April, 2010 archive
The Advantages of Spending More on Employee Gifts 0
There’s nothing more rewarding for a business owner than the satisfaction of increased productivity among workers. It’s so important that many business owners regularly research and devise new ways to increase employee satisfaction.
Gifts of appreciation do much to increase the satisfaction of workers and also their willingness to do more than is expected of them. Often owners make the mistake of giving out smaller gifts that employees can’t use or that are almost an insult to the amount of work they put in.
It’s better to give out gifts less often and make sure that the gifts employees do receive are useful and flattering to them. One such gift is the beautiful fire pit, which can be placed in the yard of an employee and used to increase relaxation in the evenings, enhance get-togethers, and simply beautify the lawn that they maintain.
This kind of gift goes straight to an employee’s heart. It actually improves the quality of their property, gives them something relaxing to enjoy, and might even put them in a great mood during the evenings and make them happier the next day at work. The end result is that an employee comes into work feeling like they’re appreciated and they want to do the best possible job to live up to the confidence that you have in them.
Fire pits aren’t the only thing that you can give out to employees to show them how much you care. Other gifts are great too: Bottles of wine, DVD players, televisions, or anything that might truly impress them and make them feel obligated to return your gesture with the best possible work they can do.
In the end you’re going to become a business owner with a heart, someone that knows how to be the boss but also knows how to show that they’re willing to reward a good job when it’s performed. It might also make it easier to find employees quickly when someone leaves, because word of mouth will be that you’re a great boss to work for and that there are often unexpected surprise benefits that make life a lot better for the people that work for you.
You can get started right away by researching some of the gifts mentioned, especially the fire pit. It’s the sort of gift that does more than just look good in the yard. It’s used regularly and can constantly remind employees of the type of job expected of them and the things they can earn if they do that job.
How to Turn Sleepless Nights Into Winning Business Proposals and Other Great Ideas 0
It’s three o’clock in the morning and you can’t sleep. Topics buzz in and out of your head; a brilliant solution for a winning business proposal, where to go on an ideal vacation, several ways to save the world, and what was that strange little caterpillar descending a fine filament from a tree ten feet above the garden?
Another thought comes up – and then another – and the first one vanishes because it’s hard to hang on to everything speeding through the synapses. If you’ve ever written a couple of paragraphs or a speech you’re particularly proud of and the computer crashes, you’ll know what I mean. Try and recreate that material. I swear it’ll never be as good as the original.
I tell people all the time to keep a notebook beside the bed just to record those important ideas. But how good are we at actually jotting them down? You don’t want to turn the light on and wake your partner. So you creep out to the kitchen to make a sandwich – and promptly forget the idea.
This trouble-getting-to-sleep routine happens to most of us. My wife and I alternate – when I have a great night’s sleep she’s restless, and vice versa. It gets exacerbated by summer heat, a stuffy room and that late (but delicious) meal now residing uncomfortably in your digestive system.
Because sleep is miles away and your brain is paying no attention to your 8-hour rest regimen, you decide to get up. How long do you stay up? As long as it takes to feel sufficiently tired to go back to bed. Drinking coffee or tea will make it worse so stick to water. (If you’re reading this at 4 am, get some water now.)
Believe it or not, getting up instead of struggling to find sleep can be a great opportunity. This is the time to write a winning proposal. This is the time to get to the core of a comedy routine. If you have some ideas that seem to be percolating nicely, this is the time to pay attention to them because memory is so fickle. Get distracted by food, or something to drink, or late night infomercials is all it takes for a million dollar idea to completely disappear. What’s the solution?
Get up and get down on paper all that buzz generated between midnight and 3 am. How am I going to do this project? What steps must I take in order to move forward with it? When am I going to take enough time off to be with the kids?
And while you’re at it, focus! Stay at your desk or table, don’t play a game or check your e-mail, and don’t think about that warm bed that you couldn’t get to sleep in anyway. Do have a glass of water handy so your writing doesn’t suffer from dehydration. And do as good a job as possible of finishing what you’re doing, or at least have an outline, or key ideas in place so that when you revisit in the full glare of day, what you’ve done makes sense.
Like any medication, there are side effects that the profession never tells you about. You may not recognize anything you’ve written down when morning actually comes. You may scrap what you’ve scribbled in its entirety. On the other hand you may capture some gems that only emerge into the light on a sleepless night – even a winning business proposal.