To-do lists should be an invaluable part of any small business owner's day-to-day productivity strategy. They do not just help you monitor your tasks, they help keep you motivated and on track. And they seem self-explanatory: Write down a task. Then do it. But, a to-do list can too easily take a wrong turn and become exhaustive and exhausting. Here are five quick tips to help you get the most from your to-do lists.

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Small businesses can be more vulnerable to cyberattacks than larger companies because they often do not have sophisticated and comprehensive systems to protect themselves from hackers, viruses, malware and whats called ransomware. And owners who are focused on customers and employees may not ensure that their defenses are up to date.

But there are things small businesses can do to improve cybersecurity.

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Statistics show that cybersecurity is a legitimate threat to small businesses, but small businesses don't always act on that knowledge. According to the 2018 Small Business Cybersecurity Report, 47% of small businesses experienced an attack in the past 12 months. Cybersecurity is a serious concern, yet the report shows only 52% of businesses have a cybersecurity strategy.

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The start of a new year provides the perfect opportunity for business owners to set new goals and find unique ways to improve their operations. There are plenty of different options for your 2020 resolutions, from shoring up your finances to organizing your online presence. Here are some suggestions and tips from members of the online small business community.

Grow Your Savings with Money New Mindset
If one of your resolutions for 2020 is to save more money for your business, you may need to shift your mindset. So how can you look at things a bit differently in the new year? Jamie T. Wiseman of Miss Millennia Magazine explores a handful of mindset shifts in this post.

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While telecom carriers are continuing to expand coverage areas and add cellular towers, most cell phone users still experience dropped calls and spotty coverage at times.

Many external factors and things out of your control can inhibit cell phone reception. Fully understanding the variety of factors that can cause poor cell signal may assist you in knowing how to improve a poor cell phone signal.

The following can all impact the strength of a cell signal:
How to Improve Cell Phone Signal

For your viewing pleasure we have improved our RSS newsfeeds. The feeds should be more readable and now come in three flavours.

You have three options to choose from:

1. Full Feed (the entire post);

2. Excerpts Only (a short intro to the post); or

3. Just Headlines only (self explanatory).

There are also three new options for joining our email newsletter. Just look at the right menu under the "Subscribe" menu.

Cheers!

Published at LXer: The x86 platform driver changes that were merged last week for the Linux 6.12 kernel continue to be quite lively with changes for enhancing Linux laptop support along with other...

Published at LXer: FFmpeg 7.1 "Peter" debuts with full Vulkan encoding pipelines, enhanced AAC decoding, MV-HEVC support, and more. Here's what's new! Read More......

Published at LXer: The Audacious open-source audio player, a descendant of the XMMS media player, has been updated to version 4.4.1, a release that introduces several new features and improvements....

Published at LXer: Audacious 4.4.1 builds on the changes introduced in Audacious 4.4 (a release that brought GTK3 and Qt6 UI choices, the return of a dedicated lyrics plugin, and better...

I have posted a "super-short" survey regarding the next release of IP Locator. Please take 5 minutes to help me make it the best geolocation widget out there. Thanks!

The government's plans to build 120,000 new homes in the Thames Gateway by 2016 will not work without a series of new and improved transport facilities, an official report warned today...

Do you have a website? If yes, do you have videos on that website? If yes, are you directly embedding videos from YouTube on your website? PROBLEM IS YouTube is free, BUT eats/diverts your traffic by suggesting videos on top of your video and directly embedding YouTube videos, which makes your business website look cheap […]

What is your sales organization doing about the current economic downturn? What will make a difference for your company? While the economic forecast may be “uncertain,” it is certain that our customers are reducing their budgets and spending more carefully, forcing their vendors to do the same. This economic challenge will accelerate the adoption of Sales 2.0 from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” philosophy. Companies that continue to sell the way they sold in the past will become less profitable or fail altogether. Customer preferences, the ever-rising cost of sales, and the availability of next-generation technologies are making change mandatory for companies that want to outperform the competition and minimize the impact of the economic slowdown.

What is Sales 2.0?
Sales 2.0 is not a new technology. It is the use of innovative sales practices to improve business results, creating value for both the buyer and seller, and is often enabled by Web 2.0 or next-generation technology. Sales 2.0 initiatives typically center on process and customer-engagement improvements to increase sales productivity. Sales 2.0 practices combine the science of measurable, process-driven operations with the art of collaborative relationships, using the most profitable and expedient sales resources required to meet your customers’ needs. The goal of Sales 2.0 is to produce greater, predictable, repeatable business results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs, and sustained competitive advantage.

Sales 2.0 initiatives require changing mindset and adjusting sales strategies. A relatively simple Sales 2.0 practice involves selling more through video or web conferencing. This can be done by inside salespeople or by field salespeople who perform more of their jobs from their desks. Selling more efficiently should also mean selling more effectively, as many buyers now prefer to meet remotely via conference calls with video or web conferencing, and salespeople benefit from additional selling time that otherwise would be spent traveling. A traditional sales process that included three or four onsite visits might now have zero or just one face-to-face visit. The financial impact of reducing travel expenses can be significant and is easily measured, but the economics of giving your most expensive sales resources — your field salespeople — additional selling time is even more compelling.

Many products and services, especially those of relatively small to average value, can only be sold profitably with a remote or low-touch sales model. The definition of “small to medium orders” is different for every company, but they are generally those that fall into your bottom 50% in value. If ignored, these mid-market customers or transaction types are missed opportunities for organizations that rely solely or too heavily on a field-based sales model. And when they are sold through field sales, these smaller opportunities can derail focus and drain the organization’s profitability.

Another Sales 2.0 practice uses some “science” to accurately capture key market information and metrics such as average sales cycle, average deal size and sales-cycle conversion rates. By using a defined sales process and data analytics, you can determine how your sales force should be structured and which customers and transaction types justify the assignment of field account executives, inside salespeople, channel partners or no selling effort at all. Data analytics in this sense can range from rudimentary (pen and paper) to moderate (spreadsheets, CRM, and most reporting systems) to advanced (dashboards and on-demand sales intelligence). Rather than simply measuring the final result (revenue), a Sales 2.0 approach measures the effectiveness of every stage in your sales process by salesperson, giving managers the opportunity to provide targeted coaching. Data analytics also can be used to correlate and analyze the specific characteristics of your most profitable customers (size, industries, locations, buyer types, etc.) that produce the most revenue and profit. Sales and marketing leaders can then use this information to fine-tune your sales model and activities to ensure the loyalty of your most valuable customers and find more prospects like them.

How do I begin a Sales 2.0 initiative with limited staff and budget?
A key Sales 2.0 tenet involves experimentation, often through testing new process ideas and piloting new technology. Testing a new sales message, pricing options, new technology, or even a new sales process enables the organization to be innovative with minimal risk. Small pilot programs that use minimal resources enable ineffective ideas to fail on a small scale, while good ones can be rolled out more aggressively.

Becoming a Sales 2.0 organization requires that we proactively adapt and continually improve so we can become closer to our customers and weather the economic storm better than our competitors.

I used to be frighteningly under confident in social situations. And although people who know me now would never believe I used to doubt myself so much I literally had to learn confidence until it became a natural part of me. I can tell you relaxed optimistic confidence is just, well so much more fun.

Here I'll tell you about the things that made the most difference to my confidence levels...

Some people have naturally high levels of confidence but everybody can learn to be more confident

Firstly, it's important to get a clear idea of what self confidence really means, otherwise you won't know when you've got it! So, self confidence means:

1) Being calm. For every situation in life you need to run on the appropriate level of emotion. Too much emotional 'leakage' into a experience can spoil the experience. You make great strides towards confidence when you begin to relax in a greater range of situations.

2) Being cool. The second part of self confidence is about being able to relax with uncertainty. To be 'cool' in a situation really means relaxing with not knowing how things will pan out. If you truly tolerate uncertainty, you can do pretty much anything.

3) Not being too concerned with what others think of you. You know when you imagine what some place is going to be like before you go there but when you get there it is totally different to your imagination? That's how reliable your imagination is! Stop trusting your imagination so much. I've long since stopped bothering to imagine what others think of me because so often I've turned out to be wrong.

4) Being specific - where do you want confidence? 'Confidence' is meaningless until you tie it to something specific. You are already confident that you can read these words or can switch a light on and off. So you don't need more confidence everywhere. To get what you want in life you have to establish exactly what you do want. Where do you want confidence in your life? Think about the specific situations now and write them down. You beginning to steer your brain towards confidence.

5) Understanding that what you expect is what you get. Your brain is an organ that needs clear goals to work towards. When a task has been set in your brain it will do everything it can do to bring about the completion of that task. If you've tried to recall someone's name but can't, hours later you'll often find their name pops into your head.

The 'trying to recall' experience set the task or blueprint for your brain's future subconscious behaviour which eventually produced the name for you - when you weren't thinking about it consciously. You can use this natural mechanism to start feeling more confident. But, to ensure you set the right task for your subconscious mind, the next point is vital.

6) Don't task your mind with negatives. Instead of: 'I don't want to screw up' (which sets the task of 'screwing up' for your brain), set the blueprint for what you do want! Your brain doesn't work towards what to do by being told what not to do. And nature has given you a wonderful natural tool to set the right task blueprints with.

7) Use nature's goal-setter: Now you understand how vital it is to set the right task for you brain, you need to know how to do this reliably. Good hypnosis will strongly 'program' the right blueprint in your mind through the use of your imagination. If you powerfully imagine feeling confident and relaxed while in a relaxed hypnotic state it will be hard for your unconscious mind to do anything else. The blueprint for relaxation has been set firmly into your subconscious mind.

3 simple strategies to get you feeling confident quickly:

1) Think specifically of the time/place/situation you want to feel confident in. Remember 'confidence' doesn't mean anything until you attach it to something specific.

2) Focus on words in your mind right now that describe how you do want to be in that time and place. Maybe words such as 'calm', 'relaxed' or 'focused'. Remember your brain works on clear positive instructions.

3) Close your eyes for as long as you like and think about how those words feel. Then, imagine the situation itself and rehearse it in your mind feeling confident and relaxed. This way you set the right blueprint or 'task' for your unconscious mind.

You can repeat this often to make it more effective and use it with as many areas of your life as you need to. If you listen to a hypnotic cd or download that can make the benefits even more powerful (see my profile below). So if you feel like you'd be blessed with less confidence than some other people you can start redressing the balance by using your mind in the right way right now.

It took me years to learn how to be more confident - now you can do it in a fraction of the time. Good luck!

Boost your confidence now at HypnosisDownloads.com

Article by Mark Tyrrell of Hypnosis Downloads.com.

Improving your stamina and endurance for running and interval hill running.

Ways to keep your brain healthy and functioning optimally.

Great ways to improve and maintain your mental health and well-being.

Some tips for improving your workouts that will bolster your motivation, get your goals back on track.

Tips on how golfers can improve their golfing game.

Know how to improve your exit velocity as a hitter in baseball to improve your game.

There are many variables that affect athletic performance and sleep is one of the most important.

Learn how to improve and achieve happiness in your life with these suggestions.

Improve ankle mobility and flexibility to prevent pain and injury, allow for a greater range of motion.

7 helpful tips to improve your exercise workout and to keep you motivated to reach your fitness goals

Expert tips to improve and perfect your various paddleboarding techniques and skills.

Cycling is a fun activity that is also great for your cardiovascular health. Read here to learn about the benefits of cycling for your overall well-being.

Bones are as valuable as muscles, and to improve your body’s bone strength and overall health, you should incorporate a few habits into your daily routine.

Explore the benefits of incorporating fish into your diet for muscle gain. Learn how the protein and omega-3 fatty acids in fish aid in bulking up.

Being out on the green can be great for your brain, as well as your body. Learn about the five ways that golf can help improve your mental health.

Mental health and physical health have a lot of links, and there are many ways to improve both this year, from making dietary changes to playing a team sport.

You can improve your bowling score with a few simple game-changing techniques. Learn those and so much more in this brief guide designed for the alley.

Farmscape for November 8, 2024

An Animal Science Professor with Colorado State University says the handling of livestock and the understanding of animal behavior have improved dramatically since the 1990s.
"Pig Handling and Welfare" was the focus of the day one keynote address at Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2024, held this week in Saskatoon.
Dr. Temple Grandin, an animal science professor with Colorado State University, says there is a much greater awareness of the benefits of superior stockmanship.

Quote-Dr. Temple Grandin-Colorado State University:
One thing that's really good is handling has improved.
That's the good news but also attitudes toward welfare have changed.
I started out in the 70s and was the livestock chairman for a group called LCI, Livestock Conservation Institute.
It was a livestock organization and they had committees on preventing death losses in pigs, reducing bruises in cattle.
It all had to do with economic losses.
Then, when I first started out working with cattle, I emphasized how I could improve the economics.
Nobody at that point was even talking about welfare then gradually things got more interested in welfare.
Maybe 20 years ago there was a lot videos put out showing really horrible handling, really bad stuff, pitchfork in the milking parlor, knocking dairy cows over with a forklift, beating pigs with gate rods as hard as they could beat them, just really bad things and that started a lot of the things on handling.
I did work with McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's in 1999 on inspecting pork and beef slaughter plants and it was very interesting taking high executives out and when they saw something really bad it was a true undercover boss moment.
They realized that there were things that we did have to fix but that kind of stuff's not going on now.
It took a long  time for a lot of people to accept that pigs and other animals feel pain.
Now the big emphasis has gone from, you've got to prevent suffering.

Dr. Grandin suggests by measuring and scoring handling, including such factors such as slips and falls, electric prod use, body condition score, lameness, vocalization you can tell whether you're getting better or worse.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

Practical Home Business Ideas. Over 130 Business Ideas You Can Start From Home. Lesson 3: Advertising To Increase Your Bottom Line Learning how to advertise your business will help direct customers to you which will generate more revenue for your profit margin. Most people love what they do, but they hate advertising.

Get valuable tips on how to promote your web site through effective dustribution of press releases.

Introducing the new e-book by Ken Evoy "Make Your Content PREsell." It's the only book of its kind. It will make you more effective, every way, every day. Every communication that you write will be better. Not just your web pages, e-zines or personal e-mail. Everything you ever write will simply be more effective.

[This Day] A social and developmental organisation, HACEY, has partnered with Access Corporation to improve maternal health outcomes for mothers at Meiran Primary Healthcare Center, Lagos.

For the first time, there's scientific evidence that a smaller, lesser known component of the cannabis plant – cannabinol – delivers better quality and longer sleep. It paves the way for finally having an effective sleep aid sourced from medical cannabis that's comparable to existing medications.

Continue Reading

Category: Sleep

Tags: Cannabis, University of Sydney, Marijuana, Medication, Sleep, Insomnia, clinical trials

(Telecompaper) Singtel saw strong EBIT growth of 27 percent year-on-year to SGD 738 million in fiscal first half to September...

Commentary: The base iPhone still lacks an always-on display, but I hope Apple changes that with the iPhone 17.

What difference would it make to be able to unlock ocean data at scale? How would deploying hundreds of marine sensing platforms improve marine weather predictability and accuracy? A company named Sofar is answering some of those questions these days due to their capacity to use real-time data to improve ... [continued]

The post How Networks Of Ocean Sensors Can Improve Marine Weather Predictability appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Strapsicle's silicone straps secure my Kindle Paperwhite and give me the perfect grip for comfortable reading.

No one has escaped this unprecedented combination of horribly disruptive crises. Some believe that, from now on, "2020" will be used to describe something messed up or bad (e.g., "Sorry you're experiencing a 2020"). However, this year has also allowed us to have 2020 “perfect” vision about many things. 2020 vision is the gold standard of absolute clarity of what is both near and far. Host Bill Marianes discusses 3 practical, proven, and theologically supported things you can do right now in your life to make it better.

Today Fr. Anthony waves the "Good Idea Wand" (a cursed artifact to be sure) to come up with solutions to the problem of maladjusted clergy. He then invites Fr. Gregory to evaluate them. The ideas they discuss are; psychological evaluations, mandatory reporting of credit scores and financial debt, annual performance evaluations, and peer reviews. In the end, they both agree that even though solutions like these may offer short-term benefits, the best solution is to facilitate the growth of genuinely Orthodox cultures and institutions. Enjoy the show!

Bobby Maddex interviews John Della Monica, the President of the Orthodox Church Capital Improvement Fund (OCCIF).

First, let me tell you a little story involving butterflies and bladders. I've spent the past few days at MicroConf. Just a phenomenal conference, full of like-minded folks, loaded with actionable content. Not to get too carried away, but it...

A series of sessions are being held to explain how a Business Improvement District (BID) could work.

A watchdog says a fire service is taking "significant steps" to address concerns raised a year ago.

New road markings are being installed on the slip road following a fatal crash in September.