Big Words start conversations and open doors to new places.
Author: anwaryusef
Anwar Y. Dunbar is a Regulatory Scientist. Being a naturally curious person, he is also a student of all things. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Prior to starting the Big Words Blog Site, Anwar published and contributed to numerous research articles in competitive scientific journals reporting on his research from graduate school and postdoctoral years. After falling in love with writing, he contributed to the now defunct Examiner.com, and the Edvocate where he regularly wrote about: Education-related stories/topics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Financial Literacy; as well as conducted interviews with notable individuals such as actor and author Hill Harper. Having many influences, one of his most notable heroes is author, intellectual and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of books including Outliers and David and Goliath.
Anwar has his hands in many, many activities. In addition to writing, Anwar actively mentors youth, works to spread awareness of STEM careers, serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium, serves as Treasurer for the JCSU Washington, DC Alumni Chapter, and is active in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He also tutors in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics.
Along with his multi-talented older brother Amahl Dunbar (designer of the Big Words logos, inventor and a plethora of other things), Anwar is a “Fanboy” and really enjoys Science-Fiction and Superhero movies including but not restricted to Captain America Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Prometheus. He is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.
A key focus of my blog in Financial Literacy/Money. Winning with money requires more than just its generation. The management of it is also key. Even a relatively small income can be leveraged into strong financial position if managed correctly. The following contributed post is entitled, Dollars And Sense: How To Manage Your Money Better.
Let’s face it – most of us aren’t particularly good at managing our money. We have all these plans we’d like to carry out in our lives, but we never quite have the resources to make them happen.
Mostly, the problem isn’t lack of income – it’s financial mismanagement and lack of planning.
Like it or not, money is an optimization game. The earlier you start thinking about your future, the better. When it comes to personal finances, you can’t fly by wire.
Start Your Planning Now
It doesn’t matter how young you are, financial planning should begin immediately. You need to map out what you want from your financial life ahead of time to ensure that you eventually get there. If you don’t know where you’re going years in advance, you’ll remain in a financial quagmire, unable to escape, according to Inc.com.
Work out how much money you’re likely to get paid over the next ten years. Think carefully about how you’ll spend and save it, and what you want to do with it. Work out how much money you’ll have leftover (that you don’t have to spend on essentials) for all your most-wanted projects and purchases.
Don’t Be Afraid To Borrow
Borrowing is good for two reasons. It helps to improve your credit score and it allows you to shift your consumption to the present – a great idea if you’re low on income right now.
Sites like paydayloanspro.com/, for instance, will provide additional money if you have a regular income.
Building up your credit score is a good idea in a low-interest rate economy like ours. It is much better, for instance, to pay for a car with zero-interest installments than it is to pay the full price upfront.
Paying full price means that you deny yourself to invest the capital for the duration of the loan and gain interest for yourself.
How many people do you know who buy things on a whim and never really use them? A lot, probably.
And there’s a good reason for this: modern marketing is very clever. It knows how to get under our collective skin and make us believe we need things that we really don’t.
Therefore, it’s worth taking a step back and really thinking hard about what you want. Make a list of stuff you want to buy on a whim and a list of items that you’ve wanted for a long time. The stuff on the second list should always be your priority. That Friday-night take-out can wait!
Put Your Money In Tax Wrappers
Nobody wants to get to retirement age, only to discover that they have to pay a massive tax bill on their income. Fortunately, there are plenty of “tax wrapper” accounts out there that allow you to make massive financial savings. With these, you either pay the tax upfront and don’t have to pay any capital gains when you drawdown or you pay tax when you draw down but none on your income upfront.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. While a business may be started with specific products and services in mind, seldom is it equipped to have everything it needs to complete its mission, hence the need for outsourcing. The following contributed post is entitled, Should Your Small Business Look To Outsource?
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When it comes to setting up a business and ensuring success, then there will be a time when hiring really is critical. Even if you start small, as a one-person operation, hiring is inevitable. To do well in business, you need to have teams that are going to help and support. The whole hiring process, no matter if you choose full-time or part-time employees is really important, as you want to have the right person for the job.
Although the process is important, it is not something that is easy. If you want to expand and grow what you do, then you will need to have more and more people on-board. Of course, this can help to grow the business, but it also means more costs for wages, as well as additional things like insurance for employees and sick pay, and so on. As this is a consideration, you could also look to hire people to do work for you that are not part of an in-house team. When you outsource to a company or an individual, you just pay for the task that is required, and there is no more commitment. If they do a good job, then you know who to use again. If they don’t, then you know to not hire them again, making it much simpler in many ways than having a full-time employee.
If your business has not thought about outsourcing before, then here are some of the things that you could outsource for, and when you should outsource. Getting it right will help to save the business money in the long-term, as well as help to keep the business thriving.
Businesses can vary so much, and as a small business owner, you might not have any previous experience in this area. So there may be some aspects of business that you have no idea about. Areas like social media are a good idea for small business, especially from a digital marketing point of view. However, if you have a small team, then you’re likely to not have the time or expertise to run it successfully, as an example. In the same way, you will need bookkeeping and accounts for your business, but if no one is experienced in this, then outsourcing this will help massively, and be something that you no longer need to think about. If you hired a full-time accountant to do this for you, there wouldn’t be enough work to fill a full-time role, and it would cost a lot more than using a separate company or person to do this for you.
Time consuming tasks
Likewise, outsourcing tasks to someone else can be a good idea, especially for any tasks that are time consuming. There are a number of tasks in business that can take up a lot of time, but that aren’t too taxing or vital to business, they just need to be done. Your expertise should be doing the tasks that are the things helping to grow the business, rather than the smaller and more time consuming tasks. For example, you might take a lot of phone orders or customer service calls. These calls could be taken by a business answering service, rather than paying for a full-time employee to do it all. There are a range of tasks, and it will vary from business to business, but it is worth looking into if you are hoping to propel your business forward.
If you are deciding whether or not to outsource or to hire someone to your team, then there are a number of things to think about. It starts by taking a look at your business needs, as there are a number of advantages to both options, as well as disadvantages of both options. It is important to not get too caught up in the different activities that could happen, and which of those you should or shouldn’t hire or outsource too. You could have some expertise in a particular area, such as accounting, for example. But if you take on a lot of other roles, being the accountant as well might be too much. So even if you have a team of people with experience in something in particular, you might still choose to outsource.
Look at your business and the people in it specifically. Look at the needs and then decide what areas will be a benefit to you if you outsource, or which really do need to have an in-house team member. Assess the tasks, weigh up the costs, and your options, and then go from there.
Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Career Discussions. If you’re in a business career, there nuances to it and there are unique aspects to advancing. Not everyone entering this career knows what those keys are. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Ways To Advance Your Business Career & Get Ahead.
Working in the business world, no matter the industry, is a tough but also rewarding job. You likely have a lot of responsibilities to handle on any given day but are learning a lot and trying to make a name for yourself, so it’s all worth it.
The truth is that it’s only worth it if you’re getting better each day and learning and growing as an individual and professional. You must find ways to advance your business career if you want to get ahead and find long-term success. The following ideas and tips will help guide you to knowing where to focus your time and energy to ensure you’re rewarded for your hard work.
1. Focus on Professional Development
One way to advance your business career and get ahead is to focus on your own professional development. Figure out ways to advance your skills and knowledge such as taking Business analytics certification courses that will allow you to learn new information and set yourself apart from the competition. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to take on additional projects and tasks at work and prove to others that you have what it takes to succeed in business.
2. Find A Mentor
It’s also a wise move to find a mentor who can guide you to making good decisions about your business career and in your current job. Advance your business career and get ahead by bouncing ideas off your mentor about how to proceed and what to focus on that will have a real impact on your professional path. Learn from this person and ask about what mistakes they made so you can avoid doing the same.
3. Discuss Your Goals & Performance with Your Boss
It may be that you’re doing well at work but are feeling a bit lost. To get ahead and advance your career, you must know where you’re heading and have a clear path to success. Therefore, sit down and discuss your goals and performance thus far with your boss. Let them know that you’re serious about your job and career and what you’re doing to ensure that you continue to progress and get better in your role. Ask about the possibility of a promotion in the future and what you need to do to get it or be in the running for it.
4. Always be Networking
Another way to advance your business career and get ahead is to always be networking. It’s a line of work where who you know matters a great deal. It’s beneficial for you to know as many people as possible and make sure they know who you are and about your talents. Update your online professional profiles and reach out and introduce yourself to those who you find interesting and you believe can offer you some good advice. Attend conferences and events outside of your workplace and get to know those in the business so they think of you when career opportunities arise that may be the right fit for you.
A key focus of my blog is Home/Living Discussions. As a homeowner, you also want to think about what would happen should an emergency or disaster strike, in addition to decorating the house to your satisfaction. The following contributed post is entitled, What to do if a Disaster Strikes at Your Home.
Your home is your greatest asset, so you likely do everything that you can to protect it. Unfortunately, there are times when no matter how hard we try, homes become damaged by circumstances outside our control, such as natural disasters.
While no one likes to think about the worst-case scenario of something disastrous happening to their home, it is a good idea to be prepared, so that if the worse does happen, you will be ready for it and know what to do.
Extreme weather is on the rise across the globe. Winters are becoming colder, and summers are getting hotter, and natural disasters such as floods are becoming increasingly common. Knowing what to do if any of these issues causes damage to your house can help you minimize the destruction and feel as prepared as possible.
Create an Emergency Kit
Having an emergency kit ready and waiting for whenever you need it is vital. You never know when a disaster could strike, so being prepared and equipped with all the items that you could need will help to take a lot of the immediate stress out of the situation when it first happens.
Following government advice on what you should in an emergency kit, will help you to ensure that you have not missed anything important from your pack.
Protect Your Home
Protecting your home as best as you can is a useful habit. Before disaster strikes, making some changes to your property will help to minimize the extent of the damage that could occur. Making sure that your roof is well-maintained and watertight will ensure it fares better during a storm. Testing your smoke alarms will reassure you that they are in working order and will alert the family if a fire was to start. Simple steps such as these are easy to fit into everyday life and could make a significant difference if the worse was to happen.
Call for Assistance
If a disaster does strike at your home, the priority is to ensure that everyone is safe and escapes from harm. Calling the emergency services is vital if the damage is extensive or not under control.
Getting to a safe place is the most crucial thing to do, so figuring out in advance, where you would head if something did happen is essential.
Professional Help
If your home is hit by disaster, then it is essential to remember that you are not on your own. Firstly, it is vital to inform your insurance company about the incident to begin making an insurance claim, if appropriate.
One of the hardest things to deal with when your home is damaged is the loss of your possessions. However, you may be able to salvage your belongings with the help of a service such as PACKOUTZ that specializes in restoring items that have been damaged during a disaster. Having at least some of your possessions back with you where they belong, can be a great comfort at this difficult time.
A key focus of my blog is Technology. Automation has been gradually implemented into our industries and there’s more to come. Not many people think about it in their day to day lives but it’s important for all of us to consider. The following contributed post is entitled, What Automation Can – And Can’t – Do For Us.
The very concept of automation is enough to spark a dozen conversations in which the questions range from a simple “good or bad?” to more complicated ones like “what does it mean for small business?”. There is no doubt that we are in a period of increasing technological involvement in our lives, both working and domestic. Opinions differ on what this says about where our future is going; it’s definitely a complicated issue.
Deciding how to feel about this rise in automation is tricky. On the one hand, it can depersonalize a workplace and lead to redundancies. On the other, automation can streamline working processes and keep things moving. There are arguments for and against, and below we’re going to look at a few of those in order to see if we’re ready for more automation in the working world.
Automated systems can work 24/7…
If you can successfully train a machine or code a program to do a job that is usually done by a person, then you have created a worker that never needs to eat or sleep. That means that you aren’t beholden to tight time frames that are dependent on shift workers whose performance will vary during the day as they get tired, hungry or distracted.
…but they can’t work off their own initiative
The flipside of these 24/7 workers that never eat or sleep is that they also can’t think. If a trained worker spots an anomaly in the work in front of them, they can alert someone to it. In many circumstances, they can fix the flaw themselves or devise a workaround. While much of the focus on automation looks at how it covers for human fallibility, that’s very much a two-way street and it’s why you need to have actual workers in the warehouse at all times.
Automated systems can replicate an instruction 100%…
Try, right now, to draw a perfectly straight line without a ruler. If you manage that, draw a perfect circle.
What you will notice is that you didn’t even get to step two, because a human being can’t physically do those things free-hand. There will always be a flaw. That’s what’s so exciting about smart manufacturing. It allows human vision to be made into something solid without the risk of flaws.
…but they can’t spot a logical flaw in an instruction
If you tell a machine to 3D-print a hairbrush that is 9” in length, it will do just that, and you’ll have a perfectly reasonable, nine-inch long hairbrush. If you get confused and tell the same machine to print a 9’ hairbrush, it’s going to try and print a nine-foot long hairbrush – and if it has the materials to do so, that’s what you’ll get. That’s what it’s been told to do, and the product will be flawless. Details like that, obvious to most experienced engineers, are why humans are a necessary part of the process.
Automation as a concept certainly has its upsides, and its incorporation into the world of work could solve a lot of problems. As long as this is done alongside a recognition of the essential part human ingenuity plays, it can end up being good for all of us.
Two focuses of my blog are Health/Wellness and Home/Living Discussions. A decision many of us will face is caring for our elderly parents. In some instances that involves moving them in with us, requiring us to prepare spaces in our own homes for their twilight years. The following contributed post is entitled, There’s No Place Like Home: How To Adapt Your Home For Your Elderly Parents.
Aging is a fact of life. Even then, it’s hard to watch as your parents struggle with things they used to do with ease. It’s as if they are no longer your superheroes. However, this is when you need to step in to make their lives more comfortable.
Some children do this by inviting their elderly parents into their homes permanently, yet, even if they remain in their property, you want them to visit and be a part of your life. As a result, it’s necessary to make adaptations to your home, regardless.
The question is, which ones should you focus on first?
Removing Fall Hazards
Hazards are double-edged swords. Not only do seniors struggle to see and or avoid them, but the impacts of a trip, no matter how small it seems, can be very damaging. And, if you have children, or lead a regular life, you are bound to have fall hazards throughout your home. Removing them is imperative, and you can do this with a simple audit. Go around your house and evaluate what’s safe and what’s unsafe, and find it a new place to live if it falls into the latter category. For example, decorative rugs or hardwood flooring might be slippy.
Installing Handles
You can’t go with them everywhere, which means you can’t always be around to lend a hand. Take the bathroom, for instance. Your parents require privacy, but your bathroom might not be conducive to the elderly. A surefire sign is an interior that lacks handles and rails. After all, the less-abled can’t lift their body weight without leverage. Installing hand grips is simple and cost-effective, yet it will make a significant difference to your parents when they visit or come to stay.
Putting Up Barriers
A mistake can be fatal. At the very least, it can be painful and result in a trip to the Emergency Room. You shouldn’t take any chances, and you don’t have to with barriers that are strong enough to shield your parents from further harm. A custom metal fabrication on the upstairs walkway is a fantastic place to start, as is the staircase, and any balconies or balustrades. And, if you have them, you might want to reinforce them just in case. With a custom metal design, you get peace of mind that everything is to a high standard.
You’re not a professional caregiver. You’re a concerned child who does the best they can to assist your elderly parents. This is commendable, but it means you will need help when situations take a turn for the worst. Thankfully, expert care workers are on hand, all you need is their number. Taking down the contact details of emergency contacts should enable you to negate any problems. Of course, you know what to do if it is serious – call 911. Either write them down or store them in your phone or both in case of a situation where you don’t have either handy.
There’s no place like home, not when it’s designed for safety.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you haven’t started, learning to invest your money is a smart, but also a potentially perilous undertaking if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are lots of books, teachers and programs out there encouraging us to invest but many people don’t know where to start. The following contributed post is entitled, These Tips will Help you to Make your Very First Investment.
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Making your very first investment can be a daunting task to say the least. You may find that your mind flashes back to the very first global crises and market dips. This is understandable, but at the end of the day, you have to make sure that you do everything you can to move past this or you may end up stunting your own potential. If you want to make a positive change then this guide will tell you everything you need to know.
Set some Goals
Before you even begin thinking about making your first investment, you need to figure out why you are investing. You need to start out with a specific life goal, whether it’s your wedding or even your retirement. Don’t throw up a number, do your research and try to be a bit specific about it if you can. Online calculators can easily help you to figure out your investment strategy and it can also help you to really make the most out of your finances overall. Your goals may well change over time and there is nothing wrong with this, but at least you have a tangible reward that you can try and push for.
Next up, you have to figure out what timeline you are going to have to reach your goal. This will help you to figure out how much you need to put away. As a general rule, it helps to follow the 50-30-20 strategy. This is where 50% of your income goes towards your living expenses. 30% of your money will be for discretionary spending and 20% will then go away for your savings. This amount may vary of course, depending on your goal and your overall time horizon. Often, the more money you can put into your investment, the better. This is all because of compound interest. This will enable you to earn way more interest on your returns. That being said, you have to make sure that you understand what you can afford. If you start baking into your plan that you are eventually going to have a great career and can therefore put away more, then you will end up being disappointed. Start with what you know you have right now and adjust it later on. If you do this, then you will soon find that you can come out on top with ease.
Understand your Risk Tolerance
Alongside your timeline, you need to put in the work to increase your risk tolerance. This is especially the case for medical device investors. If you are a millennial, your objectives will be quite long-term in the overall nature. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach here, so if you are an investor, you have to make sure that you are true to yourself where possible. If you know that you are not comfortable with what you are doing so far then you will end up making the wrong investment.
Diversify
When you have managed to pin down your goal and your strategy overall, it’s then time for you to work out the best vehicle for your investment needs. For a lot of first-time investors, this will be an index fund which is passively managed. This will give you access to a lot of market indices or even a low-cost digital manager who will go ahead and make your portfolio for you on your behalf. The most important element that you have to look for however is diversification. You need to try and get exposure to a lot of different asset classes, whether they are equities, bonds or even property. You need to have a portfolio that is diversified enough so you don’t lose sleep if something was to happen.
Remember about Fees
Digital wealth platforms have really helped to lower the entry barriers to the investment world. That being said, you will still need to pay fees. If you go for a wealth managing platform, then you will end up paying more as well. If you want to get the best result out of your investing experience, then you need to try and opt for a platform where you don’t have to pay an exit fee. If you can do this, then you will soon find that you have way more flexibility over your investment and that you can also really help yourself to take things to that next level in terms of your overall profit margin. If you have never invested before or if you want to try and experiment a little before you lock yourself in, then it is a good idea for you to start up a demo account. When you do this, you will soon find that you can experiment with a virtual currency, so you don’t have to worry about a thing at all there.
Forget about It
The last step for investors would be for you to forget about your investment. A lot of platforms that can be used to invest now give you some kind of on-demand performance overview. Observing your portfolio is a good way for you to monitor the amount of risk you are facing, but that being said, it’s important to ensure that it does not disrupt your strategy overall. You need to check your investments on a quarterly rota if possible. If you can do this, then you will ensure that you are not making any mistakes by leaving your investment for too long and you also eliminate the risk of pulling out of an investment impatiently. Of course, there are many benefits to investing, but at the end of the day, you also have to make sure that you are exploring the right options and that you are also taking the right steps to safeguard yourself against any risk. If you can ensure that this is the case, then you can easily hire an advisor. When you do, they can help you to stay on top of anything you might need to know, and they can also work with you to ensure that you are taking the right steps to protect your portfolio.
“Corporations aren’t just nice titles that companies have. They have real legal status and can have a massive impact on the amount of tax that you wind up paying.”
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Becoming wealthy doesn’t come of out of nowhere. There is a lot of planning and strategizing involved and a part of that involves creating business structures such as corporations. The following contributed post is entitled, How Owning A Corporation Massively Adds To Your Wealth.
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What’s the secret of the rich?
It’s not (usually) meeting in darkened rooms and plotting how to take over the world. And it’s (usually) not exploiting people endlessly.
Instead, it’s using a legal tool called a corporation.
Corporations aren’t just nice titles that companies have. They have real legal status and can have a massive impact on the amount of tax that you wind up paying.
Let’s say that you sell lifestyle coaching services online.
If you operate as a sole trader, you have to pay full income taxes – regardless of what you do with the money you receive.
However, when you own a corporation, it’s a different story. You only pay taxes on earnings net of your expenses. And there are many accepted accounting practices you can use to reduce your liabilities.
The wealthy use corporations as a kind of shield from high rates of taxation to protect themselves from income taxes and to increase the amount of money they can invest.
When a person owns a corporation, they pay a lower rate of tax on any money they make within the business. They can then plow this money into investments and draw down on their returns later, without having to pay tax on income first.
Yes – corporation owners still have to pay tax when taking dividends. But they often only do this once interest accumulates on their investments held within the company. And that means that the burden of taxation is actually a lot less than it would have been otherwise.
Corporation taxes are a big deal. Upper rate taxpayers usually pay around 50 percent of their income in various types of income taxes. But corporations only pay corporation tax rates on their earnings – usually a much more reasonable 20 percent or so.
Can you see the difference here? If you earn money outside of a corporation, your tax rate is much higher, and more of your income winds up going to the government. But when you protect your labor inside limited liability companies, you massively reduce your tax bills.
Most workers don’t know about the benefits of corporations. And to the cynical observer, this seems deliberate. If everyone used these corporate vehicles, the state would have to find other ways to raise taxes, probably by increasing rates on companies.
But a lot of it has to do with mindset. People don’t see themselves as companies, and they don’t understand the advantage of using them for tax purposes.
In many ways, this is a reflection of mindset. A lot of individuals can’t imagine themselves as anything other than poor. And so they spend their entire lives working, instead of taking the steps necessary to improve their situation.
Acquiring a wealth mindset is all about seeing yourself in a different light.
If you’re the type of person who says things like “I’ll never earn more than X amount during my life,” then you probably have a scarcity mindset. You’re putting limits on what you can achieve.
Mostly, people who are victims of this mentality aren’t even aware they’re doing it. It’s all unconscious, but it informs the decisions they make daily.
The good news is that you can often change this inner belief to something more positive, even if you’re living in a state of literal poverty right now. It requires identifying the false beliefs that you hold and consciously disregarding them.
Once you change your mindset, the prospect of owning a company makes a lot of sense, even if you’re the only person in it. Before long, you’ll be building your company, your finances will be thriving, and you’ll be signing up with a private bank to grow your wealth. But you won’t be able to get there without believing that it’s possible.
When you’re a sole trader, you come to believe that it’s you against the world. You’re by yourself.
But when you own a company, the psychology changes enormously. All of a sudden, you see opportunities to grow and expand, increasing your overall earnings significantly.
Remember, when you have a company, you limit your personal liabilities. Thus, you can take risks that would seem unthinkable as a sole trader. If things go wrong, your house and car are not on the line.
That’s another reason the rich absolutely love limited companies. They allow them to privatize the gains from enterprise while socializing the losses.
If a company doesn’t make money, it’s no big deal. Administrators come in and liquidate all the assets the company owns, and the entrepreneur walks away with their house, car, and private investments intact.
It seems like a crazy setup – and it is – but again, most people don’t know about it. They’re still going about their lives, believing that working for a corporation is the only option. That’s not true. Being a corporation is a much better strategy.
Think about how your attitude toward growth would change if your investments were less risky. All of a sudden, you’d start thinking of ways to expand your services and hire more people. Ultimately, you’d look for ways to make more money and get ahead of the curve.
Another reason people struggle with their finances and don’t set up corporations is that they’re following the path other people have laid out for them.
Again, this is a big no-no.
Most wealthy people do not follow the advice of others. Instead, they rely on their own judgment and use it to chart a new course that nobody has tried before.
And, for the most part, that involves owning a corporation in one form or another.
Remember, corporations offer so many advantages over traditional sole trader status or partnerships. And that makes them incredibly flexible. You can, for instance, sell goods in multiple countries but only pay taxes in one. Or take out loans in your company’s name, not your own, to get the equipment you need to thrive.
So, in summary, corporations are tools that you can use to massively add to your wealth. They protect you against risk and tax while allowing you to build wealth and expand.
Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. With so much business being conducted online, there is an increased likelihood for cyberattacks. As such you have to think about how to defend you operations against them. The following contributed post entitled, Preventing Cyberattacks At Work: What You Could Be Doing?
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It’s not always simple to protect your business from a cyberattack. Not only do you need to consider your IT security and hire the right agencies to make sure that your firewalls remain in place, you need to ensure that you train your staff properly in what to see in a cyberattack. You need to train every single person working in your business to know what to look for – and that gets tougher as technology evolves.
The more we bring in new security measures and technology, the harder it gets to ensure that the business is protected. Why? Well, as technology becomes more sophisticated, cyber hackers and attackers get more sophisticated! You need to know that you can handle training on physical theft, phishing simulations, how to recognize spam for scams – it’s vital. Your employees need to be educated in cyber security and all that comes with it so that they can alert your IT team when things crop up. So, how can you do more for your business and protect it properly?
● Offer Dedicated Training. Your business emails are a gateway for attackers and business email compromise attacks are some of the most sophisticated around. Hackers can extract information from your business when you don’t have the right phishing simulations and spam training invested in for your staff. Someone would see an email and think it’s legit, only to forward it on and further impact your business. With the right training provider, you can ensure that employees know what these scams look like, and they won’t be tricked into sending these emails. ● Put Policies In Place. Your business may be a flexible, “down with the kids” type business, but that doesn’t mean that you should allow your staff free reign over the internet. Company devices should be connected only for professional reasons, but you can still be flexible with personal devices at work. Teach your staff which files they can download and from which websites. If they know which networks are issued by you and are safe to use, they’ll be able to lower the risk of being scammed. Keep those policies in place and reestablish them as you need to. Don’t let it go, either, as you want to ensure that everyone is on the same wavelength with regard to security policies. ● Add Password Training. Your IT team may hand out passwords to staff, but that doesn’t mean that your staff shouldn’t know how to change them as needed. It should be that you all change your passwords every couple of months and they must remain case-sensitive and hard to break. ● Educate On Reporting Procedures. Lastly, train your staff to know where to report any scam issues they come across. It’s so important that they know to whom they should raise the alarm and how to ensure that the right people know straight away so that precautionary measures can be taken. Mistakes will happen – it’s human – but it’s easier to fix those mistakes if everyone knows what to do.
Three focuses of my blog are Athletics/Sports, Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re running a sports establishment, it’s important create proper changing room areas for your guests. The following contributed post is entitled, Creating A Changing Room Area For Your Sports Establishment.
No matter whether you are a PE teacher at a local secondary school or you own your own leisure center, you need to make sure everyone has access to hygienic, spacious, and fully equipped changing rooms.
There are many different factors that need to be considered when creating the perfect changing room environment. One of the first elements to consider is ventilation. You need to ensure that the environment is a comfortable one, especially as people are going to be getting changed. You don’t want it to be too cold. Moreover, it is imperative that the place is not too stuffy whereby people feel like they can’t breathe! Plus, a stuffy environment and sweaty people who’ve just finished a workout are not a good combination, is it? This is why it makes sense to consult with experts like DUCTZ who can ensure that this is all taken care of for you.
You also need to consider the layout of the changing rooms. You’re going to have to fit in benches, showers, washbasins, and lockers, and you need to ensure that people feel comfortable and have enough space for getting changed. A lot of people think that sorting out the layout for a changing area is incredibly easy, but it is not without its challenges, so this is something that you will need to consider carefully during the planning process to ensure success.
One of the most important things you need to buy when it comes to a sports changing room is changing room lockers. After all, people need somewhere to put all of their stuff whilst they are busy playing sport.
There are lots of different changing room lockers available on the market today. You need to give a lot of thought and consideration to the ones you are going to buy. After all, you need to ensure they complement the style of your establishment, they must also keep the users of the changing rooms happy, and you need to get your money’s worth too. Use the following points to ensure that this is the case…
Material
One of the most important things you need to consider is what the lockers are going to be made from. This is essential when it comes to determining quality. You will have a lot of different options at your disposal; ranging from wood to plastic. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended that you go for steel lockers. Stainless steel in particular is advised. This is because this is a material that is highly durable and easy to maintain. This ensures you won’t have to splash out your cash on a repair or replacement anytime soon.
Security
It is highly recommended that you go for changing room lockers that come with some form of security. This is one of the main reasons for having them in the first place. You will need to decide on what sort of security system you want. Nevertheless, your best bet is to keep it simple; lock and key. Simply add a colored band to the keys and use a numbered system so that people can find their locker once they have finished playing their sport. This works great because people can easily wear the band around their wrist whilst exercising and so it causes little inconvenience to them either.
Style
Another crucial aspect worth considering is style. Of course, the main reason you buy a locker is for practical purposes. Nevertheless, if you are going to spend your money on something then you may as well make it look good too. Make sure you have professionalism in mind at all times. The best way to keep things professional is to not overcomplicate it; go for changing room lockers of the same colors and material. In fact, the material you choose has a big impact on the style of your lockers and this is another reason why stainless steel is a good choice.
Size
And last but not least, you need to consider the size of the lockers. You should measure the space in your changing rooms where the lockers are going to be put. This will ensure you don’t end up in a disastrous situation whereby your lockers are too big for the room. Not only this, but you need to consider the size of each locker compartment too. Consider the number of things people are going to have with them when using your establishment in particular.
So there you have it: the complete guide to creating a changing room area!
