Furnishings and Workings of the Future Office

While we are still working at desks and using the copier, we may often daydream during our daily tasks and wonder to ourselves what the future office will look like. How will furniture and office space change from current layouts and rolling seats next to square desks and will we still be in cubicles in the next decade? Will the future office be run by robots while we all work from remote locations, only coming into the office to pick up important paperwork? Changes are already a foot in the way that office space is managed, and one only needs to look at serviced executive suites La Jolla to know that flexible terms and shared working spaces is already becoming a dominant force in commercial space rental. So how will the office of the future change in regards to personnel, working space and furniture? Let’s take a quick look inside.

Who’s Working in the Office of the Future?

With the driving force of mobile technology there is little cause for workers to be in a centralised location at all times of the day. With workers already having all the capabilities of being able to function at full potential at a coffee shop or at home in their private space, the offices of the future may very well be completely automated with some Asian firms already offering prototype designs of robots to take care of daily office chores such as filing, delivering mail and pouring coffee. The robot discussed has been designed by Kawada Industries and will be able to recognise the faces of its co-workers and take care of mundane tasks, leaving you free to do whatever you need, wherever you are.

What’s the Optimum Office Setup?

Open plan areas are already becoming the dominant style of offices to generate inclusive operations and also to bring a sense of unison. For corporate offices of the future that still wish to have workers at single premises, we may find that communal desks will be the choice for workers. Collaboration instead of individuality will offer some of the developments in progression utilising the water cooler theory of creativity and it will be that CEO’s and directors are sharing the same work space and integrating their ideas with their staff. Offices will all have numerous facilities as workers are able to perform away from their desks, so coffee shops, gyms and other recreational areas become areas of creativity. When future thinking companies currently conduct an office search for new premises, they are already taking these factors into account.

How you Sit Changes How You Think

Office furniture will change in the future as well. Making use of interactive desks such as those seen in Minority Report may be a touch too futuristic at the moment, but having pod style chairs with integrated multimedia and multiple desk areas for laptops and screens with ergonomic seating is already part of some companies. The Future office will make comfort and creativity a focus, and furniture will follow suit with sleek, practical and innovative designs.

Penny Munroe is a freelance blogger with a keen interest in technology and the way it is chanigng our worlds.

 

Marketing Fundamentals: Helping Your Patients

Thinking of new ways to increase the number of patients that you have can be extremely difficult especially since you were trained to be a dental practitioner and not a marketing specialist. But when it comes to building successful dental practices, sometimes it pays to go back to the basics of marketing.

Don’t Sell Instead Help

You only need to take a simple class in psychology for you to understand this marketing strategy. People, by nature, hate being sold something but what they do gravitate towards is being helped. One of the primary reasons why dentists find it quite difficult to lure in new patients is because their prospects feel as if they are only being manipulated to try out a service which does not even meet their expectations to begin with. So instead of focusing on making a sale, genuinely help your patients instead. At a loss for ways to help out your patients? Try out these tricks.

Newsletters

When you’re brainstorming for articles which you can include in your newsletters, go for something helpful rather than something which endorses specific services. For instance, you can think about one of the more common dental complaints of your patients, like sensitive teeth for instance, and come up with an article which details the many ways to solve the said problem. You can include products but make sure that you include thorough explanations for why you suggest such products.

Encourage Your Patients to Ask Questions 

One reason why patients aren’t always that eager to go for treatment is because they think that they’re only going to be ripped off. This is a general fear since they’re basically diving into something which they literally do not know anything about it. This is why to put them at ease, encourage your patients to ask questions. You can even help them out even more by pre-empting the questions that they are quite scared of asking like financing options and the possibility of doing treatment in phases.

Offer Alternatives

If you’re really intent on helping your patients, then maybe you can do so without having to burden them with an extremely hefty bill.There are some people that really need treatment but do not have enough money to opt for the best alternative there is. This is where alternatives come in really handy. Make sure that you explain the pros and cons for every treatment alternative so that your patients are fully aware off what they are opting into when they make their choice.

This post is by Elliot Pearson. He writes about Dental Office SEO and Dental Practice Marketing as a specialist for Dentist Identity.

 

How Currency Trader Joe Lewis made his Fortune

Joe Lewis is one of the best-known names in the currency trading industry today, and undoubtedly one of the sector’s most successful business icons. It is estimated that Joe Lewis’ personal wealth is approximately $3.2 billion – his private art collection alone accounts for $200 million. At the age of 74, Joe Lewis is ranked among the wealthiest people in the world; he lives in the exclusive gated community of Lyford Clay in the Bahamas, and a typical “day at the office” means boarding his 223-foot superyacht, the Aviva, which is the world’s longest motor yacht, and his own mobile workplace!

Joe Lewis has certainly earned an industry-wide reputation to accompany his personal fortune – but where did his career start?

From Catering to Currency

Joe Lewis was born in the town of Bow, London – a far cry from the exotic luxury home he now occupies in the Bahamas. At the age of 15, Lewis had to leave school to work as a waiter at Tavistock Banqueting, his father’s catering business. Waiting tables might sound like a thankless menial job to most of us, but for Joe Lewis is turned out to be a springboard to a long and illustrious career. Lewis eventually took over the family business and managed to expand it significantly before selling it in 1979. From there, he took up currency trading and began building his fortune.

If you’ve just started using a forex demo account, you may be interested to know that Joe Lewis gained a great deal of wealth through currency trading. Most notably, Joe Lewis and forex legend George Soros each made a small fortune in 1992 when they bet on the UK Pound being withdrawn from the ERM – an event now famously known in the currency exchange industry as Black Wednesday. The event earned Soros a staggering profit of around $1 billion, and some industry insiders believe that Joe Lewis made an even larger profit.

Current Career

Today, billionaire Joe Lewis is known as the founder of Tavistock Group, a world-renowned private investment company. Tavistock Group now owns more than 175 companies around the globe, ranging from the property sector to the sports sector. Joe Lewis also owns a number of luxury golf clubs and acts as the host of the annual two-day golf tournament known as the Tavistock Cup. The tournament has donated millions of dollars to charitable causes over the years.

The world of currency trading might seem a little daunting at first, but forex trading brokers will assure aspiring that great rewards are possible with the correct guidance. With icons like Joe Lewis to inspire today’s traders, it’s no wonder currency trading is rapidly growing in popularity.

Nicky Warner is an enthusiastic blogger looking to share news and information online with fellow writers.

 

Building a Professional Portfolio

Many professions require a portfolio of previous work in order to get the position. When you send a portfolio to an employer, you are basically packaging yourself up in a binder and sending yourself to analyzed and judged. If your potential employer doesn’t like the packaged up version of you, they aren’t going to be likely to give you a chance in the interviewing office. Applicants can talk and talk about how good they think they are, but it takes a portfolio to back up words with evidence.

Here are a few ideas for making yourself more appealing to your dream employer.

Have a backup copy

You never know when you’re going to get your portfolio back. Never send out your only copy of all of your work. Have at least one (if not several) backups just in case the worst case scenario becomes reality.

Go digital

Make sure that you have digital copies of everything that you hope to use in your resume. This goes to the backup copy policy. This may mean scanning documents into your computer. Our world is experiencing a dramatic digital trend. Some people predict that within 10 years we will have become a virtually paperless society. Keeping your portfolio up-to-date is a good way of ensuring that you yourself stay up-to-date with current trends.

Keep a copy of everything

Make sure that you make a copy of everything you produce for college and each of your jobs. This is especially important in college. You never know when that article you write for your sophomore English class will turn into a portfolio piece. Don’t be afraid to keep editing and improving upon projects that you’ve already completed.

Get permission

The work that you do as a paid employee of a company or other organization legally belongs to them. Be sure that you get permission (preferably in writing) prior to using any materials that may contain sensitive information.

Clearly identify portfolio pieces

Make sure that with each portfolio piece, you explain the context within which it was used. Your role in each piece should also be clear. For example, in a brochure, you should explain who you made it for, the need that it was addressing, and your part in its creation—did you take the pictures, write the text, design the layout or do it all?

Proofread

Very little is more embarrassing than a typo in a portfolio. If you can’t get your spelling right in the piece upon which your employment hinges, then how can an employer expect you to get your job right several months into the job after it becomes a boring routine?

About the Writer

Stephen Sharpe has worked as a web writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com for almost a year. My Colleges and Careers is a career and college database with information about the best online colleges.

 

Making it Big in Entrepreneuring

Coming up with an idea

In order for your company to be successful, you must create a need in your consumer. Products and services that solve a problem or give pleasure to buyers are the most likely to be successful. Coming up with an idea for a business requires you to do some research. Look around you, what are some problems that everybody faces? If you can take a problem that everybody has and solve it (cheaply), then you have a powerful business idea.

Know the audience

When coming up with an idea, it is important to think about who might be buying your product or service. For example, if you wish to sell candy on the street, you’re should probably do market research to find out what streets will get you the most profit. Selling candy on the street of a bunch of retired couples may not be as wise as selling candy in front of an elementary school. Knowing your audience and what they are willing to pay for and under what conditions they’ll pay for it is vital to being successful.

Network

Surround yourself by smart people. It is an unfortunate truth that what you know often doesn’t matter as much as who you know. It helps to find people who are masters of their art—whether that art be technological know-how, people skills, or simply marketing skills. Having a good and diverse skill set is necessary in any new company.

Market

Knowing how to market your product is key. Part of marketing goes straight back to knowing your audience. You have to be familiar with the self-interests, needs, and wants of your target audience if you wish to make any impact at all. It is also necessary to know where your audiences tune into and who they trust for information. You don’t see many candy commercials during news segments. Why? Because adults aren’t the target audience for candy. Your kids are.

Do your research

When you are selling your product or service, make sure you do your research. Try to find out not only how much people are buying, but why they are buying it. Or, if things aren’t going well, find out why they’re not buying it. It may be a simple matter of changing the packaging. It may be because your consumers don’t understand the product or service. Whatever the reason is, find it out. Don’t be afraid to change your tactics if something isn’t working.

About the Writer

Stephen Sharpe has worked as a web writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com for almost a year. My Colleges and Careers is a career and college database with information about the best online colleges.

 

5 Great Promotional Merchandise Ideas

Eco friendly promotional merchandising is the best idea in the current times. The fact that there are climatic changes like the global warming make the situation even worse. By using this option not only will people get to know of your corporate product but also they get to know that you are environmentally friendly. In an error where people are informed of the important e of taking care of the environment this is the best way to go.

Professional Carrier Bags:
When it comes to give away the first thing that comes into your mind is the professional carrier bags. It is imperative that you consider an environmentally friendly option rather than the normal plastic bags. It is a well-known fact that a lot of petroleum product is used in the plastic industry every day. This can be fatal to aquatic life and even suffocate plants and terrestrial animals. Choosing an eco-friendly option like the other corporations is a good way to start.

Printed Company Apparels:
Printed apparels are given away as a form of promotion by many companies. Choosing ecofriendly ones is something that can make a whole lot of difference. The difference with the other normal t shirts is razor thin made can be hard for person to discover. However, what you know is they are made from organic cotton making them special.

Giveaway Pens:
Eco friendly pens are another option that you cannot afford to do without. Not only are they functional but they also stand out from the rest. This makes them unique in a big way and whoever gets them will appreciate. It is very rare to have someone giving you a wooden pen. It is a good promotional tool that can be used.

Solar Chargers:

Many times there is usually the problem where your phone goes off due to power when you are conducting your business. This can really be frustrating if you are thinking of making an important call. Moreover you are going to notice that this is a good excuse of employees not to answer their bosses call. If you can supply them with a portable solar charger this will be a thing of the past. Not only is it going to assist in the normal running of the business but also it is going to increase the efficiency of the business.

USB Flash Drives:

In a digital era, information is passed electronically. One of the most popular ways to carry our information with us is on a USB flash drive. This is so common that school supply lists include flash drives. By promoting your logo on low cost drives and handing them out, you can assure your brand is seen every day.

Why choose promotional Merchandising?
Promotional merchandising is a good marketing strategy that can be used to make the difference. Most companies however will prefer to spend heavily on advertisements and hiring celebrities to get this job done. What they do not know is they would have spent much less by using this option rather than the other marketing strategy. Moreover the results from such marketing strategies is simply amazing when compares with other options.

There is a lot of information about marketing if you go online. A good research will reveal a lot of solution to assist you in solving your problem. One important consideration that you must always keep in mind is to make sure you have good knowledge of the product you are dealing with. This puts you in a better position to be able to know what the clients expect.

A satisfied customer is the best advertisement and for this reason you need to make sure that you take good care of the clients. Despite using other promotional skills it is important that when you finally attract some prospective clients you satisfy their needs. As you may know the most important visitor to your business is the customer. This is a unique visitor since you depend on them rather than them depending on you.

Click here to find out how you can get logos for your business that get noticed. Avery Petersen, a small business consultant, recommends Logo Mojo to his clients for fast and reliable logo designs.

 

What’s the Deal with the Northern Lights?

You see them displayed in Christmas movies as a phenomenon of the North Pole. But the Aurora Borealis, as they are scientifically referred to, are actually visible from areas of the earth much farther south than the north pole. If you want to enjoy the beauty and wonder that is the Northern Lights, here are a few interesting things you should know:

1. The name Aurora comes from the name of the Roman goddess of dawn.
2. An Aurora in northern latitudes are called aurora borealis (northern lights). An Aurora in the southern latitudes are called aurora australis (southern lights).
3. The plural of aurora is aurorae.
4. An aurora occurs when highly charged particles from space collide with atoms in the earth’s atmosphere. This makes the atoms excited, meaning they start moving at a rapid pace. The way they release this energy is to accelerate along the earth’s magnetic fields, which will emit the energy in the form of light.
5. Solar flares are the most common occurrence that induces an aurora in the atmosphere.
6. Solar wind is constantly blowing past the earth, contained in this wind are particles that agitate the atoms in our atmosphere. When the sun flares, the wind become stronger so aurorae are most likely to occur then
7. Norther and southern aurorae mimic each other.
8. From a distance, the aurora will appear as a greenish glow or even a faint red. From a closer location, the light can appear as a vivid green color.
9. The green color is due to the emission of oxygen as the atoms begin to slow down from their excited state.
10. Blue colors come from nitrogen atoms gaining an electron (becoming excited) and red colors occur when the nitrogen atom slows back down to it’s normal state.
11. Often they look like a curtain of light in the sky that can change shape every few seconds, or even hold their shape. They can also emit it a simple reddish or greenish glow in the sky, without any movement at all.
12. Aurorae can occur on other planets.
13. The sun has an 11-year sunspot cycle during which sunspot activity first increases than decreases. Aurorae are most commonly seen at the peak of that cycle and during the three years afterwards because of the increased strength of solar wind produced. The last solar cycle started in January 2008. The max of this cycle is expected to hit in 2011 and 2012.
14. Pictures taken by space ships of the aurora are even more amazing than what you can see from earth. NASA’s website has a good array of options.

About the Author

Natalie Clive is a writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers is a useful website that can help students find the best online universities where they can earn a college degree. Individuals with a college degree are more likely to have a higher quality of life.

 

Merry Christmas to All of Us

As we progress through the holiday season it is so easy to get caught up in our own personal goals: dinner with the family, grab those presents, make sure we have an office party, have the neighbors over for egg nogg. I find myself literally running over people to get to the store and buy all the things that will make a great time for my friends and family.
How many times in life can we have the goal of making people happy only to plow through everyone else that “gets in our way?”
If there is one lesson I can take from this life, let it be the one where I slow down and smell the roses. Let it be where I stop and talk with people in the store instead of charging through the isles to get in line first. Let it be putting my favorite television show (even if it is the Superbowl) on pause when a neighbor needs to talk. Let it be where I listen to my mate with honest appreciation, even though I was in the middle of something else.
Otherwise, life ends up being what passes you by, when you were too busy making plans!

 

How to Improve your Business Cash Flow

Having a hard time managing your enterprise’s cash flow? Are you tired of having to deal with your customers’ cyclical payment habits and the ups and downs of your business cycles? Have you decided that something must be done, but simply lack the tools to finally do away with cash flow as a going concern? Whilst most enterprises like to think they have a handle on the problem, the reality is far different. These are the enterprises that rationalise their cash flow problems. However, there are others who refuse to accept the status quo and do so by enacting some simple strategies to reduce the impact of a poor cash position. So how can your business improve its cash flow?

The Power of Prepaid Customers!

Whilst most business professionals will agree that prepaid customers aren’t viable options long-term, there is very little to argue as to whether they help reduce the impact of an uneven cash position. Customers that must prepay not only improve your cash position, but they also increase your gross profit on sales transactions. They do this by lowering your enterprise’s financing costs on inventory and receivables. It’s cash upfront so you only purchase what you have to in order to fulfill the customer’s order. Nothing more and nothing less.

Incentivising Prompt Payment Habits

Managing cash flow is also about mitigating risk. That means to incentivize customers to pay early. One possible solution includes providing a 1% to 2% discount on net-10 day terms. However, if you decide to adopt this strategy, make sure you product’s profit margins allow it. Incentivising customers to pay sooner only works if the discount doesn’t erode the margins on sales.

Inventory Management

Having all that money tied up in inventory is extremely expensive. Take the time to define products as fast moving versus those that you need to reduce your inventory levels on. Classify products as essential to hold, versus those products your customers can afford to wait on. This will be much easier once you’ve identified those prepaid customers.

Proactively Manage Vendors

When cash flow isn’t a concern, secure your own prompt payment discounts like the aforementioned net-10 day terms 1% to 2% discount. Take advantage of those instances where cash flow is in your favour. Doing this will ensure you have more money when your enterprise encounters an uneven cash flow period.

Enterprises that adopt these aforementioned strategies are ones that eschew conventional wisdom. They enact simple and effective strategies to reduce the impact of an uneven cash position. Granted, those prepaid customers aren’t viable, long-term pursuits. However, they represent immediate sales and immediate cash!

Guest post provided by Touch Financial one of the leading services for business finance, help, advice and quotes.

 

The Future of Brands

Until recently, big brands seemed as though they were unshakeable. If a company was known, respected, and popular, you could be confident that it wasn’t going to go anywhere. In the last 10 years, however, that has all changed. Just look at this short list of companies that have failed in the last decade: HomeBase, 3DO, Tiger Electronics, Kwik Save, MFI, Rosebys, Woolworths, Habitat, and the Sun-Times Media Grop.

It seems no industry is safe. Whether you sell furniture, household goods, toys, or newspapers, the name of your brand isn’t enough to keep your company going when you can’t shift stock from your display units because of an ailing economy.

Brand Advocacy

The power of a brand name used to be an important part of a brand’s appeal when it came to attracting investors. This is still true to some extent, but the draw of a brand name is not as big, or as important, as it once was.

Today, the focus is on brand advocacy. Investors are looking for brands that have loyal customers. They want to see consumers voluntarily doing word of mouth marketing. Campaign agencies such as Buzz-Agent, and street teams, are one thing, but a brand that has people going around and evangelizing without that sort of incentive is even better, and that’s what investors are looking for. Consumers are increasingly starting to shape brands, rather than simply accepting that they should buy whatever brand it is that is designed for them.

Creating Advocates

Building a brand takes a lot of effort. Many brands engage in huge publicity stunts in the early days of their existence, enlisting trailer manufacturers to create special promotional vehicles and display units designed around their brand. The brand truck might travel the country, attracting attention everywhere it goes, and drawing crowds when it stops to do product demos in big cities.

Some brands simply hand out product samples. Others get the trailer manufacturers to make mobile computer labs, with everything from PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS stations in them, to fully featured PCs demonstrating the latest and greatest hardware and software.

Of course, the passing crowd can only generate buzz for so long. For your brand to survive in the long term, you will need to create a group of loyal users that will advocate your product without you having to spend a fortune on PR.

One good example of an advocacy program is the Intel Partner Program. This program is free to join, and offers support, documentation, and promotion to software developers that target the Intel platform. The benefit of this program, to Intel, is that it encourages developers to optimise the applications they write for Intel’s hardware. Developers join the program for the information it provides, get discounts on products that they probably plan on buying, and get a little free advertising. The people who buy the software that those developers write will see that it was designed for Intel based hardware, and will hopefully choose to buy Intel in the future. It’s a long term investment, but a good one for all of the companies involved.

This article was written by Amy Fowler on behalf of Vipex: trailer manufacturers who also offer branded display units.

Amy is extrememly interested in how the recession is affecting businesses of all sizes.