Is Telework The Future?

Telecommuting, or a telecommuter, is someone who does not commute to the office but rather works for their employer from home.  We've talked before about the challenges of Clocking In From The Couch, but what are some of the benefits of telecommuting?  Staff.com has shared this infographic to help the picture become a bit clearer.

Tips For Accessing Professional Development

As a small business owner I feel like I’m constantly juggling different roles. One moment I’m a bookkeeper, the next I’m an editor, and then there’s the work I’m actually good at; the work that I get paid to do. My business needs me to address all these roles effectively to be successful, but it’s really tough to be innately good at everything. If you’re like me, there is at least one thing that you could do more effectively in your business.  I've discovered that professional development is the solution.

What should you do about the inadequate business skills you’ve identified? You have a few options:

• Ignore them 
• Hire or outsource someone to do them for you 
• Learn to do it right 

Learning to do things right doesn’t have to take an insurmountable extent of time. There are a number of ways to learn the tasks associated with running a successful small business:

Take a course – Formal education can take place on campus at your local community college, through modular courses at distance universities, through online courses by training companies and open learning, and other places such as continuing education by your local school district.

Have someone teach you – Find someone who knows what you want to learn and ask them to teach it to you. This could also be finding a mentor, or being an apprentice.

Take a webinar – These short online seminars shed light on the key points about a topic of interest. Completing more than one of them on a certain topic can be very insightful. Often times you can find webinars for free. Discover other benefits of webinars in this article.

Attend a conference, workshop, or seminar – Workshops and seminars can empower you to try new things and view your work differently. When you attend them as part of a conference you can leave feeling refreshed and eager to continue learning, and motivated tackle your biggest roadblocks. Check provincial boards, business associations, trade shows, and your local chamber of commerce to find out about learning opportunities.

Try volunteering – There are many organizations that are looking to work with and train eager volunteers. Look for an organization that needs the skills you want to learn.

Seek out tutorials – Many software and equipment companies host face-to-face tutorials or online tutorials to teach people how to effectively use their products. When shopping for software and equipment ask which suppliers and retailers offer support.

Source the internet – You can find multiple articles, videos, and white papers on almost any subject you search the internet about. Wikipedia and YouTube are among the favourites out there, but be aware that internet content may not always be reliable so be sure to seek out more than one source. You can also find motivational speakers on Ted.com.

Visit your local library – Your local library is a vast source of information. Thanks to technology most libraries can borrow books from other libraries to help you access the information you need.

If the free options won’t give you the education you need, there are small business grants and loans offered by federal and provincial governments, as well as business associations that fund the professional development of small business owners and their employees. Search the internet for funding options that may be right for you.

What other ways have you found effective for learning the business skills you need?

Miranda Vande Kuyt is a self-employed project and communications consultant. She is also the facilitator of the "Look Before You Leap: Self-Employment Survival Strategies" online course through www.LifeStrategies.ca.

Self Employment Survival Webinars

In the past we've offered Look Before You Leap: Self-Employment Survival Strategies as a two week, facilitated online course.  With the continued support of CERIC, we will now be offering a Look Before You Leap webinars series, making it more affordable and accessible than ever.

The first introductory webinar will provide attendees with a brief exploration of self-employment, both within and outside of the career development sector, and a review of the Look Before You Leap project and research (conducted by Life Strategies and funded by CERIC). Attendees will also be introduced to the 5-part webinar series. 

You can register for the introductory webinar here: http://ceric5.eventbrite.com/#.

This introductory webinar will be followed by a 5-part webinar series exploring  the following topics:

1. Getting Real About Self-Employment 
2. Creating Your Self-Employment Vision and Business Plan 
3. Marketing Yourself Effectively to Get Clients, Customers, and Projects 
4. Managing the Logistics and Getting Help 
5. Monitoring Progress and Planning for the Future 

For detailed descriptions of the series, please download this document.

To register for the 5-part series please visit: http://ceric6.eventbrite.com/#.

The first 10 registrants for the 5-part webinar series will receive a free PDF copy of the Look Before You Leap book.  A certificate of completion will be issued by Life Strategies to participants who attend all five parts in the webinar series.

Clocking In From The Couch

When I tell people I work from home, they respond with, "that must be nice" or "that's awesome."  But, is working from home really that nice and awesome?  Some days I find it quite challenging.  Why?  I must say it's because of all the distractions that surround me.  I have designated office hours and an office space, but I still get lured by distractions such as house work, kids, pets, the mail's arrival, tv, phone, Facebook...

Recently I came across this great blog post and infographic by www.webs.com that gave me a good chuckle about the realities of working from home and some solutions to combat the distractions that make my "nice and awesome" work environment actually a great place to get work done.  Click on the image below to visit the infographic.

Miranda Vande Kuyt is a self-employed project and communications consultant. She is also the facilitator of the "Look Before You Leap: Self-Employment Survival Strategies" online course through www.LifeStrategies.ca.

8 Tips For Supporting Retained Employees After Layoffs

Engaging survivors is key to successfully downsizing a workforce. Failing to support survivors is proven to lead to low motivation, loss of productivity, and a decrease in performance. Survivor disengagement leads to an increased staff turnover, causing companies to hire new staff, negating the cost saving intentions of layoffs in the first place. Having highly engaged employees is key to successful downsizing. Follow these tips for keeping survivors engaged. 

1. Preplan - Start the downsizing process by considering all your options to avoid downsizing1. Include staff in your look for a solution. Ask them what they need for the company to be successful.

2. Create career development plans - Meet with individual staff to create career development plans. Understand what motivates each employee; what he or she truly values in life and work. Support them to create a plan to journey towards their career goals. Having staff invested in their future helps your company meet your needs of a diversely skilled work force2.

3. Treat those being laid off with dignity and respect - This reassures survivors that if they must leave in the future, they will be treated in the same manor. It reduces their fear and anxiety over the future3, as well as encourages them to stay with the company4.

4. Address survivor guilt - Survivors can be plagued by worry about the future, guilt over surviving the cut, increased stress about the increased workload, and their skill gaps5. This overall leads to lower morale, productivity, and performance, as well as higher staff turnover6. Address this through one on one coaching. Allow each staff to process the transition in their own way as they move toward understanding their new identity within the company7.

5. Recognize accomplishments - Celebrate small wins for the company; how the downsizing is fulfilling its goals. Also celebrate the achievements of staff; when they reach part of their goals, complete training, etc. Acknowledging their accomplishments and how they ultimately make your company stronger boosts morale and the staff's commitment to their personal career development goals and loyalty to the company2.

6. Communicate transparently - Update staff frequently on how the company is doing through newsletters, reports, emails, staff meetings, etc. Encourage them to give you feedback on what they need to do their job more effectively. Use multiple avenues such as feedback surveys, group planning sessions, one on one coaching, etc5.

7. Provide strong leadership - Survivors need help to focus on the most important things they can do for the company and themselves in order to succeed in the time of transition2. They require clear communication on the expected outcome and empowerment to reach and even exceed those expectations. Also, don't forget the need for honest communication and recognition for moving towards and reaching expectations.

8. Create an environment for highly motivated employees to succeed - Have the systems (policies and procedures), as well as the strategies (career development planning, cross training, leadership) in place for people to tap into their internal motivation and talents for being highly engaged employees2.

Miranda Vande Kuyt is a self-employed project and communications consultant. She is also the facilitator of the "Look Before You Leap: Self-Employment Survival Strategies" online course through www.LifeStrategies.ca.

End Notes:

1 Weber, Liz. (2009, March 20) Managing Layoffs With Dignity. Retrieved from http://www.smartbiz.com/article/articleview/2516/1/8/

2 Discover Winning Ways. (2009, April 15) Outplacement – Managing the Survivors After the Layoff. Retrieved from http://www.discoverwinningways.com/outplacement-layoff

3 Oliver, Karen. (n.d.) Outplacement Services – Part II. Retrieved from http://www.dbmgulf.com/articles/dbm_articles2.htm

4 People Central, (2009, February 12) ROI for Businesses Using Outplacement & Career Transition Services Retrieved from http://www.peoplecentral.co.nz/outplacement/roi-for-businesses-using-outplacement-career-transition-services/

5 Oliver, Karen. (n.d.) Outplacement Services – Part III. Retrieved from http://www.dbmgulf.com/articles/dbm_articles3.htm

6 CallMe!. (2011, April 26) 5 Steps to Overcome “Survivor Syndrome”: managing Employee Productivity in the Wake of Layoffs & Restructuring Retrieved from http://iq.callme.io/2011/04/26/5-steps-to-overcome-survivor-syndrome-managing-employee-productivity-in-the-wake-of-layoffs-restructuring/

7 Trevor-Roberts, Edwin. (2008) Outplacement Myths. Retrieved from http://www.aim.com.au/DisplayStory.asp?ID=653

How To Deliver Layoff News [Infographic]

Choosing Your Logo Style

When pulling your logo together ensuring it’s high quality and using good colours is important. You also need to think about what kind of image you want to portray your company. Do you want to go abstract or do you want to be more realistic? Professional or comical? All of these things can affect your design. Let’s use the following companies as an example:

There’s quite the difference between these two! You have the professional and the more comic style. Both portray a completely different feel – and you have to make sure the style you choose portrays not only your company and its culture, but also looks appropriate for the industry.

The best way to help you make the right choice of what sort of a look to go for is to think of what your target clients would like. Do you work with corporate high-end companies or do you work with creative artists? A logo appealing to those two groups would be entirely different! A corporate customer would likely not appreciate, or take seriously, a company that had a very abstract and artsy logo. Keep your clients, or ideal clients, in mind when you make your logo – you can even ask them for their input, they would appreciate that you value their opinion if you ask!

Remember if you decide to go with a photograph in your logo to ensure that you start with the highest quality, largest file you can. Keep this saved, backed up, etc, in a safe place because every time that you re-save an image you loose quality, so make sure you always have one copy that no-one’s touching that you can go back to if you need to. That being said, using photos in logos is a bit dated, it’s more common to use computer generated graphics and the benefit is that they’re generally much easier to work with.

There are so many more important things to keep in mind with logos, always make sure you get other people’s opinions – be that your clients, staff, or a professional designer!

Anna Kouwenberg is the Owner and Creative Director at ARK Squared Productions where she offers web and graphic design services. You can connect with Anna about your logo and design needs via email at anna@arksquared.com, Twitter:@arksquared, or her website at www.arksquared.com.