The Career Introvert

Running a business is tough, and it can be hard enough just staying afloat. However, another day that your business stays alive deserves to be celebrated. Here are five ways to encourage business growth.

Promote Yourself Everywhere
Think of every opportunity as a chance to show your company off and to promote yourself. Whether you find yourself at a cannabis investor conference, a community fun day, or at a networking event, take every opportunity to introduce your company to people and be proud of what you’ve achieved. Showcase it through signage, branded materials, and other things you might find useful in selling your brand.

Use Social Media To Your Advantage
Using social media for your business is critical in this day and age. Most businesses are online and have a social media presence, but more importantly, all your customers are too. And with our society advancing and changing every day, it’s good to keep up with what’s on trend currently or risk falling behind. If you haven’t already, set up some profiles and start reaching out to individuals. Find collaborations through these platforms with other businesses and create engaging content on a regular basis.

Budget Your Finances Better
Finances are going to be the number one priority for most businesses and depending on how established your business is, you might want to budget your finances better to save money where you can and to make the most of where the money is being spent. This can be done by having monthly and annual budget meetings, whether that’s on your own if you are a solo business owner or with certain members of your staff on a senior level. Look at your data and previous campaigns, product launches, or services to see what worked and what didn’t. Think about whether you need to invest more money in one area and reduce the costs in another if it’s not effective.

Improve Workplace Productivity
The happiness of your staff certainly affects workplace productivity. This isn’t something you want to hinder when you’re trying to grow your business. Make your staff happy and provide them with a warm and welcoming work environment. Provide initiatives and benefits if you can like flexible working and bonus schemes. The happier your staff are, the more successful the business will become.

Encourage Feedback From Clients
Feedback of any kind should be greatly received because how can you grow if you don’t know what you need to work on? Of course, looking at it from the company’s eyes of what’s effective and what isn’t is one thing, but your customers and clients are seeing what you can’t see. Ask for feedback from clients about how you can improve your service to them. Working on your weaknesses is only going to improve your company as a whole.

Hopefully, these tips help your business flourish and that the hard work you put in, reaps plenty of rewards in the future!

Being self made is one of the most respectful things that you can do. Everyone appreciates someone who has worked their way up to the top, whether that be in a career that they’re employed through, or their own little venture that has turned into something big. But most of us are just not self made, and that’s simply because we don’t have the passion or the energy for anything that we’re doing. But if you find something that you can have a drive for, and something that actually makes you want to work to the top, well you’ve found something great. But a lot of us struggle to find anything like this, which is why we stay in the dead end career that we decide to stay in. So, this article is all about giving you the inspiration that you need, to become who you need to be. We’ve got some excellent self made careers for you to try. So, keep on reading, and let’s see what we can help you become.

Get A Little Bit Savvy

Being savvy is one of the quickest ways that you’re going to be able to have a self made career, because being savvy means being smart about what you’re doing. So by this, we mean finding a good idea, and making it even easier to run with. One idea that we just know will take off at the minute, is a betting company. You have to think, there are only a handful of big trusted betting platforms at the minute, and even those have their faults. So if you love your sports, and love this idea, then we think it can be made so much easier by using pay per head 24/7 bookmaking services. This is a call center that you would go through, making it so much easier for your customers to make bets, simply because you don’t have to go through all of the clunky software. It saves a lot of money for you, and it also makes your customer experience so much better!

Get A Little Bit Techy

Technology is what it is all about at the minute, and the more you focus on it, the more you realise how much potential there is in it. But of course, if you’re not really a tech head and have no interest in it, you can skip right to the next paragraph. So, the self made career idea we have here, is app development. There is so much potential for apps out there to be created, and there are so many companies out there who are always searching for the next best on. So if you specialise in app development, or perhaps it really interests you and you’re keen to learn, doing so and creating your own one could lead you towards a big business idea!

Get A Little Bit Corporate

The final idea involves you creating nothing on your own, it simply requires you to be super hard working. All you have to do is find something you want to specialise in, marketing is a good one, and find a big corporate company that you can work your way up with.

It takes a lot of time and effort to become a successful entrepreneur, but one of the main issues that new entrepreneurs face is that of inspiration. It’s never a smooth journey, from the early beginnings to eventually becoming a success, and it’ll be inspiration that carries you through the tough periods. The problems you’ll encounter will come from internal and external sources, and can include the problem of knowing if your idea is a good idea, how to keep moving forward when things aren’t going well, and figuring out where to go next. Below, we take a look at a few places where you can look when you need a little guidance.

The Problems of the World

It’s not advisable to start a business because you want to earn money. All going well, that’ll be a happy side effect of your hard work — it’s not the goal! When it comes to your motivation, you should look at some of the problems facing the world, and figuring out how you can help. These could be small issues, or large: it doesn’t matter. Whether you’re helping people to work better or trying to solve the climate change issue, you’ll be a making a positive impact. And there’s no greater inspiration than that.

Looking to the Future

The world is ever in flux. Things don’t stay the same for too long in the modern age. If you’re looking for inspiration, then one place to look is to the future. If you can see some of the issues, entertainment, and lifestyles of the future, then you’ll be able to to filter your company through the lens of what’s to come.

From Others

You’re not the first person to start a company, and you won’t be the last. If you go through a period in which you lack inspiration, then take a look at the people who have gone before you. No-one builds a successful company without experiencing a few bumps along the way. It’s the ones who ride out these bumps that go on to be successful. Take a look at a business owner like Mike Zima, who overcame startup failure to create a successful venture. There’s much we can learn from other people: they can show us that we can weather our troubles. They can inspire us.

Working Hard

You’ll have heard of the quote from Thomas Jefferson: “it seems the harder I work, the more luck I have.” If you’re waiting for inspiration to strike, then you might never get going. Instead, it’s better to simply get moving, and wait for inspiration to hit you. If you can make your own luck in this world, then perhaps you can make your own inspiration too.   

Looking Within

Finally, the last place to look for inspiration: within. We all get blown off course from time to time, and we need a little reminder of what drove us in the first place. Take some time and reconnect with yourself; it’ll take you back to a land of possibility.

A working capital loan is short-term business funding used to finance a company’s day-to-day operations, like buying inventory or covering payroll. Common small business working capital loans are lines of credit, term loans, invoice financing, and merchant cash advances. 

Take a look at more information here

Branding yourself refers to developing a professional identity that aligns with your values. You should always start a personal branding statement with your vales, so ensure you define them. This will help you to become a thought leader in your field, and tell people what you stand for. However, you don’t just have to be an entrepreneur to focus on your branding. You could be a musician, actor, influencer, or somebody else. Strengthening your brand will help you to get better results.

There are many examples out there of people who have built a great personal brand. It isn’t the easiest or the quickest thing to do, but with determination and a great strategy, you can build your ideal personal brand and get the results that you want. You could be somebody who people need to relate to to do business with, such as a real estate agent, life coach, or personal trainer. Maybe you literally are your business, such as an actor or musician, so you need to have a strong image. Whatever and whoever you are, you can use the advice below to strengthen your personal brand in 2019.

Start With Self Reflection And Know What Makes You Different

First of all, you should start with a little self reflection. Know your values, who you’d like to portray yourself as, and your USP (unique selling proposition). What makes you different, and why should your audience work with you rather than with your competition? You need to have a solid idea of who you are and be prepared to show this.

Outsource

Outsourcing parts of your business will help you to provide a better service to your audience, as well as have more time on your hands to strengthen your personal brand. Some things are worth spending money on when you want to save time and work towards your goal. For instance, managed IT services could ensure that everything continues to work smoothly online no matter what. You can find detailed information here to see if you need these services. Bear in mind that there are other things you can outsource, such as a virtual assistant to take care of simple admin tasks for you.

Define Your Audience

So you know who you are, but do you know who your audience is? You must define your audience if you’re going to strengthen your personal brand. You’ll need to know what resonates with them, what sort of content and information they want to see, and so on. See if you can create profiles defining certain members of your audience, and don’t forget to pay attention to the content they like the most by looking at your analytics.

Share Content That Resonates With Your Image And Audience

Whenever you share content, whether it’s your own or it belongs to somebody else, make sure it suits your personal brand perfectly. Does it align with what you’re trying to achieve and who you’re trying to be?

Have Professional Pictures Taken

Professional pictures can do you the world of good. They aren’t there just to make you look your best, they help people to take you seriously. Make sure you convey the personality that you want to get across in these pictures!

Running a small business is amazing. It’s your chance to work flexibly, to make money doing something that you love, to do things your way and to grow something from nothing. It can make you a good income, give you a legacy to leave behind and provide your family with financial certainty, both now and in the future. It can also be great fun and a fantastic experience. While running your own business, you’ll learn much more than you ever would working for someone else. You’ll develop skills that you’d never have imagined you needed and meet countless interesting people. It’s great. But, it’s also tough.

In the early days, most small business owners work more than they have ever worked in their lives. They work late, start early and rarely take a day off. Even when they are out of the office, they are checking emails, pitching for work and keeping in touch with the business. They are constantly trying to think of new ways to improve, and facing different challenges that they’ve often got no idea how to deal with. They are stressed out, tired and under enormous pressure to make things work. They worry about failing, about letting people down and about losing money.

A little bit of stress is entirely normal, and can even help you to work more productively. But, too much and you can start to wonder if it’s worth it. It can affect your relationships and health, and ruin your enjoyment of this exciting new chapter. So, let’s take a look at some stress-busting tips for small business owners.

Delegate

A lot of small business owners are absolutely terrible at delegating to others. Their business is their baby. They want to do it all themselves, and they struggle to trust anyone else enough to let them in. But, you don’t have to go it alone. If you can afford to hire staff, do it, and use them! You might also want to consider using freelancers for tasks that you struggle with, or tech firms to help manage the more technical sides of your business, find more information here. This should allow you to take some time off, or at least focus on the elements of your business that you enjoy.

Take a Proper Break

You need a break. Not just a few hours off here and there, where you are still thinking about work, a real break, where you can do something else, or just get some rest. Make sure you take evenings off when you can, and at least one full day every week. This gives your body the rest it needs and can help your mind to refresh and recharge.

Organize Your Time

Most of us get stressed out when it feels like we’ve got too much to do in too little time, or when we don’t know where to start. Start making lists and notes on your online calendar, and prioritizing the most critical jobs to give your day purpose and order and make things seem more manageable.

Your business launch date is the most crucial time. In fact, it is when you get to see whether your company will sink or swim. Of course, that means you need to have all the essential element sorted before it rolls around. A topic you can find out more about in the post below.

Your goals
The first thing you need to get sorted before you launch your business is what you are aiming to achieve. In fact, you need to be really specific with your goals and exactly how you will get there. Otherwise, even if your launch is a success you may miss opportunities that come your way because you are not focused enough on what matters.

Your premises

Whether it’s your garage, a dorm room, or a fancy office downtown you need to have your business premises sorted before you launch. This is because you will need somewhere to run your company from, as well as to store and even in some cases manufacture your products.

Of course finding the perfect premises can be tough, as you need to balance features like space, and location with the costs involved. Also, remember that it’s not just the lease that you will have pay out for, but the utilities like electricity water and Internet as well, so be sure to factor them into your equations before you decide on suitable premises. Otherwise when it comes to launching you could be caught in a real jam.   

Your product

One of the most essential thing that you need to have sorted before your business launches are your product. In fact, if you are going with the same iteration as when you first came up with the idea you might be making a massive mistake.

The reason for this because even the best ideas need a great deal of refining to make them a marketable product that will sell in the number you require come launch day.

Of course, to make sure that you aren’t going in blind it’s vital that you get throughout consumer product testing done way before your launch date as well. Then you will have the opportunity to change or tweak things that don’t rate well with potential customers. Something that can make all the difference when it comes to the day you launch.  

Your brand identity

Let’s get one thing straight, your brand identity is more than just a logo. It’s about the values that you stand for, your company’s story, and the visual and written themes that permeate your marketing. What this means is that well before launch you need to start bringing together all of these elements to form a cohesive whole.

Of course, if this is something you are struggling with, outsourcing your branding and marketing to an agency can be beneficial. The reason being that they will understand precisely how to mesh all of the disparate elements together to make an effective whole that is ready to go when it comes time to launch.

It can be especially daunting when you are starting a new job, and there is plenty about it that you might find hard to really make the most of. For introverts and others alike, one of the harder elements of starting in a new job is trying to find a way to be heard. If you have often found that this is something you find hard to do, then you are absolutely not alone, and it is something that it worth looking into in some depth in order to make sure that you can overcome this. When you fail to be heard, it often means that you are not going to get what you need from your job and other people, nod slowly this only makes your confidence worse and worse. In this post, we will take a look at some of the things that you might be able to do to ensure that you are properly heard in your new job.

Speak Up Early

One thing that you need to try and do and which is bound to help you out a lot is to make a point of speaking up as early as you can. The earlier that you speak up, the more that you will develop your own confidence, even if you are shaky while doing it and you find that you don’t really enjoy it all that much. Speaking up on your first day and trying to be more vocal than perhaps is comfortable for you will help you to stop getting in your own way later on down the line, and it will show others that you are perfectly capable of doing so too. It can be about anything, but make sure that the tone is convivial and friendly, otherwise you might strike the wrong chord with people. However, as long as you say something, you will find it helps greatly.

Get Supported

This sort of thing is always easier if you know you have the support of others in some way or another, and that is something that you should seek out as soon as you can as well. There are many kinds of support you might be seeking here, and the more you have, the better, but for one you might want to think about ensuring that you have the support of your friends and family. That means that you have told them about your endeavour, and that they support you and wish you well. That alone is going to help hugely, and make you feel that you can be heard in your new job much more easily than you might have thought. You will also find it powerful to have official legal representation with an employment lawyer like Ogletree Deakins. If you have that, you will feel much more supported.

Build Your Confidence

Finally, remember that you can always work on building your confidence, and that as long as you do that, you will find that it is a lot easier to be able to speak up and be heard in your new job. It is often a long process to be able to do this, but as long as you are actively working on your confidence levels, you should find that you are able to do this easily enough, and it will make a huge difference.

With the rise of cloud based working and the accessibility of the internet, more and more of us are able to earn a decent living without even needing to leave our homes. Whether it’s as a freelancer, a home business owner or a remote worker for a company, there are lots of legitimate and well paid options which are becoming more and more accessible. And for the right kind of person, working from home is the ideal situation- here are just a few benefits.

It’s great for introvert personalities

If you’re reading this blog, chances are, you’re an introvert personality. And as we all know, the workplace doesn’t always favour our personality type. It’s usually the loud voices that are heard at work, the big personalities that get chosen for promotions- even making friends can be difficult when you’re naturally a bit of a lone wolf. Most workplaces will have a team/ community environment which doesn’t always work well for introverted people. Working by yourself, from home however might suit you to a tee. Even if you’re working for a company as a remote worker (rather than being your own boss) and you still have to communicate with a team, it will often be done via email and online chat services making it much easier. In life, we’re encouraged to be more outgoing, speak up for ourselves more and be more sociable. But some of us just aren’t like that naturally, so why should we change? Instead, choose a work environment that suits your personality and you’ll be far happier.

It can be useful for mental health issues

If you have a mental health issue, getting out to work every day can be a struggle. It could be something like agoraphobia which prevents you leaving the house at all, or it could be anxiety or depression where you have good and bad days. You might have an understanding boss, but missing days every week or month is never going to be sustainable long term. However, if you work from home it can make life much easier. You don’t have to worry about driving to work or sitting on a cramped train which can set off your anxiety. You don’t have to worry about speaking to colleagues, you don’t even need to get out of bed if you’re having a really bad day, you can simply grab your laptop and work from there. Because working from home gives you flexibility, if you’ve had a bad morning you always have chance to catch up in the afternoon. Whereas in a traditional job role, you have to turn up during your set hours and get your tasks done. If you have a mental health condition that makes it impossible to guarantee if you’ll be able to get up and leave the house for work each day, working from home instead is a good option. Just the fact of not having a job and having time on your hands can often exacerbate mental health problems, and so by having something you can do without putting additional stress on yourself could well help your mindset and condition.

You can still work if you’re physically disabled

Another reason you might struggle to get to work each day is due to a physical disability. Even if you’re very independent, being able to arrive at work on time when you’re limited with your movements can be tricky. You might need the help of another person to be able to even make it out of the door at all. You could well manage a desk job, but just getting to and from the workplace is the difficult part. In this instance, working from home is the ideal solution. Workplaces these days have to accommodate to those with disabilities, from making their entrances accessible to supporting you when needed, there’s even in office dispensing in some workplaces so it’s easy to get your medication. However, working from home could be the simplest and preferred option when you have a disability that limits you. You have your comforts around you and any aids and adaptations you need to manage your condition. You might have a particular type of seat you need to use, or you might have home help nursing come in to assist you each day which needs to be done while you’re at home. Either way, you can still earn money and move forward in your career without having to attend a traditional workplace.

It’s flexible

Flexibility in work is so important for some of us. If you have childcare commitments for example, you can’t always guarantee that you’re going to be available and able to work at set times- as most jobs will require. However, when you’re given your daily workload and can manage it as you see fit, you can still get things done around school runs, taking care of your kids when they’re unwell and attending things like sports days and parents evenings. The same is true if you’re caring for an elderly or disabled relative- you might have time in the day to work but your first priority has to be them. A flexible job really can enable you to do both. Even if you don’t have other commitments or mental or physical health issues, flexibility in your work is always going to be a bonus. It prevents you from feeling like you’re stuck in the rat race- being forced to clock in, work, eat and clock out at specific times. You get to manage your own workload and work in a way that suits your own personal energy spikes. You get a better work/ life balance- if you want to have a morning off to run errands instead of being stuck doing them on a busy saturday then you can- you just have to make the time up later on.

While there are many famous examples of business leaders and entrepreneurs who hit the big time despite dropping out or not gaining any higher education at all, most of the world’s mega wealthy attained a degree of some sort. Now, thanks to this interesting data visualization from findcourses.co.uk we can see which colleges and nations produced the world’s wealthiest graduates, as featured in the Forbes billionaire index.

Leaving home to earn a degree is a bold and often expensive choice. With such an undertaking, many prospective students understandably have one eye on what the future holds for them once they leave college. Where they will work, what their role will be and how much they might earn after graduation are all big factors when choosing a study destination. But what better way to get inspired and guide your decision than discovering which colleges produced the most billionaires?

The encouraging news is that a diverse range of colleges churn out alumni who go on to amass huge fortunes. While some institutions tend to have a knack for this, the findings show that you don’t necessarily need to study at an Ivy League college to become a billionaire.

Some key takeaways: the US is also home to seven of the ten top colleges per billionaire grad. Harvard, as some might expect, comes out on top for the most billionaires educated, with Ivy League schools like Columbia, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania appearing in the top ten alongside three other American schools, two Chinese schools, and a school in France.

Looking at the top 100 in its entirety, we can see more variety in the nations that are represented. Schools in China, Russia, Germany, and India all appear frequently. However, when we look at the average net worth by college, the US comes out on top again. This is mainly down to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and current richest person in the world, attending Princeton and graduating with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1986.

If there’s one key thing to consider from these findings, it’s that while where you study is important; your choice of college or country will not necessarily determine your future success. Wherever and however your education occurs, the future is in your own hands!