Advantages of a Postgraduate Degree in Business

You might be wondering: Why apply for postgraduate studies when there are success stories like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, who are all college dropouts? Well, they’re the exception rather than the rule. Plenty of CEOs have postgraduate degrees in various fields. You have people like Mary Barra of General Motors with an MBA, Randall Stephenson of AT&T with an MA in accounting, and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway with an MA in economics.

If you need a little convincing, we’ll be laying out five advantages of pursuing postgraduate studies in this article.

1. Increased potential for career advancement

A postgraduate degree can help you move up the corporate ladder to higher-ranking positions. This includes managerial positions and leadership roles, where you’ll have to handle a team and delegate tasks. In a highly competitive job market, a postgraduate degree, especially an MBA, could be what separates you from others who aspire to climb the ranks of the corporate ladder. To recruiters, it’s proof that you’re equipped with the necessary skills to lead others — and the company — to success.

2. Network-building opportunities

Regardless of what postgraduate degree you choose to pursue, you’ll be surrounding yourself with like-minded people. It’s the perfect time to make connections, especially since you’ll be interacting with professionals in the field. It goes without saying that networking is a valuable tool in the business world — you can open up doors to partnerships, mentorships, and get an ‘in’ with industry leaders.

3. Improved communication skills

In the academe, you’ll be communicating with your lecturers and course mates on various projects. Postgraduate degrees are the time to showcase your knowledge and experience in your respective field, so this will be an excellent opportunity to put your speaking, listening, and collaborative skills to the test.

But that’s not all. You can also choose to take up a track designed specifically for communication, and pursue a master’s degree in the subject. After all, the abilities to effectively communicate a message and persuade an audience are sought after in any field. With this postgraduate degree, you can become a communications specialist, PR manager, or even a marketing director.

4. Specialized tech knowledge

Many professionals also pursue further studies to build specialized skills, specifically ones that are pertaining to tech. We are living in a data-driven world and anyone with advanced tech skills in analytics is primed to succeed and lead. Every business collects and stores data, and it’s up to data professionals to make sense of that information so it becomes usable. That’s why earning a master’s degree in this field could open you up to the many viable careers in data analytics. Whether as a data engineer, digital marketer, or management analyst, you’ll have an in-demand skillset that’s applicable to a wide range of industries, from healthcare to finance and all the way to marketing.

Plus, there are plenty of data scientists who became CEOs, like Sebastian Thrun of Udacity and Thomas Thurston of Growth Science. With data-driven thinking, leaders can zero in on the facts and data, making for more objective solutions.

5. Problem-solving and risk management training

Every business is bound to run into problems, and solving them takes skill. Pursuing a postgraduate degree can help you hone your critical and creative thinking skills, which, in turn, can improve your problem-solving and risk management capabilities.

Entrepreneurs looking to build on this particular skillset can choose to pursue an MBA. This course tackles a broad range of topics that fall under business fundamentals and provides its students with the knowledge they need to take on managerial roles. However, it is different from other business-related courses in that it is more general in scope. For instance, a master’s in finance focuses less on the business aspect and more on theoretical concepts in finance. As such, it would be a better choice for entrepreneurs who want to focus more on providing finance-related solutions. In today’s job market, you need to take every opportunity you can to get ahead of the competition. And one guaranteed way to set yourself apart is to enroll in a postgraduate course. Whether it’s a course in marketing, communications, or finance, a postgraduate diploma can make you a more appealing candidate in the business world.

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MediSpend: Enabling Life Sciences Companies to Manage High-Risk Business Functions for Compliance

MediSpend has introduced the industry’s first global SaaS solution purpose-built to manage the end-to-end process of healthcare professional (HCP) engagement through transparency reporting, which includes software that facilitates external grant requests for the life sciences industry. Presently, more than 100 pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and dental companies in 96 countries around the world rely on MediSpend to manage high-risk business functions for compliance.

JOURNEY SINCE THE INCEPTION

When the company was founded, it was in reaction to new laws that required life sciences companies to do a type of regulatory reporting they hadn’t done before. The Physician Payments Sunshine Act (PPSA) is a law that was passed under the Affordable Care Act in 2011, and it requires that certain manufacturers of drugs and devices and certain group purchasing organizations report payments and transfers of value to HCPs to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) once a year. Today, more than 40 countries around the world have similar transparency reporting requirements.

MediSpend sought to provide a platform to support this new business need that allowed companies with high business and compliance risks to manage those risks in an automated, integrated way. The platform allows them to take manual, disparate processes and data and bring it together in a way that provides a level of integrity and compliance oversight that’s important for life science businesses.

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

As compliance requirements around the globe continue to expand, so has MediSpend’s Global Compliance Suite of solutions. The MediSpend Global Compliance Suite consists of a modular suite of SaaS-based solutions: Engagement Manager, Transparency Solution, Grants Manager, Study Manager and Insights, which showcases their analytical capabilities via embedded dashboard reporting and self-service analytics. Although these offerings can be utilized separately, together they represent a unified, end-to-end solution specifically designed to enable life sciences companies to manage high-risk business functions for compliance.

Engagement Manager is a global compliance solution with embedded compliance controls designed to identify and mitigate risk associated with HCP engagements. Engagement Manager will help your organization manage the end-to-end engagement lifecycle on a SaaS-based platform.
Transparency Solution collects, remediates, validates, analyzes and reports transfers of value to comply with state, federal and global transparency laws and codes.
Grants Manager manages internal and external funding and product requests through a secure portal ensuring seamless communication, the ability to track and report out on the workflow and a more effective and efficient process.
Study Manager is a compliance solution designed for non-pharmaceutical company researchers to request, track and manage investigator-initiated clinical studies-trials (IIS/IIT).
Insights delivers meaningful dashboards and powerful ad-hoc reporting capabilities to track and analyze the spend lifecycle, perform competitive analysis and monitor your compliance program in real-time. Life science companies are now provided with the analytics they need to predict issues before they occur.

MediSpend enables life sciences companies to manage
high-risk business functions for compliance

THE GUIDING FORCE

Craig Hauben is the CEO of MediSpend and he holds over 25 years of experience in healthcare industry operations and sales management. Craig leverages his expertise in operations and sales to help MediSpend maximize its brand to expand its offerings and remain a leading global compliance technology company for the life sciences industry.

Craig’s vision has been critical. In a very short period, he has been able to survey the market, diagnose product strengths and create a long-term roadmap for a product suite that is unique in the industry. The entire team is energized around this vision and the journey they are on.

Craig has also brought strong judgment and decisiveness to the organization. The COVID-19 pandemic has tested MediSpend like it has tested many companies. Craig took quick action to ensure the long-term strength of the company. While their business is returning to ‘normal’, they are stronger today than they were pre-COVID.

A GLIMPSE OF CURRENT SCENARIO

During this unpredictable year, life sciences companies have demanded reliability from the solutions they utilize. MediSpend aims to make compliance simple and reliable; giving life sciences companies one less thing to stress about.

Life sciences companies require innovative, intuitive and easy-to-use software solutions to meet their
needs. They require that any software solution, and especially SaaS-based ones, are developed to meet the vast majority of their functional needs out of the box before they will be willing to use it. They prefer more configurations and less customization. Furthermore, they also want to make sure that third-party SaaS solutions meet stringent data privacy and security protocols, and that the organization that is providing the solution has the subject matter expertise needed to support their complex needs.

Therefore, MediSpend had to first establish trust and credibility with executives at life sciences companies, while also demonstrating innovative technology that was purpose-built to meet their needs now and can scale to meet future needs. MediSpend accomplished this and is now proud to be considered the compliance system of record for more than 100 life sciences companies around the world.

THE SECRET BEHIND THE SUCCESS

Craig Hauben shared, “Our strategy here starts with keeping our focus on making our clients successful, not what our competition is saying and doing. By focusing on what our clients need and want, we stay in tune with the broader needs of the market and can stay ahead of our competition. We lead with our team of industry experts. They advise companies who are preparing to launch their first product all the way to complex, global organizations that are industry leaders.”

The MediSpend Global Compliance Suite was purpose-built with the end-user in mind. It delivers a simplified user interface and has often been cited as more intuitive than competitive offerings. Modern technology developments and intuitive user interface aids in quick user adoption and continuous engagement with the platform.

Focused on what clients need, the MediSpend team developed their Legislative Watch, which provides free summaries of global reporting requirements.

MediSpend’s Client Services team provides full-service access and solutions to address client needs during the reporting session and throughout the year. Through monthly meetings with clients, the MediSpend Client Services team consistently receives high ratings from their clients.

NOTABLE FEEDBACK FROM CLIENTS

MediSpend’s clients report a 97% overall satisfaction rate and 94% product satisfaction rate. 90% of MediSpend’s 100+ clients are willing to be client references.

THE FUTURE AHEAD

“We continue to focus on using technology to simplify our client’s lives and enable our client’s greater ability to manage high-risk business functions for compliance. In the near future, we will bring new capabilities to the market that broaden our platform and provide greater integration. An example of this is the latest launch of our Grants Management Solution. More new launches are being planned,” said Hauben.

A Comprehensive Guide to Homeowners Insurance

One doesn’t simply do with a home insurance policy. One NEEDS a perfect home insurance coverage plan. Your house is undoubtedly your most prized possession and one of the most valuable assets you have. You have put in your hard work and a lot of money into constructing your dream home. Any catastrophic devastation caused due to natural calamities like earthquakes will shake the entire foundational structure of your house. Your home may also be completely uninhabitable. It is only to protect you from such unforeseen circumstances that homeowners insurance becomes indispensable, for not just owners but also tenants. In the case of any damage, the emotional and financial burden of rebuilding it or reinstalling its contents is appalling.

We have compiled a handy homeowners insurance guide for your convenience.

What is Home Insurance?

Home insurance a.k.a homeowners insurance is a distinct type of property insurance that covers the house from various different kinds of dangers like perils, damages, accidents, and thefts. It covers losses and damages to not just an individual’s residence but also furnishings and other assets. You can buy a homeowners policy for a stipulated tenure with it being effective only for that tenure.

So, it’s safe to assume that homeowners insurance is also a type of term contract. When the stipulated period is over, you will have to renew the insurance plan if you wish to continue. To ensure that you get coverage under a comprehensive home insurance policy, you will need to pay a premium to the insurance company.

When a claim is made on any incident, the homeowner will be required to pay a deductible which is the out-of-pocket costs for the insured. Since there are a number of comprehensive home insurance policies at your disposal, as a customer, you can make use of any third-party financial website to compare them and choose one that is best suited to your requirements and your budget.

In some cases, home insurance is mandatory. For instance, if you have a mortgage your lender is most likely going to require you to have homeowners insurance. Before funding your mortgage or refinancing, the company will typically ask you to offer any proof stating your home is adequately insured. Why? Because the lender wants to be certain that its investment is protected if damaged or destroyed by a fire or other risks. Your mortgage company may also require other kinds of insurance that may be based on where your home is located. If it is located in a high-risk flood zone, for instance, you may have to have flood insurance.

The Ideal Homeowners Policy — Protecting More than the House

While any standard homeowners policy will help protect your house, it also ideally should help cover more than just the physical structure. From your personal belongings to the shed in your backyard or even medical bills in case someone is wounded or injured on your property.

Here are a few additional coverages that standard home insurance should include:

Dwelling Coverage

If a covered peril damages your house or any other attached structure, say a garage, dwelling coverage will help pay for repairs. The amount of dwelling coverage you would need is calculated by the square footage of your house and what it would typically cost to rebuild it. This is, of course, not the market value of your home necessarily.

Other Structures Coverage

The other structures coverage in your home insurance plan helps pay for replacement or repairs for various detached structures on your property like a shed or a fence increase if they are damaged or destroyed by a covered peril.

Personal Property Coverage

This will help cover the costs of the damage caused to certain belongings like electronics or furniture that are stolen or damaged by a covered loss.

Liability Coverage

If you or any of your family members are found legally responsible for accidentally damaging someone else’s property or injuring someone, liability coverage will help pay for the related repair costs and also legal fees in addition to covering for the medical bills.

Living Expenses Coverage

In case you cannot stay in your home after a fire or other perils covered by the claim, your homeowners insurance coverage will help pay for temporary living costs such as hotel bills.

What Are Excluded from a Policy?

Typically a dependable homeowners insurance may not apply to damage caused by flood, water that backs up through sewers or drains, surface water, earth movement, war, nuclear damage, etc. Personal liability and medical payments do not apply to the operation, ownership, use, etc. of any automobile, aircraft, RV, watercraft powered by more than 50 horsepower motor, and bodily injury or physical damage caused by an intentional act of the insured.

Whether your home insurance policy pays for the replacement or just the actual cash value of your possessions you will anyway be paid for personal property that you can show you owned at the time of loss. It is a great idea to keep an up to date inventory in a secure place. Also, to help you remember what you had (this may sound relatively easy but it’s not- you’d be surprised!), it is helpful to take videos or pictures of each room. A complete review of your policy is perhaps the only possible way to determine what property is covered and what perils are insured against.

The Three Levels of Coverage

A comprehensive home insurance coverage plan will cater to your needs across three levels, at least.

Actual Cash Value

Covers the cost of the house and the value of your belongings after deducting depreciation — that is, how much are the items currently worth.

Replacement Cost

In order to help you repair or rebuild your home up to the original value this covers the actual cash value of your home and possessions without the deduction for depreciation.

Guaranteed (or extended) Replacement Cost/Value

The most comprehensive, this inflation-buffer policy pays for whatever it costs to rebuild your home or repair damages — even if it’s more than your policy limit. Although certain insurers may offer an extended replacement (it offers more coverage than you purchased), there is a ceiling. Typically, it is 20% to 25% higher than the limit.

Thus, homeowners insurance is definitely not a luxury but a necessity. It protects your home and possessions against damage or theft.

Committed to excellence and backed by a thoroughly motivated team, Dickey McCay excels at creating the perfect, affordable homeowners insurance policy tailored to fit your lifestyle and needs. If you want to leverage state of the art home insurance coverage provided for Blue Ridge, GA, Murphy, NC, McCaysville, GA, Copperhill, TN, Blairsville, GA, Andrews, NC, and Tellico Plains, TN, get in touch today. They implement thoroughly client-centric solutions to protect your most valuable asset. United by a love for insured, safe homes, Dickey McCay hopes to channelize it towards the goal of serving conscious customers like you with a hassle-free, seamless and enhanced customer experience.

Four Tech Skills You Should Start Learning During Quarantine

Being in isolation gives people enough time to think, reflect, and spend time with their loved ones. However, since many people lost their jobs because of employers’ new demands, dealing with expenses has become a struggle. Nowadays, the need for remote workers is skyrocketing, and learning in-demand programming skills will increase your job opportunities.

Remote learning has become popular these days, and online coding bootcamps are providing students with the right tools to get back in the game. If you’re thinking about starting a new learning process, you should read this article. The four tech skills listed below are among the best tools to learn during the quarantine. They are easy to learn and will help you prepare for any challenge that might come up in the future.

JavaScript

If you seek to change your lifestyle during quarantine, you can’t stop learning JavaScript. It’s become essential for developers and companies. It’s excellent for front as well as back end development and makes it easy to build sites. JS frameworks allow tech professionals to save time on coding and stay focused on the design. Learning JavaScript enables you to be a jack of all trades in web development. Hence, every company across the globe will love to have you on their team.

There are many ways to learn JavaScript and get a degree. However, coding bootcamps are among the most common ways to learn. This is because they allow students to learn from home and receive help from a career support team. If you’re willing to learn JS but need some extra information, don’t hesitate to visit Computer Science Hero’s site. It’ll allow you to know if web development is the right career for you and how you could start.

Web Design

Web designers and web developers often tend to accomplish similar tasks. Nevertheless, web designers usually focus on the UI and layout of web pages. They are the customers’ voice as they need to conduct interviews and surveys to know what users are looking for. Web designers play an essential role in increasing customers’ satisfaction. During their daily work lives, they do graphic design work to improve the appearance of sites and allow companies to meet users’ expectations. For Web designers, learning HTML and CSS is essential.

WordPress is an excellent tool for web design and enables professionals to build websites within minutes and without knowing how to code. It allows developers to use templates or create sites from scratch. Today, it powers over 30 percent of the Internet and learning how to use it will make you an attractive candidate. To learn web design skills, you can enroll in Thinkful’s online coding bootcamps or take online courses.

If you need to know more about what web designers do, what tools you should learn, and how much they earn, you can visit Bootcamp Rankings. It’ll help you to make your decision and determine what’s the best learning alternative for you. Still, don’t forget that big tech companies like Amazon and Google are searching for professionals with web design skills.

Cybersecurity

Learning cybersecurity skills is the best choice you can make during the quarantine. Day by day, tech devices are becoming essential to our lives. But, systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Learning how to deal with rapidly-advancing threats and how to catch hackers will put you on top-notch companies’ radar. Starting a career as a cybersecurity engineer can be challenging. Therefore, enrolling in Flatiron School’s bootcamp is the leap you should take.

Flatiron School is among the best coding schools in the US. The company is dedicated to students’ success. For that reason, they receive help from experts in the field and learn through hands-on projects. During their cybersecurity program, you’ll develop analytical skills that are crucial to standing out from the competition.

Python

Data is becoming more valuable each day, and learning Python will make you an eye-catching employee. Today, most companies seek workers with Python skills not only because they can analyze processes to provide better results but because they can create machine learning solutions to offer more personalized services to customers. In other words, they are key to meet customers’ needs. On the other hand, data scientists have become pretty valuable to companies because they help them make better data-driven decisions.

According to Bootcamp Rankings, data scientists can make, on average, $108,000 per year, and more than 1,000 companies are hiring candidates with data science skills. If you wish to know how to become a data scientist, don’t hesitate to visit the Bootcamp Rankings site. It’ll enable you to understand better how the job is and what you need to work in the data science field.

Conclusion

Spending time at home without being able to go out can be frustrating. Also, if you feel stressed because of your expenses, you should consider learning these skills. They will help you move forward during this tough situation. If money is stopping you from learning, apply for an ISA. Many vocational schools are offering several financing options to help students relieve financial stress.

Hackers retrieved some customer call records in data breach said T-Mobile

T-Mobile, the third biggest cellular carrier in U.S. after finishing its latest $26 billion merger with sprint, ended 2020 by saying its 2nd data breach of the year.

The cellular giant stated in a note buried on its company site that it lately determined unauthorized access to a few clients’ account data, which includes the information that T-Mobile makes and collects on its clients with a purpose to offer cellular carrier.

From the notice: “Our cyber security group recently determined and close down malicious, unauthorized access to a few data associated with your T-Mobile account. We right now began an investigation, with assistance from leading cyber security forensics professionals, to determine what happened and what data was concerned. We additionally without delay reported this matter to federal law enforcement and are actually in a procedure of notifying impacted customers.”

referred to as customer proprietary network information (CPNI), this statistics can encompass call data – including when a call was made, for how lengthy, the caller’s cellphone number and the destination telephone numbers for each call, and other data that probably determined at the client’s bill.

But the company stated that the hackers did no longer access names, home or e-mail addresses, economic statistics, and account passwords (or PINs).

A spokesperson for T-Mobile said the breach occurred in early December, and influences approximately 0.2% of all T Mobile customers – or about 200,000 customers.

It’s the brand new protection incident to hit the cellular giant in latest years.

In 2018, T-Mobile said as many as two million customers may have had their private information scraped. A year later, the organization confirmed hacker’s accessed data on some other million prepaid customers. Just months into 2020, T-Mobile admitted a breach on its e-mail systems that noticed hackers access a few T-Mobile employee e-mail accounts, exposing some consumer information.

Daniel A. Etra : Advancing the Boundaries in Healthcare through Innovative Technology

Pioneers on the road to enhancing healthcare worldwide, Rethink, under the leadership Daniel Etra, Co-Founder & CEO, is providing cloud-based treatment tools, training and clinical supports for individuals with developmental disabilities and their caregivers. The seeds of the global health technology brand was shown in 2007 with a mission to inspire and empower individuals with developmental disabilities and those who support them.

Leveraging technology to provide a scalable and affordable solution— Rethink aims to provide families, educators and behavioural healthcare providers affordable, best practice treatment solutions for children with special needs. Presently, the Rethink program is being used by employers, the US Department of Defense, Managed Care organizations, Medicaid, federal, state and social service agencies, public school districts, and families nation- and worldwide.

Meet the Leader

Rethink, run by Daniel A. Etra, CEO & Co-Founder, is leading a team of education, clinical, business and industry experts with a shared commitment to making best-practice treatment solutions available to every child with special needs. Under his guidance, the Company is successfully offering support, tools, and content via technology to all market segments and reaching more children.

Prior to co-founding Rethink, Mr Etra was CEO of R.E.R. International, a supplier of printed materials to the retail industry. In addition, he worked with many global companies in managerial positions. In academics, Daniel Etra has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Yale University.

Daniel Etra’s Dynamic Leadership

Beginning with a focus on families caring for a dependent with a developmental disability, Rethink, under Mr Etra’s leadership, has expanded its product range to serve all entities revolving around the care of this population. Today, Rethink’s three divisions – Education, Employer & Behavioural Health – provide treatment tools and supports for caregivers in the public school system, for employees of Fortune 500 companies in over 120 countries, and in the healthcare system through public and private behavioural health agencies.

Rethink’s an Effective Web-Based Program

With a significant dearth of trained professionals (there are only approximately 30,000 Board Certified Behavioural Therapists) available to meet the needs of a growing population with a developmental disability (approximately 450 million individuals birth-21 globally), Rethink set out to create a scalable solution that would make clinical best practice treatment tools and supports available to the individual and their caregiver(s) no matter where they are located.

Unique Service Portfolio

Providing research-based teaching strategies grounded in the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), the award-winning Rethink program includes a comprehensive online individualized treatment program with over 1,500 video-based demonstrations – developed by internationally-recognized experts in the field – to train caregivers, parents, professional and paraprofessional staff how to manage problem behaviours as well as teach an individual with a developmental disability critical skills.

Automated data-based reports track progress in real-time, facilitate coordination across care team members, and allow for robust data analytics on outcomes. Besides, Program Specialists can also utilize Rethink as a form of job-embedded professional development and to augment coaching caregivers and other support staff. Rethink also offers a range of technology-enabled remote service options, ranging from short-term web-based consultations with Rethink’s Board-certified behavioural therapists to ongoing program development initiatives supported by an in-house team of clinicians. In addition, Rethink’s practice management offering allows for the tracking of service authorizations and cost of treatment as it relates to clinical outcomes. Rethink serves individuals at all levels of development and ages ranging from point of diagnosis through early adulthood.

A Case Study Showing How Rethink’s Methodology Surpassed An Organization’s Expectation

One of the most critical needs in employee benefits is supporting employees caring for a child with a developmental disability such as autism or ADHD. Costco Wholesale decided to be proactive and offer unique supports such as the Rethink program to these employees, who make up nearly 20% of the workforce. As Donna Sexton, the Director of Employee Benefits at Costco noted: “I can’t think of any benefits we’ve ever added to our suite that got so much attention and so many letters to our president, thanking him for bringing Rethink on, and what a difference it was going to make in their lives.”

Key Differentiating Factors

Rethink is unique in the marketplace by offering a scalable and fully integrated solution to addressing the needs of individuals with a developmental disability and their caregivers. Rethink’s employees share a deep passion for having a social impact and drive continuous innovation in the products that Rethink offers.

The “Secret Sauce”

Despite what many may think, building a successful company does not happen overnight.
There is the expression “the 10-year overnight success.”
This is particularly true for entrepreneurs and successful ones need to be willing to pivot
their business strategy to respond to changing market conditions as well as to have the
patience to play the long game and be willing and able to move the ball down the field a
little bit every day.

Awards and Achievements

For its outstanding contribution to the society and extraordinary service, Rethink has received several honours such as being named among the most innovative and best healthcare companies consecutively over the years and has won numerous awards including Inc. 500 Award, Interactive Media Awards – Best in Class, Healthcare, AI Excellence Award – Most Outstanding for Inclusive Education Evidence-Based Treatment Solutions in, and CV Magazine Achievement Award – Best for Inclusive Education & Evidence-Based Treatment Solutions, and Mid-Atlantic Innovator & Entrepreneur Award and Global Excellence Award for Most Innovative Behavioural Health Software to name a few.

Although it’s not just the organization that has made such an impact, for his leadership, philanthropic achievements, and dedication as an entrepreneur, Daniel has been recognized as CEO of the year and received the prestigious Smart CEO Future 50 Award.

Road Ahead

The Company is in the process of expanding its core product offering beyond treatment tools and supports for dependents with a developmental disability and their caregivers to adults with a developmental disability, including supporting those individuals in the workplace.

A Piece of Advice for Entrepreneurs

Find a problem in the market that is not yet addressed with an effective solution, develop a vision of a solution to address that problem, and surround yourself with capable people that are smarter than you to create a product that will solve the problem. And always continue to innovate and improve that solution!

Exclusive Interview with Nicole Martin Founder of HR Boost LLC

Que: Brief us about the overall operations of your company.

Ans: We offer small and midsize businesses HR services on an ala carte, project or retainer basis. We meet our clients wherever they are on their journey to be an employer of choice and at their pace and budget. Our shared services approach allows us to build HR departments from scratch and align them to business strategy. While we see great value in the middle market, we do have some larger companies that augment their internal HR teams with strategic project initiatives from our team. Software is not HR. And HR is more than payroll and benefits. Building a high-performance culture that drives innovation and profitability requires leaders at all levels. HR infrastructure can uphold the Culture Invitation and once it is strategically aligned and reinforced a company can create workforce alignment empowering leaders to innovate amidst even the toughest climate in business.

Que: How did your company come into existence? What was the idea behind its genesis?

Ans: I left my employer back in 2010. I was on a mission to work for another CEO that desired to build a Best & Brightest® Company to Work For. When I branched out, I initially began as a Consultant. As I learned what HR Outsourcing was and considered what I knew HR to be, I found a niche delivering HR as I know it. The idea of full-service HR is something small businesses might think they don’t need, but we feel they deserve it. Every person deserves joy and purpose through their work, and we feel companies that enable this will prosper and grow with a competitive advantage through their people.

Que: Kindly elaborate on your company’s unique products or services.

Ans: Given we are not your Broker, your Attorney or a 1-800 number. We believe HR expertise is essential to any business as they grow their enterprise. Our Shared Services approach allows businesses to access strategic HR at their pace and budget all while taking a holistic approach to integrating a culture plan that enables their strategic and/or operational plans as a business.

Que: Please talk in detail about the featured person/ CEO/President/Founder of your company. Kindly elaborate on his professional and personal life.

Ans: You’ll notice it instantly. Nicole Martin, CEO and Founder of HRBoost®, loves what she does, and she does it remarkably well. “I’m the accidental entrepreneur,” said Nicole, “I looked back after starting my own business and said, ‘I started a business. Whoa!’” Nicole didn’t set out to create HRBoost. She simply followed her passion to help clients understand the importance human resources can play in developing a strong business. Today Nicole is a successful entrepreneur and an HR industry innovator who is dedicated to helping small to mid-size business realize their potential through their employees.

A self-professed “country girl in disguise,” Nicole Martin grew up in Montana, where, she says, “Everyone knows you and greets you on the street.” Nicole was also lucky to have a great mentor early in life: her mom. “My mother is highly spiritual, and she raised me with the philosophy of being happy,” said Nicole. “She always believed in that you are a special person—she ingrained that in me—and you are capable of anything.”

At the age of 18 Nicole was ready to start proving her mom right. She left Montana and moved in with her godmother in Libertyville, Illinois. Right out of high school, Nicole got a job as a receptionist at a pre-Y2K firm where she found her passion quite by accident. “They were hiring all these computer experts from overseas, but when they arrived, the company just put them in the reception area because they didn’t know what to do with them,” recalled Nicole. “It was just inhumane.”

During the same time, Nicole was working on a training program for a college human resources class. “I wanted to help these guys out in the hallway, so I just marched into the director’s office and asked him if he wanted to see the training program I created for school.” When Nicole was finished with her presentation, the director created a human resources department for the site, hired a manager and moved 18-year-old Nicole from reception to human resources.

Nicole has been building HR departments from the ground up ever since. What makes her approach so unique, she says, is that she begins with the business’ vision and creates HR programs that are completely integrated with that vision. From the hiring process to annual reviews, the programs Nicole creates are designed to further the business, boost productivity, and help employees understand why and how their contributions are meaningful.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there in the business community. These big businesses are coming into small to mid-size companies, and they are offering something that they call full-service HR, but it’s not. It’s tactical HR. It’s just taking care of payroll, benefits, database stuff. It’s not the strategic integration that helps a business thrive and perform.” Nicole explained.

Today, Nicole Martin does her best to represent her industry, not just as a senior executive, but as a public speaker, thought leader, blogger, board member and volunteer. As an ambassador for 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For™, she is helping Chicago business to see all the benefits a fully integrated human resources department can bring. “If you go into a business and they are a 101 Best and Brightest Company to Work For™, you can feel it. You would see on the people’s faces, the authenticity, the honesty, constructive criticism (which is level of respect) not complacency where managers actually think something in silence and don’t communicate it,” explains Nicole.

But Nicole’s brand of full-service integrated HR provides more than just a corporate culture boost or a good office vibe. She links HRBoost’s services directly to profitability time and time again— and she’s got the analytics path charts and the logic models to prove it.

Que: What makes your company stand out from the rest of its competition?

Ans: We deliver skilled talent to our clients. We also believe they need both strategic and tactical resources at the same time. One human is not ideal as there are various cognitive abilities to optimize HR strategically. We believe our shared services approach to the middle market is the PEO Alternative. And yes, the middle market needs an alternative.

Que: What kind of challenges has your company faced in its initial days of establishment and what are the struggles it is going through now?

Ans: Like any business, talent is critical to growth and skilled talent is critical to our business. As a result, we have reinvested in our talent and our approach to not only acquire talent but enable it. We have also been careful to listen to our clients, their experience, and ways we can better serve them. Our flexibility and custom approach to how we work with clients, has fueled our growth and success. The challenge will always be access to capital, both financial and human. As the business grows, those challenges just increase in scale.

Que: Kindly describe the current industry scenario that your company is catering to.

Ans: We are providing access to HR expertise that is not typically accessible in the middle market. Most of our executive level talent would not work for a small business full time. It is our unique shared services approach that keeps our talent engaged while providing services to our clients at their pace and budget. The convenience approach of consumers is not lost on business owners and we feel our approach caters to our customers desire to want what they want, when they want it and how they can afford it.

Que: What technological updates have been adopted by your company to enhance its operations?

Ans: We have invested in internal systems in recent years but remain system agnostic with our clients. Even though everyone has embraced technology and enabled talent with technology, we must always remember human interaction it essential. Furthermore, the technology should strive to drive efficiency but only people can make it effective. Systems do not innovate themselves.

Que: What advice would you like to give the young entrepreneurs and start-ups that are willing to enter in the industry that you are catering to?

Ans: Looking back, I worked and attended school simultaneously. I feel it is imperative to get hands on experience doing what you seek to learn. Make sure it brings you joy before investing time, energy and dedicating your life to it. Enjoy the journey and be prepared to learn, unlearn and relearn.

Que: What does the future hold for your company in terms of growth?

Ans: We practice what we preach. Which means we accept passive talent interest, and we pipeline our own talent. Usually, when we have a need, we do not have to post an ad and wait. We usually have someone ready to go and waiting for the call. This is essential to our continued growth. What has been interesting during the pandemic is the out of state interest we have received from HR talent. It has us thinking. After all, we do believe in open sourcing talent, especially now.

Que: In this ongoing pandemic, how are you catering to different industrial forums and trade communities to help survive in these difficult times of Covid-19? How are coping up with the challenges it has brought?

We find that local chambers are leaning on us to provide guidance and resources to their members. Businesses are seeking clear guidance and from trusted resources. We have also developed and provided free content from our HR experts that anyone can access on our website. The nuances of employees and business requirements has shaped a world in “HR Triage”, as we call it. Information is critical at a time where there is so much confusion. In addition, skilled talent was being displaced and many businesses did not want to let talent go. Meanwhile, other business defined as essential, had to keep employees working while facing the fact that some employees were no longer willing to come to work. This created unique challenges for businesses who had been operating with an employer first mentality. In recent years, the market shifted to an employee’s market and skilled talent will choose where it wants to work. In some cases, the greatest competition going forward will be the skilled talent that decides to put on a shingle for themselves. For those that kept running, despite it all, the compliance and risk factors were evident. We just knew we could help small businesses thrive and we started in our own back yard. In March for example, the Cares Act came out and literally changed laws within HR industry, the financial industry and in tax legislation. While everyone was trying to learn the new framework, businesses were striving to operate in this new environment. We took it up on ourselves to develop policy, standardized template documentation, FFCRA Instructions and guidance for all businesses with less than 500 employees. We priced it for a one-time fee of $149.00 and immediately, businesses were finding it. We are continually sensitive to the climate of the small business community and as a result, our content and resources aim to resource them. Collaboration is also critical across industry to enable the shifts we are experiencing in real time. As we look to 2021, mental health is critical. We believe well being is going to be a key performance indicator for businesses that thrive in staying productive long term. Creating unique ways to employ talent is not as simple as “work from home”. Globally, talent is seeking to move around, and businesses is sure to create new, unique ways to serve their customers. All of us play a role in the future of work. The most important thing, is talking with people close to your business, your community and that means also taking time to ask your employee’s are you are doing.

LUXE DIGITAL NOW : Pioneer in Creating Digital Marketing and Technological Solutions for Luxury Industry

LUXE Digital Now LLC is a luxury digital marketing and technology solutions company. It specializes in the beauty industry overview and innovates, designs and strategizes the best delivery in digital marketing and technology solutions. The company features building social media campaigns, e-commerce and content management platforms that strengthen businesses. LUXE Digital Now creates campaigns and content that move people. The company develops strategies and experiences that elevate brands and engage consumers. LUXE Digital Now develops branding that exudes the best. The company creates technologies that execute data and elevate mobile apps. LUXE Digital Now specializes in the beauty, luxury, fashion and technology industries.

Leading with a Commitment to Deliver Digital Solutions

Jacqueline Hudson is the CEO, Founder and owner of LUXE Digital Now. She is an award-winning visionary marketing executive with 10+ years of creative content expertise within digital marking platforms. Jacqueline was recognized by Forbes Magazine and is an AMA award nominee. She is one of the outpacing competitors and is delivering results
for top-named clients in the US. Jacqueline was named among Top 40 under 40 by Top 100 Magazine for a digital marketing expertise. She was featured in Top 50 Women of 2019. Jacqueline is the winner of the Top 50 Tech Leaders Award 2020. She is one of the inspirational speakers at the BCMA (Branded Content Marketing Association), the world’s most prestigious association for content in the Public Relations industry. Jacqueline is also a digital marketing executive and AI data technology solutions, strategist and developer. As a successful leader, Jacqueline’s most prominent experience has been lecturing to 14 countries about the digital marketing industry.

Learning to Succeed Amidst Challenges

acqueline believes that challenges come and go, but a leader of any company should face it. Building LUXE Digital Now’s reputation was the success of the firm, especially in the technology arena. She thinks that establishing clients was also of prominence.

Living the Life to be an Example

Jacqueline opines a leader should possess the strength, vision, and determination to move forward not just as an individual, but also as a leader. Being an inspiration to colleagues and employees is a vital success of leadership.

Excelling with Data Technology Solutions

LUXE Digital Now has contributed a lot of innovative technologies to the beauty and luxury agencies across the globe. Some of the data technology solutions involve AiDAS, the company’s smart mirrors and software development for the cosmetic industry. LUXE Digital Now has blazed the trail for innovation in technology.

Disruptive Technologies, a Necessary Challenge

Jacqueline presumes that disruptive technologies are a necessary challenge to the industry as LUXE Digital Now continues to develop the tech for today’s innovation and the impacts it has on companies. She believes that the role of a leader in disruptive technology is to keep the industry reflective and innovative to impact on the correct sector as technologies continue to evolve in the future.

Insight into the Future

Jacqueline sees LUXE Digital Now as the purveyor and successor in the industry of technology led by great female leadership. LUXE Digital Now might as well take on new technologies such as space exploration AI and deeper tech for space, e-commerce and holographic AI technologies in future.

Advice to Emerging Leaders

Jacqueline asks leaders to always believe in themselves and the innovation of successful leadership. She adds that leaders should trust the innovation for the industry as a whole, as they continue to move forward towards the future.

Management

Jacqueline Hudson, CEO/Founder/Owner, LUXE Digital Now

Why should you consider Translation as a serious option to hit your revenue goals in the coming year : Shilpa Mittal

Why should you consider Translation: Due to the ongoing pandemic, the fact is that profitability for many businesses have been hit. . As we slowly start to recover, there is certainly the need to take stock of things and prepare for the new normal. While growth has been hard to come by for many this year, it can also be seen as an opportunity to make smart investments to make the most of the improving conditions. Translation is one such investment that is highly recommended and through this article, we will discuss why many businesses look at it as a very plausible option for growth:

1) Quickest way to grow your potential Market

If you are aiming to expand your business beyond the boundaries of your country, the simplest & fastest way to do this is by translating your website & all relevant content into the native language of the target audience. For instance, a customer in Spain will always prefer to read the product information in Spanish than English. Once your content is translated in Spanish, your business right away gains access to 100s of millions of potential customers in numerous countries and regions that speak Spanish.

2) Cost-effective and efficient

Many businesses look toward research and development to innovate new aspects to their products and services in the hope of upselling and increasing usage. As compared to that, translation is affordable and you can have your website and marketing materials localized in a matter of days. Handling incoming business from new geographies can also be planned based on demand which can be controlled.

3) Marketing efficiency

From a marketing perspective, especially for online businesses, forecasting demand and competition is fairly easy with appropriate translation. Keywords can be looked up in the local language to estimate demand and cost of competition. Translating emails are also an underrated method to increase sales. From our experience, translated emails get more than twice as much opens and engagement than non-localized emails.

4) Higher ROI

Businesses that are already in multiple geographies will testify that customer acquisition costs can vastly differ from region to region. Through carefully planned translated ads, outreach and landing pages, you can estimate acquisition costs before entering a region. Through organized optimization and gathered data, you can reduce your overall acquisition costs and significantly improve ROIs.

Of course, trying to acquire more business with new countries does have its operational and legal requisites that you might have to take care of before you begin. However, considering the upsides, the next time you’re looking for that idea to meet your revenue goals, we suggest you strongly consider localization.