Author: Scott Asai

Helping people develop their leadership skills to advance in their career

Seas Of Change In The Millennial Workplace

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Each generation has the potential for change. They are the future, after all. They can alter what they aren’t happy with, and pave their way into a lifestyle which suits. It’s why politicians put so much import in the young vote. And, it’s why many business managers rally against younger staff members.

At the moment, the working world is seeing a major shift thanks to the millennial generation. These kids have a fresh way of seeing the world. For the first time, we’re seeing the rise of a generation who have grown up on the internet. They’ve had free access to endless information, and their creativity has skyrocketed because of it. So much so that young people are reinventing traditional markets. Let’s look at how.

Retail

You could say that retail has seen the most significant shift of all. It wasn’t so long ago that shop spaces were our only interaction with retail companies. If we didn’t go into town to get it, it wouldn’t be ours. Now, though, millennials have ensured that e-commerce companies like Amazon lead the way. In some ways, it’s hardly surprising from a generation who grew up online. These are youngsters who want fast access to everything. Online shopping provides that. If any business wants to see success in the modern age, it’s essential they offer an online shop service. Otherwise, they’ll find it near enough impossible to compete with the retail giants. It’s not all bad news of course. Taking business online means that companies have access to a much wider audience.

Rental

Renting is nothing new. Property developers and landlords have been doing this for time immemorial. But, millennials stand to change the rental market. In one way, they’ve given it a significant boost. Homeownership is ever on the decrease as younger generations turn, instead, to the rental market.

The Instagram age has also led to increased popularity in unusual Airbnbs. Instead of long-term rentals, youngsters are booking into Airbnbs to accommodate their lifestyles. Properties included take the form of everything from outhouses, to houseboats. Instead of surveying their properties, landlords are now considering turning to the marine electrical services offered by companies like TESS, and maintaining their sea-bound offerings. Plus, appearance is valued above all. Landlords now have to think about how to present properties. Plus, they’re having to take a lot longer over getting that ‘Instaworthy’ image.

Office work

And, the changes don’t stop there. Office work is also making way for freelancers and remote work. More and more millennials are breaking away from traditional employment and making their own way. They either offer their services to one company on a remote basis or pick up various jobs as freelancers. Either way, the office is fast going out of the window. Far from spelling trouble for employers, though, this could be good news. The flexibility of freelance work allows even small business to employ help when needed. And, remote work saves small business having to fork out on expensive office space.

Common Mistakes First Time Business Owners Make

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It’s pretty hard to start your own business. There is so much to think about, arrange, and research if you want to be a success. Even if you do everything that the handbook tells you to, because of the market or other competitors, it might not take off. To give you and your business the best chance of success, here are some common mistakes that first time business owners make.

If you have haven’t worked in business before, or have seen the ins and outs of how a company works, get some experience. Mentors can also be a great way to make important decisions, or to seek guidance about your establishment. If this is your second, third, fourth, or fifth business, then you will have a wealth of knowledge to apply to each project.

Have You Targeted the Right Market?

Whatever your product or service is, it can be difficult to decide who to sell it too. Doing a fair bit of research into your target market can be useful, like their spending  habits, what purchases they go for, or what website aesthetic they tend to prefer.

If you’re selling mobility scooters then chances are you pretty sure about your demographic. But many people don’t know enough about their demographics spending habits, or don’t target them in the right way. Doing some research, and looking at companies that are similar to yours can be a good way of building up an idea of how you want your business to be.

If you have an online business and don’t necessarily get to interact or meet your customers, doing some surveys or questionnaires could help your understanding. If your customers take the time to tell you about where they heard about your product, or where they saw you advertised, this could help you to grow your business in the right direction.

Investing in the Right Software

Depending on the nature of your business, there will be various softwares out there that will benefit you. Investing in the right kind can be instrumental to your success. Perhaps When I Work will make your business more efficient, or maybe nist sp 800-171 will. Knowing what will help your business to run smoothly, and what is just a waste of resources, is always useful to know.

You’re a Manager, Not a Friend

While it’s good to build healthy relationships with your staff and get on with them, ultimately, you are their manager and not their friend. Many businesses come to feel like families, but at the end of the day, you cannot always treat your staff this way, as your business will suffer.

Management skills are something that is learned, and can take some time to get used to if you are new to managing people. Finding a way to interact with your staff, while being good leader, is a useful skill.

There are lots of things to think about and consider when starting your own business. Hopefully but considering some of these common pitfalls, you will have the best chance of success.

Who To Hire When Hosting A Business Event?

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Organizing a business event is a big responsibility. Hiring the right people can help your event to run smoothly and possibly even take some of the pressure off of you. Here are just a few of the professionals worth hiring to make your business event a success.

Marketing

Your event is likely to require all kinds of marketing. On the most basic level, you may need banners and balloons and other branded items for the event. For other events, you need to produce flyers or even advertise the event online. Consider an event marketing agency that can help you to stand out and to promote you in the lead up to the event. More private events with select guests may not require paying for much marketing as you’ll be contacting people directly via email or phone.

Speaking coaches

Will you be doing a talk at your event? All the most successful business owners use speaking coaches to help ensure that they’re connecting with their audience in the best way possible. Most speaking coaches can be hired on an hourly basis and it’s worth shopping around in order to get someone effective.  

Special guests

Inviting a special guest to your event could help to persuade guest into coming along. This could be a famous figure in your line of business who you could pay to do a talk. It could be a famous entertainer such as a singer or a dance act to kick off the event. These special guest will need to be paid and may need to be contacted long in advance.

Security

If you’re inviting special guests, it could be worth looking into security guard services. Security may also be needed for private events in which only certain people on a guest list can enter. Not all events will need security, but it can sometimes give you peace of mind.

Catering

The opportunity to eat and drink at the event can also be a great incentive for guests to come along. Depending on the formality of the event and how long it lasts will depend on what kind of catering is required. If you’re hoping to impress elite clients, you may want to shell out on champagne and canapés. If you’re running a seminar for people getting into the trade, they may expect no more than tea and biscuits. If it’s a whole day trade fair or job fair you may want to hire a food stall or choose a venue which already has food catering services.

Event planning

If all this sounds like too much hard work, you can always pay for an event planner to hire all these people for you. Event planners can help you organize every aspect from the venue to the décor to the catering. If you’ve got a lot of work already on your plate, this is likely to be the best option for you. You may pay more than were you to organize each individual component yourself, but it’s likely to be worth the hassle saved.

Is Your Tech Letting You Down?

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There’s no denying that if you want to run a successful in the 21st Century, you have to be willing to embrace technology. After all, we live in an almost entirely tech-dominated world, and if you and your business aren’t able to move with the times, then you’re going to end up falling behind the competition. Far too often businesses with plenty of potential end up failing because they simply aren’t willing to keep up with the changing world. However, just because you’re using tech in your business, doesn’t mean you’re using it properly. Here are a few ways the tech in your business might be holding you back from the success that you really want.

The wrong tech

One of the most common mistakes that a lot of businesses end up making is that they look at the need for tech in their business and just go completely overboard with what think it needs. The truth is that not all businesses are going to have the same requirements for success and trying to fill your business with technology that it doesn’t need is going to end up making it bloated, confusing for your employees, and will have a serious negative impact on productivity as a whole. Think really carefully about what the needs of your business actually are and only bring in tech that can offer solutions to your problems, not because you’ve seen your competition using it.

A lack of support

Technology can make life far easier for many businesses. It can increase efficiency and productivity in ways that many people could never have even predicted. However, it’s not perfect, and things are probably going to go wrong from time to time. Having things like decent IT Support in place can make all the difference. That way, the chances of something going wrong are significantly reduced, and if something does go wrong, then it’s much more likely to be fixed before it causes any serious issues.

Human error

Of course, all the of the best tech in the world isn’t going to make the slightest bit of difference if the people in your business have no real way to use it as effectively as possible. You need to make sure that you’re providing your employees with as much training as possible so that they know exactly how to get the most out of any piece of technology that they’re using. Otherwise, they’re just going to get stuck or pick up bad habits which can bring your entire business’s productivity way down and even cause the whole thing to a total stop.

It should be pretty clear from this advice that the key to any successful business is a sense of balance. Trying to focus too hard on one direction or another is just going to leave you neglected other important things. Think carefully about the tech in your business and ask yourself how well you are actually balancing your focus when it comes to implementing it in the most effective way possible.

3 Reasons Why Millennials Invented Friendsgiving

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Friendsgiving officially became a “thing” on November 26, 2009 (according to the Urban Dictionary).

Scoffed at by older generations, the origins behind this growing annual event make sense. Here’s 3 to start:

1. Extra Feast 

Any reason to gather around food is a good one. Traditionally celebrated on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, it means at least back-to-back feasts before the weekend’s leftovers binge. Food is a trend that isn’t going anywhere. Potlucks means more people, more choices and more food. We live in a society that lauds gluttons and this just adds to the once a year madness. On top of that Instagram worthy shots are taken and shared with friends alike. Hard to not support it.

2. The New Definition Of Family

Thanksgiving does include foods we love, but it can also invite relatives we don’t. Besides some people who are forced to work on Thanksgiving, holidays can bring family conflict and uncomfortable encounters to a home. Friendsgiving is the alternative to extended family gathering by replacing it with people you actually want to be around. In defense, Friendsgiving isn’t meant to take the place of Thanksgiving, rather add a new event for those who may not have family close by, can’t make it home in time or just plain love events. The reality is nuclear families are disappearing so Friendsgiving is an adaptation to the changing times.

3. Lifestyle Fit

Millennials are getting married and having kids later in life. That means Friendsgiving is a more “adult” gathering than most. Insert alcohol and rowdiness to enhance pleasure, not numb it and problem solved. Millennials do live at home longer, so it’s not an escape from family rather a social feasting of sorts. Young professionals can and should take credit for creating this festivity. Plus since it appears on social media clearly it exists.

All jokes aside there’s definitely a method to the madness. Friendsgiving is about friends and food. Two of anyone’s favorite past times rolled into one annual event. Let’s give thanks.

Streamline Your Business Today!

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When it comes to trying to run any kind of successful business, there’s one thing that you simply cannot compromise on: efficiency. In a modern world that moves at such a fast pace, it’s practically impossible to keep up if you’re not working hard to make sure that your business functions like clockwork. However, actually putting that idea into practice can be more of a challenge than many people think. One of the best ways to make your business more efficient is also one of the simplest: streamlining. If you can streamline areas of your business, then you’re going to be in a much better position to be sure that they are as efficient as possible. Here are a few simple ways to do just that.

Tech

Technology has the potential to improve your business in ways that you could never have predicted, but it also has the potential to make it into a bloated, overly complicated mess that makes life far more difficult than it really needs to be. The best way to make sure that you’re not using too much technology that isn’t helping to push your business forward. Think carefully about how useful any given piece of technology is in your business. Not only that but if you update your ERP, then you’re going to be able to keep track of a great deal of the digital information around your business much more efficiently. It’s all too easy to find yourself chasing after things that seem innovative and new in an attempt to keep up with the competition, but more and newer doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Staff

There’s one issue that tends to befall just about every business when it starts to grow, and that’s that they just have too many staff members. When you start hiring employees, it’s tempting to massively overestimate what you actually need which can lead you to hire too many people many of whom just end up feeling bored and frustrated at not having enough to do in order to feel engaged. By streamlining your staff then you’re not only going to save money, but you’re going to provide the employees that you do have with kind of dynamic work that will keep them engaged all day long.

Space

Think carefully about the space that you’re using in your business. Are you really using it as well as you possibly can? This is especially true when businesses first graduate up to using a dedicated office space. It’s common for those spaces to become bloated and poorly utilized. Think about what your needs are in terms of space and if your office actually offers solutions to them. If the answer is no, then it’s pretty likely that you’re going to be able to find a much better way to arrange things so that your office the safest and most productive environment possible.

Of course, streamlining is often a lot easier said than done. It’s incredibly easy to let your business become incredibly overblown and over complicated in the pursuit of new and exciting ways of doing things. Make sure to keep Occam’s razor: the simplest solution is often the best.

The Ultimate Guide To Creating An Incredible Customer Experience

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You could have the most incredible business idea, an impressive product, and the best intentions too, but if you have no idea what your customers want, then you’re more than likely going to fail. As harsh as that may sound, it’s very true. Because the business world is all about customers and what they want. Your produce should meet a need that your target audience has. If it doesn’t, they’re not going to buy from you. And without sales, you won’t succeed. So, this gives you a very reason not only to get to know your customers but start surpassing their expectations too. And to do the latter, you’re going to want to ace the former first.

But getting to know your customers is just the first step. When you know who they are, and what they might be looking for when they shop with you, you then need to wow them. Because, as we mentioned earlier, your amazing product isn’t going to cut it if your service sucks! So, you need to start thinking about creating an incredible customer experience and putting on one hell of a show! But you’re not in it alone; we’re going to walk through this together. Covering off just about everything you could need to shower your customers with the best experiences ever!

In Store

Creating a great experience in your store is what your main should be. Because you want to make sales, and to do that, you have to not only lure potential customers in, but keep them coming back too.

Inspiring Visuals

This first point can be thought of in two ways. And if you want to ensure that your customers are hooked, you should look to cover them off. The first is the imagery that you’re using in store, along with the colors and the general look your store has; your customers should be drawn to it all. But secondly, you need to nail your visual merchandising too. Your customer should be excited by your product layouts.

Easy To Shop Layouts

From your merchandising to the store layout itself, you need to make sure that it’s easy. You want your customers to not only be lured in by your stock, but also find your store easy to shop. They need to be able to find items quickly and easily, but also locate their way around your store without any kind of hassle. Then, you know their experience will be good.

Exciting Experiences

But don’t just leave it there. You should want to make their experience great. And to do that, things need to get exciting. To make it happen, you should look to work with experiential marketing. You’ll find loads of incredible examples of what other stores has done, but in general, you need to be focusing on fun in-store experiences and connecting to the online world to really impress.

Online

Now we need to look at what you can offer with your online setup. If you’re online-only, this is going to be super important. If you’re offline too, then this needs to support what your store offers too.

Customer Journey

To improve their online experience, you need to get to know it. While this can feel a little harder with your store, it’s much easier online. You can look at the customer journey in your analytics to see how they shop and use your site in general. Your data and research will then let you know how you can improve the onsite experience for them and stop them from dropping off before they buy.

Online-Only Incentives

Whether you have an online store alone, or it’s secondary to your physical store, you’re going to want to offer some incentives. Think about what you want when you’re shopping online. You want to be enticed into buying, right? So think about how you can increase your average order value (AOV) with free shipping, or offer a free gift with purchase – because they may be what you need here.

Ease & Efficiency

Above all else, shopping on your website needs to be easy and efficient. No buts! Your customers need to find the experience of buying from you hassle free and enjoyable. If they don’t, you’re not going to keep them. It’s simple. So work with an easy layout, simple search options, and a streamlined checkout, and you’ll be fine.

Customer Service

Of course, customer service is always going to be a huge part of the customer experience; it needs to cover everything from their potential consideration to their aftercare.

Evaluating What You Have

It’s not always easy to know how you’re doing with your customer service. Of course, if you get complaints, then you get an idea. But if you don’t, is it safe to assume that you’re doing okay? Not necessarily. You may want to turn to mystery shoppers to find out exactly how you’re getting on. You can then see where you are at the moment and evaluate your service to then improve on it.

Asking For Feedback

At the same time, you should definitely think about asking for feedback from your customers too. Putting comment cards out on your cash desk, putting forms online, sending out surveys, and generally speaking to your customers in-store and asking how they find things will help. And you’ll often get invaluable and honest responses that you can work with too.

Going Above & Beyond

Finally, you’re going to want to think about going above and beyond with your customer service too. You want your customers to have such a good experience, that they love to shop with you and think of your store first above any other. Nice touches with your packaging, being helpful, and generally trying to make their shopping experience better will go along way to keep your customers coming back.

Loyalty

A huge part of the customer experience is repeat custom. Because if the experience they have is good, they will come back. To help this, you can work on a loyalty program.

CRM

To create any kind of loyalty program, you need to work with a good customer relationship management (CRM) setup. And for this, you need the right CRM software in place. Then, you will be able to record customer information, keep their details on file and personalize their experience too. The first two points are important for your loyalty program, and the latter is something that will help you to improve the kind of experience they have when they shop with you.

Loyalty Card

Next up, think about pulling together your loyalty program. If you have a store, then a card will be perfect. But if you’re entirely online, you need to plug this into your e-commerce as no physical card will be required. You can allow your customers to collect points as they shop, or stamps. Then, when they have collected so many points or stamps, they can then spend them in store or get money off a purchase. This will make your customers want to keep spending with you.

Member Offers

As part of your loyalty program, to ensure that your customers are enjoying their experience, you should look to provide them with member-only offers. This comes with a level of exclusivity that can make them feel special as they shop. From member’s only shopping experiences and discounts to exclusive access to sales, these will always wow your customers as they shop.

Just Because

And then there are the kind of things you can think about working with just to enhance the customer experience – they can also be a lot of fun to work on too!

Events

Have you ever been to an in-store event? If you have, then you’re going to know just how fun they can be. Whether it’s a talk with the founder, a visiting celebrity, or a discounted shopping evening fueled by champagne, there’s a lot of excitement on offer whenever an event takes place. So if you want your customers to enjoy shopping with you, be sure to work some events into your yearly calendar. They can be a chance for you and your staff to have a little fun too!

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Next up, you’re going to want to make a bit of a fuss over some special occasions. And this is where your CRM system comes into play once again. Send out gifts or special discounts on your customer’s birthdays – or even send them a card. They’ll feel special and love the gesture. You could also have celebrations and discounts when it’s your store’s anniversary for a bit of fun too.

Special Offers

Finally, why not think about hosting different discount offers, just because? Sometimes, you don’t need an excuse to host a special event. Your customers may love the fact that you reward them with a little discount every now and again throughout the year and it’s certainly going to help your sales. Because we all love to have a treat, and it will always add to the customer experience.

Harness Wind Power for Your Business

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If you run a business, trying to be as efficient as possible can help to save you money. On top of that, it can also give your business a more ethical image. By being energy-efficient and increasing efficiency in other ways, you can show you care about the environment. When it comes to being energy-efficient, many businesses will consider things like using efficient appliances and lighting or perhaps making use of solar panels. However, for some businesses, such as farms, it might make sense to think about using a different form of renewable energy. Wind turbines can be a good choice, as long as you have somewhere to put them.

Working Out If a Turbine Will Work for You

Before deciding to have one or even more wind turbines on your land, you need to consider whether they’re the right choice for your business. They often work best for agricultural or industrial businesses, where you have plenty of land. However, other businesses might consider a small turbine too. Of course, you need to know if you’re going to be able to generate enough energy from wind activity. You might be able to find data on wind for your area or possibly loan an anemometer so that you can measure wind activity yourself. Ideally, you need at least class 2 winds.

The Practicalities of Installation

Installing a wind turbine on your land can sometimes require overcoming a few obstacles. There are sometimes zoning laws that you will need to consider to ensure you are allowing to install a turbine. Other issues to consider include that your land might not provide enough stability on its own. However, this could be addressed using the type of vibro stone columns offered by Helitech CCD. Because turbines need to stand up against a lot of force, it’s important for them to have a strong foundation. Vibratory columns help to do this so turbines are more secure.

Considering the Costs

Any business owner needs to think about how much something is going to cost before going ahead with it. Renewable energy supplies should help to save you money. Of course, if you install a new system, you need to consider the cost of installation. There might be various incentives available to reduce the cost of installing a turbine. Costs for a new system can vary a lot, from $4,000 to $8,000 per rated kilowatt. It’s not a cheap solution, so it’s important to ensure you get adequate wind levels.

Calculating the Benefits

You need to know how your business is going to benefit from a wind turbine. When the system is running, you can save money by reducing other energy use and possibly sell electricity back to your energy company. You can work out how much you might save once you know how much your system is going to cost you. Try the wind turbine power system sizing calculator to help your business get the most from a turbine.

A wind turbine might not be the first energy choice for your business, but it can work for many. Consider it when you’re thinking about other options.

Don’t Just Network, Host Your Own Event

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The most effective way to grow your business is to network, network and then networks some more. Don’t believe us, just press pause for ten minutes and pose that same question to ask any number of business owners, forums and corporate consultant – the answer will be the same. Why? Because who you know far outweighs what you know. Period.

The only problem when it comes to networking is being taken seriously by those you want to talk to most. It is a credibility thing. Luckily for you, there was a simple way to fix this: hold your own networking event. Think about it. You become the host and you will get catapulted up the ranks and slapped with the label “business leader”.

Here is how you can pull off a successful networking event first-time around:

Make Attending Simple

This is probably the most crucial part of it all; having your attendees register in advance. That way you know that there are X amount of people committed to coming, which means you can plan your budget and your event much more accurately. It is also really easy to achieve with an app like Eventbrite. Not only is registering simple, those that sign-up also get a reminder by email.

Pick The Perfect Venue

The main things to consider here are price, accessibility, parking and the ambience of the space in general. Basically, you want to alleviate as many potential frustrations ahead of time. As a little tip, approach some of the nicer hotels in your desired location and find out what the minimum bar spend needs to be in order to get their lobby free of charge. Holding a networking event at their place is good for their business too.

Check People In

There is a bunch of reasons why having a check-in is beneficial, even if the event is free. First and foremost, it is for security reasons, especially with the state of current affairs, so speak to some security companies. Of course, it isn’t all negative because having a check-in will let you see the numbers and, if you ask for their email addresses as proof, you can follow up with attendees and announce future events. Don’t make too much fuss if they don’t want to hand over their email, though. Oh, and one more thing, make sure the person at check-in is warm, inviting and personal.

Your Role Is Huge

You have to meet everyone. That means everyone. Introduce yourself, make them feel comfortable and make sure the conversation is focused on what they do, not you. That is the trick. The better you are at listening, the better you are at conversations, which is how you want to be remembered. The other thing you need to make sure you are doing is connecting people with one another because that will be people’s measure of success when they walk away. Get the product designer in front of the patent attorney and the freelance copywriter in front of the marketing director. People are going there to network, so make sure that is happening.