StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Mentors and the Self-Made Individual

Mentors and the Self-Made Individual

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Mentors and the Self-Made IndividualSome people like to claim they are self-made when they finally make their dream come true, but the reality is that no one on earth can claim to be a self-made individual. The brain is like a sponge that absorbs the data from televisions, advertisements, parents, and teachers throughout a lifetime. With so many different opinions wending their way into your brain about every issue you can possibly imagine, it is easy to see how confusing life can become. That is why mentors are so important to the self-made individual.

Encouragement Goes a Long Way

Everyone that has started a project, begun a business, or created a charity knows that no matter how hard you work to make that dream a reality, there are times when you feel like you hit a brick wall. When that happens, your mentor can help you discover what the problem is and encourage you to try a different approach to the challenge.

Creativity Can Be Its Own Problem

As an experienced mentor, Eyal Gutentag knows the importance of working with creative people. However, creativity can be explosive, and when that happens your mentor can help you create boundaries that you don’t realize you need. Establishing self-discipline can be challenging but solidifying your focus can help you recharge your drive.

Goals Help Stimulate Personal Growth

You may believe in setting goals for yourself, but most people don’t realize they sometimes set goals they know they can accomplish. A mentor can make goals for you, explain why the goals are important, and then help you establish a plan to accomplish each goal. Not only can your mentor help you stretch your potential, but he or she can identify goals that stimulate your personal growth.

In this data driven world, having a mentor is not a weakness; it is a sign that you know where you are going and how to get there. Once you make your dream a reality, don’t forget to become a mentor to someone else that may be in need of a gentle push in the right direction.

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Office Safety|An Office Safety Checklist Everyone Needs

An Office Safety Checklist Everyone Needs

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Office Safety|An Office Safety Checklist Everyone NeedsAn office is a place which seems like it is super safe. There are no moving vehicles, no heights, and no moving machinery. However, like any other workplace, there are still safety issues which we face as office workers. Today we are going to share with you the essential safety guidelines that you need for your office this year.

Protect the body

The most important tips to consider are the ones which will directly help to keep you safe and protected all year long. Here are the top tips you need to follow to keep yourself safe at work:

  • Sit upright – There is nothing worse than slouching at your desk. We know it might be comfier at the time, but after some time it will hurt your back and can cause real health issues.
  • Look where you are going – This might seem obvious, but with most of us burying our heads in our phones, it is important to reiterate this fact. Look ahead at where you are going to avoid tripping over and having to contact social security disability lawyers for compensation for an injury.
  • Don’t run – ahhh, the old school adage. As kids, we thought out teachers were killjoys for saying this, but as a safety tip, it is paramount.
  • Hold the handrail – For some reason, a lot of us don’t bother holding the handrail when climbing up and down the stairs. It might seem unnecessary, but if you lose your footing you could seriously hurt yourself if you don’t hold on.
  • Get up and move – it is important now and again to stand up and move around. This will allow blood to circulate and reduces the risk of blood clots.

Equipment and Furniture

As well as us, the second most common reason for accidents at work is issues surrounding equipment and furniture in the office. It is important for us to take the chance to make the office safer in this regard:

  • Move cables – it is incredibly important if you are to stay safe in the office that there is no risk of falling over loose cables on the floor. When installing cables, there are many ways to keep them tidy and away from the open floor such as cable organisers and ties.
  • Try not to eat and drink – this is more of a risk for the computer itself than you, but when you eat and drink often at your desk, you run the risk of spilling food or drink onto your machine and breaking it.
  • Close your drawers – one simple thing you should always do is keep your drawers closed. This will make life a lot easier and will ensure that you are able to avoid walking into your drawers and hurting yourself.
  • Don’t store heavy items high up – This is an incredibly important one to consider. When storing your items in cupboards and drawers never store heavy items in high up places. This can be a huge risk if you try to take items down because if you lose your grip they could fall onto you and hurt you.

These handy safety tips will keep you happy and healthy in the office all year long.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Branded building: does your workplace match your message?

Branded building: does your workplace match your message?

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Branded building: does your workplace match your message?It’s tempting to treat your company’s branding as an afterthought or, at least, largely limit your branding efforts to social media and digital media content. That would be especially understandable if your operations are largely online-focused, with few customers visiting your physical workplace.

However, preserving consistent branding throughout, not just your online presence but also your office can pay off handsomely – here’s why, plus what you can do to align your branding in this way.

It’s easy to lose track of your supposed mission

Even if you have typed out your company’s mission statement, printed it out in large text and then framed it all for prominent display, your staff’s promotional efforts could still veer off-course surprisingly easily. After all, there’s so much of which you need to keep track…

That “much” includes not only the digital content we have just mentioned but also ad campaigns and marketing materials such as posters, flyers and brochures. If you have different people working on different aspects of the branding, it can soon drift into incoherence, perhaps before you notice.

Consequently, your brand – or whatever it still comprises – could confuse customers, clients and even people inside the company, right up to the executive level. Hence, as advised in an Entrepreneur article, you should put together – and, across all of the company’s departments, distribute – a brand guide touching on subjects like the brand’s voice, tone, colors, iconography and fonts.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Branded building: does your workplace match your message?Apply subtle but clever visual flourishes in your workplace

In your office, the little things can make a surprisingly large impact. Consider the words of New York-based digital communications professional Betsy Rohtbart in a Forbes piece; she posits: “If your logo is a circle, why put it on a square door? If your logo is a square, why put it on a rectangle tag?”

Along the same lines, she asks: “If your name is long, why shrink your font to make it fit the sign on the building?” The implication is that you shouldn’t feel under pressure to decorate your workspace in the “traditional” way, as succumbing to this pressure could see you missing out.

Your company’s culture should be reflected in the workplace design – and that culture concerns the firm’s values and beliefs, not simply its logo or branding colors. Perhaps you could put up a photograph from when your team participated in a charitable endeavor?

Why is workplace branding so important, anyway?

That question could still have played on your mind if few consumers or clients visit your company’s offices or make it past the reception area. However, as indicated on the Metropolis magazine’s website, office branding can imbue your workers with a sense of identity and connection.

Therefore, it can help to ensure that those workers are all moving in the same direction – and, in this way, genuinely helping consumers or clients. You can further encourage this by investing in luxury office design to create a space that reflects a specific lifestyle and where people truly aspire to work.

Winter Is Coming, So Protect Your Business With Its Very Own (Fire)Wall

Game of Thrones fans across the world have spent years marveling at Jon Snow’s dedication to his all-important wall. While business lessons are probably few and far between in Game of Thrones, his dedication to keeping his country safe is one that any company should take on board. You might not need a physical brick wall outside your office, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still use a wall of some kind to keep your company safe.

Virus and spyware protection services like those offered by Charles are a first port of call for any company that wants to keep their data and customers safe. And, once you put managed security services like these in place, you can bet that a firewall will soon follow.

Unlike Jon Snow’s physical wall, Wikipedia describes a firewall as ‘…a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.’ But, what exactly can a security measure like this do for your company?

Your first line of defense

The GOT wall is the first line of defense in case of attack, and your business network firewall is no different. Viruses or malware on a business computer can have a catastrophic impact on your company’s operations and reputation. In fact, malicious malware that steals customer information could cripple your company altogether. In a sense, a firewall works as a shield against attacks like these. Whether you put one in place or trust a managed security service to do it for you, this is a way to improve security with little real effort on your part.

A way to stop anyone getting in (or out)

Like any good wall, a firewall provides a solid support to stop things getting either in or out of your company network. Strong firewalls will inspect the flow of traffic both ways, monitoring and blocking viruses as and when they arise. A firewall can also prevent unauthorized websites to ensure no unwanted pages find their way into your office. As well as keeping your company safe, then, a well-installed firewall can keep distractions like social media and personal browsing well clear of your work environment, and can make for increased productivity all around.

pasted image 0 5A safe place from which to spot trouble

Our GOT favorites continually patrol their wall for any sign of trouble, and this is yet another benefit that a firewall can bring to you. Far from just blocking viruses as they arise, a firewall can work wonders for foreseeing and even warning you of coming trouble. For instance, any firewall will log potential intrusions or unauthorized activity, thus allowing you to check out possible problems before they arise. By foreguessing and blocking malicious applications, your firewall can even do a pretty good job at its own patrol out of office hours.

For these reasons and more, a firewall is vital for security in any business setting. As a company owner, you should, therefore, go forth and be the watcher on the firewall.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article

Do You Need Help With Your Marketing?

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Do You Need Help With Your Marketing?It is no surprise to anyone in the world of business that marketing is such a hugely important thing to consider. If the marketing is right, then the business itself is going to be a success, whereas if it is not right, you can’t really tell what is going to happen at all. But knowing that and actually perfecting the art of marketing are two very different things. There might be many occasions in your business’ life when you need a little help with your marketing, and that is something that most people will find, so you are absolutely not alone. But it is good to know for sure when you need that help, so that you can seek it out in time and make the most of it. In this post, we’ll look at a few of the clearest signs that you might need some help with your marketing.

Your Products Aren’t Selling

One of the surest signs that you might need to consult a marketing agency is that you just aren’t shifting any products. There can often be dips in sales, and that can be the result of a number of different things, but you need to make sure that you are aware of when it is due to poor marketing. Even if that is not the reason, you will find that improving your marketing is going to make a huge difference to how many products you sell, and for that reason it is absolutely worth looking into anyway. If you feel that you could be selling more, take a look at your marketing and see whether you might need any help with it.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Do You Need Help With Your Marketing?Your Brand Is Unclear

As a business, you need to have a strong brand which people can immediately recognize and relate to. This is central to keeping your business in line with what you want to achieve, and it is one of the things that you are going to want to keep an eye on throughout your business. However, if you have come to realize that your brand is actually relatively unclear, then you might find that it is necessary to step back and allow some marketing experts to take a look at it. If they can improve your brand in any way, you are bound to find that this will improve your marketing generally, and the performance of your business.

You Don’t Have The Time

Marketing wlel takes time, and if you just know that you don’t have the time, then that is one of the things that you are going to need to think about too. That is a time when you are going to benefit hugely from giving your marketing over to the professionals, so make sure that you bear that in mind when that crops up. By giving the work to them, you can keep your eyes on the prize in other places, and hopefully it will all come together in a business that is functioning much more accurately and expertly.