Tips For Working At Home When Running A Business

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. In today’s digital world, the tools exist to allow people to work from home. If you’re interested in starting a home-based business, this contributed post is entitled, Tips For Working At Home When Running A Business.

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With the global pandemic resulting in many people having to work from home, as an employer or indeed employee, it can be challenging. This is especially true if you are part of the new working from home economy. It requires a change of mindset, new habits to make it a success. Everyone will need to consider where to work from, what the boundaries are between home life and work life, and how it will impact upon family relationships.

Below are some tips on making working from home a success.

Set up a schedule
Try your best to set your working hours and stick to them. This is important if you have a family at home too. Although don’t be too rigid as working from home can also allow the most incredible flexibility, mostly if you have outsourced work and your colleague is in a different time zone.

Get your systems set up
To ensure you and your employees are able to communicate, access files, and schedule meetings, it’s important to get your systems set up. The integration between your office and home systems will be vital to a seamless operation. This will ensure you and any employees have the necessary equipment and access to continue with the job at hand. You may require additional support to achieve this, but it will be worth the investment.

Ensure your company is seen
Your customers will want reassurance that you are still open for business. This may involve working hard on your internet presence and working to ensure SEO is optimized for your online presence. Contact your customers and assure them you are open, ready for business, and continuing to work.

Socialize
Working from home can be a lonely experience for all involved. Schedule catch-ups with staff members. Set up meetings with clients via the vast array of online platforms. These will ensure you have a strong culture of staying in touch with employees and customers. This also helps nurture relationships meaning your employees and customers will feel valued.

Be positive
Not being in an office can be difficult. In all communication with your employees and customers, have a positive outlook. Also, ensure any written communication is clear and concise. Remember, you will have to communicate in writing more, so ensure you get across the right message in the tone that you want.

Finish your work-day on a good note
As noted above, about setting up a schedule to start your day, ending your day on a positive note and routine is also a great idea. Sign off with a message to your employees and go and do something you enjoy. Ask your employees to do the same.

These are just some tips to help you if you are working from home.
Above all, find out what works best for you and your employees. Remember, you are all in the same boat. Working together to achieve the goals of the company is what you want so getting their input at what works will be vital.

Saving Storage Space In Your Business

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. In terms of business, we often think of business resources in terms of money, but another one is storage space. Storage space in itself is a valuable asset and must be wisely managed. The following contributed post is entitled, Saving Storage Space In Your Business.

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Storage space in any business can be a challenging one. As your business grows, so too might it’s workforce, and the initial space you had in your building might become limited. The same goes for any warehouses that you might possess as a business. The more products you start to stock and sell, the more space you need to store them. Here are some storage tips that might help your business save on the space it has and to utilize it in the best way possible.

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Utilize Racking

Racking is a good way of building your storage from the ground up. Without having to take away any additional floor space in whatever building it is, racking can certainly be helpful. When choosing your racking, it’s important to consider what it is you are storing so that it can hold the weight and dimensions of the products easily and without causing any damage to any other products you have underneath it. Tennessee Rack is a great company to sort the racking that you need, and it’s best to use quality racking, rather than anything that could potentially cause damage or be ineffective when it comes to your storage. Utilize racking to your advantage when it comes to saving space because you have plenty of space to likely build up on, rather than having to take up any more valuable floor space.

Go Paperless

Going paperless can be a great way of saving on space because if you think about all the documents you print throughout the space of a year, it can end up taking up a lot of the room. With that being said, it’s good to look at what areas of the business that you can start converting to paperless so that you not only save on the space but your also saving money in the process. It can be a great opportunity to sort through the paperwork, digitalizing what needs to be digitalized and then making sure it all gets destroyed and disposed of properly.

Keep Your Workforce Organized In Their Areas

Your workforce is responsible for the storage space within the business. Their own workstations can be places where they can utilize the space that they have in making sure it’s not overspilling into other areas of the business. Make sure that each employee has a manager or supervisor monitoring workstations and directing employees to tidy up and declutter when necessary. The more you can stay on top of this, the less debris is going to overspill and take up more room.

Invest In External Storage

External storage is one thing to consider when it comes to freeing up storage in your office space. If your staff are constantly tripping over themselves, then why not invest in some external storage. It can be an affordable way of storing everything that is still needed without having to go to the extreme of moving business premises.

Saving storage space is key, so make sure you’re following these tips to free up more space in your workplace.

Social Media Secure: Keeping Your Kids Safe Online

Two focuses of my blog are Current Events and Technology. In our new digital world, social media and reached into pretty much every aspect of life. On top of that, pretty much every generation is now using social media. It’s fun for young kids but it poses numerous dangers as well. The following contributed post is entitled, Social Media Secure: Keeping Your Kids Safe Online.

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Social networking platforms are incredibly popular and the number of users every day is growing more and more. The general feeling is about safety and security as more and more individuals flood to use them. When millions of people use social media, they have to be secure, don’t they?

In reality, just like any other website, Facebook, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Kik have their fair share of security problems, many of which have been addressed in the media. Some of the problems are due to technological issues, and others are due to the individuals using them.

This is a problem for everyone, but it needs to be tackled because children and adolescents, who are especially vulnerable, make up such a large percentage of users. Fortunately, with a few simple steps, you can protect your identity and account, as well as those belonging to your teenager.

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Put limits on social media use

A UNICEF study notes that ‘some time on social media is actually good‘ and that it can be positive for the social relationships of children. Given the present conditions that we find ourselves in with COVID-19, this is even more plausible. Social media gives us the chance to stay in touch with families and friends around the globe and to keep up-to – date with global events.

With the average teenager, however, spending about nine hours a day on a laptop-how much is too much screen time? The general guideline is about two or three hours in total, although it naturally varies from person to person. According to Monitoring the Future, anything more than that and social media can lead to feelings of anxiety and unhappiness.

Keep an eye on their online behaviour

There are different apps that you can use to keep an eye on what your child is doing on different social media platforms, as we mentioned above. It is a way to make sure that any would-be predators, who are very good at fooling kids and teenagers into thinking they are someone they are not, and are not grooming them. It also helps to give you an idea of whether there is any cyberbullying or other unpleasant behaviour going on. In more extreme circumstances, you can hire a hacker for cell phone to watch everything that is happening.

Talk about privacy settings

The privacy settings on many social media networks can be so nuanced that even the most tech-savvy of adults fail to get their heads around it, let alone kids. It is important, however, to do your research and check everything. The fewer details that strangers will see, the better. Discuss the data they post on social media and discourage images that reveal where they go to school or where they live from being posted.

Unfortunately, teens and kids can almost always get around using social media and get into trouble with them, so by putting these tips into effect, you will reduce the chance of this happening and keep them safer for longer.

Tips To Keep Your Staff Safe In The Workplace

A key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness and Organizational/Management Discussions. If you’re a business owner or in management, a key objective of yours should be to keep your employees and your workplace safe. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips To Keep Your Staff Safe In The Workplace.

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Your staff’s safety in the workplace should certainly be the main priority of yours. When it comes to your workplace, you have a responsibility to your employees in making sure that where they’re working is safe and isn’t going to bring or cause them harm in any way. With that said, here are some tips to keep your staff safe in the workplace.

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Put Safety Measures In Place

Safety measures are a great way of ensuring that your staff is being looked after and that there are precautions in place to help avoid injury altogether. This might be in the form of signs and warnings that are placed around the worksite or office, for example. You may want to introduce everyone that comes into the company with an office safety training pack or to have either your HR or operations manager train the staff member in the basics of keeping safe in the office. There are lots of different measures you can take to ensure that your staff is being looked after and it’s up to you as the employer to make sure that these expectations are being met at all times. If not, then you could be liable for legal cases where a staff member has been injured to a lack of safety precautions in place. That’s not a situation you should want to find yourself in.

Have The Right Protective Gear

The right protective gear is important when it comes to keeping safe, and with medical supplies being in demand at the moment due to COVID, this should be a reminder that our health is important. Look at what you might be lacking when it comes to protective gear not only for general work tasks but also those areas of the business where staff might be working with particular machinery that can also pose a danger.

Educate Your Employees

As much as you have a responsibility to your staff, they also have a responsibility for their own wellbeing and that of their colleagues. With that being said, it’s good if you can offer them any additional training that you think they might need when it comes to them staying safe within the workplace. There’s plenty of basic training courses that could be useful for them as well as common courses like First Aid Training, etc. It’s important you have some sort of budget when it comes to staff training.

Encourage Regular Breaks

Regular breaks are a must, and so it’s worth making sure each and every staff member is getting the breaks they need throughout the day. Be strict on ensuring they’re getting up from their desk and not spending their lunch breaks eating in front of their computer. Be the encouragement they need to take a proper break and to ensure regular breaks are also taken throughout the course of the working day.

Safety in the workplace is paramount, so be sure to check that every staff member is ok and that you’re doing all you can for their safety.

Planning A Safe Return To Work Amidst The Pandemic

A key focus of my blog is Organization/Management Discussions. Across the country, businesses and organizations of all kinds are pondering a return to workplaces. A part of the thought process is doing so as safely as possible. The following contributed post is entitled, Planning A Safe Return To Work Amidst The Pandemic.

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The reopening of businesses around the world after the COVID-19 lockdown has been much awaited by many, but there are many important precautions that you must take to ensure that you can keep yourself, your staff and your customers safe. Luckily it needn’t be as difficult as you might think to plan a safe return to work, as there are a few key areas in which you can focus your efforts to ensure every individual is out of harm’s way. So, if you would like to find out more, then read on to uncover some of the best top tips and tricks that you can make the most of today.

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Deep Cleaning

The first step that you must take when opening your business post pandemic involves a thorough deep clean. It’s absolutely vital that you can enlist the support of trusted decontamination services to create a clean and hygienic space in which the virus has no means to flourish. Deep cleaning involves the use of chemicals in order to kill bacteria, so this has to be carried out by an experienced specialist who knows exactly how to handle them. You’ll have ultimate peace of mind when heading back to work knowing that the entire place is spick and span, so it’s a worthwhile investment to undertake.

Social Distancing

Group work, crowded offices and many more socially diverse activities are now a thing of the past, as social distancing measures now require people to maintain a 1-2m distance between one another. This may mean that only a small percentage of your workforce is able to safely return to work, as you should remove furniture such as desks that are connected to be replaced with better suited socially distanced alternatives. It’s a good idea to utilise some kind of floor sticker system that signals to staff when and how to keep their distance, such as 2m markers in the lunch queue that encourage your team to stay safe and separate.

PPE

One recent focus of a risk reduced working environment is PPE. PPE, or personal protective equipment, involves any item that exists to help keep an individual safe. For example, disposable gloves that can be used once and thrown away, face masks for densely populated areas, or alternative face shields for those who find it difficult to breathe in such an accessory. Evidence points towards these PPE items being somewhat effective, so you may find it beneficial to implement these strategies. If you use a pair of disposable gloves or a disposable mask, then always ‘dispose’ of your item after one use. One use is the maximum that you can get from a ‘disposable’ item, and it can even put you in danger if you choose to use it again.

Planning the safest possible return to your workplace for you and your colleagues amidst the ever changing nature of the pandemic has never been so simple when you are able to utilise the top tips and tricks detailed above!

Stop Being Tired: Making the Right Fixes

A key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness. With our increased technology and more efficient lives, many people are neglecting sleep which is a key component of our person health. Without proper sleep, our bodies open up to a host of maladies. The following contributed post is entitled, Stop Being Tired: Making the Right Fixes.

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Despite the pandemic that everybody is living through, there is still something that we all appear to suffer from which is impacting most of our lives, and it seems it’s always been there. Being tired, exhausted, or fatigue are all aspects that every single one of us suffers from on occasion, or more likely, is endemic through our lives. It seems that learning to prioritize sleep is very low on the agenda. And it is hardly a surprise because there are so many people that are told they have to prioritize their jobs or they worry about so many different aspects of their lives, sleep is very low on the agenda. We need to prioritize this but what else do we need to consider when we are learning to overcome any form of exhaustion?

Reducing Use of the Dreaded Mobile Device
It’s something that we all need to use at arm’s length. It’s something that is hardly out of our peripheries. When you consider road accidents fatalities in the US in 2018, 2.1% of drivers were visibly manipulating hand-held devices while driving. If it’s such a priority to use your phone while you are driving, this says a lot about your relationship with this device. There’s a lot to be said for what a mobile device can do for us in our lives but we can’t seem to remove it from our lives at all.

Because there are so many issues associated with excessive mobile phone use, not just depression or anxiety which can impact sleep, but also the fact that the blue light interrupts our sleep hormone, melatonin, we need to figure out a way to improve a relationship with this device. You could take inspiration from the former leader of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, who completely bans her phone from the bedroom, or you can find the right balance.

When we compare the happiness of people in the modern-day to 20 years ago, the one major difference is that mobile phones were not widespread. Now, they are everywhere and depression is creeping up, especially in younger people. Removing the device from your life is hard work, but it is possible to have a good working relationship with this device. But much like any addiction, you may need to go cold turkey first.

Addressing Your Attitudes to Stress
When we feel tired constantly, we’ve got to address fatigue in all of its forms. When we feel tired in every aspect of our lives, it’s not just about energizing ourselves but it’s about looking at the habits we undertake that exhaust us. Rather than focusing on one big habit, it may very well be a combination of factors that make you feel tired physically, mentally, and emotionally. This is why we’ve got to prioritize stress reduction as a daily habit. It could be through incorporating breathing exercises or meditation, but it may also be about learning how to not sweat the small stuff. This goes back to what our phones do for us.

We are exposed to other people’s lives constantly and our thoughts can get carried away with us, especially when we think that we are not leading our best life. When we start to compare ourselves unfavorably to others, or we think that we should be doing more, this emotional and mental fatigue clouds our lives. It can manifest itself in other ways, not just tiredness. You may very well think that you’ve got an allergy to something or you may mistakenly assume that you are tired for a completely different reason.

Because mental fatigue is something that can stay with us for a long time, it becomes a part of who we are. Therefore, we don’t necessarily notice that we have any problem. The best thing that we can all do is understand what stress is doing to us as individuals. This means we’ve got to check into ourselves and begin the process of either removing stressful components from our lives that we didn’t consider to be exhausting or realizing that there are habits we do without thinking they are bad for us. This is something we may consider just to be associated with feeling physically tired, but this is a problem that can compound as we get older. Being tired is not necessarily a bad thing, but when we feel like it constantly, this is when it is imperative that we address the fundamentals underneath it.

Being tired isn’t a way of life, yet so many people constantly talk about feeling like this. While you may think it’s about making the right fixes, it’s also about addressing what is underneath this.

Successfully Manage Your Suppliers With These Tips

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Depending upon the type of business you’re running, you will be interfacing with suppliers which are critical to your operations. You further want to protect and manage your supply chains at all costs. The following contributed post is entitled, Successfully Manage Your Suppliers With These Tips.

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When you are running a successful business, you need to have positive, reliable and loyal suppliers working with you to get the best out of your business. Successful supplier relationships aren’t always easy to build, and there is communication and trust required to make it work. You have to treat your suppliers with respect, whether they are supplying packaging, IT services or equipment, and you have to respect the contract that you sign.

As a business owner, you need to consider that you want to get the best for your business to run smoothly. Assessing the suppliers out there will get you started, and managing your current supplier relationships is just as important. If you are looking for help in managing those same relationships, we’ve got all of the tips that you need below.

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1. Understand Cost & Value. The supply chain is one that needs to run as smoothly as possible for your business to work well. You need to understand every single cost that you are paying, how it affects the product or service that you deliver, and what value is provided to your customers. You need to know how your suppliers are offering you value, and a true partnership involves you both understanding the cost of the service and the value it provides at the same time.

2. Focus On What You Do For Your Supplier. Your printer and copier dealer is working for you to get you the best deal, provide you the best equipment and more. But what are you doing for your supplier? You have to realize that this relationship goes both ways and you have to be in charge of the way that you behave in this relationship. If someone is going out of their way to offer you an excellent deal, then you need to go out of your way to pay your bills on time and turn to your supplier when you need an upgrade.

3. Plan Efficiently. All businesses, including yours, have to plan properly with their suppliers. You have to accept accountability for your needs and order what you need in good time. Piling on the pressure on your supplier to deliver when you haven’t given them the correct time frames is not the way to go. If you need to push through emergency orders, you’re going to be managing your business in a sloppy way, which is not what you need. Lack of thinking on your part does not constitute an emergency for your supplier.

4. Establish Service Levels. It’s so important that you incorporate the right service levels into your relationship with your suppliers. You can’t just base a relationship on a handshake, so both parties need to talk about their expectations and agree on it all.

5. Agree Your Contracts. Before you sign anything with your suppliers, you would have agreed terms for all of you to stick to. You agree on your payment terms and you need to uphold those terms. Your suppliers will give you the best discounts and deals, but you should spend time ensuring that all sides of the contract are agreed in advance!

6. Communication Counts. If there is a problem with a supplier, you need to share that with them as early as possible. If there is any information that you need to share, you need to do so as early as possible so that they can fix the problem. If you contact your supplier to tell them something has broken down, do it the moment you know that there is a problem. By communicating a problem, you can also communicate the good things. This will keep your relationship steady and working well.

7. Keep Planning. You want to manage these relationships well, and that means planning for the exceptions and not always the rules. Emergencies happen and in complex supply chains, you need to let them know ahead of time how the emergencies will be handled. It’s up to you to analyze why they happen so that you can minimize the number of emergencies possible. Every single strategy with your supply chain takes planning, and you need to agree a solution for emergencies with your supplier. If a copier breaks down and you work in reprographics, it would help to know what you should do in those circumstances.

8. Expect Honesty. You can expect your supplier to be honest with you, so you should offer the same in return. Mutual respect is so important with your suppliers, so make this happen!

9. Make It Work. Your relationships with your suppliers have to be meaningful at all times. When you meet, make a grand gesture! When there are issues, talk about them. Make it work and offer respect!

Prevent Cybercrime In Your Business

Two focuses of my blog are Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. With so much business being conducted online, the potential for cybercrime has increased. It’s thus important for you to proactively take steps to prevent those cybercrimes for you and your customers. The following contributed post is entitled, Prevent Cybercrime In Your Business.

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It’s not unusual to hear reports of the big businesses out there being hit with data breaches and cyberattacks. Bizarrely, it has become the norm to hear these in the news, but most small businesses are not aware that cyber attacks can affect them, too. Consumers always wonder how these attacks keep happening, especially as every company should be taking their business security as seriously as possible.

You have to realize that your business can be on the receiving end of a breach no matter what size it is. You need to do all that you can to prevent cybercrime that could damage your business and there are six solid ways you can do exactly that.

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1. Think about limiting the access that you have handed out to the most valuable data in your business. Every employee usually has access to all of the files in your business, so you need to pull this back a little and limit how many have those passwords of the most vulnerable information you hold. If you prevent as many people having that access, you can slow down how many people can pass off the info to outsiders.

2. Bringing in a team to help you with your cyber protection. You could look into a professional managed IT service provider to make sure that your business is covered 24/7. It’s one of the reasons that some companies are attacked online; they don’t have 24/7 security!

3. You are likely doing business with a wide range of vendors outside of your business. You need to know who these vendors are and how much access they will have to your information and you need to know personally the people who are working with you. If your delivery guy has had a previous record of theft, then it’s likely you won’t want to work with him!

4. Training is so important if you want to prevent cybercrime in your business. You need to make sure that you are not just leaving your employees to carry on and hope for the best. You need to take precautions and training and education are the best ways that you can do that.

5. Keep your software as updated as possible – this is another thing that IT managed services can do. You need to consider that an upgraded software base will keep your business safe. The more upgraded the software, the safer it’ll be.

6. Multi-factor authentication is important if you want to prevent people hacking into your systems. Your data has to be kept private, and if you have more than one layer of password protection, you can guarantee that it’s more private than usual. Cyber Breaches can often occur because there is not enough protection surrounding your online files. You don’t want people to steal your information, so have case-sensitive passwords as well as text authentication to make your business secure.

Cybercrime doesn’t have to be a problem in your company – with these tips, you can take the risk down as much as possible.

Ways to Enhance Your Blog for Modern Audiences

Two key focuses of my blog are Blogging and Writing, and Technology. For new bloggers, there is much more to blogging than simply having novel and exciting writing ideas. There are also strategic and technological considerations as well. Once you understand these elements, you can have a lot of fun and achieve your goals, whatever those are. The following contributed post is entitled, Ways to Enhance Your Blog for Modern Audiences.

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Things on the internet are constantly shifting and changing. So if you’re still blogging in the same ways you were 10 years ago, you’re probably not doing it right anymore. That might sound harsh but if you want to enhance your blog and reach an ever wider readership, you really do need to keep in mind the needs of modern audiences.

If you think now might be the right time for you to start making changes to your blog and how it operates, we’re here to help you with that. There are many ways in which you can make your blog more modern and meet the needs of modern audiences.

Each of the tips we’re about to discuss will help you get the fundamentals of good blogging right. And by doing that, you can ensure your blog is fit for purpose for a long time to come. So read on now to find out more about what you need to know about enhancing your blog for modern audiences.

Make Sure the Blog is Properly Categorized

First of all, you’re going to need to make sure that your blog is organized and planned out in the correct and proper way. That means putting proper categories in place and ensuring your posts are tagged correctly can be found in their corresponding category. It’s a simple thing but it matters.

It’s about making sure that people can find what they’re looking for when they visit your blog. If the task of finding content becomes difficult and frustrating for them, they’re definitely not going to stick around for long and you can be sure of that. So it’s worth taking the time to make your blog navigable.

Make Sharing Content Simple

You should also make it as easy as possible for people to share your content. If people are having difficulties finding that share button, they won’t share your post; it’s as simple as that. After all, they’re not gaining much by sharing your content.

It’s you who benefits when your readers enjoy a post and subsequently want to share it with their followers online. You should use share buttons and layouts that make it easy for them to do this. It’s not rocket science but it’s certainly something that you’ll need to go out of your way to put in place.

Use Clear CTAs

What do you want your readers to do? Calls to action are very important on most modern blogs and that’s something that can’t be denied. You should try to find a CTA that’s relevant to your blog and that your customers can get something out of.

Maybe you have an email list and you can use a CTA to prompt visitors to sign up to it. This is good for you because it affords you greater email marketing opportunities going forward, but it’s also something that can appeal to your readers too because they’ll then be able to read your regular newsletter.

Cross-Link to Other Relevant Content

As a blogger, you want to make sure that people are visiting as many pages on your blog and reading as many posts as possible each time they visit. Ideally, you don’t want them to simply read one post and then leave again. And cross-linking is the way to get this right.

So whenever you write a post, take the time to find other posts that are connected to it or relevant to the subject of the post in some way. When you do that, you can link to those posts within your current post. This will encourage clicks and encourage readers to stick around for longer.

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Use a Web Design Service if You Don’t Have the Necessary Skills

If you don’t have web design skills and you want to update the aesthetic of your blog, you should definitely think about using a web design service such as Caltech Web. These days, people expect a lot from a blog and they might be immediately put off if your blog looks outdated.

There’s nothing more revealing about a blog’s age and relevance than the design. If the design looks like it hasn’t been changed in 15 years or more, then you’ve got a problem. You should try to update it at the earliest opportunity.

Learn to Write More Appealing Headlines

It’s imperative to create headlines that are going to make people want to click and read your content. That doesn’t mean that you create headlines that are false and misleading because that’s not the answer to this issue either; a balance needs to be struck.

Learn to write headlines that are interesting, catchy and appealing. They should be relatively short and to the point, and you can then follow them up with longer subheadings that help to give the reader a better idea and understanding about what they can expect from the post.

Ensure There’s Great Visual Content

The right images and other kinds of visual content will be vital on your blog. If you want to make sure that people stick around and pay attention to your blog, you need to be using visual content in one way or another. This helps break up the text and keeps things interesting for the reader.

There are so many examples of visual content that can be used, from good images to video content to infographics. Make an effort to include as much of that stuff as possible in your posts if you want to keep them interesting and visually appealing.

Be Open to Collaborating with Others

These days, it’s very common for bloggers to collaborate with other bloggers and online personalities. This might not be something that you’re used to doing, but it can be a great way to keep your readership interested and to expand your reach and make your blog known to more people.

You should try to be more open to collaborating with others because there are benefits. It can be as simple as guest blogging, so if you haven’t tried that before, it’s a good place to start for you. It could do more for you than you might expect.

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Research What Your Audience is Interested In

These days, there are so many analytics tools out there to help you understand your audience better than ever before. You should definitely be making the most of these because you can then optimize and improve your content when you have a fuller understanding of what your audience actually wants.

Take the time to understand keywords and search terms that you feel are relevant to your blog and your target audience. You’ll be able to capture readers better and ensure relevant people have the chance to see and click your links via search engines with the right SEO approach.

Write About Those Things

Writing about the things you find out your audience is interested in is key. You need to be offering up content that’s relevant to your audience otherwise they simply won’t keep reading it. It’s as simple as that. Do your best to make sure that you don’t leave your audience behind.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t express yourself and explore new ideas through your blog content because you can. But the desire to do that also needs to be balanced with the needs and wants of your audience members.

Keep Your Content Readable

Readability is an important factor when it comes to writing blog posts. If your style or writing becomes too unwieldy and complex, people will likely turn away. Keep sentences relatively short and always read over your posts before publishing them, and do so with readability in mind.

You might even want to hire an editor or simply ask a friend to read the post over before it gets published. An outside perspective and an extra set of eyes can make a huge difference when it comes to assessing the readability of your work. That extra person might point out some things you haven’t noticed yourself.

Respond to the Responses

Interaction is key as a blogger. As your blog’s audience starts to develop and grow, you’ll find that people are interacting with you on social media before and maybe leaving comments under your blog posts. If that’s the case, you should try your best to respond.

People will really appreciate that added interaction that comes with doing so. They’ll see the human and personal side to you and as such they’ll feel much better connected to your personal brand and the blog you run. That can only be a good thing from the perspective of retaining readers.

Blogging is a challenge and there are no quick fixes or easy answers. If you want to get to where you need to be with your blog, it’ll only come about through hard work and action. Make the most of the ideas above, but don’t feel confined to these changes. Find your own way forward; it’s your blog after all.

HR Mistakes That Will Cost You Big Time

Two focuses of my blog are Business/Entrepreneurship and Organizational and Management Discussions. Whether you’re running a business, a government agency or nonprofit organization, your human resources (HR) component is critical. No matter what your business is, it’s critical that you get the right personal in to optimize your operations. The following contributed post is entitled, HR Mistakes That Will Cost You Big Time.

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Out of all the different facets out of running a business, human resources is probably the one that most employers could happily live without. Not only does it involve a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork shuffling, but it’s also highly regulated, meaning a slip up can land you in some particularly hot water. Here, we’re going to look at the HR tasks that so many employers slip up with, and how to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

Link – CC0 License

Not acting on employee reports
If you want to keep your employees happy, then you need to consider their needs and challenges in the workplace. However, if an employee formally files a report on an issue, investigating and acting on it is more than a case of keeping them happy. If they report an issue that infringes on their rights, such as rights to workplace safety or cases of harassment, you can not only increase the turmoil in the office and the risk of employee turnover, but you can be found negligent and have to pay if the issue turns into a legal case.

Not having an onboarding process
When you need new labor in the team, it’s understandable that you might want to get them in their role as soon as possible. However, if you don’t take the time to create a proper onboarding process, they can lack the preparation they need to be as productive as possible. On-the-job training is not as effective as taking the time to help new hires feel at home and learn the ropes in a more relaxed environment before testing them for real.

Forgetting unemployment claims
Employees that are fired or who resign have the opportunity to file for employment, which you have to pay for if it is granted. However, a lot of business owners forget that this is a possibility, and might forget to push through a claim, which can cost them literally thousands of dollars. Software like https://unemploymenttracker.com/software/ can make you much less likely to forget it. You’re still going to have to pay unemployment either way if it’s granted, so make sure you pay it promptly to avoid the additional fees.

Failing to keep documents
Whether it’s documenting pay stubs, reported issues, past HR meetings, or otherwise, never underestimate the need to keep documents of every interaction between the team and the HR department (even if said department just consists of you right now.) Should there ever be a workplace dispute in how an HR matter was handled, you need to use document management software like https://www.quicksprout.com/best-document-management-software/ to be able to quickly locate the data you need to show what steps you have taken. Failing to have any records can mean not having any proof when you do act in accordance with best practices.

If your company is growing, then you need to think about investing in hiring people who are equipped to fully handle your HR needs. Otherwise, your chances of making mistakes can skyrocket, as can the resulting costs.