Contributed Posts – Page 158 – The Big Words Blog Site

Securing A Regular & Repeatable Customer Experience Every Time

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the keys to being successful in business is assuring a quality experience for your customer base every time. Doing so will increase the likelihood of their repeat business and drawing new customers. The following contributed post is entitled, Securing A Regular & Repeatable Customer Experience Every Time.

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There are many ‘R’s’ in business life. Respectability, restraint, results, restructuring, but perhaps chief among them all is the term ‘reliability.’ As a firm, more than the highest-quality products, the cheapest offering, the most prestigious reputation, you should value reliability. Now, this must be viewed in a positive light of course. To be reliably awful or reliably underdeliver is not a solid way to success, but again, it is reliable in how it will lead to those results.

As a firm, reliability in a positive sense is everything. You need the tenth time a customer opens your product to be as worthwhile as the first time. You need to ensure that your safety standards are exceptional to the point where they can be relied upon time and time again. For this and more, it is important to understand how to integrate worthwhile systems into your manufacturing process, to ensure that your customer experience is a reliably positive one every single time. Let us consider how that might be achieved, and with the following advice, better your development:]

Consider Every Step Of The Customer Experience

Considering every single step of the customer experience is vital if you are to make the best decisions going forward. For example, how is the item packaged? How might it be delivered to the customer? How will they unveil the package, or how are they greeted when they come into the store? Are the prices consistent between your online presence and your in-store goods? Do your service professionals offer a refreshment every time in business meetings that are applicable? When you consider each step of the customer experience, you are much more likely to find smaller inconsistencies and consider if they are welcome or not.

Utilize Great Suppliers

You’d be surprised how a learned customer can detect changes in your supply. For example, if a restaurant switches from fresh to frozen calamari, almost everyone will notice it, despite how much money the head chef could be saving at that point. This is why excellent providers that give a completely professional service, such as Mobile Paint, can make the true difference over time. It’s more than just a simple game or a means of placating the most discerning of your customers. It’s something within which you depend on, and additionally, the better suppliers can help you curate your protect to only upgrade, never downgrade your offering if making changes.

Keep Investing In Your Support

The hallmark of any great business is how effective they are at providing their customer support. Securing a regular and repeatable customer experience every time is indicative of staff that are well trained, hold times that are acceptable, and solutions that are always necessary and compromising in their output. This requires investment. It also requires careful manage of your metrics, such as considering how many support tickets were resolved successfully in a given year, and using that information to inform your future changes.

With this advice, you will become that reliable firm you hope to be.

Are These Fears Limiting Your Career Progression

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Career Discussions. Sometimes the obstacles holding us back from advancing in our careers is ourselves. Often it’s fear. The following contributed post is entitled, Are These Fears Limiting Your Career Progression.

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(Pixabay CC0)

Are you bored with your current career position?

Do you regularly complain about your place on the career ladder?

Are you struggling to live on a low wage?

If so, then you need to take steps to progress in your career, whether that’s moving from an entry-level position in your own company, or be it moving into higher positions elsewhere if you have outgrown the company you are already working in.

But if you haven’t taken the necessary next steps yet, it could be down to the fears we suggest in this article. To move forward, you need to find ways to overcome them.

Fear #1: The fear that you aren’t good enough

What if you don’t have what it takes to manage new responsibilities? What if other people pick up on your weaknesses? What if you get fired for being bad in your new position?

These ‘what if’s’ are common to those who fear they aren’t good enough. However, if you already feel ready for career progression, then you might have what it takes after all. But even if you don’t, you can overcome this fear by taking the necessary steps to better yourself. So, you might take training courses to brush up on your skills, or you might consider a graduate degree that pertains to higher positions on your career path. You might also have the opportunity to learn key skills where you are now, so ask your boss for help, or speak to your colleagues for assistance.

By taking these steps, you will increase in confidence, and so the fear of not being good enough might disappear.

Fear #2: The fear of change

By moving into new positions within or outside of your company, you might be afraid of leaving the people you already have a working relationship with. Should you be ready to apply for executive jobs, you might be afraid of the responsibilities involved in a leadership position. If a move in your career necessitates a relocation, then you might be afraid of living and starting out somewhere new.

It’s the fear of change, of life being different, and while progression is a good thing, you might worry about the repercussions.

But here’s the thing. More often than not, change is a good thing.

In the examples we listed above, you might discover that you still have time to meet up with your existing colleagues while making new friendships along the way. You might enjoy a leadership role, not only because of the financial benefits but because you will have a hand in shaping a company too. And you might discover a wealth of new opportunities if you have to relocate, including the chance to meet new people and see other parts of the world.

Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and especially if you are worried that you are currently stagnating in your current position, you should consider the risk of change a viable one.

Finally

Listen, you don’t have to progress in your career. If you are happy where you, then fine. However, if you know you have more to offer your industry, and if you want to gain greater financial and personal rewards at work, then no matter what your fears are, you should face them head-on and take steps to conquer them. Your life might change for the better if you do.

Parental Alienation: Helping Men Stay As Fathers

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Health/Wellness. Despite current beliefs and trends, it’s most healthy for children to grow up with both parents. To reverse these trends, it’s important to think about what can be done to keep fathers around. The following contributed post is entitled, Parental Alienation: Helping Men Stay As Fathers.

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No one ever hopes to go through a divorce but in modern society, divorce seems to be just as common as marriage. When this does occur, legally, it seems like there is a flaw in our system. Just 18% of fathers are given custody of their children. That’s a shocking statistic when you think about it. Fathers have to fight for the right to see their own children and still remain a positive force in their children’s upbringing. Anyone can see from a mile away that this is not fair. Regardless of what the parents feel about each other, the children should not be deprived of seeing both parents equally. This isn’t about the father versus the mother, it’s about giving our children a good upbringing and being a part of their lives without it being unfair for one side or the other. Parental alienation is almost exclusively felt on the father’s side, so what can we do about this?

Realize what fathers are

Both men and women bring different qualities to a child’s life. We often talk about great mothers are in the mainstream media, but we never get to hear how good an impact the father can have too. Fathers are known to teach children about hard work and standing up for themselves. Life lessons that will serve children well throughout their entire life. However fathers are also more likely to teach kids about finances and how they should take care of the money they earn. Mortgages, investments, pensions and much more are often discussed between fathers and their sons or daughters. Fathers also are more likely to teach their kids to be hardy, to tough it out and be strong. Although mothers can also do these things, it’s fathers are usually play this role in our children’s lives.

Not just a paycheck

Not only do fathers have to fight for their right to see their kids but very often, the family courts turn them into walking talking paychecks. However you never know when you’re going to fall on hard times and if you’re barely making enough to support yourself, paying child support could push you below the poverty line. If you need help to perhaps lower the payments you make speak to a child support attorney who is a specialist in this field. They know the rules around this like the back of their hand so they can find a way to explain to the courts in a convincing manner of your situation. No father wants to see their children go without, but it’s also not helpful to be so hounded for money that you end up going bankrupt.

A distant figure

Fathers can be great forces in their children’s lives but if they are away from them for too long, they simply become a distant figure. It’s much harder to re-enter their lives when they’re grown up than it is when they’re small. So fathers should not give up the fight in the courts and make sure they get to raise their kids.

Parental alienation is a big problem all throughout the Western world. It’s not good enough that just 18% of fathers get child custody rights. We must realize that fathers play a huge role in the upbringing of children and cannot be replaced by the state.

What Can Help To Make A Business More Efficient?

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“Efficiency has always been a key term in the world of business, and it’s not hard to find out why.”

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Two of the focus of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key running a successful business in making it more efficient so that it runs like clockwork. There are a couple of keys to pay attention to. The following contributed post is entitled, What Can Help To Make A Business More Efficient?

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Efficiency has always been a key term in the world of business, and it’s not hard to find out why. After all, the key point of any business is to make as much of a profit as possible out of whatever you are selling or whatever service you are offering. And that is something that relies heavily on working efficiently. Without a high efficiency, you are simply not going to make as much money as compared to how much you have spent, it really is that simple. Moreover, when a business is highly efficient, it makes life easier for the management, for the staff, and for the customers who need some help or need to make a complaint. With so many good reasons to be as efficient as possible, it can be hard to actually make it a reality. So what can you do to ensure that your business is running more efficiently?

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Strip Out Unnecessary Processes

It is worth having a kind of self-audit of the processes within your business if you want to make sure that it is being run as efficiently as possible, as you are likely to discover a few loose ends here and there. This is normal, but it is certainly something you will want to try and do something about if you want your business to be efficient. If you can identify any unnecessary processes which have accidentally been generated or have simply been forgotten about, you will find that you have a great opportunity in front of you: namely, to strip out and get rid of those processes, so that everything becomes simpler and easier. Any work that is unnecessary is taking away from the potential efficiency of your business, so this is important to bear in mind.

Collect & Analyze Data

If you are struggling to make it work, you might find that it is going to be a help to find some kind of way to collect and analyze data within your business about how you operate. Of course, that is the kind of thing that is much easier done with a readymade tool such as various business efficiency applications, so it’s worth looking into whether you could benefit from any of those. You might be surprised as to how much you can get from them, and that can really be a great way to ensure that you are making your business run much more efficiently in no time. In a sense, you are automating the automation, which only makes sense to do here.

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Better Staffing

The way that you staff your business says a lot about your potential for efficiency. Too many people means that you are not going to get things done right, and too few is going to be stressful and inefficient. So play around with the numbers until you get it right, and make sure that you hire the best of the best – the people who are going to actually work the hardest, and make the best job of it.

Optimize Your Resource Management

An efficient business will make the most of its resources. Whether we are talking about time, money, or materials, they know that it is all precious. Reducing waste and streamlining energy usage can significantly cut costs and boost your overall productivity. For example, for industries relying on precise gas usage, a gas flow meter will help you to monitor consumption. It will also help with preventing leaks and improving overall efficiency. Even small adjustments across different areas of the business will guarantee long-term savings and smoother operations.

What Could Enhance Your Local Community

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success. If you’re involved in your city’s urban planning, you want to figure out how to get the most out of your area for your residents and your community. Addressing a few areas can make more community a place everyone will want to move to. The following contributed post is entitled, What Could Enhance Your Local Community.

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When it comes to your local community, you may feel like you have a solid connection with it. It may have been a place that you grew up in, or somewhere that you have grown to love having recently moved into the area. However, is your local community thriving? More people are doing what they can to improve the areas they live, and because of that, it can benefit you in other ways such as an increase in property values. So what can you do to enhance your local community? Here are some of the best ways you can do it.

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Add a golf course if you have the space

It is always going to be a good idea to encourage more recreational activities in your local area, and one of the ways you could do that is through opening up a golf course. It could be the type of golf course that has a clubhouse that can hold events, or just simple a recreational space that can be enjoyed by all. This is when you may need the help of experts in Golf Course Building Consultation to help come up with a plan and make sure that things are on the right path. This could be a great way to help encourage more activity in the community and give the local people lots more options.

Make fitness a focus

Fitness is really important for people to enjoy a healthy lifestyle, but often the worry of costs of gym membership can be too much. So this could be a great opportunity for the community to make fitness more of a focus. This could be easily done through things such as adding free equipment in the parks. They can be easy to install and makes fitness available for the masses. Then there is the introduction of bike lanes and pathways for runners. This encourages more people to feel confident in getting out and enjoying activities like this without the worry of getting in peoples way.

Encourage small businesses to thrive

The heart of the community is the small businesses and the shops that line the high street and the local area, and these are often the things that suffer within the community when things are not going the right way. The way that people can support their community is to shop locally and support the local businesses in the area. This can help them to thrive, and it can also help you to make the most of what you have on your doorstep.

Create local events all can get involved in

Finally, the last thing to consider doing would be to organise local events. This could be ones that have a family focus, or ones that are specific for businesses to get involved in. It brings people together and it can also be the perfect way to boost the economy in the area and make it thrive.

Let’s hope that these tips help you to encourage more people to enhance the local community in different ways.

Making Your Business Future Proof With The Cloud

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Inventions such as the cloud have changed the world and how business is done. There are certain protections that the cloud can provide. The following contributed post is entitled, Making Your Business Future Proof With The Cloud.

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When you’re just starting up and getting your team together, chances are you saw yourself working in a bright, airy office with plenty of natural light, the latest technology and perhaps even a handful of office plants to add that green touch.

The problem is that office space is expensive, technology is expensive and the plants need a lot of maintenance. While working together certainly adds to a sense of team cohesion, it might not be the only solution for collaborative working.

In this blog, we take a closer look at what it means for teams to work remotely using the latest Cloud-based technology, of which you’ll find more information on this website.

Staff First

As the boss you know that your staff are your greatest asset and finding fresh new ways to motivate them and boost productivity is an on-going challenge.

But rather than relying on gimmicks to keep them interested, take a look at what your staff value best. Chances are that a good balance between working and home life is going to come close to the top, if not top every single time.

It’s a brave move but why not give them that choice? Remote working is proven to be an option that enhances the lives of employees. It gives them more control over their working hours, it gives them the chance to balance family life around their job and spend more time with the people they love and care about. It also motivates them and pushes up productivity.

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Money Second

It also saves you money. That beautiful office and all its associated costs and technology can disappear. The daily commute in whether on public transport or in the car goes away, helping your pocket and the environment. It’s a win-win in so many ways.

You probably will still want to meet with staff every now and again and there are options for this with co-working spaces and the chance to hire out meeting rooms on an ad hoc basis.

Your Security

It will have crossed your mind that Cloud-based working might not be the safest way of sharing and storing files but a lot has changed since this concept first started. Today’s Cloud services are fully managed and secure.

It will rely on your staff avoiding the use of open networks and sticking to password protected options but that doesn’t mean you should encounter any problems. On managed sites help is just a phone call or an email away, so any routine glitches should be sorted out quickly and easily.

Put your trust in the Cloud and take a chance on a new way of working that will save you money, inspire your staff and ultimately make you more efficient. Do your research and find a Cloud service provider that offers you great value for money and ticks all the right boxes when it comes to making your business future proof. Your wallet, your staff and your customers will all thank you for it.

How SEO Blog Posts Can Increase Profit

Four of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship, Blogging/Writing and Technology. The advent of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has a created a new way of doing business for those involved. If you’re strictly writing for the love of it, or to increase your business, there are some keys to SEO. The following contributed post is entitled, How SEO Blog Posts Can Increase Profit.

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The power of words is often overlooked and relatively neglected by small businesses that are just starting out. Of course, the quality of the product or service you’re selling needs to be top notch – you need to have something that proves itself worth your customers’ financial investment. However, if you’re going to sell your goods and services in the first place, you’re going to have to use carefully crafted words to get there.

Words can play a major role in any sale. From effective product descriptions to catchy product names. But this isn’t the sole role of words in marketing. You can also use words to encourage people to visit your website and become exposed to your goods in the first place. This process is often referred to as SEO.

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It involves using words on your webpage that not only offer human value (introducing people to what you have on offer and why they should buy it), but also search engine value. You want your website to appear as highly in search engine results as possible. The best way to go about this? Using carefully chosen keywords in SEO based blog posts.

The infographic by rankfire.agency below should help to introduce you to this concept and help you start crafting your own high-quality SEO blog posts before you know it! This could all aid sales and boost overall profits!

Infographic Design By rankfire.agency

Getting Your Brand Out There: Tips For Small Start-ups

Two of the focuses of my are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Your brand is how the public gets to know your business. It’s like wise to get it out there circulating as often and as effectively as possible. The following contributed post is entitled, Getting Your Brand Out There: Tips For Small Start-ups.

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When you are starting your business, nobody will know who you are, or what you do. Creating the kind of brand recognition that you will need to be a success will take a great deal of time and effort. However, this is an area of your start-up planning that you cannot afford to overlook.

Understanding what your brand is yourself is the first step in communicating this to other people. Figure this out as early as possible. Work out what exactly you want to offer the world, and how you will go about it. Identify the core goals that are of significance to your company and create a mission statement that owns those values.

There are several ways of building a brand, and if you have a great deal of start-up capital, you can invest in the services of a branding specialist. However, for many companies who are in their earliest stages, this may not be financially viable. Here are a few ways that you can increase the awareness of your brand from day one, without having breaking the bank.

Brand All Company Vehicles

If you have any vehicles that are used by the company, you could look at getting branded vinyl with your company logo on them. Using the services of Lucent Graphic Solutions, you could create some stand-out graphics that will really get your name out there on the street.

This obviously will only have a limited reach, unless you have a large fleet of vehicles. But it does, however, create a sense of professionalism about your company.

Use Social Media To Full Effect

Harnessing the power of social media need not be expensive. You can go down the route of using sponsored posts, but there is no substitute for building up a reputation through engaging with followers and building up brand recognition with regular posts.

Social networking is now quite a broad church, and you may want to look at gaining exposure on a number of platforms. Create a professional profile on the sites that offer the best return for your demographic. If you want to capture the attention of a younger audience, you may want to look at Instagram and Snapchat. Whereas, if your appeal is wider, Facebook might be a good option.

Understanding your audience will allow you to create posts that are likely to appeal. And if you can elicit a reaction, then this will widen your audience through likes, comments, and shares. Be sure and build up a relationship with your following by replying to messages and comments, And remember, to always stay on brand with everything that you post online.

Sponsor Events

Offering up prizes in events is a good way of getting your name out there. If you can provide something worthwhile and desirable, then this will help you stand out even more. You need not spend too much, but the synergy of getting involved with causes that you put value in can do your brand a world of good.

Pruning Your Own Business Operations Leads To Efficiency

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the keys to your business thriving over time is keeping all aspects of its operations as efficient as possible. In order to build and maintain efficiencies in may involve pruning certain aspects of its operations. The following contributed post is entitled, Pruning Your Own Business Operations Leads To Efficiency.

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The day that you started your business, your goals were clear. You knew how you would make your money, and you knew all about the type of service and products that you had chosen to delivery. Your ideals were fully intact, and you knew where you were going.

Over time, when you are starting in business, you will meet a significant number of hurdles that you will have to face. These may require you to add more strings to your bow and undertake more tasks to support the operational functions of the business. Pretty soon, your business will need to consider areas such as day-to-day record keeping, IT support, payroll, recruitment and HR, logistics, warehousing, and building maintenance. The escalating costs and drain on your time and resources can be immense.

Farm Out Your Workload

Having all of these functions in-house requires you to have a full set of policies and procedures to govern each business function. You may be required to meet strict regulations, and this will mean additional training for you and your team.

However, there is an alternative to managing these areas of your business in-house. By outsourcing as many aspects of your day-to-day operations to other companies, you could save yourself the need to spend time on them.

For example, you could use a company such as Hudson Valley IT Services to provide support for your technological requirements. You will get access to a high level of experience through a well-trained team. You would be able to take advantage of systems and software that may not have been within your scope if you were to run these functions in-house. You will do this without the need to regulate or manage the team responsible for delivering it. You will be the end-user, and as such, enjoy the benefits that come with being the customer.

Streamline Your Functions

Another way that you could address the level of commitment that you are showing to your primary business aims is to undertake a full review of how and why you do everything in your operation. Often, over time, the reason that tasks are carried out is lost. You may be handling or processing data that is not useful to you. All of these things can multiply and mean that a great deal of time and money is being wasted. All of this detracts from your business aims, and ultimately from your bottom line.
Spending time refocusing and retraining your team, you can bring these areas of concern under control. You should create a culture where the only work that is carried out is designed to meet a company objective. If there is no return on your investment in an aspect of the business, then you should remove it.

Hold Yourself To Account
As well as reviewing the practices of your team, if you are to be a great and successful business leader, you need to consider the way that you go about business too. If you are not focused on delivering the services that you set out to, then you are failing. By redressing this balance, and continuing to review your performance, you may well find the route to true success.

Tips that will Help you to Effectively Market your Small Business Website

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. A key aspect of successfully running a business is its marketing much of which today is done using websites. Successfully marketing, in this case using websites is often what separates the businesses that survive from those that perish. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips that will Help you to Effectively Market your Small Business Website.

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Marketing can be complicated, after all, you have to think about your target audience, your website, and even your budget. Luckily, there are ways for you to try and simplify the process and if you take the below tips into account, then you’ll soon find that it’s easier than ever for you to drive results.

Focus on Lead Generation

Every single page on your site should be focused on capturing new leads. It’s important that you have a newsletter and that you also offer great content. This will help you to obtain the name and email address of anyone who accesses your site, and it will also give you way more opportunities to convert too.

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Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment is very common in the world of eCommerce. If you want to make the most out of your site, then you have to send out emails whenever someone leaves something in their basket. You could offer them a discount code if they checkout within the next hour or you could simply remind them that they never completed their purchase. Little things like this will help you to stay connected to your customers and it also keeps that open line of communication too.

Blog Frequently

Blogging is a fantastic way for you to market your business. Your prospective customers use Google every single day to try and find what they want, and if you have a blog then you increase your chances of being found. If you’re stuck when it comes to blogging or if you just don’t know what to say then consider researching your competitors, or even post about any industry changes that are happening right now. Little things like this can go a long way and it will also make it way easier for you to establish an online presence.

Invest in the Right SEO

There are plenty of SEO techniques out there that will actually do your site more harm than good. If you invest in the wrong techniques, then this will make your site less reputable and it will also give your customers a bad impression too. If you want to get around this, you need to hire a quality SEO firm. It also helps to make sure that they are experienced in your website niche too. For example, if you have a marijuana site, then it may be worth checking out: https://www.marijuanaseo.com/best-marijuana-packaging-businesses/.

Build an Active Presence

If your prospective aren’t using Google, then they are most certainly using social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and even Facebook. If you want your site to be successful, then you have to make sure that you have a presence on at least 3 of these sites. If you don’t then you could be limiting your own success and you may even find that you are not able to get the leads you need. If you’re not quite sure how to post to social media efficiently then there are plenty of marketing companies out there who can help.