Tips On Helping Empower Your Workforce

Having trouble keeping your workforce motivated, autonomous, and with high morale? The following are some quick tips on how to help empower your workforce!

Make expectations clear. When employees are given a standard with which to measure their success, they are more likely to meet or exceed that standard. Creating smaller goals along the way encourages employees to reflect on their own performances and asses if they are meeting these smaller, more attainable milestones.

Keep your employees accountable. When you properly reprimand or appropriately acknowledge poor performance, you are increasing the accountability in your workforce. You want employees to know that substandard work will not be tolerated. This keeps employees from trying to take advantage of the company and helps encourage employees keep each other on task, as there are consequences.

Give them a say. Ask for your employee’s opinions and encourage frequent feedback on every aspect of their day at work. Find ways to improve and resolve any concerns. This will make your employees feel included and will make them more likely to come to you with issues or suggestions in the future. Having an open line of communication with your employees is imperative to achieving higher levels of success.

Business Cards: Dos and Dont’s

Dos

  • Do always keep enough with you. What’s the point of having them if you don’t hand them out? They are a staple marketing tool of the modern business world.
  • Do include pertinent information like name, contact info, and a website or link to recent work/resume.
  • Do deliver your card confidently with a firm handshake, eye-contact, and a smile.
  • Do think about your line of work and which design would best suit your needs. Consider the type of card as well (horizontal or vertical, glossy and laminated, matte, velvety, etc.). Take care in deciding the details. This will set you apart from your competitors.

Don’ts

  • Don’t use hard-to-read fonts, colors, or designs.
  • Don’t bend, fold, crumple, or stain your cards. They are a reflection of you and your attention to detail, so they must be neat and clean. Consider keeping them in the free travel case The Gallery Collection provides with your order! It will be oh so impressive when you retrieve a fresh card.
  • Don’t crowd your card with too much stuff. Photos, logos, quotes or testimonials, accomplishment highlights, and extra links are all fine additions to your business card . . . but maybe only one or two of them. And absolutely never include outdated or incomplete details. Weigh your options and strive for developing a precise, informative card.
  • Don’t keep putting off ordering your business cards at The Gallery Collection! The Gallery Collection’s high quality, double-sided, customizable business cards will be sure to impress.

3 Card Assortments Everyone Needs

Card assortments are essential for any business or individual to keep at their disposal. Unless you can remember every event and foresee unexpected events, assortment boxes are a must have.

The first one I feel is a must have is the All Occasion Card Assortment box. This box has an assortment of cards for every occasion. There are birthday, anniversary, thank you, get well and congratulations cards in this box. When something unexpected occurs you will have the necessary card to make someone’s day.

The second card assortment box I feel is necessary to keep on hand is one of the Birthday Card Assortment boxes. I feel like every time I turn around I need an unexpected birthday card. Sure I can run to the local card store and spend $5.00 for a card, but why deal with that stress and expense? When I get these assortment boxes the cost per card is less than half that price and the quality is awesome. Plus, I avoid any last minute running around.

As for the last card assortment box, I always make sure I keep a box of Fine Art Note Cards around. This way if it just a simple note to say, “Hi. I’m thinking about you.” you can use one of these. They are an all-purpose option and can be used for business or personal use. Consider these assortment box choices to keep at your disposal.

Working Moms: Parenting Career and Parenting Successfully

How can working moms go about balancing career and parenting successfully? I won’t say it’s easy because who would really believe that anyway, but I will say that it’s completely doable. Like anything else that is successful in your life, you just need a plan of action. Here’s how to get there:

Decide What’s Important
First and foremost, you have to decide what’s important to you. The key word in that last sentence is YOU. There is no one-size-fits-all plan. Determine what your must-haves are and work from there. If breast-feeding your newborn is non-negotiable, make sure that your career somehow gives you the flexibility to do that. I was able to work part-time during the first 6 months after my daughter was born and was able to nurse her at home most of the time while pumping some during work hours. Maybe your must have is that you want to see your children off to school in the morning or need to be home when they come home from school. Whatever it is decide what you absolute need while still keeping in mind that you will need to sacrifice something along the way.

Ask Your Village For Help
It does take a village to raise children so ask your village for help and be sure to offer your help in return.
Exchanging baby-sitting services, rides or any other parenting duties is a great way to fit it all in. Perhaps you can call on a stay-at-home mom to drop your children off at karate in the afternoon and you’ll do the pick-up in the evening. Be careful to not abuse your friends and contribute when you are able to. If you have older children, get them involved in helping. Depending on their age, they should be able to take care of themselves and some household duties so it doesn’t all fall on you. It helps your children have a sense of responsibility and helps you out in the process. My children started doing their own laundry (from start to finish if you get my drift) at age 10 along with other daily and weekly chores. If you have a life partner, ask for their assistance if possible. Get your co-workers and boss on board to. Explain to them how important your family is and how they might be able to help you achieve the balance you are seeking. Many companies now offer flexible schedules, job sharing, work-from-home options and other perks that can make it easier for you.

It’s Okay to Say No
One of the things that has helped me the most as far as balancing career and parenting successfully is accepting that sometimes the answer is no. If I really can’t fit something in at work or at home, I am honest and say no (nicely.) I no longer do things out of obligation. For example, fundraisers are abundant once children get to be school age. After stressing myself out selling stuff because I felt obligated, I decided I would ask if I could just write a check to make a “donation” which would result in the same amount of money going to the school. It really made my life easier in so many ways. Figure out which things you can easily so no to that would help lighten your load. Sometimes you have to get creative.

The important thing to remember in all of this is that you need to take time for yourself and time with your children. Granted you may not want your career to suffer but your children are only children once and trust me, the time flies by.

11th Annual Create a Greeting Card Scholarship Contest – Round 7 Winners Announced!

Congratulations to our Round 7 Winners!