Financial Literacy and Money – Page 97

An Introduction To Business Continuity

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Something to consider when starting a business is the continuing of your operations. Even if you don’t think about it at the beginning, you will want to eventually. The following contributed post is entitled, An Introduction To Business Continuity.

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Business continuity is a subject that few business owners consider. In many ways, this reluctance is understandable; entrepreneurs tend to be optimistic people, who always look for, anticipate, and then plan for the best case scenario – so focusing on business continuity goes against their instincts.

However, as an entrepreneur, one of your foremost concerns should be that your business is always able to continue to operate. In fact, it could be argued that business continuity is perhaps the most essential concern.

Why is business continuity so important?

To put it simply: if your business cannot operate, then you don’t have a business. While it is vital to spend time strategizing to improve your company’s SEO performance, capture the attention of new customers, design your office layout effectively, and all of the similar ways that business owners seek to improve their business, these efforts can only bear fruit if the company can fully operate.

Due to the above, it is helpful to see a focus on continuity as the underlying structure of your business. With good continuity, you can think about the future, seek to improve performance and strive for success – because you can always be confident that the company can be relied on to survive.

How should you begin focusing on business continuity?

Business continuity is a wide-ranging concept, and considerations as to how you can keep your business operational should apply company-wide. However, there are two particular areas that should be focused on first: your companies’ IT and network and your premises. Both of these are essential to your business being able to stay afloat; most businesses rely on their IT systems for everything, from managing finances to customer communications; while your physical premises hold your stock, are where you meet with clients, and – in some cases – a retail space. If you can protect these two areas, then you can be assured of excellent continuity.

How can you ensure continuity in these areas?

● When it comes to your business’ IT, network, and data, planning and backups are crucial. It is best to contract a professional service for this purpose; you can learn more about the benefits of doing so, research companies, and then choose a provider who specializes in ensuring continuity in the most important areas.
● Protecting your premises encompasses many different considerations, but perhaps the most important is building maintenance. With proper maintenance, you can be confident that your business’ property can survive rain, shine, and everything in between. In addition, it’s also advisable to look for a good commercial property insurance policy that covers the costs of everything that might be lost in scenarios such as fire and flooding.

How can you address continuity in other areas of your business?

With the most important aspects covered, you can move to examine other aspects of your business in terms of continuity. By and large, the simplest way to do this is to examine an area of your company and ask “what can I do if…?”, for example:

● What can I do if… one of our suppliers goes out of business?
● What can I do if… one of our clients goes into liquidation and cannot pay invoices owed?
● What could I do if… multiple employees were to fall ill at the same time?
● What could I do if… the company receives an unexpected tax bill?

There are no answers to these questions that fit all businesses; most are subjective, depending on your cash flow and other resources. However, by asking these questions – all of which genuinely could happen, and would be hugely detrimental to your business – you can begin to formulate a way to prevent these problems, or how they could be overcome if prevention is not possible.

In conclusion

With a focus on business continuity, you can protect your business against the worst case scenarios, and ensure that your company is able to thrive for many years to come.

The Top Cyberthreats That Could bring Down Your Business In 2019

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. No matter what type of business you are running, a key consideration is cybersecurity as there are a lot of elements at work that are looking to infiltrate and take down everyone’s operations. It’s important to be aware of these threats. The following contributed post is entitled, The Top Cyberthreats That Could bring Down Your Business In 2019.

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Cyber threats are continually evolving. In the past, companies had to worry about things like DDoS attacking and phishing, but in 2019, things are changing again, and there are new threats on the horizon. Businesses need to be careful. Not only can interruptions to their IT infrastructure cause issues operationally, but the regulatory environment is becoming increasingly unfriendly. Companies that admit data breaches risk significant fines and years of sunken profitability.

Check out the top cyberthreat of 2019 that could bring down your company.

AI-Based Attacks

DoD – Defense.gov

With artificial intelligence becoming open source and widespread, it won’t be long before hackers start using it to infiltrate companies and trick them into handing over data. AI-based attacks could automatically sweep company communications and create new emails that appear to be legitimate but which aren’t.

Cyptomining Malware

Cryptocurrencies require a lot of processing power to “mine.” Miners need to use hundreds of processors to crunch the data in the hope of discovering a new and valuable coin. The temptation, however, is to get somebody else to do it for them.

This is where crypto malware comes in. Crypto malware gets installed on another person’s machine without them knowing, and then starts performing calculations that benefit the miner. It’s not a direct attack in the traditional sense of the word, but it can undermine a business’s compute capacity as well as cost it more in terms of energy. The mining means that the companies processors are active, diverting them from other business-relevant tasks.

Botnet Attacks

InrsITe points out that companies need to do more to protect their data. But without adequate protection, it’s likely that many will fall prey to the predations of hackers. More than 70 percent of companies operating today will see a botnet attack that involves machine learning or artificial intelligence. Not all will be affected (because many will be protected by good software), but many will suffer and lose profitability as a result.

State-Sponsored Attacks

With the business world becoming so important, we often forget about the role of the state – a human organization which seems more redundant every year. States still hold all the weapons and still jostle for power. It’s likely that 2019 will see public institutions attacking private companies associated with particular rival governments. Granted, this probably won’t affect the average small business, but it may be an issue at larger firms.

Password Logging

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The majority of businesses still rely on single-factor password authentication to grant colleagues access to their networks and data. In short, all most companies do to protect themselves is require that when an employee gets to the office, they log in with their name and passcode.

Unfortunately, this form of security is hopelessly outdated in 2019. It’s often easy for hackers to install keyloggers on work machines remotely and then wait until the employee taps in their password. Once they have it, nothing is stopping them from accessing all the company’s data.

Two-factor authentication gets around this. With two-factor, the hacker must prove that they are an employee via a second method (such as tapping in a code that comes through to their phone).

Small Changes Towards A Big Business

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As you grow your business, it’s important to know what changes you can make along the way to boost your performance. Sometimes small changes can make a big difference. The following contributed post is entitled, Small Changes Towards A Big Business.

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Sometimes it’s the subtle things in life that make the biggest difference for us. You don’t have to be someone who is always shouting about, making crazy big business moves, and actually regretting them. Because the thing about these big business moves that you could make, is that they carry a hell of a lot of risk. So you could have all of these big plans, and expect them to turn out a certain way, and you could invest a ton of money into the idea… for it to only backfire in your face. But the small changes that you can make are such a low risk and low investment move, that it really won’t do you much harm by trying them. After all, you should always be looking for the next best thing for your business, and that means making little changes along the way, adjusting and adapting to the situations around you. You have to be able to adapt to survive with your business, and the vision or dream that you had in the beginning will most likely not be what the outcome is! So if you know you need to make a few little changes, hopefully this article will inspire you to make a few of them! Keep on reading to find out more!

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Small Changes Inside The Office

So the office is most likely where you’re going to spend all of your time, and we just know that the majority of you will have an online based business in some way, and the time you spend in the office can be so consuming. So much so, that you’ll probably have the long standing joke that you might as well move into the office. Well all of the time you’re spending there could be made so much more simple, you just have to look for the solutions that you might have been missing out on. One example we have, is with the phone systems you’ve got. The phone will no doubt ring a million times a day, and having a complicated system to manage this through is only going to make things more difficult. But changing your phones and systems is no doubt something you’ve never thought of before. A small business phone system is going to be so much better with technology like VoIP, which is renowned for making communications so much easier. It’s little solutions like this that your business is missing out on, and you never know, this one might actually get you away from the office. A VoIP system would allow you to connect your calls and messages from work to your mobile phone, meaning that even if you feel like you can’t let your business go, you can at least take it out of the office with you!

Small Changes Outside The Office

You shouldn’t always be thinking about what’s going on in the office, you have to be able to pull yourself away from it, and think about the changes you can make on the outside, that will greatly improve the inside. One thing we recommend you taking a look at, because we know you won’t have made any chances since starting up your business, is your brand and your website. The two link really closely together, because you can’t have a good website without a good brand, and you can’t have a good website without having the brand to back. So in terms of your brand, you only want to think about the small changes you need to make. So it could just be touching up your logo, making better use of colours. When you first designed it, it might have been done in a rush or without much consideration at all, meaning a sub par quality was created. But simply sprucing up your logo can make a big difference to your brand, with it looking so much more professional. The same goes for your website. It might just be that you need to touch a few things up, make the layout a little better, and iron out any bugs that might be giving your website a bad reputation! There will be plenty of web developers out there who would be able to go through the whole process with you, making sure that you have the best possible outcome!

Small Changes To Your Marketing

Marketing is something you’ve either grasped by now, or it’s something that you’re just totally winging and hoping that it goes right. If you’re the latter, then there definitely are a few changes that you can make to improve your marketing and how you’re making use of it. So if you only really stick to the easy marketing techniques, it’s time to get a little bit creative, and really make changes to your marketing. One technique you can use, which many chose not to for reasons unknown, is billboard marketing. It’s literally plastering your business for the eye to see, and if you get a good location, many eyes are going to see this one. But that’s just it, you really do have to have a good location, even if it means paying slightly more for it! Another technique you should try, which although it’s not as fast acting, it’s still incredibly good, is SEO. This aims to improve your ranking within search engines, through techniques such as link building. It might be one of the more costly marketing options, but it’s subtle improvements like this that you really need to be making!

Small Changes To Your Finances

The way that you use your business finances is so important, and if you’re not using them at all, then you really are missing out. All you need to think about, is things like investments, and you’ll be in the right track. As soon as you’re making enough money, this is what you should be doing. Although you’ll always be bringing money in, you want to make sure that you’re building on it, and putting it in the right places so it isn’t just sitting in the bank. There are so many investment options for you to choose from, just check out articles like this and you’ll see!

How To Feel Comfortable In Your Business Competence

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you first start out in any business endeavour, it’s natural not feel uncomfortable. Eventually though you want to get to a point where you are comfortable. There are several keys to doing so. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Feel Cmfortable In Your Business Competence.

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You’d be surprised to find this out, but yes, even the most experienced business moguls have their off days. A successful is not some mountain that you climb and achieve, but a fire you must continually kindle. Of course, the fuel for your fire will vary. It might take you much more kindling to stay operational. It might be harder to find. But what matters is you keep that emblem lit.

Feeling comfortable in your business life is important if you’re to make the important decisions you need to. After all, if you’re worried about your daily progress routinely, you cannot think clearly. So this means that yes, you need to practice self-care, but more than that, you need to understand your direction and clearly set out a means for yourself that makes plenty of sense. Feeling comfortable in your business competence isn’t always the easiest, but it can be achieved, and the more hills you climb, the more prepared you’ll be for the next one. We’d like to offer some of the following advice:

Keep Learning & Reading

If you’re starting to feel like an impostor, that means you have time to. Sometimes, your imposter syndrome is not all that unwarranted. Of course, this sounds like an odd thing to suggest. Impostor syndrome isn’t quite understood, but surely simply disregarding it and committing to the same job you always have achieved well is the answer? Well, it depends on your role. Perhaps you’re not using your business time as effectively as you could. Perhaps you’re struggling to stay up to speed when those under you are trying to help you with your questions. Maybe you’re continually in the dark when it comes to the small matters you need to understand.

This can often be the case when a manager has their own worries to deal with, so they forget to check in with the experience of those lower in the hierarchy. Sure, deferring responsibility is essential, but you also need to be in the loop. To that extent, learning and reading, keeping up with memos, asking important questions and also training staff to summarize well can help you feel as though you’re fully ‘in the know,’ and not operating with a blind spot. Once all this is being completed and you still feel impostor syndrome, you should realize this feeling is not worthwhile, and it will actually begin to dissipate. For the most part, this feeling can help spur you to further action, so long as you keep learning and reading around your subject.

Please, Keep On Top Of Your Books

Even if you are not directly responsible for your business management and spending planning, you need to keep on top of your books. Even if you’re having a bad year, you need to keep on top of your books. Even if you have only one employee’s payroll to take care of, you need to keep on top of your books. Failure to do any of this can unfortunately cause you undue harm, and not only that, but one mistake can snowball to another. Before you know it, large amounts of your budget have been misplaced, miscalculated, or worst – willingly misdirected. Accountancy competence is business competence, and even the owner of the smallest and most humble business will need to understand that.

To that extent, using accounting software is essential, and can be a lifesaver. This is especially true for those who may not have a level of accountancy competence, and wish to conduct the best job with their books they can – especially when tax season comes around. Not only that, but even those with advanced accounting competency might find features here that they cannot simply achieve on their own. The ability to fill out accountancy calculations with an easy set of utilities, the ability to keep track of your financial documents (this can be a challenge on its own,) and the ability to generate VAT with a single click can be a lifesaver for even those who have been running a firm for some time. You may be heavily surprised.

Measure Your Successes, Learn From Your Losses

Every single business you hear of, every business you have researched, every single business you can even imagine will have had its problems. Even a business given everything from the start, such as expert branding, a hefty non-reciprocal investment package, and world-class business advice will experience an issue it needs to work through from time to time. You simply cannot run a business without running into stumbling blocks.

In our career-led and corporate-friendly culture, we often think that business is some kind of ‘right’ and ‘natural progression’ in order to keep society together. But we often forget that even the businesses that have been around since you were a baby must justify their existence day after day. It is never a ‘given’ that they will continue operation, nor is it ordained by some higher power. And believe us, the higher you go, the more people around you are willing to take that spot, waiting, hoping for, and sometimes even trying to orchestrate a business slip up.

If you fail to learn from your mistakes, you will repeat them. If this is true for the history of humankind, it’s likely true for your business. However, the opposite side of the token is also true. If you cannot learn from your successes, you may struggle to repeat them, or once again find the winning formula. We often focus on the negative to prevent an issue like that from ever happening again, and that’s because we are all wired to be troubleshooters. When things are going good, we learn not to upset that status quo. But the same approach cannot last forever. This means that learning how your success was built, what constituent blocks elevated your performance, and how you might use that to strike original gold again can be just as valuable as reflecting and lamenting over your mistakes.

With these tips, you’re sure to feel comfortable in your business competence.

The Benefits of an Office Relocation

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you’re a business owner, there may come a time where it will make sense to move your business. There are several reasons for making this type of move. The following contributed post is entitled, The Benefits of an Office Relocation.

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If you’re thinking about a relocation for your business office, then it can be a pretty exhilarating time. Relocating offices happen for many reasons, and it could mean moving your office to a different city, or perhaps even different countries. But the reason that it can be an exciting time is that it means that your business is growing and improving. Plus, when you relocate offices, it can be just the thing that can help you to create more innovative ways of working. You can set things up as you want then, have better organisation, as well as helping to create a sustainable, eco-friendly, and more productive office space. So it could be just what you need to help the business to continue to grow. Here are some of the reasons that it can help your business.

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Boost Productivity

If your office is getting too small for the number of people that you have working for you, then it is obvious why you will need to move spaces. When an office space is congested and overcrowded, then it means that your team will be unable to complete all of their tasks efficiently, a it can mean things don’t run smoothly when things are overcrowded. Creating a fresh and new environment to work in, that is designed for the growing number of staff that you have, will help to boost morale as well as boosting the productivity of your employees; they can work more efficiently and effectively in a space that works for them.

Flexible Working

If your business does not offer flexible working for people already, then an office move, whether you use a commercial moving company or not, could be a way to help implement flexible working for your team. It can be a good time to create things like quiet zones for teams to have focus activities or use as breakout areas to relax. I can be a good thing to have open spaces for collaborative working too. When you have an office relocation then it gives you the chance to plan the new space around the team’s choices and styles of working, which gives them some flexibility.

Grow Your Business

A new space that uses best practices methods of working will give your employees to work more effectively, as well as more productively. That is going to help to improve the profitability of your company without question. Having a new office looks more impressive for prospective employees too, so it can be a good way to attract talent to your business that will help them to grow.

Lower Costs

For many businesses relocating can be a good way to save money. Could using some best practice design methods help you to downsize to a space with a smaller space, which will mean paying less rent? There are going to be costs associated with moving to a new space, but if you think of this with the bigger picture in mind, it can be an investment rather than an expense, and other costs can end up being lower if you’re in a newer space.

How To Open Up More Opportunities For Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When owning a business, it’s important to always thinking about where your profit streams are going to come from. This requires a certain degree of foresight and planning. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Open Up More Opportunities For Business.

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Opportunities come along for every business at some point but the best ones to come along, don’t just always fall in your lap. Here’s how to open up more opportunities for business.

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Pay Attention To The Industry

Within any industry, a business should be focused and pay particular attention to what’s going on around them. If there are competitors, what are they doing? It’s useful to monitor competition in order to find what’s working for them and what isn’t. Having an ear to the ground can prove useful to stay in the know of what’s trending and what isn’t when it comes to the market. So doing some market research will certainly benefit the company both now and going forward as it grows and becomes more successful.

Give The Business More Exposure

If a business isn’t putting themselves out there to be seen then it’s going to be limiting itself by how many opportunities will come from being spotted. There are plenty of ways that a company can get exposure. For example, social media is a great tool in building brand awareness and for growing a customer base on a global scale. Attending networking and conferences within the field is also super beneficial in meeting those who may be able to benefit the business. Being online can open plenty of doors for a business from online CFD trading for WTI crude oil to partnering with other companies on products and services.

Be Constant With Goal Setting

Goal setting is important to any business, whether they’ve just started out or been going for years. Setting regular goals keeps the company as a whole moving forward instead of going stale. It helps motivate staff as they’ll know what they need to achieve and when. A business needs to have a direction, so it should be setting goals constantly. A mixture of small and bigger ones can compliment each other, and it’s only with these goals that a company will improve and grow.

Believe In The Work

A strong company will believe in the work that they do, and that should be the case for every staff member that works for the organisation. They need to believe that what they’re doing is going to lead to something great and that it will have a great impact, whatever that intention may be. So keeping this idea strong within the company is key, and it’s something that should always be revisited. Having confidence in the ideas and results that come from what the business provides, will help open up more opportunities down the line.

Visualise The Opportunities Everywhere

There should always be the mindset that there are opportunities everywhere. Whether it’s a casual coffee meeting with a client or brainstorming in a meeting. By having this vision and attitude, opportunities will crop up.

Success is something that is earned, and unless a business gets lucky, it needs to be chased so don’t let all of this potential that’s out there, go to waste!

Making Your Office A Healthier Place

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. No matter what type of organization you’re running, you want to make the work environment as healthy and friendly to your employees as possible. The following contributed post is entitled, Making Your Office A Healthier Place.

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Whether you are trying to encourage motivation and productivity in your company, or job satisfaction in your employees, making the office where everyone works into a more healthy environment can be very beneficial. In fact, there are several different tactics you can use. A topic you can find out more about in my post below.

A light and bright environment.

Studies show that human do less well in environments that are dark and dingy. What this means is that if you want your office to be a healthier space you really need to make it as light and bright as possible. Happily, there are multiple ways of doing this so even if you are stuck in the basement office you can still get a lighter and brighter feel.

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One option is to maximize the amount of natural light that flows into the room. Something that can be done by installing additional windows, skylights, and even sun tubes which are channels that redirect natural light to areas without it.

Of course, if none of these things are an option then painting the wall white to reflect as much light as possible and installing natural looking artificial lights can help too. The same goes for lighter toned furniture and fittings.

You can even further enhance the look of your office by adding plants too. Something that can provide a much more green, and more oxygenated atmosphere to complement the light and airy space you have created.

Standing desks and office exercise equipment.

Next, there is a considerable trend towards standing, and variable height office desks at the moment and this is because it can help to break up all the sedentary sitting behavior that offices are so infamous for. In fact, standing for just a small portion of each day can reinvigorate your workforce, and health them to be healthier overall.

Additionally, adding in office exercise equipment like under desk cycles, posture ball seats, and even steppers can make a massive positive difference to employee health. This is because not only will employees gain the endorphin boost from working out, but it will ensure that the blood is being pumped around their system efficiently. Something that can help with concentration and performance as well as make them a lot happier in the workplace as well.

Outdoor working areas.

The next change that you can make around the office is to include some outdoor areas for your employees to use. I’m not just talking about a single picnic table for smokers or those eating lunch here either. Instead, why not consider installing some outdoor areas in which people can take their laptops and work, or even have meetings?

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Break out areas outside can be fantastic for employee well being.

After all, getting outside into the sunlight and fresh air can have numerous health benefits such as increased vitamin D absorption. Not to mention that the opportunity to get away from their desk is bound to make most people at least 50% happier at work, with minimal effort.

Offering refreshment options.

Next, when it comes to healthy eating in the office, you can run into some issues. The problem is that you don’t want to end up prescribing what your employees can eat and drink. Oh, and the fact that if you ban caffeine, you may well just have a riot on your hands.

Happily, there is an alternative that can work wonder and its to use a company like Associated Coffee that will also deliver fresh, healthy and customized snacks to your business for your workers to consume. All along with your beverage order.

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In fact, if you are feeling particularly generous, you can include such beverages and snacks options as part of the benefits that you offer to employees free of charge. Something that means not only will your workers be eating the right thing to stay healthy, happy, and productive at work, but you’ll get the extras credit and employee satisfaction associated with offering such an added bonus as well.

A nap zone.

OK, so a nap zone might sound as if its something for preschool or a nursery rather than a professional workplace, but that isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, studies have shown that short naps or medications where employees can relax their mind and think of something other than the problem they are working on can be incredibly effective.

Of course by providing things like nap pods and bean bag beds, as well as pillow and blankets your business will be recognized by your employer for its forward-thinking, and focus on wellbeing too. It really is a win-win.

Stay goodbye to open plan offices.

Open plan offices can be bad for employee wellbeing.

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While many employers prefer an open plan set out, it is often the case that employees don’t. In fact, many people feel as if they are on show, or being watched. Something that, rather having a positive effect on employee morale and productivity, can damage it instead.

In fact, for some workers that rate highly on the introversion scale, an open plan office can be seriously damaging to their mental health. To that end, if you want your office to be a healthier place, it’s essential to have alternative working arrangements that are available to all employees.

Office wellness schemes.

Finally, you can also make your office a healthier space by devising and implementing particular wellness schemes. The idea of these is that they are small initiatives that can make a big difference to your employees’ physical and mental health.

In particular, many businesses find that it’s beneficial to offer yoga classes during the workday that are subsidized by the company. Something that cannot only help workers to beat stress but also help to protect them from strain and injuries that working at a desk in set position can cause as well.

Of course, there really is no limit to the type of things you can do in office well scheme from offering counseling and conflict resolution services, to providing blanks and earphones that allow people to get cozier at their desks. Just remember that as long as it promotes your workers emotional, physical, and mental health and they are onboard, then it’s probably a smart idea for creating a healthier office environment.

Could You Run a Business Green? Details to Consider Before You Decide

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A lot of businesses are going ‘green’ and doing their part to help the environment. Before attempting to go green, there are some things you need to consider before updating your operations. The following contributed post is entitled, Could You Run a Business Green? Details to Consider Before You Decide.

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If you have a small business, you will have to make the most out of your point of differentiation, and make your brand stand out from the competition. It is also important that you align your personal values and your business ones with your customers’. Below you will find a few pointers on how to make your business more sustainable and whether or not you can run it off the grid.

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Communication

One of the things you can do to reduce the carbon footprint of your business is to work through the internet and avoid flying to meetings and meeting clients in person whenever necessary. Thanks to the latest technologies in communication, you can now set up a conference call in your office with people from all over the world. You might even run all your advertising online, setting up social media marketing campaigns, instead of advertising in print magazines. This would certainly be a good start if you are looking to improve your business.

Transport

One of the things you have to consider is the transport you and your colleagues use to get to the office. If you have more than a dozen employees, you might be thinking about setting up a car pooling scheme, offering bike discounts, or an incentive to buy electric vehicles. This will help you align your values with your employees’ and create a shared vision and mission for the company.

Energy Use and Generation

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There are loads of ways you can make your business sustainable and ensure that you are not putting too much pressure on the environment. You can get solar panels installed on the roof of your building, create wind energy, or set up a gym that your employees can use for free, as it is hooked up to a battery, and they can generate electricity while working out. There are plenty of great ideas you can use to make your business greener.

Water Supply

Preserving water at the office is another area you should focus on. There are several ways you can reduce your water usage. If you are in the manufacturing business, you might want to install your own water treatment system to eliminate waste and ensure that you are minimizing your impact on the environment. There are great ways of measuring your water use, such as getting a 10000 litre water tank to see how long the water can last.

Sustainable Materials

When it comes to your office carbon footprint, it is also important that you invest in sustainable materials and furniture. You might need to pay more in the beginning, but your investment will pay off. Whenever you are installing new insulation or windows, consider the carbon footprint of the materials.

If you want to make the most out of your mission and vision alignment, you should consider going green as a shared goal between you, your staff, and your customers. This goal will help you create value and strengthen your brand long term, too.

Adding Fun Flavour To The Kitchen

A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. A primary residence is the largest investment many people will ever make. To increase the value of your investment, you have to know what updates to make to your home. One place is the kitchen. The following contributed post is entitled, Adding Fun Flavour To The Kitchen.

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Now that the New season is well and truly here, you might be looking at your home as a whole and wondering what you can do to make it more exciting. The kitchen is the heart and soul of the home, and if you are looking to update your living space this year, it could be one of the first places you start. Today we are going to look at some fun ways to add colour and flavour to your home this year.

New knobs

One method of making the kitchen feel refreshed and new without even really trying is to replace your old door knobs with new ones. If you had boring wooden or silver ones before, upgrade these to copper or gold for a stunning setting which will be ideal for you.

A bright floor

If you want to be outside of the norm this year and more exciting in your home, epoxy floor coatings are the way forward. Rather than sticking to traditional marble, wood or stone effects on your floor, why not try a colour? Covering the floor with a bright colour such as yellow or blue could be a great way to life the whole room and it will be a talking point every single time someone comes to see you in your home.

Acrylic patterned splashbacks

Speaking of bright colours, another method to add some extra colour to the home would be to add an acrylic splashback which is bright and bold. A splashback can be a great feature for the kitchen and a centrepiece of your design, and you can be as bold or reserved with the colour as you like!

Fun artwork

Artwork is always something which is great for the home, and in the kitchen it is no different. If you find that you have a lot of empty wall space in the kitchen this year, it could be a great chance to add some artwork. You could either choose images of the outdoors and flowers to help feel as if the kitchen and garden are linked, or you can instead think about something more abstract with bold colours and patterns. Find inspiration online and have fun with it.

Hanging herb garden

A herb garden is not only a great decoration for the garden but it also provides a great way for you to spice up your cooking, literally. Hanging a herb garden on the wall with your favourite flavours can be a wonderful feature and the ideal way to make sure that your cooking is top class.

If you’re happy and you know it….

Hang your pans! If you have a lot of space up above in your kitchen and you are looking for a countryside vibe for the space, hanging your pans in the middle of the room above your heads can be ideal. It is a feature which is stunning and modern and classic at the same time, and it allows you to show off those fancy copper pans you bought last Christmas!

Website Words: 3 Tips For Perfect Copy

Three of my blog’s key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Important aspects of your business are your branding and technology. You have to be sure that your website and all of the messages you communicate on it are clear. The following contributed post is entitled, Website Words: 3 Tips For Perfect Copy.

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Pixabay / CC0 Licence

When considering your business’ website, your focus will primarily be on the design and functional elements. You’ll want to ensure that your site looks good and works exactly as you expect – which is undoubtedly important, but there is a final part of the puzzle that can often be overlooked: the text.

The text on your website – which is more conventionally referred to as the “copy” – is just as important as the look and performance of any business website. The text is how you convince customers to buy from your company and how you affirm your brand’s voice, so getting it right is critical. In an effort to help you achieve this goal, below, we’ve assembled five tips that will help you to make sure that your website copy is at its absolute best.

#1 – Be cautious of tone

When writing website copy, there’s a line you have to walk: the text should ideally have an element of personality to it, but it should also remain professional. To achieve the right balance, it’s usually best to try and use the same writing style and word choice you would use if you were writing an email to an acquaintance – someone you know well, but not well enough to consider them a ‘friend’. Viewing your text through this lens should help you to keep things light, but without crossing the line into over-familiarity.

#2 – Consider translation

To work well, website copy has to be understood. As a result, businesses whose target audiences are likely to be bilingual may want to consider opting to translate their website copy to benefit some customers. While translating your entire website’s copy sounds like a dramatic, time-consuming undertaking, professional companies such as Para Plus Translations can help to simplify the entire process and allow you to display perfectly-translated text with ease.

#3 – Watch out for typos

No matter how well written your copy is, if it’s riddled with typos, your customers will notice – and may even judge your company as a result. Unfortunately, finding typos in text you have written yourself is inherently challenging, so you’ll need some form of assistance when seeking to overcome this issue. The best option is to hire the services of a professional proofreader, but a combination of using a service such as Grammarly and then asking a friend to proofread can also work well.

#4 – Too much information is preferable to not enough information

With website copy, convention suggests that you should provide information succinctly. However, while the quality of the words you choose is more important than quantity, the amount of quality copy needed is more up for debate. While some customers may be more than happy with a few sentences about your products or services, others will want to know more before they commit to a purchase; we all have different opinions about how much is enough when it comes to information. To account for this, it’s best to opt for a higher word count; it’s easier for customers who prefer short text to pick out the most pertinent details for themselves – perhaps aided by short summaries – than it is for those who would like more information to convince themselves to settle for less than they would like.

In conclusion

With the tips above, your copy can join your great design and flawless functionality to create a business website that your customers are sure to love.