Are You Leading A Sedentary Lifestyle?

Obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood sugar are all huge health problems in today’s society, and a major contributory factor is leading a sedentary lifestyle. But what does having a sedentary lifestyle actually mean?

What Is A Sedentary Lifestyle?

The term sedentary lifestyle means living a life that involves very little physical activity or exercise. If you never workout, play sports or walk more than the odd 5 minutes to and from your car, then you fall into this category. If you watch a lot of television, spend time online or playing video games, then you are sitting for far too long and this has implications for your health. We all tend to walk up to 3000 steps a day by just doing the basics like moving around the house and the workplace. This is the equivalent of walking around 20 minutes a day, and is classed as a sedentary lifestyle.

The Importance Of Physical Activity

Adopting a more physically active lifestyle today will help you avoid a whole host of health problems in the future. The great news is that it is so simple to make a couple of changes, that can make a huge difference to your health and wellbeing. The American Heart Association recommends around at least 150 minutes a week (or 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week) of physical exercise performed at a moderate intensity, but what exactly is moderate intensity exercise?

Examples Of Moderate Intensity Exercise

Before you start to panic, we are not talking about running marathons, buying expensive exercise equipment or spending hours on end at the gym. Regular exercise does not have to take over your life or eat up all your free time. But it is important that you take exercise on regular basis, in order to develop and enforce the habit of physical exercise. If you have not done any form of exercise for a long time, then walking is a great starting point. Try to walk between 30-60 minutes a day as a bare minimum level of exercise, then introduce some more intense exercise as well. This is exercise that raises your heart rate and gets you sweating a little.

Lets take a look at some examples of moderate intensity exercise: -

Brisk / power walking.

Jogging.

Swimming.

Cycling.

Tennis / squash / badminton.

Using a treadmill or elliptical trainer.

Zumba / ballroom dancing / line dancing.

Aerobics.

Playing on the Wii console.

There are lots of ways that you can get active and stay healthy, the key is to find something that you enjoy as you will be more likely to stick with it. So if you are leading a sedentary lifestyle, then get motivated, get moving and get fit, your destiny and future health is in your hands.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

10 Tips For Creating Home Business Marketing Videos

Are you interested in marketing your home based business with video? You are not alone. Many people are using video to reach more prospects, generate leads and produce more sales online.

This video will provide you with 10 tips for creating home business marketing videos.

Why create a video?

Video is one of the most effective forms of online marketing today because it’s the only thing that enables your prospect to ‘look you in the eyes’ and connect with you on a deeper level than article marketing or any other form of marketing can offer.

The average internet user has been ‘trained’ since birth to get their sources of information through video on television, movies etc so it’s not hard to connect with people and get your message across when you produce a great video.

What type of camera do you need to have to create a video?

You can create a video with a webcam, video camera or cell phone. Each camera type will work great especially since the average portable device usually comes with an awesome built in video camera and software for you to easily upload the video to your favorite video site or transfer it to you transfer it to your computer for editing.

Hardware & Software

Most computers, especially PC’S come with preloaded software that you can use to create videos. Windows Movie Maker is by far one of the easiest programs to use to create movies and best of all you probably have it loaded on your computer already so it’s not going to be hard for you to get started.

One you’re ready to get started here are the 10 tips that you need to follow to create great videos.

1. Set up the area that you intend to shoot your video – Be sure to use proper lighting and a plain background. This step is important because many people create poorly lit videos where their faces can’t be seen and the backgrounds are distracting and take the focus off the person who’s talking in the video.

2. Be natural and imagine yourself talking to a friend – If you take a conversational approach this will work better than trying to act like a salesperson and ‘sell’ the viewer.

3. Use a good microphone – You can find a low cost microphone online or at your favorite electronics store. I recommend getting a microphone that you can clip to your shirt or collar so it will be as close to your mouth as possible. Having a great microphone is important because you want people to be able to clearly hear your marketing message.

4. Smile and act friendly – This is an important step to remember because people are first and foremost going to be joining you before they join your business opportunity and you want to win them over with your positive attitude and energy.

5. Don’t use big words – Keeping the dialogue in your video simple will help you to get your marketing message across more clearly than using words that are complicated and leave people scratching their heads wondering what you just said.

6. Create a script – Knowing what you’re going to say and sticking with it is another way to add a professional quality to your videos. Many people neglect to do this and take the ‘shoot from the hip’ approach when producing their videos and they always look bad

7. Keep the video short and to the point – Many people won’t want to sit through a long video unless you have someone famous appearing in your video or a unique hook to hold their interest.

8. After you shoot your video be sure to watch it right away – Many people don’t watch their own videos and it shows. If you take the time to view your work you’ll find errors that can be easily corrected before you finish and upload it.

9. Include links in your video – This is an important step for any marketing video because if a viewer is interested in your opportunity you want to give them a place to click so you don’t lose that traffic.

10. To get the most out of your marketing video you should consider using video submission services because they will help you to get more views for your video and increase your marketing exposure.

Posted in videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Why You Should Provide Written Contracts of Employment

The relationship between employer and employee is based on the law of contract. However, unlike some types of agreement, only certain aspects of a contract of employment are required by law to be in writing. This has been the cause of confusion and disagreement, and is one of the main causes of employment tribunal claims.As they based on the law of contract, you can be forgiven for thinking that a contract of employment consists of only those things that are set out in writing between an employer and an employee.In fact, contracts of employment often consist of these elements:
The terms and conditions that have been agreed between the employer and employee;
Terms and conditions that have been negotiated through a collective agreement;
 Terms and conditions that are set by legislation, such as the National Minimum Wage and the minimum number of paid holidays the employee is entitled to in year;
Terms and conditions that have been established by custom and practice;
Terms that are necessary to make the contract work. For example, if the employee is employed as a driver it is assumed that they will have a valid driving licence for that class of vehicle; and
Terms that are too obvious to mention. For example, that the employee should act in good faith, and that the employer should have trust and confidence in the employee.
The first three items on the above list are usually written terms expressing the agreement of the parties. Whereas, the last three items are terms that are implied into the agreement.Written statement of employment particulars:It is a legal requirement to give your employees a written statement of certain particulars of their employment. This statement must be given with two calendar months of them starting work. The statement, which can be contained in more than one document, must give the following information:

The business’ name and address;

The employee’s name, job title or a description of the work they will do, and the date on which they will start work;

If a previous job counts towards a period of continuous employment, the date the period started;

How much, how often, and how an employee will be paid;

Hours of work (and if employees will have to work Sundays, nights, and or overtime);

Holiday entitlement (and if that includes public holidays);

Where the employee will be working, and whether he or she might have to travel for work; and

If the employee works in different places, where these are.
The most convenient way to provide this information is in the contract of employment, which means the contract of employment must be provided within the above time period.A written statement must also contain information about:

How long a temporary job is expected to last;

The end date of a fixed-term contract;

Notice periods;

Collective agreements;

Pension provisions;

Who to go to with a grievance;

How to complain about how a grievance was handled; and

How to complain about a disciplinary or dismissal decision
What a written statement does not need to include:The written statement does not need to cover the following, but it must say where the information can be found:

Sick pay and procedures;

Disciplinary and dismissal procedures; and

Grievance procedure.
Good practice:As an employer, it is good practice to:

Give each employee a written contract of employment that sets out the terms and conditions of employment agreed between you and employee, including sick pay and procedures. The best time to provide the contract of employment is when making the job offer so that the terms on which the employment is offered are clear; and to

Have an employment handbook that sets out your policies and procedures, including your disciplinary and dismissal procedures, and your grievance procedure. The employee need not have their own copy of your employment handbook, but they must have reasonable access to a copy.
The policies and procedures in your employment handbook will reflect statutory procedures and entitlements, such as maternity and adoption leave, parental leave and shared parental leave, and a policy on requesting flexible working. It will also include your policy on the acceptable use of I.T. equipment, the use of company vehicles, and reclaiming expenses, amongst may others.The written contract of employment will, in addition to the information you are legally required to provide, include other provisions of a contractual nature. These might include the benefits you provide, such as payment of salary or wages during sickness, life assurance, private medical insurance, personal use of a company vehicle, and a bonus scheme.The contract ‘starts’ as soon as an offer of employment is accepted.It is always best for contracts of employment to be writing. Having written agreements avoids potential confusion and disagreement about what terms and conditions of employment were, and were not agreed. Providing your employees with a written contract of employment also removes one of the main causes of employment tribunal claims.This is the third article in this series. The next article looks at How To Manage A New Employee’s Probationary Period.

Posted in Employment Work | Tagged | Comments Off