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Year in Review: The Best WorkflowMax Articles of 2016

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In just a few weeks we’ll say goodbye to 2016. Before you clock out for the year why not join us on a trip down memory lane?

Here’s a recap of the WorkflowMax articles our readers enjoyed the most in 2016, along with a few of our personal favourites.

Working Life...

1 - 8 Bad Workplace Habits That Are Holding You Back

There are brilliant employees at all levels - interns, assistants, team leaders, managers, CEOs - who are held back by their bad workplace habits. If you let them persist they could be damaging to your career.

2 - Get Inspired on Your Break - 10 Websites to Visit for a Quick Pick Me Up

You’re staring at your computer and the screen is blurring – colours are blending together, sentences are merging into one big pixelated mess. You blink but the fuzziness isn’t going away. You need a burst of inspiration and a break. What do you do?

3 - The Elusive Work Life Balance: 7 Ways to Avoid Burnout

Are you feeling stressed? Maybe even at risk of burnout? Maintaining a work life balance is tough for anyone with a full-time job. Business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other high performers have coping mechanisms. Here are 7 secrets to restoring your precious work life balance - without sacrificing your career.

4 - 7 Highly Effective (And Unusual) Ways to Recharge Over the Break

That spa retreat you really really wanted to go to over the holidays is booked out, you can’t get a reservation at any of your favourite restaurants and even the bach you normally go to at this time of the year is fully occupied...how on earth are you supposed to relax?!

Managing Clients...

5 - 10 Things You’re Not Doing To Nurture Your Clients

It costs a business between 4-10 times more to acquire a new client than it does to retain a current client. As a business owner, you need to look for ways to nurture your existing clients. Which of these fifteen client nurturing ideas are you NOT doing in your business?

6 - 6 Questions You Should Ask Your Clients Before Signing on the Dotted Line

Know that feeling when your client is squashing your creativity, making the entire project painfully laborious, soul-sucking and dry? You’re pretty sure you didn’t always feel this way, but the pressure of finding a steady stream of income means you're signing up every client, even if they're not the right fit for your business. Here are 6 questions you should be asking first.

7 - Struggling to Find New Clients? 7 Mistakes You’re Probably Making

You’ve just successfully completed an entire rebrand for a new client. Despite the long hours, the constant back and forth and the ridiculously tight timeframes, all your hard work and perseverance has paid off. You pour yourself some champagne (the fancy stuff), sit back and wait for the calls to come in. And you wait….

8 - Stop Losing Clients: 10 Innovative Ways to Gain Their Loyalty

A poor client retention rate is like trying to fill a leaky bucket. You strive desperately to attract them with expensive marketing, branding and advertising...Only to lose them a few months later. So how do you stop clients from slipping through your fingers?

9 - Is Your Client Taking Advantage of You? 12 Warning Signs

When you’ve been in business for a while, your gut kicks in and starts to tell you things. You should probably listen. If you have an inkling that you’re client is taking advantage of you, here are some of the warning signs you need to watch out for!

For Agencies...

10 - Cash Flow Concerns? 8 Things Your Agency Probably Isn’t Doing

You’ve come across a brilliant new project management solution that could save your business money, automate a lot of the tasks you currently have to do and make your entire team’s lives easier. It even integrates with your current suite of tools! There’s just one tiny problem: Your workmates are against it. What can you do?

11 - 6 Agency Tips to Deliver Projects on Time and Under Budget

Let’s face it.  In the agency world, time equals money.  And any extra time spent on a particular project drastically affects the amount of money that goes into your pocket. Here are 6 core strategies for delivering projects on time and under budget.

12 - Agencies: Can Interns Maximise Your Productivity?

Finding great hires is a problem we know a lot of our customers face. If you're struggling to land awesome talent, and you've tapped all the usual resources and avenues, I have a question for you: have you considered bringing interns on board?

13 - Get Creative! 9 Fun Brainstorming Tactics for Agencies

Creativity... It’s the lifeblood of every agency. Without it there’d be no new ideas. But inspiring creativity is tough, right? You’re surrounded by talented people but how do you tap into their imagination? Sometimes it takes a few unusual tactics to bring your creative meetings back to life.

For Leaders & Entrepreneurs...

14 - 50 Inspirational Leadership Quotes From Women

These women have faced their own unique challenges, but still managed to carve out lasting legacies through their work. They have inspired, empowered, ruled, challenged and motivated people to follow. Hopefully this collection offers a little inspiration to fuel your fire. Which one speaks to you?

15 - Hit a Profit Plateau? 8 Breakout Ideas for Small Businesses

Has your small business hit a profit plateau? Do you feel like you're working twice as hard just to maintain the same ROI? We've got 8 breakout ideas to take your business to the next level - but it's also going to take hard work, passion and courage.

16 - The Six-Step Productivity Improvement Strategy

It’s all well and good talking about productivity and saying it needs to be better, but without a strategic approach to improving productivity, you’re never going to get the results you desire.

17 - 10 Incredible TED Talks to Inspire Entrepreneurs

It's Global Entrepreneurship Week! To celebrate we’ve compiled a list of 25 empowering, inspiring, and educational TED talks from around the world. All of these speakers are outstanding in their field, and have valuable advice for entrepreneurs and business leaders. Grab a sandwich and get comfortable.

For Project Managers…

18 - Choose Your Project Management Methodology: Pros & Cons of Agile, Waterfall, & More

Projects come in all shapes and sizes, from small, highly-focused jobs requiring only a few tasks, to complex, multi-faceted enterprises requiring input from everyone in your office. In order to successfully tackle any project, you need some kind of plan in place. Enter project management methodology.

19 - 25 Project Management Blogs You Should Be Reading

These 25 project management blogs are written by experienced professionals and thought leaders. There's something here for everyone - whether you're looking for inspiration, information, a few laughs or the chance to network with other project managers.

20 - Suffering From Scope Creep? Here’s How to Beat It Forever

Scope creep...Do those two little words send a chill down your spine? Almost every agency has experienced scope creep. Your project grows beyond its anticipated size, causing delays and extra work. You bend over backwards to keep the client happy - and end up losing money. Luckily there's a cure.

21 - Project Management: A Definitive Guide to Avoiding Failure

Despite our best intentions: projects fail. As a project manager or business owner you need to be mindful of the most common project pitfalls. Read on to find out what you can do to minimise failure and set yourself up for success every time!

On Working Remotely...

22 - The Ultimate List of Apps for Working Remotely

One of the major advantages of working in the cloud is the ability to do it from wherever you want – whenever you want. But it can be confusing knowing what you need to facilitate remote working. What makes one tool better than the other? And how many do you actually need?

23 - Why Your Business Needs a Work From Anywhere Week

Are your staff turning up late, grouchy and stressed? Is your turnover rate on the rise? Keeping employee morale high is a challenge for any growing business, but Mike Del Ponte has found a genius solution... Introducing the 'Work From Anywhere Week'. Could it be the shake up your business needs?

24 - The Process to Focus - How to Spend Your Time Getting More Done

I bet you have several projects, tasks and responsibilities begging for your attention. You've put them all on your to-do list, confident you will get them done. But wait, you don’t have your morning coffee - you better go get that. Oh, you just received an email notification - it could be important. With everything vying for your attention how can you focus on one task?

25 - Working Over Christmas? 15 Ways to Stay Productive

Holidays are distracting and awesome, but not so much if you still have a whole heap of work to get through. How do you stay on track with everything you planned to do over the break when you’ve got your nephew swinging from one leg or acquaintances constantly turning up on your doorstep?

For Marketers…

26 - 5 Classic Blogging Mistakes Small Businesses Make (And How to Avoid Them)

You’ve got a beautiful business blog, full of white space and full bleed imagery.You know you're getting traffic because comments are surfacing every now and again, “likes” are trickling from your social feeds – but it’s not really converting to new business or opportunities. What are you doing wrong?

27 - 10 Tips for Marketing Your Business on a Shoestring Budget

Marketing. *Cringe*. You can think of a million things you’d rather be doing. Unfortunately, in order to run a thriving business you need clients, and to get clients you need to invest in some marketing. And to make it worse, your competitors have huge budgets and bigshot ad agencies at their beck and call. So what can you do?

28 - Which Social Media Channel is Best for My Small Business?

Is your small business on social media yet? Everyone knows about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn - but not all of them are right for your business. Choosing the appropriate social media platform is critical. Read on to avoid tears, frustration, and a perpetual drain on your credit card.

For Construction Managers…

29 - Construction Firms: 7 Essential Tips for Client Communication

Client communication. It's a critical component of any construction job, and it's the easiest thing to get wrong. Poor communication on a construction project can lead to huge profit losses and a lot of grief. Follow these 7 simple steps to improve your communication and keep your clients happy.

30 - How to Implement Time Tracking At Your Construction Firm

If your construction firm has been using a manual time-tracking system (or no system at all), then making the change to a cloud-based system like WorkflowMax can be daunting. This guide will help you make the transition to online time tracking software.

For Architects…

31 - Improving Invoicing at Your Architecture Firm & Getting Paid Faster

As an architect, your invoices are based on time and costs, and they can be quite complex and involved. And clients are notorious for forgetting to pay them, for weeks or even months. Is your invoicing system in need of an overhaul?

32 - Architects: Your Competitors Aren’t Blogging - Here’s Why You Should Be

Architects! Are you struggling to reach new audiences or attract new clients? Starting a business blog can give you an edge over your competition. Read on to find out WHAT kind of content to create and how to maximise your blog!

On Managing Staff...

33 - Boost Employee Productivity: 10 Secrets Your Staff Want Managers to Know

Are you struggling to motivate your employees? Do you constantly chase after them to get their timesheets in on time or wonder why they aren’t more focused or driven? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you knew what was going on in your employees’ heads...so you could fix the problem?

34 - Staff Appreciation: How to Say Thanks as the Year Ends

Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, the end of year is a time to show gratitude. We say thanks to the people who’ve supported us and shaped our lives. And there's a very important group you shouldn't forget - your staff. Show your employees how much you appreciate them with these acts of corporate kindness.

35 - How to Boost Staff Performance With Creative Team Building

With holiday season looming just around the corner, your staff are showing signs of daydreaming and slumping productivity. How do you bring them back on track? Team building events are a great way to reconnect with your staff members and re-engage them away from the desk.

WorkflowMax Tips...

36 - The Best WorkflowMax Features for Xero Users

WorkflowMax has the best integration with Xero of any app and if you’re a Xero user, you will find WorkflowMax offers increased value to your business. But what are some of the key features you need to know about when using both systems?

37 - 5 Reasons to Power-up Your Business Performance with a WorkflowMax Set-up Partner

We found making use of a WorkflowMax Set-Up Partner was hugely beneficial for several of our clients to get the most out of the software and the insights it provides. Read on to find out about the benefits of using a WorkflowMax Set-up Partner or how to become one yourself!

38 - Everything You Need to Know About Project Management in WorkflowMax - 3 Easy Steps

Take this three step process to ensure your client gets the MOST out of managing their projects in WorkflowMax.

39 - Tracking Time & Business Performance at Creative Agency Rooland Design

Rooland Design is an eco-friendly, creative branding and package design consultancy based in Wollongong, Australia. Find out why they chose WorkflowMax and how they use the software to manage their time and get powerful business insights through reporting.

40 - Websmart Kiwi: We’ve Gained Efficiency with the Power of WorkflowMax & Xero

Find out how web development agency Websmart Kiwi use the power of WorkflowMax and Xero together to manage their workflow, and gain efficiency across their business.

***

Phew - what a year it's been! We hope these blogs give you some insightful tips (and entertainment) in the lead up to the holidays. Happy reading :)

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Caitlin Sisley
Caitlin Sisley is a Marketing Content Writer at WorkflowMax, and has over six years of experience in digital content production. She has worked on creative copy for a large number of New Zealand businesses - from tiny startups to household names. With a Master of Professional Studies from the University of Auckland, she is passionate about small business and corporate responsibility.

Caitlin Sisley