Creating an Impact and Leaving a Legacy

Making the most of your ability to change things

The word “legacy” is big and powerful. Legacy, to put it simply, is the good that one leaves behind. Without the amazing legacies that many of our society’s heroes have left us, where would the world be?

Read More: Clinton Orr & Jodi Ruta Community Builder Fund

Think about Mother Teresa: One woman’s decision to love without conditions touched literally thousands of the poor.

Think about Nelson Mandela: One man bravely stood up to injustice, breaking the curse of discrimination that had gripped an entire nation.

Think about Mark Zuckerberg: His unwavering pursuit of a vision to connect people had a profound impact on the entire social media landscape.

Fortunately, there are many well-known “legacy leavers” on the list. But these global giants are not the only ones with the capacity to leave a legacy. Within our sphere of influence, regular people like you and I can make significant contributions.

The desire to leave a legacy is ingrained in every person’s heart. Everyone wants to change the world, be remembered, and feel like they have made a difference.

This can be a motivating factor for some people, inspiring them to take on ambitious projects and make remarkable contributions to humanity. However, the majority of us with lesser skills have a significant impact on the world.

Four strategies to leave a legacy are as follows:

1. Develop an honest heart in order to change things.

Without a genuine desire to make a difference, we cannot accomplish anything of great worth. A person’s energy and concentration will be consumed by the fire of true desire once it has been ignited, leading to brave action and tenacity.

In 2006, while volunteering in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Toms Shoes, observed that many of the children were running barefoot through the streets.

He founded Tom Shoes, a company with a distinctive business strategy, as a result of his altruistic nature.

A new pair of shoes will be given to a child in need in a third-world country for each pair of shoes that is sold. Our actions will be motivated by our passions and excitement, which will have a beneficial effect.

2. Focus on your strengths

Our abilities will probably be at the center of the legacies we may leave behind. We typically excel at the things we are naturally skilled at. Positive effects are frequently the result of this excellence-driven mindset.

Take the singer Susan Boyle, who gained international recognition in 2009 after participating in the reality TV program Britain’s Got Talent. The 47-year-old woman bravely made her way to the audition and sang her own rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables, even though she didn’t appear to have the “physical package” of a typical young, beautiful, and attractive star.

3. Operate in your sphere of influence.

Because they believe they lack the necessary platform to make an impact, many people fail to realize their legacy potential. Work with what you have within your circle of influence rather than waiting for the ideal opportunity or the “perfect break.”

The Beatles were forced to perform in local clubs after being turned down by multiple recording companies. In a little more than a year and a half, they put in a lot of effort and took advantage of every chance that presented itself to perform roughly 270 nights. They were estimated to have given 12,000 live performances by the time of their first big hit in 1964.

Their efforts were rewarded. They are regarded by history as one of the most influential bands in music history. Even now, their legacy is still very much alive.

Start small, think big, and build deep. The opportunities that arise when we start with faith, remain steadfast, and put in a lot of effort will astound you.

4. Don’t do it for financial gain.

Great legacies frequently originate from a desire to make a difference. People want to change the world, which is why they accomplish great things.

Making money was not Muhammad Yunus’s intention when he established Grameen Bank. He had a good reason.

His goal was to break the cycle of poverty in society by giving the impoverished access to microfinance so they could operate their own businesses and earn a respectable living.

People who are only interested in making money rarely have an influence on other people’s lives. Even if success is achieved, there won’t be any legacy or significance.

Businesses function in a completely different environment when they have a strong purpose for existing that extends beyond generating profits.

Because they feel their company is changing society, employees are more driven to do their best work. When they get their motivations right, the money usually follows.

Various Approaches to Creating a Positive Workplace

Approximately one-third of an individual’s life is spent at an office.

If that’s not enough, there are instances when work—both mentally and physically—goes well beyond office hours!

Read More: Elite Generations

It is intolerable to work in an unhealthy atmosphere when one spends so much time at work. People soon burn out in a bad work environment since it simply causes tension. If that’s not a problem in and of itself, people who are burnt out gradually become less productive and run the danger of quitting entirely.

What can you do, then, to ensure that the workers in your company don’t have to experience such stress? In order to make people like their work in the first place, you must provide a favorable work atmosphere. Not sure how to carry it out? Be at ease! We will discuss what a pleasant work environment is in this post and how to create one in your company.

What Constitutes A Happy Workplace?

An atmosphere that promotes health and possibility is one in which workers feel free to be who they are. A pleasant work environment prioritizes safety, emotional and physical well-being, and personal development.

Positive work environments indicate that an organization values its employees as individuals, not just as robots. This kind of workplace culture recognizes that employees should have lives outside of work and that their time there should be enjoyable in addition to being effective. People can feel protected, at ease, and have daily opportunities to learn and develop there.

The following are some traits of a productive workplace:

a healthy work-life balance

Prospects for growth

Thinking positively

elevated staff morale

sensitivity and empathy for others

open and sincere dialogue

a pressure-free atmosphere conducive to productivity

What Makes the Work Environment Important?

Are you asking yourself why it matters that your staff members are pleased when your main objective is to increase sales? Such a way of thinking could only result in disgruntled and ineffective workers. And how will ineffective workers help the business grow?

A favorable work atmosphere has the ability to completely alter an employee’s perspective on their job. Your company will benefit when people approach their work in a healthy way. We’ll go into further detail regarding the importance of work culture and surroundings here.

1. Makes Workers Happy

There’s a reason, according to Deloitte study, that 94 percent of executives and 88 percent of workers think that having a happy work atmosphere is beneficial. This is mostly because contented employees make for a pleasant workplace. The more content they are, the more probable it is that they will want to continue contributing to your business!

It is important for managers to understand that contented employees yield superior outcomes, and cultivating a good and healthy work environment is the greatest approach to maintain employee happiness. The creator and CEO of Alarm Journal, Burak Ozdemir, has seen the advantages of this at his own business.

2. Reduces Employee Attrition

For the majority of managers and HR officials, increasing employee retention is crucial. After all, you have to invest a lot of time in training each new employee who enters your company. By the time they depart, they have gained extensive knowledge about your company’s operations, leaving you with new hires to onboard and train. Thus, when it comes to efficiency and production, staff turnover may be a major issue.

Companies may lower employee turnover rates by 58 percent by implementing favorable workplace conditions, according to the same Deloitte report. That is a really large figure!

Given how crucial engagement is to a productive workplace, it’s critical to periodically assess the variables that may be causing employee disengagement and attrition.

In order to boost optimism in the workplace, Barry Elliott, CEO & Founder of End2End Wins, advises businesses to concentrate on the four drivers of disengagement that lead to employee attrition. These fall into four categories according to him: (1) poisonous company culture; (2) poor management; (3) dysfunctional team interactions; and (4) poor job fit. “When assisting executives in identifying the core causes of employee turnover within their organization, I typically discover that one or more of the disengagement factors are at work,” he continues.

3. Draws in Superior Talent

The business culture is of more concern to most individuals than anything else. Consequently, your business will be more likely to draw in and keep the greatest employees in the sector if it has a favorable workplace culture. Naturally, the more productive your staff is, the more smoothly your company will run.

Acknowledging the worth of your current workforce is essential to luring in new talent. Brainchild Communications’ talent director, Hasnain Malik, has discovered the value of ensuring the satisfaction of current staff members when seeking for exceptional candidates.

Creating a Company Website: A Guide for Small Businesses

Operating a business, especially a physical one, without a website is becoming unfeasible. Customers use the internet for everything, including product research, business locations, and hours of operation. If you have things to offer, your website may help you reach new customers and grow your business quickly and affordably. Even a basic, well-designed website can provide you an advantage in your industry.

Read More: Yrityksen kotisivut

The ease of use of website design tools has increased. Coding knowledge is not required to create a visually appealing and useful website. Whatever tool you choose, there are a few fundamental guidelines and best practices to adhere to in order to present your business in the best possible light, make your website easy to use, and give it a polished appearance.

How to create a website for a business

1. Establish the main goal of your website.

A business website may be used as a direct platform for e-commerce, allowing you to sell products online, or it can be used to give basic information about your firm. The most crucial thing you need to do is clearly state what your firm does on the homepage, regardless of whether you design a straightforward website that informs visitors about what you do or a more intricate online buying experience. According to Erin Pheil, CEO of The MindFix Group, a website design firm formerly known as Followbright, clients shouldn’t have to go far to find out whether your business can meet their needs.

“Considerate your unique user experience and the path the user will take while browsing your website,” advised Gabriel Shaoolian, Digital Silk’s founder and CEO. “Users should be able to quickly attain the core objective of your website, whatever the focus may be, and the purpose itself should be reinforced as users go across your site.”

You won’t have to spend as much time setting it up if you don’t want to take payments through your website using Apple Pay. However, you’ll need to employ an outside service to take your payments if you’re a merchant or service provider and want to provide consumers the choice to pay online. We’ll go over this in more detail later in the article.

2. Pick the name of your domain.

One of the most important aspects of your website is your domain name. It’s the URL you’ll advertise on social media and share with both present and new customers. It should therefore be descriptive, simple to remember, and straightforward to put into a web browser. To prevent confusing customers, try to keep it brief and avoid using acronyms, numerals, and abbreviations.

Selecting your top-level domain (TLD) is another need. This is the last character (.com,.net, or.biz) that appears at the end of your domain name. Nontraditional TLD names, however, have been more popular recently. These TLDs might be based on the sort of company, like.marketing,.agency, or.law, or on the geography, like.nyc. The most popular option is still.com, even if these can be descriptive.

After deciding on a domain name, you must buy it from a domain registrar and verify that it is still available. Here are a few well-known domain registrars.

Domain.com

Wix

Squarespace

GoDaddy

Make sure you are not violating anybody else’s protected name when you choose your new domain name by looking up copyrights. If your intended URL is already taken, you may either utilize a domain-buying service from a business like GoDaddy, which will contact the proprietors of your desired domain name, or you can phone the company using it and ask to buy it from them. Each domain costs about $70 for this service, in addition to a fee for their work.

3. Select a web server.

Every website requires a host, or a server on which all of its content is kept permanently accessible to the general public. It’s likely too costly for your small business to host your own website, so you’ll need to choose an outside host.

Based on the financial constraints of your company, there are two options available to you. The less expensive alternative, a shared web host, entails sharing a server with other websites. Dedicated hosting, the second choice, is much more expensive but comes with your own private server and eliminates the need to compete with other websites that might slow down your website. A few website builders, including Squarespace and Wix, incorporate web hosting as part of their monthly plans.

4. Create the pages you want.

Static homepages are only one aspect of a decent website. You should make several pages with different sections of your business, such a comprehensive catalog of your goods or services or a blog area for corporate updates, using platforms like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace. Regarding your website as a whole, make sure every page has a clear purpose, supports the main objective of the site, and has a call to action (CTA) that directs the visitor to another place, such “Learn More,” “Sign Up,” “Contact Us,” or “Buy This.”

One of the most important parts of a website is the contact page, which is your clients’ primary point of contact. Make sure it has all the information your consumers need, including your company’s phone number, email address, and, if applicable, physical location. In order to give your brand a human face, it’s a good idea to add information about the founding team or personnel on a “About” page.

Use a graphic designer or make one yourself if your company doesn’t already have one for your website, business cards, and social media accounts. A unified brand image will make it easier for your customers to find your business online.

Senior user experience manager at Evernorth Health Services Justin Zalewski provided the following fundamental pointers to assist you in developing effective, content-rich pages for your website:

Be specific about what your company does. Condense your mission statement into a single, succinct sentence and start there. It should be apparent to visitors what you do from the moment they appear on your homepage. Dozens of badly written pages are not as impactful as a few skillfully written ones.

Position the CTA wisely: CTA buttons work best when they complement the content on the page. On a product page, for instance, a “Buy Now” button might make sense; but, a “Contact Us to Learn More” button could be more suitable on the “About Us” page. Similar to this, a website with client testimonials may feature a button directing the visitor to your price and product offerings.

Increase speed automatically: Use internet tools to set up as many automatic speed increases as possible. Installing the appropriate plugins will cache some elements of your website if you use a content management system, saving users from having to download anything more than once. Zalewski suggested WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache for WordPress users, which compresses data and speeds up site navigation. If you’re not very tech-savvy, you might need a web development partner for some of the more complex parts like caching and compressing data.

Steer clear of stock photos: The easiest way to take a fantastic website and make it average is to use tacky stock imagery. Using a snapshot of your team or workplace is the ideal option if you’re looking for images to publish on your sites. Pheil continued, saying that excellent product photographs boost revenue, so make an investment in outstanding images of the goods or services you offer.

5. After testing, launch your website.

Verify that your website functions properly across all popular browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, before declaring it is live online. Verify that pictures appear, links work properly, and the format is fluid by clicking on every page and feature on every browser. Although it may take some time, the work you do today will prevent future complaints from users who are unable to use specific functions. [Discover how to build a website that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act].

Additionally, confirm that your website functions correctly on mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones. Given that Google and other search engines have switched to mobile-first indexing, which gives the performance of your website’s mobile version priority when it comes to search engine results, you shouldn’t skip this step.

Analytics is another crucial component that should be included from the start. Prior to the website’s launch, you may resolve any problems and arrange for a suitable arrangement, according to Shaoolian. After the website is live, you may track page performance and use analytics to ascertain why a certain page works well or poorly.

“To get some insight into how your audience is interacting with your site, you can look at which of your marketing campaigns are displaying the highest conversion rates and examine any [user] metrics, such as city, browser, etc.,” Shaoolian advised. “You’ll lose out on important data and be unable to determine which aspects of your website are successful or unsuccessful from the beginning if you… implement this [after] the site goes live.”