by Elle Ray | Jun 15, 2020 | Announcement
Look for the Blessings as Restrictions Loosen
As restrictions loosen throughout the country this month, it may behoove you to take a beat and consider just what your new normal will look like. The shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic created a hole in time during which you actually were given a gift: time to consider your priorities, your purpose and your goals.
Many people found new interests, from gardening to cooking. Others either relished or regretted the extra forced time they spent with their families and roommates. Some shut down their companies, moved to a work-at-home environment or put business on hold.
Reports abound about people who started meditating, journaling or convening with nature. Memes fill social media with tales of woe from those who gained weight and turned into couch spuds. Hopefully, you found some lessons during the shutdown that will drive your decisions into a future closer to your design. Hopefully, you haven’t filled up on frustration and pent up anger at those things you can’t control right now.
A Revised Bucket List
Now is a good time to review your goals and take a revised bucket list into your new normal when restrictions loosen up even more. Consider your own personal takeaways that may include:
- Deciding to go into full-time work-at-home mode
- Allowing more of your employees to work remotely
- Cultivating new-found skills
- Taking a class or earning a degree
- Writing a book, short stories or poetry (or all three!)
- Joining a church or other spiritual practice group
- Retiring early
- Meeting a new fitness goal
- Closing your business
- Opening a new company
- Switching careers
- Pursuing your passion
- Getting married or divorced
The list can go on and on, but you get the idea. As restrictions loosen and you head back to the office, the gym, school and social gatherings, don’t forget the lessons that seemed so glaring when you had nothing else to do. Instead of rushing out to return to your old normal, take this challenge:
Figure out what new insights you learned about yourself.
Write down the lessons you learned.
Create a plan for your personal new normal.
Restrictions Loosen to a New Normal
The world is a different place today and will be for a while. We’re required to wear face masks as part of our regular public dress. We can’t shake hands or hug just anyone outside of our home. We won’t be going to concerts, sporting events or crowded churches in the near future. And who even knows how long small business owners can keep their doors open before another round of shutdowns comes?
Rather than rushing out to try to resume your personal and professional life as it was pre-coronavirus, as restrictions loosen, listen to your heart, review your insights and take the lessons you learned as a guide to:
- A better work/home balance
- A more rewarding career
- A smarter business plan
- New friends and relationships
- Healthier eating and exercising routines
- More productive personal and professional initiatives
Find the silver lining from these past few months. Don’t let it go to waste or just to your waist. Sometimes, we need a good hard slap in the face to snap us out of a rut, to redirect our energy and to get us to the great life we are meant to have. Consider the COVID-19 shutdown as that slap in the face to snap out of it, refreshed with new vigor, imagination and anticipation.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | Jun 1, 2020 | Communication
Be Aware of All the Dangers of Staying Home
People in lockdown used to think that the only mental health dangers posed by their situation was the lack of stimulation. You’re stuck in your home with your family, unable to go outside for longer than a trip to the grocery store or a walk around the block. When you get tired of streaming movies or binge-watching new series, your options become limited and you develop the condition called going stir crazy.
Everyone’s seen the signs: a lack of personal hygiene, a manic look in the eye, five-day-old clothes and a couch-potato lethargy. You learn to stay away to avoid an expletive-laced tirade or a request for a second breakfast. But it turns out there are more dangers to a quarantine than going stir crazy. In fact, Zoom fatigue is affecting more people all the time.
What Is Zoom Fatigue?
When you meet someone in person, you focus on them. You look at body language, listen for verbal cues and react accordingly. All business people are accustomed to communicating in person or over the phone. Once the conversation moves to a screen, hidden perils await.
For example, the video chat window in Zoom and other video communication programs show a small window of what you look like in your video to the others on the call. It’s meant to be beneficial, allowing you to adjust the height of your video feed, center the image if necessary, and fix the lighting so you look as good as possible. So far, so good, right?
The Symptoms of Zoom Fatigue
When you meet someone in person, you don’t usually think about how you look, at least once you enter the meeting. But when you see yourself on the screen during a video meeting, it’s a different story. Many people on Zoom calls obsess about the image of themselves. As a result, they:
- Notice themselves more: not just how they look, but how they may appear to others
- Force a smile during the length of the call
- Plan or change the backdrop of their presentation on-screen to create a pleasing effect
- Exaggerate their expressions and responses
These actions may not seem like much, but amplified over multiple video chats in a day, and it leads to fatigue. The characteristics of Zoom fatigue include a sense of overall exertion, stained eyes, a throbbing headache and even dizziness. These symptoms stem from the extra concentration it takes to be online, looking at yourself and others for the full duration of the meeting.
How to Avoid Zoom Fatigue
Even before the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders, people tracked the time they spent in front of a screen, whether it was the TV, a computer, a smart phone or a tablet. Too much screen time was thought to be unhealthy. It is, especially when you see yourself in the screen the whole time. So the best way to avoid Zoom fatigue is to limit your screen time. Get offline and go for a walk. Do some yoga or other form of exercise.
Other ways to limit your exposure and risk of video chat fatigue include:
- Ask the people you meet with to turn off the cameras and have an occasional audio-only call
- Focus on others, not yourself, during a video meeting
- Don’t look at the screen during your meeting
- Force yourself to take notes, which diverts your attention
- Keep Zoom meetings brief
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | May 26, 2020 | Blog Writing
Tips for Getting Personal and Professional Bylines
To deal with the sudden isolation brought on by coronavirus stay-at-home policies, people have turned to a wide range of activities to keep occupied. From assembling 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles to conquering a complicated recipe to binge-watching a new TV series, quarantined families report tackling projects and submitting to diversions for which they never before seemed to have enough time.
Another project that many report doing during this unprecedented lockdown is writing. Some do daily journaling to deal with their anxieties. Others decide to get started on that book they always wanted to write. And then there are those who are bursting with story ideas, but don’t know what to do with them.
For accomplished authors with an agent and writing contracts, it’s been a good time to get a lot of work done. For new writers who want to get published for the first time, it’s a time filled with questions and doubts. These issues may bog you down or even stop you in your tracks. But you can’t allow fear of not getting it right to keep you from even beginning to put your thoughts on paper. If you’re suffering from writer’s doubt, consider the wise words of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
“A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.”
Getting Started
The first rule for any wordsmith is simple: Writers write! Whether you’re just jotting notes or applying stream-of-conscious practices to your writing attempts, you’ve got to get your pen to paper or your fingers to the keyboard at all costs. You’ll never get published if you have nothing to show. Ideas that stay in your head may as well be written in invisible ink where no one can see them.
As you get into the writing process and find your groove, the next step is to decide where you would like to get published, where your words are needed and where, realistically, you may be able to get published. The first step is a solitary activity, ideal for the quarantined writer. The second may involve other people who guide you to the places where you can successfully get published. Suggestions for help include:
- Friends and family who can already get published
- Your boss or business contacts
- Local newspaper reporters and editors
- Owners of blogs you read
One caveat: beware of going down the rabbit hole of the internet. You can spend days sifting through websites telling you how to get published, where to get published and even how to write. You can end up with carpal tunnel syndrome and a sore back before you ever write your first sentence. Limit your online searching to maybe 30 minutes a day or to two or three really helpful websites. And remember: Writers write!
Where to Get Published Today
Blogs are the perfect medium for both first-time and accomplished writers. If you own or work for a business that has a blog, get published online through that ready-made medium. Blogs rely on search engine optimization (SEO) to get readers. And this is a perfect time to pen blog articles that meet relevant, trending SEO guidelines. For example, you can write about:
- What you’re doing during quarantine
- How you’ve adapted to new work-at-home situations
- Whether your family is cooperating with your need for work space
- What your business is doing to stay afloat despite the economic challenges
- How your business is supporting the community during the crisis
- How you’re dealing with grief when COVID-19 strikes close to home
If your company isn’t in the blogging business — although the practice benefits every business — look for companies that may appreciate a free blog post for their websites. Just make sure to request a byline with a link back to your site. Then you can add the link to your portfolio of published work, which will help you can get published for money. Consider contacting:
- Mental health professionals — pitch them an article about managing stress or fear during the pandemic, for example
- Financial planners — research and write a blog post about how best to use their stimulus money
- Doctors, dentists and clinics — ask if they’re interested in a piece about virtual appointments
- Daycare centers and companies that cater to children’s products and services — pitch an article about how to stay on track with at-home school assignments
- Trades that provide homeowner services — write an article about how to make a bookcase or turn an old door into a desk
- Rehab facilities — try writing advice on staying sober during these stressful times
The Time to Write Is Now
You get the idea. The list is endless. Sure, it may not be what you dreamed about for your first foray into publishing. But blogging is a viable and accessible vehicle for wannabe writers to get published for the first time … and second time and third time. Who knows? It may even lead to a paid gig writing for the business who accepted your piece. And you may find enough of an audience that appreciates your voice to become an influencer in that industry.
Just like any other skill, writing chops improve with practice. If you’ve always wanted to see your writing published, there’s no better time than now and no better avenue today than the internet. If you think a topic is interesting or valuable, chances are someone else does too. And if you’re still wondering what to write about, consider the sage advice of Ben Franklin:
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.”
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | May 19, 2020 | Agency Advice
Assessing Your Productivity vs. Your Health Risk
In many ways, your home office resembles your office at work. That is, the things you put in place to make you more productive are the same things no matter where you’re working, whether you’re working in a cubicle farm or whether you’re in a work from home arrangement on a porch with a long extension cord. And it works when you incorporate the most common productivity tips, such as:
- Create a space that’s your own, where interruptions are minimized
- Set up a comfortable environment that has a supportive chair, an ergonomic desk and proper lighting
- Keep your desk clean and clutter-free to help your mind focus
- Maintain your schedule, which includes specific break times
- Review what you want to get done every day before you start
Is It Safe to Return to the Office?
Every state seems to be on a different schedule for opening up. Some states have implemented strict containment orders, while others have thrown open the doors and invited workers back. If you have the kind of job that allows you to work from home, you’ve likely been working the entire time during the shutdown, assuming your state had a stay-at-home order.
As society loosens up, it makes sense to ask when or even if you’ll be leaving the home to return to your normal place of business. A lot depends on your employer, but you should have some say in the matter, as your health may be in danger if the pandemic is still raging. You can still work from home and be productive, as you’ve demonstrated over the past eight weeks.
A health assessment should be your first step. How are the infection numbers in your area? Is your local media still reporting deaths? How safe do feel leaving the house? If you return to work, you can expect — you should expect — to wear a mask and perhaps even gloves. Your office should be arranged to leave six feet of space between desks too. These new social norms will still be with us for months to come.
The Benefits of Working from Home
This is a popular topic that we’ve written about in our blog. But that was in March 2019. If you read that article, you can add to the list of benefits that “small” thing about staying healthy. There are many benefits you get when you work from home.
Maybe your employer will see the benefits as well. Why pay for office space when the team can work from home and still be productive? When communications technology is so advanced, team meetings are still easy to pull together, and you don’t need a conference room when you all can be in the same Zoom room.
Will the Future Embrace Work from Home?
No one knows for sure what the future of work will look like. Will cubicle farms go extinct? Will companies ever need a central, open-floor-plan office ever again? Can we all be productive without being in proximity to each other? The quarantine bubble may turn out to have positive consequences, as companies learn to trust their employees and working from home gains mainstream acceptance.
At Ray Access, we’ve embraced working from home since the beginning. While the principals used to meet in person every week, all the work gets done at home. Even when we added writers, we didn’t need a central office. In fact, our writers are separated by hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.
Your company’s needs may differ from our needs, but it’s time to really consider whether you need an office, especially if you’re not producing a physical object. Web developers, web designers, project managers, content producers and SEO firms can all work from home. For now and into the future.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | May 12, 2020 | Small Business Advice
Tips for Being Productive at Home
The home office has long been a staple in American households. It’s that spare room with your computer and the spare futon where guests sleep when they visit. Maybe it’s a space you share with your family or housemates. Or perhaps it’s the junk room that catches the overflow of all your stuff, from the ironing board to your workout equipment.
Unless you already work at home for a living, you may not have given the space very much design consideration or designated it off-limits to the rest of the family. But as more and more people follow stay-at-home orders or are being told to stay away from the office, the home office suddenly has become the most important room in the house — and the most-used.
Where’s My Favorite Pen?
Whether you’re new to the home office experience or have enjoyed the benefits of working in your sweats for a while, now is a good time to take a closer look at your home office set-up. It’s time to make it more functional. There’s a lot of design thought goes into the flow and Feng Shui of a business working space. You can take some of that combined wisdom and incorporate it into your own home office.
Alternatively, if your living situation doesn’t allow you to have a designated space — with a door you can close — you can take steps to create a home office space where your necessary work tools are easily accessible and the ambiance is most conducive to productivity and success.
Can We Have the Room Please?
If you’re fortunate enough to have a room that you can turn into an office, free of outside interference (unless you invite it in), make it into a home office that inspires and supports your efforts. Plenty has been written about how to stay healthy while working from home, including recent Ray Access blogs about minimizing distractions and how to stay healthy working at a computer all day.
Add a few more less obvious strategies to your home office, and you may just find that working from home makes you a better employee, boss or contractor. For example, make time to:
- Organize. You waste more time looking for documents or your favorite pen when your home office is disorganized than trying to find a movie to watch on Netflix. You don’t have to buy new filing cabinets or bookcases to organize your home office — although that may be a great investment of your stimulus money. “A place for everything and everything in its place” is a long held tenet of good organization because you can:
- Put things back in the same place from which you got them.
- Mark files clearly … both on your hard drive and in your desk drawers.
- Use coffee cups, baskets, shelves and drawers to keep tools you rely on every day.
- Make sensible piles designated for separate projects or tasks.
- Place notes and reminders where you can see them.
- Clean up your space every evening so you can start fresh in the morning.
- Visualize. Lighting in your office makes a huge difference in how you feel during your working hours and how effective you communicate. When you walk into your home office, the lighting should make you feel relaxed and ready. The right lighting improves your efficiency, increases your energy, affects your mood and reduces headaches and eyestrain. It also plays an important factor in how you look in your online meetings. Even born blind, Helen Keller knew that “knowledge is love and light and vision.” To maximize the light:
- Allow as much natural light as you can from outside into your home office.
- Face your desk to the windows to prevent glare and optimize your view.
- Rely on wall sconces or other lamps throughout the room for ambient light.
- Reduce dependence on overhead lights.
- Use a task light on your desk to ease eye strain and improve your focus.
- Keep direct light off your face and make the room as muted as possible when interacting on a live internet feed.
- Compromise. When you can’t set up your home office in a room designated specifically for that purpose alone, you can still make your time at work more productive and efficient with a few modifications. Not only does working from your bed or leaning over a coffee table in the living room make for a sore body, but it also makes it more difficult to concentrate, stay on task and get as much out of your working hours as possible. But if your living situation means “sharing is caring,” then it’s vital you get everyone in your household on board to respect your space and do a little compromising themselves so you can continue to bring home a paycheck. Try to:
- Use shelves and screens to divide a room and isolate your workspace.
- Invest in a rolling file cabinet if you have to move around to find workspace.
- Use headphones for meetings and alert others when you’re on a call to prevent as much background interference as possible.
- Create a work space with a small desk in an otherwise used room that has a door, like your bedroom, attic, walk-in closet or she-shed.
- Set aside specific times for your kids to do schoolwork, plan quiet activities or make movie dates for others in your household at the same time you’re working — and make sure you have enough internet bandwidth to accommodate multiple users at one time.
- Be as flexible as your work allows. Your family shouldn’t be the only ones making compromises. Get up early before others rise or stay up later to work after others have gone to bed. Arrange your schedule around their activities. Be reasonable and don’t set yourself up for conflicts that could be avoided with prior planning and prioritizing.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | May 5, 2020 | Small Business Advice
How to Get Your Work Done at Home
If you’re new to working at home, you may be encountering issues you never even considered before. Distractions are everywhere, whether you live by yourself, with your pets or with your family. You’re just not used to being at home while you’re doing your job.
Instead of sitting at your desk in the office, hammering out code or content, you find yourself at home, either at your home office or at the kitchen table, trying to focus. Meanwhile, all kinds of things are trying to distract you while you’re working from home, such as:
- Your spouse or significant other demanding attention
- Your next meal, which needs to be prepared now
- The laundry that’s piling up in the closet
- The pet whining to be fed or walked or petted
- The snacks in the kitchen that are calling your name
- The social media platforms that are just a click away
- Videos of shows or movies that suddenly sound fascinating
- All the non-work-related reading you have to catch up on
- The food shopping and other errands that are waiting for you
- Feeling guilty about trying to work in your pajamas
- Trying to get in the work mood in your home environment
- The need to keep up with all the latest news
- Wanting to answer the phone or emails
Tips for Minimizing Distractions
The good news is that it is possible to be productive when working at home. The principals of Ray Access, a remote work firm since its founding in 2014, have developed strategies to get stuff done when working from home. Follow these tips to become a work-at-home pro:
- Schedule time when you want to work and stick to it. Whether you put aside eight hours a day or two, block off that time so you can focus just on your work. If others are home with you, let them know you can’t be interrupted during that time except in case of an emergency.
- Wear noise-cancelling earphones or play music loudly, so you’re not distracted by random sounds around the house.
- Give yourself deadlines for specific projects or tasks. Work hard to meet them.
- Make a to-do list with everything you need to accomplish that day. Prioritize the list so you get the most important things done first.
- Keep track of important deadlines and meetings. Consult your schedule regularly, at least once a day, preferably first thing in the morning.
- Get comfortable. To be the most productive you can be, do whatever you need to make your new workplace encourage healthy, focused work habits.
- Unplug. To avoid getting caught up in email and social media, disconnect, unless you need it for your work.
- Focus, focus, focus. Do whatever you need to do to focus on the work you have to do.
- Set mini-deadlines. Give yourself things to do in the next hour, 15 minutes, whenever. These mini-deadlines are motivating.
- Stand and stretch every now and then. Once an hour should be your minimal time of devoted screen time. Plus, it helps your body stay healthy and the breaks can keep you sharper mentally.
Working at home can be difficult if you’re not used it. Fortunately, Ray Access is here to share its experience of working remotely for the past seven years. Take it from us; working at home can be liberating and empowering. You just need to take the right approach.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Apr 28, 2020 | Agency Advice
Everyone Reacts Differently to Isolation
As most managers, contractors and partners know, everyone responds to different motivators. For some, it’s money. Others thrive on praise. Still other workers prefer to be left alone and successfully thrive in their independence.
Juggling all the various motivational styles is a major task in the best of times, but when you’re trying to keep at-home workers on task, your skills demand a little more creativity and a bigger toolbox of tricks. Keeping at-home workers productive is both an art and a science.
Learn the Wiles of Their Ways
The first step in effectively managing at-home workers is to learn:
- How they first react to a new work environment
- Whether they adjust appropriately
- How quickly they adapt to changes
- What motivates them to stay on task
The worker who is vigilant with deadlines and always on time for meetings may in fact turn into an entirely different creature when away from the office. Some people need a time clock and a place to go before they can don their working caps. Some require an overseer who’ll notice if they slack off. While these employees may perform admirably during working hours in the office, they may flounder without the schedules and supervision.
Then you have those staff members who turn into hyper-vigilant workers when they lose the safety net of the office. These people may really shine as at-home workers, as they draw on their well-honed self-discipline. When they are given the freedom to create their own schedules and working environments, their creativity and productivity flourish.
You’ll quickly learn how each of your partners and employees reacts when placed in a work-at-home situation. To get a handle on the new arrangement, give your entire staff a project with a one-day turnaround time and see how they respond. Then, keep communications open and check in to find out how they’re doing with the project.
Tips for Motivating At-Home Workers
Once you’ve deduced the various styles of at-home workers you have to manage, you can devise ways to keep them motivated for however long the situation lasts. You may even discover that for those who excel as at-home workers, continuing to allow them to work from home may be best for them and for you in the long run.
For those who need a little extra push and too easily give in to the distractions of home, try giving them a little push with motivational techniques geared toward their specific needs. Make sure, however, that you give those great at-home workers the same (or even better) benefits and rewards that you offer the needier workers. A few ideas that might work for your staff:
- Recognize their efforts regularly. Send short emails and texts of gratitude and praise. Tell them how important they are to the continuing success of the company.
- Make it very clear that your virtual door is open. Respond to questions as soon as possible. Answer your phone when they call. Let them know when you’ll be available.
- Offer bonuses or gifts for beating deadlines.
- Arrange for video meetings. Talking while looking at people makes the work seem more real. Too much isolation encourages minds to drift and lose focus.
- Ask for suggestions for making the at-home workers more productive. Take their feedback seriously and incorporate their ideas whenever possible.
- Walk your talk. An effective leader doesn’t ask her staff to do anything she wouldn’t do. Whether you’re quarantined for health reasons, moving your company to a permanent virtual workspace or just trying out different ways to save your business money, you need to find your own motivations and put them to use. And let others see your progress too.
When All Else Fails
While threats are not the most positive form of motivation, there are those at-home workers who respond to nothing less. Fear can be a great motivator for some people. And fear of losing their jobs may be just the final straw that gets them moving.
The problem with that style of motivation is that once the threat has passed, slackers tend to revert back to their former work habits and you often find yourself back in the same quandary about how to get your project completed on time and how to keep justifying the relationship. When positive motivations, warnings and threats land you in the same dilemma over and over, it may just be time to cut your losses and part ways.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | Apr 21, 2020 | Agency Advice
What You Need to Know to Get Work Done
With all the changes in the world, more and more people are finding themselves having to work from home. It’s one thing if you’re a freelancer — you’re already used to the work-from-home routine. But if you’re a manager accustomed to directing your team within the same building, well, things have changed quite a bit, and you may suddenly be adrift in a sea of Zoom video conferences.
Managing a remote team isn’t the same as managing a team in the next office. Even face-to-face, managing people presents challenges that require all your intellect and intuition. When you have a remote team, new problems seem to pop up every day, leaving you searching for answers or guidance.
Ray Access Is Here to Help
A small business focused on providing the best content to its clients, Ray Access was founded by two partners in Asheville, NC, but it employs contract writers from across the country. Even before the pandemic caused almost every business to lock down and self-isolate, the content writing industry didn’t require proximity. As long as a writer produced well-researched, well-written copy, it didn’t matter where that writer was located.
As a result, the partners have learned a thing or two about managing a remote team. If you’re looking for help with your own team, you may benefit from our experience. First, some background:
- We rely on email for communication. While we make it work for us, your experience may require a more sophisticated tool. There are a number of web-based project management tools, such as Basecamp and Trello (which does not constitute an endorsement). Each has its pros and cons.
- We pay our writers per project, not per hour If you pay by the hour, it presents different issues when managing a remote team. But you have to be willing to trust your team to work when they say they’re working while tracking how long it takes them to complete tasks.
Tips for Managing a Remote Team
The first thing you need to do is to set expectations. While we always look for exemplary work, we value communication with our team. We feel it’s better to have too much than too little. We therefore encourage our writers to ask questions regarding their assignments to get clarification when necessary. There are no such things as stupid questions.
When we hire a new writer, we send a contract, a W9 form and a document that establishes our non-negotiable guidelines, which include:
- Requiring our writers to respond to email requests and assignments within 24 hours. That sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed how often this becomes an issue. By establishing this expectation up front, we feel empowered to enforce it.
- Setting and honoring deadlines. We’re a deadline-driven business, so we set deadlines for every assignment. We used to provide just the date, but we discovered that writers sometimes waited until 6:00 AM the next day to deliver an assignment. Now our deadlines are at 5:00 PM Eastern time on the date provided. Lesson learned.
- Establishing reasons for dismissal. Missing deadlines, being incommunicado or turning in shoddy work are all included in this section. Setting these expectations up front establishes a baseline for remote working behavior.
Team-Building Tips
When managing a remote team that’s house-bound for the first time, you face additional challenges. Ensure your team members have an appropriate space, the necessary equipment and a powerful enough internet connection to do the work. Provide any training they may need, whether for your project management tool or the video conferencing technology. Then give them the time to get accustomed to the new way of working. Don’t expect every team member to adapt at the same speed.
Regarding video conferencing, set the protocol early. That means showing up to meetings on time, sticking to the agenda, and reporting progress efficiently. You’ll experience some glitches early on as your team gets used to the technology, but that’s all part of managing a remote team. Another part is keeping your team motivated, which you can accomplish by:
- Providing work-from-home tips, such as using noise-cancelling headphones
- Making sure everyone gets a chance to contribute at meetings
- Letting team members share their challenges and successes while working from home
- Having food delivered to their homes on meeting day (or any day!)
Trust in Allah, But Tie Up Your Camel
At Ray Access, we give our writers the space they need to complete their assignments. We don’t check in unless there’s a problem. Our writers are pros; we trust them to do the work. We do coach new writers until they’ve gained our trust, and we do sometimes send an assignment back with notes for a revision, but we’ve hired our team because we know what they’re capable of.
When you’re managing a remote team, cross your T’s and dot your I’s. Be as clear as you can be in your communication, whether by email, phone or video chat. Realize that it’s not going to be the same as managing in-person. But give your team the space they need to perform. If they’re motivated, they’ll likely succeed — and may actually thrive — in this new environment.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or talk about your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Apr 14, 2020 | Agency Advice
Take Advantage of Streaming Technology
Some trends in business come in hot and soon after flop like a 10-pound river trout on the end of a hook. Remember keyword-stuffing and auto-blogging? Everyone thought they’d cracked the Google code for good. How about the Tide pod and ice bucket challenges? They seemed like a good idea at the time.
One idea whose time has come isn’t going anywhere — live streaming. First employed in 1993 by a group of Xerox employees trying out a new use for the internet, the technology was grabbed by Microsoft in 1995, which then started RealNetwork and the advent of RealPlayer live videos. YouTube didn’t run its first live streaming show until 2008.
Not only is live streaming getting more play than ever, it’s picking up steam as the whole world relies on the streaming technology to maintain connections during the coronavirus pandemic. By the time you read this, everyone from your local Realtor to your grandmother has been introduced to live streaming and has begun using the technology for commercial and social interactions.
Take Advantage of the Surge
Now that live streaming has gone mainstream, small business owners and corporate conglomerates alike can take advantage of its benefits to:
- Connect with customers and employees in real time
- Promote new and existing products and services
- Disseminate company news and announcements
- Build trust, as business leaders can enter the conversation directly
- Develop loyalty among employees who appreciate your efforts to communicate directly
- Save valuable resources by using Wi-Fi infrastructure that you already have in operation
- Use the existing technology in smartphones and computers that most of your target audience already owns
Millions of people have learned to successfully access live streaming platforms to talk directly with friends, families and customers. They’ve realize the ease with which the technology works. Once the social distancing rules that dominate the lives of populations all over the world ease, it’s a given that live stream users will be open to continuing to use video streaming for more and more communications and commercial interactions.
Ways to Use Live Streaming for Your Business
Anyone can create a live streaming program with just a smartphone and an internet connection. There’s a multitude of easy-to-use platforms available online, many of which are free. At the same time, expect a surge of live streaming companies, freelancers and marketing companies featuring live stream options to ramp up and appear on your radar.
Depending on your intended audience and your professional reputation, you can benefit by hiring professionals to run your live streaming programs. They can set up the coding necessary to provide safe and secure connections on the back end while filming your event with a polished presentation on the front end. Common events ripe for live streaming in business include:
- Board meetings
- Stakeholder and shareholder events
- Grand openings
- New product or service rollouts
- Staff training
- Employee and company-wide announcements
Benefits of Live Streaming
The biggest benefit of live streamed meetings and training sessions is the savings in costs for travel, food and lodging for participants who have to come in from other locations. Additionally, everyone involved saves time by avoiding travel, which reduces the time off of work. Participants appreciate the extra time they have to be with their families, too.
Whether you announce your live stream publicly or send invitations to a select few, you control the message and its delivery. A live streaming production can be as minimal or creative as you want. And if you’re a photographer or videographer with top-of-the-line equipment, this might be your chance to expand your business by offering:
- Corporate meetings and training sessions
- Destination weddings
- Amateur sporting events
- Church services and events
- Concerts and live performances
- Marketing promotions
No matter how you employ live streaming technology, be assured that this is not a trend that’s going to fade any time soon. While Ray Access doesn’t offer these services, we can recommend businesses that do. Contact us for a referral. We do this for our clients not because we make anything, but because we want our clients to succeed.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or talk about your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | Apr 7, 2020 | Announcement
How to Improve Your Odds against the Virus
Ray Access may not be healthcare professionals, but we specialize in writing website content for a variety of medical practices. Our writers and editors research the latest developments in the medical field for our clients. We find up-to-date medical information sometimes before they’re in the mainstream. So this advice constitutes the best and latest news available, which you’re encouraged to confirm.
Doctors now know the coronavirus is a respiratory virus that settles in your lungs. It either causes or enables pneumonia, which may be fatal for virus sufferers. The virus creates thick mucus, which then solidifies. Narrower walls in your respiratory passages block the airways to your lungs and eventually impairs the lungs themselves.
10 Ways to Protect Yourself from the Coronavirus
Here’s a list of 10 things you can do to protect yourself from the virus or keep it from getting worse:
- Drink warm or hot liquids, such as coffee, teas, soups and warm water. Sip warm water every 20 minutes during the day. This washes the virus, if present, from your mouth into your stomach, where the acids neutralize it. Also, avoid eating or drinking cold things whenever possible.
- Wash your hands every half hour. Yes, every 30 minutes. Use soap that foams with water. Scrub for at least 20 seconds — or the time it takes you to sing the Happy Birthday song.
- Gargle an antiseptic liquid in warm water every day. You can find oral antiseptics in over-the-counter strength at your local pharmacy. They’re not expensive. Or try lemon juice, salt water or vinegar.
- Wash yourself and your clothes often. Soap and detergent neutralize the virus; you don’t need bleach. The virus apparently attaches easily to hair and clothes, as well as skin. If possible, take a shower or bath, using soap, immediately whenever you come in from outside. Do not sit down, do not throw your clothes on the bed or carpet. Wash your clothes every day, especially after leaving the house. If you can’t do that, keep the clothes worn outside separate from the other clothes you wash.
- Clean metallic surfaces every day. The virus has been known to survive on these surfaces for up to nine days. That includes door handles, countertops and the surfaces of cars, walls, desks … any metal surface you may touch. Keep them clean and wipe them down often, even daily. When you’re out of the house, avoid touching these surfaces directly or wear gloves.
- Don’t smoke. Anything that impacts your respiratory system makes you more susceptible to a viral infection. And if you can go without cigarettes for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak, you may be able to quit permanently, which makes you less susceptible in the future, as well.
- Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. Usually, promoting a healthful diet is good advice any time. Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, eating fresh fruit and vegetables increases your zinc levels, which strengthens your immune system.
- Be aggressive in treating a sore throat. The virus most often enters your body via your throat. Your sore throat may be caused by the virus. It can remain there for three or four days before making its way to your lungs.
- Maintain social distancing. The virus spreads through person-to-person contact (even if you’re less than six feet apart, since the virus hangs in the air for several hours), by hovering in the air and through contact with an infected surface. Besides washing your hands often, don’t touch your face.
- Stay at home except for trips you need to make: for food, exercise and medical necessities. The less interaction you have with others, the better your chances of avoiding COVID-19. Stay safe!
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.