3 tips for brainstorming as a professional

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | 3 tips for brainstorming as a professionalBrainstorming sessions are the perfect way to improve your business. They will make sure all noses are pointing in the same direction. It almost sounds promising and exciting to go in for a new session. What are we talking about today? Which new products will we launch the upcoming months? Being part of a team of motivated employees and working on new things to improve your business can be ecstatic. It will boost your creative mind in ways you have never felt before. Unfortunately, this is not always the reality. Bad brainstorm sessions are more common than you think. Want to know how to improve the brainstorm sessions within your business? Here are 3 tips to help you brainstorm as a professional.

1. Only use pen and paper

Brainstorming can be quite hard when there are distractions all around you. That’s why it can be a great idea to put smartphones, tablet and laptops aside and just use plain and simple pen and paper. Just get out your favourite cross pen and an empty notebook and start writing. Just as you would when there weren’t any shortcuts.

Fun fact: by writing you’ll boost your brain to think more creatively. Writing words will take some effort from your brain. The left- and right side of your brain will need to be in perfect harmony to write. That’s why its capable to think more solution-oriented. Just what you need when brainstorming as a professional.

2. Assemble a great team

The people you work with during a brainstorm session are the most important. They make or break the success of the meeting. That’s why it’s important to assemble a great and very much diverse team. Don’t speak only with the employees of a certain department, but assemble a team with people from every department in your business. People who have right to say things. Of course, this doesn’t mean you’ll invite the janitor when there is a brainstorming about launching new products. The people you invite, need to have some form of connecting to the issue you’re trying to resolve.

It’s not only important to assemble the right team, but also to make sure that there aren’t to many participants in the room. The magic number will be between six and ten. Not too big, not too small.

3. Document everything

In the heat of the moment sometimes people will be outspoken by other participants. That can be a shame. Especially when great ideas aren’t heard. That’s why it’s important to ask a team member to document everything that’s being said. So, when the brainstorming session has ended, you’re able to read through the different ideas and maybe enjoy a great solution, which you hadn’t known about if there weren’t any notes.

Are You Spending Enough Time with Your Kids?

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Are You Spending Enough Time with Your Kids?They say that being a parent is the most difficult job in the world. You are both accountable and responsible for another life, and it is up to how this kid will become an individual a few years from now. When they say everything starts at home, it does indeed start with the parents. Being family-centered is just as important as regularly saying your prayers.

So what if you are not around to be a parent to your kid? What if you are working from afar to provide for your little beans? It is not commonly frowned upon, but there would be a possibility that this could affect your children.

It is a sacrifice you need to make, and you can only hope that your kids will understand your decision to work abroad to provide them a better shot in the future. But how do you make sure that your kids understand why you have to do this? How do you keep on being their mom or dad while you have chosen to be a better provider miles away from them?

If you relate to this situation, this article will help you find common ground with your kids.

Don’t Forget to Talk to Your Kids

Working away from your family is nowhere near easy. There’s the feeling of homesickness that can lead to an even magnified exhaustion after work. You will be struggling to adjust at first, but you need to find time to be present, especially when your kids are growing up fast to their teenage years. Kids who used to be sweet, thoughtful, and loving would later become brooding teenagers who like to be left alone. So before this happens, you need to make sure you are a part of your kid’s life.

There are scenarios that overseas Filipino worker (OFW) parents get lucky to have a yearly vacation, but there are others who get to visit home only after three to four years. Some even take longer to go back home. During this period, a lot could have happened to your kids when they needed a parent. Your daughter could have her first boy heartbreak and needed her dad to remind her she’s beautiful. Your son could have suffered a major rejection from his varsity tryout and needed his mother to cook his comfort meal. You won’t be there personally, but you can be present to still ask them about their days.

Don’t Forget to Send Them Gifts

Kids all have a soft spot for their parents. Adults would probably deny that, but we all did when we were younger. Kids ask their parents for toy presents, and they keep them close to their hearts. They would grow up and even remember the times you bought them the latest Lego collection. This small thing can either make or break their childhood, and you know it.

So even when you’re far from home, do not forget to send them gifts. Or if you cannot find a shop where you can buy imported toys, you can send money online and let your kids buy what they want for themselves. With a reliable remittance service, sending love to your kids would be easier than transferring to banks and waiting for a few business days for processing.

Do Activities with Your Kids

During this trying time, the world has learned that there could be ways to connect with your friends and family even when apart. There are video conferencing applications that help connect families and loved ones, and it isn’t just simple video calls anymore. Applications such as Discord and Zoom allow you to host parties with more than ten members! Also, it allows you to do watch movies together and even play together using smart bots. If you have kids young enough to enjoy these things, then these are for you.

Additionally, even without Zoom and Discord, parents can virtually do things together. You can cook meals with your kid, even play mobile games with them. As long as you are spending time with them, your kids would just forget the distance between you and them, and in a way, you would be an important part of their lives. You wouldn’t have to worry about your kids growing up without your presence.

Parenting is hard, and parenting from afar is harder. But with the right tools and consistent efforts to make time and be present, distance shouldn’t be a factor to raise a compassionate and kind individual. So don’t worry; you will get by.

What To Do When Receiving A Bad Review

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Receiving a Bad Review|What To Do When Receiving A Bad ReviewIt can be detrimental to your business if you receive negative online reviews. It is becoming more important than ever before for businesses to pay attention to what customers are saying about them on social media and online review websites due to the increasing popularity of social media.

The good news is that, even if negative online reviews occur, that does not necessarily result in loss of business like complaints made in person. In fact, they can be viewed as an opportunity to improve customer service. From using reputation management services to good communication with your customers, you can turn bad reviews into positive ones. Let’s look at how to deal with them below:

Respond Quickly

The online world operates around the clock and people expect to receive a quick response when they request it. As soon as a negative review appears, you must act quickly to avoid it escalating and attracting more potential customers to your brand.

Keep It Professional And Polite

If someone gives you a negative review, don’t react personally. Please handle the issue in a polite and professional manner. Don’t point the finger at other people or make excuses.

Handle The Issue Offline

Offer to deal with the issue in an off-line fashion, out of the public eye, when you acknowledge the problem. Let the person know where to find your contact info or email so that you can discuss the issue further.

You can then use the review website to put up a public comment outlining the agreed conclusion as soon as you have been able to resolve the issue.

Remove Or Request Removal Of Misleading Or False Reviews

You need to remove fake and misleading reviews if you know of them. An example of a misleading review that you should remove would be one that is written by any of the following.

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 gives businesses and review platforms the power to remove fake reviews. Failing to do so could lead them to breach the law.

There is no harm in asking for reviews to be removed (or to remove them from your own website or Facebook page), but this is not the same as asking for them to be removed. There is nothing wrong with being negative here and there, even though social media is all about building relationships. Some examples include:

  • Keeping your personal relationship a secret from family or friends
  • In a competitive market
  • An unqualified reviewer who paid to write it
  • You or someone on your staff

Encourage Customers To Write Reviews

As a business owner, you can ask happy customers to write reviews if they are happy with your product or service. However, you need to be careful not to sway them into only writing positive reviews.

You can improve customer reviews online by:

  • Review sites: understanding how they operate
  • You can track mentions of your business by registering with Google Alerts
  • Review sites, especially those specific to your industry, provide alerts when a review is posted
  • Providing details on how your customers can post a review so they are aware you are listed on review sites
  • Your staff should receive reviews

This guide should help you when dealing with bad reviews. Do you have any other tips that could help? Please share them in the comments below.

Is Coinbase a Safe Place to Store Your Crypto Coins

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Coinbase|Is Coinbase a Safe Place to Store Your Crypto Coins?Coinbase is a popular platform for storing and exchanging crypto coins. However, crypto enthusiasts shouldn’t base decisions about who to trust with their digital currency on popularity, alone. They should consider other important factors like whether their digital wallets will be safe and what kinds of security precautions the platform takes to protect its users.

Are Coinbase Exchange Accounts Safe?

According to crypto experts, Coinbase is a reputable company with 40 different licenses to operate in 30 US states and 32 different countries. The company stores most of its digital assets in secure, off-line storage and insures any crypto coins stored on their servers.

Though Coinbase has been popular in the United States for some time, it’s only recently that Canadians have started using the platform in larger numbers. Thankfully, they can rely on the same safeguards and security policies as other existing customers. New users can also check out this Coinbase Canada Review to learn what else they need to know before getting started.

Are Coinbase Wallet Accounts Safe?

Coinbase Wallet is owned by the same parent company as Coinbase Exchange. However, users don’t need to have an Exchange account to keep their crypto coins in a Coinbase wallet. Anyone can download Coinbase Wallet on iOS or Android for free, and it will be as secure as the device being used to store it.

Coinbase Wallet goes a step beyond some digital wallet providers. It uses Secure Element Technology to add security for private keys on users’ smartphones, making a hack virtually impossible. To gain access to the wallet, a hacker would need to create a duplicate fingerprint and avoid the auto-lock timeout to frustrate those who want to attempt multiple breaches.

What Steps Does Coinbase Take to Keep Users Safe?

Coinbase takes multiple steps to ensure that its users’ information and crypto coins stay safe. They include requiring three levels of ID verification to prevent malicious individuals from accessing the platform anonymously and allowing users to enable two-factor authentication to improve security on their accounts. Users can only set up two-factor authentication after they have verified their IDs.

Users’ Roles in Keeping Their Crypto Assets Safe

While Coinbase does provide advanced security features that keep users’ data and crypto-assets safe while they’re in the company’s hands, it can’t do all the work. Users also need to take certain steps to keep their accounts private. To maximize security, Coinbase users should:

  • Create strong passwords by using long, random, unique strings of characters.
  • Enable two-factor authentication, including a security key or Time-Based One-Time Passwords paired with mobile authenticator apps.
  • Use secure email accounts that have never been compromised.
  • Protect mobile phones against port attacks and SIM swaps.
  • Update and clean devices used to access Coinbase frequently.
  • Beware of phishing scams used to gather sensitive information via email.
  • Verify recent activity regularly to make sure there’s nothing suspicious going on.

Coinbase Is a Safe, Reputable Platform

It’s understandable that so many people are hesitant to use online crypto exchanges given all the horror stories that have circulated in recent years about scams and outright thefts. Canadians looking for a safe way to get into crypto buying, selling, and investing can trust Coinbase, though. The platform is owned by a well-established company that has a reputation for taking users’ data seriously and ensuring that all the crypto coins stored on their servers are safe.

Safest industries to invest in

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Invest in Industry|Safest industries to invest inWhen it comes to investing, you want to know that your money is safe. However, this isn’t always easy. There is an inherent risk that comes with investing. This article will look at the safest industries to invest in.

Food industry

You might be surprised to find out that the food industry is one of the safest industries to invest in. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, it is an essential service that everyone needs. This means that people will always have money to spend on food, which results in greater spending power for businesses operating within the sector. Secondly, there is less food waste in the modern-day. This means that there is more money invested into the food industry by businesses, which increases profits and provides a safe environment for investors.

Textile industry

The textile industry is another of the safest industries to invest in. In this day and age, companies are coming under increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact. This means that they need to focus on using recycled materials as well as investing in recycling streams for post-waste. This makes the industry even more profitable, which results in greater investments from investors.

Legal and compliance industry

The legal and compliance industry is different from other industries in that it exists because the rest of the world isn’t perfect. This means that there will always be a need for the industry to exist, which results in greater investment figures than you might expect. People can feel safe knowing that if they ever need help, they know where to go.

Precious metals industry

One of the safest industries to invest in is the precious metals industry. This is because it exists outside of the traditional economy. If you own gold, for example, no bank or government can simply come along and take it away from you. Furthermore, there’s an element of safety that comes with owning metal. This makes it one of the safer industries to invest in. Check out Cdocast.com for more information about melting down precious metals.

Energy utility industry

The energy utility industry is another one of the safest industries to invest in as a whole. You can use this as a medium for powering all kinds of different appliances and devices. This makes it an essential service that consumers will always need. Furthermore, the sector has been largely unaffected by technology and other disruptive services, which increases safety and makes it a good industry to invest in.

Water industry

Water industry projects are becoming increasingly popular because of the need to maintain a clean environment. This means that there is a lot of money being invested in the water sector, which results in greater profits for companies operating within it. Furthermore, people will always be in need of clean drinking water and waste management, which keeps this sector safe from external factors that might damage it.

Property industry

The property industry falls under the category of ‘essential services’, which means that people will always need somewhere to live and work. This increases demand, even during economic downturns or recessions. Furthermore, the sector lies outside of the traditional economy and is not as susceptible to risk factors that might harm other industries.