by Anne Clark | Jul 1, 2019 | Business
Being a business owner and operating my business remotely, here are some of the tools (hardware and software) I use to enable me to have the flexibility.
My hardware is basically my laptop, mobile phone, internet connect (I have my home internet when working at home, and I have a mobile wi-fi for working elsewhere).
My software programs are;
Dropbox, stores all my files and I can access them from any location. I can also share folders and files with clients or project teams.
Hootesuite, I use to schedule and monitor my social media accounts such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+. I schxaedule my content for Facebook directly onto Facebook.
Bulkly is a service that connects to your Buffer account. The neat thing about Bulkly is that it will automatically add and recycle your social media updates back into your Buffer account. This means no more manually adding content into your Buffer queue. It’s a real time saver!
Asana, I use to manage my workload and client projects. Asana allows me to invite people into various projects, or clients and I to manage our workload.
Canva & PicMonkey, I use to create social media posts for clients. Additionally, I have a paid cloud based Adobe account for Photoshop which I use a lot to create my blog and social media images. Along with Adobe Acrobat to create fillable PDF files and edit PDF files, which I do for clients.
Skype, allows me to liaise with clients face to face, or voice only. And it’s free.
LastPass, I use to store all clients and my passwords, so I only have to use one password to get into my LastPass account. It also enables clients to share their passwords with me, without actually giving me the password itself.
Xero, I have just started using Xero for my accounts, having previously used Freshbooks. Both are cloud based, so I can managed and invoice clients.
Most of these programs are either free, offer a trial period or are well priced.
Do you have any favourite programs you love using?
by Anne Clark | Jun 14, 2018 | Business
For those of us who have worked in the corporate world, we have all heard phrases like ‘Only Yes people get promotions’, ‘No people are difficult employees and will never go anywhere’, ‘They’re a Yes person’, or ‘another YES person got promoted’.
Well, I think management, leaders and those looking down, need to STOP and pay attention.
Stop promoting your YES people, and take a second look at your WHY people.
They are the ones you’re classing as saying ‘No’. But in fact, most aren’t saying no, most are just asking more questions because they’re actually committed, passionate and thinking of your companies overall objective.
As a coach, I often hear amazing clients say they’re not consider for promotions in their career path because they ask too many questions, or they aren’t ‘yes’ people.
My questions to you leaders;
- Wouldn’t you rather the employee that thinks outside the box and asks ALL the questions, to aid your business in avoiding potential issues such as recalls, bad publicity, financial backlash?
- Wouldn’t you rather the employee that is confident to step up and ask those questions, when others are afraid to? (hence they said exactly what you want regardless of the results)
- Wouldn’t you rather the employee that has your back as a leader to ensure the product service and quality are being upheld to deliver under your command the best results for the business?
- For all the people who are around you saying Yes, if you were honest with yourself, how many of them do you truly trust?
Having an employee willing to put themselves out there and ask those questions everyone is afraid to ask will in the long-term benefit the business.
Remember, when things go wrong the blame goes straight to the leader, not the yes people. At least your ‘no’ employees will have done everything possible to help and support you.
Facts about YES people
Yes people often in an effort to please all and avoid confrontation, simply say yes. Often it’s yes without thinking things through.
Yes people react without forethought for any other commitments or over-comitments, along without taking the time to review all facts.
Yes people are likely to be resentful employees. Especially when all those ‘yes’ don’t work to their favour.
Facts about WHY (also labeled ‘no’) people
Why people always look outside the box at the bigger picture.
Why people play attention to details, often flag things that others have neglected.
Why people are often the ones that companies can’t afford to loose because their emotional intelligence is far beyond the capabilities of Yes people. However Why people are the ones often overlooked for promotions or recognition for their work. Why people are often the ones work are dedicated and work extremely hard for a company.
Why people are loyal people.
What are your next steps as a leader?
A smart leader recognises capabilities and assets to an organisation. They will take their personal emotions out of their decisions, and choose the right people for the roles. Why employees will benefit not only the organisation but you, as leaders. Creating the best team of ‘outside the box’ thinkers leads to great wins for all.
Try this exercise. Look at all your employees, if you could honestly look at each employee, regardless of whether they’re tagged as a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ person, who stands out that would truly benefit the organisation long term? Why do they stand out? Skills? Knowledge? Abilities?
Now how many of those have you falsely label ‘No’ people.
Going forward remove the label ‘No’ from these people, they are simply your Why people.
They only even want to understand ALL aspect of any processes before a decision is made, so that the right decision is made.
Why people are your people.
by Anne Clark | May 18, 2017 | Business, Mailchimp
Want to earn some email credits on your MailChimp account? MailChimp has a rewards called MonkeyRewards. Here are is How to earn rewards with your MailChimp account;
Newsletter Campaigns
You will have seen at the bottom of some emails, the MailChimp logo. You can set up your account to activate this as a rewards icon.
MailChimp explains the MonkeyRewards as follows
“MonkeyRewards let you earn email credits for referring new paying customers to MailChimp. You can select the default design of your badge and also choose different badge designs for your signup forms and email campaigns. If you have a Monthly or Pay As You Go account, you can remove the badge from individual campaigns or forms, or you can disable the MonkeyRewards badge for the whole account.”
To set your MailChimp badget as a default you need to do the following steps:
- Click the profile name to open the Account Panel, and select Account.
- Click the Extras drop-down menu and select Rewards.
- Make sure the Show badge in campaigns box is checked.
- Under the Select your MonkeyRewards badges heading, click the Change link to choose a badge.
- Click the badge you want to use and the screen will refresh, leaving the new badge visible on the page.
Your Email Campaign Badge
Wherever the *|REWARDS|* appears in your email campaign, we replace it with the default MonkeyRewards badge that is selected in your Rewards settings. The default footers in Basic and Themes templates already have this merge tag included.
If you’d like to change how the badge appears on a specific campaign, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the Design step of the Campaign Builder.
- Select the Design option on the right side of the page.
- Click the MonkeyRewards
- Select the badge you want.
- Click the Save & Close button to apply the changes.
If you’d rather use a text link in your email campaigns or add MonkeyRewards on your site, follow the instructions below to grab a text or image link that you can use.
- Click your profile name to open the Account Panel, and click Account.
- Click the Extras drop-down menu and choose Rewards.
- Under the Link embed code, copy the Text link or Image link information and right-click to paste it into your website.
You do have the option to remove this off your campaigns or disable it all together.
