Ginger Tea: An Ancient Health Solution

Dr Mercola writes: Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is one the oldest cultivated plants currently in existence. Historians believe that ginger has been grown for more 5,000 years, ever since ancient Indians and Chinese discovered and used it as a tonic root to help treat a variety of ailments

Ginger is a caffeine- and sugar-free plant that contains a mixture of vitamins and minerals working together to benefit your health. Furthermore, when made into tea, ginger releases gingerol and protease, which are compounds that may help boost cardiovascular circulation

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is one the oldest cultivated plants currently in existence. Historians believe that ginger has been grown for more 5,000 years, ever since ancient Indians and Chinese discovered and used it as a tonic root to help treat a variety of ailments. The plant was introduced to the Western world when it was exported from India to the Roman Empire.

Back then, ginger was considered to be an incredibly luxurious spice and was difficult to procure. During the 13th and 14th century A.D., however, Arab traders planted ginger roots throughout their voyage in Africa, causing the plant to spread and prices to go down. Today, ginger can be purchased easily almost anywhere compared to hundreds of years ago, where the price for a single pound of it was equivalent to a single live sheep!

Article Source: Dr Mercola at Mercola.com  

Small Business Solution: Avoid Following All Generic Advice

 It pays to be creative in handling workers-related issues if you are running a small business. Your business does not need every advice no matter the credibility of the source. What gets good results is all that counts no matter who is giving the advice. This doesn’t in any way mean you shouldn’t follow a business advice when genuinely given. You must be able to distinguish between genuine advice from blanket statements. Avoid the one-size-fits-all type of advice because same advice may not necessarily apply to every business. In many cases, following generic advice is often what leads to avoidable mistakes.

Generally, as each situation is different, so the solution! Small and large businesses all have their own peculiar characteristics and have to do what’s best for them. Anytime you read up or hear something that could be good for your business, be sure it is suitable for the business before you apply it. What works best is to follow your instincts most of the time. Alternatively, you can seek out expertise advice from a professional who will tailor such advice specifically to your situation. Generic advice can fail you but expert specific advice hardly does.

 

Small Business Solution: Don’t Handle All Performance Issues Same Way

As a small business owner, there is no other way you can measure progress without being able to track your performance. As the business grows, it is inevitable that your workforce will grow along too. As your team grows, you might opt to create a Human Resources department to deal with hiring and other employment related issues. That is a direct and logical way to go in expanding but handling all performance issues in the same way is not advisable. Issues relating directly to employee performance are very sensitive and should be handled differently. If not well handled, you risk hurting employee feelings thereby experiencing even more issues that could impact their work performance.

Granted that your HR department is responsible for employee performance issues, it is not advisable to send all matters relating to employee performance to your HR department. You get better and quicker results by empowering team leaders to speak directly and right away with associates who are experiencing performance issues. This is because many workers always feel that all poor performance matters referred to the HR department involve disciplinary measures. Having your managers or team leaders speak with them directly to see if they need any help always allays such fears. Showing them some support outside the HR department can often help workers more than going right to some form of generic disciplinary action which many HR departments are notorious for.

Small Business Solution: Don’t Be Content with Success

 Every small business owner wants to succeed. That is because success is great and the feeling is always good. Even at that, it doesn’t mean you should be wholly satisfied once you achieve any minor goal you set for your business. Very sadly, many small businesses always fall into a holding pattern once they’ve achieved some semblance of success. When that happens, such small businesses usually fall behind the competition and slowly become irrelevant. Small Business Experts are of the view that, it is best to stay hungry and keep that fire in your belly that got you where you are. Complacency is fatal to any small business. As your business grows and expands, it helps to keep your eyes permanently on the ball. Don’t ever forget what got you started in the first place. You can’t sustain any level of success as an entrepreneur if you take your eyes off the goal because your business has got larger and larger to the level where you adopt less hands-on approach to the business.

Always bear in mind the motivation you had to grow your business when you were just getting started. As the business grows and you are likely to need some more managers and other team members to step in and help with the day-to-day business operations, you must continue to give direction to the business. Remain the undistracted pilot no matter the level of success the business has attained. You can’t afford to be complacent at any time. If you are in charge, remain in charge and be seen and felt by everyone as the person in charge.

Small Business Solution: Never Cut Prices to Compete

 If you run a small business, you must have found out by now that it is very rough and tough out there. The competition is very still stiff and gets stiffer by the day. However, be consoled by the fact that you are not alone. Everyone faces their own competition their own way. When facing tough competition, it can be tempting for small businesses to simply slash prices to make products or services more appealing to customers. Experts say, small businesses normally only hurt their own interests doing this unlike large companies which are usually better equipped to absorb such losses. Driving down prices is almost never in the best interest of a small business.

You can always find a way around that. Instead of driving prices down, it is better to focus on adding value to your product or service in some other ways. That is so because many customers are almost always willing to pay a bit more for something that offers them a great experience. In most cases, people always buy what makes them feel good. It helps therefore to try to talk to each individual customer and get on a personal level to assess what they want most and are looking for to purchase. Thereafter, you can adapt and adjust to give them real satisfaction tailored along their needs without having to cut prices.