Being an entrepreneur and running your own company seems like a rather fun experience. A lot of business owners would agree. However, it’s also a challenge. There are many different factors involved, and a business owner has to deal with many tasks on a daily basis. Some of those tasks require creativity or problem-solving abilities, while others are pretty mundane and boring. Those brainless tasks usually kill productivity in the office. No one likes to do them, but they still have to be done. This is exactly why you need automation.

One of the best ways to automate specific processes in your company is to utilize the power of the Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). Having a good workflow in the office is paramount if you want to be successful, and this software can help you achieve that. Here are the six processes you can automate with CRM.

Data Entry

It doesn’t matter what line of work you are in and what your company is about; data entry is definitely a significant aspect of your day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, entering data and keeping track of important daily numbers can be a bit tedious. More importantly, it takes a lot of time to do, and it usually leaves you exhausted. This can be a problem, especially if you don’t have enough human resources, and your primary job requires creativity. Fortunately, this is where CRM can come to the rescue. As experts from https://crm.webfletch.co.uk/ say, the automation of the data entry process can save you a lot of time and money. Leave the boring jobs to your computer. This way, you can work on creative tasks in your company, and the machines can crunch data.

Email Marketing

Even though email marketing should be personalized, especially if you don’t have a lot of customers, some aspects of it are generic. For example, promotions, limited offers, and follow-up emails can be automated This will save you and your employees a considerable amount of time on a daily basis. The time that can be spent on improving the company.

Customer Support

Conversations with customer support agents regarding complex problems can’t be automated, of course, but simpler issues can be fixed with things like chatbots, for example. If you are selling a product or offering a service to your customers, you will probably answer thousands of similar questions every day. This can be frustrating, but more importantly, it can be rather time-consuming. Therefore, if the customer doesn’t have a complex problem, it’s a good thing to leave a computer to provide a user with an answer. If you want this method to provide you with good results, you have to know what the most frequently asked questions are and make sure you have the answers to them. 

Reports

When you own a company, you have to deal with a lot of different reports on a regular basis. Every time your employee makes a sale, every time you get a new client, and every time you pay your workers. Filling those reports can be rather boring and exhausting, especially if you have other work to do. This is one of the mundane tasks CRM can help you with. If you have a lot of reports that don’t require detailed analysis and checking, make sure to automate them. Automated reports are one of the best ways to save time and resources.

Documentation Management

It doesn’t matter what you are selling or what kind of service you are offering to your customers; if you want to keep things in order, you must have proper documentation. Every sale and every payment has to be documented. This means there will be a lot of files like invoices and receipts you have to enter every single day. This is a lot of work, even if you have a good accountant in your office. However, a good organization and automation can make this process simpler and easier.

Appointment Scheduling

If you are meeting with clients and customers on a daily basis, the receptionist in your office probably has a lot on their plate. However, if you are a small company, you probably don’t have a receptionist or a personal assistant to take care of your appointments. Doing this yourself can be time-consuming. Therefore, your best option is to automate this process. It will save you a lot of time, and you definitely won’t forget a meeting.

Summary

Being an entrepreneur is not a simple thing to do, especially in today’s competitive market. If you want to find your place and succeed, you must find a way to organize your workflow better and save time. Using the right CRM Software can help. Automating your key tasks will definitely help you achieve better efficiency.

Productivity has become a hot button topic. People are making crazy amounts of money by writing guides for productivity for people of all ages (some starting as young as middle school). While finishing the tasks you want to is an admirable goal, we have found that often it is the smaller, quieter things that most influence productivity.

A new area of research called environmental psychology has emerged and has been finding very interesting results. Consistently, studies are showing that people’s environment affects their mood, creativity, focus, and, you guessed it, productivity. You might not need to force yourself to sit and do things that you despise. You might just need to tweak up your space a little bit so that it is more encouraging for productive work. The following will explore some of the things you can do to your workspace to make sure that you can get your work done when you need to.

Clean Up Your Room Or Workspace

Not to nag you, but maybe you should clean up your workspace. Studies have found that people are far more productive in clean spaces than in messy ones. Beyond productivity, a messy room has been shown to correlate with depression. Clean rooms reduce allergies, boost your self-esteem, and build a sense of productivity within you that makes you feel excited to feel more productive. This seems like a very small point, but it can make a huge difference regarding how much work you get done and how easy it feels to get it done.

Take some time to pick up anything that isn’t where it should be. Change the garbage. Wipe down your surfaces. Vacuum or mop and, if you are able, let in some fresh air through the windows. While you’re cleaning, consider how much clutter needs to be out on display and which items you can put away for a sleeker feeling.

Make Sure All Your Tools Are Within Reach

If you keep all the things you need to finish your work nearby, let’s say at your desk, you minimize the number of times you need to get up and go looking for something that you need to finish your work. If it’s schoolwork we’re talking about, you’ll need your class notes, your textbooks, and some pens or pencils. If you’re working remotely you’ll need your computer or laptop, your mouse, and keyboard. Check out Emeril pressure air fryer reviews to make healthy snacks so you can focus on productive activities.

If just thinking about all these items makes you want to run in the other direction, consider adding a bit of fun to them. Maybe you find a book cover with your favorite anime character on it to ease the dread of opening that textbook. Maybe you could find a custom playmat for your keyboard and mouse. For some people, all it takes to lighten the work mood is their favorite type of pen with colorful ink. Figure out what little joys you can hide in your daily work.

Think About Colors

The color of the walls around you or the color of large items like rugs, curtains, bedding, and furniture, can have a big impact on your mental state. Take a few moments to read about color psychology and you’ll begin to understand how influential colors are on the human mind. Studies have even found that the color of a placebo pill (a sugar pill designed to do nothing to the body) alters how effective people feel the pill is. During sports matches, the team wearing a black uniform is more likely to be given penalties. People driving red cars are given tickets more often than people driving cars of other colors. It may seem a little strange to start looking at the impact of color, but it can be incredibly helpful not only when you’re designing a space ideal for productivity, but when you’re choosing outfits for dates or job interviews or icing for your friend’s birthday cake.

Add A Houseplant

House plants are pretty, and often require minimal work for maintenance. Beyond this, they have been shown to increase the levels of oxygen in the room (this can help with focus and concentration) and they reduce stress and anxiety (which are two of the big inhibitors to productive work). Studies have found that indoor plants boost productivity by up to 15%. That’s a big improvement for such a little alteration!

The above tips should help you set up a workspace that helps you finish the work you need done. Of course, it is important to make sure that you are not pushing yourself too hard. Make sure you’re getting adequate sleep and eating high-energy foods. All the employee productivity advice in the world isn’t going to help you battle exhaustion. Your life is about far more than what you can get done in a day.

Introduction

Workforces around the globe have hailed Microsoft Teams as a force for collaborative good. In April 2020 MS Teams recorded a user base of 75 million users daily, meaning it must be doing something right. One of the things the communication platform has done incredibly well is its application integration. By allowing such a level of integration with third-party applications we have seen an astronomical rise in said applications. What follows is a brief list of the top applications for improving workflow and the work environment.

Planner

There are several third-party project management apps that integrate seamlessly with MS teams, however, one of the easiest to get the ball rolling is Planner. When scouring the Internet for the best teams apps, Planner has the advantage of already being integrated with MS Teams by default and is a lifesaver when working with multiple teams. Each team will have its panel and navigating between panels is just as easy as creating a new one. Onboarding teams is also a simple task making sure everyone is on the same page.

ScrumGenius

For development teams who apply agile scrum methods to development cycles sometimes post it’s on a whiteboard just doesn’t cut it anymore. These minefields of neon colors can be just as confusing as the jumbled meeting schedule. ScrumGenius is an app that looks to clear up the whiteboard mess and allow team leaders to automate meetings and recurring tasks. Further, this higher level of automation can be used to help take minutes during those daily meetings.

Polly

This app is as simple as it is brilliant. Polly allows for the creation of polls within Teams channels. The upside of this is that it allows teams to quickly decide on a wide range of things from the more mundane like lunch orders, or quickly deciding on what documentation to send stakeholders without the need for taking up valuable meeting time.

Health Hero

The global pandemic has thrust health, mental and physical into the spotlight. With many employees now working remotely, keeping tabs on the well-being of staff has been harder given that they barely physically see each other with their own eyes. An app that looks to improve the health of teams is Health Hero which allows the linking of health-tracking devices to the app as well as providing challenges and leader boards designed to help keep your team healthy.

Mio

Not all projects can be assigned to one team within one company, often projects can span multiple partners who invariably use different platforms to communicate. Mio looks to help connect teams using MS Teams with others using Slack or Cisco WebEx Teams, for example, helping ensure communication and collaboration by preventing teams from working in bubbles. This has a nasty habit of generating problems that are thoroughly preventable and deadlines being missed.

Conclusion

This is certainly not a comprehensive be all and end all list of apps to improve your MS Teams experience, it certainly shows a wide range of applications that can be tailored to a team’s needs without a massive outlay of capital.

Hiring tech-talent has become a new norm in IT and software development fields. Initially, hiring software developers was very popular; but nowadays, hiring C-level executives has become a new trend in the industry. Recently, a sizable number of dedicated websites and portals such as FindVirtualCTO.com for hiring CTO or Chief Technology Officer for startup businesses have emerged in the marketplace.

Why Are More Startups Turning to Hiring Remote CTOs?

According to the Flexjobs information, more than 159% of growth in the remote work market has been noticed during 2005 and 2017 in the US only. A massive uptrend in hiring remote tech-talent is highly prevalent worldwide. Meanwhile, the State of Remote Work 2019 report reveals that software development and IT services are the top 2 industries making over 56% of the entire remote workforce.

Hiring a C-level executive, especially a remote CTO is becoming a new uptrend in startups and SMEs due to numerous reasons. A few important ones are listed below.

• Cost-saving – The cost of dedicated CTO at the office is huge as compared to hiring a remote CTO. Normally, startups are in cash-crunch. So, they turn to this option due to a competitive remote CTO salary.
• Increased ROI – Hiring CTO is faster and he/she can increase the speed of technological transformation in the technical infrastructure and resources quicker to improve ROI much faster.
• Skills and Experience – You can hire a highly skilled CTO with diverse experience in revamping and streamlining resources and infrastructure more effectively at a very affordable price.
• Flexibility – Hiring a virtual CTO offers huge flexibility to choose from a large pool of experts from across the world. You can choose the right tech-talent for filling a C-level technical position without any constraints and problems. You can also replace your existing CTO with a new one easily if required.  

Responsibilities of a Remote CTO?

A Chief Technology Officer CTO is the head of the engineering or technological department in an organization. He is responsible for fulfilling the technological requirements for achieving the best possible performance of the company. 

The major responsibilities of an expert chief technology officer include the management and utilization of the company’s technological resources including human resources and technical infrastructure efficiently. The effective use of existing resources and adding new technologies that are needed for developing a competitive-edge with the market competitor also form the fundamentals of a CTO’s responsibilities.

The detailed list of responsibilities of a virtual CTO is given below.  

• Professional assessment of the existing resources and infrastructure
• Devising strategy for technology use and identifying suitable technologies for the same
• Implementing cutting-edge technologies to increase business competitiveness
• Identifying flaws in business process and patching them up with the modern technologies
• Devising an effective strategy for efficient use of the power of the latest technologies
• Effective investment in technology and technical resource to improve Return on Investment ROI
• Reducing business dependency on manual processes and automating them through technology
• Making business processes in line with industry best practices and standards
• Devising policy for phase-in, phase-out, migration, and implementation of modern technologies

Top Skills to Look for While Hiring a Virtual CTO?

Hiring a CTO is a very critical process, which needs professional-level expertise to access the skills, experience, and qualifications of a CTO candidate. A remote CTO in startups is supposed to take responsibility for all technical aspects of the company. So, he/she should possess all major skills to achieve those objectives in startups. A few very important skills to look for while hiring a virtual CTO are mentioned below.

Technical Skills

• Knowledge of network and IT infrastructures such as OS, cloud, internet, and telecom
• Artificial intelligence AI, automation, data analytics
• Knowledge of business process management
• Extensive knowledge of different software tools for process automation
• Knowledge of communication and collaboration platforms
• Infrastructure assessment, analytics, and auditing
• Knowledge of all trending technologies in the IT domain
• Developing technical requirements – short term and long term
• Developing the state of the art business solutions powered by the latest technology tools

Soft Skills

• Detailed-oriented and solution-oriented approach
• Innovative and creative thinking
• Great interpersonal communication skills
• Effective technical understanding
• Team leader and thinker
• Problem-solving and pressure handling
• Professional commitment
• Motivator and supportive
• Strategic thinking

Management Skills

• Budgeting and planning different projects and business processes
• Conflict management and change management
• Project planning, implementation, and monitoring
• Project management methodologies
• Team management and collaboration
• Effective reporting and presentation

Top 7 Mistakes to Avoid While Hiring a Remote CTO

A Chief Technical Officer (CTO) plays a pivotal role in the progressive future of modern businesses. So, hiring the wrong person would result in complete devastation. So, a remote CTO should be hired very carefully to avoid the following top mistakes while hiring a remote CTO.

1. Considering cost as the top priority – Without any doubt, cost is a big factor in any competitive business, but considering cost as the top priority is a big mistake while hiring a remote CTO. You should make a better trade-off between cost, quality, experience, and skills to avoid this mistake. A CTO acts as the technical spine of the company so he/she should not be measured in salary at all.
2. Focusing on narrow Picture – While hiring a virtual CTO always consider a broader picture of your business and the entire business ecosystem. Don’t confine your thinking to a certain domain such as enhancing existing infrastructure, cutting cost, or adding process automation. Consider the broader picture to improve the performance and business outcome thoroughly.
3. Overrating skills over experience – Many times, hiring managers make a mistake by focusing unduly on the technical skills rather than counting the experience at large. A CTO is not supposed to work with technical things but he has to plan the effective use of those technologies. In such circumstances, always focus on a balance between skills and experience. 
4. Missing experience in the relevant field – Experience should be in the field exactly in a similar environment that your company works in. Sometimes, this point is missed, which leads to undesirable results. Always focus on the relevancy of the experience.
5. Skipping portfolio analysis and feedback – Analyzing portfolios and taking recommendations from past employers is very important in hiring a CTO for startups. This factor is missed in some cases, which may lead to disastrous outcomes.
6. Forgetting about business acumen – The position of a virtual CTO is not all about the knowledge of technology but the effective use of technology through business acumen to increase the performance, competitiveness, and business process efficiency. Normally, hiring managers commit a mistake to miss this domain during the hiring process.
7. Mixing rhetoric with creativity – Creativity is not all about talking beautiful quotes and experience. Solving common problems with the most efficient way and thinking out of the box is the most fundamental item for developing innovative solutions. Don’t miss to check-out the creative approach of the CTO.

Final Takeaway

Hiring a professional CTO remotely is possible for startups to earn numerous business advantages such as cost-efficiency, better ROI, and flexibility. The hiring process should be accomplished professionally by finding the right skills and avoiding the most common mistakes while hiring a virtual CTO as mentioned in this article.

What are the pillars of any business? Some may refer to adequate security, strategy, and communication. Each of them matters, while the last two can significantly improve your income. If the security issues may be managed by choosing the best computer security software for small business, questions related to communication and strategy may need more exciting solutions.

What may be a progressive one? The phone app! Trends show that it is a powerful instrument contributing to marketing strategy and communication capabilities. Before all, they help create an image of the business, improve communication with stakeholders, and bring new customers. In this post, we will consider how it may be useful for small businesses.

Mobile Application Types

Phone applications are entering and taking root in many business spheres, even those once far from the web. One may personalize their TikTok to promote the product, others can develop their own app to help their customers. Such apps are efficient in such business areas as tourism, fitness centers, e-commerce, services, etc, and corporate culture. That’s why you should know how they can be used and if it applied to your operations.

Mobile business applications can be divided into two basic types:

• To facilitate the company’s internal needs (increase teamwork productivity, for example, file share, adding social messengers and accounts into the local network, and project and job management systems).
• For commerce, trademark, and sales increase (as an addition to the company’s leading online services, such as advertising, publications, tickets buying apps, e-banking, delivery goods tracker, loyal customers program, and so on).

If the first type is about using third-party apps, facilitating the management of your tasks within an organization, the second type might be very efficient for business marketing and interaction with the customers. You can use both, but we’ll focus on the second one.

Consider an App for Your Sales

According to online marketing statistics, nowadays, almost 70% of users make purchases via smartphones. It’s no surprise that this is a reasonably effective sales channel that shouldn’t be neglected. So, here are some vital functions adding value to your product and satisfying the customer:

Receiving notifications

Mobile apps let you interact with your clients via notifications. Information about various events, such as promotions, discounts, and new product launches, can be sent to customers as push notifications.

This is how you remind about your brand and provide relevant and useful information that encourages customers to buy what you propose.

Ease of Purchasing

Having a choice between a website and a mobile application, customers often choose the latter. It is more accessible, more straightforward, intuitive, and doesn’t have anything unnecessary. By installing the application, the client gets access to the entire catalog of goods or services. Interestingly, you may get data about your clients and their preferences regarding your goods.

Besides, within the app, the necessary information is displayed clearly and fits the screen (not all sites can ensure qualitative web versions and ease of viewing on mobile devices). The order payment process can also be optimized and integrated into the application.

How To Know If App Is Good Idea For Business

Nevertheless, getting an app may be a hasty decision. It will work only if you get the message right and provide the value for the customer. This means that you should do your homework thoroughly. The customer needs to be satisfied, an application secure and convenient, while you should understand its contribution to your goals.

To realize if your company needs phone apps, you’d better consider the following questions:

• Do you need it? You should understand the applicability and opportunity, as well as the tasks you want to solve with the application. How do you or your customers benefit from it? It should be mutual.
• What is your target market? Do your customers use mobile devices? Maybe your target audience can be satisfied with a mobile version of the site. This information can be obtained using Google and other web analytics tools that should be implemented on your webpage. Thus, research the background and ask your customers.
• Think about mobile app promotion? Will you handle it? This will demand extra marketing efforts, website upgrading, loyalty program realization, and extra expenses for context-based advertising, with the Google Play, App Store, and promotion. Therefore, add it to your budget, alongside the app development.
• How will you rate the validity of a phone application? What are the indicators of success for you?

In the end, the price of developing, servicing, and updating may be high. Will it be worth it? Yes, if everything is done right. However, it is also necessary to understand that this is a long-term investment, as you need time to develop it, launch, and see the results.

Phone Application Development

If you are still interested, there are four main stages of phone application development. They are crucial and reflect the questions above.

Typically, it starts with the meticulous business analysis that will allow you to understand your business needs and target audience’s characteristics. It is a starting point for you to have the function of the app. Depending on the type of business, it may have a delivery, catalog, informative or entertaining option. Why not use imagination?

After this, there is a stage of developing specific solutions, which will clearly determine the application’s architecture and its look. It derives from a business goal and reflects the characteristics of your audience. The duration of the development process, as a rule, depends on the specifics of the business and the wishes of the customer, as well as on the type of mobile platform, iOS, or Android.

The next step is the direct implementation of the technological part, its control, and its launch. You’d probably ask some developers to design it, test it, and launch. At this point, you understand that the consultation or help from the experts is inevitable.

Lastly, there are marketing efforts after launching the app to persuade users to use it. It is as crucial as other stages, and the success of the whole plan depends on it as well.

As one can, a phone app today is an important business tool. It can improve communication and sales by facilitating trust and loyal relationships with customers. If you want to keep your business competitive, you need a mobile app.

Whether you have worked your whole life or inherited an estate, one of the most important things about being a parent is passing on your wealth to your children. This is why most parents will make a will when they start feeling older and more vulnerable – to ensure that hard work doesn’t go to waste. The issue is that non-parents, or parents that are still young, often neglect the necessity of having a will. 

The reason for this is because it’s traditionally an expensive ordeal. Having to spend several hundreds, or even thousands, when you can’t comprehend a scenario in which you will need a will anytime soon is easy to procrastinate on. With the invention of online will makers, this is no longer an excuse.

Not only should we always be aware that anything can happen in order to appreciate our time on this uncertain earth, where pandemics and catastrophes happen, but the cost of planning your own wealth estate after death is now under a hundred bucks. This article will explore the benefits of online wills, and then detail the onlinewillmakers.com’s best rated list.

What are online wills and are the benefits?

When using an online will software you essentially pay either a fixed or monthly fee, far below the going rate for a lawyer, and complete the will yourself using the template provided. This means that the user is given a blueprint of a will, with some pieces of information missing. The user answers basic questions, jargon-free, and the answers automatically fill into the will document. 

Generally, it takes under an hour to complete an online will from start to finish. Some are reviewed to have taken 10 minutes to complete. This is far from the traditional route of making an appointment with a lawyer, visiting their office and so on.

The biggest benefit of an online will maker is that you can legitimately ensure that your possessions are distributed to whomever you choose. Not only this, but you can appoint a power of an Executor and Trustee. This will allow you to choose someone who can manage the distribution of your estate. This gives extra peace of mind, knowing your wishes will be fulfilled. 

In fact, some companies may even allow you to appoint a guardian for a minor, as well as specifying your nuanced funeral wishes, which can help take the stress off of loved ones. Whilst some companies specialise in wills alone, others are more general and cover far reaching legal services.

Arguably the most prominent benefit of online wills is the cost. Paying a lawyer to help you through will creation can be upwards of $1,000, though if the estate is small and simple it may only be a few hundred. Online will software, however, usually range from $20 to $100 for a basic document. There are often options for on-going payment if there’s a lot of other services to use, or perhaps the ability to alter the will details in the future.

Which are the best online will makers currently in the USA?

There are plenty of online will making companies to choose from in the USA, but here are the five leading ones:

Quicken Nolo

Quicken Nolo have been recognized as the very best will makers in the USA. Besides Nolo being overall the most popularly used will making software, it also has a lot of advantages making it the leading will provider. Quicken Nolo is extremely easy to use, has multiple add-ons options available, allows for multiple users and has great customer support with help resources. Not only that, but Quicken Nolo services are also at an attractive price point, that is not much higher than the average industry price point. 

U.S. Legal Wills

Another excellent choice for an online will maker, as U.S. Legal Wills offers great value for the money. The prices for the U.S. Legal Wills are very competitive and you only need to pay a one time fee, meaning that there won’t be any unexpected costs later on. The biggest benefit of the software is how easy and user-friendly it is, with great customer support available. A basic will takes only about 20 minutes to create and most of it is customizable. 

Trust & Will

With only a couple years of existence, Trust & Will may not seem like the most credible choice, however, there is nothing that would make you doubt their credibility. The company has been gaining increasing amounts of popularity due to its low price point, money back guarantee option and the ease-of-use with the software. This is a good choice if you just need a basic will, although it may not be suitable for more complicated situations, as Trust & Will do not have attorneys you could consult. 

Total Legal

Founded in 2003, Total Legal has been around for nearly two decades and they’ve been one of the leading will makers due to their admirable transparency, brilliant help center and lots of choices for different documents. Besides, their services come at a good cost and you have the option of paying monthly, with no payments in advance. The reason Total Legal is lower on the list, however, is because they are a lot less UI friendly than others and also very limited for wills. 

Final Word

Deciding to opt for an online will as opposed to a traditional lawyer’s one isn’t an easy option, but it makes sense for those with simple estates and relationships. What’s more difficult perhaps is deciding on a company, as the industry is exploding right now with new services, pricing schemes and features.

All successful business owners know that making some mistakes along the way to growth is an inevitable part of success and that what’s truly important is to make sure that these mistakes become an education for the future. Lessons learned from failure often teach us the most about exactly what changes we need to make and help us grow stronger in our career by highlighting the areas in which we are weaker.  With the rapid transformation of corporate landscapes currently occurring as a result of constant technological innovation, digital business transformation is one major area of modern business ownership in which mistakes can occur.

For those wondering exactly what digital transformation is, it can be defined as the process of harnessing the power of new digital technologies and supporting capabilities to innovate new digital business models. With the breadth of digital technology available to the corporate world, this process can include almost anything. For those looking to understand different processes of digital transformation, many examples can be found in various college essay samples available online. Essay examples such as these can help to achieve a greater understanding of what digital business transformation actually entails, and as a result, make it easier to avoid the most common mistakes that occur.

Common methods of digital business transformation

• Digitized communications (via apps, online conferences)
• Digital workspaces
• Digitizing databases
• App and web creation
• The implementation of digital analytics

As you get a better understanding of this process of modernization, it becomes clear that there’s quite a margin for error. Whether a company owner or a student writing about business in university, writing professionals like CustomEssayMeister say that important lessons that can be learned from digital business transformation mistakes.

Looking at the bigger picture

Many failed businesses suffer from an inability to see the bigger picture and understand the true scope that a new technology may present to industry. You will find success if you go through the process of mapping your customer journey and visualize a customer-centric strategy.

Conversely, diving head-first into all-out digitization or technological transformation before the value and scope of technology were identified can be an over zealousness that ends up harming a company more than it helps. Investing in expensive or nascent technology before it’s proven it’s worth has been the downfall of many businesses.

Writing off emerging technologies as simply a passing trend can be a type of conservatism that ends up letting competitors get a head start when it comes to valuable digital transformation.

The lesson to take away from both these failures is to focus on the importance of the bigger picture. Looking to the wider picture develops a balance between an openness to change, and the patience necessary to implement the right changes. Learning to listen to expert advice and consult a wide range of sources is a lesson that comes with narrow-minded mistakes.

Long term thinking

A common mistake made in digital business transformation is owners making moves towards digitization without considering how these changes can be incrementally built upon in the future. Having a vision of long-term technological goals is an important lesson for businesses looking to succeed and experience steady ongoing growth. Any attempt at digital business transformation should be done with a long-term vision of how the transformation may continue in the future.

Flexibility

The world of digital technology is evolving at an ever-more rapid pace, and it’s important for businesses to keep up to date. The rate of technological advancement, and the sudden appearance of game-changing technology, means that flexibility is a must when it comes to successfully performing a business transformation. One highly common mistake is becoming fixated on one direction of technological transformation, and as a result, missing out on new opportunities. This mistake can be avoided by keeping an open mind and developing a flexible approach to business innovation.

These are just a few of the most valuable lessons to be learned from common business transformation mistakes. Trial and error is all part of the path to developing a strong and dynamic corporate model. Luckily, the exciting pace of emerging technologies means that business owners never run out of the opportunity to tap into the next big thing and totally transform their business for the better.

Do you and your employees need to work from home because of the corona restrictions? Then you need IT equipment such as laptops or computers for your employees so they can get their work done. Buying new IT equipment is a substantial investment, so it might be financially appealing to rent your IT. But did you know that renting can benefit your company in even more ways? In this article we tell you more about the advantages of renting IT.

Costs

Buying a new laptop is a big-ticket item, especially if you have to buy it for all your employees. Buying say 50 new laptops is a major initial investment. Spending a great deal of money at once can put you in financial difficulties when unexpected expenses occur. If you rent computers, you can spread the costs because you only have to pay a monthly fee. 

Up-to-date technology

As you might know, technology ages rapidly. A new laptop you buy today can already be old-fashioned in three years. If you rent a MacBook Pro (translate: MacBook Pro huren)  or other laptop at an IT rental company, you can expect it to be up-to-date. IT rental companies work with the latest hard- and software to keep up with current developments. You only get the best!  

Support

If you own IT equipment, you’re responsible for fixing technical issues, reparations and maintenance. If you rent computer equipment, you can rely on the IT rental company for reparations and maintenance. You can often get a replacement computer if any computer needs to be fixed and they can often assist you directly if any technical issues occur. So no unnecessary waiting, your employees can often go straight back to work!

Flexibility

Many jobs are variable, especially if your work on a project basis. If you own IT, you can’t easily buy and return it. If you rent IT, you can adjust your equipment to your needs, whether it’s in project scope or scale. Upscaling or downscaling is easy! 

Special Needs

To smoothen the process of working from home, you may need some extra IT equipment. For example, your employees may need a special work phone to stay in contact with their clients. IT rental companies often rent out more than just laptops and computers. You can often rent whatever you need; from renting an iPad or iPhone (translate: Iphone huren) to renting beamers and VR glasses! Rental companies can also install the equipment and ensure that all the settings are as you wish them to be. 

Renting IT is absolutely worth considering!

Yet again, we have another online platform that allows users to post videos of themselves and share it with the world. You might have gotten used to this by now and might even find it to be a bit too familiar. Still, this particular app has a lot of features that aid content creators with their videos, which is why a lot of TikTokers have become quite popular in the past years. This makes these young creators quite the experts because they have experimented enough to know what works and what doesn’t. If you want to follow in their footsteps, here are some tips and tricks on how to get more TikTok followers.

Use Popular Soundtracks

TikTok is all about the songs or the sounds that you use when you’re filming yourself. Sometimes, users like to use voiceovers from cartoons, TV-shows, movies, etc. This means that your video is going to be as relevant as whatever you have playing in the background. So, if you’ve been noticing that the audience is responding to certain songs or soundtracks, then you need to ride that wave before it ends. Also, if you’re going to be lip-syncing, you need to make sure that you do so perfectly. This will attract a lot of viewers to your page, who may become followers later on.

Keep up with the Latest Trends

If you’ve been on this app for a while, then you know it’s all about the latest trends. If you want to get a lot of views or get more followers, then you better get yourself familiarized with what’s trending at the moment. There really isn’t an archetype for TikTok’s trends because it could be anything from a sound effect or a popular song to funky dance moves and challenges. Speaking of which, both the audience and users are big on challenges, so you might want to consider doing these every once and a while for increased views.

Personalize Your TikTok Profile

In order to attract a large audience to your platform, you need to introduce yourself to them. Not only will this get other people interested, but it will also help you establish a connection with them. The first step that you need to take is customizing your TikTok URL so that your new followers can find your details easily. The next thing would be to humanize yourself; try to appear real and authentic to them so that they can relate to you.

Use Trending Hashtags

As is the case with pretty much every popular app out there, hashtags are an important part of the deal; you can’t expect to be popular on a social media platform without taking advantage of the trending hashtags. Now, since this application has its own style and trends, naturally, it’ll have its own hashtags as well.

This means that when you’re posting a video of a trending challenge, you need to put its name, who created it, the name of the song, and anything else related to this challenge in the form of hashtags. Most of the time, the audience would want to watch a specific challenge, so they look up hashtags to view these videos. If you want to be discovered by young users, then you need to use these hashtags. Hashtags are the key to get more TikTok followers.

Collaborate with Other TikTokers

Every content creator knows the importance of collaborating with other users. This is very important when it comes to TikTok videos, too. If you want to keep your audience engaged or get more followers, then you might want to collaborate with different users. After you film a bunch of videos together, your audiences will be introduced to both of you, and they might just follow you two. This is a win-win situation that most creators don’t say no to, so go ahead and look for a TikTok partner.

Try Different Filters

Filters are a big part of the application. TikTok offers plenty of filters for its users to get creative and use them to make funny and relatable content. Needless to say, these filters are very attractive to younger audiences. In fact, one of the easiest ways to increase your number of followers is by using funny filters that can make kids like you and, eventually, follow you. Also, there were times when filters were a part of certain trends, so ensure that you stay on top of these things.

All in all, TikTok is a fun online platform that is very easy to use. This platform allows its users to gain a lot of followers because of the many challenges and trends that are always happening there. This goes to show that it’s not particularly difficult to attract the user’s attention. However, suppose you want to transform your audience into your followers. In that case, you need to appear human to them, collaborate with other TikTokers, use trendy songs and hashtags, and select funny filters that will keep them entertained. 

You can make use of your old smartphone even when it does. Not have a cell signal. As long as this phone can connect to WiFi, you can still access the internet with it. There are many other things that you can do with your old phone including trading it in, selling it, or repurposing it. Your. The old phone may turn out to be more useful than you thought therefore do not just leave it hanging around in the house.

If your old phone is in a bad condition that it cannot be reused, you can dispose of it. However, you should not just dispose of the phone in the garbage because phones contain toxic substances which can cause water pollution if they landed in a water source. These phones can also harm the people who work in the garbage collection industry. To avoid this, it is better to recycle your phone with companies that recycle phones. You can search if there are such companies close to you.

Here are some ideas on how you can retire your old phone:

Use the Phone as a Security Camera or Baby Monitor

You can make use of your old phone as a form of the home security system. To do this, the phone should be able to connect to WiFi and have a good camera. To keep an eye on your home using your old mobile phone, you need to download video applications and allow it to automatically accept video calls when you call it. This will enable you to check on the state of your home when you need to.

There are other apps that you can use on your phone if you want a more sophisticated security system. The trick is to place the phone in a good location where you want to check and test it to confirm that it is working. You can also use the old phone as a baby monitor which will help you to check on your baby when they are asleep. You will get alerts when your baby starts crying and you can soothe them back to sleep from your phone.

E-Book Reader

If you have an old phone lying idle in the house, you can turn it into an E-Book reader. The condition for your phone to serve as an E-Book Reader is having the ability to connect to WiFi. The phone should also have an application that facilitates the reading of different types of documents. If your phone meets these criteria, you can either download the E-Book material and read it when you are offline or read the material when you are connected to the phone.

Donate the Phone

If you do not have a use for your old phone, you can donate it to support a good cause. There is someone who can still make use of your phone even when it seems useless to you. Some army organizations take up old phones to help soldiers to have free talk time or help to support other veterans. You can then buy your next phone that has the features that you are looking for after you donate the old one. There is no better feeling than upgrading your phone.

Alarm Clock

You can also use your old phone as an alarm clock. If your phone already has an alarm clock, that is an added advantage. If your old phone does not have an alarm clock, all you need to do is to download one from the AppStore when connected to WiFi. You can then position the phone next to your bed on a stand and set the alarm for the next day. When the alarm goes off in the morning, you can switch it off or snooze it. With some applications, you can also use your phone to monitor your sleep at night.

As a Source of Entertainment

If your phone has sufficient space, you can download songs and videos and store them on the phone. You can then use the phone to entertain yourself when you are in the shower, pool, or even on a road trip. Your phone can also become a source of entertainment for your children. 

You can download games for them to play or children’s videos to entertain them. This will help to spare the charge of your new phone for others like making YouTube videos for your online business. This is an effective way of utilizing your resources.

GPS Navigator

If you have an old phone that can connect to WiFi, you can use it to find directions when you are traveling. Once you connect to WiFi, you can download the GPS application or Google Maps from the AppStore of the phone. This is very convenient because you do not have to keep disconnecting your new phone when traveling to answer phone calls or reply to messages.

Camera for Your Children

An old phone can also help your children to take photos. All it needs is a good camera. Your children will learn how to take photos using this old device and, therefore, when you buy them a good phone it will be easy for them to operate it.

In summary, you can repurpose your old phone instead of letting it just lie in the house idle. Some of the uses of an old phone include an alarm, baby monitor, GPS navigator, or entertainment. You can also donate the phone for a good course.

Making money on your own is always a great idea during your study. Your college years are high time to make your first steps into adult life, financial independence, and future career. But if you want more than just earning some extra pocket money, starting your own business may seem like a perfect option that will help you earn for a living and teach you the essential market principles that may help you in the future a lot.

There are plenty of organizations that support young entrepreneurs; possibly there are some in your college, too. Read more on https://paperap.com/poverty-and-education/ to know everything about higher education and organizations there. But your own business means that you are solely responsible for every achievement and every failure. Think twice about the free time you have, the influence your new business will have on your study routine, and the investments you may need to make your business up and running. If you still are determined to try, here are some tips that may help you on the way.

Consult the experts

Even the greatest idea will stay in the realm of ideas without a reliable plan to make it real. But to make a plan, you need someone who has walked your way before and knows what obstacles are awaiting you on your road. Ask your friend, mentor, or teacher who has their own business already. Even if now they are thriving, ask about the first days and the hard days. The stories you are going to hear may be a bit discouraging, but they will help you understand the troubles of the newborn business and invent the ways to go through them before you face them.

These people can also help you to come up with a business plan. A business plan is an essential part of any startup that may be presented to the investors. Otherwise, you may just use it for yourself, as a guideline, to see what milestones lie ahead of you and how much time you have to reach the next one. The people who have already done that will help you make this plan realistic and achievable, balancing your dreams and desires with your possibilities and the reality. But to create a great business plan, you also need to…

Learn everything you can

We bet that your college has some extra courses that may be extremely helpful for young entrepreneurs. It may be a marketing class, a business strategy seminar, a crowdfunding training, or a full scale minor in economics. You need to absorb any knowledge you can get to learn about consumer behavior, marketing strategies, advertisement campaigns, media channels, and other things that may help your business develop.

Try to adjust and scale everything you hear, applying it to your brand. Build the image of your target audience, calculate the estimated revenue, train to write, and read legal documents that can contribute to your idea and your business plan. Even if you won’t use this exact piece of information, it will be a beneficial training that will help you understand the basics and may be later useful for some other ideas you’ll have in life.

Use the support

There are a few businesses that were created by one person alone. Usually, they started from a team of two or three eager people with shining eyes and a great plan. Doing business together is much easier in terms of time and effort, which is a crucial parameter when you still need to study and have some private time (you do need the private time because mental health is another essential thing for a business owner and a good student!). Think about the roles you need to keep your business running. Do you need a lawyer? A designer? An engineer? A communication specialist?

Think about the functions you are the best at. Don’t try to take them all to yourself; pick up roughly a third of them. Then think about the two other people who can fill the gaps. Don’t choose them just because they are your friends: they should be really good at what you want them to do to truly contribute to your business. Then all you need is to show them your idea and your plan and persuade them to do it together with you! It can be a fun team experience that will make your friendship even stronger!

Doing business isn’t a piece of cake for a college student. It really puts all your skills to the test. But your success can mean a great career that will determine all your life and in a good way. If you are truly eager, ready to work for a long time and grow up your business like you’d grow a tree – with love, patience, and consistency – you will win the most precious prize: money, experience, and valuable skills!

No matter how big or small the business is, it would only be successful if and when it starts making some handsome profits. If you wish to be successful, it is essential to not lose out on productivity. 

Productivity is a subjective element that enables you to works towards an improved output. When your output increases, consequently, your profits start seeing a higher number. Thus, we can see that productivity is perhaps the key element for any business to run. 

However, there are a zillion things that need to be taken care of by business owners. The workload can often cause business owners to procrastinate which hinders with the progression and growth of the organization. 

To help you work on your productivity, here are a few steps, tools, and methods that you should certainly keep in mind or consider investing in. 

Step to increase your chances of getting productive

These are a few steps that will help in increasing the chances of you being in the zone. 

Work on improving your workspace

Your environment can either be your major distraction or your cause of focusing on your work. The decor, colours, and table clutter play a critical role in maintaining the productivity of an individual. Hence, it is best to carry out a little workspace makeover and change it as per your taste and preferences. 

It is also often said that minimal office decor can actually mess with your productivity. It is advised to add a pop of colour, plants, art, or some other cherished items around you. Moreover, you should also ensure that the odor around your workstation is preferred by you. 

Minimize interruptions 

Next is to minimize as many interruptions as possible. A study shows that it can take approximately 23 minutes to get back into the zone once you get distracted. So, in order to escape from the interruptions from your employees, you can set particular office hours for them to come and discuss various issues or operations with you, unless it’s an emergency. 

Also, it is advised to turn off the notifications on all of your electronic devices when you are planning to sit and work. Notification bells are probably the easiest way to get distracted and thus, lose out on productivity. 

Use some background noise 

In some cases, incorporating some sort of noise or sound in the background can help in increased concentration. You can choose the music or sound as per your taste and preferences. It is suggested that you only use external sounds if they work for you. 

Background noises could be some slow music, sounds of ocean, rain, waves, or anything similar. 

Tools to that help you stay productive 

Here are a few digital software and tools that you can consider investing in when planning to keep yourself and your work on track. 

Project management software

Managing work, resources, and timelines can often be a challenge. This is where an effective project management software comes in the picture. It is a tool that makes life easier for leaders by allowing them to plan and schedule a project, allocate resources, and work on change management. This tool also allows users to manage quality, budget, administrative operations, as well as communications. When you have everything in order and organized, your productivity tends to further increase. 

Time tracking tool 

Another tool that helps in increasing your productivity is a time tracking tool. This tool allows you to keep a track of where you are spending your time the most. You can figure out the websites and apps that are taking your time a lot more than you anticipated. By eliminating or reducing the use of these websites, you can allocate your time more wisely. Moreover, you can also time yourself to deduce the time a particular task is taking. This way, you can prioritize your work much better and stay focused. 

Conclusion 

Productivity is one of the major challenges that are often faced by individuals. Thanks to the various digital tools, maintaining productivity has now been slightly easier than before. Project management tool and time tracking software are perhaps the two tools that make it convenient for business owners to juggle between work. 

Starting a business demands a lot more than having an idea and a plan. It needs you to take care of every consumer’s needs, especially the security of their data. That, alongside creating a firewall on your business sites, ensures successful protection of data to enhance the business.

Many countries have adopted this legal framework to keep their businesses secure in some of the ways below. It has kept them secure from hackers and other illegal attempts to use data.

Prevent Future Data Breaches

Cybersecurity is rampant in today’s world because of the advancement in technology. It causes data breach for both your business and that of customers to unauthorized third party users. They may use it to their advantage through impersonation leading to the fall of the business’s position in the market.

It makes it essential to review your security measures often to keep your IT in check. Frequently check your website for any suspicious activities or the network in use and try to analyze collected data. Employ endpoint security software and set up firewalls on web pages to keep data at bay and safe.

Identity governance and administration is a critical part of data security. It helps to ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive data, and that all user activity is properly monitored. This can help to spot suspicious activity and prevent data breaches. Identity governance and administration can also help to ensure compliance with data security regulations. By properly managing user identities, organizations can reduce the risk of data leaks and unauthorized access.

Maintain Public Trust

Customer trust in a business is a critical aspect to keep you in the market and earning new ones. You fail to earn it when you do not allow users to decide whether to block or enable cookies. It also applies when you share their personal information with third-party users without consent hence end up violating ethical principles.

You can ask experienced business owners who usually know the tricks of the trade, but if that does not prove to be of much help, you can find efficient law essay help online. Writix is a well-known resource that provides law essay writing assistance to students from law colleges and also the businessmen from various industries. 

Once a user logs in their details, back it up in your systems and keep them secure through setting strong passwords. It is even easier to maintain it when having a Data Protection Officer to manage and keep data secure. Always ensure to permanently erase user data after they delete their accounts to maintain their trust in the future.

Avoid Incurring Additional Costs

Malicious activities on a business website cost you more than just time but end up incurring many expenses. Users shun away from accessing your pages due to a lack of assurance of the security of their data. The worst part is you end up with malware that causes slow loading of pages.

To avoid this, you need to adhere to data restriction laws in your area of jurisdiction. Most of them aim at ensuring you have a legitimate goal before sharing user data per the law. Use them to meet the limited purpose and stop using them when it is not necessary.

Maintaining Brand Reputation

You have to meet all legal data security measures to ensure the maintenance of the reputation of your brand. Current and prospective customers stick with your business if the processing of their data is within the data subject rights. It should not exceed the minimum amount but be adequate and relevant for use after seeking their consent.

You have to be cyber resilient to ensure that their data is not exposed to other users when you use it. It includes protecting it from insider threats that may lead to data leakage for malicious purposes.

Securing Future Profits

In the beginning, all may seem hazy due to the strict measures you have to put in place to ensure the security of data. It may cost much, but it is worthwhile soon to help in securing consistent profits for the business.

Start by identifying areas of residence of your users and the data regulation laws in these places. It is better than having the business in different regions with different legal measures because of the expenses incurred.

Conclusion

Legal data security is the best way to go when starting a business to ensure you meet consumer needs. It helps you prevent phishing, hacking, and insider threats of user information when you incorporate other alternative data protection means. You end up gaining the trust of your users and to the growth of your business. All you have to do is discover the legal data security demands of regions your consumers reside.

 

You probably know lots about TikTok as this is a platform that currently becomes more and more popular over time, gathering people who’re making creative and funny shortcuts for their audience. But things are not that simple — behind blogging stands lots of opportunities for brand deals and growth, making money and starting a decent online career. That is why thousands of new users try to reach success here and have their lives settled with a great career online.

Nevertheless, becoming popular by yourself is not that easy, we’d even say that this is impossible right now — each successful account that you see right now has a whole team of professionals behind it and a used chance to buy TikTok likes for quick and efficient promotion. We want to tell you what exactly we mean by bought likes, when you need to buy them and how many you really need to become popular asap.

So, first things first, you have to purchase real likes for TikTok only. What do we mean? You could come by any website that claims to promote accounts on TikTok and buy the first pack of likes that you see, but it doesn’t guarantee results — to reach your goals you have to make sure that you’re purchasing genuine likes only, meaning these should come from actual people who’re using TikTok daily. Working with real people will make you popular, using bots — won’t, that’s why you have to check twice whether this company you’ve found cooperates with real people to provide their clients with real likes or if they are using bots and think of that as of an okay service to deliver. Bots aren’t good for anyone — yes, these will fill your profile with likes, but these will also provide zero interaction with your content, no real people will see what you’re posting and no real people will want to follow your profile or maybe even buy services and products that you’re advertising there.

Second of all, you should make sure that you’re purchasing adequately priced likes. Some companies can give you really low price options (almost for free) but most of the time it means that these are going to be bot-generated likes which aren’t good for your profile in any case. Options that are too expensive aren’t great either — aim for a mediocre price that will allow you to buy everything you need for promotion and maybe save some money in the process as well. We get it — not everyone is keen on the idea to waste lots of time on research to figure out which company is decent and which is not. You’d have to go through tons of comments and reviews from previous buyers to form an opinion of your own and come up to some sort of conclusion. To save you from that and to give you a nice clue we’d like to offer you cooperation with Viplikes — we are the company that provides clients with real services only, knows all the underwater rocks of this field and is always ready to show topnotch services and constant technical support.

Why else Viplikes is better than other promo companies

Through years of hard work we’ve been trying to form the main principles that would help us to leave each client completely satisfied with shown services. First one of them would be to always stay there for our customers and make sure that things go right. If any problems arise we will be here to fix everything asap and make sure that you’re content with intermediate and/or final results. Our managers are always there to answer your questions and solve your problems, so no matter the time of day and night you can always apply for help and get it.

We understand that some services might seem a little bit pricey — that’s why we’re trying to set regular sales and individual discounts to make our customers comfortable while buying as much as they need from our website. If you’re interested in buying demanded services with a very beneficial price you should definitely subscribe to our social media pages and join our chats in messengers — there we tell our customers when they’re able to buy all the services they need with discounts that drop up to 70% off the original prices. What else can anyone want from online promo?

We have more than a hundred options in total and we’re ready to provide you with the most quality and quick promo services that you’re able to find online. If you were thinking about promoting your account on TikTok but also were doubting this in terms of success and efficiency, you shouldn’t anymore — with the help of professional promoters you’ll be able to reach great results no matter what. Add some quality content and interaction with the audience to it and you’ll become a TikTok star in no time! We’re waiting for your questions in chat 24/7, if you have some, hit us with them right now!

The days of having to house all of your data in-house are over, with the rise of the cloud and the widespread availability of affordable, effective third party server solutions making it cheaper and simpler to keep information externally.

This might make you think that there is also less need to keep tabs on how data is being used and what factors are impacting performance from moment to moment, when in reality it has never been more important to monitor data.

If you are looking to optimize all things data-related, here are a few handy hints on how to achieve this ASAP.

Choose the right software tools

There are a range of software solutions that are designed to help you overcome such limitations and streamline the way you wrangle storage more efficiently. Monitoring external servers is something you can do manually, although this is both a labor-intensive and technically complex process that will monopolize a lot of your time.

The best tools will not only be able to track the day to day state of play with your remote resources, but also operate effectively across whatever other platforms and server hardware setups you run.

For example, this tool is suited to monitoring SQL Server ecosystems to help troubleshoot issues, minimize costly downtime and ideally allow you to drive down the overall expenses generated by your infrastructure.

Schedule monitoring sessions

It is one thing to put the tools in place to monitor data in external servers, but unless you actively make use of them, your investment will be going to waste.

Modern software should provide automated alerts to draw your attention to complications that arise and are in need of your input, which is clearly a positive feature. However, you should also get used to performing regular proactive monitoring and maintenance, as this will get you in the habit of pinpointing small issues before they get bigger, and also help you to develop better overall administrative skills in a server context.

Consider all the possibilities

When you are monitoring data that is stored externally, it can be tempting to focus in on a handful of diagnoses when troubles with performance occur, or simply to blame any third parties that are responsible for providing some aspect of the service.

Unfortunately there are always a lot of aspects to consider and so you need to be prepared to expand your monitoring gaze as wide as possible to catch the culprits.

In short, you need to consider how resources are being used and what part they have to play in giving you access to data, not just within the server infrastructure itself, but also at every point on the journey from the server to the device that is using the data.

Everything from storage capacity, memory availability and CPU core count to network latency, traffic and security measures can determine how quickly data gets from A to B, so the best administrators will not jump to conclusions and instead use all of the monitoring capabilities at their disposal to unpick issues.