BizSieve Team | BizSieve.com

5 Tools To Get Things DONE!

It is so hard to get yourself to work when you just don’t feel like doing it. From handling a deadline to working out or just cleaning your house, when you are feeling lazy it can be a real chore to get yourself started. Of course, once you get going you will probably find yourself breezing through it, which makes procrastination so pointless. But that doesn’t make the initial spark of activity any easier.

For the many people who find this to be the case, there is some help. No, it isn’t a swift boot in the behind, or some stupid platitude about picking yourself up by the belt loops and getting yourself in gear.

Instead, you can use these much more effective motivation tools that will help you get yourself moving and doing whatever is currently on the agenda.

1. Motivation Images

Motivation Images

This is a fun little Android app from the maker of House MD Quotes and WiFi Scanner. The idea is simple: having a few motivational, humorous images will go a long way to push you into doing what needs to be done. They have both common and rare motivationals with cats, weird pictures, laugh out loud observations and more. You can like/dislike select, add some to your favorites or share them with others on social networking sites synced with the app. He has so far started with more than 1,350 images, so you should be OK for awhile, until an update comes. It’s not practical, but its fun. Sometimes that is all you need to put your mind in the right place.

2. 8Tracks

8Tracks

If you haven’t found this site before, you will be in love by the time you finish your first browse of it. This is a place where you can make, share and listen to playlists with full songs. But this is more than just “good tunes for a good mood”. If you do a search for ‘motivation” or “motivational”, you will end up with hundreds of playlists. Some of these are up beat or inspiring songs, or even spoken word speeches, lectures and quotes. If you want something to help you while you work out, you can search for that. Or music to help you study or work. They have an iPhone/iPod app, so you can take them with you. Or just play them in your browser while you go about your business. It is my personal favorite music site, and one I use every day. Quick Tip: It can be annoying to search the site when you are signed in. Make sure you have selected the ‘Search All Mixes’ link for a broad search, or go by keyword to search your liked playlists. To make it really easy, sign out and search, then sign in if you want to like a playlist.

3. RoutineTaps

RoutineTaps

This is an extremely helpful app that you will be sure to love. It works by letting you set up questions about your own patterns and behavior. For example, how much time you spend working, exercising, sleeping or anything else. You save them on your profile, then answer it frequently. It recommends once a day, which will give you the most accurate results. It only takes a few minutes, so this shouldn’t inconvenience you. From there, it will create a graph of information so you can see all of your data in one place. It’s free to use and very helpful. It is surpris

ing to see how much you really do (or don’t do).

4. Don’t Break The Chain

RoutineTaps

The idea is a simple one based off of a motivation technique used by Jerry Seinfeld. It works by marking off the days you keep up with a single goal. The calender turns red on all the days you do what you are supposed to. The point is to not break the chain that results. It is a great motivator, effective in that it both gives a visual representation of your success, and keeps you focused on a single goal.

5. LazyMeter

LazyMeter

One of the biggest mistakes people make is forcing themselves to use endless to-do lists that leave them feeling horribly overwhelmed. This program works by focusing on daily goals only, and so keeping it all in scale. Instead of putting a goal far off, you get to see your success every day. There is nothing more motivating than success. It even has a reminder system that is really great.

Conclusion

Getting up and moving can take a lot more effort than you might have to spare. Laziness can gather and leave you feeling like your mind and body have been dipped in concrete and left to dry. But with the tools above, you can break through the apathy and get yourself going. So make sure to try them out, and see how easy it is.

Jess is a productivity geek and business writer for Dobovo, the free online tool for business travelers!

Getting Started: Hiring Your First Employee

You have started your own business recently and it has begun to pick up speed now. As the associated jobs grow more challenging and numerous, it is time for you to hire your first employees to share the burden. But things can go wrong drastically if you do not hire the right person with the right skills. Here are a few points to keep in mind before you hire your very first employee.

Outline the Job Description

Invest enough time in outlining the job description of your future employee based on the tasks that you need the most help with in running your business. Club the tasks that require similar skills to carry out and determine if short term training can equip a new employee to take on some more. This will help you shortlist applicants who have the kind of skills that will prove most useful to you. This job description can also be used to give the candidate a clear picture of the expectations that he/ she will need to fulfill.

employee hiring tips — Image: David Castillo Dominici

Use Referrals to Locate Good Employees

Advertising for the position is perhaps the only way to get the maximum number of applications for the post. However, giving first preference for referrals from friends or industry colleagues is a smart idea.

Also keep in mind that the candidates who are accustomed to working for a smaller concern are more likely to be flexible about taking on new roles or demonstrating initiative with the job. If such candidates come with referrals from trusted colleagues, they should definitely be given due weightage. Those who have experience with a multinational are more likely to work well when they have well established rules and processes to follow.

Background Checks

Once you have identified a few likely candidates, it is time to carry out the background checks. Never overlook this step because a talk with a previous employer can reveal a lot about your future employee’s work ethics, capabilities as well as weaknesses.

If you have asked for three or four references, take the time to check with each and every one of them. Remember that your time is well invested if the information you uncover helps you make a judicious choice of your first employees. Carry out a credit check too, if necessary, especially if the candidate will be handling jobs where financial transactions will be taking place on a regular basis.

Gain an Idea of Pay Scales

Before you start calling in your shortlisted candidates for an interview, it is important that you have a clear picture of what the industry standard is in terms of pay scales for the position you need to fill. Compare notes with peers or look through employment sites to get a good idea of what others are paying candidates for similar job descriptions. Allow yourself the flexibility to offer an enhanced paycheck to exceptional candidates.

Coming Face to Face

The interview is the time when you and your future employee come face to face for the very first time. Remember that your ’employee’ is forming his opinion of you and your business at this time too. Maintain a friendly yet completely professional approach all through so that he gets an idea of the kind of environment he can expect to work in if selected.

Ensure that your questions to him are designed so that you can gauge his industry knowledge, enthusiasm, respect for the employer, ethical values, commitment and passion for his work. It is impossible for you to accurately measure all of these at one go but you can always call shortlisted candidates for second interview too.

About the Author: Penny is an expert associated with Recruiterbox, an online applicant tracking system that helps companies manage their hiring in one place. Many companies previously using email and excel, reduced their hiring hassles by moving to Recruiterbox. Learn more about creative hiring practices and other interesting stories on the Recruiterbox blog.

Using the Downed Economy to Find Quality Contractors for Your Business

In a struggling economy, it becomes more important than ever for companies to make smart staffing choices that will be cost-efficient and practical. For some businesses, this means carefully balancing how many employees you maintain and how much work they’re expected to complete. Overworked employees have reduced productivity, while hiring too many people can negatively impact your bottom line.

Using Contract Workers to Increase Productivity

In cases where the work requirements exceed your current staffing, hiring temporary workers on contract positions can be a great alternative. Due to the economic downturn, more people have turned to freelancing either as a supplement to their current jobs or as a replacement for jobs that have been lost. This means that skilled workers are available to hire on a temporary basis as your projects demand without needing to pay for full-time employees.

Here are a few reasons why hiring contract workers can help your business:

You don’t need to pay for benefits for contract workers, so you can save long-term costs for maintaining your employees.
You can budget enough to complete certain projects without needing to worry about maintaining employees long-term, saving you substantial money over the course of a year.
Contract workers often have specific areas of expertise and are highly-skilled in those areas, making them a better choice for certain projects than your full-time employees.
Hiring contractors removes some of the stress from your existing employee base, increasing their productivity and improving their morale.
Letting contractors go at the end of a project does not have the same associated loss of morale as laying off full-time workers.

Hiring part-time workers isn’t always the best choice for all companies, but it’s often a smart strategy during high-stress times when your business has a heavy workload or specific needs. If you need high-quality, specialized work during certain times of the year, it’s worth looking into hiring part-time workers to complete these projects.

Considerations When Hiring Contractors

Of course, when hiring freelancers and other temporary workers, it’s important to use the same care and consideration you do whenever hiring any other employee. Indeed, it can be smart to assess your contractors more carefully as there are few guarantees of where else the employee may be working. They may be moonlighting for you while working full-time for a competitor, or they may be using their time with you to gain skills or knowledge for a different position.

For these reasons, it can be a good idea to have contractors sign a non-disclosure agreement. This will help protect your information and prevent the freelancer from spreading any trade secrets he discovers while under your employment.

Of course, the majority of contractors are honest and will not divulge any proprietary information, but it pays to be careful. You can also check with other businesses in your field to see if they have any experience with contractors; they may be able to provide recommendations or warnings about freelancers in your area and line of work.

About the Author: Randy Hutcherson is a freelance blogger, who writes about business management topics. If you are interested in furthering your business career, Randy recommends checking out the school with the best online MBA programs.

Giving Cards to Your Visitors and Customers to Get More Business

Using cards is a fantastic way to get repeat customers and to generate leads and gives your business a far more professional seeming edge as well. Despite this, handing out promotional cards is something that many companies don’t consider and is generally one of the lesser methods used for marketing. Here we will look at it in detail, and at why it is such an effective form of promotion.

What Are Promotional Cards?

Essentially promotional cards are cards that you can give to a customer or a lead in order to try and increase their interest in your business or to get them to come back. The card can literally be a flier or an advertisement, or it can offer someone money off or a special deal. Lastly it might be an ‘ID Card’, a ‘Loyalty Card’ or a card that they can buy as a gift card for someone else.

Benefits

There are many benefits to this. First of all, even if your card is simply just a promotional one for your business with no special deal or membership attached, this is still a highly effective way to market. This is because it gives your client something to remember your company buy that they are more likely to keep on them. If you give someone a flier, then this will mean that they probably simply fold it up and put it in their back pocket in order for it to ultimately be ruined in the washing machine. Likewise you might give someone a promotional flier and find they quickly bin it.

However a card is of course made from a much more high quality and sturdy piece of material. This then means that someone who has been given it is much less likely to dispose of it and far more likely to keep it permanently. Chances are with a card that they will slip it in their wallet which will mean that they see it each time they go to get out money and which will mean it avoids the bin as an eventual destination.

Because the card is high quality too, that then means that the promotional card will be seen as a high quality product – which in turn will mean that the association with your business becomes a favourable one. They will look at your card and they will think – this is a high quality business. And of course that’s what you want them to think.

Furthermore, if you then include a special deal or an offer on this card, then that means that they will likely have it to hand when they first think about using your business and this in turn means that it will actually encourage them to use your company – as of course is the intention in the first place.

Meanwhile these cards are also able to be given to other people and that will mean that someone can actually actively promote your business for you. A gift card or a discount card is a nice gift to give to someone (which a flier is not) and so it’s a perfect way for you to attract more business to your site/shop/restaurant.

And finally if the card has an ID element, such as the person’s name or a picture (if you have facilities for your own card printing) then this will enable you to make the person feel ‘involved’ in your business and even almost committed to using your services.

This guest post was written by Brian. He recently got his company to use membership cards for their customers and needless to say the loyalty points got customers coming back for more.

The Different Types of Advertising Mediums

Advertising is the promotion of a business service, product or event carried out primarily to increase brand awareness, improve sales or raise awareness about certain products and events. Advertising is an essential part of any company or business, and is usually allotted considerable support, resources, strategy and funding. There are many different advertising mediums, all of which serve a variety of different purposes in different locations.

Advertising is mainly centred around achieving the following aims and goals for the majority of businesses:

Increasing the buzz-value of the brand or the company.
Increasing the sales of the product/service.
Introduction of a new product, service or event.
Creating and maintaining a brand identity or brand image.
Communicating a change in the existing product line.

The main forms of advertising used to achieve these are print, broadcast and outdoor advertising.

Print Advertising (Magazines, Brochures, Newspapers, Fliers)

Print media advertising has always been one of the most popular advertising options, mainly due to its audience reaching capability and proven history. Newspapers and magazines sell advertising spaces in various parts of the publication to businesses who wish to promote products, events or make announcements. The cost of print media advertising can vary considerably depending on the location of the advertisement in the publication (front page, above or below the fold, full page/half page etc), the quality of the materials that wish to be used (glossy ad or plain paper and colours) and the amount of times the advertisement is to be featured over time.

Broadcast Advertising (Internet, Radio, Television)

Broadcast advertising has risen in popularity with the expansion and improvement of audio/visual technology over the decades. Television and radio advertising has been popular since it was first available, and the internet is now one of the most used forms of advertising. Broadcast advertising can rely on eye catching images, videos and audio to gain attention and popularity, but is often the most expensive form of advertising available.

Outdoor Advertising (Flags, Banners, Building/Fence Wraps, Billboards, Events)

Perhaps one of the most effective and cheapest options, outdoor advertising is a popular and reliable form of advertising. Outdoor advertising has the advantage of being constantly on display, allowing for greater reach to a wider audience who might pass its location every day. Outdoor advertising can be used in a variety of different ways to raise brand awareness, promote new services and products, or provide information about upcoming or current events. Outdoor advertising utilises creative and eye catching designs of various logos, colours, images and sizes to gain attention.

Outdoor advertising can be tailored to specific purposes, and be used over a wide area to promote a business to a greater audience of potential customers. Particular types of outdoor advertising include event signage, building wraps, construction signage, fence wraps, vehicle signage, banners and flags. Outdoor advertising is also effectively used to promote events that are up and coming, or provide information and attract attention to specific amenities and services during the event itself.

Advertising in these mediums is a great way to improve and expand your business, and each variety can provide different results to different audiences and locations.