Last Chance Valentine’s Day Sale

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Ten Unique Time Management Tips

We’re heading full speed through the 1st quarter…and that means it’s time to focus and invigorate everyone on your team for the busy months ahead. And it’s also a great opportunity to organize your team and make sure everyone is managing time wisely.

We’ve put together 10 unique time-management tips. Incorporate these simple steps into your workday and share them with members of your team. You’ll find these easy changes can truly make a difference:

1. Have a plan. Each morning, make yourself a to-do list. As each task is accomplished, cross it off your list. It’s a nice reminder not only of what you need to do, but also of what you’ve already accomplished.

2. Plan for the Unplanned. Don’t fill your entire day up with meetings and tasks. All it can take is one unscheduled phone call or a small emergency to throw off your entire day. Give yourself room every day to answer e-mails, make phone calls and to deal with unexpected tasks.

3. Tackle the Big Stuff First. Our tendency is to put off the big or difficult tasks for later. But studies have shown that most of us are more alert and productive in the morning. And accomplishing the major assignments first will energize your afternoons.

4. Take the 10-Minute Challenge. Is your desk filling up with papers? Put aside 10 minutes every other day—you may even want to set a timer—to go through and file, pass along or trash those piles of papers. A clutter-free desk can add some much needed calm and makes other tasks seem less frenzied.

5. Make big tasks small. Here’s another use for the timer: when you have a large task, break it up into 10- or 15-minute increments of work. Set the timer, and just do that amount of work. You’ll find that, like small amounts of exercise, small amounts of work make any task less intimidating.

6. Learn to negotiate your time. Every project has a deadline, but if you need more time, ask for it. Communicate your needs with the project manager and work with them to get the time you need to complete the tasks at hand.

7. Lend a helping hand. If you have some extra time, share it with a co-worker. Even if it’s just to make copies or get them some coffee, that little helping hand can make all the difference.

8. Respect other’s time. If you have a meeting scheduled for 10 am, be there at 10 am. If you’re meeting is only suppose to last a half hour, do your best to stick to 30 minutes. Don’t abuse other people’s time, and hopefully they’ll respect yours as well.

9.Make work fun. It may seem like there can’t possibly be time for fun, but that’s when you need it most. Take just five minutes a day to free your mind of work and just relax. Take a short walk, learn to juggle, share a joke of the day—you’ll return a little more refreshed.

10. Reward yourself (and others!). Celebrate your accomplishments—big and small. Give yourself a snack break, take a short walk or literally pat yourself on the back. Also make sure you acknowledge other members of your team that work with you to get the job done.

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FREE FedEx Shipping and Guaranteed Delivery on Orders placed before 2/9 @ 1pm Valentine’s Day Gift Sale Click Here!

Strengthen Your Internal Brand

Strengthen your “internal brand” with an integrated motivation program.

Just as marketing and advertising strive to create a deeply ingrained awareness of a company’s brand through a series of integrated initiatives, many human resource departments are recognizing the value this same strategic approach has in the promotion of their core values within their organizations. This “internal branding” method instills the company’s guiding principles in employees from their first day on the job and seeks to reinforce those principles in varied and inspiring ways each and every day in order to leverage the power of the workforce. Curt Coffman, co-author of the best-selling book on management, First, Break All The Rules, stated in a recent interview with The Gallup Organization that the keys to creating a highly engaged workforce are to “set clear expectations, give employees the right materials, focus on the employee, and recognize your best performers.” A well-executed internal branding program addresses all of these elements through the implementation of four distinct initiatives, each of which plays a vital role in the process.

Introduce core values to new employees.

• Begin establishing your company’s emphasis on its core values from their first day on the job with motivational reinforcements they’ll encounter each and every day. Affordable desktop accessories including mugs, pen caddies, notepads and other items imprinted with your mission or values provide new hires with a basic guideline on which to base their actions and decisions.
• Exhibit a strong commitment to your values by giving a gift of a framed desktop print with a motivational message or artwork personalized with your logo and mission statement. Options are available for every size work area.

Provide ongoing reminders throughout the workplace.

Surround your employees with visual motivational reminders that reinforce your core value message throughout the workplace.

• Reception areas: Greet your employees each morning with a personalized banner or framed mission statement print reminding them of the core values they should use to guide their decision-making throughout their day.
• Conference rooms and hallways: Eye-catching motivational wall art provides constant reinforcement of key messages. Tailor your art selection to each workspace. For example, stress the importance of goals or focus in a conference room, the value of determination or perseverance in offices, work stations and hallways, and the significance of work/life balance or perspective in a cafeteria or lunchroom.
• Individual workspaces: Taking the opportunity to reiterate your values in each employees’ “personal space” helps to encourage ownership in those values. Framed desktop artwork, personalized desktop accessories and stress relievers are excellent choices.

Use rewards and recognition to further define core values.

Expand your awards program beyond the traditional once-a-year award ceremony with frequent and diverse recognition opportunities. This on-going approach helps to define your core values by publicly recognizing specific performances and behaviors that clearly support them.

• On-the-spot recognition provides instant affirmation of contributions that exemplify core values. Effective and affordable pins, medallions and keychains help keep core values top-of-mind and create positive energy through an awareness that recognition can come at any time.
• Progressive award programs have been shown to enhance the performance of both recipients and their co-workers. A monthly award plaque sets the bar for excellence by establishing top performers as standard bearers for the core values. The visibility and frequent regularity of a perpetual award creates an on-going focus on excellence and offers an inclusive opportunity for every employee, even the newest hire, to earn recognition.
• Year-end awards are powerful tools for establishing your internal brand. When reserved for key contributors in each department who consistently exemplify your core values, they provide a definitive clarification of your values that all employees can follow. An official presentation ceremony underscores the company’s commitment to those values and to those individuals who commit themselves to upholding them. With thousands of customizable award designs available, be sure to choose one that matches your corporate values.

Offer personalized reinforcement.

Management’s direct support of your core values strengthens and personalizes your internal branding initiative.

• Acknowledge special contributions, holidays or personal milestones with notecards reinforcing core values through both inspirational imagery and messaging. Personalize them with your company logo, name and/or unique corporate message. A handwritten card or note can have a significant impact on the acceptance and internalization of your corporate values.
• Create a company-exclusive annual award that specifically reinforces your core values while providing personalized recognition of on-going dedication to those values. Presentation of the award by a key executive helps to underscore the importance of both the award and the core values.

Administered individually, each one of these initiatives can have a positive effect in the development of your organization’s core values. Aligning all four of these methods in a strategic promotional approach, however, puts you on the path to creating an intrinsically understood “internal brand” that will guide your employees to higher performance and your company to greater unity and success.

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The Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift

Are you looking for the perfect Valentine’s day gift? Are you tired of spending $100 on flowers that quickly fade or handing over a cheesy box of chocolates. This Valentine’s Day give a gift of a lifetime. A piece of customized and personalized wall art that professes your love and admiration for your partner weather it is the father or mother to your children, your boyfriend or girlfriend, the love of your life, you child or your parent. Now FREE SHIPPING for the holiday.

With Design Your Inspiration you can combine a stunning image with the perfect loving sentiment. Thousands of images, including a special Valentine’s Day collection, and a quote database that consists of thousands of quotes but more importantly hundreds of quotes about love and admiration. Here is a couple of amazing loving and sensual quotes:

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.” A. A. Milne

“I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.” Pablo Neruda

“Do not seek the because – in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.” Anais Nin

“You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” Barbara De Angelis

“Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” Franklin P. Jones

Click here to peruse hundred’s more.

Orders before Febuary 9th at 1pm will arrive before Valentine’s Day. Start creating your Valentine’s Day Gift Now.

Successories Warehouse

A day in the lift of the Successories warehouse. Unfortunately this view is the calmest area in the warehouse. Next time we’ll check out the shipping department, the framing department, and the Design Your Inspiration production line where the magic really happens.

Why Customer Service Matters

Get The Facts on Customer Service:

Fact: Customers spend up to 10% more for the same product with better service.

Fact: Customers tell anywhere from 9 to 12 people when they get good service.

Fact: When customers receive poor service, they tell up to 20 people.

Fact: Studies have shown that it takes a customer as little as ten seconds to pick up on the attitude (bad or good) of the person they are speaking to!

Creating a Customer Service Culture

When people think of customer service, they think of the front-line workers, the ones that come in direct contact with the customer. But the truth is, everyone in your company has an impact on the customer experience: The receptionist who greets visitors, the IT worker who maintains the systems to take orders, and the marketing staff that communicates information about your products. Everyone touches the customer in some way. This is why you must develop a customer service culture — from the top down.

Here are some simple steps you can take to create a Customer-Friendly Organization:

Communicate to every level the importance of customer service and the behaviors you are looking for regarding that service.

Recognize employees when they demonstrate positive service behaviors, both formally with awards and informally with certificates, medallions and hand-written notes of thanks.

Constantly give specific examples of good customer service.

Emphasize the concept of internal customer service. And treat your employees well! The quality of service they offer your customers is directly related to how the employees are treated themselves.

Empower your employees to make decisions and break the “rules” to satisfy a customer.

Train your people—all your people—on this customer service-based culture from the moment they are hired.

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Innovation Inspiration Video

The best way to predict the future...is to create it.

From Successories.com comes the inspirational moving image “Innovation” based upon the Successories poster illuminated by a tremendously powerful strike of light, a lone mountain road winds through a darkened pine forest. A strike image that is a beautiful visual metaphor for the Successories message “The best way to predict the future…is to create it.”

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Maintaining Productivity and Positively in the Work Place

Did you know that only 45% of people are happy with their job? Did you know that unhappy employees are far less productive than happy employees or even simply content employees? It is easy to understand that in a rough economy people are less picky about their jobs, but that doesn’t mean they are happy doing them. And during a down economy, a business can’t afford an unproductive workforce.

Let’s say an organization employs 100 people, 30 of which are unhappy and therefore are about 70% less productive than a happy employee. If the organization is paying these unhappy and unproductive employees $4,000 a month, the Annual Cost of Unproductive Time is $1,800,000.00!

The number 1 reason why employees are unsatisfied with their jobs… it’s not money… it’s simply Appreciation & Recognition.

Bonuses and Pay Raises are expensive compared to personalized acrylic awards that show your employees that the organization recognizes their contributions. Start 2010 with an ambitious and happy organization by having an appreciation award ceremony. Recognize your stars with plaques and trophies! Can you afford not to?

At Successories, we boast a tremendous selection of premium quality awards with easy customization, exclusive designs, as well as affordable options. Keep your employees engaged by making recognition a regular event. It’s easy and affordable. Our instant recognition collection makes it easy to recognize employees. Get budget-friendly instant recognition now!

We do acrylic awards right. Our unique selection and inspiring messages set our acrylic awards apart. See all of our Awards & Recognition items.

Choose from dozens of quality glass and crystal awards! The innovative shapes, uplifting messages and unique designs of our glass and crystal awards add panache to your award presentations. Customize these glass and crystal awards with your logo and/or your unique message for a one-of-a-kind presentation.

Give out positive performance reviews with commemorative certificates.

Start an award program such as employee of the month or top sale person with our stunning perpetual awards.

Start Promoting Productivity now at Successories.com

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Design Your New Years Resolution

Did you know that only 15% of people make it through the month of January with their new year’s resolution? That’s because of a lack of motivation. The new year is the inspiration for a new start, but motivation is what keeps the drive alive. What motivates you?

With Successories Design Your Inspiration, you can motivate yourself everyday with a piece of wall or desk art that has an inspirational image and words to motivate you through each negative thought or lazy day so that you can be part of the 15% that sticks to their resolution this year.

Find your motivation and inspiration now Click Here.

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