improves Team Cooperation

One of the benefits that team building has to offer for engineers is that it helps team members accomplish a goal as a group. It’s the perfect environment to practice collaborative skills and learn what workflow best suits your team. Lastly, it helps with establishing proper work efficiency in the workplace.

Team building is a fun and interactive way for engineers to come out of their shells in a cooperative, productive environment. Engineering isn’t always collaborative; encourage your team to function as a unit by hosting fun activities that improve your workplace and empower your coworkers.

Finding Success With Your Insurance Agency

Image - CCO License

There are some B2B businesses that are pretty much always going to be in need, and therefore will always have some custom and plenty of room for growth. An insurance agency is more or less a perfect example of such a business. If you run an insurance agency, or you are thinking of starting one up, and want to make sure that you are making it as successful as possible, there are a few things to bear in mind. Let’s take a look right now at some of those things, so you can make this a reality soon enough.

Place Yourself Well

One of the main things to remember when you are trying to be a successful B2B company of any kind is that you need to place yourself well. In other words, try to find out which businesses, sectors, and so on are in need of insurance on a regular basis, and then you can make sure that you are as visible as possible to those organizations as much of the time as you can. That is a general approach that tends to lead to many more clients, so it’s something that you should be careful not to overlook.

Train Your Agents

The better your agents are, the more successful your business will be - it really is that simple. As such, you should make sure that you are spending some time training your agents to be as good as they can be. This might be simpler than you think, in fact, especially if you make use of the appropriate insurance agent training - and that might be easier to find than you think. As long as you train your agents properly, there is every chance that your business is going to be much more successful in no time at all.

Focus On Client Happiness

The more that you are focused on actually keeping your clients happy, the more likely it is that they are going to keep coming back. They will also be more likely to recommend your services to other people too, so it’s really important that you are doing this as best as you can. At all times, ask yourself whether you are doing right by your client or not, and whether you are actually keeping them happy. If you are, then you can continue doing what you're doing, and that should pay off soon enough. If not, you might want to figure out what you need to change.

Don’t Be Afraid To Choose A Niche

It is generally a pretty good idea to have some kind of niche in place when you are keen to be successful as an insurance agent. That might mean that you deal with a certain kind of client, or that you are working on a particular kind of insurance. Or, in all likelihood, it will be both at once. In any case, make sure that you are not fearing the choice of a niche - it can be a really important thing to do for the sake of your business.

Tips for Making Your Storefront More Attractive

Trying to get people to try something new isn’t always a walk in the park. Encouraging people to check out a new store as they walk by can be even more difficult. For some businesses, those walk-in customers are crucial to success, so it pays to consider what they see when they look at your storefront. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to make your storefront more attractive to passersby and welcome them in.

Focus on Lighting

Well-lit areas tend to draw people in. Both homes and businesses have to consider how they use the lighting options available to them to draw attention to the correct areas. Even in the daylight, lighting makes a huge difference and helps to draw the attention of people who pass by. Warm lighting creates a more welcoming atmosphere, so the more you can use it, the better off you’ll be.

Use Signage Effectively

Signs are crucial for a variety of industries, if not all of them. Signage might seem like a small addition to a storefront, but it can make or break your public image. A run-down, dilapidated sign with no personality shows potential customers that the owners don’t particularly care about their business. Proper signs that communicate your brand will attract new customers and allow your brand to shine.

Don’t Neglect Landscaping

Landscaping outside of the business itself isn’t at the top of most owners’ priority lists, but that’s exactly why it can be so effective. Think of how many stores you pass every day that blend into the background because they’re just a building with nothing else around. You can break this trend by adding some tasteful landscaping that will capture everyone’s attention and create an environment people want to spend time in.

Change Window Displays Often

A simple but often overlooked way to make your storefront more attractive is to change what you display in your windows. The point of this tactic is to not allow your business to fade from view by becoming a dull, regular sight. If you leave up the same window displays all the time, customers won’t even recognize your presence anymore because they know what you have to offer. Change up the usual formula, and you might see more people walk in to check out what new products you have in stock.

Things to consider before changing careers

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-teacup-infront-of-laptop-on-top-of-table-inside-the-room-925786/

If you have been working in the same industry for a while, now might be the time to consider a new career. Switching careers can be a scary experience, as for many, they have been working hard since they left school to get where they are now. Changing your career doesn’t have to be as scary as you may think. With a little preparation and by being patient, you can put yourself in the best position to change careers. 

When considering changing your career, there are a number of things that you want to consider. Are you doing it for the right reason? Is this the right time to change your career? Do you have the right skills and qualifications? Will you lose the reputation you have worked hard to achieve by leaving? Below we look into the things to consider before changing careers. 

Do you have the right skills and qualifications? 

Depending on the type of career you are interested in moving into, you may need certain skills and qualifications before you can realistically make the change. For example, if you want to be a mechanic, you may need to study in order to learn about all the different car parts when working with Caterpillar Engine Parts. Becoming a teacher is a dream job for some people but that also requires you to retrain and study in order to get the correct qualifications. Some careers don’t require in-depth qualifications, just basic knowledge. For these, you could consider signing up for some online courses in order to learn from the comfort of your own home. 

Are you doing it for the right reasons?

This is a very important question to ask yourself when thinking of changing careers. Changing a career is very achievable but at the same time you don’t want to underestimate it, it is a big jump and a change. You want to ensure you are doing it for the right reasons and that you are going to enjoy the change and not be miserable. For a lot of people, a career change is made due to happiness. For others, it may be for money. Money is very important but remember some of the jobs that pay a lot are not necessarily the way they present themselves. If you want to go into sales, here are a few tips for becoming the best salesperson. 

Is it the right time in your life? 

Another important question to ask yourself is whether changing your career is the right time in your life. If you are about to start a family, maybe changing could be too risky. The same goes if you have started a new job but you haven’t given it a proper try yet. Make sure you do plenty of research into changing careers and ask the people closest to you whether they think it’s a good idea or not. Who knows, they may even be able to help you change careers due to the people they know and work with.