UK florists setting a new trend of floral fashion
November 4th, 2011 | 
Author: Florists throughout England, Scotland and Wales – be it florists in Cardiff or florists in Swansea – are seemingly getting caught up in a new craze sweeping through the UK of using real flowers to create amazing fashion items.
From hats and fascinators to the most stunning dresses, flower enthusiasts are letting their imaginations run wild and creating some pretty snazzy accessories and items of clothing that are turning heads from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
It may appear to the untrained eye to be nigh on impossible to turn the kind of everyday flowers Bridgend locals and their counterparts in every UK town and city usually give to celebrate a special occasion into a piece of wearable fashion, but that’s exactly what the Interflora trio of Charlotte Baker, Janet Hodgson and Vicky Rymell have done.
The three talented florists are leading the way in bringing together the world of fashion with the world of flowers and the end results have got people of all ages excited and prompted them to think about how they can get involved in the new trend.
Baker and Rymell are work colleagues at Hubbards Florist in Coventry and decided earlier this year to enter the birthday shop window competition at the prestigious RHS Flower Show Tatton. A hat was then created featuring an array of blues, purples and yellows and clearly made the right impression on the judges as the duo walked away with first prize.
“It was brilliant to win,” said Baker in the Coventry Telegraph.
“We chose the theme because we like all the colours and we only had a few months to prepare. I love competing because it gives me a real buzz as well as the chance to really develop my skills and experience.”
It certainly proved an experience that Baker is unlikely to forget in a hurry and it’s as yet unclear whether the pair intend to enter any more competitions in the future. If they do, though, they may fancy following in the footsteps of Hodgson.
Hodgson was asked if she would create a special something to celebrate the first year that Bury’s The Rock shopping mall has been open. She definitely did that as she rolled out a breath-taking dress made from amaranthus, germini, hydrangeas, roses and orchids.
“I have to admit that when I first saw it on the model it looked so fabulous that I cried!” said Hodgson.
“It was a very proud moment for me. It was such fun!”
How Do Wax Crayon Manufacturers Make Crayons
There are many interesting art supplies available today. Not only kids at grade school love to use them, but renowned artists do have a fondness for wax crayons. However, what remains a wonder is how wax crayon manufacturers make crayons. This article will take you to a little excursion to discover how wax crayons are made.
A crayon factory mixes up loads of wax in a huge tank, and then adds a pigment to give it color. That is the oversimplification of the process, though. In reality making wax crayons is a little more complicated than that.
There are specific types of dyes that need to be compatible with the wax. The pigments are picked after a very long selection process, and are added with various chemicals. In order to achieve a desired color, such as brick red, it takes them time to mix a lot of base pigments.
Once the mixture is ready, the burning-hot molten wax is poured to special machinery that molds it to very long stick shapes. The sticks are then cooled down and hardened, and finally cut to the lengths of wax crayons. The manufacturer packs the crayons in sets and makes them ready for shipping. As you see, it takes a lot of effort to bring you those little crayon pieces.
Face paint and plasticine is created much in the same way, but with slightly different steps and materials. Face paint suppliers need to make sure that their products is safe to the skin and will not cause any allergies.
Plasticine is actually a trademarked name for putty-like modeling clay company. Over the years, however, it has become a generic term used to refer to all modeling clay for children. Plasticine suppliers also need to make sure their clay products are non-toxic and safe for little children.
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Fundraising Ideas
With increasing social awareness for self-help groups and third sectors’ activities as Non-Governmental Organizations, fundraising is a growing concern. However the idea of fundraising is not a new one. Fundraising for social and religious causes has been a tradition from early days of modern society.
Fundraising is the practice for imploring and assembling monetary assets or other material gifts from individuals or organizations by a way of earnest request for various charitable, social, religious or even political causes. There are innumerable possible methods to go about it. One example is a very old tradition of selling candies or other handicrafts during Halloween by children to raise funds. Some most popular modern methods are cards fundraising, magazine fundraising and lollipop fundraising.
There are various fundraisers who practice regular fundraising schemes to meet their specific necessities. Different religious organizations operate as fundraisers at local, national and even global platform for charitable and evangelic causes. Political organizations also appear as fundraisers for political campaigns to promote or demote candidates. Political organizations also arrange schemes for charitable and social causes as a tool for image building.
Different individuals, NGOs, community groups, local organizations operate fundraising programs for local and social causes. These programs can be arranged by anyone who has a solid cause to raise funds and who has the ground to appeal to others for help. With the increasing necessity for fundraising, various professional organizations have come up to help people with good causes. These professional fundraisers generally do not charge anything initially. First, they help you with their large business network and products. With their support you can successfully start generating high amounts of profit. Once you make gains they will charge you a percentage or commission for their services.
Professional fundraising organizations can help you to invent new ideas, and implement those in a larger way which will help magnify your cause hundreds times over. These organizations provide many services as online fundraising, school fundraising, church fundraising, college fundraising and more. With its high success rate, this has become a major tool for marketing and relationship building. Specific products have become key reasons for corporate houses to collaborate with fundraising schemes and fundraisers.
In fundraising cards, there can be options like custom discount cards, local favorite’s cards, pizza fundraising cards, sandwich fundraising cards and many more. It works in a simple manner. For example, you can tie up with one local popular business and create local favorite cards. These cards will offer an attractive amount of discount on purchases from that retail house or on a particular product. By selling this card in a low price in your locality you may raise funds for your own cause.
Online fundraising programs work in a similar fashion. It includes magazine fundraising, credit card fundraising, even pay per click options. Online programs are more convenient, hassle free and fast. Fund raising ideas can range from books, calendar, scented candles, brochure, foods and candies, handicrafts, CDs or DVDs, first aid kits, gift ware, clothes, and accessories – an unending list. You may also arrange donor recognition schemes in collaboration with popular or local business houses. The options are as many as your creative imagination can deploy.
Creative online fundraising
Five Things a Business Person Needs
If you are starting a job for a corporate company or if you are going into business for yourself there are a few things you will need as a business person. No business person can operate successfully without a business mobile, and being dressed in the appropriate business attire is also important if you want to create the right impression with your clients.
Business mobile phone
Having a mobile phone is now something that no business person can do without. They are important to have so that you can be contacted wherever you are by both staff and clients, as well as suppliers. Mobile phones today have so many more features that are useful to a business person, such as being able to connect to the internet and download your emails while out of the office. You can also store data, use it as a diary and calendar, and take photos with the camera.
Briefcase
By having a good smart phone or mobile phone you may have eliminated the need to carry around so many documents, but you will find that you need to carry hard copies of information with you to meetings and when you go home. Having a good sturdy brief case or satchel is a good idea, and it also gives you somewhere to keep your lunch if you decide to bring it from home.
Laptop
The advent of laptops have given business people the flexibility to take their work with them, without having to print out lots of paperwork before they go to a meeting or visiting a client. Having a laptop means you can take your work home with you easily, and you can also take your laptop to a meeting and give a PowerPoint presentation straight from your computer. Laptops have reduced the amount of paper used by companies and businesses don’t need to have extra space within their offices to store a large amount of paper files. Your business files can stay on your laptop.
Business attire
It is important that you dress the part, so make sure you have at least one or two good suits. Invest in a quality wool suit, and if you look after it, it will last you a long time. Choose something that is fairly clean cut and plain so that it doesn’t go out of fashion quickly. Choose a dark colour like navy or charcoal grey. You can change the look of your suit by wearing different coloured shirts and ties. Buy a good pair of black shoes, and make sure they are comfortable. For women owning one or two suits is a good idea, along with a black dress and a couple of good quality skirts. Change the look of your outfit with different shirts or dressy tops.
A special pen
A really nice pen is something that usually you are given for a gift, but it is good to have a decent ball point pen. Keep it with you at all times, perhaps in your coat pocket, because you will find that you will be asked to sign documents or that you need a pen many times throughout the day. Rather than having a cheap Biro a special pen can look a lot more classy and professional, and it gives your kids something to give you for your next birthday.
Tough Decisions
Have you ever noticed that when new opportunities present themselves you tend to lose focus on everything else at the time, and analyze how your life would be better if you took the opportunity?
I’ve spent the last 6 days analyzing TWO great opportunities that have shown up on my radar. And now it’s come down to crunch time. I must make a decision by tomorrow whether to accept one of them or not. (Isn’t it great having options?) The issue is, I like both projects, but cannot take them both on at the same time. Each would be ongoing.
Details of the Opportunities
Project One: Steady 8-16 variable hours a week for as long as I’d like to be involved. This project sounds like a LOT of fun! I’d be hired on a contractor basis. I’d work onsite and at home. I’d still have control over my time and schedule. BUT, I’d still have to take other client jobs to keep the income up.
Project TWO: 30 hours a week. Not an opportunity to work from home at this time. Nice income source and great benefits! But, I’d be an employee… I’d have to change the way I currently run my business. I’d consider this employer my client, and would not take on other clients at this time. My “much more part time” business would focus on writing and teaching.
5 Decision Criteria
So, how to make this decision? Here are five points that are important to me:
1. Challenge/outcome of project – I LOVE a challenge. I like to break processes down and build them back up to something much more efficient. I look at where the accounting system currently stands, and what my contribution would be to a more organized system. Will I get fulfillment from that outcome? Will there be opportunities for more challenges in the future?
2. Monetary benefit- How much will I be compensated in money and benefits?
3. Time required- Does the project require I work onsite, or can I work from home? (which saves on commuting time) How many hours per week are required? What is the OPPORTUNITY COST of the project? (what do I have to give up in order to accept this project)
4. How will this affect my family? Are the hours flexible, or fixed? I need to make sure the needs of my kids are being met as well.
5. Who will I be working with? A project requires close work with several different people. Are these people easy/fun to work with? Are they as invested in the outcome as you are?
Bonus Analysis
Today I talked with my mentor and friend, Lara Galloway about this decision. Here is what she recommends in these situations:
1. Make 3 columns on a piece of paper: 1 Year, 3 Years, 5-10 Years
2. Answer some of the following questions in each column: What do I want my life to look like? How much time do I want off? How many hours a week will I be working? How important is financial security? What kind of flexibility do I want? and more…
Five Ways to Improve Learning With Performance Management
The convergence of learning and performance management creates an opportunity to diagnose and prescribe ways to better develop critical talent. By integrating learning and performance, organizations can more easily identify workforce trends in a more predictive manner, target organizational capability gaps, and enhance connections to build alignment with the business needs.
Whether the integration of learning and performance is driven by the organization’s learning group or HR, both groups need to know how to take advantage of this convergence. This paper describes five ways that performance management can improve training initiatives:
- Producing development plans that work
- Improving leadership development programs
- Making learning opportunities more visible
- Aligning the training department to organizational needs
- Making learning and human resources more strategic
Introduction: Integrating learning and performance
When it comes to retaining critical talent, managing succession plans, and giving employees the skills they need to succeed, learning management and performance management processes need to converge.
Taking the paper out of the paperwork may be reason enough to automate performance management, but Human Resources (HR) can use performance management to maintain a strong workforce and manage talent to drive top-line performance and competitive advantage. With career and succession planning tools organizations can reduce employee turnover and maintain a strong, productive workforce.
However, an organization also needs to complement performance management with learning management that enables workers to build competitive skills and helps align employee training and career goals with business goals. The convergence of learning and performance management can significantly help an organization get the most out its workforce by helping to:
- Develop employees beyond assessments with immediate, actionable development
- Retain critical talent, develop leaders, and reduce turnover
- Control succession risk and reduce the cost of turnover
- Align employee goals with the organization’s goals to optimize workforce productivity
- Link merit-based compensation to employee performance
- Automate performance and development activities and reduce administrative hassles
Whether the integration of learning and performance is driven by the organization’s training group or HR, both groups need to know how to take advantage of this convergence, and in particular, how the training group can improve training initiatives with performance management.
The following are five ways that training can use performance management to help create a true talent development framework.
1. Producing development plans that work
Most organizations struggle to adopt development plans managed independently through the Learning Management System (LMS). When performance management is automated and tied into the learning process, organizations and employees alike are more likely to buy into the integrated development plan. The development plans align directly with the organization’s goals and are therefore linked to the company’s overall strategy. Employee engagement in prescribed learning is certain to improve when employees see how this development ties directly to their performance evaluation and merit considerations.
2. Improving leadership development programs
Leadership development is one of the most popular learning initiatives – and for good reason. Demographic shifts, increasing employee turnover, and increased specialization in the workplace all contribute to significant talent shortages. Performance management, equipped with career and succession planning tools, provide the diagnostics to zero in on the job functions and targeted individuals that need leadership development the most.
Performance management tools help the learning group systematically develop an organization’s critical talent. They can complement generic leadership development programs by helping to account for roles, flight risk, and potential.
3. Making learning opportunities more visible
In most organizations, the LMS is just one of countless other applications employees need to use. Engaging employees to log in and look around can be a challenge.
However, an unanticipated benefit realized by Learning customers who have integrated performance and learning is a significant increase in the number of individuals who sign up for optional courses.
Once mandatory processes are tied directly to salary increases, LMS usage numbers start to increase. As aspiring employees focus on competency gaps and individual development plans, they spend more time developing career plans with unsolicited development opportunities.
4. Aligning training more to organizational needs
In many organizations, budgets allocated for learning and development are among the first to be cut during a recession. An effective way for a training group to change this fact is to prove how training programs directly relate to organizational strategy.
With integrated performance management, talent development professionals can see precisely which development is needed most. Aggregated review data, showing competency gaps and aligned strategic initiatives, highlight the areas where learning and development groups should focus. It thus becomes easier for the training group to justify the significance of talent development within the organizational strategy. Many companies that have integrated learning and performance have been able to drastically improve their ability to forecast for and anticipate formal development needs.
5. Linking training and HR for strategic value
When learning and performance functions converge to create a true talent development framework, both functions benefit by becoming more relevant to supporting the organization’s critical strategy.
Traditional organizational development activities important to the business, such as managing mandatory compliance and certifications, are improved by automated tracking and reporting. But there are other strategic areas of the business that need strong formal and informal learning. These include many pressing talent management issues: retaining critical talent, managing succession plans, and giving employees the skills they need to succeed.
Truly actionable talent development is only feasible when performance management and learning management converge.
Conclusion: Applying the benefits of integrated learning and performance
The convergence of learning and performance management creates an opportunity to diagnose and prescribe ways to better develop critical talent. Strategic integration enables organizations to more easily identify workforce trends in a more predictive manner, target organizational capability gaps, and enhance connections to build alignment with the business needs. The integration enables organizations to put together actionable leadership development programs for key employees, so they’ll be better prepared for promotion.
Learning management system (LMS) solutions are part of our industry-leading unified talent development software suite, which helps organizations build a complete platform for developing more competitive employee skills. Training organizations can take advantage of our complete, best-of-breed talent development solution to make their businesses better – by making the employees better.
Bagging The Best Free Gifts at Conferences
It’s not really what a conference is about is it, what free gifts you can get your grubby mitts on, but let’s be honest here, it’s a nice bonus! Not only that, but if you are a conference facilitator, free gifts are a great way to make new friends, as in, people remember the fun unique freebies, whereas the balloons bearing your logo? Not so much! As a conference delegate, it is pretty easy to score the best free gifts, you just need a strategy:
• Smile, introduce yourself, be interested – hosts will love it if you are ‘genuinely’ interested in their product, it means they are part way to a sale. Offering you a free gift will be their cherry on top! Even if you will never see them again, at least take an interest in the two or three minutes that you are in front of their stall.
• Ask! – ask for free samples, ask if the chocolate on the table is up for grabs, ask if they have anything you can take home with you that you can pass on to your boss/small child/business acquaintance. Sometimes, promotional gifts are only relevant for that convention or that season or year so the hosts need to give them all away. Some gifts can be very seasonal too like Christmas snowglobes, promotional Easter eggs. summer hats or winter gloves.
• Arrive early or at least on time – and make sure you get yourself a goodie bag. No good showing late when the leftovers have been put away and the cake is gone! Do a quick round of all of the stalls (without being too obvious) and make enough small talk with the people you meet so you don’t look like all you are after is the freebie.
• Have your own free gifts – it’s a great marketing token and a way for you to be remembered. If you approach the table with the best free gifts and offer them your goodies, likely they will have to offer you theirs in return!
• Attend the right conferences – ‘The best ballpoint pen conference 2011′ is not going to bag you the greatest freebies, whereas ‘The Gold Gold and More Gold Expo’ might turn up something a little better! Sometimes you can pick up something unexpected but very useful like a radio, a calculator or a purse.
Remember, try not to be too desperate! People can smell a timewaster and you don’t want to encounter that sort of negative feedback.
Business Growth: What To DO When Business Is Slow
Business will be dull whether you like it or not, so get used to it! Sometimes, if the cause is within your control, you could do something about it. At other times, when things are outside your control, there may be nothing you can do. Fortunately for you, this unusual article is about the things you can do when business is dull.
The highs and lows of business
In everything in life, there will be highs and lows. Business likewise, is no exception. There will be high sales periods as well as low sales periods, both periods are necessary for maintaining balance in business. Both are necessary forms of feedback and any serious minded entrepreneur should focus on making the most of both periods whether highs or lows rather than choosing one over the other. This is a fact of life and its better you get used to it and learn how to make the most of it.
As humans, it is only natural to think in dichotomies; positive and negative, good and bad, black and white, high and low, hot and cold, pain and pleasure and all others. The truth is this; we need both shades of dichotomies to maintain balance here on earth. Those things we refer to as unpleasant are actually the ones that make us better human beings.
After all, we are creatures of feelings, and the unpleasant ones tend to drive home the point faster than the pleasant ones. In other words, we learn better from our mistakes than from our victories. The same principle applies to the business world. You cannot have one side and reject the other; both are necessary and have their benefits.
Somehow, entrepreneurs don’t seem to have any problem dealing with high sales periods; after all, we don’t ever get tired of having more. But when it comes to the low sales periods, all hell seem to break lose. This unusual article is about knowing what to do when business is dull or slow. It will help you make the most of the low sales periods every business usually encounters every once in a while. It is very important to know that some low sales periods are self inflicted and others are not. I have decided to write this because one of the businesses I run is currently in this phase and I am becoming a better entrepreneur as a result.
Strategic Actions To Take During Low Sales Periods
1. Diagnose
When things don’t seem to be working out well in terms of revenue for your business, it is an indicator that something, somewhere, somehow is wrong. So, the first step to take is to trace the source of the problem. Meaning, take the pain to find out what is responsible for the low sales you are currently experiencing in your business.
What I have seen most entrepreneurs do when they are experiencing low sales is to lash out frantically looking for a ‘quick fix’ solution to the problem of low sales. I refer to this kind of response as taking wrong actions. In other cases, they simply respond by doing nothing believing that “this little affliction is but for a moment.” I refer to this kind of response as inaction.
Whether you responded wrongly or you didn’t respond at all, both are inappropriate responses to the problem of low sales. Folding your arms doing nothing won’t make the problem go away, and taking the wrong actions would only end up complicating matters. So what do you do?
Like every Physician, you diagnose before you prescribe. First find out the cause of the problem [diagnose] before implementing any solution [prescribe]. Spend time on the problem and let the problem give you a clue on what to do. Or else, you might end up treating symptoms rather than the actual disease. Then before long, the problem is back again. Remember, your objective is to solve the problem by understanding the root cause.
As I have mentioned earlier; whether high or low sales period, both are reliable forms of feedback for any business. High or low sales are not accidental; they are outcomes of certain factors. These factors are of two categories;
· Internal Factors: they are set of activities, behaviours, policies, strategies, and all other changes that occur within the walls of a business. They constitute the internal working environment of every business and are usually the making of either the management or the employees. Internal factors are classified either as strengths [positive organizational changes] or weaknesses [negative organizational changes]. These factors if they are the cause of a low or high sales period are in most cases controllable and can be adjusted to alter whatever sales period your business finds itself.
For instance, if the employees of a business are performing at their very best, making sure every customer’s expectation is being exceeded every time they come in contact with the business, this can tremendously boost the sales of the business as it generates positive word of mouth for the business that eventually increases sales.
In the other hand, if the management initiates a drastic policy or strategy that will affect the performance of the employees negatively, this will in turn affect the level of satisfaction customers will get from the business. On the long run, a negative word of mouth is created and sales will eventually drop as a result.
Implying that, whatever changes that occurs internally within the walls of a business, can potentially increase or decrease sales depending on its overall impact on the employees and eventually customers. This is why I emphasized that high or low sales periods are very vital forms of feedback for every business. Never underestimate either of these two sales periods; they are great learning periods for entrepreneurs and the businesses they run.
· ExternalFactors: they are the set of activities, behaviours, policies, strategies, and all other changes that occur outside the walls of a business. They constitute the external working environment of every business and are usually the making of the government, society, economy, nature, technology, culture, competition and so on. External factors are classified either as opportunities [positive environmental changes] or threats [negative environmental changes]. These factors if they are the cause of a low or high sales period are in most cases uncontrollable and will be a lot harder to influence in your business’ favour.
For instance, imagine what happened to the typewriter businesses when the computer was invented? This is a classical case of technology as one of the external factors at play in determining the low sales period every one of those typewriter businesses experienced during that era. In fact, the advent of computer didn’t just alter the sales of businesses, it completely annihilated those businesses.
Such is the power and effect of external factors on businesses; they are very uncontrollable in most cases. Most especially for the businesses that didn’t diagnose early to find out the cause of their low sales when computers started gaining prominence as a better alternative to typewriters.
In every high or low sales periods, at the very least, one of these two factors must definitely be at play. Your task as an entrepreneur is to dig deep to uncover the factor or factors responsible for whatever sales period your business is experiencing.
If you are a Canadian citizen, you may have considered getting some form of term life insurance to secure your family’s financial standing should an accident occur. If you are in southern Ontario, you may have even started to look for a proper agent to assist you with your search. Finding an agent for life insurance Toronto or Toronto-adjacent is as easy as opening your local business phone book. If you prefer to take a more technologically based route, there are many life insurance companies that provide quotes for their selections of different policies on their web sites, as well.
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