Self-motivated people have many advantages as business owners. They tend to be more organized, manage time better, and have more self-esteem and confidence. Therefore, understanding and developing self-motivation can help you take control of many aspects of your life. You can be any of the normal Birmingham Escorts with good reviews and ambition like any other individual with a different way of life and still be able to motivate yourself. In other words, you can reach any level of success, if you know how to use your mental capacity in a positive way; regardless of your current status in life. 

What is Your Motive?

The fundamental thing to be self-motivated is to understand what motivates you to do things and make certain choices in life. This may seem obvious, but sometimes what motivates us is hidden or buried under our agenda, or simply changes happen to us without realizing it. When you choose to do something in life, it comes from internal motives. At the time, you may not be sure what that is and so it is important to evaluate yourself honestly. 

Types of Motivation

There are two main types of motivation namely:

1. The intrinsic one, which is based on the satisfaction that you get from taking the action and this could include having fun, being interested, or challenging yourself personally. 

2. The extrinsic one is when the action is performed to obtain a reward; money, power, recognition.

The same task can have intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, which could vary in proportion at different times. However, sometimes, some tasks do not have any of these motivators and you do them the same. Obligation motivators come into play, which comes from our ethics and sense of duty. 

In these cases, you are more likely to start enjoying yourself, if you opt for a positive and open attitude. The truth is that we all work better when we like what we do. It is easier to get out of bed in the morning. We are happier at work and in general. It is much easier to deal with stress and long work hours when we enjoy what we do.

Set A Goal

Having a goal helps us stay motivated. Create a SMART goal and break long-term goals into smaller actions. The progress you make every day will help build momentum and motivate you to stay on track. Unfortunately, many people go in the wrong direction to find motivation, attach themselves to huge, virtually unattainable goals, and expend all their energy trying to achieve them. 

In reality, this leads to exhaustion and frustration more than motivation. If your goal is to have a successful store, you will only get satisfaction when this happens and this can take years and discourage you along the way.

Broad, overarching goals decrease our motivation because we don’t have realistic and measurable milestones to guide us along the way. Instead, starting with a more specific, yet challenging goal will help fuel our motivation. Therefore, it is not the same to set the goal of increasing sales than deciding to increase sales by 5% in the next 6 months.

While it is wise to aim high, it is equally important to encourage yourself to achieve goals using different milestones. Every time you hit one of these smaller goals, a burst of adrenaline allows you to train the brain to keep wishing for the next goal.

Relive Your Past Success

Relive the successes of the past. Do you remember how you felt when you reached an important milestone or made the right decision? Spend some time thinking about the process you went through, the work you did, and the taste of victory. Reliving these good times will help you overcome obstacles and take action.

Acquire Additional knowledge

Learn what you need to know to succeed. Knowledge and information is the key to feeding your mind and keeping you curious and motivated. The processes you follow on a daily basis often create routines that lead to boredom and cause a loss of motivation. Try to change the way things are done, when they are done, how they are done, and even how you think about them by introducing new features. This can renew your motivation.

Hang Out With Positive People

Surround yourself with enthusiastic people. Try to avoid negative people. It is much easier to be motivated when the people around you are. You can also find inspiration in others. There is always someone who has already traveled the path that you are on. This could be someone who faced the challenges that you are facing now and emerged victorious. Exploring how they did it can be motivating and also gives you creative ideas to overcome challenges. 

It can also help you to lean on someone, a group, or a trusted person who understands you, with whom to discuss your ideas, your actions, and your progress. This can be other business owners that you can talk to regularly. It is not about asking for advice, which can also be good, but the most important thing is to feel committed and accountable to someone other than ourselves. This is an important part of motivation because it makes you responsible for what you ultimately do.

Stay Positive

Keep a positive attitude. Seeing problems as learning opportunities helps us face them with more enthusiasm and confidence. Throughout your journey to success, you will come across challenges. Don’t see them as just one more problem, but as a way to open your eyes to new things. 

Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Know your strengths and your weaknesses. Work on improving your weaknesses and taking advantage of your strengths. This is very important, if you want to experience success in your life; whether with business or in your personal life.

Just Do It

Try not to procrastinate and keep working, step by step, to reach your goals. Make sure that you set practical goals, which are also realistic. Write them down and revisit them periodically so that you know if any changes need to happen and to also make sure that you are within reach of your goals. The most challenging aspect of setting goals is remaining motivated for the duration of reaching those goals. It is OK to write stuff down on paper, but following through with it is the way to staying motivated. When you complete your goals, you should reward yourself because not everyone can stay the course. However, whether you are a business person or not, you can do anything you set out to do as long as you stay consistent. 

Visualize the Benefits

To realize the benefits of doing something, you can start by making a list of the benefits of finishing that task. That job may not be fun, but having the weekend off after completing a task without continuing to worry about it, can be. Try to visualize and perceive the sensations that reaching your goal will bring you. For example, if your goal is to attract more customers to your establishment, try to visualize how you will feel with the store full of people, how people will sound browsing, asking questions, and making the final purchase. Mentally walking through the process of success and the benefits will bring you to a different level of motivation. 

Politics comes into focus in this post as the central topic around a major reason why our progress as the human race generally appears to have slowed down in the last few decades. If you look at everything about what it entails to be a politician, from the a little while after you decide to get into the game of politics to the day you’re inaugurated as the president, it’s pretty much the epitome of how the right skills are applied to the wrong industry.

This view can perhaps even be flipped on its head and it will still make every bit of sense. It can indeed be viewed as applying the wrong skills to the right industry…

Motive changes

When an ordinary citizen makes the decision that they want to get into politics, their motive is usually a just one, often stemming from the need they identify to perhaps influence positive changes from within the power structures. Politicians are often out of touch with the reality as it exists on the ground and so the policies they fight to have implemented might make perfect sense to them, but they seldom make sense to the typical person on the street.

For all its purity however, your motive can change very quickly as you begin your ascension up the political ladder. This is where the view of the misplaced skills comes into full effect in that you’re forced to play the dirty game of politics to survive and to make the advancements you seek. The problem with this reality is that the dirty game of politics requires your complete effort and attention and so your motive begins to become solely about winning the political battles instead of focussing on how to implement the policies which fall in line with the original motive you had for getting into politics.

Wasted skills in politics

A plethora of skills go to waste within political structures, even those skills which otherwise have the power to inspire the kind of change which is often the reason why the masses engage in politics at all. Let’s take a look at a real world example, shall we?

Former president of the United States of America, Obama is quite the orator, is he not? Yet if you look at some videos of the speeches he gave in the beginning of his presidency and prior to assuming the office during his campaign, those inspired hope among even the most hopeless of people. Take a look at his speeches towards the end of his second term and you’ll see something totally different, with glimpses of the obvious talent clearly still visible, but as far as the fire which lit up his speeches goes, it was no longer visible.

That is but just the gift of engaging the crowd – just imagine how many more skills go to die in the world of politics, such as the type of administrative skills which would clean up certain state governments or organisational skills which could account for more services to be delivered more efficiently!

In this globalized world, everything needs to be globalized, including content translation. Global Content Translation means content that is accurate and localized according to the demands of every local market. And the demand for content that measures up to these expectations is growing, and statistics prove it – translation industry grew by 42%between 2010 to 2020.

So if you are working with a global business, it is must your content be comprehensive too. And if you wish to start, which you should, then this blog will guide you just how to do it right.

Benefits of globalizing your content

English might be that everyone is either speaking or trying to speak, but everyone still likes to communicate in their local language. Globally, there are about 7,000 languages. However, half of the world’s population speaks only about 23 of them. Moreover, 90% of online spending is done by people who speak ten languages.

Now, chances are, majorly serving people speaking these 13 different languages, to reach them, your content must be in their local language. Once you do that, you give better reach to your business. Research proves this – about 63% of global companies reached new customers only by making their content more global.

The rise of translation technology

Various translation apps can help you order dinner in Portugal; however, for your business, those apps are not enough. However, there are some other solutions that you can, and you must explore.

Machine Translation is one thing that can help you. Computers can learn massive databases of language using deep learning and Artificial Intelligence. Over time, they become perfect alternatives to translate content in another language from English or any other language.

However, machine translation still lacks the logic and reasoning skills human translators are so proficient in.

Humans matter

Almost everything in this world is dynamic; languages are no exception either – they are ina constant state of flux. Some words are added, others are removed, some phrases banned, new ones added – this happens all the time. Moreover, lexicons change with regions. This means, however, advanced machines are, they can only complement and help humans, not replace them, at least not just yet.

Besides, human translators understand the meaning and emotion behind the words; by doing that, they can help add the real intent, which is reflected in the source content. In business, and in many other industries, literal translations from machines make for content blunders more often than not. This becomes all the more important if you are working on your brand message and voice.

These are the reasons why you need to invest in state of the art translation services, machines can make the job less time consuming, but humans add the much-needed human touch to the content, which is essential.

Speaking your language

The future lies in being global, and global content translation provides many opportunities to the businesses. Just focus on the needs of your consumers, and translation that much amount of content won’t be a hassle anymore.

Business travel sounds simple. Book the ticket, reserve accommodations and make it to your meetings on time. However, anyone who has traveled for business knows it’s not that easy. Companies that require employee travel must implement travel policies. These policies are in place to ensure all employees who travel for business follow the same steps in planning, booking and receiving expense reimbursements. 

But travel is unpredictable. Flight cancellations occur, hotel stays are upgraded and food expenses can vary greatly. Creating a business travel policy that addresses every eventuality can feel impossible — but not having one in place can cause unnecessary confusion and even hurt your business’s bottom line. The following guidelines will help you create a corporate travel policy that’s a win-win for your company and your employees. 

Aim for Balance 

A corporate travel policy that’s one-sided, whether in the employer or employee’s favor, won’t work. An effective policy will understand the employee’s need to have some decision making power and flexibility. It also will require complete and accurate records on business expenses. A thorough and effective business travel policy will include the following: 

• Arrangements that employees are allowed to make on their own. 
• Arrangements that require approval. 
• Reimbursable expenses and how to report them. This also can include when a company credit card may be used.  
• Expenses that will not be reimbursed, such as pet boarding, in-room movies, laundry service and parking tickets.  
• The company’s preferred sites for booking online when arranging flights and accommodations. 

• The company’s preferred airlines, accommodation options, rental car companies and restaurants, if applicable.  
• Parameters, such as a daily allowance, for approved accommodations, meals and transportation.  

Corporate travel policies can vary greatly from business to business. It’s also important for certain companies to include exceptions that are unique to their individual business needs. 

Don’t Forget Safety Information 

Travel safety information is an essential part of every business travel policy. After all, employee safety should be a priority for every business. One safety precaution to include in your travel policy is the requirement for employees to submit their itineraries prior to travel. This enables you to know where your employees should be and when. Employees also should provide accommodation phone numbers and emergency contact information. The employer should make the employee aware of any travel insurance policies they have available. These are simple steps that can greatly aid both parties in the event of an emergency.  

Use Technology to Your Advantage 

Technology plays an important role in business travel, and it can be a significant help in the creation and execution of your corporate travel policy. A number of digital tools are available online to help employees record expenses on the fly and submit them quickly upon arrival back at the office.  

Businesses can use online resources such as Google Drive spreadsheets to record expenses or invest in corporate travel management software. These programs can help employers create travel policies that also address the employee booking process. Because they record purchases and expenses in real time, employees and employers are always on the same page.  

Using technology to help create and enforce your corporate travel policy leaves less room for confusion or error. This can result in happier employees and fewer unnecessary expenses.  

What to Avoid 

It’s easy to make a number of common mistakes when creating a corporate travel policy. Companies can get carried away and create too many restrictions, which can make employees dread business travel. Examples include implementing unrealistic pricing requirements and causing employees to waste valuable time and energy looking for deals or stressing about costs.  

An out-of-date policy also can cause problems, as the travel industry is constantly in flux. It’s important to read your company’s corporate travel policy often and adjust restrictions, pricing guidelines and other directives to suit the current travel market.  

Creating an effective corporate travel policy doesn’t have to be a difficult process. Start with the simple guidelines above, keep employee safety a top priority and remember that your policy can always be adjusted as needed.  

Author bio: Matt Singley is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Pinnacle Furnished Suites, a provider of short-term, fully furnished apartments and temporary corporate housing. Singley is a mechanical engineer by training, but an obsessed entrepreneur at heart. His light-hearted and friendly management style complement a serious dedication to the use/advancement of technology and enhanced customer experience to create a winning product and client journey.  

Linked URL: 
https://www.pfsuites.com/nashville  

Sources: 
https://www.lola.com/learn/building-a-corporate-travel-policy 
https://www.30secondstofly.com/corporate-travel-management/how-to-write-a-travel-policy/ 
https://www.g2.com/categories/travel-management 

In the past, workplace clothing regulations were strict; office workers were expected to show up to work looking as smart as possible in the traditional suit and tie combination. Nowadays however, businesses have been taking a more relaxed approach towards corporate clothing. Whilst it is important for employees to be comfortable in the workplace, relaxing uniform regulations can lead to potential issues. For example, making the switch towards more casual clothing could negatively impact your brand image. In this article, we take a look at corporate vs casual workplace clothing and evaluate which is best for your business. 

Changing demographics

Despite the fact that the younger demographic tends to prefer more casual workwear, this can be a problem for brands. Brands that have adopted the casual-clothing idea are seemingly allowing their staff to wear their own clothes that fit specific style/colour requirements at work, which could have a negative impact on their productivity, duties and other colleagues.

Your staff won’t fully understand what materials and styles work well for different jobs. If your staff decide to wear a tight material, this could prevent them from reaching up to a shelf for example — the limitations an item of clothing has on their abilities will be the last thing on their mind.

This doesn’t mean that staff shouldn’t be allowed to dress more comfortably or causally, there are just better ways to implement these rules. With technology and design opportunities advancing at a rapid rate, uniform providers are now able to facilitate any requirements when it comes to corporate workwear — whether you opt for professional or a more relaxed style of attire. By opting for a professional service, you’ll won’t have to worry about design regulations that are required for your working environment that have been set out by governing bodies; as the responsibility will fall with them. Not only this, they’ll likely organise a consultation with your business to fully understand the requirements of the job and how the uniform needs to be designed to meet them.

Branding

As competition on the high street increases, brands are having to change the way that they present themselves to customers. With reports suggesting that the high-street is experiencing a dramatic decline, stores are trying to become more innovative to improve customer and staff retention. Uniforms have recently become a big focus for many businesses. To connect with customers on a personal level, more organisations are allowing employees to ‘dress-down’, to encourage uniqueness and to show shoppers that they’re able to adapt with the times.

If you enjoy a coffee on your daily commute to work, you might have noticed that Starbucks have recently changes their uniform requirements. Previously, baristas would wear buttoned-up black or white shirts with name badges and black or khaki pants, accompanied with their signature green apron. But now, rules have become lax surrounding what they’re allowed to wear beneath the apron.

Starbucks staff now have the opportunity to express themselves through their workwear in a way that traditional uniforms never allowed. The Starbucks employee lookbook states that baristas can wear black, white, grey, navy and brown shirts as a solid or for a subdued, small-print, low-contrast pattern. However, sweatshirts, hooded shirts, cap-sleeve and short-sleeve V-neck or T-necks are forbidden. Although you may remember some baristas wearing caps with a Starbucks logo, their options have now varied too, with flat caps, trilby hats and beanies becoming an option. Employees are also allowed to wear scarves, but they must be tucked behind their apron!

Uniforms: An employee perspective

Rather than looking at uniforms as an additional expense, businesses should think of them as a long-term investment. Not only will uniforms allow you to stay within workwear regulations, it will also reduce the time you spend monitoring clothing if staff do choose to wear their own styles for work.

Although employees might enjoy the idea of wearing casual clothing to work, it could raise problems when you consider other expenses and factors. These could include rent, groceries as well as general clothing. If they have the responsibility to also purchase suitable workwear, this will be another deducting factor that comes out of their wage.

Having a set uniform for your business would help create a strong brand image and unify your employees.

When you’re designing something that will help better market your business, it’s important to get it right first time. As you’ll likely be printing in bulk, one mistake can impact the entire production line and leave your end-product unusable. Together with Direct Letterbox Marketing, providers of leaflet distribution services, we investigate the best design techniques to make your print effective — from call to actions to bold lettering. We’ll also address what you shouldn’t do with your designs by looking at some of the biggest mistakes marketers have made with their printed materials.

The impact of print marketing

Surveys have found that 89% of people remember flyers they received through the door. On top of that, almost half of those who responded admitted that they keep leaflets in a drawer or on a board for future reference and 48% claimed to have visited a store, bought a product, or sent for information because of door-drop advertising.

Print marketing has a longer life than its marketing counterparts. The likes of social media might be great for short-term advertising, but the online world is a fast-paced environment. How often have you clicked away from a page to never be able to find it again? With print marketing, you’ll always have a hard copy at hand unless you physically get rid of it.

Think of the last time you picked up a magazine or brochure – or indeed any physical piece of print. Chances are you spent more time looking at this than you would at any online content. Print copy is certainly more engaging than digital.

There are also many forms of print marketing, whether it’s a leaflet, brochure, roll-up banner or any other form. This means you can grab your customers’ attention in a variety of ways, be it in long or short form, colourful or plain. It also helps your brand stand out from the crowd when used correctly, helping to build long-term trust and gain repeat customers. This is crucial as nine out of 10 customers would buy a brand they recognised if presented with two of the same offers.

Design must-haves

Designing the appropriate content is crucial. Every layout must engage the reader. After all, if it doesn’t draw the audience in and grab their attention, then you have failed and ultimately wasted time and money. You shouldn’t just settle for dull images – you want to stand out and make people take notice. At the same time, you want to guide the reader’s eye so it’s key to avoid images that distract from your message. Instead, pick images that will help guide them to the content your promoting. It’s necessary to have a pleasant balance of used and unused space. You don’t want to overpower your audience with too much activity, but you also don’t want to waste your opportunity to get information in front of them.

With this information, be sure to include a call to action. It’s no use producing an eye-catching document that has no end purpose. Without prompting an action from a potential customer, the marketing campaign hasn’t done its job. Another must-have, which may sound obvious, is correct spelling and grammar. We’ve all seen the signs or advertisings that have poor punctuation, and this is a sure-fire way to diminish your brand’s credibility.

Alongside a captivating logo, make sure you include your complete contact information. Without this, how do you expect your audience to find you? They are not going to go out of their way to search for your details if they are not on hand. Include this alongside your social media logos to give the audience all the relevant avenues to research your brand.

Print marketing mistakes

Print is here to stay – there’s no getting away from it. However, you don’t want to end up in the recycle bin or be just another sign. Many companies have fallen foul to an array of mistakes when it comes to print marketing.

Some companies forget to think about their audience when creating content and don’t ensure that it’s easy to read and has a simple message. Sometimes, graphics can explain your service better than words for those who have limited English skills. In an ideal campaign, you’ll cater to each audience and tweak your campaigns to suit the needs of each targeted mailing list.

However, such tweaks need to stay within consistent boundaries. It’s extremely important to use the same logos and styling throughout any campaign. This will allow you to speed up the revising and updating process and save you money as you won’t be reinventing the wheel every step of the way.

It’s also crucial to remember any logo and branding you choose will have to go across other marketing forums, such as online. Make sure that any logo and colour scheme you choose will work well across the board. This will make it easier for any potential customers to recognise and relate with your brand.

Sources

http://foundry-press.co.uk/why-is-print-marketing-still-important/

https://www.directletterboxmarketing.co.uk/faqs/

http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/5-print-marketing-mistakes-you-should-avoid-at-all-costs/

https://www.gwayprint.com/resources/the-ideas-collection/5-must-haves-in-every-layout/

https://www.allegrahamilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ALG36067-Mktg-Must-Haves-hires.pdf

To run a business efficiently, most companies, both small and large, will have several employees to support their processes and ensure that the quality of their services is high. However, managing employees can be difficult, and business owners may find that they experience a range of problems when it comes to ensuring employee happiness and motivation, which are vital to the success of your business.

1.   Personal Injury Claims

If your business does not have a sufficient health and safety policy in place to support your employees, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a personal injury claim made against you. Common workplace injuries that occur range from slip and falls caused by hazards such as wet floors and loose wires, as well as office-related injuries such as repetitive stress injuries like carpel tunnel syndrome. If a personal injury claim is made by your employee against you, Aston Knight Solicitors has a history of helping both employees and employers to negotiate the right solution for them, whether that be in terms of compensation, or defending themselves in court. If you want to prevent personal injuries in the workplace, you should create a strict health and safety policy and training regime for every staff member, which you should refresh on a regular basis and which should include elements such as the correct way to lift heavy objects.

2.   Motivation Issues

However, for many employees, their issues are less physical, but, as a business owner, you should be no less aware of these. With a third of employees feeling unmotivated, motivation issues in the workplace can occur for a variety of reasons, including a lack of praise or unsuitability for the job, as well as a lack of promotion. To ensure that you are able to motivate your employees at all times, you should set up rewards for hard work, such as seasonal events like summer barbecues or Christmas dinners, to celebrate your employee’s achievements throughout the year. You should also consider pay rises and promotions in order to show employees that they are valued. You could also set up prize schemes for those employees with the best stats, such as holidays and days out.  

3.   Skills Gaps

One of the major problems for managers dealing with employees is the skill gap, with many employers struggling to find employees who suit the needs of their company. However, even if you are unable to find employees on job boards that match your requirements, it is possible to combat the skills gap easily. To do this, you should create training schemes for your employees on a regular basis, as well as invest in exterior training courses or qualifications, which could boost your employee’s skills and strengthen their weaknesses. You could also consider investing in personal development by giving employees an afternoon off regularly to focus on improving skills that they are interested in, which they can then reinvest into your business.

4.   Human Resource Problems

Along with the skills gap, human resource issues are also becoming problematic, with many businesses unable to find the amount of staff that they need for certain tasks. To find a solution to this, you should consider out-sourcing employees to find the talent or amount of employees you need for a certain project, especially if they are only needed on a temporary basis.