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Look and Feel Like a Business Owner from Head to Toe

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When you look and dress the part as a business owner, you instantly feel more powerful, motivated and well respected. No matter what type of industry you’re working in, you need to feel comfortable and stylish, so now is the time to shake it up. If you’re trying to find your business style, there are a number of ways in which you can approach this. First you can focus on the way you dress physically and then you can adapt your mindset to meet entrepreneurial criteria. Spend some time assessing where your style and mindset is right now and you will soon know the areas that you need to work on.

Simplify Your Style

First of all, it’s time to hone in on your business style. If you’re working on a construction site or your brand has a very laid back vibe, you will definitely want to consider ariat fr jeans for your everyday work clothes. Not only will you feel really comfortable, but you will also be dressing for your role. Of course, if you’re working in the corporate sector and need to wear a suit everyday, you might need to explore other options. Assess your business style and simplify it. You don’t want to have to wake up every single morning and make a tough decision about what to wear.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Look and Feel Like a Business Owner from Head to Toe

Take Your Time to Get Ready

Taking your time to get ready every single morning will not only work wonders for your overall appearance, but it will help you to adopt the right mindset too. Business owners who have a very specific morning routine are often more successful as they get into good habits. Do you have a healthy start to your day every morning? Now might be the perfect time to assess it!

Adopt That Money Mindset

If your mindset isn’t focused on making money, it’s not going to happen. You need to adopt a money mindset right now and believe in your own capabilities. As soon as you start to show true passion and belief in yourself, that’s when other people will start to see it too.

Be Unapologetically Ambitious

As well as adopting your money mindset, you also need to show extreme ambition every single day. In fact, you can be as ambitious as you like when you own a business. As long as you can set realistic goals that have tangible steps to get there, the sky is the limit. Once your goals become aligned with your actions, you will really start to see the results you’re looking for.

Being a business owner isn’t just about looking the part, it’s about feeling like you belong too. Many entrepreneurs suffer from imposter syndrome when they are first starting out; this can lead to a lot of self doubt and negative mindset. As soon as you find a style you’re comfortable with, your confidence will start to shine through and you will be a force to be reckoned with.

5 Ways to Convert Your Garage Into a Home Office

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | 5 Ways to Convert Your Garage Into a Home Office

If you work from home or if run your own business, a garage conversion could be a great way to add a home office to your property, saving yourself the added expenses of rent or overhead.

Garages are enclosed spaces where cars or other items are stored, so they can be ideally repurposed for other uses. And because you are not actually building from scratch, you may not need to apply for planning permission, but you should confirm with your local council to be safe.

Below are some important tips to keep in mind when creating a home office out of your garage.

1. Clear the space

To create your dream office, clean and remove everything you currently have in the garage.

Find new storage options for bicycles, garden tools, car accessories, and Christmas decorations, or store them carefully in boxes that you can discreetly store elsewhere.

You should also thoroughly clean the garage before you do anything else. Make sure that there are no cobwebs or car lubricants left when setting up your new office space.

Part of clearing the space may include clearing land. You may be surprised at how much room you have in your backyard when you use a Forestry Mulching service. You may even find that you have the space to install an outbuilding for your office space. 

2. Be creative with lighting

When you change your garage space into a home office, you should be as creative as possible. Consider your garage a blank canvas to repurpose it as best as possible.

Garages are typically have the worst lighting, so make sure that your new home office is well lit.

I strongly recommend buying inexpensive lighting fixtures if your garage is not exposed to direct sunlight during business hours.

A creative way to add light into your office is to paint it with bright colours and/or use creative bright patterns. This alone gives the office a colourful and uplifting mood.

3. Make it comfortable and secure

As you are repurposing your garage into a home office, remember to make it as comfortable and as secure as possible. This means making it less susceptible to outside weather conditions. For example, you may want to replace the existing garage door with a modern insulated garage door, so that your office remains warm and cosy during cold months.

As an added advantage, a modern insulated garage door will provide extra security for your tools and equipment when you are not at the office. On the plus side, this type of door will be a strong deterrent to thieves.

Finally, you should also invest in a good heater and fan to be comfortable during all seasons.

4. Design your new space

Even though one of the reasons for repurposing a garage into a home office is to reduce the cost of overhead and rent, you still want your new office to be a great space to work in, and to reflect your personal taste.

Of course, you can simply invest in an ergonomic chair and desk, but why not take the opportunity to design a really nice home office?

Personalise your new workspace with a workstation, relaxation sofa, and an entertainment system. You can also add some practical details such as rugs, framed pictures, and throw pillows.

5. Setup and work

Make sure you have reliable and effective technologies that will make it easy to do your work.

Many households now have wireless networks, but often the wireless signal is weak or absent. To solve this problem, buy additional routers or wireless signal amplifiers to boost the network environment in your new home office.

If necessary, invest in higher-quality data storage, processing and printing technologies.

Furthermore, wire everything to keep cables clean and to have minimal interference.

Finally, converting your garage into a home office is both doable and easy. Try the tips in the article and see if you can put your garage to good use.

Making the Changes Your Business Needs to Succeed

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Making the Changes Your Business Needs to Succeed | Business SuccessBusinesses need to evolve over time, whether you want them to or not. The need for change could be due to a number of reasons, from the demands of keeping up with the latest trends to trying to save money to wanting to reach new goals in terms of growth. Whatever the reason, these changes will not happen overnight. For change to be successful, a lot of hard work will be required. However, what changes do you need to make, and how can you implement them? This guide explores more.

Getting more traffic to your website

You might have built a website and found little to no success since its launch. It might be that, currently, your website is not designed as well as it could be. A poorly designed website can deter people from sticking around. Another problem you might be facing is that you are struggling to get the traffic to your website in the first place. If this is the case, then you need to implement an SEO strategy right away. However, it could be that the content you are trying to produce every month on your blog isn’t achieving the results that you want. This is likely because you are not making the most of the keywords that should be used within the content. If you are experiencing any of the above points, you should get in touch with an expert such as Cocoonfxmedia, who will be able to get you started on a tailored business plan for how you can start getting the traffic you need to your website.

Keeping regular customers

Do you have a high turnover of existing customers because you are focused so much on trying to find new ones? This can happen to many businesses when they are trying to implement a growth management strategy. However, having a steady flow of regular customers is crucial to growth management. Not to mention that trying to find new customers is much more costly than trying to retain them.

So, if you have found yourself struggling to keep your regular customers and find new ones at the same time, then you will need to address what is going wrong. Are you losing touch too quickly? Are you giving your existing customers a good enough reason to continue using your services? Common ways to keep existing customers include:

  • Offering a discount
  • Finding something that makes your business unique
  • Focusing on customer service – you need to listen to what your customers want

Bringing onboard new services/products

Are you facing a bit of a cash flow problem? Or are you struggling to make as many sales as you did the previous year? This is a common occurrence for many businesses that have been around for a long time and have almost become complacent with what they are offering. When this happens, it is time to look at making a considerable change within the business itself. You need to have a complete refresh in terms of the products and/or services you are offering your customers. Alert them to the new products that you are introducing via a newsletter or on social media; you could even offer new customers a discount.

Best Online Trading Platforms for Option Trading

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Best Online Trading Platforms for Option Trading

Options trading isn’t just for anyone; it’s got high-risk involved because everything is dependent on fluctuations in the market prices, how much you can afford to pay for the option and whether you should make the call to either sell or buy certain securities at its set price based on future dates — you’ve got to be experienced and knowledgeable about how brokerage systems work or you’ll end up with losses. If you’re looking for a particular online options broker to start or continue your investment journey, we highly recommend you to check out this article about the best options brokers on business24-7. We’ve compiled some of the best online platforms for Options trading, just read on to find out which is the perfect one for you!

1. TD Ameritrade

Across all the trading platforms, this is the best one overall; it has got a fair pricing system, a very resourceful database for beginners and an efficient trading platform for all veterans and experts alike. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are because you’ll be sure to benefit trading on this platform that provides for all users.

Each contract costs $0.75 cents while the trade is priced at $6.95 each; the good thing is that there is no minimum for your account and the site even offers a promotion of commission-free equity, option trades, and ETF for 60 days with just a deposit of at least $3,000. You’ll also get additional bonuses if you’ve got opening deposits of a larger amount.

2. Robinhood

Even though some expert traders aren’t too pleased with the way Robinhood processes and handle their trades, Robinhood nevertheless stands at the top of the list for having no commission price. Investors get to sell and buy options without having to risk anything above their initial investments — they really mean it when they say that there’s no trading fee.

If you’re looking at Robinhood solely as a platform, it would be a great trading avenue. It’s especially for traders who’ve already read up enough on trading, so beginners won’t find many educational materials here. Aside from that, traders trade with ETFs, stock trades, some cryptocurrencies and American Depository Receipts on both the website and the mobile application — all at zero commission fee.

3. TradeStation

Initially starting up as a software trading company, it grew to become an advanced options trading platform. They’ve got rapid-speed trading and exclusive data suited for professionals, making it the ideal platform for the more experienced group of traders.

You’ll be charged $5 each trade and $0.50 cents each contract, but they’ve also got some unbundled and per-contract prices up for offer; for the more veteran and active traders, a common choice is to opt for the flat-rate pricing of $1 each contact rather than the usual base price and individual contract fee. The tools here are so superb that you can find them being sold at other brokers, so if you’re keen on joining TradeStation as a member, you’re in for a good time.

4. Gatsby

Gatsby is most suited for the retail investors, the traders who are new to options trading, social traders and the millennial bunch — if either of these sounds like you, this might be the platform that best suits your needs. Gatsby is an all-inclusive trading platform that ensures you, as a beginner, would be informed of the most common trade lingo and the most up-to-date trade news — they’re all for making sure you get the resources and expertise you’ll need to optimize your trading strategies. Once you’ve signed up, you can begin trading instantly and earn your passive income when you trade for ETFs and companies — or, you can even trade against companies if that’s what interests you.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Best Online Trading Platforms for Option Trading

5. IQ Option

IQ Option is reputable for being a low-costing brokerage, offering low trade prices at $0.95 each, $0.65 for each contract and no minimum account amount. As of now, depending on the amount you’re willing to deposit, they’ve got a promotion that allows you to earn up to $3,500 bonus cash. This would be quintessential for traders who like to start with low investment amounts; with IQ Option, you can start small while reaping the other benefits of using its powerful online trading platform, informative charts and analytics to help you build your trading strategy — at no minimums and low costs, here’s a great place to begin your investment journey. You can find a more detailed review of IQ Option here.

6. Interactive Brokers

Should you be a more active trader that prefers small and quick trades, this may be the platform that fits the bill. When you trade at Interactive Brokers, you won’t need to worry about pre-trade fees and every option commission is priced at $0.70 each. The high-volume traders can enjoy the lower pricing of just $0.15 each contract with the qualification criteria of at least 100,000 contracts every month. There’s also the requirement of having a minimum account balance of $100,00 per month or risk incurring a $10 commission fee, if not you’ll need to deal with an activity fee — this definitely isn’t for those with a smaller trade appetite, but if you’re up for a thriving and excitable trading experience, don’t hesitate to give Interactive Brokers a try.

7. Lightspeed

Like Interactive brokers, Lightspeed also caters to the experienced and active trading community. They charge $0 each trade and $0.60 cents per contract with a minimum of $1 per trade. Their tiered pricing system starts at 500 contracts every month; it depends on your trading volume, but the discounted rates can range from $0.50 cents from 500 to 2,000 contracts each month or even go as low as $0.20 cents with 100,000 contracts a month. Not to mention that they’ve also got the most professional trading tools you need, such as analysis tools, an integrated order executor, personalized layouts and older data analytics that you might find useful for predictions — whatever you want, they’ve got it all.

8. ETrade

Last but not least, ETrade is one of the oldest online trading platforms that boasts of a rich trader history. They’ve got a multitude of research tools and data available, even including the ones you’ll need to build your very own advanced trading options chain and ladders. The only downside is that the commissions aren’t the cheapest you’ll find around; the trades and contracts cost $6.95 and $0.75 respectively. However, you will find some discounts available if you would like to trade in high volumes. The Index and Equity options will be as affordable as $4.95 and the contracts will be priced at just $0.50 each. For new accounts that manage to have a balance of $10,000 and more, these users can get an outstanding $600 in free trades plus 60 days of trades that are commission-free — ETrade gives you the epic premium trading experience you never knew you needed.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Best Online Trading Platforms for Option Trading

That’s all we have for the best options trading platforms for 2019, but we promise you won’t be disappointed with any of these. Before you start investing in any of these platforms, ensure to do sufficient additional research just to be sure that you’ve found just the right online trading platform that best suits your needs; options trading may be a high-risk investment but it definitely is worth the effort, all you need is to understand how it all works and you’ll have the relevant expertise to make the right call.

Do Team-Building Activities At Work Have To Be Boring?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Entrepreneurship | Talent Management | Do Team-Building Activities At Work Have To Be Boring?It’s a new year and it’s time for another long hard look at your employees. What did they do that you liked or hated last year? Were there arguments among managers? Were junior employees left without leadership? Were there petty squabbles among employees that set deadlines back? Now is the perfect time of year to bring more cohesion to your workforce. From top to bottom, your employees need to forget about last year’s fights and look forward to the future together. It’s vital that your workforce remains a solid team so you can grow even larger and more successful than the previous decade. Yet, you may not have the time or the budget to take employees out on a day of team-building activities. It’s still possible to have them indoors at your office?

A personal piece

Inform your employees that you’re going to be holding a show and tell activity tomorrow. Instruct them to bring something along that matters to them a great deal, or has had a huge impact on them. Employees will sit in a circle and you’ll go around the room asking each person to show that special item. This is to evoke an image of who an employee is outside of work. Sharing something personal about yourself with colleagues will help you to understand why they are the type of person they are. It allows colleagues to feel more connected with the people they work with for 8 hours a day. The aim is to increase the bond between employees and therefore increase cooperation and productivity.

Futuristic racing

Move all the desks and chairs out of the way and call in TLC to set up their team drone racing challenge. They set up neon glowing bars that have been intricately shaped differently to present a gateway challenge. Entering the gates with a drone will be like reaching a checkpoint. You need to complete a set amount of laps in the first place to be declared the winning team. It’s fun, building friendships and isn’t dangerous at all. The courses can be set up within the size of a medium-sized room, so clearing a whole floor will be more than enough room. Employees have to work together as it’s two versus two affairs. You have to avoid bumping into each other while trying to block the other team’s drones on the circuit.

Scavenger hunt

Group your workers into pairs of four. One team will need to hide one item of each member’s workstation around the entire office. The other team will need to find these items. From a humble pencil holder to a keyboard, anything can be used as a prop. The team on the scavenger hunt is given a couple of minutes to find everything before returning to the starting point before the clock runs out. It takes cooperation and effective communication between colleagues, otherwise, they won’t be able to cover the most amount of ground in the shortest amount of time.

Team-building activities don’t have to be extravagant, they can be done right in the office. Futuristic drone racing is incredibly good fun and something employees won’t forget easily.