5 Tips For Creating An Outdoor Workspace In Your Landscaped Garden

During the Covid pandemic, there were very few businesses and business sectors that were not adversely affected, and landscaping companies were among them. Given the various lockdown rules and the need for social distancing, even though the garden is an outdoor space, there were few opportunities for landscapers and their clients to meet and discuss new garden designs.

Another result of the pandemic and lockdown was that millions of people who would have normally commuted into an office were obliged to work from home where it was feasible. Whilst this was a necessity due to the pandemic, many soon found that working at home was an enjoyable experience, and as a result, many businesses reported that the productivity of many of their employees went up significantly during this period.

Coming out the other side of covid, many of the employees who worked from home have been allowed to remain doing so, either full-time or for part of their working week. This has led to many individuals seeking ways to create an outdoor workspace with all the benefits that it brings such as working in the fresh air, and the natural surroundings.

So, if you have been considering an outdoor workspace for yourself as someone who now works from home, or if you were already working from home and wish to have an enhanced workspace, or simply for times when you are browsing the web on your laptop, here are five key tips that will help make that outdoor workspace all the more feasible and enjoyable.

How To Manage Your Business’s Inventory In Rented Storage

How To Manage Your Business’s Inventory In Rented Storage

Successful inventory management is vital for every business to avoid waste and losses, and one option available to assist with those aims is to rent secure Perth storage units from a commercial storage facility. By getting a proper inventory management system in place with the help of secure storage units, you will avoid unnecessary purchase orders, expired excess stock, and wasted working hours trying to deal with all those issues.

In this blog post, we will take a more detailed look at why effective stock management is vital and, specifically, how to use a secure storage facility as an integral part of what will make implementing your stock management easier for you.

First Steps

The first step is to select a storage facility with the space available and the additional services you need that will suit the needs of your business. Look at factors such as the size of the storage unit you require, the security on-site, flexibility such as opening times, and availability of climate-controlled units if they will be required. Also, ask other business owners if they can recommend any storage facilities they may have used.

Take An Accurate Inventory Count

Before transferring your existing inventory to your storage unit, accurately count what you currently have. This will not apply if you have no inventory or are a new business and will send your first inventory purchase to your storage unit. An accurate count of what you have provides the basis to check your inventory levels more easily and get an ongoing accurate inventory count once your stock is stored in your storage unit.

The Pros And Cons Of Leasing Office Furniture Versus Buying Office Furniture

When acquiring commercial furniture for a business, education center, health facility, or any other organization type, you have no shortage of choices. These choices include the style, the quantity, the specific furniture items, the colors, and the amount you will spend on it all. The last of those, spending, will be influenced by many factors, especially another choice you must make…Do you lease or buy commercial office furniture?

It is a choice that will influence many things, not least what you must pay upfront for your office furniture, any ongoing payments, and the total amount you will spend. It may also make a difference to the quantity, type, and quality of the office furniture you can acquire. Investing in premium quality furniture from trusted brands including Atama, would have more benefits than buying cheap furniture from Kmart or IKEA.

Ultimately, whether you buy or lease, office furniture will come down to which options you believe is the most advantageous. Determining that will require you to look at the pros and the cons of each option. If you are wondering what these pros and cons are, wonder no more, as we have laid them all out below.

How To Recognise The Warning Signs That An Employee Has A Drug Addiction

One of the comments that can be heard when someone enters drug rehab is from someone with them, be that a loved one, a friend, or their employer, which is, “I had no idea”. Granted, if someone has a drug addiction, it is more than likely that those in their family or their circle of friends would know; however, when it comes to their employer, it is undoubtedly the case that they are often the last to know.

We say that not to suggest that employers do not care about employees who are facing up to drug problems and getting help for it. Admittedly, some do not, but thankfully, many do. Still, notwithstanding the enlightened status on helping employees, it does not necessarily mean that they are going to be able to spot that one of their employees is regularly taking drugs and may even be addicted to them.

It is only after supporting that employee by enrolling them in drug rehab that an employer might discuss this with the drug rehab staff. The reason to do so is that they do not want to be in the same situation in the future where an employee who needs help does not receive it as soon as possible because the warning signs were not picked up.

What the drug rehab facilities professionals can outline is what to look for when determining if someone is using drugs and what warning signs are most obvious. Here are what warning signs they are likely to highlight, especially within a workplace environment.

10 Quick Tips For Employers To Promote A Supportive Approach Towards Employees With Drug Problems

If we were to examine the two extremes of employers’ views on employees who have drug problems, we would have those who would dismiss them without so much as a goodbye and those who would fully support their recovery and possibly even fund them entering drug rehabs in Perth. Thankfully, far more employers tend towards the latter attitude than the former.

We have to caveat that last statement by saying that we are not advocating that employers should let employees openly use drugs and turn a blind eye to it. Quite the reverse. Drug use serves no one other than criminal drug dealers, and so we most certainly agree the workplace is no place for drug taking.

However, it is also the case that, in our view, drug addiction should be viewed as an illness, and just as you would want someone with a heart or stomach disorder to receive the necessary treatment, then that likewise should apply to someone who is addicted to drugs.

As for how this plays out in the workplace and what the employer’s role should be, much of it will be dictated by what type of business it is and its drug policy, assuming it has one. Some businesses, due to the nature of what they do and the work done by their employees, have no option but to take a zero tolerance to drug use based on health and safety considerations and, in some cases, the law.

5 Signals Indicating Your Office Couches Need Professional Cleaning

Clear, clean windows are crucial for shops displaying goods and attracting customers. Regular window cleaning is a worthwhile investment, enticing window shoppers to enter and buy. Similarly, a stained or smelly couch for client meetings can instantly deter potential new clients.

However, if you do not have a regular couch cleaning agreement with professional upholstery cleaners, then it begs the question, at which point do you determine that your office furniture does need attention? If you do it randomly, the risk is that one or more chairs and couches get stained without you knowing about it, and horror of horrors, a client sees that stain and immediately forms a negative opinion of your business.

Far better than this scenario is to have a checklist that assists you in determining what triggers the need for you to call professional couch cleaners to take care of your upholstered furniture. As for what you have on that checklist, the best option is signs or signals, and when they occur, that tells you it is time to make that call. Here are what we consider the top five of those signals.

The Skills Required To Follow A Career In Actuarial Services

The Skills Required To Follow A Career In Actuarial Services

Have you ever considered a career in actuarial services? If instead of a “Yes” or “No” answer, your response was “What are actuarial services?” then we are sure you are not the only one. Whilst careers such as teacher, lawyer, and accountant are all well known, and the path to becoming one fairly clear, the path to becoming an Actuary is less so.

That is why we are going to go through, first, what an actuary is and the important work they do, and then we will outline the skills you need to become an actuary and to follow a successful career in actuarial services.

What Does An Actuary Do?

It stands to reason that if you are going to consider a career as an actuary, it will help to know what they do. Actuaries work within the finance sector advising upon products such as investments, insurance and pensions. Their clients can include both businesses and private individuals.

Their primary role involves the assessment of risks, and they do this by using tools such as mathematical models, statistical models, historical data, and the analysis of trends, to name but a few. By bringing these skills to the fore, an actuary can advise their clients as to the level of risks involved in a given scenario, and that allows those clients to make better informed financial decisions.

5 Unusual But Effective Team Building Activities

5 Unusual But Effective Team-Building Activities

When it comes to team building activities there are many tried and trusted ones that invariably help team leaders achieve the desired results. However, if you are one of those team leaders, managers, or coaches looking for something that differs from the norm, you will be pleased to know that there are numerous unusual team-building activities.

One of the reasons that these unusual team-building activities are so popular is that, just as with activities that you might undertake with your family or friends, the more remarkable and out of the ordinary they are, the more they are enjoyed. For a team leader looking to provide activities to help build their team, if the members of that team are actually enjoying those activities, the more they will benefit from them.

The question that might be on your mind now might be ‘Exactly what are these unusual team-building activities?’. Well, for a start we going to outline 5 of them, but beyond that, a simple search online using the search term ‘team building activities’ preceded with any of ‘unusual’, ‘bizarre’, ‘unique’, ‘extraordinary’, or ‘unconventional’ is bound to provide you with loads of excellent ideas.

One thing that these activities must be to qualify as being unusual is that they must be as far removed from the normal activities that your team would normally participate in. In other words, if they are a sales team, do not use sales-related acuities or if they are a team of dancers, by all means, have physical activity, but not one which requires them to dance. Here are those 5 activities…

Axe Throwing

The bowling alley is old news so why not go to an axe-throwing centre, with lanes where your team can try to hit targets with an axe? It can be made more competitive by splitting the groups into teams, and afterwards, you can all sit and have something to eat or drink whilst discussing hits and near misses.

7 Questions To Ask Yourself To Determine If Your Landscaping Offers Are Irresistible

7 Questions To Ask Yourself To Determine If Your Landscaping Offers Are Irresistible

One of the greatest lines in, what many consider one of the greatest ever movies, is “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse”, which was spoken by Marlon Brando in The Godfather, at which point you might now be asking “What has Don Corleone this got to do with landscapers?”. Well, making offers people cannot refuse works for landscaping businesses just as well as it did for mafia mobsters, except your offers will not come with threats attached.

Instead, your offers will help make it easier for you to gain new customers to create a win-win situation where your profits increase, and you have a delighted customer who is now more than willing to write positive reviews about your landscaping business.

Now, a problem exists in that some landscapers are unsure how to create these amazing offers we refer to. So, to help them, and you if you need help too, here are seven questions to which the answers will help you create outstanding offers to attract landscaping clients.

What Do My Prospects Need?

Your offers should invariably match the needs, wants, goals, and pain points of your target audience. Research what prospective landscaping customers in your area are looking for from landscapers and for their gardens, then create your offers around those.

5 Reasons To Relocate Your Dental Practice To New Premises

5 Reasons To Relocate Your Dental Practice To New Premises

For those dentists who own the dental practice you work in, one of the main decisions that you would have to make at some point was which premises you were going to set up that business in. In the time since, your business may have changed in several ways, and that can then lead to another question as to whether your current premises are congruent with where your business is at.

We appreciate that moving premises is a significant step, and will undoubtedly cause some level of upheaval. However, for all the short-term downsides of moving, multiple positives can be realised, some quickly, and some in time. Below we have outlined five positive reasons for moving your dental practice to new premises.

It Can Reduce Outgoings And Thus Increase Profits

It is not the case that to increase profits you must always increase revenue. Profits can also be increased by reducing costs, and often one of the ways to do so is moving to a new location. Dentists can find themselves in premises where the rent and ancillary costs are extremely higher and continue to increase. If a landlord is not willing to reduce rent then it can often be the most sensible step to move to other premises where rent and cost are much lower.

5 Signs That Your Business’s Commercial Lift Needs Refurbishing Or Replaced

5 Signs That Your Business’s Commercial Lift Needs Refurbishing Or Replaced

When you are ultimately responsible for the welfare and safety of everyone who enters your business premises, it certainly pays for you to be vigilant. That should also include you encouraging your staff and anyone who enters your building to report anything which they feel is unsafe or in need of attention.

One part of your building where what we have just outlined will be most crucial is your commercial lift or lifts if you have more than one. Whilst commercial lifts are by design extremely safe, that safety is compromised if regular maintenance is not undertaken, or repairs and refurbishments do not take place when the condition of your lift warrants them.

The significance of that last paragraph should not be underestimated, and we are sure most business owners do not shirk their responsibilities concerning safety. However, where the intentions may be good, there could be a lack of knowledge regarding knowing what signs to look for that would suggest your commercial lift requires refurbishment, or in extreme cases, needs some or all of it to be replaced altogether. Here are 5 of those signals.

5 Steps To Ensure You Choose The Right Investment Or Financial Planner

5 Steps To Ensure You Choose The Right Investment Or Financial Planner

As you have built and continue to run your business, we are sure you have sought advice and guidance from many professionals relating to your business and its finances such as your accountant or commercial lawyer. That same principle applies when it is your personal finances that are being considered and this is where you may wish to meet with investors or financial planners.

To clarify the difference is not easy as the two roles often overlap and you will even find two people advising on the same financial matters, with the first company designating them as a financial planner, and the second company calling theirs an investment planner.

In most cases, an investment planner is someone who, unsurprisingly, is an expert on investments, and a financial planner is an expert in several areas of personal finance, including investment planning. However, regardless of their job title, when choosing a financial or investment planner process of making the correct choice is identical in each case. For brevity and clarity, we will use the term ‘financial planner’ to represent both.

5 Essential Functions A Dentist’s Website Must Perform To Enhance Their Business

5 Essential Functions A Dentist’s Website Must Perform To Enhance Their Business

In an age where the vast majority of people use the internet to search for products and services, all dentists must have a website. Anyone searching for a dentist in their local area, will doubtless see most of them have a website of some kind, but the more pertinent question should be whether any of those websites benefit the dental practice it represents.

This follows from the fact that merely having a website online is pointless if it achieves nothing. We guarantee that you could check over 100 dental practice websites and it would be a good day if any more than 20% of them tick every box in the list of functions a website should have.

Note that whilst a website looking great is an advantage, too many of them focus on its appearance, rather than it doing anything to promote the dental business including encouraging potential patients to get in touch. To clarify what a website should achieve, here are five basic functions every dental practice’s website should fulfil.

A Website Must Have Goals

One of the biggest website design mistakes is that it has no specific goals, and its purpose for existing has not been identified. A dental practice’s website can have many functions such as expounding its impressive record of patient satisfaction, promoting special treatments, or simply getting prospective patients to call to register.

Pros And Cons Of 6 Different Commercial Carpet Cleaning Methods

Pros And Cons Of 6 Different Commercial Carpet Cleaning Methods

Commercial carpet cleaners are asked to clean carpets in offices and other business premises that may have been stained differently. In addition, the state of the rug will depend on the type of business, how many people walk across it each day, and how well it has been cared for in the past, if at all.

As a result of all these variables, commercial carpet cleaning companies have had to develop several different carpet cleaning methods over the years; no single carpet cleaning method stands above all others as they each have specific uses and individual pros and cons. Thanks to the professional advice from Brilliance Carpet Cleaning Perth, you are about to discover the pros and cons as we look at 6 of the most common commercial carpet cleaning methods.

Vacuuming: Everyone knows this method, and it is still integral to commercial carpet cleaning to remove dirt and grit from carpets.

Pros

  • Very cost-effective
  • Simple and easy
  • Ideal for removing dirt and grit
  • Helps reduce wear in carpets

Cons

  • Needs to be done regularly….daily if possible
  • Not suitable for wet stains
10 Areas Of Your Restaurant You Must Ensure Are Cleaned And Sanitised Daily

10 Areas Of Your Restaurant You Must Ensure Are Cleaned And Sanitised Daily

If you own or run a restaurant of any kind, you will hopefully be more than aware that the cleanliness and hygiene within your premises are every bit, if not more important, than how good your food tastes. After all, what is the point of having the best chefs and service staff, if no one visits your restaurant because it has gained a reputation for being unclean and unhygienic?

We are sure that is not the case and that you do all you can to make your restaurant clean, perhaps by using professional cleaners from gleamcleanwa.com.au to either advise on or to carry out cleaning tasks regularly.

Whether you use outside professionals or have your own team of trained cleaners, you need to be conscious of the fact that there are some parts of your restaurant and items within it, that require special attention and at the very least cleaned and sanitised daily. These are the ones that are especially in use when it comes to the cooking, preparation, and serving of food, plus others that many customers will come into contact with. Here are ten examples of what we mean.

Tabletops: Probably one of the most obvious examples given that multiple people will have eaten at a table and dropped food on it. It is not enough to simply wipe the table of spillages, and the like, but after each guest leaves it should be sanitised before the next guests sit down.

7 Ways Your Wills Lawyer Business Benefits From Better Branding

7 Ways Your Wills Lawyer Business Benefits From Better Branding

It may the case that within some wills lawyer businesses that marketing and branding are well down the list of priorities. Hopefully, that is not the case for your business because by ignoring them you are undoubtedly missing out on a huge number of opportunities to enhance the performance of your business.

In particular, by branding your wills lawyers business effectively you open it up to a huge number of advantages. This is especially important if you operate in an area where there is significant local competition for the sorts of legal services you provide. In this article we are going to examine 7 of the main reason why your wills lawyer business can benefit from effective branding.

Projects A Premium Identity

Any branding that means a business is perceived as being premium or first class will definitely attract more customers, and more importantly, allow that business to charge premium fees for its services. We are not suggesting that you rebrand your business simply with the sole intention of increasing your fees, but there is no escaping the fact that a first-class image, provided it is backed up with first-class customer service, gives you that option.

Improves The Chances Of Expansion

As a business’s performance improves and its revenue and profits increase likewise as a result of improved branding, its future becomes a lot brighter. Part of that future could include you deciding to reinvest some of those profits into expanding your wills lawyer business. That could mean relocating to bigger offices or even opening additional offices in other areas. Each of these new offices should see similar success, thanks to the main brand being so strong.

How To Design A Meditation Room On Your Business Premises

Suppose you are an employer who takes a proactive stance in aiding your workforce’s mental health. In that case, you may have encountered scenarios where employees have been dealing with depression, family trauma, anxiety, and also those who have gone through a drug rehab program. That you support your employees in these and other situations is laudable, and you might wonder what more you can do to promote all your employees’ mental health.

People are becoming increasingly aware that not all mental health issues require prescriptive medicine and that their mental well-being can be maintained and improved using other methods. There are many of these methods around, and meditation is often cited as highly effective.

Meditation is a means of quieting the mind and focusing on the present moment to the exclusion of anything else. People benefit in lots of ways from meditation, and the most commonly mentioned is clarity of thinking, a feeling of relaxation, and one that all is well. With regards to those who might be going through drug rehabilitation, these are indeed three excellent states of mind to be in.

Whatever the reason you believe medication might benefit your employees, you can encourage it further by creating somewhere within your business premises that they go to and meditate. Whether you call it a meditation room or meditation space does not matter. The fact that it will exist and be available for use by employees is an important point.

5 Signs Your Office Carpet Needs To Be Professionally Cleaned

Suppose you are a business owner or office manager. In that case, you will possibly be responsible for organising the cleaning and maintenance regimes within your office, and part of that will be the carpet cleaning.

In normal circumstances, it might be sufficient for your day-to-day cleaners to do the regular vacuuming and occasional stain removal for your carpets. Still, ultimately, you may need to take further action. That action is when it becomes necessary for you to arrange for the rugs in your office to be professionally cleaned.

The question this begs is at what point do you make that call, and what signs should you be looking for to tell you it is time for professional cleaners to come and use their skills and experience to get your carpets looking at their very best again. Here are five of those signs.

#1 Increased Instances of Allergies

If your office staff are prone to hay fever attacks or have shown ever-increasing signs of allergies, such as sneezing or skin irritation, it could be a sign that your carpet is playing host to many allergens and bacteria. These microscopic nasties, including dust mites and pollen, will remain permanently if a rug is not cleaned correctly.

Even daily vacuuming might not be enough, so having the offending carpet professionally deep cleaned is the answer. This will remove allergens and bacteria and make your office healthier.

Pros And Cons Of Using An Office Removalist Company

Pros And Cons Of Using An Office Removalist Company

Whenever a business decides that it wishes to relocate to another office it has many choices to make. One of the first decisions will surely be whether they wish to organise and facilitate the relocation themselves, or whether they are going to hire the services of a professional office relocations company.

Clearly, the matters that each business needs to weight up with regards to making this decision will be influenced by the size of the business, the distance between the two offices, the amount that has to be moved, and obviously the budget that they are able to allocate to the relocation.

Beyond these, it is a case of weighing up the pros and cons of hiring office removalists, and then deciding. Being the helpful people that we are, we have those pros and cons here for you.

The Pros

They will Know How To Plan It

One of the keys to any office relocation is the planning of it, and often business owners do not even know where to start, let alone actually create a plan. A professional office relocation company will advise you on the best way to plan and prepare for the relocation.

They Will Support You

Even though they may have helped you with the plan, there are bound to be things that crop up which you are unsure of. Rather than trying to work them out for yourself,  your office removalists will be happy to take a call or answer an email that asks for help or advise.

They Can Supply The Packing Materials

No doubt many of the items which are being  moved will be expensive, such as computer equipment. To ensure that they and any other valuable or fragile items are protected properly against damage en route, they will be able to supply you with the best packing materials for the job.

Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Designing Your Dental Website

Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Designing Your Dental Website

As a well respected dentist, you will undoubtedly know the ‘Top Ten’ mistakes that every dentist should avoid but are you as familiar with the web design mistakes to avoid when building or updating your dental practice website.

You might think that you do not need to know these as it is not you who is building or developing the website, however, not knowing them could mean that if your website developer does make one or more mistakes, you will be oblivious to them. Some mistakes might be easily remedied, but others are not, and if it means that the ranking of your website is negatively impacted, that is not going to be an overnight fix.

So, rather than having the hassle of trying to fix mistakes after they happen, by knowing what they are, you can ensure that whoever is designing your website, does not make them in the first place. So, with that in mind, here are ten of the worst dental website design mistakes to avoid.

Slow Load Speed: One of the biggest mistakes made is that the website takes too much time to load, meaning visitors click away immediately. A poor web design strategy that uses unnecessarily large file sizes is one of the major causes of this.

No Calls To Action: Ultimately you want your website visitors to take some kind of action such as book an appointment or follow your social media, for example. Make sure you have clear calls to action on every page.

Media Auto-Playing: One of the reasons that someone will choose to leave your dental practice website quickly is if it has audio or video that plays automatically. It might work on certain websites, but for the most part, almost all visitors hate it, so make sure any media only plays when visitors want it to.

Benefit From An Office Relocation

5 Ways Your Business Can Benefit From An Office Relocation

There are many office relocations that take place, not because the business chose to relocate, but due to other circumstances that arise. It could be that the building in question is being renovated by the landlords, or even sold.

Another reason could be that the business’s finances are such that continual rent increases mean the costs of remaining in the current offices is simply not affordable any longer. Of course, there are many other reasons out with the business’s control that force relocation, and the potential upheaval can also cause problems if it is not done properly by professional removalists.

Thankfully, forced relocations are rare, and a more positive type of office relocation is one which the business chooses to undergo of its own volition. These tend to occur due to the owners or senior management of a business seeing that there are several advantages to office relocation, and wishing to avail themselves, and their business of them.

An Improvement in Productivity

It is a well-known fact that if staff are happy and feel comfortable in the environment and surroundings they work in, then their productivity rates will be higher. Any business, including those that operate from offices, will benefit from increased productivity.

New premises can allow for the purchase of new and updated office equipment which can further improve the working environment for employees and provide them further ways to increase how productive they are.

Eco-Friendly Office Space

Top 5 Tips for Creating an Eco-Friendly Office Space

Eco-friendly living is becoming increasingly popular in the modern world, and this environmental mindset is rapidly expanding into the business world. It doesn’t matter if you run a website design agency or a mechanics workshop – there are numerous things you can do to make your premises better for the environment.

In the rest of this article, we’ve explored our top five tips for creating an eco-friendly office space. Remember, these are just a few of our top ideas – there are plenty more things you could do to reduce your office’s carbon footprint and save our wonderful planet.

  1. Turn Everything Off Every Night

Although it may seem a little self-explanatory, it’s amazing how many people don’t turn everything off before leaving the office. It’s a good idea to get into the habit of switching off all electronics – including computers, printers, and routers – along with lights and heating devices before you leave the office. Doing so will save electricity, and therefore reduce your environmental footprint.

  1. Create a Sustainable Office Policy

If you don’t already have some sort of recycling and environmental policy, you need one. It’s as simple as that. Not only will these documents help you reduce your environmental footprint and transform your office into something “greener”, but they will also help you ensure you’re not breaking any laws.

  1. Avoid Single-Use Items

Single-use plastics and other items, including stationery, coffee cups, and a wide range of other common office equipment, are the leading cause of what is arguably the biggest modern environmental catastrophe – pollution. Reduce single-use plastic in your office, and you will be going a long way towards becoming a much greener operation.

Security Alarm System

Five Reasons Your Office Needs a Security Alarm System

Installing a security alarm or some other security system is a great way to ensure your office is protected from intruders and anyone else who may want to break in. This can save you significant amounts of money, especially if you hold valuable stock or other items on your premises.

There are numerous other benefits associated with installing an office security system. For example, it will help your staff feel safer – especially if you have people working night-shift or in a dodgy neighbourhood. With this in mind, we’ve outlined five of our top reasons why you should consider installing a security alarm system for your office. They include:

  1. It Will Encourage Customers to Trust You

Having a visibly obvious security system installed will not only protect your business from fire and theft but will also help customers trust you and your services. A business that takes security seriously is much more likely to do things properly, as opposed to one that’s secured with a padlock and heavy chain or something similar. Additionally, people will be much more likely to trust you with their sensitive information if your premises are properly secured.

  1. It Will Help Secure Your Stock and Other Valuables

Many businesses carry thousands of dollars worth of stock. If you don’t hold a lot of stock, the chances are that you use valuable electronic equipment. Or, you may even have customer items that are awaiting repair or replacement. Whatever the case, the chances are that you have a large number of valuable items on your premises, and having a reliable security system will help you protect these.

Workplace Policies

When Do I Need to Draft New Workplace Policies?

If you’re an employer or manager of a large business, you need to ensure that the relevant workplace policies are in place. These are basically legal documents that outline the appropriate response or actions in specified situations such as covering what is or is not unfair dismissal. Many businesses use employment lawyers to help them draft new policies.

However, it can be difficult to know when you need new workplace policies, and exactly what these should cover. To help you make these initial decisions, we’ve created a short guide outlining when you should consider drafting new workplace policies:

When Current Policies Are Out Of Date

If your current workplace policies are old and potentially outdated, you should definitely think about reviewing and potentially updating them. Old policies could contain misleading or incorrect information with the potential to lead to serious workplace incidents.

If the People Using the Policy Have Changed

It often happens that when a business grows, the people working under a specific policy will change. When this happens, you need to conduct a careful review to ensure everyone is covered.

In many cases, you will only need to update small parts of the existing policy. At times, though, you may even need to draft entire new documents that complement the existing ones. If this is the case, think seriously about getting help from a workplace lawyer or other industry expert.

Managing WordPress Website

Top Tips For Managing Your WordPress Website

So you’ve got a decent WordPress website with an attractive website design and all the content you want. It looks and works great, so you’re done, right?

Wrong. Running a WordPress website requires a lot of ongoing maintenance. Even if your site does work well, it’s a great idea to add new content and continue improving processes over time. Doing this will help improve the user experience for your site’s visitors, help you improve your site’s performance, and help ensure continued growth and success going forwards.

With this in mind, I’ve put together a short list of my top tips for managing a WordPress website. They include:

  1. Update your WordPress software

WordPress regularly releases new performance and software updates. If you want to get the most out of your website, it’s important to make sure that you regularly update your software.

Luckily, the WordPress dashboard will usually tell you if your current version is out of date, and it lets you update with the click of a button.

Keeping your site up to date like this will ensure that you benefit from all the latest WordPress features and functions, letting you stay ahead of your competition.

  1. Use a decent back-up plugin

There’s nothing worse than spending countless hours building a fresh web design, only to lose it all when your hosting provider’s servers crash. Luckily, there are ways to protect yourself against this.

Start by installing a decent back-up plugin. There are plenty to choose from, but try and find one with decent reviews that backs up your site’s content regularly.

Professional Car Mechanic

Why A Business Should Use A Professional Car Mechanic

DIY mechanics can save you a lot of money. However, they can also lead to a huge range of problems, especially if you don’t have a lot of mechanical knowledge. If you’ve got an old car that’s not worth a lot of money, then DIY mechanics can be an acceptable option. However, owners of newer or luxury vehicles should always use a professional car mechanic for all repairs and maintenance.

Although something like a Mercedes Benz service can be expensive, according to MB Star Motors it’s worth paying the money to get it done properly. Using a professional car mechanic has a whole range of benefits, including:

  1. They Will Identify Small Problems Before They Become Big Ones

Often, it’s hard to find small problems with your car unless you know what you’re looking for. An experienced mechanic who services cars for a living will know exactly what they should be looking for, which will help them spot problems. Fixing these problems before they got too big can save you a lot of time and money in the long run, especially if you’ve got an expensive car.

Accountant

How Can An Accountant Save Me Money?

When it comes to running a business, forking out the money to hire an accountant can actually save you a lot of money in the long run. Although many small businesses can’t afford to hire someone full-time, even hiring a bookkeeper for just a couple of hours per week can make huge differences.

There are numerous ways that an accountant or bookkeeper can save you money. They can make your business run more efficiently, they will help you minimise your tax bill as much as possible, and they will be able to identify potential problems in your business model before they become major. Some of the main ways that accountants can help you save money include:

Via tax deductions or offsets:

Although you may not realise it, you may be missing out on a lot of potential tax deductions or offsets by doing your tax return on your own. Employing an accountant to both manage your books and complete your tax return can help you minimise these losses.

However, it is important to make sure that you use a seasoned professional who knows what they are doing. Try and find someone with experience relevant to your business, and don’t be afraid to pay a little more for someone who knows the rules inside and out.

Fire Safety

Who Is Responsible For Fire Safety In Your Workplace?

Fire safety is a huge concern in workplaces throughout Australia, especially in the hotter, drier parts of the country. While fire protection equipment like fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems can help protect your workplace, effective fire safety is about more than just installing the right protective gear.

Ultimately, you can have the best fire safety equipment in the world, but if no one knows how to use it, it will be pretty ineffective. It is therefore extremely important to make sure that you understand who is responsible for fire safety in your workplace, and to make sure that they understand what their responsibilities are.

So, Who Is Responsible?

Under Australian occupational health and safety laws, the management of any business or company has the responsibility to make sure that all health and safety risks – such as fire – are minimised. If a fire does occur, there must be someone on site who knows where fire safety equipment is kept, how it is operated and what sort of fire safety gear is appropriate for different types of fires.

However, it is also the responsibility of employees to cooperate with a workplace’s fire management policies and procedures. In a lot of workplaces, these will include some sort of safety induction at the start of a job or when you enter a new workplace. This will often include an identification of where fire safety equipment is kept, and a brief explanation of how it is used. It is your responsibility, as an employee, to make sure that you take note of any safety information provided by your employer.

Comfortable Office Environment

How to Create a More Comfortable Office Environment

If you conduct your business from your home or from a small complex that includes an outdoor area, it’s a great idea to provide alfresco furniture for staff to relax on during their coffee or lunch break. Being outside for just five minutes is so refreshing that they will come back to work full of energy, not to mention much healthier for having been in the fresh air and sunshine.

The idea of creating comfort in the office may seem at odds with that of getting staff to work in a brisk, efficient manner. But if employees are uncomfortable at their desks, they will take a lot more breaks simply to ease the aches and pains they feel.  In addition, it is much harder to focus 100% on any task if you are feeling physically uncomfortable.

Creating a more comfortable office is not difficult and your staff will be much happier and more productive.  Experts tell us that it is not good to sit at a desk for hours at a time. Employees need to get up and walk around a bit and they can do this when they take business calls on their mobile phones.  But they may not always want to walk, especially if space is limited, or if the call is a confidential one.

Instead of walking around – or as well as – provide an easy chair for them to relax in while they are taking calls or even talking to clients.  This will give them a chance to move from the computer chair and sit somewhere else that is different and so uses different muscles. Their position will have changed at least six times, when –