Building downtime into your schedule can help you recharge your battery, manage stress, and keep perspective. During these moments of downtime, it is important to completely step away from your work obligations (that means silencing your smartphone!) and focus on the activities that bring you personal fulfillment. Making time for these activities is essential for avoiding burnout.

Dax Grantham is a small business attorney and the owner of Grantham Law in Woburn, MA. Skye Learning is thrilled to feature Grantham as a subject matter expert in Law for Small Businesses.

Grantham provides legal services to business and individuals across eastern Massachusetts, primarily offering general counsel services to emerging small businesses. He also practices in the areas of business/corporate law, personal and business bankruptcy, and business litigation. He has practiced law for nearly twenty years.

Negotiations occur in many different settings. We negotiate with family members, friends, and business associates. Negotiations happen so frequently that we often don't even realize when they occur.  Negotiations occur because people value things differently. 

People are not born with negotiation skills. They must be learned. We engage in many informal negotiations every day; however, in a business setting, more formal negotiations occur. In fact, negotiation is the norm for high value transactions.

This week, Skye Learning is thrilled to spotlight Dr. S. Atyia Martin, an expert for the AEM®/CEM® Prep Course (U.S. version). Martin is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM®) with nearly 20 years of experience in emergency management, public health, intelligence, resilience, and homeland security. She was worked for the government, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector. Currently, she is CEO & Founder of All Aces, Inc., a consulting company that advances racial equity and builds organizational resilience. Martin is a distinguished senior fellow for the Global Resilience Institute.

Skye Learning’s Introduction to Emergency Management course provides an overview of fundamental concepts, including the four phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. See what a learner has to say about the course:

Hitendra Patel is an innovative thought leader, keynote speaker, and author. He has taught innovation and strategic growth to over 5000 MBA students, including at Hult International Business School and the University of Toronto. He is also Managing Director of the IXL Center, a global innovation management consulting firm.

What’s more, Patel is Board Director for the Hult Prize Foundation, Board Director and Founder of Pollux Automation, a partner and member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and more. Patel has also published numerous books, including Greenovate!, Connectivate!, and Healthovate!

Graduation season should be an exciting time, but for many 2020 graduates, celebrations and ceremonies have been replaced with feelings of fear and uncertainty. Is the career track you chose four years ago going to withstand this recent pandemic? When will companies start hiring again? When will it be safe to go to work? There are many questions, with very few answers. But even if your anticipated career track has changed course or your potential job leads have grinded to a halt, all hope is not lost.

We have seen that there are many factors at play in shaping behavior in the workplace. Nonetheless, the question remains: How is it that decent people can behave in an unethical manner in business?

Research suggests a number of reasons. The KPMG Forensic Survey polled a representative sample of American workers and found that pressure for results was the most often cited reason for misconduct. Another interesting finding from the KPMG survey was that only 34% of respondents said a desire for personal gain prompted unethical behavior.

Like for-profit businesses, nonprofits range in size from small and medium organizations to very large, well-established organizations. These differences in size affect the way that nonprofits conduct every aspect of their operations, including fundraising, developing volunteer programs, establishing financial processes, and selecting a board of directors.

Regardless of a nonprofit’s size, the board plays an essential role in the organization’s success.

Dani Whitestone is an accomplished entrepreneur and business coach with more than 20 years experience managing small businesses and mentoring small business owners. She was President and Founder of Musical Resources as well as Co-Founder and Director of Sales and Marketing for TurboLaw Software.

In 2018, Whitestone founded the Women’s Small Business & Leadership Network, where she serves as a small business mentor. This community offers support and mentorship for women small business owners; women interested in participating can join now on Facebook.