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.

9 Employee Benefits That Can Make Up For A Non-Competitive Salary

A key focus of my blog is Career Discussions. While we often weight our salary as the most important part of our jobs, there are many other things to consider. In some instances, there are other benefits to the position that can offset a non-competitive salary. The following contributed post is entitled, 9 Employee Benefits That Can Make Up For A Non-Competitive Salary.

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Image Credit: Pexels, Free to Use Licence.

As a start-up or small business, it can be hard to afford the talent you need to grow your team leaving you with gaps in your skill set that can set you back. Fortunately, there is an alternative incentive – an employee benefits package – enabling you to attract the talent you need without breaking your budget. Here are 9 employee benefits to consider:

Health Insurance
One of the biggest benefits any company can offer its employees is health insurance, helping them to cover the cost of their medical bills if they are sick or in an accident. Many Americans live in fear of a trip to the hospital knowing that it can wipe out their entire life savings, leaving them in crippling debt.
Unlimited holiday
This may seem a little extreme but offering an unlimited holiday allowance is seen as a huge advantage for prospective employees and shows a large degree of trust. Contrary to what you may be thinking companies who offer unlimited holiday as a benefit to their employees have actually found that they take less holiday than if they are rationed.
A laundry service
If your employees wear a uniform or work very long hours then an inclusive laundry service from a company such as Crown Uniform and Linen Service can help to save them time whilst ensuring they always look their best.
Flexible working hours
The days of nine to five working are numbered with more and more companies offering their employees flexible hours to allow them to fit their work around their personal life. Whether it be picking the kids up from school or getting a workout in early, flexible hours are seen as a huge benefit and can have a big impact on employee morale.
Working from home
As with flexible hours, remote working is another popular incentive enabling employees to achieve a better work-life balance, cut down the cost of childcare and feel a sense of freedom. Working from home isn’t just a great benefit for employees but it can save businesses money too.
Personal development days
For the career-minded, there’s nothing better than being given a paid opportunity to get back to their books, further their studies or progress their careers. A few personal development days a year can help your employees to stay at the top of their game benefiting not only their future but yours as a business too.
Student loan reimbursements
For recent graduates, student loan reimbursements can help them to escape their student debt. Offering this benefit will definitely ensure that you receive the best graduate talent.
Fully paid extended leave for new parents
For those looking to start a family the prospect of fully paid extended leave is very appealing giving new parents the chance to spend valuable time with the newest addition to their family.
Pet-friendly workspaces
Allowing employees to bring their pets to work can not only increase productivity but employee happiness too. Other pet-related benefits include providing pet insurance or allowing employees to work remotely to spend more time with their four-legged friends.

Improving Your Memory

A key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness. A key aspect of a quality life is our memory, both short-term and long-term. The older we get, our memories can slip. There are things we can do to keep our memories sharp. The following contributed post is entitled, Improving Your Memory.

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Memory is important. It aids us in our day to day life, as well as helping with more important things such as tests and exams. But, in day to day life, we tend not to give it much thought until we start to notice that it perhaps isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Forgetting things is quite common, especially in periods of stress, illness, or fatigue. Forgetting where you put your keys, or a phone number occasionally is entirely normal, and usually nothing to worry about.

But, as we get older, these slips can start to become more frequent. They can go from an annoyance to something that makes your life significantly more difficult. However, your memory, like any other part of your body, can improve with a little care and training. Here are some of the things that you can do to improve your memory, helping you to avoid both those little slips as well as greater memory issues in later life.

Practice Puzzles

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Puzzles, such as word searches, crosswords and number puzzles such as sudoku, are all easy and effective ways to improve your memory, as well as keeping other areas of your mind young. Creating your own puzzles with WordMint can also be an effective way of enhancing your knowledge retention if you are struggling to learn and remember something new.

Read

Reading is perhaps one of the easiest things that you can do to exercise your brain. Try to read a variety of different topics, including fiction and non-fiction, and give things that you wouldn’t normally consider a go. Try to read a little every day.

Listen to Music

Have you ever noticed that you can remember song lyrics much easier than you’d remember anything else? This is because while we only remember about 10% of what we read, we remember far more of things that we hear. You can pick up song lyrics without even realising that you are listening to them, as the radio plays in the background. So, listening to music and singing along can give your memory a fantastic workout.

Talk to People

Another great way to boost your memory is with talking. Read something, and you might forget it. Read something and then talk about it, and you are much more likely to remember it. Have conversations with different people, about varying topics. Talk about what you’ve seen in the news, your past, things that you are interested in and other topics. Take an interest in the world around you.

Challenge Your Memory

The best way to improve any skill is to use it, and your memory is no different. Spend a few minutes every day pushing yourself to remember events in your past, going into as much detail as you can. Try to remember who you sat next to every year of school, or the names of all of your teachers. Think of all the places you’ve visited or jobs that you might have had.

Make Changes to Your Diet

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Believe it or not, your diet can have a big impact on your memory. Feed your brain well with fatty fish, dark chocolate, broccoli, nuts, blueberry and turmeric.

How to Manage Your Relationship With Stuff

A key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness. A key aspect to our lives is our living space. Sometimes our living space becomes unhealthy to our attachment to items and things. There’s a healthy balance to managing your belongings and your living space. The following contributed post is entitled, How to Manage Your Relationship With Stuff.

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Image Credit: Pexels CC0 Licence

‘Stuff’ was a big topic in 2019 and it’s no surprise that 2020 is set to continue the conversation. As we watch the planet change due to our activities, it is natural to question the wisdom that has gone before. Challenging how we live and what we accumulate along the way is a sensible start but it isn’t as simple as throwing everything away and starting again. In fact, that would be a disaster!

Learning to manage your relationship with stuff is about more than being tidy. You need to learn the difference between needs and wants, better understand terms like quality and value for money and only then begin to live with a little less.

How Much Stuff Do I Already Have?

There are some incredible statistics out there that really show how we relate to stuff. For example, the average American home has doubled in size over the last 50 years and now contains around 300,000 items. Just trying to imagine that is quite difficult but if you consider the number of pens, pots, pans and pairs of pants you own, you can see how quickly the numbers add up – and we’ve not even considered the rest of the alphabet yet!

Another interesting statistic claims that 10% of Americans also rent off-site storage. This is madness when you consider that you could get a simple residential shed from twin city sheds for your garden but even crazier when you ask how often these people actually use those belongings (almost never). So why do people continue to pay to store things they don’t need? Because they don’t have a healthy relationship with stuff or really know what they need.

Having stuff makes us feel successful and safe. Knowing that you have a thing – even if you never use it – is reassuring because it might come in useful in the future. But that way lies hoarding and an unhealthy obsession with gathering and holding onto stuff. The classic item is a pair of trousers you are going to slim into at some point in the future. You keep hold of them because they cement the idea that a “better you” is possible and you need to be prepared for that eventuality. But, of course, the future never comes.

How Much Stuff Do I Actually Need?

The amount of stuff you personally need depends entirely on who you are and what you want to achieve. If you are an artist, for example, you might have a lot of stuff so that you can pursue your work. If you are a parent, you will probably have more toys than you think you need but your kids will insist otherwise! If you are a determined and radical minimalist, you might have just a few important things and little else.

There are a few ways to realize that you have more stuff than you need but perhaps the most obvious is that there is stuff everywhere. When you literally can’t put things away because there is no storage left, you need to reconsider what you need and what can go.

Imagine for a second that your home is completely empty – what do you need? When you start writing your list, you will quickly find that the number of items racks up. But, when you then go around your house, you will see how many items didn’t make the list but are still there. These are the items that you should now think about more ruthlessly. You don’t need them, so do you really want them?

Learning to Live With Less

Buying less is a great way to save money, space and sanity. When you stop bringing more and more unnecessary stuff into your house, the space you have will feel a lot bigger and calmer. But how do you curb the tide of stuff?

One good idea is to start focusing on experiences instead of things. This is really popular with younger people who value experience far more than things. There are a few interesting suggestions as to why but perhaps the most interesting is that millennials were watching in 2008 when the markets crashed and suddenly people didn’t own their stuff anymore. It seems like a natural response to choose experiences, where the memory will last a lifetime, when you can’t rely on keeping your stuff forever. This generation has also grown up with a sharing economy, endless pressure to update social media showing off an incredible lifestyle and genuinely can’t afford to accumulate stuff anyway!

By focusing on experience, you can also add value to your life. Investing in travel or education or a particular passion will bring you far more joy than buying more and more stuff to fill up your house. Of course, as your interests change, you might find yourself purchasing items to explore a particular passion or hobby. But what is important is that you recognize when your interest is spent and it’s time to get rid and move on.

Selecting the Right Stuff

When you are comfortable living with less, it’s important that you then learn to select the right stuff. Instead of buying a variety of things in the interim, making do with what you have and then investing on the things you really want is far smarter. A little of something perfect is often preferable to a lot of something imperfect.

Quality and value for money are the key phrases here. Buying something of a high quality is often more expensive but if it lasts longer than comparable products, it is a good investment. This is one of the reasons smart spending is so important. Saving up and spending more can actually save you money in the long term.

When you are less dependent on stuff for your happiness, you own less clutter and value experience more, you are likely to be happier, healthier and calmer. But don’t try to change your lifestyle completely overnight. Like any relationship, your relationship with stuff takes time to build and will always include a bit of negotiation!

How To Stand Our From The Crowd At Events

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you’re in business, it’s important to understand how to set your self apart from your competition and peers. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Stand Our From The Crowd At Events.

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Whenever you take your business to an event, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. There’s likely to be many other companies showcasing on their own stands, and so you need to be able to do things that will draw the crowds to you. Here are a few ways to stand out from the crowd at events.

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Think About Your Display

Your display is crucial because it’s what’s going to help you be spotted. There are lots of companies that make, and design exhibition and display stands, and this might be something that you need. The bigger and bolder it can be, the more you’re going to get of people coming over to see what your stand is all about. So work with the right company that will be able to take your vision of what you need and to transform it into a reality that really does your company proud. Branding is what it’s all about when it comes to an event, no matter how big or small it may be. It’s important to get your area on the map for people who may be attending, whether it’s a public or industry event.

Always Have A Welcoming Atmosphere

If you’re standing there with a scowl on your face, then chances are, you’re not going to get anyone. You want to be approachable and have a welcoming atmosphere. That’s not going to happen if you have your arms crossed or you are too busy chatting to colleagues. That can often feel quite off-putting for anyone who might want to approach you. Try to engage eye contact with people as they pass by, even giving them a little greeting like ‘hello’ or ‘How are you?’ They are small gestures, but it might influence that person to stop, come over and chat to you, and that’s all you need to happen initially.

Don’t Look Bored

It can be very easy to get bored when doing long days at events and so it’s good to switch it up between you and your colleagues so that you always have that positive attitude. Try not to look bored when it comes to showcasing and always have a smile on your face, even if it’s late in the afternoon and you’ve been there since the early morning. Give yourself a break every so often to walk around and to help reset the batteries so you can come across better to those walking by your stand.

Offer Freebies

And finally, who doesn’t love a good freebie? Even simple things such as a pencil or shopping bag can be a great freebie to give out to those walking by, especially if they have your brand emblazoned along the front. It can be good advertising, especially in venues where there’s a lot of other businesses showcasing. If you’re doing shopping bags, make them big, so all the other stuff goes inside, and your brand is the one showing off.

Standing out from the crowd at events can be easy when you use these tips.

How To Save Money When Buying Property

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Whether it’s your primary residence or an investment property, a key is to save money when buy your property of interest. Doing so will make whatever your intended purpose for the property is. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Save Money When Buying Property.

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Image Credit Pixabay.com License CC0

There are many different ways that you can buy a property. When it comes to choosing a home for yourself and your family, you will no doubt have a number of different requirements that you will be looking for. The house will need to be located somewhere that suits your needs. Whether that means that it is an easy commute to your place of work, or is close to friends and family, there will always be concerns that surround your preferred choice of property.

But often, one major factor that plays into your decision making is the financial aspect. You will no doubt want to get the most house for the least money. That means having a home that meets all of your needs, for as little as possible.

Here are some ways that you can look at spending less on your property.

Buy Land And Develop

If you have the time, patience, and the willingness to put in a lot of hard work, you could buy a piece of land such as the ones found on the wyndham ridge estate and then build your own home. Of course, you will need to engage an architect and a builder to help you realize your dreams unless of course, you have these skills yourself.

You would obviously need to price up the entire project before you could commit to it, but in theory, you could save yourself some money and have a much better home.

Restore A Property

When a house falls into a state of disrepair, it will rapidly lose its value. So, if you come to buy a home that is in poor condition, you will be getting the potential for a much better home, for much less.

If you are willing and able to work to restore a run-down property, then there are some real savings for you. Get a survey carried out of the entire property and use that information to help you to prioritize tasks. There may be unseen structural problems that should be addressed before anything else.

Buy A Property Before It Is Built

Many property developers will be looking to sell homes that they are yet to build. They want a very quick turnaround on any houses, and it often helps them if they have sold the property before they even break ground.

Look for developments opening up in the area that you are interested in living. Often, many homes will be built at the same time. You’ll be able to view floor plans and artist impressions of how the home will look once built. Often, the developers will build a show home first, which they can use for selling other properties that follow the same design.

Of course, buying a new home will come with its issues. Once the home is completed, you may need to call the builders back to carry out remedial works on any snagging issues that you may find. This is quite normal, but it is something that you should be aware of.

Looking to Improve Your Office? Here Are 5 Types Of Professional Services You Should Hire

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. At certain junctures in the road, the time comes to improve your office space. There are specific services that you need to employ in order to properly do this. The following contributed post is entitled, Looking to Improve Your Office? Here Are 5 Types Of Professional Services You Should Hire.

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Photo by Marc Mueller from Pexels

Are you looking to upgrade the look and functionality of your office space? Then there are certain outsourced professional services you should seek. As a business owner, you always want what’s best for your company.

And although there are certain changes you can make to the space as a team, there are other aspects that are better in the hands of an external professional company that has years of experience in that particular industry. To help kickstart this process, here are 5 types of professional services you should hire:

Architects

Do you want to completely change the appearance of your office? Whether it’s a new office that you’ve just moved into or you’re looking to give your current one a refreshed look, hiring an architect is a great solution. Although it might seem like an expensive outlay, their creativity and innovative ideas can prove to be invaluable.

Making the space more practical and functional, you’ll have an office that suits your business’ needs down to a tee. Once completed, you can then add your own features to the space.

Of course, the alternative is building your own office. Although this is great if you’re on a budget, it’s not a choice that will suit every business – especially one that might have a little more budget to spend on the renovation.

Plumbing Services

Plumbing isn’t something that should be undertaken by anyone who isn’t trained – especially when working on an office renovation project. If you’re looking to improve the state of the restrooms in your office building, consider hiring a professional plumbing service. Making your restrooms functional and practical, you can then bring in a decorator to finish the job.

Electrical Services

Similarly to the above, you should never try to undertake electrical tasks by yourself – no matter how skilled you think you are. Instead, opt for a professional, skilled and experienced company to come and install new lighting/fix broken electrics within your office.

Companies such as GPE Electrical and Communications Contractor Pty Ltd can come to your building and complete the task, ensuring that it’s working perfectly and maintained throughout the years.

IT Outsourcing

When improving your office, it’s not just about the aesthetic look of it. You will also want to consider how you can improve it, in terms of technology. In the modern-day, the importance of having a watertight IT infrastructure is undeniable. No matter what industry you’re working within, you need to know that your data is kept safe and that your systems are up and running 24/7 – which is where an outsourced IT company comes in.

Tracking your systems, implementing cybersecurity and running continuous checks on the infrastructure, they offer an invaluable service that will help your business to thrive in the long term. Something that should never be overlooked, it’s an investment that’s worth making whether you are a new or long-established organization.

An Interior Decorator

Have you spent countless hours looking at office interiors on sites such as Pinterest? Then it’s time to create your own dream office with the help of an interior decorator. With years of experience in the field, they know what will work within a space. And while you can obviously share your vision with them, they will also suggest pieces of furniture, lighting features, and more that will align with it.

How to Find Your Perfect Home

A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. Does the perfect home exist? If so, how do you find it with all the houses available in your particular location? There are a couple of key considerations when searching. The following contributed post is entitled, How to Find Your Perfect Home.

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Are you looking for a new home? Or maybe a first home. Everyone wants a home as it is a valuable asset, and owning one gives you that peace of mind you have been craving. There are a lot of options on the market, and it may not be very easy to narrow down precisely what you want. For a lot of us, money is the major driving factor in purchasing a home, and there are also considerations such as the area, school, vicinity to shops, etc. Not to mention the house itself, does it tick all the boxes and more. Whatever type of home you are looking for, here are some tips on how to find that perfect home.

Image from Pixabay

Make a list
Talking of boxes, well it is a good idea to create a list of things you want, and another list of things you do not want. If you want the perfect house, you have to know what you want. Price is going to have to be on the list for some of you a ceiling price you cannot surpass. There are also considerations such as the number of bedrooms, if you want a house, or would settle with a flat, sharing entrances and exits. Have you thought about a fixer-upper? It may be worth thinking about how much work you would be willing to do yourself. Once you have your list then, you can search with a narrowed focus.

Search
If you want the perfect house, you are going to have to put in the leg work. Start online, adding all the desired parameters into the real estate search engine sites, and create as big a radius area as possible. Then you need to go out and start looking. View as many houses as possible. Only through this will you get the best idea of how the reality of what you want stacks up against the dream. Perhaps this will alter some of your immovable items on the checklist. You may decide that a Bellriver house & land package is the best option for you. Anyway, the more you hunt, the more you will develop a feeling about houses, and when you finally walk into the one you want, you will know. Everything will fall into place, and it will have that home feeling.

Be a tough bargainer
In this world, the only person you can rely upon is yourself. Searching the real estate market is no different. Do not allow yourself to be swayed by beautiful salesy talk. Stay focused at all times, and know what you like and don’t like. If they see a crack in your resolve, they will go for it. Bid low and negotiate. Ensure you go through all the correct routes like having the house surveyed, and do not overlook the basics. If you see something you do not like, point it out. Make another list of all the potential problems and ensure you discuss them with the agent. The more problems you spot, the cheaper you will be able to get it for.

Settling The Very Real Emotional Trouble Of Business Management

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Health/Wellness. Working in business management is much different than being on staff as an employee. Decisions must be made, sometimes difficult ones with can impact one’s quality of life. The following contributed post is entitled, Settling The Very Real Emotional Trouble Of Business Management.

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Running a business is not an easy process, no matter what anyone tells you. To run a business or to get to a CEO, CFO or executive position, you need to work harder than you may ever have in your lifetime. This is why those fields and positions are so competitive, because you often get out what you put in. However, it’s 2020, and it’s time for the recent healthy talk surrounding mental wellbeing to find its way into the workplace.

It’s astonishingly easy for us to burn ourselves out in pursuit of our dreams. You give all you can, and sometimes in business, that may not be good enough. This can lead you to think that you’re simply not giving enough, to the point where you may sacrifice health and comfort in order to make matters work. We know that as a business leader, a solid 7-8 hours of work in a day may not be enough to get things going. That being said, settling the very real emotional trouble of business management should not be considered a side concern, but a pressing measure you should attend to.

We would recommend doing so in the following ways:

Talk Through Your Problems

Don’t bottle everything up. Business struggles sting, and it’s okay to admit that. Having to let staff go can be a real hardship, and pretending as though it isn’t can only make you feel colder about things. If something is troubling you, talk about it. It may be that through services like Bluesky Psychology, you are able to define a real, particular problem you are going through, and get the true assistance you need.

Don’t Overpromise

It’s easy to think of the overpromising businessperson as someone who is insecure and unable to confidently stand behind their product offering. Perhaps they feel as though they need to bend over backwards at every turn because this makes the most business sense. It doesn’t. Remember not to overpromise, because that can leave us without a clear goal, and when the time does come to make good on those offers, you will disappoint. This can only lead to stress, and it will make you feel like a failure, ironically stemming from a desire to help everyone.

Live In Reality, Not In Expectation

Live in the reality you are part of. There can be many ‘would haves,’ ‘should haves’ or ‘fake it til you make its’ in the business world, and this can lead you to think in terms of your vision. There is a certain self-deluded quality that all successful people have to have, especially if they’re making something from nothing. But this must never take precedence over actual objective living in the moment and making the daily decisions as felt. In other words, are you responding to the situations present now and curating your best business, or are you trying hard to live up to what you think you should be as a business leader? These measures are not always in sync with one another. Be here now, to the extent that you can.

With this advice, we hope you can help your mental and emotional health, even working within a stressful business role.

The Secret to Fitness When You Don’t Go to the Gym

A key focus of my blog is Health and Wellness. While we all know going to the gym is good for our health, it isn’t always easy to do. Fortunately, there are other ways to manage our health and wellness. The following contributed post is entitled, The Secret to Fitness When You Don’t Go to the Gym.

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Keeping fit and staying in shape is a massive part of modern society, but not in the way that fat-shaming engulfed much of the previous decade. Instead, people are no longer forcing themselves to go to the gym to look good for other people; they are embracing the gym to look good for themselves.

However, the gym is not right for everybody. Some people do not have the budget. Others are still self-conscious about how they look. While there are also budget issues to consider, especially with the average price of gym membership in the US. just because the gym is not for you, though, doesn’t mean you can’t still start your journey towards better health, and here are some secrets to help you out.

The Right Space

You don’t need wall-to-wall mirrors, pumping music, and that industrial decor so many gyms possess to get into shape successfully. All you need is a space for you to hit the weights.

You can create a home gym either in the spare room or if you’ve got the space in the backyard, metal sheds are a fantastic and often low-cost way of installing a workout space in your home without splashing out on home renovations.

The benefits of these personal spaces are that you can design and decorate them however you like. You can include weight benches, mats, and exercise balls, as well as choosing the music, so you don’t have to deal through endless loops of Top 40 tunes.

The Right Food

The old cliche is that it’s impossible to outwork a bad diet. No matter how many hours you spend on the treadmill, if you overeat pizza and takeout food once you get home, you’re going to undo all of your hard work at the gym.

To ensure you see the results you want, consider looking into healthy meal plans that you can prepare every Sunday before the week starts so that you never need to rely on eating out when you don’t have time to make breakfast in the morning.

Not only can you eat exactly what you want, but you’ll also develop a routine that will soon be hard to stray from.

The Right Attitude

Above all else, though, you need to have the right attitude if you want to explore your fitness options. This attitude is essential, especially if you do not have a home gym or an easy way to prepare your meals.

Nothing good ever comes easy, so it’s worth training your mind as well as your body. Once well prepared, you can resist temptations and be more creative with your workout endeavors. This means you can keep up with your fitness routine even when you are away from home.

You don’t always need to gym; you don’t always need your healthy meal. But you do need the right attitude to overcome your obstacles.

The Right Lifestyle

Getting into shape is not something that happens overnight. It takes dedication, discipline, and willpower. Once you have achieved this, you’ll feel better in body and mind, and the world is yours for the taking.

5 Ways To Increase Your Local Visibility As A Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the most important aspects of your business is your visibility. Customers are more likely to patronize your business if the more known you are. The following contributed post is entitled, 5 Ways To Increase Your Local Visibility As A Business.

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Image by Welcome to all and thank you for your visit ! ツ from Pixabay

One of the hardest things to do as a small and local business is to ensure the people in your area know who you are. Whether you’ve been running for years or you’re just getting started, increasing your local visibility should be one of the main priorities for your business. Luckily, there are lots of tips and tricks you can pick up to ensure you’re doing exactly that. From using business directories to investing in PPC, the more you’re doing the better. With that in mind, here are 5 ways to increase your local visibility as a business:

-Attend Local Events And Networking Sessions

One of the best ways to increase your visibility in the local area is to attend local events and networking sessions. Although it may be daunting at first, attending networking events is a great way to meet like-minded people. Not only that, but it’s the perfect way to meet people that may be interested in your products or services. Although you don’t want to use these networks to sell if the topic comes up, take it as a good opportunity. For a guide to attending local networking events, you can visit this site here.

-Target Local People With Pay Per Click Advertising

If you know who your target audience is and where they’re going to be located, you can use pay per click advertising to create ads that will increase your local profile. Although it can be quite expensive at times, pay per click advertising is incredibly effective. For a guide to using pay per click to grow your business, you can visit this site here.

-Consider A Local Business Directory

Another great way to improve your local visibility is to consider a local business directory. Although they may be hard to come across at first, directories are a great place to list your business and your services. Chances are, you’ll find customers from them more often than not. For more information when it comes to using a business directory, you can visit this site here.

-Consider Working With A Local PR Agency For Coverage

If you want to gain local coverage on TV or in local papers, you might want to consider approaching a local PR agency for assistance. Although it can be expensive, gaining local coverage for your business is a great way to ensure people are seeing your brand everywhere they go. If you appear in local news, it will be much easier to grow as a business.

-Try And Promote A Loyalty Scheme In Your Local Area

Finally, you might want to consider promoting a loyalty scheme in your area. Although it may take some time to grow, it’s the perfect way to get people talking about your business.

Are you looking for ways to increase your visibility as a business? What can you do to ensure you’re doing all that you can to grow locally? Let me know your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.