Charen Smith asked:




If you want to make friends, you need to have a positive reputation. If you have a reputation of being unprincipled and reckless, it might be difficult to find people who want to spend their time with you. Even if you do make friends, you might find that the loyalty that those friends show towards you is lacking.

In the business world, it is much the same way. You have to work to maintain a positive reputation for your company. You have to build upon that positive reputation to create customer loyalty towards your product.

When it comes to cultivating customer loyalty toward your company, there is no substitute for performance. If you treat your customers with care and respect, and follow through on your promises, you will usually produce loyal and happy customers. So doing what you want to do and, more importantly, what you claim you will do, is the most important thing.

But becoming easily recognizable is also a part of the process. You want your customers to not only have a positive feeling about your company name, but to see images that remind them of your company and how positive their experience with you was. The more they think about your company and the pleasant experiences they have had with it, the more they will come back to do business with you.

All of this makes up your corporate identity: the way in which you are perceived to customers and employees and competitors alike. You want to produce a consistent identity which ties together everything that you do and make. If you want to portray your company as one where quality is vital, and you guarantee better quality than your competitors can provide, then you will incorporate the word quality into your corporate identity.

Your company logo will play a large role in developing your identity to the public. Your logo should incorporate the qualities that you feel are important to you, along with modern design techniques, to produce a certain “feel” in those who see it.

The ways in which you express your corporate identity, including your logo, should be plastered on every piece of marketing literature that you make. Your ads and business cards should include your logo, along with other techniques that convey your desired image. When you design a flyer printing, you should try to make full color flyers that give customers exactly the type of perception of your company that you want them to have.

Cultivating your corporate identity is not a one time only deal. Rather, it is a never ending process. The minute you stop building your company’s positive reputation on the market, you will find yourself regressing. Continually reevaluate where your company stands in the minds of consumers, and constantly look for ways to improve that image.

Dave D Andrew asked:




If you are lucky enough to be able to build a house in New Zealand, you will no doubt be experiencing a mixed bag of excitement over building your dream home and fear over not being able to find the right building company to bring your dream to life. Given the considerable financial and emotional costs involved in building a new home, you don’t want just anyone to build your dream house in New Zealand for you.

A good New Zealand home building company will deliver your house on time and to budget. You should be communicated with and have confidence that all specifications are provided as agreed and on time. Such specifications should include:

Outside Features:
- colour / texture of bricks
- colour / style of roof tiles
- colour / style of joinery

Inside Features:
- colour/style & texture of carpet
- colour/style & texture of kitchen / bathroom tiles
- colour/style & texture of blinds
- colour/style of door hardware
- kitchen colouring options
- wall paint shades

Another great attribute to look for in a home building company is the extra services which are included as they build your house. These additional services should create that ‘move in feel’ from the roadside. Many people appreciate being able to move into their new home fully completed internally and externally.

Features and services that help towards achieving this ‘move in feel’ include:
- landscaping
- garaging
- driveway / paving / curbing
- construction of a letterbox
- cleaning service upon final completion of your house

The company that you work with should have an outstanding reputation and be known for building quality homes. A fantastic way to decide if a particular construction company is right for you is to view houses that they have built. Ask if they have show homes that you can walk through. Ask around your friends and family too, they may be able to offer feedback on their experience with a particular building company. Being able to see an idea of the workmanship that you can expect to be applied to your own home design is very reassuring when you are planning to build a new house from scratch.

There is a lot of information, processes, lists and details involved when you decide to build a house in New Zealand. Choosing the right building company is crucial and the right one should be able to guarantee you a move in date and the highest quality standards possible. It is not every day that you get the opportunity to build a new home. Finding the right construction company for the job will bring your dream to life.

Craig Ellyard asked:




It is always important to find a reliable building company if you are planning a home improvement project such as an extension or kitchen renovation.

Unfortunately, there are always horror stories in the media about builders doing a poor job and leaving property owners out of pocket. Understandably then, people can be anxious when comes to choosing a builder for their project, but there are steps you can take to ensure that you find the best, and most trustworthy, builders for the job.

An important first step in finding a good builder is to simply ask other people for their recommendations. If you are aware of anyone who has had building work done recently, either a friend, work colleague or neighbor, ask them what kind of job their builders did. Did the builders meet their deadline? Was their work of good quality and, most importantly, would your friend or neighbor recommend the builders to you?

Word of mouth recommendations are by far the best way to find a reliable building company. Good builders take pride in their work and the service they provide to their customers. An independent referral is an excellent indicator that the builder is reliable.

If a builder is recommended to you make sure you ask them for more testimonials from satisfied clients and follow them up. Get in touch with the people who have left the testimonials and ask them to confirm the details. Don’t worry about approaching people in this manner, most folk are only too happy to talk if they have received good service from a building company.

If a building company is recommended to you than ask the builder to send you a written quote for the work you want doing. Don’t go through this process with just one builder but make sure you get at least three quotes from different building companies. Make sure each quote you receive outlines all the work that will be done and the costs involved.

Once you have decided which quote to accept, and bear in mind that the lowest is not always the best, ask to see details of the building companies insurance. It is essential that they have adequate public liability and professional indemnity insurance in case of accidents or if you are unhappy with the standard of work.

Before work begins make sure the contract you have with the building company covers all the angles and take professional advice from a solicitor on the contents of the contract.

Finally, it is always sensible to budget for some unforeseen costs. No matter what the project is there are bound to be unforeseen costs and having an extra 10% in your budget will make sure those extra costs can be met.

Lauren McNeal asked:




There are different ways to create more efficient and functional teams within your company. You can try different team-building activities like company picnics or company outings. This activity is not just a simple day out with your employees. It is a team building plan-and a perfect venue-for your employees to bond with each other and enhance their camaraderie which is very important because increased camaraderie can increase your employees’ productivity. However, the success of each activity is greatly determined by the different activities and discussions organized by the team building event planners.

Thus the question: how can you evaluate team-building companies? How do you choose that ones that are best suitable to respond to your company’s needs? Who has the better programs and more experience? There are different ways to evaluate a certain company to choose which is better. Among the many things that you need to consider are the programs that they organize, the packages that they offer and their capacity to meet your company’s needs. Company outings and picnics is not about finding the best resort or the most sumptuous foods for the participants. It is also about keeping the participants, your employees in this case, interested while promoting their team building skills and bonding.

If you plan to hire a team building company, you need to first present them with one of the challenges that your company experiences and ask them for their advice or suggestions. For example, if you are having problems with a particular section in your company, you can always ask corporate outings planner to create a customized plan and package that will directly focus into the challenge that you mentioned and respond to your needs. There are a lot of event planning companies that are not able to mix fun and work dynamics in their activities. You will be surprised at how much some of them do not know which things or activities are fun for the employees during picnics or outings, while some do not seem to know how to evaluate the inner workings of the corporate world. These companies cannot immediately respond to your needs so stay away.

One of the many reason why these team building companies are not able to understand the dynamics of the business world is because they do not come from the same universe. People behind these team building companies have minimum or no business knowledge that is why they are not able to relate their activities to the requisites of the company. But that is not to say that they cannot organize activities and games. They can, but they are ideal for individual or friends but cannot be utilized to respond to certain ‘corporate’ needs. During the initial stage, if you ask them for a solution for a problem that you stated, then you can easily know if the company is a service provider or an entertainment provider.

Team building cannot take place without the necessary instructive activities that should be provided by people who have business or training expertise. Playing cooperative games is not team building because there are other dynamics involved. To organize the best company outing or picnic for your employees, you need to find a team building events organizer that knows exactly what team building is and the proper techniques to achieve it in a fun, entertaining way.

Stephen A Jackson asked:




Not all companies have team development for their workers, and depending on the managers, this may not be needed. However there are many large companies with departments that do not know one another, that could work better if they understood the work that others do, and if they all learn to work together, for the good of the company and ultimately for the good of everyone working there too.

Team development is something that is often overlooked by companies, especially in these tough economic times, but they need not take up much company or personal time, and they do not have to be expensive activities either to be successful. Simple fun activities can pay off dividends, with better communication between departments, staff that know one another a little more than at present, and a happier atmosphere in the workplace, as employees feel more appreciated. All these benefits can result from a couple of hours out of the office perhaps, doing some fun activity that mixes up groups, putting department members on different teams, so that everyone gets to know other members of the company that perhaps they have never even met before.

By having a couple of fun team building activities a year, that perhaps only last for a couple of hours at a time, you can help improve the atmosphere in any company, and the productivity level too. Staff will feel more appreciated, which means that they will in all probability work better, and perhaps even harder for the benefit of all at that workplace.

So what kind of team building activities do work well for most businesses? Fun non-stressful activities are recommended. There can be enough stress in the work place without adding any more to it! And your employees probably deserve a little down time. Now, obviously the type of event planned will depend a great deal on the size of the company, and the logistics involved in getting everyone together.

Taking a few hours off the work week can work very well, and act as a reward, provided the team bonding activity is fun!

Team building activities should involve as many people from the company as possible, and many businesses have found that scavenger hunts work really well. Each team contains a member form each department, so that it is a social time to get to know members from these other departments while having fun. The idea of a scavenger hunt can easily be adapted to your needs, but one that works well is to use cameras to take photographs of the whole team, excluding the photographer, at particular locations or in certain situations. For example, the whole team may have to find a bike store, and have their photos taken there.

Or they may have to go to a used car lot, or the public library. The options are endless. But by taking photographs of the complete team, it reduces the chance of cheating, and you may find some people willing to cheat! You can set any time limit you want for this hunt, but it needs to be a realistic time for them to get everything required.

A scavenger hunt can give people the chance to get to know their city a little better, as well as their work and team mates. The teams should not be too large, as that will defeat the chance for people to get to know one another, and may mean that some members just tag along and are not really involved with the activities, but you do have a lot of options for this, and plenty of ways to have a theme related hunt if you wish.

Then you could all take a class together, maybe learning archery, or some other activity that not too many people have tried before. This gives everyone the chance to have a new experience together, and if it can be an activity that needs team work then this is even better.

Obstacle races are good for this, and they can be indoors or out, depending on your location and the time of year. Twists can be added to the obstacle course so that team members do have to cooperate and help one another. After all the idea behind this is team development, so it’s only right that there should be some cooperating, and communication in the team building activity.

There are many more idea that can be used to promote teamwork, but one of the neatest I have seen is run by a company specializing in team development, and there are many of these companies around, all offering different programs for all sorts of different needs. Anyway, the activity that caught my attention is the drum program, where every company member is given a drum, and then as a team you are taught how to produce a masterpiece of sound using the drums. Isn’t this a great idea? I wish I had thought of it, but imagine how powerful a program this is. Working in groups, there is plenty of practice time, and plenty of time to communicate too, with some very impressive results by the end of the session.

I think this works well for a few reasons. Firstly there is no pressure on anyone, because it is something that is new to most, and it requires very little to produce sound of a good quality – not like singing which would never work like this! It is a neat activity for everyone to try, and a talking point for years to come I am sure.

Imagine feeling a part of this, and this is the feeling that is wanted, all the employees feeling part of this wonderful experience, bonding and having fun. Fantastic!

Now obviously this is something that you cannot run yourself, but it may just get you thinking about what activities you could use to get your company workers feeling closer and like they belong to a family.

When this happens, it will make a big impact to the quality of work that is done daily, an impact for the better. Sop get thinking, and brainstorming, and see what will work for your company to build a closer company, and a better atmosphere in the workplace. Team development can play a big part in building a successful team business, if you let it – make sure it is in yours!

Brad Giannini asked:




Are you in charge of planning this summer’s company picnic or Team Building event? This article will outline some simple ways to get organized and get ahead of the curve in planning a company picnic.

Are you planning this party by yourself or do you have a committee? How many people are you expecting? On average you should expect about 1.5 times the number of employees you have on staff. Not everyone will want to come, believe it or not, and not everyone will be able to come. This number is assuming that you are doing it on a weekend and inviting families. If you are doing it during the week and only inviting employees then you might estimate 75% to 80% of your employees will attend. Weekday events are great for team building and camaraderie but generally weekend events are the employee’s preference. Employees want a time where they can bring there family and treat them to a day out on the companies “Tab”.

Next you need to find a date. The best thing to do is put together a choice of 3 dates, ones that are best for you, and send it to the key executives and management personnel. You want to be sure as many of these people as possible can attend. Go with the date that allows the greatest number of executives to attend. Of course it is mandatory for the CEO types to be there.

You now need to pick a place and secure your date. Before you can do this you have a decision to make, what type of party do you want this to be? Are you looking for something that is purely enjoyment for your team and their families with very little employee interaction or are you interested in building community, team spirit and morale with in your business. I recommend the later. You are spending the money it might as well benefit the company too. If you want pure entertainment for your employees you will want to choose a Theme Park with rides and attractions. If you want to build your team and encourage employees to get to know each other in a different light, then the best choice is going to be an “Old Fashion” picnic. This promotes mingling, conversation and a sense of community. In this type of setting people will automatically talk to people they might not normally talk to and also people will introduce their families to one another. This gives everyone a better understanding of their coworkers and develops a deeper connection which can foster better, more cohesive working environments.

Next you will need to figure out your menu. Good establishments will have an event planner to help you with those details and the rest of the details from here on out. Usually each venue will either have their own caterer or one that they will recommend and they will have a menu to choose from. Pick out the menu that sounds like it will cover the majority of your employees likes. Be sure to consider your vegetarians and make sure there is something special for them. It is nice to have a variety of salads, meats, sodas, and alcoholic beverages for everyone to choose from.

You are mostly set from here. All you need to do from this point is to promote the Corporate Event or Team Building Activity and hand out tickets.

On the day of the party you should be able to relax and enjoy the picnic like your guests, having complete confidence in the venue and staff that you have chosen.