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Budget-Friendly Ways To Make People Notice Your Business

As a small business or a startup, you are likely to experience some financial set-backs whilst trying to get more people to notice your brand. The constraint placed on your budget only means that you must be strategic in managing the pillars of your presence.

Fortunately, it is not that complicated! 🙂

1. POST ADS FOR FREE

Online Classifieds are a good choice as these are cost-effective, convenient to relay contact, visible to a large-scale of consumers, and the advertisers are able to edit a listing anytime. If you are a promising entrepreneur working on a minimum budget, look for free yet established classifieds such as these:

a. STClassifieds had been a favorite of many Singaporeans since 2007. It allows its users to post an add for free in a wide variety of categories. Furthermore, you can upload up to 10 images so you can really get the best angle of your product.

b. Renowned as Singapore’s Number 1 Free Classifieds Site, Gumtree Singapore is well known for providing good classified services with one of the largest visibility. Their ads let you show the description, photos, date listed, price, condition, address, and your contact information.

2. GET A CATCHY DOMAIN

Once you settled the costs of the products or services that you are planning to sell, you can start creating your own website. Go Daddy sells website domain names for as low as $2.26 per year.

Focus on getting a website domain that represents your business well leave a lasting impact to your target market. For example, you can use “xxx.flowers” instead of “xxx.com” if you are selling beautifully arranged blooms.

3. STAY SOCIAL

Because of the emergence of social media, your marketing must create and showcase a credible online persona for your brand and its products or services. A great online persona will attract more people to the website, boost the brand’s loyal consumers, and increase the number of new consumers.

The efficiency of this social influence is due to the Bandwagon Effect. Bandwagon Effect is a phenomenon that occurs when people do something predominantly because others are doing it. Social media allows the consumers to talk about a brand and its competitors. Using this tool to your advantage can help boost your sales.

4. HOST A GIVEAWAY

A surefire way to make people notice you is to sponsor a giveaway on various social media platforms. In fact, that is one of the early strategies of Money Digest. As much as possible, do this on websites that receive tons of traffic regularly such as Facebook and Instagram.

Get more traffic by incorporating the number of “likes” and “shares” to the mechanics. Also, there are several apps on Facebook that will help you send a message to your followers and help you choose a random winner.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Essential Questions To Ask A Millennial Job-Seeker During Interview

As you are about to enter your workplace, thoughts of how this day will commence circulated your mind. You see a hallway filled with aspiring professionals. Some looked more prepared while others seem to care less. You have one important task today – to conduct the job interviews.

Asking the right questions on a job interview is crucial to the success of hiring the best qualified candidate for the job. With the weight of the company resting your shoulders, you must come up with intelligent interview questions that will cater not only to the older generations of employees but also to the new generation of job-seekers.

Millennials (Gen Y), people born from 1980s-2000s, have a bad rep in recruitment compared to the older generations. You see, more than half of the local bosses in Singapore felt that people from the Gen Y are hardest to recruit because of their unrealistic expectations. These unrealistic expectations are translated thru the irrationality in pay, promotion, and work-life balance.

Personally, I feel that some Millennials pose more importance with self-reliance and self-fulfillment that they forget to be a part of an entire organization.

Regardless of the generation woes, your duty now (as the interviewer) is to pick out the aspirants who will remain loyal to the company as their personal goals are in lined with that of the organization’s. Start by considering these questions:

1. WHAT ARE YOUR CAREER GOALS?

One of my Millennial friends has been jumping from one job to the next because she has no clear idea of what she really wants. She lives for the thrill of the new experiences and worries about the present moment alone. Without a list of career goals, I am pretty sure that she will shift to another job by the end of this year.

There are many Millennials who view their careers much like my friend. This is why it is important for you to gauge whether or not the job-seeker’s career goals match that of the company’s. Remember that having a deeply rooted career goal can motivate a person to fulfill the needs of the job.

2. DO YOU VIEW THIS JOB AS A STEPPING STONE?

To know whether or not the aspirant is there to stay, be forward and ask about his perception about the available position. Is it merely a stepping stone or is he committed to succeed when given the job?

Use your expert judgement when examining their answers.

3. WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS REGARDING THE SALARY?

As the aforementioned survey above stated, there is a high number of Millennial with irrationality in their expectations when it comes to pay. And this tricky question may just prevent that!

By asking this question, you will know if the aspirant has a good grasp of the actual salary based on his qualification and the available position. Also, you will see the true colors of the aspirant (given that he is completely honest). For instance, if he gives you a salary range that is within what you can offer then you can easily negotiate a pay that will satisfy his expectation.

4. WHAT MOTIVATES YOU THE MOST: SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

There is no right or wrong answer to this because a person can either be driven by the determination to succeed or by the fear of failure. You read that correctly! Failure can not only paralyze a person but it can also propel them to work harder. A person may do his best just to prevent failure from happening.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

You just have to figure out what form of motivation do you prefer most when it comes to selecting the best candidate.

Sources: 1 & 2

Cost-Effective Ways To Reward Your Employees

If you want to drive performance, engage employees and drive results…non-cash rewards are the most effective tools in your toolbox.

~Kimberly Abel-Lanier of Maritz Motivation Solutions

Underlying the theories of motivation comes the idea that rewarding your employees in meaningful ways can lead to higher satisfaction. These meaningful rewards are driven by the internal currencies of each individual. For instance, your senior employee may consider flexible hours as more valuable than merit pay.

On that note, here are 6 budget-friendly ways to reward your beloved employees:

1. FLEXIBLE HOURS

One key feature that Singapore employees possess is that most of our time revolve around work. My first job followed a 44-48 hours of work each week (including overtime) similar to how most companies operate. Due to the relatively long and stressful shifting hours at the office, my days off work were precious. After walking away from the office set-up and transitioning to freelancing, I realized that flexibility in time weighs more than any cash incentives I received. Being able to have a flexible timetable gives you the opportunity to do more of what you love.

So if your company works on a fixed schedule, perhaps you can incorporate a flexitime incentive whereby excellent employees can control their working hours for the following month.

2. RECOGNITION AND CERTIFICATE

A simple act of recognition goes a long way. As David Ciccarelli, co-founder of Voices.com, once said: “Something all bosses can do that doesn’t cost anything but means the world to people is recognition for their contributions to the organization.”

You can personally acknowledge the achievements and efforts of your employees thru group memos, writing an email, handing a personal note, or awarding a certificate.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Remember how proud you were in primary school when your teacher proudly bestowed you with a certificate for performing well in class? Replicate those emotions by presenting a special signed certificate to your best employees once a month. The amount of effort you put on the presentation assembly will make it all worth it.

3. EXTRA PAID VACATION DAYS

Without the slightest doubt, having extra paid vacation days are some of the most wonderful rewards an employee can receive. Award your best performing employees with additional vacation days each year by turning it as a friendly competition. For example, the employee that acquires the highest sales on a quarter will receive extra 2 paid vacation days for the year.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

This may increase the productivity, satisfaction, and morale of your team.

Sources: 1 & 2

Welcome To The Wide World Of Freelancing

Aaahh FREELANCING! What started as a theoretical idea became a reality with the launch of “e-lancer” websites such as Guru.com (1998) and Elance.com (1999). Back then, clients from around the world posted jobs that are bound to be completed after a day, a month or a year. The virtually connected e-lancers join together into temporary networks to sell goods and services. Once the network dissolves its e-lance members become independent contractors again.

Apart from its name, freelancing has evolved throughout the years. Freelancers today have the option to work on a full-time or a part-time basis as they are essentially self-employed. With the big players such as UpWork and Freelancer, the world of freelancing is more competitive than ever. A testament to that are the other websites that offer relatively “cheap” labor to a wide variety of global clients. Here are just some of them:

1. CODEABLE

Codeable is unique in every sense as it focuses on the outsourcing services for WordPress. This niche site started back in 2012 and has since grown due to its dedication to hire excellent WordPress developers. These developers are then connected to the clients that are in need of on-demand website support.

2. PROJECT4HIRE

Project4Hire aims to meet the outsourcing needs of small business owners, individual webmasters, and large companies due to its variety of professionals. With hundreds of project categories, it makes it easy to determine jobs that suit your skill sets.

3. TOPTAL

Toptal’s approach to outsourcing is different as only the top 3% of applicants are allowed to be on the site. Toptal is sure to reward your prowess with meaningful projects and fair compensations from renowned clients such as Airbnb and J.P. Morgan.

4. 99 DESIGNS

Originally from Australia, 99 Designs became one of the world’s largest online graphic design marketplaces. They have been connecting designers to customers who are in need of quality yet affordable designs. If you have always been good and passionate at Photoshop or any graphic design tools then 99 Designs is perfect for your skills. Simply enter t-shirt, logo, website, and print design contests to win and earn money.

Image Credits: www.pixabay.com

As you explore freelancing as a viable career option, do not forget the important factors such as time, effort, and cost!

Sources: 1, 2, 3, & 4

Stay Away From Business Jargon If You Want To Be Believable

Business writing and speeches are notorious for its adoration for complicated terminologies.These terminologies belong to a specialized language called business jargon. It is used by the members of companies, corporations, and bureaucracies.

Little do you know that some people consider this specialized language as a serious office pet peeve.

WHY BUSINESS JARGON MASKS REALITY

A collection of business jargon that no longer holds any relation to what is actually being said can be misleading. To perfectly illustrate this, here is a portion of the speech that Ford Australia CEO Robert Graziano gave last 2013:

“To better position the company to compete in a highly fragmented and competitive market, Ford will cease local manufacturing in October 2016. All entitlements are protected for the 1,200 employees whose jobs are affected, and the company will work through the next three years to provide support.”

Did you get that? He said that 1,200 employees were fired from their jobs.

As you can see, business jargon has a way to mask the reality. Jennifer Chatman, management professor at the University of California, even adds that people use it as a substitute for talking clearly about the directions and goals they want to give others. In some cases, it is better when business people adapted a simpler means of communicating.

WHY SIMPLER IS BETTER

Just when you thought that using business jargon (e.g., synergy, drilling down or core competency) can make you sound knowledgeable and believable, science comes in and proves you wrong!

The 2010 study of New York University and a Swiss university showed that using simpler language makes you seem more trustworthy. 2 out of 4 experiments found that statements of the same content were judged as more likely to be true if they were written in concrete language than when they were written in abstract language. For instance, consider these two sentences:

“In Hamburg, one can count the highest number of bridges in Europe.

Hamburg is the European record holder concerning the number of bridges.”

These sentences mean the same thing but when you ask people to rate their “truthfulness”, more people will rate the first one better. This is because it is way simpler. This study coupled with Psychological principles suggest that our minds process simpler statements much faster and we automatically associate fast processing with the truth. Furthermore, when something is easier to visualize and recall, it seems more plausible.

So if you want to come across as honest and direct, stick with the language that is easier to understand and visualize. Use concrete verbs such as lead and award and avoid ambiguous words such as spearhead and incentivize!

Image Credits: www.pixabay.com

Sources: 1, 2, and 3

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