Kari-Lise Alexander is an artist painter working out of Seattle, Washington. Her work is rooted in the old folklore of her Scandinavian heritage as well as inspired by her home in the Pacific Northwest. Follow her on Instagram.
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posted by Margaret
crssKari-Lise Alexander is an artist painter working out of Seattle, Washington. Her work is rooted in the old folklore of her Scandinavian heritage as well as inspired by her home in the Pacific Northwest. Follow her on Instagram.
Hit the follow button on Cross Connect’s blog!
posted by Margaret
Sam Yong a.k.a. saminthewolf is a self-taught painter & illustrator from New Zealand, now living in Melbourne. He uses traditional painting and drawing techniques with allegorical subject matter to present nature in ways that will not only resonate with the audience but also as a metaphor to explore the human condition. His Twitter and Facebook.
Our archive is the treasure chest. Just open it and you’ll see.
posted by Margaret
crssSam Yong a.k.a. saminthewolf is a self-taught painter & illustrator from New Zealand, now living in Melbourne. He uses traditional painting and drawing techniques with allegorical subject matter to present nature in ways that will not only resonate with the audience but also as a metaphor to explore the human condition. His Twitter and Facebook.
Our archive is the treasure chest. Just open it and you’ll see.
posted by Margaret
There are many factors that can affect the success of your business and determine which direction you will have to take next. According to research conducted by the Small Business Administration (SBA), one of the reasons 22% of start-ups fail within the first five years of launching is due to poor management.[1]
While there are many management skills for us to acquire, the ability to foresee the future is unquestionably the number one ability everyone longs to possess. Fortunately, it’s not some inherent talent only available to an elite few. With the right tools and resources, you too can make accurate business projections.
One of the best tools to use is the PEST analysis. A PEST analysis is centered around the political, economic, social and technological factors of a business. These are part of the macro environment. The macro environment is about external influences and factors that can heavily influence a business whether they choose it or not. We will break down the PEST analysis into 4 major factors so you have a better understanding before applying it to your business:
What it means: This is about regulations and laws that are put in place in your place of residence/ town/ country that have a significant on your business. The issues around politics are, tax, political stability, trade regulations, affirmative actions and so forth.
Why it is important: This is important when planning your finances, hiring policies and training of staff. Some companies have quotas around hiring minorities and previously disadvantaged groups. Some industries require you to train staff on first aid and healthy safety.
How to use it: When you are planning the overall growth it’s important to keep in mind what these requirements are when you reach a certain turnover or head count of staff. This puts you ahead of the curve and you have no surprises when you do reach a certain threshold as implementation and planning can be very costly.
What it means: This include factors such as inflation, currency strength, interest rates, trading power and foreign investments to name a few.
Why it is important: This helps if you want to get funding for your business, financing, loans from the banks. The economic environment also gives you insight regarding un-employment rates, pay rates and other financial aspect re your business.
How to use it: This is great for when you’re making financial projections. For example, if you have a long term loan out against your company, factoring in interest rates of the bank ensures that you do not come short on your budgeting. If you wish to hire someone with certain experience and expertise, knowing what the market rate is for such professional can help you in terms of your hiring plan and how to factor in that salary when you’re budgeting
What it means: The social environment deals with demographics, location, culture, lifestyle and the likes. Having a know how about your environment is paramount to how you establish your business. For example, there is not use going to sell feminine products in an industrial area dominated by men. Or selling fur coats in a place where animal rights are of high importance to the culture. Different cultures like different things so you need to know how to accommodate them.
Why it is important: When the community feel that the business caters to their needs and understands them, you gain more loyal customers and that gives you competitive advantage.
How to use it: It is also very important for organizations to be involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – most people think CSR is expensive and is only applicable to big corporations but it’s a social responsibility every company has. You can choose to devote your time to helping repair roofs in a school. You can get employees involved in helping at charities or you can give contribution to a cause. It doesn’t have to be millions but the little can go a long way.
What it means: The technological aspect of the PEST is something that is new to this analysis. But in today’s world, it is almost detrimental to your business to ignore technology.
Why it is important: How does technology affect the business you do? The world of retail was transformed significantly when e-commerce was introduced. If your organization deals with everyday mundane and monotonous tasks, how does technology affect your growth. There are some systems that are automated to help eradicate the human error. There are computers that can do a job that easily required 4 people.
How to use it: Knowing what kind of technology is out there and how it either threatens/assists your business, will help you derive a better vision and makes your more flexible and you won’t be so susceptible to change.
The PEST analysis can also be extended to a PESTEL Analysis, which deals with the environment issues like animal rights, carbon footprints, pollution and the likes as well as legal matters such as discriminations laws, harassment, minimum wages and other compliance issues.
If you have the desire to grow and expand your business to be sustainable, the PEST analysis is a tool that can best give you a guideline to take the necessary steps.
| [1] | ^ | Office of Advocacy: Frequently Asked Questions |
The post Successful Businesses Use This Tool to Predict the Future and Get Ahead of Their Competitors appeared first on Lifehack.
Let us guess. You have a business meeting coming up in a few days, week or months and you are wandering through the internet looking for some suggestions and ideas to make it go smooth.[1] Well, you are not alone.
We have done this too at some point before our meetings, and we know what it is like to burn your eyes reading through the uncountable number of business articles to find the one that sounds worth trying. We understand how much of a painful drag it is to read through the never-ending pieces of writing, so we decided to help you by putting together some of the most effective advice that you must try to make sure that your business meeting goes well.
The place that you are familiar with will always serve as the best region for your performance that you put up in a meeting. Whenever given a chance to decide where the meeting should be held, go for your own office’s conference room. If you are into sports, you would know that a team always does well on its home ground and business meetings follow a similar trend too. You become more confident when you are in a familiar place, and you can utilise this confidence to a good effect.
Presentations speak for what you offer, so always make them look professional. It doesn’t matter what you are offering. What is more important is how well you put up that offer in your PPTs and how you deliver the message with certainty. Doing this will make your client believe that you are specialized in your area of working, and it will be beneficial for you to achieve your target in the meetings.
In the off-meeting conversations and during the meetings make sure that you slip in the results of your company so that your clients can trust your work. Not only the presentations, when you create a website of your services or product let there be a section that highlights the achievements of your work because your clients will always check it before attending a meeting with you. In the meetings, show your previous works that are relevant to that of asked by your clients so that they can know what your capabilities are.
Conducting a meeting is like performing on a stage, and the clients are your audience. Know what your audience (or clients) like. Some clients may be into the plain old textual type of presentations while some clients may expect more of the visuals and samples in the meeting. Make sure that you give your clients exactly what they want. A common mistake that rookies make during the presentations is to lose the track while trying to make it look impressive. Do understand that, while trying to impress is not a bad idea at all, but your clients would not appreciate it if they find no relevance of their work in the presentation you put up.
Knowing your clients in advance will also help you to be confident in front of them,[2] and you can probably expect what kind of questions might come from them based on their concerns about your services or the products you offer.
We can’t fall short of words to tell you how important your appearance is in a business meeting. Forget the business meeting; appearance is important everywhere. Consciously or not, we have a tendency to judge people by how they carry themselves in front of us. You do not have to overdo it, just keep it simple. Make sure that you do not compromise your comfort to look good; there is always a right balance for it. Wear the colors that suit you the best. Based on the type of meeting, wear the right kind of dress that make you look professional.
Clothes are not the only things that will make you look good. Carry a confident smile with you throughout the presentation and also watch out for the gestures you make, how you sit and all the postures of yours.
Make the meeting your stage to perform and be the show-stopper on the day of the meeting. There are a lot of things apart from the product you offer that decides the fate of the deal you are there for as we mentioned above. Increase the chances of sealing the deal that you wish for by performing well in these kinds of meetings by using the advice that we have referred to above.
| [1] | ^ | Lifehack: 6 Hacks to Make your Business Meetings More Efficient |
| [2] | ^ | Lifehack: 10 Ways You Can Do To Build Self Confidence Instantly |
The post Revealed: Secret Ways to Win New Clients in Business Meetings appeared first on Lifehack.
