How to Brand Your Business Offline
Whether you are a business owner running most of your business offline or online it is important to brand your business offline to ensure that you reach the broadest possible market. In this article we will consider how you can brand your business offline and the tools you can use.Business Card for Offline Business Branding
The first tool you need to consider using for offline business branding is your business card. Your business card should include all the details of your company including your website address, email, physical address and telephone numbers as well as having a slogan describing your business, your business logo and other design elements that create the impression you want to create and tell people what your business is about.Business Stationery
Although most business communication today is being done by email and over the computer, you may still want to consider using branded business stationery for your offline business branding. These include letterheads, fax cover sheets, envelopes and any other stationery you use.Fliers and Brochures
Fliers and brochures are another way to brand your business offline and get your message out. Tell people more about what you have to offer, why they need it and how they can go about purchasing from you and then distribute these. You should also use colourful graphics to capture people’s attention.Car Decals
Another way you can brand your business offline is using car decals. Think about how many people see your car everyday and if you have your business name and perhaps a short slogan or website address printed on the decal then think about how this is going to impact your branding. Ensure that not only your business name but also some contact details or a website address are printed on the car decal as well.Offline business branding is important for any business, whether it is online or offline, and can include items such as business cards, business stationery, fliers, brochures and car decals.
Is Your Web Designer Ripping You Off?
Nobody likes being ripped off – especially if they’re in business.Yet most businesses are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to their web designer for shoddy, substandard work. Are you?Luckily, there’s a quick and easy way to find out.Go to:http://validator.w3.org, type in your website address and click on the “Check” button.If the page you see says “failed validation” in red writing, you might need to speak to your web designer – especially if there are more than a handful of errors.Is your web designer one of the cowboys?Unless you own a cattle ranch, you probably don’t want to employ cowboys. You certainly wouldn’t put up with substandard work from a builder or electrician, would you? What about an accountant that didn’t understand tax laws, would you want them handing your finances?Well, most web designers produce websites that are shoddy and substandard – and worst of all they don’t even know it.How can I tell if my site isn’t up to standard?Many professions and industries have standards. With some professions, like medicine or law, you need a qualification before you even start doing it. Other industries, like food processing or construction, aren’t so strict about academic qualifications, but they do have standards that have to be met – like health and safety or food hygiene standards.There’s no academic qualification you need in order to become a web designer. All you need is a computer with internet access and the confidence (or in some cases arrogance) to call yourself a web designer.However, although many people (and most web designers) don’t know it – there are standards for websites.What’s more – it’s really easy to test your website to see if it’s up to standard. All you need to do is visit a website (http://validator.w3.org/) and you can test your site.What are Web Standards?Websites are programmed using a computer language called HTML. There’s a right way to program HTML and there’s a wrong way. The right way to program HTML is called “Web Standards,” anything else is the wrong way.The difference between the right and wrong way to program a website is technical – so if you’re a business owner you don’t need to understand the details.However, you do need to understand that if your web designer hasn’t used Web Standards it means:
Your site will do worse in Search Engines – so you’ll get less visitors
It will take longer to download – so you’ll lose more of the visitors you do get
It could cost you more to maintain the website
It’s harder (and more expensive) to make changes to the website
Up to 40% of people might not be able to see your website properly because they use different type of computer or web browser than your web designer.
Your site is probably not going to be accessible to people with disabilities – which could mean you could fall foul of your local disability discrimination laws
Of course, you might not have all these problems if your web designer hasn’t used Web Standards – but you’ll certainly have some of them.If my site fails to validate does that mean it doesn’t use Web Standards?Not necessarily.The W3C validator (http://validator.w3.org/) is a useful tool for checking if your site uses high-quality HTML. However, it’s not a 100% guarantee.It’s possible for a site to fail the validation on one or two minor points. If this is the case it’s not a major problem, although you could ask your web designer to correct them.However, if your site has dozens of hundreds of errors this is bad news.It’s also possible to for your website to pass the validator and still use out-of-date techniques, however this is much less likely.Should web designers use Web Standards?Yes.To put it bluntly, if you don’t know web standards, you’re really not entitled to call yourself a “professional” web designer.There are some occasions when it’s acceptable to use non Web Standards techniques for practical reasons, but it has to be an informed decision.How many web designers program websites the wrong way?Unfortunately, most web designers program websites the wrong way. The sad thing is that many of them don’t even know about Web Standards.There are plenty of web designers that do use Web Standards, but they’re in a minority.Because there are no entry barriers to web design, anybody can set up as a web designer. That means there’s plenty of choice but it also means there are plenty of cowboys producing badly-programmed websites.What do I do if my website hasn’t been created using Web Standards?Well, you’ve got a couple of choices.Firstly, you could contact the web designer that created your site and ask them why they didn’t produce your site with Web Standards.If your site is more than 1 or 2 years old it isn’t reasonable to expect your site to have been created with Web Standards, as they weren’t a well-known technique then.You might find that your web designer now uses Web Standards and would be able to redesign your website so that it uses them.They may be willing to do this for free, as a courtesy, or they may charge you for this.Can’t I just sue them?I’m not a lawyer and couldn’t offer legal advice.However, I suspect that unless you have a written contract with your web designer specifying that the site should be built using Web Standards techniques you would find a legal route difficult.What are my other options?If your current web designer is unable or unwilling to change your site so that it uses Web Standards you could find another web designer who is able to redesign your site using Web Standards.Use Google or Yellow Pages to find web designers in your local area and then contact them to see if they use web standards.If they say yes, check some of their sites using http://validator.w3.org/.What if I don’t have a website yet?If you don’t have a website yet, or are planning a new one, make sure you choose a web designer that uses Web Standards to create their websites.Resourceshttp://validator.w3.org/ – HTML Validator
Product Launch – Learn the Secret of a Powerful Product Launch?
Knowing the secrets of what makes that big million dollar product launch can help you take your launch to the next level. Learn this 1 single secret that is the biggest reason why product launches can be so successful and so profitable.Virtually no sexy details listed here sadly i must say. Basically no juicy compact easy fixes which will explode your sales with no need of some amount of time or possibly financial resources. It’s simply well-established straight forward mundane planning.Product launch advanced planning will be stage associated with the launch in which the seeds most typically associated with achieving success will be rooted. It really is the platform where you feel free to set your company in place when it comes to financial success. It’s truly the only point in time inside the launch where you will be in charge of the schedule. But work with this time frame knowingly for the reason that it is the place where a powerful product launch is born.Exactly what develops within the preparing stage? This is when you set out to distinguish your main prospective clients objections plus hot buttons, identify the story guiding your launch, make your condition with regards to facts and additionally fix the actual time lines when it comes to pre-launch, launch and even post launch.Any time you neglect to take whatever time to completely learn what makes your prospective clients function – what’s standing in their own means of acquiring their own pursuits – hardly any product or services, regardless of how extraordinary – is ever going to speak to the best possible earnings goals.How can you master just what exactly your prospective clients hot buttons and even objections are really? So here’s one option. Ask these folks!Execute internet surveys, talk with your current followers plus followers of your blogs, take a look at your competitor’s blogs. Follow twitter conversations that be appropriate to your product or service. Take a look at user discussion forums. Follow the dialog related to what precisely it is you will be supplying. Figure out exactly what is bugging your potential client the most and solve that situation. Afford yourself the most reliable odds possible through process of applying the recommended product launch steps.Establish innovations to your offering. Maybe perhaps take away selected sections with your offering. Now’s the actual point in time to make sure you come up with the significant forty-five, ninety or perhaps one hundred and eighty degree variations which means that you basically have to create 5 or maybe 10 degree variations in cases where it certainly counts – like in cases where the cart is open and your purchases goals have been taking a whipping.The very challenge with planning, and the key reason why people normally really do not pay the actual desired time on this specific phase of the launch is actually due to the fact it seems to have little sexual appeal. You’ve killed your service or product and probably raring to unleash this to the general public. You intend to acquire the rewards connected with your arduous work through services or products development plus you moreover would like to allow men and women to realize their particular desired goals at this time, not really at some long-term future day. Still patience is a virtue. Whenever you really don’t understand the best way to communicate to your target market, if you don’t understand or know with realistic specificity just what exactly they expect, just what exactly they definitely don’t wish for and what is right now being accessible within the marketplace to tackle a majority of these wishes, you’ll be operating with one hand fixed behind your own back.Don’t rush. Chill. Know that this is certainly exactly where the great finds tend to be made to cause virtually all your efforts pay back the highest possible returns.And so who is to admit that is not sexy after all?
Managing Health Care
A major theme throughout this text is that you can control many factors that influence your health. An outgrowth of this attitude is the self-care movement, which is the trend toward individuals taking increased responsibility for prevention or management of certain health conditions. Armed with correct information, you can manage many aspects of your health care that were once thought possible only with the help of a physician.Answers to the following questions provide clues to the use of health-care services, providers, and products and facilitate the self-care approach to wellness:When should you seek health care?What can you expect from a stay in the hospital?How can you select a health-care professional?When To Seek Health CareMany people tend to fall into two extreme groups regarding health care: those who seek health care for every ache and pain and those who avoid health care unless experiencing extreme pain. Both groups unwisely use the health-care establishment. Those in the first group fail to understand that too much health care can be ineffective or even harmful. They also fail to recognize the powerful recuperative powers of the body. An estimated 80% of patients who seek medical care are unaffected by treatment, 10% get better, and 9% experience an nitrogen condition in which they get worse because of the medical treatment. Those in the latter group fail to recognize the value of early diagnosis and detection of disease. This is especially true for men; 30% of men have not been to a doctor in a year or more, one-third have never had their cholesterol checked, and three fourths have not been checked for prostate cancer during the previous year.Perhaps the best way to find a balance between too much and too little health care is to establish a physician-patient relationship with a general practitioner. The general practitioner may be a family practice physician or an internist who specializes in internal medicine.It is important to visit your doctor while in good health. This permits your doctor to serve as a facilitator of wellness and provides a benchmark for interpreting symptoms when they occur.A second important way to balance health care is to trust your instincts. Nobody knows when some thing is wrong with your body better than you do. Health and illness are subject to a wide variation in interpretation. If you are attuned to your body, you are your own best expert for recognizing signs and symptoms of illness.Several signs and symptoms warrant medical attention without question. Internal bleeding, such as blood in urine, bowel movement, sputum, or vomit, or blood from any of the body’s openings requires immediate attention. Abdominal pain, especially when it is associated with nausea, may indicate a wide range of problems from appendicitis to pelvic inflammatory disease and requires the diagnostic expertise of a physician. A stiff neck when accompanied by a fever may suggest meningitis and justifies immediate medical intervention. Injuries, many first aid emergencies, and severe disabling symptoms require prompt medical care.There is debate as to when medical care is needed in the case of fever. An elevated temperature may be a sign that the body’s immune system is responding to an infection and working to destroy pathogens, or disease-producing organisms. On the other hand, if left untreated for an extended time, a fever may cause harm to sensitive tissues in the body, such as connective tissue found in joints and tissues in the valves of the heart.The normal body temperature of 98.6° F was studied at the University of Maryland. Findings involving 700 temperature readings of 148 adults over a 3-day period suggest that the normal body temperature is 98.9° F. The study attributed the difference to less accurate techniques when the earlier standard of 98.6° F was established. Body temperature varies with exercise, rest, climate, and gender. Fever means a reading over 99° F. It is not usually necessary for an adult to seek medical care for a fever. Home treatment in the form of aspirin, acetaminophen, and sponge baths usually lowers fever. You should consult your physician if fever remains above 102 0 F despite your actions or, in the case of a low-grade fever (99 0 to 100 0 F), if there is no improvement in 72 hours. You should consult a physician if fever lasts more than 5 days, regardless of improvement. Symptoms, such as sore throat, ear pain, diarrhea, urinary problems, and skin rash, may be the cause of the fever and should be treated as such. Fever in young children should be discussed with a physician.
The Health Care Evolution – Ten Trends That Can Revitalize Nursing
Nurses are at the forefront of an evolutionary wave in health care. Whether we take leadership or not will determine nursing’s future.These ten trends can revitalize nursing if nurses break free from the confines of the medical model and use their education and skills to become wave riders.1. Aging Boomers
Boomers are living longer. Quantity of life is driving a desire for better quality of life. This generation wants to learn how to stay vital, mobile, healthy and productive. They are looking for guidance in health promotion and wellness, not only disease prevention and treatment.2. A 2nd Boom
Boomers Grandchildren are driving a huge demand for family health information and support for new and working moms. From birthing to family health education and sick child care, family systems need and want professional advice and innovative strategies to raise a brighter, stronger next generation.3. Information explosion
Internet access provides health consumers with tons of information, but not the knowledge or wisdom to know how to use it without getting confused. They need knowledgeable health professionals as gatekeepers, trusted advisors, or health system navigators.4. Holism
People are increasingly spending out of pocket dollars for alternative and complementary health care. Nursing education focuses on systems, whole person, life cycle perspectives that can guide in selecting appropriate options along a continuum of care.5. Consumer driven health care
As consumers rely less on employer health coverage and more on personal health spending, they are seeking innovative and home based solutions for care including advanced home monitoring, telephone consultation, personalized care, and individualized treatment.6. High Tech – High Touch
The need for personal connection, listening, and caring has never been higher. Nurses consistently rank first in every consumer poll for most trusted professional.7. Shortages and Cost Containment
Professional shortages and a drive to contain costs, creates a push to use mid-level and low-level providers for technical care. Nurses will continue to be driven away from the institutional bed side. With decreasing numbers of people in institutional care, face to face professional health care will be delivered in the home and community.8. Accessibility
Health information and care will be delivered on a global, mobile, remote, phone and internet basis. Nursing phone advice lines are increasingly popular with consumers.9. Back to Basics
With increased interest in information and coaching on proper food and nutrition, supplements, stretching, meditation, simplicity, life balance, joy in work, and relationships wellness and health coaching is a growing field.10. Self-Care/Self-Responsibility
People are realizing that doctors, medication and illness care are not going to keep them well. Employers, third party payers and common sense are driving consumers to take health care into their own hands. This trend will continue to drive an increase in self care information and reduction in in-patient and long term care.Tomorrow’s nurses are not working under a doctor’s direction, or in an institution. To remain viable, nursing will have to think beyond the institutional medical care box.Consumers are desperate for professional nurses to fill the need for proactive community
and home based health care.Tomorrow’s nurses will be innovative community health leaders, who develop and deliver services directly meeting the changing needs of health consumers.Progressive, professional nurses will form cooperatives, and creative health delivery systems that support families throughout the life span. They will provide continuity of health information and care while supporting people to navigate an ever more specialized and complex techno-medical system.Grab A Board – Surfs Up!© Aila Accad, RN
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.