Tag: Business

Five Key Reasons to Start A Business

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. There are numerous reasons why people decide to start businesses. If you’re going enter the business arena you should consider your reasons for doing so ahead of time. The following contributed post is entitled, Five Key Reasons to Start A Business.

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It doesn’t matter what type of business that you have, you need to know how to start a business that is successful and can be grown properly over time. Starting your own small business is a huge step and it can require you to leave your secure regular job and dive into the unknown. However, small business success takes a lot of planning on your part, and you have to be willing to do the work if you want that successful future.

Whether you want to start a business in industrial fabrication or you are looking to open a shop, you need to think about what kind of business will give you the profit and the success that you want. There are a few good reasons to start a small business, and we have five reasons to start your very own!

Image Source: Pexels

The Chance To Earn A Profit
When you start a business, you get the chance to earn an uncapped income. It’s your effort that earns you money, and you have every opportunity to make that income as high as you’d like it to be. If you don’t put in the effort, you’re going to fail, and if you do put in the effort, you MIGHT fail. Which one is preferable to you?

You Have A Passion
If you know you have something that you can achieve, you need to go out and achieve it. You can embrace a talent like music or writing or even automobile repair and make it your business to get it right. Doing something in which you are fulfilled is the most important thing here, otherwise there is no point in starting a business. You have to have passion about what you are doing for a living.

An Excellent Idea
Anyone can start a business, but not everyone has an excellent idea. You need to make sure that your product or service meets a need. If you have no customers, you have no business. If you turn your idea into a business, you need to make sure that you are meeting a need that will also turn a profit!

A Whole New Lifestyle
A new business doesn’t just happen. You have to work on it and starting a business is a good way to break away from the 9 to 5 and leave the corporate train altogether. You can rely on a more flexible schedule and spend more time with your friends and family. Yes, it’s hard work to run a business, but you can think about the lifestyle that you want to grab by the hands and own it!

Expressing Yourself
By choosing to run a business, you can be far more creative and express yourself better as the leader of your own business. You are no longer restricted by following someone else’s work ethic, and you can be in charge of your own future.

You can start a business today and change your whole future – are you ready to get going?

Expansion Of Your Business: The Ideas To Think About

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The longer you’re in business, the more you’ll have to think about expansion. With expansion comes numerous risks and rewards. The following contributed post is entitled, Expansion Of Your Business: The Ideas To Think About.

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Starting your own business can be a really scary prospect for some, but the realisation that you have created something out of nothing is often a huge confidence boost. You may have seen your business grow from strength to strength, so obviously you may come to a point where you might need to consider some of the ways that you could expand. With that in mind, here are some of the obvious options to consider. Let’s hope it gives you the inspiration and push you need to take your at-home business to the next level.

Image source – Pixabay – CCO License

Adding to your product range or the services you offer

One of the first things you could think about doing would be to add to your product range or the services you offer. This automatically opens up a new revenue stream and maximises your potential to make more money. It could be a similar type of product and service that already works well with your existing range, or you could even think about breaking into a new area and niche and trying something different. As long as things fit well with your brand your options could be broadened and, of course, the profit opportunities are endless. You could also look at the option of manufacturing your own products, and this might be something where you have to think about things such as industrial supply, tools and machines that could help bring the vision to life.

Storing stock elsewhere

Another option would be to maximise the sales you could bring in and store more stock. Of course, you may be limited to what you can have in your home, or within your current working area, but you could consider a warehousing option that could really open up the level of stock you could store and, of course, how much you can then potentially sell moving forward. There may be a cost to this, but compared against what you could potentially store and the amount of orders you could fulfill, it might be a worthy investment to help you expand your business.

Opening up a shop or showroom

A great option to consider would be to expand by opening up a shop or a showroom. This could really help you to branch out your business and take it from something you work on at home, into a fully-fledged public facing business. This could really help you to maximise your sales. You have a place of business that you could invite customers into, as well as having the option to store more and potentially sell more stock. A shop or showroom may have some costs such as a lease and you also need to think about the equipment that you may need.

Investing in your digital presence

Finally, everything is digital these days, so no expansion would be complete without you taking the time to invest in your digital space. That means making sure your website is up to scratch, your brand is on point, and your social media presence is good. So much is done online these days that if you don’t move with it, you can often be left behind.

Let’s hope that some of these tips help you expand your at home business.

It’s Time Your Business Started Keeping Up With The Modern World

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Business is conducted much differently than it was years ago. As such as a business owner you want to make sure your operations keep up with the modern world. The following contributed post is entitled, It’s Time Your Business Started Keeping Up With The Modern World.

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When you’re running any kind of business, one of the biggest challenges that you’re likely to face is that the modern world simply never stops moving. The modern world moves at a faster pace than any other time in history and attempting to keep up with it can be something that trips up a lot of otherwise incredibly skilled business owners. However, this isn’t to say that you’re always going to be stuck playing catch up with the rest of the world. Here are just a few things that you can do in order to make sure that your business is keeping up with the modern era.

Invest in efficient technologies

One of the best things about the modern world is that there is more technology available to business owners than ever before. Technology can be scary to some business owners but it the tech can make a huge difference to your business as a whole. The key is to figure out what the right and most efficient technology is for your business. From parcel lockers to specific software, the needs of your business are going to dictate the kind of technology that will benefit it the most. The key is to understand what you need and how to most effectively implement it.

Change your working methods

One of the biggest barriers to a lot of businesses is the fact that they often end up in a position where they’re stuck in the same few habits that they’ve been using previously, regardless of whether or not these habits are actually of any value anymore. Doing things simply because that’s the way that you’ve always done things is a huge mistake. Look at the working methods within your business and try to figure out adjustments that you can make in order to make it more efficient and allow you to keep pace with the rest of the world.

Streamline your business

A surprisingly common issue for a lot of businesses is trying to be too many things at once. Unless you have a great number of resources, there’s a chance that you’re not going to be able to handle doing everything. Instead, think about the kinds of things that your business does better than anyone else and focus in on them. By streamlining your business, you might be limiting your scope, but you’re giving yourself the chance to do those few things far more efficiently and effectively.

If you want to make sure that you’re always pushing your business forward and things are always staying as efficient as possible, then there is one thing that you have to be willing to do above almost anything else: plan. Without a clear plan for the direction that you want your business to go in, you’re never going to be able to get the most out of it. Trying to improvise and play things by ear when it comes to your business is a surefire way to lead yourself down to the road to disaster.

5 Recycling Tips for Businesses

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Even businesses who become more digital and green, generate wastes. Efficiently doing so can be efficient for operations and profits. The following contributed post is entitled, 5 Recycling Tips for Businesses.

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In recent times, more and more businesses are going green, not just because it’s viewed as a social responsibility, but it’s ultimately the right thing to do. One of the major practices businesses take up once they go green is recycling. Altogether, recycling is a very important step to take to reduce overall waste production on a larger scale.

This is especially useful because offices are known for generating a huge amount of waste on a daily basis, and recycling is able to cut that amount by at least half. If you are looking for ways to ensure that your business is environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible, here are 5 helpful recycling tips for businesses.

1. Go over your paper consumption
Paper contributes to one of the highest forms of waste produced in an office. This is why your business needs to be more conscious of the amount of paper it consumes. One practical action you can take is to incorporate measures that limit excessive paper consumption.

So, instead of printing out documents and files, encourage your workers to use emails and online document sharing platforms instead. You can also use pull printing technology so that all print jobs are user-activated. Why? Well, up to 30 percent of print jobs are never even collected, so this can drastically reduce printing volume.

2. Carry out a waste audit
As much as businesses try to recycle, sometimes, they still end up producing a large amount of waste as a result of throwing out materials that can actually be recycled. Yes, paper, plastic, and metal are commonly recycled materials, but businesses could honestly recycle more. A waste audit educates everyone in the office about waste production as well as other kinds of materials that can be recycled.

3. Choose a good recycler
Your business can partner with a recycling company that will, in turn, provide them with waste management advice. They can equally ensure that the company produces zero waste to landfill. Nevertheless, before choosing a recycling or waste management company, you need to carry out some research to make sure that they are the right fit for your business.

Some things to consider include whether your recycler is environmentally friendly and if they are an efficient, reliable, and professional business. You can read more here from this recycling and waste management company.

4. Collect organics
Recycling is one thing, but having your business collect organic food waste is another platform for it to go green. Organic food waste includes things like coffee grounds, tea bags, food scraps, and even cup sleeves. Collecting these types of compost waste can potentially put your business on the road towards achieving zero waste.

5. Centralise recycling bins
There’s nothing worse than wanting to recycle but not having a recycling bin close by. One very easy action that your business can take is to centralize the recycling bins. Ensure that they are placed in positions where everyone in the office can see and access. This will encourage employees to recycle more and can lead to less waste production.

Four Benefits From Hiring A Website Designer

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. When you’re first starting out, it can make sense to do everything yourself based upon something like costs for example. Once your business gets big enough though, it may be smart hire professional help. If for example you have a website, you might want to consider hiring a website designer. The following contributed post is entitled, Four Benefits From Hiring A Website Designer.

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With any business, the website is one of the most important things to have, especially when so many of us are now online. It’s good to hire a website designer to make your website really stand out from the crowd and to build the reputation and awareness of your business. Here are four benefits of hiring a website designer.

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It’ll Be High-Quality

With a website design, it needs to look the best, and when you’re paying for web designs, it’s better to get one custom-made than buy a pre-made one. The reason why is because that pre-made one is likely going to be used by lots of different individuals and businesses. You also have the issue of it being restrictive in what you might want to achieve with your own website. As much as pre-made versions can be good and more affordable, paying for the services of a Squarespace web designer, for instance, is going to be a lot more effective. You’re going to be able to get a say in all aspects of it, and it’s a design that’s being made from scratch. It’s exclusively yours, and so no one is going to be copying you.

Helps Make It Reliable & Responsive

You want to impress your customers, but you also want to be enticing new customers or those that happen to come across your website. It’s good to have a website that’s reliable and responsive, and that’s something that can be achieved by hiring a website designer. There’s nothing more frustrating than browsing a website that has a lack of functionality to it or broken links, for example. You want every opportunity that a customer or new customer takes to be one that’s enjoyable and easy for them when they hop on to your site.

Saves Time

There’s a lot that as a business, you have to contend with, and design a website isn’t something your design team has time to do. Not only that, but not all businesses will have design teams or experience to take on such a challenge. By having a website designer who can do it for you, it’s taking off some of that pressure and is a good element of the business to outsource. Outsourcing can be a great way to get things done by having to compromise simply because you have got the resources in-house.

Gives You A Competitive Edge

Giving yourself that competitive edge is essential nowadays because there are so many businesses and individuals out there. When it comes to competition, it’s important to be the very best and to remain relevant. By having a website custom-made and tailored to your brand and company, it’s setting you up for success and to stay ahead of the competition too.

Hiring a website designer for your next website revamp is essential and should be something you really consider investing in. The future is definitely online, and so it’s important to make the face of your business that is your website, look the very best it can be.

How To Utilise Your Green Space For Business Success

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you have green space, it might make the ideal location for your business. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Utilise Your Green Space For Business Success.

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You’ve either chosen to invest in a vacant plot of land or you’ve inherited a plot of land, either way you are most probably feeling unsure about the potential options for utilising that land. Coming into a high-quality piece of land in a great area gives you the opportunity to launch a business from the ground up. It won’t be easy, however if you are serious about making a success of a new venture, then you might want to consider getting creative and coming up with a unique business concept.

The good news is that for a free plot of land, there are plenty of business ideas that you could leverage to build a highly successful brand. In need of a little inspiration? Below are a number of business ideas that should allow you to utilise your green space and craft a business from the ground up.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Farm Shop

If your piece of land gets a vast number of passersby, then a good option to consider is to launch a farm shop on the plot of land. There’s a great call for high-quality, luxury farm shops selling local, organic and unique produce, from fruits and vegetables to meats and dairy, and everything in between. You could always opt to start out small with a produce stand or shack, and then as the business grows, move into a larger venue.

Build a golf course

Are you someone who is passionate about sport? If you are, then you might want to consider converting your green space in a beautifully designed golf course. Yes, this would require a lot of hard work, and a lot of investment, but the potential for success is incredible. You would need funds for building the course – you’d need to hire a specialist landscaper, you would need materials funds such as to buy high quality silica sand, for instance, and you would need a strong and well throughout business plan in place.

Create a campsite

Perhaps your plot of vacant land is located in an area that’s popular with tourists, if so then you could consider creating a camp ground. Of course, if you want to create a camping experience that is successful and beats out competitors, you would need to think carefully about the approach that you take. Right now, luxury campsites are extremely popular, as is glamping, so it could be worth investigating what going down this route would cost.

Run summer camps

If you are someone who has experience working with young people, then you might want to consider the idea of running summer camps from your plot of land. Whether it’s a sports-focused summer camp or something more diverse, it doesn’t matter – if you get the design aspect of your summer camp right, you could create a highly successful business.
There you have it, a few simple ideas for how you could utilise your plot of green space to launch and run a highly successful business. Take the time to think your options through carefully, and map out your route to success, before you start investing in your business idea.

Finding Your Business Niche in an Increasingly Competitive World

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Business is as much about competition as it is about generating profit. It’s thus important to think out your niche to give yourself the best competitive advantage. The following contributed post is entitled, Finding Your Business Niche in an Increasingly Competitive World.

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When people start businesses, they tend to have a couple of good ideas that tend to fail after a bit of serious thinking. This is fairly normal; it shows that we’re optimistic as entrepreneurs, but it does highlight a fatal flaw in our approach to developing business ideas; they’re simply not realistic. If they are, they demand a lot of money, exposure and time to flourish. Unfortunately, “time” is difficult to gauge when it comes to business success. You could plant the seeds of a promising business idea, only to realize that it grows into a world that no longer needs it.

As such, finding a business niche can be incredibly difficult these days. Trying to apply your set of skills to something unique that draws in customers can be challenging, and there’s often no safety net for you to fall back on when it comes to investing your hard-earned cash into something unknown. So how do you find a niche these days? Or is it better to forever stay in the shadows of a larger business doing something that can guarantee enough success to live off?

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What do you really want from your business?

This is perhaps the most important question to ask yourself; what do you want from your business? One of the most common answers is money. The other is because you’re passionate about something. Someone might want to start a clothing business because they’ve identified a niche, but in reality, they’re not exactly passionate about it; they’ve just found an opportunity that makes them more money. On the other hand, someone might start a business because they’re truly passionate about a subject, but they ignore the fact that it might be a niche with not enough exposure or active consumers.

So we have to ask the question; what do you really want from your business? Are you willing to do something you’re not passionate about for the money, or are you going to chase your passions and accept the fact you might be making less money than something more generic?

The solution is simple; do what you do passionately and you’ll find a niche

No matter what you want from a business, doing it passionately and reframing your approach is the key to success. If you’re in the business of senior care, then high-quality aged-care refurbishments, vetting and hiring the right employees and taking an active approach to caring for your clients is going to show that you’re passionate. If you’re a fashion company, focusing on things such as sustainable production, low prices and avoiding any morally-questionable activities (such as cheap overseas labor) will reel in the customers and show that you’re truly passionate about the subject.

On the other hand, if your passion is for success and money, then that’s perfectly fine too. Use every strategy that you can to build a large audience, identify opportunities as soon as they appear and optimize your approach to business to feed your hunger.

Smart Strategies to Grow Your Construction Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A business sector that will likely endure is the construction sector. A with any business though, you have to have a strategy for growth. The following contributed post is entitled, Smart Strategies to Grow Your Construction Business.

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Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Do you want to expand your existing construction business or get through the first year of the new operation? If you’re not sure quite where to start, these strategies are ones to consider:

Create a Client Prospect List

Let’s say that someone calls your business asking for a quote. Ask for their contact details, including their name and their preferred method of contact, such as email or phone.

Add them to your list of prospects, along with setting up an email list on your website. At the same time, put a contact form on your list so that it’s easy for people to reach you. Also, when you are networking at events, ask those who you speak with if you add them to your email list.

Then, send weekly updates of value to the list, such as industry news or an award your company recently earned. Customize messages and offers, as appropriate, all with the strategy to build long-term relationships that can increase sales over time.

Finance Equipment

The right equipment is essential to the growth of your business, but you might not be at a point yet where you can afford to purchase new or upgrade the existing equipment. In this case, equipment financing can be a great way to stay competitive in your industry, whether you need bulldozers, forklifts, tractors, or other type of gear.

If you decide to buy used heavy equipment, ensure it has clear title, and test and inspect it before purchase, if possible, to ensure it’s in good condition. Get heavy equipment keys and key sets for OEM and aftermarket ignitions from a reputable seller too.

Strengthen Your Website

Take a serious look at your website. Is it responsive (mobile-friendly), and does it have an intuitive design? If not, then it’s time for an update.

Also, make sure that you have photos of completed construction projects you have completed on the website to showcase your team’s abilities. Photographs can often be more powerful than words. Make sure too that your site indicates clearly how to contact you and what is the best way to place an order so that the visitor can take that initial step.

Call Monitoring

By looking at the inbound and outbound calls your employees are making, you can boost customer levels dramatically. Call recordings can indicate where you need to invest in staff training to get more leads, as well as how to grow your repeat customer rates.

Of course, always be transparent with your team that calls are monitored and have them explain that at the start of any phone conversations. Call monitoring can help strengthen relationships with customers.

You might see more up-selling successes down the road, too, as you build brand loyalty. If sales training courses are needed, it is well worth the investment.

Growing Your Construction Company

From improving client communication to building a stronger online presence, your construction business now has insights into ways to grow and evolve. Now you have to create a business plan that details what steps you will take and when so that you stay on track. Wishing you all the best with your organization.

Is Your Business Premises Disability-Friendly?

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The amount of traffic visiting your business could be impacted by whether or not your business is disability-friendly. There are a couple of accommodations you must make to achieve this. The following contributed post is entitled, Is Your Business Premises Disability-Friendly?

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Pixabay. CCO Licensed.

Businesses need to take steps to ensure that their company is inclusive to all. By not considering the needs of disabled customers and employees, you could be missing out on business opportunities – plus it could cause damage to your reputation if somebody complains.

There are many improvements that businesses can make to their premises to make it more disability-friendly. Here are just a few improvements to consider.

Add ramps and lifts

Those with mobility issues may not be able to use stairs. It’s worth considering the option of adding wheelchair ramps and lifts where possible. This could be particularly important if certain essential facilities cannot be accessed without taking stairs. If adding a lift isn’t possible or is too expensive, consider whether it might be possible to relocate certain facilities (such as placing toilets on a ground floor).

Include a disabled toilet

If your premises has a toilet on site, make sure that this is accessible to people with disabilities or consider building a separate toilet. Disability-friendly features could include adding grab bars, adequate space for wheelchair access and easily-accessible flushes and taps. You could even add an emergency cord that people can pull if they are in trouble. Having such a toilet could be essential if you are hiring disabled employees.

Make sure doors are easy to open

Heavy doors may be difficult to open for people with certain disabilities. Consider whether you can make improvements to make doors easier to open. This could include adding automatic doors or push buttons on the side of doors. Alternatively, you could have a separate entrance for people with disabilities.

Make sure corridors are clear enough

Tight corridors that require people to squeeze past or step over objects could be impossible for people with disabilities to negotiate. If it is likely that people with disabilities will need to use these corridors, you should consider clearing enough room for these people to get through. This may not be possible in old buildings with narrow corridors – in these cases, consider whether there is a way of moving vital facilities to more accessible areas or using alternative routes.

Set up easy-to-reach tools for disabled employees

If you are thinking of recruiting an employee with a disability, you may want to consider if any improvements need to be made to your premises. This could include providing desks at a certain height with enough room for wheelchair access. Certain equipment or tools that are currently located on high shelves may need to be placed somewhere lower so that these employees can easily reach these tools. When it comes to hard-to-reach plug sockets, you could even consider adding extension cables with power outlets that can be placed in a more accessible location.

Include disabled parking bays

If your premises has a car park, you could also consider adding priority bays for people with disabilities. This ensures that if the car park is full, any people with a disability are still likely to get a bay so that they don’t have to park elsewhere and travel a huge distance. These bays should be located near the entrance to your premises to limit the amount of distance these people have to walk.

Tips For Re-Opening Your Business After Lockdown

Three of the focuses of my blog are Current Events, Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. There’s a lot of talk opening businesses back up but it’s not so simple. Business owners must be very astute about re-opening. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips For Re-Opening Your Business After Lockdown.

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If there is one thing that we can be sure of, is that the pandemic has changed the way that we will all work – perhaps forever. As the world slowly comes out of lockdown, more and more businesses are getting ready to re-open once more, but with re-opening comes the challenge of navigating through an array of health and safety issues to ensure a safe working environment for all.

Here are 4 issues that you will need to address to help you get your business open and back on its feet again.

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Carry out a risk assessment
Before you can even think about re-opening the space for employees and members of the public, you will need to carry out a detailed assessment first to identify potential risk areas. Consult and engage with your employees, and trade unions if they apply to you, and share your results and findings with them. This will allow everyone to have their say and let you know what steps and measures you can take next to make everyone feel safe and reassured enough to happily come back to work.

Deep-clean
Employees and members of the public will, understandably, want assurances that workplaces are clean and safe. Invest in a good quality deep cleaning service to thoroughly disinfect your office, shop or manufacturing floor, and any other space that you and your employees use. Even if no one has been in the building since lockdown officially started, the area has been closed for months without any fresh air, and inevitably, collecting a lot of dust. As you probably didn’t have a chance to disinfect before your business closed, having a thorough deep-clean to ensure that all traces of bacteria and viruses have been destroyed should be your first point of action after the risk assessment. If you can, obtain certification as evidence and provide copies to your colleagues and partners for transparency.

Introduce hygiene procedures
With many still feeling anxious knowing that the virus is still circulating, introducing strict and vigorous hygiene procedures in-house shouldn’t be met with much opposition. Encourage people to follow the official rules regarding hygiene and handwashing and provide hand sanitisers that are easily accessible to everyone. Make them available throughout the entire workspace, with particular focus on high-traffic areas such as entrances and reception areas, as well as bathrooms and kitchens. Keep supplies stocked with various hygienic wipes, sanitisers, paper towels and cleaning equipment and motivate your employees to be proactive and frequently wipe down their own work areas and surfaces.

Maintain social distancing
While there are notable difficulties with social distancing at work, people should still be encouraged to maintain a distance wherever possible. Think about layouts and rearrange floors and work areas to create more space if at all possible, arrange one-way traffic flows through corridors and avoid sharing desks and other workstations at all costs. Where possible, continue to have appointments with visitors and clients via the phone or platforms such as Skype or Zoom and allow workers to keep the option of working from home more often. To further remind workers of social distancing rules and regulations, put up signs in rooms and corridors and mark out areas on floors using removable tape.