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6 Technical Skills You Need to Become a Good Product Description Writer

E-commerce business stores rely heavily on good product descriptions to make sales. That makes product description a very important element ...

Sunday, March 26, 2017

How Businesses Can Encourage Work Friendships

Ark-shaped FRIENDSHIP banner.
It is now known from Gallup research efforts that when employees have good friends at work, it positively affects company profitability, safety, inventory control and customer loyalty. That when employees have best friends at work, they are less likely to leave their jobs! Great benefits if you ask me. But, inspite of these benefits of making close friends at work, many businesses are still falling short in terms of helping employees connect. That is a bit surprising though. Granted it may not be prudent to force relationships on people, there are very many things employers can do to encourage friendships among their employees. Some of these things involve having to provide more opportunities and the right environments for them to get to know each other and develop friendships naturally. In that regard, here are some of the activities that are practical and effective on employees’ friendships.

01. Provisions for group snacks and lunch. Yes, people love to eat and eating together and at the same times allows room for small talk and social interaction. Talking over a meal is a great way to build friendships.

02. Encourage employee attachments. In his book “The Audacity of Hope” former US president Barrack Obama is reported to have met his future wife Michelle in some form of work attachment to Michelle when Barrack was an intern in a law firm in Chicago. Many companies still use such a buddy system to welcome new employees. That is a way of pairing an employee with another who can show them the ropes, both formally and informally. That encourages real friendships and much more, even marriages as in the case of the Obamas.

03. Encourage group excursions/holidays. You can select and put some employees in charge of choosing, planning and organizing occasional events like excursions and even group cruises or holidays. Friendships grow easily from such group events.

04. Schedule some meetings offsite. It is always very exciting for employees to have meetings offsite their normal work environments. Workshops and seminars in a cozy resort or hotel away from home come in very handy here. Maybe once or twice a year, getting your team offsite for a day or a weekend is beneficial for them to socially interact and build friendships.

05. Form games teams. Company tennis, golf or volleyball team in a local recreational league can help build bonds of friendship among employees outside of work. With such teams playing in organized tournaments, even other employees who aren’t athletic can participate by cheering their co-workers on. Everyone thus catches some fun as a result.

06. Play games together. Games which help employees to bond are highly beneficial. Everyone gets to know and like the company champion in chess, tennis, and even champions in trivia games. 

07. Schedule road works or hiking together. To keep fit, every employee needs to get active. Left alone, many people never get around to doing things which help them to keep fit. In groups, it is fairly easier to get employees to do road walk or go hiking together to help them keep fit. Employees can even be encouraged to go dancing at weekends to engender bonding. In most cases, doing silly stuff together helps to loosen people up and build bonds of friendship.



From the foregoing, you can easily discern that what works naturally is to have regular beneficial opportunities to do things socially together. Bonds of friendships naturally grow more easily that way. Employers must do things to make these activities happen for the overall benefit of the business. Yes, there’s work to be done, and there always will be. But it’s also very important to build relationships with and among the people who help you do the work.

Saturday, March 25, 2017

How Work Friendships Benefit Your Business

Ark-shaped FRIENDSHIP banner.
Our world is changing, so are human relationships particularly in the workplace. These days, nearly everyone wants to get along with other people to build beneficial relationships. If you run a business and you employ people, you too may want your employees to get along well with one another. Here is some good news for you. The Gallup Organization has found out that friendship among employees is highly beneficial to any business. In times past, it was thought that friendships between employees generally led to goofing off and petty gossiping at work thereby wasting precious time. Thanks to research, we now know that having close friends at work confers a variety of benefits not only on employees, but also on the companies they work for.

Since the benefits are both ways, smart employers now actively encourage work friendships among their employees. Below are some of the very glaring benefits companies and their employees derive from work friendships:

01. Employees who have best friends at work are more productive than others.
02. They enjoy more work satisfaction.
03. More women benefit greatly from the social interaction they get from work friendships.
04. Employees who feel a deep connection with their team members are more likely to take positive actions that benefit the business.
05. Employees who have a best friend at work are less likely to leave their jobs.
06. When employees have good friends at work, it positively affects company profitability, safety, inventory control and customer loyalty.

Can you see why smart business owners now actively encourage their employees to be good friends and to make good friends at work?



Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Cost-Effective Small Business Shipping Trends

A bedroom scene small business work station with a laptop computer, eye glases, pillows and a white mug of creamy beverage.
 Time there was when to ship or not to ship was a big question. Not anymore. In present day business calculations, that isn’t even the question anymore. Your business must ship goods if it has to remain in business. What concerns every small business owner now is how to do shipping in the right way and at the right cost. Big businesses can afford to offer free shipping, discounts for large orders and certain-day delivery services but small businesses can hardly afford to. Because they have to remain in business and they must ship goods, small businesses need to rely on latest shipping trends to remain relevant. Some of these trends include offering customers more shipping options and taking advantage of the latest technological tools to help monitor and understand customer buying habits. Here is what is trending right now which you too can take advantage of.



01. Offering more shipping choices. Most shoppers expect to be given the opportunity to make choices at all times. For that reason, the more the choices you offer them, the better they like your business. These days, most customers crave quick service. You can therefore offer them choices like, allowing them to choose their shippers, which store or warehouse they want to pick up their goods, same-day shipping, rush delivery, same-day delivery or regular delivery.

02. Monitoring customer buying habits. You need high-tech tools to be able to do this. Tools like Google Analytics when properly used can help reduce shipping costs tremendously. This tool enables business owners to monitor and understand their customers’ buying habits. That way, they can target shipping services while saving a lot of time which otherwise would have been wasted. With Google Analytics, it is possible to easily analyze pricing histories, mobile usage, site traffic, shipping time and arrival and other transaction-related information which can help you gain some edge. With such information, you can streamline and control the sales process and eliminate duplicated or wasteful processes thereby saving your customer’s time and money.

03. Simplifying shipping costs. When you see big merchants increasingly simplifying shipping costs it is to boost sales. Many do so mainly to garner a larger share of online customers. Small businesses are increasingly towing that exact same line for same reasons. Here again choices come into the mix. When you simplify shipping costs by way of offering customers choices, they are happier to do business with you at reduced costs to them. They explore their full liberty to pick and choose how they want their goods to be shipped based on what shipping costs they are prepared to bear.

04. Shipment tracking. These days, many small businesses routinely deploy shipment tracking and expected delivery times to check costs. Shipment tracking helps shoppers plan their schedules around the expected delivery times of their goods. Small businesses can do shipment tracking easily because some delivery services do provide package tracking that shows estimated delivery time and route location. Customers generally appreciate if they know when and how they can expect delivery of their goods. With proper tracking, people are able to make promises and keep such promises. Delays and frustrations are largely eliminated. That adds great credibility to many small businesses and customers do respond positively.


Friday, March 10, 2017

5 Ways to Lead Your Business from the Front


Robotic illustration of leading from the front.
Image Credit: Wikimedia.org
To be an effective business leader is no tea party. You must train yourself sufficiently and be ready to take responsibility at all times. That is about the only way you can expect to be effective while every other member of your team can have the confidence to look up to you to provide leadership. You can’t do so effectively and efficiently if you stay on the side or behind. The best place to lead from is in front.

Here now are 5 things you can do to position yourself to lead your business from the front.

01. Dress and act the part. To be a leader, you must be able to dress like a leader. You’ve got to dress to influence and not to impress. That way, your appearance will always be consistent with your personal and professional brand. Your employees will take a cue from you if they are impressed. That gives your leadership authority.

02. Demand and act on feedback. Not many employees willingly give feedback to their bosses. If you encourage them to willingly give you feedback, such information enables you to lead exactly the way they expect you to. If for example some worker tells you they believe you'd be more effective by communicating more clearly that no doubt will help you to work more to improve your communication down the line.

03. Always walk your talk. Any time you tell someone you’ll do something, be sure you do it. Never make promises you're not sure you can keep. Nothing kills your credibility quicker than a breached promise or unfulfilled expectations. If everyone in your team knows you to walk your talk, they tend trust you more. That confers real leadership legitimacy on you.

04. Support your employees to support your customers. Leading by example is one credible way to lead from the front. If your team members see you treat customers and other persons shabbily, they tend to take a cue from you. For example, asking your team to be courteous to customers and being a jerk to them yourself is not only incongruent but also hypocritical. The way you treat people is always a very clear barometer for everyone on your team.

05. Grow yourself to grow your team. The world we live in is rabidly dynamic. That affects all our businesses too. As a leader, you can’t afford to be in a rot when it comes to acquiring knowledge for personal improvement. Many of your employees will do as you do, if they admire your leadership position. That way, you are leading from the front. Ultimately, there are only two credible ways to effectively grow your business. You must be able to grow yourself and grow your team. Those are the two ways. All told, as you and your team improve, so do service levels, operational efficiency and everything else. Leading from the front can’t be any clearer.