Search Results for: morale

Are You Thinking About Expanding Your Business Premises?

April 20, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Many businesses, particularly those with highly specific requirements, realize that having new custom premises constructed for them may accomplish the same outcome as building their own house, just as many first-time homeowners discover that building their own home can save money. Aside from the financial savings, you will have greater control over the amenities accessible to you, and you will end up with a far more productive workplace in general.

Of course, it requires a significant amount of additional time and effort, and there are a number of considerations to consider before making a decision. Listed below are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so.

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Advantage: Greater control over the location

Having just the possibilities that are now accessible on the market to choose from restricts your ability to choose where to locate your new workplace. Whatever location you pick will have an impact on your workers who need to go to work, and those impacts will be either favorable or negative depending on the situation. If the bulk of your personnel travels from a distant urban region, locating your company’s headquarters closer to them can have a significant positive impact on productivity and morale.

Disadvantage: Money and time

Anyone who has dealt with a construction company knows that the timeframes they provide are nearly always too optimistic! Finding the financial resources to pay architects and mechanical contractors can also be a difficult task in some cases. You must conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis in order to determine if the higher initial input costs will be worthwhile in the long run, as well as how soon they may be offset by lower future costs.

However, keep in mind that as soon as you move in, you will become your own landlord, allowing you to save a significant amount of money each month by eliminating your monthly rental fees. You will be sitting on an asset that is increasing in value at the end of it all – something that will never happen if you continue to rent!

Advantage: It may be customized to meet your needs.

It is important to recognize that you have the ability to build a place that meets all of your individual requirements. You may have to settle for less than ideal office space if you work in an odd business such as a distillery, a bakery, or even a technology company. Finding existing office space that will meet your needs might be difficult, and you may have to settle for less than ideal space in the first place. Building for the demands of the future is critical, rather than simply meeting the wants of today’s customers. You could find yourself with a significantly larger crew or the need for more space to accommodate larger equipment in five or ten years.

Instead, construct more than you need, which offers you the opportunity to rent extra space to another smaller firm and earn an additional income (which might last for years) if you do not need all of the space yourself.

Why is your Small Business Going to Fail- And What Can You Do About It?

March 7, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Research has shown time and time again that only 50% of small businesses succeed past the first year. Eight out of ten businesses fail within the first 18 months. If you want to make sure that your business is not part of another failure statistic or if you want to make sure that you are securing success as much as possible then this is the guide for you.

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Leadership Failure

Your business may well fail if you exhibit poor leadership skills. This is evident in a lot of different forms. You will struggle as a leader if you do not have the capabilities needed to make management decisions, or if you are not able to supervise your staff properly. You may even find that you do not have the vision needed to lead the organization in question, and that you are not able to make the right decisions either. Dysfunctional leadership will trickle down and it will affect every part of your business. You may find that it impacts everything from financial management to morale for your team and more. Failure may be lurking around the corner and this is the last thing that you want if you feel as though you are already in the red. If you want to prevent this, then you need to find a mentor and you also need to try and learn, study and enroll in training. Conducting personal research will help you out a lot here as well, so be sure to explore things like that.

Lacking Uniqueness

You may have a great product, or you may even have a fantastic service but if there is not a strong demand, then you may end up falling behind. Your business will still be failing and if you do not take the right steps now, then you may find that it is just too late for you to turn things around. If you want to avoid this, then you need to focus on what sets you apart from your competition. You need to look at how you conduct business, and you also need to look at what your competitors are doing that is better than you. If you can develop a customized approach or if you can develop a good service package, then this will help you in the long run as well. If you believe your product is good, you also need to market it properly. Programmatic display advertising is a great way for you to ensure this.

Not Being in Touch with Customer Needs

Your business will fail if you do not stay in touch with your customers and if you do not understand what they need. Your customers may like your service or your product, but they may love it even more if you were able to change or alter it. It might be that your customers have been telling you what they want to have changed, but you might not have been listening. Either way, it’s vital that you take steps to make sure that you keep your eye on trending values. You also need to try and survey your customers as well as doing market research. If you can use this to your advantage, then this will help you out more than you realize.

6 Highly Irritating Construction Project Pitfalls (And How To Manage Them)

February 25, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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Construction projects always look like they should go to plan on paper. But when you actually get involved with them, they never quite pan out how you want them to. There’s always some real-world factor you didn’t account for properly in the build up.

Not to worry: this post is here to help. In it, we take a look at some of the most irritating pitfalls and how you can avoid them. If you can cut out the problems highlighted on this list, then you’ll eliminate the vast majority of issues you’re likely to face.

Delayed Material Delivery

When it comes to running a successful construction project, there’s nothing more annoying than delayed material deliveries. If items don’t show up on site on time, then workers are idle and, in some cases, you have to send people home.

When there are delays of days or weeks, the situation becomes even more serious. In some cases, it can put entire projects in jeopardy.

The trick to solving this problem is to find vendors you can rely on. Don’t necessarily go with the cheapest option. While you might get a better price, you’ll pay for it in the form of delays to project completion and poor labor relations.

Permit Delays

Another major bugbear is permit delays. City authorities can be slow in handing out approvals for your project to go ahead.

The best policy here is to be proactive. Start the process early and perform proper cultural heritage management checks to appease anyone that might oppose the development on archaeological grounds. Provide all the necessary papers and requirements up front so that you’re not scrambling later.

If you’re struggling, always speak to a consultant who understands the area first. They’ll be able to guide you through the process from beginning to end, helping you overcome any hurdles you face, one at a time.

Hot Weather

There isn’t much you can do about the weather, but it can interfere with your construction plans. If temperatures go too high, it can become too hot for workers to get on with their jobs. Simply touching building materials with their bare hands could lead to burns. Employees may also get symptoms of heat stroke, rashes, cramps and exhaustion.

To prevent this, prepare well for hot weather. Offer all workers gloves so that they can safely hand materials in hot weather. Also provide plenty of cold water onside, either by using ice, or installing a refrigerated water dispenser designed for outdoor use.

If you notice any colleagues feeling hot or light headed, immediately bring them into the shade and get them checked out. If you allow heat stroke to develop, it can knock workers out for weeks.

Hitting Something You Didn’t Know Was There

There are times on any building project where you will ask yourself, “what the heck did we just hit?” You’re excavating for some foundations when, all of a sudden, you knock into something you had no idea was there.

In the best case scenario, it’s just a big lump of concrete. In the worst case, it’s archaeological ruins, a water pipe, gas main or electricity cabling.

Ideally, you should know precisely what’s beneath the ground before you start digging. To avoid running into any nasty surprises, always conduct a land survey. If that comes up with no results, scan the ground using tools that allow you to peer beneath the surface, without actually digging it up.

Scheduling Chaos

Working out the order in which you need everything is a nightmare. When to bring in suppliers, hire subcontractors to the site and rent equipment feels like a constant balancing act. It’s never easy.

The trick here is to rely on technology. Where possible, use project management software. Either administer it yourself, or bring someone in who understands how it works. A construction projects manager should be able to bring all elements of the build together seamlessly, without any issues.

Unreliable Workers

Most construction firms don’t want to admit that their workers are unreliable, but it is an issue that plagues the industry. Employees often don’t turn up for their shifts, forcing you to delay elements of the project or hire more expensive temps.

Employees sometimes have bad habits such as fudging their timesheets or doing low-quality work. In some cases, they may even verbally abuse clients, managers and members of the public.

The trick to solving these issues starts with recruitment. Find people with a reliable track record. If that’s not possible, let disgruntled employees go and rehire.

3 Major Reasons That Lead to a Hostile Work Environment

February 17, 2022 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

If your job is making you miserable, there’s a good chance you’re working in a hostile environment.

In an ideal world, everyone would love their job and enjoy the company of their coworkers. After all, the average American spends about 7.7 hours at work, amounting to a whopping 2009 hours every year. Sadly, though, that’s not always the case.

Sometimes, a workplace can slowly transform into a negative or unhealthy environment filled with turmoil and dysfunction. An egotistical job, rude coworkers, an unsafe or unpleasant office, and unfair pay or lack of benefits can create an atmosphere of hostility that begets serious disruptions to the culture and morale of an organization.

Of course, many of the consequences of working in a toxic environment are pretty obvious: low productivity, high employee turnover, and chronic stress — while others are not quite as clear-cut. Here are three scenarios that can result from working in a hostile environment.

Mental Health Problems

Whether you work at an office, a bank, a construction site, or anywhere in between, all jobs carry some level of stress. And a little stress is not necessarily a bad thing. Healthy levels of stress can help you stay focused and motivated, increasing your performance and boosting brainpower. On the flip side, people who report no stress at all are more likely to become easily bored and detached from their feelings, unable to connect with themselves and others on an emotional level.

However, there’s a big difference between healthy, motivational stress and the kind of chronic unrest that keeps you up at night and makes you dread going to work in the morning.

A toxic work environment that doesn’t value its employees’ psychological well-being is a breeding ground for high stress and poor mental health. In fact, a recent study found that working at a company that fosters a hostile environment, either through toxic leadership, bullying, or prioritizing “blame culture” over positive feedback and teamwork, increases your risk of developing depression by a massive 300%.

Other negative mental health effects of a toxic working environment include:

Extreme anxiety about going to work every day
Poor self-esteem
Insomnia
Mood swings
Irritability
Unhealthy coping mechanisms, like gambling, substance abuse, negative self-talk

Workplace Accidents

Working in a hostile environment causes employees to become distracted, detached, and overexerted, which are all potential triggers for workplace accidents. Take poor sleep, for example. People who work in hostile environments with high levels of stress report having trouble falling or staying asleep at night, feeling exhausted in the morning, and having difficulties staying focused throughout the day.

According to the Sleep Foundation, overly sleepy workers are 70% more likely to be involved in workplace accidents, like slips, motor vehicle accidents, fires or explosions, and falls from heights, which is actually the leading cause of death or disability for construction workers.

Many infamous workplace accidents, like the Chernobil nuclear disaster of 1986, or the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, which caused unprecedented environmental and economic impacts, were later found out to be directly or indirectly caused by excessive working hours and sleep deprivation.

Health Problems

Working in a toxic environment not only affects your mental health; it can have devastating consequences for your physical health, too. For one, overexertion and long working hours are sure-fire ways of raising your blood pressure and increasing your risk for heart disease. And researchers at the European Society of Cardiology found that high levels of work stress and sleep deprivation make people with hypertension more likely to die prematurely.

Hostile workplaces also lead to fatigue and burnout, which can raise your likelihood of developing:

Diabetes
Stroke
Digestive issues, like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic heartburn, indigestion, and more
Migraines
Obesity
Chest pain
Lower sex drive
Muscle tension or pain

Takeaway

You spend a good chunk of your life at work, so it makes sense that the culture of the company you work for influences your productivity and how you feel every day, both on the job and at home. If you find yourself dreading going to work each morning, cringe at the thought of spending one more minute than necessary with your coworkers, or feel abused or belittled by your boss or peers on a regular basis, you may be dealing with a toxic work environment.

Remember that you are more than your job and deserve to be treated with respect. If the organization you’re working for doesn’t appreciate your talents, consider looking for a new place of employment. No job is worth putting your health and sanity on the line.

Corporate Investing: How To Spend Your Business Profits

January 25, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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As the business owner, you are responsible for what you do with your business profits. After all the employees are paid, suppliers have been given their money, and tax has been taken off, you’re left with the profit. You’re totally free to withdraw this money and put it in a bank account, giving yourself a pat on the back for some work well done.

Or, you could go down a different route: corporate investing.

What is corporate investing?

Corporate investing is just like regular investing, only you use your corporate profits to do so. Instead of pocketing the extra cash, you invest it in something else. Why do this? Well, it can help you make more money from the money you’ve already made. It also means that you don’t just have lots of cash sitting in a bank account doing absolutely nothing. The chances are you will never spend all of it, so it sits there for months or years gathering metaphorical dust. Investing will help you generate even more money in the future.

How can you invest your business earnings?

You could invest your earnings back into your company. Some businesses do this as a way of being self-sufficient and growing. You’ve made a lot of money, so why don’t you give back to your business and pay for something that can improve it. This might mean you invest in new equipment, resources, or possibly a new office.

Alternatively, you can invest the money in your employees. Give them bonuses or raises, treat them to something nice. You may see this as a needless expense, but it’s an investment because it raises employee morale. Having high morale in your company will mean that people enjoy working for you. Thus, they work harder, better, faster, all the time. They know that working hard yields rewards, so they’re likely to keep doing so while sticking around for the long haul.

Thirdly, you could opt for a more traditional way of investing your business earnings. Instead of looking at your company, you can invest in things like stocks, bonds, pensions, commodities, etc. The benefit of owning a business and using your profits is that you will likely have a lot of money to invest. This can mean you qualify for the minimum investment for asset management companies like Fundamental Global. Companies like this pool funds from numerous investors and invest in a diverse portfolio for you. You can sit back and let the returns grow, focusing on your business.

There is one key thing to understand when you pursue corporate investing. When we talk about investing your profits, we don’t necessarily mean you invest all of them. Some of the money should be pocketed or you won’t ever make any money yourself. You could then use a portion of the money to invest in your business or other assets – it’s totally up to you. The whole point of this idea is that it helps you do something with the money you’re earning. Yes, it’s nice to see a big figure in your bank account, but you should never keep too much money in there as it will be a waste!

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