The world of business has moved very quickly in the last decade – the rise of online retail and online advertising has hugely changed the business world and many businesses are turning to the help of a brand strategy agency such https://www.reallyhelpfulmarketing.co.uk/marketing-and-strategic-development-services/brand-strategy-agency to help promote their business on social media and online.

If you are running a small business, it is crucial to make sure that you are staying abreast of all the changes to marketing and sales online, as more and more people have started to do their shopping and searching for services on the web and on social media.

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With Covid-19 also now sweeping the country and the world, a strong online presence is even more crucial for your business. With stores being closed down, being online is crucial to help see your business through these difficult times. Many smaller businesses have taken the initiative from garden centres offering home delivery on plants – perfect for people at home looking for something to do! To restaurants offering takeaway meals and publishing the menu on Facebook.

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It doesn’t stop at products either – if you offer a service, such as a dance class or accountancy, get connected with Skype or Zoom and bring your service to people’s homes – the beauty of the technological age that we live in, is that we are now able to use the internet for so much, our businesses needn’t suffer – and we will come out the other side with a whole load of new ways to do our marketing and advertising in the future!

The Gloucester Carnival has it’s origins as far back as the 1930’s and has now become an amazing spectacle of floats, in the grand parade and the spectacular fun fair ground.  This is a community, business and individual event that anybody can participate in.  The Carnival floats all have a specific theme on which to design their entries and compete for the grand prize.  In 2019 the design ethos behind the parade was “Myths and Legends” and the procession was led by a dangerous Dragon and fantastic Unicorn floats.  Hundreds of working hours and hard manual labour are spent creating and designing the costumes and the vehicles themselves. 

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The Carnival is a yearly occurrence usually conducted in the months of July/August, it’s a free to attend spectacular show for all the people of Gloucestershire.  There are hundreds of entertainers, singers, dancers, musicians all wearing bright colourful costumes.  Amongst all the fun and festivities of the Carnival and focused on keeping people safe are the dedicated first aid professionals and medics such as https://outdoormedicalsolutions.co.uk/ . Event Medical Hire would be something that the organisers of such events would definitely have to think about.

The bright, musicalhttps://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends and colourful procession continues through the cheering, crowded streets of Gloucester until it reaches the Park.  For the next two weeks the funfair with all it’s exciting rides, competitive stalls, music and fun is in permanent residence for everybody to enjoy.

We all know that to stay legal on the road, we need to take our vehicle to an annual MOT test. Have you ever wondered when the test was first started and what were the reasons? Here is a brief history of MOT:

First introduced in 1960, the MOT was the brainchild of then Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples. As you can imagine, the roads are much less densely populated than now! This test was brought under the rule of the Road Traffic Act of 1956.

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Originally, it was a very basic test designed to check only the brakes, steering and lights for all vehicles over ten years old and then every year thereafter. It was first known as a ‘ten-year test’ or the ‘Ministry of Transport test’. For information about your MOT Gloucester, visit a site like http://swiftfit.uk.com/

Tests were soon brought in for all vehicles over seven years old at the end of 1961 because the failure rate was so high. The following year, commercial inspection began in which vehicles had to pass and get a certificate in order to receive a tax disc. In the spring of 1967, the age of the vehicle was reduced further to all those over three years old. In 1983, the MOT for ambulances, taxis and vehicles with more than eight passenger seats were also introduced.

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What started in 1960 as a very basic examination of three things immediately began to expand year by year. By 1968, a tyre check was introduced, followed by the windscreen wipers and washers, indicators, brake lights, exhaust and horns in 1977. In 1991 that list is increased further by the addition of test gas emissions, rear wheel bearings and steering, anti-lock braking system and rear seat belts.

If you own your own business, or if you’re a Director of a company, then keeping your staff happy and healthy is vital; there are certain aspects to office life that takes a toll on a person’s physical health – one of those is continuously sitting down. If you keep your staff happy, you will create a very positive work environment for everyone there. Here are ways to create happy and healthy staff members.

Balance out Work-Life and Pleasure 

When you’re in charge of an office, it’s important to lead your staff and motivate them, but it’s also important to put an occasional pause on daily work life; why not host an office quiz, or perhaps a fun group activity? If it’s an employee’s birthday, you could hold an office buffet with party games.

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 Listen to Your Employees 

When you own a business with employees, it’s important to listen to their needs too, as this is what makes you a good leader; If an employee makes a suggestion for the office or for the company, make sure to listen to their idea, for example in the summertime, an employee might suggest getting an air conditioning unit, or fans for the office. If the office tends to get dirty easily, an employee might suggest you check out an office cleaning Gloucester based company such as, office cleaning in Gloucester by Intocleaning who can help create a happy and tidier workspace.

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 Encourage Healthy Living and Exercise 

Encouraging your staff to be more active and healthy will create happy employees; if it’s an office environment, you will need to encourage your employees to move around, as sitting at their desks all day is bad for their health. Why not hold a group Zumba or yoga class for the office? This will encourage them to stay active and have a bit of fun. Buying fruit for the office is also a great way to encourage your employees to live healthier. On your lunch breaks, you and your employees could also go on a group walk. You could even encourage your employees to do some desk exercises – here are some desk stretches and exercises to teach your employees.

Listen to Their Needs 

You may have a business to run, but your staff needs are also very important; everyone has a life outside of work, and at times tragedies happen. It is important to give employees time off if they have gone through family troubles – make sure to talk to them, and really show that you care about their situation. If you sense that an employee is going through troubles, make sure to bring this up in private, and really listen to what they have to say. If an employee becomes ill, it is vital to give them time off; they might want to be loyal to you and their job, but it’s important for them to get back to good health.

Public speaking can be extremely daunting, especially if you are a shy and quiet person; the thought of sweat rolling down your face and stumbling your words can be unbearable, and this usually causes many people to avoid public talking altogether. Most people will reluctantly present, but will still find it extremely uncomfortable. Unfortunately, public speaking only becomes easier with experience, which means you may come across some uncomfortable moments along the way. There are plenty of people who work as a professional Motivational Speaker or regularly do public talks in front of large groups; you can typically find their talks on youtube, so if you want to get some extra tips and tricks for public speaking, then it may be worth watching.

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 Write a Script 

Writing a script can prevent you from stumbling your words, or creating awkward silences; you don’t always need to be looking at your script when speaking, but it is good as a guide in case you find yourself getting flustered. When you write a script, you will most likely remember key parts of what you need to talk about, this will help your talk go much smoother. If you have a PowerPoint presentation to go alongside your script, this is a good way for you to focus on the slides and the presentation whilst you talk – here are some tips to create professional-looking PowerPoints. It’s important to keep rehearsing your script, as it will help you to remember key parts; if you’re not comfortable with presenting in front of family, then why not practice presenting by yourself? 

Do Plenty of Research 

If you are doing a presentation for your class, then plenty of research is vital; if you’re talking about a certain topic, then not having a lot of information to present can be pretty embarrassing and can cause you to finish quicker than expected. If you are not keen on doing lots of talking, make sure to put plenty of information on the PowerPoint presentation; the good thing about this is that the audience will be more focused on reading the presentation slides than looking at you.

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Focus on Your Friends 

When you are standing up to do a presentation in front of a class, there will most likely be the odd few that will try and ruin your presentation by laughing at you and making you lose focus; it is important to block out these people whilst you are presenting, as they could ruin your chance for a good grade. If your classmates are watching, make sure to focus on them, as they will be there to give you a friendly thumbs up and an encouraging smile – just be sure not to get the giggles. Ultimately, you need to put it into perspective; getting the presentation wrong and stumbling your words is not a serious situation, and won’t cause any consequences – so relax, have fun and just try your best.

Humans and even animals love listening to music, after all it can evoke so many different emotions. Just like the feelings that people get when they gamble, taking drugs or eating food, it boils down to the dopamine. On hearing a song you enjoy, it evokes a strong response and your releases dopamine, also known as the ‘feel-good chemical’. These are chemicals that are involved in both motivation and addiction. Even the anticipation of hearing your favourite songs is enough to start the dopamine flow.

This is a fairly recent discovery – the relationship between dopamine and music explains why music has become a big part of our existence since the beginning of time. Dopamine is a molecule that induces feelings of reward and is very adaptive. The original biological aim for dopamine was to encourage animals and humans to go in search of food before they become hungry.

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Neuroscientists believe that following the rhythm of a song and anticipating what comes next, whether right or wrong is what keeps us hooked, giving us a small cognitive victory that provides pleasure.  The amount of enjoyment we get from music explains why it has featured in every culture on every continent.

One study has even linked the pleasure experienced by listening to music with the physiological surge in emotional arousal that includes changes in heart rate, increased pulse rate and respiratory rate. People can also experience the same feelings with shivering or chills. Scientific studies have noted that when people experience these feelings, the actual blood flow increases to the area of the brain that releases dopamine. This is why we hear music when we were shopping. Retailers want us to feel good, comfortable and ideally for our dopamine to be released. For help with choosing the right Instore Music for your business, visit a site like Mood Media for Instore Music advice.

These experiments show for the first time that the brain releases a large amount of dopamine when it hears the music that gave them a feeling of ‘shivers’.

To further examine that this reaction actually occurs, scientists took a few music lovers and injected them with a radioactive fluid that binds to dopamine receptors. By using a PET scanner, they were able to see whether the substance moved through the blood that would indicate that dopamine has been released when the music sounded. Where the dopamine receptors were activated, the radioactive substance would stick to them.

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When the relationship between music and dopamine was established, the participants were put into an MRI machine to scan their brain while music was played. The results of the MRI scan showed the scientists for the first time how the brain releases dopamine both during the phase of ‘chills’ but also before the music even heard, when the listener is still in the anticipation stage. The dopamine is also released from two different areas of the brain.

It can be hard to find enough hours to complete all the tasks you have to do in your working day; however, there are things you can do to maximise your efficiency and ensure you make the most of every moment. Before we get into it, most people work better in a clean environment, so be sure to take a look at these robot vacuum cleaners for thick carpets (because we all know how offices are).

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Finish tasks

Try to finish the jobs that you start; otherwise, you will end up feeling anxious about them. You will feel a great endorphin rush when a task is completed, making you happy and relaxed and more able to move on to the next job.

Plan ahead

Whether you are spending your days converting PDF to Excel files or are ensconced in a top-secret design project, planning your week ahead can be really helpful. This will minimise the time spent procrastinating and give you a clear and prioritised pathway through your working week.

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Track time

You may have offered to help with converting PDF to Excel files or taken on an extra weekend shift, but try to track your time whatever you are doing. Take notice of how much time you are spending on individual tasks and how many minutes you spend doing very little except chatting with colleagues or making the tea.

Take breaks

When you are under pressure to get jobs done, it can be tempting to miss breaks; however, taking a little time out can give your productivity levels a boost. There are rules about taking breaks at work.

Think positively

A little positive thinking can go a long way in increasing your productivity. Positive thoughts will spur you on and ensure you don’t waste time worrying about impending deadlines or your workload for the day.

Minimise distractions

Distractions in your workplace can really lower your efficiency levels and your motivation. These distractions come in many different forms, from constantly ringing phones to gossiping colleagues, but all can have an adverse effect on your efficiency.

There are obviously some distractions that you can’t avoid, but there are ways to minimise others. Make sure that your personal mobile phone is switched off, for example, or get some noise-cancelling headphones if your company allows this.

Set short deadlines

Set shorter deadlines and make yourself work against the clock. This will make you work faster and give you a sense of achievement when you complete a task.