| How to Deal with Homesickness in College Posted: 21 Mar 2020 01:00 AM PDT Going away to college is a big life transition, and it can also be hard to leave home. However, it's important to remember that you haven't left for good. You can always go home for a visit or to stay if you really want to. But while you're away at college, you have a whole new world of people and fun opening up to you! Enjoy this exciting time of growth and adventure by getting involved in campus activities and meeting new people. When homesickness hits you hard, allow yourself to feel it and seek help if you are struggling. As you continue your college journey, maintain your connections to home with regular phone calls, visits, and decorative touches. [Edit]Staying Connected to Home - Talk to people at home via weekly phone calls. Don't rely on social media, text, or emails alone to stay connected. Make sure that you call home once per week or more if needed to maintain your connection. You could even try video chatting with friends and family back home to feel even more connected.[1]
- Try scheduling a weekly phone call home when you have time to sit and chat for a while, such as on a Saturday morning or on a weeknight evening when you don't have anything planned.
- Plan a visit home so you'll have something to look forward to. Most colleges give students a long weekend and a 1 week break at some point during the semester, which is the perfect opportunity to head home for a visit. Plan out your visit in advance, such as by securing transportation and making plans with friends and family back home.[2]
- Decorate your room with things that remind you of home. Your dorm room or college apartment is your home away from home, so you can decorate it however you want. Try decorating it with a few items from your bedroom at home to help make it seem more inviting. You could even maintain the same color scheme and theme as your bedroom back home.[3]
- For example, if the walls of your bedroom at home are covered with your favorite movie posters, bring some of them with you to college and put them up.
- Or, if you have a green and white color scheme in your bedroom at home, get some green and white decorative touches to place in your dorm room.
- Adorning your bed with your favorite old comforter, throw pillow, or even a stuffed animal can also help to make it seem more like home.
[Edit]Coping with Your Feelings - Acknowledge your feelings and allow yourself to experience them. If you notice that you're feeling homesick, don't try to ignore how you're feeling. Acknowledge that you're experiencing homesickness and allow yourself to feel sad for a while, such as by crying or just being quiet and noticing how you feel. However, make sure to limit how long you spend feeling sad, such as keeping it to a 1-2 hour window.[4]
- You might also benefit from writing about your feelings. This can help you to understand your feelings better and give you time to experience them.
- Talk to a friend or family member about how you're feeling. Once you have given yourself permission and time to experience your feelings, talk to someone you trust about what you're going through. Try calling up a friend, parent, or sibling and telling them how you feel.[5]
- For example, you might say something like, "I'm feeling really sad and I think it's because I'm homesick."
- Let them know how being homesick is affecting you, such as if it's making it hard to concentrate or enjoy fun things.
- Visit the counseling center on your campus if you're struggling. If you continue to feel sad and isolated, reach out to someone who can help you. Most college campuses provide free counseling to their students, so consider paying a visit to the campus counseling center. Try calling first to see if you need to make an appointment or if they have drop-in hours available.[6]
- It's especially important to talk with a counselor if your homesickness is interfering with your ability to succeed in your courses or engage in everyday activities. Also, make sure to talk to someone right away if you've lost interest in things you used to enjoy.
- Contact emergency services in your country, such as by dialing 911 in the United States, if you are thinking of hurting yourself.
[Edit]Getting Involved in Campus Life - Join a club or special interest group on campus. This is a great way to fill your time, meet new friends, and have fun while you're in college. Attend the club fair during the first couple weeks of the semester or visit the office of student activities to find out what clubs are available. Pick one or two that sound interesting to you and attend their meetings.[7]
- For example, if you're interested in politics, you could join the College Democrats or College Republicans.
- If you like acting, you might get involved with the campus Drama or Improv club.
- Attend all of your classes even if you're feeling down. Regular attendance is important for doing well in college and it's also a great way to distract yourself if you're feeling homesick. Don't skip class because you're feeling sad about missing home. Go to class, learn as much as you can, and talk to people![8]
- For example, you could chat with your neighbor before class starts, introduce yourself to your professor after class, or just respond to questions your professor asks during the lesson.
- Take advantage of your campus's amenities. If you don't have anything going on, use the time to explore a new part of your campus. Colleges usually have a student gym, recreation center, and a large library. Pick something on your campus to check out and enjoy yourself.[9]
- For example, you could head to the gym and use the equipment or take a class.
- Or, see what's happening in the recreation center and attend an event or workshop.
- If you've got studying to do or just want a quiet place to read, head to your campus's library and find a cozy spot.
- Introduce yourself to classmates and other people you meet. It can be a little scary to be in a new place with all new people, but it's also very exciting! Take the opportunity to make new friends. Introduce yourself to the person or people sitting next to you in each of your classes. Ask them where they're from, what their major is, and how they're liking college so far.[10]
- Many professors include an icebreaker activity on the first day of classes to help students get to know each other. Try to remember the names of each of the people you meet during this activity. Then, greet them by their name if you happen to bump into them later in the day.
- Make plans to do things with the people you meet. Take people up on invitations to go out and do things and invite people to go out and do things with you as well. Look for opportunities to invite people to do things with you and accept invitations from people that you want to get to know better.[11]
- For example, you could invite your roommate to go on a walk through town over the weekend.
- Ask the person who always sits next to you in chemistry class if they want to grab lunch or coffee with you sometime.
- Go have fun with members of your Improv club if they invite you out with them.
[Edit]References |
| How to Make Chai Tea Posted: 20 Mar 2020 05:00 PM PDT Although chai has its origins in India, this flavorful black tea is popular around the world. To make homemade chai with a bold flavor, crush your own spices and steep them with black tea bags and milk. If you don't feel like measuring your own spices, buy flavored chai tea bags from the store and pour hot water over the bag to brew the tea. For the speediest mug of chai, create a powdered chai tea mix that you can dissolve in water or milk. [Edit]Ingredients [Edit]Chai Tea from Scratch - 8 green cardamom pods
- 8 cloves
- 4 whole black peppercorns
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- A piece of fresh ginger
- of whole milk
- of water
- 4 plain black tea bags
- Sugar, to taste
Makes [Edit]Brewing Chai Tea Bags - 1 chai tea bag
- of water
- of milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (10 g) of honey
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) of sugar
Makes [Edit]Homemade Chai Mix - 2 ½ teaspoons (4.5 g) of ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons (4 g) of ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon (1.5 g) of ground cloves
- ¾ teaspoon (1.5 g) of ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) of ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) of ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon (1 g) of finely-ground black pepper
- 1 ½ cups (187 g) of unsweetened instant tea or decaffeinated instant tea
- 1 ½ to 2 cups (300 to 400 g) of sugar
- 1 cup (125 g) of nonfat dry milk powder
- 1 cup (125 g) of powdered nondairy creamer
- 1 cup (125 g) of French vanilla-flavored powdered nondairy creamer
- 1/2 cup (59 g) of unsweetened cocoa powder, optional
Makes 5 ½ cups (704 g) of mix [Edit]Making Chai Tea from Scratch - Use a skillet to crush cardamom, cloves, and peppercorns. Put 8 green cardamom pods, 8 cloves, and 4 whole black peppercorns into a sealable plastic bag and press the air out. Seal the bag and press a heavy skillet or rolling pin on it to crush the spices.[1]
- If you have a mortar, put the spices into it and use the pestle to crush the spices until the pods open.
- Peel a piece of ginger and slice it into pieces. Use the edge of a spoon to scrape the peel from a piece of fresh ginger. Carefully cut it into thin slices that are thick.[2]
- If you can't find fresh ginger, substitute 1 teaspoon (2 g) of ground ginger.
- Place the spices, cinnamon sticks, and ginger in a saucepan. Put the crushed spices into a medium saucepan on the stove. Add two cinnamon sticks and the sliced ginger.[3]
- There's no need to crush the cinnamon sticks since you'll strain them out along with the spices. They'll add a strong, spicy flavor to your tea.
- Add of milk and of water. Pour the whole milk and water into the saucepan with the spices. Although you can use low-fat milk, using whole milk gives your tea a richer, creamier taste.[4]
- Feel free to substitute alternative milk, such as soy, oat, or almond milk.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Turn the burner on and keep the lid off of the saucepan. This helps you see when the mixture begins to boil. You can stir it occasionally to distribute the spices.[5]
- Heating the spices in the milk will make the tea more flavorful.
- Add 4 tea bags and turn off the heat. As soon as the liquid reaches a boil, turn off the burner. Open 4 black tea bags and place them into the saucepan with the liquid. Press down on each tea bag with the back of a spoon to submerge it completely.[6]
- Cover the saucepan and steep the tea for 10 minutes. Put the lid on the pan so the tea doesn't cool and set a timer. Steep the tea until the liquid becomes a deep, pinkish-tan color.[7]
- You can stir the tea occasionally to prevent the spices from settling as the tea steeps.
- Strain the tea and sweeten it according to your taste. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a teapot or large measuring jug. Slowly pour the chai tea through the strainer and discard the solids. Then, taste the tea and stir in as much sugar as you like.[8]
- Put the lid on the saucepan and refrigerate leftover chai tea for up to 3 days.
- Use your favorite sweetener. You could try honey, agave, or stevia, for instance.
[Edit]Brewing Chai Tea Bags - Bring of water to a boil. Fill a kettle or saucepan with water that hasn't been boiled before and set it on the stove. Using fresh water gives your tea the best flavor. Then, turn the burner to high so the water comes to a boil.[9]
- If you prefer, heat the water in an electric kettle.
- Put 1 chai tea bag in a mug and pour in the boiling water. Open 1 chai tea bag and put it in a large serving mug. Carefully pour of the boiling water into the mug so the tea bag is saturated.[10]
- Try your favorite variety of storebought chai tea bags. You could use decaffeinated, chai green tea, or herbal chai tea, for instance.
- Steep the tea for 4 to 6 minutes before you remove the bag. Stir the tea occasionally to distribute the chai tea seasonings in the water and set a timer for at least 4 minutes. The longer you steep the tea, the more flavorful the chai will be. Remove the tea bag once the tea has brewed as long as you like.[11]
- For even stronger chai tea, leave the tea to steep for up to 10 minutes.
- Stir in the honey and sugar. Pour in 1 1/2 teaspoons (10 g) of honey along with 1 teaspoon (4 g) of sugar. Stir the sweeteners well so they dissolve into the tea. Then, taste the tea and add more honey or sugar if you want the tea even sweeter.[12]
- You could substitute agave, stevia, or low-calorie sweetener for the honey and sugar.
- Pour in of milk. If you don't mind your chai tea cooling off a little, stir in the milk while it's cold. For hot chai tea, warm the milk in a saucepan on the stove or microwave it for about 30 seconds before you add it to your mug of tea.[13]
[Edit]Making Chai Mix Powder - Put all of the spices into a large bowl. If your spices are over 6 months old, buy new spices so they have a bolder flavor. Measure each of the following spices and add them to the bowl:[14]
- 2 ½ teaspoons (4.5 g) of ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons (4 g) of ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon (1.5 g) of ground cloves
- ¾ teaspoon (1.5 g) of ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) of ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) of ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon (1 g) of finely-ground black pepper
- Whisk in instant tea, sugar, milk powder, and the nondairy creamers. Use 1 ½ cups (187 g) of unsweetened or decaffeinated black tea and add between 1 ½ and 2 cups (300 to 400 g) of sugar, depending on how sweet you like your chai. To make your chai mix milky, whisk in 1 cup (125 g) of nonfat dry milk powder, 1 cup (125 g) of powdered nondairy creamer, and 1 cup (125 g) of French vanilla-flavored powdered nondairy creamer.[15]
- If you don't want to buy 3 different powdered products, use a total of 3 cups (375 g) of any 1 of these ingredients.
- Store the mix in an airtight container until you're ready to drink it. Your chai mix is good to use for up to 6 months. Keep it in your pantry in an airtight container, like a jar or a sealable bag, for maximum freshness.[16]
- Remember to label the container so you know when to use the mix by.
- Dissolve (16 g) of mix in of boiling water to make a mug of tea. To make a quick cup of chai tea, carefully pour the boiling water into a large mug. Then, stir in the powdered mix until it's completely dissolved. If you'd like even creamier chai tea, use milk or a combination of milk and water.[17]
- If you added cocoa powder to the mix, use hot milk instead of water.
- For a cool treat, blend ¼ cup (32 g) of chai tea mixture with of milk and 3 ½ cups (525 g) of vanilla ice cream.[18]
[Edit]Things You'll Need [Edit]Chai Tea from Scratch - Sealable plastic bag
- Heavy skillet or rolling pin
- Spoon
- Knife and cutting board
- Saucepan with lid
- Fine-mesh strainer
- Serving mugs
[Edit]Brewing Chai Tea Bags - Kettle or saucepan
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Spoon
- Large serving mug
- Small saucepan, optional
[Edit]Homemade Chai Mix - Measuring cups and spoons
- Large bowl
- Spoon
- Airtight container
- Mug
[Edit]Related wikiHows [Edit]References [Edit]Quick Summary |
| How to Grow a Startup Business Posted: 20 Mar 2020 09:00 AM PDT If you're a budding entrepreneur, you've likely heard all the stories of the little startups that seem to grow overnight into mega-corporations and household names. The reality is that those business owners put in a lot of sweat equity to set their brands up for that growth — and still ran an enormous risk of failure. To grow a startup business, focus your marketing efforts on exposing your brand to as many potential customers as possible. Organize the few employees you have now so that when you need to hire new people, you have the structure in place to accommodate them. With a good product, strong branding, and a little luck, you can watch your business expand and have the tools to take it to the next level.[1] [Edit]Marketing Your Brand - Get your family and friends to help spread the word about your business. Family and friends are more likely to be loyal to your business because they're loyal to you. Don't be afraid to lean on them, especially when you're just getting started. Encourage them to tell their friends about your business.[2]
- Make sure your family and friends are getting some benefit from promoting your business (other than the joy of helping you succeed). For example, you might offer them a discount for referrals.
- You might also consider creating a group of friends and family you call your personal "influencers." Give them access to new products or services before anyone else or allow them private access to events or promotions you have.
- Prioritize customer service and interaction to increase customer retention. When you're trying to grow your startup, strong, personalized customer service helps you keep regular customers and gain new ones more rapidly. People are often more likely to tell someone else about a new product or service if they had a good experience.[3]
- Even if someone is dissatisfied, reaching out to them personally can make a big difference. Listen to your customers and do everything you can to ensure that they have a positive experience with your company.
- Train any employees you have to interact with customers positively and help spread your company's culture and personality. If customers can expect a similar attitude every time they interact with your employees, they'll come to think of your brand as a singular entity rather than a group of distinct people who each have their own way of doing things.
- Build a robust website to reach new customers. On your website, give potential customers different areas to explore to find out more about your business and the products or services you offer. Include reviews and testimonials from current customers to encourage new customers to come on board.[4]
- You might also consider starting a blog with information about your business or your industry. You can create a lot of interesting content to drive people to your website. For example, if you've started a food delivery service, you might create blog posts about the most popular types of food in different regions or profiles of local restaurants.
- Maintain an active presence on social media. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, give you the opportunity to interact directly with consumers. Through posts and comments, you can introduce consumers to the personality of your brand.[5]
- Ultimately, you'll want to hire a dedicated social media manager to create and schedule 2-3 posts a day for maximum visibility, as well as monitor comments and respond to messages. In the meantime, you may be responsible for handling this yourself.
- Interacting with established brands can also increase your visibility, especially if those accounts engage with you.
- Exploit the marketing channels where you get the most traction. Many startups that surge onto the scene do so by limiting their marketing and advertising to one channel rather than spreading it across several. Look at your target customer and consider where they spend most of their time.[6]
- For example, if you were trying to target middle-aged consumers, you might find that Facebook was a good way to reach them. However, if you were targeting teenagers, you'd likely want to focus on a social media platform, such as TikTok, that was more popular with that younger demographic.
- Partner with other brands to reach more consumers. If you're offering a product or service that seems to go hand-in-hand with an established brand, make an offer to join forces. Your startup will benefit from the association with a brand consumers already know and trust.[7]
- For example, if you're developing nutritional supplements can add to their coffee in the morning, you might consider partnering with a popular coffee shop chain, such as Starbucks.
- Even if your startup is still relatively small, you can partner with smaller local and regional independent brands, then branch out to larger brands as you grow.
[Edit]Building an Organizational Structure - Create a structure that reflects how your business will grow. Look at your current employees and determine their strengths and how they can best serve the company as it grows. If you're mainly running things all on your own, think about your own weaknesses and where you can bring someone on board to help when things start getting too big for you to handle on your own.[8]
- For example, if your business is focused on delivering new products, you could organize product teams. It might be that, right now, you've only got one product and a few ideas. But as you develop those new products, bring someone on board to lead a team focused solely on that product. As your business continues to grow, each team would have its own leader and operate more independently from the others, with you overseeing all of them.
- On the other hand, if your business delivers one service, you would want an organizational structure that was defined by the roles employees played in the company, with standard departments to handle areas such as human resources, marketing, and customer service. As founder, think about which areas you're strong in and where you could use some help as your business gets bigger.
- Group your employees into teams that can grow as your business grows. Assign one employee to lead each group who reports directly to you. That employee will be responsible for assessing the needs of their group. This allows you to focus on growth rather than having to look at every aspect of your business yourself.[9]
- Develop automatic processes for hiring and onboarding new employees so this can be done efficiently to anticipate growth. Talk to your group leaders about the needs of their groups so you can develop standard qualifications for each potential role in your company.
- If team members are taking on new responsibilities as a result of the reorganization, you might want to consider providing additional compensation. This will become a bigger deal as your company grows. For example, you might start with one employee in charge of sales and marketing. As you grow, you start adding employees. When that original employee is overseeing 2 or 3 others, they have a more complex job.
- Standardize routine processes to streamline internal operations. When you founded your startup, you likely did most of the operational and management work on your own. However, if you want your business to grow, you'll need to delegate many of those responsibilities to other employees. Establish clear policies for how you want things done so your business continues to reflect your goals as it grows.[10]
- Having standard procedures also makes it easier to onboard new employees because you don't have to worry about them being told 5 different things by 5 different people (or worse, nothing by no one).
- Hire employees that fit your business culture and personality. If your employees are happy working with your company and feel as though they fit in, they'll be more dedicated to your vision and help nurture the growth of your startup. Pay attention to the personality and work ethic of potential employees to make sure they're the right fit for your company.[11]
- Make a list of key values you want your business to embody. When you're interviewing potential employees, you can ask questions that help you determine if they value the same things. For example, if you value teamwork, you might ask if the candidate prefers solving problems on their own as opposed to working with a team.
- Create a chain of command as your business starts to grow. When you're just starting out, you likely have a skeleton crew of 2 or 3 employees who all report directly to you and are relatively equal in rank. However, you won't have enough time and energy for this as your business gets bigger. Instead, set up a chain of command based on your basic organizational structure. This ensures that every employee on your staff knows exactly who they should report to about any given issue.[12]
- If you have a product-based organizational structure, you'll likely have only the product managers reporting directly to you and everyone else reporting to their respective product manager.
- On the other hand, a role-based department structure might have different people in charge of different functions. For example, an employee might go to the head of human resources if they had a question about their vacation time, but they would go to the head of customer service if they got a customer complaint.
[Edit]Measuring Your Growth - Set a timeline for your goals to strategize effectively. If growth is your priority, create measurable and attainable goals for your business with specific dates by which you want to achieve them. This enables you to plan a controlled growth strategy and put the resources into place to reach those goals within the timeline you've set.[13]
- Specific growth benchmarks can also be used to trigger related actions or events. For example, you could set up job postings to release once you hit a specific number of customers.
- Delegate specific tasks for each team member to help achieve each goal in your timeline. Find out what those team members need to complete their tasks and allocate the company's resources accordingly. This also ensures that everyone is working towards the same goal rather than potentially working at cross-purposes.
- Streamline your efforts by focusing on 1 or 2 growth indicators at a time. While you may follow many different growth indicators, work towards improving only 1 or 2 at a time. This allows for significant improvement in 1 area rather than marginal growth across the board. Once you've reached your goal for that indicator, move on to the next one.[14]
- For example, if you've designed a smartphone app, you might first focus on the number of users you have. Then, once you've reached the 100,000-user mark, you'll focus on increasing the average length of time a user is on your app to 5 minutes.
- Use software to efficiently track growth metrics. While you can track your performance indicators (KPIs, or "key performance indicators") manually on a spreadsheet, this method of tracking will take too much of your time as your company grows. Instead, look at subscribing to a software platform that can plug into your business and track these metrics for you, giving you real-time data.[15]
- Software such as SimpleKPI is streamlined and easy to use, while other products, such as Salesforce, have a little more of a learning curve but allow for more customization.
- Track and report on growth on a daily basis to keep employees motivated. Keep your employees informed about the startup's progress in the area you've decided to focus on. If you report on the growth in that area every day, your employees will understand its importance and do what they can to improve growth in that area as well.[16]
- Take note of specific actions employees are doing to further growth and point them out to the rest of the team. This will encourage competition.
- Evaluate the market for your product or service constantly to stay flexible. When you're trying to grow a startup quickly, you need to be able to adapt to the changing market for the product or service you're offering. The demand that existed when you first founded your company can change after a year or two, especially if other competitors have entered the arena.[17]
- When the market changes, you have to be willing and able to respond and change with it. Otherwise, your company's growth will stagnate.
- For example, suppose you started a food delivery service. However, another company has started doing the same thing and is more efficient and charges lower delivery fees. If you don't act quickly to improve your efficiency and adjust your pricing, the other company will likely put you out of business.
- Look over your finances at least once a week to identify problems. Keeping an eye on what's going on with your business's finances on a daily basis is crucial if your business is growing rapidly. Otherwise, a small problem could quickly morph into a huge one. Set a meeting with your accountant or financial officer for a weekly review of the company's income and cash flow.[18]
- This will also help you identify problem areas or parts of your company that are holding you back or using more resources than they should be. If you're focused on growing your company, you have to be able to react quickly to these issues as soon as they arise.
- If you have investors in your startup, keeping up with your finances on a weekly basis also allows you to interact more knowledgeably with your investors and let them know exactly how their money is being spent.
[Edit]References |
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