Fed Up With Your Job Start Your Own Business

Fed Up With Your Job Start Your Own Business It is National Womens Small Business Month. This month, we celebrate the women who take that brave entrepreneurial step towards building the businesses of their dreams. Starting a business can be a big challenge. As a woman, it may be even more difficult because you may have to face additional barriers. According to an article by  Katie Vlietstra, the vice president for government relations and public affairs for the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE), the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, came out with a report that stated “women-owned businesses are a $3 trillion economic force and support 23 million jobs, but still face significant barriers compared to their male-owned counterparts when it comes to obtaining loans and growing their businesses.” Despite these barriers, 29 percent of entrepreneurs are women. For the last 20 years, they have been starting more businesses then men. Now, with the power of telecommunications and outsourcing companies, a small business can do almost the same number of things as a big business. There has never been a better time to start a business on a smaller budget. If your company needed an excellent drop shipper to fulfill international orders for merchandise, it could use Amazon.com. Amazon has warehouses all over the world and their fulfillment services are among the best. If your company needed end-to-end service management, it could utilize an offering like  Astea field service management  software  to handle specific business operations.  For instance, it could use this kind of outsourcing for tasks like mobile-workforce management, which would be either too expensive or time-consuming to do on your own. Also, if your company needed to use highly specialized software that it could not afford to buy, it could use the power of a cloud-based software program through a Service as a Solution (SaaS). There are many ways to start a business; and while it is a huge challenge, we also have access to more tools now more than ever. Shattering the Glass Ceiling There is a quiet revolution afoot, but it’s not the same one that began in the 1970s. At that time, women fought against their traditional roles as wives and mothers and entered the workforce in large numbers. Now, the revolution is no longer about breaking away from a role as a homemaker, instead it’s about opting out of corporate jobs. There are numerous reasons for this movement away from corporate jobs. Here are a few of the most common: It takes women many more years to climb up the corporate ladder than men. An unacknowledged gender bias, referred to as the glass ceiling, often keeps many from getting the promotion they deserve. Women may not get the same pay as a man for the same work. However, due to many corporate policies, employees are prohibited from salary comparison. In some companies, they can even be fired for talking about how much they earn. Dealing with corporate politics can be exhausting. There are numerous rules and regulations to follow, many of them grandfathered from an early era in the company’s history where they actually made sense. Working days are often long, and there may also be long commutes. In the final analysis, corporate jobs rarely create a sense of overall fulfillment because they require conformity over creativity. By comparison, starting their own business offers women a larger number of rewards: The nature of the work aligns with personal values. Running their own business gives them the freedom to manifest creative ideas. The flexibility of owning a business allows for more work-life balance. They can use their business acumen while still maintaining family ties. There is no cap on how much they can earn from their hard work and initiative. 7 Ways to Start a Business: There are innumerable types of businesses a woman can start. Here are a few ideas. Start a small business based on doing what you love. A niche business can be highly profitable. For example, becoming chocolatier or starting a graphics design business. Turn a good product into an even better one. Not all new products have to be built from scratch. They can be a spinoff from something people already use. Use an established idea. There are many old business ideas that are familiar to almost everyone and that bring in good money. For example, open a sandwich restaurant or a laundry mat. Monetize a hobby. Many women love writing, painting, or doing craftwork. These skills can easily be turned into careers. Teach something. Expertise in any area can be turned into a form of tutoring or coaching. Someone good in mathematics can create an income as an after-school tutor. Someone experienced in management techniques can become a consultant for people starting their own micro business. Buy a business. It is not necessary to build a business. It’s possible to just find a business that you would have liked to have built. This offers the added advantage of having fully tested out and worked out the kinks in your business idea. You can also reshape the business according to your own vision. Buy a franchise. A franchise has all the advantages of offering you a system to follow. The disadvantage, of course, is that there is little room for innovation.

8 HR Hacks You Can Follow to Improve Employee Productivity CareerMetis.com

8 HR Hacks You Can Follow to Improve Employee Productivityâ€" CareerMetis.com “Productivity is never an accident; it is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and an applied effort.”Let’s talk about domino effect and how a typical domino can knock over another domino bigger in size. However, the result relies on all the dominoes falling in just the right way. If one of them slips or is poorly situated, the whole process can come to an abrupt stop. Employee productivity can take a similar hit when employees are overwhelmed by their workload and feel their needs are not being met.evalHR needs the utmost care and attention!It lies in the hands of HR leadership to prevent the worst-case scenario and motivate the people to produce their best work in every task and project assigned to them. We are all familiar with Spiderman’s catchphrase: “With great power comes great responsibility.” However, this would mean nothing if a man does exactly what a spider can and does not rise above it.A Company can experience almost a 12% i ncrease in productivity with happy and satisfied employees, as per a study published in the Journal of Labour Economics.And Hence HR leaders can play an essential role in ensuring the following methods:1) Encourage IntrapreneurshipevalA person can be as creative as a bird exploring the sky. You tether the wings; the birds lose the zeal to fly and reach greater heights. An employee must not be restricted to perform the assigned duties only but should be encouraged to go beyond the job description.The employee should be motivated to take ownership of individual projects/tasks outside his domain knowledge as a part of inter-disciplinary learning/cross-industry exposure, which helps the employee gain more experience and skills to improve his/her skill set. This will eventually help the organization in having a more efficient task force who can do multiple hats for them for any situation needed.2) Follow Strict and Efficient Meeting TimingsMrs. X planned a family dinner at 8 PM after suc h a long time to spend some quality time with family, but the boss asked to extend the meeting by 15 mins. Next thing we know, she is stuck in a traffic jam which she could have avoided and reached for dinner on time. Nonetheless, the meal has been ruined and so is her motivation to go to the office the next day.evalMeetings should be efficient with a clearly defined agenda with timelines, and everyone should respect it; even if you are a CEO! It gives a sense of efficient time management to every employee through which they can ultimately follow the same principle to improve their productivity at work.3) Do Not Discourage Raising a HandAn employee should feel valued in the company, and one must feel that the leaders in the company consider the inputs provided by him/her. Conduct periodic all-hands session, townhall activities or knowledge exchange session which involves the employees to share their thoughts, contributions, and experiences.Brainstorming sessions help the employees t o display their views and ideas; such a platform helps to break the ice barrier between leadership and employees and creates a free flow of ideas and thoughts. Sometimes, an ordinary mind can generate an extraordinary idea.4) Recognize the Valuable and Hardworking EmployeesPeople go the extra mile for recognition, praise, and rewards. There’s not a single person who doesn’t appreciate an award for outstanding work.evalAn employee who went the extra mile should be rewarded and recognized. This boosts the morale of the employee to continue working the same way and provides motivation to other employees to achieve similar things for similar recognition and rewards. Healthy competition always makes one strive to be better.eval5) Share Company Goals and NewsLeadership should communicate with all the employees about the happenings in the company, achievements by the company, goals, and targets for the next quarter/year, etc.This gives a sense of purpose to the employees and makes them feel an essential part of the organization.Leadership should discuss how an employee’s contribution is helping the company achieve its goals and targets.6) Encourage Team BondingLeadership should encourage connections at workplaces and inter-disciplinary/cross-team bonding. Conduct regular team outings, team-building activities, social gatherings, which helps the employees to connect at a personal level as well.Employees who establish a sense of camaraderie with their co-workers are 2.5 times more likely to be happy on the job than those who do not. As they say “Unity is strength” and a more solid team will produce much better results.7) Respect the Work-Life BalanceLeadership should respect the personal space of an employee and not bombard with the work duties outside work hours or work premises.An employee who spent a quality evening with the family the other night would be happier and more charged up to work the next day as compared to the employee who was asked to complet e a presentation at home.Work-life balance is not a myth and should be respected even in these times of market competitiveness.8) Be a LeaderevalLeadership should be someone to look up to in a company. And hence the difference should be made right at the top level of management.A leader should walk the talk and be a role model for the rest of the employees to follow. An employee should have trust and confidence in the leadership. No one likes to work for someone who steals credit for work, delegates everything and blames it on the employee every time.The first step in achieving the employee’s productivity is knowing what to do. The next step is to repeat those steps. Increasing employee productivity seems like a big feat, but nothing worth having comes easy!With the right hacks at your disposal, I believe you will be able to get on the right track. And luckily for you, you don’t need to have been bitten by a radioactive spider to make it happen.FINAL WORDS“Good employees are t reasures, and the company who possess them is the one who can achieve all of the success in the dynamic business world.”evalImproving employee productivity holds the utmost importance to the company, employees are the driving force of any organization, keeping them motivated and charged up through it is very important.Retaining your employees is a must as they are the fundamental units of the organization who know every work culture, ethics and organization’s motto, so their contribution is a thriving input.

Online comic strip Staggering heights - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Online comic strip Staggering heights - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Im an avid fan of online comics, from Dilbert to Doonesbury. But one of my favourites is a relatively unknown strip called Staggering Heights. It chronicles the lives and trials of a sleazy barfly named Jake, and a highly irregular cast of costars (my favourite is Murray your average 300-pound truck driver turned woman). The humour in the strip has both depth and variety, and the artwork is among the very best Ive seen in any strip online or offline. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

The Declaration of You The E-Course, The E-book, The Gift Certificates AND the Calendar! Ya- to the -hoo!

The Declaration of You The E-Course, The E-book, The Gift Certificates AND the Calendar! Ya- to the -hoo! Full disclosure: Jess put this post up on her blog last week, and I asked to steal it. I mean, how could I not? She made it so easy! So thanks, Jess, for doing my dirty work and letting me rob ya, with just minimal changes. Youre the bestest! Jess and I have been hard at work over at The Declaration of You headquarters  (which basically means weve been skyping regularly, since we, sadly, live in different cities), and Im so thrilled to tell  you about a few exciting things that we now have available in  our brand new shop! Our very first course, which just finished on November 23rd, was a giant massive success, and were looking forward to  the next course being even BETTER! Really check out  what people are saying. While  registration is OPEN for our upcoming course (beginning February 21, 2011), we realized some of you might want to give a super unique gift this year and register someone besides yourself for The Declaration of You! So we now have  GIFT CERTIFICATES available! They come complete with instructions for you on how to give them as a gift as well as instructions for the lucky recipient on how to register for the course.  Check em out! A gift certificate for The Declaration of You would be SUCH a better gift than a boring old shirt or a new vacuum cleaner, dont you think? You can even tell your friends and families and husbands and kids to put us on your Christmas list! You never know when someone will surprise you. Next up:  The Declaration of You E-BOOK. Its ready! Its ready! Yes, its true. People were asking, so we figured wed better deliver. And if we do say so ourselves, it is lookin GOOD. Its an 81-page, fully-illustrated and color-filled PDF, all designed by Jess herself. And not only is the written words and the illustrations kick-a**, but we have audio video posts that go along with each topic for extra goodness! If you want a preview chapter for $0, then sign yourself up for our updates (its there in the sidebar) you can download it lickety-split. Ooh, we cant wait til you see it! And how could we resist making a  2011 Pierre François Frédéric calendar? Well, we couldnt. If youve fallen in love with Pierre François Frédéric like so many of the ladies who took our course in November have, youll especially love this calendar filled with all of his wacky outfits. Oh, and its  printable! So youll get a 7-page PDF (2 months to a page + a cute cover) that you can print out as many times as you please.  Hint: it might be a cute addition to a gift certificate gift. just saying. We even have a  GET IT ALL package, so you can  start your new year off in a spectacular way. With this package,  youll be registered for the upcoming February course AND youll get the e-book and Pierre  François Frédéric calendar. And youll have $27 in your pocket that you wouldnt have if youd bought them all separately. And as we said at the top,  registration for the February course is open, so if youve been thinking of joining us, now would be a great time! I always think its nice to give ourselves gifts at  this time of year, dont you? The holidays are so often about pleasing other people that we forget to take care of ourselves as well and February will be such a lovely time to participate in The Declaration of You, because the holiday craziness will be over and 2011 will still be fresh with potential. Why not start it off on an inspired foot? As always, let us know if you have any questions just  shoot us an email! Were always here to help.

Resume Writing For Warehouse Jobs - Get Your Resume in Front of a Lot of Employers

Resume Writing For Warehouse Jobs - Get Your Resume in Front of a Lot of EmployersIf you are looking for a career in the warehouse industry, it is important to have a resume that will stand out. Resume writing for warehouse jobs is necessary if you are serious about going into this field.A good resume will be able to attract the attention of the employers, and make them take you seriously. This is a critical step in getting your resume noticed.When writing a resume for a warehouse job, it is very important to make it look professional. If you do not take the time to make your resume look good, chances are that no one will know that you have gone to school or have a college degree. In order to look professional, it is important to make the resume look professionally written.The first thing that you want to put on your resume is any work experience that you have. Most companies will look for this, so make sure that you include it. You may also mention anything that will show you to be a hard worker. This means you should highlight your job titles, for example you could mention being a forklift operator, loader operator, forklift operator, and sales associate.You may also want to consider giving your company's objective. This is a good place to include your education and work experience.It is also a good idea to include any awards or medals that you have won. The more awards you have, the better. Also include any other achievements. This way, you will be able to talk about yourself and show that you are proud of yourself.Resume writing for warehouse jobs can be very difficult, but it is vital that you take the time to write one. It is also important that you make it as professional as possible so that it will be more noticeable.

Empathy is the Hottest Trend in Leadership

Empathy is the Hottest Trend in Leadership The Devil may still wear Prada, but she’ll also ask you how your day is going if the latest trend in corporate leadership has anything to say about it. From c-suite corporate retreats to training sessions for design engineers, companies are working to inject empathy into their businesses to help managers become better leaders and companies develop better products. According to the consultancy Development Dimensions International, roughly 20% of employers in the U.S. now offer empathy training for managers, a sizable increase from 10 years ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. Listening and responding skills outranked all others in producing the most successful leaders, according to a DDI study of more than 15,000 leaders in 18 countries released earlier this year. The 10 top performing businesses from among the 160 included in The Empathy Business’s “Global Empathy Index” generated 50% more net income per employee than the bottom 10 performers. Companies are responding by including empathy training for managers, teaching listening skills rather than the old-school, hard-charging intimidation tactics preferred by some bosses. Some companies are including empathy in their processes to produce products they hope will better meet customer needs. The automaker Ford, for instance, has newly-hired engineers wear a belly garment designed to simulate pregnancy so they can design vehicles with a sensitivity to the extra weight, back pain and bladder pressure that women carrying children experience getting in and out of cars.

How To Apply Social Media Skills To Face-To-Face Networking - Work It Daily

How To Apply Social Media Skills To Face-To-Face Networking - Work It Daily Picture this: It’s the first day of college and you don’t know anyone in class. The professor splits the students up into groups and gets you and your classmates to do some ice breaker exercises. You don’t share much about yourself because you’re a little nervous, yet as soon as class is over, you go to your dorm and add several of your classmates on Facebook or started following them on Twitter. Related: Top 10 People You Must Have In Your Network To Find A Job You don’t know them very well, but you figure it would benefit you down the road in your college career. You keep up with their posts, try to start conversations, and retweet their tweets - all without really knowing these people. But why is it so easy to connect online and not so much when you’re talking to someone face-to-face? Applying Social Media Skills To Face-To-Face Networking Whether it’s the relief from pressure to engage in real-life conversations, or the freedom to express your thoughts and feelings, online social networking shouldn’t be the only way you communicate with others, especially professionals. It’s been shown that the constant use of non-verbal communication could potentially disconnect people when it comes to face to face contact. “Only 7% of communication is based on the written or verbal word” the article states. “A whopping 93% is based on nonverbal body language.” So, while online networking is important, face-to-face networking is crucial, too. Not practicing your people skills can be hurtful when looking for work. Sure, you can friend a bunch of people on LinkedIn, but meeting people or even just hanging out with friends could aid you in your job search. Communications and business development consulting website, Global Thinkers published an article on the importance of word of mouth. “Interaction with customers and users is key,” states the article. “And they can also be your best asset.” You do this every day when you connect with others via social media, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to use the power of word of mouth outside of the Internet. If you choose to use this to your advantage, you will only end up increasing your chances of getting noticed by other employers. So, don’t be afraid to talk about yourself to everyone you meet, and try to get away from your computer screen every now and then. “Our facial expressions, physical gestures, and the emotional tone in our voice alter the meaning of our words, which is why it is very difficult to express ourselves fully and authentically in an email or text-or even in front of a Skype screen,” said Dr. Ana Nogales in an article published by Psychology Today. Sometimes we’ll use emoticons or punctuation to compensate for the lack of facial expressions in social media. Why not use real facial expressions and body language when connecting with professionals in person? Smiling and giving a firm handshake could go a long way sometimes and make you memorable to employers. If you’re having a hard time figuring how to use face-to-face networking to your advantage versus online social networking, just think about the ways you talk to your connections online and try to apply it to in-person conversations. It’s not so different and could help you build a larger network. This post was originally published on an earlier date. Photo Credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!