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Ryan J Bell

Surveying your employees can yield valuable data about their perception of your company. You can measure their level of job satisfaction, feelings about company policies and several other factors that can impact how smoothly your business operates. But, designing an employee survey that meets your objectives is a complex process. It requires a disciplined approach that considers your goals for the survey, ways to increase your employees’ response and methods of analyzing the data. In this article, we’ll discuss each of these issues to prepare you for the task of creating and executing your employee surveys.

Types Of Employee Surveys

There are several types of surveys that you can use to solicit your employees’ thoughts. The most common is a satisfaction survey. They can be comprehensive and address several issues at once or focus on a primary issue. For example, they can be used to ask for feedback regarding the availability of training programs, company benefits, or a recent acquisition. Another survey can ask employees to offer their thoughts about customer service. This can be particularly useful for identifying problems and making changes in customer care protocols.

Your company should also conduct employee exit surveys. When an employee resigns, they’ll often provide honest insight into sources of dissatisfaction. Often, these sources will go unrecognized by managers until a departing employee provides the feedback. Once the feedback is received, changes can be made to prevent other employees from feeling similarly dissatisfied.

Methods To Encourage Response

A well-designed employee survey must encourage response in order to be useful. Too often, companies spend very little time considering how to execute the survey once it has been created. You should spread the word about the survey to your entire staff a couple of weeks before it is distributed. As the launch date approaches, continue to remind your staff. Often, employees fail to respond to surveys simply because they didn’t set aside the time to complete them. Early notifications can help you avoid this problem.

The survey should be anonymous (and your employees should know that it is). You can guarantee this anonymity by having a third party solicit the feedback. Employees who know that their identity won’t be compromised are more willing to share honest feedback. Another factor that encourages response is clear communication of the survey’s goals. Your employees want to know the reason behind the survey. If they know the objective, they’ll be more likely to offer their opinions.

How To Measure Levels Of Importance

Asking your employees to describe the level of importance they feel toward each issue is more complicated than it appears. Doing so can make your survey needlessly long and thereby, reduce your response rate. Measuring levels of importance can be done, but you need to take a statistical approach. Rather than asking your employees to rate the importance of each issue, you should group related issues and solicit feedback regarding their overall satisfaction (or lack thereof). Then, you can use data analysis software to draw conclusions about levels of importance based upon high and low correlations between the individual issues and the “overall satisfaction” question.

Leveraging Employee Surveys

Using surveys is an effective way to leverage your company’s most valuable asset: your employees. They are the people who speak with your customers. And they’re largely responsible for how smoothly your company operates. By asking them for their feedback, you can identify changes that need to be made in every area of your business. When the time comes to survey your employees, use the tips above to design and execute a survey that yields reliable, honest and useful data.

Survey Gizmo is a leading provider of online survey software, check out their website for more great ways to use surveys to enhance your business.

Mark Crisp

To novices and the inexperienced, investing in the stock market can seem extremely intimidating. That is completely understandable. Trying to invest your money without knowing much about the market is akin to walking into a casino and dropping five hundred dollars on a single poker hand when you have never really played. In truth, purchasing stocks is quite easy. Investing them is the hard part. Well, really, it is more confusing than hard. Therefore it is crucial to learn as much as possible about the market and investing first. To that end, here are a couple of secrets which can really help you.

To begin with, as mentioned, investing is the hard part. Of course, you need to know a few things before buying as well. You need to start reading stock reports. See which stocks have done consistently well, which flounder, which ones are fickle, which ones seem doomed to fail, et cetera. A little research can go a long way – it can literally pay off, in fact.

So, just for argument’s sake, let us say that you have bought your stocks. They are good stocks and you want to do them justice – but you are not at all sure how to sell them. No problem! You do not have to make any faux pas that wind up losing you money. For one thing, never let fear hold you back. If you keep a stock just because you are afraid of what might happen if you sell it, then the market probably is not the place for you. You need to strip some emotions away from yourself, at least as they apply to investing. You need to get rid of all avarice.

You need to discard fear. You need to dump feelings of anxiety. You need to make nervousness take a hike. Believe it or not, doing these things can make all the difference in your success.

But how can get yet rid of these completely natural, understandable emotions? You just need to understand that sometimes, you may lose money. Not all of your investments are going to do well all the time. When they do not, you have to consider that an opportunity. The stock market presents a financial learning experience. Realize that losing money is as natural and expected as making it. Just by doing so, you may find that you win more often.

To that end however, you can implement some “insurance.” Simply put, you should never invest a load of money in just one stock. Spread your money around; that way, if one stock fails, you have not lost everything.

The types of stocks you choose to invest in are also important. You need to look for investments which carry a low risk. Some investors, fuelled by emotion, feel like they are not really investing if they do not take some chances. That is not true at all. Really, you are taking a chance any time you invest money in anything. Therefore, there is no reason to be foolhardy by putting all your eggs into one basket.

Get your Day Trading Method and sign up for my free Fade the Daily Gaps for Huge Profits here at: http://www.daytradeformoney.com

Mark Crisp

Day trading is a lot like other types of trading, in that it involves the purchase and sell of several different types of financial markets, also known as financial instruments. The most common of these include futures, options, currencies, and standard stocks. Unlike other types of trading, day trades are done during the market day. This means that they are rarely held from one day to the next or overnight.

Initially, only banks and other financial companies had access to the information involved in this type of trading. Little by little, and mostly thanks to services on the Internet, traders who work on an individual basis were also allowed to access such things as the exchanges and market information. This allows them to make extremely low cost trades.

There are five primary techniques and strategies used in this type of trading. Although different traders prefer different techniques, they are all used with the main goal of making a profit in mind. The first of these strategies is trend following. It follows the assumption that financial markets that have seen a steady, consistent increase will keep going up as they have been. The opposite is also true, meaning that if a stock has been consistently falling, it will continue to do so. Clearly, just as the name implies, this technique is based solely on financial and stock market trends.

Contrarian is another technique used in day trading. It is a timing technique. It operates in direct opposition of trend following. Therefore, contrarian trading follows the philosophy that if a stock or financial instrument has been increasing consistently, it is bound to see a reverse. Conversely, if an instrument has been falling steadily, then contrarian trading assumes it is soon due to rise. In short, day traders who follow the contrarian philosophy will usually buy into a market that has been decreasing. They hope to sell it high when it ultimately begins to rise. When a stock is already rising, day traders following this philosophy generally short sell it. They do so because they anticipate it will soon fall.

Range trading involves keeping an eye on a stock that rises off of a support price and/or falls off of a resistant price. That means that when a market hits a high point, it declines back to the low point. Conversely, if it hits a low point, it will rebound up to a high.

Scalping involves the exploitation of differences, or gaps, between the bid and the ask. It is a form of very quick trading which generally takes place within a span of minutes.

Another technique in day trading is called rebate trading. Profit and revenue are dependent on the ECN rebate of an instrument. It involves the trading of stocks with a low price and a high volume.

Lastly, there is news playing. As the name suggests, it is dependent on stock news. So, if a day trader has word that a stock is doing well, he or she will buy it. If on the other hand there is news a stock will be taking a dip, then the trader short sells it.

Get your Day Trading Method and sign up for my free Fade the Daily Gaps for Huge Profits here at: http://www.daytradeformoney.com

Mark Crisp

Day trading occurs when you buy and sell a stock within the same day. The reason you would buy and sell in the same day is to turn a profit with a short-term movement in the stock price. If you hang on too long, the up tick will have passed and the stock could plummet. More times than not, people wait too long and as a result they don’t make money.

If you are new to trading stocks, it would make sense to start with pretend trading. There are plenty of sites that allow you to trade virtually. This means that you are not using real money, yet you are choosing your stocks, buying and selling as if it were real. You will accrue pretend gains and pretend losses. Don’t laugh! Many people started out this way and then went on to make money when they felt confident enough to become a real day trader investing their real money.

Although the name is day trader, some day traders hold on to stocks for as long as three weeks. They make these decisions based upon market indicators. In order to educate yourself about the market you will need to get your hands on some day trading tools.

1. First you will need a computer with internet access. Your computer should be equipped with a fast CPU speed in order to process the trading charts and graphs quickly.

2. You need to set up a day trader brokerage account. There is an initial investment of a minimum $500 to $2,000 depending upon the brokerage dealer.

3. Because you are trading in such a compressed period of time, you cannot wait for delayed information, so you will need access to real time market data. Many day traders prefer to get this information from their brokerage dealer.

4. Learn technical analysis tools such as range trading or strength index so that you can double check the indicators leading you to buy or sell before you actually do it.

Before you start trading you should set up a few rules for yourself. Limit your losses. You can put a dollar amount on what you will allow yourself to lose in one day, but you must stick to it. Many day traders make the mistake of holding onto stock too long and rather than sell when the stock initially started losing money, they hold onto it thinking the market will change and they can make back what they lost. Instead, they lose even more money than they would have had they sold when the stock hit their loss limit.

Don’t invest every penny you own in day trading. That simply is not smart. Just as if you would like to hold a stock portfolio of diversified stocks, you also don’t want to put all of your eggs into the day trading.

You do not have to trade every day to call yourself a day trader. Skip a day if you need to attend to other business or if you aren’t up to the task. It is better to be able to focus your full attention to day trading than to participate half-heartedly.

Now that you have an idea of what it takes to be a day trader, do you still want to do it? If so, do an Internet search for “virtual day trading” to start your practice.

Get your Day Trading Method and sign up for my free Fade the Daily Gaps for Huge Profits here at: http://www.daytradeformoney.com

Mark Crisp

A penny stock is a stock that is not traded on a major exchange such as the NYSE, NSADAQ or AMEX. It is usually traded over the Pink Sheets or OTC bulletin boards. The stocks generally sell for less than $5 per share of stock, although some will argue that penny stocks sell for less than $2 per share, but the point is that they cost very little per share. Investors are attracted to the penny stocks because of the low investment price which makes them seem all the more lucrative.

Penny stocks have long fascinated investors because the potential to make great gains is there. Because the volume of trading is low, a quick up tick in the market could net you a 1000% return on your investment. Now you are starting to realize the potential to make a lot of money. The key, of course, is in selecting the right penny stocks in which to invest.

Penny stock investing is not an exact science. You must do your research by reading the prospectus that the company provides to you. They must list market potential for their product, list who the competition is and list the challenges that they are facing in getting the product to market. In addition, you as an investor must be very discriminating when it comes to reading press information on the company. Is all the positive information written by the company’s own public relations agent or does some come from outside sources?

Penny stock companies could be years away from getting their product to market. You must be prepared to see little or no change in the stock for years. Again, the upside to penny stocks is that when they begin to move, they move very quickly. Traditional stock trading might earn you an 8% return on your investment, but a penny stock has the potential to yield 500% or more. Now you are beginning to understand why so many want to be involved in penny stocks.

Did you know that Microsoft was once a penny stock company? However, for every Microsoft company in existence, there are 1,000 penny stock companies that will never give you a return of your investment.

It is hard to figure out the worth of penny stocks. Most penny stock companies do not have revenue or sales figures to report, some do not have a product ready for market and others do not have an inventory of goods. The penny stock prices fall and rise simply based upon buying and selling demands.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website explains that penny stocks can be a very risky investment. They advise potential investors that they should prepare for the possibility that they could lose their entire investment in penny stocks. If you are not deterred by that possibility, there is a potential to make a quick buck with penny stocks.

A word of caution: Penny stocks do not trade regularly which can make them difficult to sell once you own them.

Get your Momentum Stock Trading System and sign up for my free weekly online trading system newsletter here at: http://www.stressfreetrading.com

Peter Kenny

Over the past two or three years a new breed of website has sprung up, and these websites are designed to increase efficiently, reduce time consumption, and increase ease and convenience for consumers looking to get a good deal on a range of services and products. In the past, those looking to get a good deal on their products and services often had to trawl a wide range of website and collate the different information relating to price, benefits, and terms in order to determine which was the best deal for them, but these website do most of the legwork for you, saving you time, inconvenience, and stress.

The sites are known as price comparison websites, and over recent years a number of these websites have sprung up. Some price comparison sites deal with specified products or services, such as insurance services, whereas others cover a wide range of products and services, including insurance, credit cards, loans, mortgages, mobile phones, broadband, utilities, travel, and more. The aim of the websites is to provide consumers with details of the cheapest deal for their needs as quickly and easily as possible.

Price comparison sites can be very effective in terms of saving you time and even money. These sites are very easy to use. All you have to do is enter the required details relating to your needs and circumstances on the website, and then the site will bring up a list of suitable providers and services, enabling you to see at a glance which will be the cheapest option for your needs. This saves you the trouble of having to hop from one website to another in order to get the best deal on a specific product or service.

However, it is important to bear in mind that price comparison sites only cover a portion of the market, and whilst some cover as much as 80% of the market this still means that there is a chance that there is a better deal available out there amidst the portion of the market that has not been covered by the price comparison site. This means that whilst you can find the lowest priced service or product from a particular price comparison site there is no guarantee that this is the cheapest price on the product or service from the whole of the market.

One idea when looking for low cost services and products is to check two or three price comparison sites, as this may enable you to access more of the market. The sites are fast and easy to use, so you won’t have to waste a lot of time, and you could really benefit in the long run by getting a far better deal on the service or product that you are looking for. Once you have selected the required service or product based on suitability and price you can link to the provider’s site from the price comparison site, although you should be aware that the price quoted on the price comparison site may not be the price that you get when you link to the site.

Peter Kenny has been writing financial articles for 10 years and is a writer for The Thrifty Scot, please visit us at Current Accounts and Money Tips
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Peter Kenny

Many of us like to travel abroad to pastures new at least once a year, and some of us like to jet off abroad even more often if we can. There are also many people that have to travel abroad as part of their work, and may find themselves heading overseas on a regular basis. Whether you are travelling for business or leisure, and whether you travel regularly or occasionally, it is important to remember that having travel insurance in place is of paramount importance for you and those traveling with you.

Travel insurance is available from a wide range of lenders, and there are different levels of cover that are designed to suit different needs and circumstances. You can get some pretty good deals on travel insurance cover, although you should remember that the cost of cover and the benefits of cover can vary from one provider to another. It is therefore vital that you compare cover from a number of providers, and in addition to checking and comparing the price you also read the small print, familiarise yourself with any restrictions or exclusions, and make sure that you are aware of the benefits.

When you are booking or arranging your travel insurance cover you will need to decide which type of policy is best suited to your needs. There are a number of options to select from, and a few of these are outlined below:

Single trip cover: Single trip travel insurance cover is ideal for those that only travel abroad occasionally, such as once a year or less, and this cover can be taken out when arranging your trip, either through the company that is arranging your flight and accommodation or by doing some research and comparing deals from other travel insurance providers. As the name suggest this type of travel insurance covers you for a single return trip.

Multi-trip travel insurance: If you travel abroad on a regular basis, it would be a pain to have to arrange separate cover each time you went, not to mention expensive. With multi-trip travel insurance cover you can enjoy being covered for a number of trips abroad without having to arrange cover separately each time.

Annual travel insurance cover: Annual travel insurance cover will provide protection for the whole year, so no matter how many times you travel over the course of that year you will be covered. Again, this can suit those that travel on a regular basis, and can save time, hassle, and money.

Group travel insurance: If you are travelling abroad as part of a group you can get some good deals on group cover that will protect everyone in the group. This is a far cheaper way of getting this valuable insurance than everyone taking out their own separate policy.

Winter sports cover: Many people like to jet off to a winter wonderland to enjoy skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. However, this can be a dangerous sport, and therefore you need specialist cover to protect you against the increased risks as well as to protect the expensive gear and equipment that you will be using.

Peter Kenny has been writing financial articles for 10 years and is a writer for The Thrifty Scot, please visit us at Secured Loans and Travel Insurance Visit Government wants to make credit unions more accessible

Candice Clem

In today’s economy, dual income families are becoming more and common and necessary, but for many people, the answer to money woes in the slumping economy is getting a second job to make ends meet, or “moonlighting.” Now, you could go get a second job where you make next to nothing doing manual labor or retail work or you could take on a second job that’s not only exciting but could also flourish and grow to the point where you make enough money to quit your day job and focus on your second one. With a home based franchise, you’ll not only be able to set your own hours and run your business as a second job, but you’ll also be able to scale and grow your business as you go so that one day, sooner than you man think, you’ll achieve the financial freedom you’ve been dreaming about and be able to go from working two jobs to running one business that’s rewarding personally and financially. If you’re interested in taking on a new gig with the potential to free you financially, consider the Top 5 Franchise Opportunities For Moonlighters.

5. Entech USA Vending

Forget coffee, today’s consumer is proving that there’s more than one way to catch a caffeinated buzz and they’ve turned the once humble energy drink market into a whopping $100 billion/year industry with more growth every month. Vending machines make great low cost franchise opportunities because they require very little startup money and they make great business opportunities for moonlighters because after you setup the machine, the only work left to do is to stock your machines every week or two and collect your cash. Energy drinks represent a high profit industry because a 20oz energy drink will sell for between $2-$3 where the average soda will sell for half the price, sometimes less. If you’ve every considered a vending franchise, choose an energy drink franchise that’s all but guaranteed to outperform a comparable snack or soda machine.

4. DVDNow Kiosk

DVDNow video rental kiosks provide an automated DVD rental service that can be deployed in grocery, convenience stores, gas stations, office building or any other high traffic area. By focusing on the highest demand titles (mainly new releases) DVDNow kiosks allow you to provide consumers with instant, automated movie rentals of the titles that people actually want to see. Imagine coming home to your condo or apartment complex after work and picking up the latest New Release in the lobby of your building. The perfect second job, all that’s required of you is to setup the machines, keep them in working order and collect your money.

3. The Drug Test Consultant

Anyone who’s worked a few jobs knows the value of a drug test. These tests not only help the employer to hire mature and responsible candidates but also serve to protect coworkers from drug abusers who can be very dangerous to work around in a variety of jobs. The Drug Test Consultant is among a handful of cheap franchises that can be bought and up and running for less than $10,000. As a Drug Test Consultant franchisee, you’ll help employers screen candidates for drug use, perform background checks and even hair follicle testing. This is a great job for the moonlighter as the testing can be done on your own schedule and can pay very well with little time needed each week.

2. Caddy Card

When you’re working two jobs, you may find it hard to find time to get onto the golf course, luckily with a Caddy Card franchise, you can hang out at the course all day, not playing hooky, but working. Caddy Card’s product is an attractive golf course guide book complete with scorecard, training aids, course information and advertisements. Your job as a Caddy Card franchisee is simply to sell the advertising space on the caddy card and then literally give them away to local golf courses. Golfers love Caddy Cards because it provides all the detailed information they need about the course and lets them track all of their important information throughout the day. Golf courses love Caddy Card because it’s free for them and it attracts new players by providing more information about the course and making the golf course look more professional and attractive. You’ll love Caddy Card because of its low initial investment ($11,800) and its fast return and high income potential.

1. HomeTask.com Handyman Services

Many moonlighters need to be jacks of all trades, being able to do whatever work is needed for the job at hand. HomeTask.com shares your handyman’s spirit by deploying handymen to jobs all over your area and building lasting customer relationships, which are sure to earn you valuable referral business. As a franchisee, you’ll be supported by a world-class team designed to assist you with training, initial startup and ongoing support with your business to make sure that you never feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. If you’re ready to capitalize on this exciting small business opportunity, don’t delay and make the crossover from moonlighter to full-fledged handyman.

Working multiple jobs is tough, but business opportunities available at such low startup costs and with such high potential for profit, getting to financial freedom by working less for more money is closer than you think. These franchise opportunities are all designed to benefit not only the seasoned entrepreneur but also the first time investor/business professional by guiding you each step of the way and helping you to build on the triumphs and successes of the franchisor. Take advantage of what’s available and with a small business franchise, start working smarter, not just working harder.

Find more franchises, home based businesses,franchise opportunities and information for moonlighters at Franchise Gator.