Contributed Post | Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

13 Tips for Surviving Your First Year as a Nurse

October 1, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you’ve completed your training and you’re about to embark on your career as a full-fledged nurse, then you’ll likely feel a mix of emotions. On the one hand, you’re excited to get your new career underway. On the other hand, oh boy, just what have you let yourself in for? There’s no getting around the fact that the first year as a nurse can be tough. Or maybe it’s better to say WILL be tough. If you can make it through that inaugural year, then you’ll make it through anything. Below, we take a look at thirteen tips to ensure you’ll do just that.

First Year Nurse Survival

It’s How You Learn, Not What You Know

If you thought you knew everything because you completed your training, then you’re going to be in for a surprise pretty quickly. Even the greatest medical professional in the world doesn’t know everything. You’re not supposed to! The important thing is to understand that you don’t have all the answers kicking around in your head. When you come up against a medical puzzle, then talk to people. There are no stupid questions, especially when it comes to another person’s health. The second you accept that you’re not going to know everything, you’ll A. be much more relaxed, and B. have adopted the right ‘learning’ attitude that all the best nurses have.

Get To Know Your Colleagues

In most workplaces, colleagues are the people that you interact with on work-related matters, and sometimes grab a beer with. When you’re a nurse, they’re less “colleagues,” more “extended family.” You’re going to be working very closely with your other nurses, and often in situations that are intense and relationship-bonding. Don’t wait until you’ve shared a dramatic moment together to become linked. Make an effort to get to know them from the beginning. You’re all on the same side, and should be there to build each other up when it’s needed.

Bring Good Energy

Everyone has bad days. You can’t always be in the greatest mood of your life, and there’ll also be times when your hospital and the people in it just get on your nerves. While it’s fine to complain every now and again, if you find that you’re forever using negative language, then it’ll be time to rethink your approach. It might be enjoyable for you to get everything that’s wrong off your chest, but think about the impact it’s having on your colleagues. No-one likes to be around people who are complaining all the time. Bring a positive mindset and energy to the place, and you’ll be a valued member of the team. If you’re struggling to be positive, then talk it out with someone outside of the workplace, and read up on some of the best ways to change your mindset for the better.

Get Organized

Between your shifts, your family, and your friends – who might become something of strangers due to your business – you’re not going to have much time in your life. As such, it’s imperative that you get yourself organized. If you’re well-prepared, then you’ll be able to start your shifts the right way. No-one likes to be rushing to get ready in the morning and only walking through the door just as their shift is beginning. If you make time in your schedule to deal with life’s admin tasks and the like, then you’ll always be one step ahead of whatever’s coming up next.

Learn From the Bad Shifts

No-one performs at the highest level all the time. Even the greatest athletes in the world have off days. And as a nurse, you’ll be the same. You could have twenty shifts where you get everything right, and then one can still pop up where nothing seems to go right, and during which you make mistakes. Don’t dwell on them. Everyone makes mistakes; it’s how you respond to them that counts. So learn from the errors you’ve made. Every error is an opportunity to learn! It’s crucial, too, that you don’t go too hard on yourself. Tell yourself the same thing you’d tell a friend if they make the same mistake. There’s no reason to be your own worst enemy.

Look the Part

Your appearance isn’t going to be the most important thing when you’re on the job, but there’s no getting around the fact that appearance and confidence are closely linked, and that confidence and performance are also closely linked. If you feel secure within yourself, you’ll be walking tall and talking with confidence. So take 5-10 minutes before your shift to ensure you’re happy with how you look. Also, remember that what we’re wearing can get us into the right ‘professional’ mindset we need to work well, so make sure you’re buying new hospital scrubs once your old ones have been worn out. You’ll look and feel the part.

New Hospital Scrubs

Comfortable Shoes

And talking about what you’re going to be wearing, don’t forget your shoes! You’re going to spend more time than you would think possible on your feet, and if you don’t have shoes that you feel comfortable in, then you’re not going to last too long. They really can make a massive difference to your overall enjoyment of your shift.

Treat Yourself Well

You’re going to be dedicating your career to helping others; but don’t forget to help yourself. You’ll find that you’re able to work harder, longer, and better if you’re doing things like getting enough exercise and eating well. While you might not want to spend your free time doing these things, it’ll pay off. The key to doing things that you’d rather not do is to make them more fun. For example, cooking healthy meals will be no chore if you learn the cooking well. Exercise won’t look so intimidating if you do it with your friends.

Time With the Family

You’re going to quickly find that being a nurse is less a job, more a lifestyle. The needs and demands of the job will be with you all the time, and can, if you’re not careful, roll over to the time that you should be enjoying with your family. As such, it’s important to find ways to “switch off” from your shift. When you’re with your loved ones, don’t be thinking over the events of the past day. Set ten minutes aside at the end of each shift to “decompress” from the day. You can take the energy you get from the good shifts home with you; the bad ones should stay in the hospital. No good will come from taking them home with you.

Find What You Need

There’s no one way of doing things, or being a nurse. The trick is to find out what works for you, and do that. It might mean going for a run in the morning or spending an hour eating breakfast at a nearby joint before your shift. You’ll naturally fall into these things over time. Just listen to your body and your mind, and see what it’s telling you. If something seems off, then switch it out for something new instead. The best version of you will make for the best nurse!

Review And Progress

There’s always time for reflection when you’re a nurse. We don’t mean spending every evening vaguely reflecting on the day’s events; we mean actual, concentrated reflection. For example, every month you could perform some self-analysis, identifying the aspects of your job in which you’re excelling, and the aspects that you need to improve. If you’re not entirely sure what your strengths and weaknesses are, ask other people. Their answers will give you something to work on. By the time the next reflection session rolls around, you’ll have transferred one of your minus points to the plus side of the list.

Give It Your All

You’ll probably understand from your training that there’s little room for half measures when you’re a nurse. If you’re going to make nursing your job, then you need to be all in. As we said above, it ’s less a career, more a lifestyle that you’re taking on. But as with any other job, there’s no substitute for working hard! Give it your all, go the extra mile, and you’ll find that your efforts are rewarded with greater command and confidence in your role.

Stay Positive

Finally, remember that there’s no substitute for a positive mindset. It’s useful in whatever you’re doing in life, but especially so when you’re a nurse. You’re not always going to encounter things that make your heart sing, so you might need to do it yourself. You can focus on the good things in life, or focus on the bad things. Only one of them makes sense, however.

Final Thoughts

You’re going to go on an awesome journey as a nurse, one that is more different than similar to the one you envisioned. Try to enjoy it as much as you can! You’re making a positive difference in the world, after all, and that’s always a reason to be happy in your work.

Ways Your Business Can Do Less and Achieve More

October 1, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you’re working hard and spending every waking moment trying to make a success of your business, watching it struggle can be even harder. However, you need to remember that success is not just down to hard work. And it’s actually the case that your business can start to take steps towards doing less in order to achieve more. This can mean many things, and we’re going to talk about them all today.

Of course, it’s not simply a case of doing less and sitting back. But there are certain things you can do that involve doing less arduous work, and you can achieve better results that way. It’s not rocket science, but it can be a bit of a culture shock for some entrepreneurs and business owners. If you want to learn more about all this, read on now.

Hire a Good Receptionist

If you want to simply do less of the admin stuff that you find yourself getting bogged down in all the time, you could do a lot worse than to hire a good receptionist. They’ll be able to handle your calls and paperwork while you get on with other things. If they’re good at their job, they’ll keep all of this stuff in order and only get you involved when there’s actually something that demands your attention. Otherwise, you’ll be able to leave them to get on with it.

Advertise in Targeted Ways

You can waste a lot of time and resources advertising to the wrong demographics and the wrong audiences. It happens a lot, and you need to make sure that it doesn’t happen to your business any longer. It’s about finding the right ways to target the right people. Know your target audience, understand their interests and target them using things like Facebook ads and better targeted Google ads. It’s up to you to work on this because no one can do it for you.

Offer Rewards for Referrals

Referrals should be actively encouraged by your business because it’s a way of allowing your customers to essentially do all the hard work for you. They’ll be the ones pushing their friends and family members to use your services and they’ll get a reward for doing so. It’s a great way to find new customers, so don’t shy away from it. It works as well as it ever did and you could really benefit. All you have to do is advertise the rewards scheme and your customers will do the work from there.

Automate More

With automation now being used more widely by all kinds of business, you have the chance to have a lot of tasks done for you. There are big and small forms of automation you can embrace depending on what kind of business you’re running. For example, PPC campaign automation can be used by any business because it’s about streamlining your advertising efforts and making them more successful. But if you work in manufacturing, there are much larger forms of automation taking over, and these should be considered by your business..

Encourage Word of Mouth

Word of mouth sales are like referrals, but you don’t even need to offer any reward. You simply need to prompt people to tell their friends if they enjoyed your services. It can be done in the form of a follow up email. It shows that you care about how your customer found your services and what their experience was like, and you can finish it off by encouraging them to tell their friends and family about it. People really will do that if they enjoyed something a lot. And it’s completely free.

Word of Mouth Sales

Streamline Office Communication

Office communication can be a real hassle, and it’s not something you want people to be spending a large amount of their time on if you can help it. It’s much better for everyone and a lot more efficient if you streamline office communication. Many workplaces now use an instant messaging app so that people can share messages right away. It tends to be much faster than email and the messages get read a lot quicker too. This is definitely something to consider as long as it’s regulated in the right way.

Embrace Remote Working and Downsize Your Office

Remote working allows you to do less by basically reducing the presence of your business. You won’t need to have a large workplace to accommodate a large team if you’re allowing those who want to to work from home rather than coming into work like normal. You will then have the chance to downsize your office and make it more affordable for the business. That money you save can then go towards doing other things that represent a better use of your resources.

Outsource Your Security Requirements

Keeping your business safe, both in the physical sense and in the digital world, is really important. But it’s not something you should be spending time on. By outsourcing this stuff, you will be able to ensure you get the very best results from people who know what they’re doing, while also freeing up your time. You can spend more time doing other things while security is taken care of by the experts.

Stop Wasting Money on Advertising Methods That Aren’t Working

Once it’s clear that your advertising campaign isn’t yielding results, you need to change it or halt it. There’s no sense in persisting with a method that isn’t working. By stopping or changing it, you will save yourself time and money, and allowing you to start work on something that actually will produce the results for you going forward. Admitting defeat is not always easy, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

Drive Sales With Efficiency

Your business should work on doing things that help to drive sales and increase income. That doesn’t always mean simply doing the things that involve the most hard work. Succeeding in business is more about working cleverly and efficiently than it is about working harder than anyone else.

HVAC Advertising Ideas: How to Promote Your Services

September 28, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

HVAC Marketing Ideas

You want your HVAC business marketing to be competitive. Take a look at these HVAC advertising ideas to learn how you can promote your services online.Do you want to make your HVAC company stand out in the crowd?

With more than 100,000 HVAC companies scattered throughout the country, that can be a lot easier said than done. It can be frustrating to spend a lot of time and money trying to advertise your business only to come up short in the end.

Fortunately, there are some HVAC advertising ideas that will actually work when it comes to giving your business a leg up on the competition. When you put these ideas to good use, you’ll be able to generate more business and bring in more profit each and every year.

Let’s take a look at some of the HVAC advertising ideas that should make it much simpler for you to promote your HVAC services.

Build a Better Website

If you don’t have a working website in place right now, your first order of business will be to get one. You cannot run a successful HVAC company if you don’t have a website to advertise it.

It’s also going to be hard to run a successful HVAC company if you have an outdated website.

So even if you have a website that’s up and running, you need to make sure it’s being updated regularly to keep the content on it current and fresh.

Need help with either building a new website or tearing down your existing website and putting up something that looks new? LinkNow offers affordable website design specifically for HVAC websites. Let them handle the job for you.

Improve Your Search Engine Optimization

In addition to either building a website for your HVAC business or updating the website you already have, improving your search engine optimization is another key to your success.

You can improve your SEO by:

Publishing content on your site that’s relevant to the HVAC services you provide
Updating the content on your site regularly with new content to cater to your customer base
Pointing out which areas you are able to serve on your website
Linking to other trusted HVAC authorities on your website and convincing them to link back to you

By beefing up your website’s SEO, you’ll ensure that your site shows up when people search for HVAC companies in your area on Google.

The last thing you want is for your business to be buried under other HVAC companies that you’re competing with.

Make the Most Out of Your Social Media Accounts

If you haven’t done it already, set up social media accounts for your HVAC company on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Then, use those social media accounts to show the work that your HVAC company is doing. It’ll allow you to connect with potential customers in your area and stay in contact with them.

You can:

Show off before and after photos of a heating and cooling system you just put in on Facebook
Offer customers a coupon for a specific HVAC service on Twitter
Let customers see what the inside of a dirty air duct looks like on Instagram
Share some thoughts on HVAC maintenance on Snapchat

No matter which approach you take, you shouldn’t ignore the benefits of using social media to advertise your business. Social media doesn’t cost anything and could bring in a lot more business for you on a daily basis.

Create Videos That Showcase Your HVAC Services

Sharing photos and video clips that feature your HVAC company on social media is a start. But what about if customers want to know more about some of the specific services you offer?

You can actually show them what you’ll do when performing those services on YouTube. This will give you an opportunity to really break things down and let them know what to expect from your services.

You can show people how to maintain a furnace before the start of the winter. You can also show them how to fix a broken AC in the summertime. It’ll allow them to see the steps you need to take to keep HVAC systems operational.

You can share these videos on social media. But you can also generate more interest in your business by picking up organic traffic to your videos.

Either way, you’ll be making a strong effort to build more of a buzz around your business with this HVAC advertising idea.

Ask Happy Customers to Leave Positive Reviews and Refer Others to You

When you do good work for your customers and solve their HVAC problems, they’re going to be happy with the services you provided for them. Take advantage of that!

For starters, encourage your customers to leave you positive reviews online if they can. Leave a note on the receipt you give them at the end and ask them to jump online and write a review for you.

People will often search for reviews for an HVAC company before hiring them. So it’s a good idea to get as many people as you can to write reviews for your business. It’ll increase your chances of people hiring you once they see your reviews.

Additionally, you should set up a referral program for your customers. By doing this, you’ll encourage people to refer your HVAC company to others who might benefit from it. Offer them an incentive in return.

The goal with all of your HVAC advertising ideas should be to gradually build up your customer base. The easiest way to do that is to find ways to get your current customers to tell others about the great services you provide.

Use These HVAC Advertising Ideas to Make Your Business Bigger

None of the HVAC advertising ideas listed here are going to work overnight. A new website, a few videos on YouTube, and a handful of positive reviews won’t make your HVAC business an instant success.

But all of these HVAC advertising ideas will establish a strong foundation for your HVAC company. And as long as you continue to push the ideas forward, it should lead to sustained success down the road.

Check out our blog for more ideas on marketing your business.

When More Means Less

September 28, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you’ve embraced the art of a minimalist decor, you already know by heart the motto ‘less is more.’ The purpose of minimalism is to enhance your lifestyle through decluttering and effective use of space. You get rid of the stuff you don’t use or need and gain in the process not only more room but also a resolutely modern and sophisticated looking interior.

The same motto also applies to the business world, but in a more practical situation. Instead of enhancing design and wellbeing through having less, it’s the management of the more that becomes a main point of interest. Indeed, when the strategy demands more in the name of business growth, the practicality of every day shows that having more means achieving less.

Minimalist Design

More visitors who struggle on a slow website

The dilemma of most small companies is to attract enough visitors to their site to remain in business but not too many otherwise their server solution won’t be able to cope – if your site experiences peak times, it’s a good idea to switch to a VPS solution you can deploy as you need it. Ultimately, when your company becomes popular, but you haven’t been able to adjust your structure accordingly, it’s likely visitors will face lags, slow loading times and inactive pages, causing an increase in bounce rate.

Working longer hours to achieve less

When there’s more to do, the preferred solution for a small business is to work longer hours. Indeed, hiring new employees is a costly process that isn’t always available. However, in the long term, working more doesn’t equal achieving more. On the contrary, your overall productivity decreases as the fatigue accumulates. Increasing your business productivity without recruiting requires a dedicated investment, either in time-saving equipment or in your office structure. Service industries report that remoting working options can let staff maximise their time, achieving better results than in the office.

Working Longer Hours

Image source

Too many decision makers and fewer decisions

A company that is in the process of expanding can acquire new decision makers. Whether it’s the old manager whose experience and market knowledge have made him a member of the board or a new investor, it’s not uncommon for medium to large businesses to requires six to seven individual decision makers for each major decision. While the shift to a mono decisional board to a complex pattern is not bad per se; it’s fair to say that the long process can slow down spontaneous reactions to the market and rapid adaptations.

Too much time, too little to do

In an era where office environments have become hectic, it would be foolish to affirm that having too much time can be damaging. However, even the most hectic workplace fails to maintain regular workflow, meaning that some workers are forced to do nothing but wait until the next task arises. Idle time can be difficult to avoid, but through active task and team management, it can be reduced. Employees who experience it find themselves under-stimulated, bored and ineffective to the company.

More isn’t always better in the business world. In fact, a good thing in abundance can be damaging to your company. Whether it’s too much web traffic or too many informed decision makers, sometimes more causes you to have less.

A Match Made In Heaven: Ensure Success And Your Startup Go Hand In Hand

September 25, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

When you’ve found your strength in your products or services in your startup; it’s time to hit the ground running regarding your impact on the market. Competition is fierce, and you’ll need to expect that another company is doing what you do already, not to mention; keeping the momentum going. Therefore, you need to have a more appealing brand identity and travel down every avenue that will help you tempt your target audience to your website. A few social media updates and a business logo is not enough to gain consumer traffic; people have plenty of options to choose from, so be the one that looks the best. The following are the areas of your business that you’ll need to put your effort into in order to get as many people to notice you when you launch your fledgling company.

An Identity Your Audience Will Remember

You need to begin working out everything from your brand’s aesthetics, to how you’re going to engage with potential consumers. Work out your company’s value, ethics, and beliefs, and how each can be represented through your brand clearly. Having a strong character and personality in your business will ensure that people are tempted to invest in you because of more than what you sell or offer.

Consumers are becoming more adept at sourcing products and services online from companies that reflect their own ethics, and there is a growing demand for a deeper meaning to a business, other than just what’s on the surface. If you don’t set your parameters and guidelines at the earliest point; you’ll have no benchmark to gauge how to speak through your website, social media, and the rest of your marketing tactics. Therefore it’s vital that you gain a strong identity from the get-go so that you know how to approach each area of your company and launch anything new in the future. Consistently reflecting who you are as a business will help to build customer trust and they’ll return to you on a regular basis.

Understanding your history, and how your company became what it is, will give your patrons a better understanding of where they’re investing their money. Being clear on how and why you began your business journey will solidify consumer understanding and more people will follow suit; searching for a brand’s story just like yours. When you have a deeper meaning to your brand’s identity; you can build up the aesthetic elements and their design from strong foundations. Carefully consider your color choices, the shapes and texture you use within your branding, and any taglines; these are the first point of contact for your potential customers, so they have to reflect what they can expect from your business. Companies like Vine Digital will be able to expand on what you want and ensure that each element is taken forward to the marketing stage, digitally. It’s worth looking towards your competitor’s branding and design, but don’t stare. Seeing what has worked successfully in the past will give you an idea of what the market responds to and expects.

Ensuring Your New Business Is Seen

Once your branding and identity are firmly in place and ready to portray your business; it’s time to plan your marketing strategy and ensure that all the right people are seeing your presence. You should be planning your marketing and official launch throughout the process of fine-tuning your design elements. Know how you’re going to hit the market with force, so that your launch can go as seamlessly as possible and have the desired effect. Begin by remembering that only a select portion of the market are going to be interested in your business; so it’s crucial that as many of them see your brand as possible. It’s no use a plethora of consumers seeing your company if they’re not going to click through and invest, so targeting the right place should be your focus.

Take into considering the size of your market and where they’ll be; think about their age, location, income, and how they identify to help steer you in the right direction with your marketing strategy. Again, this is another point where you should be looking towards your competitors and those that have already succeeded; you’ll be able to gather some valuable data and knowledge which will assist in your set-up. Think about how to speak best, engage, and communicate with your desired audience, and then be consistent with everything to give to them. Utilize the free information, statistics, and data available on the internet already and discover what people are typing into Google and what keywords have been or will be sending traffic your way; this is another great way to build your keyword list and strengthen its results.

Now you need to begin your attack on social media; find out when the best times to post are for audience engagement and ensure that you’re consistent with your updates. Start your social media and blogging before your website had launched; you want to have a following in place who a ready to head your way on the big day. Set up a landing page on your site, so that when people do click through they’ll see when you’re due to launch, and you’ll be getting your click-rankings higher and gaining data along the way. Speak to relevant influencers and see if they can help promote your company in exchange for free services and products; building a strong relationship with those who have loyal followers already will help them see your brand and build up your own follower count.

Staying True To Brand

Now that you’ve solidified your brand’s identity, your keywords, and the correct outlets for your marketing; it’s time to use your company’s voice to promote who you are, what you provide, and why you’re a better alternative to your competitors. Whether it’s a charitable cause, how your products are made, or the colorful history of your brand that sets you apart from the rest; be loud and proud about it to ensure that your consumers can hear you.

Keep an eye on your competitors and be aware of how the market is changing with what people expect and how new technology and processes are evolving your sector. Use your information wisely, and your startup’s identity will be an appealing option for those you wish to draw into your business.