Michael Levitt's Blog, page 91
March 30, 2021
4 Steps Businesses Should Take In The Wake Of The COVID Pandemic
COVID-19 has taken the world and put it through the ringer. It has left people struggling financially and forced a lot of companies to close their doors and surrender to the coming storm. As a business owner, now is the time to step up and take charge. So, let’s look at some of the key steps that you should be taking as we navigate the second year of this pandemic.
One of the key steps that you should take in your business is making sure that you are showing a strong commitment to high levels of health and safety. You might want to think about investing in the services of an expert health and safety officer to put your company on the right track here. You could also consider investing in more training for your staff. Issues with health and safety are always going to be connected to the action or inaction of team members.
Yes, COVID-19 could end up crippling your business financially and you must be prepared for this possibility. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure that you are investing in the right insurance coverage. Be aware to cope with the difficulties connected to COVID, you might want to think about exploring specialist insurance options. General insurance may not give you the full level of protection you need.
Helping Out
You could also consider using your business to help those in need due to COVID. For instance, a lot of logistics companies have been helping local governments make key deliveries of medical supplies. A side benefit of this is that it can help any business gain a high level of positive attention from the press. Another example would be to set up a facility for diagnosing COVID. Certain businesses are already pouring money into projects like Genesis Diagnostics to help keep people safe.
Going Remote And Being More Flexible
Finally, you might want to think about going remote with your business. It could be worth exploring a business model where most or all of your workers are operating from the comfort of their homes. This form of social distancing is still the best way to protect people right now. You might think that your business isn’t cut out for this type of home business model. However, you would be surprised. Most businesses these days can be run easily and effectively from home. You just need to make sure that you are investing in the right tech.
Photo: Pexels CCO License
We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that business owners should be taking in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic. While it might seem as though the troubles are behind us, they could unfortunately just be beginning. Even with multiple vaccines on the market, there are very real fears that the virus will mutate, putting the world and your customers back to square one. You must be ready to show you are taking the right action as a leader on the market.
If You Want A Professional-Looking Business, These Will Need To Be Spot On
Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/kRNZiGKtz48
The world of business can be tricky if you aren’t impressing or getting people to notice you. Your job is to fulfill the desires of customers and clients, but if you have none, then you won’t be able to work at all. You have to ensure that you’re attracting people to the work you do as that is what will provide longevity and security over time. You could be the best business on the planet, but if nobody cares, then you may as well not exist.
In order to attract, you must look the part. There are plenty of ways to do this, of course. You’ll have your own ideas based on what you’ve seen so far during your life as a customer and consumer. One of the most efficient ways of attracting people toward you is by being professional throughout your tenure. If you can look as though you know what you’re doing and that people would be honored to partner with you, then you’ll be doing okay.
What’s seen as professional is an entirely subjective talking point. There are plenty of fixed aspects, however. If you can do the following things properly, then you’ll stand a good chance of looking like an attractive prospect. Here are some of the aspects that you’ll need to keep nice and professional:
People from all parts of the world and all verticals of business will be able to tell who’s amateurish and who knows what they’re talking about. If you cannot get something as fundamental as your brand and logo right, then you won’t stand a chance moving forward. Your brand, logo, and images do not have to be overly complicated. They do not look as though they have been conjured by a famous artist. They simply need to look as though time and effort has gone into it, however. There needs to have been thought behind it – even if everything is kept relatively simple.
In terms of the marketing techniques, you’re going to want to ensure that you’re strategizing with an eye on the long-term future. Don’t just look to get people in the door quickly. The relationship will need to be built and the analytics will need to be pondered over.
When people want to know more about ANYTHING in this day and age, they head online and research via a website. If you’re not there to provide information about your business, a competitor will be there for them instead. If you’re not online, then you need to make sure that you are – that’s the first step.
Once you possess a website, you’ll need to make sure that it’s easy on the eyes and that it provides all the information that people will be looking for. You won’t need to have the most advanced site with amazing widgets everywhere – that will just overcomplicate everything. Ensure that you get your message across and you look like an established business that has been operating online for years.
Social media is also a huge part of an online presence. If you can provide an extra outlet to get messages across, market, and provide a means of contact, then you’re going to look like you have plenty of bases covered.
If you have an office or a professional area to work out of, then you’re going to want to make sure that it’s looking the part. People will not take you seriously if you look as though you’re working out of something in extremely poor condition. It’s understandable that you must start from the bottom, but you can make the bottom look a little more luxurious if you want. If you want to invite clients over or have meetings with contacts, then you’re going to want to impress – they will not be impressed if you work out of a pigsty.
Following on from the previous point, you’re going to want to make sure that the location is both accessible and attractive enough. Nobody wants to travel to an awkward place in order to do business or complete a transaction. If you’re operating out of your home or something equally as semi-professional, then perhaps using virtual office services could help out your pursuit of professionalism. People would be a lot more impressed to know that your office location is based in luxurious office space and not via your home address.
When you’re just starting out, you can be forgiven for not possessing a professional email address. You’re not exactly going to have everything sorted in that department. As time moves on, however, you’ll have a dedicated collection of addresses that are linked to your business. The likes of Gmail should be left behind once things get moving properly. Phone numbers can follow suit once you become even more of an established company.
If you can get your point across properly – using every means of contact – then you’re going to impress onlookers. Charisma isn’t something that everyone has, but it’s something that everyone can have if they try. Look to boost your communication skills as an individual and work with people who can speak well. Make sure your written communication is to a high enough standard, too.
One way to make sure professionalism is kept and business efficiency are in order to do the job properly. You can have all the tricks and all of the aesthetics, but you still need to make sure you’re satisfying the customers and clients. If they’re impressed, then they’ll call you again. They’ll also tell others about you – this will only boost the way you’re perceived.
We talked about the way you conduct yourself via communication, and now we’ll end on your overall presentation and aura. If you can look the part and dress the part, then you’re going to impress and look a lot more professional than many other rivals.
Here’s How You Could Increase your Business Visibility Online
Do you feel as though your business is not as visible as it could be? Maybe you want to expand the amount of business visibility you have, but you don’t quite know how to go about doing this. Either way, this is the guide for you.
Check your NAPIn the world of SEO, NAP stands for your name, address, and of course, phone number. It truly is a crucial element when it comes to your ranking, and it will also help you to appear more trustworthy. If you have listed your company with Google My Business, then you will have to make sure that your details are correct and that you are also able to line everything up with your other listings on the web. If you don’t do this, then you may find that you end up struggling overall.
Go Mobile
An effective campaign when it comes to the promotion will involve you having more than just a mobile-friendly site. Firms that have a mobile app tend to be way ahead of the game when it comes to mobile marketing. That being said, you should also know that apps will give you much more visibility, and it will help your customers too. You may find that your engagement is boosted and that you are able to turn people into loyal lovers of either your service or your product.
SocializeWhen you set up your profile on Facebook, Twitter, or even LinkedIn, you have to make sure that you include a good product description. You also need to make sure that you include relevant keywords too. Join groups and make your voice heard in conversations. If you spam your customers with constant promotions, then this will ultimately work against you, and you may find that your reputation is damaged too. On Facebook, you can easily create a page for the company you have so you can post information such as offers or even details of any events that you have coming up. If you want to create a trade show, then remember that it is more than possible for you to create a booth. There are many trade show display rentals out there that you can invest in as well.
Build your Email ListYou have to make sure that you build your email list as much as possible. A lot of small businesses are not aware of all the benefits that come with email marketing, and they do not leverage their website or their blog enough. Having an email campaign will really help you out, and it will give you the chance to yield very good results from the get-go. Email sign-ups are a great way for you to learn more about your customers because when they enter their details, you can ask them how they got to your site or even why they are there. This can all help you to shape your campaign, and it can yield remarkable results. If you need some help, then remember you can utilize a marketing service if you want.
How To Earn A Leadership Position
If you want more of a leadership position in your career and you currently feel as though you’re stuck where you are, there are some important factors to consider to make the difference. There are several characteristics that make a good leader, and applying as many of them as you can to your daily work should help to increase your chances of being noticed and being seen as a good leader. Read on to find out what some of these characteristics are, and start putting them into practice as soon as you can.
Be A Team PlayerIt might sound strange to suggest that a good leader needs to be a good team player, but it’s true. Just look at Dr. Bashar Hanna to see that it really does work out; the more you can work well in a team, the better a leader you are going to be. When you’re in an interview for a leadership position, you may notice that the employer asks many questions about working in a team, and it is for this reason.
Being a team player makes you a good leader (or makes some people good leaders, as there will need to be other attributes too) because it shows that you understand people and how they work together. You can use this experience and knowledge to lead people in the right way, keeping them in line without having to be too strict or someone no one wants to work with.
Be Open To Feedback And Criticism
If you want to earn a leadership role, you need to be open to feedback and criticism. You need to then use that feedback – and criticism – to grow as a person and as an employee. When you respond well to feedback, listen, and then implement those changes, you turn yourself into much more of a leader, taking those all-important leadership traits and using them when you can.
It’s also important to be able to admit when you are wrong and to ask for feedback to help you find the correct route. This is not something everyone is comfortable doing, and it may not be a sign of leadership to some, but it is; it takes a much stronger person – a leader, in fact – to admit they made a mistake and ask for help fixing it than someone who never admits any wrongdoing and continues making mistakes because of it.
Good Communication
Perhaps one of the most important traits – maybe the most important trait – in a leader is to have good communication skills. If you want to lead a team, you need to be clear and concise, you must always talk about facts and try to leave emotions to one side if possible, and you must be willing to answer questions truthfully.
Without good communication, instructions won’t be clear and could be misconstrued, and misunderstandings will be commonplace. If employees can’t trust the person put in charge to lead them because they never quite know what they mean, the entire dynamic will shift in a negative direction.
Why Your Business Needs To Focus On IT Support - NOW
When you're a new business owner, everyone and anyone will pour advice onto you about how to do things, even without you asking about it. You can spend a ton of cash on the marketing aspect of your business, but if you're ignoring the IT support you need, you're going to struggle. It's tempting to see a piece of your business puzzle as more important than another piece, but if you want to keep the place running as smoothly as possible, you need to know that you should be looking at every department equally.
Entrepreneurs mostly think that having an IT person on staff is unnecessary, especially if they have an idea of what they should be doing with their IT anyway. The thing is, there is more than your IT department can do than you, such as the management of your revenue cycle management software, keeping up to date with your customer service management systems, and more. You'd be surprised to know that there are many businesses out there who don't bother even outsourcing this, and then they wonder why they are struggling to maintain everything! So, why should you be focusing on IT support? Let's take a look!
With an IT expert by your side, you're going to prevent anyone from diving into the backend area of your data and technology, and you're going to be able to protect your data from being stolen. You have to consider that every single person who is online can have their firewalls and data breached, and it's important that you take the measures you can take to protect it! An IT professional can help you to protect your data and they will continuously run the right software to ensure its protection.
EfficiencyDo you want your business network systems to work properly? An IT expert will be able to do this for you. Every single business in the world will be able to supply its employees with a great quality, uninterrupted network system. This can be done when you have a strong player behind the scenes managing it all for you. It's the one thing that can ensure that your business will thrive. You want to ensure that you are as efficient as possible, and the right cyber protection will help!
Keeping Online Running SmoothlyYour whole business is likely to be digital but if it's going to be the case, you need to have a team of people working to ensure that you are protected and your online business is running smoothly.
The right tech support is going to make a huge difference to your business and if you are smart about who you hire, you're going to ensure that you save money in the long run. It doesn't matter the type of business you run: the point is that you need to be able to focus on the tech support without compromising what you need for the other areas of your business.
Effective Ways to Reduce Employee Turnover
Every company aims to have high employee retention, where they remain with the most talented individuals for the longest time possible. Unfortunately, few can achieve this. There is high demand for top talent in today's competitive business world. If you are not applying the best strategies to keep your employees happy, they will likely drift off to your competitor's companies.
Below are some tips that can help you ensure that you keep your employees around for the longest time possible.
Hire the Right People
If you wish to retain your employees, you must start with the right recruitment process. Hire employees who have the right skills to match the open positions in your company. The best candidates should fit the open position both culturally and behaviorally. As portrayed by Karan Bajaj, find employees who'll work for financial gain and overall fulfillment. You can determine this by asking them behavioral interview questions to determine how they deal with specific situations.
Ensure that you also give candidates adequate orientation on your workplace culture and the business's physical location. This way, they can analyze the environment and eliminate themselves if they feel like they don't fit in.
Offer Competitive Pay and BenefitsGood employees deserve to be compensated well. They need to have enough money to cater to their expenses, such as food, housing, and utilities. Additional benefits also come in handy. If you do not compensate your employees adequately, they will find a company that will.
Conduct exhaustive market research on wages to determine the proper compensation for your employees. Find out how much your competitors pay their employees and select a competitive salary range compared to similar jobs in your area.
Create the Right CultureIf you aim to find employees who will build a strong bond with your company, you must create a working environment that will attract such candidates. Whether you opt for a casual and laid-back atmosphere or a strict by-the-book workplace, your company culture should match the type of employees you wish to employ and retain.
Acknowledge Your Employee's EffortsYour employees need recognition and encouragement. Show your employees appreciation when they do something right. Congratulate them and give them rewards when they complete any assigned projects to show them that you acknowledge their hard work.
Appreciating your employee's efforts for significant accomplishments helps to create a positive working environment. When employees feel desired, respected, motivated, and acknowledged, they are more likely to stay in your company or organization. Moreover, this method of decreasing employee turnover is cost-effective and straightforward.
Be FlexibleIf it is possible, let your employees have flexible work schedules. You can allow them to adjust their work location and time every once in a while. This way, they can create a work-life balance that best suits their needs. They can easily pursue things beyond work, such as taking care of their families and going to appointments.
If it is not possible to incorporate a flexible work schedule in your business, you can still achieve flexibility by allowing flexible breaks, for instance, during lunchtime. This way, the employees can take breaks at the most necessary time to refuel and continue being productive.
Employee turnover can be costly for your business. Apply the above tips to retain the best employees in your company.
March 29, 2021
How to Prepare Yourself for an Executive Position
Photo by Ben Rosett
We work because we have goals. We want a better income, a better job, and a better lifestyle, along with respect. That’s what the world calls success, and we all want to be successful. For a professional, every increment and promotion is a step to success. In a job, getting to an executive-level position is what everyone aspires for. If you are also looking to fill an executive role, here is how you can prepare for it.
The very first and most important thing you need to for an executive-level position is to increase your skillset and knowledge. Remember that you need some experience before you can fill such a role. You should work in the field for some years and try to learn more in one day what others learn in one week. This means you should have experience of twenty years after working for five years.
Even all that is not enough. The role of an executive is diverse, and they have to adapt according to different companies and businesses. That’s why you have to learn from others. If you don’t have many mentors, take the help of strategic leadership consulting – Maximus International. They have worked with many and built many companies, and you will learn insights from them that you won’t find in any book.
Instead of trying to keep an easy job life, you must say to everything. If you have a challenge coming up, volunteer for it. NO matter what responsibilities are given to you, take them like a champion. Work extra and give your all to every project to bring the best results.
This will show everyone how capable you are. Just being skilled is not enough; you also have to show it to others. By taking on challenges and succeeding, you will show everyone that you are a competent person who is ready for an executive position.
What would you do differently as an executive when you have the power of decision-making. The future of every company relies on its executives. You should have to keep an eye on the market and take the steps necessary to ensure the business keeps growing.
Start noticing what current executives are doing and what you would do differently. Don’t just keep it in your mind. Instead, write them down and think about them. If you are sure that your ideas are foolproof, you can present them to related people when you are up for the executive role. Remember, it’s better to be prepared and not have the opportunity than to have an opportunity and not being prepared for it.
Leaders read a lot of books. They are always focused on learning, and they call themselves students. You only see very confident people who are very decisive and know what they are doing. This confidence comes from their knowledge.
A smart person learns from others’ experiences and mistakes. You should spend time with like-minded people and your seniors and learn from them. In addition to that, you should read books of successful people.
An executive is not a person who has mastered a technical skill. He is a person that knows every nook and corner of his field and a great team player. You won’t exactly be doing everything with your own hand. You will have to get others to do the job as if you were doing it yourself. This means you have to become a leader and encourage others to give their best.
4 Free Marketing Tools To Support Your Business In 2021
Businesses across every different industry need powerful and cutting-edge marketing
tactics, to stand out and grow their companies. Marketing can often feel complicated, with so many different elements and options. To make your life a whole lot simpler, try checking out these free tools to support your 2021 marketing strategy.
Hubspot CRM is a great platform to help you manage your customer relationships. It’s simple to use, supporting your business to organize your customer interactions, chase up leads and improve your customer experience.
Using Hubspot you can create contact profiles, monitor your deals, and track performance, all in one place. There are plenty of handy features such as social media integration, tracking site visitors, communication via drag and drop, marketing synchronization, email connections and scheduling.
2. Answer The Public
Entrepreneurs know by now that content marketing is highly important, from your videos to your blogs. Answer The Public is a tool that can help you to find great topics to write your blogs about. The tool uses popular keywords, and niche search subjects, to give you awesome ideas. The platform is simple to use, all you need to do is put in a word that your target audience are probably searching for. Once you’ve done this, the software shows you related questions, based on trending searches, and this keyword.
Mention can help you with your online reputation management, the tool helps businesses to monitor ‘mentions’ of their name online, whether positive or negative. Alternatively, companies can use this tool to input different search terms, to find out which industry topics are trendy and popular. As well as providing info on social mentions, the software assesses performance and helps to engage your staff. There are several different ways to use mention including:
Find influencers who can support your brand.
Track how your brand performs (including your online rep).
Track campaigns and identify new opportunities.
Canva is a useful tool to support businesses with content creation. It’s a design platform that makes it easy for anyone to create professional-looking graphic design work. Canva can be used in many different ways whether it’s graphics for your website, blog content, or presentations. Businesses are under increased pressure to make content engaging and to create content that’s consistent. With Canva, it’s easy to reach both of these objectives. There are plenty of cool features that come with this software, including image cropper, speech bubble maker, free icons, design grids, templates and more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put the marketing industry under a lot of pressure. All across the globe businesses have needed to adopt new marketing tactics, and improve their existing strategies. To learn more about marketing during COVID-19, particularly in the creative world, check out insights from marketing professional Frederica Ward.
To improve your performance, stay on the lookout for new business technology that can improve your marketing strategy. As trends grow and technology develops, there are plenty of ways to support your campaigns.
Remote Working After Lockdown? Here's How Your Business Can Pull It Off
Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels
The pandemic hit businesses hard in early 2020 all around the world. We saw millions of businesses forced to close their doors for the last time, resulting in millions more jobs being lost. As a society, we were forced to get used to the prospect of working from home, and many businesses had to adapt greatly to cater to the new restrictions that were put in place all around the world.
However, some businesses found their staff were not only perfectly capable of working from home, but excelled while doing it. Some businesses also found that there were exponential savings made by having staff work from home rather than running an office every day. While you may want staff to return to the office, you may also be considering allowing staff to continue remote working, and here are some great tips to help your business pull it off, even after lockdown has lifted.
Remote file access
One of the biggest challenges businesses have faced when it comes to allowing staff to work from home is giving them access to files when they’re at home. You can set up remote file access are file sharing servers that enable remote file access from web browsers, remote PCs, Mac and mobile devices. Putting this in place will allow your team to gain access to everything they need to perform their role to the best of their ability.
Communication is keyNo matter how much you trust your staff to get on with their job, there will need to be a constant stream of communication. Not only to ensure they’re doing what you’re paying them for, but to help keep everyone in the loop with new ideas or even problems they may run into. Having a clear communication platform like Basecamp 3 will help your team stay connected at all times. Even staff members that travel for business will be able to stay in touch through the use of a mobile app. Keep communication levels high for successful remote working for your team.
Invest in better equipmentLast year, we went from being able to head to the office to work to suddenly confined within the four walls of our home. This may mean that your team doesn't have the best possible equipment to perform their jobs. Investing in new computers, or providing your team with better equipment such as cameras and other machinery will help your team perform at a much better rate.
Use incentivesBeing incentivized at work is important, and even those working at home may need some incentive, especially after a long year or so of the pandemic. Provide exciting and unusual incentives such as coffee gift cards and paid annual leave for those that consistently and accurately hit their targets each week.
Finally, the most important thing to remember is that everyone has worked hard during a very strange and difficult time! Give your employees credit for their hard work and stick together as a team to help your business thrive post-pandemic.
March 28, 2021
Top HR Tips For Small Business
Image - free for commercial use
For a lot of businesses, people are the most valuable asset. With these tips, improve your HR to attract and keep the best employees, and help your team to develop with the best perks.
Draw up a job description, no matter how low level or simple the jobThe more information you get down, the better chance you have of finding the right person for the job. Cover things like the level of skill you need, what training is needed, and how much experience or responsibility the job needs. You can use services like servicenow HR to improve your recruiting.
If you need to fill a position, consider advertising in a specialist or trade publication. You can ask people in the industry what publications they read. If the job isn’t too specialised, you could consider in the local newspaper, which is usually quite affordable, and reaches people in a commutable area.
Before somebody joins your company, get references. It’s a good idea to contact a referee direct on the phone, as they are usually more responsive this way than in an email or a letter. Ask questions like, ‘would you re-employ this person?’
Recruitment can be costly, both in terms of time and money. Think about whether you need somebody full time. Help from friends and family can also be an option for small businesses, and it won’t cost you any money in advertising. If you need someone specialised for the short-term, it can be worth paying for contract or temporary staff.
The first three months of employment with a company are very important. Make sure you make your new employees feel welcome. Set up an induction into the company with training and a buddy system to help a new hire with any questions or concerns they may have.
As a small business, you can be closer to your staff, suppliers, and customers than larger ones can. Get your employees involved in the work culture from the start, and keep them up to date with your progress and any developments that may happen in the future.
A competitive offer doesn’t need to be only about money. Flexible working, like flex-hours or job share, can let you tailor benefits that suit the individual employee. Look at what motivated each of your employees. Some might look for job security, whereas some want the room to grow. Group days out or brainstorming sessions with a fun activity can also motivate people.
A good appraisal system should allow for realistic, but challenging, objectives. You should also have interim reviews to make sure objectives haven’t changed and give the opportunity to find any training and development needs. Who is best positioned to carry out these reviews?
