Archives for April 2016

I get questions all the time from employers and employees asking about workplace privacy issues. The employees want absolute privacy, and the employers say, “yeah, right!”

What it comes down to is how carefully the privacy policies in the employment handbook are crafted. An employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy is directly tied to the expectation the employer creates for them.

So, can an employer search my personal belongings at work?  The answer is yes, they probably can.  If the employer has a policy that states desks and lockers are provided for the convenience of employees but remain the sole property of the employer, they may be inspected along items found inside the lockers or desks before, during, or after an employee’s shift.

In addition, any electronic devices such as cell phones, computers, or pagers that the employer provides come with zero expectation of privacy. That means, if an employee is using a work cell phone to conduct personal business, the employer has the right to search and inspect that cell phone and to use anything they find on that phone against the employee.

I have also had questions about police officers wanting to search an employee’s workstation or locker. The employer has no obligation to let the officers search the workstation, but they have every right to consent to the search so long as the privacy policies make it clear that the items searched are company property.

If you’re an employer and want to manage your employees’ expectations of privacy, carefully craft a privacy policy and disseminate it widely throughout the workplace. If you’re an employee, you really should have no expectation of privacy in your workplace when it comes to your physical items.

If you have any questions about your workplace policies, do not hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email and we’ll find a legal solution to your problem.

Little over a year ago, I was far away from the place I am in now. I spent Monday to Friday feeling pretty miserable, hugely unfulfilled in my career and lost as to what my plan was. Despite earning well, I was living paycheck to paycheck, compensating for my lack of fulfillment with excessive shopping and partying. On top of everything, I was starting to suffer badly with anxiety, something I’d never really experienced before.

I think the main trigger point was entering the final year of my twenties with that all-important milestone of thirty straight ahead. I’d always seen thirty as the year I’d hoped to have everything figured out in terms of my career, yet I was inches away from wanting to throw it all in.

A year later, life looks very different.

I am now founder of an online business that has grown to be more than I ever anticipated, am earning more than I ever did in the corporate world and no longer spending every last drop of money and, for the first time in my life, I actually love my work.

Amazingly, it didn’t take that long to turn my situation around. Approaching thirty I vowed that I would never settle in a job that I didn’t love and would create a new story for myself on entirely my terms. I started a side hustle as a social media strategist, launched my blog and within six months after launching my business, I was taking it full time.

I really do believe that anyone else can do the same and I want to share some of my tips for anyone who is looking to break away from a career that doesn’t fulfill them

1. Be willing to sacrifice what you want now, for what you want more in the future.

My biggest sacrifices I made to get my business off the ground were the three things I enjoyed the most: Shopping, socializing and Netflix.

I was launching my business alongside a full time job so knew that the only way to make space for my new venture was to cut out the things that weren’t of benefit to it.

It’s amazing how quickly you can adapt to these changes. Its also amazing how much time you really do have once you start to cut out the unnecessary.

Many people protest that they don’t have enough time to start something new, but my guess is that you have far more time than you think. Look at how you spend your day and those little things you do that aren’t necessary. Spending fifteen minutes shopping online may not seem a huge deal, but those fifteen minutes a day can actually make a huge impact on a new business.   Use your time wisely.

2. Don’t try and please everyone – nail your niche

When launching a new business, it’s so easy to think that in order to attract the masses, you need to appeal to the masses and do as many things as you can and be everything to everyone.

From what I’ve learned, the quickest way to grow your audience and business online is to really hone in on your niche and really get specific about who it is you are trying to attract.  I think one of the reasons my business took off so quickly was because I knew I wanted to work with a specific type of woman so that everything I created, I made it appeal to them specifically.

3. Get a savings plan in place

Unless you’re a trust fund baby or a lottery winner, you need to think about how far your cash is going to stretch once you leave your job. Many of my clients come to me telling me they want to quit their job and the first thing I ask is whether they are financially in a position to do so. You need to get a saving plan into place to cover at least three months of living costs.

Break down the bare minimum of what you need each month and start from there. You also want to take into account investments you may need to make in your business to get it off the ground. Don’t go quitting anything until you have these finances in check.

4. Network online and offline

Businesses don’t exist in a vacuum. They require people to know about them and to talk about them, which is why it’s really important to engage with your audience and others who may buy from you/hire you or spread the word about what you do.

Whilst there are many great places to network online (Facebook groups are a favourite of mine) don’t underestimate the power of offline connections too. Seek networking event within your local area, talk to people you meet about what you do.

It can be difficult talking about your new business idea in the early stages and many women lack the confidence to do so. My advice would be to nail your elevator pitch and rehearse how you would tell someone in a  few short sentences what you do.

5. Surround yourself with people who get it

The quickest way to get a business off the ground is to surround yourself with people who are going to keep you motivated and also those who have more experience and who are able to offer you advice.

Starting out, I had and still do have a strong network of ambitious women who inspire me to keep going. Some of these have been mentors who have had a wealth of experience in the online world and whom I’ve been able to learn from, others were women in my own position who were just starting out trying to carve something from scratch.

I don’t believe I would have been where I am now if it wasn’t for these support systems in place.

Although I initially launched my business doing social media consulting and this is still a huge part of what I do, one of my greatest joys now comes in helping other women stop settling and to start living life on their terms by creating businesses that they are passionate about. If you would like to hear more, I’d love to hear from you so please drop me an email at dani@wearetheclique.com

As an entrepreneur, you may have experienced a block. Maybe writers block, content block, or just a block of your natural creative thought flow. Surprise…you’re not the only one. Believe it or not, most entrepreneurs will experience this “block” at least once during the duration of their business. If this sounds like your current life situation, then this ones for you.

I suggest creating an action plan to get your creative thought process back flowing, now and in the future. The technical name of this action plan is a Creative Action Plan (CAP). Simply put, it’s a checklist or to-do list that you add to and access regularly that contains action steps in areas of your business so that you always have steps you can take to move forward.
First, start by making a list of your goals. You might not no where to start or how to keep the train wheels rolling but I’m sure you know your destination. After you have completed that step and you know where you want to be, decide how you will get there. Here are a few of my goals in my action plan that I refer to keep me going.
T: Think of ways to increase your customers
Do you recall visiting that restaurant that you absolutely loved and the service was great? Or how about that one department store you visited with the rude cashier? These memories are etched in your brain for the simple fact of how each interaction made you feel. Make a list of the things that stood out to you (good and bad) and figure out how you can recreate (or ensure you don’t recreate) that same feeling. Take the restaurant we spoke of earlier, did the waiter/waitress remember you name which made you feel at home? Create that same feeling for your customers. How can you make them feel special?
S: Streamline your process
With running a business as entrepreneur, you have so many processes to keep your business running. Research ways to streamline each step from the smallest to the biggest by writing your typical weekly routine out for each week. Think of streamlining duties such as analytics, customer intake, editing, or data entry. Even streamlining the smallest step can help your business run more efficiently. Locating an assistant, automated system, or just simplifying your steps can help you keep slaying it in your business.
M: Make collaborations
I can’t think of a better way to grow your business than making collaborations. This will keep you visible as well as keeping your to-do list loaded. Write down businesses that you would like to collaborate with and send them a pitch of your interest. Not sure of how to collaborate? Try one of these:

• guest blogging
• interviews
• giveaways
• reviews

There are numerous actions to add to your list to keep your business moving in the right direction. Continue to brainstorm more ideas to add to your CAP to help keep your creative juices flowing but for now, here’s how to take action:

ACTION STEPS:

1. Create a Creative Action Plan (CAP) that includes

a. Identify ways to elicit good feelings from your customers

b. Locate ways to streamline your processes

c. Throw out a pitch for a collaboration
Until next time.
Amber

Wrecking your brain trying to consistently create new content is totally unnecessary sometimes, especially if you don’t have a new product, project, course or workshop in the near future. There are diamonds inside the content you already have. Learning to repurpose content can totally save your life! Think about the content you’ve already published on your social media accounts and blogs. I’m going to show you a quick 3-step system to develop new content with the content you already have. Under each caption on social media, you should be posting meaningful information for your audience that help them in many areas. On your blog, you should be sharing your advice, best tips and knowledge in your niche plus give insight on topics that can help your audience and increase your brand awareness. There are  simple steps that you can take to create a system of overflow with great content. Let’s dive in:

 

Step 1: Review your best content and take notes

 

Your best content can be found in your most engaged posts across your digital platforms. The most page views, likes, comments, shares and reposts will tell you what your audience likes. If you don’t have any interaction yet, you can definitely use the most viewed blog posts or what you consider your best content. Keep these platforms, posts, and engagements in mind to remember where to locate important and popular content. Collect your social media captions, advice and comments as well. You can also use keywords from your sales copy during promotion and product sale campaigns. Make a list of all of the correspondence or content that you published that received a lot of attention. This list will ultimately create options of new content to post. Remember, all you are doing in step one is writing the platform, type of content, and type of engagement you received when you published your content.

 

Step 2: Dissect the information to locate new topics from your notes

 

In this step, you’ll analyze the best of your best content out of the notes you’ve taken so far. In order to dissect information on your digital platforms, you must initially be posting authentic, useful content. Go through your notes and write down each key point that is a topic valuable to your audience. This could be a specific number in a list post, a specific bullet point in a bullet list post or a how to post, etc. Or, your key point can be a sentence that sticks out to you in a paragraph. For example, if you’ve written 5 tips to help your audience accomplish a task, the information you shared under each tip allows your audience to complete this task using your suggestions. Under each tip, find an important sentence or a unique section of your paragraph to make a headline or a new title for new content. Create new topics based on the topic that you’ve covered  in your old content and elaborate on that subject or key point.

 

Step 3: Publish new content and repeat

 

Once you’ve narrowed down your most popular content and noted key points that stood out to you, publish your new content. For every new topic you’ve created, elaborated on, and published, repeat the same steps of 1 and 2. By doing this 3 step system, you’ll always have valuable content to post. Of course, when you feel an urge to write completely new content, go for it! But, be sure to create a system that you are comfortable with to help you stay ahead of time by immediately keeping records of your engagement rates. Keep recording content that get the most attention no matter what type of engagement it is.

 

One of the questions I see asked continuously is “What to post?” or “How to find new ideas?”. For what it’s worth, find those hidden gems within yourself and your previously posted content. There are always valuable topics to cover. Once you find your rhythm of repurposing, you’ll definitely generate new ideas with your new 3-step system.

 

Do you have a repurpose system in place already? What do you do for motivation? How do you come up with new ideas for your digital platforms? I’d love to hear in the comments below.