Mohit Tater's Blog, page 558

How to Become a Certified Project Management Professional

In the modern workplace, it is important to be disciplined and good at time management apart from being skilled at your workplace. Project management courses can help you with that. They teach you how to deliver your targets within schedule and provide a working knowledge of how to organise your work effectively. Being a certified project management can ace your management career.

In case you are confused on how to become a certified project management professional or which project management courses to choose from, you have come to the right place. This article deals with the benefits of pursuing the certification, how to choose the right course, and what are the pre-requisites of joining a course. Let’s get started.

Benefits of being a certified project management professional

Today, there is a greater need for employees with managerial skills who can handle the problems of an agile, digital, and modern workplace. Here are a few benefits that you can look forward to when you complete a project management course.

You become a better leader: These courses are deigned to instil values of workplace ethics and honesty, which are regarded as crucial qualities of a manager. You learn to handle a team and motivate your teammates.

You get better at problem solving: With these courses, you learn to identify and solve various challenges that crop up in a workplace. You also develop analytical skills that ca help you crunch data to solve potential problems.

You improve your interpersonal skills: As a manager, you would need to communicate with different stakeholders, team members, upper management or fellow managers. These courses improve your communication and people skills in verbal or written formats. 

You develop your technical skills: As a manager, you would need to have a keen understanding of the nitty-gritties of the business. In addition, this also helps you mentor or coach your team members better.

You get better at handling shorter projects: These courses prepare you to handle and complete short projects within a limited time frame with limited or constrained resources. You also pick up skills such as

Writing a project planBuilding a work allocation scheduleAllocating resources to team membersCreating a project budgetDefining and setting the project’s scopeIdentifying and managing associated risksHandling conflict resolutions



How to choose a project management course

There are several universities in the world offering online or offline courses on project management. It is important to choose the one that offers you a detailed course covering a multitude of topics and an option of online courses so that you can study at your preferred time. Look for courses which focus on

Project planningProject managementProject ImplementationKey elements of projects such as analysis, sequencing, and schedulingOverview of change management and project life cycleHow to implement project tools, risk analysis, and risk management.



Key requirements to join a project management course

The pre-requisites of joining a course is different for different course providers. However, you need to fulfil the following criteria at least to be eligible to join a course.

An undergraduate degree with relevant work experienceA graduate degree from a reputed universityA minimum level of B2 in English language according to the Common European Framework (CEF).

Project management courses help in learning to deal with tighter deadlines, resource crunch, or unorganised workplaces. They also impart transferable skills that are useful in many positions other than managerial jobs.

The post How to Become a Certified Project Management Professional appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

How your Business can Utilise Banners

Are you seeking ways to reach an unlimited number of audience? We present to you one of the best marketing tools that gives you high conversion rate and also a competitive edge in the business world. Banner!

Whatever style you prefer; pole banners, vinyl banners, affordable foam board prints, banners can increase customer base, brand awareness, productivity as well as profitability.

Below are a few of the benefits that you can enjoy with the use of banner for your business advertisement.

It is Affordable

Yes, digital marketing and advanced marketing strategies seem to be too expensive hence several small businesses do not get a fair ground to compete. However, since the primary aim of marketing is to augment your revenue, the use of banner will be a great deal also. The cost of design and running a banner ad is relatively cheaper compared to other marketing tools.

Fitted for all Targeted Audience

Your size and type of targeted audience will definitely be reflected in your productivity. Whatever the size of your targeted audience or their gender (male or female), the use of banner ad gets you covered.

 Also, the banner ad is also a great way to reach out to both the oldies and the youth at the same time. A banner that is well designed with the right colour combination will attract your audience(unlimited) easily.

It is Memorable.

Learning is reinforced by sight as well as memory. Research has shown that people tend to remember what they see repetitively because the memory when stored can be easily recalled.

The effect of this on your business is that, the strategic placement of your banner ad, will prompt people to recall your services or product faster when there is a need for that service. This will, in turn, shoot up your profitability.

It is Effective

Whether you are using a digital banner that is to be placed on a strategic position on different sites or a physical banner where people see it daily, the converging point is that banner ad is effective and get the marketing job done.

Wondering how? 

Digital banner has critical elements such as the call to action button which tells your audience in simple, explicit language what to do, the value proposition element where your services are displayed.

In addition, the value composition element on your banner also features payment bonuses and cuts which will further entice customers to you. 

Not to worry, your company logo will be well represented on your banner hence you can put your mind to rest about increasing your brand awareness and consumer base.

It is Sustainable

There is little to worry about the size and placement if your banner ad is well-positioned to generate enough traffic that will convert the audience/click to consumer/sales for you.

You may be inquisitive about the sustainability of banners ad and it’s the ability to be used as a long term marketing tool. Yes, banner ads are sustainable and could help leapfrog your company awareness.

Perhaps you are using a physical banner, placing it in strategic position for a long period of time will also do the additional work of sustaining your audience attention aside from the fact that it catches their attention.

It is, however, pertinent to say that there are quite a few things you need to put in place if the above-listed benefits and several others are to be enjoyed. They include;

Make it Simple

There is no need to go excessively overboard with your banner design. The key is that you should be dynamic with your creativity but you should also not forget the master key called simplicity. Whatever that can be shown, do not write it. Hence I recommend that you use simple but attractive images and do not be too wordy with your content.

Make your Logo Obvious

There is a bit of controversy surrounding the size of the logo. There are some who opine that the company logo should be made bigger while there are others who desire to point out that it often reduces conversion rate as it pisses consumers off.

Then you ask, what should you do? I recommend that you make your company logo more obvious without necessarily increasing its size. This may be a little tweak in its colour to attract consumers or perhaps make it more distinct.

Offer Pay-cut

Bonuses, promos and incentives are a good way to capture people’s attention. Our eyes seem to go first to such messages whenever we see such and hence register such information in our mind.

Although, we all love to get the right value for our money, at some point getting it at a lesser cost will gladden our hearts. In addition, it is highly likely that we revisit that company, business where we got a pay cut for their services if there’s a need for it in the future. Even your value-loyal customers will love to get a pay-cut at some time in your business relationship.

Include your Contact Details

You may never tell how effective your banner is unless you include contact details through which you can be reached (especially if you’re using physical banner). Your contact details such as phone number, email number or website address should be included on your banner so that your consumers can easily reach out to you when there’s a need to patronise your business.

Conclusion

There are several ways a banner advertisement can be of help to your business. It is effective, affordable and sustainable. 

However, while you consider the use of banner ad for your business it is pertinent to say that you should work on and strengthen your customer interpersonal relationships.

This will further improve your customer base and you’re on your way to global recognition.

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How to Sell Your Business Fast for Maximum Value

There are many factors to take into account when you are estimating the cost of your business and what to sell it for. The difference between what you take into account and what you don’t can cost you lots of money.

Here are the main things you want to look for: 

Reviewed accounting records Documented business operations Review marketing plan Consider a business broker Target specific buyer prospects Plan for due diligence Cooperate for a successful transition  

Your businesses’ accounting records will reveal a lot of potential to the buyer. When trying to sell a business fast and for the maximum value you want to have accounting records that contain: 

Accurate and up-to-date records that will comply with accounting standards Annual business forecasting, budgeting, and planning Cash flow management and forecasting Dashboards and metrics Industry analysis and benchmarks 

Having current and accurate data for all of these topics will help you sell a small business fast.

Documented Business Operations 

Very important thing buyers will want to know is how the company is operated daily. Having great documentation of such things as production, billing, and fulfillment is crucial in having a successful business and the buyer will want to review these things. Plan on having: 

A procedure manualOrganization chartCurrent customer and supplier employer agreements and contractsAutomated processes documented 



Review your Marketing Plan 

To have growing sales and profits it’s imperative that you have a successful marketing plan. This method will differentiate your product/service from the competition. The buyer will want to know this plan and depending on how great it is, will incentivize the buyer to drive sales and profits once they purchase. The purchaser will want to be confident that they can do this strategy themselves to make more profit once they buy.

Consider a Business Broker 

Especially if it is your first time, and you need to sell your business quickly, it is crucial to find an experienced broker. There are a few points to consider while you’re looking.

Look for a qualified business broker Obtain a current business valuation Develop a marketing plan 

Be able to explain why you’re selling, (a broker can help). Selling a business is a huge decision and a broker shouldn’t be taken lightly in helping you through it.

Target Specific Buyer Prospects 

It’s important to look for what kind of buyer would want your business, whether it’s a competitor or private equity firm. A broker with experience will be able to find potential buyers and vet them to see if they make a good fit. 

Plan for Due Diligence 

Having an organized and complete set of records before you even start looking for a buyer is a great plan. Among these records, you should display its hidden value that could easily be overlooked. Having everything in line also cuts down on buyer fatigue and keeps the transaction on track.

Cooperate for a Successful Transition 

A successful sale will have a good effect for the buyer and seller, being proactive about a smooth transaction will work in everybody’s favor. Communicate with the stakeholders (vendors, employees, and customers) to allow an effective transition after the sale and be ready for questions and concerns.

Save Time When Selling Your Business 

Selling a business is very time consuming and can be a big emotional and financial decision. If you want to maximize your profits and sell fast implement the tips above and find a broker to help guide you through this process. You will have a successful business sale in no time.

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Five Ways to Improve Employee Morale

Happy employees are productive employees. Whether your office needs a morale boost, or you would like to make a good environment even better, there are many approaches you can take to improving employee morale.

Clean Your Office

It just plain feels good to work in a clean, well-organized office, however, those feel-good feelings aren’t the only benefit Halifax cleaning services can offer. A clean office means fewer germs and fewer germs means healthier, happier employees. Letting someone else pick up the messes means less frustration from employees having to pick up after each other. Finally, your employees won’t be wasting their time searching through the clutter to get their work done.

Surprise Your Employees

Everybody loves some extra cash in their pocket. Surprise bonuses are an almost surefire way to boost morale, however, there are other options besides handing out money. A surprise party, casual dress day or even a paid day off are among the many pleasant surprises you can offer your employees to improve their mood.

Offer Employee Perks

Everybody loves a discount. Working out a deal with local businesses to offer your employees discounts on products and services or enrolling in a commercial perks program can be a great way to boost morale. Popular programs include fun activities like discounted tickets to movie theaters and theme parks, as well as practical perks like discounted gym memberships and college courses.

Help Your Employees Help Others

Providing your employees with paid time off and/or company structured volunteer programs is a great way to increase employee engagement, foster passion about their work and improve their overall happiness on the job. It also benefits your company by improving your reputation in the community and getting your name out there to potential customers and employees.

Offer Flexible Schedules

Money is great, but in today’s world of two-income families, side hustles and endless after-school activities, time is even more precious to many employees. Simple perks, like allowing your employees to arrive a bit earlier or leave a bit later to avoid rush hour traffic, can be a great morale booster. For even better results, go the extra mile and give your employees multiple shifts, workdays and time-off options to choose from.

Being proactive about employee morale is vital to attracting and retaining top-quality workers and avoiding the pitfalls associated with low morale. The happier and more productive your employers are, the happier and more productive you’ll be.

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The Qualities that make a good Business Leader

There are a lot of good business managers out there, but a good business leader is something different. To inspire a team of people, to secure their loyalty and get the most out of their talents, requires a combination of unusual talents. There are many leadership styles out there adapted to suit different personalities, but these are the key qualities that a leader can’t do without.

Self-discipline

Getting the best out of your team begins with leading by example. If they’re going to make a serious effort on behalf of the organization, everyone in your team needs to see you making an effort. If there’s no-one there to tell you what to do, that means you need to exercise strong self-discipline to set a good example. This applies to everything from when you arrive in the office to how you present yourself and how much you get done. You won’t need to work as hard to instill discipline in others when they don’t want to let you down.

Passion

As well as making your team want to live up to your example when it comes to discipline, you need to inspire them with your passion for what your organization is doing. This isn’t just about being a good orator, although speeches can be effective in the right context, it’s about the enthusiasm that you show every day and your ability to present challenging tasks in a positive light. It’s also about showing employees that you value their efforts and giving them the feeling of being part of something bigger, something that’s worthwhile.

Good listening skills

Communication is vital to leadership but what’s often overlooked is that listening is every bit as important as speaking. Being a leader isn’t just about sharing your ideas – it’s about showing a willingness to engage with other people’s and receive the benefit of expertise from every part of your organization. Doing this makes employees feel that they matter and inspires them to make more effort. It’s your job to evaluate ideas, make the difficult decisions and provide direction, but not to be a dictator who seems unreachable.

Willingness to accept blame

This might sound like an odd one and it’s certainly one of the most difficult for the kind of big personalities usually attracted to leadership roles, but it does matter. When you are a leader you are responsible for your team, in good times and bad. When they do well you get to ride that wave but when they do badly you need to be ready, if necessary, to protect them by taking the fall – even if you’re not really to blame. When they know you’ve got their backs like this they’ll show you real commitment in return.

Commitment to diversity

If being a leader is about getting the most out of your team, it’s also about knowing how to build the right team in the first place. As Lady Barbara Judge has previously pointed out, that can’t be done unless you’re serious about bringing in talent wherever you find it. This isn’t a matter of being politically correct – it’s about recognizing that in today’s competitive world, nobody can afford prejudice. What’s more, when everyone on your team feels valued based on merit, they’ll be happier and work harder.

Love of learning

As a leader, it’s easy to fall into the trap of valuing consistency above everything else, but as long as you don’t do it all the time, it’s okay to change your mind. Circumstances change in business and you need to be willing to adapt and change with them. If you take every opportunity to learn, you’ll be better at this, and the confidence of your team will increase because they’ll know that you can handle whatever comes up. You’ll also set an example that encourages them to develop and improve their skills.

Long-term vision

A manager’s job is to get by in the day to day and, generally, think no further ahead than that three year predicted earnings chart. A leader’s job is to envision the opportunities that lie many years, or even decades, ahead, understanding what the organization has the potential to become and constantly revising and updating plans for getting there. This is something that most people struggle to do and sharing your vision with your team will give them a sense of purpose, encouraging them to push through tough times to reap future rewards.

Leadership is often said to be more of an art than a science. As in any art, there are rules that guide you toward the best results, but you will need to demonstrate comprehensive leadership skills if you are to be successful at managing people. Natural talent is a significant part of this, however, by working to develop your talents you can make yourself into the person your business needs.

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How to Get Your Kids to Love Gardening

Working your hand through the soil in a garden is something that can be enjoyed by all ages. If gardening is a hobby you enjoy, and you have children, they probably have already witnessed your time spent working in the soil and caring for your plants. In fact, they may have tried to help in some manner, or mimicked your chores in the past.

Help your children foster a sense of responsibility to the landscape with simple responsibilities that help them grow in confidence, and learn about the benefits of gardening. All ages of children can become involved, and if your child is mobile and able to grasp tools, with a little supervision can be easily tasked with chores appropriate to their age level. 

Ideas to Get Children More Involved

Sometimes it can be difficult to brainstorm age appropriate tasks, or get into the habit of including another person in the care of your yard.  This can be especially true if you have supervision concerns, or are worried about something getting damaged. First off, remember that plants can be replaced and garden beds fixed, but the time spent with your child in the garden is irreplaceable.There are many ways you can provide ‘safe’ approaches for peace of mind. 

Assign Them a Task

Even the littlest child can be assigned a task. Small children can take on watering chores, that with a low flow of water and decent watering head can avoid overwatering, or high flow damage to soils. Backyardboss.net has some great tool suggestions that are fun for children to use and provide a degree of control for the parent.

Provide Fun, Unique Tools to Work With

Having kid sized tools that little hands can grasp and work with is a  good start to provide ownership of the idea. Other types of fun approaches include small wheelbarrows, watering cans, garden gloves, and stools to sit or kneel on.

Give Them Their Own Space

Let your children take ownership of their very own plot of soil to call their own. This is a great way to create a learning garden away from your own where they can dig, plant, weed, and water with the knowledge of the work that goes into it from the start. If land is not available, you can also create container, or pot gardens and let them choose how to decorate and plant it– and care for it while it grows.

Let Them Choose Their Plants

Allow your child to pick and choose which plants they want in their garden. This allows them ownership of their choice, and helps them explore the various growing habits of different types of plants. You can even take this a step further and give them choices based on simple facts of the care required to let them take even further responsibility for their decision.

Allow Them to Explore

Let them explore without guidance to see how soil, water, and plants need care and attention. If a plant is lost, it can be replaced and used as a great teaching tool. It is also fun to see the ecosystem interact as well, and learn what bugs are beneficial, and which aren’t. Depending on the age of the child you can even create scavenger hunts that including the living world they are working within, and include children’s gardening books to find information in.

Benefits of Children in the Garden

Not only do you benefit from your child learning some responsibility, but the laughter and comradery of working together in a garden is a great way to bond. Children and adults alike will only grow from the little bit of effort it takes to have your children more involved with garden care.

Engages Senses

Children are able to engage in all five senses and make connections with what they are experiencing. This is especially helpful for very young children to experience cause and effect.

Encourages Healthy Choices

Not only is working outdoors healthy due to the increase in movement, vitamin D and fresh air you receive, but if you are growing your own food, children will naturally want to eat it. This can be taken a step further to introduce them to the kitchen and cooking with what you have harvested. 

Practices Motor Skill Development

Grasping, holding, pulling, and digging are all ways to support and improve upon both gross and fine motor skills. Hand eye coordination is also being practiced and used when working out of doors and with tools. 

Teaches Responsibility

Gardens require a degree of care and attention, or they can die. Children can easily understand what steps are supportive of a healthy plant, and what is not, and what is required of them to help nurture and grow their plants. 

Develops Math and Science Skills

Working in the yard literally surrounds you with biological science and simple math practices. Spacial awareness and planning, as well as hypothesis and best practices are all a part of growing a garden of any size. 

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How to Increase Workplace Productivity [Updated Guide]

Employee productivity is one of the most important factors for every business owner out there. After all, it’s an aspect of running a company that has a direct effect on its profitability. Luckily, we now live in an age when we can measure employee productivity and come up with ways for giving it a boost.

That’s exactly what many experts focus on and they’ve managed to create a number of techniques for helping employees get more work done. If you’re looking to increase productivity in your workplace, here are five of them you should know about.

Ways to Increase Workplace Productivity



1. Don’t let your employees multitask

Even though we all believe that we’re getting more work done when we tackle multiple tasks at once, the myth of multitasking has been debunked a long time ago. Studies show that only 2 percent of people can multitask successfully and for the rest of the population it only has a negative effect. Multitasking splits the brain and dedicates one-half of grey matter to each task. As a result, you and your employees are more likely to make mistakes when multitasking.

Not to mention that multitasking also creates stress, sucking all the energy out of you and decreasing your focus. If your team members’ work requires them to be creative, they shouldn’t be forced into multitasking as creativity requires a stress-free environment.

2. Stop noise from running your office

With the trend of having an open-plan office, more and more companies seem to be dealing with the issue of unwanted noise. Although it makes collaboration easier, this type of office design seriously affects employees’ ability to focus and stay productive. Plus, most offices are now located next to busy streets and eliminating the noise coming from outside is impossible.

Luckily, there are things you can do to not let all that noise run your office. For example, you can use plants for decoration as greenery is known to be quite helpful when dealing with noise pollution.

Getting noise-canceling headphones is also a good idea, as long as your employees create work-friendly playlists. There’s a wide range of noise-canceling headphones made by companies like Sony and Jabra that may be exactly what your office needs.

3. Don’t forget about office supplies

There are reasons why every business needs the right set of office supplies in the workplace. Studies have shown that these little things can boost time management by 38 percent when used correctly. But in order for your employees to be able to do that, you first have to ensure they have every item they might need.

Things such as notebooks and notepads are needed to write own things in meetings and come up with a plan for the next week. Self-stick removable notes you can find at Winc Australia are also something every employee needs to stay organized. They also can’t use a mouse without a quality mouse pad nor can they organize their documents without folders.

4. Recognize and reward your employees

One of the key aspects of being productive is feeling happy. If your team members feel like all the hard work they put in has been recognized, they’ll be more likely to perform better. The good news is, there are so many ways you can recognize and reward your employees even if your company doesn’t have the budget large corporations do. In fact, something as old school as a handwritten note is guaranteed to do the trick.

Of course, if your budget allows it, there are more expensive but more effective options you can go for as well. For example, BambooHR, an HR software company from the US, gives their employees a certain amount of money to put towards vacation every year. Unique employee rewards like this allow for increased workplace productivity and advantage when it comes to recruiting talent.

5. Break the routine

Aligning the tasks with your employees’ skills and having them do the same thing for 40 hours a week is often seen as a good idea. However, this results in monotony, which has the potential to seriously jeopardize your company’s operations. To break it, you need to rotate job responsibilities every now and then and even think about introducing new roles if it feels necessary.

Things like this can have a positive effect on your employees’ productivity levels as it allows them to expand their skillset and gain a better understanding of how the company works. Also, if your team members spend their entire week in the office, keep coming up with new ways to get them outside and find inspiration elsewhere.

Final thoughts

The low productivity in the office can have a serious impact on your operations and decrease your profit. Rely on these five techniques to ensure this doesn’t happen to your company. What’s more, they’ll even help you build an even better team and achieve more.

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Social Media Strategies for Businesses That Will Humanize Your Brand

One of the biggest shifts in digital marketing is the need for an authentic brand voice. Regardless of your industry, you’re going to fall behind the pack if you don’t take advantage of social media and the engagement opportunities that come along with it.

To be truly successful, though, you need to really think about how you portray your brand to customers and prospects. Whether you’re just getting started or need a social media facelift, here are seven tips on how to humanize your brand and create a personalized experience for your audience.

Create a Persona

The first step in humanizing your brand on social media is to create a persona. Without a set social media voice, your posts will be inconsistent and very likely lack any flavor or interest for your followers. Start off with any branding materials you have for your broader marketing campaigns since those can be easily translated for digital marketing as well.

If you don’t have any voice guidelines, it’s time to create them. Figure out how you want your company to engage with your audience: friendly, authoritative, aspirational? An effective exercise to determine the best tone for your social media persona is to build your ideal customer profile. From there, it’s easier to develop the right voice guidelines for posting, no matter who does it. 

Capture Content From Your Offices

Your social media content can come from a variety of sources, but the most authentic and engaging posts are those that come from your own company. Use real photos of what’s happening at your office rather than generic stock photos purchased online. This is especially helpful if you’re a local company or bank that has strong ties to the community.

Social media platforms are also an ideal place to showcase your community outreach events or sponsorships. Here’s a great example from Service Credit Union in New Hampshire.

They highlight a major sponsored event and encourage customers to actually participate in the upcoming Seafood Festival. 

Make Product Mentions Relevant

No matter what industry you’re in, the ultimate goal in leveraging social media is to boost your sales. In general, it’s best to keep your sales-related content at just 20% of your posts, and the other 80% dedicated to engaging, broad content.

When you do mention a product, the post should still focus on your audience, not your company. Take a look at this Facebook post sharing a blog article from Citizens Bank. 

When you click to the post, you’ll see a number of tips on how to budget for things like food and gas on your summer vacation. At the end, you’ll then see a call to action to open a savings account with Citizens Bank. It’s definitely a soft sell, but the point is that the reader feels like the content is about them, not closing a deal. 

Use Social Media Ambassadors

You definitely want to create a set brand persona for your company’s social accounts, but you can add an even deeper level of humanization by using social media ambassadors. This involves training a set of core, enthusiastic employees to post from their perspective.

Behind-the-scenes glimpses are incredibly popular with customers and can be very effective in building brand loyalty. Let employees in different areas post a day-in-the-life series to show what they do each and every day. They can even sign each post so followers know exactly who’s talking through the platform.

An added bonus? Not only do social media ambassadors better engage your followers, but it’s also a great way to build loyalty among your staff.  

Highlight Local Small Businesses

No matter how large or small your company is or how broad your geographic scope may be, you can utilize social media to capitalize on the “shop local” trend. Maybe you’re a business that partners with a local vendor or a bank that specializes in small business lending.

Whatever the connection may be, spotlight some of these local partners that you interact with. In addition to demonstrating your support of small businesses, it also gives you the chance to cross-post on their social accounts, giving you access to a fresh audience who could likely intersect with your ideal customer.

Integrate Giveaways

People love free stuff, and you can build a better connection by offering giveaways through your social media channels. Each channel has different rules regarding giveaways, so be sure to check those out before you post anything.

Once you have the technical details ironed out, you can then implement a giveaway, whether it’s cash, a product or service. Here’s an example from Chime Bank who did a tax-themed giveaway. 

Not only did the giveaway promote their direct deposit service, but it also gave a $1,000 incentive to engage with their Instagram account. You don’t have to do a cash giveaway; people get excited about even the simplest giveaways solely because they have the chance to win something free. 

Address Feedback Consistently

Anytime you enter a forum for dialogue, you open yourself up to feedback. Whether negative or positive, be sure to reply to comments from customers on your posts. This shows that you’re still dedicated to the customer experience, even if there are hiccups for some people along the way.

Responding to comments on your social media posts also helps to boost that post within the feeds of your followers. The more interaction there is on a post, the better it typically ranks within platform algorithms. 

Getting Started

If you or your management team have been hesitant to get started on social media, the best first step is to simply get started. You don’t need fancy equipment; instead, brainstorm that persona and train your team on best practices for posting. Come up with a month of content ideas so that you don’t let your posting fall to the wayside.

Once you do, you’ll find that it comes more naturally and becomes engaging not only to your audience but to your marketing team as well. When that happens, you truly will have a humanized approach to social media because your followers will sense that authentic enthusiasm directly through their devices.

So what are you waiting for? Start getting social today to create a valuable (and profitable) connection with your audience.

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Why is Agile Project Management Being Used by Non-Development Teams?

Agile Project Management is a term you will hear associated with software development projects. It is popular because it helps the project managers to balance discipline to every phase of the project without compromising on the creativity and innovative aspect of the process. It isn’t rigid so you can easily handle changes during the projects. Because of this, the agile methodology is being introduced in non-development teams such as marketing and sales.

What is Agile Project Management?

The agile method uses an iterative approach as opposed to the classic waterfall approach that follows all or nothing. Agile management allows you to have a step-by-step approach for software (or final product) delivery. The projects under agile methodology get divided into distinct pieces of user functionality and are delivered in iterations, instead of sending the complete project. This helps the client give feedback during the development, and makes it easier for the team to make changes.

Agile methodology helps to streamline projects, improve team collaboration, speed up project deliverables, and helps get timely results. Making a plan for the complete project leaves no room for changes and improvements. In the real world, changes are a common occurrence. Sometimes the client changes their mind about something, or you find a better way to do something. So, if you are working in iterations, you have the flexibility to include the changes while having a plan to follow.

Agile project management gives teams the flexibility to have plans on a strategical as well as tactical level. This makes for efficient planning. The overall project can be strategized without having to micro-manage the details. Then, based on strategic planning, tactical planning can be brought into action for getting the deliverables reading for each iteration.

Scrum Meetings

Let’s begin with the concept of agile vs. scrum. While the agile methodology is a set of guiding principles to approach for an iterative approach towards the completion of your projects, scrum is a specific set of rules to be followed to achieve the agile methodology.

Scrum meetings are a really efficient way to keep track of everything going on and having knowledge of where each part of the project stands. Because you are working in sprints to complete each iteration, unlike working on a project as a whole, it gives you frequent deadlines. It helps keep everyone pushing to achieve targets. 

Scrum meetings are quick. The team updates the progress of their last sprint of tasks. Then the team regroups for the next sprint. This helps the team to deal with the backlog if any, and also plan the tasks – increasing the efficiency overall.

The Cons of Adopting Agile Methodology

I have talked about the benefits of the methodology throughout the article. But, adopting technology has its own set of issues. When project managers make the switch to this methodology from whatever they were doing earlier, they often try to adopt every aspect of it all at once. 

Making changes in phases is important for any big change so that you can measure productivity and decide if the switch should be made or not. 

Adopting the methodology just because you have heard good things is not a sound reason. When you make the switch, you still have to do risk analysis and quality control along with creating critical path schedules. Any big change should be brought about in iterations to choose what aspects are appropriate for your team and what needs to be tweaked from the management system.

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Focus on Your Business and Outsource Your Accounting

If you are the owner of a small to
mid-sized organization then you probably have your hands full with day-to-day
operations, whether it’s dealing with clients, employees, or managing your
short and long term goals. With so much to do, handling your business’ finances
can be a huge stress that takes up far too much of your time. And if you don’t
have any experience in accounting then the whole undertaking can seem
overwhelming and you might be tempted to hire an accountant on full-time.

Well, you might not need to. Instead, consider adopting financial management software like Sage Intacct that uses automation and cloud technology to make your life easier. With Sage Intacct, you can cut your close time by as much as 79% and spend that time on other aspects of your business. It’s designed specifically for easy use and can be adopted by any small or mid-sized business in order to make your accounting tasks less painful.

Designed With You in Mind

So, what does Sage Intacct do and how can it help your business? Like many of Sage’s products, Sage Intacct uses cloud-based technology to give you the power to access and manage your finances from any device, even on the go (as long as you have an internet connection).

This software uses core financials to automate important processes, reduce spreadsheets use, and provide real-time visibility into your overall business performance. What’s also great is that Sage Intacct has customizable workflows, panels, and preferences, all without the need to do any coding or scripting. It has everything you need to increase your productivity, let you make faster and better decisions, and drive your business towards growth.

Outsource With Sage Intacct

If you still feel like you’d rather let someone else manage your financials, then consider outsourcing your accountant with Sage Intacct. Because Sage Intacct is hosted on the cloud, you and your accountant can stay in touch and work together online without having to meet in person. As the only AICPA-endorsed solution on the market for cloud financials, you’ll get to choose from a number of top-certified CPAs, all who use Sage Intacct to provide outsourced accounting services to businesses like yours.

And there’s no need to start off big – you
can outsource an accountant to provide you with basic accounting services like
bookkeeping, accounts payable, invoice processing, or employee expense approval.
Let them manage Sage Intacct for you and let you save time and money from
having to manage it yourself.

But be warned – as a business owner, it’s important for you to at least have a basic understanding of your finances, and your outsourced accountant will want to make sure that you are well-informed about how things are going. Don’t let accounting details go over your head – after all, you’re the one who is responsible for your business and its well-being, and financials are one of the most obvious and easiest ways to tell how your business is doing.

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