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Four Ways to Overhaul Your Company Website

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Four Ways to Overhaul Your Company WebsiteIf your company’s been around for a while, it’s likely that your website has been, too. If that’s the case, you may well find that design trends, features and styles have moved on from the point at which you dusted off your finished site. The web design world moves fast – and consumer attention moves faster. If customers arrive on your website to the impression that you’ve not updated it for a number of years, they’ll instantly judge you for it. You’ll lose business as a result. As such, here are four ways to overhaul your website in favor of something a little more snazzy, modern and sleek.

Rebrand

While this is not necessarily a web-based overhaul, it is something you should consider if you’re in any case about to entirely change your website’s appearance. A rebrand will echo through-out your website, and as such it’s best to cover both a rebrand and a web redesign at the same time, in the same cohesive process. Get your design team on it immediately, or outsource to de-sign professionals who’ll help you achieve your vision.

Hosting Platforms

The very base – the foundation – of your website is its hosting platform. If you’re about to go through an overhaul, it’s certainly worth considering whether you ought to change hosting providers at the same time. In recent years, cloud hosting has become particularly favored in the web design world – something that you’ll not be using in your current legacy website.

Restructuring

Many companies are so used to their existing website that they fail to recognize some glaring failures in terms of its structural layout. Even if there are no failures per se, the gold standard for webpage and site map layout is always changing, which means your website is almost certainly behind the curve, confusing web users and alienating potential custom. When you overhaul your website, be sure to restructure it in such a way as to smooth all click-throughs and open up pathways for your traffic to pass easily through.

Redesigning

Now it comes to the more visual side of your site’s revamp. Here, you’ll want to go with some of the most exciting design trends to be taking place in 2019. Mini-animations, activated by the scroll function, have become something of a dominant trend for websites in the past year, and continue to dominate the ecosystem for businesses aiming to look ultra-modern and super-slick. Engage with these trends visually in order to bask in the admiration of your site’s visitors.

A Word of Warning

While website overhauls are incredibly important in order to keep your business modern and functional online, you shouldn’t erase your old web pages until you’re sure that your new and revamped website is entirely bug-free. A second word of warning: be sure to bear in mind that repeat customers may be shocked by a very different website appearing when they go to visit yours. Take steps to reassure these customers, and to keep some consistency with the old de-sign.

These four tips – and brief words of warning – should help you conduct a thorough overhaul of your company’s website, updating your appearance and functionality for the trends that are dominating 2019.

Five Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs

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Networking is one of the lesser appreciated talents that the world’s most successful entrepreneurs have mastered. It is not an easy skill, either. Knowing how to network is a fine line between making friends and actively seeking out business partnerships. You cannot become best friends with everyone you meet, after all, but you do need to make a good enough connection to trade favors with each other. Reaching that stage can be incredibly difficult because if you aren’t careful people will only see your efforts as wanting of something. To properly master the art that is networking, try adopting these top five tips.

Skip the Sales Speech

If you go into any new relationship with a goal to sell products or gain a favor, you will most likely fail. Only a very few people have mastered their charm to the point where people will be willing to help out or buy something new from the get-go, especially if they weren’t expecting you. So, skip the sales speech and instead start a conversation. It is far easier to connect with someone in an organic conversation than it is if you give them an elevator pitch.

Help First, Ask Later

One of the easiest tips to follow and arguably one of the best is to find out what you can do for someone else. Be proactive about networking. This way will help you make connections, diversify your portfolio and skills, and of course give you an acquaintance you can later ask for help. You don’t need to be best friends with people, but you do need to foster mutually beneficial relationships.

Take Notes and Keep Track

Try as best you can to keep track of information about the person in question. Keeping notes in your contacts app can help you stay in touch and give the personal touch all at the same time. Try to keep track of both corporate information (their job position, who they work for, etc.) as well as personal information (if they have allergies, for example). People respond when they feel like you care.

Collaborate

Another way to network is to collaborate. This way you can put effort into fostering one relationship, and then meet others in that niche or industry in a far more organic way – being introduced. As a bonus, you will also be working in a new field or project on the side that can further your career and show your ambition.

Host Your Own Event

Finally, consider hosting your own event. If you are a consultant or own business, for example, you can organize an event, create a great atmosphere, offer free drinks served by professional bartenders from services such as eventbartenders.com, and get key people from your industry to attend. Then, as the host, you can get to know each and every one of them with a position of authority. They will be interested in knowing you because you took the initiative to create a great event everyone in your industry will be talking about. In turn, you can make new business relationships and connections.

Networking is a never-ending task, but it should never be seen as a chore. Instead, connect with people. Try to gain insight from them, help them, collaborate, and even host them. By doing this you not only network with people, but you set yourself up as a huge name in your industry.

Three Ways to Make the 4AM Club Work For You

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Articles | 4AM Club | Three Ways to Make the 4AM Club Work For You“Early to bed, early to rise makes a [wo]man healthy, wealthy and wise.” – Ben Franklin

You’ve heard it said a million times before: the early bird catches the worm, and in the opinion of many highly successful people, the phrase is much more than a cliche. The benefits of an extremely early morning routine have been touted by so many self-made celebrities that the “4 AM Club” has become a part of the public vernacular. Any web search will pull up a dozen articles with contradictory research on the benefits and downsides of the routine, along with firsthand accounts of people “taking the 4 AM challenge.”

These trials are often full of negative impressions: disorientation in the dark hours before dawn; a mid-afternoon slump that belies productivity; and by dinnertime, the inability to form coherent sentences. And then, almost as quickly as it begins, the challenge is over, sworn off forever as an unrealistic, unachievable, and borderline inhumane goal.

Yet 4 AM remains the magic hour for many world changers like Oprah, Michelle Obama, and Tim Cook, and experience has taught me why. In my world, it’s a time of quiet, focus, determination and accomplishment.

My routine is not without naysayers. An 8 PM bedtime with a 4 AM wake-up call has made me the subject of much critique over the years. Many people feel uncomfortable with my choice, claiming that my practices are unhealthy and not sustainable for the long term. Yet I’ve found deep joy in the practice.

As an entrepreneur and the mother of a growing family, high-paced days at my desk and endless days on the road, are only outpaced by high-energy evenings and weekends with my family of five. My favorite use of this early morning time is for my own personal development and self-care so that I can be at the top of my game during the remaining hours of the day. By waking up at 4 AM, I’m able to routinely take time for myself. I work out while listening to audiobooks, I meditate while I stretch, I prepare a healthy breakfast — and most importantly, I tackle my most critical work of the day while enjoying my espresso — all before 7 AM.

If this is something you’ve wanted to try but haven’t yet managed to find success in, here are a few keys I’ve found to making this routine not only possible, but extremely enjoyable as well:

Check your DNA

Have you ever referred to yourself as a “morning person” or “night owl”? We typically use these terms to indicate our preferred time of productivity — but they can signify something much more fundamental to our being. Our tendency to be productive at certain times of the day is often hard-wired in us, an internal clock that’s determined by our DNA. This genetic predisposition is called our chronotype. If you identify as a night owl, then you can stop reading now. This method is not for you and it never will be. In fact, research shows a correlation to weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease if you try to force an extra early wake-time when your DNA is telling you otherwise. But if you feel like you do your best work in the morning, or maybe you’re not sure, than the 4 AM club could be for you.

Check your Watch

The key to making this system work, and to sustaining it, has everything to do with getting to bed at the right time each evening, and being consistent about it. Knowing the exact number of sleep hours that support your peak performance is requisite to success — mine is eight. While I can certainly make accommodations when my schedule forces me to get less sleep, more than a few nights of that in any given month effectively compromises all the systems that work together to make me successful in my day-to-day life. Without enough sleep, my motivation to exercise is zapped, my food choices start moving in a downward spiral, and my productivity at work takes a nosedive.

Check your Excuses

If you’re going to take a shot at creating a new early morning routine, you must go into it knowing that this is a no-excuses kind of practice. Follow the 21/90 rule — on average, it takes 21 days (or three full weeks) to form a habit. If the system seems to work for you, another 90 days (about three months) practice is recommended to turn it into a permanent lifestyle change. That said, you can bet your money on the fact that the first few days will be brutal. The first morning your alarm goes off at that other-worldly hour, your instinct will be to hit snooze with your inner voice pleading, “just a few more minutes.” A few more minutes inevitably turns into another hour or two, which is not getting you any closer to seeing if this system really works for you. Try combating this sleep trap by using the Rule of 5 as soon as you hear your alarm go off. When you hear the buzzer, count to five, pop up, and start moving out of bed, no matter how you feel about it in that moment. It’s totally normal to move through the motions of the first part of your morning like a zombie at first, but don’t let that stop you from making a routine of it for a least three weeks. Watch out for that sneaky 10-day slump too — for some people, the excuses come out after we feel like we’ve accomplished something, and we let our guard down.

Above all, know that every person is wired in their own way, and successful habits look different for everyone. Do not try to define yourself by what works for others — instead, let them inspire you to find your own routines that drive you toward your goals.

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Articles | 4AM Club | Three Ways to Make the 4AM Club Work For YouJudith Nowlin, Chief Growth Officer with Babyscripts. Judith created iBirth™, a mobile care companion for pregnancy, birth and postpartum, to help healthcare practitioners deliver better health outcomes for women and children in the United States and beyond. The original idea for the app was born out of her prior decade of service in maternity care. The technology platform she and her team built has since impacted nearly 1 million families on their journey toward optimal health and wellness during one of life’s most precious times. iBirth was acquired in June 2018 by Babyscripts, Inc., the leading virtual care platform for obstetrics. You can find her here

The Legislation Involved In Working With The Government

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Articles | Government Contracts | The Legislation Involved In Working With The GovernmentSecuring a government contract is the Holy Grail of business. As an entity with a trillion dollar budget, they usually reward contractors with competitive deals. Plus, they are an establishment which needs work completing on a regular basis. As a result, the agreements are lucrative and are long-term too.

Of course, working with the government isn’t a walk in the park. While it’s rewarding, it’s also potentially dangerous on various levels. Lots of companies have folded after a deal gone wrong with the government. Before signing on the dotted line, it’s imperative that you understand the risks.

Here are the main ones to consider.

Licenses And Permits

Before you can apply, the US government requires a few things from you first. Chief among them are the correct licenses and permits to ensure you’re an eligible contractor. A prime example is a D-U-N-S number which is a nine-digit code. It provides them with a physical location for each business premises of your company. Or, there’s a NAICS code which collects data relating to the economy. Any organizations that apply without either of these two things will get rejected. So, it’s essential to have your paperwork in order.

Admin

Speaking of paperwork, it’s pretty important to ensure everything is in order before applying. Remember that this is the government you’re talking about and they will perform a rigorous security check. If anything in your background is a little dodgy, it will show up as a red flag. Not only will this result in your application getting thrown out, but it will also be forwarded to the relevant office. So, say you owe tax, the IRS will get in touch to ask about an irregular tax return. If you’re not squeaky clean, it’s best to avoid the hassle in the first place.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Articles | Government Contracts | The Legislation Involved In Working With The GovernmentInsurance

It’s tempting to see them as the most reputable client in the world. After all, it isn’t as if they’re strapped for cash. However, governments have to cut costs too and they will do so any way they can. If that includes stiffing you with a dodgy excuse, they won’t hesitate. It’s not as if they can’t use the legal system to their advantage. A policy entitles you to legal representation for Defense Base Act cases which go wrong. It won’t be included, yet the fact you have one is a strong basis for a lawsuit. Always have a backup plan in case there are unforeseen circumstances.

The Value

Competing with huge contractors is tough when they have the resources. So, it’s crucial to understand how the system works with regards to small businesses. Did you know that the law requires that government purchases worth $3,000 to $100,000 be directed to SMEs? It’s true, which means there is a lane for startups and non-specialists. All you need to do is to check out the opportunities on the Fed Biz Opps website and place a bid.

Even if you think there is no chance you’ll win, it’s worth a shot. And, if you’re right, keep plugging away until you hit the jackpot.

Three Ways to Establish a Baseline for Your Brand-New Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Three Ways to Establish a Baseline for Your Brand-New BusinessIn business terms, a baseline is where you start. It gives you an idea of your bottom-most revenues and ranks, then allows you to improve upon them until you have a new baseline to replace the start-up version. This is super-important for a brand-new business, as you need to know where you’re starting from to grasp where you want to go. Especially important in project management for business, baselines should be included in your initial business concept. Or at least projected and considered. That said, this article gives you more to think about when establishing a baseline for your brand-new business.

1. Establish a Projected Baseline of Your Hopeful Revenues, Ranks, and Business Presence for the First 3 Months

Baselines are your bottom dollar and where you begin in business. It’s the rock-bottom of your company, and it’s rather low to start with because you don’t know exactly what your business will make. However, you can do a projected baseline as a goal for the next three months. Project a hopeful new baseline, and if you accomplish that one, then that will be your new standard until you consistently make more.

2. Compare Your Actual Baseline to Your Projected Baseline AFTER the First 3 Months and Make Note of Things to Do Differently/Similarly

The first three months are crucial to the success of your business, so keep well-documented records of projected baselines and actual revenues and ranks. When the first three months pass and your business is still standing tall, make tangible notes of what you did, what you will keep the same, and what to do differently. This will be your routine for every three months that your business excels. You could even make a tangible office chart on your wall. Make custom stickers to represent your baseline, projected revenues, and current ranking numbers.

3. Build on Your Business Concept Using the Baseline as an Example of What You Can Accomplish—but Update it Every 3 Months

Baselines change, and businesses go through the trial and errors that either lead to big successes or big failures. Look at where your business began and how much you have accomplished every three months. Let these numbers drive you to do better and maintain a standard of success within your business.