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The Importance of Winding Down and How a Dog Can Help

Woman stroking a Golden Retriever in the street
Photo by Ed Yourdon

Why I’m a Stressed-Out Businessman

I have a lot of stress in my life at the moment. We’re going through a prolonged period of change at work, which means we need to adjust the way people are managed, make some difficult decisions about who stays in the organisation and who should be invited to leave, and arranging new accommodation for the entire workforce.

As facilities manager, the accommodation problem rests squarely on my shoulders. It’s a weighty problem to wrestle with because it affects the lives of so many people. Depending on where we end up, some staff will have a longer commute to work each day, which might cause any number of complications with child care, transport arrangements, not to mention the extra cost of fuel which is trending ever higher these days.

In addition to the personal implications for people working for my organisation, the choice of which facility I eventually decide on can impact the bottom line and the very survival of our business. If I go for a prime location, this will cost big bucks and could make our operation less viable economically, whereas if I go for a cheaper option, this will inevitably be further away from our customers and will be lacking in prestige. It’s a tough decision.

How my Dog Relaxes Me

With all this stress in my life during the working day, the last thing that I or my family need is for me to bring the worry and fretfulness of the workplace home with me. It’s bad for the health and bad for the ambience of the household.

So how do I relax?

I spend some time with my dog. This makes me feel better in a number of ways:

My Dog is Always Pleased to See Me

No matter how grumpy I am when I return from a hard day at the office, my dog is always pleased to see me. It’s as if I’ve just come back from a year at sea with the Navy. It doesn’t matter to my dog whether I’ve been away for a month or even for 5 minutes, each time I walk back into the room, he’s all wagging tails and eager to be petted.

This makes a pleasant change from some of the characters I have to deal with at work. Many of these folk try to avoid me or complain and moan to me when they see me. But not my dog, he’s always a sight for sore eyes.

Take the Dog for a Walk

I love taking my dog for a walk in the evening. It freshens me up, blows away the cobwebs and takes my mind off my worries. Not only am I getting a change of scenery and some fresh air, but I getting some much needed exercise and enjoying the company of my old friend.

I Groom and Pet My Dog

Studies have shown that stroking and petting a dog significantly reduces levels of stress – both for the human giving and for the dog receiving the attention. It’s a form of bonding.

There’s nothing that relaxes me more than sitting in my favourite armchair with my dog on my lap, watching a good film and striking the dog and sipping a large glass of red wine. Pretty soon my troubles have gone.

Once a week I groom my dog, which involves a wash with some specially formulated dog grooming products followed by a towel drying and a brush of the coat. This keeps his fur nice and clean, smelling great and crying out to be stroked.

This little routine is what I look forward to every day upon my return home and is what serves to mark the end of the working day and the beginning of my relaxing leisure time. I have no trouble sleeping after unwinding in this way (unlike some of my colleagues who complain of sleepless nights at the moment), and awake the next day feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead.

Why Playing the Guitar Makes Me a Better Businessman

Smart businessman playing the guitar on stage
Photo by Alex Grant (alextakesphotos)

I’ll bet that got your attention didn’t it? Guitarists are not generally known for their business acumen, right? No, mostly we hear about them throwing TV sets off hotel balconies or trashing their rooms for fun.

Well, it may surprise you to discover that many famous guitarists are actually very astute in the field of business and I can offer some reasons why this might be the case. All in the name of fun you understand, none of this is scientific fact, I just thought I’d lighten things up a little with a change of pace on the blog.

Guitarists are Typically Better Educated

In my experience, guitarists tend to be better educated than their fellow band members, certainly better than the drummers I’ve played with, that’s for sure!

Let’s take Brian May as an example here. Brian is the guitarist with Queen, one of the most successful rock bands of all time. He may have gone a bit soft in recent years and become more interested in saving badgers and foxes than making fans’ ears bleed with the sheer awesomeness of his guitar playing, but he deserves his place in the rock and roll hall of fame, no doubt about it.

So it may surprise you to learn that he is in fact an astrophysicist with a PhD from Imperial College? Well, you shouldn’t be surprised because the study required to excel in the guitar not only exercises the fingers, but also the brain.

The possibilities on the guitar are endless. You have 6 strings, each with up to 24 frets that can be (literally) pressed into action to give a huge number of potential notes, and that’s before you even think about bending the strings to alter the pitch. It takes an able mind to make sense of all those options and mould them into good music.

Guitarists Need a Good Head for Business

This is as true today as it ever was. Without a head for business, you’ll be taken to the cleaners by the record companies, the agents and everyone else who wants to take a cut of your earnings as a musician. With the rise of the internet and the decrease in the reliance of musicians on the record companies to get their music published and distributed, big business is taking a back seat to innovation and the rise of talent over commerce.

A great example of how bands can empower themselves by making radical decisions in how they run their own businesses is Radiohead, who took the decision in 2008 to give away their latest album.

It was a great tactic and operated on the basis of inviting donations from those wanting to download the album. Loyal fans would pay perhaps quite a lot as a way of thanking the band for the music they have enjoyed during the band’s career; others could choose to pay as little as 45 pence, which only just covered the credit card handling fees.

By far the biggest benefit of this tactic, though, was the free publicity that the unusual distribution model generated. That alone would have paid for any loss of revenue suffered because of people downloading after making the minimum donation. Genius!

So, the evidence is clear. Guitarists are better at business…fact!

Why not take up the guitar yourself and see whether the benefits translate into improvements in your own business acumen? I can highly recommend a free website called, Guitar Instructions, where you can find all the information you’ll need to get you started.

Give it a try! You might even enjoy it.

Taling Ngam in Koh Samui

Koh Samui has been a top tourist destination in Thailand since the 1980s. In that time it has developed a comprehensive road system, first class hospitals, and an international airport as well an impressive array of leisure activities for visitors to the island. Amidst all this development there has been those who have expressed concerns for the environment, and there are those are saddened by the decline of traditional island life.

There are, however, still a few relatively undeveloped areas in Koh Samui. One of them is found in the southeast of the island at a place called Taling Ngam. It is a wide bay that is sometimes called ‘the most remote beach’ on Koh Samui. It is here that visitors can discover some of the most pristine natural scenery on Koh Samui, and also experience the atmosphere of a beach that does not rely exclusively on the money from tourism for its economic wellbeing.

Taling Ngam has a long stretch of white sand beach. Behind the beach is a wide piece of flat land covered in coconut palms. There is very little development in the area. There are a few shops and resorts and a small fishing village. The local restaurants in Taling Ngam serve seafood freshly caught for some of the cheapest prices on the island.

The resorts in Taling Ngam are spread out along the beach. There are a few budget bungalows but most of Taling Ngam accommodation falls in the middle range. The notable exception is the newly opened Conrad Koh Samui (Hilton) that offers private pool villas that fan out around the side of a rocky outcrop.

On the beach there is the Sunset Beach Resort. This is one of the few resorts in Koh Samui that makes any effort to be environmentally friendly. Among its green features include a desalination plant that provides clean drinking water free of charge to guests. The Sunset Beach Resort also has a fitness center, spa, sauna and a communal pool.

There is no night life worth mentioning in Taling Ngam. That is also part of the charm of the beach. Those seeking late night thrills and the inevitable sex workers are nowhere to be seen in Taling Ngam. At night the highlight is watching the sunset and then listening to the sea lapping on the shore.

Need Some Help Choosing An E Cigarette?

Although the e cigarette has only been on the market for a few years, and hasn’t been widely advertised in the mainstream media, it’s a product which most smokers have now heard of. It’s unsurprising that many tobacco users are excited about the possibility of finding a cigarette replacement which would allow them to continue using nicotine without many of the detrimental effects, but a number of us are put off making a purchase because we are confused about which of the many brands is the best. Thankfully there are now numerous e cigarette reviews posted on the Internet where we can learn from the experience of others the products worth buying, and those which are a waste of our hard earned cash.

There is a problem with relying on just any old review which you might find when searching Google, and that’s the fact that many of the so called “reviewers” are biased in the scores they give to a particular brand. Why is this? It’s quite simple, and it’s a problem which has gone largely unnoticed for years even in the more traditional forms of media. The fact is that many reviewers are given free e cigarette samples from manufacturers in the hope of getting a positive review. Human nature being what it is, it’s then inevitable that the reviewer is going to feel obliged to say more positive than negative things about a particular brand, no matter how they might feel about it in reality.

There is no easy answer to overcoming this problem if you are completely new to electronic cigarettes and need to get someone else’s opinion about the brands which are more satisfying to use. I can however give you a few tips to make it more likely that you will make the best purchase possible when you hand over your credit card details to a company on the Internet.

Try to find an electronic cigarette review site where the writer states clearly and honestly there relationship with the company who’s product they are reviewing.
Get your information from web sites which have a quality feel to them. Some one who has put a lot of effort into building their blog is more likely to take pride in the information they are providing.
Look for web sites where the blogger has posted an image of themselves and attach’s their real name to the information they provide. Sites with a nameless, faceless reviewer are far more likely to be pushing products with an ulterior motive.
Only use review sites who have tested out a wide range of products. Especially be wary of those which say there is only one particular brand worth buying.
Use your common sense. If a particular review site is signing the praises of a manufacturer just a little bit too much then they are probably doing so because they got a kick back from the company to push that product.

If you stick to these rules when deciding which smokeless cigarette to buy as a tobacco replacement then you can’t do far wrong, and you’ll hopefully find that your purchase is a good one.

Prevent Cat Diabetes: Promote Exercise For Cats With Cat Toys

Diabetes is a terrible disease that can strike both humans and felines. A certain percentage of cats can suffer from this, and diabetes can occur when insufficient insulin is produced by the beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is generated by the pancreas, and it is the job of the pancreas to introduce it into the bloodstream. As it interacts with cell membranes, glucose (for energy) is allowed to go into the cells. When insulin is lacking or insufficient, it will not be possible for the body to make use of glucose, and this can cause high blood sugar, or hyperglycemia. When the blood sugar is high, the kidney tries its best to get rid of additional glucose, and this is what leads diabetics to run to the restroom to urinate frequently, as well as drink a lot. Eventually, this disease can affect a cat by decreasing a cat’s appetite by a great deal. Check out what Cornell Universities College of Veterinary Medicine has to say about it here.

It is good to know that a lot of cat furniture are created for the purpose of helping a cat get some exercise, lose weight, and also have fun in the process. Cat stimulation of the physical and mental variety is beneficial for keeping feline health issues at bay, especially Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. Any cat furniture that will allow your cat to stretch out his muscles and walk or run for a few minutes should be good for your cat’s physical health. Below are some examples.

Cat Exercise Wheel

This structure works about the same way as a hamster wheel – it just happens to be bigger. Some cat exercise wheels are big enough to accommodate several cats simultaneously, while some are only big enough for 1 cat. Created using metal, cat exercise wheels measure around 36 to 48 inches in terms of diameter, and the left or right side is open, allowing cats easy access. In a sense, this wheel is like a cat treadmill, and promotes exercise for cats, and your cat is sure to get some exercise whenever he cat decides to play using the equipment. This is especially ideal for your cat if your cat is obese, or has just been diagnosed with feline diabetes. Likewise, you will be sure to promote a healthy lifestyle for your cat by buying your cat his own exercise wheel.

Toy Mouse

Another toy perfect for cat stimulation is a toy mouse. Cats like to play around with mice by throwing them around and chasing them, as well as pouncing on the small toy. This will allow your cat to keep himself entertained and getting some exercise without even realizing it.

Feather Dangler

A feather dangler will also allow your cat to stretch out his arm muscles as he tries to catch the light feather between his paws. Cats tend to think of birds when they see feathers, and so you will also be satisfying your cat’s natural instinct, with a feather dangler.

Eating Right to Avoid Osteoporosis

When it comes to bone health, what foods spring to mind? If you’re thinking of milk or dairy then you’re not alone. This is what we’re taught in school from a young age. Indeed many countries actually have a milk program which instills the knowledge that if we want strong teeth and bones, then we have to drink our milk.

However, there is an abundance of scientific literature that tells a different story. However, this is often hard to come by considering the power of the milk lobby which promotes dairy – and milk in particular – as the perfect source of calcium. I am certainly not claiming that milk doesn’t contain this mineral, we know it does. But what is less well known is that the animal proteins it also contains, effectively neutralize any positive benefit to our bones from drinking milk. This may come as a surprise – but it’s true.

This video shows just what can happen if we succumb to osteoporosis. One of the problems is that we simply do not know we are at risk until it is too late.

In an article about the alkaline diet, Heart Felt Foods write:

You may be wondering [...] about [...] milk. Doesn’t this have lots of calcium? As we know, it does. However, foods become acidic when they have high proportions of protein and phosphorus. This is why meat, fish and dairy are acidic foods.

So if milk isn’t the perfect food for strong bones, what should we be eating?

…fruits and vegetables are predominantly metabolized to alkaline bicarbonate, whereas proteins and cereal grains are metabolized to acids. The more protein people consume beyond the body’s true needs, the more acidic their blood can become and the more alkaline compounds are needed to neutralize the acid.

From New York Times article: Exploring a Low-Acid Diet for Bone Health

Picture taken from http://www.womenshealth.gov/

To avoid osteoporosis, it is important that we maintain a strong skeletal structure. But what specifically do we have to do? There are a number of steps that are beneficial, regular exercise, avoiding tabacco products, limiting alcohol consumption – and of course diet! The bottom line is that the more animal proteins and processed foods we consume, the more acidic our diet becomes. For strong bones, ideally we want to eat a high proportion of alkaline foods. The reason why acid foods are detrimental to our bone structure is outlined below.

The average American diet, which is high in protein and low in fruits and vegetables, generates a large amount of acid, mainly as sulfates and phosphates. The kidneys respond to this dietary acid challenge with net acid excretion, as well as ammonium and titratable acid excretion. Concurrently, the skeleton supplies buffer by active resorption of bone.

From the Journal of Nutrition: Excess Dietary Protein Can Adversely Affect Bone

Wikipedia tells us the definition of bone resorption:

Bone resorption is the process by which osteoclasts break down bone and release the minerals, resulting in a transfer of calcium from bone fluid to the blood.

The message is clear – eating fruits and vegetables is essential if we want to maintain strong teeth and bones. As long as we eat high quantities of plant based foods then we may well want to carry on drinking milk as well. In all honesty though, do you really want to? Think about what milk really is for a second. It is an excretion from an animal which is meant to be drunk by calves. But instead of going to their young, a cow’s milk is mixed with other cows’ milk, pasturized, bottled (or cartoned) and sold to humans – a completely different species than which it was meant for.

Knowing the negative health consequences that can result from consuming acid foods – which includes all animal products – isn’t it about time that we started to reduce our consumption of these (factory) farmed products?

Emerging Markets – E-Commerce in Turkey

There’s a lot of talk in the internet business communities about where the next big boom is coming for E-commerce. Many people favour places like China, however although it is a highly switched on economy as far as the internet is concerned, the huge levels of censorship and filtering puts many off. Many companies for instance have found difficulty in operating from Chinese bases because of the filtering. For example if use a VPN to connect back to your corporate mail system or document store you will probably have difficulties and the reality is thousands of businesses operate like this. Basically China is a nightmare for any company who heavily leverages the internet in it’s infrastructure – for E-commerce companies the problems are even greater.

Many businesses are looking at Africa, where the internet infrstructure is improving slowly. Internet penetration is also improving although mainly through the use of smart phones rather than high speed broadband connections. Use of credit cards are relatively low though and there are many countries with relatively unstable governments although it has to be said there is a vast improvement from a decade ago.

One country that often gets overlooked is actually powering ahead in the fields of E-commerce and internet businesses and that’s Turkey. In a country with a huge proportion of younger people, Turkey has 36 million internet users and 88% of teh population have mobile phones. There are also high levels of people with credit and debit cards too which adds up to a very high potential internet markets.

Actually there are thousands of Turkish based internet businesses which are thriving. Many games companies are extremely successful in targeting the domestic market and are well placed to branch out to new Eastern markets from this base. Remember although Turkey has 36 million internet users the penetration rate is only 45% – that is the number who have access to the web – there’s a lot more potential to come. In Europe the penetration rates are over 80% so you can see the difference. There are obviously some difficulties for Western online businesses to exploit this market. The language problems are the obvious one and you will often need to use a Turkish based proxy to access specific sites and advertising opportunities on popular Turkish websites.

But these slight drawbacks are only slight barriers to entry into one of the most exciting internet business opportunities in the world at the moment. Think could your business do well on the Internet selling to a high flying Turkish economy?

The End is Nigh for Password Authentication

There is no doubt that it would happen eventually, but things are gathering speed and the demise of the online password is coming near. Most online businesses have been concerned for many years about how customers use their passwords. Most of us for instance use the same one or at most two perhaps three across multiple sites.

There is a big problem with this, that the security of your site is dependent on how secure other web sites are. If all you customers are using the same passwords across the net, then the security is only as high as the least secure one. So if your password on the local football forum is the same as your online banking and Paypal account then you’re putting yourself at great risk.

Of course we all kind of know this but remembering loads of complicated passwords is just too difficult. We’d only end up writing down them if they got too many or complicated to remember. Companies like Paypal are now taking the next steps to drive us away fromt his potential weakness. They want to move from passwords and start using technology like embedded fingerprint scanners using smartphones.

It’s important as the rise of online shopping and transactions keeps on growing. Paypal itself processed more than $145 billion in transactions – that’s a huge potential fraud risk with traditional passwords.

There is no clear winner yet in the authentication space, biometrics though is one of the front runners. Firms are looking whether they can analyse the way people use their phones as a potential authentication mechanism. Perhaps entering the password won’t be enough in the future you’ll have to enter it in a specific way.

There are other security concerns for most of these online companies in other areas too. The very open aspect of the internet and it’s primary transport protocol – HTTP is a big security risk too. Although security additions have been applied to this clear text protocol to provide some security for many this is still insufficient. You only have to look at the number of people using private secure proxies to know that people are concerned. A business man I know from Warsaw, will only connect to his Bank using a secure Polish proxy. He uses this from hotels and Wifi spots across the globe, he simply won’t connect if this is not available.

These are the challenges that companies face today. The internet may offer huge potential and massive opportunities but it also brings new risks and difficulties particularly to the big brands who have a reputation to protect.

Expanding Your Business Online

There are customers out there who need your services/products or merchandise. You might think that the internet won’t bring you any new business but I can guarantee you’re wrong, the potential is out there to expand for any business. The reality is that people look for almost everything online, it doesn’t matter what it is – the brutal truth is that it’s easier to type a search query it your phone or laptop than it is to look in the paper or phone directory.

I have friends who look up and order meals from their local takeaway using the internet. They look for plumbers, electricians and painters all online – that’s local traders being found by local people purely from the web. You might think that putting an ad in the local shops is enough, but unless you get some sort of website up and running you will certainly lose some prospective customers.

The real beauty is that making some sort of web presence is actually not very expensive. In fact with a little research most people can produce something passable themselves. Remember it’s really not important for a local tradesman to have any sort of fancy, expensive website. Just having some basic information on you, what you do and what it will cost is all most people are interested in.

For most people setting up a website should be standard practice for starting a new business. Obviously for some business sectors it’s more important than others, but I don’t think there’s a company in existence that wouldn’t get some sort of benefit. But don’t let it stop there, if you’re a tradesman check out how people sell their services in other countries. It’s always worth looking at somewhere ultra-competitive like the US. You can even watch US TV and press adverts to see how they promote their services. If you get locked out of any channels or websites due to location – check this post out http://www.theninjaproxy.org/tv/a-fake-uk-ip-address/.

So to be utterly serious, if you have a business you must have some sort of website. If you really can’t get organised on that front, then sign up to Facebook and set up a page or two for your business, it doesn’t take long and you can update the site very easily.

Security Advice for Businessman

Many people now make their living online, the virtual business is probably the biggest growth area in most of the developed world. Even those who provide physical services to their local population will inevitably leverage the power of the internet to bring in more customers. Last month for example I had to hire the services of a dog trainer, he actually lived nearby but I found him on the internet on a directory site called Best of the Web. My friend is an electrician and he says he gets more business from his Facebook page than his very expensive Yellow Pages directory listing.

It’s hardly surprising, most of us have moved a large proportion of their lives online. We pay our bills, go shopping, watch films and a host of other things online. How many of us now will browse for Christmas gifts online as opposed to strolling down the high street? Whatever business we are in, you can almost be guaranteed that a significant proportion of our market can be reached online. Make sure you have a basic facebook page up for your business, if possible set up a Twitter account and capture your customers email details whenever you can. This allows you to engage and update with your market, my electrician friend posts tips on his Facebook page and Tweets special offers and advice.

However there is a downside to moving so much of our life online that of privacy and our personal information. The nature of the internet is that it is built up from hardware all over the world and thus your information passes through all these points. The majority of web based traffic is sent in clear text and is readable with anyone who has access to the data. For instance sitting in your ISP are logs with detailed information of just about everything you do online. More and more people whether they are running businesses or not are increasingly seeking to secure their online life.

The method to do this varies but apart from common sense using secure connection channels is a method commonly used. Using a proxy or VPN service can be used to encrypt your internet connection and ensure that your data is not readable online. It’s also especially useful for accessing sites which are limited by location. Many people use proxies for example to access BBC Iplayer or UK TV abroad, or accessing Hulu from outside the US. This is because it also protects your identity by obscuring your IP address too.

Car Rental and Globalization

There are those theorists who are a little too enthusiatic for the possible trends of globalization and what it will mean some time in the future. Many academics and right-wing think tanks have come to the conclusion that the coporation will in the future gain in strength and the soverign state will ebb in influence. They see a world dominated by giant global corporates.

This is wishful thinking, like Marxism in this respect. Yes, corporates have moved beyond boarders to acess markets and cheap labor, but they are still mostly concentrated in culture and board room to one particular nation. Few multi-nationals are truly international – being run and owned by people from all over the world. Corporates often play on national identity such as BP – British Petroleum.

And if you look at just one example you can see how culture and nationalist values trump globalization. The example is the small island of Koh Phangan in Thailand. It is an island with exploding tourism like Ibiza in the 1980s. Koh Phangan is the home of the Full Moon Party. It is also the location for such high-end resorts as Anantara Rasananda and Santhiya.

The island is about to get its own airport. The infrastrucutre of Koh Phangan has greatly improved over the last 4 years. And yet there is not one global corporate car hire place on the island. As yet, Hertz and all the others just do not appear on the island. Bringing the standardization and IT savy of a big corporate would encourage customer faith and the business would quicly take off. Instead car rental in Koh Phangan consists of a few small operators each with a few jeeps and larger 4×4 vehicles for rent.

Clearly the corporates are held in check by national laws that restrict foreign ownership in Thailand and a general culture where the small trader is preferred. In truth Koh Phangan is booming, but along its own lines. It’s fate is not being entirely decided by coporate policy. The people seem to be excercising their sovereignty as well as independence.

If anything it looks like both sovereign states and multi-national companies will increasing find themselves exposed to the caprice of the financial markets that are becoming increasingly unstable and impossible to control.

Create Your Image of Good Health

How is your health these days? Do you feel it’s up to par? Or do you feel it is maybe not as good as you would like it to be? Did you know that you can improve your own level of health by taking some very simple steps? Am I asking too many questions in this opening paragraph? Probably!

The reason I’m writing this article is to get you to take a look at how you envisage your health to be and then to look at ways you can improve it without making any major alterations in your current lifestyle. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that some of the things you can do are really very simple and in the case of this particular exercise, almost effortless!

Visualize the Best You Can Be

The first step to gaining a healthier perspective is to have an image in your mind of how you want to be. This health image (see: health-image.com for more details) should be that of you looking and feeling great, free of illness or debilitating conditions and having lots of energy and enthusiasm for life. You do that by literally using your imagination to create a picture in your mind of how you really want to look.

Don’t worry if you think your desired aspect is way different from reality. This is an exercise in imagination, not actualization. To get the best results, you should find a place where you will not be disturbed for 30 minutes or so and can relax deeply in a comfortable resting position. A couch, reclining chair or even a bed is perfect Take several deep breaths and allow your mind to clear of all intrusive thoughts.

Make it Real

Then start to form the imagined picture of your self in your mind. Take your time and make it the best you can. Once you have formed the perfect picture of your self in your mind, embellish it with movement and experience how it feels to step into that body and move around. Really feel it.

Then repeat this exercise as often as you can. At least one a day is good. The more often you practice this exercise, the more effectively the scenario will be rooted into your subconscious mind, from which it will be acted out for real in your physical body. As long as you realize that the mind is the central control system for your physical body, you’ll plainly see that you can cause your own wellness through right thinking and that will gradually and eventually become your true reality.

Expand Your Business Horizons

Making the step to turn a successful domestic business into an international operation used to be an extremely risky one. The expenses involved in setting up offices abroad, new employees, different legislation and taxation implications were enough to put many off. Nowadays we have the internet and although this doesn’t remove all the difficulties it can make them easier to manage. For example it may well mean that you don’t need any foreign premises, partner with a global logistics firm like DHL and you can export most goods directly.

Get your web site translated, update your online ordering system and payment processors and you can make an initial foray into a foreign market without any huge expenses. It’s of course vital to do your market research before you even take these steps. Check out local media, investigate the competition – start with looking online by using proxies to access their domestic restricted sites. This is essential as many business directories are only accessible when you are located in that country – using proxies like these, http://www.proxyusa.com/ makes them accessible. Research like this also helps you consider cultural differences which are often a huge barrier to some businesses.

For many companies building a relationship with a local business can be a smart move. Someone who is established in a related business can be an ideal partner to help gain a foothold and help you learn the ropes. Often a partner can significantly reduce the costs of entering a new market and speed the process up too.

Although there are many good reasons to expand a successful business abroad, don’t underestimate the costs involved. Taking these initial steps can give you a good idea of the costs involved but there’s always likely to be hidden costs in any major expansion. It’s important to allow some contingency in your budget to allow for these hidden surprises.

Office Life

Many people that I’ve met that have worked any length of time in an office say how funny and accurate they found the show ‘The Office’. It was an unexpected British hit show that was re-made (as is often the case now) in the USA. I too liked watching ‘The Office’ but not because I thought it was realistic. Indeed watching the sit-com reinforced a few things in my mind about how not to be an office manager.

One of my employees recently returned from learning to dive on Tao Island in Thailand. He told us he stayed on a beach called Taa Sak. It sounded like a very peaceful and quiet beach in an idyllic setting of coconut palms and mountain scenery. He had a deep suntan and a very bored looked on his face.

Rather than dismiss his holiday with just a few words of polite discourse, I encouraged my employee to tell us in the office about his holiday. I also asked him to tell us some details about how much it cost. This was politic on my part. I find discussing the bottom line helps to focus the minds of my employees. At first many of the people in the office were transported by the stories of spotting whale sharks and trigger fish diving; by the rich coconut laced food and by the all night parties on Sairee Beach; but, when they discovered how much money they needed to go to Thailand and do these things they soon started to value their jobs again I’m sure.

It is always good to be friendly as an office manager. It is essential to have a basic understanding of human psychology to make sure everyone is happy and doing their job to the best of their ability rather than dreaming of soaking up the sun on Taa Sak in Koh Tao.

Office by the Beach

At one point in my career I got so fed up of working in an office that I handed in my notice without having another job to go to. It was the boom times of the early 2000s so I didn’t really worry about getting another job. I had no plan when I quit; I just quit because I hated the work environment. It was an open plan office divided up into a warren of cubicles by partitions. I felt I was close to breaking point – the pay was lousy, the commute was long and my colleagues were irritating.

I went home to see my parents and an old friend suggested I took a holiday in Thailand. The idea immediately took root and within a week I was on a plane to Thailand with no idea where I wanted to go, or what I wanted to do.

I hated Bangkok. The confined room, the noise and pollution reminded me of my last job. I ended up taking an overnight bus down to Khao Lak. I loved the area immediately. It had great beaches and just enough nightlife to stop boredom setting in.

The main jobs available for foreigners at the time were for dive instructors. I did my Open Water but realized it wasn’t for me. However, when the dive school heard that I had been an office supervisor before and that I could do accounts they offered me a job in Bang La On. It was just 5 minutes walk from the beach, and it was easily the best office job I’ve ever had. I chatted with customers and in my spare time I learnt Thai. It was very unstressful. When I finished at 4pm I would head down to the beach for a sunset swim before dinner.

I did that office job for a year, and it remains my favorite (if worst paid) job I’ve done.

Saving Money in your Facility with Programmable Thermostats

Facilities, especially large ones, can have high running costs. In the residential sector in America the single largest expenditure in terms of electricity is heating and cooling. It thus makes sense to do what you can to try and reduce heating and cooling bills for an office building. Not only to improve the bottom line but also to reduce the carbon footprint of a facility.

This can partly be achieved by better insulation. This is not, however, always an easy thing to do because many modern business facilities are built from steel and light weight walls that are made in the factory and assembled on site.

A good solution is to better regulate the heating and cooling in different parts of the facility. It has to be decided which parts need what type of heating and cooling. Many areas are infrequently visited and need minimal heating and cooling. Another factor is timing. It is essential to have the heating or cooling equipment set points and on/off times to coincide with the comings and goings of the work force.

If the facility keeps the same working hours every day of the week then a good 5+2 programmable thermostat such as Lux Products TX500E can do the job fine.This model comes with swing control to stop short cycling, a temporary hold button and, most importantly for a facility, a keyboard lock out. This stops unauthorized personnel from changing the settings.

By using a programmable thermostats such as the Lux Products TX500E Smart Temp big savings can be made on heating and cooling bills. In some geographical locations the savings can amount to 30% of the total bill for the year. That means that installing programmable thermostats soon pay for themselves and then start bringing down annual running costs. That is something as a manager or a proprietor of a business that should be taken seriously in these tough economic times.