On-camera meetings aren’t going away, and they can be particularly nerve-wracking for people with anxiety. This article offers five questions to ask yourself to help quell on-camera meeting stress: What do I have control over? Where am I putting my attention? How am I preparing? How am I pacing my day or week? And, do I know how to handle a hostile conversation? By better understanding the roots of your anxiety, and recognizing the parts of remote work you’re grateful for, you can begin to build habits to make virtual meetings a little less daunting.

Keep an eye on these small business trends and predictions this year.
With 2020 in the books, small businesses are optimistic that 2021 will be a brighter year. While the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet gone for businesses across the U.S., that optimism is buoyed by the distribution of vaccines. Although the pandemic has been front and center since early last year, there are other trends on the horizon for entrepreneurs to watch as well.

Business News Daily connected with experts in finance, marketing, tech, and human resources to find out what small businesses should expect in 2021 and how to take advantage of these trends.

The Advantages of Hiring Freelancers for Your Small Business
Have you ever hired an employee only to have them resign a few weeks or months later? This is a fairly common and frustrating experience among business owners and has been exacerbated as a result of the Great Resignation https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/. So what if there was an alternate solution to hiring a full or part-time employee that involves less time, money and resources? Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve encouraged many of my clients to consider hiring independent contractors or freelance workers to fulfill some of their interim or even ongoing needs. This solution provides a cost-effective and flexible approach to hiring that can be beneficial for both parties.

Whether you recognize it or not, your business has a brand personality. The big question is, is it the one that you want?

Brand personality is essentially the attributes one would ascribe to your brand if it were a human being. And just like people, a brand’s personality traits affect how that brand connects with the world around them.

For most small businesses it is difficult, and probably meaningless, to distinguish brand personality from that of the overall company - unlike large corporations who likely have a unique brand personality for each of their product lines or subsidiaries.

Branding is the process of defining what your business stands for, crafting the positive impression you want associated with your products or services, then infusing those elements throughout your entire organization and marketing efforts. Branding your business differentiates you from your competition, helps identify you in an often-crowded market, and enhances emotional connection and customer loyalty.

If you are a business owner who has yet to consider your brand and branding strategy, now is the time.

Corporations with a large number of people and various levels of hierarchy often struggle to manage business communications effectively. Therefore, there should be effective and continuous communication between superiors and subordinates in an organization, between organizations and society at large.

11 Reasons Why Business Communication is Critical to Your Company’s Success

4 Types of Business Communication

1. Internal upward communication
Internal upward business communication is communication that comes from a subordinate to a manager or an individual up the organizational hierarchy. Every leader should enable information to flow upwards in order to have a true understanding of the company’s operations.

Internal upward communications usually include surveys, feedback, forms and reports that employees deliver to their managers or team leaders.

For example, a marketing report may include statistics such as total website visitors, social media engagement or total leads generated.

2. Internal downward communication
Internal downward communication flows from a superior to one or more subordinates. This type of communication might be in the form of a letter, a memo or a verbal directive.

When communicating with employees, leaders should keep communication professional and clear. An example of this type of communication may include a memo regarding a new company operations procedure such as safety requirements and new regulations.

3. Internal lateral communication
Internal lateral business communication happens among employees in the workplace. Today, there are many different ways employees can communicate: chats, messaging, email, employees communication software solutions.

This type of communication can be within or among departments and it happens more regularly than other types of business communication. Moreover, frequent communication among employees plays a crucial role in employee engagement and productivity.

4. External communication
External business communication is any communication that happens with external parties such as customers, prospects, vendors or partners.

Unlike all the internal business communications types, external communications happen on a less regular basis.

The way we communicate with others is such a habitual part of us that we rarely stop and think about it. This translates into business communication too. Organizations, after all, aren’t faceless entities, but groups of real people.

Effective communication affects processes, efficiency, and every layer of a company.

In this guide, we’ll cover all you need to know to set up a successful business communication process.