Friday, April 14, 2017

4 Important Team Building Tips for Small Business



Employees are the lifeblood of any business and investing in your workforce will ensure you have the skills to drive your company forward. Team building is an integral part of this, enabling you to ensure employees are working towards the same goals as you and identify areas for improvement. However, in the commotion of a typical working day, training staff can often get left by the wayside. After all, planning the agenda and finding a suitable location can be difficult (Find out more about a great training venue here). Yet failing to properly develop your team could impact upon your business’ output and ability to retain staff over the long-term. Here are a few reasons why it is important to focus on team building.


Improved inter-departmental communication


Many businesses are guilty of failing to pass information up and across the chain of command – a lack of communication that can often lead to errors and inefficiencies. This is usually a result of inadequate knowledge about the activities of others in the company and how this relates to certain overarching policies and initiatives. Team building sessions are the best way to address this, enabling different departments to come together and share ideas, experiences, concerns and successes. As staff become better acquainted with the goals and pressures of others, communication is likely to improve. You will also be able gauge the barriers to healthy discourse.

Enhancing motivation and productivity


Team building is a great way to enhance staff motivation, ensuring employees feel like a vital part of a business’ overall goals. For employers, it acts as a chance to communicate important principles and passions to workers; getting them on-board with initiatives and making it clear how the organisation is there to help them and others. This will in turn increase productivity, as happy workers that feel valued are more fruitful and focused. What’s more, team building demonstrates to employees that you are willing to invest in them in the long-term, giving them the confidence they need.

Saturday, March 25, 2017

4 Ways to Reduce Noise Pollution in the Workplace



Some businesses are constantly filled with a barrage of noise that can be very damaging to the health of its employees. Noise pollution is something that can’t always be avoided due to the nature of the work taking place. Heavy machinery is loud to maneuver, and complex equipment whirrs at a constantly pulsating tone. There are ways to reduce those high volume levels, though, as we’re about to explore.


Ear Plugs


The easiest consideration on this list is to buy and install an ear plug machine. You’ll find these dotted around the buildings of many companies that deal with high levels of noise pollution. It sits on the wall, and can distribute pairs of ear plugs when workers are required to work with noise. They’re easy to implement, and they won’t cost your business a lot of money. The good thing about them is that they can be trashed after use, too. There aren’t many downsides to these, so make sure you buy them and enforce their usage.

Improved Equipment


In many cases, the reason for noise pollution stems to a lack of modern equipment. Older equipment struggles with the demands we place on it, and the noise it generates is a key example of that. Nowadays, there is much-improved equipment on the market that you can buy. Why not replace those old industrial vibrators with pneumatic Deca Vibrators that are much quieter? Why not invest in new forklift trucks that will improve both noise pollution and worker productivity? Yeah, it’ll cost some money to implement, but you’ll benefit in all sorts of ways.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

How to Brand Your Small Business on a Budget




Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to wear a lot of hats. They may be called on to handle bookkeeping, sales, marketing, strategic planning, and custodial work over the course of a day, and we all know it’s not easy to cultivate expertise in all these areas.

We here to teach you powerful small business tips that can help fill gaps in your experience without costing hours out of a busy day.

In this article, we’ll cover a few highly effective but inexpensive branding options small businesses can use to improve their brand recognition, awareness, and customer loyalty on a limited budget.


Digital branding opportunities


There’s no shortage of available advice on this site and many others regarding how to take advantage of digital marketing tools to engage with customers and boost sales. But, from a branding perspective, one aspect of this vital piece of the marketing puzzle is often overlooked.

That has to do with consistency of your visual brand.

If your company has a website (perhaps a blog) and is active on several popular social media channels, you’re making an effort to produce content that’s going to attract customers to you. There are a number of ways you can either build or destroy your visual brand as you go about your online activities.