4 Secrets to Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Going back to when you started New Year’s resolutions, how many have you made? Now, how many of those have you actually kept… for more than a few days?

New Year’s resolutions are hard for some and almost impossible for others. You tell yourself that you’re going to make a significant change in your life for the better. Fast forward a few weeks into January and the disappointment of failing your resolution sets in. Are you just not meant to make and keep a New Year’s resolution?

Before you begin to swear off resolutions every year, ask yourself if you’re making the right resolution for you. Check out some of Corporate Business Solutions Reviews favorite secrets to help you keep your New Year’s Resolution.

Make Small Changes

One of the biggest problems with New Year’s resolutions is that people tend to make them so big that it is almost impossible to keep it. If your resolution is too big, for starters, it can be difficult to determine where you begin. Even if you find a starting point, the resolution quickly becomes overwhelming which leads to giving up on the resolution.

Sticking with small and more reasonable resolutions that suit your lifestyle will give you a better chance of succeeding at them. It could be as simple as putting your papers away before leaving work or turn your phone off for an hour a day.

Write Down Your Resolution

When you write something down, it helps to stick into your mind better. With relying on mental notes, there’s a better chance that you’ll forget what you need to do. Instead, making a note of what you promised yourself and putting it in a visible spot that you’ll see every day, there is that constant reminder.

Put a Purpose Behind the Resolution

Having a reason behind what we do is an excellent motivator. If you’re making a resolution for the sake of making a resolution, where’s the motivation in that? Add a “why” to your resolution instead to keep you motivated.

If you want to organize your desk more, do it because it will help you stay focused and on task. Are you planning to eat more vegetables this year? Remind yourself that you’re doing it to improve your health. If you cannot say why you’re doing something, you may want to reconsider your resolution.

Plan Out Your Resolution

Try to break down your resolution into smaller, more attainable goals that you can plan out through the year. For example, if your resolution is to stay more organized this year to keep you productive, try breaking it down into different goals. For January, maybe you want to work at writing in your day planner what you need to do. February could be putting your pens away, so they don’t clutter your desk. March could be the month that you work at organizing your email and clearing up your mailing list.

The point is to make attainable goals to help create a habit. Once you achieve each small goal towards your resolution, it will start to become a habit that you’ll want to do every day.

5 Tips to Help You Conduct an Interview

Whether you’re the one conducting the interview or on the other side and being interviewed, sitting across the table for one another can be nerve-wracking. Even if you’ve done many interviews over the years, at some point, you would have likely been nervous for your first one.

As a business grows, it will need more employees to help keep the doors open. The manager wouldn’t simply hire someone without talking to them and ensuring they are qualified for the job. That is why you interview potential candidates.

Here at Corporate Business Solutions, we know just how important an interview is. Here are five tips to help you conduct the best interview.

Be Prepared

No one likes it when people enter a meeting not prepared. The same goes for an interview. You should have a list of questions prepared for the candidate to help you stay on track.

Make sure you spend some time going through the persons resume. If you end up asking questions that are easily answered on the resume, for starters, it shows you’re not prepared. Not only that, it could give off a wrong first impression to the candidate.

Start Slow and Safe

If you go with your hardest questions right out of the gate, be prepared to intimidate your candidate and make him or her nervous. Instead, start off with simple personable questions. Ask where he or she grew up. Get to know what their schooling was like. Think of questions that are easy to answer and will help relax the candidate. You may be surprised what you learn.

Incorporate Open-Ended Questions

To get some of the best answers, rather than a simple yes, no, or one-word answer, ask open-ended questions. These are the ones that the candidate has to elaborate one. For starters, it gets the candidate talking. It also leads to valuable information that you can use later on.

You may find the answers could wander and lead the interview to get off topic a little bit. Allow the interviewee to wonder when talking, but not too much. If you find the conversation is completely irrelevant, start to steer it back to where you want it.

Ask Questions Related to the Resume

The resume is a quick snapshot of what the interviewee is like and has accomplished throughout life. Use that to your advantage when trying to form questions. You can ask them about their time at a particular job, school, or an award they’ve won. These questions help you get a better insight into what the candidate is like.

Avoid Cliché Questions

How often have you gone to an interview and been asked what you’re good at and what your weaknesses are? Those can be tough to answer, and you never know how truthful of an answer you’ll get.

Instead of asking what someone’s weaknesses are, present an issue and see how they would handle a real-life situation. Ask them for examples of previous issues in the workplace and how they resolved them. That way, you get a glimpse of their problem-solving techniques and what they are like under pressure.

These are only a few interviewing techniques you can bring with you when you start to look for employees. Keeping the interview like a conversation and personable will help keep everyone involved relaxed. Trying to talk and be on your top game while highly stressed is never a good combination.

7 Tips to Help You Stay Focused at Work

Do you struggle to stay focused at work? You’re not the only one. It can be difficult to stay focused while working, especially if you have a lot on your plate. The mind can easily wander to other thoughts you’ve had throughout the day. Next thing you know, 10 minutes have passed and there’s still much work to be done.

How do you stay focused at work so that you can achieve everything you planned for the day? Here at Corporate Business Solutions, we want offices to be as efficient as they can be. That is why we came up with a list of seven tips to help you stay focused throughout your workday.

Set Daily Goals

Having a physical to-do list or a sheet with goals for you to achieve will help keep you focused and determined. It’s easy to say that today is a new day and that you’ll be super efficient. However, without something to help keep you in check, you’ll soon start to notice your mind wandering again.

Put Away Distractions

We’re all guilty of it – leaving our phone on our desks or Facebook running in the background and then checking it from time to time. The thing is that when you are still connected to the outside world, those distractions will always be in the back of your mind. By getting rid of them, there’s no temptation to check in our social media accounts.

Work in Blocks

Trying to work for hours on end isn’t the answer to being focused and efficient. Your mind needs time to relax and reset. Otherwise, the tension continues to rise and it will become harder and harder to focus. Instead, work in blocks of roughly 60 to 90 minutes and then take a quick break to listen to music, take a walk, or close your eyes and take deep breathes.

Find a Reason in Everything You Do

If you cannot find a purpose or reason for doing something, it will be hard to stay motivated and focused at your task. When beginning a new task, ask yourself why you are doing this. That answer will help give you the push to stay focused to finish your job.

Get Comfortable

One distraction that is difficult to fight is discomfort. When you’re uncomfortable at work, whether it be due to the atmosphere or the chair you’re sitting at, your mind will keep wandering to that discomfort. Keep yourself comfortable at work to help release any tension and stay focused at the task at hand.

Drink More Water

We already know that water keeps us healthy. Did you also know that water can help you focus more? By drinking a glass of water throughout the day, it helps to refresh and revitalize you so that you can get back to work. So, keep a bottle of cold water at your desk as your reminder.

Stay Organized

If your desk is always disorganized, the clutter won’t help promote an atmosphere to focus well in. When there are so many things in your eyesight, it makes it difficult to keep your attention on one thing. By decluttering and staying organized, there will be fewer distractions for your mind to fight.

The Benefits of Making Mistakes in Business

After reading the title, you may be wondering how making a mistake in the business world has many benefits. Wouldn’t you want to avoid making mistakes in the first place?

The truth is, every business is bound to make a mistake at some point or another. No matter how much planning and work you put in, there’s like a mishap that will catch you off guard.

Making mistakes is how we learn and grow. If you never take a risk, it’s hard to tell what truly will work for your business. By putting yourself and your business out there, even if it ends up backfiring, you learn more about your company and you as a leader.

With Corporate Business Solutions Consultants, we know the importance of growing a successful business, but also how a mistake can benefit that growth.

You Learn More

When you use a mistake as a learning opportunity, you can look at it as a good mistake then. However, this is only true if you genuinely use the mistake as a learning opportunity. If you ignore it and keep doing the same thing over and over, the mistake will no longer be beneficial.

When you see something gone wrong, take some time to investigate it. What happened and how did it happen? What could you do to prevent it from happening again? Was there any good that came out of it? How do you need to take your business so that this mistake doesn’t happen again?

You Can Try New Things

When mistakes are embraced, it allows people to experience new things. If you’re scared of mistakes and don’t take a risk, you will likely miss out on many opportunities that could benefit your business.

It’s not easy to be vulnerable. However, when you are, you start to experience more than what you usually would. These experiences allow you to take your business on new paths that could benefit you greatly.

Shows You’re Willing to Try

A mistake shows that you tried something new and daring, even if it ended up backfiring. For many, they see that as a positive trait. You’re willing to take risks needed to keep expanding your business.

It’s All on How You Handle It

In the end, if you or someone in your business makes a mistake and you handle it poorly, all of the positives that can come from it will be overshadowed. If you’re the leader in the office, handling a mistake calmly and professionally, all while being encouraging, that will go a long way.

The main takeaway is that it’s okay to make mistakes in the business world. It’s how you learn and how you grow. That isn’t to say you should go out and make as many mistakes as possible. However, it’s okay to put your company out there and let it be vulnerable. In the end, you learn more and can use that experience as you continue to push your company farther ahead.

5 Ways to keep your Employees Motivated

Do you ever watch how your employees work and think that they could use a bit of motivation? We can all handle a little bit of encouragement now and then. Motivation helps keep people focused and determined to complete their job successfully.

The hard part is finding ways to motivate your employees. Bonuses work great if your business can afford them. However, not everyone can afford to hand out bonus after bonus. Also, sometimes adding in different motivators rather than money can encourage employees differently.

So, if you’re looking for ways to keep your employees motivated, CBS-CBS.com has a few solutions that should help you out.

Empower Employees

When your staff knows that what they do contributes to the success of the business, it gives them a feeling of empowerment, and empowerment is an excellent motivator. If you felt like you weren’t contributed to what you were working on, how motivated would you be to keep working hard? Most likely, not a lot.

Letting employees know that every contribution they make is affecting the larger picture of the business. Giving some people more power and control over what they do in their day will also provide them with a feeling of empowerment.

Be a Leader

Sometimes, all staff need is a bit of encouragement and support from their leader. You can keep throwing bonuses at them, but if you’re not a leader for your team, money will only go so far.

Providing solid leadership that is encouraging and supporting is key for keeping employees motivated. Show that you have their backs and you are with them every day they come into work. Let them know that you believe in them and that they have the skills to complete the task at hand.

Build a Supportive Atmosphere

The atmosphere of the workplace can also contribute to how motivated people feel. If everyone around you at work is dragging and not contributing very much, how motivated will you feel to work your hardest? It’s likely that you’ll feel like you’re bearing the weight of everyone else, which quickly becomes exhausting.

Part of your leadership qualities means you help foster a supportive atmosphere at work. Many working professionals spend more waking hours at the office than anywhere else in the week. Provide them with an atmosphere that is positive, uplifting, and supportive.

Increase Work Satisfaction

Although this one may be more challenging, keeping the overall work satisfaction rate at work high will help keep employees motivated. Those who hate their job are less likely to stay motivated throughout the day. So, by making your workplace one that is appealing to people, you’ll help create a workplace that employees want to keep coming to.

Give Recognition and Rewards When Due

In the end, you still need to recognize and reward those who do a good job. When employees see that their leader recognizes hard work and dedication, it gives them that boost of motivation to keep working hard. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate reward. Sometimes, simply calling out their name in front of the group is good enough.

Try to incorporate some of these tips to keep your team motivated. When you encourage and support your team, you create a workplace that has dedicated members who want to work hard.

6 Tips For Setting Up Your Home Office

Having a home office has become a necessity in almost every household – especially if you work from home. In fact, for many self-employed entrepreneurs, a home office is necessary for the job. A small desk tucked into the corner of the living room won’t cut it anymore. When it comes to tax season, many entrepreneurs need to have a set office to have any tax exemptions.

On top of that, a home office helps you keep your work and personal life separate, just as you would if you traveled to your workplace. It helps keep you organized, as well as look and feel more professional.

If you’re in need of setting up a home office, Corporate Business Solutions Reviews has a few tips to help you get one set up.

Designate a Room

First, you need to have a room that you can call your office. Ideally, if you’re a working professional that needs somewhere to go every day, you want a place that is strictly your office. Sometimes you can get away with using a spare room as your office. However, it’s best to use an empty room that is meant to be your workplace.

Plan Out What You Need

Once you have your space, you’ll need to come up with a list of everything you need for work. Start with the obvious items like a desk, chair, computer, stationery supplies, and an internet connection. These would be all the things you have to have to do any work. Then move to other items that may not be a necessity, but they would help make your day to day tasks that much simpler.

Find Good Quality Supplies

More specifically, find a good quality desk and chair that is ergonomic. You’ll be spending a significant amount of time here, so you’ll want to make sure you’re comfortable. The last thing you need is to get distracted by pains in your neck and shoulders due to improper positioning while working. Spend the extra money to find a desk and chair that works right for you.

Remove Clutter & Organize

There’s no point of having more than what you need in your office. Having too much stuff that looks like clutter will only cause distractions. Staying organized is key for having a successful home office. So, go through your supplies and see what you can get rid of and what needs to find a home. Every item in your office should have a spot to help keep your desk and room free of clutter. If it doesn’t, ask yourself if you really need it.

Add a Personal Touch

No one says your home office has to be black and white with nothing but your work supplies. Many people decorate their desks at the workplace, so you should be able to do the same. If you want, add in any artwork pieces or color to your office to make it as comfortable for you as possible.

Set Working Office Hours

Lastly, it’s essential to have office hours. When working from home, it’s easy to get in the mindset of putting things off or having visitors over. If you’re at work, then you should be at work. Have designated office hours where you disconnect from your phone and social media, and refrain from having visitors or booking appointments during those times.

How Can You Define Success – Understanding What it Means to Be Successful

Have you ever asked yourself what the definition of success is to you? The most basic definition is when you achieve a particular objective set for yourself. Success is the opposite of failure – it’s when you accomplish something.

But to truly define success according to your life, that isn’t as simple. Success can mean something entirely different to you than someone else. It is all on how we perceive it. To be successful though, you need to have a definition of success.

Corporate Business Solutions Consultants want to encourage everyone to be successful, which is why we have a few tips to help you define success for you.

Write Out Some of Your Proudest Accomplishments

You’ve had accomplishments in your life which would be the basic definition of success. Think of those accomplishments and write them down on paper. It could be anything from starting the job that you’ve always wanted, buying your first house, or learning a skill you’ve been thinking about for years. They don’t have to be the biggest ones, but they should be the ones you are most proud of.

Once you have a few achievements written down, write out the steps you took to attain them. These steps should include characteristics about yourself as well.

If your proudest accomplishment was about your job, then you may have points like persistence, commitment, intelligence, and courage to take the next step. Think of the least obvious ones and write them down.

Doing this will help you see a common thread between all of your accomplishments. Maybe commitment and persistence were the most common characteristics that led you to feel successful. Make a note of those traits.

Look at Accomplishments That Were Less Satisfying

It’s true that you can have an accomplishment that doesn’t feel very successful or that you’re not proud of. That isn’t to say that you did something wrong or something you shouldn’t have done. Instead, it goes to show you that maybe that won’t fit into your definition of success.

An example could be that you wanted to purchase something significant for a long time, say a new outfit that’s quite expensive. You set yourself a goal that once you got your first promotion, you would buy the outfit.

You’re likely proud of yourself for hitting that promotion, but the reward of the outfit may not make you feel as impressive as the promotion itself.

Knowing that the success of attaining that goal of getting the outfit isn’t the same as the proudest accomplishments you wrote out, you can continue to form your definition of success.

Start to Form a Definition

By now, you have accomplishments that make you feel proud and pretty awesome inside, and then you have achievements that you’re just happy you achieved them.

You start to see what is truly important to you. In our example above, it was the milestone of moving up the career ladder that was more rewarding than the goal itself, buying the outfit.

Knowing this, you can define success according to what’s most important in your life, and the steps and characteristics needed to achieve your goals.

Life Changing Steps to Becoming Successful

Becoming successful – it’s what so many of us strive for. Success is one of those things that comes in all shapes and sizes. It is not something saved for only the rich and famous. It’s not a fairy-tale or a dream that will never come true.

Success is attainable for everyone, as long as you’re willing to go after it.

That is the thing with success; it’s not something you can just hand over to someone. It comes from hard work not just on what you’re doing, but on who you are as a person.

If you’re looking for the key to success, consider some of the following tips for an overall successful life. CBS-CBS.com provides many tips for small businesses that will help you get on the success path for not just work, but for life.

Go Outside Your Comfort Zone

There’s a reason why it’s called the comfort zone. It’s where you are most comfortable and likely not very vulnerable. You know what is going on and what is likely to happen. It’s easy.

One key to success is to step outside of your comfort zone every so often. Take on a new challenge that may make you nervous. Once you step outside of your comfort zone, you start to learn new things about yourself and what you’re capable of doing.

Be Determined and Committed

Because success is not something that gets handed to you, determination and commitment are vital to being successful in life. There’s a difference between being interested in something, and being determined to know more. When you have that determination and commitment, you won’t let anything stand in your way of being successful.

Learn to Appreciate Failures

We often look at failures as the enemy, which is why we tend to stay in our comfort zone. Failures can be quite discouraging. They lead you to think that you can’t do something. However, if you learn to appreciate each failure as a stepping stone, you learn from those speed bumps and continue down the road to success.

Think of a child learning to walk. They don’t start walking right after the first step. Instead, they fall over and over again until they get the hang of walking. After that, good luck stopping them because they want to walk everywhere now.

A failure is when you stumble down after learning to take a step. Instead of giving up, continue with those steps until you’re past the point of failing. After that, you won’t want to stop.

Be Realistic

Most of these keys to success are about being daring and going after things. Another key that is different from those stated above is knowing when you need to be realistic. Setting too high of standards and going after unattainable goals is a way of setting yourself up for disappointment. That disappointment can quickly pull us down from the high of success and make us want to give up.

Instead, be realistic about what you can and cannot do. You can have big dreams, but set yourself realistic goals to get there.

6 Qualities to Look For When Hiring a New Employee

When the time comes to hire employees, it can be difficult to determine who is the best fit for the position. Especially if you have many applications coming in, eventually you have to select one. Do you have a list of qualities you’re wanting from your new employee?

As send out a job posting, typically you want to hire the best and brightest person. Although your business will have its unique needs compared to others, there are some standard traits which employees should possess that work across all companies.

Corporate Business Solutions is here to help you out. As you begin your hiring process, pay attention to the following six traits to find the best employee for your company.

Dependability

You want someone whom you can depend on, not having to check in to ensure work is getting done. A dependable employee can be trusted with almost any task, and you know it will get done. If not, you can guarantee they will keep you informed or ask for help.

Commitment

When you hire an employee, you’re looking for someone that will stick with you for a long time, rather than walk out the door after the first month. Why? Because it can cost you more money having to hire and train new employees on a regular basis. Commitment is a significant quality to look for.

Good Work Ethic

A good employee is one that knows when it’s time to get to work and ignore distractions. The work ethic of an employee is another top trait to pay attention to. What would you rather have: an employee who clocks in, does the bare minimum, then heads home. Alternatively, would you instead prefer an employee who is willing to put in more than just the minimum, is willing to work extra hours if needed, and one whom you can rely on?

Positive Attitude

The attitude of the potential employee is another significant characteristic to look out for. Someone who comes into the office with a poor attitude day after day will bring down the whole team and create problems with the work environment. Instead, find an employee who can maintain a positive attitude at work, and can leave personal issues at the front door.

Team Member

Even though you want an employee who can work alone without supervision, you still want that employee to work well with the rest of the team (even if the team is just you). If your new worker continually buts heads with everyone around, it will be difficult to get high-quality work done.

Communicator

Ideal employees should know how important communication is in not just the workplace, but in life in general. Many issues can stem from improper communication and a lack of clarity. A good employee should be able to adequately communicate what he or she needs, is concerned about, or if he or she needs help.

On the other side of communication is listening skills. As important as it is for an employee to communicate, they must be able to listen when someone else is talking with them. Pay attention to their verbal and nonverbal communication during the interview process.

4 Steps You Should Take on Your Company’s Social Media Accounts

By now, the whole world knows how vital it is to have an influential social media account for businesses. Whether it be on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media platforms available, those are the new driving forces to reach your audience. Without a strong social media presence, your business could be missing out on many new customers and clients.

Most of the time, people find businesses through their social media accounts. Even if they do a simple Google search of the company name, the business’s social media sites tend to pop up near the top of the search. If you want to be more successful in drawing more people to your company, you need to have a strong social media presence.

To help you out, Corporate Business Solutions Reviews has a few steps you should take to give your company’s social media accounts a boost.

Have a Strategy

One of the best ways to get your social media presence going is to have a strategy or a business plan. On the flip side, a quick way to lose the attention on your social media accounts is to have no strategy at all.

Your strategy should include who your target audience is, what the purpose is behind your accounts (are you showing off a certain aspect of your company, trying to draw in more clients, or keeping your current customers informed). Include a mission statement in your plan to help keep your strategy focused.

Be Authentic

Before social media became an essential aspect of businesses, it was easy to hide behind the computer screen and be whom you wanted to be but were too afraid to be in real life.

Nowadays, though, the authenticity of a social media account means everything. Staying true to who you are and what your business is, will be important to your current followers, and those you are trying to draw in.

Be Consistent

The lack of consistency is a sure way to lose your existing following and make it more difficult to gain new ones. The more you can be on your social media platforms, the more your customers and clients will see you.

If you have troubles making the time to post on your platforms, utilize one of the many tools available that allow you to schedule posts and link your accounts together. You can then plan ahead of time what you want to be posted and then continue with the rest of your day.

Connect With Your Audience

Now and then you may want to feature a post that is more on the selling side. However, if you do this too often, you’ll lose the attention of your customers.

Instead, inspire and empower your following. Most of the time that is why they are there. Make content that positively grabs their attention. Interact with them online to make those connections.

Having a successful social media presence doesn’t have to be difficult. The more we overthink it, the harder it becomes. Rather, spend some time researching what your audience is looking at and what they want to see. Remember, your social media is there to grab their attention, so you’ll want to make your content reflect that.