Issue 19

I s s ue19•Nov e mbe r / De c e mbe r2016

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1 3 10SimpleWaystoIncreaseYourBrandAwareness 1 7 WhyChangeisImportantinBusiness 2 1 ChangingLandscapeofBusiness 2 3 TheTopFiveWaysToStayFitandHealthyInTheWorkplace

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E di t or S a ndr aHi ns he l wood

Me s s a g ef r omt hee di t or We l c omet oI s s ue1 9 .

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L a y out&De s i g n S a ndr aHi ns he l wood& J a s mi neHi ns he l wood

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Ce l e br angy ours uc c e s swi l l :

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He r e ’ st oa not he r3y e a r s !

T oy ours uc c e s s , S a ndr a

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5 Easy Things you can do NOW to make your Business Safer from Hackers

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By Andrew Woods Enable Windows Updates

Windows updates are regular security updates released by Microsoft each month. They are designed to 'plug' any security holes in the operating system that hackers and malware can exploit to gain access to your data or even take control of your computer completely. Ensuring you

apply these updates to all of your PC's and servers each month will give your business a much-needed security boost and make it much more difficult for threats to infiltrate. This is one of the most important things you can do to make your business more secure and should not be considered as an option. If you are not already updating your systems this way please start now! (pretty please)

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Remove Administrator Privileges

When you install Windows on a PC the first user account created is automatically given Administrator level permissions. A lot of businesses go on to use this account as their everyday login to carry out their normal work duties. From a security perspective, unfortunately this is one of the worst things you can do within your business. The risk comes from the amount of power the administrator account wields. If a hacker or malware is able to infiltrate your PC it typically 'inherits' the level of permissions from the user account you are logged on with. This means it will have complete control of your PC and all of your data as it will have administrator level access. To remove the administrator level permissions you will typically need to either (a) create another standard user account and use this going forward or (b) create another administrator account and remove your current account from the administrators user group.

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Review your Antivirus software

10 years ago antivirus software was able to stop the majority of threats to your data. Unfortunately the nature of cyber threats has changed a lot since then and because of this you can no longer rely on antivirus software on its own to protect your data. It still provides an essential layer of protection however so the antivirus protection you decide to install is an important choice. We would recommend you buy a 'non-free’ version to protect your business as there is a lot of research and development needed to detect the latest internet threats, and this obviously costs money. Therefore a 'non-free' version is much more likely to protect you better than a free version. Some non-free versions also come with additional security features such as email and/or website threat protection, adding further security. If you don’t want to purchase antivirus software, at the very least install a free version. There are many of these available now and they are usually easy to install.

Once installed, make sure you schedule the software to update its antivirus database automatically. This means it will be able to detect, and hence, protect you from the latest threats that are out there.

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Educate yourself and your staff about the serious risks from email attachments

Over the last couple of years the number and seriousness of internet threats delivered by email have increased dramatically. Nowadays malware can be disguised in all types of seemingly innocent documents. They are now being contained in documents such as Microsoft Word and Excel files, as well as PDF documents. As soon as these infected documents are opened malware can install itself and run its potentially disastrous application. The most lethal of these types of threat are Ransomware infections. This type of malware actively searches for your most critical data files, such as PDF documents, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets and encrypts them so you can no longer open or read them. Once all your files have been encrypted a message is displayed asking for a sum of money to get your data back.

Newer variants also target Sage files and your PC recovery files (so you can no longer restore your PC). There aren’t any official reports from people who have had their data returned so we would not recommend paying the ransom. This means the only way to get your data back

is by restoring it from backups (see section 5 below).

We have first-hand experience of how effective this type of malware is and it can be devastating. In the last three months alone we have dealt with several of these attacks and every time we have had to restore the data from an earlier backup.

So how do you help prevent this type of attack?

The first thing to do is make sure your staff are made aware of how devastating this type of malware can be and that it can be hidden in common file types attached to emails. Ensure this becomes an item at staff meetings and make sure all staff understand how important this is to the business If an email contains an attachment and you suspect it may be malicious but can't be sure, always err on the side of caution and DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. It is getting more difficult these days to tell if an email is legitimate or not but deleting it is infinitely better than losing all of your business' data!

Ensure your antivirus software is always up-to-date. It should update its virus database files at least once a day so it can detect the latest viruses. Your

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antivirus software won't protect you from all email threats but may detect and stop some of them.

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Take regular backups

If you store data that is essential for your business to run - and let's face it this is usually most of our data! - you should always (and I mean always!) back it up regularly. If you don't you really are planning for your business to fail.

Even if you are storing your data on a single PC you can still backup your data regularly using something simple like a USB hard disk and the built-in Windows backup program. Or if you don’t want the risk (or hassle) of storing essential data on a physical object in your office that can easily be lost (or stolen) you could use a cloud backup system. Cloud backup services take regular backups by sending

your data up to the cloud where it is stored securely off-site. This means that if you are unfortunate enough to experience a disaster such as a flood, fire or theft your data will still be safe and recoverable.

Also, it’s worth noting that globally, malware is becoming an increasing risk to our data, and most of the time the only way to recover data after a ‘ransomware’ attack is to restore from backups. This makes backups more important than ever.

So, as you have read above there are several simple steps you can take to make your business significantly safer from hackers. If you follow these simple steps it might just be the best thing you can do for your business.

Conclusion: These steps are just one aspect of a secure and safe IT infrastructure and if you follow these simple steps it might just be the best thing you can do for your business to protect it from hackers - for more information about other aspects take a look at our IT Security page.

About the Author Andrew Woods specializes in IT infrastructure services and service management. He is currently Technical Director at Synium IT who help organizations operate efficiently and productively with appropriate, secure and reliable IT Systems. www.synium.co.uk Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

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We Do What We Do And We Do It Together

By Malik Muhammad A recent long haul flight to the UAE to host a series of corporate selfempowerment seminars meant watching at least one film. ‘Burnt’, starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, got my interest because the trailer said it was about a rock star chef with bad habits.

Cooper plays Alex Jones; a brilliant chef with two Michelin stars in pursuit of his third with the help of Miller’s character Helene - an equally brilliant emerging chef.

‘Burnt’ reinforces a core principle about

how to succeed in business and the value of working as a focused team to around a common purpose. The utterance from Alex Jones when informed that Michelin star judges were believed to be dining at the restaurant summarizes this principle: ‘We do what we do and we do it together’ As a small to medium sized business owner you will be faced with doing most of the tasks yourself. Budget constraints, issues with cash flow, slow turnover,

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limited market share etc. all affect your ability to recruit the right people at a competitive market rate. Sometimes there simply isn’t enough profit / money to go around so you try to do as many things as possible. Perhaps there are benefits in replacing this ‘do it myself’ attitude with a ‘do it ourselves’ mindset.

We achieve much more together than we will ever do on our own. The quality of the support and the benefit to the other party are crucial.

Forming alliances with people who bring specific skills/contacts/acumen to a project is good for business. Actively supporting the continual professional development of those with whom you work is an excellent investment. The emerging practice of mental health days allows individuals to take a break from the routine of their work to reinvigorate him or herself thus preventing or a least reducing the likelihood of becoming exhausted by work.

How does the support help you achieve your mission and what is the other party getting in return? How is this deal a win/ win for both of you? Some people will join forces with you for non-pecuniary rewards, to develop a long term business relationship, to learn from you or for other reasons that do not involve a direct exchange of labour for money.

The striker on a football team is lauded, however, it was always a collective effort in skillfully passing the ball to him or her in order to score the goal. Forbes Magazine (Oct 2016) published that China and Philippines are reportedly set to agree a joint exploration for oil in the South China Sea.

Emotional currency or the support / comfort people feel as you interact with them has value in business. This is part of the reason some deals are done over a cocktail, on the golf course, after dinner, on vacation or over a coffee.

Create the time to objectively assess your progress to date. Your business will be more profitable by consciously utilizing all the human and other productive resources at its disposal.

Malik Muhammad was raised and educated in Jamaica, read law in London and is the conceptualiser of The Empowerment Mastery System. He enjoys vegan cooking, quad biking, jazz and yoga. He is an after dinner speaker, workshop facilitator and convenes international & corporate inspirational seminars. Malik is the host of online talk show 'Reasoning Sessions' and specialises in sharing self-empowerment strategies with diverse and multi-faith audiences.

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The True Value of Investing in Upskilling and Regularly Training your Outsourced Team

By David Judge

When I started outsourcing several years ago I believed that people would be my greatest asset. They would be a cost effective vehicle to help me take my business to the next level. Over time I’ve not only learnt that’s not true, I’ve also discovered that how you empower your people will determine your success.

growing and we had run out of the right talent we could outsource to locally. Over 12 months we grew our team to just over 30 people and started to find issues in quality of work and staff retention as the tasks they were performing were incredibly repetitive with no option to upskill.

Realistically, when you outsource it’s a lot more than finding the right people, you need a tight recruitment process that deselects people that aren’t the right fit for your business. More importantly, you need a method to regularly upskill and train those people to ensure you get the best results from them. How you do this is even more critical when you employ staff overseas.

Whilst we were offering regular training and upskilling, in simple terms, our training was focussed on getting a staff member to comply with the guidelines of the task as opposed to empowering the team to own their role. This resulted in us employing a team of button pushers that didn’t care about their job.

My First Outsourcing Experience My first overseas outsourcing experience was in building a team in Punjab, India in 2010. Our marketing business was

We were losing people regularly, investing more time in recruitment and initial training of staff, which over time impacted the consistency of their work, the number of hours I had to work within the business

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and the quality of the service we provided.

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After a couple of what I refer to as ‘The Face Palm’ years, in 2012 we moved our operation to the Philippines and redesigned our model to focus on how we could train and upskill in a different way to encourage our staff to take ownership of their roles.

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Breaking Down Cultural Barriers Through Training and Empowerment

For our business, this process of empowerment has grown through regular and consistent training where you gain feedback and strategize on further areas of improvement.

As we were starting the process of outsourcing in yet another country, the first point we wanted to address were the cultural differences as this was an issue that hindered our Indian operation. The objective was to understand how we could engage our team in a way to respect local cultural differences of that country and at the same time align the staff more closely to achieve the objectives for our business.

This is where we looked at finding ways we could empower through our training as we believed this would help us to better achieve those objectives.

Here are the steps we used train and actively empower our team to take ownership of their tasks: 1.

Communicate the purpose of the task (the why)

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Deliver the initial training (that you have already prepared) Allow live hands on experience in that task Encourage mistakes and how to correct those mistakes Offer / Ask for regular training and feedback on how to improve that task

Not only did this allow the person to feel more empowered, it would also culturally align us as we were both working toward a common goal. This method not only helped us to overcome the overseas cultural issues but the by-product was an outsourced team that is constantly upskilling and training on a daily basis as they look at ways they can improve their tasks.

Overcoming the Meat Grinder Effect As the popularity of outsourcing grows within big multinational companies with offshore teams of thousands of people, there’s an emerging focus on employing staff where the training objective is around complying, as opposed to free thought. I have always looked at this as the meat

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grinder effect as you’re grinding an individual down to follow a set path where they do as they’re told as opposed to continuously developing their role.

Whilst I am aware that statement will not gain any friends, we have used this to our advantage as a team member that is empowered is excited to tell their friends about the business they work for.

Furthermore, people are attracted to work within an empowered environment where they are encouraged to grow and develop.

As a result we have essentially become an employer of choice and due to that reputation we continue to attract quality people that want to work for us. Of course this is a part of several factors including job security and a quality work environment, yet for our business empowerment feeds from the top and from the bottom of our operation.

Empowered Staff Vs. The Meat Grind In my time I have found you can approach training and upskilling in outsourcing from 2 angles, you can use the meat grinder approach of submission where people will ‘do as they are told’. The alternative is to invest in training and upskilling that encourages your team’s opinion into how they can improve their tasks.

Like any business that relies on people, it’s never perfect as we’re always finding ways to improve. The overall value though is an empowered model of ongoing training and upskilling which has attracted a team of people who are engaged in their work and are constantly looking at ways to improve within their role.

About the Author David Judge has been in the outsourcing industry since 2010. He is the founder of Affordable Staff, an outsourcing company headquartered in Australia, which provides staffing services for international businesses. You can read more resources from David on his company blog or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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Thes ecr ett ochange i st of ocusal lofyour ener gynotonf i ght i ng t heol d,butbui l di ng t henew. ~Socr at es ~ www. bus i nes s br eakt hr ough. co. uk

10 Simple Ways to Increase Your Brand Awareness

By Dan McCarthy Brand awareness is everything. Mega successful companies like Nike and Apple wouldn’t be where they are today if their marketing team didn’t aggressively market their brand. So how do you go about marketing your company?

There’s no single method; rather, it’s a cumulative effort of implementing tried and proven ways to get your company name out there.

1. Make Your Story Known Yes, customers are looking for the best products and services at the best prices. However, they’re also interested in the people and story behind the brand. You may have noticed that most websites have an “about us” or “our story” section where they relay the company’s history and how it came about.

Tell your story; while you shouldn’t make it into a sob story, you should try to portray your

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company as one built from the bottom up through hard work, risk taking, and making sacrifices.

2. Send Useful Tips You should have a company newsletter. Use it to regularly send informative content.

Newsletters should not be used to endlessly promote your products or services. This is, of course, unless you’re offering some sort of special, such as a limited-time discount, which customers will most certainly appreciate.

Most newsletters, though, should contain useful content, such as how-to posts, tutorials, or any type of content that can embolden the reader in some shape or form without having to make a purchase or sign up for your service.

3. Use Infographics Don’t be shy about using infographics that help back up your content or claims.

Infographics generate far better results compared to simply stating a statistical fact and including a link to the source. According to one study, in fact, the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than plain text. This information, in fact, was taken from an infographic, which you can check out here.

Including infographics in a newsletter or blog post may also increase chances that the content will be shared. This was proven in this study.

4. Be a Guest Blogger You should already have a regular blog on your website. Aside from your own blog, though, you should also actively write as a guest poster for other blogs. Most competing companies probably won’t let you post on their site, but you can look up people who run a blog in your industry as a hobbyist.

Contact these people, requesting to post as a guest. It’s a win-win situation: the blogger gets to take a day off from writing, and you get exposure from that blogger’s followers.

5. Experiment with Pull Marketing Pull marketing refers to any type of non-invasive marketing. By non-invasive, this means techniques that don’t make customers feel like they’re being sold to. Cold calling, for

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example, is the very definition of invasive marketing (also known as push marketing).

So what constitutes pull marketing? Organic SEO practices is a prime example, as is providing informative content through blogging, which was just mentioned. Essentially, you’re letting customers come to you rather than approaching the customers directly.

Social media is yet another example of pull marketing provided that you don’t go into promotional mode.

6. Biddable Campaigns As effective as organic SEO is, it’s also quite competitive especially if you’re in a saturated industry. This is why you should consider Pay-Per-Click. This can be done either through Google AdSense or through Facebook’s own PPC ads.

Biddable campaigns are especially useful if you’re having trouble getting your site ranked on the first page of the search engine for competitive keyword phrases. PPC is definitely a method to incorporate if you can set aside a budget for a campaign.

7. Author a Book Writing a book is time consuming, but luckily, publishing written work complete with an ISBN is easier than ever with the advent of online publishing platforms. By authoring a book within your industry, you cement your name as a legitimate figure in your area of expertise.

By promoting the book or even giving it away for free, you ultimately also promote your brand. For exposure, be sure your company’s name is included in the author section. If you’re a regular blogger, then you have what it takes to release a full-length book.

8. Host Your Own Radio Channel On YouTube, enter any subject followed by the word “podcast.” You will more than likely find at least one channel with a radio show on that topic. If you have the gift of the gab, then a podcast is a great alternative to a blog or can serve as companion material to your written posts.

Subjects can be anything industry-related, such as trends, breaking news, a how-to, debate with a guest, or an announcement. Upload podcasts on both your company site and YouTube.

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9. Wear Your Logo on Your Sleeve You do have a company logo, don’t you? Market the logo wherever possible, both online and offline; some places to display your company brand includes:    

Business cards At the bottom of your email signature Event swag Digital signage during company events

Think about it; logos like Nike, McDonalds, and Apple are so simple yet globally recognized.

These companies at one time were young startups. They got to where they are by aggressively displaying their brand, and they did it before the days of the Internet.

10. Host an Event If your company is local, then your main demographic will, of course, be local. If this is the case, then what better way to meet your audience than by hosting a get-together? This makes for a more personal way of getting to know the people that just might become your biggest consumers and brand advocates.

Consider a high-profile venue and bringing in a fairly well-known guest speaker. Of course, you’ll have to promote your event, and that’s a good thing because promoting your event also entails promoting your brand.

Brand awareness is all about getting your name out there, and there are numerous ways to do just that. It’s a gradual and ongoing process, but as the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

About the Author Dan McCarthy has worked in the event management industry for five years and is currently an event manager for the UK-based company JD Parties. His portfolio includes many successful event planning projects for companies across various niches. He is currently a regular contributor for his company’s blog site. Follow him on Twitter at @DanCarthy2.

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Why Change is Important in Business Madara Kalm In business, change is often regarded as a risk. It’s to be feared and, whenever possible, avoided. And after all - if everything is perfectly rosy around the boardroom table, why upset the apple cart? What if change results in nothing more than a dead end?

Time for a dose of reality: change in business is absolutely vital if organisations are to realise growth potential, propel

teams onto greater things and launch products and services which were once but a pipe dream.

The world changes every day. Society is constantly changing. If businesses fail to keep up with these constantly-moving targets, they lag behind, become stale and, ultimately, fail. Great business leaders understand this, which is why they continually look for ways to evolve

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and improve.

change is usually required.

If your business is on the cusp of change, or has plateaued for far too long, it’s time to grab the opportunity with both hands.

But, if you’re reluctant to do so, here’s a few reasons that may just tempt you to take that leap of faith:

Not everyone will accept it, but if the change is properly defined and the benefits communicated effectively, you’ll achieve buy-in from the majority.

Change helps you take advantage of technical advances If anything changes quickly, it’s technology. Businesses that are willing to change the way they operate are far better placed to take advantage of new technological advances.

Take the cloud, as a prime example. While it may seem like an enormous amount of bother to move your long-established local network to something intangible and seemingly beyond your control, the savings and efficiencies on offer for doing so will enable everyone in the business to be more productive.

Follow tech - it’s an incredibly exciting ride.

Change presents teams with new opportunities Teams that aren’t subjected to change quickly become stale and disengaged. In order to foster an emotional connection between the business and its employees,

Change ensures you’re ready for the new breed of customer Customers evolve. The people you were selling your products to last year have already changed; they take a different buyer’s journey and expect an entirely different customer service experience.

Are you ready for them?

If your business is incapable of change, your customers - both existing and potential - will leave you behind.

Change can turn a crisis into an opportunity Things go wrong in business, but errors are brilliant learning mechanisms. When a crisis takes hold, the only way out is change; you’ll need to change whatever it is that prompted the error in the first place in order to ensure it never happens again.

Hunt down the route cause of every mistake you make and change the business accordingly. The same mistake should never be made twice.

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Change challenges the status quo “Oh, we’ve always done it that way”. How often has someone in your organisation stated that when a particular process is questioned? It’s easy to get comfy in business, and if things get too comfy, complacency usually follows.

A question every business leader should ask is “why?”. Why do certain processes exist? Why do you develop your product that way? Why does it take forever to invoice customers?

Change challenges the status quo and enables businesses to hunt down inefficiencies within the organisation and act accordingly. You may find a new way of delivering customer service, or an accounting technique that saves days of

someone’s time filling out manual spreadsheets.

Keep asking “why?” and don’t settle for the norm.

Wrapping up Still afraid of change? A leap of faith in business is often required to make the biggest changes. Even if there is a shred of doubt, the very fact you’re considering change gives it credence.

Be brave and make changes. There’s nothing worse in business than looking back and thinking “what if?” - every successful entrepreneur has, at some stage, made significant changes. They don’t always work, but when they do, the results can be transformative.

About the Author Madara Kalm is a freelance business writer with a passion for sharing her insights with the community. Being a media and business enthusiast she keeps her hand on the pulse of the latest news in the field. She also enjoys spending too much time browsing through flights available at the closest airports.

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Whati ft hechange you’ r eavoi di ngi st he onet ogi veyouwi ngs ?

Embr aceeachchal l enge i nyourl i f easan oppor t uni t yf or s el f t r ans f or mat i on. www. bus i nes s br eakt hr ough. co. uk

Changing Landscape of Business

By Craig Sharp Do you have a spot in the wardrobe for your tin-foil spacesuit? Maybe a hook in the garage for the jet pack? No. Well that’s because these things were seen as standard items we would all need for the ‘future’, that mythical place in the 70’s and 80’s where humanity was in space or on Moon bases.

However, a different and more subtle future emerged where we have technology all around us and complain when we can’t get onto Facebook or

Google. We take information for granted and have 24/7 access to our photographs, documents and ‘digital messages’ (email) from locations no longer managed by ourselves. In short we should stop thinking about the old future and look at what we have here and now – because trust me, there is nothing ‘future’ about the way IT is transforming the business world.

Most SME’s are stumped by the wealth of change in business IT over the past 5

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years. It’s a short space of time but a true revolution has taken place and for those who embrace it a new world of possibilities exists. For those who don’t, well there could be a slow decline or at best a series of missed opportunities and decreased competitiveness.

Many IT companies baffle with Gigabits and Megabytes, but the truth is that current IT services based in the Cloud are enablers which make businesses more flexible, more productive and ultimately can bring big cost savings. Businesses owners should be less focused on the technology and more interested in what the technology can offer them in practical terms.

A simple example is how the Cloud allows workers to access information while being in a different location to the information itself. It used to be the case that you had to be in the same office as the information you worked on; now you can be anywhere.

By being able to work on information

anywhere then you become more productive. If you get a new opportunity you can be on it straight away. If you see something which needs attention you can respond and deal with it quickly. If you need to work out a new arrangement or sales agreement with a client you can do it there and then – no delays.

What appeals to most business owners is that this flexibility and increased productivity can be achieved with limited IT investment. You don’t need specialist equipment to do all that’s been outlined here; you can do it with the iPhone you use every day, a laptop you already have and the internet connection you’ve installed at home. None of the items you need are ‘coming’ – they are here now.

So it may be that the future we all were told would be here soon has not arrived (yet), but what’s crept up on us quietly is a new (current) reality that offers far more possibilities than spacesuits, jet packs and Moon bases – what we have is a present that offers new ways to do business with ease and lower cost.

Craig Sharp is a stakeholder and driving force behind Midlands based IT Support provider Abussi Ltd. Founded by Craig in 1995 as a database supplier, Abussi has transitioned over 20 years from software into Managed IT Support. Craig has always sought out clients who have between 5-35 employees because he believes passionately that when you work with SME’s you have the best possible opportunity to affect positive change. Most importantly Craig has a passion to educate and inform. Website | Twitter | Facebook

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The Top Five Ways To Stay Fit and Healthy In The Workplace

By Edward Wade For the majority of people, work means sitting down at a desk for eight hours a day. Because of computer technology this is inevitable. But there are many health risks which such a sedentary lifestyle can document. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, poor eyesight and back strain, are some of the common problems working at a desk five days a week can cause. There are methods which you can put in place to prevent this, however, they can’t always be overcome outside of working hours. So here are five things we can do to try at work, in order to help us remain health and active throughout the day, despite being at a desk!

1. Don’t Slouch A hugely simple piece of advice, but unfortunately very difficult to actually apply. Sitting up straight is great for just improving your posture. Take a breath, fill up your chest, then hold your shoulders back. This is a natural position you should sit in each day, keeping your back straight and tall but without straining it. Sitting badly can leave you with some chronic long term conditions. Arthritis, bursitis and abnormal spine alignment. But this is not only damaging to your body. Being hunched over your desk can leave your body drained and without energy. Training your body to sit up right lets you focus and be more productive.

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2. Eat and Drink Right Possibly even more obvious than the first one. Diet is the foundation for feeling, fit healthy and relaxed. Although you might not think it, eating foods with less sugar and more protein will actually help you maintain your energy levels throughout the day, without adding additional stress to your system.

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. A fibre-rich start to the morning, lowers your metabolism and gives you energy throughout the day, hopefully meaning you don’t snack.

Drinking lots of water, is effectively your best snack. It promotes weight loss and gets you off your feet using the toilet.

3. Try To Prevent Stress This is possibly one of the hardest ones.

Stress is a massive health and safety issue in the workplace and is the leading cause of depression, anxiety and other associated illnesses. It is inevitable in the workplace and something that your manager or team leader have to help you out with. Commonly pressure and odd, or long hours are the main causes. It’s important to work out just how stressed you are. Arinite health and safety advisors have developed a Matrix which is great at finding out your problems. Simple things

such as walking away from a stressful environment, stretching or even breathing exercises are everyday techniques you can use to try and prevent stress.

4. Try Out A Standing Desk It might seem a bit odd, and not many companies or management would try it, but there are massive benefits to a standing workstation. Standing up instead of sitting down regulates your metabolic rate and increases the activity of fat burning enzymes. It results in a lower risk of obesity and diabetes. Standing up all day might be a bit too much too soon for some, but if you spend a quarter of the day standing up, it can seriously drop the risk of obesity.

5. Increase Your Lower Level Physical Activity Unless management steps in, this one might be a bit tricky to do. You might even get a few odd glances. But by developing a routine which forces you to move around the office will get you going a bit, increasing your metabolism further. Japan have already taken massive inspiration from this, who have a ‘sit down and get up’ strategy.

For many offices, it will be impossible to do some of these techniques. But even trying to incorporate some of them can be massively beneficial to your lifestyle.

About the Author I am a freelance journalist, who studied Business at Sheffield University. Now based in London I produce content online across a variety of different topics.

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