Spring Cleaning Tips For The Office

When you think about it, you spend more time at your office than in your own home, not counting sleeping hours of course. Consequently, the atmosphere of your office, whether it be neat or disorganized, will greatly affect you and your employees in a myriad of ways. Therefore, learning how to keep your office clean is important. Before getting to the cleaning tips, though, let's look at why a clean office is imperative.

A Disorganized/Dirty Office Is:

• Unprofessional: If your office is cluttered, dusty, or generally disorganized, you will instantly appear less professional to clients/customers. You might say, "I'm too busy working to clean up after myself." Well, consider the appearance of your office as you would your own. Would you come to work in your bathrobe simply because it took more time to get dressed?


• Less Productive: Running a successful business is all about productivity. Getting things accomplished is the end goal. If you spend an hour looking for a particular folder under piles of other files and perhaps old take-out cups, is that a productive way to do business? Of course, it isn't. By not having a place for everything and keeping everything in its place you are actually wasting billable hours.


• Can Make You Sick: A dusty, dirty office can also cause sickness in a person who has a sensitivity to dust or allergens. Therefore, as a business owner, you might lose a part of your team to sickness simply because your work environment isn't healthy. This reduces productivity simply by cutting down manpower.

Spring Cleaning Tips

Benjamin Disraeli, an author who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 1800s, said the following about the importance of and commitment to cleanliness in all aspects of life:

"Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them."

This quote exemplifies the importance of cleanliness perfectly. It also reminds us that cleaning isn't always instinctual. That's why a checklist of sorts is as worthwhile as a guide on whipping your office into shape this spring.

Primary Focus Areas

There are three basic areas you should focus on when cleaning your office. These include your workspace, your paperwork, and your technology. There are, of course, more areas to think about, such as the floors, bathrooms, and such, but just getting these three basic areas organized will go a long way towards creating a more productive working environment.

1) Organize Your Workspace

This is relatively easy; it just takes time. Simply go through your desk and throw away the trash. It sounds simple, but it's amazing how many people don't do this basic step. Get rid of/recycle old water bottles, carry-out cartons, and drinks. Also, donate or throw away anything you don't use or that doesn't work. Why keep a calculator that doesn't function properly or hang on to a pencil that's too small to write with? Simply getting rid of all the stuff you don't need or use on and around your desk will help immensely.

2) Reduce Paper Work

As you know, paperwork is never ending, and if you don't have a great file/shred system in place, it can really get out of hand. Part of cleaning off your workspace should include going through and shredding documents you no longer need. If you do need to keep something, create an easy-to-follow filing system to get these files off your desk.

3) Clean Your Technology

This tip should be taken literally, as in taking your computer apart and dusting it with the proper tools, as well as metaphorically. Clean the inside of your computer by deleting old emails and archiving those you need to keep.It's also a great time to back up your server if you have one or update old software.

If you commit to putting things away at the end of every day, your office will never get as unorganized as it was. You might have to allow a few days for cleaning, but the increased production, as well as the creation of a more professional workspace, is well worth the time investment.

A City Built 900 Years Ago Can Teach Us a Business Lesson Today

Between the years 800 A.D. and 1130 A.D. something amazing happened in northwestern New Mexico. Without wagons or horses, no metal tools, and before the arrival of Columbus in 1492 or prairie tribes regularly migrated across the plains, a city existed in a place called Chaco Canyon. This small city (and the network of buildings and hubs) created architecture as high as five stories with trade networks stretching down deep into tropical Mexico. It was inhabited year round and included storage, ovens, living quarters, and plenty of protection from the high desert winter (the elevation is above 7,000 feet in most areas). Most amazing, the architecture involved using load-bearing timbers placed with an experienced eye and allowing multiple-level building structures made of three-feet-thick stacked, stone slab. It was not an accident how this ancient city was built and sustained.

Pressing On

The persistence of the ancient Chaco Canyon residents is an even more surprising fact. Many of the timbers and logs involved in the construction of the homes came from far away. The typical plant growth in the area of Chaco is essentially shrub brush and desert flora. There are no trees or forests. Further, the entire Canyon area is surrounded by mesas that are easily five to ten stories high. They are not at an easily climbed elevation out of the Canyon. In fact, the only flat exit out of the Canyon area is to the south, miles away. So how did all the timbers get there in the first place? Persistence. The residents of Chaco walked the timbers from up to 75 miles away from where trees and forest grew. Without horses, wagons, or any easy transportation, the residents of Chaco walked and imported every building material from the outer region fifty to one hundred miles away.

Businesses today are often swamped with offers and promises that the next big technology, motivational program, computer hardware, commercial vehicle, or transportation plan will transform their company and produce huge new market rewards. While there's plenty of sales language involved, the real fuel that helps businesses break through challenges and grow more is pure, old-fashioned persistence. Things are easy when the elements of business are cooperating; what matters is what helps the business sustain itself and continue to succeed when times are tough.

Look Beyond Your Resources

Persistence is a skill that intelligently keeps things going when resistance occurs and requires smart thinking and ingenuity. Managers and leaders are frequently faced with problems and not enough resources; it's rare that a business leader gets to deal with a problem with the ideal amount of resources available. However, persistence shouldn't be confused with being stubborn and banging one's head against a wall needlessly. Persistence is focused but also capable of being redirected to work around an obstacle instead of only through it.

The people of Chaco Canyon are long gone, having stopped building their city by 1130 A.D. likely due to a serious drought and lack of any more resources being available. However, what they did produce for 300 years required consistent dedication in extreme conditions. Business leaders can take a lesson from history in what these early people accomplished. They figured out how to solve a problem and thrive in a desert environment that would otherwise work against them. Managers and company owners have to find a way to get above the weeds when faced with problems and define clear paths. It's not easy, but persistence is what makes the impossible very possible.

What You Need to Know About Facebook's New Mix Modeling Portal

We've written extensively in the past about how when it comes to digital and print marketing, you're not looking at an either/or proposition. Often, businesses of all sizes are finding great success embracing the best of both worlds - reaching out to the customers who are most receptive to print channels via traditional methods and using digital resources when they're most appropriate. We've even written about how you can take the lessons learned online and use them to make your print strategies even stronger.

We're not the only people who share this opinion; it would seem. Facebook has recently launched a mixed marketing portal designed to make it easier than ever for businesses to compare Facebook-based advertisements to television, print, and other types of collateral. While this does mean big things for people using Facebook as an advertising platform, what it means for print marketers is even more interesting.

What Facebook is Doing

The social networking giant's mix modeling portal for marketers is a significant extension of an existing partnership. Over the course of the past few years, Facebook has teamed with Nielsen (the people who tell you how many people watch the Super Bowl each year, among other things), comScore (the people who focus on digital, TV and movie analytics), DoubleVerify (a company that aims to "authenticate the quality of each digital media impression"), and others. This has all been done to provide clear metrics on how far a Facebook ad reaches, how many impressions it gets, its ultimate performance, and more.

For advertisers that rely heavily on Facebook, this means that they now have access to twenty-four different third party measurement partners to track the performance of their ads around the world, see how their ads are comparing against similar ads running in the world of print and more.

For print-based marketers, this also thankfully means that the reverse is true, too.

What This Means For You

Even if you don't heavily advertise on Facebook, this new model is still something to pay close attention to because of the metrics at play. It's another example of the ever-important concept of "pay attention to what is working online and use it to strengthen the foundation of your print campaigns." Thanks to Facebook, this just got a whole lot easier.

By giving advertisers the ability to compare a successful Facebook ad to other elements of their campaign like print, people who DO happen to be heavy print advertisers can essentially come in from the opposite angle and learn just as much. It's all a matter of perspective - the marketing mix modeling portal can be used to look at one of your successful print ads, compare it to ads that are running on Facebook and use that actionable information to feed back into the print campaign to help achieve your desired outcomes.

Print and digital advertising have historically been measured in very different ways, but thanks to Facebook we just took a big leap closer to a uniform standard that can be used in both situations. You can use the Facebook MMM Portal to see how impressions reach and other metrics translate into the real world and back again.

Different By Design: 6 Tips for Adopting The Principles Of Disruption and Improving Your Marketing Strategy

Less than a decade ago, one of the world's largest transport networks was simply an imaginative flicker in the minds of two men trying to hail a taxi on a cold Paris night. After failing to snag a car, the two men came up with an idea of an on-demand taxi service at the touch of a button. What began on a snowy evening in France quickly turned into an app to request luxury sedans in a tiny handful of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. Soon it spread to include different types of rides, package and even food delivery in nearly any city on earth. That app was Uber.

Uber is now one of the world's richest start-ups. Along with other innovative digital companies such as Airbnb, Snapchat, Netflix, and even Buzzfeed, Uber has grasped a powerful disruptive strategy that has brought it financial and scalable success in a short amount of time. Disruptive businesses such as these can pick out and then act on trends before they become a trend, building a niche in a market that many people haven't even discovered yet. Follow these six tips to learn some disruptive strategies that will help to differentiate your business and set it up for future growth.

1) Be technologically savvy
Get to know what is happening in the world of all things digital and tech, even outside of your own industry. Something that can revolutionize your business might come from a spark of something you've noticed in a different market or business type.

2) Be a first adopter
Often successful companies are the first ones to take on changes and innovations and to use them to their advantage. Don't be afraid to step out on your own when trying something new.

3) Rely on sharing
Businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional forms of advertising. Combining your marketing channels to include print, as well as digital sharing and promotion can be the easiest and quickest ways to reach potential customers.

4) Keep up with the competition
Stay aware of what your competitors are doing and be prepared to match their innovations with yours.

5) Interact with customers
Uber and the like are successful for their ability to connect with customers instantly. Listening to your customers helps to gauge demand and enhance the consumer relationship. With the rise of social media, customers are developing increasing expectations for transparency from businesses. Forming a connection with your clients will add to their loyalty and trust of your company. With constant lines of communication open to your customers, you can also respond quicker to real-time changes in the market, safeguarding you from future pitfalls.

6) Track your success
Digital data provides you with the tools and metrics to see how and where your customers are coming to awareness and consideration of your services or products. Understanding and using data effectively can make the difference in building and maintaining new business and answering needs within the market.

How to Combine Your Passion and Profession to Make Your Life Purposeful

You have likely heard the adage, "Choose a profession you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." Although the thought of this has merit, sometimes, if a person's passion isn't something they can easily transform into a money-making endeavor, it can be a little unrealistic. Thankfully, there is more than one way to combine your passion with your profession to create a purposeful life.

Use Your Passion to Generate Income

We all seem to know at least one person who bought a professional camera and began making money by becoming a photographer. Their profession, of course, was combined with their passion for photography and is now generating income. Another good example of this is someone whose passion is music. They have many options when it comes to transforming that into a career. They can become a music teacher at a school, play an instrument in their local orchestra, give private lessons, or even play at places of worship, parties or weddings as a way to produce an income. These are just a few examples of passions perfectly suited for generating income. There are countless others, and we can all agree that "it's a beautiful thing when a career and passion come together." If you have a passion like this, congrats! Unfortunately, not all passions are equally conducive when it comes to generating income. There isn't an obvious way to create a career out of every passion.

What to Do When Your Passion Doesn't Easily Translate to a Profession

Let's consider an example of a passion that would be less than ideal as a career. This could include being passionate about running, biking, or being focused on giving to the homeless, third world countries, or charities. Often, these are hobbies/passions that are practiced alongside a career and don't ever become the career itself. Of course, there are some ways to use these passions to generate income. However, it's not easy to make money working for a charity or by giving to the homeless. It's also hard to get someone to pay you to cycle or run. That doesn't mean you aren't allowed to live out your passion, though. You just might have to get creative with how you go about doing it.

Companies That Have Successfully Combined Their Passion & Profession:

An excellent example of this principle in action is the TOMS Company, which has been in business for going on eleven years. The concept they came up with was revolutionary at the time. When they began, TOMS was virtually the only company doing something like this. (There are more now.) TOMS started by selling shoes and advertising a one-for-one system. Their customers bought a pair of shoes from them, and then TOMS donated a pair to a needy child. Therefore, every customer got to get in on the giving action. Customers loved the product but liked the fact that their purchase helped a child in need even more. Today, TOMS has branched out to sell coffee, bags, and eyewear along with their shoes. As of January 2016, TOMS has given away more than 60 million pairs of shoes. TOMS is an excellent example of how you can combine your passion, in this case, helping children in need, with a profession that began selling shoes in a unique way.

How to Get Started

TOMS showcases an ideal strategy to combine your passion and profession. Of course, you don't have to sell shoes to give back. You can also use the assets you acquire through doing business to give back. The idea isn't to get this perfect. It's to attempt to combine your passion with your profession in some way so that you will live purposefully. Remember, starting somewhere will get you where you want to go quicker than sitting still!

How QR Codes Can Add to the Print Experience: Best Practices You Need to Know

For years, marketers have been looking for better ways to achieve cross-media marketing. In other words, they've been searching for solutions that let them enjoy the benefits of both print and digital channels. Many have turned to QR codes to do precisely that. By including a QR code on a piece of print marketing, you can deliver the same message in the same way, but with a mechanism that varies depending on the preferences of the user.

It's important to understand, however, that "using a QR code" and "using a QR code properly" are NOT the same thing. When done correctly, a QR code can add to the print experience in a number of important ways. If you want to unlock the full benefits of cross-media marketing that you desire, you'll need to keep a few key things in mind.

It All Comes Down to Purpose

QR codes are not a novelty anymore. There was a period just a few short years ago where simply including a QR code on a flyer or even a billboard was enough to get users to stop and take notice. Those days are gone, however, as the technology itself has become yet another ubiquitous part of daily life. Because of this, you can no longer get away with using a QR code just because you want to or just because many of those in your target audience now own smartphones.

If your QR code doesn't serve a purpose, meaning it doesn't add to the user experience you're trying to create, it has no business being a part of your print materials. This emphasis on purpose extends to just about every decision you make in the world of marketing in general. Never take a step simply because you feel like you should, or because a study told you that everyone else is taking it. Take a step because it's the right thing to do for the goal you're trying to accomplish.

QR Codes Are Not an Invitation for Mystery

Along those same lines, don't include a QR code in a piece of print marketing WITHOUT also telling your audience what they stand to gain by pulling their smartphone out of their pocket. Again: a QR code is not some irresistible riddle that users are waiting with baited breath to try to solve. Don't assume someone will scan it just because it's there. If your QR code redirects to a page that allows the user access to an exclusive 40% off coupon, include a call-to-action on the print material itself that says, "Scan Here to Get 40% Off Your Next Order."

Design is Important

If someone tries to scan your QR code and it doesn't immediately work, chances are high they're not going to try again. When designing your print materials, remember that QR codes that are a high contrast against a lighter colored background tend to work correctly more often than not. Keep this in mind when making design choices moving forward.

QR codes are still an excellent way to have your cake and eat it too! You get to enjoy all of the benefits that only print marketing offers, while still embracing digital marketing at the same time. A poorly designed, poorly executed QR code will do a lot more harm than good, which is why it's always important to make choices that help ADD to the print experience instead of accidentally taking away from it.

Are You Measuring Marketing Success Based on these Core Metrics?

The ultimate success of your marketing campaigns comes down to a whole lot more than just how many total sales you've made, or how much revenue you're bringing in each year. Remember, that one small move in one part of your campaign will have a ripple effect that adjusts everything around it. If you want to see how your campaigns are doing, there are a few core metrics you can employ that will tell you exactly that.

Qualified Leads

If you're only measuring the success of your campaign based on the number of leads you're bringing in, you're missing the target but hitting the tree, so to speak. Leads are one thing - qualified leads are something else entirely. Anyone can bring in a lead, but that doesn't mean the lead will ever make a sale. Generally speaking, the most successful campaigns may not bring in a massive number of leads, but they'll have a higher percentage of qualified leads than you'll get from the old "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" method.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Also commonly referred to as CAC, customer acquisition cost is one of those core metrics that will never go out of style. In essence, it tells you how much money you're spending to bring in one new customer. This metric takes into account not only the cost of your campaign materials and distribution, but also things like salaries, overhead, and more. Let's say it costs you $1000 to bring in one new customer. That may not be a lot, but if the average value of each customer is only $800, you have a problem. For the best results, your CAC should always be lower than another important metric, your CLV or "customer lifetime value."

Website Metrics

In 2017, and in the future, the chances are high that regardless of how you're executing your marketing campaign, your website will play a big role in it. As a digital calling card for your business, it will be many people's first point of contact - even if they eventually carry out the rest of their relationship over the phone or in person. Because of this, the two core metrics you'll want to look at to determine how your campaign is doing are "time spent on site" and "bounce rate."

"Time spent on site" will show you how valuable people think your website is. Essentially, it will clue you in on whether people feel that your website has something of value to offer based on the promise they received from your marketing collateral. If "time spent on site" is low, chances are there's a discrepancy between what you say you offer and what you actually do.

Bounce rate is similar - if someone gets to your homepage and leaves a few seconds later, there is a problem somewhere that needs to be corrected as soon as possible.

These are just a few of the core metrics that you can use to judge the overall success of your marketing campaign. Also remember that if you make a change to your marketing efforts, regardless of how big or how small, these numbers should react accordingly. As a result, they can be a great way to track in real-time how well that great new idea you had worked - or how much work is still left to be done, depending on the situation. These are all numbers you need to keep an active eye on moving forward, both in short and long-term intervals.

Three Brothers and Success

In a town with lots of industries and choices of careers, three brothers grew up and began to pursue their paths in work. Based on their father's wisdom and teachings, they all decided they wanted to work in a field that would eventually let them start their own businesses. The oldest became a lawyer. The middle brother became an accountant. The youngest brother, however, didn't want to be an office professional but, instead, enjoyed food, so he became a cook. All three left home, set off to pursue their goals, and wished each other the best.

The Lawyer and the Accountant

The years passed and the lawyer made a lot of money, but he was always miserable and in debt. Everything about his job was about fighting or arguing, and eventually, he lost his own marriage. The lawyer was regularly complaining about his work whenever asked. The middle brother found himself living a life of stress. He chose to be an accountant because he thought it was a safe career path for income, but he found himself always under extreme pressure to complete his work and make sure it was accurate. The stress became so intense the younger brother was regularly sick and became a prime candidate for serious health problems before he was middle-aged.

The Cook

The younger brother focused on what he wanted, learning how to be a cook. Every day in the kitchen was where he wanted to be, so it never felt like work. His enjoyment quickly increased his skills in cooking, and soon he became a head chef. He was doing so well he chose to open up his own restaurant. It wasn't the biggest place, and it wasn't the most expensive. However, the youngest brother loved his job, and that made a difference in his food, his staff, and the experience of his customers.

Which Brother Had the Right Idea?

Essentially, the best place to be as a business or business leader is to love what you do every day. If you're not happy in your work, your market position or your role, you will never be able to manifest your full potential. Happiness and satisfaction are key elements of success, especially for business leadership who look for someone to follow and emulate in their own tasks. Sure, your business can have some immediate success, as in the case of the lawyer brother, but ultimately, the angst and frustration catches up with everything and becomes a psychological burden in the workplace. Don't be that older brother. Find your love and make it come to your career and your path. You will be happier, your productivity will be higher, and staff will follow your lead.