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Workers today are constantly looking for new challenges and professional growth, a situation that generates a large percentage of turnover in a business and therefore the loss of talent within them.To avoid this situation, the HR manager must locate those people who always confer an added value to their work and are committed to the company, to reward them. Such incentives do not always have to be economic, as companies are not always in sound financial times; however, a company can implement the following activities to motivate and retain staff:

• Flexible work schedules: What employee would not want a better balance between work and personal life? Today, this desire is one of the most popular. Allowing employees to work one day a week from home can be very motivating.
• Professional Development Programs: This is when a worker receives an evolution in their professional growth activities and reaffirms their commitment to the company. Offering relevant training to update their knowledge is a great option.
• Time to engage in projects of interest: Allowing employees to occupy 20% of their working time on projects that appeal to them and have nothing to do with their regular duties. Various innovative products have emerged from this line of working.
• Entertainment programs: An environment that allows distraction from the stress and workload encourages creativity and a sense of wellbeing. Therefore, recreation rooms are a great ally for employees.
• Rest days: These are not the same as annual leave to which the employee is entitled by law. A day off as a reward for a great result or effort is healthy and well received by workers.
• Activities outside the office. In addition to promoting integration, leaving the usual place of work refreshes the working environment. It will be an action that will stay long in the minds of people and can differentiate your company from others.

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When starting a business, an entrepreneur may not always have an office to conduct operations, since this would mean paying monthly rent, plus all the services like water, electricity and telephone, among others. One option to solve this problem is to start as homeworkers. However, doing so implies certain responsibilities and rules to establish from the outset, to maximise time and not fall into the routine.For starters, someone who works from home should enjoy what they do, so it is important to fully believe in the project or task in which they are involved. Personal image is another aspect that should not be neglected, since you must constantly remember that even spending a lot of time at home means you can`t spend all day in panamas. If so, then this situation will eventually be counterproductive to your motivation.Establish work schedules and respect others around you, as if this is not done, you`ll gradually lose the personal life and everything becomes work. Choose an area to work that is away from distractions like television. This will be helpful to avoid pausing while working, so it's easier to concentrate on customers or suppliers.Talking about your business some of the time with your family and friends can be a good option to vent your problems; however, if you want solutions, it`s better to surround yourself with entrepreneurs or a coach you occasionally can contact about business.If you have people working with you, the best way to avoid problems in the future is to establish rules from the start, because if not, it will invade the space of your family, which in the long term will be annoying for everyone.If you are looking to increase your client base a virtual office is often an affordable option for a homeworker. A virtual office can help improve your companies image through the use of a mail forwarding address and a telephone answering service. A mail forwarding service allows you to obtain a prestigious address in a prominent area for the fraction of a real office address. Your clients are given the impression the office address is real and you are located from this premises. A telephone answering service which involves a virtual PA taking you calls can help increase productivity especially if taking calls can distract you from your main work.Finally, organise your time developing methods and organise processes to help you avoid deliveries outside of your work time and make your work more efficient.If you enjoyed your this article you can read more on our start-up business blog.

Today, work environment has changed and it is increasingly common for teams within a company to collaborate in new ways. This helps employees subjected to high amounts of stress to create and implement different things.According to experts, currently for a company to be successful, there is a need for innovation; however, the fact that their workers are not creative could stop their growth.Fortunately there are techniques that help improve the mood and performance of workers, which are directly related to fun, because when a person enjoys their work, they turnabout proposing new things.To do this, companies must make their employees feel confident to innovate and create fun in their environments.

• In the market there are already companies that do not require their workers to abide to a set schedule to work; i.e., they do not start and finish at rigid times every day, but are left to organise their time to work as they see fit, in order to meet their objectives.
• There are also companies that offer their workers a playroom in order to enable them to overcome stress and thus coexist with each other to achieve and establish new projects.
• Another way to achieve a friendly atmosphere is decorating the office with bright colours and funny pictures, in common areas where everyone can see them.
• The HR department from time to time should implement some dynamic activity with all members of the company, as this will be vital to promote integration and creativity of workers.

Remember that the conduct in meetings where all your employees participate could enhance the sense of teamwork, generating an atmosphere of trust where you can be more fun and so innovative.Your Virtual Office London are experts in helping start-ups become successful. A new business needs a lot of support to help it to reach its maximum potential, Your Virtual Office London provide mail forwarding address services including registered office address services, directors service address and telephone answering services.According to Fortune many businesses are ditching the normal office replacing it with a virtual office. This has huge benefits which include a large reduction of overheads which include office rent, full time staff pay and associated accounting and insurance fees.

E-commerce is growing rapidly and represents invaluable opportunities for sale for large, medium and small businesses. This medium helps many business owners to entice new consumers.However, this trend does not imply that the offline trade has become obsolete. Proof of this is that over 70% of purchasing decisions yet- happens in physical spaces, according to information from the global association of retail Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI).These data presents a need that businesses must address: integrating two apparently antagonistic environments, digital and physical, in a global marketing and sales strategy.The idea is to arouse consumer interest and detonate its intention to purchase from both sides. To achieve this, it is essential that firms exploit the specific features of the two environments.

In the virtual realm, companies should consider the following:

• The design of a website. Through the balance between content, product information and technical features like usability, use of links and loading speed, allows them to create brand awareness in online users and generate a buying attitude.
• Using social media to create conversations with customers and promote direct actions, including the purchase.
• Search and use of electronic payment platforms that enable Internet users to complete their online transactions.

In the physical point of sale, you must take into account these aspects:

• Location of the property, based on a thorough market study.
• Visual Merchandising, a marketing technique in situ, which aims to captivate customers through organising various material elements, ranging from decor and lighting of the establishment, to the presentation of goods on shelves and spatial distribution the furniture.
• A sales team perfectly aligned with the business concept and prepared to meet efficiently the needs of customers.
• Using Point of Sale (POS), enabling businesses to receive payments through credit cards and debit cards, and take advantage of the market cardholder has not stopped growing in recent years.
• Interactive installations make the stay more enjoyable for user in the sales point.

Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) unfortunately do not have a department or specialised recruitment area, so sometimes it's the same employer who has to conduct the interview for candidates.During interview, employers should seek a professional conversation focused mainly on the skills and achievements of candidates; however, often they have to apply other questions that reveal more about the person being interviewed.That is why we share some tips here for applying different types of questions, common in a job interview.1. Open: top questions to ask in an interview that seek flowing dialogue between the interviewer and the candidate, allowing the person to give a comprehensive response. With them will be assessed your poise, communication skills and consistency. For example, tell me about yourself, why you were interested in the vacancy? Why do you think you`re suited to this job?2. Fitness: Your objective is to assess whether the candidate has the skills to perform the job. It`s a good idea to enquire about the candidate's experience and skills they possess.3. Behavioural: When making a hiring, it is not only important that the candidate can do the job. Behavioural questions seem to examine what the profile of the person is to assess whether they can successfully integrate into the team.4. Situational: Once you analyse their past records, you may want to ask situational questions to get an idea of what their future behaviour will be.5. Trick: It sometimes works to ask questions that seem out of work context or even absurd or incoherent. Its purpose is to remove some candidates of standard questions and submit to a mental challenge that reveals a little more about their personality.Finally, do not forget that there are also inappropriate questions to avoid, which could put a business-person in trouble because they can be offensive, for example: Are you pregnant? What is your sexual orientation? Why are not you married? Just to mention a few.

Every day entrepreneurs have to meet face to face with customers, suppliers or investors in order to maintain or grow their business. It`s important they should always keep a good image, since in many cases this may be a determining factor of doing business.The question is: how many times have you made judgments of a person just by their appearance? The personal image of someone can project confidence and trust, which often leaves those who don`t care about image out of business.Here are some tips on how to leave a positive impact on those around you through your image.

• One of the first things is to keep your clothes ironed and in excellent condition, as this will denote how careful and dedicated you are, and therefore with everything around you.
• Shoes are also a critical piece of outer wear for anyone, so make sure they are clean, shined and in excellent condition; if the heel or sole of the shoe is worn, send it to repair as soon as possible.
• Accessories are a fundamental part for a business role model, so it is recommended that they are of a decent and presentable quality.
• If you wear glasses, remember that they represent much of your personality; however, the most important aspect is that you go to a specialist to advise you with the kind of face you have and choose the glasses with which you feel most comfortable.
• Moreover, a black jacket is a basic item for most business owners, as this combines well with almost any clothing; it is a very versatile garment for both men and women.
• Men should be aware of facial hair, to keep this tidy and well managed. This reflects well on those making first impressions.
• Finally, never forget that what matters most is to gain trust from your customers and to show a good attitude about everything.

In the world in which we live, full of speed and an infinite need to be in constant communication, a market that is gaining ground every day has come in the form of mobile messaging apps (applications).This sector has experienced a sharp growth in the area of mobile apps, and is therefore where a potentially multibillion-dollar market for developers who choose to engage in this type of business arises.Today services like WhatsApp, iMessage, Line, Viber, Facebook Messenger or Skype account for the majority of mobile messaging market in the world. For this reason this market is expected to continue to grow over time, so if you are interested in investing in this area then we give you some options that will leave you to make money with this system:

Stickers or emoticons sponsored by brands

To be known and reach more users, many brands have taken on the task of creating stickers or emoticons for use on a mobile messaging service, these no cost to users either.

Souvenirs and toys

Try to get your pets, souvenirs or virtual Toys to be traded physically, it may make you earn a lot of extra money to your mobile messaging services.

Charge for use

Perhaps the least liked by users, this option can be useful for your mobile app. It is to charge a fixed monthly or yearly fee for the use of mobile messaging service. Just be careful with this option because unless your service is the market leader, users will go to the competition.

Collection of stickers and emoticons

You can create two types of stickers and emoticons on your mobile messaging service, free or paid; with the paid option, usually the design or animation makes them unique for users, giving them a greater sense of value.

Selling advertising

This option is also a bit annoying for users because from time to time a number of messages may appear in a small window or completely fill the user's screen with advertising for any brand, event or other application, either from the same creator mobile messaging service or other developers to pay for it. However, for many companies it will work very effectively.

One of the most currently used strategies used by companies around the globe to attract the attention of new customers or consumers is sending emails with information about their products or services, or other relevant data. This trend is called email marketing, and has seen such acceptance that a recent study by ExactTarget reported that 77% of consumers surveyed by the company like to receive this information via email.With this in mind, there are plenty of options available to supplement this kind of marketing. Here we offer three such applications that will help you be more efficient with this type of content in order to attract more customers and help your products and services reach more people.

My Emma

This service has very flashy designs and templates, in addition to being able to mingle with your social networks and other analysis tools; it is compatible with mobile devices and has affordable packages to suit your needs. View My Emma here.

Sendloop

The emails you send by this means will be sent in HTML format, which lets you have reports from sent mails, knowing if they were already read, who are clicking, and whether subscriptions have been cancelled, among other things. We should mention that if you have less than 2000 subscribers this service is completely free of charge, besides enjoying segmentation contacts. View Sendloop here.

Mailchimp

With this system you will know how many people open your mails, the target audience, know how many users click your ads and all for very reasonable prices, even free, depending on your level of use. View mail chimp here.

Digital marketing strategies have evolved over time; companies now are not only looking to sell a product but also fill it with valuable information to its users. This is what we call digital content marketing. However, this term does not refer only to notes written, but may also enter infographics, interviews and video tutorials and more.It also offers an important growth opportunity to develop videos of your web content strategies to promote your brand or company.The first advantage of integrating video and animation is that today people who are surfing the Internet have somewhat neglected the reading portion and have quickly become a highly visual public.Added to this, the videos tend to generate human value, allowing the link between brand and user to become more solid and durable.There is no better tool to tell a story than a video; we have stories, books and magazines, but nothing can be better to capture or document an event than video. This is because the visual things attract more viewers and ultimately make it easier for you to capture the audience.In addition, there are numerous free tools that let you create and publish videos for free - such as YouTube or VimeoVine, so you can spread them through these options and automatically redirect a link to your official site.What's more, it is expected that by 2016 videos on the web will be responsible for generating 55% of total Internet traffic, hence the importance of creating and innovating in this area.

If you have recently started your business, you may have some difficulties in managing issues related to personnel. One of the most complex points is when a person believes that they should be paid more, and therefore asks for a pay rise. Here are some clues to these situations.

Have clear market salaries

The first thing to know is how much to pay your employee and what they would expect if they were working for another company. There is no exact number, but you can get an idea by talking to contacts in other companies, looking at job ads or having a conversation with a recruitment agency. It is important to know as a starting point if your employee is claiming under or above the average wage, or if your salary is the usual amount.

Listen to your employee

Before making any decisions, take your time in a long conversation with that person. Hear what they have to say. Chances are, their main motivation for asking for a raise is the money, but they may have other issues that maybe you can easily fix. If you cannot offer a raise right now, improve other aspects by sitting down and chatting with your employee confidentially.

Analyse all aspects of the situation

What can happen if you accept the pay rise? There may be a domino effect with other employees also asking you for one, which may or may not be fully acceptable in your budget. On the other hand, if you do not agree, you may find that your employee will be discouraged, or even decide to leave to another company. No one is indispensable but some people are more necessary in an organisation than others, and may have an impact.

Never give in to blackmail

One of the arguments that you can find in these situations is that if you do not give the increase, the employee will leave. This can also be interpreted as blackmail. Usually yielding to this type of confrontation is not very helpful, because you can give a person the feeling of omnipotence, which can generate more conflict in the future. If it reaches a breaking point like this then it is better to let it go.

Is it deserved?

If you ask for a raise, maybe it's because you have failed to reward those who are more committed to your business. It's hard to be objective in these matters, but look at the work achieved by each, and seek to give raises to those who really are providing value to the company. If they see that their work is rewarded fairly, it`s an incentive to continue on that positive line, and peers may also become more motivated.

Looking for alternatives

If giving an increase right now is too risky given the financial situation of your company (very common in businesses just starting), look for alternatives to reward those that deserve it. For example, you can think of basing it on the results of the company or having strategic objectives incentives. In some cases, with key employees, you can even imagine sharing the capital of the company. In this way, everyone works toward the same goal: increase the value of the company.