Alexander Bouri Provides 4 Creative Ideas to Help Boost Your eCommerce Holiday Sales

As an online business owner, you're always looking for different ways to boost your sales. And with each changing season comes an opportunity to think creativity and get your products and services out there. If you're looking to find out how to make the most of this holiday season, business professional Alexander Bouri of Seament Holding provides four original ideas to help you out.

Get creative with advertising
Get festive with your advertising to appeal to your customers and be more competitive with other businesses. Make sure that your site is pleasing to the eye and reflects both your general branding and any seasonal promotions that you are having. In addition, you can invest in different advertising strategies (and not just online ones), including television and radio commercials, online advertising, social media marketing, and mobile advertising. If you're on a budget and don't want to overspend, determine which type of strategies will help you reach your audience the fastest.

Offer a free product
'Tis the season for giving, right? One fast, easy and highly effective way to capture the interest of customers is by giving away a free product, which you can offer by itself or with a purchase. This is especially beneficial if you have a seasonal product. Since everyone loves a good bargain, you can also run sales and promotions, and coupons are a tried and true way to do so. You can provide customers with online coupons via e-mail or through a promotion code that will save them a certain percentage or amount off their total.

Have a contest
You can really get your customers excited by having a contest, and social media is the perfect platform to do so on. Contests are simple and fun, and are a great way to collect contact information. After all, who wouldn't want to receive e-mails if they could get a free limited edition item or a fabulous prize out of the deal? By having a contest via social media, you can expand your fan base on these platforms, build customer relationships, compile a substantial contact list, increase brand awareness, and promote any products you're selling.

Reveal a new product
Customers are always on the lookout for new products, but never more so than during the holidays. With so many people trying to find unique gifts for family and friends, it's the perfect time to reveal any new and exciting items that your company may have lined up. You can display your new product on the home page of your website and e-mail the details to your current customer list. You can give it even more exposure by showcasing it on social media.  

How to Boost Employee Productivity

With the current status of the economy many business owners think that simply having a job and getting a paycheck should motivate employees to work hard.  Unfortunately, this is not the case, and companies, both big and small, have to motivate their employees to be productive via rewarding them.  Mark Bouri, owner of the global company Seament, implements some of the below tips into his day-to-day operations so his staff is always producing.

§  Don’t Be a Micro Manager – When employees are asked what one of their biggest pet peeves are – they’re likely to say that it’s having a manager that micromanages everything they do.  It’s very important to find the balance between managing your team but not breathing down their necks and watching their every move.  While some employees need a lot of supervision and need to be given direction and assistance, others are able to hit the ground running.  It’s important to keep in mind that micro management doesn’t allow employees to think for themselves, so in the long run it can paralyze your company.

§  Set Realistic Goals and Celebrate – A great way to naturally motivate your staff is to set realistic goals for them to work towards. Once the goal is met celebrate or reward your employees.  You can make the reward monetary or treat them to a conference that the company will pay for.  Rewarding your employees for the hard work they put in makes them want to continue to work hard because they feel appreciated.  Keeping your employees happy makes them feel like their effort is being recognized and will prevent them from not putting their best effort forward every day.

§  Make Your Employees Accountable - To keep your staff working meticulously they need to be aware that they are accountable for their actions and decisions. They will also be more likely to not make rash decisions and not take advantage of their position because they know that you’re supporting them and depending on them to do their job the correct way.

Mark Bouri, owner of Seament, has learned that when you put trust in your employees and reward them when they work hard, productivity will soar. Keeping your employees motivated and appreciated are the secrets to boosting your company’s productivity. Staff members admit that when they’re recognized, they don’t want to disappoint their bosses.

Essential Advice For Being An Excellent Leader

When you’re running a business like Charlie Bouri, or are taking charge of a big project, you need to learn how to be a good leader.  Some people think that you have to be a natural at management and leadership to be able to do it well, but you can easily learn skills that will help you become a better leader.  If you’re going to be in a leadership position, follow these tips to ensure that you’ll be the leader that you need to be.

Avoid Blaming

Playing the blame game in a managerial situation is sure to result in a lot of missed opportunities.  Your employees may have messed something up, but in the end everything comes back to your managerial skills.  You don’t have to avoid mentioning someone else’s mistakes, but you shouldn’t immediately set out to pin a problem or setback on someone.  If you consistently get angry and blame your employees for problems, they’ll be less likely to come to you when there are actual problems.

Cut Your Losses

Nobody likes admitting that they’re wrong, but sticking to something that clearly isn’t working to seem competent is a big mistake.   When you find out that original idea you had for a project isn’t going to work, don’t stick with it and hope that it’ll sort itself out later.  If a new hire you brought on has been turning in inconsistent and bad work, don’t give them a few more months to figure things out when it’s apparent that they aren’t doing a good job.

Lead By Example

If you tell your employees that they should work hard and put in extra hours on a project, they won’t take your words to heart if they see you taking half days three days a week.  Being a manager shouldn’t put you above your own rules, and if you practice what you preach your employees will notice it.  Obviously there are some exceptions to this rule, but if you want your employees to trust your leadership skills, you’ll need to show them that you’re more than capable of living up to your own standards.

Letting Employees Go the Right Way

If you ask a manager what they think the most difficult part of their job is the majority of them will say it's firing an employee.  Large multi-national businesses like Seament Holding and small mom and pop operations all have to deal with the unpleasantness of having to fire workers.  Despite what some disgruntled employees think, most managers dread having to hand out pink slips.  And to make matters worse, if they end up terminating an employee the wrong way their company could end up with a nasty lawsuit.  If you think you'll have to resort to employee termination soon, follow these tips to make that it goes as smoothly as possible.

Remember That Firing is A Last Resort

Is this the first time the employee has caused a problem, or have you addressed the issue several times before?  Firing an employee should only happen if you've tried every other tactic possible to change their behavior.  Unless if they've broken a very important company rule, try to see if there's anything else you can do to help them keep their job. 

Be 100% Certain About It

There era of zero-tolerance and lengthy employee contracts hasn't made making the decision of firing an employee any easier, if anything it's made the termination process more time consuming and difficult. Before you officially fill out the termination paper work it would be wise to carefully review company rules and the employee's individual contract to ensure that you're making the right choice. 

Don't Argue

Sometimes when people are told that they're being let go they stay silent, others may get angry or even openly weep.  When people get emotional when they're being fired they may try to bargain or argue with their bosses, and that's why it's important to remember to not join in on the disagreement.  If you see an argument looming on the horizon remind them that the time to talk is over, your word is final and there's nothing they can do to change it.

How to Successfully Solve Employee Disputes

When you're a manager only a small portion of your job is running the company and supervising employees, when you're overseeing workers you'll also have to spend time resolving disputes between them.  It doesn't matter if you’re the owner of a large company like Alex F Bouri or if you're running a small family business, if you have a position of power you'll eventually have to handle some sort of problem between workers.  If you find that you're constantly having to handle problems between employees you may feel more like a baby sitter than a boss, but there are ways to quickly resolve disputes and hopefully prevent others from happening.

Don't Ignore Problems

You may think the Rachel in accounting is complaining about a trivial matter when she tells you that someone in sales stealing her coffee creamer, but it doesn't seem that way to her.  If employees are coming to with you problems that you write off as small or unimportant, that will guarantee that employees will take it upon themselves to deal with the issue.  Take every employee problem seriously and them know that it's important to you, if not you could have problems when they try to solve it themselves the wrong way.

Mediate Immediately

As soon as you find out about the conflict between employees, you need to start taking proactive steps to solve this.  This doesn't mean that you have to confront the employees in question ASAP, but you should at least be thinking of ways to successfully solve the issue at hand.  This can be anything from reviewing company policies on employee disputes or asking people in upper management about the best way to solve the problem.

Follow Up

This is without a doubt the most important part of handling problems at the office.   While you were mediating a conflict the employees in question may have promised to change their behavior, but after they leave your private office the problems could start up again like nothing ever happened.  If you don't follow up with the employees  you don't know if any changes have been made.  Along with keeping an eye on their behavior, ask other employees or managers if they've noticed any positive changes as well.

Three Simple Tips for Improving Employee Morale

Keeping your employees motivated and happy is essential for having a successful business.  Everybody from international business magnates like Charlie Bouri and small local establishments have to find ways to keep their workforce in good spirits.  Sometimes it isn't easy to keep everything bright and cheery, especially during times of hardship.  You can't control the economy or natural disasters, but you can control the environment in your workplace.  If you think your employees need a boost of happiness, follow these tips so you can make sure that your workers stay positive

Provide Positive Feedback

Sometimes managers can get into the habit of only providing feedback to employees when they do something wrong, and that poor practice is sure to bring your employees down.  The power of positive feedback is great, and if you let your employees know that they're doing good work they'll have a good attitude when they're on the clock.

Do Some Interior Decorating

Beige walls and gray tiles can make even the most cheerful person feel a bit depressed, but you don't have to repaint the walls or change the flooring to make employees happy.  Some well placed plants can bring a burst of color to the room, and if you choose fake plants you'll get all the color benefits without the hassle of gardening.  You should try hanging some pictures or framed posters on the wall, motivation slogans and beautiful landscapes can do a lot to improve your worker's mood.

Encourage Communication

Let your employees know that you truly care about what they think and how they feel about work.  If your employees have a problem and don't tell you about it, how would you be able to solve it?  Promoting an environment where truthful communication is encouraged, your employees will feel comfortable telling you what's on their mind.  And if they know that they'll be coming to safe and honest environment during the work week, you'll see a noticeable change in their mood.