Tag Archives: business development courses

Why a New Training Needs Analysis is Required To Manage Over Whelmed Remote Workers by Diane Shawe

Posted on September 23, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here’s Help for the bosses on how to help staff to manage stress when working remotely after and during the coronavirus outbreak by restructuring there training needs analysis.

Order your course today

When you (the boss or your board members) think about thriving in a digital world, you probably think first about technology. It’s evolving so fast that your business constantly has to adapt. But the greatest challenge is not the tech itself: It’s developing a knowledgeable, strategically adept, cognitively flexible, and proficient workforce.

You want people who can command artificial intelligence, analyse data, invent and apply solutions on the fly, and slide effortlessly into new roles as needed.
All the while, they should keep their skills sharp with mobile apps and online self-taught courses. Ideas should flow from all corners of the company, whether from full-time managers or a pool of gig workers who jump in when work heats up.

The demand for a more talented workforce goes beyond adapting to the new digital world. CEOs of fast-moving organisations – enterprises with bold strategies, innovative cultures, inclusive workforces, and great expectations – need highly skilled people.

Unfortunately, in nearly every industry, the best talent is in perilously short supply. At the 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey, 79 percent of chief executives around the world said that a lack of key skills threatens their business growth. Retailers need interface designers who understand customer experience. Banks and insurance companies need data visualisation experts. Energy, automotive, and industrial companies need team leaders who can manage interoperable platforms.

Helping remote workers draw a line between work and timeout

Just about everyone is looking for employees adept in robotic process automation, materials science, or simulations with machine learning that can predict outcomes and streamline processes.

They also need people who can master softer skills, such as managing teams effectively, gaining trust, working across boundaries, or applying neuroscience findings to increase their own stature and influence.

Upskilling is part of the answer. But you also need to rethink your jobs: redesign the workflow, combine some positions, add others, and probably eliminate some. You need to be more creative in finding and onboarding people, including through acquisitions, partnerships, gig economy–style freelancing arrangements, and talent pools oriented to flex work.

Finally, you must fill your enterprise with opportunities for continual self-renewal via modern learning strategies and digital technologies, so that becoming adept in new technologies is just part of everyday life.

Many business leaders realise that they can’t just hire the workforce they need. There aren’t enough prospective recruits, and the expense would be enormous. Instead, companies must upskill their existing employees or members of their communities.

This means expanding people’s capabilities entrepreneurial thinking, employability, often using adult learning and training tools, to fulfill the talent needs of a rapidly changing economy. But the old training needs analysis does not sit well in this every changing cog and an increasing number of remote workers.

A remote workforce transformation brings all these elements together, oriented specifically to your organisation. Your initiative must be led directly by the CEO and the other top executives of the enterprise, because your company’s success depends on the ability and commitment of all your employees.

In a successful initiative, you’ll do more than approve a budget and hold the leaders accountable; you’ll take part in the learning efforts yourself, engage in teaching others, and use this transformation as a genuine opportunity to improve your own skills and those of your direct reports.

Online, Workbooks, Zoom Training available now

Because no two organisations have the same circumstances, there is no single recipe to follow. But together, the 10 principles below can help you ready your company’s remote workforce for the future.

Focus on a few concrete business outcome
Foster emotional commitment
Design a compelling experience
Start with the highest-impact roles
Change behaviour first
Promote citizens led wellness groups
Plan and commit to a comprehensive journey
Engage with cultural influencers
Include everyone but the unwilling
Track results and course

Visit https://www.virtualpersonalassistance.com/training-courses-store

Top 7 Reasons for Buying a Hair Extensions and Hairloss Franchise by Diane Shawe

Posted on May 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

listen to our intro video

Buying a franchise can be a life-changing experience. Make sure it’s a positive experience by doing your due diligence before signing a franchise agreement. A properly designed and executed franchise system can be an exceptional method of expansion, but franchise systems that are poorly designed or not well managed are to be avoided. Below are the top 7 reasons to consider investing in a hair extensions franchise.

An Existing Franchise Is a Turnkey Business

Many entrepreneurs have the skills to run an existing successful business but don’t have expertise in all it takes to get a business up and running, whether that’s obtaining financing or negotiating lease terms.

Buying an existing franchise in a well-designed system can eliminate much of the hard work: choosing a territory, finding a location, negotiating a lease, finding reliable contractors to complete a build-out on time and on budget, establishing vendor relationships, etc. You may also be able to start a business with trained staff already in place.

But, you will still need to do your homework – aside from the transfer fee, your fees and terms may be substantially different than the sellers.

Proven System in Place

When you buy a franchise, you buy a system – an entire method of doing business. Franchises have an established system in place that you must follow to distribute the franchisor’s products or services using the franchisor’s trade or service marks. Having a proven system already in place eliminates the guesswork and errors a common business owner would normally face.

In addition to exercising some control over franchising operations and the franchisee’s adherence to brand guidelines, the franchisor provides the franchisee with franchising leadership and support.

Corporate Image and Brand Awareness

If you buy into a franchise system that is already established, the corporate image and brand awareness is already recognised. Customers are usually more comfortable purchasing items they are familiar with and working with companies they already know and trust.

In the consumer’s mind, a franchisor’s brand equals the company’s reputation. Great franchisors want to ensure that their customers are satisfied every time they shop at a franchised location and that the franchisee delivers on the franchisor’s brand promise.

Higher Likelihood of Success

Buying a franchise is very different from starting a mom-and-pop business. Since there is an already established system in place, there is a higher likelihood of success. If you invest in a proven franchise opportunity and follow the system the franchisor has put in place, you should be on your way to running a successful business.

Easier to Obtain Financing

Lenders are usually very comfortable financing the purchase of a franchise because franchises already have a proven track record. Bankers usually look at successful franchise chains as having a lower risk of repayment default and are more likely to loan money based on that premise.

In addition, some franchise systems will provide in-house financing and/or leasing options. Many systems also offer special discounts for veterans, via the VetFran initiative.

Training

Most franchise companies offer a training program that is typically held at their corporate offices, plus additional training that occurs at the actual franchise location before the grand opening. The franchisor will train you to run your franchise the same way their other franchised locations are run.

It will ensure that you are running your business efficiently, and will help to eliminate any common mistakes a new business owner usually faces.

Ongoing Support

When you buy a franchise, you have the support of the franchisor and the support of knowing you are part of a growing system. You will always be able to pick up the phone and ask questions of the franchisor or even other franchisees.

Established franchisors typically also have field staff who can visit your location to provide coaching and consulting if needed.

Do Hair Extensions, Hairloss and Beauty Franchises work?

It would seem that there is a blind spot towards innovation outside of technology as we forge ahead with directing where the investment opportunities are bedded.

We are living in a new economy—powered by technology, fueled by information, and driven by knowledge. And we are entering the new century with opportunities on our side saddled with huge problems that require new thinking. I believe a percentage of our system must focus on the areas where humans can outclass computers—such as in cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, fine motor skills, and perform tasks machine might currently find unprofitable.

More and more top fortune company’s are giving way to automation primarily to drive costs down, improve reliability, security and accuracy.

I believes that we need to make sure that the type of education and economical opportunity supplied can keep a population in work or self-employment, performing meaningful tasks relevant to todays and tomorrow needs.

http://academyexpresscourses.com/2018/10/17/hair-extensions-franchise-makes-entry-into-market-place/

Find out how to start your own Hair Extensions & Hair Loss Franchise Salon with Need a Hair Makeover http://www.needahairmakeoverfranchise.co.uk

Is there really a global skill race?

Posted on March 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

If there is a global skill race, who’s winning?

Governments all over the world want their countries to have high-value, high-skill economies, and they realise that the first step towards this aim is to have a well-educated workforce. In the UK, an appreciation of the connection between economic success and education has led to widening participation in university, as well as lifelong learning, being politicised as a priority.

But many Commentary from the organisations such as the Teaching and Learning Research Programme shows that this policy prescription may not be enough to avert a significant attack on skilled and professional employment in the UK.

Policy-makers have yet to appreciate the fundamental shifts which are now taking place in the way companies use skilled people. Large firms are increasingly aware that emerging economies, especially but not exclusively India and China, are building up their education systems at a rapid rate. Leading corporations are abandoning the idea that high-end activities such as research and design have to go on in the high-cost economies of Europe, North America or Japan. Instead, they are developing ways in which high-value work can be standardised, as manual work already has been. Once this is achieved, high-skill people in low-cost countries suddenly become an attractive option for multinationals.

This means that we may be entering an era in which many of the young people now investing heavily in their education across the developed world may struggle to attain the comfortable jobs and careers to which they aspire. They risk being bypassed by decisions to send work that would once have come their way naturally to people in Asia and elsewhere, who bring the same skills to employers at much lower prices.

We know that many people would argue that UK employers should provide work for UK people, but with the global competitive markets forcing prices down, UK employers need to remain competitive if they are indeed wanting to sell any of their services.

The Challenge

At least 26 million unemployed people have been looking for work across Europe during the long, hot summer of 2013. They will not be the only ones looking.

Millions of school and university leavers will join them in the search. Millions more are looking for more work than they already have – another part-time job, or a full-time job in place of part-time work.

And millions of others are not registered as unemployed but are also searching for paid work to supplement their income: pensioners in need; partners of someone in work whose wage has fallen; students who are studying full-time but cannot survive without a job on the side; children who are officially too young to work but whose families need the money.

Four key components that contribute to the challenges we all face ahead:

Multi-Generational Workplace
Technological Development
Inexperienced
Globalisation

13 Questions governments around the world will need to address that will affect you and your children’s children.

In order to help shape the debate over labour and entrepreneurial policy for the twenty-first century we need to get involved in asking these questions throughout our communities, educational institute’s and economists. Questions such as:

How do we ensure that workers get the skills they need to succeed in the twenty-first century workplace? (Not just the young people but those unemployed now)
Will employers hire and train workers who initially lack skills?
What happens to the worker laid off from a manufacturing job at age 55 —does he get training in new technologies or is he stuck in lower-wage jobs like groundskeeper, security guard, and warehouse stock controller?
How do we make sure that people with disabilities have access to the technologies that facilitate their participation in the workplace?
How will e-commerce impact employment?

To find out more, order your copy of ‘The new rules of engagement for long term employability’ By Diane Shawe

10 reasons why mlearning is vital to SME’s

Posted on January 27, 2014 | 2 comments

It is imperative that SME's utilise moble learning to improve the bottom line

It is imperative that SME’s utilise mobile learning to improve the bottom line

Why Online and Mobile Learning is Essential for Small Businesses

article by Diane Shawe M.Ed

The world of online learning is changing the way training can be delivered very rapidly. There is no doubt that mobile learning is hot and for good reason. If it is done right, it can produce great results for small businesses by decreasing costs and improving performance. Understanding mLearning’s value helps businesses make the best decisions about when and why to use it. Here are some compelling reasons.

What most people, employers, entrepreneurs and even some educational institutions do not have in today’s current environment is time the necessary resources and the infrastructure they need to support and achieve their learning objectives

“Continued Professional Training is imperative for SME’s if they are to compete from the bottom line up, & become sustainable business. It is not a luxury expenditure but a vital investment as we see more and more Global Small Businesses evolving around the world” says Diane Shawe M.Ed

There are a variety of Mobile Devices to choose from that can be used for Mobile Learning. Some of the more popular ones include: Samsung Galaxy range, Blackberry, Notebook, Palm Pilot, Apple iPhone, Tablets, Apple iPad, Apple iPod Touch, and many other up and coming tablets and notebooks.

So let us take a look at 10 reasons why mLearning is a better approach for training staff within the SME sector…

1. Decreased training costs. With mLearning, each time the course is accessed your return on investment improves because you are dividing the fixed production costs by number of uses. You also have savings through decreased travel, reduced material, and hopefully improved (and more efficient) performance.

2. Less material costs. Let’s say you have to train how to arrange equipment in a sterile environment like an operating room. If you had to use the real environment, it would be costly. Even setting up a virtual environment has material costs and labour. By creating the environment online and letting the learner practice, you never have to worry about the costs associated with set up, use, and clean up. There is also the vast savings on BYOD

Information management courses with avptglobak

Information management courses with avptglobal

3. Increased productivity. Because mLearning is not bound by geography or time, you can control how it impacts on production by training people during down times. In addition, with the current economy, you’re asking people to do more with less. So mLearning is a great way to give them the tools and skills needed to enhance their performance.

4. Getting the message across. mLearning allows businesses create a standardised process and consistency in the delivery of content. It also compresses delivery time.

5. Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning: Live learning events require that those who participate align their schedules to the training calendar. mLearning eliminates this because the course can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Great for businesses and learners!

6. Giving the freedom to fail. Real learning requires some failure. But no one likes to fail in a classroom full of other people. mLearning lets you fail without fear. This encourages exploration and testing of ideas. With the right feedback you create a great learning environment. Worst case, you can always start over. Something you can’t always do in class.

7. Learning and Retaining. The combination of multimedia and instructional design can produce a very rich learning experience that is repeatable. Throw in some good practice activities with feedback and you have a learning environment that’s going to help your learners retain the course content which will produce results.

8. Student Centred learning. Look out the window at a car park. My guess is that you’ll see a dozen or more different cars. They all do the same thing, yet we have personal opinions about what we want to drive; the same for learning. Learners want control. mLearning allows you to offer control to the learners in a way that classroom learning doesn’t.

9. Learning Management: mLearning includes all sort of online technologies. It incorporates some of the tools that allow collaboration and conversation and can capture organisational knowledge that is available for future learners.

10. The Sharing Economy. The foundation of a learning community is built on sharing what you know with others. This is where incorporating a forum with the LMS (Learning Management System) adds value to business mLearning. Depending on how the course is structured, you can encourage sharing of resources and insight gained from the course.

In addition to all these advantages, mLearning is really good for the environment. An Open University’s study found that producing and providing distance learning courses consumes an average of 90% less energy and produces 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than conventional face to face courses.

One of the challenges with making mLearning effective is how you manage the courses and access to resources. If you’re using a learning management system you might consider how that impacts the learning. MLearning is cost effective and can produce great results. It’s all a matter of how you use it. Have at look at our online learning system, mLearning and the eLearning future. Go to: www.expresstraingcourse.com

“The only thing worse than training people and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay”

2 Comments

Posted in educational apps, eLearning, mLearning, mobile phone broadcasting, Networking, online colleges, online courses, online universities, Smartphones, training courses

Tagged business development courses, business startup, diane shawe, expresstrainingcourses, startup ideas, startup loans, workshop courses

10 reasons why negotiation is not the same as bargaining

Posted on January 22, 2014 | 1 comment

Negotiating is less about confrontation and aggression than it is about flexibility and innovative thinking.

Where as bargaining can lead to lots of problems which may not result in a win-win outcome.

article by Diane Shawe M.ED AVPT Ltd

Although people often think that negotiating is the same as bargaining, it is not. Negotiating is a process, and bargaining is one stage of that process. There are three other stages of negotiating, and even those are tempered by timing, intuition, and flexibility to the process. We are going to set out some of the real nuggets you should put in place to establish a firm ground for all considerations.

(Adapted from Shell, Richard: Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People, Penguin, 1999)

1. Do your Research

When doing research and preparing for negotiations, there are three important considerations:

Collecting facts
Knowing priorities
Knowing principles

The facts that you collect are all the direct and indirect information that you will need to back you up during negotiations. With access to information today, it is a much simpler task than ever to accumulate all kinds of data and statistics. For example, if you are preparing to purchase a vehicle or a house, plenty of information is available, such as comparable properties and prices. If you are preparing to negotiate a raise, or are negotiating salary increases at work, then comparable wage statistics, the history of the organisation and its mission and values, previous experiences in the collective bargaining process, and strategic plans are all important concepts to understand.

2. Focus on your priority

Knowing priorities means having a good understanding of what you want from the negotiation. You also need to know what the other party wants. Understanding your principles, both as a negotiator and as an individual, will help you to form and present a case that is compelling and believable.

Understanding the principles of the other party can also be very helpful to you. A little more research can help you to understand what the organization’s beliefs are, how they have approached previous negotiations, what terms seem to be more important to them than others, and what terms they could be willing to be flexible with.

3. Identifying Your Walk Away Position (WAP)

When you establish your priorities, make sure you have a clear understanding of your Walk Away Position (WAP). What is the least that you will accept (or the highest price that you are willing to pay)? Establish your WAP value in your mind and keep it clearly available so that you do not get caught up in the heat of negotiating, either ending up with something you never wanted, or turning down a deal that was better than your WAP. If you are negotiating on someone else’s behalf, make sure that you know their WAP so that you do not make any mistakes in negotiating for them.

4. Identifying Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)

In addition to your WAP, you also need a Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) in your plan. Sometimes an issue can be settled before the bargaining phase begins if it meets your criteria as a BATNA. For example, if you are planning to purchase a home – which is often a very emotional decision – and the realtor comes to you with an offer that you can live with, and you get the home you want without having to participate in any heavy bargaining or entering into a price war, then you may have reached your BATNA. Not all negotiations have to be bargained; sometimes, when you negotiate, you can lose the opportunity to get what might have been a BATNA if you had not been after such a bargain.

5. Working Within the Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA)

The Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) is an area of overlap where the desired outcomes of both parties reside, and where both parties can live with the outcome. Once you reach a ZOPA, the finer details need to be worked out within the scope of what both parties have already found is potentially working for them. For example, if your business forecasting allows for a 2% salary increase each year for the next three years, and similar companies in your industry are offering the same, and the union is asking for 7% over four years, then you may be within the ZOPA.

In general, there are three possible outcomes to a negotiation.

Lose-Lose
Win-Lose
Win-Win

6. Getting Everyone’s Perspective

Gathering perspective is something that can take place throughout the negotiation process. It begins in the research phase, where the negotiator considers the needs of the members of an organization in conjunction with the strategic vision and mission of the negotiation. This does not mean that everyone will get what they want in an agreement; rather, it means that all points of view are considered. There is no point in entering negotiations and reaching an agreement that ignores a section of stakeholders or breaks the law.

Gathering perspective can be a considerable undertaking, depending on the size and scope of the operation. This is one area where outside resources can be utilized (an outside firm conducting employee satisfaction surveys, for example).

7. Developing a Sustainable Agreement?

In this age of complex life and work arrangements, a sustainable agreement can be said to reflect the reality of the business. An agreement cannot be a rigid reflection of ineffective negotiations; rather, it must reflect the reality of business and economic cycles, industries, and real issues that people face. It must also reflect the multiple aspects of the stakeholders who both provide input, and are affected by the results. An agreement also cannot focus on one aspect of the business when the business impacts other industries, cultures, or linguistic groups.

In developing a sustainable agreement, the partners must ensure that, first of all, the organizations that they negotiate on behalf of are interested in having an agreement. Partners must also ensure that negotiating organizations will enforce and take part in the terms of that agreement. If the agreement cannot stand on its own, and the parties who sign it refuse to use it, then the paper it is printed on is useless.

A sustainable agreement really does incorporate feedback from all stakeholders. Although we will never always agree with other people, and although we can write an agreement much more quickly than we can negotiate the terms of one, an agreement is just that, an agreement.

8. Resolving Power Struggles

Negotiating has a lot to do with power. You may find yourself drawn into a compelling conversation that becomes a struggle for power between you and your counterpart. You will have to remind yourself that the negotiation is a process and what your priorities are. The outcome is not personal, and you needn’t get drawn into a power struggle. If you notice that the tone of conversation changes and a power struggle is taking place, one very fast way to disarm it is to take responsibility for it.

You can try a statement like the following:

“Do you mind if we pause for a few moments? I can feel myself taking your last few statements personally and I can feel my heels digging in. Please accept my apologies. Do you mind if we take a short break, and then we can go over this point again once I have had a chance to clear my mind. Perhaps we can try to approach it from a different angle?”

You do not have to mention that you feel the conversation becoming a power struggle. Simply acknowledge the change in tone within the meeting, and then take a moment to collect yourself and regain composure as you move forward. In most cases, the break you put into the conversation may be enough for your partner to also review their approach and consider an alternative.

9. Detach yourself from the outcome

The outcome of this negotiation is not about you personally. If your side wins or loses, you do not become a winner or loser. Very few negotiations actually involve life or death issues. Keep your feet squarely on the ground by realizing that, as a negotiator, your job is to lead people through a process, not to win. Try to think of it in terms of four potential outcomes.

The two of you do not reach an agreement, and the negotiation ends.
Your counterpart will agree to your terms.
You will agree to your counterpart’s terms.
The two of you will compromise on some point in between your positions, perhaps closer to your terms and perhaps not.

In some situations, you have the potential to reach the agreement that you wanted. In other outcomes, both parties may leave unsatisfied. Sometimes not reaching an agreement is the best outcome. (You walk away from a deal with your bank account or integrity intact.) At other times, it is the worst arrangement. (Now, how will you get someone out to fix the service elevator by Friday?)

10. Know your Role and Value

Creating and claiming value are at the heart of the negotiating process. Creating value means that we can develop effective and creative solutions that meet the needs of everyone involved in the negotiation. In negotiation terms, this is commonly known as “expanding the pie.” Claiming value refers to the size of the piece of the pie we receive as a result of negotiation. Many negotiators can do a good job at either creating or claiming value, but not both. Master negotiators do an excellent job of striking this balance by having a good understanding of the interests of both parties, and by identifying common ground, rather than simply aiming for a target and not allowing for any flexibility.

When you are negotiating, check your personal baggage at the door. Think of the things that might be on your mind as you prepare for negotiations.