The 5 Types of Work That Fill Your Day

Illustration: Oscar Ramos Orozco

Hacking work is all the rage these days, along with tips for managing email, taking notes, and running meetings. But, at a higher level, what can we learn from analyzing the different types of work we do and how we allocate our time?

First, let's take a look at the five kinds of work we do every day:


1. Reactionary Work
In the modern age, most of our day is consumed by Reactionary Work, during which we are focused only on responding to messages and requests - emails, text messages, Facebook messages, tweets, voicemails, and the list goes on. You are constantly reacting to what comes into you rather than being proactive in what matters most to you. Reactionary Work is necessary, but you can't let it consume you.

5 Tips for a Truly Social Business

Signs of social business are readily found on the internet today. But when considering social business inside the enterprise, the evidence isn't always as clear.
A social business (referring to the common definition associated with enterprise technology, akin to enterprise 2.0, and not to be confused with the similar label used to describe socially "conscious" and community minded organizations) is one that actively uses and weaves social media technology into many or most aspects of content consumption by the target audience — outside and inside the business.

What is Website Flipping?

If you’re completely new to this concept and have never heard of it before, you may well be wondering: ‘what is site flipping exactly?’ Well, put simply, it’s one of the easiest and most fun ways to earn money on the Internet today. In fact, if you know what you’re doing, we’d go as far as saying that there is no other way to make money online so reliably.
So, let’s use a handy analogy for a moment: think of a website as if it were a hotel.

12 Plus Ways for Freelancers to Focus and Stay on Task

Most freelancers work from home, where they are often bombarded by distractions. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The phone rings. The kids scream and fight.
And if all of this background noise weren’t enough, there’s also the distractions inherent to working online: websurfing, social media, email, online games, and so on.
Does all this sound familiar?
It should. This is just a typical day at the office for many freelancers.

5 Easy Ways to Brighten Your Employee’s Days

With all the responsibilities that come with being a boss, it can be tempting to overlook your role in maintaining your employee's happiness. But some of the best leaders will tell you even small gestures can make a tremendous impact on company morale and, in turn, the success of the business overall. Here is how to manage your employees in a way that lightens their work day.
1. Let them know you appreciate them
The No. 1 employee complaint is that they are under-appreciated for what they do. Not everyone deserves continual praise, but telling people what you like about their work can make them feel better about it.

Mobile Technology Is Changing The Face Of Business Networking – But Not The Psychology Behind It

Bree Verity is the Head of Public and Business Engagement for INTRO Labs, a mobile company creating products that connect people. She says:
Whether it comes to you naturally or not, every entrepreneur knows the value of networking to expand their reach and find people that can help them make their business a better one.

How to Write a Unique Selling Proposition

Four Steps to Help You Identify What Makes Your Business Unique

A unique selling proposition (USP), or unique selling position, is a statement that succinctly outlines how your business, product or service is different from that of your competition. It identifies what makes your business the better choice, and why your target clients should choose you over the competition.
Your USP can be an effective tool that helps you focus your marketing goals, and verify that every piece of marketing collateral you create successfully sets you apart from the competition. Your USP can also be an important part of your branding that makes your business memorable.
This four-step exercise will help you write a unique selling proposition for your company, new product or service.

CRM vs Vertical Marketing Solutions: Which One Is Right For You?

I’ve talked in a previous blog about the changing face of CRM but it’s a topic that I keep coming back to, after all shouldn’t customers be at the heart of all our businesses? When I talk to our customers about the need to manage their stakeholders, whoever they may be, many still believe that a traditional vertical point specific solution best fits their needs. I think that as a result many organisations are missing a trick – and potential revenues.
For me, CRM has an image problem. When CRM solutions initially came onto the market they were primarily aimed at sales and general customer relationship management processes. They were perceived as ideal for companies with a large customer base and came with a price tag to match.

How Advert Scheduling Can Benefit Your Business

When creating an advertising campaign on Google, the scheduling of an advert can be set by going to the 'Edit Campaign Settings' page and adjusting the scheduling settings to best suit the requirements of your business.
If you're just about to launch an advertising campaign, then the obvious scheduling settings should be adjusted so that it runs every hour of the day, 7 days a week. The reason for applying these settings is because you would not have yet established what hours/days provide your campaign with the most conversions."

Μια ορατή πραγματικότητα: Το «εικονικό» σούπερ μάρκετ

Σε παλαιότερο άρθρο μας, είχαμε επισημάνει την αναγκαιότητα των λιανοπωλητών να προσαρμοστούν με έξυπνες λύσεις και νέες στρατηγικές στις ταχέως μεταβαλλόμενες συνήθειες των καταναλωτών και είχαμε παρουσιάσει τη λειτουργία των εικονικών καταστημάτων (Virtual Stores) του Home Plus της Tesco στην Κορέα.
Το παραπάνω μοντέλο επέκτεινε, αρχικά δοκιμαστικά, η ίδια εταιρεία σε συνεργασία με την Samsung σε ένα «εικονικό» σούπερ μάρκετ με εικονικά ράφια. Το σούπερ μάρκετ στήθηκε στη στάση του μετρό Seoulleung στην πρωτεύουσα της Νότιας Κορέας, τη Σεούλ.

Πηγή: TESCO plc

Paycento, Ένα online σύστημα πληρωμών που χρησιμοποιεί το Facebook και το Twitter

Οι δικτυακές πωλήσεις των εφημερίδων, των καλλιτεχνών και άλλων ψηφιακών προϊόντων περιεχομένου μπορούν να μπουν στο σύστημα Paycento που έχει αναπτύξει μία βελγική εταιρεία και φιλοδοξεί να το συνδέσει με διάφορα κοινωνικά δίκτυα για διευκόλυνση του χρήστη στις online πληρωμές. Όλοι θα μπορούν να πληρώνουν το αντίτιμο για ένα μουσικό κομμάτι για παράδειγμα με ένα κλικ, όπως κάνουν like στο Facebook.

How The 80/20 Rule Applies To Your Social Media Strategy

The Pareto Principle, more commonly also known as the 80–20 rule, states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In business for example, 80% of a company’s profits tend to come from 20% of their customers, 80% of sales are made by 20% of the sales staff, and so on. For today’s music artist, this rule of thumb applies in a more indirect way in regards to how they should properly communicate with their audience.

The Business Impact of Customer Experience

I just published Forrester's fourth annual report "The Business Impact of Customer Experience" using updated data from the 2012 Customer Experience Index. Once again the news is good for companies hoping to get a financial boost from their efforts to improve customer experience.
In all of the industries we modeled the revenue benefits of a better customer experience range from $31 million for retailers to around $1.3 billion for hotels and wireless service providers.

What's behind these impressive numbers? It's pretty simple, really.
• Companies with better customer experience have more loyal customers. We've shown through both mathematical correlations and actual company scores that when your customers like the experience you deliver they're more likely to consider you for another purchase and recommend you to others. They're also less likely to switch their business away to a competitor. These improved loyalty scores translate into more actual repeat purchases, more prospects influenced to buy by positive word of mouth, and less revenue lost to churn.

4 Big Business Secrets for Finding New Customers

Let’s face it: most big companies aren't known for being trendsetters. But they are pioneers when it comes to finding new customers. Because large companies operate on such a large scale, mistakes can be very costly. This forces them to carefully choose, refine and innovate to find the best sales techniques. Here are four big business tactics you should put to work.
1. Go mobile
People everywhere have adopted the mobile phone as their device of choice. There are more than 6 billion mobile connections in the world, compared to under 2 billion PCs. Big companies have seen the light and are scrambling to take advantage of mobile’s potential. Small businesses can do the same.

6 Tips for Making a Business Marketing Video

Video grabs people's attention far more quickly and effectively than text or photographs. So why not make a video to market your business? It's not hard. These six tips will help you make a good-looking, effective video.

Start with a script.  If you don't, you'll turn on the camera and find yourself tongue-tied as you try to think of what to say. Unless you're using a teleprompter, bullet points are better than paragraphs.

3 Reasons Why Branding is Critical for Even the Smallest of Businesses

You might think that branding is for the big guys. Sure, it’s fine for P&G and Microsoft but not for you.
Stop and consider this: No matter the business or market—no matter how big or small—there’s one immutable truth: you already have a brand. You created your brand the moment you started your business

Your brand is a reflection of everything you do: the way you talk about your business, the emails you send to prospects and customers, the website you’ve struggled to put up, the content you create, the Tweets you post, the collateral that’s floating around, and the business cards you hand out.
The list is endless.

Με την επιχειρηματική ιδέα "AGROS" συμμετέχει η Ελλάδα στο διαγωνισμό Ε-bootcamp!

Με πολλές ελπίδες και όνειρα για διάκριση θα ταξιδέψει στο Σαν Φρανσίσκο ο Έλληνας Γιώργος Καράμπελας που θα λάβει μέρος στο E-Bootcamp. 10-15 Απριλίου 2012.
O Γιώργος Καράμπελας, δημιουργός της επιχειρηματικής ιδέας "Agros", είπε χαρακτηριστικά στην πρόσφατη επίσκεψή του στο Corallia, το οποίο συνέβαλε καταλυτικά στην όλη προσπάθεια: «Αισθάνομαι το βάρος της πρώτης ελληνικής εκπροσώπησης στο διαγωνισμό Ε-bootcamp. Ελπίζω σε ένα καλό αποτέλεσμα και σε μια άξια εκπροσώπηση. Θα ήθελα να σας ευχαριστήσω για όλη την προσπάθεια που καταβάλλετε και την πρωτοβουλία σας να δώσετε τη δυνατότητα σε Έλληνες φοιτητές να είναι μεταξύ των 100 καλύτερων απ' όλο τον κόσμο, προάγοντας με αυτόν τον τρόπο τη νεανική επιχειρηματικότητα».

E-Bootcamp 2012: The Essential Entrepreneurship Conference

The Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students, in conjunction with Princeton's Business Today, present to you the 2012 edition of Entrepreneurship-Bootcamp. Held at Stanford University, E-Bootcamp is an all-expenses paid trip designed to put the most brilliant minds in the world at the mercy of an elite group of founders, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists who will stop at nothing to turn their ideas into gold.

Οι 5 κλάδοι στην Ελλάδα που αξίζει να επενδύσετε παρά την κρίση!

Επεξεργασία φρούτων και λαχανικών, φάρμακα παρασιτοκτόνα και βότανα, δομικά υλικά, όργανα ακριβείας και ρολόγια, αθλητικά είδη και παιχνίδια. Ο λόγος για τους 5 πιο δυναμικούς τομείς της ελληνικής μεταποίησης, οι οποίοι παρά την κρίση αυξάνουν το μερίδιο στις ξένες αγορές, επεκτείνουν την παραγωγή τους και… προσλαμβάνουν.

Τα στοιχεία σύμφωνα με τον κ. Άγγελο Τσακανίκα, υπεύθυνο Ερευνών του ΙΟΒΕ προέρχονται από μελέτη που πρόσφατα ολοκλήρωσε το ΙΟΒΕ για λογαριασμό της Γενικής Γραμματείας Βιομηχανίας.

Με μία σειρά από μοντέλα ανάλυσης προσδιόρισε τους κλάδους που χαρακτηρίζονται από υψηλή ανταγωνιστικότητα, εξωστρέφεια και ισχυρά συγκριτικά πλεονεκτήματα ανάπτυξης. Δόθηκε έμφαση σε όσους είναι διεθνώς ανταγωνιστικοί ώστε να υπάρχει διέξοδος στην κρίση ζήτησης που αντιμετωπίζει η οικονομία.

Οι κλάδοι, σύμφωνα με τον κ. Τσακανίκα που άντεξαν και έχουν προοπτικές είναι:

ALBA: Το Βαρόμετρο της Αγοράς Εργασίας στην Ελλάδα

Έρευνα διενήργησε το Τμήμα Εφαρμοσμένης Έρευνας & Καινοτομίας του ALBA Graduate Business School με στόχο την καταγραφή των τάσεων που επικρατούν στις διαδικασίες προσέλκυσης και επιλογής στελεχών αλλά και την καταγραφή των προσδοκιών στην Ελλάδα. Η έρευνα διεξάγεται κάθε 6 μήνες.