Category: Business

Categories
Business Career & Education

Employee Job Satisfaction and User’s Repurchase

Employee Job Satisfaction and User's Repurchase

Customer satisfaction is an integral part of a company’s success, as a satisfied customer returns for multiple purchases. They will usually post about their experience online, tell their friends, or generally want to continue supporting the company. However, customer retention can often hinge on employee job satisfaction. After all, an employee’s overall well-being reflects on the company in various ways. For a company looking to retain its customers, job satisfaction is an important thing they will first consider.

The Perspective of an Expert

Christopher Groening works at the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business as an assistant marketing professor. He offered his insight on the matter. Then, he explained how a continued emphasis on customer satisfaction leads businesses to offer their employees with unsatisfactory working conditions.

He said that many company owners get tunnel vision, focusing specifically on customer retention and loyalty strategies. These strategies take top precedent, as they are no longer focusing on their employees their working environment. Even if the company works in an industry where its employees will rarely interact with customers, looking after them can still boost customer loyalty and satisfaction.

A good example worth looking at is a company like Activision Blizzard. More specifically, how its fans reacted to its very serious allegations of work place misconduct.

The Activision Blizzard Situation

Activision Blizzard was once one of the most respected and beloved game development studios in the industry. They created multiple classics and fan favorites such as Overwatch, Warcraft, Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm. But in the past two years, the company’s intensely misogynistic work culture reared its head, showing a deeply problematic side of the company. Fans on social media responded by criticizing them, calling the company out for protecting the people responsible for fostering this toxic work environment.

The fan backlash brought about two walkouts staged by the employees, and player numbers for their games dropping by a significant margin. Following all of the news around its misconduct, even major shareholders pulled out of the company. Stock prices for the company fell to the lowest they ever had in its history, and the company would eventually be consolidated to Microsoft.

The Activision Blizzard situation is a good case study of how a company focuses on maximizing customer retention and leaving employees to deal with a very toxic work environment. Loyal players and a high-profile guild in their star MMO left, and people generally do not think kindly of them. Customers do not want employees to be treated poorly at all, regardless of why a company does so.

Smaller Companies Should Be Especially Careful

Understandably, the example mentioned above is by no means a small company. Activision Blizzard brings in billions in revenue every successive year, they are easily one of the biggest companies in the world. However, this is also a major concern for smaller companies, especially where customer and employee interaction is constant.

Customers care deeply about the companies that they support, especially if the firm aligns with their values. And when they find out that a company is not treating their workers with respect or care, they will not be willing to return. And if an employee works as a teller or interacts with the customers regularly, customers will usually tell if the employee is receiving proper treatment.

Improving Customer Retention by Improving Employee Satisfaction

CEOs play an integral role in retaining customers, even if it does not seem like it. Depending on how the CEO interacts with their employees, they could greatly affect employee morale, which could in turn affect customer repurchasing. With that in mind, here are a few ways that owners and CEOs can improve employee satisfaction.

Create a Better Working Environment

One of the most effective ways to improve employee satisfaction is to improve their working environment. If employees have to deal with a toxic manager or an uncooperative employee, their performance will suffer. Squash out any issues regarding misconduct instantly and make sure that your employees feel safe.

Hire Better Managers

It’s not uncommon to have one or two bad apples in a firm who are underperforming. Still, consistently poor performance from employees under a manager could be a sign that they are not a good fit. The manager should act as a mentor to the employees and offer them advice on how to improve.

Empower Employees

Empowering employees and making them feel valued is always an effective way to increase job satisfaction. Giving them the tools necessary for them to make critical decisions or to handle issues without intervention can show them that the company cares. And offering other intangible benefits like shorter workdays and flexible hours can make them feel more satisfied with their job.

Increased Employee Satisfaction Increases Customer Retention

Your customers are an important part of the business, but you shouldn’t focus on them to the point where you let your employees suffer.

Categories
Business Career & Education Financial Government Grants Loans

How to Apply for Federal Grants

How to Apply for Federal Grants

There is no doubt that a federal grant is a great way for a business or individual to secure a monetary amount that help shape their financial future. It’s the difference between surviving and thriving for many and it can be a literal game-changer. But finding, applying for, and receiving a loan is much easier said than done. In fact, it’s often times incredibly hard to determine the best course to finding a federal grant that is right for you and your business.

Federal Grant Application

One of the most difficult aspects of the federal grant application process is determining which awards a person, small company, or organization is interested in and qualifies for. After all, with hundreds of grants to apply for, limiting the field may take up a substantial amount of time for a potential candidate.

A prospective grantee’s initial action will almost certainly be to register with the organization. In order to apply for a grant, an individual or organization must first register with the federal government. Depending on how well the individual phases of registration are done, registration can take anywhere from three to two weeks.

The Grant Application

The Grant Application package is the next step for potential grantees to take. Applicants will next require their CFDA Number, which is issued to the program for which the grantee is applying, as well as the Funding Opportunity Number and the Funding Opportunity Competition ID. Each of these identification numbers should be mentioned in connection to the grant for which the applicant is requesting.

Once the application has been retained, the applicant is responsible for reading through the pages of queries and saving modifications as they go. The initial pages of the grant application will clearly state the instructions and requirements for applying, which may contain extra items such as grant proposals. To save both the applicant and the federal government agency examining the grant hours of time, grants will not be allowed to be filed online until they are entirely completed.

After completing the grant application, an online applicant only has to click “save and submit” on the cover page to send it to grants.gov, where it will be routed to the appropriate department and people. When a submission is complete, a confirmation page will display, and a tracking number will be supplied in case of support or online submission problems.

Conclusion

Each grant has its own thorough application that explains everything a potential candidate needs to know before and throughout the application process. Potential grant beneficiaries will find that collecting and completing an application is one of the most straightforward elements of applying for and getting a federal grant, thanks to the availability of online registration and federal grant applications, as well as comprehensive instructions. Thanks to modern technology and advances, applying for a federal grant is far easier than it ever has been before.

The thing to remember when applying for a federal grant is that the process does take a lot of time. But most of the time isn’t spent on actually applying. Instead, the schedule is usually filled with deciding which grant is right for you and your business.

Categories
Business Career & Education Media Tech & Media

Falling Unemployment Could Add To Worries

Falling Unemployment Could Add To Worries

Introduction

When you hear about the unemployment rate going down, you are led to assume that’s good news. In fact, we have always been taught that a low unemployment rate means the job market – and economy – are strong.

While that is typically and usually true, there are exceptions to that. We are currently in a jobs climate where a falling unemployment rate might be a bad thing in some ways. In fact, some experts are fearful for the future of the U.S. economy because of the dropping unemployment numbers. Why is that? What is causing this fear? How can a low unemployment rate be a bad thing?

What is Unemployment?

Before we can discuss what the latest unemployment numbers mean and how it could be a negative thing for the future of the economy, let’s define what unemployment actually is.

According to the U.S. government, the official unemployment rate is strictly defined as the percentage of workers who are unemployed and actively looking for a job. In other words, it’s the number of Americans who are searching for work and currently don’t have a place paying them for their services.

Recently, the American unemployment rate skyrocketed to heights that hadn’t been seen in decades. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions upon millions of Americans lost their jobs seemingly overnight. In just a matter of weeks, 16.8 million people filed for unemployment due to shelter-at-home orders.

At the height of the virus, more than 20.5 million would-be workers were laid off. That means the unemployment rate was at 14.7%, which surpassed the 10% mark seen in the depths of the financial crisis.

Current Unemployment Numbers

According to the most recent Labor Department figures, the unemployment rate has been reduced to 5.1% from 5.2%. That’s down from around 15% only a few months ago. Those appear to be positive figures.

While any growth is welcome, some are concerned that the figures are insufficient. Economists anticipate that companies recently added 485,000 jobs to their payrolls, an increase over August but not as large as the monthly gains seen earlier in the summer.

But the numbers, while moving in the right direction, have some analysts worried for other reasons.

What Do They Mean?

As previously stated, the official unemployment rate published by the Labor Department only includes jobless persons who are not working nor actively seeking for work. It is important to note that millions of people stopped working and also stopped hunting for jobs when the coronavirus ravaged the economy in early 2020.

These people are left out of the jobs reports from the Labor Department. In many ways, they have given up the hunt for a job that suits them. That is why some analysts and experts are actually worried about the newest job numbers because it means that millions of people are throwing in the towel and no longer looking for employment. That is a dangerous, scary thought and could prove troublesome in the months and years ahead.

Categories
Business Career & Education Media Tech & Media

Worker Shortage May Keep a Lid on Job Growth

Worker Shortage May Keep a Lid on Job Growth

Introduction

While some people feel that the coronavirus pandemic is coming to an end and the worst is behind us, there are many signs that the pandemic is surging still. Ultimately, this is causing serious havoc for businesses and people all over the world. Things related to coronavirus are better, there is no doubt about that, but there is still a way to go.

The latest job numbers from the American Labor Department prove that the coronavirus pandemic is still affecting unemployment rate. The impact of the virus as well as a nationwide worker shortage is keeping the jobs market in unsteady shape. People are very unsure of what comes ahead. Many agree that we are definitely not out of the woods yet.

Current Job Numbers

Employers in the United States added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second consecutive sluggish increase and evidence that the epidemic is still wreaking havoc on the economy, with many businesses failing to fill millions of available positions.

According to the data released, the unemployment rate fell from 5.2 percent to 4.8 percent in September of 2021. The unemployment rate declined partly because more individuals found work. However, it also dropped. This is because approximately 180,000 people did not seek work in September, so they were not listed as jobless. In many ways, they were throwing in the towel and giving up their hunt for a job.

The economy’s slow job growth in September fell short of even the meager 336,000 jobs gained in August, and were the fewest since December, when companies actually lost employment.

Delta Variant

The labor market is becoming even more complicated thanks to a resurgence of the coronavirus, the Delta variant.

There was a time when it looked as if the virus was subsiding in America. Then the emergence of the Delta variant complicated everything. The number of cases surged to heights not seen since last year. And that changed how people worked. Thankfully, it seems as if the United States is once again turning a corner on the virus and things are getting better.

With verified new COVID-19 infections dropping, restaurant traffic ticking up marginally, and customers eager to spend, the economy is showing signs of escaping from the drag of the delta strain of the coronavirus.

But when September began, the number of new illnesses remained high. This caused decreased hours at many jobs and a fear from customers and employees to visit businesses.

Additionally, employers are still having difficulty finding workers since many people who lost their employment due to the epidemic have yet to seek work or have decided to move on and find a new career. Many economists have been perplexed by the longevity of that pattern, which has resulted in a record number of job opportunities. The demand for labor is high, so are the number of people looking for new jobs.

Conclusion

Combined, the Delta variant and lacking unemployment numbers are limiting the amount of job growth possible. While many predicted that this current time would find a booming economy, it seems as if the return to normalcy and prosperity has been put on hold for a bit longer.

Categories
Business Career & Education Health & Home Recreation & Leisure

Consumers Are Spending, Just on Different Things

Consumers Are Spending, Just on Different Things

With the COVID-19 pandemic still in swing, people have lost income and wages. However, this doesn’t mean that every market has crashed, and people aren’t spending money. They are just prioritizing what they’re spending their money on. Where you spend your money and how much you spend is especially important when you don’t have as much money coming in as normal.

What Are The Consumer Spending Patterns?

In August of this year, studies showed that most people spend more on groceries, furniture, and online shopping. All these trends make sense because more and more people are trying to save money and cook at home rather than eating at restaurants.

More people are spending money on furniture and home décor because they are spending more time in their homes as they work online instead of going to the office. Online shopping has also peaked in the last few years because people are choosing to buy everything from the comfort of their home on their computers rather than venturing out into stores.

Which Types Of Places Increased?

Sales from restaurants and bars stayed steady, not decreasing, or increasing. They increased for a few months right after lockdowns ended as people were itching to go out and see friends. However, with the spikes in current cases, more and more are choosing to stay indoors as much as possible.

Sales from online stores rose 5.3%, furniture sales went up by about 3.7% and grocery stores went up 2.1%. Department sales went up 2.4%.

Which Types Of Places Decreased?

The major decline in sales has been in cars and vehicle repair shops. There has been a massive shortage of parts for cars and people are finding that they can’t the parts they need to fix their cars or buy new parts for their cars.

Overall, though, spending is up because people are excited to be out and finally have a chance to get out of the house. The economy is slowly returning back to normal after more than a year of it lagging due to lockdowns and people suffering from lost wages.

Overall Consumer Spending Trends

Consumer spending is still the largest contributor to the economy though and that doesn’t seem to be falling behind at all.

Before the pandemic, people spent more money on travel, transportation, and restaurants and bars. With the lockdowns and fear of the virus, these industries have taken a large hit. Grocery stores though and online shopping outlets have not seen a decrease in sales. They have continued to see a sharp increase because people have found they still need to get food and cook at home.

Online services have also seen a sharp increase because people are trying to buy all the goods they can online to avoid going into stores.

Although restaurants and bars have seen a large decrease in sales, there is hope they will increase as more and more people get vaccinated. People are beginning to feel more comfortable going out which will hopefully mean bars and places to eat will see a sharp increase in sales soon.

Categories
Bankruptcy Business Career & Education Legal

How Can Bankruptcy Help My Business?

How Can Bankruptcy Help My Business?

Sometimes running a business means making some tough choices. One of those potentially incredibly difficult choices is whether or not to file for bankruptcy protection. It can feel daunting, but you need to remember the laws surrounding bankruptcy. They were created specifically to protect entrepreneurs, businesses, and those who operate businesses.

Just because you are filing bankruptcy doesn’t mean that your business is going to be confiscated, liquidated, and eliminated. There are some types of filings that will offer protection to the business. This will allow them to continue their operations while solving some of their seemingly insurmountable debt problems.

This is the case with many larger companies that comprise significant portions of industries, like airlines and large banks. Businesses like this, and many others, will often use a bankruptcy filing as a strategic maneuver. These business use it to reduce or eliminate debt, while legitimately restructuring their business. This can result in a more efficient business operation overall. This will lead to an increase in profitability even without new revenue streams.

The Types Of Bankruptcy Filings

There are three main types of bankruptcy that may be applicable to your business. They are chapter 7, chapter 11, and chapter 13. Make sure that before you make any decisions, you speak with the legal counsel for your business.

If you do not have legal counsel, it may be worth it to pay for an evaluation or a la carte bankruptcy preparation from a local bankruptcy lawyer. Let’s take a look at each type of filing, and what it might entail for your business.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 bankruptcy consists of having a court-appointed agent, called a trustee. They will sell your assets and use the proceeds to pay your creditors. By filing for chapter 7, the structure of your business will determine if you will be able to keep it operational. Sole proprietorships may benefit the most here, while legally separate entities like LLCs or corporations may want to file on behalf of the business.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 is where your business will be allowed to keep its assets while setting up and maintaining a repayment plan with all of the creditors. These can be notoriously complex, but filing for chapter 11 is the only way to let corporations, LLCs, and even partnerships reorganize and continue their business operations. Filing Chapter 11 may also let sole proprietors restructure and continue operations, but do not meet the debt limits for Chapter 13.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Chapter 13 filings are only available to businesses that are owned and operated by sole proprietors. With this filing, the business gets to keep all of its assets and is assigned a repayment plan with its creditors. There are some stringent debt limits that apply for those seeking Chapter 13 protection. However, using Chapter 13 as part of your business bankruptcy strategy can let sole proprietors include business debt as well as personal debt. This makes it a great option.

Categories
Business Career & Education Financial Insurance

Your Guide to Choosing Small Business Insurance

Your Guide to Choosing Small Business Insurance

Getting small business insurance is a very hard thing to do. Especially, if you don’t have as much knowledge about the small business world. Still, don’t be fooled into thinking that you can go for too long without insurance.

Small business insurance provides a net for you whenever you have some problems with money. If you have the right type, it can save you from total bankruptcy! You need insurance to handle unexpected costs and accidents that can befall your company and your employees. Those costs will come and pile up!

What Types Of Insurance Can I Pick From?

Here are some of the common types of insurance, and the one that you end up picking will be the one that completely benefits you.

One of the first types is Business Income Insurance. This covers all forms of money loss from physical property damage. If your bottom line or earnings are impacted by a car crash or damage to one of your buildings, then that is what is covered by this insurance. It’s very useful if you have some type of property to your name, less useful if you do not.

Another type that small businesses need to consider is the Business Liability Insurance. This keeps your small business safe from being sued. Many owners do not get this insurance, as they incorrectly think that an LLC will provide protection. It does not.

Other Types Of Insurance

If you are running a small business in the construction or building services, then you are going to need contractors professional liability insurance. This protects your contractors from being sued for errors, and liability claims. It’s a must for this niche, especially when you are just starting out.

Employment practices liability insurance is focused on protecting the employees of your small business from wrongful employment practices and these include discrimination, wrongful termination, and harassment.

Picking The Ones That Work

The insurance you need depends on your business. If you are hosting a small business with no employees and completely online, you will need different insurance than a construction company with 20 employees. Still, the most basic form of insurance should focus on protecting your business from the various problems that can plague it.

If you are unsure about what insurance your business needs, or are concerned that you are missing something, you should talk to an expert. A lawyer who specializes in small businesses and an accountant who knows the financial side of things, makes sure that you will cover all your bases.

If you don’t have insurance, you are leaving the door wide open for financial ruin for your business. The work and small sums that you pay now for business insurance are going to save you much later whenever problems arise, and you certainly won’t regret taking the time to have it done.

Make insurance an important part of your plan, and then you can get back to serving your customers.

Categories
Business Career & Education

22 Online Business Ideas You Can Start Tomorrow

22 Online Business Ideas You Can Start Tomorrow

When it comes to starting a business online, there are a few methods you can’t beat! Here are several online business ideas that you can easily start with. Who knows what they will grow into!

  1. Consultant/Coach

If you are an expert in something, why not turn it into a business. So, show it off with a coaching package or program!

  1. Reseller

Do you have clothes you are not wearing anymore, or things you don’t use? Resell them for a tidy profit!

  1. Website or App Developer

If you love to code and design, then you are born for the process of making websites and apps that people will enjoy.

  1. Professional Organizer

If you like to declutter and make the most of space, you can become a professional organizer for physical and online spaces.

  1. Freelance Writer

Writing is a lucrative and fun way to make some serious money, so make sure to give it a go!

  1. Small Business Consultant

If you have owned or managed small businesses in the past, then working as a consultant might be your calling.

  1. Social Media Consultant

Not everyone is as up to date with the latest social media trends as you might be. Use that knowledge and spruce up people’s pages for a living!

  1. Blogger

Blogging as a business can be very interesting and important, and if you manage to write the right content and get it to people, you can make some serious money.

  1. Virtual Assistant

If you are organized and a whiz with computers, then you might be a good personal assistant to someone who needs the support.

  1. Tech Support

Who doesn’t enjoy calling tech support for help. If you enjoy tinkering with electronics you can easily start offering remote assistance as your business.

  1. Craft Maker

More businesses than you can think of have been spawned by people selling crafts. If you can make something really enjoyable, then you can sell it.

  1. Drop Shipping

Drop shipping allows you to take orders for online retail, but then forward those orders to someone else that does all the delivery and the legwork.

  1. Tutoring

If you know a particular subject or about a certain test, you might be able to teach it effectively to others. Make a tutoring business!

  1.  Make A Youtube Channel

If you are more comfortable in front of a video camera, then you can educate and entertain through Youtube and make money through ads.

  1. Digital Courses

Another way to get some information out there is to use digital courses. Easily digestible courses can help you share your expertise in a fun format.

  1. A Podcast

A podcast about something you are passionate about can really bring people in. So start one! It’s super easy!

  1. Cover Letter/Resume Writer

How many people are looking for work right now? How many are doing it with bad resumes that haven’t been updated in a year? A lot! So, reach out and see if you can help.

  1. Graphic designer

If art is your method of communication, then you can create pictures and designs for companies. So, go start that graphic design business!

  1. Email writer

People are sending out more emails than ever before, and if you can write an email for yourself you can do one for a company.

  1. Nutrition Planner

If you are obsessed with tracking everything you eat, and want to bring that obsession to the workplace, then feel free to start this business!

  1. Life Coach

You’ve got lots of experiences you can share that others can learn from, so don’t be afraid to share.

  1. Online Business Advisor

There are more and more people looking to make a living online every single day, why not show them how to do it?

Any one of these online business ideas could be your next big hit, so pick one and get it started!

Categories
Business Career & Education

Starting a Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

Starting a Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

Starting a business is no easy feat at all, and it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. It also has a lot of time and money invested into it. Thankfully, every business from a bakery shop to a Fortune 500 company is all about using the same steps.

Here are some of the best steps that are crucial to building a business, and the ones that you will need to follow no matter what business you decide to start.

Step 1: Prepare Your Idea

Every single business starts with an idea or a ‘why’. Maybe you want to sell makeup kits online, maybe you want to tutor students in math, maybe you want to build the next skyscraper. However, an idea in a vacuum isn’t worth squat.

So, you need to make sure that your idea has some level of substance behind it. Let’s say you want to sell makeup kits. What type of kits will you sell? What products will you use? Who will you market those kits for? If you can answer specific questions about how you will get your idea off the ground, then you will be able to make sure that you have a structure in place.

Nothing sinks a business faster than having an idea and not much else on your end, so always make sure to answer those common questions before you get started.

Step 2: Put A Business In Your Budget

Every business will cost some amount of money, and you need to be prepared for that. Setup costs, supplies, website hosting, and in some cases physical space are all expenses that will at first be coming out of your pocket. It could be a little or a lot of money, but no matter what you need to make sure that you are prepared for that expense.

Set some money aside 3-6 months before you start your business, and keep that little nest egg growing as you flesh out the ideas. Once you get started with finally getting your business off the ground, you can focus on creating your business and not your money woes. Plus, it’s good practice for the budget that your business will actually need!

Step 3: Pick Your Niche and Audience

An epic business is nothing without someone to sell too and something to sell, but most businesses go far too broad trying to please everyone. Instead of making your products ‘one size fits all’ you should focus on making your products applicable to a certain niche.

If you are designing a jewelry business, pick one thing and do it well. For example, you could try and sell only necklaces or only earrings until you get your audience.

Follow These Steps and You’ll Have A Chance

These three steps are the best way to have a clear vision for your business, and will make sure that you have an actionable plan going forward. Then you will be able to build on that plan with confidence!

Categories
Business Career & Education

7 Steps to Create a Marketing Plan That Works

7 Steps to Create a Marketing Plan That Works

There may be several strategies and ideas that you can incorporate in your business with an idea to develop it. However, a timely marketing plan can do wonders for taking your business to the next level. This plan could be the difference between failure and success.

So, here are 7 steps to create a marketing plan that actually works.

1. Research to Know Your Marketing Business

You should focus on developing a long-term approach for strategizing your business’ future. This approach should be on your customer feedback about your services and product’s credibility. Consider arranging a market study to assess your company’s standing with clients and vendors.

This data will give you the right mind-set to know your business standing, value, and credibility.

2. Know your Brand Health

It would help if you arranged a market survey to know about your product’s feedback. This will make you know your brand’s market value. Assess its value by comparing it with the competitor’s product to get a clear understanding. Depending on the result, you should set the next 12 months’ goals to improve your clientele and dig into a new customer base.

3. Determine Target Market

What more you can do to improve your product. It’s like getting the right audience to listen to you. So, focus more on knowing what segment of market your product can capture.  It would help if you got customer feedback, shared it with your marketing team and production unit to improve your end product. This will help you determine your target market.

4. Set a Budget

You should be careful about allocating a certain budget for marketing, advertising and promoting business. You should spend this money on marketing-related activities alone.

Budgets are difficult to come by. You may need to withdraw money from another part of your business to replenish marketing and promotion. So be careful and run the numbers twice to justify the new budget allocation.

5. Know your Rivals

There is a good chance that you are facing some fierce competitors. You should know them, their strengths as well as weaknesses. That will help you guide how you can progress. You should know why people like their products and try to improve on that a step ahead and sell your product.

6. Create a Tactical Marketing Strategy

The strategy should be on course about how to achieve your goals? Whereas tactics like digital promotion, social media, websites, public relations, and trade conferences are just one facet of marketing. Email marketing, direct sales, and lead generation are another extension of marketing strategy. You need both to fork a sound strategy for a successful business future.

7. Get Set, Go!

These steps are needed to create a marketing plan for your business that actually works. Just put them together and devise a strategy that suits you best. Marketing plans can vary from simple to more complex methods. So, be ready to alter or amend them as and when required.

Conclusion

Therefore, you should always have a marketing plan to promote your business. But ensure its timely implementation and ensure its being applied in soul and spirit.