Archives for August 2018

Five Things To Consider Before Opening Your Construction Business

August 28, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

One of the most unique niches out there for a business is the construction industry. When it’s done right, it can be extremely profitable, and if you already have some construction experience, you’re already two or three steps ahead of others in the business. If you are a contractor, then you may have toyed with the idea of starting out by yourself. After all, you know your stuff and you’ve considered your own business before, right? Well, you’ve probably already looked into everything that you need to know so far, but here’s a refresher of the five most important things that you should be aware of before you press start on your business idea.

Starting a Construction Business

Licenses, Permits. You will have specific rules in your area to ensure that you are legally covered to be able to work. Visit a local government office in the district that you want to work in so that you can work out which paperwork you’re going to require. The requirements do differ from place to place, so make sure that you thoroughly do your research before you get going.

Location. Your location truly does matter when you go into construction. If you choose to start building a fleet of construction vehicles with cranes from servicetrucks.com, you’re going to need space for them. The location that you choose has to cover potential warehouse space as well, and you have to do this before you start the business as it needs to be in your business plan.

Health & Safety. It’s not just for your staff, but construction has very high standards in health and safety. You need to keep you safe, your employees safe and on top of that, the public needs to be safe, too. Employees should be trained thoroughly with you as well as their qualifications before they come to you, and all machinery should be looked into by each member of staff so that everyone has a balanced education at work. The construction industry is one that is considered to be one of the most dangerous jobs. Health and safety on site is crucial, which is why regular training and site inspections are a must. Falling debris, trips and falls as well as accidents with large machinery are very common.

Equipment. The biggest expense for a construction business is the equipment that it uses. Construction orders require a lot of accessories, and you need to look into the best for your business. It’s not just vehicles, it’s ladders, power tools, wheelbarrows and excavators. Try not to skimp out on quality, either, because while you can buy second-hand equipment, it doesn’t mean that you should.

Insurance. Something important in an industry that is dangerous is insurance. You need to ensure that your employees are covered, your equipment is covered, your vehicles are covered, and you also need to ensure that your job site is covered for public liability, too. It can get complex, so make sure that you speak to insurance specialists.

Construction is an industry that comes with a lot of considerations, and this list isn’t exhaustive. Do as much research as possible before you get started and speak to the bank to get started on funding before you put everything into place. You can make your mark in the industry with your business if you tick all the right boxes.

Finding Peace in Your Day – Overcoming the Daily Rush

August 25, 2018 by Johanna Cider Leave a Comment

Finding Peace In Your Day With full workloads and long hours spent behind a desk, it’s easy to get stressed. However, rushing your way through tasks will decrease the quality of your work. In addition, stress can seriously damage your health.

Start your day right

When you wake up in the morning, begin your day with some stretching exercises or a gentle yoga workout to get your body functioning and in harmony with your mind. Afterwards, spend a few minutes meditating. Next, eat your breakfast – the most important meal of the day. Excellent healthy options include fresh seasonal fruits (eaten whole, with unsweetened yoghurt, in smoothies, or dozens of other creative ways), whole-wheat or seeded toast, eggs and coffee (with no sugar).

If you have a proper breakfast, your energy levels will remain stable through the day until lunchtime, and hunger pangs won’t distract you from your work. Try your best to leave the house calm and centred, so you will feel less stressed during your commute!

Plan and organise

Prioritise your workload and manage your time wisely, using to-do lists if they help you. Calmly think through your day, and revisit the plans you have made – removing anything inessential.

Be realistic about how long each task will take you to complete and allow a little extra time. Try to get your smaller necessary tasks – such as replying emails or making phone calls – completed early in the day. That way, these smaller tasks won’t nag at the back of your mind while you work on more important projects.

Don’t take on too much

Learn how to say no. Excuse yourself from meetings that won’t benefit you or where your presence is not strictly necessary. Decline tasks if you are cannot dedicate the time necessary to complete them effectively. Make sure that everything you do receives your full attention and your best work so you can feel satisfied with jobs well done.

Don't Take On Too Much Work

Don’t get distracted

Put your phone away while working – it’s amazing how much time can suddenly ‘disappear’ checking social media. Make your work area comfortable and peaceful. Place a plant on your desk. Use an ergonomic keyboard and mouse that will put less strain on your wrists and neck.

If possible, have different seating options to work from, or at least get up and stretch or walk around at regular intervals. Taking breaks to move around can help you to stay focused and inspired and get your tasks done better and faster.

Keep moving even when you’re seated

Sitting still behind a desk for hours on end has negative health implications, and also reduces productivity and creativity. Keep yourself focused by doing seated exercises like glute squeezes or leg raises. Other options include saddle seats or rocking footrests.

Lunch

Avoid the canteen and the fast food joints. Prepare yourself a healthy sandwich or cooked meal the night before.

If the weather is good, you could walk to a peaceful spot in a local park, beach, or other natural space and enjoy your lunch out in the fresh air. Surrounding yourself with greenery can re-energise and revitalise you for the afternoon ahead. Mentally revise your plan for the day and ensure everything is going to schedule. Make any necessary adjustments so that by the end of the day you feel satisfied with your progress.

After work

Make time for physical activity during your free time, such gym workouts or a game of squash. If you must take work home with you, ensure you stop working at least a couple of hours before bedtime.

Use the time just before bedtime to organise your things for tomorrow. Lay out your clothes and make your lunch – then read, take a bath, or practise a hobby. Wind down. Go to bed at a reasonable time in a dark, well-ventilated room to ensure a good night’s rest.

Whenever she can, Johanna begins her day with some quiet meditation time outside in nature – which gives her much-needed peace and clarity to get her through the day. Explore more of Johanna’s published work here.

Is a Work Injury Really the End of Your Career?

August 24, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Being injured is never an enjoyable experience regardless of where or when it happens. However, the situation surrounding the injury can potentially cause it to become even more devastating to one’s life. A common fear that people have after suffering an injury in the workplace, be it an office or a construction site, is that they think they’ll lose their job if they take their employer to court.

Thankfully, this is actually against the law.

Employers can’t actually terminate an employment contract following a claim for compensation in your workplace. Your employer is responsible for taking care of their employees and this extends to ensuring the workplace is safe for all staff. After your claim, your employer should be taking measures to ensure that other staff are not injured in the future.

This means that your employer should be more than willing to accept responsibility for your injury. In addition, your colleagues will be thankful that something is done regarding the situation to improve their own safety.

So no, an injury is not the end of your career and claiming compensation doesn’t mean that you’ll be at risk of losing your job. It also doesn’t mean that you’ll develop a negative relationship with your employer. If anything, it will help because your employer will be compelled to improve the general health and safety of its employees.

To help you out, we’ve included an infographic below regarding personal injury lawyers and how you can choose the best one to represent you.

Infographic: Choosing a Personal Injury Lawyer

From College To Career Ladder: A Practical Plan For Following Your Dreams

August 24, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Whether you’re going through school or you’re already out in the working world, you may be at the point where you’re starting to think about what you want to do with your life. Maybe you started out on a job path because you weren’t overly sure what you wanted to do. Or you’re in school and you’re already getting questions about what you should do about your future? Then it’s time to work out what you want to do, and how you’re going to get there. But you need to be practical about it. Trying to work out what you want to do with your career can sometimes be really hard. But the best way to work everything out, is to make sure that you’re thinking as logically as possible, and leaving some of your emotions out. And to do that, you need to have a plan.

Now, the good news is, whether you are starting out fresh or you’re looking to do a career change, you can largely follow the same path. Because when it comes to career planning, a plan is a plan. As long as you know what you want, or where you’re heading, most of the steps that you take can be quite similar. Just make sure that you have your head in the right mindset and you’ll be able to make this happen. Let’s get started on your practical path to finally creating the career of your dreams.

Think About The Life You Want

So the very first thing you need to do here, is to really think about what you want out of life. A lot of the time, when you envision your ideal life and how you want your future to look, you can see the kind of job that you want. Maybe it won’t be the exact one, but you can picture whether it’s in a city office or working outside. And this can then help you to start to narrow things down.

Contemplate Your Strengths & Passions

The next thing, is to think about two kinds of things. The first, is the things that you’re good at in life or in school, and then you have the things that you love to do and your passions in life. By considering the things that you know you can do well or that you love, again you can start to pinpoint careers that either cover those topics or where you can utilize those skills.

Research Into Different Options

Now that you’ve got a couple of things going around in your mind, it’s time to do some research. Because you have a couple of different avenues that you might like to explore, but now you need to know exactly what kinds of career paths are available. By looking at your different options, you can come up with a shortlist of careers, and then hopefully one that stands out to you as exactly what you want.

Pick The Right Courses

Now that you have chosen your career path or you roughly know what area or industry you want to be in, it’s time to pick your college courses. Again, do your research here. You may be able to find specific programs or scholarships, like the Nursing School Gift Program, that will get you closer to your goal. But, you can still take general courses if you are in college, that will help you to get towards the career path you want.

Consider Grad School

And you may want to ask yourself whether grad school is for you? This can be a great option if you already have your bachelor’s and you know you can take a master’s that is either related or that can help you to get the career path you want.

Network

The next thing you’re going to want to do, is to start networking in college and with professionals in your field. Because if you want to start getting some experience, enquire about job openings, or just get to know people in your future industry, this is so essential. You never know what can come of the connections you start to make.

Start A Blog

It can also be a great idea to start a blog. If you really want to be able to demonstrate your experience and showcase your skills, a blog can do that – especially if you want to go into media. However, you can write about anything, and this may still be a really strong platform to support your job application process.

Get An Internship

Now, you may want to get yourself an internship, if you can. This is often important for you to break your way into competitive industries. So much so that the internship can be competitive to get too! But, this may give you some experience and help you to make contacts so that you can walk into a permanent job when you want to.

Prepare Yourself

Then, as it comes to the point where you want to be able to start applying for jobs, you need to prepare yourself. This can be somewhat similar to the process of getting yourself an internship – but it can also feel more intense. You need to get a portfolio of work together, if it applies, you need to demonstrate your skills in your resume, and feel ready for interviews. Here, maybe even an interview prep tutor could be beneficial to you here.

Follow A Plan

Finally, you need to draw yourself up a career development plan. You can either do this before you get your first job in the career you want, or when you have it. Either way, this is a very detailed and practical plan that allows you to work out what roles you want to progress through, how you’re going to get promoted, and what you need to do to climb the ladder. This can often be the key to helping you ensure you get to where you want to be.

How To Break Bad Habits Within Your Team

August 24, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

We all have bad habits, be they things we do consciously, or even unconsciously. Some of them don’t warrant a lot of scrutiny, and we can still live our lives reasonably well regardless. On the other hand, there are some bad habits that are detrimental. In our personal lives, these can include smoking, drinking too much, and gambling. In business, there are other bad habits that can prove harmful too. So, when talking about bad habits within your team, we are thinking about some of the following:

Poor time-keeping, from arriving to work late, to handing in projects after deadlines have ceased. Time-management is an issue, and productivity will take a nosedive as a consequence.
Spreading negativity around the workplace, be that gossiping about others, or telling lies, for any number of reasons. As a result, the overall mood of the workplace will change for the worse, especially when some of these matters become personal.
Becoming distracted by things other than work. From engaging in too much office banter to spending time on social media, your employees may be doing anything but what they are supposed to be doing.
Making simple mistakes at work, that if left to continue, may cause issues down the line. As examples, this might include using wrong spellings and implementing the wrong grammar in email and marketing communications. The employee may not be aware they are making these mistakes, but your clients may be.

You can probably add more bad habits to that list, especially if you are guilty of some of them yourself, or you have noticed them within your workplace. So, what should you do about the problem? How can you break bad habits within your team? Focus on the following three areas.

Bring in the professionals to help you. By hiring a business consulting firm, you will have the wisdom and experience of a team who can identify issues that you may not have picked up on yourself. They will determine any problem areas and give tips on how to improve your team’s performance. You may be guilty of a few bad habits yourself, so be prepared to eat humble pie when these are brought to your attention.
Confront issues head-on. If you spot any bad habits, don’t assume they will magically disappear with time. If anything, they will get worse, so you need to break the cycle early on. Reprimand those team members who lie and gossip. Find out why your team members are late to work, or why they miss deadlines. If there are mistakes being made, guide your team members into better practices or pay for training to build their skill set. Be it a performance review or a staff meeting, do something rather than nothing, for any bad habit you notice.
Offer incentives. While there are times you will need to come down hard on your employees, you should also offer positives. You can improve your workforce by offering rewards for work well done, and completed ahead of time. This way, you are giving them the incentive to stop any behaviour that is causing a problem with their productivity. Let them know how their bad habits are hindering the business too. By showing them the error of their ways, and by letting them know the positives behind breaking their bad habits, you will give them further incentive.

Are there bad habits within your team? Are you guilty of bad habits yourself? Consider our advice, and start to make changes to better your business. After all, you don’t want to fall into the worst bad habit of them all. Procrastination!