Tag Archives: business

Jul11

Workplace Safety: Injuries And Prevention

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Workplace Safety: Injuries And Prevention

Workplace safety should be an utmost priority for all businesses and operations, as it can significantly affect a company or organization’s most essential asset, its workforce, and can subsequently stifle productivity and have financial consequences. According to the National Safety Council, one worker is injured every seven seconds at work, about 4.6 million workers are injured on the job per year, and a total of 104 million production days are lost due to workplace injuries.

To make your workplace safer, it’s not enough to comply with health and safety regulations; one must be wary of the common workplace injuries to take the necessary steps to prevent them. It’s important to remember that if accidents do happen, either to yourself or a colleague, it would be best to speak with Schuerger Shunnarah Trial Attorneys so that the proper legal process can be followed to cover your injuries. Of course it would be best if nobody got injured in the first place though, so let’s take a look at these injuries and the preventive measures you can take to help your workforce avoid them:

Slips, Trips, and Falls:

According to the National Safety Council (NSC), slips, trips, and falls constitute 25.8% of all work-related injuries. Despite these being quite common, preventing these types of injuries is quite easy and straightforward. Good housekeeping can address the issues of slipping and tripping; your workplace should minimize any clutter on the floor to avoid tripping over them and any spills should be immediately cleaned up. Reputable commercial cleaning companies can also be a major help when it comes to spills and clearing clutter. To avoid falls, elevated platforms should have railings and ladders should be installed or placed on solid, even surfaces.

Contact with Objects and Equipment:

The next most common (26%) workplace injury is contact with objects, machinery, and equipment. There are numerous ways for one to be injured by workplace equipment: one’s limbs or clothing can be caught up in gears and moving parts, an employee can be struck by heavy equipment, or collapsing structures or packages could fall on anyone below it. As such, it’s important for one to properly stack and store objects, ensuring that the heavier objects are stored at the base. Workers should be extra careful and wary of moving equipment and objects to avoid getting struck or get caught by moving components. Everyone in the workplace and those operating machinery should wear proper protective gear and equipment to ensure their safety. This can include gloves, safety glasses, and heavy boots. Should you already wear glasses, these ansi Z87+ prescription safety glasses will assure safety as well as clear vision. Regular maintenance and inspection of equipment is also crucial to identify hazards before they cause harm. Employers must ensure that all workers receive comprehensive training on machine safety and emergency procedures.

You should also ensure that all employees are well versed in an established lifting plan to maximize safety when using machinery. These plans should be updated as needed and the team will need to be notified with any changes. Keep safety at the forefront with pop quizzes, meetings, and reminders.

Overexertion:

Overexertion, according to the NSC, ranks as the most common workplace injury (33.54%). Overexertion happens through repetitive motion or poor posture when lifting or lowering heavy objects. Hence, your employees should be duly trained on how to properly lift and transport heavy objects and also allow your workforce to take short breaks in between heavy labor. Alternatively, your business or company can provide your workforce with equipment or vehicles such as hand trucks and forklifts to make lifting and transporting easier and significantly reduce the risk of overexertion.

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Other Common Injuries:

The other common injuries that end up forcing your workers to require a few days off from work are sprains and tears (from heavy physical activities), neck and back soreness (from sitting too long or from poor posture), and cuts, lacerations, and punctures (from contact with sharp objects in the workplace). These injuries can easily be avoided as well by maintaining proper posture, ensuring correct handling of equipment, wearing appropriate PPE, and being mindful of one’s surroundings.

Workplace injuries are common, and even with all of the preventive measures, safety equipment, and trainings, there’s always the risk of accidents and injuries no matter how small. It’s important for your company or business to have either on-site health professionals, first aid kits and staff that are trained in first aid in case of accidents, or at least orthopedics or occupational medicine physicians on call in case of any accidents in your workplace.

Jun11

Exporting 101: Tips For Small Businesses

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Exporting 101: Tips For Small Businesses

Depending on your line of business and the products you’re selling, there’s a chance that you’ll need to export your products for customers, business partners, or resellers abroad even if you’re still just operating as a small-scale enterprise. Global trade is quite competitive, so when there’s a demand for your product to be shipped to another country, you want to do it right and profit as much as possible. With this in mind, as well as the tips below, you may wish to access site of someone like 3G and invest in shipping software that can help you streamline your processes and enable you to keep tabs on your shipments so that you can be sure they will arrive safely at their destination. 

Here are a few things to remember when exporting your products as a small scale business:

Know the Law and Restrictions:

Before you export your products, you’ll want to know if the product is legal or complies with any regulations and restrictions in the country it’ll be exported to. So, do your research before contacting a logistics company or upping your production to meet the demand in your target country.

Get Partners:

When talking about exporting your products as a small business, you might be thinking about sending your products directly and individually to your clients. However, this can be quite costly in terms of shipping and would take a lot of time and effort to track individually. As such, the best way for you to sell your products abroad is to find partners who are willing to buy and sell the product for you in their country.

This way, you’d be able to send products via air freight or whatever method you choose in bulk, which is cheaper and more convenient for you. Having partners would also mean that you’d be able to sell your products and have you earn more consistently. Your partners may even be willing to process and pay for the shipping for you. But it’s also important that you do your research regarding your partners to know that they’re legitimate and could be trusted to avoid risk.

Packaging:

You may also want to have different packaging for your exported products; perhaps with better packaging or provide a translation of your product’s manual and other information (such as ingredients and nutritional value). It is so important for your product to be accessible to all future customers and translations are a huge part of it. Whether it’s a small recipe book or wine bottles labels with unique logos and phrases, it is a great idea to print them in the most spoken language of each country you ship to. It could make the difference between someone purchasing it or not.

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Decide on the Pricing:

Another thing you’d also want to consider when exporting your products is the pricing. Your pricing would depend on whether you’re selling directly to a customer or a partner, as well as various other factors that make up your transportøkonomi (transport economy). When selling to a business partner, you’d have to consider your bulk pricing and should also include all the costs related to shipping, customs, and logistics, as well as the cost of labor. The price should be agreed upon by you and your business partner in a way that you’re both able to profit while your business partners can still sell it at a competitive and reasonable price in their respective countries.

Exporting products can be expensive, but there are software solutions that can help with cost control, economic freight analysis, and more. These solutions will be tailor made to your company to help ensure best results.

Choose a Good Logistics Company:

You’d be sending valuable products to your partners or customers in another country that’s miles away, so it’s important that you find a company to ship it safely and make sure that it arrives on time to its intended destination without any hitch. As such, you will want to choose a licensed customs broker that would be able to store, handle, and deliver your products on time and also handle all of the necessary legal paperwork and customs clearances. The bottom line, is that you want to ship your products safely, legally, and on time.

Knowing how to export your product properly can be the key to turning your small business into a huge enterprise. As such, it’s important to keep these pointers in mind when you’re shipping your products abroad.

May27

Doing Me For Me

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Doing Me For Me

Hiii everyone! This past month, I have made some major changes when it comes to work and my life in general and I honestly have never been happier. For the past couple of years, my life has felt like the epitome of “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Not to say that I don’t love my job, because it is simply the best. But, I was working so much to the point that my social life or even just time for me was essentially nonexistent.

I was starting to become really bitter, especially from seeing all of my friends doing such cool stuff all over social media while my days off on the weekend were spent recouping from a long work week. I felt envious of my friends or people I don’t even know on my newsfeed living their best life while I felt like I was merely working my way through mine week after week.

I was fed up and so I made the decision to change things. I made the difficult choice to drop one of my clients and I also rearranged my schedule to give myself some evenings off. And, within one week, I felt a major difference in my mental health. For once, I was enjoying having friends over for drinks at my apartment, going out, and running errands that I had saved for the weekend. And, my boyfriend and I get more regular times to see each other, which is the best!

I spent a majority of twenty-three and twenty-four building my businesses. And, now that both of them are totally stable, I am fortunate enough to cut back on my hours a bit. I feel proud of myself that I took a major stand to start improving my mental health and being able to feel like a twenty-four year old with a social life is what I desperately needed. It was a big step and I could have easily kept running myself into the ground but, doing me for me needed to happen and my life feels infinitely better for it.

So, this post is a friendly reminder for all of you to take the steps to do you for you. Carve out time to give yourself a break, cut out negativity, and do what you have to do to live your best life. ❤

How do you do you for you? What can you do to improve your life today? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

May21

Top Ways To Attract More Clients To Your Events Place

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Top Ways To Attract More Clients To Your Events Place

Ever wondered why malls, concert grounds, office buildings, hotels, resorts, events places, and even schools invest so much effort and money into beautifying their gardens and parking lots? The landscape and terrain of an events place are more than just a backdrop for photos and videos. They have a logistical purpose, too.

If you’re managing an event place and you want to attract more clients, you might need to look into the current amenities you’re offering. If you haven’t yet invested in commercial landscaping services in North Oklahoma City, it’s about time you rethink that decision. A well-landscaped garden area and parking lot, along with the affordability of your place and other amenities and features, is an important consideration for many potential clients.

Parking lot, gardens, pathways, driveway, etc:

Most of the time, an event place is filled to capacity with people. Whether it’s a wedding, a corporate event, a birthday, or a product launch, events places house as many guests as they are capable of. With this, comes the responsibility of providing ample parking spaces for the guests and the clients. This also includes regular maintenance to the parking area like seal coating and line striping, so that people can clearly see where a proper parking space is available. It would be wise to find a professional to manage the upkeep of this for you. In order to find a professional near you, simply enter a search for “Paving contractor in Royse City, TX” or your local area. And, while many event places leave enough area for a parking space, not many of them invest money and energy into landscaping their parking lots and driveway.

The landscape of an events place’s parking lot, pathway, and driveway, however, is more than just aesthetics. It’s more than just a backdrop for a nice wedding photo. Hilly and uneven terrain will make it hard for guests to reach the main hall of the event place (especially if it’s a formal event and the women are wearing sky-high heels!). A landscape artist will see that these issues are dealt with. He will also make sure that during rainy days, the gardens won’t collapse and the pathways are well covered to protect the clients and their guests.

Marketing:

You could have the most beautiful event space in the world but no one will know about it if you don’t market it properly. A great place to start is by advertising your business at expo fairs specific to the events you host like weddings or corporate get togethers. You can set up your booth with a custom tent wall, giveaway products, flyers, and banners so it will catch everyone’s eye. After the fair, you can add the banners and flags you used to the exterior of your event center to capture the attention of even more traffic.

Another excellent way to put your business out there is by inviting the clientele you’re hoping to attract to an event. For example, those in the wedding industry would be impressed by a wine and cheese tasting to preview the space and be inspired for pre wedding cocktail hours. To get started, simply enter a search for “wine tasting bath” (or your local area) to find specialty restaurants or wineries to accommodate. An event like this is casual, fun, and a perfect ice breaker.

Full and topnotch amenities:

Does your event place have a waiting area for the guests’ drivers and aids? Is it wheelchair accessible? Do you have facilities that cater to the need of individuals with physical challenges? These are important features of an event place and many potential clients may start to look to your competitors’ direction just because you didn’t put enough ramps (for wheelchairs and strollers) in your building or garden. Sometimes, the reason why clients won’t rent your place is as simple as not having a few important amenities and features.

Affordability and price competitiveness:

There are a lot of competitions in this industry. Restaurants are opening their doors for events. Hotels have grand ballrooms where a large event can be held. There are exhibit halls to host seminars and conferences. Even parking lots are turned into concert grounds when the situation calls for it. What separates your event place from all of the others? One thing that potential clients will look into is the affordability and competitiveness of your pricing scheme. If you can offer the same facilities and amenities for a lower price than your competitors, then clients are more likely to choose your event place.

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Having a well-maintained landscape is good for your business, especially during the summer time! Keep these things in mind so that you can create a great environment for your employees and customers.

Apr17

Making Working With Remote Employees A Breeze

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Making Working With Remote Employees A Breeze

Thanks to technology and developments in online communication, it’s likely you’ll be working with remote employees in your organization. Cloud computing, be it hybrid, multi-cloud management, public or private, in addition to video conferencing, and better networks mean that businesses can choose from a wider range of talent for their teams, resulting in more employees working from remote locations. Remote working also provides flexibility to your staff, allowing them to work at home and in other locations – something which can provide a better work/life balance.

While having remote workers can be great for your business, it can come with some pitfalls, too. To help make working with remote employees a breeze for your business, take a look at the following tips:

Set your expectations:

It can be difficult for remote workers to find their feet. Without the structure of the office environment, the onus is on them to manage workloads, timekeeping and so on, so it’s useful for employees to know what’s expected from them. Having core hours that you expect everyone to be available is beneficial to your business, while putting reporting systems in place will help you monitor progress. Create clear guidelines that will help them and you navigate remote working much easier.

Give them the tools they need:

For all employees to do a good job, they need to use the right tools. Providing remote workers with the right equipment and technology will ensure that they are able to work effectively and be a part of the wider system. Cloud management systems are a cost-effective tool for business that will help everyone access what they need and facilitate collaborative working with ease.

You can read how a system like Templafy brings value to businesses at https://www.templafy.com/blog/techradar-pro-names-templafy-among-the-best-document-management-systems/. The standardization of forms and templates can help employees stay on brand and ensures that they’re using the right systems for their work.

Create an inclusive work environment:

It can be difficult for remote workers to feel like a part of the team. There are ways to help remote employees feel included that include encouraging bonding between colleagues and recognizing the contributions of your remote workers. Communication is another important aspect, so providing regular communication can help employees feel connected, even when they’re in another location.

Working from home can be difficult for employees for many reasons. Where possible, make it easy for your remote employees to travel in when needed. Give them a travel budget and arrange meetings that will allow them to enjoy face to face contact with the rest of the team. Remember to include some social activities as part of these visits to strengthen those team bonds.

Making a success of remote working depends on several factors, but it’s important to put the time and investment into developing clear guidelines and processes to help everything fit into place. Remember to check in with your remote employees regularly to ensure that they’re happy and that things are working well and review things if it’s not quite right. Your remote workers are an asset to your business, so help them feel like a valued, recognized part of your team.

 Featured Image By: Unsplash

Jan4

Diving Into Business Or Taking A Measured Approach: The Pros & Cons

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Diving Into Business Or Taking A Measured Approach: The Pros & Cons

When you don’t have much experience in the field of business, there are a couple of different routes which can be taken to get yourself started. Some people will like to dive straight in, choosing to learn everything they need as they go, and dealing with problems in the moment. Others, though, will prefer to take a far more measured approach. To give you an idea of the key differences between these business-building options, this post will be exploring some of the key benefits of each of them:

Diving In:

Going right into something that you don’t understand will always come with some risks. Issues could come up which you are completely unprepared for and you could take the wrong approach entirely when it comes to making decisions. In return for this, you will have the chance to get started very quickly. You will benefit from the satisfaction of doing something entirely by yourself, while also getting the chance to improve yourself in other areas in the process. It will always take someone with very strong dedication to their business to succeed at something like this. If you’re looking to start a company, passion is the very first thing you need and those who dive right in definitely aren’t lacking in that department.

If you think the best option for you is to dive right in, do so with a plan and additional help in mind. A strong business plan with alternative solutions for problems will be your guide so make sure it is fool proof before making a big decision. Additionally, having extra help through a partner or two can go a long way. One person could be managing marketing. Another partner could be handling the shipment of products and researching options like freight to Germany (or your shipment destination). This can take a lot off of your plate so you can focus your attention to other areas.

Taking It Slow:

Taking a slower approach to this can take a couple of different forms, with some people preferring to go to school and others wanting to learn on the job. An online MBA can teach you practically everything you could need to get into running your own company. You will benefit from advice and support, and will be able to get a clear idea of where your talents lie. This will cost money, though, making it hard for some people to use and forcing them to look for other avenues. By getting a job as a business owners assistant for a while, you will gain similar skills, but will earn instead of having to spend.

Which Is For You?

In most cases, taking the slow road is usually the best option when you’re starting a business. This is something which you will want to support you in later life, and this makes it crucial that it is handled correctly. Of course, though, if you feel confident in yourself, it could be worth taking a risk on the more direct approach. Whichever you choose, the hard part of running your company is yet to come, and this means that work will be becoming a large part of your life.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to figure out how you’re going to start your business. There are ways to combine these options further, working to get the best out of both of them. In reality, though, this won’t take too long to be in the past, making it worth getting started on your route as soon as possible. As more people start their own companies, more resources spring up which are designed to help entrepreneurs just like you.

Featured Image By: Unsplash

Dec20

Giving Your Customers Faith In Your Online Business

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Giving Your Customers Faith In Your Online Business

What’s a business worth if it’s not trusted by its customers? Nothing!

These days, online businesses are everywhere and you’ll find everything being sold. From crazy unique clothing pieces to hand-crafted wooden miniatures, you can purchase virtually anything from the internet and there are so many small businesses that you probably won’t be able to remember all of them. Because of this, it’s actually very difficult to build a brand that customers will come back to time and time again. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible though, through reading helpful resources online such as this article you’ll find that expertise in this sector can be quite instrumental in improving the perception of your business online. With an expert in business reputation on your side, there are a couple of solid strategies that can help you improve your reputation and build your customer’s faith in your business.

Make sure your website meets all the security regulations and standards:

Online security is a huge issue now, especially with hackers running rampant and leaking everything from credit card information to selling private celebrity photographs on the dark web. As a result, it’s vital that you get protection for your business from Jumio and other specialist firms that can help you design a safe and secured online website. In addition, you should always rely on eCommerce platforms with a good reputation so that if you ever come across a fraudulent transaction, you can deal with it immediately and effectively so that it doesn’t ruin your business or cause it to collapse.

As long as you follow all of the relevant regulations and standards, you’ll find that your customers will trust you more because you’ve gone the extra mile to ensure that they can feel safe when giving you their bank card information to make purchases.

Focus on offering good customer support to each and every customer without exception:

We’ve probably all experienced the “joys” of poor customer support. Whether it’s outsourced to another country or if we get put in touch with a clueless operative on the other end, it’s never a pleasant experience to be subjected to terrible customer support. Every business should focus on having a solid customer support structure so that they can better serve their customers. Make sure you have several points of contact such as social media handles, emails, and phone numbers, and make sure they’re manned so that if your customers do want to get in touch, they can. Services like Gong Competitors can also help if this is an area you struggle in with additional support like call recording and AI driven insights.

Great customer support can elevate your customer’s experience. It can create repeat customers and could also keep you from losing customers should they be unsatisfied with a product or service. Not to mention that they have the potential to give your business a shout out in reviews and recommend it to friends to highlight their positive interaction. Every customer should feel important and outsourced customer support might be the way to go for your business to achieve that. Negative reviews and experiences could lead to a business’s downfall so every call or interaction should be focused on resolving problems and customer satisfaction.

Be truthful about any errors or problems that you encounter:

Although your customers expect you to deliver their products and services on time, there’s undoubtedly going to be a couple of situations in which you can’t deliver on your promises. During situations like this, it’s vital that you speak to your customers and tell them the truth so that you don’t lie to them and create suspicion that you could be abusing their trust in you. If you have a customer who complains about damaged items in shipping for example, apologize and see what your business can do better. You might need more durable shipping gear – Packaging Chimp is a great resource to get your products from Point A to B safely.

Aim to deal with the situation as quickly as possible. It could be a late delivery because you forgot to post an item or it could be a problem caused by miscommunication by one of your sales representatives. Whatever the situation is, be truthful about it to the customer if they ask and do whatever you can to compensate them.

Running an online business requires the smarts and customer service skills, combine the two and your customers will always have faith in your enterprise.

Dec12

Post-Uni Work Life Getting You Down? Try These Options To Spice Things Up!

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Post-Uni Work Life Getting You Down? Try These Options To Spice Things Up!

Throughout college, we motivate ourselves by thinking that it doesn’t matter that we have to pull all-nighters and spend 24 hours straight in the library because it will all be worth it when we land our dream job. However, the reality of the situation can be very different when we find ourselves in the work world. Many of us discover that our post-uni work life isn’t quite what we expected it to be, and can be (Dare we say it?) a bit boring? Happily, if you do find yourself in this position, there are some tactics which you can use to make things a lot more interesting. Read on to find out more:

Change your job:

The simplest solution to the boring work blues is to change your job. Perhaps there would be a role elsewhere that would be a better fit for your skills and interests? In another company, you might find colleagues that you have more in common with? You won’t know until you find out.

Although, it is vital to be mindful of making a snap decision when it comes to changing your job in a situation like this. We all have bad days and even bad weeks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that going somewhere else will be any better.

That is why it’s worth giving any role a decent run of at least three months unless there are extenuating circumstances. Otherwise, you could find yourself leapfrogging from job to job, rather than learning to cope with the ups and downs of typical day to day life.

Keep your job, but work overseas:

Another option, is to find a similar position but in a radically different location. I’m not just talking about moving to the other side of town here, but going to live and work in an entirely different country! Something that is bound to add some excitement and zest into your post-university work life.

Luckily, it’s not that hard to find a suitable role, because you can use sites like GradAustralia that specialize in finding overseas jobs in all sorts of sectors. You can even apply through their portal, so it couldn’t be easier to locate a post that best suits your experience and allows you to infuse a little excitement into your post-university work life.

Go into business for yourself:

Last of all, if the post-uni lull that you are in is more about working for someone else and having to fit into the corporate culture, you may want to consider going into business for yourself and carving your own career path.

The good news here, is that it’s never been easier to get set up as an entrepreneur or small business owner, with the majority of such organizations running primarily over the internet in the startup stages.

Of course, going into business for yourself is not without its challenges, but it is certainly an option that will bring plenty of spice and excitement!

Beat the work blahs by changing things up and enjoy as your job transforms into your ideal career.

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Dec2

Find Your Dream Career: Here’s How

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Find Your Dream Career: Here’s How

Are you stuck in a job that you really don’t like, but not taking any steps towards actually finding your dream career? Dream careers are not a myth; many people go to jobs that they really love every day. And, having a job that you love rarely feels like work. If we’re being realistic, though, all jobs will come with some elements that you’re probably not going to like. But, if you like it for the most part, you have job satisfaction, and you are able to enjoy a life outside of work, then you’re winning!

So, here we’re going to talk about how you can find your dream career and stop meandering. You might be thinking ‘I’ll do it next week’ or even ‘next year I’ll start’ – but those days rarely come. You’ll keep putting it off to a later date unless you do something about it now. Let’s take a look at how you can find your dream career today:

Assess Your Skills, Talents, & Interests:

The first thing you need to do is assess your skills, talents, and interests. This will allow you to brainstorm on what sort of roles you think will be best for you. It’s a good idea to know what sort of things you don’t like to do or that you’re not so good at, so you either know what to avoid or what to improve upon. You can also try to think way back to when you were a child; what sort of thing did you love to do then? Were you an avid reader/writer? Did you love to build model airplanes, paint pictures, or make your parents watch an all-singing all-dancing one person show? These can be big clues as to what would suit you now.

Write Out A List Of Jobs That Suit You:

When you know what you’re looking for in your job, you can use the above criteria to guide you in your search. Many experts like to use an Excel spreadsheet to organize job searches. However, feel free to use the format that suits you best. Don’t forget to think outside of the box, either. If you’ve always had a dream of being a nurse, but you want to travel the world so you’re put off going for it, you can look into travel nursing jobs. You don’t have to sacrifice your dreams to land your dream job!

Get An Internship To Gain Some Experience:

You can often pursue your dream job through a college or university while you’re obtaining an education. If you decide to go back and improve your skills so you have more chance of landing your dream job, see if you can get an internship to gain some experience while you’re there. Internships often lead to job offers or, at the least, a more impressive resume, so they are always a good thing.

Join LinkedIn:

LinkedIn can help you to learn a thing or two about the industry you want to be in, as well as make valuable contacts. You never know; you might even find your next job on there. Reach out and make connections because, often times, it’s all about who you know.

Through trial and error, a dream job can certainly be landed on. But, it’s up to you to make the effort to get out there and grab it!

Featured Image By: Unsplash

Nov29

Boosting Your Career Through Life Long Learning

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Boosting Your Career Through Life Long Learning

After finishing school or university, the thought of picking up a book and learning something else can be the furthest thing from your mind. It’s understandable – you’ve done what you need to do to make it in the working world, so why continue learning? But, life long learning can offer a lot of benefits, and could be essential if you want to reach the top of your career. Need some further convincing? Here’s how life long learning can benefit your career:

Turns informal training formal:

Many careers begin by learning on the job, which can be a great way to gain skills and practical experience. However, the job market continues to be competitive, and even if you have years and years of experience – some employers will want to see some formal qualifications. Explore the different ways that you can validate your skills – an Experienced Worker Practical Assessment is extremely valuable in the construction industry, while a formal qualification in a language can look great on a CV. Getting that validation of your skills can be a major achievement and will help you a lot when it comes to trying for new opportunities.

Keeps your mind and skills sharp:

You might know everything there is to know about your profession now, but you can never predict when changes might happen. Take marketing professionals, for example. Fifteen years ago they barely did anything online and now everyone is finding themselves needing to know about Facebook and digital marketing in order to do their job. Regular training will help keep your mind and skills sharp to help you stay relevant in your field. Keep an eye on upcoming training courses and make sure you continue to learn as you progress in your career.

Just as changes in the way you do your work can’t be predicted, emergency situations at work can also happen when you least expect it. Having first aid and CPR training is a wonderful skill to have both in and outside the workplace and can be lifesaving. Talk to your employer because they might even comp the class after you find a location when entering a search for “first aid courses near me“. Never underestimate the value of being prepared for any situation that might occur. Yourself, coworkers, and complete strangers will be so thankful you did.

Leads to new opportunities:

Training and development is an important part of your career, and they’re often linked. If you’re interested in improving your career development, then undertaking some training courses can show that you’re passionate, committed, and interested in building your experience. Most employers have workplace training programs, so discuss it with your manager or HR department to find out what’s available to you.

Could help you switch careers:

Even if you love what you do right now, there’s no guarantee that you’ll still love it in five or ten years’ time. Having some additional strings to your bow isn’t a bad thing – your other skills and talents could be used to run a great side hustle or even help you move within departments at work. Taking on additional learning can help you find out where your interests really lie to help you do more of what you love – on a formal or informal basis. Make sure you’ve considered your options carefully before deciding on a career switch to ensure that you’re ready to take the leap.

If you are considering a career change through furthering your education, it’s a good idea to take things one step at a time. Perhaps you’re fascinated by the justice system and criminal behavior – choosing to study Criminology could open doors to rewarding careers in law enforcement, victim support, policy development, or research. Starting with just a class or two allows you to explore this engaging field while ensuring the change is feasible financially and personally fulfilling. Going back to school and starting from scratch is a major decision, so plan carefully to achieve both your short and long term goals.

Learning throughout your career is a great way to stay interested in what you do and stops things from becoming stale. Whether you choose to learn a new skill, a new language, or something else altogether, find ways to embrace learning throughout your working life and enjoy all of the benefits it brings.

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