Are you just starting to develop your small business idea or plan? Maybe you’re already up and running, but looking for ways to improve and expand? Marketing and branding are key elements to developing your business, and choosing the right name is usually the first part of that process.

We’ve written this post to show you how to choose a business name that connects and resonates with your target market. Below we’ll go through some tips for choosing a name for your new business, along with a few examples to help you brainstorm. Arming you with these 10 resources and tips for choosing the best name for your business will get you started along the path to successful brand recognition in your community.

Quality assurance is essential to the success of any business and in many different industries it requires someone to ensure a certain level of quality is maintained. For working professional and business owners, investing in a quality certification gives you the opportunity to expand your knowledge and understanding of your industry and helps you to become a more effective and valuable leader/employee.

Illness — acute or chronic — or injuries can interrupt life dramatically. The rise and fall of emotions in reaction to an illness, injury, or surgery can create instability, numbness, and a sense of hopelessness. A cancer diagnosis can take a person through dozens of emotions in a single minute. Fear of the unknown, loss of control, confusion, grief, anger, depression, and anxiety can hit hard. Who will be there to help this person during this surreal and scary time?

As a healthcare professional, your communication skills need to be stellar and a top priority. Good communication skills are required by ALL healthcare professionals, not just by the social workers and psychologists. Active listening, responding appropriately to patient’s needs and concerns, properly assessing body language, and possessing a non-judgmental attitude are all necessary skills that healthcare workers need to possess. The importance of communication in the healthcare industry can help prevent injuries and death, increase trust between the patient and the caregiver, and strengthen relationships with other staff members. This post will discuss how communication can save lives in healthcare and increase success on the job. 

Now that it’s a new year, you may be looking for new ways to improve your organization. For businesses focused on efficiency and overall quality of their products and services, a quality certification may be the answer you’re looking for.

Below we’ll take a look at three different quality certifications and the benefits for obtaining them.

Updated March 9, 2022

Going into the healthcare field is one of the most rewarding career choices one can make. But, due to the nature of the industry, it often doesn’t leave much time — or energy — for basic personal health. In fact, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which left healthcare systems scrambling with high turnover and capacity issues, 62 percent of nurses in a national survey reported experiencing symptoms of burnout. It's also common for healthcare professionals to experience chronic illness, in addition to risking exposure to contagions like COVID-19.

It’s important that healthcare professionals are working to stay healthy and happy, despite the odds, by committing to reducing stress, eating better, and making changes to their lifestyles.

It might be counterintuitive, but price is often not a significant factor to your very best customers. Creating value around your brand and providing great customer service actually tend to be more influential on whether or not people remain customers or decide to go elsewhere.

Creating a positive customer experience can yield more positive results for your business than simply adjusting prices, because the customers you value most will be the ones to stick around for the long term. One study found that 87% of customers felt that brands need to put more effort into their customer experience, showing that it’s an area that businesses can improve upon before they start slashing prices.

One of the most influential philosophies in business over the past half-century has been the concept of continuous improvement. Businesses and professionals are now constantly striving for ways to constantly improve quality standards, no matter how high they may already be.

Many different strategies have been developed to help organizations in their continuous professional development improvement efforts, some of which you may or may not be familiar with. LEAN, Six Sigma, and Quality are three of the most accepted and widely used frameworks in today’s business environment.

With a healthcare professional shortage in America there is a huge need for new and emerging healthcare workers. Community colleges play a vital role in educating future healthcare professionals and shaping the healthcare landscape. According to Dr. Kevin Fleming the CEO of Telos Educational Services, the past several decades have seen a large emphasis placed on the importance of people receiving college educations and advanced degrees. The belief has been that with a more advanced degree comes higher pay. There is a misalignment between education and the workforce. There’s been a “college for all mentality” instead of a “post-high school credential for all” mentality. Fleming shares that 66% of high school graduates enter college; but only 1/4 finish their bachelor’s degrees. Experts have predicted that by 2018, only 33% of the workforce will be required to have a four-year degree.

Yarnia is Portland’s only DIY yarn store. It’s tucked away underneath some plaza stairs on SE Division and 41st in Portland. When you walk inside you’re surrounded by brilliant colors of coned yarn stacked to the ceiling. There is a cozy nook with comfy chairs just yearning to be sat in to knit something. And there is a modern, antique looking machine that fills the room with a humming sound as it makes custom yarn.

Maintaining a level of quality is imperative of business, no matter your product, service, focus, or industry. On the surface, how quality affects your bottom line seems obvious. It's also what could make or break your reputation with consumers as well as your reputation with other businesses, and could, in fact, make or break your business' ability to thrive in the market at all.