Colin Smith, Director, Botanica Nurseries

Everyone agrees that fresh flowers and green plants in the office look good and make people feel good, but in these days of tightened budgets we are often asked ‘How good is good?’

Maybe surprisingly, the answer is very good. Research by NASA and scientists at Washington State University has shown that the benefits of plants in offices are huge:

• They look good and contribute to a general sense of well-being
• They help to clean the air of harmful substances such as carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, benzene and ozone, which are common in an office environment
• They reduce heat and noise levels
• They reduce stress among employees
• They reduce fatigue, headaches, coughing and eye irritation by controlling humidity levels

This leads to:

• Improved air quality and a much healthier working environment
• A reduction in sick leave and ‘sick building syndrome’
• A positive effect on creativity and concentration levels
• An increase in productivity
• Employees with a higher opinion of their employer
• Visiting clients get a positive impression about your company
• Companies can truly claim to have made a contribution to a green workplace and an energy-efficient building – a bonus when dealing with The Green Building Council

Plant displays are often seen as a luxury, but they are relatively cheap compared with other office expenses. Also, the benefits mean they offer a good return on investment. You can rent a substantial display from as little as £2.50 per week, including maintenance.

Further good news is that using a professional interior landscaping company to choose, supply and maintain your plant displays takes away all the hassle and leaves you to enjoy the benefits of healthy and aesthetically pleasing displays. You need to choose a company with a proven track record over many years, who can recommend and supply a wide range of displays and follow this up with a professional maintenance service. All initial visits and written recommendations should be free and without obligation.

Botanica has been in business for 25 years and we offer a personal service in supplying and maintaining tropical interior plant displays. We cover a large part of South and Central England and supply and maintain plants for more than 200 companies.

Please visit our website at www.botanicanurseries.co.uk for more details, email me or ring 01753 647476 to speak to us directly.

We first decided to get rid of the water cooler as the result of a brainstorming session last year on ways to reduce our carbon emissions. The reason was to save on the electricity used in powering the cooler.

However, we have now found other benefits:

Cost – bottled water can cost about £1 per litre, whereas tap water is less than 1p per litre

Health – tap water in the UK is among the safest in the world. There have been reports that the chemicals from the plastic bottles can be leached into the water, especially if the water is at high temperatures.

Environmental – the world is polluted by the production, transport, packaging and disposal of plastic water bottles (over a billion per year in the UK). This seems absurd when there is good quality drinking water literally ‘on tap’ in all our homes and offices. 86% of plastic bottles end up as rubbish – that’s 1,500 water bottles every second!

By the way, if you notice that we do still have some bottled water available, it is because we are using up our stocks. We will not be buying any more once these have been finished.

At K&H we have also taken the concept of exercising one stage further. I’m not sure how I got talked into it, but 8 of us are going to be running the Reading Team half-marathon. Not quite as bad as it sounds – we have two teams of four and each person runs about 3 1/2 miles – but that is more than enough for me. It is a great way to get fit though, improve team spirit and have fun at the same time. Why not try something similar?

When the pressure is on it is even more important for you to look after yourself.

Sitting at the computer all day is not exactly good for the body. If you have to be at a desk all day long, doing some simple things can improve your posture and health.

Why not try out some of the suggestions here.

If you would like to discuss this article further, just contact me – details below.

Pauline Williamson
email: paulinew@kandh.co.uk
direct: 0118 923 5817

In other words, will having goals make you happy (assuming that happiness is everyone’s ultimate aim, for ourselves and for others)?

A book I have just read called “Happier” (by Tal Ben-Shahar) examines this in more detail and draws some interesting conclusions that all of us who are involved in giving business advice should, I believe, keep in the back of their minds when giving that advice. In a nutshell:

• Happiness as a result of pleasure and purposefulness in life (just one or the other of these is not enough)
• Purposefulness can come from striving for goals (not from achieving them!)
• BUT the goals must be “self concordant” ie consistent with our own personal values and beliefs
• When we are working towards a goal, we can get into a state of “flow”, where the balance between boredom and stress is just right and when time passes very quickly
• We have more of these “flow” experience at work than during our leisure time.
• Money does not create happiness (except in so far as money is the measure by which you judge your progress towards your goals).

The conclusion from this is that should be happier working than playing! This is contrary to all the received wisdom about what “work” is and the anomaly is caused by the fact that there is a deep rooted prejudice in our society against work (including school work and studying). This prejudice creates a barrier that prevents us expected (and therefore getting) any enjoyment or happiness from our work.

Other business writers (including David Maister) have long talked about the fact that financial success inevitably follows from doing work that you enjoy with people that you like.

To me the actions that come out of this are:

• First, read the Happier book yourself
• Then find work that you enjoy doing, and happiness and financial success will follow.

Let me know what you think.

The excuse we use to justify this is that we need the energy to do our jobs and we do not have time to tackle the problem in any other way.

This is particularly relevant to business owners. When I ask business owners how many hours they work each week, the average answer is about 60. In other words, they are doing the equivalent of nearly two full time jobs. And that doesn’t include the mind-time and sleepless nights caused by the innumerable stresses inherent in most peoples business.

The article explained that in reality, the “energy” we’re chasing is simply mental alertness and included 3 tips to get more energy naturally and improve your job performance by 15% in the process:

1) Exercise – It doesn’t matter what time you exercise, just be consistent. Fit it in based on your schedule and personality. If you have to do it first thing when you wake up, just do it. Don’t even let yourself think about it. Just get started. Focus on intense strength training for 20 minutes followed by a brief interval training session to boost your metabolism all day long.

Exercise is a drug. Like caffeine and nicotine, exercise causes the release of many chemicals into your blood, resulting in mental stimulation and an improved sense of overall well-being. Exercise just makes you feel good.

2) Eat smaller, more frequent meals. Skip the cycle of starving and feasting characterized by no breakfast, a high-carbohydrate lunch, and a huge dinner. Instead, eat breakfast and then continue to eat every 3 hours for the rest of the day. Research shows that a high-fibre breakfast helps control appetite and increases mental alertness all morning, and improves your ability to process information. Do not skip breakfast and rely on a coffee to get you through the day.

Got no time? C’mon! You’re an adult, you can get up 10 minutes earlier to have a protein shake, some almonds, and an apple. You’re not in high school anymore. No excuses!

3) Eat only whole, natural foods, such as fruits, vegetables, organic proteins, raw nuts (not roasted in oil), Green Tea, water.Trying to run on processed foods is a recipe for an energetic disaster. Stick to whole, natural foods during the day, snacking rather than binging on big meals, and you’ll never feel like dozing off. If a food is from a bag or a box, it doesn’t deserve a place in your nutrition plan. Avoid all added sugars. Surely, you’re already sweet enough!

Bonus Tip! Take mini-breaks during the day to work on your mobility. Work environments zap our ‘energy’. From poor posture, to eye-strain from computer screens, your office, cubicle, and car seat will suck the life out of you.

According to Men’s Health magazine…”British researchers recently found that when people exercised during their workday — regardless of the duration or intensity of the movement — they were less likely to feel fatigued, and that translated into a 15 percent improvement in job performance.”Daily exercise breaks are essential to not only boost energy, but mobility. Each day, as your computer sucks you into its visual vortex, your upper body becomes rounded forward and tense. You need to reverse that movement.

Here’s how…Stick up Stand: With your back to the wall and feet about 4 inches from the wall. Place the back of your arms against the wall with upper arms parallel to floor and forearms at 90 degrees. Stick up your arms over head while keeping your arm against the wall at all times. Slowly return to below the starting position tucking your elbows into your sides and bringing shoulder blades together. Repeat for 12 reps. Do this every 60-90 minutes. In addition, get outside into natural light whenever possible.

Let me know how you get on!

This seems to “prove” the point about the link between diet and serious illness and (in my interpretation) our ability to perform at our peak, in every aspect of life, including business.

The numbers that this will help change are things like: life expectancy and the percentage of maximum physical wellbeing that we experience. It has already changed (reduced) my weight and waist size!

The subject is diet and how most of us are (put very simply) poisoning our bodies with bad foods and then using other poisons (medicines) to disguise the symptoms. In a bit more detail: the reasoning is that the pH (acid/alkaline) balance of our bodies is thrown out by consuming acid forming foods (like sugars, fat from processed foods and animal sources etc). These are the underlying causes most of the ailments that are usually blamed on viruses and diseases.

The good metaphor is that the diseases are like the mosquitoes on a stagnant pool of water (our bodies) and that to get rid of the mosquitoes we must clean the pool and not simply try to deter the mosquitoes.

This metaphor is used by Anthony Robbins and his audio programme Living Health.

The same message is in the book The pH Miracle and for a more punchy version of a similar message also have a look at Skinnybitch.net (thanks to Caroline Eveleigh for this recommendation).

Why is this relevant in a business blog?

Anthony Robbins view is that without a sound body (our temple) we can never achieve our potential in business or any other aspect of life. It is not good having a great, profitable business if we sacrifice other aspects of our lives to achieve it. We must have balance in the wheel of life.

I personally have lost count of the number of clients who have told me they work double the normal working week, 60 to 70 hours or more.

I agree with Anthony Robbins about the need for balance. What do you think?

Why not come to the next Business Builder Forums, the title of which is, coincidentally, based on the Benjamin Franklin quote “Business Planning – Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”. This is on 13.2.08.  I hope to see you there so you can tell me what plans you have to sell your business.