The world has with it over 7 million professionals who are currently unemployed. Some have given up in life while others are still looking for work. If you fall into the unemployment category and are currently reading this article, then you must be looking for some of the traits that employers look or in new employee recruits. Majority of employers when using the Predictive Index and behavioral assessment when recruiting tend to look for specific skills. Well, luckily, you have come to the right place.

You need to realize that to most employers consider personality traits of their employees to be just as important as their technical skills. That being said, here are some seven personality traits that all employers usually look for and that you can use to increase your chances of landing a job in most businesses.

1. Can play well with others

Your ability to play well with others is one of the most vital personality traits that hiring managers are always looking for. It doesn’t matter if you are an expert at the job itself, if you can’t play well with the other employees then it doesn’t really matter.

You should know that often times, you realize that technical skills are far easier to tech compared to the interpersonal skills. Can you easily hold a conversation with your other employees while smiling and also positively interact with everyone else? If so, then you might have a couple of points over your competitors for the job.

2. Has integrity

Talking about integrity, you need to realize that it covers just about everything from knowing better not to lie in your resume or steal someone else’s lunch. Trust and integrity play among the most crucial deciding factors when it comes to improving your chances of winning a position in any business as a new employee.

3. Eagerness and capacity to learn

People will always tell you that there is no end to learning. And the same goes for your career as well. You will also come to realize that even the realistic hiring managers use this process to choose the best candidate, from their long list, especially if the position/s that they are looking to fill need industry knowledge. The actual capacity to also learn is crucial as well as you will realize that beyond the skills that you already have, there are other skills and functions in the business that you may not have been exposed to yet.

4. Persistence

Hiring managers are looking to find the candidates who have the persistence and dedication to want to tackle all and any challenge brought to them. This simply shows that you are a self-starter and that you won’t need to be constantly monitored and pushed to perform. A persistent employee should be able to look at a problem from many different angles and attempt to solve it no matter how hard it is.

5. Positive attitude

A candidate who has a positive and optimistic outlook towards work has a much higher chance of being hired and the rest be left out. Bad mouthing your previous bosses is a terrible mistake that you must never make an interview no matter what you are applying for.

6. Enthusiasm for the role

Being enthusiastic about the role that you are going to be offered is another bonus point when it comes to having a chance to be employed in a new business. Employers are looking for candidates who are eager to advance and have a career drive to want to achieve more within the business and role in the business they have been offered.

7. Loyalty and commitment

Hiring managers are especially looking for the candidates who have a strong potential of staying loyal and committed to the business for the long-term. No employer is looking to hire a job hopper which has become the new job norm in the past years.

Something quite ironic is how many businesses usually only wait until earth day to show or do something green. But the fact is that you really don’t have to wait this long. You can even opt to make your business go green permanently through effective business management consulting. Ultimately, you will realize that it actually makes a lot of business sense and promise a better business performance improvement.

You will find proof when you look at most of the businesses that have incorporated the earth-friendly practices and notice that they are more likely to increase staff productivity, improve their overall relationships with their clients and communities, and save money.

This article will be sharing with you eight ways you can use to make your business eco-friendly.

1. Gauge your current water and energy usage

It’s only natural that you need to take inventory of all your data and how far you’ve gone before you take any steps to try something new. An implementation consultant will help you to know exactly how far you’ve gone and how much you’ve achieved with the old way first. This way, you can easily know what works for you, and also compare how the new way, the green way can compare to the old way in terms of production, cost-efficiency, and just every other aspect of the business altogether.

2. Switch off unused appliances

Appliances that aren’t being used at the time always need to be turned off. Until up to the point where it will be needed. You should also try and incorporate this idea with your employees as well. Apart from making your business eco-friendlier, this step will also save you a lot of money which you would be wasting on unutilized energy. It’s also just plain common sense.

3. Put computers to sleep

Sometimes you may find that you can’t just turn off your computers simply because there are many unsaved data or other work-related stuff. But still, you can put them to sleep or hibernate them when they’re not in use.

4. Replace standard light bulbs

You can also decide to replace the standard light bulbs you are currently using the ones that are eco-friendlier like compact fluorescent or LED lights. These bulbs may be more expensive when you compare them to the standard ones but at the end of the day, they consume less energy plus last very long which, in turn, saves you a lot of money and electricity.

5. Power your office using alternative energy

There are many alternative sources of energy you can use to power your office like the solar power, geothermal, wind, plant matter, etc. which can all be used to generate green power. Switching to alternative power sources is a costly move but it ends up saving you a lot of money in the long run. Plus, it’s also eco-friendly.

6. Plant trees

You can help aid the green movement by planting trees as well and help reduce the amount of carbon levels in our environment. Trees absorb and use the CO2 and release the much needed oxygen. You don’t even have to be an expert gardener to plant a few trees around your office.

7. Use public transportation instead of other alternative transportation means

You can also try and reduce the number of vehicles plying the roads. It all starts with you and slowly other members of the company will follow suit. This is another simple way you can encourage an eco-friendlier environment.

8. Upgrade and donate

You will not only be helping mother earth but other members of the community in need. Upgrade all of your business appliances to their greener versions. After that, you can donate the older ones. It may be a costly process, but a much-needed one at that as it will save you money especially on maintenance at the end of the day.

Going green can be easy. You just have to put your mind to it and take the first step towards it and slowly see your fellow workers follow suit as well. You don’t have to everything at once. It can be a slow process aimed towards a greater goal.

It is every entrepreneur’s dream always to be as innovative and creative as possible and come up with new ideas that haven’t been discovered yet, but will contribute towards the well being of everyday human life. Thus, comes Elon Musk, an accomplished entrepreneur who believes he is self-driven and highly motivated to accomplish tasks, ideas, and routines from inspiring leaders. Elon explains that he even prioritizes his top three tasks every morning.

Elon Musk has identified some of humanity’s most pressing needs and will go down in the history books as the man who took steps towards attempting to save our already dying planet.

Musk has continued to challenge every other scientist’s and person’s perception of things and ideas which, otherwise, seemed to be “impossible” and made them possible and tangible.

Musk likes to get things done and done right for that matter. At only 17, he created a list of some of the things he believed would greatly impact human lives forever. The list entailed:

• The internet,
• Space exploration,
• Sustainable energy,
• Reprogramming human genetics,
• Artificial intelligence.

He is the founder of PayPal, which was the first ever online platform for all digital money transfers. He has an early interest in the internet.

Several years later, Musk would delve into space exploration, space industries, and automobiles. He founded three other companies; the Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity which have all become superstars in their fields. All of these companies were built for one sole purpose, and that was how they could create the needed change for humanity.

1. Space exploration

In 2002, Musk decided to launch a privately-funded venture which was commonly known as SpaceX and with all the success Musk has claimed in his space endeavors; you would be astonished at how he managed to do all these without any formal knowledge in rocketry training.

You can say Musk qualified himself using his gut instincts. So far, SpaceX has hit so many historic milestones and managed to come out victorious I the past 15 years since Musk founded the corporation. In December 2010, the company became the first privately owned corporation to complete, send and return a spacecraft to and from a low-earth orbit. Then only two years after that, the Dragon spacecraft flew to the ISS exchanged cargo for NASA and returned to earth safely. 

2. Space tourism

SpaceX has promised to have an unmanned tourist launch to the moon by late 2018 with an estimated $70 million price tag per seat.

3. Tesla Motors

This company, also founded by Elon Musk, also boasts its design for efficient electric cars. In 2003, the company launched in the Silicon Valley with one specific mission; to speed up the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

In 2012, Tesla Motors launched the Model S which was the world’s first electric sedan and was built to be 100% electric. Thanks to Musk, we now have cars that can run on batteries and the solar power energy which has greatly reduced the reliance on fossil fuels.

4. SolarCity

This corporation is set to speed up the process of identifying the use of renewable energy. It was founded by Musk in 2006 and is also set to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels to run our daily machines.

You may not know it yet, but cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, New York, and many more cities in the United States are the best and most-established, booming startup scenes that every new business owner would dream to go to. But one major downside of this dream is that all these cities are super-pricey plus the competition is super-steep. One of the main features you have to pay much focus on when starting a new business is the business location. Where is your business going to be located?

What makes a business location attractive?

Nothing attracts young people more than seeing other young people around in the same location, explains Yang. Look at it from this perspective, Seattle wasn’t such a big name back then as it is now. Back before Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon, all big names which have helped it grow exponentially. In Chicago, you will see Groupon which helped it in its capacity to be where it is now regarding rank and location. But overall, Starbucks and Amazon are probably the best brands you can have around your business location.

Why any of these cities may be the next Seattle

1. Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh harbors some big company names like Amazon, Google, and Uber which have all helped raise its name in the list significantly. You will also notice the upsurge of universities as well as the increase of driving workforce, which has also made Pittsburgh one of the greatest innovation hubs.

2. Indianapolis

The biggest skyscraper in Indy is about to be rebranded from Chase Bank to Salesforce. The company is currently still checking the tower, the shared workspaces and local retailers, and also the 800 new employees about to be employed in the skyscraper. Indy has also been listed as the 4th best city for all women when it comes to technology based on gender pay game, a study done by Financial tech company Smart Asset. It’s also a test market for the AT&T’s new 5G network. It is also Forbes’ best place for all renters in 2017.

3. Providence

Rhode Island has also managed to create some major investments when it comes to entrepreneurship. For example, it attached GE Digital in 2016, Virgin, Johnson& Johnson, and a renowned Cambridge Innovation Center. It has ranked the number one country for applying mathematics.

4. Columbus

Columbus is currently home to five fortunes 500 companies. It is also rapidly growing in the healthcare industry as well as major players like CoverMyMeds, CrossChx, and Cardinal Health based in this current location. This is the place to invest in and start a business while you still can.

5. Charleston

Charleston has consistently been ranked as one of the best cities in the world repeatedly. It is home to over 250 technology companies with a digital economy that also ranks highly. Studies have shown that this country attracts about 35 new people every day who are looking to invest and start businesses in the country.

6. Chiang Mai

Travel + Leisure named this city the second best in its list of the world’s best cities. Many ranking sites like Tech. Co and Forbes have made interesting cases of Chiang Mai. You can comfortably live on less than $500 a month while in this city of about 1.6 million citizens.

As a trader in stock, it is vital that you know that trade wars can hurt not all stocks. In fact, trade wars can even have positive impacts on some companies.

Generally speaking, there are times when trade conflict can also be quite beneficial to some domestic-focused companies which have proportionally large foreign sales and assets. This article has highlighted four vital stocks that you might want to invest in to play the Trump’s trade war.

1. Boston Beer Company

This is a renowned craft beer maker and is best known for some of the best brews like Samuel Adams. The company also produces hard cider and malt beverages like iced tea, twisted tea, and the Angry Orchid Hard Cider.

The beverages are produced at company-owned breweries under contract agreements at different brewery locations. These brewery locations are primarily found in the U.S. in Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Massachusetts, Florida, and New York.

The company produces and distributes its products to over 350 wholesalers throughout the U.S.

The beer company sells the beverages internationally, but to a much lesser extent and quantity with predominant sales and production being done domestically. The company is currently well-positioned to weather any storm that may arise with the trade war between the U.S.A and China for a lot of reasons.

The first thing you should expect should this trade war between the U.S. and China fall though is the dollar value to fall significantly against any other currency.

2. Boyd Gaming Corporation

This corporation is, perhaps, one of the most well-equipped to avoid any consequences that may arise as a result of a trade war between China and the U.S. relative to its other larger counterparts.

Some of the most commonly known gaming giants are Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands, and over half of the total revenue generated by these gaming corporations come from China and the Chinese special administrative regions of Macau, and not Las Vegas.

The Boyd Gaming Corporation, however, only has its properties based in the United States, but most of its properties are in Nevada, Hawaii, over 12 casinos.

If there is a dip in the dollar value, you should also expect the travel rates in the country to also be cheaper which will, in turn, also lead to a significant increase in foreign revenue and customers for Boyd. So, it is possible that this corporation can also benefit from a downturn as well.

3. CVS Health Corporation

Everyone must have taken prescription medicine at one point in their lives. And the CVS pharmacy ranks as one of the largest pharmacy health care providers throughout the United States with almost 250,000 employees and 7,700 different locations where it has its branches in all the 50 states, 100% of all the CVS sales are domestic.

A significant fall in the dollar value could end up increasing the price tag on the prescription drugs which the consumers will still have to buy whether they want to or not.

4. Public Storage

This business dates back to the 1800s. This business now covers over 55,000 storage units in the U.S. alone and the largest brand in the business is Public Storage.

During the 2008 economic decline, the self-storage units were the only REIT sectors that posted positive returns.

In the past few years, there has been this little green manual that has been making its way into the Walmart store workers slowly titled, “Would I Buy It?” this manual acts as a simple guide to help employees decide if vegetables and fruits are still good for sale. It also guides them on the best times that these products should be “culled.”

The idea here is to try and reduce the amount of perfectly good food products going to waste. Walmart is trying desperately to ensure that it reduces on this and eradicate it fully by 2025. You can say that it’s part of a series of changes that Walmart has laid forth to try and cut down on the number of wasted food products and end it by 2025 in its 411 stores across the country. By 2015, this strategy could be seen to be already bearing fruits with a 23% decrease in food reduction.

Walmart is on a mission to become the number one grocer in Canada to reach “zero food waste.” The giant store is, however, determined to achieve this goal completely by 2025 which also puts them behind Metro chain, another giant store in Canada which has set the same goal for 2020.

“Zero food waste” will mean up to 90% diversion from the total landfills be it through recycling, repackaging donations, and compositing.

Kathleen McLaughlin, president of Walmart Foundation, explains that food wastage lies among the huge environmental factors of concern and cost concern as well.

Studies have also revealed that over $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year in Canada and an estimated one-third of the total food produced worldwide is wasted.

From an environmental angle, you should also think that even the other resources that are used to grow this food like water, fertilizer, and even land is wasted in the process. Then these wasted food products decompose in the landfills and produce methane gas which is 25 times more potent than the carbon dioxide gas in its overall contribution to the climatic changes. Other grocery retailers in the country have also made moves to try and reduce the number of food wastes.

Ms. McLaughlin acknowledged the fact that apart from this giant step boosting the company’s image, it is also set to help make the company be a more efficient business even as it attempts to achieve its goals.

The company has been implementing organic recycling programs for some time now and converts spoiled food products into compost and animal feeds. It has also opened food backs and paired each store to maximize the overall food donations.

There has, however, been a lot of criticism circling the Walmart move with some organizations saying that these retailers have taken to dumping these unwanted and often unhealthy food products to charity, says Aart Schuurman Hess, CEO of Greater Vancouver Food Bank.

Nick Saul, chief executive of Community Food Centers Canada also criticized this move by linking it to be a form of food wastes and hunger.

The price of filling up gas tanks in Canada is slowly becoming an irritation that all Canadians can quite shake off. And studies have found that this problem is bound to become more of a menace in the coming future. A very bad sign for the gas industry in Canada. This article highlights five reasons that show gas prices soaring up now and will keep rising.

1. Summer

One common factor and trend that you must know by now is that gas prices always tend to rise a lot during the summer periods. Dan McTeague of GasBuddy.com has found a study that the gasoline demands usually spike around the second week of June.

One main cause why this usually occurs is that the chemical composition of the gas is usually different in the summer periods than in the winter periods. These chemical composition changes occur due to the different weather conditions, and it also forces refineries to adjust to these changes and calibrate their systems accordingly to handle the different weather makeups and gasoline compositions as well.

You will also notice that the summer period ranks among the most popular seasons for driving, which in turn also leads to the increased demand for the already limited gas at the time. Thus, the significant hike in gas prices.

2. Blame the U.S.

Contrary to what most consumers may believe, Canada doesn’t produce and even refine much of the gas that the country consumes. This alone makes the prices to be high already owing to the dependent of U.S. refiners. And right now, you find that the overall gas prices are rising about everywhere throughout the world which makes the prices in Canada be even much higher than the usual.

3. Pipeline problems

As of now, you will notice that there is no bigger pipeline problem currently as the one of British Columbia and Alberta. With British Columbia B.C. moving between 60,000 and 80,000 barrels of gasoline, jet fuel, and gasoline, calculations show that this relates to between 60% and 75% of all the fuel used in British Columbia, explains McTeague.

This pipeline fight between these two countries also has the potential of raising the gas prices in Canada as well.

4. Rail strike

Whenever pipelines get shut, you will often find that most oil gets diverted to rail systems to haul. But the Canadian rail systems also have their issues to take care of at the moment. During the fall and winter periods, you would have noticed all the major rail companies warning about the network bottlenecks.

5. Loonie

And all this comes right atop the issue with the Canadian dollar. You must have known this by now; that all oil products are priced at American dollars, and this year alone, the Canadian dollar has seen some worse performances against the American dollar overall which also equates to more money used to purchase these oil products in general. This is not good news for any of the gas buyers in Canada, but it is something that everybody still has to live with since gas may be the single most valuable aspect of our daily routines.

The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) is pleased to announce a series of events featuring Staples Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Mark Buckley. Mark will deliver a free public lecture on Tuesday March 17th at the UM School of Business Administration about the dramatic changes occurring in business as usual due to the implications of an interdependent global supply chain, including:

Corporations coming to terms with the reality that we don’t have enough materials on earth to continue consuming at current rates.
Extended responsibility laws in Europe, Canada, and some parts of the US that require companies to take full life cycle responsibility for everything they produce.
The end of waste management and the rise of resource management— seeing everything that goes in and out as a resource.
The “circular economy” as an emerging trend that adds accountability to traditional business thinking about economic value.
Like most companies, Staples started by looking at sustainability practices within its own walls. But a company footprint analysis revealed that only 7% of Staples’ environmental impacts are internal. The rest come from the actions of suppliers and customers. “Just because you sell something doesn’t mean you can wash your hands of it,” said Mark. “This led us to ask ourselves, ‘How do we think about community?’”

Mark lives in the same small town of 3,000 where he grew up, yet he manages global environmental and sustainable business practices for a $23 billion

company with 80,000 employees in 26 countries. He said, “As big as we are, we need to think about how each decision we make in Massachusetts affects a community half a world away. To do that, we need a design perspective.”

Mark will provide specific examples from Staples and other global companies during his talk on “The Circular Economy: Waste As a Resource” at the UM School of Business Administration on March 17. The lecture will be followed by a Business Reception.

The next morning, on Wednesday March 18, Mark will be joined by two local entrepreneurs for a Good Morning Forum panel discussion. James Stephens of Blue Marble Biomaterials and Patrick Collins of Montainer will provide Missoula- based case studies of the global principles that Mark will address in his talk.

SBC Executive Director Jenny Mish, PhD, says “Mark Buckley is a stellar example of the kind of business leadership that is needed for a sustainable future. It’s inspiring to hear directly from someone who is tackling sustainability design issues on an enormous scale. We’re very pleased to bring Mark to Missoula, and to feature him alongside two of our own Missoula-based exemplars.”

For event times, registration information and more details, please click here!

Missoula Copy Center Owner Doug Hannan joins us for this SBC Member Spotlight.

1. Tell us about your business or organization in 10 words or less.

We copy, print, design, make signs and sell safety supplies.

2. What makes your business sustainable, and why is it important?

We buy our products and supplies from local vendors and spend our money locally. All employees are from Montana and love it here. We provide excellent products at great prices to help other local business and people so they can do more and help others locally.

Photo by Energetechs.

3. What is your most favorite part about running a business in the Missoula area?

My favorite part of running a business in Missoula is the interactions with the people of Missoula and making new friends and connections and helping others.

4. What is your least favorite part about running a business in the Missoula area?

There is no place in the world I would rather live or operate my business. My least favorite part is not being able to drive my car in the winter.

5. What is one problem your business faces that you need a magic solution for?

One problem this business faces is changing of times and technology, we just have to continually grow and adapt to the changes. The only magic solution would be a Genie in a bottle.

6. Tell us something we don’t know about your business.

Something not many people know about Missoula Copy Center is that we do a whole lot more than just copying and printing. We make custom signs, sell safety supplies, measuring devices, drafting supplies, survey supplies and builder’s levels and lasers. We also do design work with our graphic designer Michael who has a degree in fine art at the UofM.

Photo by Energetechs.

7. How do you compete with large(r) companies to bring people through the door?

We compete with the larger companies by being the most local, best priced and we give more personal attention and do a better job than the larger companies. Here you talk to and see the same people every time you call or come in.

8. If you had unlimited funds to improve your business, what would you do?

If I had unlimited funds to improve my business I would update computers, software, printers and other machinery more often that we already do.

9. What is your favorite Missoula pastime?

My favorite Missoula pastime is going camping with friends and fishing as much as I can.

10. Why are you an SBC member?

I am a SBC member because we believe in recycling and using products and supplies that are better for our environment and machines that use less energy. We are able to network with other businesses with like interests and help each other.

To visit the Missoula Copy Center website, click here!