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Business Travel Etiquette in France

June 17, 2017

About France

business travel, France, business etiquette, travel, business

France is the biggest country in Western Europe, a bit smaller than Texas. The country is a between the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean sea; Neighboring Italy and Spain. About 58 million people live in France, approximately 4.5 million of them foreigners.

Language

The primary language spoken in France is French. if you decide to travel to France, it is recommended that you learn the basic language. Your effort will be appreciated and noticed. If you cant’t speak French, start by saying ” Please excuse me for disturbing you, but i do not speak French”-“Excusez-Moi, s’il vous plait, de vous deranger, mais je ne parle pas francais.”

Dress

The French are very meticulous about their appearance and view dressing as an evidence of success and social status.Because of this, it is advisable to wear elegant, stylish and well-tailored clothing is most suitable, shun flashy or bright colored accessories.

Business Hours

Nearly all companies in France work from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm, with a lunch break in between lasting up to two hours. Those in senior positions or executives will stay at the office until 7.00 or 8.00 pm

Holidays

January 1: New year’s Day

April 14: Good Friday

April 17: Easter Monday

May 1: Labour Day

May 8: WWII victory Day

May 25: Ascencion Day

June 5: Whit Monday

July 14: Bastille Day

August 15: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

November 1: All Saints Day

November 11: Armistice Day

December 25: Christmas Day

December 26: Boxing Day/St.Stephen’s Day

A lot of French employees enjoy five weeks of vacation, and many will take up to three weeks of this mainly during July or August.

Behaviour and conversation

The most significant aspect of French behaviour is the importance of courtesy and decorum. When greeting someone, it is expected to shake their hand. But, handshakes in France are light, and swift- a firm handshake is thought to be aggressive.

It is important to stand up straight as good posture is important to the French. Refrain from addressing a business associate by their first name unless invited to do so. The simple courtesy title for men is ‘Madame’, and a woman is ‘Madame’. ‘Mademoiselle’ should be avoided as it is considered old-fashioned.

Occasionally, the French will introduce themselves using the last name followed by their first name. It is okay to ask for clarification if necessary as it can be confusing if they both sound like first names.

It is best to avoid topics related to individual political views or other personal matters when engaging in a discussion. Stick to subjects such as art, sports, food and music. Be willing to discuss your countries political system and history.

There are many common behaviours and gestures that are believed offensive in France.
Try to avoid the following.-

Chewing gum in public- especially in a nasty manner
Slapping an open palm over a closed fist
Snapping your fingers
The OK symbols( making a circle with the dumb and forefinger) means useless or zero in france. Instead use the thumbs up.

What business travel etiquette in France do you know???

How Ego can Ruin Relationships

June 8, 2017

Do you know what spoils the possibility of most relationships starting off?

It is simply because of Ego

Everybody has an ego. It is that self-centered part of us, that is also necessary for survival. The Ego can be useful in handling certain people or difficult situations. The problems start when the ego gets out of control and begins to consume behaviors, attitudes, and relationships.

A typical situation is this:

You are hanging out with a woman you’ve been out with a couple of times. You enjoy each others company, and you know it. You’re really having a good time, and then suddenly one of you gets scared – which always happens. One person gets scared or even both of you.

So all of a sudden, she doesn’t text you back right away, or she doesn’t call like before. And what do you do?

Your ego works by protecting yourself, and you just say to yourself, forget this – it’s not going to work out.

In reality, it is your ego protecting you from becoming vulnerable.

Then you rationalize to yourself and immerse yourself in work or whatever you do. That is Your ego just trying to protect you the entire time.

But you see, Life might just accept one more phone call. Call that person out and simply say, “Hey there, what’s going on? I don’t understand it. We were having a good time, and then you suddenly blanked out. What’s going on?”

By calling somebody out, you’re probably going to get an answer that will be far different than you ever expected. Maybe she just needed that little nudge.

Women like to feel secure. Probably she got a bit scared and insecure, and when a woman is scared, She just wants to be protected by her man.

A genuine man is going to make her feel secure and safe. That’s what women crave – that feeling of protection and security. Women are natural nesters. They look at you as a potential father or husband, and they want to feel very safe with you.

And by you saying, damn it, and just walking away, you demonstrated to her that the little doubt she had about you was 100% accurate. Just because you had to protect your ego and your fear of vulnerability, You wanted to save face.

And just think about it, who could you be saving face from? Her friends if she talks to them or your friends? So If you call her and just ask her what’s up, she’s going to run to her friends and say: “Collins called, and he wants to know what’s up with me. What should I do?” If her friends see that she likes you, they will be encouraging her to call you.

So guess what? Your ego just guarded you against nothing.

Always remember that you are not just your ego except you decide to give up control of yourself to it. It is simply a part of you. You are a spiritual creature with a soul and much more than your ego. You have a heart, which has the capability to love, care, understand, accept, and feel kindness.

Secondly, don’t forget that your heart takes a back seat when your ego is in charge. Learn to live your life from your heart instead of your mind. It might be Difficult, yes, but absolutely necessary for happiness.

Importance of Blogging for Small Businesses

June 1, 2017

I am often asked this question by Small business owners “Should I create a blog?” Or “if I should, what should I write about?”

I’ve seen the difference that blogging makes by building a solid reputation and trust to my business which also translates to website visitors, and eventually sales. And I’m not the only one. Clients have told me that they’ve gotten business from blogging as it’s a brilliant way to introduce your products and services while providing authentic and important information.

So what is blogging?

The term Blog is a simple form for weblog and is a regularly updated part of your website. It is a site to provide useful information connected to your business, opinions, industry, and passions. It’s important to be frequent and steady, but you can keep it simple like creating a habit of writing a simple blog post once per week or month. You also have the option of hiring someone to do it for you.

Is starting a blog necessary?

Here are some benefits of starting a blog for your business.

Builds trust.

people, holding hands, trust, relationship

A blog personifies your brand by adding your voice to matters relating to your brand or niche. Most people will choose to do business with organizations and people they like and trust. Showcasing your persona through your knowledge and expertise creates familiarity, so you’re at the front position of people’s thoughts when they choose to get products or services related to your brand.

Increase your audience.

A blog can grow your audience even before you have a business. Once you’ve developed your niche and you are seen as a professional or knowledgeable individual in that field, you can monetize your products and services.

Improve search engine visibility and website traffic.

The search engine, Google loves new content and compensates your site with better visibility. So, the more fresh content you produce, the more pages Google indexes for people to visit your website.

Be a subject-matter authority.

When you post Insightful, useful and quality information on a subject matter or niche, they increase your credibility in the industry meaning, you’ll get publicity for trending searches.

Market research.

You can get information through feedback in the comments section of your blog. This can help provide important intelligence about people’s needs which will help you in creating products and services that people want.

Newsletter content.

One of another benefit of owning a blog is the distribution of a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly newsletter. Readers will usually value the highlights from your most recent popular content.

Social media strategy.

social media icons, facebook, twitter, instagram,yelp

You can receive high-quality content to your social media channels from a well-maintained, up-to-date blog.

Return on investment (ROI).

Businesses that prioritize blogging have a 13 times growth in ROI year after year. Businesses with 401-1000 pages of quality content get six times more leads more than those with 51-100 pages. Such leads can transform to life-long customers.

Great for networking.

blog, people, children, adults, networking

Blogs increase your scope to potential customers, clients, and business partners, which can lead to consulting opportunities.

Tips for an effective blog

1 .     Make sure your blog is on the same domain as your business website and categorized on your homepage.
2.      Maintain your blog to show that your business is alive and healthy. If it is not possible to maintain your blog, remove the publishing date or take it down.
3.      Concentrate on how you can help your customers. Always talking about your products and services is the fastest way to turn a potential customer off. Your blog should be a source for readers to get valuable, relevant, information not found anywhere else.

Examples of blogs you can start

· A make-up artist could give tips on wedding make-up

· A hairdresser could blog about current hairstyles

· A real estate agent could write about best places to live and how to sell your home

· A baker could blog about cakes and pastries

· Farmers can blog about chickens and farming tips

· A marketing company could blog about the contemporary social media trends.

In conclusion

Blogging is a wonderful way for your business to stand out from the competition. Your expertise in a subject matter will build your search traffic, client trust, and in the long run sales.

How to Create A Personal Brand

May 29, 2017

What is a brand? More often even marketing professionals find it difficult to provide an appropriate answer to this simple question. While some see a brand as a sign, name or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller to set them apart from the rest, others define a brand as a pledge to deliver quality and satisfaction. A brand has equally been defined as a set of assets related to a symbol or name that adds value to the end user. Confused? Indeed, the word “brand” means different things to different people.

We can best define a brand as “a collection of perceptions” that is intended to influence an end-user or a customer. As such, whether you are the owner of a small business, an executive at a Fortune 500 company, a recent college graduate or an electrician, developing a strong personal brand may be the difference between failure and success, between getting that job or not.

With the advent of social media, no matter where you are in your career journey, you not only have the ability but the necessity to manage your brand in real life and most importantly online. Remember, a brand is a psychological and emotional relationship that one has with employers, employees, customers, etc. Strong brands stimulate emotions, opinions, and physiological responses.

The major goal of creating a strong personal brand is to create positive perception linked with your name. Perceptions such as smart, inventive, honest, forward-looking, team player, eager, expert, etc. are all essential traits that employers seek in their employees. In building a personal brand, one has to think of his/her strengths and weaknesses, look at the qualities in which you not only succeed at but need to elaborate on to improve your brand.

In creating a personal brand, logos are as important as they are a depiction of the brand. They are the “shortcut” to the brand identity. Clearly, logos induce emotion, when we spot the Starbucks circle, what come to our is the freshly brewed coffee and looking at AFLAC reminds us of that crazy duck, and so on. Personal brand logos should be clear, simple and understated. Most people go for either a small geometric figure, their name in a particular font or just their initials as their personal brand logo. A logo makes your card, CV and emails stand out from the rest. Remember, your personal brand could be your name, and perhaps a tagline such as marketing expert, financial executive and so on.

Certain brands are not tangible but are the feelings, thoughts and psychological relationships between two or more parties, your brand is the basis of all your marketing undertakings, determining the strength and position of your entire marketing agenda. Just as a house foundation needs to be robust enough to hold up a building, your marketing base must be solid. In other words, your brand must be about you and must be the truth.

Personal branding produces both external and internal benefits. Externally, you develop an identity that resonates with potential employers and customers. Your brand needs to evolve emotional links with your prospects. This is vital because often people don’t hire individuals or buy products based on logic, they often act based on their perceptions and emotions.

Your personal brand should serve as an internal compass, navigating you in the right direction in all your endeavors. Everything you do could make or mar your personal brand. A clear personal brand will set a clear appreciation of what you are about.

Your personal brand is the totality of many factors such as your body language, the way you handle yourself in personal and business activities, the clothing that you wear, your personal style i.e. grooming, hairstyle, etc.

There are key steps on how to successfully create or develop your personal brand.

Step one- Research and reflection.

You must define your goals, core values, and mission from the onset. You need to assess your audience and competition and form your uniqueness, i.e. what makes you different from the pack. A solid brand will give you an advantage over the competition.

Your personal brand is established by all your actions, your style and the people you associate with. Bear in mind that your personal brand is more of the way you market and project yourself to the world.

In summary, the first step of building a personal brand is simply establishing who you are and what message do you want to pass across.

Step two- Establish your logo and tagline.

Once you define your personal brand, including your unique selling plan, then define your logo and tagline. Regardless of the kind of logo you settle for, once it is developed, it must be consistently used everywhere and anywhere. Use it in all your social media profiles, on your letterhead, business cards (yes, order good quality personal business cards), press releases, email signatures, etc. The goal is to get people recognize and identify with your logo, hence your brand and ultimately your name.

Please don’t get hung up looking for a perfect logo, a monogram or your name in a simple text may just be perfect. Indeed, the simpler, the better. Consistency is what matters. For instance, if you determine your name will be in a certain color and font, make sure this is the same in all your communications i.e. your digital signature, letterhead for your resume and cover letter and so on.

As stated earlier, a logo is a summary of your brand. Just think of logos, such as a swoosh, an apple, and good ole Col. Sanders, and think how quickly Apple, Nike, and KFC come to mind.

Your tagline should be a group of words that you believe describe you, professionally. Your tagline should be a summary or a short title. In my career, I use several taglines: global banking expert, global financial executive, an accomplished author, or a cost-saving specialist depending on the target audience. Warning: It is important to use this methodology with extreme caution, as you do not want to put your audience in confusion, which may weaken the power of your brand. Your personal brand statement is merely a more elaborate tagline, a sentence or two describing you and how you want the public to perceive you.

Step three -Develop your online repute.

Build a personal website linked to your first and last name. Use your branding and logo here. It is a must to have a personal internet site. This is much cheaper and easier than people think. As sure as the sun, your potential employers and customers will search your name to gather information on you, your career history, your personality, education and personal life, etc. After all, we all “Google” the people that we speak to or meet over the course of the day, especially those whom we want to know better or impress.

Build a robust brand name with online feeds that will uphold your personal mission, highlight your career accomplishments and demonstrate your goals for the future. Just as it is significant to build a real brand, is equally, if not more vital to protect yourself against any negatives factors affecting your brand.

Maintain a neat name. Start by reviewing the several social media sites in which you partake. Remember, you are no more that 16-year-old trying to impress your friends, enemies, and the “love of your life.” Make sure that these sites are devoid of anything that could negatively impact on your reputation. Look at pictures, tweets, postings, and any other activity that would be seen in the negative light. Remember, potential employers or customers may not look favorably at that picture of you and your pals guzzling beer out of a funnel at that frat party, wearing togas. My motto is hit delete when in doubt. But remember, once anything enters cyberspace, it really never leaves it. So going forward, do not post anything that you do not want to see on the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

After that task, search your name in different search engines and look to handle any negative items that you can identify. While I’m not advising you should present yourself as PollyAnn on social media, because people won’t rely on that either, it is, however, important that you highlight the positives and curtail the negatives.

Step four -Write a blog.

Find something that fascinates you and write about it. It must not be a work of art, another War, and Peace, but it should be a concise and short posting that informs the reader about something that you know, which they may not know. This is your chance to project some personality so that prospective employers can see the other side of the multidimensional you. A word of warning, always play safe. Avoid controversial topics in your blog to limit the chance of irritating potential employers. Unless it is essential to your career, do not touch on hot topics such as religion, politics.

Writing a blog does numerous things, it is a source of info for your connections, it establishes you as an erudite well-rounded person, and it places you in the vanguard of people’s minds. Do not underrate the power of a one-page short article.

Apart from the external benefits, writing a blog keeps you involved in current events, improves your writing skills, and offers a level of discipline, assuming that you dedicated to writing your blog some days per week (which is highly recommended). Now that you have a blog post share it anywhere you can. Post it on your social media activity pages i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, your website and post it to as many blogs as possible.

The fifth and last step discussed in this series is a contribution.

Now that you have created a brand, a vent for your brand i.e. your website and the blog, you need to get a lot of people to see you and your work. There are several means of achieving this, one of the commonest ways is commenting on other people’s blog posts, most likely they will reciprocate. Moreover, it is yet another means to get your name out in social media. It is essential however to keep your comments to the point, short and non-confrontational especially if you have a distinct perspective. While you may add supplementary facts to support your viewpoint, it is likely better not to comment on that specific post. There are always other opportunities.

Now that you have defined your brand, developed your logo and personal statement with an active website you have concluded the first steps in building a brand. Going forward, think of everything you do as affecting your brand in either positive or negative ways.

Traveling alone? Here are 3 of the most frustrating problems and how to fix them.

May 8, 2017

Traveling alone to any attraction spot can be quite an adventure and challenging for most travelers accustomed to traveling with people.This can be a wonderful opportunity to see a city in a new way and meet new people; you get to decide on your time and schedule without worrying about someone’s else’s, plus you can easily get that one last seat on a plane or the tour bus without thinking about a partner.

You can also travel light and easy and without arguments between couples that often tend to ruin trips.

Traveling solo is an opportunity to take risks as an adventurer but the travel industry is generally set up for people traveling in pairs or groups and let’s be honest traveling with a companion is a lot of fun because there you have someone to share your experiences,it’s easier and cheaper to get a better deal on package tours, hotels, and hostels. However, with any decision in life such as traveling to that new tourist spot, there are going to be advantages and disadvantages especially when it comes to traveling alone, so it is up to you to weigh the pros and cons and decide on which path is better for you.

The Trip Advisor forum is helpful for solo travelers who need to find out experiences of other people who have traveled to the same tourist destinations and the travel channel is a great way to find out information about countries, their terrain and tourist attraction spots which are necessary to know as you are embarking on that solo trip.

Howevertraveling alone can have some frustrating problems and so I thought to share three of the most frustrating problems and my solutions to fix them.

Problem number #1: paying more than necessary.

This is more common when visiting that tourist attraction for the first time, and as a solo traveler, there are people that would like to rip you off like cab drivers, tour cruises, and packages intended for couples at discounted rates.

This can be quite frustrating and annoying to think that the travel industry has more packages for couples to tourist attractions than one person plus there are cab drivers or tourist guides who would want to rip you off because you are alone. This can be too much to bear, there’s safety in numbers, and so most people are bound to take advantage of you being a solo traveler.

Solution: proper preparation and planning can make a huge difference.

Doing your research on time to find out how to get to tourist attractions in a cheaper solo rate will help you. Visiting sites like Trip Advisor and watching travel channel can help you in making more informed planning and preparation decisions about the easiest routes in getting to places faster.

You can check for cheaper tour guides, and cruises for solo travelers online and find easier directions to the destinations you are headed to and the average costs. Learn or have a small book of the common written languages of the area so that you can communicate to the locals in the area and ask questions if you are not sure of anything, it never hurts to ask.

Haggle prices with cabs if necessary or if you are not sure of the price, and you don’t want to be ripped off by them. Good research, planning, and preparation before that trip can make your trip much easier.

Problem #2: Getting sick while you’re on holiday.

This can dampen your mood when you are on a holiday visiting various tourist attractions however, sometimes due to the stress of traveling, the long hours and stopovers, change of flights or buses and lack of sleep, rest or food, it might likely come down to a breakdown of the immune system due to exhaustion.

In times like this, it is often sad enough being alone and having to take care of yourself in a strange country, and you might wish you had a familiar companion to help you. This can also put a stop to your adventure plans when you realize you are too sick to go anywhere which can also be quite boring.

Solution:Take it slow and take care of yourself.

In holidays where I have fallen ill, most times strangers have turned to friends and have helped, and this may happen to you too, but the best bet in such scenarios is to take care of yourself by taking it slow, resting and sleeping when necessary and by eating right.

According to Trip Advisor, it is often advisable to take a basic medical kit when traveling and of course arrange travel insurance for major emergencies as this can come in handy. Whentraveling, you may get little travel aches and pains and the occasional cold. Find company or comfort to get you going and find out chemists where you can get treatments for a little cost. The most important solution is to take it slow and take it easy on yourself.

Problem #3: letting your fear of others rule.

When traveling solo, we try to be careful of others which should be so but allowing that to turn to fear can be a problem. Traveling alone is often a wonderful way to learn how to cope with major and minor difficulties.

Solution: make friends and talk to people.

What’s the point of traveling solo if you don’t get to make new friends? Try to make new friends on your way to those tourist attraction spots and chat with the locals. Be friendly with people in your hotel or hostels so that you don’t end up thinking too much or having a boring stay.

This is a time to mix up with people instead of being afraid of them, I have gone to so many places alone and have ended up making good friends that have lasted for years, this will make your journey more interesting and memorable. Traveling solo forces you to reach out to people to learn from them and talk to them. It might be scary because they are strangers but strangers often turn to friends and are often worth the risk.

Travelingalone is worth the risk and brings experiences that you share with others. It also makes you a more confident traveler because you know what to do in a similar situation in another journey to various tourist attractions.