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How to Win in Business By Playing Your Best Golf

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Playing Golf|How to Win in Business By Playing Your Best GolfGolf has always been synonymous with business networking, mastering team-building skills and for developing working relationships. In the words of the late Arnold Palmer, one of the world’s greatest golfers, “success in golf depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character”.

As well as getting to know potential clients and employees, some of golf’s most valuable lessons apply equally well in a business setting for leaders and employees alike. In a relaxed setting, golf has evolved as an opportune sport to evaluate vital qualities prized by business investors, colleague and potential clients, such as:

  • personal drive
  • management skills
  • leadership abilities
  • problem-solving capabilities, and
  • effective communication.

Golf also appeals to businesses as it lends itself well as a team-building tool, showcasing a player’s determination and commitment to a task in hand. When playing golf, you must also take into consideration investing in a quality golf club bag for better storage of your golf equipment.

But, if you’re not a pro and have been invited to or are hosting a golf event, here are some top tips on how to raise your game.

Forget about theories

There are countless tricks and theories online that promise to help you gain the edge in a golf match, from giving your opponents their putts early in the round so they haven’t been able to practice short putting when the pressure’s on, or walking ahead of your opponent so they feel like they’re behind all day. But, the issue with these nuggets of wisdom is that they can distract you from the real focus of the game, putting you further behind. If your goal is to win, you can’t put your efforts towards doing that if you’re spending all day trying to trick the system.

Know your weaknesses

You may or may not know the people you’ll be playing with, but you certainly know where your own strengths and weaknesses lie, so focus on these first of all. You don’t want to try overcoming your weaknesses while you’re playing against someone else, so take the time to perfect your skills and hone in on those elements of the game that tend to trip you up.

Instructional videos are a great way to do this, but also practicing your swing at home is also hugely beneficial. Carry out different drills and swing positions to perfect your short game and correct any weaknesses that will improve your performance when you’re up against it.

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Do your research

There are countless great locations for golfing, but you can give yourself an advantage if you know the course you’re playing on. That might mean agreeing to a course you play regularly (or at least more than your opponents) or reading online course reviews before you visit so you can identify any tricky shots or strategies that others have found effective. You will gain an advantage that provides you with more confidence when you’re playing and helps you prepare mentally for the upcoming shots you’ll be faced with.

Play point by point

Instead of playing a more traditional stroke scoring game, switch up the rules and award points to the person who cups a given hole in the fewest number of strokes. Match play encourages stronger, more exciting shots but it also means that hitting 12+ on a hole won’t completely destroy your round like it would in stroke play, since strokes don’t roll over from hole to hole. It’s still possible that if one of your opponents is a stronger player, they’ll continue to count overall strokes, but being able to secure the match play will still give you plenty of smug satisfaction and is guaranteed to leave the others feeling defeated.

Get aligned

A common mistake that many amateurs make is improper alignment, which can affect your performance on the course. You might think you need to align your feet towards the target or get your shoulders parallel to it, but the correct way to align your shots is to assess your target from behind the ball for the best perspective of the hole so you can aim effectively.

Also, before you make your stance, set the clubface behind the ball and align it towards your target. This should be your focus before you get into stance and paying attention to this can really improve your shots.

Focus on your grip

A more experienced player will always have a fundamentally solid grip and you might be surprised just how much grip can affect your ability to make better shots. Grip the club with your gloved hand and focus on the placement in the fingers between the first knuckle and your palm. Apply your ungloved hand to wrap comfortably around the handle, moving your thumb and index fingers of both hands to form two Vs which should point towards the right side of your chest or right shoulder.

In summary

Golf can be as relaxed or competitive as you want it to be, but when you get a group of colleagues and companies together, there’s bound to be a fair bit of competition among you all. If you’re keen to come out on top at the end of your golfing day, wherever you choose to book it, the best way is to practice, be prepared and do your research when it comes to the course itself. But above all, enjoy yourself and focus on the job in hand.

Why Your Business Will Benefit from Hiring an Accounting Firm

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Team Building Tips|Team Building Tips and Tricks for ManagersIf you are running a business, then chances are you constantly have a number of different things on your mind, one of which is likely going to worry about how you can keep up with your growth upon expansion. If you currently find yourself querying such a thing, then there are resources you can look at and learn from, but the fact is, the answer that is best for you will be different to what is best for other businesses. One reasonably universal step forward, though, is to hire an accounting firm.

As you grow, so too do the number of people you pay, your income and your overall outgoings, and with that, so too will your tax obligations change. Keeping up with these is very hard to do while running the rest of your business, hence why an accounting firm is an important asset. This article will dive into a bit more detail about why having such a firm on your side is useful.

Are You Looking to Buy an Accounting Firm?

Of course, it may be that you already know the value of an accounting firm and are currently looking out for one. If this is the case, then it is recommended that you head over to Poe Group Advisors, which buys and sells accounting firms. These will be able to listen to you and understand what your business does before making suitable recommendations.

The Benefits

So, what are the benefits of such a purchase?

You Will Save Yourself Time

It is recommended that different elements of your business are outsourced to other people because if you get too bogged down in the likes of legal, technology and, in this instance, accounting, you aren’t going to have any time to actually run your business. You want to be working on what it is that makes you unique and can generate income, not piling through pages upon pages of accounting in order to get to grips with the process and what you owe.

You Will Be Paying Employees in the Best Way

A good business is nothing without good employees and as such, it is important that you are paying them a fair wage, on time and in a way that benefits you and them equally. An accounting firm is going to be a lot more versed in working out the best way that you can pay your employees, as it is not always as simple as just handing over a paycheck. There are some complications that can present themselves along the way and as such, you will need an accountant to pre-empt these and pay your employees accordingly. The most common methods are either by salary or dividend.

You Will Get Access to Pieces of Accounting Software

There is a lot of good accounting software out there that can make inputting numbers and keeping on top of everything a lot easier. By hiring an accounting firm, you are going to get access to this software and also be able to work with someone who knows how to properly use it.

Team Building Tips and Tricks for Managers

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Team Building Tips|Team Building Tips and Tricks for ManagersThe modern world is all about collaboration and teamwork. Without it, companies wouldn’t be as successful. After all, almost every great product in history was created by a team – not an individual.

At the moment, you might have 10, 100, or even 500 hundred employees. Whatever your exact number is, it’s important to focus on team building. This is because it:

  • Creates stronger co-worker relationships
  • Boosts morale
  • Enables better communication and collaboration

On top of all this, team building also helps to unlock potential leaders for your company – which is something else to bear in mind.

With the introduction covered, let’s now take a look at some team-building tips and tricks that all managers need to know.

Use Virtual Team Building Games

Unless you’ve been living on a faraway planet for the past few years, you’ll be aware that the workplace has gone virtual. Now, millions of employees have adopted hybrid schedules where they work between the office and home – it’s been a long time coming.

Of course, this means that teams are now using laptops, tablets, and smartphones to do their work and communicate together.

This is great for team building, as it means you and your teams have an opportunity to play virtual team-building games together when you’re not in the same place. A good example is the name that price game, which is perfect for boosting morale and allowing employees to have a good time.

Friday is usually the best day for virtual team-building games, as it’s the end of the week and everybody is looking forward to relaxing at the weekend.

Provide Your Teams with Goals

Whether you have one or multiple teams working under you, it’s important to provide them with goals. This will give them a clear direction moving forward and ultimately create greater focus and teamwork.

Teams should be briefed with goals at the beginning of each new month. Plenty of encouragement and incentives should be given to your teams, too. For example, there could be pay bonuses or extra time off for the early completion of tasks.
Plus, you should also encourage teams to set their own goals.

Use Microsoft Teams

As mentioned above, the modern workplace has gone virtual.

Now, it’s all about using internet-based tools to get work done and communicate. One of the best tools for this is Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams allows teams to hold video conferences with each other as well as send chat messages. Altogether, it’s the perfect platform for team building, especially when employees don’t see each other face-to-face.

Request Feedback

Sometimes, the best way to gain an in-depth understanding of what your teams want is through feedback.

Every month (or bi-monthly), you should hold meetings with your individual teams to discuss feedback in detail. For example, you might discover that your teams want more tools to use in the office, such as better computers.

Lastly, Get Social

It’s essential that employees don’t exclusively spend time together in the office. In addition to this, they should spend a little time together outside of work in social settings. This is because it enables employees to blow off some steam and have fun together in a less serious environment. Example locations include bars and restaurants.

Also, you should make it a rule that employees can’t discuss work when you’re socializing together! Moving forward, this will create stronger team bonds.

The Best Ways To Give Your Office A Facelift

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Give your office a facelift|The Best Ways To Give Your Office A FaceliftGiving your office a facelift can sound like a difficult job. There’s a lot of square footage to work with, and you also want to try and maintain that professional quality that’s expected from the modern workplace. How are you supposed to redesign under these conditions?

Well, you’ve still got a lot of freedom to do what you want with your office here! And while you’ve already made a lot of alterations to your office in the past couple years, there’s still a lot more you can do to make your office the place you really want to be. Let’s go through some examples of the best ways to ensure this below.

Combine Your Styles

Do you like the white, minimalist aesthetic? Maybe a little bit, but certainly not in the abundance you see in modern workplaces! So break the mold here and pick a different style or two to complement this look within your office.

Get some mid-century furniture in, use Scandi wall decor techniques, and make sure there’s a pop of color or two to help break up the monotone background you’ve always hated walking into work to.

Avoid Light Overexposure

The more light in your office, the worse it’s going to look! Yes, you need to see what you’re doing, and there’s going to be some health and safety regulations you’ll have to follow as well, but that doesn’t mean you need overhead, fluorescent lighting. You can turn these fixtures off, save yourself a whole lot of money on the literal overhead, and use softer lights instead.

For example, opening up blinds and clearing the windows to let the sun in. But when it goes down for the day, using desk lamps or standing lamps or even RGB strips instead will make your office look a lot more inviting. This kind of lighting is a lot more comfortable on the perception, and certainly won’t hurt your eyes!

Make it Last

The more you can do now to maintain a shiny and sleek quality to your workplace, no matter how vintage or mid-century you’ve designed it to be, the less work you’ll have to do later. And this means you can work under the comfort that your office design is going to last for a long time, and you’ll always enjoy coming into work to see it.

So, what can you do to keep your office always looking clean and tidy? It’s in the little things. For example, if you’ve got wooden frames hanging on the wall, get them waxed and sealed, and make sure any signs you hang are covered with 651 vinyl. Similarly, you can layer hardwood, lino, and carpet with further carpets and easily switch these in and out when they wear away. Look around your workspace and see where other small touches can be made.

Giving your office a facelift just takes a bit of inspiration! Make a difference in your workspace using tips like the ones above for ideas.

Supporting The Working Parents Amongst Your Employees

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Working Parents|Supporting The Working Parents Amongst Your EmployeesIn the modern era, many of your employees are going to be parents. Nearly half of the current workforce have children under the age of 18, and juggling both work and family responsibilities can be incredibly difficult.

And this problem has only gotten harder to control during the pandemic; people have had to work at home, and while that means they get more time with their kids, it also has the knock on effect of making their work harder to keep up with.

However, instead of rallying against this, it’s a good idea to work with it. Your employees are never going to stop being parents, and supporting this is a great way to boost your employee morale as well as your business growth as a whole. Here are some good ways to do so.

Be Flexible with Working Structure

A flexible working structure is one of the main things you need here. Flexibility is something business owners already promote, and stretching it a little further to accommodate the parents in your workforce is a great way to show your support for the working market at large.

For example, if someone needs to attend to childcare between the hours of 8 and 10 am, let them join onto work calls or get started on projects after these hours. Alternatively, if someone needs to be available to pick up their children in the afternoon, schedule their shifts earlier.

Create a Culture of Honesty

Working parents have a lot to deal with. As such, working from home can get complicated and messy, and knowing they’re expected to be on the clock the entire time their children are also awake can mount a lot more stress on their shoulders.

Knowing this, it’s a good idea to allow your employees to be honest about their days, and what they need to do during it, to help alleviate this sense of anxiety. Let them be upfront about childcare needs and how this might interrupt their work responsibilities without fear of being reprimanded.

Allow Employees to Bring Their Kids to Work

If you’re able to return to the office for a few days per week, why not allow your employees to bring their kids with them if need be? If they cannot afford outside childcare, or have no relatives available, turning a corner of your business into a small daycare could work wonders for the flexible element of your company.

What can you do to accommodate these on-site needs? Invest in some preschool furniture and set it up in a spare room somewhere in your company. Allow parents to bring in a few toys or books of their own, and then if need be, parents will be able to keep their kids nearby if no other arrangements are available.

Supporting the working parents on your staff body doesn’t have to be hard to do. Be flexible, allow for outside needs inside of this, and even allow employees to bring children with them.