Public Spend Forum Europe

6 Ways to Reduce Stress Associated With Money

Stress can take a toll on your physical and mental well-being, but it’s something anybody can encounter at various stages of their life. You might stress over money and think about hiring a financial advisor to assist, or you just have too much on your plate and don’t feel like you’ve got enough time to manage everything.

If your stresses tend to be more money-related than anything else, you may be able to address them in some of the following ways. Your health and well-being may just depend on it.

Seek Professional Help

It’s okay to admit that you’re not coping. In fact, admitting you’re not can be the first step to addressing the problem and coming out the other side better off. Seek help for whatever is causing you a great deal of stress from experts in that field.

For example, you might hire a financial advisor to answer some of your money-related questions or assist with budgeting. If you’re stressed for other reasons, the help of a trained therapist or counsellor may be something worth considering, as well.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the most effective tools in your arsenal to address stress. It involves focusing on the feelings, paying attention, and living in the moment. Mindfulness practices may also help you to be more open, accepting, and discerning while allowing you to accept yourself and treat yourself in the same way you’d treat a friend.

No matter the cause of your stress, there’s no denying that taking five minutes to yourself to be in the moment can be helpful for anyone.

How much does digital marketing cost?

Let’s say you’re trying to drive more traffic to your new website or online store, and you’ve heard that digital marketing may be the way to go. But you’ve also heard that digital marketing can become quite expensive, and you don’t have a very big budget. So should you be using it, or not?

Well, the first thing to understand is that there are numerous types of digital marketing, and they’re far from equal. Some, like search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM) can be very cost-effective, or even free. Others, including search engine marketing (SEM), can get expensive if you’re not careful. SEO is usually best contracted to an experienced SEO consultancy, while SEM or Google Ads management is best left to a SEM specialist.

Below, we take a closer look at the amount you can expect to pay for high-quality digital marketing in the modern world.

How Much Do Various Types of Digital Marketing Cost?

As we noted above, different types of digital marketing can cost significantly different amounts. For example, SEO can be completely free if you do it on your own, while things like Google Ads can range to tens of thousands of dollars per month. But of course, this depends on how much you want to advertise.

5 Costs Company Directors Can Be Held Personally Liable For

One of the major differences between operating a business as a sole proprietor and being the director of a limited company is the commercial law relating to liabilities. In particular, a person acting as a sole proprietor is seen legally as the same entity as the business, and as such is liable for any of the debts and liabilities incurred by that business.

Conversely, under commercial law, a company director is regarded as a different legal entity to the business and thus in normal circumstances would not be liable for any of the debts or liabilities the business had. This is one of the often-cited advantages of running a business as a limited company rather than a sole proprietor, however, there is a caveat.

The protection for directors concerning a company’s debts and liabilities is not absolute, and there are actions, behaviours and circumstances that could mean a director does find themselves responsible for the cost of liabilities and obligations which were taken out in the company’s name. There are 5 specific categories of liability that a director might find themselves responsible for and they are:

Why Effective Web Design Can Positively Influence Your Kitchen Renovation Company’s Success

In this age of the internet, if a business does not have an online presence then it is severely hampered in its ability to compete with other businesses which do. According to the professional web designers, a business having a well-designed and optimised website can mean the difference between making profits and suffering financial losses. We are sure we know which you would prefer for your kitchen renovation company.

Now, it might be that you already have a website, but the question is does it truly contribute to the success of your business? In other words does it provide your kitchen renovation company with all the advantages that a well-designed website should do for the business that owns it? If you are unsure what those advantages are, we are happy to outline some of them for you so that you can acheive the best web design performance possible.

A Quick Guide To Due Diligence When Buying A Business

Whilst any sensible person will take care to check all aspects of any large purchase they make, this goes on to an even higher level when it comes to purchasing a business. Given that the sum of money that you are like to be paying will be substantial, this makes the financial risks significant. In addition, if you purchase a business without due diligence you could find yourself in a situation where you fall foul of commercial law, due to actions taken by the previous owners.

The key phrase in the first paragraph is ‘due diligence and within this article, we are going to outline the core principles of the due diligence you should take if considering buying a business. In addition, we also urge you to employ the services of a commercial lawyer who can ensure that every aspect of the transaction is legally sound and provide you legal protection too.

When you are carrying out your due diligence, almost all the checks that you make will fall within one of three distinct areas. These are financial, operations, and legal. Below we outline some of the specific checks you will want to make within each one of these.

5 Advantages Of Hiring A Commercial Lawyer

For most business owners the prospect of ending up in court to defend a legal claim by a disgruntled client or supplier is ever-present. Thankfully, these occurrences are rare, but that does not mean that commercial law cannot impact a business and it can do so every day it is trading. Knowing the ins and outs and commercial is simply not feasible for someone running a busy business given their time commitments which is why commercial lawyers are in such demand.

If you have held off from hiring a commercial lawyer thus far, even if it was in having them available to call for advice, you are missing out on the opportunity to not only ensure your business is protected, but to also give yourself peace of mind knowing that should you encounter a legal issue, you have the exact person you need to help you resolved it. If you have not been convinced yet of the merits of a commercial lawyer, here are some other reasons which should.

The Lowdown on the Ketogenic Diet

Is the ‘keto’ diet the latest celebrity diet or could it be the lifestyle modern society needs in order to address spiralling obesity rates and metabolic disease? If you haven’t heard of the ketogenic diet here is a run down:

Foods consumed are high in fat with a very low carbohydrate intake. By reducing carbs and replacing with fat the body goes into a metabolic state called ketosis. Ketosis is where the body uses ketones from the fats as its source of energy rather than from carbohydrates. Ketones are water soluble molecules produced by the liver from fatty acids when carbohydrate consumption is restricted. Ketones are converted into acetyl-CoA which are eventually used (after some complicated biological functions!) for energy by the mitochondria in our cells for physical as well as mental energy.

“Buy Local / National” Moves In Public Procurement Could Lead To Dangerous Protectionist Behaviour

We wrote last week about the forces around the world that seem to be moving governments and nations towards a more protectionist attitude to trade and also to government procurement. This is being seen in Europe, Australia, the US, India and various African nations too. At its extreme, it sees government procurement expenditure primarily as a tool to support “local” or national interests and suppliers.

As this movement continues, we are seeing little written in defence of free trade, open access to markets, and the benefits of a public procurement approach that puts other factors – such as value – at the heart of the activity. So we thought it was worth re-stating the negatives around a protectionist approach to procurement, and some of the benefits of openness.

Nationalism on the Rise – Need To Keep an Eye on Public Procurement

As Donald Trump continues to delight, astound and horrify the world – all depending on your outlook – it seems likely that we are moving into a world of greater nationalism in terms of both politics and economics. Trump appears to see international trade as much more of a contest than an opportunity for win:win outcomes. He feels that countries like China and Mexico have gained more from the US than vice versa, and maybe he is right.

Other countries will no doubt respond though if he does take action, and then we have the risk of falling into a trade war that ultimately won’t benefit anyone. Trump does not explain how slapping an import tax on to goods coming into the US is going to help the lower income families in his country who will be faced by higher prices – not all factories can instantly re-locate to Texas.

Closer to home, in the UK, the recent Building Our Industrial Strategy “Green Paper” from the government contained a few good ideas and worthwhile suggestions. But the section on public procurement also contained some slightly disturbing comments. It starts well – it is hard to argue with this.

“This means creating the right conditions to put UK supply chains in the strongest possible position to compete for contracts on the basis of best value for the taxpayer”.

But it is the use of the “balanced scorecard” that raises some alarm bells.