People with a busy lifestyle complain that there are never enough hours in a day to do all the tasks that they had originally planned. Here is an article providing some time management techniques/tips you may want to adhere and adapt to that may allow you to get more time out of your day to complete set tasks.

Organisation

Making sure you are organised is the first and most important thing to do in the morning. If you take 15 minutes out of your morning preparing your work area, that will save you an hour in the day that you would be spending finding things you need such as papers, phone numbers, and supplies and so on.

Recognise your most productive time

Some people for example, maybe a morning person and like to do all the difficult or most time consuming tasks first whilst it’s fresh on the brain where as other people may prefer to complete these tasks later on in the day. If you have young children and you are an at home parent or work at home, during your child’s nap/TV time you could do your most difficult tasks of the day.

Produce a To-Do list the night before

Doing a to-do list the night before lets you know what you have planned to accomplish the next day and when you wake up you know the goal you have in your mind that is set for the day. This saves you wondering around thinking about what you have to do. If you divide your to do list into several parts of a page labelling them; tasks for today, tasks for tomorrow, tasks for this week, tasks for next week, and tasks for the month. As you complete these tasks, tick them off so you can clearly see what you have left to do.

Get up earlier

If you maybe need an extra hour in the day. Get up an hour earlier and sit with a tea or coffee going through your emails and organising your work. Some people call these “day wasters”

Schedule your tasks and stick with it

Write one thing that you will complete in each day of the week on your calendar. For example you could write ‘do online banking every Wednesday’ or ‘update website every Monday’

Avoid “day wasters”

Big day wasters include Facebook, TV, looking on the internet and talking on the phone especially if not being used in relation to the tasks you have set. If you don’t use these in moderation you could end up losing hours in your day not leaving enough time to complete tasks which could put you behind schedule for the next day’s tasks.

Leave time for interruptions

Make sure that with every task you do you leave a bit of time just for interruptions just in case you are asked to come a side. If you do not have the time for interruptions you may want to put up a do not disturb sign so you are able to get your important tasks done.

When things go wrong

When things go wrong this is when you persevere and take positive attitude towards failure and concentrate on other tasks you can do instead of dwelling on the task that didn’t go as planned – these things happen!

Contingency plan

Having a back-up plan is very important as if you are not able to complete a task on your original plan, you are able to refer back to your contingency plan to fill the time with another task which is preventing you from losing out on time.

Don’t waste time waiting

If you are waiting to go into a client meeting or waiting to go into a dentist appointment you have left work for, fill in the time completing the small tasks whilst you are waiting. You could either be replying to emails, reading emails, planning tasks, reading reports etc…

After all, time management is a myth, there are only 24 hours in a day and that will not change, it just depends on yourself and how you manage your time. You CAN be in control and get everything done that you wish to accomplish once you have come to terms with the time management myth.

The post Tips on how to manage your time appeared first on ITexpress.

In the last 5 years marketing has evolved rapidly, fuelled by a shift towards inbound marketing and social media tactics.

1. Less “salesy” Content works best.
In order to reach sophisticated consumers, organisations must spend time making clear and clarifying the broader issues that their prospects face, rather than focusing on content that advertises the features and benefits of the product.

As consumers we search the internet to find resources to solve a variety of different problems. From business services to complex computer systems, we increasingly rely on online data detailing specific problems and solutions. A page with a traditional sales-oriented list of product features and benefits is often immediately tuned out, while engaging information can draw us in more. Researchers have said 52% of marketing professionals regarded thought leadership white papers and case studies as very effective in terms of attracting new business enquiries.

2. Tailor content to your audience
85% of businesses have said this tact is very effective and would recommend anyone who doesn’t use this tact much, to indeed do so and see the great benefits from it. Prospects are much more likely to be swayed by content that speaks to a person’s particular problem. It would be a very good idea to target a specific audience you know would be interested in the content you would fill them with that would more than likely get them to buy from you.

3. Content sourced directly Impacts Efficacy
Content sourced from existing customers was the most effective at influencing and engaging prospect. Research shows that 90% of marketing professionals rated this type of content as “extremely effective” or “very effective.”

Content marketing is hard, requiring time and resources that are in short supply. The foundation of an effective content marketing strategy starts with these 3 things:

• Drawing out and illuminating the problem you solve with non-salesy, thought leadership content
• Creating targeted, personalised content for specific core audiences
• Drawing on the voice of the customer to provide convincing evidence of your company’s value proposition.

If you follow these three principles you will be right on track!

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Just what is responsible for this increase? I am sure that population growth and investment in education are key ingredients but few people would disagree that it is IT which is the driving force behind this increase in knowledge. The current low priced tablet has more computing power than top of the range office systems which were in operationally decades ago. Our current IT systems are so powerful now that many pundits say we as businesses are only using a fraction of their capability.

In the midst of the actual technological change is also the information and how we use and gather information. It is now common for employees to have a smart phone and not only bring it to work but also to use it for work. Services like Facebook can work as an excellent promotional tool for businesses but also as a massive distraction to employees as they are encouraged to interact with these services.

So, how does a business owner make sense of it all and use their IT systems to enhance profit and not become a drain on resources?

I believe the first step is look at what you want to improve in your business. Perhaps you want more sales? Maybe you want better efficiency from your team to allow them to do more work with less headcount? Is your cashflow where you want it to be?

Once you have decided what to improve then examine how your IT systems currently work to perform this task. Are they being used properly, can they be used better, are they being used at all?

It is quite easy then to look at how the IT system can be utilised in a better way. In terms of sales you could use an email newsletter to talk to customers more often, or perhaps use an autoresponder to reply quicker to enquiries. If it is efficiencies you are looking for then perhaps looking at better software or automate some spreadsheets. In some cases you can take tasks completely away from people and let the IT system do it, such as data import instead of data input. In terms of cashflow you can automate your chasing letters, send invoices and statements by email etc.

In short there is a lot of untapped potential in your IT systems and it doesn’t take a lot for some of that potential to be released, and then you and your team will become hungry for more.

If you have any stories of improvements you made which transformed your thinking about IT we would love to hear about it

The post Is Your Business Getting the Best from IT? appeared first on ITexpress.

Think social media is just for big businesses? Think again! It also provides a cheap and effective marketing tool for small businesses too.

Businesses are diving into the social media space at a very fast pace. The allure of success in social has accelerated its adoption into traditional business processes.

There are many benefits of using social media to promote your business. Some of which are:

Increase website traffic – If you regularly update your website or blog’s with new content, signposting it using social media can drive increased traffic. Also, search engines are starting to take more notice of links from social media’s, so it could even help to increase search engine traffic.

Raise awareness of your business – People buy from people they know and trust. They may not all follow you on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, but by getting your name out there and building relationships with relevant people, potential customers are more likely to have heard about you. You may even get recommended by others!

Get seen by journalists – Twitter isn’t just used by businesses and customers, most media organisations got wise to the power of tweeting early on and now use it as a source of interesting stories.

Engage customers and increase loyalty – It can be difficult to stay in touch with all your customers, but social media gives you the opportunity to engage with them on a one-to-one level. By becoming more involved with your company and getting to know the people behind the business, customers will feel more loyalty towards you, returning to buy from you again and again.

Increased sales – If you’re looking for a concrete return on investment on your social media efforts, there’s plenty of evidence that social media can result in sales. Don’t expect to broadcast messages and sales role in, you need to interact and build relationships with people before they will buy from you.

Manage your reputation – many businesses are afraid to put their good name out into the world of social media. What if someone says something bad about them? Rather than seeing it as a threat, you can turn it into your advantage by tackling bad perceptions about your brand head on and thanking people when they something positive about you.

Conduct your Market research – Social media gives you access to instant feedback from your target market, and it’s absolutely free! Plus, you can use it to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing.

Networking opportunities – Good contacts are key to successful businesses, and social media offers the opportunity to meet more potentials contacts than you ever could in person. Plus, it integrates very well with traditional forms of networking. Use social media to find events to attend and forge relationships that you can then continue in face-to-face networking.

Educating customers – Sometimes it’s not enough to go straight in with the hard-sell. Social media allows you to nurture leads and educate them about issues surrounding your industry. Share your knowledge and experience with articles, blog post and videos to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Cost effective – The best news is that social media is free! Other than your time, participating in social media doesn’t have to cost you a thing, which can help to significantly reduce your marketing budget. It is important to establish from the outset what you want to achieve from engaging in social media. This way you can easily see whether social media provides you with a return on investment of your time.

Keep measuring your success against your goals. If something isn’t working then don’t be afraid to change it or try another type of social media.

In this article there are several reasons why using social media to promote your business can be effective. If you haven’t already, promote your business by signing up to social media sites, all for free!

The post Using social media to promote your business appeared first on ITexpress.

Businesses use a whole host of social networks to communicate their messages and increase awareness of their products and services. Anything released into the public domain should always be carefully considered. Once it is there, it is there for good! There’s always a remaining trace.

With that in mind, here are some guidelines that may appear to be seemingly obvious but regularly violated that businesses on social networking sites should be particularly aware of.

1. Don’t complain about a specific person or brand – It is not only juvenile, this behaviour could also land you in more trouble than you bargained for. People have friends who they will call upon to make life online a misery for your company and staff as a result of one misplaced comment. It certainly is not worth it!

2. Never mix personal with professional – Your brand’s posts should not reflect the thoughts of a cleaner after a drastic cleanse of the blocked toilets. Your brand is a separate entity to people within a social media code which should be abided by at all times! Stick to the brand’s tone, voice and language.

3. Exercise caution when using sourced images – most online imagery can be traced back to an individual or organisation to which the image belongs to. Don’t get caught out. If in doubt over copyright, attribute the images you use back to the rightful owner, or don’t use them at all. Breach of property rights is a serious matter to become entangled in. There is a wealth of free stock imagery available at your disposal which is a much safer bet!

4. Never be rude, arrogant, obnoxious, or racist and avoid profanity – This should go without saying, but you’d be surprised how many examples there is online today that billions of people have witnessed. It doesn’t pay to be cruel, mean or crude. The only reputations to end up hurt is yours and that of your business.

5. Don’t post anything about anyone without their permission first – It’s not a good idea to tweet an embarrassing photo of an employee or colleague on a drunken work do, especially without their permission!

6. Never use a tragedy as leverage – This is 10/10 on the scale of cringe-worthiness, and will result in sever backlash as it did with Kenneth Cole. This is a prime example of insensitive behaviour from a company account. The Cairo protests led to many deaths – not something to use as promotional material.

Kenneth Cole tweeted:

Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumour is that they heard our new spring collect is now available on line at: http://bit.ly/KCairo – KC

7. Don’t spam your fans – Your followers are there of their own accord – don’t push them away with repetitive junk that provides no value to them. If they want your services, they will enquire without force. Customers are gained through mutually beneficial relationships.

8. Don’t just talk about yourself – Do you want to bore your fans going on about yourself all the time? The objective of social media is obviously to be social, not self promotional. Think of social media as a real-life environment.

9. Never rise to provocative others – Others meaning people causing a fuss or posting negative comments simply just to be a pain. The first point of call would be to determine if the person in question is a real customer, or just an attention seeker perhaps. if they are one of these types of people, simply block them from all company accounts and report them.

10. Do not ignore negative comments – Some company’s are quick to disregard customer negativity but there are valuable learning to be made from such comments. Feedback is a crucial component of business growth and this content can not only be used to better your services, but provides an opportunity to publicly make someone’s day. There’s no shame in admitting a mistake – its how you deal with it that matters.

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What is collaboration?

Collaboration is a working practice and it is a critical attribute to business success. This is where individuals work together to a common purpose to achieve business benefit. It allows individuals to work together to achieve a defined business purpose.

It exists in two forms which are:

Synchronous – where everyone communicates with each other in real time, such as online meetings through instant messaging or via Skype
Asynchronous – this is where the interaction can be time-shifted, as when uploading documents or annotations to shared work spaces

Digital collaboration may not be new but 2015’s attitude towards it could be!

Carefully identifying and addressing issues of concerns helps establish if the collaboration is the right way forward like in most businesses.

The potential benefits of collaborative working could be;

• New or improved services
• Wider geographical reach or access to new groups that could benefit your business
• More integrated or coordinated approach to needs that could benefit your business
• Financial savings and better use of existing resources
• Knowledge, good practice and information sharing
• Sharing the risk in new and untested projects
• Capacity to replicate success
• Stronger voice
• Better co-ordination of organisations’ activities
• Competitive advantage
• Mutual support between organisations

Potential risks of collaborative working could be;

• Outcomes do not justify the time and resources invested
• Loss of flexibility in working practices
• Complexity in decision-making and loss of autonomy
• Diverting energy and resources away from core aims
• Damage to your brand and reputation
• Damage to organisation and waste of resources if collaboration is unsuccessful
•   Stakeholder confusion

Here are some key obstacles you may find whilst working collaboratively;

• Personalities
• Competition between partners
• Lack of information and experience
• Lack of resources, especially at decision-making stage
• Resistance to change
• Cultural mismatch between organisations
• Lack of consistency and clarity on roles and responsibilities

You can now test the water at low cost

Digital collaboration tools are going down significantly in price and while a company-wide installation is still a significant investment there are plenty of small alternatives that can be trialled at low cost, to explore features such as co-worker discussions, content management, instant messaging, status updates and more. Names like Slack, Jive and Yammer also offer high levels of integration with business systems, eliminating the cut-and-paste techniques earlier programmes relied on.

Is collaborative working for you? Try it.

The post Is collaboration for you? appeared first on ITexpress.

AVG AntiVirus

Award winning AntiVirus 2015 protection detects, blocks, and removes viruses and malware from your company’s PCs and servers.

 How does this benefit you?

Free 30 day trial – this allows you to try the full versions of the AVG AntiVirus services for 30 days.
Automatic updates and upgrades – Employees protection is always up to date. Real time updates, upgrades, and even uninstalls are automatically pushed to your employees’ computers so there’s no need to waste time with manual checks.
Protects whilst browsing – AVG AntiVirus works with any web browser to check files before they’re downloaded and to scan URLs to protect your employees while searching, shopping, and banking online.
Verifies links before you click – Actively checks web links before it’s clicked to prevent your employees from visiting malicious websites. Also provides automatic, real-time scans of any links exchanged on Facebook, Twitter, or Skype.
Blocks hackers – Our firewall works on both wired and wireless networks to protect your company’s data and prevent malware from taking over your PCs. With inbound and outbound port and application protections, your business is always protected.
Scans without distractions – AVG Smart Scanning reduces distractions. Scans only when your employees are not using their PC’s, and switch to low priority mode while they are working.
Protects identity – If your employees shop online, we’ll warn them when we detect any potentially dangerous software trying to steal their passwords or credit card numbers.

AVG AntiSpam

Have you had enough of inbox’s full of scams and spam? There is only one solution for it, AVG AntiSpam. This is a cloud based email security service that delivers comprehensive protection against spam, viruses, phishing attacks, and other email borne threats. It’s always up to date and even tackles dangers in the cloud before they ever get a chance to impact your network. Isn’t that great?

How does this benefit you?

Protects network efficiency – Ten levels of in-depth cloud based protection and helps keep unwanted or malicious email from ever reaching your network. Volume based email protection helps reduce clutter from inbound emails sent to non-existent individuals at your domain. Outbound email scanning prevents employees from spreading viruses or spamming contacts and getting your IP address blacklisted.
Blocks spammers – Choose to block messages from specific individuals or entire countries in order to receive only the emails that are important. Create “on-the-fly” addresses to be used on any website or discussion forum so legitimate users of the address can be “locked down” if the address is ever harvested and abused by spammers.
Saves time and costs – Fewer frustrations, fewer infections, and avoiding issues such as IP blacklisting all mean fewer costly complications for your business. AVG AntiSpam is very easy to navigate and so saves time when changing settings, and devices. Like all AVG CloudCare services, AVG AntiSpam will be billed on a single invoice to simplify your payments.

If you require any information or support in relation to AVG CloudCare AntiVirus and/or AntiSpam please call the UK number: 0800-878-6004

The post AVG Antivirus & AntiSpam – Only the best! appeared first on ITexpress.

To propel you forward you need a goal. Writing a goal down gives you something to plan and work for and something for you to accomplish. A written goal is an external representation of your inner desires, a constant reminder of what you need and want to accomplish. When setting a goal you put your mind to it, motivating yourself to work like mad. Focusing and visualising a goal is the perfect way to improve your motivational skills.

Goals transform mountains into mole hills. Partitioning down the overall aspiration into little stepping stones makes it seem less intimidating and easier to reach. Planning towards smaller goals also makes it easier to come up with a definite plan to be worked towards, and provides greater motivation and contentment in the bigger view.

Setting goals helps you believe in yourself and fuels your ambition to work towards something. It also gives us the inspiration we need to confide in ourselves to focus on the little aims for things we didn’t even think were possible.

If you don’t write down solid goals and give yourself a deadline to achieve a goal, how are you able to look back and re-evaluate what you did if you were to fail? Whereas if you set goals and fail in the bigger picture, you have something to fall back on and re-evaluate the goals to see where you went wrong. Isn’t this a good enough reason for you to set yourself goals that could change your life in the bigger picture?

By asking ourselves what we really want and constantly going over our goals, we gain the benefit of self-reflection allowing us to really figure out what we want from life and how to get there in tiny steps.

When you set goals, you are gearing yourself to get the most out of every moment and you live your life to the fullest. There is so much in life to do and experience, but it definitely can’t just be handed to us on plate; we need to work hard for it! To do this – SET YOURSELF GOALS!!!

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IT Express, who help other businesses improve their online presence by not only creating amazing websites but also by acting as a company’s own IT department, are finalists in the Service Sector Business of the Year category.

Andy Carroll, Managing Director for IT Express, which also creates bespoke software to improve workflow and business processes, said:

“It’s great that our team is being recognized for the tremendous work they do ensuring our clients’ IT systems run smoothly at all times. We always strive to meet and indeed exceed our customers’ expectations and that’s why reaching this stage in the Business Excellence Awards is so rewarding because it means we’re doing all the right things.”

Now in its fifth year, the Goole and Howdenshire Business Excellence Awards, hosted by BBC’s Harry Gration, recognizes and celebrates business excellence in Goole and the surrounding areas. Organisers said:

“This year, once again the stakes have risen higher. We have been hugely impressed by the range and quality of the applications and the demonstrated business acumen of so many of our local organizations. The Awards present a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that Goole and Howdenshire is a place to do business.”

The winners will be announced at a black-tie dinner and ceremony at Goole Academy on 20th February, 2015, starting with a champagne reception.

The post An East Yorkshire-based IT company has been named a finalist in the Goole and Howdenshire Business Excellence Awards. appeared first on ITexpress.

Combining the strengths of windows 8 with Windows 7 enables you to familiarise yourself with Windows 10 having near enough the same layout and similar features that have been changed and made better along with brand new features. One of the new features includes Microsoft Edge, this is an all new browser that is specifically built to give you a better web experience. There is also a multi-doing feature which allows you to get things done faster. You are able to have up to four apps in place which you are able to see all at the same time showing up as one single view. A windows insider said “This windows will definitely blow all the other versions of Windows out of the water.” You are able to access a windows store from your PC/tablet/phone where you can purchase digital content including apps, games, music, movies, and TV shows. There are some built in apps for windows 10 and these include; maps, photos, mail and calendar, music and video.

What makes windows 10 different in comparison to the others?

In comparison to windows 8, Windows 10 is the last version that is to be released. If you are an existing user of windows 7 & windows 8, when upgrading to Windows 10 your first year is completely free. Windows 10 brought back the start button, adds multiple desktops and an adaptable interface.

Windows 10 brought back the start button after Microsoft received complaints for having it removed on windows 8. Microsoft was very focused on introducing the world to the live ties interface, it was assumed that users would not mind a desktop with reduced functionality. It was seen as a critical error and is why it has been brought back with the brand new windows 10. Now, the start button allows you to access apps, search for content and pin apps, contacts and websites into it.

Cortana, the personal assistant is going to be pre-loaded into windows 10 instead of being separate. It has been said that Cortana will be able to give regional specific answers to questions.

The new web browser feature being launched within windows 10, Microsoft Edge, has three key features that have so far been demonstrated:

1. Users can operate any web page using finger/stylus or keyboard input
2. Spartan will have a reading mode
3. The Cortana voice assistant will be integrated into the browser.

Microsoft has confirmed that windows 10 will support the fast identity online standard allowing users to be able to sign into most used apps such as outlook using a variety of biometric tools e.g. fingerprint readers and retina scanners. You are able to access for the first time, windows devices and Microsoft-owned and partner SaaS services supported by Azure Active Directory authentication all without a password, with windows 10 which couldn’t be done in windows 8.

Microsoft was determined to push “touch first” mantra with windows 8, the experience on traditional machine where keyboards and mice were the primary form of input. This was only addressed to some extent with the 8.1 update and could over-come the problem in windows 10.

Microsoft have finally introduced multiple desktops which users have particularly been waiting for as it will make work easier and allows you to work on different projects at the same time.

Power users will be pleased to see that copy and paste will be enabled in windows 10 command prompt.

When windows 10 is released admins will be able to manage devices through traditional methods such as active directory and system centre. Windows 10 will also include extended built in mobile device management capabilities which makes it easier to manage the device from the cloud.

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