Archives for 2020

It costs far more to replace an employee than it does to retain them. In order to keep them wanting to stay with your company, you must provide a workplace that they enjoy. Your business success depends on keeping your employees happy and motivated. After all, they are not robots that are only there to serve the bottom line. They are real people with real lives and they devote a huge portion of their time to your company.

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It isn’t enough to just give your employees the perfect gift for Christmas. You must also maintain a positive work experience during the year to make sure they are content and motivated to do their job. Low employee morale is a business killer. Production drops when morale is low. In addition, employee turnover makes it hard to maintain consistency.

So, what to do? Increase your business’ success through satisfied employees with the following tips.

Pay Employees On Time

The surest way to kill morale in your office is to pay your employees late or make mistakes in their paycheck. Use an employee time tracking app to make sure that their check is always correct. Follow that up with attentiveness and reliability that your employees are paid on time. This one practice is a huge part of your effort to keep employees happy and motivated.

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Set Clear Expectations

Everybody wants to know exactly what their job is. When there are no clear boundaries between what one employee and another do, resentment builds. The most common result of unclear boundaries is that one employee takes on too much while another is perceived as taking on too little. This creates resentment and substantially lowers morale.

Take time to establish a clear set of expectations and responsibilities for each employee. If and when the time arises that they have to take on extra work, their sacrifice is acknowledged. Express thanks for hard work and dedication. As soon as possible, take the extra load away from the employee and return their job expectations to normal. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure they get a little extra bonus at the end of the year.

Encourage Breaks To Keep Employees Happy and Motivated

Burnout is very real. It can lead to health issues, low morale, and feelings of dissatisfaction. If you believe your company has been asking a lot of the employees for a while, encourage them to take time off. Consider offering a long lunch for the week, a long weekend by taking a Friday off, or encourage them to use their vacation time.

Whatever you think will help them unwind and recharge will be appreciated. 

Happy Employees Prioritize Work/Life Balance

Your employees are key to your business success. Therefore, their work must be at its most productive. This only happens when your employees experience well-being in the office and in their life. You can avoid burning your employees out by making sure that they are able to have a life outside of work. Limit instances of calling them in on weekends or keeping them from their family at night. Their ability to enjoy the life your employment provides will keep them working for you.

Celebrate Milestones

When somebody closes a big deal or finishes a project ahead of schedule, make sure you celebrate their accomplishment. Let the employee know personally how much you appreciate their hard work. In addition, make sure the office knows and encourage others to congratulate them on their milestone. The team-effort creates truly happy employees!

Additionally, celebrate longevity milestones and positive feedback accomplishments from customers. People want to know you recognize their loyalty. Show them that you are paying attention to their hard work and see the results.

Offer A Flexible Schedule

The need for 40-hours-per-week face time is becoming a thing of the past. In past years, supervisors required employees to be in the office, checking in (or clocking in) and out each day. Unfortunately, whether an employee was maximumly productive during that time didn’t matter.

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Now, people are more focused on productivity and results. If an employee can come in later or leave earlier than the traditional 9 to 5 (which has really become 8 to 6), and still get results, then let it happen. You can also offer some employees the opportunity to work from home a day or two per week. Not having to commute helps increase productivity and helps relieve the pressure from your employee’s day.

Today’s employers must be concerned with keeping employees happy and motivated. The generations entering the workforce expect a level of satisfaction in their work. Use these principles to ensure that your company is known for a workplace that supports and cares about your employees.

If you’re a .NET developer and want to break into freelancing, you have many options. However, .NET freelancing requires time and intention to become lucrative. 

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Most freelancers will tell you to start on the side. You can pick up freelancing jobs while still staying in your current form of employment until you build a steady client base. The goal is to make consistent money over a period of a few months before diving right into life as a full-time freelancer.

Freelancers have a lot of responsibilities that normal employees do not have, including:

Thankfully, .NET’s framework is used in applications worldwide, so you’ll be able to develop for small and large businesses alike. Use these tips to get ready for this next step in your career.

Experience and Portfolio

Developers are unlike other freelancers because you can’t share your source code with others. This can make creating your portfolio a challenge. Though you can show a prospective client your examples of software, websites, apps and other projects you have created, showing the source code allows the client to steal the code. Also, If you worked for someone else at the time of development, chances are good that they own the code.

You can, however, say that you used .NET to:

• Develop X website (providing an example) and were responsible for connecting to banks, databases and other third-party sites via API calls
• Develop an app that allowed for financial institutes to manage clients on the cloud

You must provide samples to show clients. Consider building a website with live examples of your work for potential employers to test. When listing projects that you worked on, make sure to mention your contributions and key responsibilities when working on the project.

If you have no experience, you may want to work with Redwerk or another .NET development company to learn the ropes of .NET development.

Develop your portfolio using open source project contributions. Many companies respect open-source projects and will view your contributions to these projects in the same way they would view your experience working with a development firm.

Finding Clients as a Freelancer

Once you have a portfolio ready to show prospective clients, it’s time to go out and find clients. It takes a lot of work and effort to find clients to fill up your schedule. It’s not uncommon for freelancers to charge more per hour of work than a development firm pays its developers. This is because freelancers carry a lot more responsibilities. However, employers save money by avoiding the cost of benefits packages. So, price your hourly rate accordingly.

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You’ll find that finding clients requires you to:

• be persistent,
• be patient,
• communicate well,
• become detail-oriented,
• and be willing to learn.

You will also need to be able to properly assess projects and offer realistic timelines. 

Be persistent. Be willing to be rejected. A lot of people are vying for the same job and a lot of people may be willing to work for less than you charge. It’s up to you to be able to create a proposal that allows you to stand out from the competition.

Here are a few key methods to help jumpstart life as a freelancer:

• Look for jobs on Upwork 
• Look for jobs on Freelancer
• Email companies to pitch your services
• Search job boards for freelance positions

Connections are everything, so try and find a .NET forum where people are asking for help. If you can demonstrate your expertise and help others, you’ll find that a lot of these connections can lead to work, too.

Specify Your .NET Freelancing Niche

Your success depends on the right clients with projects you are perfect for finding you. In order to help this process, be clear about the projects you have experience working on. For instance, say you work particularly well with startups and have helped them keep development costs low.  Provide examples of your work that feature a startup and provide the cost savings analysis. 

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Use your network, social media and other avenues to source projects.Once you land your first gig, treat every opportunity as a learning process and continue marketing yourself. Slowly, you’ll build up your portfolio and reputation. You can also try working with recruitment agencies that can help you land your first few freelancing gigs to get started.

The key to freelancing is persistence and marketing. If you continually market yourself and aren’t afraid of rejection, you’ll eventually land gigs. Good luck!

If you own a business, you might think it is far too late for you to go back to school. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pursuing higher education as a business owner can do wonders for both your business and your team. In fact, there is nothing holding you back and everything to gain for your business success through higher education.

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Here are five ways that advanced higher education can help your business grow.

Higher Education Improves Your Skills

One of the main advantages of additional education is an improved skill set. This is especially true for managers. Unfortunately, managers often get promoted to higher positions without ever receiving extra training or education. This can make the managers feel overwhelmed and unsure and is reflected in their work. A recent study found that over 50% of managers say they have never received management training. This most certainly costs your business in the long run.

You Can Continue Working

One of the main reasons adults do not engage in higher education is because they can’t afford to take the time off from work. Because of the growth of online education, earning a degree does not require you to leave your company in the hands of others. You can study while you work. Also, many courses are only a few weeks or months long. So, you don’t need to dedicate years to acquire additional qualifications.

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Higher Education Builds Confidence

Learning new skills helps boost confidence. As we mentioned before, many managers feel unsure about their skillset. However, when they receive extra training, their confidence grows and they are more likely to be successful. This has obvious benefits for your business. Better productivity. Professional success. In addition, your self-esteem and happiness levels also increase. Research shows that people who train for their dream jobs (and then work in those jobs) are significantly happier than those who do not.

Creating New Possibilities

Education opens up new possibilities for you in your career. After all, an additional qualification makes you more qualified! However, many people think that on the job training is just as valuable, so they forgo education. However, in order to be promoted well and advance through your career additional education communicates your motivation to improve. That kind of confidence attracts more business!

Education Makes Employees More Valuable

Higher education does not only benefit managers; it can also benefit employees who want to improve their performance. Learning an extra skill set will make the employee (and therefore, the team) more efficient and productive. Supporting education also helps employees feel more motivated and passionate. This is very important, as a recent study found that over 80% of employees feel disengaged at work. That’s four out of five employees. Further education can help to reduce feelings of disengagement. 

For instance, if you run a healthcare department, and one of your employees gets a bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration, your whole team improves. The newly educated employee can take on more advanced healthcare roles and responsibilities. This eases pressure on other employees, and it makes the team more cohesive and productive.

Finally, higher education for employees improves employee retention. Over time, promoting uneducated managers leads to unproductive employees and high employee turnover. Turnover alone costs businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Therefore, promoting and completing additional education ensures that your business is being managed well. A win-win situation!

Employee turnover costs your company in multiple ways. In fact, reports show that turnover costs employers a whopping $15,000 per employee, mostly for reasons that are avoidable. In addition, there are massive ramifications to the entire company when your top star leaves the team. As a business owner, attention to employee retention is key for a thriving work environment.

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If you run a small business, you are most likely faced with limited resources. So, retaining your best and brightest is vital to your business success. Therefore, efficient and effective employee retention strategies help to improve office morale and productivity. Such strategies ensure that your best workers don’t leave you for the competition. 

Consider these three simple and cost-effective employee retention strategies to help you succeed. 

Communicate With Your Employees

You might think communication is handled. Employees come to do their job and go home. However, healthy and transparent communication significantly improves employee retention. Great communication encourages employees to ask questions, addresses employee and company concerns, and provides you a vehicle for receiving feedback. Considering employee feedback and follow-up are key factors for effective leadership. Great leaders foster excellent employees and positively impact employee retention.

Experts explain that “an emphasis on communication equips employees to feel valued, satisfied and motivated which enhances their morale and increases their output.”

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Our favorite tool to communicate with your employees is Connecteam’s free employee communication app. In the click of a button, you are able to create a two-way communication channel. Managers can send private or group chats and updates. The platform allows you to share weekly goals, celebrate the employee of the month, send birthday wishes, release company announcements and more. Additionally, employees have a tool to communicate with you in real-time if they have issues. Apps like this make communication simple and effective.

Hire For Retention

According to Glassdoor, 35% of employers who hire new employees already anticipate that other employees will resign in that same year. If your hiring strategy includes the expectation that existing employees will soon resign, something isn’t working! Make changes toward retention rather than hiring a workforce you expect will not be with your company for long.

To begin, revamp your interview process. Ask questions that help bring out qualities that you seek to develop among your employees. Consider past performance relevant to tasks you’re hiring for. Be consistent across interviews so you can utilize lateral comparison. 

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Next, ensure that the job description is clear. Many new hires reported that they would stay at a job and company longer if they knew more about their job role early on. It is essential that you do not omit details of the position. Take the time to find the right candidate, even if you are desperate to fill the vacancy. Remain transparent so the right employee joins your company and stays for the long term. 

On-Boarding Is Crucial 

As soon as a new hire arrives on their first day, make sure they’re set up for success!  teach them about the company culture, training opportunities, mission and values, and so on. Make clear to them that their job role and responsibilities, while very important to success, are just a part of their relationship with your company. HR experts say, “Onboarding new hires at an organization should be a strategic process and last at least one year to ensure high retention.”

Employee Retention Makes The Difference

Employee retention is just one strategy for your business’ success. Still, having the right team with the right employees invested in your company’s success makes the difference. In order for them to invest and be loyal to you, invest and be loyal to them. Your business will most certainly reap the rewards.

What is a full stack development team, and how can you build a team that suits your business?

The complex and demanding nature of software and web development environments demand expertise in multiple areas. Consequently, the need for a full stack team is now a top global business trend.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for full stack developers will grow about 13% through 2026. This growth is much higher than it is for other roles in the software development industry. In short, these talented individuals are in demand. 

Let’s talk about what a full stack team is and look at what you need to do to build a team that best suits your business.

What Is Full Stack Development?

Full stack development refers to comprehensive client-side and server-side software development. In other words, full stack development deals with software development for browser, database, and server. Therefore, a full stack developer must have a comprehensive knowledge of all layers of software development.

To qualify as a full stack developer, a software engineer should have command over front-end browser technologies like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Angular JS, React, Vue, and JQuery. Such engineers must also know server technologies such as Python, PHP, Node, and ASP. Lastly, a full stack developer should have expertise in database technologies like MongoDB, SQL and others. A good full stack developer can develop a complete software program, integrating all development areas. 

Full Stack Development In The Modern Market

The role of a full stack development team is very important in modern software development projects. This is especially true for web development projects. The modern, single web application is complex and demands features and capabilities that the end-user wants. As such, a full stack web developer knows all layers of software development, so they can create an integrated solution to fill a company’s needs.

A full stack development team allows businesses to have complete control over software development and development cost. Such a development team provides a company with a competitive edge. Consider these benefits of employing a full stack development team:

• The ability to provide a comprehensive solution to complex problems
• Reduced cost of software development
• Faster delivery of projects and releases
• Effective communication and coordination
• Easy to troubleshoot the software issues and modify the code 

Building Your Team

As a business owner, you must employ experts who work within multiple domains. For instance, your total staff will need to provide software development, human resource management, legal support, social security reporting, and much more. A full stack development team will provide your company with this variety of expertise among fewer employees. In order to build the best team for your company, consider these tips.

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Maintain Technology Stack Skills

Most importantly, you must carefully assess the requirements of your projects and choose the right technologies for your full stack development projects. You should make a comprehensive list of technologies that you want to use in your development project. Then, hire a team that has complete command over the technology stack you have identified. 

You need to ensure that your team can produce on server-side, client-side, database, and software design technologies. Therefore, make sure your team has the skills such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, popular JS frameworks, Python, PHP, Ruby, Java, C++, server-side JS frameworks, MongoDB, MySQL, SQL, Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, UI/UX, testing, and others.  

Cost Considerations

The average cost of hiring a single full stack developer is much higher as compared to other software engineers, but the overall benefits are also higher. Therefore, the salary of a full stack developer ranges between $44,000 and $111,000 per annum. Total salary varies based on skills, qualifications, and experience. However, the average cost of building a full stack team should be always less than average development cost anticipated by individual developers.

A Backup Plan

There is an acute shortage of all types of software developers in the market. The shortage of full-stack developers is more severe. In addition, a huge demand is emerging in the marketplace. In such situations, it is very difficult to retain your tech-talent. So, always prepare a backup for any kind of switching of tech resources from your team.

Quality Over Cost

The cost of the full stack development is increasing due to increasing demand. The number of full stack developer vacancies is projected to cross 853,000 by 2024 from just 135,000 in 2019. Though the competition is high, always choose quality tech-talent.

Combine Experience And Location in the Development Team

To make a better team, choose a mix of experience in recruiting members of your full stack development team. You can reduce the cost and maintain good quality by hiring human resources from remote locations among those with a variety of experience.

Final Takeaway

Hiring a full stack developer team offers numerous advantages to small and medium-sized enterprises for achieving the desired business goals. Consider building your team now in order to experience growth for your business.

SEO dominates the world of organic online marketing. However, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising still has a place in business marketing, even in 2020. PPC allows online searchers to find products and services through targeted ads and links. This type of marketing may once have been seen as less effective than SEO. However, it’s more sophisticated—and probably more effective—than ever before.

It’s important to say that pay-per-click advertising might not work for all businesses or entrepreneurs. The same goes for many other types of marketing. But PPC marketing appeals to a certain kind of searcher and to pitch a certain type of product. If you’re considering trying PPC for your business, you may wonder whether or not it’s going to be worth your time and money.

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Let’s consider which types of businesses can most benefit from PPC.

Small Businesses

PPC advertising is fantastic for helping start-ups and small businesses to get off the ground. Pay-per-click helps immensely to push products to relevant groups. It can also help with brand recognition. PPC delivers exceptional results to local customers, too. So PPC is the best tool for tackling a specific niche without extra time and effort.

PPC is a great playground for marketing strategies. Partnering with a company offering PPC consultation, known as white label PPC, allows you to set up a flexible plan of action. This means you can adjust and enhance your advertising and approach depending on how well your campaigns perform. PPC experts can adjust your campaigns mid-flow if needed. Unlike print advertising, online marketing is easy to fine tune, and problems are inexpensive to remedy. 

Pay-Per-Click In The Niche

PPC advertising targets specific phrases and keywords online. Therefore, it meets specific needs. For example, if you provide a personal service that’s otherwise unheard of in your area, targeted PPC enables you to approach people who are looking for the specific services you supply.

Without PPC, you risk falling behind more generic stores and services. This is especially true if you leave everything to SEO (search engine optimization). PPC lets you target specific needs and niche concerns so you can turn a lead into a customer quickly.

Single Lead Success

PPC is an especially good option for businesses that can benefit greatly from a single sale. While PPC doesn’t function well for broad category selling, it can really increase your marketing success in niche markets. PPC is ideal for specialist services and for generating leads to inspire customer loyalty.

For example, luxury items, vacations, or even legal services demand high monetary investment from consumers. Therefore, their successful sale instantly outweighs the costs of a basic PPC campaign. On the other hand, if you can expect only a small margin of profit between PPC expenditure and consumer revenue, then it’s probably worth looking at other advertising options.

If you offer a service or a product which people are likely to invest in long-term, a single PPC ad is probably going to pay off. Therefore, consider this form of advertising worthwhile if you have long-term, high-margin revenue to pull.

PPC For Every Business

The fact is it might be a little shortsighted to suggest PPC will only work for specific types of businesses and services. PPC works wonders for a variety of niches and specialties. While generic and larger brands can benefit through SEO alone, PPC offers a lot of support to smaller or growing firms.

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Perhaps you run a small workshop and might be looking for clients who need help with woodwork. Maybe you operate a car repair clinic and want to target people who have cars with faulty carburetors. Or perhaps you sell delicious pastries and desserts in your local area. Whatever the case might be, PPC can work well for your business.

Don’t be afraid to try PPC. It still has a place in modern digital marketing.