Archive for the ‘10 Quick Tips’ Category

Building B2B Relationships can be hard; especially when you’re new to the company you’re working for. Not only are you trying to stay friendly with your co-workers, but dealing with potential customers and suppliers can be just as complicated. To follow are some quick ideas to keep things friendly.

1. Keep Notes. When you’re first starting out it can be hard to keep track of the people you deal with on a day to day basis, and nothing is more embarrassing than forgetting someone’s name. To keep yourself on track, keep a record of the people you deal with. The best way is to keep a brief company profile, and include in it information about each employee you’re dealing with. Brian works at Company A, and his hobbies include fishing, biking, and camping. Not only will this keep you on track, it will give you something to talk about to keep things friendly! If you’re really forgetful, or deal with numerous people from a company, include physical descriptions of the people you’ve met.
2. Be interested in their business. A big part of understanding your business is understanding your client’s business. Without the grasping your client’s business, you won’t know what you have to offer them!
3. Stay in Contact. It’s important to keep in touch with everyone you deal with. Whether it is simply answering e-mails or phone calls, be sure to keep on top of your communication!
4. Pay Attention. Keep track of what’s going on with your customers, and you’ll find they appreciate your opinion and thoughts much more. It’s important to keep track of progress your customers are making with their business, and well as anything exciting that’s going on with them at home. This is key in keeping a business relationship strong.
5. Keep it upbeat. No matter what you’re dealing with at home, you shouldn’t be spreading gloom and doom to your customers. Everybody has issues, and dealing with someone who can’t keep their emotions in check can be discouraging. Do you really want someone keeping your books when they can’t seem to keep track of themselves?
6. NEVER Criticize. No matter what’s going on with your clients, you should not be gossiping about it to other clients. Gossip can spread literally in seconds, and it really benefits no one. The detriment that gossip causes will not only affect the person you talked about, but also the person you said it to!
7. Be honest. Honesty is a major factor in any relationship, and lying always ends up coming out somehow later on. Being honest with your client not only shows your integrity, it also shows that you value this client as a person, and aren’t only thinking about the sell. It’s people that show their integrity first that I would rather deal with than someone trying to pull the wool over my eyes.
8. Follow Up. Few people realize the importance of a follow up call or e-mail. Something so simple can have a major effect on the outcome of a B2B relationship. Follow up contact shows that you are still there to support the client after making a sale.
9. Stay on top of networking. Believe it or not, staying active in the social community is an important part of staying active in the business world. Networking meetings, seminars, and other group sessions are a good way to meet new people, and reconnect with other people. If social events aren’t quite your thing, another good way to stay involved is to remain active in the virtual networking world. Websites like LinkedIn can keep coworkers, suppliers and customers all in contact, without as much face to face time as attending social events.
10. Offer Networking Help. If you find a client looking for specific assistance with something, considering if you have a client in that field. Connecting your clients can show your dedication to your employees, because not only are you solving a problem, you’re creating more work for your other client, benefiting everyone in the end.

Whether we choose to admit it or not, people are easily distracted. Often something pops into our head and completely redirects our focus. I personally can become distracted mid-sentence by remembering something I forgot to do the night before. Since it is so easy to be distracted, here are some tips to keep you focused at your desk.

1. Write a “To Do” List. Everyday after booting up the computer and checking my e-mail, the first thing I do is write two “to do” lists. The first one is everything I can think of that needs to be completed. I then rewrite my list according to the priority of each job. Not only does this help me to keep myself on track for the day, but I can also plan the next few days work-wise.
2. Keep a Pen & Paper Handy. If you’re likely to get distracted easily, keep a pen & paper around. That way you can write down any thoughts that come to you during the process of the day, and review them later. You’ll never forget anything!
3. Don’t Procrastinate. Everybody has a part of their job that they hate. While it may seem easier to leave that job you dislike to the end of the day, completing the job it earlier will keep you productive, as you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment after finishing it. It will also prevent you from dragging simple tasks out just to avoid the one you dislike.
4. Prioritize/Organize. At the end of each day, spend a few minutes re-organizing and preparing yourself for the following day. I personally make sure all of my paperwork is filed in the correct places, and then review my “to do” list to ensure that nothing’s priority has changed.
5. Time Yourself. When completing routine tasks, record how long it takes you. This will keep you aware of how much you’ve actually completed in a day, and it will also help you to learn your most productive times of the day.
6. Block Distractions. When sitting at a computer all day, you’re likely to check your e-mail several times, and want to do things like play games or read online articles. To help resist temptation, only keep your internet browser open when in use. If you still find yourself clicking away from your work, you can use a “blockout” program to keep you focused. These programs provide you with a completely blank screen, so you can work without things in the background.
7. Drink Water. Sitting in the same place for an entire day can leave you bored and dreary. If you start to feel drowsy, reach for water instead of caffeinated products. While caffeinated products provide you a temporary wake up, they dehydrate you and can often leave you more tired than you previously were. If water is a little too plain for you, try flavoured or vitamin water.
8. Music. While block distractions can mean limiting yourself, leaving nothing to keep you entertained can cause more harm than good. Keeping background music at a low volume can help you to block out the cougher in the cubicle next to you, and keep you focused. I listen to my MP3 player during work, and find myself tapping my foot without even being consciously aware of the song because I’m so focused on what I’m doing.
9. Sleep! Getting enough sleep is very important, and is part of what keeps you going. Without enough sleep, not only are you tired, but you’ll be in a poor mood, and more likely to get distracted to try and make yourself feel better.
10. Exercise. I personally felt that I didn’t have enough time to fit a workout plan into my lifestyle. I was always too busy or tired to hit the gym after work. After forcing myself to exercise after work two or three times a week for a few months, I’ve noticed my energy levels actually increased. I wake up feeling refreshed and can spend more time doing things at work and home than when I spent my gym time at home.

Productivity is a constant issue in today’s society. With the technological advances of past years, the demand for increased productivity has become very great. Improve your productivity can be simple, by following these ten quick tips.

1. Track your productivity, and note increases and decreases. Many factors can affect the productivity of a warehouse. Anything from weather to the day of the week can affect your productivity. If you keep track and note changes in productivity, you may learn effective methods to keep your employees productive.
2. Keep Areas Clean. A common problem for people is that their area is too cluttered. This means that employees waste countless minutes each day looking for something within their workspace. Allowing employees 5-10 minutes at the beginning or end of their shift will allow them to set up and organize everything to their liking for work.
3. Maintain Accurate Records. A major problem for manufacturers is their inventory. If a manufacturer runs out of a specific material, they may have to wait days for their supplier to restock. This wastes time and brings production to a screeching halt. Keeping your inventory records up to date will prevent running out of any necessary supplies to keep day to day operations productive.
4. Maintain Equipment. Another major issue for manufacturers is equipment. If a machine is not properly cared for, the likelihood of it breaking down and requiring intensive repairs is much greater. Maintaining equipment can also extend the life of your machines, saving your hard-earned money.
5. Optimize Layout & Space Consumption. One of the biggest inefficiencies is the location of materials and tools. If a material is in one corner of the plant, and the tool to work on such material is in the other, employees are wasting precious time wandering around the plant floor. This also increases the chances of them being distracted and wasting time chatting with other employees.
6. Automate When Possible. While some people worry that this eliminates jobs, automation can actually make the employee’s job easier, and overall increase productivity. Automation also reduces the risk for human error, resulting in more shelf-ready product.
7. Keep Morale High. This concept seems simple. If your employees are happy, they will be more likely to work harder. However, determining what increases morale can be hard. When reviewing the productivity records you have been tracking, note any positive changes in morale, and try and duplicate them. On a nice day, let employees out fifteen minutes early. This keeps the employees happy and speedy, which will increase your overall productivity by leaps and bounds.
8. Optimize Labelling/Paperwork. Employees need to know specific information about products and equipment. However, if they have to look at several pages to retrieve all the information they require, this can be time consuming, and confuse the employee. Try to optimize all the information they need so that it fits on one page. That way employees can carry the page with them and check it for reference whenever required.
9. Remember Training is a Priority. While training can be costly, showing an employee where you keep specific items they require will help them to work more efficiently. Learning where an item is the first time they are in the location will help them remember, rather than having to go and find it themselves.
10. Communicate with your employees. Communication is key between an employer and their employees. Not only will this help to keep morale high, employees may notice things you don’t. While you may think that a machine is efficient in it’s current location, your employees may note that it would be easier for them if it were situated somewhere else.

Communication in the workplace is vital, and with the dependence we all have on e-mail, and other means of digital communication, it seems that communication on the whole is getting more and more difficult. Here are 10 tips to help maintain a good level of communication for you and your co-workers in the workplace.

1. Remember that NOTHING replaces face-to-face communication. When possible, talk to the person face-to-face instead of sending a quick e-mail or calling on the phone. You could miss so much of what the other person in the conversation wants to relate if you only get the words but miss the body language and voice inflection. This is especially important when there is sensitive material to be covered in the conversation.
2. Avoid using instant messaging clients to talk to people in the office. Instant messaging can sometimes take a lot more time than speaking with someone over the phone or face to face, and there is a lot more chance for misrepresentation and misunderstanding.
3. Respond to facts, don’t react. Reacting emotionally to something is an automatic first response to a lot of people. By thinking about what is being said and what it means, and then thoughtfully crafting a response will get better results than immediately lashing out.
4. Learn to listen to the other person in the conversation. Many people hear, but they don’t actually listen. Pay attention to what the other person is saying, instead of just thinking about what you are going to say next.
5. Remember that e-mail is just the words a person is saying. This related to point #1. It’s easier to misunderstand what a person is saying if you’re just going by the words, and not getting the meaning behind them.
6. Remember common ground. In difficult conversations where you don’t agree with what the other people involved are saying, focus on what common ground you do have. This will help prevent the conversation turning into an argument, and will be (in the long run) much more effective.
7. Use language that is easy to understand. Obscure, big words may make you feel smart, but it may also alienate the person that you are trying to communicate with. That doesn’t mean that you should dumb down your language completely so that it comes across that you are condescending to the other people involved, but speak on the same level that they are speaking.
8. Don’t use industry slang. This goes along with point #7. If you’re speaking to someone who doesn’t know as much about what is going on in your industry, you want to use terms that they will understand – sticking with layman’s terms is probably the best way to get effective communication going.
9. Don’t be afraid to talk about failure, or about mistakes. But at the same time, don’t blame others for mistakes that you’ve made. This will create an open atmosphere and let others know that mistakes WILL be made, and it’s not going to be the end of the world when they do happen.
10. Remember – quality is always better than quantity. A good meeting where the right things get discussed to convey the right information is a lot more effective than many meetings where nothing substantial is ever covered.

Workplace safety should be a top priority for all businesses. Not only do you want to protect your employees from injuries, but it can also be quite expensive for compensation towards any injured parties. There are some simple ways that you can help to make your workplace safer.

1. Keep all work areas clean. Whether you work at a desk, or on the line, a clean workspace is the easiest way to prevent a lot of injuries.
2. Make sure that all machinery has been installed correctly, and that it is in proper working condition. Both installing equipment improperly and missing a maintenance on the machine may cause mechanical problems that could have been easily avoided.
3. Label all products and materials correctly. Know the products you are working with, and know what could be hazardous to mix with these products. Keep compounds that react badly to each other away from each other.
4. Install fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Also, have fire extinguishers on hand if there is ever a need to use one.
5. Make sure you have an alarm system installed on your facility. This is an easy way to prevent break-ins. If possible, also include security cameras.
6. Give clear instructions to all employees. This will allow all employees the knowledge of how to do things properly and safely.
7. Consider forming a safety committee. This committee should be responsible for keeping an eye open for any potential dangerous situations. The committee would also be responsible for making processes and equipment safer.
8. Use proper signage to inform employees of any potential dangerous places and activities. This could range through everything from signs to indicate a wet floor to signs that indicate hazardous materials.
9. Enforce safety procedures and requirements. Safety regulations such as wearing safety glasses or work boots can do a lot to prevent injuries.
10. Report any and all dangerous situations to your superior or supervisor. If you ever see a potential dangerous situation that is about to happen, let the right people know.