UberConference: File Sharing During Conference Calls |  |
- UberConference: File Sharing During Conference Calls
- 20 Power Packed Tips to Create an Inspiring Workspace
- New WordPress Portfolio Options for Creative Professionals
- Review of Speak Like Yourself: No, Really!
| UberConference: File Sharing During Conference Calls Posted: 27 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST Audio conferencing service UberConference recently announced integrations with popular productivity and collaboration services Evernote and Box, giving business users more options for sharing notes and documents during their conference calls.
Sharing files and documents during group calls can be essential to making sure all team members are on the same page. Presentations, meeting agendas, or current projects can all help make sure that calls run smoothly, but not all conferencing solutions allow any type of file sharing, and even those that do may not allow sharing directly from apps or services that are as widely used as Evernote and Box. To use the feature, just link your Box and/or Evernote accounts to your UberConference account, and then select the items you'd like to share with the group. The photo above shows an UberConference call page. When users share files within a call, a thumbnail of the document will appear on the call page for each participant, and they can open it by just clicking the thumbnail. Once shared, the views are independent to each caller, so they can view different documents or different parts of the same document at the same time. And at the end of each call, users can view a call summary that includes links to all notes and files that were shared during the call. Evernote Business, the premium version of Evernote's sharing app, was just recently released. It allows business users to share meeting notes, automatically save call summaries, and similar functions. UberConference is one of the first companies to integrate with Evernote Business. Box allows users to view and share files from programs like Word, Excel, PwerPoint, and Acrobat. Within UberConference, users can control their view of each document, the size of images, and more so that they can keep up with the call while still viewing presentations or important documents. UberConference is owned by Firespotter Labs, which was founded in 2011 and is based in California. UberConference is the Firespotter's fourth product. It was first released in May 2012. Its apps are available for free in the App Store and Google Play. The service offers a free basic account, a $10 pro account, and a business account that is priced based on the size of your team. The post UberConference: File Sharing During Conference Calls appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 20 Power Packed Tips to Create an Inspiring Workspace Posted: 27 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST
Surroundings can have a big impact on your mood, emotions, and productivity. When your office space feels dead and lifeless, you’re employees and customers, not to mention yourself, may also feel dead and lifeless while you’re there. Create an environment where people enjoy working by following these power packed tips to develop an inspiring workspace: 1. Organize Your Place It doesn’t pay to start adding things to an already cluttered space. Take some time to do a thorough clean up. Throw out the trash and organize what’s important. Working in an organized environment does wonders. 2. Improve Your Visualization What do you spend your time looking at? Think of the things that make you feel peaceful, inspired, motivated. Come up with creative ways to surround yourself with these images. It could be images of a dream office space, the beach, a bench tucked away in the forest or even a dream work team. 3. Smell What scents appeal to you? Did you know that aromas affect us in different ways? They can be calming, invigorating, and fresh smelling. All of which can be a good motivators. 4. Be Open You owe it to your employees to regularly explain the importance of their work to the company's larger goals. Constantly doing this will give them a sense of responsibility. 5. Break the Process Make it a point to always make things clear and understandable to your team. Break down long-term assignments into clear, achievable, short-term milestones that can be celebrated when achieved. 6. Demonstrate Confidence in Your Employees Demonstrating confidence in your employees is a perfect way to get them performing in an outstanding way. Never down play any opportunity to exhibit confidence, even when their behavior may mystify you. 7. Feel Their Plight Regularly run a poll to know if your employees feel challenged by their tasks. This is important because by listening to what they feel, you give them the positive impression that they are recognized – and that you care about them. 8. Support Creative Thinking Uninspiring working environments always feel lifeless. Therefore, within your power you must foster creative thinking. Give room for ideas and opinions to thrive. You will be amazed at the caliber of “think tanks” you produce when you do this. 9. Lift Spirit Create an environment that lifts the spirit, rather than drains energy. Determine the ways to do this. It may be through words, rewards, etc. Engaging in this exercise means you will be get your employees performing at their best. 10. Celebrate Every Success and Milestone Celebrate every employee and company achievement. The more these things are celebrated, the more employees are inspired to their peak performance. 11. Positively Recognize Employees Employee recognition can, depending on whether they’re being recognized for a positive achievement or a negative failure, can either increase motivation – or leave the employee feeling demoralized. When recognition is offered in a positive manner and implemented effectively, it drives motivation. Stay positive. 12. Foster Motivation Addressing your team in a harsh and inhuman way is one quick way to demotivate them. Stop taking actions that are guaranteed to destroy motivation. Relate with them in a kind and caring manner at all times. 13. Reinforce the Company Image with Branding If banners, stands, posters, and framed logos can have an impact on the way visitors feel about your company, they can do the same for your team. Always reenact what you stand for through these avenues. 14. Let Your Surroundings Be Well Lit Good lighting is crucial in your office. Therefore, upgrading old fluorescent bulbs to new LED’s will save energy and make your space seem lighter and brighter. This will help visibility and make work easier. 15. Monitor & Measure Gather data to assess employee perceptions of the workplace. You have the opportunity to make adjustments if the feedback you receive is negative. If it is positive, you can also strive to become better. 16. Pay Promptly An employee is worthy of his wages. Ensure you pay the salaries of your employees when due. Inspire your team by demonstrating that they can trust you to be mindful of their best interests and caring of their well-being and families. 17. Foster Success When you create a work environment that fosters motivation and healthy self-esteem, your employees will experience growth and development. 18. Love Them and Help Them Grow Show your team you have their interests at heart by encouraging and showing them love at all times. Love is a rejuvenating medicine. Hate them or become resentful in some way and you will lose them to an employer who will do the opposite. 19. Promote Personal Growth Make it mandatory to train your team. It’s not only better for you and your business – it’s also what’s best for your employees. 20. Celebrate Holidays and Create Traditions for Motivation and Team Building Create time to celebrate festive periods with your employees. Traditions are as important in businesses as they are in families. Nothing is more important for employee motivation than the annual traditions workplaces create for seasonal holidays.
Great brands know this and will do anything to keep creating an inspiring environment for employees, because they know this is how great productivity is driven. Reception Bell Photo via Shutterstock The post 20 Power Packed Tips to Create an Inspiring Workspace appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| New WordPress Portfolio Options for Creative Professionals Posted: 27 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST For creative entrepreneurs, having a place to showcase your work online is essential to reaching the right people and gaining success in your industry. There are a lot of options available for hosting online portfolios, but one well-known company just added a new option to the mix. Automattic, the company behind WordPress, just launched a new portfolio option aimed at designers, photographers, illustrators, and other creative professionals.
WordPress offers over 30 new dedicated portfolio themes, from simple options to some that have more style and some that are heavily focused on images. And of course there are a number of other customization options. Some of WordPress's more than 200 existing themes and templates already had some portfolio-like features as well, so there are even more options for users who may want a portfolio combined with a blog or for those who want to get creative with the layout of their sites. The photo above shows just a few of the different options that photographers and designers have for showcasing their images in galleries on WordPress Portfolio sites. But the sites also offer options for videos and other media. Building a basic portfolio site doesn't cost anything depending on the theme you choose, but the site offers a lot of add-on options that come with fees, including custom domains, VideoPress, custom design, and extra storage. WordPress also offers different options for you to share your work with social media integration, contact forms, and of course blogging. This isn't the only niche WordPress has worked to cater to over the past year. The company has also launched website options aimed at bands, weddings, cities, and restaurants. So it's clear that WordPress no longer wants to be known as a simple blogging platform, but more as an all encompassing content management system with options for many different types of organizations. So while portfolio building platforms aren't exactly difficult to come by, WordPress does offer a lot of options that are easily customized. And it's a pretty trusted name since more than 60 million websites are currently powered by WordPress.com or open-source WordPress. The post New WordPress Portfolio Options for Creative Professionals appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Review of Speak Like Yourself: No, Really! Posted: 27 Jan 2013 06:00 AM PST
Or have you ever sat down to prepare a business speech to present in front of your company or an industry group and had absolutely no idea where to begin? Do you panic, get sweaty palms or sick to your stomach, just before a business presentation? If you can relate to any of the above business situations, I may have just the book for you to read that can help you become a better speaker no matter what business circumstance you find yourself in. When the book came across my desk, I thought to myself:
Then I started to leaf through the pages. What caught my eye was the title: “Speak Like Yourself – No, Really! Follow Your Strengths and Skills to Great Public Speaking” by Jezra Kaye. What I learned very quickly in the book is that to be an effective speaker: You've got to be yourself. You need to be your authentic self when you make a business presentation no matter the size of your audience. In order for people to buy your message, they first need to accept who you are and what you represent. That's why you need to "Speak like yourself – No, really!" Kaye, @jezrakaye, takes you step-by-step through the public speaking process from first thought to the closing sales pitch or final bow. You'll learn how to:
The book is for speakers at all levels of experience. If you're new to public business speaking, you'll find a road map for success that demystifies this sometimes-scary process, and allows you to move forward, with confidence, at your own pace. If you're an experienced business speaker, you'll learn to refine and focus your presentations, practice for more predictable success, and connect with your audience at a whole new level. What I Really Liked I really like that the book is its own presentation. This easy-to-read book speaks directly to you through its words. The chapters are organized as though Kaye is having a private one-on-one session with you. The book also includes an “Instant Speech Worksheet” plus how to “Discover Your Public Speaking Personality – are you a Reliable, a Helper, an Improver or an Experiencer?” At the very end of the book, Kaye talks about having fun during speaking engagements. By reading this book and going on the journey of finding, practicing and defining who you are as a business speaker, you really will find that speaking can be fun – rather than something that just goes with the job and you must do it. The post Review of Speak Like Yourself: No, Really! appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
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Have you ever given a business presentation and thought to yourself, “The words aren't coming out right. That doesn't sound like me. That's not what I intended to say.”| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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