10 Ways to Enhance Your Career and Professional Development

[Kazi Sobuj]

In today's competitive job market, it's important to take proactive measures to enhance professional development. Your goals must center on a clear focus, brand, and targeted audience in order to be successful.

Here are 10 ways to enhance your professional development:

1. Understand Your Business Model
Have a clear vision on what you want your business to accomplish. Create the blueprint regarding the products and services that you want your business to incorporate, to help clients and customers recognize that you are knowledgeable about your market. Devise a mission statement for your business with an action plan that identifies clear and direct goals.

2. Invest In Your Brand and Reputation
It may seem like a daunting challenge to establish your brand among so many who are strong in your industry. Forbes emphasizes that your brand is the quickest way for your audience to know your product and service, as well as your reputation. The details that center on customer service, the quality of what you are selling, and how you deal with conflicts will establish your brand.

3. Diversify Your Skill Set
As a new business, you want to offer as many services as you can. This might involve diversifying your skill set to attract clientele from several areas in your defined industry. If there is cutting edge technology that is integral to make your business or start-up more profitable, it might be in your best interest to invest time in trying to learn these skills through classes, online tutorials, or through a colleague.

4. Buy Your Own Domain Name
Purchasing your own domain name will allow you to brand your product or service in an efficient fashion. Having a web address that is easy to remember will allow clients to quickly access your website. According to Neosites, a business where you can purchase your domain name, creating this personalization will add credibility, permanence, and accessibility to your business. You can also optimize searches when you have your own domain name.

5. Establish a Blog or Website
Establishing a website for your business is key in this technological savvy environment. A website offers convenience and flexibility for you and your clients. When you do build your website, your personal and business information needs protection. Consider investing in LifeLock to protect your data and identity. In case there is a breach, you have taken the precautions to protect yourself from hackers or security issues.

6. Seek Mentorship
Learning about your industry may require you to consult others who have more experience. Although some may be hesitant to offer their expertise, you will not know until you ask. Entrepreneur magazine establishes that a mentor can provide professional guidance and connections that will offer a way to think about your business in a novel way. Professional associations may be a great way to land a mentor.

7. Endorse Others
Professional websites like LinkedIn will help you endorse others and also garner recommendations for yourself. Do not be afraid to recognize other people in your industry or offer recommendations for different services on your website. Goodwill goes a long way in promoting your business, and by endorsing other reputable businesses, it lends to your credibility.

8. Network Via Social Media
Use Facebook and Twitter to create an online profile for yourself and your business. The account setup is simple and according to Pagemodo you must offer credible content and actively engage with your followers. If a client has a question on a product or service on these social media platforms, answer their requests, otherwise the silence will register in a public way and may make others think twice about retaining your services.

9. Attend Conferences
To learn about your industry, it is imperative that you attend conferences to gain knowledge and insight into new technologies, products and services related to your business. By investing in a conference, you can connect with others who share the same interests, and learn information that will help you brand your business better.

10. Take New Risks
A business pursuit is a huge undertaking and you must be prepared to abandon and develop ideas with efficiency. With experience, you learn that certain risks will catapult you into further success, while other ventures may set you back.

Investing in your professional and career development requires planning, persistence, and the resources necessary to help place you in the best position to grow your business. With a clear focus and goals, you can become a leading individual in your industry. Start today and invest in yourself to pave the way for your success.

[Monirul Islam]

3 Simple Strategic Tips for Improving Your Career Plan

1. Attitude
When it comes to attitude I have always championed that you can define your attitude as one of pride, passion and belief. In everything that you do, do it with pride, passion and belief. And remember to back these up with skills and knowledge, direction and action.

Let's take these further. To enhance your career, hardworking, humility and honesty is essential. Hardworking is fairly straightforward. It just means nothing comes easy. There are no rewards in the working world that comes without hard work. In fact, there is nothing in life that comes without hard work.

Humility comes with maturity. When you know you do not know enough then you begin to be a student again. You will want to enhance your skills and knowledge, which will in turn enhance your career.

Do you conduct your work honestly? How do you deal with your colleagues? Is it with integrity? Do you admit to your mistakes and not blame anyone for it? Honesty is not just about dealing with others. It is also being honest with yourself.

Can you face your own ghost? Are you afraid to face your weaknesses without being defensive? Are you afraid to confront your lack of strengths? Being honest with yourself leads to an awareness. Step one to enhance your career is to define your attitude.

2. Awareness
An awareness of your strengths and weaknesses is a necessary step if you want to enhance your career. This awareness is one that is self-reflective. One that makes you feel a sense of inadequacy. This sense of inadequacy creates an intrinsic need for improvement.

The energy generated from this awareness is a positive energy that propels you with the confidence to improve.

If you want to enhance your career, ask yourself - do you have this awareness? One that is clear about where you are, why are you there, where you can be and how do you get there? An awareness of the need to improve and an awareness of what you truly want is a simple strategy that can enhance your career. But how many of us can truly claim that we have this awareness? And how many can claim, with this awareness there is an action that works on it?

Many sit around all day lamenting why are they not progressing? They feel unappreciated.

Hard work is not being rewarded. Let me point out something. According to the Webster's Universal College Dictionary - appreciate is to be fully conscious of; be aware of. If you want to be appreciated, start appreciating your strengths and weaknesses. Then only can you begin to talk about how to enhance your career.

3. Action
So, you have a positive attitude and a positive awareness of yourself. But do you act upon them? If you do act upon them, do you do it at a pace that is right for you? Knowing the pace that is right for you is all about self-awareness.

There are two parts to this action, one is patience and the other persistence. Patience is about proceeding calmly or moving slowly with zero anticipation. No plans to enhance your career can be successful without solid action from your end. And solid action from your end means hard work.

Which is the other part of action, one that is persistent. One that is doing incessantly or progresses with dogged determination.

As you can see these are truly 3 simple strategic tips you can implement immediately that can positively enhance your career. Each is inter-related to another and feeds upon each other. If you can get it smoothly into motion there is no telling how far you can go.

Source: http://www.career-success-for-newbies.com/enhance-your-career.html