Spicing it Up: 4 Creative Ideas to Make Meetings More Interesting

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Productive Meetings|Spicing it Up: 4 Creative Ideas to Make Meetings More InterestingSitting through weekly meetings that are dull and uninteresting is not at the top of any employee’s list. Instead of making meetings an endurance test, find ways to make meetings more interesting and engaging. There are at least 4 creative ideas out there to make meetings more enjoyable and productive. Shaking up meetings with a new meeting location, catering, and other ideas may be just what is needed.

1. The Meeting Location

Consider moving the meeting to a better location. A meeting place should be comfortable and interesting. Think about room temperature. Too hot and people will be getting sleepy. Too cold and people will be uncomfortable and just want to leave. There should be ample table space and comfortable chairs. Creative Meeting Venues might be an answer. Look into meeting locations to rent a unique space that meets all the needs for a productive meeting. A good meeting location might also involve refreshments such as coffee, tea or water, and a light snack to keep people energized and comfortable.

2. Ban smartphones

Ban smartphones and electronic devices for the duration of the meeting. This strategy keeps everyone’s attention on the meeting rather than a small screen. People interact with each other and exchange useful ideas. More will be accomplished when everyone is in the present and paying attention to the speaker and the problem to be solved or the announcement being made.

3. Be Well Prepared

The boss holding the meeting should be on time and well-prepared. Have a written agenda for the meeting to hand out and stick to that agenda. If a meeting is being held, it should have a purpose and a plan. Practice your speaking and organizational skills beforehand so it is comfortable leading the meeting. Don’t have a meeting with no good purpose or advance planning.

Make important company announcements and then invite member comments and questions. Are problems needing solutions? If so ask the members at the meeting to participate with suggestions for solutions and ways to implement them. Keep everyone engaged and feeling appreciated.

4. Get People Moving

With long meetings where everyone is forced to sit around a table without a break, attention wanders. Get people a chance to move and stretch. At the beginning of a meeting have people stand and do some stretches, then repeat it at a later time when people are starting to lose focus or zone out. Keep the stretches simple and appropriate for the people and clothing at the meeting.

The main thing is to move the arms and legs a bit and to stand up. Maybe have everyone get up and walk around the table once before sitting back down.

Give Everyone a Chance To Share Ideas

When a meeting is successful, everyone has had input that is respected. There are ideas that have been discussed and a plan of future actions decided on so each person leaves the meeting with a sense of accomplishment and purpose. And, make sure the meeting plans are followed up on so the meeting was productive for the future. Everyone should leave the meeting with an individual action plan.
Another meeting problem that should be solved is to give everyone equal time to give input without letting one person dominate the meeting to the detriment of the others. A good meeting leader knows how to limit each person’s time speaking so others can all give their input and no one feels left out or frustrated.

Becoming a Reliable Provider: 4 Proven Strategies for Building Trust in Your Industry of Choice

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Building Trust|Becoming a Reliable Provider: 4 Proven Strategies for Building Trust in Your Industry of ChoiceMost people fail to realize just how difficult starting a business and making it successful can be. If a business owner does not focus on providing their customers with top-notch service, keeping them loyal will be extremely difficult. For most consumers, finding businesses that they can trust is imperative.

Establishing trust with consumers and clients can be difficult. Developing a strategy that revolves around providing potential customers with social proof of how well a business has performed for others in the past is a good idea. With this social proof, consumers can get a feel for how reputable a particular company is. The following are some of the things a business owner can do to build more trust with potential customers.

1. A High Level of Transparency

Shrouding what a business does in mystery can backfire in spectacular fashion. Current and potential customers want to know exactly what a business does and how it can benefit them. For instance, if a particular business provides payroll services to business, they need to show potential customers how safe and secure their services are. The best way to do this is by providing consumers with a SOC 1 Report.

This report will detail the internal controls and policies a business has in place to protect the sensitive information they deal with. With this high level of transparency, a business owner should have no problem attracting new clients. Going the extra mile to provide proof of how trustworthy a business it can pay off in the long run.

2. Provide Consumers With Social Proof

Modern consumers spend a lot of time online researching businesses before using them. In most cases, these consumers are looking for things like online reviews from former or current customers of a particular business. As a business owner, a person needs to work on making it easy to find social proof of how well their company performs.

This is why putting positive customer reviews on the homepage of a business website is a good idea. By making it easy for consumers to find this information, a business owner will have no problem increasing the number of valuable sales leads they attract. Asking satisfied customers for these positive reviews may be a bit intimidating at first, but it will be easier as time goes by.

3. Being Accessible is Important

Making it easy for consumers to reach out for information about the products/services a business offers is also important when attempting to establish trust. This is why making it easy for consumers to contact business is crucial. Investing in things like website chatbots is a wise idea. These AI-infused tools allow a business owner to address the concerns a consumer has any time of day. With the help of IT professionals, using these tools will be much easier.

4. An Online Presence is a Must

Over 90 percent of Internet users never go past the first page of Google when researching businesses in their area. Getting a business website on the first page of Google will require a lot of marketing-savvy and hard work. Creating an online presence for a business is no easy task. This is why hiring an experienced marketing agency to lend a hand is important. The higher a business website ranks on Google, the more trustworthy they will appear to consumers.

The Power of Consumer Trust

Building trust with modern consumers will help a business grow and prosper. Ignoring the need for a great online reputation and excellent customer service will lead to problems finding and obtaining new clients.

Think You Have No Worries with a Job Change If There’s No Non-Compete Agreement? Think Again

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Non-compete|Think You Have No Worries with a Job Change If There’s No Non-Compete Agreement? Think Again

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Each year, thousands of people explore and often accept a new job opportunity with a direct competitor. When they have no employment agreement or non-compete clause, they consider themselves free from risk as they talk to or move to a competing company. But in reality, this is far from the truth.

The non-competition agreement is a form of contract that employees sign with their current companies to keep them from being able to work for a competing firm. With or without this signed agreement, however, both the recruited candidate and the recruiting company put themselves at great risk of getting sued and/or having their business plans severely disrupted unless they manage the process with care.

A significant potential snafu in the hiring process is in the transitioning stage. Specifically, companies that, as part of their business model hire from competitors, along with recruits contemplating moving to a competitor, need to appreciate the time between considering the move to a competitor and knocking on a manager’s door to resign as fraught with risks. Regardless of whether there are any so-called post-employment restrictive covenants, all manner of pre-departure conduct must be the hiring company’s and the recruit’s first and primary concern.

Every state has a body of laws that govern what a person may or may not do before he or she resigns to join a competing company. What overrides all the legalese is one — although there are other “lesser” — relatively straightforward sounding proposition: While employed by company “A,” an employee may not compete with her company or take steps to help the New Company.

While that sounds like a commonsense and easy-to-follow rule, it’s far from simple because of the many ways in which “competition” can be construed. For example:

  1. When the recruit asks clients if they might continue with him if he moved to Next Company, he’s “competing.”
  2. If the manager badmouths her company to direct reports in order to pre-condition them for a switch, she’s “competing.”
  3. When the recruit hears about a new potential piece of business, but delays it so that he can bring it into the New Company, he’s “competing” (it’s called warehousing).
  4. If, during the interview process, the CEO reveals where she thinks her company is heading, she’s “competing.”

So many seemingly ordinary and natural exchanges that occur during the hiring process are laden with potential perils. Because of this, it’s important that everyone involved in the effort is informed and in sync.

From the New Company’s standpoint, it’s critical that everyone who interacts with the recruit understand the great risk created if they induce, or even have a part in pre-departure competitive misconduct. All the greatest intentions will mean nothing if just one person in the hiring chain steps out of line.

Anyone involved in the process of moving to and recruiting from the competition must maintain a disciplined focus on the governing law, as well as have a real appreciation for the emotions, optics and other unsettling byproducts of transitioning.

Always keep in mind that the absence of a contract doesn’t mean that the recruit and the company are free of risk. She may not have a non-compete agreement, but she can present plenty of other problems for the hiring company to worry about.

About the Author

Steven L. Manchel, Esq. possesses the highest possible attorney rating and has extensive national experience in recruiting matters, broker-dealer litigation, securities litigation, and complex civil litigation. In the employee departure arena, he has handled matters ranging from single employee transitions to the types of retention and attraction issues arising from large corporate mergers and acquisitions. The case study in his new book, I Hereby Resign (New Academia, Aug. 27, 2019), is used in a class in which he continues to lecture at the Harvard Business School. Learn more at manchelbrennan.com.

Eco-Friendly Business Ideas

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Eco-friendly|Eco-Friendly Business IdeasFinding a viable source of income is vital for our survival, and entrepreneurship is often a better option than employment. Being your own boss, if done right, can be more meaningful and lucrative, but it can be challenging to find an idea that requires minimal capital and starts making money right away.

What if we tell you that there is a solution that has a massive potential to grow, does not require a lot of investment, and to top it all, it is environmentally friendly.

Because let’s be honest, the world as we know it has taken a turn for the worst, temperatures are fluctuating like never before, natural disasters are on a rise, etc. Now, more than ever, we need to take a holistic approach – find a lucrative business opportunity that doesn’t add to our carbon footprint.

Eco-Friendly Business Ideas

Our solutions are practical yet straightforward – the work hours are flexible and if done right, there are streams and streams of earnings. Here are some of our recommendations:

Car Sharing, Ride Sharing Or Mobility Service

We recommend you start a car sharing, ride sharing, or mobility service that taps into the needs of the commuting market and is a better alternative to driving yourself or using public transport.

Because not only is it a cost-effective mechanism for ride seekers as it trumps the need for expensive car rentals and taxi services, but it also helps sustain what mother nature has bestowed upon us for the long haul. In the U.S. alone, one-fifth of the emissions are caused by cars and trucks, which is about 24 pounds of carbon dioxide, and other gasses which lead to global warming.

Just imagine how much carbon emissions can be reduced when there are fewer cars on the road because people prefer mobility services over owning cars. To get a better perspective on how easy it is to start and build this business, visit Ridecell, a high-yield shared-ride company that can help you start a shared mobility business and show you how “shareable becomes profitable.”

Green Building Materials

With rising awareness of environmental sustainability, people are looking for ways to make their homes more environmentally-friendly – and it all starts with clean green building materials. This is a viable business option, especially for those interested in working for the construction industry.

The good thing is that there are many materials you can work with, so you can choose something which is directly or indirectly linked with your expertise. Some of the green materials options include:

  • Collecting paper, plastic, aluminum, cardboard, etc. and recycling them for a variety of purposes
  • Junk hauling and trash removal services
  • Selling local produce at the farmers market
  • Sourcing or producing organic food or snacks and selling it to people
  • Selling of solar panels

Green Bloggers

If you are well versed in writing, you can choose to write about environmental topics that can make a difference. A blog that’s filled with informative content can be a lucrative business all on its own. You can start making money by featuring advertisements via Google AdSense and other advertisement providers. The more people visit your blog, the more money you make.

Also, once your green blog has a decent following, you can even start selling different green products, especially related to your niche.

All in all, there are many lucrative opportunities with many environmental benefits – so why not jump the bandwagon, strike while the iron is hot, and bring an eco-friendly business idea to life.

Preparing Your Business To Go Global

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Global Success|Preparing Your Business To Go GlobalSo you’re past the start-up stage, and you are now experiencing some fantastic results that show your hard work has paid off. Now is the time to think about preparing for your business to become a global success. With the Internet and communication options available to us now, there are many different things we need to consider ahead of taking the plunge to offer our services worldwide. They start with just translation options and can end with opening a store in a different country. But whatever you choose to do you must be prepared for every eventuality. As taking your products or services worldwide is a huge step for anybody. So what sort of things do you need to consider? And how can you improve your chances of worldwide success?

Translation of documents

Documents that you would’ve had in English will need to be translated into the language of the country you are planning to provide services in. It’s important to note that where possible everyone should have access to clear and accurate information about your products and services. Luckily we have many online options that will translate things for you, and services such as a spanish voice over, that will put you one step ahead. Ideally hiring somebody to do this for you will get you the best results in the shortest time. But of course, this will be a costly option. As with anything, you get what you pay for, and this is something you may not want to fall short on.

Research laws

When planning on taking your products and services to a different country, you will, of course, need to consider the rules and legislation inside the country, the reason for this is that you don’t want to accidentally break the law or not keep up with legislation that will ultimately cause you a headache. This is quite only done if you have a good lawyer or solicitor, and of course, will mean you will prevent fines and legal fees once you start your change over.

Provide Information

Providing information and training to all of your staff is essential. Also ensuring that you hired the right people in the right places for your plans to work, it’s going to save you a lot of trouble further down the line. People have in the past come up short and discovered that they didn’t train their staff effectively. This in turn can cause stress and a loss in profits if you aren’t careful. Ultimately you need to make sure that you are well-informed, and your staff are as well. Paragraph if you don’t feel as though you are prepared for the significant change, there may be something you should reconsider, or more research to be done before you take the big step.

Taking your business global is an exciting but potentially difficult to manage. Still, if you do it in the right way, by researching checking everything thoroughly, and ensuring that you have done everything you can to prevent problems, you should see success follow. Ultimately if you don’t try, you will never know if it could work.