Shop Insurance Buyers Guide

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Business owners often find that it is both pleasurable and challenging running their own retail shop. An important aspect of running a small successful retail unit is that you must ensure that your business is insured for all unforeseen eventualities. Failure to have a correct shop insurance policy in place will ensure the business is well equipped to face any unexpected disasters such as theft and liability claims.

A simple inventory of your shop retail business can highlight what sort of sum insured you need. If your business stops trading for a day, week or even longer period due to a fire claim for example could cripple most companies under this scenario. Obviously there is the cost of replacing the lost stock, loss of revenue and legal costs. All these items and more can easily be covered under a single shop package insurance policy. Getting the right cover in place ensures your business is protected now and for the future.

How to assess what you need insuring?

The most simplest way to understand exactly what the best package is suitable for your shop is to speak with a professional insurance broker that specialise in commercial insurance solutions for small businesses. Explain to the broker your current setup and they will then tailor a shop insurance package that will meet the needs of your retail business. Other options include utilising the power of the internet. There are many guides and small business portals available that have information on all types of things such as tax, legal, regulatory and insurance.

Getting a shop insurance quote online

There are many online quote systems catering for small business owners such as newsagent, salon, pub, café, grocers etc. Some of these quote forms simply catch the information you enter and pass this onto an advisor who then will contact you with a quotation or request additional information. Other systems will provide instant online shop insurance quotes and some even compare prices with a wide range of insurers and underwriters. To get a quote you usually require certain information to hand. Typical questions asked include:

  • Name and address
  • Type of business
  • Contents sum insured
  • Building sum insured (if applicable, you could be renting and landlord has the premises insured)
  • Previous claim history
  • Security measures

The above are just a few examples of the question set that may appear on a quote form. It is the duty of the policyholder to disclose all material facts to the insurer. Failure to do so could invalidate the policy and claims not honoured. It might be tempting to say that your premises are fitted with a burglar alarm system to get cheaper premiums. This is false economy and almost always ends in a disaster for the shopkeeper.

There many excellent commercial insurance brokers who offer highly competitive shop insurance policies that can be paid on flexible monthly terms. The shop owner can then budget this into their monthly expenses sheet.

5 Healthy Eating Habits to Living a Healthy Lifestyle

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If you actually write down what you are eating on a daily basis, you probably will drop your jaw in horror. We never think to add up the little snack size candy bar here and the 2 cookies to actually see the major impact it is having on our diets. The best way to achieve a healthy lifestyle, as far as our diets go, is eating more fruits and vegetables. We all know it, so why do we head for the potato chips isle in the grocery store instead of the produce section?

Basically it comes down to this. Junk foods trigger our appetite and leave us longing for more. Ever wonder why eating one little innocent Cheez-it leads to eating half a box? One taste triggers your body to want to keep eating. Now if you could condition yourself to do that with red grapes, we could achieve that healthy lifestyle. It may be difficult to do, but not impossible. Here are 5 ways to condition yourself to make healthier snack choices.

Healthy Eating Habits #1: Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

If you do not have junk food in your kitchen, you will not eat it. It really is that simple. I am the type of person who needs something to eat while I watch my nightly movie, and I tend to grab the bad stuff. The only times I do not is when I can not. Do your grocery shopping right after you have eaten a huge meal so you will not be hungry for bad foods, but rather good foods. Leave the store without any junk food but with plently of fruits and vegetables. Your purse and your belly will thank you in the long run.

Healthy Eating Habits #2: Add Fruits And Vegetables To Your Dishes

Sometimes it is not easy to sit down with a few strawberries without the chocolate dip. You crave something bad. That is the trigger food calling out to you but you need not answer. Cut the strawberries up and add them to a bowl of cereal. Throw in a few blueberries and raisins. Just remember to use skim milk and keep the sugar in the cupboard. Fruit has enough natural sweetness all by itself. Think of it as natural candy.

When was the last time you got excited about eating carrot and celery sticks without dipping sauce? Probably never, but that does not mean you never will. Add them to a small salad when you want a snack. No, you can not drown it all in fatty blue cheese dressing. That is the same thing as dip, is it not? A little bit of vinagrette dressing is what your mind should be thinking of.

Healthy Eating Habits #3: Make A Compromise

If you are following the American Diet, your palette now craves high salt and high sugar foods. Quitting is almost never successful when it is done cold turkey. People think they need to stop all the bad stuff all at once and then 3 days later they burn out and revert to bad habits. Being healthy is not about missing out on the foods you love. If you want pizza, eat a slice with a bowl of fruit salad instead of french fries. If you want Cheeze-Its, eat a handful with a handful of grapes instead of half the cheez-It box. Ease into it and slowly change your eating habits for the better.

Healthy Eating Habits #4: Load Up On Liquids

Many times we confuse hunger with thirst. You think you are starving until you drink a nice refreshing glass of water. Then your stomach feels a little more full and you have not added more calories on to your waist line. If you remember to drink liquids fairly often, you will probably find yourself not even thinking you are hungry anymore. So with that in mind, the next time you are afraid of ordering too much fettuccine Alfredo at your favorite Italian restaurant, drink a tall glass of water before you order. You might feel like passing that for a nice crisp salad with shrimp or chicken.

Healthy Eating Habits #5: Take A Supplement

Sometimes we get busy in our lives and might have the best intentions to eat healthy, but can not always find healthy foods to eat. Most vending machines do not offer carrot and celery sticks, unfortunately. One way around this is to take a daily supplement that gives you all the nutrition you would get if you did eat lots of fruits and vegetables. This does not mean you should take them and continue eating snickers bars all day long, mind you. Junk is still junk.

Eating fruits and vegetables may not be something you are used to, but just like anything else, it takes some getting used to. Use the tips above to make the transition easier, but do not think like a cheater. Cheaters never prosper and if it were easy, everyone would be walking around fit and trim. Living a healthy lifestyle means making healthy choices. The more you do it, the healthier you will be.

Wedding Jewellery – First Steps

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In the excitement that comes with an engagement and a impeding marriage, sometimes finding the perfect wedding jewellery at an attractive cost gets lost in the shuffle. Couples spend so much time getting ready for the wedding, making sure the proposal is perfect, that they fail to do their homework on what to look for in their rings.

It’s important to begin looking for wedding rings long before you are getting married. The storefronts that you see when you shop will try to entice you with the latest trends that celebrities have been wearing, and they come with exorbitant price tags.

Typically the best advice to give to someone who is just getting started looking for wedding rings, is to shop for the woman first. Her ring choice comes with many more options, and it’s much easier to match the man’s wedding ring with the woman’s than the other way around. A woman has to decide how much her finance can afford when it comes to a diamond. Once she has a size of the diamond picked out, she can move onto the setting and then the material of the band itself. Wedding Jewellery can take some time to find the best choice.

The last few years have seen a huge change in men’s wedding rings. Now that titanium and tungsten have become more popular, most men are flocking to these new styles. They are more masculine and they are much more durable for a man’s lifestyle. A titanium ring has the advantage of a tungsten ring simply because it is lighter. They are both extremely durable. Then you usually get a set of either silver or gold in the middle of the metal ring to match the women’s.

Finding the perfect matching ring set could take some time. Wedding Jewellery is a very important symbolic connection to your relationship.

Hair Shears 101 – Taking Care of Your Precious Shears

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If you are thinking of putting up a hair salon business, one of the things you have to invest in are high quality hair tools and equipment that will ensure that you give your clients nothing but the best kind of service and treatment.

One of the fundamental hair tools that you should invest in is a pair of good shears because this is the tool that you will be using to give your customers great haircuts. A pair of Fromm shears is one of your best choices.

Of course, it does not end with buying a pair of nice hair scissors. You also have to know how to take care of this so that it would last a long time doing great service to you and the people who come into your salon.

Here are the basic caring techniques that will help you maintain your hair shears properly:

1. Inspect your hair shears prior to use. Using your shears when it is not in good condition can worsen the damage. Attend to it before it gets worse.

2. Clean your shears every after use. Do not let hair or any hair product sit on it for a long time. Remove any debris using a clean cloth or tissue. Just be sure that the material you use to wipe it will not cause any scratches on the exterior.

3. Store them securely in a container. Keeping your shears in the same container where you store your other hair tools like brushes, other shears, combs, and hair clips may damage the cutting edge of the tool.

It would be best to make use of the shears’ special container to ensure that they are well-protected while not being used. You can also keep them in a holster, case or a pouch. Be sure that you dry out your shears completely before storing.

4. Sharpen your shears properly. Bring them to a professional sharpening servicing outlet to maintain the sharpness of your shears.

5. Avoid dropping your shears. Dropping can cause bends on the scissors and affect its ability to create regular cutting.

6. Apply a drop of good quality scissors oil or shear lubricant around the pivot screw while the shears are open. Remove any excess.

7. Avoid lending your shears to people who are not careful with handling hair tools. You take good care of your shears and it will be very upsetting if somebody else will just break it.

8. Do not use your shears other than for cutting hair. Using your hair shears to cut a carton, open up a box or slice something, the shears may lose its sharpness and ability to cut hair smoothly.

9. Shampoo your customer’s hair before cutting. The grease in your client’s hair can cause damage on the blades of the scissors.

It is important to take care of your Fromm shears. With these caring techniques, you will be able to prolong the life of this important piece of hair tool and save yourself money that you would otherwise have to spend on buying, repairing or replacing your shears.