Daily Archives: February 14, 2017

What’s Inside The Box? Assembling The Perfect Toolbox

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Home renovations don’t spring up from the ground. To make your house a home you are going to need the right tools. And you are going to have to put those tools in a box. Hence, you need a toolbox if you have any plans on renovating or improving your home in the future. The good news is you don’t have to go to much hassle to get everything you need for a simple bit of DIY. All you need, in fact, is this handy guide that tells you how to assemble the perfect toolbox.

 

Don’t Be Satisfied

 

It isn’t okay to buy a few tools and sit back and enjoy a beer. Well, it isn’t if you want a toolbox that actually has some use. A great toolbox is full of tools that may come in handy in any and every event. The best example is a screwdriver. A screwdriver is an essential piece of kit, but there are two different types. If you don’t have a Phillips’ head, say, you won’t be able to tackle the problems that need a Phillips’ head screwdriver. There are plenty of tools that have very subtle differences, and you need to collect them all.

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Buy For The Future

 

The reason a good toolbox is full of tools is because every DIYer knows you have to buy with the future in mind. Sure, you can buy tools as you need them to keep the cost low. Plus, it makes maintaining the equipment a lot easier. But, just like the Phillips’ head example, you will come up against a problem you have never seen before. And when that happens, the odds are high you won’t have the right tools if you only buy them when necessary. With a quick look to the future, you can estimate what you will need in certain situations. If you don’t think you can do that, just look at the most common issues and buy tools accordingly.

 

Power Is King

 

Manual tools are handy; there is no doubt about that. But, they are a lot slower and less efficient than power tools. Power tools, as the name suggests, have the ability to turn daunting renovations into quick fixes. So, even the biggest novice can learn how to put up a shelf or change a light bulb. With the help of Drills and Drivers, you’ll be able to do much more. A good power tool is hard to come by, and that’s why you need to review any that you buy. There is plenty on the market, and picking one isn’t easy. As a result, it isn’t too difficult to choose one that isn’t right. Remember: a little bit of research goes a long way.

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A toolbox might not seem like the most important thing in the world at this moment. But, when you start making changes to your home, you will soon see how important they are to the process. It is impossible to do it yourself without one, and just as hard without the right tools. Thankfully, you don’t have to worry about that any longer.

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Lowering Your Business Bills? It’s All In The Technology

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Business expenses can mount up pretty quickly, and sometimes it can feel like you’re in the business of solely signing check after check. When will it end? When will it end?! Alas, most probably never – but, there are ways you can lower your bills. It’s all about using technology to make your business more efficient. If you – and your company – have been living in the dark ages of old, then read on and you might just find ways to improve your business profits.

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Up in the Clouds

 

Hard Drives and other traditional storage types aren’t necessarily expensive by themselves, but they can cause high costs – and massive headaches – down the line if they were to fail. Why? Because when a hard drive breaks, you’re not just paying to replace the broken piece of kit: you’re paying to replace all the information that was stored on them. This can set your company back, right back to the beginning if you’re still developing. By moving to a cloud storage, you’ll be getting inexpensive, reliable storage that absolutely will not fail you. If you’re technology is damaged, then no worries, because your important data is still out there, online.

 

Transitioning to Digital

 

In this day and age, there’s little reason to use old ways of doing things. They’re often more expensive, less reliable, and produce huge amounts of waste. VoIP and business phone solutions can cut down the cost of a telephone line and calls, which can be significant if you’re constantly on the phones with clients – and the calls can be taken from a wide range of mediums, which mean you’re more likely to be reached. Also, moving all your paper documents to digital, and using digital screens rather than printing each page can be a money saver when spread over a long period.

 

Upgrading Your Systems

 

Sometimes you have to spend money to make money. If you’re using outdated technology, then there’s every chance that you’re losing valuable manpower hours as staff wait for things to load, the computer runs slowly, or you have a computer not capable of running the latest time saving apps. Giving your technological infrastructure a much needed boost and you’ll notice productivity increase. It might not exactly lower the bills, but it’ll bring extra revenue – which is even better.

 

Working from Afar

 

Having staff on site can be a costly business. There are rooms to heat, tea and coffee to provide, and so on. In many cases, people are able to telecommute, and are definitely able to if they work exclusively online. There are many apps available for meetings should they be required, also. Cutting down on the amount of hours people spend in the office has other benefits too, such as making people work more productively and boosting employee morale.

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Source: Pexels.com

 

What Have You Already Got?

 

Before you splash out on new technology, have a look to see what you’ve already got. Many people buy one item (say, a printer) for a single job, not knowing that it can do many other tasks too (print; copy, scan, etc).

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How To Best A Lack Of Rest

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It’s all good and well to tell yourself you need to sleep, but, like many of our worries, switching our brain off isn’t really something we can control. It’s letting go of the need to control which helps us finally shut down and drift off into relaxation or a restful night’s sleep. You shouldn’t be forcing anything or your restlessness will worsen. You fall asleep when your body and mind are both entirely relaxed, so this piece of advice makes sense, when you really think about it.

 

Of course, you most likely already know that your stresses and worries are the things which keep you awake, but that doesn’t mean you know how to simply relax and doze off at the end of a highly charged and chaotic day, whether you’re in the middle of a taxing project for your company or facing exams which determine your future at school. Either way, here are some pieces of advice for those of you looking for better ways to fall asleep and form a better sleeping pattern.

 

Work up a sweat.

However tired you are in the evening depends on what kind of day you might have had. The best way to calm a stressed mind at night is to calm it during the day, and exercise is a great way to do this. Better yet, you’re not only calming your thoughts and creating much more level thought patterns, but you’re tiring your body, which means you’ll welcome sleep more easily in the evening.

 

Self-training.

You need to be strict with yourself. You should be putting together a regular bedtime routine, because sometimes we don’t feel physically tired, even though our body craves and demands sleep. If we rely solely on “feeling tired” to determine when we should go to bed, that’s how our sleeping pattern ends up becoming messy and fluctuating frequently. A good guide is to aim for eight hours sleep per night, but going to bed and waking up at the same time every day is the most important thing. In terms of the length of your sleep, that’s an individual matter; it will vary for each individual. Some people only require seven hours sleep, and eight hours might be over-sleeping. On the other end of the spectrum, some people require nine or ten hours sleep, and eight hours might be under-sleeping. You can’t believe all the folk myths you hear. Listen to your own body. You know how much sleep you should be getting, because you’re clearly not getting enough at the moment if you’re reading this.

 

It’s all about your mind over matter. You shouldn’t be over-thinking it; you should be under-thinking. Sleep is a process whereby your body heals and regenerates, and that includes resting your mind. Allow your thoughts to drift off naturally, whatever may come into your mind. You could look into nutritional coaching services, if you’re still struggling to drift off, because there may be a medical reason for your insomnia..

 

No technology.

Your body and mind need time to shut down before you fall asleep, which means you shouldn’t be taking your phone or laptop to bed with you. You might think you have insomnia or some deeply rooted sleeping problem, but anxiety or stress might not be the causes at all. It could be simply that you’re scrolling through social media whilst lying in bed, and then expecting to fall asleep immediately after putting your phone down. You should give yourself an hour of no technology before falling asleep. Read a book, perhaps.

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Business Growth Blunders To Avoid

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I’ve been writing business features for a while now, and in that time, I’ve come across a lot of small and large businesses that fail to hit their targets in terms of growth, or wind up growing at an extremely slow rate. Then there are those that go through a period of massive exponential growth, but have owners who don’t know how to handle it! If you want to hit your targets in terms of growth, you need to understand the factors that affect it, and avoid the major blunders that a lot of entrepreneurs seem to make. Here are a few big mistakes you need to avoid when it comes to stimulating growth…

Having a Poor Mindset

If a business owner doesn’t have the right mindset for stimulating their operation, and generally going the extra mile with the work they’re putting in, it can be a serious strain on the company’s potential for success. Many uphold that success in business is 90% in the owner’s mindset, and 10% practical work. I wouldn’t say this is entirely true, but hey, it drives my point home! You need to have the courage to take risks, and the logical shrewdness to know which ones are worth taking, and which could blow up in your face. Even when things knock you down, you need to have the resilience to bounce back and carry on striving towards your next big milestone.

Bad Hiring

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From Flickr

As your business grows and develops, you’re going to need to hire people in to take care of various tasks. When running your recruitment drives, it’s essential that you try to avoid any missteps, and thoroughly scour your pool of talent for the very best people for the role. A single bad hire can cost your business tens of thousands in a short space of time, and poison an otherwise positive workplace culture. The really bad ones can be the root of HR and employment law disputes, which may send you high-tailing it for companies like Ellis Whittam. If there’s one common mistake made by small business owners, it’s having a recruitment process which isn’t demanding enough. If you’re running on a simple application and an interview, it may be time to add a few more layers to the recruitment process. Have questionnaires and several interviews, possibly even group exercises with rival candidates. If they’re a creative, then have them do a trial piece of work. I know, this sounds gruelling, and that’s the idea! If a candidate makes it to the end of this process, you’ll know one thing for sure: they’re willing to jump through hoops when they’re asked, and they have a genuine interest in working for your company. This means that they’ll be much more receptive to training and ongoing guidance in the job.

Neglecting the Website and SEO

It’s 2017, and that means that as a business owner, your company website needs to be one more money-making part of the overall operation. Despite this, countless business owners maintain websites which have never made a penny, and exist purely for marketing purposes. While a good website can certainly be a great marketing tool, you need to make sure that you’re getting the most out of yours. Different company sites require different approaches, but there are certain universal principles you can follow to ensure it garners a better conversion rate. First of all, make sure it’s educational. Before they decide whether or not to buy from your company, your target market is just going to want information and education from the site. Next, be sure to include an opt-in box with a decent level of white space. This is a great tool for getting new customers’ names and email addresses. Finally, you need to pay some attention to your organic SEO ranking. A lot of small businesses will invest in PPC, and assume that this is all the marketing you need in a modern, digital age. However, if you’re not doing anything that will reap in organic (through normal search results) traffic, you’re inevitably going to fall behind your competitors. Whether you hire a full-time in-house team, or outsource the work to a company like SEO Professor, you can’t afford to neglect this facet of online marketing.

While growth is necessary if you want your business to be as successful as possible, there’s a right way and a wrong way to stimulate it. As you start to expand and develop, keep these mistakes in mind, and do everything in your power to avoid them!

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