Your brain is a powerhouse! It requires a large amount of fuel in order to keep it functioning at it’s peak all day long. Stress, poor diet, deadlines and a lack of fresh air can all compromise your brain function. Use the following tips to help keep your brain and memory in tip top shape.

Lecithin granules

Lecithin is rich in phosphatidyl choline which has been found to be beneficial to brain function and memory. Add two tablespoons to your cereal or smoothie at breakfast.

Eat regularly!

Being busy is no excuse for skipping meals and snacks. Since your brain is the greatest consumer of glucose in the body, it is important that you refuel your body every 3-4 hours with good nutritious food.

Fresh air and nature – rich in negative ions

Experience more of the ocean, the mountains and waterfalls as they have been found to generate tens of thousands of negative ions which have a positive impact on mood and brain function. Air conditioning and computer screens emit positive ions which are more likely to contribute to stress levels.

Memory Herb - Gingko Biloba

Studies show that Gingko Biloba helps to increase blood flow to the brain and improves concentration and memory. (Do not use if taking blood thinners or anticoagulant medication such as warfrin).

Good fats

Essential fatty acids are found in high concentrations in the brain and especially involved in our ability to create and maintain memories as well as help to improve circulation. Oily fish, eggs and nuts and seeds are great ways to increase your omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.

Antioxidants

Fresh fruit and vegetables are full of antioxidants that help to protect the brain from damage from free radicals which tend to cause damage to cells particularly in the brain. Blueberries, raspberries, brussel sprouts and broccoli are some of the key fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants. The vitamins A, C and E have also been found to protect the brain and green tea helps to prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine which in turn helps to maintain memory.

Replenish lost nutrients from stress

Brain function suffers when we are under stress largely due to the depletion of certain nutrients such as the B vitamins and imbalances in our neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are brain chemicals that act as electrical switches in the brain. When you have a memory blank or can’t recall a piece of information it is because there is a short circuit or power failure due to inadequate neurotransmitters. Vitamin B Complex and neurotransmitter precursors such as glutamine, choline, taurine and tyrosine can help to improve memory.

Drink 2 Litres of water each and every day!

Dehdyration affects the ability of the brain to store and retain information.

Meditation

Even 5-10 minutes per day helps to improve brain function.

How often do we sit and think about how symbols, pictures and taglines affect our brand? Conversely how aware are we of the effect on us of our favourite brands’ symbols and other visual identity references?

Are you a visual person, and does it matter?

From teenagers wearing Gap and Nike brand logos to adults driving BMWs, we are drawn to incorporate brands into lives. We all draw our personality and self-image from products such as cars, homes, clothing and even recreational activities, and products always have brand logos or symbols of some kind that represent them.

By accident or Design?

Nike probably got the best deal amongst all companies when Caroline Davidson designed its logo for just $35 in 1971. The main part of the logo hasn’t really changed with time. However it was 7 years before they realized that the text and the swoosh were overlapping each other.

As the brand gained recognition, the company name was dropped from the logo, which made it more simplistic and memorable. The company has different variations of this logo for its various departments like Skate, Soccer etc.

Creating a Visual Signature

One of the first steps in creating an identity for an organisation is the development of an effective logo. An appealing logo makes your business special and memorable in the eyes of your clients or customers.

Each element adds unique characteristics to a logo.

It is important to remember that your logo is not your brand. It is just one part of the entire brand implementation process.

Keep it simple.

An appealing logo makes your business special and memorable in the eyes of your clients or customers.

The simpler a logo is the more it is, the more cost effective it is to reproduce. Your logo needs to remain consistent in color, font and proportion where ever it is used.

A brand comprises many elements. These include its name, positioning (reason for being), trademark/trade dress (symbols, colors, typestyle, package configuration), and brand communications. These brand elements, when successfully developed and managed, create a strong identity for a company. Over time, this creates strong brand authority.

Please let us know your thoughts, and add a comment here.

Women in Business eNewsletter | March 2010

So you have waded your way through the interviewing and selection process and BINGO! You have found the perfect person for your role! They have the skills and experience and above all you think they make a great with your team.

So you extend the offer, with what you feel is a fair market salary package for the position - and then they are counter offered.

A counter offer in its basic sense is when the applicant you have offered the position to is, usually upon resignation with their existing employer, offered more money or better benefits in an effort to keep them with that company.

There can be only three outcomes when an applicant is counter offered:

1. They decline the counter offer and accept your offer
2. They consider the counter offer and come to you to try and negotiate further
3. They accept the counter offer and stay with the employer

Obviously the ideal is scenario one, and for most smart applicants this is what they would do, because ultimately research shows that the majority of candidates who accept a counter offer leave the employer within six months.

However, if you find yourself in the other two scenarios with a top class applicant, here are some tips which may help you manage the difficult process:

1. Know your limits - This means knowing what the role is worth to your company and not going over this amount (unless you are convinced this person can add more value than anyone else could in the role).
2. Consider the salary ranges of the other staff in the same or similar positions - Are you putting this new staff member above other great performing team members?
3. Remind the applicant the reasons they were looking for a change to begin with - Having conducted a thorough interview you would have asked them their reasons for wanting to leave their existing employer, if their counter offer is purely financially based, likelihood is it won’t meet these needs, and they will still be unhappy.
4. Think outside the square – You may not be able to offer the same or better money, but what else can you offer to keep them happy? Again go back to your interview notes on why they were looking to leave their current role and meet these needs. It may be flexible hours, the opportunity to work from home, a more social culture, different challenges or the opportunity to learn new skills.
5. Above all don’t be pushed or rushed into decisions that you are not ready to make - You obviously don’t want to lose a great applicant, but by the same token you must make sure the decisions you make are well thought out and qualified as the right thing for the business and the role.
6. Seek advice - Ask other business owners and industry contacts about the salary and benefit ranges for similar positions, make sure that you are not offering below market rates or you may never get the right person for the role.

Remember to do your research, know your limits and think outside the square, this should make the process a whole lot simpler.

Counter offers can be frustrating, disappointing and confronting, but in roles where great applicants with unique skills are in high demand they can be very common. Remember to do your research, know your limits and think outside the square, this should make the process a whole lot simpler.

Have you buried your head in the sand when it comes to your business financials? Do you know where your money is being spent and how much money you have earned? Or do you simply get your books done (or not - shriek!) to get your BAS out of the way, pray that you don’t owe any money and get back to being busy? Are you afraid of knowing exactly how your business is going? I love that saying “feel the fear and do it anyway”, because at least if you do know the hard facts, you’ll be able to make changes. And you never know, your business might be doing better than you thought!

If you’re behind in keeping your books, you can get back on track. Here are some simple steps to accomplish this:

1. Collate all your paperwork into piles that relate to:

a. Invoices and payments made for business expenses
b. Invoices and payments received from customers/clients or a cash register summary
c. Payments made to employees
d. Bank and credit card statements, BAS, ATO correspondence

2. If this seems overwhelming, maybe it’s time to bite the bullet and enlist help from a bookkeeper who can sort it all out for you.

3. Are you using an accounting software package? You need access to this (or give your bookkeeper access to it) to get yourself up to date.

4. Enter all relevant information from a, b and c above.

5. Take your bank and credit card statements, and check (reconcile) that all transactions are accounted for in your accounting software program. Make sure to include any cash transactions as well. If you have no idea how to reconcile, simply look at a bank register (or credit card register) within your accounting software to check that each item that is on your bank statement (and/or credit card statement) also appears in your bank register. Then you can hand over to a bookkeeper/accountant to complete the reconciliation process.

6. By now you should be up to date. It’s time to celebrate – woo-hoo! If you had assistance to get back on track make sure you pay their bill promptly. Let’s now consider your maintenance program, because you don’t want really to get into this position again, do you?

7. Maintenance mode – repeat steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 from above on a weekly or fortnightly basis to keep on track. The important thing to remember is that it is much better for you and your business to KNOW your numbers than to go into a cold sweat and have no idea!

Communication skills are  more important today than ever before.

And, communication barriers go beyond language barriers. Let’s assume you speak English well. You may not be the next best-selling author, or Tony Robbins, but you have a decent command of the English language. You’re good at what you do and you want to grow your business.

But, nobody’s listening, nobody’s buying.

What’s happening?

Do you speak English?

Mum. Aged 16. (Love the hair!)

My mum arrived here from Greece aged 15. She spoke no English and, like many migrants new to a country, struggled for a long time to be understood.

Some migrants, like her, moved to neighbourhoods with like-speaking people, worked in factories where their native language was spoken, mingled only with others from their own culture. No doubt their progress with the English language was slow.

Mum wanted to learn the language of her new country - to be understood.  So, when my brothers and I were in school and she finally had some time to herself, she went off to English classes and while we kids would at times giggle at her attempts at words (English is a HARD language) she persisted. She wanted to be understood. I didn’t realise, at the time, the persistence this took.

Communication today

Doing business today requires you to be able to communicate better and differently than ever before.

Technology has given us many tools with which to communicate. But the tools themselves don’t make us good communicators. The mastery of one or many, could however make you a market leader.

Over the next few weeks I’ll post about the effective use of of my favourite communication tools for business.

Here’s my position on Communication:

Communication is a skill.

It can be learned, improved, mastered. By anyone. Yes, including you - regardless of your level of schooling.

Tools do not make you good.

Communication tools like blogs, podcasts, emails, newsletters, videos, webinars, seminars etc. are TOOLS. Their use, alone, does not make you a master of them.

In my opinion:

• A bad podcast COULD be worse for your business than no podcast.
• A bad webinar COULD be worse for your business and reputation than NO webinar.

The key to more effective communication is to take action AND to get education and improve your skills. For example:

• If you’re going to blog, get some basic training.
• If you’re going to podcast, then get some honest feedback on your voice and some voice training.
• If you’re going to do seminars, then please, please, get some presentation skills.

You get the picture?

The big opportunity

Those who commit to master of their communication will win the hearts and minds of their customers, staff, allies and community.

If you’re up for the ride, then let’s go.  Next week’s post: Basic Communication Tools to Grow Your Business

Cheers
Suzi

This past week I proudly launched my new business, ExeConnect, and as a gift to the clients who attended the launch event, I presented a gift of wellbeing and happiness!  I had arranged for Clive Leach, our Associate Executive Coach at ExeConnect to give a presentation at the launch. Clive is an evidence-based executive coach and facilitator who works within the corporate sector and Australian Public Service. He is a master’s graduate of the University of Sydney Coaching Psychology Unit and a member of the International Coach Federation.

Clive informed us that research shows that despite huge increases in wealth, advances in health care and access to technology, western societies today are no happier than they were 50 years ago. This doesn’t mean everyone is miserable; but levels of life satisfaction and well-being have not improved, despite arguably higher standards of living. The reality is that levels of anxiety, stress, fear and depression are rising.

He explained that the causes for lack of wellbeing include the breakdown of family and community relationships, increased violence, crime, drug and alcohol use, and (perhaps the most insidious culprits of all) ‘afluenza’ and social comparison. Too many people believe that happiness can be found through their looks, clothes, iPods, mobile phones, trainers or cars. There’s a lack of realisation that once these things are attained, we all too quickly adapt to them and promptly become envious that others have something bigger, better or newer.

Like the wicked queen in Snow White, when we can only judge ourselves by what the external world (the mirror on the wall) thinks, we can never be truly happy.

So, enough of the bad news.What’s the good news?

Clive assured us all that the field of positive psychology provides a wealth of evidence that it is possible for us to increase levels of happiness and well-being and sets out a clear and applicable framework for living a life of pleasure, engagement and meaning.

We know that the most hopeful and optimistic people share three simple characteristics:

1. they have goals,
2. they have agency (self belief) in their ability to reach the goals and
3. they are able to identify a range of pathways or routes to success which helps them to persevere when faced with inevitable setbacks.

Five daily actions that will help you flourish

Clive went on to give us several examples of how we can begin to build our resilience, improve well-being and aim to be our best possible selves. In particular, I was fascinated by the research that was commissioned in 2008 by The New Economic Foundation, by the UK Government’s Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Well-being. The review was an inter-disciplinary work of over 400 scientists from across the world with an aim to identify a set of evidence-based actions to improve well-being, which individuals should be encouraged to build into their daily lives. Here is a brief description of those five actions and how you incorporate them into your daily life:

1. Connect

Connect with the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the corner of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Social relationships are critical to our well-being. Survey research has found that well-being is increased by life goals associated with family, friends, social and political life and decreased by goals associated with career success and material gains. Governments can shape policies in ways that encourage citizens to spend more time with families and friends and less time in the workplace. For example, employment policy that actively promotes flexible working and reduces the burdens of commuting, alongside policies aimed at strengthening local involvement, would enable people to spend more time at home and in their communities to build supportive and lasting relationships.

2. Be active

Go for a walk or a run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Exercise has been shown to increase mood and has been used successfully to lower rates of depression and anxiety. Being active also develops the motor skills of children and protects against cognitive decline in the elderly. Yet for the first time in history more of the world’s population live in urban than non-urban environments. Through urban design and transport policy, governments influence the way we navigate through our neighbourhoods and towns. To improve our well-being, policies could support more green space to encourage exercise and play and prioritise cycling and walking over car use.

3. Take notice

Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the usual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

In the US, research has shown that practising awareness of sensations, thoughts and feelings can improve both the knowledge we have about ourselves and our well-being for several years. But the twenty-first century’s never-ending flow of messages from companies advertising products and services leaves little opportunity to savour or reflect on our experiences. Policy that incorporates emotional awareness training and media education into universal education provision may better equip individuals to navigate their way through the information super-highway with their well-being intact; regulation to create advertising-free spaces could further improve well-being outcomes.

4. Keep learning

Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.

Learning encourages social interaction and increases self-esteem and feelings of competency. Behaviour directed by personal goals to achieve something new has been shown to increase reported life satisfaction. While there is often a much greater policy emphasis on learning in the early years of life, psychological research suggests it is a critical aspect of day-to-day living for all age groups. Therefore, policies that encourage learning, even in the elderly, will enable individuals to develop new skills, strengthen social networks and feel more able to deal with life’s challenges.

5. Give

Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you.

Studies in neuroscience have shown that cooperative behaviour activates reward areas of the brain, suggesting we are hard wired to enjoy helping one another. Individuals actively engaged in their communities report higher well-being and their help and gestures have knock-on effects for others. But it is not simply about a one-way transaction of giving. Research shows that building reciprocity and mutual exchange – through giving and receiving – is the simplest and most fundamental way of building trust between people and creating positive social relationships and resilient communities. Governments can choose to invest more in ‘the core economy’: the family, neighbourhood and community which, together, act as the operating system of society. Policies that provide accessible, enjoyable and rewarding ways of participation and exchange will enable more individuals to take part in social and political life.

BONUS: Get a coach!

Finally, one more way to learn about and understand how you can use your strengths and inner resources and to achieve a life of purpose, satisfaction and achievement is by attending an Evidence-based intervention, such as a workshop or one-on-one coaching. Outcomes of research studies have shown that coaching can result in significant increases in levels of well-being, resilience, hope and goal attainment in people. Exploring such findings might add value for your own life as well as the lives of your friends, family and colleagues and result in flourishing people.

Possible Scenario at your next meeting:

PROSPECT: “Do you have a business card?”
YOU:  “Sure.”

Then…

• You produce a card (or something glamorous made from long-lasting plastic, platinum etc. with all your details - including your Twitter handle!)
• Your contact takes a photo of it with their iPhone (what else would you use, really?).
• Your details are now in their phone.

No paper, no waste.

The Business Card Reader allows you to take the photo of a business card on your iPhone (or Blackberry). It then ‘reads’ the data and enters the details into your address book.

So, no scanning, data entry, or piles of business cards stashed in drawers.
Now all you need is one business card and friends and colleagues with iPhones.

I’ll be getting the app.

Suzi

Business Card Reader | Apple iPhone Application

Laptops, mobile phones, iPhones, Blackberrys and USB drives can conveniently store data outside your work environment. But portability has a downside.

Devices are easily stolen and their data is valuable with many thieves admitting to stealing devices for the information stored on them.

Protect your device from damage

It goes without saying that one of the most common threats to mobile devices is physical damage. What happens if you drop your laptop, accidentally sit on it or spill that much-needed coffee over your iPhone? There is no fail-safe way to protect yourself against this risk, the important thing is take precautionary measures to avoid losing data if your device is damaged.

A  couple of simple ways you can protect yourself include using a secure, encrypted USB flash memory drive to back up your data, the thought being your back up is on your person and separate from your laptop. Best of all is back up data to an online storage site so your data doesn’t go missing if your laptop is damaged.

Get smart when it comes to which data you carry.

Finders keepers

However, your greater risk is that your device will be lost or stolen.  Your data is the most valuable and hard-to-replace thing about your device, make protecting your data the number one priority.

Some things to help with physical theft!

• Be smart. Don’t let your mobile device out of your sight. Don’t be showy with your equipment. Carry your gadgets and laptop as inconspicuously as possible.
• Label your property. Labeling reduces the value of the equipment, since it’s extra work for the thief to remove the labels. You can purchase devices that will imprint your logo onto the case of the device. (Check with the manufacturer before branding equipment.)
• Use security products. You can increase the physical security of your device by investing in a cable lock, beaconing software, lock boxes, or BIOS settings. Any of these can greatly improve physical security and deter theft. Even a password required at login helps.
• Complex passwords and encryption solutions make it difficult for your laptop to be “hacked” by criminals if it is stolen.
• Remote data protection so sensitive data can be wiped remotely if your device goes missing.
• Use the hard drive password setting on your laptop. It provides good security, but is also the most unforgiving if a password is lost.   If you do set the hard drive password, store it in a safe place (which is not on the laptop or in the laptop case!).

Get smart when it comes to which data you carry.

Look at the data you have stored on your device and ask yourself whether you really need to have this sensitive data stored on the device, or whether you could remove certain aspects of it to be safer. Some questions to help you determine your real needs - whether you have sensitive data, and whether you really need to:

• Do you have old personnel files or employee evaluations that can be deleted?
• Have you collected ABN / TFN /ACN / Bank Account as identifiers?
• Do you have a file with credit card numbers from clients or users? OR even your own?
• Do you collect birthdates along with names for any reason?
• Did you answer “yes” to any of these?   If you did, consider whether you have a legitimate business need for this information, and if you do, whether you really need to store this data on a mobile device:
  • If you do have a legitimate business need for sensitive data on your mobile device, consider some ways you could make this data safer:
    • Could you access it on a server versus storing it on the local hard drive?
    • Could you remove elements of the data that render it harmless if it were to be unintentionally disclosed? (For example, TFN numbers by themselves pose no threat. However, if coupled with names in a file, they can prove to be injurious.)
    • Could you encrypt the data?
• Ensure you’re only carrying the data you think you are. It’s a good idea to look in your most frequently used folders, and your “Temp” folder, and purge any unneeded files, every week or two.

Ensure a secure Internet connection everywhere - including at home

Taking all the care in the world with the security of your mobile devices won’t matter if you connect them using low-security Internet connections such as public, unsecured wireless.  Don’t sabotage your efforts to protect your property and sensitive data by making mistakes borne of ignorance or overconfidence.

• Use secure wireless. While using a public wireless networks at airports, bookstores, and coffee shops is convenient, it’s also one of the most dangerous things you can do with your mobile device. You’re just asking for someone to “shoulder surf,” steal your data, or your identity. Use only approved wireless access points. Ensure you only connect to wireless networks that you actively choose.
• Disable file and print sharing. You may not have this enabled, but in case you do, turn it off before going mobile. It allows other users to connect to your computer, something you may find desirable while in a work environment, but certainly not so while on the go.
• Disable your wireless Internet connection when not in use. When you’re not using it, having your wireless Internet on is just an added security risk. Many newer devices literally have an on/off “switch” for the wireless card.

Don’t get caught with your slip showing! Be prepared: better safe than sorry.

One of the questions I often ask my mentoring clients is:

“What’s getting in the way?”

By that I mean, what’s getting in the way of you making the progress you want, achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself, working on the things that are important as opposed to urgent? Generally the list tumbles out of their mouths – clients, customers, staff, kids, IT issues, emails, traffic, the government, change in policy … blah, blah, blah.

This list of barriers can often feel insurmountable – particularly when day after day feels like a never-ending list of issues and challenges instead of productive, satisfying work. So what gives?

Well, my first tip is to break the barriers down into three categories.

1. Speed Bumps – these are the things that are slowing you down … they’re an annoyance but aren’t insurmountable. A speed bump I’ve experienced today has been intermittent and slow internet connectivity. Extraordinarily annoying for someone who practically lives online … but I know it’s temporary and I’ve been able to work around it.
2. Bottle Necks – this is where the traffic-flow of your business is slowing down due to a constriction of flow. It often happens when a particular staff member needs to approve ‘things’ … so work piles up in their in-tray while team members ‘wait’ to move-on. In a micro-business, a bottle-neck can often be lack of effective email management systems – so highly valuable emails (like a new client enquiry) gets lost in the ‘mass’ and doesn’t get addressed until the client has lost interest.
3. Road Blocks – just like at major road-works, a Road Block in your business is where you’ve hit a complete stop with a particular project or conversation. For me at the moment it’s a major client who just won’t return phone-calls or emails. I can see the writing on the wall … but I can’t get a response and therefore can’t take any action on the file.

By categorising the list of barriers in this way you are in a better position to problem-solve … and you no longer see an endless list of ‘complaints’, rather items that need attention and can be resolved. Pay attention to recurring speed-bumps and bottle-necks – they may point to systemic issues in your business management or business model which, once resolved, could make a huge difference to your business. Road Blocks hopefully are one-off events … but by articulating them as such you can often quickly figure out a resolution.

By categorising the list of barriers in this way, you are in a better position to problem-solve

So next time you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall in your productivity, ask yourself

‘What’s getting in my way?’ and

‘Are these Speed Bumps, Bottle Necks or Road Blocks?’

When you do, you’ll find yourself on the freeway again in no time.