Category: Tips

Good communication skills not only improve your interactions with your peers and colleagues, but they also strengthen your relationships and help you gain the respect of those you interact with. Successful communication entails more than just talking to someone. If your conversation skills are lacking, don’t worry, there are things you can do to improve them.

Better Communication Makes for Better Relationships

If you come across as being cold and distant, arrogant, or lacking in empathy, the person you are talking to will be tense and may not communicate the information you need or may not want to talk to you at all. Whatever your role in the workplace, building patient relationships should be an ongoing practice from the outset, and the way to do this is through improved conversation skills.

Tips for Improving Conversation Skills

Pay attention to how you communicate with others. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself if there are areas in which you could improve your conversation skills. Here are some tips to help you:

• Establish Rapport: When you talk to a co-worker or employer, make them feel comfortable. Open the conversation by asking them how their day is going. By giving them a chance to relax at the outset, you are setting up a healthy relationship. This means they will feel at ease conversing with you. Don’t be tempted to interrupt or rush them along when they speak. Give them time to explain what they want to say in their own way and listen carefully. Do not interrupt them. In this way, you will get to know your team members and how you can work together.
• Use Polite Language: Avoid judgmental or insulting language. The last thing you want to do during a conversation is to offend or hurt the person you are talking to. This will cause communication to break down and may lead to aggression. Be aware of any language barriers you may have with your co-workers and act accordingly.
• Be Aware of Your Nonverbal Communication: When you are having a conversation, be aware of your body language. Don’t look around the room, stare at your computer screen or phone, or fold your arms across your chest. Make eye contact and show the person you’re speaking to that you are being attentive and open, otherwise, you will convey negative messages.
• Collaborate with Your Team Members: Ask your coworkers what they need from you and explain what you can do to help. Determine how they feel about the joint project you’re working on, and if they agree with the way it’s moving along.
• Be Flexible: Don’t have a rigid conversation style: what works for your close friends won’t necessarily work for your co-workers or your boss. Learn to judge a situation so you can use your conversation skills to your best ability.
• Be Concise: If someone asks you for some information, don’t tell them things they don’t want to know. Focus on their question and keep your response pertinent. Otherwise, they will think that you have not been listening to them.
• Be Empathetic: When you are having a conversation, the other person or persons should always feel comfortable expressing their opinions and concerns and they should feel confident that they will receive understanding and helpful advice. By expressing empathy, you are showing that you understand what your co-workers are feeling.
• Be Aware of the Details: Someone with good conversation skills notices the little things that the average person fails to see. When you bring such details to the conversation, by pointing out interesting things, it impresses the person with whom you are talking.
• Eliminate Negative Thoughts: When you’re about to talk to someone, don’t think negatively. Avoid telling yourself that you’re bothering the person, or that you will mess up if you try to start a conversation.
• Emphasize Similarities: This doesn’t mean that you have to mimic everything the other person says or does, it simply means that pointing out commonalities can help you make a firm connection with another person and start the foundation of a healthy relationship.
• Get the Other Person Talking: A surefire way to start a good conversation is to get the other person to talk about something that interests them. Make sure you listen intently, and you will get to know a lot about the person.
• Maintain a Balance: If you want to keep a conversation going, don’t try to dominate it. Give the person plenty of space to talk. On the other hand, you don’t want to be a non-contributor, either.

Improving Your Ability to Communicate

No two people are the same, and there is always room for improvement in your communication skills. Be mindful in your communications and observe not only those you are communicating with but also how you interact with them. This will give you valuable insights for enhancing your conversation skills and improving relationships.

Business intelligence is the term used to refer to any form of technology, practices, and applications which enable and enhance the collection, analysis, integration, and presentation of business data. The main purpose of biz intelligence is to improve business decision making.

Whether your business is small, a start-up, or a global enterprise, you will need tools to enable you to leverage the power of big data. Smaller businesses can now accomplish this thanks to a wide range of available business intelligence tools that can quickly and easily make sense of big data. These software solutions can collect, collate, and convert information into efficient and understandable reports which can give you valuable business insights, which in turn, increases profits.

Best Biz Intelligence Tools

Let’s take a look at some of the best available biz tools for small and large businesses.

Tableau

Tableau by Sisense will help your business to visualize and gain a deeper understanding of information. It also allows you and your partners or colleagues to share data easily using your PC or tablet. Once logged in, users can create a dashboard that will allow them to publish and share information with colleagues. The interface does not require any programming knowledge. You can import data from various sources of information.

Features include:

• Embedded dashboards
• Highlight and feature data
• Data notifications
• Dashboard commenting
• Translate queries to visualizations
• Metadata management

BDxtra

BDxtra by Advisionario is a stand-alone platform which enables team members to create interactive dashboards and web-reports in just a few minutes, without any programming knowledge. This is the only tool you will need to organize project and data reports.

Features include:

• Financial reports
• Marketing reports
• Ad hoc reports
• Graphical data presentation
• Creates alerts
• OLAP

AnswerRocket

AnswerRocket by Answer Rocket was named the cool vendor in analytics by Gartner in 2017. This software solution provides a search-based analytics tool which uses natural language. Users can ask questions in everyday language and get results in just a few seconds. It allows you and your team to make business decisions quickly and efficiently.

Features include:

• Natural language processing
• Chatbot
• Machine learning
• Multi-language
• Predictive analytics
• Virtual assistant

Salesforce

Salesforce by Analytics Cloud is suitable for every business user, no matter what the size of your company. The software enables you to pull together your choice combination of data, procure instant answers and share with your team, quickly and easily from any devices, wherever you are.

Features include:

• Marketing and sales leads
• Communities for sales
• Approvals
• Workflow
• Real-time visibility
• Forecasting

Cyfe

Cyfe is an all-in-one business dashboard you can use to collect and collate data from your existing services such as Google Analytics and Salesforce. You and your team can review real-time information, so you are always ahead of the game. Data can be shared instantly and securely.

Features include:

• Auto email reports
• Business KPIs
• Branded client reports
• Custom visualizations
• Historical data
• Multiple sharing options

SimilarWeb Pro

SimilarWeb Pro is designed for any size business. Use it to extend your website’s reach. As well as keeping track of marketing expansion is will also enable larger companies to record their acquisition and merger activities. The software can produce in-depth data analytics related to the performance of your competitors’ websites.

Features include:

• Competitor website traffic analysis
• Engagement metrics
• Keyword research tool
• See traffic share according to channel
• Visual charts and graphs for KPIs
• Mobile app industry analysis

Clear Analytics

Clear Analytics is designed to help your business retrieve information from multiple sources and record metrics within Microsoft Excel where users can access data and create extensive reports. There’s no need to call on IT professionals because the software will extract all the data for you. Reports are all organized in layers by version, so they are easy to find.

Features include:

• Performance metrics
• Report generation
• Dashboard creation
• KPIs
• Problem Indication
• Predictive analysis

Report Plus

Report Plus enterprise-grade software is designed to enable you to create a centralized record of business metrics which is easy to share with your team. Not only does it provide users with real-time dashboards and interactive reports, but it also allows them to choose from more than 30 visualization types, to inform data-driven business decisions.

• Broad Variety of Integrations
• Real-Time Data
• Deployment Concierge
• KPIs
• Metrics
• Revenue and Profitability

If you’re not already, you should be using biz intelligence software. The benefits far outweigh the investment you will have to make. It can enable your business to garner information, so you can resolve business conflicts, affect growth, collect and analyze marketing data quicker, and anticipate future outcomes. This way, you can always be at least one step ahead of your competitors.

The roots of meditation travel back to ancient times. Scripts dating back some 5,000 years, known as the tantras, refer to several different forms of meditation. Yet meditation is not only an ancient spiritual practice; it is popular today as a contemporary mind-body technique used for completely calming the mind, relaxing, and re-energizing the body. Recent studies have also shown that is it effective in the prevention and treatment of a host of illnesses and diseases including cardiovascular disease, the management of chronic pain, fibromyalgia, coronary artery disease, stress reduction and hypertension, prevention of psychotic episodes in schizophrenia as well as anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

Why Meditate?

Mediation is sustenance for the mind and body. Buddhist sutras refer to Samadhi as food. Samadhi means contemplation or meditation. Meditation can give you a mental and physical boost when your energy is depleted and can put your body’s energies back in sync to prevent illness and disease. Meditation is a very beneficial practice, particularly in our fast-paced world of increasing stress and anxiety, poor diet, disease, and environmental toxins.

Meditation and EEG

Electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings taken of experienced meditators (people with more than ten years of training and practice), during meditation sessions show interesting changes in brain wave patterns compared to the normal waking state. During meditation, there occurs a significant rise in gamma wave activity to a range between 80-120 Hz. The participants also showed increased gamma activity when not meditating but merely at rest. This means that this type of mental training can increase the possibility for experienced meditators to control certain neurological functions.

Meditation and the Brain

Andrew Newberg, a radiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study examining the effects of meditation on Buddhist monks’ brains.

Newberg and his team used brain imaging to measure the changes in the monks’ brains after they had been meditation for one hour. Once the monks had reached a transcendental state, they were instructed to pull a string that released a radioactive tracer into their bloodstream. This enabled scientists to watch the dye move to the active parts of the brain. Once the subjects had finished meditating, the initial image was compared to one of their brain during normal waking state.

The study revealed that during meditation, in the brain there is an increase in activity towards the front of the brain, which is the area responsible for focus and concentration. There was also a marked decrease in activity towards the rear of the brain; the area responsible for orientation. This may indicate a reduction of spatial awareness during meditation

In a study designed by conducted by Maura Paul-Labrador, M.P.H, and colleagues from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, coronary heart disease (CHD) patients received a sixteen-week training course in transcendental meditation. As a comparison, a second group received only instructions on how to maintain their health. The study was designed to see what effects, if any, meditation would have on risk factors associated with CHD such as high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, high cholesterol levels, and insulin resistance.

Significant positive changes were noted in the blood samples of the group using transcendental meditation. These included; lower blood pressure, an improvement in fasting levels of insulin and glucose and an overall improvement in digestive functions. These results suggest that transcendental meditation helps reduce the symptoms of CHD by reducing stress levels.

Finding a Perfect Space

If you want to improve your health and quality of life by meditating, you need to find the best place to do it. Whether you opt to meditate indoors or outdoors, there are benefits to both. The key factor here is to find a comfortable space where you will not be disturbed. Do your best to steer clear of distractions, such as the television or phone; interruptions will definitely get in the way of your meditation session.

Let it All Go

The key to meditation is relaxing and letting all your concerns slip away. One option for getting started is to consider some progressive relaxation techniques, relaxing slowly, one body part at a time until the tension has melted away.

Focus on your Flow of Breath

Inhale and exhale consciously and deeply through your nose. At the same time, pay attention to the flow of your breathing. If you are having trouble concentrating, it may be easier to use a mantra such as “om.” Alternatively, you could try counting down from 10 to 1 as you breathe deeply.

Silence your Mind

This is the one part of meditation that people find most difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. The best way to start is not to try and empty your mind completely, but to slow down your thinking so that you can focus on just one thing at a time. After mastering this technique, you may find it quite easy to slip into a meditative state and reap the benefits of this mindful practice.

You may have been nursing your unique idea for a business for years, or it may be something that came to you in a sudden burst of inspiration. Either way, if you have a solid idea and you’re determined to get it up and running, then there are a number of steps that you need to go through. Here are some pointers to help you take your business idea from concept to business plan and beyond.

Fine Tune Your Idea

You’ve come up with an idea that meshes with your strengths, passions, and goals. The next step is to flesh out your idea. You may find that your initial idea changes quite significantly, so don’t be too possessive over it. Give it room to grow and transform.

Talk it Over

It’s a good idea to talk your business idea through with someone who is business savvy. Perhaps you have a mentor or a friend who is already running his or her own business. These people would make the perfect sounding board, and you could end up coming away with some great advice. You could also consider talking it over with potential customers in your target range and see what they think.

Consider it From Every Angle

Think about your business idea from the perspective of an investor. Be objective and analytical. Consider who your target customers are and what they really need. How big of an opportunity is there for you in this niche and is the timing right? Make a list of all the steps it will take to execute your business plan and assess if the payoff is worth the risk involved. Also, think about what type of business plan you’re going to utilize.

Get Plenty of Feedback

Talk to people who are familiar with the market and the type of business model which you intend to use – people who have this type of experience can help you understand what works and what doesn’t out there in the business world. You cannot do enough research before laying out your business plan.

Take Your Feedback Onboard

Don’t just ignore feedback, especially if it was not what you wanted to hear. Use it to make wise changes to your business plan and your go-to-market strategy. Make sure that you crunch some numbers so that you can develop an idea of how much you need to invest in key milestones. Now’s the time to decide who you need on your team to help you put this plan into practice.

Come up With a Minimalist Product or Service

In your mind, picture your product or service in its simplest form. Strip it down to the very basics that your customers need: the minimal requirements. This exercise will help you to build a prototype. Once you’ve got the basic model designed, go ahead and make it as quickly and inexpensively as you can. You can add a full set of features later.

Start Selling

You don’t have to wait until your product is 100 percent perfect before you open shop. Once you have it out there on the market, you will be able to listen to customer feedback and see where tweaks and improvements need to be made. This will give you a greater ability to react to customers quickly and upgrade your product as you go along. The key is to get your core product to market as quickly as you can.

Test Your Products

Now you have products in the marketplace; you can try to make them a better match for what your target customers need. For example, you can test different elements such as optional features, pricing, and branding features. Then you can search for a cost-effective way to draw customers by experimenting with sales pitches, promotions, marketing campaigns, and distribution channels. Once you have your results in, you can see which ones are most effective.

Don’t let the Process Stagnate

Now you’ve learned which aspects of your branding and marketing you need to change, fix them as quickly as possible. But you will have also gotten some things right, and obviously, you will want to leave those as they are.

Prepare for Expansion

Now is the time to update your business plan and gather all the resources you need to grow. Start raising capital if you need to. Pitch to investors, start crowdfunding, whichever path you choose, now is the time to do it.

Speed Up Your Start-Up

At this point, you have a market-tested business plan and resources at the ready. You should be ready to expand. Make sure your whole team is on board, and you’re all in line with the same goals.

Following these steps can help you move your business from concept to plan to reality.

Life as a freelancer means there’s always work to be done. Freelancers must pitch clients, conduct research, maintain a list of leads and frequent contacts, and make time for personal endeavors. Freelancers must maintain a specific schedule and budget in order to be successful and avoid being overwhelmed with multiple tasks. There are numerous online tools and apps available to assist new and established freelancers.

Through the use of telephone applications and computer software, freelancers can grow their business and maintain loyal clients. To attract a steady influx of freelance work, being creative and memorable is important. Furthermore, standing out as a freelancer includes offering outstanding services and having professional appeal.

There are various reasons why virtual numbers are a great option for freelancers, including the fact that most freelance work is done online. If you are currently freelancing or considering freelance work, here are some of the reasons to consider virtual numbers.

Virtual Numbers Offer Convenience

A second reason why virtual numbers are a great option for freelancers is convenience. Virtual phone numbers provide convenience because they have a variety of features that help freelancers to get more work done with greater efficiency. For example, a freelancer might use virtual numbers with voice messaging because messages can be saved and sent as emails. Sending a voicemail as a transcribed email allows a freelancer to create reminders and quickly respond via text or email if speaking over the phone isn’t an immediate option.

Here’s another reason why virtual numbers are a great option for freelancers: A freelancer can also use a virtual phone number to keep personal information secure. It’s very important to protect your personal information by keeping your address and phone number private. When using a virtual phone number, you maintain privacy and stay responsive. Freelancers can also receive and reply to texts and make phone calls.

Virtual Numbers Make Freelancers More Marketable

Marketing is critical for a freelancer because freelancing is a competitive business. Surprisingly, many freelancers are still using their personal information when they advertise and approach clients. Pitching to clients and publications with your personal cell phone number or home phone could make you seem like an amateur, especially when reaching out to prestigious clients.

Standing out in your market is also why virtual numbers are a great option for freelancers. Because you are working as a freelancer, trust is especially important. Having a virtual number shows that you are serious about your services and brand. Remember that a freelancer is an individual, so establishing trust and showing that you are accessible and reliable will attract new clients and help you build a profitable reputation.

The majority of freelancers rely on online marketing. Therefore, a phone number that limits outreach due to location can be a financial downfall. Freelance professionals want potential clients to focus on their skills and abilities, not location. A virtual phone number remedies this, and such options as toll free numbers and vanity numbers enable even greater versatility and marketing capabilities. Using a toll free number online and pairing it with a vanity number makes a freelancer more marketable because the business will appear more professional and fun.

A vanity number replaces a traditional phone number using numerical digits with letters or a word, which is much easier to remember. As freelancers work to gain more visibility online, attracting clients without paid advertisements is most ideal. Using a vanity phone number is a great way to organically generate referrals because you will have a way to market vanity numbers.

Freelancers Can Stay Mobile With Virtual Numbers

One of the greatest advantages of being a freelancer is working from home, or any destination you prefer, such as a coffee shop, a bookstore, or while traveling. There’s no need for a lease or purchasing a building for office space; freelancers can be mobile without missing a beat.

Commuting and traveling doesn’t mean your freelance business has to be put on hold. With virtual numbers, you won’t miss a beat. Many freelancers work alone, but some decide to partner with an agency (or build an agency from the ground up). If you decide to expand your personal freelancing experience into a company, your virtual phone number can be used to create extension lines for your team.

Adding to the reasons why virtual numbers are a great option for freelancers is that virtual phone numbers can also save important information for uploading to the cloud. Storing information online is critical as a freelancer. With cloud storage, freelancers can access files from any location. Cloud technology is also beneficial because computer crashes and lost documents can cause unexpected delays and threaten professional relationships because your associates and clients may question your abilities as a business owner.

There Are Numerous Reasons Why Virtual Numbers Are a Great Option For Freelancers

Freelancing offers flexibility to make your own schedule, while doing the work you love. Along the way, you can build long-term relationships with clients that truly value your services. As you learn why virtual numbers are a great option for freelancers, take time to shop for the right provider before purchasing a virtual phone number. Lastly, consider a customized package that best fits your business needs.

A vanity phone number differs from a traditional phone number because it is not assigned to a specific country code or area code. With your vanity phone number, a traditional string of numerical digits is replaced with letters or a word. These letters come together as a keyword or phrase related to your business.

Because your vanity number will be combined with your virtual phone number, forwarding calls from a vanity line to the destination of your choice can be done almost instantly. Furthermore, a vanity number can be forwarded to a landline or cellular phone. Forwarding calls to personal cell phones is also a smooth transition for business owners because virtual phone numbers work well with both IOS and Android operating systems.

Here are some of the top ways a vanity number can enhance your business.

A Vanity Number Helps With Tracking Advertising Efforts

A business owner can’t determine the best marketing strategies to increase sales and brand visibility if specific performance metrics for individual campaigns are unknown. Every marketing outlet is unique. Business owners must be aware of customer preferences and analyze what changes should be made to encourage more phone calls that convert to sales.

Analyze key metrics by gathering data that answers questions such as:

• What is the call duration time before closing a sale?
• Are advertisements being properly placed to attract target customers?
• What time or day of the week does your business receives the most phone calls?

Along with tracking data, call recording can also be used as a feature of your vanity number to find key conversation points that motivate customers to buy.

Vanity Numbers Encourage Brand Recognition

One of the top ways a vanity number can enhance your business is by making your brand more recognizable. Regardless of your chosen field, most entrepreneurs are working within competitive markets. Therefore, it’s important to stand out with product knowledge and personality.

A vanity number has a unique impact because it shows potential customers that your business is both professional and creative. In fact, some of the most popular and nationally known businesses hold their rank and relevancy by using a toll free vanity phone number. Consider 1-800 Flowers, which is one of the most commonly referenced businesses with a vanity line. This floral business stands apart in a saturated market because the company is memorable and easy to contact.

By taking the time to find the right vanity number, you’re setting your business on a path to long-term success. The best way to determine which vanity number is right for you would be through testing multiple numbers to see which number truly resonates with customers and potential business partners.

Vanity Numbers Show Accessibility

Building customer loyalty is important because loyal customers will continue to buy from you and recommend your business to others. A vanity number increases referrals because it is easy to remember and customers are likely to refer your company through word of mouth recommendations.

Another advantage when choosing a vanity number as part of your marketing strategy is that your business will have a more trusted presence. Consumers are more likely to associate your company with the traditional brick-and-mortar stores they are accustomed to when shopping. Large businesses often have vanity numbers, so it’s a symbol of being highly established. If your business also has these professional phone numbers, customers are more likely to call and buy your products.

Remember to Research

Researching the best vanity number to use is a critical step when selecting your phone number. There are many instances where businesses have mistakenly used similar phrases and words to describe their products and services. These same keywords and phrases are the terms customers use for online research and when browsing local directories.

Similar numbers can be problematic if your vanity number closely resembles the contact information of a competing company because this can result in a competitor getting more calls from consumers looking to buy from your business.

Finding the right balance through research is important. If you use a local phone number, you’re limiting the ability to reach out to local consumers instead of building national or global awareness, which is more profitable. If you choose an uncommon term that is misleading, callers may confuse your messaging and think you are offering a different service.

Use Vanity Numbers For Long-Term Growth

Every business owner is different, and all entrepreneurs have unique visions for their business and creative ideas that can’t be replicated. Still, what many company heads have in common is the desire for a profitable business that continues to expand as a visible and respected brand.

Before a business can begin to thrive, a company budget that implements the use of modern technology and strategies is essential. Today, more companies are recognizing how a vanity number is a strategic method to enhance their business, promote their brand, and attract more customers.