Flunk Me

The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.
18
Oct

Keeping Business Relationships From Failing

You could be a marketing agency or a retail store; regardless relationships are core for all businesses. Friends, family, vendors, customers and especially employees are all a huge impact of your business and if you do not have good business relationships, it can be a bit challenging to manage. But, if you do it well and identify any problems early, you can easily increase your likelihood of success for your business.

When you operate your business with honesty and integrity, it will make it easier on yourself as a business owner to address each issue without being challenged by others – Try to be as transparent as possible with business deals. If you want your business relationships to stay strong, make sure you are available to discuss any concerns and problems when they are brought to you.

Usually the old saying is true; “Customers Are Always Right!” even when it truly is not, the customer still needs to feel like it. When you care for each of your customers it is at the heart of your business so if you stay in contact with them and identify any early issues it prevents small issues from growing larger. If you are in a situation, admit all of your mistakes early and make quick corrections which will increase your customer’s loyalty over not making mistakes at all.

Even though you could not operate your business without any vendors and or suppliers, they really can be a source of frustration at times. When each of them encounters a problem, it will impact your business and customer satisfaction.  Be sure to let the vendors know beforehand what your expectations are and how problems should be solved. When an encounter is on the table, explaining how your business was impacted helps the vendor feel not so much attacked. Address each problem early and do not let any issue grow, but if they do, always keep an eye out for a replacement.

Your businesses employees are the backbone – They are free marketing, customer service and support for you. Provide each of them with a solid understanding of their role and how it fits into the business’s overall success. Of course, be sure to listen to ideas and concerns from each of your employees and learn to identify early signs of an unhappy team member because it can affect the entire business with negativity.

When you provide your staff members with rewards, challenges and flexibility, it will help keep the majority of the team happy, but sometimes you will encounter issues where a hiring mistake happened or an employee is not performing due to afterhours reasons that you cannot change. If you have an employee who has a negative impact on your business, customers and the rest of the team, you should most likely terminate them.

When you take care of your business relationships, it will help your business successfully. Remember be aware of subtle cues and respond immediately, appreciate those who support your business and you will find your daily work life run much smoother.

posted by admin in Business,Employment,Failure,Job,Personal,Success,Uncategorized and have No Comments
Tags: , , ,
11
Aug

10 Reasons Why You Failed Your Driving Test

Each year more than 100,000 Canadians fail their driving test, making the passing rate only 43%. Usually men are more than likely to pass for the first time rather than woman, yet interestingly enough men are statistically more dangerous drivers. Nonetheless, the pass rate is still extremely low, particularly when multiple people who take their test feel they can drive already.

Are you just sick and tired of your best friends driving their girlfriends or boyfriends out of town to a Toronto bed and breakfast or your embarrassing mom driving you to a Yorkville salon? Maybe it is just because you need to get out of the house because your grandpa cranks the furnace to something no one can tolerate in the house, regardless you just want to drive and you cannot lose to fail another driving test and walk another 5 miles to your ‘overcoming air freight classes’ so what are you going to do? Instead of repeatedly failing your driving test why not actually figure out why you failed in the first place?

Below you will find 10 reasons why you failed your driving test:

Did not follow road junctions/roundabouts properly: In order to pass the junction/roundabout task in the drivers test you need to know that you should always indicate that you are turning right, regardless of knowing everyone turning right.

Reversing around corners incorrectly: Practice makes perfect of course, but you need to study the correct ways to do so in order to pass this certain task.

Steering incorrectly: You need to remember to feed your steering wheel through your hands naturally. If you did not follow this specific task, this is probably why you failed.

Not using proper gears: This is crucial to follow the proper gears: As soon as you move to stationary make sure you go into 2nd gear, from there you will want to be in 3rd gear at 20mph, 4th gear at 30mph and 5th gear at 40mph.

Not parking smoothly: Practice does make perfect again, but the best bet for you would be to stay away from the curb and align your wheels with other parked cars.

Not using your mirrors often: This might become a surprise to you, but often enough people do not use their mirrors enough. In order to pass your drivers test you need to use your mirror every split second and check your blind spots often.

Driving too slowly: You may be trying to take precaution, but this will show the instructor that you have a lack of confidence in your driving skills. Drive at or just a bit under the speeding limit.

Incorrect turning: As soon as you would like to get into a different lane whether it be on a highway or the streets – you need to indicate as early as possible and not force your way through by pulling out half way.

Hesitation: Any sign of hesitation in your driving skills will show that you have a lack of confidence in your driving abilities. Do not rush – impatience is a lot worse than hesitation.

Taking eyes off the road: This is a huge mistake many new drivers face and is a reason why many of people fail the drivers test to begin with. In order to pass your test successfully you must never take your eyes off the road unless you are changing lanes, checking your blind spots or if your car is in complete stop.

posted by admin in Failure,Health,Personal,Success,Uncategorized and have No Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
21
Jul

Why Is Your Website Failing?

There is nothing more disappointing for a business than a website that fails to deliver results – especially if you spent a fortune with a web design Toronto company. You may have visitors come to your website, but the website fails to convert visitors into clients or customers. There are multiple reasons why a business website fails to deliver and below are three main causes as to why:

1. Website Does Not Build Trust

Trust is a primary driver of online sales because it has a huge impact on whether or not a visitor becomes a customer. Before a potential customer makes the decision to call you, fill out the online form or make a purchase, they need to know that they can trust you. For instance, if the potential customer has never heard of your business before and just happened to come across your website through a Search Engine, then you must prove your business through the design and content of your website because the two work together.

The design of your website should be up to date and should reflect your industry while being unique along with inline with your company brand guidelines. Your website should also be well maintained which means it should work in all new browsers.

As for the content, your business should show as many press mentions, awards, certifications, affiliations, security badges, case studies, testimonials, high profile clients, leadership profiles and so on. Whatever will establish your business as a reliable company will help gain the trust of your visitors, especially those coming to your website for the very first time.

2. Sending Traffic To Your Homepage Only

Websites simply require visitors to go straight to a webpage that may or may not correspond with their interests; if it does, it has a much greater chance of engaging the viewer and turning them into a customer.

For example, when you are sending an email to a prospect, do you send them a link directly to your homepage or to a page that directly addresses their needs? Or when you run an AdWords campaign for a specific service your business offers, do you send visitors to your homepage rather than the page that describes that certain service? Well, if you answered yes to any of those questions, then you are guilty of poor traffic segmentation and it is actually costing you new opportunities.

The reason why most business owners send traffic to their homepage is because they do not have the confidence in their website’s sub pages. Many businesses that have a website online treat their sub pages as an afterthought where they place more emphasis on the homepage planning and design, but the truth is more attention should be paid throughout the whole site.

Further down the sales funnel a new visitor travels, the more important each subsequent page actually becomes. Take for example, an e-Commerce website should be spent on planning the product and the checkout pages where the homepage should only serve the means of directing traffic to other sections of the website the visitors are interested in.

To effectively have traffic go through your website you should segment traffic through different categories and sending individuals to specific pages they are interested in. This is essentially more for visitors who have already been to your website simply because they do not want to view your homepage again.

If your website does not have a landing page already, create one. A landing page is any page on your website that visitors land on or click through an ad, newsletter or a search engine result. This means you should have a landing page for each type of visitor.

For example:

  • Prospective Customers Looking For One Particular Service
  • Prospective Customers Who Need A General Category Of Services
  • Existing Customers Who You Hope To Upsell

Each landing page you create must sell a visitor on your product or service or at least effectively take the visitor to the specific page.

3. Poor Call To Action

Every page on your website should simply have an objective which will move the visitor one step closer to taking action. In order to do so effectively you will need to have an effective “Call To Action” on each page such as a prominent button or link that moves the user along. In order for the call to action to be effective it needs to be easy to find if you want it to work. Do not rely on the “Contact Us” link on your navigation; there should be a call to action visible as soon as the page loads as well at the bottom of each page where most users end up after reading your content.

Not only does your call to action need to be visible, but it also needs to be something that the visitor actually wants to do at that point in time. Have you ever gone to a website for a service and found a button that states “Request a Consultation” on the homepage – Well, if you have not even figured out if they provide the service you need  why would you want to request a consultation? Would you not rather read something such as “Browse Our Services” or “Read Our Case Studies”? The only way a strong call to action will work is once a visitor has entered a sub page, than it is more than likely they will be ready to request a consultation.

Do you believe your website is failing? Maybe it is time for your business to rethink your website and really focus on the important parts that will allow your business website to deliver results.

posted by admin in Business,Failure,Success,Uncategorized and have No Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
15
Jul

Why Is Your Diet Failing?

If you pay close attention to diet advertisements on TV and in Magazines or on your favourite websites, then you probably think losing excess weight is one of the most easiest things in the world. Those diets promise everything, they say you will lose five pounds in one week or that you will lose a stone every month while gorging on your favourite dishes, but if losing weight is so easy why do so many of us fail at it? Multiple natural health Toronto doctors state  most of the time diets fail more than they succeed, but you might be surprised to see that you can change your diet failures to successes if you understand exactly what the reasons were for failing at your diet to begin with.

The truth is losing weight is a difficult task and is hard to have the willpower to avoid foods that you enjoy that are packed full of calories – It is extremely hard to get ourselves to spend time cooking healthy dinners when we are so used to sticking something in the microwave and it is especially hard to motivate yourself to get up and exercise. The problem that most of us have is our bad eating and lifestyle habits have actually become ingrained by years of repetition and when we try and change our ways it is extremely hard to change the course, it can be done, but it will take a lot of hard work.

The main reason why most people fail at their diets is because they do not have a good enough reason to even lose weight which means they do not have the proper motivation. If you feel you just ‘sort of want to lose weight’ then you will never have the strength to successfully do so and to actually force that change in your life. You need to change your bad habits in order to successfully lose weight, if you do not in a week or two you will be back on how you usually eat and how you live. However if you need to lose that weight because of health reasons or you were turned down by your dream partner because of your weight, then suddenly you will have the strength to give up your bad habits and change your life.

The second reason people fail at a diet is because they bend the rules a little too much and when you begin to bend the rules then where do you stop? You may find yourself indulging in a chocolate brownie one of your co workers brought in, but right there is where you are letting your bad habits get a grip on you again. And then it begins all over again and if you do not know how to get back on track quickly again and follow the diet exactly, those cracks will become bigger and bigger until you crash your diet and go back to your old eating habits.

If you really want to lose that weight then you will first need to find an actual reason to lose that weight, something that will motivate you through the tough times and then make sure you follow the diet exactly and make sure you never cheat even a little bit.

So if you really want to lose weight then first of all find a strong reason to lose weight, something that is really going to motivate you through the tough times, and then make sure you follow the diet exactly and don’t ever cheat even a little bit. If you let those cracks appear then your hopes of losing weight will quickly turn to dust.

posted by admin in Failure,Health,Success,Uncategorized and have No Comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,
07
Jul

Why Do People Fail?

“Why do people fail?” is a question that is commonly thought of and most of the time when an outcome you are pursuing fails to materialize, regardless of all the hard work put into achieving it, you may ask yourself this very question to prove to yourself that it wasn’t actually your fault!However after you defeated the irritation and anxiety that welled up inside you, you begin to realize that the main reason behind the failures was your very own belief system. You second guessed yourself each time and it became overly critical of each decision you made, you set yourself up for the failure right from the start.

Take for example, have you ever worked for an Ottawa roofing company and while you were putting together a roof you forgot to put on a builders felt which protects the wood underneath, so you got fired for it? Or maybe you worked for a Toronto accountants business and you accidentally forgot to reconcile an account your boss told you to do, so he demoted you. Maybe when you were putting your sunrooms together at the cottage you failed to put in a door and you had to start all over again. And then there is always forgetting to drop off your son’s Letter of Intent at the community college for an IT Staffing program.  Those are all perfect examples of  failure, but what can you do to defeat the battles of failure?

Below are three self-defeating thoughts most of us regularly battle with failure:

1. “I have no idea what to do!”

Usually when someone is confronted with a situation that you had not encountered before, your immediate reaction would be to panic! And then you quickly find comfort in the ‘tried and tested’ solution with the thought, “It’s worked in the past, why wouldn’t it work now?”

You may even ask, “What’s wrong with what I did, it was just a simple mistake.” Well, it is because you just did not trust yourself, you ignored the solutions that could of been more feasible, fearing you lacked the knowledge and skill to implement them effectively. You even overlooked certain facts and guess how it ended? Well, you got fired, demoted, had to start all over again or even hurt someone you cared for.

Skill and knowledge come with time and practice so you should never be afraid to explore the unknown. Knowledge and wisdom are obtained through experience. Skills can be improved if you put your mind and heart into refining it daily – do not let your own fear of the unknown smother your chances of arriving at a better solution. Whatever your outcome may be, use it as an opportunity to learn – this way you can overcome your own self-doubt.

2. “I am not good enough.”

In the past, often enough people come to a crossroad where they take on more of the beaten path because they mistakenly perceive life to be a numbers game.

We are all unique in some way, no matter what others might say – you are good enough and are capable of achieving great things if you believe it to be. On a different note, you will fail if you think you will – this is why many people fail to begin with.

Make sure you are well grounded, know who you are, believe in yourself – winning or being good enough comes from within not from others.

3. “I am afraid of failure.”

Many of us become petrified with the mere thought of failing because of something in the past. You would think you would only act if the outcome were such a thing, but the problem most of the time is recognition, wealth and praise went to those who actually took the risks and had the battle scars to prove it.

The truth is that you have not failed until you tried and lost. How would you value your victory if you have not even tasted the defeat?

Never be fearful of failure – this is another reason people fail in life.

If you encounter these same thoughts on your own daily challenges, the key to success is within you. Make sure to dig deep and gain the strength to look at yourself in a different light. You already have what it takes to become successful – all you need to do is shift gears.

posted by admin in Failure,Uncategorized and have No Comments
Tags: , , ,
21
Jun

Five Ways To Fix Your Failing Resume Service

Personal Resume Service, Not Working Out?

I am sure this above picture looks a little familiar and you are experiencing some hardcore failure with your resume. You are sick and tired of looking at the same blank piece of paper, the same words and even worse you are sick and tired of working on your failing resume.

Below are FIVE ways that will help you rescue your failing resume and land that coveted job interview you have been longing for:

Applying for a new job really is a full time job, especially if your failing resume reaches the shredder before even making it to the hiring manager’s desk. If you have been applying for several positions in your city and have not received one single bite, then it is probably time to revamp your resume. With Canada’s low job rate that has barely budged since the start of the recession, it is a tough market for job seekers, but do NOT let the slumping economy discourage you – If you have a resume where you can tell it has a lot of work put into it, the chances are your resume will be one of the first to be looked at.

1.Remove All Weak Words: Weak buzzwords that fail to demonstrate specific skills and qualifications are as follows: ‘experienced‘, ‘successful‘, ‘responsible for‘, and ‘team player.’ This is extremely important to STOP hiding behind a list of vague responsibilities by using quantitative figures to support your skills and accomplishments.

How To Fix: Focus on numerical facts and prove you have the goods to get hired. 

Poor: I was responsible for customer support.

Acceptable: Over a three month period, I reduced customer support calls by 25%.

2. Keep It Short: Have you been handing out a resume that is a real page turner? If your resume consumes more like a short story, confessional or an autobiography, chances are that is one of the many reasons why your resume has been failing and you have not been successful in receiving an interview.

How To Fix: You have about 15 seconds to make a first impression, a good one for that matter so do not force the hiring manager to flip through pages after pages to understand who you are and why you would be great for their business.

Keep your resume at one page, two at max!


3. Customize: In this economy and using boilerplate on your resume, will not cut it. Successful resumes are focused on a specific job title and address the company’s stated needs.

How To Fix: Do NOT apply to a job position with the same old resume you have sent to 50+ other company’s – You will want to ALWAYS review the job description, customize your resume with your most relevant qualifications and write your resume to reflect the employer’s requirements.

4. Get To The Point: Hiring managers simply skim through the resume before their fast decision, so try and keep your resume concise. Rambling sentences, long paragraphs and verbose language will put anyone to sleep.

How To Fix: Start by using bullet points and short sentences to feature all your skills and qualifications so it will make your resume a lot more skimmable to the reader. Also take note that a little white space can increase your resume’s readability so do not be tempted to fill the whole page with words.

5. Action Verbs: Does your resume sizzle with excitement or slump into a stupor? If your resume reads like a snore, you need to wake up your resume and add in a few action words or verbs. Doing that will show prospective employers actions you’ve taken on in previous jobs.

How To Fix: Start to use action verbs like ‘designed‘, ‘sold‘, ‘managed‘, ‘organized‘, and ‘created‘ – This will bring strength and authority to your credentials while highlighting your sense of initiative. Make sure you do not add too many verbs, it could lead to a buzzword overload and trust me no hiring manager wants to read a resume with a lot of action, but little substance. Use the right action verbs and you will probably land that job interview.

posted by admin in Employment,Failure,Job,Success,Uncategorized and have Comment (1)
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
14
Jun

How To Save Your Failing Marriage

Do you ever find yourself standing at the kitchen sink doing the same thing you have done for the past 12 years and you cannot help but notice how nice your neighbour’s patio is? So, you peek outside where your own patio could be, imagining an outdoor couch set and a huge umbrella with tropical trees in place, but all you see is grass, well sort of grass, maybe more mud than grass. And then everything starts – you begin to notice every little nicks in the walls from dinky cars, maybe a crayon or two going down the kitchen, the pile of dirty laundry which grows about 2 feet every day and you start to wonder, “Really, is this it?”

You know for a fact it did not start out this way, and if it did you would of never kept going- You bought your house after an exhaustive search, you were excited and energized, you picked out paint colours together and you searched for that oh so perfect furniture you had been dreaming for. You happily hung pictures of you growing up, arranged the pantry and bought the linens – you were so busy creating a home that eventually the paints were long put away and the walls started to show their wear.

In most cases a marriage is a lot like this house we call home – we begin with excitement and a great spirit of hope for our future, we work feverishly to  begin a life together and eventually things settle in and life happens. This is where a perfectly good marriage begins to show its wear. You start to long for the twenties again, go to a lot of wedding and in the early thirties you go to a lot of Christenings and then the late thirties seem to involve a lot of divorces. Below is a list of things that will help you save your failing marriage:

1. Get Over Yourself!: You may think to yourself that you have the right to be happy, but in all honesty you don’t – Happiness is earned and it has a lot to do with how hard you are willing to work for it. Work for your marriage to work for your happiness!

2. Take Time: Do you go to the gym to keep fit, do you go to night school to go further in your career, do you eat right to stay healthy? All of those things are something you are working for or to achieve something – it is a concerted effort. So, how hard would it be to give your failing marriage a concerted effort? Do you remember when you courted your wife, you worked on it then so you need to work on it again!

3. Be Interested: Do you remember the last time you actually showed interest in what your spouse is doing in their work life, spare time or home life? Actually show that you are interested in hearing what they do in a day, become what you two used to be.

4. Learn Something New Together: Seeing how the both of you are bored with your current status in life, try and discover new territories of your relationship to change your perspective. Take a class together, start a date night, go out once a month..do something new and interesting that will make you laugh together!

5. Remember Why You Got Married: Start to remember when you two first met, why you started dating, why you planned your future together – stop fighting, start looking at old pictures or old journals – there was a reason you fell in love, find it!

6. Do Special Things For Each Other: Instead of watching your spouse clean up after the kids, do ALL of the chores – maybe take charge of a few chores on the list. You’ll be surprised to see how much your spouse really appreciates the effort.

7. Make Your Marriage A Priority: Take for example, say your spouse only gets 1 day off a month, well you should not go out and plan to do something on that day, you should already know you will be home with them on the day they have off. So it is strictly your day as a family together – treat your marriage just like that!

8. Schedule Alone Time: Plan a weekend get a way at least once a year. If you cannot afford it, have family or friends take the kids for the night and make your home an escape for the night with lots of candles and take out. This alone time is you and your spouse together, no kids, no chores, just relaxation together!

9. Have Lots Of Sex: Guys will like this the most, but remember girls sometimes sex is like running…you really do not want to do it, but you go a head anyways and you are like “Wow, why do I not do that more often?” Get creative, and do it, a lot of it.

10. Be Friends: Before you two started dating, I am sure you were probably friends first? Your spouse should be your best friend – they should be the first person to call when you have good news, if they are not, then you have a warning sign that attention is required.

Lastly, if you have tried your all mighty and have worked hard on all the above items, but things just do not seem to look up in your marriage, it is time to think outside of the marriage box. Where did your marriage begin?..well obviously where you two got married..in a church, outside..maybe it is time to go back and renew your vows. Start from the beginning, but maybe change it around. Go to a different country to renew your vows, try a wedding officiant GTA or get married in a completely new fashion. This could really help spice up your marriage and this could be a new beginning for the whole family.

Don’t work out your marriage because of your kids, do this for yourself, do this to make you happy, but most importantly to make you two as a couple happy.

posted by admin in Failure,Marriage,Success,Uncategorized and have No Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
© Flunk Me | Created by A.Pepper Designs, Inc..
Powered by WordPress

© 2011-2012 Flunk Me All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright