Instagram has become a staple in the marketing toolkit for businesses. To make the most of your Instagram presence, we’re sharing tips from The Bradford Group, EO member Jeff Bradford’s marketing agency. 1. Set SMART goals.Instagram goals are a crucial component of success. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Set SMART goals to consistently generate traffic and website clicks. 2. Create a BUSINESS profile.Establish your Instagram as a business profile to define yourself as a company. Plus, it provided the ability to use Instagram’s analytics and ads. Business profiles also allow a connection to your Facebook business page, which completes your online presence. 3. Use ALL of Instagram’s features.Instagram allows you to use highlight reels, IGTV, stories and posts on your feed. Integrate all of these features to ensure you are ranking high on the platform’s algorithm. Together, they establish a complete profile that looks authentic and professional. 4. Hashtags are #ESSENTIAL.Hashtags are crucial for reaching new audience members in your company’s niche. For example: marketing professionals may use hashtags like #NashvilleMarketing and #SocialMediaMarketing to reach their community, or business professionals may search those hashtags when looking for a marketing team. The hashtags can lead potential clients to the related Instagram profile so the prospects can learn more about the company. 5. Stay ACTIVE and schedule posts.Instagram can often get put on the back-burner for a company, and it can be challenging to stay active on your account. Use a program like Hootsuite to bulk-schedule your posts and relieve the pressure of taking time to post 3-5 times per week. Once your content is uploaded, this program handles the post for you! 6. ENGAGE with your followers and build a community.Comment and like others’ posts to engage and connect with your followers and your community. This will not only help you gain new followers, but you will also gain loyalty from your current ones. 7. SEARCH for influencers and similar brands.Identify influencers who can help advertise and endorse your products. Research similar brands on Instagram to help you find your particular niche and determine the most logical way for your company to capitalize on social media. 8. Post at peak ENGAGEMENT hour.Post at the correct time to help your company generate the highest level of engagement and likes for your social media content. 9. Use a CALL TO ACTION that leads to website clicks.A call to action (CTA) will direct your reader to perform a specific task, such as visiting your website or filling out a form. CTAs can take your audience from being social media viewers to blog readers, which will eventually lead them to the product or service you offer. Instagram allows only one link per profile so, plug a Linktree into your bio to properly optimize your CTAs. 10. Analyze your ANALYTICS.Last, but definitely not least, monitor analytics and readjust. Adapt your post schedule, ad campaigns and types of posts to gain Instagram traction. In order to continue your growth, track your current engagement to see what’s most effective. Instagram business profiles have a discovery section that shows your most popular to your least popular post. Discover what is most successful and create more of this kind of content. Don’t let the endless features of Instagram overwhelm you. Used wisely, it can be a powerful tool to build your brand, showcase your value and connect with potential customers. By curating your content and following our top ten tips you are bound for Instagram success. Now, what are you waiting for? Start snapping and sharing! This article originally appeared on The Bradford Group’s corporate blog. The post Top 10 Tips for Business Instagram Accounts appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2XPStrd
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Meet EO Nashville member Mike Faith. In 1990, he sold everything he had and left England for America. With just one suitcase, he arrived in pursuit of work, better weather and wealth. In 1997, Faith founded Headsets.com, an online retailer of cordless and office headsets. Headsets.com has since grown to serve more than 700,000 customers and produces annual revenues of over $30 million. Faith is passionate about customer service, learning and growth, and is regularly quoted on his client service expertise. He also created Reserve Dinners, a charity organization that invites well-known personalities from various backgrounds to spend time in conversation with EO members as well as other entrepreneurs. The events raise money for a charity chosen by the guest of honor. Past guests have included Sir Richard Branson, Annie Duke, General John Abizaid and Vice President and Chief Information Officer of FedEx Rob Carter. “I’ve done events in restaurants and at home. I like the in-home option because I think it’s more personal. EO members make up over half the audience typically as they tend to have a desire and strong propensity to learn from the guests that I invite,” says Faith. “Many of the events are private with no publicity or camera.” We connected with Faith after the most recent Reserve gathering, a conversation with Canadian journalist and writer known for his four New York Times bestsellers, Malcolm Gladwell. The most recent gathering was with Malcolm Gladwell. How do you select your featured guests?I select people who are going to be interesting—people we’re going to be able to have real conversations with, and people where I can push the edge just a little bit so it’s a unique experience for everyone. You ask Gladwell what he would prioritize as president of the US. What role do you believe entrepreneurs in particular can—or should—play in politics?Frankly, I’m not sure if entrepreneurs are right or not for politics. On a personal level, I generally like the entrepreneur in my own selections of who to vote for, but I also think our personality styles can carry too high a risk. Entrepreneurs’ jobs are to make money and create jobs and innovate, rather than run the country—just in the same way that most politicians don’t become entrepreneurs after. Gladwell is well known for asserting it takes 10,000 hours to expertise—agree or disagree?Yes and no. I don’t think it’s an exact number, but I think the spirit of keeping going for long enough in learning and mastering a craft while others that have tried are dropping out through lack of commitment leaves you as an expert in a field. So broadly speaking, yes! What was the greatest personal takeaway from your discussion with Gladwell? Any surprises?I think my biggest takeaway is how well versed Malcolm is and his style of making a point without being over-emphatic about it (but still retaining enthusiasm). We hadn’t rehearsed anything before, nor had we discussed any lines of questions. It was free-flowing and he rolled with it skillfully. Regarding EO, please share what has been the most valuable benefit of being a member.I’ve been an EO member for 19 years, I think (who’s counting), and I love the organization. Over the years, I’ve benefited mainly from Forum, of course, and also great social events as well as opportunities for international travel. Whenever I go to another city, either US or overseas, I always reach out to the chapter and make good and interesting friends. When people come to Nashville, I’m always eager to meet them and show them what we’re about here. EO Nashville is the largest EO chapter and features a high percentage of women. What can other chapters learn from EO Nashville?Yes, EO Nashville is a fast-growing chapter, and of course the largest chapter in the US. I think a lot of it is down to our three full-time chapter directors who are incredibly knowledgeable, enthusiastic and smart. They strike an excellent balance driving initiatives forward without over-controlling them. It’s a delicate art that they pull off really well. In terms of our female members, I’m not sure why, but I think the whole culture and spirit of the EO Nashville chapter is so non-old school and so progressive in many ways. Nothing matters apart from where we’re all going next. I guess I’m saying that I’m not entirely sure why, but I invite EO members from other chapters to come and take a look. We’re an open book and want to help others!
The post Mike Faith Invites You To Dine in Great Company, For a Great Cause appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2QPabJL Written for EO by Vikram Ahuja. Ahuja is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder at X10 and founder of Byond Travel. He is also a member of EO Bangalore. At the 2019 Web Summit, Ahuja joined a delegation of 16 EO members from 11 countries to lead workshops and speed mentoring sessions. As a Web Summit speaker, he presented on the rise of the “2nd City Office.” Read on for his perspective on the problem of finding talent. If you’re like many global entrepreneurs and CEOs, you might be facing the greatest business challenge of them all: Great companies need great talent. And there has never been such a pronounced talent shortage in the world. Consider this: Talent is expensiveIn mature Western economies (the US, UK, Canada, for example), it’s almost twice as costly to operate a business in 2019 as it was in 2009. Wages constitute the majority of that expense. Talent is scarce45 percent of employers around the world report difficulty in filling vacant roles. Finding talent is time-consuming45 days for a typical startup to hire a technology engineer. 65 days for an online company to hire a digital marketer. Today, finding and acquiring talent is not only difficult, but also extremely time-consuming. Yet, 82 percent of companies don’t believe they recruit highly talented people. Unfortunately, most enterprises find themselves fighting a losing battle. 44 percent of startups fail within the fourth year of their existence. More interesting, close to 50 percent of failures can be attributed to talent lead reasons (for example, not the right team or got outcompeted). Bad team = #fail “Go after the cream of the cream. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players,” said Steve Jobs. What does one do, then? You simply go where the talent is. Immigration and the growth of the “gig economy” mean the best talent will no longer be where the best companies are being built. And if your business can be global, why can’t your talent? The rise of the “2nd City Office”—a new paradigm for growthThe term 2nd City Office refers to a team in another city that mirrors the culture, setup, processes and governance of the home office. Increasingly, 2nd City Offices are becoming a strong defensible differentiator for businesses, given that whoever accesses the best talent, wins. Interestingly, two completely opposite ends of the spectrum have adopted this model in the last decade to incredible success. Roughly 40 percent of Fortune 1000 companies now operate their own “captive” centers or owned teams—a majority of which operate out of India. It is entirely possible to walk into one of Bangalore’s larger technology parks and see the innovation hubs for Target, Walmart, Lowe’s, Wells Fargo, or Tesco on a side of the street and offices for Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google on the other. The other market segment which has understood the advantage of being able to access a rich talent pool of elite talent is startups. A startup founder in San Francisco is more likely to be able to quickly find talent and scale her team in Krakow, Toronto or Hyderabad than she would back home—and at a third of the price! For reference, Uber now has a 1,000-member engineering team in Bangalore. Amazon is set to open its second-largest campus in Hyderabad. Scaling up your product, customer base and business hinges on the ability to grow the right talent. Are you putting yourself out in front of the best talent to give yourself the best chance for success? If you’re as excited about the future of work, teams and communities, get in touch and let’s build together. Vikram Ahuja is a serial entrepreneur with global experience in building and leading successful technology ventures in e-commerce and travel. As co-founder at X10, he helps fast-growth companies around the world build high-impact global teams across leading talent hubs. He is also the founder of Byond Travel, Asia’s largest platform for expert-led adventures. The post If Your Customers Can Be Everywhere, Why Can’t Your Talent? appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/35rWXqm Written for EO by content marketing strategist Berta Melder. Video marketing has become one of the most popular tools that help businesses raise brand awareness and engage with their target audience. Video content is extremely popular so it makes sense that it should be part of our marketing outreach to prospects and customers. According to research, including videos in emails can increase click-through rates by 300 percent, while adding video content on your website leads to 41 percent more traffic. No matter whether you’re a B2B vendor or consumer brand, your customers will love videos. Plus, filming and posting videos on social media will not drain your budget. If you’re looking for effective methods of marketing for your small business and even smaller budget, social media and videos are a must. Moreover, you don’t need highly produced videos. Just start live streaming on social media for an authentic perspective your customers will engage with. Why Your Small Business Needs Live StreamingFirstly, live streaming is simple to do and cost-effective. All you need is a smartphone with a decent camera and internet access. Many brands and influencers use Facebook Live to connect with their followers. However, we recommend that you also go live on Twitter and Instagram. Even LinkedIn allows you to stream videos for your business network. And don’t forget about YouTube. Millennials love live streaming so it will be easy for you to engage with this section of your audience. Additionally, 80 percent of people would rather watch a live video than read a blog post. You can use your live videos to answer questions from your customers and prospects or to broadcast product tutorials. You can also let your audience take a sneak peek behind the scenes of your small business, making your brand more approachable. Live videos are extremely engaging and the options are endless. Identify those topics that you are an expert in and that your ideal customer is interested in. Organize webinars or present new products in real-time. How to Use Live Streaming Video for Your Small BusinessWrite a rough script. Of course, your live stream shouldn’t be fully scripted. Live videos are spontaneous and authentic, and that’s what makes them so attractive. However, a rough outline will help you make sure that your stream makes sense and that you cover all of your points. Jot down a few bullet points and keep them in front of you while streaming. Share feelings. Emotions will always attract people more than dry content. Video is a great tool for sharing emotions and engaging personally with your audience. Promote your product but don’t make marketing your main priority. Your main goal must be to let your audience have a good time with your brand. This way, consumers will build strong positive associations with your product. Demonstrate business value. Use live-streaming to start a conversation with your audience and show them why you’re the best. Share important information about your products. Let them know what new technologies you use, and highlight your partners and fans. Behind-the-scenes videos are also a great opportunity to let your audience get to know your team and see how your products are being made. Reply to comments. Live streams are conversational by nature, so make sure to interact with your viewers directly. If you see great questions from users, mention them. If somebody says that your product is good, say thank you. Encourage your viewers to leave their comments and to share your videos on social media. Ask them what they want your next stream to be about or who they want to meet. Now let’s take a look at some of the most effective live streaming tools for small businesses.
Time to Set Your Go-Live Date!People love video, and this medium has proven to be one of the most effective types of marketing content. Live videos take interaction with your audience to the next level. You can communicate with them in real-time. Answer their questions, show them your office, broadcast tutorials, and share positive vibes with everyone who watches your live videos. The videos are easy to make and extremely engaging. They will make your brand more approachable and help you expand your audience. Live streaming offers huge benefits for your small business, so don’t hesitate to go live! Berta Melder is a branding expert and content marketing strategist for Masterra. Also, she manages the company’s internal training activities. Connect with her on Twitter. The post What Live Streaming Means for Small Business appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2rd1XjO Robert Glazer is a member of EO Boston and the CEO of Acceleration Partners, a leading independent affiliate management agency with 160 employees. Glazer has established himself as a leader who invests in his team and in the culture of his organization. His company, Acceleration Partners, was honored with Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, recognizing the Best Places to Work in 2019. He shared how to develop a “best place to work” in a recent Octane post. Here, he shares his thoughts on capacity building as a leadership strategy. A pivotal moment in the entrepreneurial journey is when you make the decision to stop doing everything yourself, and start trusting, and training, others to step up and do more. For me, that point came in 2011, when our company, Acceleration Partners, was doing about $1 million in revenue and I joined EO. Though the company was growing, I was doing everything and was burnt out. Acceleration Partners has grown 20 times larger in the eight years since. That exponential growth started when I realized that in order to build the business I wanted, I needed to push my limits and be the leader the business needed. I needed to build my capacity. Capacity building is the method through which we seek, acquire and develop the skills necessary to consistently perform at a higher level in pursuit of our innate potential. It is the foundation of my leadership approach to building a world-class company and the core focus of my new book, Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limits and Unlock Success in Yourself and Others, which published last month and is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller. For a deeper dive into how to invest in your team, check out EO 24/7.As a leader, you set the tone for the entire organization. Whether you realize it or not, everybody is watching the way you lead. They want to see if are authentic, consistent and focused on the big picture. They also see if you are always repeating mistakes, losing your temper and cutting corners. If you are, you can expect the same behavior from others. I have gone all-in on capacity building as a leadership strategy. A big part of this is showing my team my commitment to improving, inspiring them to grow and giving them both the framework and the support to improve. One way I do this is to share with my team what I am personally trying to improve, share my personal goals with the company each year, and note which ones I fall short of and how I will adjust. By focusing on building my capacity, and sharing the results with my team, I’ve noticed others at the company are motivated to improve as well. Employees aren’t just raising their game at work—they’re running races, taking bucket list vacations and strengthening their most important relationships. Capacity building focuses on the idea that if employees improve in one facet of life, they will improve in others. According to Glassdoor, 87 percent of employees expect their employer to support them in balancing work and life. As a leader, you can drive happier, more productive employees by helping them improve their lives outside of work. Don’t just think of your employees as tools to achieving your business goals. Invest in them holistically, help them achieve their personal goals, and they will give you their best at work. By investing in capacity building as a leadership strategy, you will inspire others to be better, help them grow, and create a better outcome for both your business and employees. The post Want to Build Employee Engagement? Invest in Your People Holistically. appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2qgsJrz Written for EO by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, disaster avoidance expert, speaker and author. When was the last time a colleague said something so ridiculous that it made your jaw drop? A four-year study by LeadershipIQ.com found that 23 percent of CEOs were fired for denying reality, meaning refusing to recognize negative facts about his or her organization’s performance. Entrepreneurs typically respond when people deny reality by confronting them with the facts and arguments. But research suggests that’s exactly the wrong thing to do. Research on confirmation bias shows that we tend to look for and interpret information in ways that conform to our beliefs. There is an emotional investment in continuing to believe what you want to believe. Furthermore, studies on a phenomenon called the backfire effect indicate that when we are presented with facts that cause us to feel bad about our self-worth or worldview, we may sometimes even develop a stronger attachment to the incorrect belief. These mental blindspots are two of over 100 dangerous judgment errors that result from how our brains are wired—what scholars in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral economics call cognitive biases. Fortunately, recent research in these fields shows how you can use pragmatic strategies to address these dangerous judgment errors in your professional life. Rather than arguing, it is much more effective to use a research-based strategy I developed called EGRIP (Emotions, Goals, Rapport, Information, Positive Reinforcement), which provides clear guidelines on how to deal with people who deny the facts. For instance, consider the case of Mike, a new product development team lead in a rapidly-growing tech start-up. He set an ambitious goal for a product launch, and as more and more bugs kept creeping up, he refused to move the date. People tried to talk to him, but he hunkered down and kept insisting that the product would launch on time and work well. I was doing coaching for the company’s founder, and he asked me to talk to Mike and see what’s going on. E – Connect with their emotions.If someone denies clear facts you can safely assume that it’s their emotions that are leading them away from reality. While gut reactions can be helpful, they can also lead us astray. What works better is to focus on understanding their emotions and to determine what emotional blocks might cause them to stick their heads into the sand of reality. What I discovered in my conversations with Mike was that he tied his self-worth and sense of success to “sticking to his guns,” associating strong leadership with consistency and afraid of appearing weak in his new role as the team lead. He believed team members were trying to undermine him by getting him to shift the schedule and admit he failed to deliver. This false association of leadership with consistency and fear of appearing weak is a frequent problem for new leaders. G – Establish shared goals.Then, you need to establish shared goals, which is crucial for effective knowledge sharing. I spoke with Mike about how we both shared the goal of having him succeed as a leader in the company. Likewise, we both shared the goal of having the new product be profitable. R – Build rapport.Next, build up a rapport by establishing trust. Use empathetic listening to echo their emotions and show you understand how they feel. I spoke to Mike about how it must hard to be worried about the loyalty of one’s team members, and also discussed what he thinks makes someone a strong leader. I – Provide information.At this point, start providing new information that might prove a bit challenging, but would not touch the actual pain point. I described to Mike how research suggests one of the most important signs of being a strong leader is the ability to change your mind based on new evidence, giving examples such as Alan Mulally saving Ford Motor Company through repeated changes of course. If I had begun with this information, Mike might have perceived it as threatening. However, slipping it in naturally as part of a broader conversation after cultivating rapport built on shared goals. Mike accepted the information calmly. P – Provide positive reinforcement.Then, after the person changes their perspective, provide them with positive reinforcement, which is a research-based tactic of shifting someone’s emotions. The more positive emotions the person associates with the ability to accept negative facts as an invaluable skill, the less likely anyone will need to have the same conversation with them in the future. With Mike, I discussed where he can best exhibit these characteristics to show those who might try to undermine him what a strong leader he is, and at the same time make the new product as profitable as possible. I directed the conversation toward how he can show strength by delaying the launch of the new product. Eventually, he agreed, and I praised his ability to show strength and leadership by shifting his perspective based on new evidence. Good luck, and remember that you can use EGRIP not simply in professional settings, but in all situations where you want to steer others away from false beliefs that cause them to deny reality. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is on a mission to protect leaders from dangerous judgment errors known as cognitive biases by developing the most effective decision-making strategies. With over 20 years of experience as CEO of the training, coaching, and consulting firm Disaster Avoidance Experts, he also spent over 15 years in academia as a cognitive neuroscientist and behavioral economist. He’s an EO speaker, a recent EO 360° podcast guest and author of Never Go With Your Gut (2019), The Blindspots Between Us (2020), and The Truth Seeker’s Handbook (2017). The post How to Deal With Colleagues in Denial appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2Kka9pd Written by Justin Song, a senior research analyst at LendingTree where he has experience covering topics such as personal loans and small business lending. Making smart decisions for your company is both your privilege and responsibility as a business owner. Chances are, when everything is running smoothly, you still see room for growth and want to explore how you can do so with as little risk to your current processes as possible. Knowing when to be in growth mode and when to hold back is a skill you develop as you become a seasoned entrepreneur. Below are some items to consider when deciding if an expansion if worthwhile. 1. Do you have enough cash?One problem with many businesses is that they are cash poor. Even if business is booming, if you’re over-extended to business creditors and your debt payments are eating into your cash reserves, then you could be headed into the red even as sales soar. You definitely don’t want this to happen to you, but there are usually ways to correct this course. First, lower your fixed expenses wherever possible. Do you need a fancy office, or can you get into a cheaper lease somewhere else? Next, examine your debt: Are you paying too much interest? Is your debt negatively impacting your credit score to the point that you might be denied funding in the future (for reference, a credit score of 660 and above will give you the best chance to qualify for a loan). Make sure you compare business loan terms before taking on any new business debt. Also, be sure to collect on any outstanding invoices. Consider shortening your due dates to a net-30 or net-15 to make sure you have more cash on hand. 2. Where in the business lifecycle are you?Businesses often grow on an S-curve and there are three general stages of development—startup, midsize and full grown. Within these stages, you can group companies in different categories based on the number of employees, revenue or both. In between growth stages can be the most challenging time for expansion — say when a company is moving from three to eight employees. Another key growth stage is moving from a company of 12 to 40 employees. These changes represent such fundamental shifts in how companies operate that business leaders often can’t navigate the challenges. So, before you start growing, you need to consider the size of your company, where you are in the life cycle, and how you’re going to efficiently get from point A to point B without suffering in between. Perhaps most important of all, as your organization grows to each new stage in the life cycle, it’s your job as a leader to communicate those changes to everyone inside the organization, which can be more difficult to do the more employees you have Data show that 45.6 percent of employees ignore emails at work, so make sure before you start growing that you have a scalable communications plan in place to take all your employees along for the ride with you. 3. Can you handle new business costs?Do you foresee new costs that you’ll have to budget for? Think about overhead costs such as salaries and office space as well as any regulatory costs for new markets or the cost of research and development of a new product. Because you don’t want to burn through your cash while trying to grow your business, you need to handle the expense considerations of scaling carefully. Improve your processes to shorten the cycle of your business so that you can make cash faster. If it normally takes you two months to find a prospect, land a customer, invoice, and collect payment, look at every step along the way and try to find ways to shorten each time period. Doing this will help you have more cash on hand at any given time so that you can handle the expenses of growth. You’ll need to grow with your industry, which is why you can get really left behind if you find yourself in a position in which your competitors can handle the cost of pursuing new business opportunities and you can’t. The post Considering Expanding Your Business? 3 Tips on How to Approach It appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2NZchUu Have you ever wished for a way to give back that’s integrated with your life and your work? EO Oklahoma City member Piyush Patel has figured out how to do just this. He has managed to seamlessly weave charity into his life and businesses through social entrepreneurship, employee volunteer programs and much more. Piyush offers these tips on how to prioritize and embrace giving during the course of your entrepreneurial journey. 1. Identify the issue you are passionate about—and be open to unexpected opportunities to fulfill your giving goalsPiyush’s background is in elementary education. So, he has three areas of focus for giving: education, children and mothers. In fact, as the keynote speaker at the University of Oklahoma graduation in 2017, Piyush paid off one of the graduate’s student debts. “When I joined EO almost 10 years ago, my Forum did an activity around bucket lists. We had different categories and one was philanthropy. I wrote down, ‘Put a stranger through college.’ I had no idea how I was going to even do something like that. However, when I was asked to give the commencement speech, just a few days before the speech I walked out of the shower and told my wife this would be a perfect time to accomplish that bucket list item.” 2. Create sustainable giving through social entrepreneurshipOne-off giving opportunities make a mark, but ongoing giving amplifies your impact. You can even create self-sustaining giving. Consider Piyush’s Conclusion Wine company, a social entrepreneurial venture that just keeps giving. “I was lucky enough to sell my previous company for a large exit and instead of moving to the beach we decided to start a number of new companies. The winery is our social venture where we craft an amazing wine that is then sold at a high price and instead of keeping the money we donate all of it to a non-profit each year,” he explains. Piyush suggests you can also make giving part of an existing company through the work you are doing, “My previous company, Digital-Tutors, provided advanced technical education to many countries where this education was not even imaginable.” 3. Acknowledge how giving benefits youGiving is good for you, and it’s OK to admit it. Piyush explains that charity fulfills his deep need to be part of something bigger, bonds our employees and is simply the right thing to do. 4. Lead by exampleMake your impact grow exponentially by cultivating a giving culture in your business. How? Lead by example. “It has to start with you, the leader,” Piyush says. “I wove giving into my company with things like volunteering the day before the Christmas holiday (after all, no work is getting done on that day anyway), creating a supply drive to get school supplies for kids (I would match all donations), or packing food at the food bank as a team-building exercise.” Not only are you and your team fulfilling a charitable goal, you’re also supporting team growth. Piyush explains, “In my experience, creating these shared experiences outside of the office has a huge impact in how people treat each other in the office. They see their roles as bigger than themselves and see how their impact in the community matters.” Piyush’s book, Lead Your Tribe, Love Your Work: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Culture that Matters, reinforces how to lead by example by giving to your employees. “The book—as well as my speaking events—are really focused on how to transform the lives of your employees. I want to teach other leaders and founders how to not only reach your business goals but also transform the lives of the people who you trust the most to reach those goals. I feel we have a duty to create belonging, affirmation and meaning for our employees and I love teaching others how to do this,” he says. 5. Revisit your inspirationIt can be challenging to stay motivated in your giving, especially if like Piyush, you have been actively participating in charity from a very young age. He began his giving efforts as a teen, as the only male candy striper at a local hospital. Wherever you find your inspiration, make sure it is a place or person that you can always look back on. Refer back to it when you need to replenish your giving tank. 6. Start small, as long as you startStill not sure where to start? Piyush also reminds us that charity exists in small and simple everyday acts of kindness. “In each of our wine bottles, the cork features a message with a random act of kindness. One day, the one I had in my pocket was ‘Buy a Stranger a Cup of Coffee.’ I was getting a Starbucks coffee and while waiting in line, a guy cut to the front and then looked at me since I was next. You could cut the tension. Who would go next? “I stepped up, put in my order and then turned around to ask him what he was drinking. I paid for his coffee and he looked at me with a weird look on his face. Here he was cutting in front of me and now I’m buying his coffee? I gave him my cork and told him to pass it on to the next person. Not only did he shake my hand and say sorry, but when he left he made it a point to say goodbye. I know this is super simple, but in that moment he transformed from a rushed, unhappy person to a thankful and grateful person. I have to think he had a better day because of that small act.” Piyush Patel‘s commitment to sustainable giving and advancing educational opportunities for all has earned him a nomination for EO Global Citizen of the Year. The post How to Give Back Through Your Business appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/32pbaCE From EO Melbourne, we share how to declutter and organize your workspace. Work never stops in your office. Every day, there are new fires to put out, new targets to reach and new ideas to execute. Your to-do list keeps piling up—just like the files on your desk and the messages in your inbox! Before you know it, you are swamped and missing out on important opportunities! There are people who thrive in a chaotic environment. But more often than not, a messy work area adversely affects your job performance. A cluttered physical space affects your mental health, increases stress and anxiety, brings confusion to your thoughts and blocks your creativity and workflow. A tidy desk can help you relax and breathe better. So, if you’re reading this from a sloppy desk or currently avoiding your workspace in favor of a coffee shop, it’s time to put some order in your office area! It’s time to do things more efficiently. Follow these tips to manage your papers, computer files as well as items on your desk and workstation. O is for OrganizeBefore you implement changes in your office space and computer, create a plan. For example, are you hoping to toss all papers in favor of digital scans? Do you need to open up space on your desk for a second monitor? Are you using a locked file cabinet for confidential legal documents? Do you want to establish a filing system where “must do today” items are separated from “must-do” tasks? R is for Re-examine Your BelongingsAssess the items on your table to see which ones should go and which ones should remain. As you go through your items, you might realize that you miscategorized materials. You may come across documents that should be given to your colleagues or materials that belong to your office library or common office shelf. Assign a box to hold items that need to be carried out of your office. There may be personal items that are better kept at home. If you wish to keep personal items on your desk, be sure that they are meaningful to you, and not simply clutter. D is for DeclutterTidy up and leave as much space as you can for you to move around and work better. Prioritize a clean workspace. Personal effects must be kept at a minimum. Keep piles of papers off your table, using drawers for long-term storage and wallboards for timely information. Think paperless! Install an app on your phone for scanning papers to PDF. There are many cloud storage sites where you can upload files to free up your computer space. E is for EliminateDrafts, outdated files and unimportant papers should be removed from your space. Assign a box for books or office supplies that you wish to donate to charity. Review any legal papers from years past and determine whether they can be filed digitally, shredded or archived elsewhere. R is for Retain Only What’s ImportantFor every item you keep, ask yourself, is it important? If I lost it tomorrow, would I miss it or need it? Sort your belongings according to your priorities and their relevance to your job. Maintain some items that make you happy and inspire you to work. With a neat and orderly office, you can easily locate important items and note urgent matters. It also clears your mind and allows you to think freely. Moreover, a clean and tidy surrounding also promotes a healthier lifestyle. And don’t forget to keep up on your practice of decluttering. Schedule time every week or at the end of your day to tidy and eliminate. The post Keeping Order in Your Office appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/36DPkyL Written by Annie Button, a content specialist in business growth and development. Annie shares her experiences and knowledge through blog posts in a variety of publications. No industry is exempt from our constantly evolving business world. Restructures and turnarounds are common scenarios. Companies that resist change and fail to innovate will wither and die. It’s as simple and cut-throat as that. But extensive research by John Kotter in the field of change management reveals that only 30 percent of change programs succeed. There are many examples of businesses that failed to adapt to change: Blockbuster lost out to Netflix, Kodak failed to embrace the digital era, Sony lost out to Samsung and Apple. There are many more stories of complacency and they won’t be the last. The moral of the change management story? Organizations that are the most adaptable to change are the businesses that are most likely to succeed. Managing change has become critical for business success. The global economy and the digital age demand it. But how easy is it to manage change in business? The biggest hurdle to businesses when managing their organization through a period of change is employee transition. It requires a culture conducive to change and that isn’t a simple fix. Many organizations fail to understand why employees resist change and this is central to successful adaptation. Understanding employee behavior and why people in the workplace resist change is a vital component of getting change management right. In this article, let’s explore how poor change management can quickly become disaster management. What is change management?The Association for Project Management (APM) defines change management as “a structured approach to moving an organization from the current state to the desired future state.” Change management company, Prosci, define change management as “the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change to achieve the required business outcome.” In simplistic terms, change management is a type of project management relating to how the ‘change project’ affects the people in the organization. Prosci determines the goal of change management as being “to help each individual impacted by the change to make a successful transition.” There are several theories on how organizations should manage change, all of which revolve around the fundamental principle that change impacts everything in the organization, but most of all its people. Successful change management thus relies on understanding how to move people through change. Organizations do not change, people doFundamental to successful change management is an understanding that businesses per se do not change—it is the transition of the people and the processes within a business that enable it to transform from one thing to another. Individual transition (employee engagement) is keySuccessful change management is impossible with disengaged employees and will almost certainly end in disaster management. According to Gallup research on the State of the Global Workplace, organizations that have been slow to adapt (to globalization, to rapid changes in technology, the rise of the gig economy and younger workers’ unique expectations) have a much lower percentage of engaged employees. These are the businesses that struggle to implement change. Employee engagement is a key strategy for change management. Engaged employees are fond of the company, want to go the extra mile and are much more likely to embrace changes implemented in the organization. With involvement, dedication, ownership and accountability managing change becomes relatively easier. Nothing happens without a consistent, open internal communications strategyLeaders need to be persuasive when they are selling change to employees. It is a natural human trait to resist the unknown. It is not uncommon for leaders to make assumptions, in particular assuming that employees understand the reasoning behind the changes they are implementing. One of the most common mistakes business leaders and managers make when they are implementing change in their organization is neglecting to define why change is necessary. People need to understand why change is happening, how it impacts them and how they will benefit from it. They need to know the bigger picture, as well as how the impending changes will impact them at ground level. Communication around this needs to be consistent, clear and regular. Successful change management can’t happen without a robust and open communications strategy. Underestimating resistance is a mistakeResistance to change in organizations is a common theme. Employee reluctance can hold businesses back—that’s a fact. Understanding why employees might resist change is a big part of ensuring change can happen effectively. Firstly, change can be stressful. Secondly, change can be painful—some employees may lose their jobs or have to change roles. Thirdly, and on a more optimistic note, change can be liberating—some employees will enjoy new challenges and/or promotions. Even when the communication about change in an organization is good, there will still be some resistance from some employees and this is perfectly natural. People need time to get used to new ideas, new processes and understand why things need to change. Change can be stressful and unpleasant and employees will need to feel reassured if they are to accept the changes ahead. Resistance to change is normal and requires compassion. Businesses will become frustrated, lack agility and responsiveness if they ignore this. Businesses need to evolve quicker than ever beforeWe live in uncertain times. Businesses need to evolve quicker than ever before in order to meet consumer demand, keep up with technological advancement and stay ahead of the competition. Change in business is inevitable and it’s now happening at an unprecedented pace. Expecting people to change because you say so does not work. When people feel pressured, or threatened, they will resist. Successfully managing change starts with communication. Most importantly, understanding the reasons why people resist change is essential if business leaders wish to allay fears. Only by engaging with employees can leaders minimize the adverse impact of change. When employees understand why change is necessary, they are much more likely to align with a new vision. Change management doesn’t have to be an exercise in disaster management. The post Don’t Let Change Management Become Disaster Management appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/36r6HCM |
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November 2020
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