A Happy Family

Budget-Friendly Tips for Business Owners Buying Office Equipment

>> Oct 8, 2016

Opening a new office space in Sydney can be quite challenging as well as overwhelming. When thinking about the expenses, you can easily get anxious and overwhelmed. When starting your own office, you have to remember that you don’t need to spend so much but spend wisely. You don’t need to buy the most expensive and chic brands and fixtures as your office can and will survive with even the most basic floor tiles, especially if your business is just starting.

There are many ways on how you can cut the expenses in buying office fixtures and furniture. The following are some of the ideas on how you can spend wisely when it comes to buying equipment and design materials for your newly established office:

image:pixabay.com

Know what you need – Before anything else, list down all the pieces you think your new office would need. Avoid listing down items that you believe you really don’t need. If you don’t want to spend so much, just follow this rule of thumb: buy what you only need. List important items like chairs, desks, and filing cabinets, and you may also include couch, coffee table, and interior design accents.

Set a realistic budget – Your budget will set the mood of your office equipment purchasing experience. By knowing how much you can spend will help you determine what types and how many pieces you would need. After determining the items you need, set a realistic budget. Do not overestimate or underestimate because you may end up not buying all the things you need.

Buy online – Online stores offer good deals as they usually sell discounted items. These stores can provide much lower rate because they do not pay for their own establishment and they have direct access to suppliers and manufacturers. You would want to buy from any of these stores as you can get tremendous savings. However, make sure that you would only buy from trusted stores to avoid being scammed or duped. To know whether or not a particular store is reliable, conduct a background check by reading client reviews.

Use coupons – Many stores in Australia that sell office products accept and honor coupons. If you have coupons with you, you would want to use them when buying office fixtures. Doing so will help you save some money and stay on your budget. Coupons cannot only be obtained from magazines or newspapers but also online. You can use online coupons and use them when buying from a trusted online store; this will result in bigger savings.

Avail of packages – Instead of buying just the equipment or design materials, you can pay for both the item and the installation service. Particular fixtures like floor tiles, desks and tables would need few people to install and arrange them inside the office. Some stores offer installation services and you can take advantage of it because it is usually cheap or even free. You may consider buying from such store because aside from saving from the stress of transferring the items from place to another, you would no longer need to pay extra for another company’s installation service.

Remember, you don’t have to splurge a lot of money when buying office items. You don’t need to buy the most expensive ones but just those that your business really needs. By spending wisely, you are saving a lot of money, which you can use for other expenses like utility bills, insurance payments, among others. You need to get all the savings you can get especially if you are just starting your small business. Hence, when you buy office equipment and materials, don’t forget to set your budget straight.

8 Ways to Go Green On Your Lawn and Garden

>> Oct 7, 2016

Everyone talks about going green. It may seem confusing at first, but you will notice that going green simply means being more environmentally responsible. You can employ these simple techniques in all your areas of life. For your garden and the space around you, the following strategies are workable:

1. Plant a tree

Trees purify the air around us by utilizing the carbon dioxide we exhale. This helps in ensuring that the oxygen we inhale is safe following photosynthesis. In most cases, you will have to find some space, dig up a hole, plant the seedling, and then nurture it. Watering it and trimming/pruning when it’s grown will ensure that the tree lives for several decades.

2. Harvesting rain water

The secret to being environmentally conscious is using what is provided naturally by nature. You should get a rain barrel; this is an inexpensive option for harvesting clean, mineral- and chlorine free water. By harvesting this water, you can use it for home use, cleaning your car or watering the garden.

3. Compost pile

Use all the kitchen scrap to make compost. Instead of throwing out your vegetable waste, you should consider making compost manure. Add the trash to your landfill to make your gardener’s gold. The compost nurtures the soil in your garden resulting in very powered nutrients suitable for plant growth. Besides enhancing root development, compost also enhances aeration, water retention and soil texture.

4. Growing your own food

With information on how to make the garden nutritious, you should also consider growing your own garden. As it turns out, the cost of living has hiked and growing your own food means some money saved on your side. Start by clearing out the garden area and if there are old tree stumps, you may consider getting professionals offering the best stump grinding services.

5. Reduce the grass on your lawn

The grass on your lawn is important and instead of not using the grass, you should use the grass as ground cover grass for plants, stone, and pavements. This leads to less need for use of water because the grass retains the water in the soil.

image:pixabay.com

6. Use the reel mower

A good go-green option is switching to use of reel mowers rather than using gas powered mowers. The latter emits a lot of toxin gases thus unsafe for the environment. The other benefit of this mower is the exercise it provides. As a result, there is good air around the neighborhood, healthier body and a cleaner lawn.

7. Use less chemicals

Plants around your garden and the backyard will be infested by pests and insects more than once. However, you shouldn’t rush to using insecticides and pesticides. Go for natural preventive measures, such as trimming and pruning especially for trees.

8. Sign up for community gardening

Land is scarce in urban areas. However, there are several community areas you can hoe and grow foods. You can also have a community compost area.

In conclusion, to go green doesn’t mean having complicated lifestyles or having to pay more for some services. It only means using the gift of nature well and in the best way.

Author Bio

Miley Smith is a conservationist and an activist. Read her ideas about green earth, safe tree stump grinding, tree trimming, and gardening in small spaces etc. All these and more, visit her YouTube Channel.

Pokemon Go And How to Prolong Your Battery Life While Playing

The popularity of the Pokemon Go game is increasing every single day and one of the reasons of its popularity is the fact that you can play in on your Android device. If you want to fully enjoy this game you have to have a good battery in your device. Here are some ideas that can help you increase your battery life.

image:en.wikipedia.org

While playing Pokemon Go it is recommended to play it in battery save mode and this will surely help you play a little longer. This mode is very effective option in the game. Also when you play in this mode you can still use the vibration alert feature when you find a Pokemon. With this in mind we recommend you to learn how to turn on the battery save mode in this game and play the game for much, much longer.

Another good battery saver is to turn off the so called augmented reality during your gameplay. Having the camera effect and this option turned on will drastically shorten your battery life. On the other hand, turning this option off will give you extra time to enjoy this game. Please consult he game guide to learn how to turn off the augmented reality option.

The next thing we would recommend is to control your screen brightness levels. The brighter your screen is the more battery power it uses and it is good to have this in mind. It takes time to play this game and you won’t be able to do it effectively if you are low on battery power. Reducing the screen brightness will definitely save you a little battery power. We are sure you already know how to do this so feel free to try this useful advice as soon as possible.

Besides the battery saver mode which is integrated in the game, you can turn on the battery saver mode on your device while playing. This mode saves more power and you will be delighted to notice prolonged playing time. It is good to have your phone ready to play the game. If your battery isn’t full enough there are chances you will experience shutdown problems which can happen at bad moments. Turning the mobile device battery save mode will greatly prolong the battery life since it shuts down all the processes running in the background which don’t have real use at the moment. If you want to play this game to the fullest, you have to take care of your battery life.

Turning off the music, vibrations, and other audio options is recommended too. The power needed for your android device to play audio is not insignificant. Of course, we all like to play games with the audio on. It just makes the overall experience much better. However, you have to decide whether you want to play the game longer with audio off, or much shorter with audio turned on. In short words, disabling audio and other effects will make your battery last longer.

And finally, the best option which can make your gameplay experience longer and better is to purchase a good quality power bank. We can freely say that it is a great way to enjoy the Pokemon Go game. Having a power bank with you will make you feel more comfortable and without stress while playing the game. Therefore when you decide to buy one, make sure to get one with a good capacity.

The ideas given above are definitely the best ideas which can help you save precious battery life and play the game much longer than before.

Setting up and Configuring the Wireless Router Step-by-Step

>> Oct 4, 2016

In today’s society, there are two very important things – the online world and computers. Somewhere in between we find networking. Everyone with the help of a wireless router can have its own private business or home network. Of course, to do this we have to have a good quality wireless router and in this article we are going to discuss how to install them and configure them properly.

How to Setup the Wireless Router

image:pixabay.com

Before you start setting up your router there are a few things you have to keep in mind. In other words, we have two ways to setup the router effectively and they are:

- With the help of a setup software

- Manual setup

Let’s see how we can setup the router using its software.

How to use a software to setup the router

First of all we have to use an Ethernet cable to connect the modem and the router.
The next thing is to plug in the router to the power source. You also have to click the Network icon on your desktop.
The next step is to choose the network name from the list of available ones. Please note that in most cases the network name will be the same as the name of the router manufacturer. This is something manufacturers set up as default, just like the default IP 192.168.1.1, default router username and password etc.
With it, it is quite easy to setup the router. For example, with the help of the software which generally comes together with the router you should do the following:
Disconnect the router from any other devices like PC, modem and power source.
Then you have to insert the setup CD or download the software from the manufacturer’s website on another PC.
After you download the software, install it on your computer and simply follow the on-screen instructions which will guide you through the setup process.
When you decide to use the setup CD to setup your router you will have the option to give a name for your network and setup a strong password at the same time.

Configuring the router manually

There are situations where the user forgets the network name or the password. Some may try to crack the network password and it may be a problem since someone else might do this without your knowledge. Here is how to configure the wireless router in the best way.

Use an Ethernet cable to connect the router and the modem.
The next step is to connect the router to the PC and turn it on.
Next use the browser to login to your wireless router admin page.
To do this, you need to type the router default IP address in the browser’s URL bar. This IP can be found in the user’s manual or on a sticker on the router’s body.
According to this site 192168ll.net every single router comes with a default IP address which is used to access the router configuration settings. You can try logging in with these IP addresses – 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.1 because these two are most commonly used.
When the login window opens you will be asked to enter the router username and password. They can be found in the same place as the default IP address.
You can always use Google to find the default login details for your router.
Once you type in the correct login details, you will gain access to the router configuration page where you can setup your router completely.

Probably the most important thing in the router setup is its default IP address. The default IP is used as a default gateway and it is something you have to know if you want to setup your wireless router manually.