Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Agriculture is a fascinating sector in that it merges business with the plant sciences, Botany and Ecology. In order do business in Agriculture, there are key terms that you need to understand. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 7 Words You Need To Understand Before Starting Up In Agriculture.
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Agriculture is a thriving sector of the economy and currently going through enormous change. That means that there are big opportunities available to people who can see them.
But part of understanding any industry is knowing some of the jargon that people in that industry use to communicate with each other. Jargon isn’t pointless, as many people contend: it’s just a way of expressing shorthand with other people with a high level of knowledge of a particular subject. So what words should you know if you’re planning on setting up in the ag business? Let’s take a look.
Yield
If you grow your own crops, you need to understand the concept of yield. Yield, put simply, is the weight of crop produced, divided by the area required to produce it. Modern farmers will usually speak of “tons per hectare”, but old-fashioned metrics might include “bushels per acre” where a bushel is an imperial measure for a quantity of a crop. Visit this website to find out more.
Speaking of bushels, what exactly are they? Bushels are just a unit of measurement for a crop, Traditionally, a bushel was 8 gallons of grain, but the weight of a bushel varies with the type of plant. Eight gallons of oats, for instance, weighs about half as much as the same volume of wheat.
Take a look at most modern farms, and what do you notice? The same crop is grown in all directions, mile after mile. But is this the best way to grow? Polyculture refers to the process of growing complementary crops next to each other, boosting the yield of both.
Seed Drill
Seed drills are pretty self-explanatory. Before mechanisation, farmers used to drill seeds into the ground mechanically using horse or cattle-driven ploughs. Today tractors pull seed drills along fields, allowing farmers to plant seeds at set depths and intervals.
Permaculture refers to a process of designing human communities so that food production and waste are closely linked. The idea is to recycle all of the raw ingredients of farming to create something sustainable.
Dry Farming
With freshwater supplies under threat worldwide, there’s a growing need for dry farming: or the practice of relying on rainfall and soil moisture alone, rather than irrigation. Traditionally, farmers relied on building channels that would transport water to their crops to keep soil moisture levels high. But dry farming is a far riskier process because farmers essentially don’t have any control over when it rains. Dry farmers tend to rely on hardy crops that can withstand water and nutrient depletion.
Herbicide-Tolerant
Weeds can reduce yields by outcompeting crops for resources: soil nutrients, water and sunlight. Farmers need to get rid of weeds, but that can be difficult. Killing weeds with herbicide is all well and good, so long as the herbicide doesn’t kill the crops at the same time.
Herbicide-tolerant crops are those which can survive treatment with herbicide. The weeds die, but the crops don’t – exactly what you want as a farmer.
Two of the key focuses are my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The healthcare industry is constantly evolving and will most likely not go anywhere. Thus those who choose to get involved with this industry stand to make a lot of money. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 3 Ways to Kick Off Your Healthcare Business.
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No matter how much experience you have in the field of healthcare, all new business owners need a bit of help along the way. There is more to a healthcare business than providing healthcare, after all, and without some proper business sense, you won’t really get too far – and you certainly won’t survive for those all-important first five years.
If you have just embarked on the journey as an entrepreneur, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Here is a handful of tips in terms of kicking off your healthcare business so that you can watch it prosper a bit faster and make sure that you’re able to provide the best kind of care for your clients. It’s what it’s all about, after all.
#1 Pinpoint the challenges
First of all, you know very well that the healthcare sector is full of small and big challenges. While you might be able to overcome some of them, there isn’t much you can do about the problems surrounding funding and finding enough time for each client – but you can certainly try to make it a bit better for your business.
What most clients look for in a healthcare business is a flexible and convenient place they can go to with their health problems. This means that, while other healthcare businesses in your area may struggle to find the time to fit every client and make it convenient for them, you can try to make use of technology to make it a bit easier.
Start by researching the market, from a business-point-of-view, before you attempt to solve these issues within your own healthcare business.
#2 Provide time and convenience
Provide time and convenienceLet’s start with the challenge we mentioned above first. Make sure that your business, first of all, has a system that allows you to get a bit more time with each client. This might mean that you invest in the kind of technology that allows for video consultations, for example, so that you can still meet with the clients who are not able to travel.
Your calendar system will also need to be up to date, though, to ensure that you have a perfect overview of every consultation in the future. That way, you won’t overbook yourself – and you can give your clients a bit more of your time during each session.
#3 Invest in your suppliers
You’re going to depend on your suppliers of medical tools and gadgets quite a lot, by the way, and cultivating a good relationship with these is the key to keeping your business up to date on all of the new advances. Start by having a look at this reservoir 12, for example, and consider each supplier individually before you start to make any deals.
When you start to pinpoint the specific issues with each supplier in relation to your business needs, you will naturally gravitate towards suppliers that spark a good working relationship. But this can mean if your business expands, you may work with additional suppliers. If you need to branch out into radiofrequency oriented practices, which require tools like radiofrequency ablation needles, the eye must always be towards the future and making sure that each supplier can serve your needs. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep up your end of the bargain; working with your suppliers is all about a two-way relationship where you can both help each other.
When your relationships with these suppliers are great, you’ll also be able to enjoy excellent service in the future – and won’t have to worry about any missing deliveries.
It’s the kind of stuff that makes it a bit easier to start your very first healthcare business and make sure that it kicks off right from the start.
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Outdoors-type businesses can be very lucrative depending on the location and what the location is. If your interested in such a venture, the following contributed post is entitled, Business Ideas For Those Who Enjoy The Outdoors.
Being outdoors has many benefits for one’s wellbeing. You get a healthy dose of Vitamin D, it helps you restore focus and gain perspective. Plus according to psychologists, it can also give you the strength to shrug off social pressures and place more importance on valuable aspects of your life such as family, sharing and community, essentially making you a better well-rounded person. When the thought of being confined indoors working fills you with stress, there are alternative ideas for you to develop your own business and spend all the time in the world outdoors so that you can feel energized and motivated to take on the day.
Starting a business that’s in keeping with your personality and values is imperative to ensure you are pursuing a life that makes you happy and that your business doesn’t sacrifice your health and wellbeing causing you unnecessary stress. For those who thrive on being outdoors, that’s exactly where you should be, take a look at the opportunities below.
Gardener / Landscaper And Urban Planner
If amongst being outdoors, being meticulous about design and aesthetics of the outdoors sounds of interest to you, starting a business as a gardener or a landscaper may be your calling. With no particular education and experience required to be a gardener, you may wish to practice on your own and your families gardens before providing your services to customers. The extent of gardening activities you offer is entirely up to you, whether mowing lawns, pruning bushes or selecting and planting perennials, you decide the breadth of your role. The most important part being, you get to be in your favorite place, outdoors.
Farm Business
Without the world’s farmers, where would we be? Becoming a farmer is another option for those who adore the outdoors, however gaining education and experience is recommended as farming is no easy task. You may wish to enroll in a course for agriculture and shadow a reputable professional farmer to better understand what it takes to become a successful ethical farmer. Working alongside a farmer you can establish what you would like to farm, what equipment you need such as tractors and fertilizers from https://www.fertilizerdealer.com/ and how to generally and own and run your own business. Although you have the luxury of mostly being outdoors, this work is physically demanding and requires a genuine and passion in growing crops and/or feeding and nurturing animals to carry you through the challenges you will face as a farmer.
Outdoor Activity Club
If you’re friendly, energetic and like instructing, guiding and encouraging others, you may want to consider opening a business for an outdoor activity club. The activities you provide can range from anything such as river rafting, water zorbing, paintballing, cycling or offering general sports such as soccer. You may wish to play on your strengths and choose to become a qualified instructor in the activities you feel most confident, or challenge yourself and seek a certificate for a new activity. This job caters to your need to be outdoors and if you’re particularly adventurous and sporty may appeal to other parts of your nature too.
You are not limited to the above positions for being outdoors because when you run your own business, you can work where you want to in reason. Even if this means working online but sitting outdoors with your laptop (weather permitting) there are ways to adjust your startup business to also prioritize the needs of your health, wellbeing, and happiness.
Two key focuses of my blog are Creating Ecosystems of Success and Career Discussions. Stepping up into management doesn’t just mean an increase in pay, but it also involves a whole new set of responsibilities and decisions to make that most staff level employees aren’t privy to. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Are You Cutting Your Boss’ Decisions Enough Slack?
As an employee, it feels as if you and the boss are at war. Not literally, but metaphorically. You ask for things and suggest improvements and they go about their business as usual. It’s incredibly frustrating when they don’t listen, especially if the idea could transform the company.
It’s easy to see bosses and managers as incompetent. They are stuck in their ways and make decisions for their gain and nobody else’s. Of course, they got to their position through hard work and competency among other things, so they aren’t inept. If anything, they know things you don’t and haven’t yet considered.
Far too often, workers don’t cut their boss’ decisions enough slack and the relationship suffers as a result. You’re more than welcome to go down this route but it won’t work out well for you in the long-term. The better option is to try and see it from their side. Why doesn’t the person in charge drop everything when you have a light bulb moment?
Trade-Offs
Not everything is as straightforward as it appears to the untrained eye. You might want new desktops and iPads for remote working, yet it isn’t a case of making an order. For a boss, an expense such as this will require a trade-off in another area of the company or further down the line.
An example is the impact the cost will have on the budget as a whole. New software and hardware might raise productivity a little, but it won’t help with employee training. If the boss considers the latter to be more important, they won’t make the tradeoff as it doesn’t make any business sense.
No-brainers do exist yet the majority of the time it requires the person in charge to play politics. Yep, even for the most basic of decisions.
The last thing anybody wants to see is layoffs. Watching colleagues and friends pack their things and leave the building is a heartbreaking sight. It’s also scary because you know you could be next. Redundancies don’t discriminate as one way to limit the number of layoffs is to fire high-earning workers.
You might think there are other options on the table; however, the reality is different. Asking people to go part-time or to take a redundancy package isn’t always viable. Depending on the company’s finances, the budget might need cutting to the bone. Also, don’t forget that they have to think about the future as well as the present. It isn’t enough to lay off people to stay above water – the business needs breathing space.
Bosses have to do whatever necessary to stop the firm from going under. Their allegiance is to the company.
Health And Safety
Why is that there? What do we need this for? How come this makes no sense? It’s not uncommon for employees to judge the internal processes of the workplace. After all, an inefficient format makes your life more difficult and it’s stressful.
What workers often forget is the topics of health and safety. Bosses must ensure everyone is safe within the workplace particularly if you work with heavy machinery. That’s why there are electric chain hoists in warehouses which lift small to medium loads vertically. Machines that do it horizontally often swing the load and it’s a potential danger. Pretty much every piece of equipment or resource in the workplace has a meaning, and it’s usually health and safety related.
The next time you wonder why something is the way it is, remember your wellbeing. The odds are the management has put it there for your benefit.
Sometimes, a decision will improve the business as a whole yet it’s tough to implement. The reason is simple: the perception of fairness. Employees who feel their coworkers are getting preferential treatment will rebel. Once this happens, the morale of the team hits rock bottom and everything starts to go wrong.
Home-based work is worth considering in this context. You know that it would suit your life if you could have some independence a couple of times a week. Although the boss agrees, there is no way they can sanction it if there is going to be a backlash. Everyone will want the same and it’s impossible to allow. After all, some people aren’t made for unstructured hours.
So, if a boss makes a decision and you know it’s wrong, think about the bigger picture. As a rule, the togetherness of the team is always going to come ahead of the individual.
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. All businesses initially go through the ‘startup’ phase. If you have the training and experience, the steps to this are obvious. If it’s your first time, you may need some guidance. The following contributed post is thus entitled, What Do You Need For A Successful Startup.
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Starting a business requires you to have certain things in place to give yourself the best chance at success. Without these things, you could be in the 97% of startups that fail every year. We know that you don’t want that, so you are going to have to ensure that you have got everything on the list we are about to give you to avoid this from happening. You might think that you already have everything you need, and if that’s true then great, you’re good to go. But, we suggest that you read this article first, and make sure that you have thought of everything that we have.
The first thing that you are going to need is an awesome website. If you don’t have one of these, you are going to have a high bounce rate meaning that people are going to click onto your website, and then click straight back off. You need to have content that grabs peoples attention, you need to have images and videos to engage with them, and perhaps most importantly you need to have a great web design. You can hire a professional to take care of this for you, and we would highly recommend that you do as they know what clients are looking for.
By doing this, you are giving your business the best possible chance of success by ensuring that you have a website that is easy to use. Your clients aren’t going to spend more than two minutes trying to figure out how to work your site, so you need to ensure that they can do this in one.
Money, Money, Money
People say that you can start a company with next to no money, and while this is true, it is only going to make your challenge all the more difficult. You may also have heard those same people say you need to spend money to make money, and this is also true. It is possible to do it both ways, but one gives you a better chance. Yout business is going to have an easier time if you have the money to invest in it. You need resources, employees, and so on which don’t grow on trees.
If you are struggling to find the money yourself, you could always take your business idea to a tradeshow. Here you will find investors and other companies like yours who are looking for something new to try out. So, if you can get the attention of an investor, or a bigger company here, they may be able to help you fund your startup.
A USP
USP stands for unique selling point. While you might think that you are offering your customers something they need, other companies on the market are going to be offering the same thing. What you need to do is find something that you can offer that nobody else can. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it is going to appeal to your customer base. People like to go to a business that knows who they are, and what they can do for their clients. By establishing a USP for your business, you are doing just that. Ensure that you market this effectively to get the best results when you enter the market.
The final thing that you are going to need is a marketing strategy. Without one of these, your business is doomed to fail before you have even started. If you don’t know anything about marketing, then you are going to need to hire a team to take care of this for you. It might be a little pricey for you in the beginning, but if you have no prior knowledge of how to market effectively, you are going to have to take this chance and run with it.
You should make sure that your company is going to be utilizing all of the main marketing strategies both online and offline. Getting your content to be a little different from the current trend in your industry is more likely to make you stand out to prospective clients. The marketing is all about targeting your customer, and telling them why they need you, so keep this in mind when you are strategizing.
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now know some of the things that you are going to need for a successful startup. Following this advice will help you to hit the ground running as soon as your business is ready to launch, good luck!
A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. While some people are fortunate to learn about the world of investing at a young age, many people don’t learn about it until much later in life, if at all. It’s a large, dynamic and ever shifting world and can be overwhelming for novices. It’s thus important to know where to start and be patient early on. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Investing For Profit: A Beginner’s Guide.
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There are many ways that you can generate income in this world, including working for a salary and starting your own business. However, one way that you should always consider is investing the money you have in order to grow it. Of course, this is a complicated and sometimes confusing field to get involved in, and that is why I have devised the beginners guide below to help you negotiate it. Read on to find out more.
Do think of investing as a way of making your money work harder for you.
Firstly, before you get anywhere near choosing where about to put your money, it’s crucial that you grasp the central idea behind investing. In fact, investing is all about putting your money to work for you rather than just letting it sit there. The ultimate goal being that it makes more than just a basic interest account would provide.
However, it is worth knowing that interest accounts especially those designed for high-level earners can off a fairly decent return on your money with only a minimal risk. Something that makes them much more suitable for those that are not prepared to gamble with their hard earned wages, but still want to make a profit on the money they already have in the bank.
Don’t ever forget about risk.
The next issue to be concerned with when it comes to investing is risk, as mentioned above. This is the other side the coin that you need to consider whenever you make an investment, as there is no such thing as a sure thing!
What this means is that while you could make a fantastic return on the money you invest, you could also lose all of that money as well. Something that can be further complicated if you get into a situation where you are racking up credit in order to make investments.
To that end, the potential risk in each investment situation need to be calculated accurately, and a cost-benefit analysis needs to be performed to check that the risk is worth the benefit that it could return.
Of course, it is essential to realize that the value of a potential risk will be mean more to some people than it will to others, and it’s not just by the financial value that you can establish this. In fact, for a billionaire, a $100,000 loss would be upsetting, but for a family whose only assets are total $100,000, it could be utterly devastating and ultimately lead to their bankruptcy. The message here being that it is wise never to invest more than you can comfortably afford to lose.
However, in this section is it also worth highlighting that it is the element of risk that provides the opportunity for investment in the first place. After all, if there were no gamble, investors would be needed to stump up the finance. What this means is that it is often the case that the higher the risk, the higher the rewards that can be expected. Of course, that also means for those that are in a stable enough financial position to take those risks, that they can be well worth it regarding return on their initial investment.
Do consider all the different types of investments.
Next, when it comes to making money from your investments is crucial that you consider all the options that are on offer.
What this means is that you think about investing not only in the stock market and financial products but also in things like property as well. In fact, many investors prefer to put their money in property because unlike investing in the stock market, they actually have a physical assets that they gain ownership of, something that provides a greater sense of security.
Sadly, navigating the property investment market can be as complicated as finding your way in with stocks and shares. In particular, deciding on the right type of investment return can be problematic. This is because many investors do not know whether to buy a property with a view to renovating it and then selling it at a profit, or as a let to buy.
Of course, both have disadvantage and advantages that could affect the return you see on your property investment. In particular, choosing from one of the many houses for sale overseas may provide you with a prime opportunity for buy to let, especially if there are in popular vacation spots, or cities. This is because you will be more likely to have potential renters all year round, something that can ensure a high and regular yield on your initial investment.
However, for investors looking to make a substantial sum more quickly, it can be better to flip a property instead, something that can happen over a shorter period of time, and free up more capital faster. Capital that can then reinvested with the aim of making an additional profit in the property or other investment sectors.
Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.
While not putting all of you eggs in one basket may be old wisdom that you grew up hearing, it doesn’t mean that it is any less relevant to the field of investing. In fact, its excellent advice and what it translates to here is the value of diversifying your portfolio.
What this means is that its bad practice to put all of your investment capital into a single stock, company, field, or even market. This is because if that particular investment fails you will lose all of your money and have none left over.
Instead, if you diversify your portfolio across different products and fields, even if an entire market crashes you should be left with some investments of value. Something that can help you minimize any losses, and so make your chances of making a profit over the long term much higher.
Do join up with others.
No person is an island, and this is the case, even when it comes to investing. In fact, there are services out there that make pooling your money with other investors much easier now, including peer lending platforms and investment cooperatives.
Of course, the benefits of doing this is that, while still only putting up a relatively small amount you can gain the benefits of making a large scale investment. Something that can help to increase your percentage profits significantly.
Although, it is worth ensuring that you have an excellent grasp of the legal side of things when pooling your money with others. Otherwise, you can end up getting the short end of the stick, and this can negatively affect the return you can expect from your investment.
Don’t listen to hot tips.
Finally, when it comes to investing in any field, be it property, the day trading arena, stock and shares, cryptocurrency or peer lending, there really is no such thing as a sure thing! This is crucial to remember because any sources online, or otherwise that specific stock and companies to invest in usually have a vested interested somewhere down the line.
In fact, many hot tips are actually trading scams including pumping and dumping schemes in disguise. This is a process where hot tops are given out to raise the share price just enough for the initial buyer to make a profit when they sell. This then leaves the rest of the investors with hard to move shares, this naturally being something that you will want to avoid if you are looking to make a profit through investing.
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you’re running a business of any kind, it’s important to understand how to prevent disruptions and also how to get your operations back up and running once there has been a disruption. The following contributed post is entitled, Keep Your Business From Ongoing Disruption.
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To keep a business moving at the right pace and in the right way takes a lot of effort in different areas. One of the bigger concern you are likely to have here is that you will probably need to try and find a way to ensure that your business is not being disrupted along the way. That can be hard to do, but as long as you know where to look and what kind of steps you need to take, you should find that it is also a lot easier than you might have thought. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the ways in which you can hope to keep your business from any ongoing disruption, by paying attention in particular to a few key areas and how they are functioning on a daily basis.
One thing you will need to pay particular attention to is the activity and behaviour of any outsource teams you might have on board in your business. Because of the nature of outsourcing, you never quite know whether or not they are going to help or hinder you, and in many cases even if they are helping you on the whole, they can still be causing disruption and distractions at the same time too. It is therefore wise to make sure that you keep an eye on what they are doing, but what does this mean practically? It might be that you want to utilise something like the servicenow vendor risk management to ensure that you are not having to take on any unacceptable losses or risk from outsource IT firms, or it could be a simple case of making sure that you thoroughly vet any outsource firms before agreeing to contract them with work.
Rogue Employees
Although it is not quite as common, it is still always a possibility too for certain people in your own employment to make things difficult for the business. This is the kind of situation that you will generally want to do away with as soon as possible, but as long as you are keeping a close eye on those who work for you, you should be able to spot such individuals pretty swiftly anyway. If you do get a feeling that there are some individuals not really pulling their weight and causing a nuisance, then you should make sure to follow it up with a particular disciplinary routine, which you should already have set out as much as possible.
Clearly, this is an area in which you have much less control than the above two example, but it is still something you will want to look out for. You will at least then be able to know why your business is experiencing disruption, and that will mean that you can hone in and ensure that your business gets back on track as soon as possible, despite what might be happening in the marketplace outside it.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success. No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s important to be able to get the most out of yourself and your abilities. While important, it’s not something that obvious to everyone. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 10 Ways to 10x Your Productivity.
We’re all looking to squeeze more from our lives, yet we are limited to only having a certain number of hours in each day. Therefore, we need to find ways to get more done in less time.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at ten great ways to boost your productivity this year.
1. FIND OUT WHEN IS BEST TO WORK FOR YOU We all have our own inner rhythm when it comes to the best time of day for us to work, for instance, many creative people find that working through the early hours of the morning can be the most productive time for them, whilst for most people, the early morning tends to be their most productive time as their brain is refreshed and their body is re-energised.
You need to work out when you are at your most productive, and focus on building a schedule around your natural rhythm rather than trying to adjust your natural rhythm, which can feel like a very difficult uphill struggle, at the end of the day.
2. WORK IN MORE LIGHT One of the most vital components of creating a focused work environment is that of natural light, as the lighter a room tends to be, the more easy it tends to be to focus on the task at hand. Therefore, if you’re used to sitting down to work in a dark room, you’re setting yourself up for an uphill struggle.
Get somewhere with an abundance of natural light, or even artificial light, at worst case; just think of how much clear and productive people tend to feel when walking around an art gallery – in parts its the decluttered nature of galleries, but another large part of this is the fact there is so much light bounced around the space due to the white walls and lighting setup.
3. WORK IN SPRINTS If you think of how much more calories people burn in high intensity interval training, where they might go flat out for twenty seconds, then rest for ten, and then go again – the same is true when it comes to focusing on your work. There are many advantages of the rotating shift, for the same reason, and you want to try to adopt this approach to your own work.
Focus in short bursts, rather than for long blocks of time, using something known as the pomodoro technique in order to ensure you maximise the maximum output when working.
4. USE THE PARETO PRINCIPLE The Pareto Principle talks about how 20% of your activities will tend to account for 80% of your outcome… meaning, there will be just a few tasks or activities on your to do list that will have a massive impact on how much you achieve. Therefore, you want to prioritise those tasks and focus 80% of your energy on the 20% of tasks that will get you the most results.
5. USE LISTS The world’s most successful people tend to use lists for everything. There are a wide variety of apps available to help with this, such as Wunderlist, that can help you keep track of your most important tasks. There’s something psychologically rewarding about ticking items off of your to-do list as this builds momentum, in that if you’ve ticked 3 out of 5 of your items off that list for the day, then you feel very motivated to get the other two finished.
6. DON’T TRY TO DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF Whether in business, or your personal life, try to avoid the temptation to feel like you need to do everything yourself. Try not to overstretch yourself by taking on too many tasks and be sure to outsource low value but high time tasks, for instance, cleaning, to a supportive network of people that help ensure you get more done.
7. TAKE A VACATION It’s really important to take a vacation from time to time, and have weekends, as so many people feel the need to work through their weekends and like they don’t have the time to take a vacation – yet, actually, the productivity benefits of having some down time are absolutely massive. Think of how even the fittest of boxers still require rests between rounds, and it’s only as a result of having that rest, that they can keep going – and come back stronger.
You need to allow yourself time to rest, and time away from your work, therefore taking a vacation from time to time and ensuring you use your weekends, are great ways to improve your productivity.
8. WORK WHEN YOU WORK You want to be ensuring you “work when you work” meaning, when you sit down to work your focus is 100% on the task at hand – you don’t have the TV on in the background, or kids playing around your home office. You have a one track mind, in terms of the focus you have for your task – and this idea of working when you work means you can also “play when you play” or “rest when you rest”.
Too many people today are trying to cram too much into their lives, all at once – trying to balance multiple things all at the same time. The most productive way you can go about any task, is to sit and focus on it, in a very single minded manner.
9. CHUNK IT DOWN Sometimes, we spend so much time fretting about how to approach something, that we never get started. For instance, let’s say you feel overwhelmed by having to write a big report – the first thing you want to do, is to break it down into headings and subheadings so that you can then start to fill in the gaps. Therefore, the first thing you want to do when dealing with a big task is to create the structural framework so that you can then go about filling in the gaps.
10. GET UP EARLIER This one might sound incredibly simple, but get up an hour earlier, and use this hour to get your most important tasks done. It will skyrocket your productivity levels.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. There’s an argument out there that the smartest way to live is to have multiple sources of income. As such, many individuals have given a lot of thought to how they can create second- or third-income streams outside of their 9-5 jobs. The following contributed post discusses how to create multiple income streams and is entitled, 11 Ways To Make Money Outside Of Your 9-5.
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Making money by going to your 9-5 job every week is certainly an honorable way to earn money. However, more and more people are beginning to realize that if they want to lead truly comfortable lifestyles and build wealth, they are going to need more than one source of income to do it. In fact, the most wealthy people in the world often have 6 or 7 different sources of income. The less you have to rely on one source of income, the better!
Below, we’ll go into 11 ways you can make money outside of your 9-5 so you can begin working on bringing in cash from various sources:
1. Rent Out A Part Of Your Property If you have a property and you don’t use all of it all the time, you could consider renting out a part of it. Even renting out your driveway could help you to bring some extra cash in from time to time! If you have a spare bedroom you could rent that out, provided you don’t mind sharing your home with somebody else. Alternatively, you could look into a site like Airbnb to rent out your entire home when you’re going to be away yourself. You could make money while you’re off on your own vacation!
2. Sell Things You No Longer Use Go through each room in your home and collect things that you haven’t used for 6 months or more. Usually, if you haven’t used something in 6 months you can pretty much guarantee you won’t use it again (unless it’s some special item that you only really need for emergencies, that is). You can use sites like eBay to sell these items and make some extra cash. If you’d rather cut out the middleman costs, selling on Facebook or even hosting a garage sale can be just as effective.
3. Offer Your Services As An Online Freelancer If you have a little spare time, you could always offer your services as a freelancer using sites like Upwork and People Per Hour. You could proofread, write content, design logos, or do anything else that you think you’re good at! It can take a little time to get work when you’re just starting out, but it can be a nice way to make a decent side income in your own time.
4. Start Blogging/Vlogging Blogging and vlogging should be done first and foremost because you are passionate about what you want to share. If you’re doing it purely for the cash, you’ll probably get fed up and end up giving up after a short time! You should create quality, consistent content because you have a message you want to share and you enjoy it. Enjoyment will keep you going when your subscribers aren’t growing and you’ve made a miniscule amount of money in months. Consistency is key if you want this to be a way for you to make money!
5. Turn Your Passion Into A Side Hustle If you have something you’re truly passionate about, it could be possible to turn it into a side hustle. Maybe you like making jewelry or reupholstering furniture; if you’re serious, you could spend your spare time building up this business. Eventually, you may be able to leave your 9-5 job and work for yourself. However, you’ll want to make sure you’re aware of the reasons most new businesses fail. It won’t be easy, and you’ll still need to work hard in the beginning. You really have to love it and you really have to want it!
6. Investing Investing can sound like a scary word, especially to beginners who have only ever put their spare cash into savings accounts. However, it’s essential if you want to ensure your financial health for the future and give yourself a chance at being truly wealthy! There’s a plethora of information out there that can help you to get started, and you only need to start small. You can even find apps like Moneybox to help you get started. The important thing is getting started and committing a portion of your earnings to investing regularly – then you’ll build up momentum and be able to learn as you go along. You’ll be glad you started now. The earlier you start, the more you can take advantage of compounding!
7. Smart Spending Smart spending can sometimes be all it takes to help you make money outside of your 9-5. There are numerous ways you can do this. For example, by making sure you buy items that will enable you to make more money in the long run, like Disney DVDs that become more valuable once they are taken off the shelves (rather than items that lose value, like brand new cars). You can also spend smartly by using cashback sites when you buy, and you should be able to get a portion of what you spend back each time. Then you can try smart spending alongside the NFL betting guide or make a sports bet with any online site that gives you the opportunity to bet on real or imaginary games. Be warned about betting, however. Using this method comes with an element of risk that you should keep in mind, and you should be wary of if you have a gambling problem. However, if you are able to monitor your spending, you could win big if you bet wisely.
8. Create Online Courses If you have a lot of knowledge and/or passion on a certain subject, how about creating online courses to help others learn? You can create courses about just about anything these days, and the great thing is, you only have to do the work once. The courses can sell again and again and you will continue to make money!
9. Write Ebooks Ebooks can help you to make cash if you do some keyword research and figure out what people want to know about. Both fiction and non-fiction are an option, although you may need to write lots of ebooks to make a decent sum of money.
10. Start Your Own Ecommerce Business Ecommerce businesses are extremely popular, and for good reason. Pretty much anybody can set one up using sites like Shopify, selling items that they feel passionate about.
11. Advertise On Your Car There are companies that will pay you to have an advertisement for their business on your car. All you have to do is fill out a form stating where you drive and how much you drive, and any suitable offers will then be sent to you. The company will remove the ad when the campaign is complete and you will get paid. Easy!
Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the most powerful things you can do for your operations is to hire the right talent to work for you. Identifying the right talent isn’t easy and separates the successful from the unsuccessful business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Help Yourself To Help Recruit The Best Talent To Your Team.
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Hiring the right people for your business, and then holding onto the right talent has not been tougher than it is now. With an aging population, in the coming years there aren’t going to be enough younger people (nine percent down), coming into the workforce to replace those retiring. So if someone did leave your business, it could be hard to replace them. Plus, when you recruit the right people, it really is what makes your business. They are the ones that are out there each day working to make the business a profitable one. So for many reasons, getting the right talent for your business and then doing enough to hold onto them is exactly what you want.
So with all of that in mind, here are some tips to help you to create a great workplace culture that will attract people to your role, as well as how to keep them wanting to work for you.
There has been plenty of research that has shown that if you want to recruit and keep the right people for the job, then you need to create a culture within your business that makes people want to work there. This doesn’t always have to mean things like the Google offices or give them slides instead of stairs. But your employees need to feel respected and valued at all times. Show this through how you conduct yourself, but also how you are interacting with others.
• Provide Training
If you are interviewing people, then being able to demonstrate what they can look forward to, and the different ways in which they can work their way up in the business. Talking about the training that you can offer is a good way to recruit the right people and those looking for longevity in their career within your business. But apart from that, there are so many other reasons why providing training is really important for your team. Take the threat of social engineering to businesses, for example. There are many threats online to businesses, and you are likely to have some aspects of your business online. But the human aspect of hacking is where businesses can fail. Social engineering, or things like phishing, is where problems could occur. So training your team for things like this can help the business to keep thriving, and in turn, help their career to carry on.
One of the worst things that a small business can do when it comes to recruiting is disengaging with the hiring process. You can see why it isn’t going to be a good thing for your business, as when it is your business, why wouldn’t you want to be involved with the recruiting and let someone else do the recruiting for you?
Part of the process of recruiting should look at the employee’s emotional intelligence as well their skills, experience, and their intellectual capability. Studies have shown that IQ alone isn’t enough to show how well someone is going to do in a job. You need to look at their emotional intelligence as well and how they react in certain social situations. So as part of the recruitment process, don’t use qualifications alone. You could look to add in an emotional intelligence evaluation so that you can see how well they are going to fit into your business. The better they fit in, the more they are going to enjoy coming to work, and hopefully, the more they are going to want to stay working with you.
Being able to be flexible in the recruitment process is really important too. If you hire someone and it is working out well and they are fitting in well, but could be better suited to a different department, then move them around to other roles. Then they can experience more and it is likely to lead to longevity with your business if they can experience a variety of different things. This is because if you find someone that fits well with your company, you will want to find the right role for them that is going to help them to stick with you.
Communication is really key and it can make the difference, so make sure you are talking to your employees about what they want to be doing and where they see themselves in the years to come. There are no guarantees in life and business, of course, but putting in the effort with employees can really help.
