Reginald Chan

Category: Business

  • Ultimate Guide To Business Roadmaps For CEO’s & Project Managers

    Ultimate Guide To Business Roadmaps For CEO’s & Project Managers

    Apple sold its first product in 1976, and it was a basic computer named Apple I. Today they have various products ranging from iPod to Macbook, but their marketing strategy remains the same. When Apple launched the iPod, the ad read “1000 songs in your pocket”. Today, the advertisement for the Apple watch reads “40 million songs in your pocket”. 

    The same marketing strategy for two different products at different times suggests how strong the brand vision is. Apple is known today as the company that endorses innovation. The company has produced devices with varied services and innovated explicitly through the years with the changing market trends while increasing their sales year after year. It is a product of a clear brand vision and has a strategically planned roadmap.

    What is the one document that will help a Project Manager, the CEO, the whole team when they get stuck on a project? It is the Business Roadmap.

    A business roadmap is a document with all the key events and timelines laid out strategically. This document helps all teams and employees be on the same page and plan out events in a well-calculated way. Also, there’s no need for you to spend a cent, since there are many business roadmap software free to use. When implemented wisely, it will bring in high profits and excellent investments to the business. 

    Many companies have benefited from having an efficient roadmap. This article talks about everything needed to build and work with a business roadmap.

    What Are Some Of The Common Problems Businesses Face?

    All companies face some common problems that can be solved only by spending time with it, and visualizing. Following are some of these issues:

    1. Lack Of Business Process Management (BPM): Companies largely need the BPM system to grow and enter new markets. They also help in optimizing and automating business processes. A failed BPM system can result in an ineffective communication within the company and, eventually, a decrease in profitability. 
    1. Lack Of Direction/Vision: Businesses grow exponentially when they go hand-in-hand with market growth. To sustain the business in this market in the long run, even billion-dollar companies need to constantly adapt and evolve with the growing demands with keeping the ultimate brand vision in mind. A lack of vision can also lead to a failure in keeping up with market transformations. In this case, you begin to lose your company/market fit.
    2. Failing To Define & Sell On The Unique Competitive Advantage: If your business has not identified what skills and resources it possesses by which it can sell some products and services at lower prices and to a larger consumer base, you miss out on a lot of sales. 

    Competitive advantage has the potential to make your brand more desirable. 

    Importance Of A Business Roadmap

    Airbnb’s former head of global hospitality built a document and called it “The infamous paper to take over the world.” It was a business roadmap. And today, Airbnb is one the best in their industry. A good business roadmap can help your business achieve goals more efficiently, just like Airbnb did.

    What All Does A Business Product Roadmap Have?

    1. Depending on the company and the product, the roadmap can have a few technical information and features.
    2. The roadmap needs to have a vision about how the product will evolve with the market growth. Markets grow constantly and you will need to have a strategy of how your products will be in demand.
    3. Besides an alignment tool, the roadmap should also consist of all the decided timelines. It will help everyone on the team be driven and focused.
    4. The roadmap should have an answer to all the “why’s” behind decisions around the product. Why do you need to attract a certain audience? Why do you need to allocate resources from this source? 

    How To Build A Business Roadmap?

    No matter what others tell you, building a business roadmap is not a very daunting task. Only the first step is a little challenging, and you can keep updating certain parts of the roadmap as you advance through the journey. 

    1. Write down your ultimate vision that you are trying to achieve with your product. You do not need to write what the product is or what the fine details are. Remember, it is a guide to where you want to go, not how to reach.
    1. Calculate and analyze the company to market fit. Are the chances of this fit increasing or decreasing in the coming times? A perfect Product/Market fit will compound itself over time. In simple words: Product/market fit is when people sell for you.
    1. Your business roadmap should prioritize the goal of the business before the features of individual products. You can build these features with time, but remember the goal is your foundation.
    1. Now, decide on an ETA for this roadmap. You don’t have to mark a specific date, but be clear about the approximate time. The ETA gives a sense of time to other team members, which will keep them driven through the entire course of the project.
    2. The last thing you need to talk about in the roadmap is possible risks and mitigation. Let us say one of your products does not do well for any reason; how can you fix it and achieve your goal in the decided ETA? In this part, you do not have to talk about what you will do but how you will complete the objective. It can be paying more attention to the brand’s social media presence or thinking of new ways to hold conversations with customers. Along with the right framework product prioritization in a business roadmap can help determine how you’re going to get down to it

    How Can A Business Roadmap Help Overcome Business Problems?

    A great business roadmap is also an efficient coordination and alignment tool. Here are some ways in which the roadmap will help.

    1. Product managers and Project managers can both benefit from having a roadmap. The roadmap will help in business process management as a great tool.
    2. The roadmap also works as an amazing tool for communication between various teams in the company. The roadmap will be a single reference point to everyone so that the goals are clear and common. It will ideally also compromise each department’s contribution towards the goal.
    3. Having a roadmap also negates the possibility of uncertainty in the timelines of individual products and projects. Clarity arising from this will lead to increased productivity and innovation.
    4. A well-planned roadmap can also help you find investors in your business. Because a good roadmap has all the key milestones and dates lined up, you can plan when to find the investor in your journey.
    5. Developing and updating the plan over time. Since there is such deeper coordination and communication between teams with the help of a roadmap, it will also help other departments know about the company’s accomplishments and advancements. It will make sure that everyone is on the same page.

    Conclusion

    The benefits of having a great roadmap are varied. It will also reflect directly on the overall sales of the company and the leads that your focused and driven employees will bring with them. As Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Wishing great success with building the best roadmap and for your venture!

  • 6 Simple Steps Required to Set Up a Business in Singapore

    6 Simple Steps Required to Set Up a Business in Singapore

    There’s nothing quite like growing a business from the ground up. It takes time, patience, perseverance, and a little bit of luck. Even after all the foundation is laid, the work isn’t done. Keeping a business running takes just as much, if not more, gumption. So kudos to you for getting the ball rolling and trying to figure out how to manage your soon-to-be company. The following will explore the initial steps required to get your business up and running. In particular, we’re going to focus on starting up a business in Singapore.

    Why Singapore?

    There are dozens of countries in the world with legal and tax systems designed to support business owners and encourage flourishing. Singapore had consistently been at the top of this list for the last several years. The country offers a stellar, central location in the southern hemisphere that is positively connected to many other hotspots with high-quality infrastructure. The position is particularly stellar for businesses hoping to tap into the Asian and Middle Eastern markets.

    More than this, according to www.pilotoasia.com/, Singapore is well known by entrepreneurs for how easy it is to set up and conduct business within. Intellectual property rights are strictly protected in the country, and there are very few legal requirements to set up your business there. As well, the tax schemes and existing trade deals keep the majority of your profits in your pocket. A Singaporean location can help reduce the taxes you owe and can limit the number of times you’re paying double tariffs (or sometimes, even single tariffs as Singapore has a fair few free trade deals).

    Given all these business-encouraging benefits, many are predicting that Singapore will continue to be one of the world’s leading business hubs. Even during the pandemic, businesses were making the switch to a Singapore home base.

    Step One: Business Plan

    Of course, no matter where you’re starting your business, you’ll need to have some sort of plan or strategy in place. Many entrepreneurs cite the business plan as one of the most important aspects of a business’s success. Your plan should include well-outlined long-term objectives detailing the products and services you’d like to present to the public, as well as a clear picture of who your audience or customer base is. You’ll also want to indicate what markets you’re planning on serving and what intermediary steps need to be taken to meet these objectives. Take some time to identify the best time to open up your business, your pricing model, and how you’re going to readjust any parts of your plan that need to be reconciled with new information or unanticipated results. Part of your plan will include where you’re going to base your company. Be sure to read up thoroughly on the laws and regulations for the type of work you plan on doing in the area that you want to work in.

    Step Two: A Shareholder And A Dollar

    The next step is to figure out what you need to get your business legally existing. Depending on your industry, you might want to include capital, products, employees able to offer your service, and licenses. When it comes to registering your business in Singapore, there are a few additional criteria you need to meet. First and foremost, you need at least one shareholder and at least one dollar in capital.

    The single shareholder can be yourself. If you’re starting the business with partners, they can also be included (multiple shareholders are, of course, allowed). If this is the case, be sure to agree on the percentage of the company each shareholder owns early on. This will keep things from bottlenecking and slowing later on. Negotiations can take a long time if they’re needed, so best get those out of the way now.

    Step Three: Company Secretary

    To legally start a business in Singapore, you’re also going to need a company secretary. This position needs to be filled within six months of incorporating and must be fulfilled by a local resident in Singapore. You can go about hiring your own secretary or use a service designed to help foreigners start up Singaporean businesses that pairs you with a secretary. You can expect this to cost around $300 per year. This being said, if you have additional skill sets required of your administrative team, it might end up costing you more.

    Step Four: Find A Local Resident Director

    You are welcome to have multiple directors for your company. Legally, they must be people (we shouldn’t have to say that, but you’d be surprised what people have tried) who are at least 18 years old. One of these directors (or the only one if you want to keep things simple) must be a local Singaporean resident. This means someone who is a citizen of Singapore, a permanent resident of Singapore, or a holder of an entrepreneur pass or employment pass. Again, you can go about hiring your own director or use a service designed to pair businesses up with a Singaporean director. You can expect this to cost somewhere around $1500 per year, but as with any position, the cost can increase if you require highly specialized skills or unusual experience.

    Step Five: Secure A Singaporean Address

    Depending on the scale of your business, this might be as simple as a mailbox or as complex as a multi-story building. Read through your strategy as you seek out the right address to host your business. Like with the above points, there are services available that can help find you a Singaporean address to help facilitate business growth. Of course, you’re welcome to take your time and shop around until you find the right site for your company’s needs.

    Step Six: Apply For Business Registration

    Once you’ve sorted out the above things, you’re ready to apply for incorporation. This can be an incredibly quick process in Singapore, sometimes taking only a day. Of course, certain industries need approval from government agencies, in which case the process could take longer.

    The above tips should have given you an outline that can take you from having a business idea to having a Singaporean legal corporate entity from which you can operate your business. Be sure to consistently reevaluate your business strategy to ensure that you’re staying flexible and adjusting to new information and trends.

  • The Different Financial Institutions That Serve as Alternative to Banks

    The Different Financial Institutions That Serve as Alternative to Banks

    So What Are the Different Financial Institutions That Serve as Alternative to Banks

    Like it or not, money is an important and essential part of our lives and always will be. We need it to eat, live, travel and so many more things. Sometimes in the past, it has been deemed past to be obsessed with money, but the fact of the matter is we all need to be a little obsessed with money throughout our lives. 

    Money management is something which definitely should be taught more at school when we are growing up and more open to learning, but it is something we have to find out for ourselves as we delve into the world. Correct money management and understanding the different financial institutions available to us is key. It helps us decide who to trust with our hard-earned money and allows us to build for the future from an early age. Hopefully, the financial institutions you use will educate you along the way best in terms of the best ways to manage your cash and be responsible.

    Back in the day there were a handful of banks that people used to securely hold their money, but as things have developed around the world and technology has advanced, the amount of options available to us with regards to storing or generating money has increased hugely.

    It’s important we all understand the difference between what a bank is and the other financial institutions are, so we can make the right decisions based on our own preferences, requirements, and personal situations.

    Credit Cards

    This won’t be a new term to you but it is definitely worth mentioning as it’s one of the most common alternatives to banks that people use to leverage money. You can apply with an array of different companies and actually, a lot of the main banks offer their own credit cards. As they are a short-term lending option, credit cards come with higher interest rates than most banks or traditional ways of holding or borrowing money.

    There is a reason that credit cards are so popular these days and uses among the masses. They provide a backup for millions of people who might be on smaller salaries or can’t get through the month on what they earn, but can also act as a way to build up rewards and gifts for others.

    If you are new to credit cards or unfamiliar with how they work, the wide range of benefits include:

    • Instant access to funds from a lender and your own credit card which can be used for online purchases and in shops or other areas you might need to spend money like restaurants or bars
    • Suitable repayment plans based on your own earnings and a support team there to help you if you find yourself in a position that you can’t pay it back
    • Loyalty schemes and the opportunity to build up rewards if you use your credit card on a consistent basis. Depending on the supplier you use, building up points by using your credit card can mean being able to claim back financial points at different outlets like food, retail, and travel which is super appealing to users who spend on their credit card regularly

    Credit cards are here to stay but need to be used carefully and if you think you have an issue with the amount of debt being racked up on your account then speak to your credit card supplier and try to work out a more ideal repayment plan.

    Credit Unions

    As opposed to banks and other large financial institutions, credit unions are typically owned by their members and don’t exist to serve the shareholders for profit. Its members’ purpose is to be helping credit unions as this gives the whole organization, its members, and also their partners much wider flexibility in terms of options and the way they operate with borrowing and lending money. 

    Operating in this differing way means they can:

    • Offer better savings rates
    • Provide lower loan rates
    • Give their members overall lower fees on transactions 

    If you want to buy into a smaller, potentially fairer system then researching and looking into a credit union might be a good move for you personally.

    Personal Loan Options

    Some smaller, less-well-known institutions exist to provide people with personal, short-term loans to help in their personal lives. These often come with much higher interest rates than your typical bank or credit card supplier but this means they are able to offer much higher loans than other institutions. This is attractive for people who might need to borrow large amounts for shorter periods of time. 

    Business Loan Options

    Most businesses need money to start, whether that be to employ salespeople, invest in products, or maybe infrastructure. The good thing about securing a business loan is that often it doesn’t go against your personal name, but against the company. This isn’t always the case but can definitely help when you are just starting out, giving you some confidence as a new business owner that if everything goes under then you are not personally liable. 

    Securing a business loan when starting a new company could:

    • Help you invest in your first order of stock, allowing you to get your business off the ground and start generating revenue
    • Allow you to secure a trademark or patent which gives your business some initial value in the market and an edge against your competitor
    • Secure you and your new business a big first deal that gives it the momentum it needs and referrals from happy clients
    • Provide you with the kickstart you need to follow your dreams and chase the vision in your head that you know you are able to execute

    There are many different financial institutions that serve as alternatives to banks and each one plays a different role in supporting the various groups of people or professionals within our society. Real money management and understanding come from knowing what the options are out there before making any rash decisions. Do your research, understand what’s what and see what you think.

  • Step by Step Process to Build a WordPress Website in 2021

    Step by Step Process to Build a WordPress Website in 2021

    Developing a website is not as scary as it was before. WordPress allows users with no technical background to build websites. Simple ‘drag and drop’ options will help you build an intuitive website from scratch. Most websites in the market today are built by individuals with zero developer knowledge. 

    Although web development is a bonus skill when designing websites using simple tools, you can still build a perfectly functioning website all on your own. All the best WordPress reviews show how convenient and quick it is to build a website on this platform. 

    How to Build a WordPress Website 

    Building a website without a developer will help you save on costs and time. You’ll also be able to recreate your vision without any challenges. There are numerous advantages of taking charge of your website development. 

    If you want to build a responsive website without the help of a developer, then here is a step-by-step guide to making the process easy. 

    Choose a Domain Name

    Take your time when selecting a domain name. Avoid the common mistake of using a word that translates to something funny or vulgar in another language. Dive into research and use domain name generators like Namecheap or Domains Bot for some extra help. Keep your domain name short, memorable, relevant, and unique.  

    Buy a Web Hosting Plan

    Your website requires to be hosted on a server. You can choose from three server plans based on your needs – shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting allows you to share the server with other sites. 

    VPS or Virtual Private Server gives you a set amount of resources such as RAM, disk storage, and CPU. A dedicated server gives only you complete control and access to the server. It is the most costly out of the three. 

    Install WordPress

    You can install WordPress manually, but your hosting provider most probably offers an easy WordPress installation option. Mention your domain name and add a password to manage your WordPress site. 

    Choose Your Theme

    Themes are website layouts that change the visual aspects of your website. You can choose from thousands of themes on WordPress or third-party themes. Themes are customizable and allow you to add color schemes, text font and size, media files, menu buttons, etc. 

    Design the Website and Add Content

    You can attach posts or pages to your WordPress site. Posts are perfect for blogs that you regularly add in reverse chronological order. Pages refer to static pages like About, Services, or Contact Us. 

    Install Plugins

    Plugins provide a wide variety of customizability for your website. You can use plugins to add E-Commerce functionalities, SEO optimization, security features, etc. there are around 49,000 free plugins that WordPress offers. You can also opt for third-party plugins. 

    Launch Your Website

    If your site is ready with all the proofreading completed and layout checked, you can click the ‘Coming Soon Active’ link at the top of the dashboard. When you scroll down, you will find the ‘Launch your site’ button. Click on it, and your site is now live. 

    How easy was that? WordPress makes the entire process user-friendly so that you don’t need to hire costly developers, especially if you have a tight budget. Read the best WordPress reviews to understand why WordPress is the best site-building platform you can use. 

  • 6 Important Factors to Consider When Checking for Website User-Friendliness

    6 Important Factors to Consider When Checking for Website User-Friendliness

    User-friendliness is a term that should never be overlooked when it comes to websites. It should remain one of the ultimate goals you should adequately look into when designing your website. It is not about how fancy your website is. You can have a beautiful website with beautiful graphics and designs; however, if the website proves to be a maze to navigate, then the website could be of no greater use.

    Creating a user-friendly website carries as much weight as creating a website with a unique design. Most website owners now understand the essence of creating a user-friendly website. However, most of them do not know some of the features that they should be looking at when determining if their website is user-friendly or not. This article explains some of the key features you should look at when checking if your website is user-friendly.

    What It Means by A User-Friendly Website

    Website usability refers to the ease of using a website, from reading the website content, navigating through the website, completing a task on the website, making a purchase, selecting a product on the website, successfully loading a page. All these are the elements that refer to the usability of a website.

    An important concept that relates to website usability is Accessibility. It focuses on the skills and limitations of your potential website visitors and how they impact how your visitors use your website and consume the website content. For instance, how someone with a visual impairment uses a website is not similar to someone with how someone with proper eyesight will use the website. These are some of the things that you need to put into consideration when creating a user-friendly website.

    Why User-Friendliness Matters to Your Website

    A user-friendly website stands head and shoulder above all other websites. The more user-friendly a website is, the better chance it stands to get more visitors to engage with the website and learn. It will be pretty hard for a user to shop through your eCommerce website, sign up for a program or read your blog articles if the user cannot figure out how to complete these actions or the user gets frustrated in the process of completing these actions.

    From the accessibility point of view, it is not about thinking about a few users with different abilities. The thing is, when you aim to make your website more accessible, you are doing everyone a favor. What is good, user-friendly, and accessible to one category of users will also benefit all your other visitors.

    Determinants of a User-Friendly Website

    1. Mobile Compatibility

    The number of smartphone usages has significantly increased in the recent past. A great majority of the world is now using mobile devices to access the web. This trend has had a significant impact on websites. The traditional websites that were not mobile-compatible have become almost irrelevant in today’s era of mobile usage. Although many industries have mobile-friendly websites, some industries are yet to realize the significance of a mobile-compatible website to its users.

    Ensuring that all your visitors have a great experience, regardless of what type of device they are using to access your website, is very important to your business. If your website takes too long to load on mobile devices or has some compatibility issues, then your website visitors might leave the website and use your competitors’ websites. At this point, you notice how much weight a mobile-friendly website will have on the general success of your business and your website.

    Apart from having significant advantages to your users and driving in more traffic, mobile-friendliness also improves your search visibility, enhances user experience, increases lead generations, and improves brand identity.

    So, how can you tell whether or not your website is mobile-friendly? That’s pretty simple. You can determine whether your website is optimized for mobile devices by checking whether the website scales to display content that fits even smaller screens. The simplest way to check whether your website is mobile-friendly is by using Google’s Search Console mobile-friendly test. You need to paste your URL into the search bar, and you are done.

    2. Website Accessibility

    According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), “the web is fundamentally designed to work for all people, whatever their hardware, software, language, location, or ability. When the web meets this goal, it is accessible to people with a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive ability. When websites, applications, technologies, or tools are badly designed, they can create barriers that exclude people from using the web.”

    A good website should be accessible to all categories of people, including those with visual impairments, the old, and the disabled. Usually, these categories of users will use screen users to access your websites. You must make your website available to all users by adhering to the 508 website accessibility guidelines.

    The W3C has provided clear and extensive guidelines that you can follow to ensure that your website is accessible to all individuals.

    3. Website Security

    Just like having your car get safety approval, you also need to perform a security audit for the safety of your users. A secure website is a user-friendly website. Today, the issue of website security should be taken seriously. This is following the recent surge in data breaches that target small and big businesses. There is no point in running an insecure website that could easily compromise the users’ data.

    To ensure that your users’ data remain safe and secure on your website, you will have to put in place proper security measures and protocols. The SSL certificate has been a great player in matters about website security. To ensure that your website is safe from the ill-work of hackers, you will have to buy SSL certificate and install it on your website.

    The SSL certificate is an encryption tool that protects the data transfers that happen between your users and your browsers. The certificate converts raw data into the gibberish and indecipherable format. It will be useless for an intruder to access encrypted information.

    So, how do you know whether or not your website has an SSL certificate? You will have to check the URL of a website. Generally, a website with an SSL certificate will have its URL starting with HTTPS and a padlock symbol next to it. A website without the certificate will have its URL starting with HTTP and would not have the padlock icon. To ensure that your website users are protected from security vulnerabilities, you must acquire and install the SSL certificate on your website.

    4. Fast Loading Speeds

    Loading speeds and website user-friendliness are birds of a feather that must always flock together. You can not mention one and leave out another. Most web visitors will show a great sense of satisfaction to those sites that load quickly. Their intolerance will begin to manifest in bold when a website starts taking too long to display its content.

    Most web visitors prefer websites that load faster. This explains why websites with incredible loading speeds are associated with low bounce rates. To make your website more user-friendly, you will need to reduce the loading time to the utmost 5 seconds. You can use page speed tools such as Pingdom and Google PageSpeed Insights to determine the speeds of your website.

    5. Effective Navigation

    All the content on your website should be easy to find. The website should have clear calls to action and navigation bars that will direct your users to move from one point to another. You should adequately silo your website to determine its navigation. The most important thing here is to ensure that your users find what they are looking for. If it is an eCommerce website, they should have an easy time going through the entire purchase and payment procedures.

    6. Well-Organized Website Content

    This last bit takes more than just a tool to create a user-friendly website. You should ensure that your web pages, content, and resources on your websites are well-organized. After that, your website will qualify to be termed as user-friendly. You should ensure that you adhere to the 3-click rule where your web visitors should not be allowed to make more than three clicks before they find what they are looking for. A well-organized content will impact your users’ experience and help create an excellent website impression that can help build a reputable brand.

    Conclusion

    Having a user-friendly website will significantly impact the success of your website. A user-friendly website will provide a seamless user experience to web visitors and improve the chances of your website’s success. As you think about designing a website, always have your users in mind. This article has clearly explained some of the considerations you should make when determining whether your website is user-friendly.

  • Why It’s Important To Stay Creative And Productive While Working Remotely?

    Why It’s Important To Stay Creative And Productive While Working Remotely?

    Thanks to the advancements in modern technology, more and more people now have the opportunity to work from home or in any location they wish to for as long as they have the means to get connected. However, one of the first casualties in working remotely is creativity and productivity because of the many temptations you are bound to encounter. This article lists down some of the reasons why it is important to stay creative and productive while working remotely.

    Motivation

    One of the primary reasons why it is important to stay creative and productive while working remotely is that creativity can lead to motivation. For instance, if you feel discouraged or frustrated about a task, doing something creative in your workspace can uplift your mood. This will allow you to focus more on the task at hand, particularly because you get the inspiration or the motivation to keep you moving.

    To help you find inspiration to be more creative and productive while working remotely, you can use mental or physical fitness exercises. The reason behind this is that physical fitness can clear your mind, opening up space for creativity to enter your being. In addition to this, you should also consider that mental fitness is just as important. For instance, you can try to meditate because this is a powerful tool in making space for new ideas.

    You also have the option to dress for success even if you are working remotely. This will provide additional motivation for you to be productive during the day. This will also help you feel better mentally, allowing you to focus on checking the important tasks on your to-do list. When you are properly dressed, you will be prepared for any impromptu calls with your colleagues or clients.

    Better Collaboration

    Another reason why it is important to stay creative and productive while working remotely is that it paves the way for better collaboration with you and your teammates even if you are located in different parts of the world. In this case, you can consider the use of Lucid Spark’s creativity and collaboration solution to help you put your and your team’s ideas into action. When you are creative even when it comes to the means of communication that you and your team leverage, you will most likely find solutions even to the most complex tasks that you need to accomplish.

    There are instances wherein you need to think beyond email when it comes to communicating with your teammates. This is where you can explore the use of other digital tools that can help replicate an in-person experience. For instance, you can try to use video conferencing tools or screen-sharing apps to ensure that people are on the same page during your meetings.

    To help you overcome the challenge brought about by the lack of social interaction when working remotely, you can find a work buddy that you can chat with when you feel the need to talk to someone. You can also try to work in another location, such as a co-working space that will allow you to be with other people for a change. Sometimes, small talks with your colleagues and peers are necessary to get your creativity flowing and boost your productivity.

    There is also the option for you to facilitate non-work interactions with your team, creating the time and space for you to simply talk about hobbies and other topics just as you would during break times in a normal office setting. This will help you be alleviated from stress and feel better connected. In this case, you can try to spend a few minutes catching up before or after your video conferences or host a virtual happy hour to build bridges between you and your colleagues.

    Work-Life Balance

    It is important to stay creative and productive while working remotely because it is the key to a work-life balance. With your creative juices flowing, you will most likely be able to finish any task at hand. In this case, you will have the opportunity to maximize the time that you spend with your family and friends.

    Alongside this, when you are productive, you get to finish what you need to accomplish for the day ahead of time. This will give you the flexibility to attend to other things that matter such as fetching your kids from school or cooking for your family. This will also allow you to focus on self-care for your overall well-being.

    If you are proactive, then working remotely may just be the means for you to live a healthier and more comfortable life. When you work remotely, you will save a significant amount of time in commuting that you can spend on exercising or joining a fitness club instead. You are also less likely to get sick because you are not picking up on the germs of other people such as your co-workers.

    Career Advancement

    Creativity and productivity in working from home are the keys to advance in your career. When you are creative in what you do, you will tend to surpass the expectations of your team members, and most importantly, of your superiors. When you are often credited for the work that you do, you are opening doors to advance in your career. In parallel to this, your productivity will not go unnoticed even if you work remotely as long as your output is delivered, perhaps even ahead of time. Just make sure to think of ways on how to stay creative and productive while working remotely.

    With the advancements brought about by the internet, there are now several reasons why people opt to work from home or work remotely. However, in doing so, you need to ensure that you maintain your creativity and productivity. This is because when you do, you will be more motivated to work, you will have better collaboration with your team, and you will also achieve the work-life balance that you deserve. In addition to this, creativity and productivity will also pave the way for you to advance in your career.