If you can engage better with your local community, you can enhance your business reputation and increase your sales. Even if the people who see you working on this engagement don’t necessarily need to buy from you, they’ll more easily remember you and mention you to others who do need your services. Plus, by helping your local community, you’re building up a lot of goodwill for the future. Read on to find out more about how your business can engage with the local community for more success. Attend Local Events Attending local events that other people have arranged is one of the best ways to engage with your local community without having to spend a lot to do so. When you are looking for ways to reduce costs, this kind of idea can work very well indeed. You’ll need to be on the lookout for any upcoming festivals, parades, fairs, markets, and so on. Contact the organizer and find out how to get a pitch there or what you can do to help. By choosing events that are well attended and by ensuring your business is seen by as many people as possible, you’ll find you get a lot more interest in your business and you can build on that success by offering excellent customer service. Arrange An Event As well as attending local events that other people have organized already, you can arrange your own event. The benefit of this is that although it will cost you more and take time to organize, you’ll also be in control of what happens and who else is there – this will prevent your competitors from being involved, which is always something that can happen at someone else’s event. The events you can organize will vary hugely depending on what your community needs and what you want to tell them. You might sponsor a football team and organize games between neighborhoods, for example. Or you could hire the community center and give a workshop or talk to give people some knowledge about what you do. If you do this, make sure there is food and drink and play music for community centers to keep people happy. You could even organize a litter-picking group. Think about what would be welcome in your community and go from there. Work With Other Business Owners Although you might have competitors in your area, you’ll also have plenty of other businesses that aren’t in competition with you. Think about whether any of these would be useful to work with – a non-competitive partnership can be very useful in terms of getting you noticed more in the community. For example, if you sell sporting goods, you might work with a football coaching business to ensure more young people get to play. Or perhaps you run a restaurant and you choose to use a local supplier – this will endear you to the local community and ensure the supplier gets noticed as well. As long as the partnership is an equal one, everyone gets something out of it, including the community...

There has been much focus on mental health issues in recent years. Long working hours, family stresses, bad health, and the current global pandemic have taken their toll on even the most optimistic individuals. So, what can be done to ensure safeguarding mental health as a priority? Healthy Eating Eating a well-balanced and nutritious diet is vital for physical and mental wellness. If you only eat junk food, the body will struggle to perform all the processes needed for healthy function. The brain relies upon vitamins and minerals for optimum performance. It’s essential to eat regularly so as not to allow your blood sugar levels to drop. Slow-release foods such as oats and bananas will help stabilize mood and prevent dips in energy. It’s good practice to try to eat your ‘5 a day’ as recommended. Fruit and vegetables will provide vital nutrients and help protect your digestive system as well as the brain. Omega 3 fatty acids are a great way to regenerate nerve cells in the brain and are known for helping prevent age-related brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Exercise Physical activity has long been known for its ‘feel good’ properties. When you exercise, your body pumps more oxygen to the brain and stimulates the growth of new cells. Increasing the body’s activity will act as a mild antidepressant and improve memory and learning. You don’t have to be pumping iron each day for hours at the gym. Small changes such as walking every day or playing sports you enjoy will provide a plethora of benefits. Keeping Busy If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that humans need structure in their lives. Along with daily routines and working life, it is essential to have things to look forward to and time with friends. Staying busy helps the mind from dwelling on spiraling negative thought patterns. If you have missed your busy schedule and not socializing has affected your mental health, why not plan a party or event to make up for a lost time? It will give you something to focus your mind on and something to look forward to. Research some local venues and start asking your friends about availability. Compile a list of all your guests and get an idea of the numbers. If you make it a ticketed event, it will keep costs down and allow you to make it a little extra special. If you decide to outsource the catering, you could use Event Bartenders to attend the function and provide the first-class service throughout the evening. You can then relax and enjoy the party and make special memories to mark the end of restrictions. Relaxing As well as keeping busy, it’s essential to find time to relax. Meditation and mindfulness have become popular in recent years, and they are a great way to de-stress after a busy day. Integrating meditation into daily life will help you control stress levels and not allow worries to overwhelm you. There are various apps available with guidance on how to get started. Meditation takes some practice but is well worth it for the benefits it offers. Looking after your mental health is crucial to prevent further problems and remain happy in everyday...

Why hire a professional virtual assistant? There are good many reasons for business professionals to hire virtual assistants to help with their office tasks. Must-Have Tools for Virtual Assistants First let me list down 10 tasks a VA can do Schedule meetings and appointmentsOrganize inboxes and keep up with emailsResearch and travel plans for work and leisureProofread and edit proposals, emails, presentations and moreOrganize speaking events and travel details for busy professionalsCreate and maintain a social media presenceWrite, publish and promote an eBook or digital productsBuild and maintain a newsletterEvent planningTranscription and much more… Things to Consider Before Hiring a VA Is the hire financially feasible? Do they have reliable references? Do they have a reasonable turnaround time? Are they trustworthy? Are they easy to communicate with? Blueprint to Launch your own VA business A Comparison in Cost of Hiring Between an Employee and Virtual Assitant Employee Vs Virtual Assistant Picture Courtesy: VAnetworking How you can make work easy for both sides when you hire Start with a trial projectBe clear in your explanation and expectationsDon’t expect them to come to your locationKnow your budget and be upfront about it Five benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant No need to provide an office or physical workspace– added costs are avoided.No need to provide expensive equipment- they are already equipped.Save your valuable time– that can be spent to develop or expand your business further and also to improve quality time with your family.More focus on critical issues – since the administrative tasks are handled by your VA.You enjoy peace of mind- knowing that your business tasks are being handled by an able...

If you’ve recently started the journey of becoming a professional event planner, you likely have a lot of time on your hands. What better time is there to improve your skills and prepare for the event world picking up momentum again? If you’ve had very limited experience planning events, have a look at the following tips to see if they fill any holes in your arsenal. Thoroughly Know Your Client If you’re managing events, future business will come from you giving clients the best service you possibly can. You want to go above and beyond their expectations, which is why it’s so important that you get to know them as well as you possibly can. Not only will that help you to avoid any embarrassing or costly mistakes (like overordering alcohol when the event is a professional corporate event), but it will help you to gauge the appreciation you need to invest in to ensure that the client will be a returning customer. A good example is identifying the event decision-maker and learning their favorite brand of drink before making sure you offer it to them on the day. If the client doesn’t drink, maybe try to get their favorite flowers as a centerpiece. If you can find out this information without asking them directly, you will come across as more impressive. Cut Out as Much Admin as You Can When you receive a work order, there’s a lot of paperwork that normally goes into processing that order – whether it’s scheduling, assignment tracking, billing, estimation, team communication and more. All this processing can be cut out simply by using work order software, which can automate all the processes that would normally take up your valuable time, enabling you to shrink your team, cut costs and focus on what’s most important: delivering a high quality, memorable client experience. Learn the Importance of Backup Plans For every key decision you make, you should have a backup plan just in case things go wrong. You should have a secondary location, menu, band, caterer that you can fall back on in case something goes wrong on the night. If this backup plan falls within budget – even better, but expect it to take a few more hours to prepare backups. It’ll be worth it though – in the events industry things go wrong all the time. Ideally, you should save some money from the budget as a reserve if you need to make a quick change of plan. Do Your Due Diligence – Especially with the Catering You should make sure that you research everybody you use to help you with the event. Reviews and customer testimonials are a good way of doing that, but first-hand experience is even better. When it comes to catering, bad food can ruin an event, so make sure you ask for a sample of their menu beforehand and bring two or more people so you can get a diverse range of opinions. You should exhaust all the caterers around you when looking for a company that fits the budget but also delivers the required...