What the Best Merchandising Pros Do (and You Should Too)

Retail Store
Most small businesses want to avoid falling into the “me-too” category. They want to do something different and be unique. And that’s understandable. But too many businesses take this sort of thinking so far. They reject things that the market has been doing for years because they work. And instead, they prefer to go their own way. The result is that they end up missing out on sales and profits.

Merchandising is one of those areas where you really don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Doing what the pros do is the best way to succeed and attract shoppers to your small business. And there are certain things that they swear by. Let’s take a look.

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How Can Team Building Activities Help Businesses Grow

Team Building
Many of us have either participated in or led team building activities in our professional career at some point. Some of those activities may have been very straightforward and short such as playing a game of “two truths and a lie” or “find your way out.” Others could be very intense and may have spanned over multiple days such as climbing a peak or going on a long hike. No matter what the duration or type of activity, it is well-known that team building can help improve communication and employee morale, leading to a better business environment overall.

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4 Important Team Building Tips for Small Business

Team Building
Employees are the lifeblood of any business and investing in your workforce will ensure you have the skills to drive your company forward. Team building is an integral part of this, enabling you to ensure employees are working towards the same goals as you and identify areas for improvement. However, in the commotion of a typical working day, training staff can often get left by the wayside. After all, planning the agenda and finding a suitable location can be difficult (Find out more about a great training venue here). Yet failing to properly develop your team could impact upon your business’ output and ability to retain staff over the long-term. Here are a few reasons why it is important to focus on team building.

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Tweets are Getting Longer, But Does It Really Change Anything?

Twitter
Recently, Twitter announced one of its biggest changes to the platform – more characters. We don’t know when this will happen, but we can bet that it’ll be before the end of 2016. The move will shake up a platform built for SMS messages before the iPhone even existed.

Now in its 10th year, Twitter has 310 million active users. It’s been used to start revolutions, mourn the passing of icons, and share cat videos. Despite a decline in use by the original founders, marketers still turn to the platform for B2B and B2C.

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Why is Employee Happiness Important at Work and How to Achieve it

Happy
Ask most managers what their top priorities are for their direct reports and I would be hugely surprised if the word ‘happiness’ appeared anywhere on a list along with words like ‘productivity’, ‘creativity’ ‘target-orientated’, ‘efficient’ etc.

But we are now interested in the idea of happiness at work, and in society? There is an entire “happiness industry” emerging rooted in positive psychology, driven by individualism and personalisation and expressing itself in the health and wellbeing agenda.

It is important for several connected reasons.

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Infographic: 5 Human Senses Marketers Must Appeal to for Customer Connection

5 Senses
Marketing is all about appealing to human brain to make them feel connected to your brand and eventually trigger their brain into purchasing your product or services. Marketers deploy all types of tactics to appeal to human senses and get the best results. Those who are successful at making connection with as many of these senses as possible stand to reap most benefits. Very few marketers today can deploy this comprehensive tactic.  In the Infographic below we explore 5 senses and how marketers can appeal to them.

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Why Your Data is More Safe in the Cloud

Cloud Safety
When I used to work in a tech shop, the cloud was a new concept and many people, especially businessmen and legal professionals, would have a lot of questions concerning the security of their documents when stored in the cloud. I would do my best to explain that only they had access to their account, but as the cloud was still a fairly vague concept to many people, explaining the benefits would often mean breaking down the features in the most rudimentary of ways. On more than one occasion, people struggling with the concept of cloud computing became angry at the idea their personal or work emails being stored in the cloud, never mind the fact that this had been the case ever since they started using email.

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Is Work-Life Balance Possible for Employees in This Age?

work-life Balance
The age of constant contact between places of work and employees is here, and this can mean tasks are completed quickly and businesses can handle more and more clientele. But, with all of this communication, employees can become quickly overwhelmed and stressed due to not feeling as if they can escape work pressures, although technically, they’re not “on the clock.” Here are a couple of ways that you, as an employee, can find a better work life balance even with the tightest of work schedules.

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4 Ways to Reduce Noise Pollution in the Workplace

Construction Suffering From Noise Pollution On Building Site
Some businesses are constantly filled with a barrage of noise that can be very damaging to the health of its employees. Noise pollution is something that can’t always be avoided due to the nature of the work taking place. Heavy machinery is loud to maneuver, and complex equipment whirrs at a constantly pulsating tone. There are ways to reduce those high volume levels, though, as we’re about to explore.

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3 Useful Tips to Invest in Gold Bullion

Gold Bullion
If you are new to investment and have never bought gold bullion before, you may wish to do some homework before you commit your money. There is a wealth of information available with very informative blogs. Taking the time to educate yourself before investing is something that is worth your time and effort. You may just end up saving yourself a lot of time, hassle, and money by gaining a little knowledge.

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