Bighorn sheep thrive at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Grazing on the grasslands and rambling through the colorful canyons, these nimble animals are always an exciting sight for visitors. Here’s one resting up for the next winter adventure. Photo by Sam Stukel (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
For the last thirty years, the London Review of Books has published an annual diary by the English writer and dramatist Alan Bennett. It has become, to Bennett’s likely dismay, a comforting tradition. With seasonal regularity, readers can turn from political, literary, or historical matters to the quotidian reflections of a modest, humorous observer who notices everything, from the robin nesting in his London garden to Tony Blair’s shopworn sincerity. Not that it was ever Bennett’s intention — as a writer at least — to be so fondly regarded. A butcher’s son from grimy Leeds who has long cast a cold eye on England and the English, he did not set out to become a national treasure. Yet he is mistaken for one, and for common property, all the time. In a Suffolk post office, for example, he reports ” . . . an ancient customer recognizes me and shakes me so firmly by the hand it’s like being caught in a mangle. ‘Say something whimsical,’ he commands.”
Bennett’s readers, understandably, have similar expectations. Fondly recalling The Uncommon Reader, his 2007 novella in which Queen Elizabeth ditches duty for books, The Lady in the Van, or the comic masterpieces in Bennett’s 2002 volume The Laying On of Hands, you turn with a smile to Keeping On Keeping On, a collection of diaries and essays from 2010 to 2015. Never mind Bennett’s disclaimer: “Diaries involve waste with much of what one records perhaps of posthumous interest but tedious to read and often bad-tempered.” Still, he concedes, “Nothing is ever quite so bad that one can’t write it down.” And while the dozen or so essays here are illuminating — ranging from a eulogy for movie director John Schlesinger to introductions to various Bennett plays — it is Bennett’s daily preoccupations that hold us. The death of friends, the depredations of old age, the class system, pseudo-patriotism, doublespeak: all are illuminated in entries that carry Bennett’s voice — dry, measured, confiding — as he meanders from sandwich making to literary reflections and from present to past. His impeccable craft, as ever, is disguised as casualness. On March 24, 2011, for example, when Elizabeth Taylor dies he recalls that ” . . . at the Savoy c. 1971 she perched briefly on my knee, though why I can’t now remember. A solid woman she was wearing The Diamond and was (not in consequence) quite a hefty burden so I was relieved when she stood up.” The scene is flanked by musings on Philip Larkin and Flannery O’Connor and by Bennett’s objection to Lockheed Martin, “basically an arms manufacturer,” carrying out the British census. A few weeks later, contemplating Margaret Thatcher’s burial (“The Funeral”), he observes that she was “a mirthless bully and should have been buried, as once upon time monarchs used to be, in the depths of the night.” In a typical year, he notes on March 31st, “Jehovah’s Witnesses blitz the street and when they ring I lie on the floor until the coast is clear;” on April 21st, “I go out with my pail of salt and water looking for slugs;” and on May 3rd, contemplating the Mail on Sunday’s outing of a sexual philanderer, confesses that “if the Mail chose to target Heinrich Himmler I would tend to be on his side.”
Whatever the mood or subject, the precision and restraint of Bennett’s language, its mildness, creates a sense of polite intimacy. We accompany him and his life’s companion, Rupert Thomas, to their civil partnership ceremony; to the funerals of friends; on visits to Europe and the U.S.; into museums and country churches. And into the medical netherworld. Most memorably, as he faces surgery on April 22, 2008, Bennett and his fellow patients “are told to take a pillow with us so, clad in our hospital gowns and each clutching our pillow, we walk in single file behind the nurse across the bridge above the atrium that leads to the surgical wing. We look like medieval penitents on our way to public humiliation.” He cannot believe that he is seventy-three, that he is eighty, that he is going deaf. (“Landscapes” not “Ramsgate”) and imagines, after a fall, “that in the future there is going to be more of this.”
Bennett is rarely somber; his wit is too keen. But the tone here is more subdued than in his previous prose collections Untold Stories and Writing Home. The past seems closer and the present shakier. “It’s getting near the day of Dad’s death,” he writes on a July day in Yorkshire, ” . . . we pick some flowers from the garden and put them on the grave . . . Think of Mam and Dad standing there smiling and think also of Anne next door whose chest is bad and has to go for an X-ray on Monday.” Through it all there is reading, writing, overseeing a production of The Habit of Art, his play about W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten, and observing the filming of The Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith. And there is England: dear, degraded, and as sharply revealed as ever. “My first play (when I was aged thirty-four) was a lament for an England that has gone,” Bennett concedes, adding that “my last play (aged seventy-nine) was still waving the same handkerchief.” And the eye of this comic master remains as accurately trained on himself. On October 18, 2005, for example, he notices that “Robert Hanks, the radio critic of the Independent, remarks that personally he can have too much of Alan Bennett. I wonder how he thinks I feel.”
The post Keeping On Keeping On appeared first on The Barnes & Noble Review.
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Startups are known to have specific needs that bigger companies won’t understand. Those needs inevitably become challenges to business owners. Problems such as inexperience, business size, and the lack of resources can get in the way of an entrepreneur’s success.
If you are going through any of those problems, here’s a good news. Below are some of the biggest problems faced by small businesses and what you can do to overcome them.
They say that cash is king and this rings true especially for small businesses. Every startup needs money in order to operate.
For one, you’ll keep on paying bills even if you don’t make a sale. Also, as a business owner, you may have to skip taking a salary in the first few years. You may even have to pour your entire life savings to your firm just to keep it up and running. Because of these cash flow issues, a lot of starting businesses are forced to close even before they get the chance to rise above the competition.
So, how do you address such matters?
Well, it starts with managing your finances.
Sure, you’re going to spend money on bills, manpower, and inventory whether you like it or not, but you need to resist the urge to spend on items that can be bought or paid for at a much later time. Keeping a part of your money for the “rainy days” can help you avoid having to borrow money from financial institutions for when this season comes. In other words, don’t drain yourself dry.
Another good way to extend your cash flow is to negotiate with suppliers or vendors. If you can form a good relationship with them, you’ll probably get discounts or better deals when it comes to subscriptions or items in your inventory. Even the smallest savings can help with your finances, so don’t take this opportunity for granted.
You can find additional revenue streams to complement low-income months. For example, if you own a small restaurant that caters to tourists in a ski resort, you might want to consider offering catering services during the off-season. Or, if you own a small shop and you’re focused on selling Christmas decorations, you might want to expand to home decors little by little.
While recent technology has improved business communications in many ways, some issues regarding communications remain unsolved. These problems often have a major impact on how a small business performs and they usually affect key stakeholders. This includes employees, clients, and third-party vendors.
Here are some of the most common communication hurdles small businesses face and the suggested actions to help alleviate or overcome each issue:
• The lack of communication with stakeholders. Whether it’s for setting company goals, implementing new policies or even order tracking, it’s important to keep whoever’s involved in a project or a transaction on the loop all the time. You’ll need to communicate the progress or delays in every undertaking because small issues can oftentimes get blown out of proportion.
• Missing important calls or messages. Customers these days often frown at missed calls or voice messages as those can lead to missed business. As a business owner, you must always have access to every communication channel available. Take advantage of tools like call forwarding, business SMS, voicemail to email, and the like so that you’ll never miss out on any opportunity. Those tools can also help you respond to pretty much anyone in a timely manner.
• Disconnected employees. Most modern small businesses thrive in a virtual environment. They have field workers, remote employees, and office-based personnel. Such arrangements can result in a communication nightmare that would often snowball into limited productivity. Thus, a decision maker needs to cultivate a collaborative virtual space that will keep everyone connected.
For geographical constraints, you can make video conferencing a standard practice. For team communication, there are tools that allow chats with task management and collaborative office productivity components. The possibilities are endless; you only have to know where to look.
In the annual State of Small Business Report by Wasp Barcode, it states that 50% of small businesses say hiring new employees remains a top challenge in 2017. Considering this statistic, it’s quite apparent that hiring people can be taxing or overwhelming for business owners.
Below are specific issues surrounding hiring or manpower among startups:
• Unqualified applicants. Finding top talent can be challenging for small business owners who do not have the resources needed to hire personnel for specific positions. For such cases, recruiting people within your network can be your best bet. Find friends or contacts who can refer or vouch for potential employees; they probably know enough about your business that they’ve already done some sort of filtering regarding which person to recommend.
• Hiring for convenience. Because of the lack of time and money, some businesses fall into the trap of making hiring decisions propelled by cost-effectiveness and time pressure. Positions that are molded to fit a candidate’s skill (and not the other way around) can be detrimental to your business in the long run. Make sure to focus on value when hiring people more than anything else.
• Intense competition. You might find yourself vying against bigger organizations when it comes to applications. Bigger companies have the advantage of hiring recruiters to find the best people. They would likely offer higher salaries and unlimited benefits for the right candidates.
However, there are also a bunch of talented people out there who would rather work for a less bureaucratic organization. They prefer jobs with more flexible policies and bigger room for growth. You need to highlight these advantages in order to look more appealing to your prospects.
Another challenge that small businesses need to face head-on revolves around growth. When the time to expand comes, you have to ensure that the quality of the goods or services you offer remain the same. Scaling doesn’t automatically mean that you have to compromise your standards. Remember, quality is probably what attracted customers to your business in the first place.
As soon as you enter this phase, you need to establish and implement clear quality control models. For example, if you have a 10-person sales team that uses the same script on the phone, you may eventually have to record calls and measure call data once you grow into a team of 50. This is to ensure that this script still fits and that clients are getting the service they expect from you.
You need to be able to delegate people who can take the responsibility of ensuring product quality. Their roles should be well-defined. Aside from these, you need to make your team understand that you are currently undergoing a season of growth so that your employees will feel more accountable for the tasks they perform.
When you were starting, it all seemed fun. You’ve designed every process to go as smoothly as possible. But when the customers start complaining, when the deliveries start arriving late, and when the lawyers start calling, you may instantly notice how your stakeholders start to look like monsters clawing away at you.
And once you stop recognizing how your business serves a purpose, that’s where things start to go haywire. You’ll drain all your energy and fatigue will creep in.
Keeping yourself inspired to push through with your business can be ultimately challenging, particularly when you are facing a lot of hurdles. Some people choose to give up immediately while others succumb to running their firms like zombies.
You don’t have to.
As Leslie Barber writes in Entrepreneur, “before you do anything, remind yourself why you started your business”. You need to keep yourself inspired by ideas and you need to nurture your people. You need to figure out which aspect of your business needs your full attention and be ready to get down to work to make better products or services.
Understanding the major problems faced by small businesses can help you get a better grip on how to continue running your startup with minimal roadblocks and a greater chance of succeeding.
See Also: The 3 Secrets To Successful Small Businesses
Author’s Bio
Klaris Chua is a digital content marketer who has written many pieces on startups and small business communications. She used to be a reporter for a business newspaper but the conventional path of a writer didn’t appeal to her. You can connect with her on Twitter.
The post 5 Biggest Problems Faced By Small Businesses And How To Overcome Them appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
There is so much to see and experience in Morocco! All the sights, smells, and sounds will intrigue and excite you from the moment you arrive.
It’s a land of diversity with mountains and deserts, blue-colored cities, souks and medinas, fabulous architecture, and thought-provoking ruins. It’s undoubtedly a land of beauty and many places throughout the country will stop you in your tracks.
With that in mind, here is a guide to the most beautiful places to visit in Morocco.
Located on a hill above a shallow river valley, Ait Benhaddou is a fortified village on the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakesh. It’s one of the most spectacular sights you’ll see in Morocco.
The dark red colored walls of this city are surrounded by swaying palms and terraced gardens while the extravagantly decorated buildings are some of the best preserved in this region. The scenery around Ait Benhaddou is no less breathtaking, and walking is a fabulous way to appreciate the beauty for yourself.
One of Morocco’s most charming towns, Asilah has a long, golden sandy beach with the blue waters of the Atlantic crashing onto the shore. It is pleasant to wander in the medina, the towers, and ramparts with their beautiful pastel shades and colorful murals.
You will also see a delightful white mosque and a wide promenade lined with huge palm trees. All these parts of Asilah give the town an air of elegance, perfect for a few days on the coast.
The Cascades d’Ouzoud has the most spectacular waterfalls in the whole of Morocco, surrounded by lush valleys of oak and pomegranate trees. You’ll be able to feel the cool spray on your face as the water plummets downward in a clamorous race to reach the green pools below.
Whether you go swimming in the pools or take a pleasant walk around the falls to see rainbows forming in the mist, the atmosphere is mellow and very relaxing.
If the gorgeous blue buildings and picturesque alleyways decorated with brightly colored and plant-filled pots of Chefchaouen aren’t enough, its impressive Spanish mosque, a stunning medina with balconies, tiled roofs, and courtyards, and stunning hilltop views might just swing it as being Morocco’s most beautiful city.
The Rif Mountains, an ancient kasbah located in lush green gardens, and a waterfall on the outskirts of town are more places that make a visit to Chefchaouen worthwhile.
One of the most jaw-dropping sights in the whole of Morocco must surely be the seemingly endless expanse of the Sahara Desert. And what better place to explore them than from Merzouga, a stone’s throws from some of the largest dunes in the area.
It is here that you and your camel can wander across the Grande Dune de Merzouga, over 150 m high and 7 km across, into the isolation and silence of the desert. Expect a colorful landscape of sand and sky as the day progresses, clear night skies filled with sparkling stars, and a sunrise like you’ll never experience again.
A truly charming Moroccan destination on the Atlantic Coast, Oualidia is a sleepy little village that is big on natural beauty. Its highlights include a picturesque fishing port and a stunning coastal lagoon.
It is popular with surfers and windsurfers who come for the vast Atlantic waves, but for those who are in search of a slower pace, there are ruins and caves to explore. Oualidia is a haven for bird life and there are plenty of species to spot in the lagoon and along the shore.
One of the most beautiful ruins in Morocco, The Chellah has a Gothic style gate and the remains of Roman arches, walls, and towers; the architecture of the whole site is stunning.
As you walk through the imposing entrance, passing abandoned pools, and wonderful mosaics, you enter into a place which is both surreal and breathtaking. The resident storks add to the spine-tingling atmosphere with the clicking of their beaks as they watch you from their nests.
Before you depart, take a peek over the walls for some of Rabat’s finest scenery, a magnificent river valley covered with beautiful flowers in the spring.
One need look no further for beauty than Toubkal National Park, a spectacular landscape at every turn and one that changes throughout the year from the snow-covered peaks of Jebel Toubkal to the lush green valleys and terraces peppered with purple irises.
Hikers will rejoice in exploring the streams, rivers, and waterfalls plunging into the pools beneath. There are also mountain villages with houses constructed out of the rocks, craggy slopes, boulder fields, ridge walking, and river crossings that make this area a hiker’s wonderland. Without a shadow of a doubt, you’ll never tire of the stunning views that besiege your eyes.
About the Author: This article was written by Gill Morris, savvy travel blogger at asabbatical.com, a personal travel blog of Adrian Sameli. To connect with Gill, follow her on FaceBook.
The post The Most Beautiful Places to Visit in Morocco appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
You’re reading 7 Major New Year’s Eve Decisions for Your Best Year Yet, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Each year’s end marks a new beginning in our lives. The celebration and global feeling of leaving the past behind help us find that right moment to start anew. Start a journal and begin with an entry listing the resolutions you have made for the following year. Something along the lines of, “This year ahead of me is the right time to start:
This must be the number one on everyone’s list. The only exceptions are those who have done this in the previous years and managed to stick to it. A healthy diet is, I grant you, a very important thing but not for the reasons most decide to have one. The key part of a healthy diet is health. Eating well will help you stay healthy and feel energized. The pace of our lives does not allow us to slack, so we need to invest our best in having the energy to seize the day and do things we care about.
Physical activity is yet another important ingredient of a healthy lifestyle. They say that losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercising. This is why people find it easier not to eat than find a physical activity they enjoy. Yet again, it is not all about extra pounds, sure it feels and looks good when they are off, but more importantly, it is about being and feeling healthy. A regular exercise routine can help us stay in shape, be energized and stress-relieved. We tend to start these resolutions overly ambitiously, but you do not have to get a gym membership and try to squeeze it into your schedule, and eventually give up because you can’t. You can go jogging, walking, dancing… it will all help you stay physically active.
This is the magical time you dedicate to yourself. You can spend it whichever way you want, alone or in the company of others, as long as you are relaxed, you enjoy, it and have some selfish personal gain from it. It can be anything from a hot bath to spending time with your children or helping the local community. Determine how often you can do this and drop everything else. Again, it does not have to be every day, but two or three times a week will help you feel a change.
As easy as it may sound to some, having the upper hand in decision-making is one of the hardest tasks for a lot of people. This process reflects your personality like none other. This is where you confront your fear of consequences, your lack of confidence or knowledge and wish to please others. Start by making personal decisions without asking for advice. I am not saying that taking someone’s advice is bad, but you need to learn to do it on your own. These first decisions should only affect you. Once you are over that and you see that nothing horrible will happen, and even if it does, it can be fixed, you are ready for making big decisions.
Organizational skills can help you stay on top of everything in your life. They are the ones which ensure you stay in charge of everything. Once you get organized, you will find it tremendously easy to keep up with your schedule and find time for everything. Start by organizing your days with to-do lists and keep track of the time you need to complete certain tasks. Declutter your home all at once with the help of super easy storage units or other storage solution close to you to get everything out of your way.
You can make it your next task, once you start mastering the skill, to clear out the storage as well.
The fact that you have gone through school or, at least, chosen your educational path does not mean that you now only need to focus on that one thing. Constant advancement is what you truly need to focus on. Set a goal, learn a new language, or learn how to cook like your mom if she is any good. You can even make it your job to learn a new thing every day, it does not have to be an actual skill. You can become a walking, talking encyclopedia and with time it will help you understand better how things function around you.
The current economy teaches us that we need to cling to what we have and be happy with it. Not just the economy, but the natural instinct. Somehow, people, in general, tend to fight for things in life only when they struggle and when their basic instincts kick in. If you are not satisfied with your job, I am not saying you should quit straight away but start looking for something more enjoyable and one day you will come across that something. Look into current marketing demands, combine them with the new skill you are learning and make something of it.
If someone tells you that New Year’s resolutions are silly, do not believe them. We need a goal in life to help us keep going forward, just like a carrot on a stick. This is the right time of the year to set those goals.
You’ve read 7 Major New Year’s Eve Decisions for Your Best Year Yet, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
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Sig Nordal 