It is becoming more important than ever that we all do our part for the planet, and it is so pressing that we can no longer really afford not to do this. If you are aware of this and you want to make sure that you are doing your part, then a good place to start is always going to be with your business. Businesses in general can be very wasteful, and there is much that they have to answer for when it comes to the way they can treat the planet a lot of the time. But if you have a business of your own then you will know at least that one of the things you can do is to make sure that you are running it as environmentally friendly as possible. The more businesses do this, the better a chance the world has of survival, so it’s something we should certainly think about. In this article, we will look at some of the ways in which you can ensure that you run your business as green as possible.
The idea of a paperless office may still be just something of a dream, but it is a dream which we can still try to work towards as best as we can, and doing so is bound to mean that we are going to experience some significant shifts towards it in our lifetime at least. In general, the less paper you use, the better, but it can be very challenging to make sure that you are doing this in a normal everyday office. Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do to try and make it a little easier, and it is worth thinking about some of the issues that you might need to face in order to make sure that using paper less is a lot simpler to do.
For a start, you should aim to do everything that you possibly can on computer. These days, you should be able to find pretty decent software solutions for most tasks, and it is often just a matter of trial and error and a little patience in trying to find the right one. Don’t go thinking that you will always have to pay out, either: generally you can also find very good open-source and free versions of the more proprietary software, which are always good to have and mean you can keep an eye on your money at the same time.
Beyond that, using less paper also means that the paper you do use is recycled, which should be an absolute must these days. You can create your own recycled paper by using scrap paper that would otherwise be thrown away, or ensuring that any paper products you do buy are certified as being forest-friendly, meaning that the company in question plants new trees to make up for the paper being used. The less paper we all use, the more trees we have, and the more oxygen there is for us to breathe.
Water might just about be our most precious resource on the planet, yet we so often treat it as though it is completely expendable and replaceable. Part of this might come from a misunderstanding about the water cycle. Yes, it is true that there is a water cycle and that every drop down the drain ultimately becomes rain clouds again, but the less water we waste, the less that has to go through that cycle, which inevitably drains the planet’s resources in doing so. It is much better to not use that much water in the first place, as this puts less pressure on the planet more generally. But using less water is one of those things that, despite everyone knowing it is a good idea, people often find difficult to do. Let’s look at some of the things your business can do to make this aspect of being green a little easier for everyone.
For a start, make sure that you are collecting and conserving rainwater for your usage. It is a simple matter to do this, and it’s something that any business can do if they hope to use less water on the whole. If you use some Tuffa Tanks or the like, you can simply set them up to collect rainwater, which you can then use for whatever purposes you need it for. If it is to drink or wash up or whatever, then you will need to purify it too, but that is easy to do these days too. This is a great way to conserve water, and will make a profound difference to the kind of impact your business is having on the world.
Another way is to simply encourage people in your business to be more mindful of the water that they do use. Whenever they go to the tap, they should be thinking about how much water they are using, and whether it is a little too much. You should not underestimate the power of a well-placed sign here, as that could really make all the difference in the world.
A scheme which is becoming particularly popular amongst businesses everywhere these days is for the company to encourage its employees to find greener ways to travel to work. If you really want to do your part, this is something that you can absolutely think about doing. You can set up a simple program whereby those who show that they cycle or walk to work are able to receive a dividend in their pay, for example. Or you might just want to offer to buy your employees a bicycle instead. However you do it, this is something that can add up to make a really profound difference to the world.
All of the above will help your business to be a little greener, and it is all stuff that you should consider as soon as you possibly can. You’ll find that you are happy to do your part.
When seeking to start a business, most would-be entrepreneurs will seek a business idea that will appeal to a broad section of the public. The larger your target demographic, the greater the chances of success.
There are many types of businesses that fulfil the above brief, but opening a restaurant is perhaps the most common – and the most interesting – of the available options. People love eating out; every year, the average restaurant spend per person in the US is over $700, and the interest in new venues and types of food never seems to wane. If you’re looking to start a business that will enjoy broad demand from the get-go, then a restaurant could well be the best choice for you.
However, opening a restaurant is quite unlike any other type of business, and there are three distinct life stages you’ll need to be aware of – and plan for – before you decide to take the leap.
Stage One: The grand opening
The grand opening is arguably the single most important life stage for any restaurant. While you could open your doors to customers quietly, and hope for word of mouth marketing to help you grow, such a plan is far from ideal. For the most part, modern restaurants need to open with a splash – seizing the chance to court publicity from the local press and interest from patrons, making their mark on the scene and encouraging curious diners to step inside.
Unfortunately, managing a restaurant launch can be challenging – your business will be receiving the most amount of attention it will ever receive at a time when you, and your staff, are still learning the ropes. It’s therefore worth considering a few “trial” evenings, where friends and family visit and act as customers for the evening; this can help to ensure the entire operation works exactly as it should, and gives you the opportunity to iron out kinks without the glare of publicity. When you’re confident everything is functioning as it should, you can move to considering grand opening ideas for restaurants in order to draw much-needed attention to your new establishment, build hype, and – hopefully – begin to cultivate a long-term customer base.
Stage Two: Transition to normality
The first few months of any restaurant’s life tend to be a whirlwind of activity; there’s the grand opening and the associated festivities, you’ll likely find that you need to make a few adjustments to your overall management processes, and your staff will need time to become accustomed to their roles.
During this stage, you’ll still enjoy more attention than a long-established restaurant; your grand opening and launch marketing should still be working hard on your behalf, and you should still enjoy plenty of customer – and potentially even press – attention. As a result, it’s best to use this stage to refine the way your restaurant operates; perhaps you need new staff, or there’s a menu item that has not been as popular as you may have hoped and should ideally be replaced. This stage is the time to make the tweaks necessary as you switch from “start” mode to more long-term plans, learning about how your restaurant functions now it’s open to the public and what you can do to achieve maximum efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Stage Three: The search for continued appeal
After a year or so, your restaurant is no longer the hottest new establishment in town – which can take a little getting used to after months of attention. However, you do now have valuable assets: the reviews and praise of all the customers who have visited your restaurant since it opened. You’re no longer the shiny new restaurant that people are curious to try; you can become the restaurant that people want to try because they have heard good things about it.
It’s helpful, then, to refocus the way you market your business, emphasizing the satisfaction of your previous customers and focusing on dishes that have received particular acclaim. In addition, focus on your online reviews on sites such as Yelp; if any issues have been identified, work to rectify these as soon as possible.
Finally, consider setting new goals for your restaurant now that you have the turbulent first year behind you. Perhaps you’d one day like to expand in size so as to cater to more diners per night or offer a different type of cuisine; or maybe you’re thinking bigger, and would love to open a second restaurant under the same brand in a new city. Now is the time to focus on these future plans and strategize ideas that can help you make those dreams a reality.
As with any kind of business, you will need a solid business plan in place in order to start your own restaurant – but you also need to consider the changeable nature of the restaurant world. By including thoughts and plans specific to each of the the three distinct restaurant life stages, you should be able to ensure that you can create a business that captures and keeps the interest of the general public.
There’s a lot of people complaining about the state of modern working culture, which pushes for longer working hours for less pay. However, it does have one big advantage: it is, overall, less physically demanding than jobs in the past, which virtually all involved strenuous labor and unsafe conditions. Today, the bulk of work takes place in an office or the service industry, which isn’t so hard on the old body. There are still physically demanding jobs, though! Below, we outlined nine jobs that have the biggest impact on the worker’s body.
With some jobs, a tired body isn’t just an unwelcome side-effect of the work; it practically is the job. Take, for example, the role of a physical trainer. They’re getting paid for their knowledge about the best fitness techniques and how to stay in shape, but it’s not as if they can just be in whatever shape they like. They have to be super fit! A trainer who isn’t in peak physical condition isn’t going to get too far in their career, and that means that they have to spend a lot of time pumping iron in the job. It’s non-negotiable!
Park Ranger
Any job that has you on your feet all day can be tough, but it’s even more difficult if you’re on your feet in the great outdoors. There’s a big difference in the amount of energy you exert when you’re walking along a street, and when you’re walking in a natural environment that has uneven and steep trail paths. And that’s just the base physical requirement of a park ranger; things get even more complicated when they’re involved in a rescue mission, are far away from base camp, or they encounter wildlife that could cause them harm.
Outdoor Landscaper
Working as a landscaper isn’t quite the same as working as a park ranger (that they both involve working among trees and plants is about the only place they overlap), but it’s still physically demanding in a similar way. Anything involving the outdoors can take a toll on your body. When you’re a landscape gardener, the risks are more subtle, and the dangers can sometimes only materialize over a long period. Because gardeners spend so much of their time with their hands in the earth, back problems can be an issue. Their tools — nearly always sharp and pointy — can also pose a threat.
In the Armed Forces
You better believe that a job where you put your body on the line for the safety and protection of others is going to be physically demanding. People in the armed forces aren’t only brave, they need to be in the best physical condition possible in order to do their job properly. The training routine for the armed forces, especially certain branches of the armed forces, can be extremely unforgiving. And there’s nowhere to hide: unless you’re fit as a fiddle, then you’re not going to be accepted. And you can understand why: just look at the life of a soldier. They won’t just be walking for miles and miles: they’ll also be carrying heavy gear and supplies — and they don’t just do it, they do it all the while being ready for whatever may come their way.
Front Line Work
On a domestic level, we also have people who work in emergency services. All of them can be tiring and physically challenging, but especially police and firefighters. They need to be in prime condition so that they can deal with whatever issue comes their way. If you’ve ever heard the stories of someone in either of these professions, you’ll know that they come across anything and anything. Both jobs involve extensive use of their bodies. In the case of the police, it could include chasing and wrestling someone to the ground. With the fire brigade, it could be kicking down a door and rescuing multiple trapped inside. Physically demanding? You bet!
Building Up
Any job that involves the use of heavy machinery and working at great heights will always be physically demanding. If you’re a construction worker, then these things are just a part of your daily life. It’s not just the work that affects the body, either: because some construction company bosses don’t always follow correct safety procedures, injuries are common. Indeed, they’re so common that there are systems in place to grant compensation to the worker; if you’ve been injured, then visit www.866attylaw.com for more information. Even without injuries, the job can be tough, with hand and back pain common complaints among workers.
We sometimes have a pastoral image of farmers. It’s the image of being outside, feeding chickens, and a deeply satisfying life. Of course, it’s not true — not even close. Farming is labor intensive, a type of work that requires much from the worker’s body. And that’s not the only reason why the job demands for much physically: because accidents on the farm are usually accidents that involve machinery, a farmer has to have the capacity for work even when their body is suffering from pains and bruises.
From A to B
There aren’t too many jobs that essentially only require lifting heavy things, but a mover does just that. They’re in charge of moving a whole family’s worth of belongings from one property to another. As such, it’s physically demanding by nature. And, of course, it’s not just the act of putting the boxes onto a truck and taking them off again; they also need to carry the belongings up the stairs, often in awkward poses.
Into Deep Space
Finally, arguably the most physically demanding job on the list, and certainly the most adventurous! To be an astronaut, you don’t just need to be incredibly smart: you also need to be in peak physical condition. The body endures a lot of force when it’s strapped into a spacecraft, and the sheer act of living in the artificial environment found on shuttles asks a lot from the astronauts, too.
There are many elements to running your business, some of which you’re going to be the leading authority on and some you’re probably learning on the job. But there are times in the business life of every entrepreneur when you need to ask yourself: how much can I take on and when should I call in some assistance?
If you find yourself working harder and harder just to keep on top of the working parts of your business, then it’s time to take a look at what you can do to help yourself and to help your business grow and thrive.
Be Realistic
You’ve come a long way through sheer determination and talent but it’s time to decide how you’re going to respond to this next challenge. Realistically, you have two options in front of you. Have a consultant come in and take on a project for you or start training an in-house team in the aspects of your business that you should think about handing over.
If the issue is likely to be an on-going one then having an in-house team is probably the best option, whether that’s to take on the role of your finance manager or manage your website, updating content and sourcing the best SEO Pricing, all the jobs you simply don’t have time to do.
Transforming your business from a one-person set up to a company with employees is a daunting business and one that requires careful planning. There are many factors to take into consideration before you even begin to think about salary such as your insurance responsibilities as an employer and what benefits (if any) you’ll be looking to pass on to your employees.
Talk to a recruitment specialist about your rights and responsibilities long before you start the recruitment process to make sure you have everything in place.
When it comes to making your hires, you could continue and use the services of a recruitment agency to fill the gaps or bite the bullet and go through the process yourself if you can find some time to carry this out properly.
Make sure you clearly define what you need your team member to do and the role they will play in your business. Make clear what you expect, what your company culture looks and feels like and the basic details, including salary, holiday and sick pay in the event of absence.
When you need a team around you to help take the burden of running your business, make sure you think in terms of ‘team’ rather than just employees. Find people you click with, can communicate well with and who you know have grasped your corporate objectives. Find people who are willing to go the extra distance to achieving their goals.
Get a great team behind you and you’ll take your business further and higher than you ever dreamed possible. Stop struggling and start recruiting for a team that works.
When it comes to showing off your brand visually, there are plenty of ways you can do this effectively in order to raise your company’s profile. Here are some examples that are successful in promoting your business.
Promotion Signage At Events
There will likely be an opportunity or two to feature your business at upcoming events or conferences, and these are a great way of showing off what your company is about on a bigger scale. It’s likely that you’ll have a stand at these events and this is useful in assembling promotional signs that can draw in the crowds and act as a visual promotion of what you are selling as a brand. Branded signage is worth the investment because it can end up coming in use for any events that you run yourself or networking opportunities where you can decorate the space with your branding.
Social Media
With so many social media platforms now available, there are plenty of visual ways to promote your company. Instagram is a great platform as the content is driven by photography, so whether your business sells gourmet ice-cream or tech gear, you can present it all in a stylized way on this platform. Pinterest is another example of a picture orientated platform. It acts like a search engine, and users can pin to their own boards. Think of it like retweeting on Twitter! With social media, you can display your brand across as many as you want so that once you start to build a following on one, there will be followers finding your other profiles on the different platforms on following on there too.
Digital Advertisements
Digital advertisements have certainly risen in popularity and have now very much become a popular way of advertising because it’s cheaper. But it’s also due to the fact that you can get more detailed analytics on who’s engaging with the content that you are putting out. Everything from age categories, geographic locations and more. Not to mention that you have the opportunity to reach a wider audience on a global scale too.
When it comes to digital advertising, it’s good to get familiar with how paid advertising works on each platform, as they operate a little differently. If you have no experience, then it’s worth outsourcing this to a company who can handle your digital advertising for you.
Using Your Office Space
It’s good to utilize what you already have so why not use the office space as a visual way to promote your company. Branded stationery is one way of sharing your company’s branding with new clients and having a strong visual promotion on the front of your building will encourage those passing by to engage with what it is you’re showing.
Visual promotion is possibly the best way of showing off your company and if you use these tips for your own business, then hopefully you’ll reap the benefits going forward. Take advantage of digital advertisements, get to grips with social media and invest in some promotional signage.
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