Managing a Multiple Location Company

A sign of growth and success, becoming a multi-office company represents a significant outlay in finances, manpower and a general commitment to driving towards a higher level of achievement. Like a new baby, a new office in so many ways seems deserving of all of your time. But at the very same moment, there is your existing office, like an older child, whose need for attention has not diminished.

Share and share alike

The key to multiple location management is to ensure that information is shared across the entire company simultaneously. It means that no one is behind on important information and also creates a sense of community. Technology can help as it allows immediate, widespread communication.

Leadership team is your greatest asset

Digital communication is not always the correct method through which to communicate with employees. Employing an excellent senior management team to undertake communication on the company’s behalf is equally important to successfully managing multi-office operations.

Timing is everything

However much you trust your leadership team, it is essential to maintain a top level presence across all offices and be a recognisable face to all employees. One must try to prioritise visits according to size, maintaining a high level of inclusion in digital communications to show staff they are all highly valued.

Integrate wherever possible

Cross office collaboration is highly advised: it is important to develop a wider understanding of the business and it is healthy to work with a number of different people. It is also very conducive to caring about the business beyond the four walls seen every day.

Do not be afraid to try something new

Always try new things and commit to change for multi-site businesses trying to achieve equilibrium. What suits one business may not suit another. Be prepared to innovate to find out what works for you.

It can seem like a lot of hard work, but splitting your time between offices and building a system of sharing information is of crucial importance to the overall long-term success of your business. — The Guardian

Using Social Media to Boost Professional Profile

Whether you’re actively job seeking or not, building your professional profile using social media will extend your professional reach beyond your immediate circle. This could increase the potential career opportunities coming your way.

Social media is the term used for an online platform such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any other community discussion board, where individuals can post information, exchange ideas and comment. Here are some of the key social media components that you should consider as part of your career management strategy:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is relevant for all professionals, regardless of whether you work in business, the public sector, charities or the media. Even if your industry tends to recruit using job boards or personal recommendations, LinkedIn provides an easy way to keep in touch with your network and publish your expertise.

• Describe yourself on LinkedIn in a way that’s relevant to kind of role you’re looking for next, rather than just reflecting where you’ve been. Focus on achievements — don’t just list factual information about dates and duties.

• Use relevant terminology and keywords so that when recruiters or potential employers search these terms, they’ll find you.

• Your profile is in the public domain so all factual information must be accurate. Prospective employers will check for discrepancies between your CV and LinkedIn profile.

• Include a photo but make sure that it is business appropriate.

• Personal recommendations add credibility so ask your contacts — including manager and customers — to write about your capabilities.

• Include any other materials that illustrate your skills and achievements, such as videos, PowerPoint presentations, creative portfolios, links to your website, articles and blogs. This is useful for creative professionals.

• Build your connections online so that you can swap information, ideas and updates. If you’re interested in a particular company, search through LinkedIn to see if you know anyone working there who can make an introduction for you.

• Use activity updates to remind people about you and what you offer. For instance, share news about any business successes, events or feedback. You can also send out comments or questions on topics to encourage a dialogue with people in your network.

• Join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to you and participate in discussions where you feel you can add a useful perspective and/or want to engage with users. Recruiters, employers and managers will be members of these groups so this will help increase your visibility.

Twitter

Use Twitter to interact with people or organisations you find interesting or useful. Twitter is more informal than LinkedIn but it’s still a great opportunity to promote yourself to potential employers and business contacts.

• As with LinkedIn, you can use Twitter as part of a personal PR campaign to remind people of your expertise, share successes and encourage people to look at your online CV or website.

• You can follow companies or individuals that you’d like to work for and send them messages to start a dialogue.

• Increasing numbers of jobs are posted via Twitter. You can apply to these directly or by following the link provided.

• You can have multiple Twitter accounts but reserve a professionally-oriented one for career purposes. All tweets are public so if you don’t want your personal tweets to be read by a prospective employer then use a pseudonym, and be careful about what you send into cyberspace.

Facebook

This is increasingly being used by organisations to communicate with staff, customers and the wider public. Some companies are also using it to recruit and vet potential candidates. On Facebook, the boundaries between the personal and the professional can be very blurred, so make sure of what information about you can accessed and by whom.

• Use Facebook to tell your friends and family exactly what you do for a living and ask them for information and advice about your career or job search.

• Company pages on Facebook tend to be a great information resource for news, features and asking questions. Use this to find out more about companies you are interested in.

Other social media sites

Many professional institutes, educational establishments and media organisations provide an array of online communities for niche audiences to exchange information, advice and opinions. You can also use YouTube to upload video content or produce a blog to share your commentary on hot topics.

Keep an eye on developments as this is a very fast-moving area and new social media applications, such as Google+, are likely to grow in importance. — The Guardian

Speak Your Heart

That night was my big chance and all I did was just sit there…

It all started when I was 16 years old. While I was playing outside, I met a boy. He was a boy who teased you and then you chased them and beat them up. After that first meeting in which I beat him up we kept on meeting and beating each other up at the fence.

We would meet at the fence all the time and we were always together. I would tell him all my secrets. He was very listen to what I had to say.

In school we had separate friends, but when we got home we would always talk about what happened in school. One day I said to him that guy I liked hurt me and broke my heart. He just comforted me and said everything would be okay. He gave me words of encouragement and helped me get over him.

I was happy and thought of him as a real friend. But I knew that there was something else about him that I liked. I thought of it was just a friend kind of thing that I was feeling.

All through high school and even through graduation we were always together and of course I thought of it as being friends. But I knew deep inside that I really felt differently. On graduation night even though we had different dates to the prom, I wanted to be with him.

That night after everybody went home I went to his house. That night was my big chance and all I did was just sit there with him watching the stars and talking about what I was going to do and what he was going to do. I looked into his eyes and listened to him talk about what his dream. How he wanted to get married and settle down. He said how he wanted to be rich and successful. All I could do was to tell him my dream and cuddle him.

I went home hurt because I didn’t tell him so bad that I loved him but I was too scared and frightened. I let my feelings go and told myself that someday I would tell him just how I felt.

All through college I wanted to tell him but he always had someone with him. After graduation he got a job in New York; I was happy for him but at the same time I was sad also because I didn’t tell him how I felt. So I just kept it to myself and watched him go on the plane. I cried as I hugged him for what I felt was going to be the last time.

Well, I got a job as a secretary and then worked my way to a computer analyst. One day I got a letter with an invitation to a wedding. It was from him; I was happy and sad at the same time. Now I knew that I could never be with him and that we could only be friends.

I went to the wedding the next month. It was a big occasion. It was a big church wedding with the reception at a hotel. I met the bride and of course I talked to him too. I fell in love one more time. But I held back so it wouldn’t spoil what should be the happiest day in his life.

I tried to have fun that night but it was killing me inside watching him being so happy and me trying to be happy covering up my sadness tears inside of me. Before I left on the flight, he came running out of nowhere and said his good-byes and how he was very happy to see me.

I came home and just tried to forget everything. I had to go on with my life. As the years went on, we wrote to each other on what was going on and how he had missed talking to me.

On one occasion he never wrote back to me at all. I was getting worried as to why he hadn’t written anything for a long time. Well, just when everything seemed hopeless and sad in my life, I got a note that said: “Meet me at the fence where we used to talk about things.”

I went and saw him there. I was happy to see him, but he was broken-hearted and sad inside. We hugged until we couldn’t breathe anymore. Then he told me about the divorce and why he hadn’t written for a long time. He cried until he couldn’t cry anymore. Finally, we went back to the house and talked and laughed about what I had been doing and to catch up on old times. But I felt about him.

In the days that followed, we had fun and forgot about all his problem and his divorce. I fell in love again with him. When it came time to leave, I went to see him off and cried. I hated to see him leave. He promised to see me every time he could get a vacation. I couldn’t wait for him to come so I could be with him. We would always have fun when we were together.

One day he didn’t show up like he said he would. I figured that he might have been busy. The days turned into months and just forgot about it. Then I got a call one day from a lawyer in New York. The lawyer said that he had died in a car accident going to the airport, and that it took this long till everything was settled.

It broke my heart. Now I knew why he didn’t come that day. I cried that night, cried tears of sadness and heartache. I asked questions: “Why did this happen to a kind guy like him?”

I gathered my things and went to New York for the reading of his will. When the will was read, the one thing that was given to me was a diary.

It was a dairy that of his life. I cried as it was given to me. I didn’t know what to think. Why was this given to me? I took it and flew back. As I flew I remembered the good times that we had together. I started reading the diary and what was written.

The diary was started with the day we first met. I read on till I started to cry. The diary told of him saying that he had fallen in love with me that day I was broken-hearted. But he was too afraid to tell me what he had felt. That is why he was so quiet and liked to listen to me. It told of how he wanted to tell me so many times, but was too afraid to say anything. It told of when he went to New York and fell on love with another. How the happiest time he had was seeing me and dancing with me at the wedding. He said he imagined it was our wedding. How he was always unhappy till he had no choice but to divorce his wife. How the best time in his life was to read the letters written to him by me.

Finally, the diary ended when it said, “today I will tell her I love her”. It was the day he was killed. The day I was going to finally find out what was really in his heart.

So the moral of the story, if you love someone, don’t wait till tomorrow to tell him/her. Maybe the next day will never come at all.

In Search of Purpose

All of us are on some or the other journey of finding the purpose of our essence being. For some, its a beautiful journey, for some difficult, for some a mixed one and for some very very interesting.

Its a common belief that each one of us must have a purpose in life, without which the life becomes hollow or worthless. So when we clearly know our purpose or objective, then we have something to base our decisions on. In order to know our purpose, we need to become more aware of who we are, otherwise how can we live our purpose?

We define ourselves as human (body) beings (soul). The human part we know well, but the soul, the one observing the world from within this body, tends to remain a bit of a secret. Unaware of the soul we wear the mantle of the identity given to us by the outside world, from our family, culture, friends, the environment we are associated with. When all these things are removed though, we are just left with ‘the being’ that is the soul. Just imagine your body becoming light and starts disappearing...

When this confidence about ‘who I am’ is born within us, the mists disappear resulting in a lot of clarity from within. This power of clarity, born from this relationship of love with self, guides us and enables us to live with care, compassion and mercy for humanity. Loving others then becomes inevitable, natural and we will also realise the purpose for which we are here...

Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj ji, the author can be contacted through nikunjji@brahmakumaris.in, www.brahmakumaris.com.

From Blog to Business: 5 Success Stories

From advertisements, sponsorships and brand collaborations to endorsement opportunities and even book deals — the world of blogging has turned hobbies into full-time careers.

Here are five females who have turned their blogs into profitable, fulltime businesses.

See also: 10 Common Blog Writing Mistakes [INFOGRAPHIC]

Jenni Radosevich: I Spy DIY

After college, Jenni Radosevich relocated to New York and landed an internship with InStyle magazine. During her time at the publication, she pitched her editors the idea of a monthly style column and was given a shot at it. This allowed Radosevich and start her blog. During the same year, a publishing company approached her to write a book, I SPY DIY Style and two years later, she had quit her job to focus full-time on blogging. She has been paid through her blog for brand partnership, advertisement, DIY services and more.

“Make sure you find a niche,” she advises. “With a million blogs out there, you really need to differentiate yourself.”

Kathie Wiehanne: BluChic

Starting a blog comes with an expense and sometimes that is creating a beautiful website. When getting started, people either choose to have a customised site or use a pre-made template or theme. BluChic creates WordPress themes and designed-to-match marketing kits.

“It’s my passion to help bloggers have an affordable website that fits in their business niche,” says Wiehanne. She adds that a common hurdle bloggers face is ‘wearing so many hats’, from running the blog, being the writer, editor, photographer, graphic designer and more.

Angle Laws: Concrete Loop

What started as an outlet for personal thoughts and interests has emerged into a top urban entertainment site. Angle Laws created Concrete Loop when she was still a college student.

“My confidence was low and I wanted a place to vent. I also noticed that there were no sites that catered to urban entertainment,” she says.

Describing herself as a ‘broke college student’, Laws used money she earned from her parttime job to help fund to help fund her blog. Two years into it, Rapper and Fashion Designer Kanye West endorsed her site — that recognition placed her on a national stage. Laws advises others to be authentic, create a plan and practice smart money management.

Andi Perullo de Ledesma: My Beautiful Adventures

What began as a way to share her travelling adventures with friends and family has turned into a full-time career for Photojournalist, Andi Perullo. She grew her blog — focused on luxury and adventure travel — into a full-time career within its first year. She says that she was ‘inspired to keep going’ after generating some income and minor-level sponsorship within three months of the launch.

She rarely pays for accommodations when travelling, as most hotels welcome the opportunity for her to review them. In addition to blogging twice a week, Perullo credits social media for growing her online presence, adding, “There is no easier way to draw traffic to your blog than through social media.”

Blair Culwell: Leap Marketing & Design and The Fox and She

Blair Culwell, who has designed over 100 custom blogs, says, “Having a professional design gives you instant credibility, as the web is such a visual medium.”

Culwell originally began blogging in college as part of a school assignment and later continued it as a hobby. As a design professional, Culwell recommends taking a basic class to learn Photoshop or any design programme.

“If you’re looking to take blogging seriously, then invest some money into it,” she says. She advises newbies and those looking to grow their presence to ‘make connections’ and ‘find your niche’. — USA Today

Man in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife,
Whose judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool him in the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass. — Dale Wimbrow

Heart of a Woman

They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up for injustice.
They don’t take “no” for an answer when they believe there is a better solution.

They go without new shoes so their children can have them.
They go to the dictor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel and cheer when friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about a birth or a new marriage.

Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They have sorrow at the loss of a family member, yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all sizes, in all colours and shapes.
They’ll drive, fly, walk, run or email you to show how much they care about you.

The heart of a woman is what makes the world spin!
Women do more than just give birth.
They bring joy and hope.
They give compassion and ideals.
They give moral support to their family and friends.
Women have a lot to say and a lot to give.