Archives for December 2020

Being a great manager and leader goes hand in hand with your company making more revenue. Your employees and team members are all humans who experience emotions. So, the more they like you and enjoy working with you, the more effort they’ll put into their job. Therefore, earning your company more money.

But what does it take to be a great manager with outstanding leadership qualities?

There are plenty of books written about this subject, but this article will look at just five of the most essential qualities and skills great managers should have.

Get Personal

As we mentioned before, your employees are human. They have likes and dislikes, funny stories to share, and feel every emotion under the sun. So, treat them like people!

Make them feel special by getting to know each and every employee. Hold casual conversations about their families and what they like to do on the weekends. The number one thing you must do is to know everyone’s name.

Leverage Strengths

Not everyone is built the same way. While one person may be fantastic at creating charts and graphs from data on a spreadsheet, another may be terrible at it but can design a beautiful presentation.

Use your employees’ strengths to your advantage –– as well as theirs. When assigning tasks, consider which employee will excel. Not only will you receive great work, but your employee will appreciate the chance to play into their skills at work.

Don’t Micromanage

When you assign a task to someone, don’t hover over their shoulder watching every little thing they do. People work at different paces using different methods. As long as the end result is reached, then it doesn’t necessarily matter how they got there.

If there are essential details that must be considered, then you can inform your employee of them when you assign the task. For the most part, though, trust that your employee will get to the end result successfully.

However, always be available if they need help or redirection on the task. That’s what a good leader does!

Offer Feedback and Appreciation

People like to know where they stand, especially when it comes to their job. They want to know if their managers are happy with their work or if they can improve in some areas.

As a manager, you should offer feedback and appreciation to your employees. Feedback will help them improve their skills and make fewer mistakes. Appreciation will boost their confidence and motivation when assigned a task.

Invest in Success

Don’t pinch pennies when it comes to your employees. If they can use a tool or resource that will make their jobs easier, then you should invest in it.

For example, a customer service team could benefit from using Salesforce and VoIP to stay organized and enhance their support. While you may not feel it necessary and want to put that money elsewhere, consider your employees first.

When you provide the resources they need, you set them up for success, which also increases revenue for your company.

Have you been trying to think of a way to earn extra income during the COVID lockdown but keep coming up short in the idea department? What if there were a way to simply leverage the knowledge you already have to bring in a second paycheck even while you’re stuck at home? Perhaps you ran through some of the usual suspects like starting your own blog or opening an e-commerce store. Those are good options but can take quite a lot of time to pay off. But if you use your current knowledge base and write product or service reviews, it’s possible to earn money rather rapidly. Plus, you won’t have to learn any new skills, take special courses, or obtain a certificate of training in a particular niche. Here are some of the top categories in which you can use what you already know to generate real income by acting as an affiliate for a seller.

Online Brokers

Trading securities from home is a part-time and full-time job that is finally coming into its own, with a lot of help from the lockdown. Many are currently searching for reputable, reliable online brokers where they can open accounts and begin making a profit in the stock market. If you have skills or just an interest in this segment, it’s possible to earn a solid income by writing trading platforms reviews. What is the least you need to know to be successful? It helps immensely if you are familiar with the securities markets, have traded online before, and understand the basics about how the big platforms operate. You need not be a top trader or highly educated market analyst. All it takes is a good eye for what to look for in a web-based brokerage site. For platforms you aren’t familiar with, consider doing a free trial week (which many offer) in order to get a feel for how good the service is. After a few weeks, you’ll be a veritable expert when it comes to trading platforms.

Audio Equipment

Audiophiles spend plenty of money online, and retailers work hard to earn customer loyalty via high-satisfaction first purchases. Seasonal discounts and special offers only bring in so much business, so sellers rely on third-party freelancers to create high-traffic review sites. How can you earn income from this retail sub-category?

It’s not enough to simply post reviews on other people’s websites. But you can have the greatest impact on sales, and your share of the deal, when you build your own site that does nothing but review products as they arrive on the market. That means if you have an interest or even a bit of expertise in things like headphones, sound bars, or other audio products, you can score large commissions. Some of the categories, like amplifiers, typically sell for several hundred dollars apiece. With sellers offering cuts of up to 50 percent on each paying customer you deliver to them, you stand to do well if you can write coherent, detailed reviews that include photos, pros-and-cons lists, and 200-300-word item evaluations.

Exercise Equipment

Buying home exercise equipment was the first thing many people did when they realized that the viral pandemic would be around a while. When health clubs and public gyms are shuttered, it’s nice to head up to the spare bedroom or basement and get in a high-octane workout on your own equipment. The market is still surging as people are getting used to the idea of exercising at home, and retailers are in need of help. Now is the time to draw on your inner gym rat and review equipment that you’ve used in the past. Reviewers who set up sites that focus on rating and evaluating high-end items like weight machines, treadmills, and stair-climbers can make a killing in commissions.

Cyber Security Software

It’s hard to make an accurate estimate, but there has certainly been a huge increase in the number of hours that people are using their computers. Being sequestered indoors for long stretches means having a need for a seamless, safe connection. Anti-virus and similar types of software have always been big sellers, but in the past few months the segment has been enjoying a real golden age. Many of the e-commerce sellers and resellers don’t have huge advertising and marketing budgets. The solution, from their point of view, is to offer commission cuts to people like you who bring in fresh clients via review sites. If you have tried several of the main products in this field, put your knowledge to work by constructing detailed evaluations, complete with pros and cons.