9 Fun and Creative Ways to Stay Fit as a Family this Fall

The long, hot summer days are over, school is open, and it looks like heaven outside. What better time to enjoy some outdoor activities with your family than fall? Though it is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of school and work, it is essential to clip in some fun family time so that everyone can stay fit. Here are some fun ways to keep fit during fall that every member of the household will enjoy;

1. Go Hiking

Unlike summer and winter when the outdoor weather is horrible, fall is a calm and beautiful time to go hiking with your family. The colorful scenery will make everyone want to stay outside so pick a trail, pack a backpack and out you go.

2. Pick Apples and Pumpkins

Picking fruits can be fun, and it exercises all the muscles in your body. Kids won’t even know they are exercising so go ahead and take them for some apple or pumpkin picking and have everybody compete.

3. Join Sports

There are very many organized sports to join during fall because schools have just opened. Parents should take some time to encourage their kids to join their favorite game and practice with them at home. If you can, go to your child's games and cheer them on.

4. Rake Some Leaves

Yes, chores are tedious but only if the kids are doing them alone. Fall is a perfect time to make outdoor cleaning fun and spend some family time. Raking, in particular exercises your arms, legs, and shoulders so let everyone join in the fun and sing some songs while at it.

5. Go Bike Riding

Just like hiking, riding bikes with your family during fall is a wonderful way to enjoy the beautiful yellow leaves and cool weather. Bikes are especially affordable at this time so you can buy every member one and ride away into the park or trail somewhere. The best thing about riding bikes besides the great workout is that you can compete and teach the little ones.

6. Corn Maze

Finding your way through a corn maze is one of the most thrilling activities you and your family can take up during fall. Some mazes can take up to an hour before you find yourself out and that is a great workout. Let everyone go inside and keep talking so you can help each other out.

7. Hit the Beach or Park

There are not very many people at the beach after summer, so it’s a perfect time to have private family time. There are so many activities you can do at the beach like jogging, playing volleyball, playing catch with the dog and building sand castles. If the water is warm; get in, and swim or surf and even kite boarding is an enjoyable workout. The best thing about the beach during fall is that you don’t have to wear swimwear and bikinis because it’s a bit chilly. After some fun at the beach, head out to the park and entertain the babies on the swings and carousels so that everyone is happy.

8. Fall Festivals

Many towns will be holding some festivals during fall to celebrate many things. Whether you will go to taste the new drinks in town or simply enjoy some music, take your family and do that together. The walk through the entire festival plus the dancing will be quite a workout, and you will go home so happy and tired.

9. Play Pool Games

Some days are cold, but others are lovely and warm so you can enjoy some fun pool games as a family. Pool builders in Henderson can help your family get a pool at home so that you can enjoy those quality moments just outside your door.

Conclusion

Keeping fit as a family is very important because it creates that culture in the children to remain healthy and away from obesity. It’s also a great way to bond and create memories as long as it’s fun and safe.

5 Tips for Keeping Your New Company Afloat

If you just started a new company and sales are plummeting, you might be wondering what the future holds for your business. Is there anything you can do to save the business? Though there’s no a one-fits-it all solution as every business is different and carries its own unique risks, you can benefit from the following general strategies and keep your new company afloat during tough economic times.

Make Good Use of Your Time

When entrepreneurs start building their own businesses for the first time, they spend a lot of time traveling to different types of meetings and interacting with people from different walks of life. Unfortunately, most of the activities are a waste of their precious time. Every time you spend some hours doing things that are not related to your business, you waste a lot of time and money. The ultimate result of poor management of your time is lack of time to spend on customer-focused activities. It’s best to stop spending your time on the kinds of that are unrelated to your business. Otherwise, you increase the chances of your business facing tough financial situations.

Be Optimist but Prepare for Any Eventuality

As an entrepreneur, you are most likely familiar with the saying that bad things happen to good people. Despite how hardworking you are, you may face financial emergencies. And if this occurs when you are not prepared, it could mean the end of your business.

When you are starting the company, ensure you don’t quit your job if you are not sure of your financial future. Young entrepreneurs often make the mistake of giving up their monthly income when leaping into entrepreneurship. It’s recommendable to keep your job and also keep your new company operating. Only quit when you have traction. At the same time, create an emergency saving amounting to approximately six-or-nine times of your regular monthly income. This way, you ensure that when bad things, for example when customers fail to pay you in time, you have adequate resources to keep your company afloat.

Track Your Business Spending

During the first weeks or months of launching a business, lots of things keep going on. If you are not careful, you may be caught up trying to fix so many things, creating business plans, and talking with customers till tracking of your spending becomes secondary. It’s important to put an efficient small business bookkeeping system in place to track all your spending and ensure you are not caught unawares when you need ant piece of information. There can be nothing so frustrating than digging through paperwork searching for an important piece of information when compiling financial reports for your financial institution and you fail to find the right files as soon as you would wish. Simply set yourself for success right from day one by having the right tracking systems in place.

Sell the Perfect Product

Don’t forget that for your new company to stay afloat for the long run, you must sell products that meet the needs of your target market. So before you even open your business doors for the first time, ensure you do enough market research and get to know the exact gap in the market that you want to fill. Know the potential of all your targeted market segments. What’s more, don’t compromise on product quality.

Focus on Advertising

Irrespective of the quality of your products, if your customers don’t know how you add value to them, they will not buy from you. Use advertising medium that your target audience relies on for information and put great emphasis on the benefits, not features, of your products.

Keeping a new company afloat, especially during tough economic times, is often challenging. That’s because every business is unique and the situations each of them faces are also different. Giving some attention to these five tips, however, can ensure your company remains afloat at any time of the year.

3 Tips for Organizing Digital Marketing Data

Digital marketing is one of the most valuable things that a business can do to build its audience. When you use the internet to communicate with your customers, you tap into a growing global network of people.

One tricky part of digital marketing is the sheer volume of data you need to deal with. When you are working across several different media markets and social media platforms, you need to stay organized. This is the only way to know when a campaign is doing great or when it is underperforming.

You can become a more organized and effective digital marketer. Here are three tips for making it happen.

(1) Focus on Your Key Performance Indicators

Data only has meaning when it is attached to clear goals within a business. If you don’t know what you are trying to do, your data will only add to your confusion.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are all about priorities. Every business wants to make more money and reach more people, but that isn’t specific enough. The key to find the one or two very specific metrics that will reflect the overall health of your organization.

Andrew Rogers suggests that a great KPI will be easy to measure and lead to direct action. Indeed, a KPI is only useful when you know what to do after you look at it. That's how your data can lead you to make better business decisions that improve your bottom line.

After you set one or two KPIs for your business, you will have a better context within which to organize data. You will be able to sort through information with an eye for the specific trends that lead to future success.

(2) Measure Over Larger Periods of Time

The flip side of being overwhelmed by data is not having enough data. When you try to organize a tiny set of data, you often get false positives. This is known as having too little “signal” amongst the random “noise.”

Make sure that you have a large sample size to work with. Organize your data so that you are looking at your marketing efforts over time, rather than obsessing over individual social media posts. When you use a lot of data, you get more accurate information.

Your margin of error will be much lower when you organize your data into large batches. This is a crucial aspect of good data organization.

(3) Use Tools to Organize Your Data

You don’t need to work with your data all by yourself. There are many useful tools and services out there that can make a big difference in your ability to stay organized.

The most common tool that marketers use for this is a simple digital marketing dashboard. A dashboard is a service that aggregates your marketing data from all around the internet and displays it to you in an easy-to-understand format.

Even if you are a seasoned marketing pro, you’ll have a much easier time parsing data when you use a dashboard. It helps you go deeper with your analysis and discover the key insights that can push your business forward. Best of all, these dashboards can be customized to fit your specific KPIs.

Stay Organized With Your Data

Don’t let yourself become overwhelmed by your data. When you use the best tools available to streamline your information, you will feel a lot less day-to-day stress with your marketing work. This is a great way to become a more effective and happier digital marketer. Once you get organized, you will never want to work any other way.

12 Ways to Promote Family Fitness and Fun this Fall

It may seem that when summertime ends so does the opportunity for a family to do fun fitness activities together, but that is not true. The crisp, cool air and the beautiful fall foliage of fall bring enjoyment. Indoor activities can be fun too. Let’s take a look at what we can do when summertime ends.

Outdoor Activities

Walking - Outdoor walks are enjoyable in the fall because there are no heat, humidity, or bugs. Even a walk around the block with the dogs and/or with the stroller will do wonders for your heart, muscles, and mental well-being.

Hiking – Put on the hiking boots, find a nature trail, and take in the beauty of fall foliage as a family. Mountainous or hill country would be ideal, but flat lands might offer lakes or forest preserves. The increased leg and heart work-out would be great physical exercise and a great way to release tension and clear everyone’s head.

Running – If you are young enough and fit enough to run, do it in the fall when the weather is not too hot or cold. Just be mindful of the dangers associated with being outside after dark because the sun will go down earlier in the fall.

Bicycling - Like walking, hiking, and running, bicycling can be enjoyed and done as a family on into the fall months.

Swimming – Here’s an overall body exercise that does not feel like exercise. It’s the one form of physical exercise that draws kids and adults alike. Since it involves water, it is an outdoor activity that everybody can enjoy out in full sun and during the hottest weather.

Indoor Activities

Gym membership – A gym membership offers fitness equipment, fitness classes, an indoor swimming pool, and many other things that can get you and family members into shape. This is not something the young members of a family will be allowed to do, though, and motivation may not always there to go visit a gym.

Martial arts class – Skills such as karate not only help to keep the participant healthy, but it gives him or her a useful defensive skill.

Yoga class – This stretching class does wonders for keeping the body in alignment and relaxing the mind.

CrossFit – This is interval training that is not for beginners because it involves the use of extremely heavy loads. The participant works on all areas of the body at one time or another and takes rests between exercises. Exercises include the overhead squat, the rope climb, and the push press.

Circuit training – Circuit training offers 10 or more exercises that a person does without resting in between them. This burns a lot of calories. Some of the exercises are cardio exercises. Others are strength training exercises, and others are both. Sample exercises include squat jumps, jumping jacks, squat kicks, lunges, and others. This type of training is better suited for beginners and for people who need variety in their workout routines.

Home Activities

Television exercises – You can exercise using exercise CDs. Alternatively, you can use home gym equipment or do floor exercises while you watch your favorite television shows at home, ramping it up big time during the commercials.

Indoor pool – One of the highlights of summer is the ability to go swimming. For a one-time outlay of money, you can have an indoor swimming pool area added onto your home and enjoy swimming all year around. Just type “pool builders near me” into your favorite computer browser’s search engine to locate builders within your zip code who can build you an indoor pool.

5 Ways to Beat Social Challenges

There are lots of people who struggle with shyness, social insecurity and a host of other social challenges. Whenever they are in the company of others, they will not only be unsure of how to connect with their company but could also experience a shaky voice, pounding heart, rapid breathing or even stomach upset. When you have this problem, it is normal to feel like you are the only one. Since social insecurities can lead to low self-esteem and prevent you from achieving your full potential, it is important to recognize the problem and take steps to address it. The good news is that apart from professional help, there are a number of measures you can take on your own in an effort to overcome this problem.

Work with a therapist

Social anxiety will potentially stop you from doing a number of things that you may want or need to do. This means that the social challenge can adversely affect your work and relationships, a factor that could prevent you from achieving your dreams. With the serious consequences associated with social insecurity, you should consider seeking professional help. This will involve working with a qualified therapist who specializes in anxiety disorder. The expert will diagnose the problem and identify a suitable treatment program to help you.

Share your experiences

Once you have acknowledged the fear of what others think about you and accepted the embarrassment that comes with it, it would be important to share your experiences with family and friends. This is because hiding the anxiety is likely to result in more anxiety. Sharing your experiences with people you trust is not only okay but will also go a long way in helping you to deal with the issue. Getting the courage to talk to others about your insecurity without feeling ashamed will mark the first step towards beating social challenges.

Focus on others

One of the reasons why social anxiety and shyness are serious issues is because they lead you to be self-absorbed, a factor that makes you focus on how others think about you. However, shifting focus from yourself to other people will give you a chance to notice that they also have their own fears. If you are to overcome these challenges and become great at holding conversations, you should strive to be a good listener. Apart from encouraging others to talk about themselves, you should also take advantage of ADHD resources and tips to help you overcome social challenges and achieve self-confidence.

Practice deep breathing every day

This is one of the simplest steps you can take when working to beat social challenges. Every time you are about to become tense and anxious, your body is likely to give some warning signs. This will allow you enough time to try and control the situation as well as slow down your thoughts. When your mind feels chaotic, you should take breathing exercises. Such a move will go a long way in helping to control your heart rate as well as your thought process. In the end, you will be in a better position to remain calm and collected.

Practice self-compassion

Even as you strive to overcome social anxiety, there is a chance that you will fall back to your old habits. Whenever this happens, you may get angry at yourself or be too hard on yourself. However, it is important to practice self-compassion even when you struggle to speak. In fact, it is when you experience the fear of social interaction that you should be kind and patient with yourself. This will give you room to evaluate where you may have slipped and how to take corrective measures.

Today, there are numerous resources that you can use in your quest to beat social challenges. You can rely on magazines, the media and the internet to access invaluable information. At the same time, it is important to remember that it is only through constant practice that you will overcome social insecurity.

The Benefits of Ayurveda Yoga

By definition, Yoga is the Hindu spiritual and ascetic practice of breathing, meditating and positioning the body in a way that allows for overall health and relaxation. There is much more to be taken into account. The word actually means “union,” referring to the union of the individual consciousness and soul to the universal consciousness and being. Yoga is not just a practice but also a catalyst for awareness and mindfulness. The focus of Yoga is to bring the energy and awareness inward. Because the senses are not capable of portraying to us the whole truth about the world, we must perceive with our higher mind. Yoga brings us in a state of higher vibration and gives us the correct flow of energy for enlightenment.

There are several types of yoga. Hatha Yoga is the practice of purifying oneself through yoga and preparing him for meditation. Karma Yoga is a selfless practice for others. Mantra Yoga is the repetition of certain words that represent part of Spirit. Bhakti Yoga is the unconditional loving of all beings that leads to an unceasing worship. Jnana, or Gyana Yoga is the practice of discriminative intelligence to achieve spiritual freedom. Finally, Raja Yoga combines all the other paths to a total achievement of enlightenment and union with the universal Spirit.

How yoga can change you

Yoga has been proven to have a profound effect on the body, mind and soul. While there are many reasons to fall in love with Yoga, the most paramount is that Yoga is for everybody. Unlike some other sports and activities, yoga can yield benefit for anyone who desires. Everyone will feel great to get in touch with their inner-self and divine source. Yoga powers the mind and body. According to GAIAM, it can not only tone but also build muscle. Through power yoga, the core is engaged and burns a lot of calories while maintaining and strengthening the muscles.

In 2011, the National Institute of Health conducted a study to research the therapeutic effect of yoga on the human mind and body. Depression and anxiety are among the top reasons for people to seek out the effects of yoga. Because it encourages us to relax, the mind and body go from a state of fight-or-flight to a natural, relaxed state of being. This has a significant effect on the brain chemistry. Relaxing can lower cortisol levels and increase blood flow to the most important organs. The study proved that regular yoga practice will increase serotonin levels and thus decrease depression.

How it can change the life of a 12-year-old

Sahara Rose Ketabi was just a tender age of 12 years when she first discovered the mystical power of yoga. She was quite unhealthy. As a result, something pushed her to walk into a yoga class. After this day, she would never be the same. Slowly but surely, she took her life back. From being overweight and allergic to a lot of things, she became one of the most successful advocates of Ayurveda and a healthy lifestyle. Maybe you’re asking what changed in that one class. Like mentioned above, yoga is more than just a class you go to and forget about it a week later. Yoga exposed Ketabi to a journey of connecting her mind and body. She used the ancient methods of Ayurveda to help her get in top shape and feel great about herself. And more importantly fit into those amazing yoga pants she always wanted to wear.

Later, she wrote the book "Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda." This includes her long journey of discovering and learning about Ayurvedic cooking, exercising and living. She has been through many different diets and exercise routines, but says that Ayurveda and yoga are the ultimate paths to wellness. Although it may seem like a minimal effort, putting on a pair of yoga leggings at 12 may have been the best thing Ketabi ever did.

Finance Tips When Flipping Your Home

With the real estate market becoming more competitive, there are some people who want to take advantage of rising prices by flipping homes. Flipping a home is not an easy process, but it can be a great way to make additional money.

When flipping a home, having a financial plan is crucial. There are some people who end up making major mistakes through the flipping process. Flipping a home requires that you take on some financial risks. If you are not able to sell the home, you essentially lose most of the money that you invested in the home. Here are some financial tips when flipping a home.

Buy Low

The best financial advice when flipping a home is to find a home that is cheaper than the overall market value. When flipping a home, you have to invest a lot of time and money into improving the look of the home. Once the upgrades are complete, you are then able to put the home on the market and sell it for a premium.

When you find a great deal, you have much more margin for error when selling the home. As a general rule, home flips will cost more money and take more time than you are planning on. Now is the time to start looking for different options in your area. It is better to wait several months to find a good deal than to rush into purchasing a property and later regret it.

Loan Options

Another important aspect of flipping a home is understanding your loan options. There are some real estate investors who do not understand all of the financial implications of borrowing money to flip a home.

When applying for a loan to flip a home, you only need a loan term of around a year. This makes the payment on the loan really high. The interest rate on this type of loan is higher than a traditional mortgage. The higher interest rate is a result of the bank taking on more risk.

One of the best ways to increase your loan options is to simply be prepared when going to the bank. There are various people who have credit issues and cannot get a loan after they find a property. It is always a good idea to look at your credit report way before you go to apply for a loan.

Home Upgrades

Once you purchase the property, making the right upgrades is essential. There are some upgrades that will improve the look of a home, but they will not necessarily add more value to the purchase price. One of the biggest mistakes that home flippers make is investing too much money into a home they want to flip. You only want to improve the value of a home relative to other homes in the local real estate market.

Investing in simple cabinet door replacement is a great decision. In many older homes, the cabinet doors are starting to fall off. This is a bad look in the kitchen. Another upgrade to consider is adding in granite counters. This is one of the most common upgrades for a kitchen to have. Many people love the look that granite counters provide.

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in a home when it comes to selling it quickly. By upgrading the look of your kitchen, you will be able to sell the home much more quickly.

Flipping a home is a great way to make money quickly. However, it also requires that the investor take on financial risk. Make sure to run the numbers carefully before investing in a real estate property.

Are You Safe From The World's Deadliest Creature?

When most people think about dangerous animals, they think of sharks, lions, and other big predators. Some even think of humans, since we tend to be fairly good at killing each other. Dangerous though those creatures may be, they all pale in comparison to the humble mosquito.

Why Are They Dangerous?

Mosquitoes drink blood, but that is not what makes them dangerous. They are deadly because they spread some of the most dangerous diseases in the world. Malaria is the biggest threat, and it kills approximately half a million people each year.

Most of the people who die from the disease live in the developing world, where they lack access to the medical care to treat it and the tools to prevent mosquito infestations. The situation is improving as more and more people get access to those tools, but it remains a huge problem.

Malaria is not a significant problem in most developed nations, but the Zika Virus and West Nile Virus are another matter. They have struck in the developed world in recent years, and they prove the importance of dealing with mosquito problems.

Preventing Infestations

The best way to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne disease is to prevent the spread of mosquitoes. Most of the diseases that they spread do not spread from any other significant vectors, so eliminating the mosquitoes eliminates the bulk of the problem. They key to doing that is to understand their life cycle, specifically the way that they reproduce.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water. Most mosquito eggs can survive in dry conditions for a little while, but they can only hatch if they are in water. In nature, they lay their eggs in swamps, lakes, and other bodies of water that lack strong currents. In developed areas, they can lay their eggs in pools, buckets, birdbaths, and anywhere else that can fill with water and go for a few months without being disturbed.

The best way to prevent a mosquito infestation is to make it so that they can't breed. Mosquitoes do not live very long, so eliminating their eggs will remove the problem within a few months. Humans can do that by simply eliminating the stagnant water in which they breed. Emptying containers when they fill with water, or changing the water in birdbaths and other vessels that need to stay full every few weeks, will eliminate most of the eggs. Some eggs will survive in water that is hard to find or remove, but this technique does keep the population at a manageable level.

Extermination

A healthy dose of powerful outdoor pest control will get rid of most of the mosquitoes that do hatch. It is best to get a professional to look at the problem, since they have the knowledge that lets them decide what sort of treatment will be most effective.

A barrier spray is the most common choice. It will eliminate mosquitoes on contact, but it will also remain in the environment to prevent them from coming back. That will ensure that any mosquitoes that survive to reproduce do it far away from humans, where they are unlikely to cause problems.

Personal Protection

Even people who remove all of the mosquitoes around their home run the risk of exposure when they travel. Fortunately, a mosquito spray or other repellent will prevent most problems. Campers sh should also make a point of sleeping under a mosquito net if they are in an area where they are present. These techniques are cheap and generally effective, so they're a great way to add another layer of protection when simply terminating the bugs is not an option.

Medical treatment should be the last resort, since preventing a problem is always better than curing it, but it is still wise to learn the signs of common diseases. People who experience any of those symptoms should seek out a doctor immediately. Quick treatment can make all the difference when the worst happens, so it's always better to be safe than sorry.

What Is Big Data And Why Is It Being Used?

What is Big Data and why is it being used?

Big Data can be defined as “large volumes of data – both structured and unstructured – that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis.” Many companies, both large and small, are currently compiling this marketing, sales, customer, social, and transactional data in hopes of improving decision making across their organizations.

Wired Magazine's Arvind Singh likens Big Data to the new “Black Gold” which, when properly mined and refined, promises to aid businesses in making “sound decisions anywhere and anytime — at the pace required by today’s competitive business landscape”. Singh believes Big Data represents “a tremendous opportunity to drill down and tap into these critical insights.”

What are the benefits of Big Data?

Big Data can help businesses by: 1.) identifying more efficient ways of doing business, 2.) improving product development by catering to the specific needs of customers, 3.) more accurately identifying market trends, and 4.) monitoring and improving their online presence. In short, organizations can utilize Big Data to optimize business processes and ultimately capture market share from competitors.

Many of the largest corporations in the world today are at the forefront of the Big Data revolution. Some key examples include Amazon, purportedly the world’s largest internet company by revenue, which mines it's enormous customer data bank in order to design advertising algorithms and improve customer relations. American Express uses Big Data to analyze and predict consumer behavior. Netflix uses Big Data to select content based on customer viewing habits.

What are the risks of Big Data?

On one hand, businesses that fail to fully embrace Big Data may find that they cease to maintain their competitive advantages in the future. Indeed, experts have warned that some industries may be won or lost based on executives’ abilities to capitalize on this data. Studies conducted by Susan Athey, economics professor at Stanford University, suggest that “when companies inject data and analytics deep into their operations, they can boost productivity and profit that is 5% to 6% higher than the competition.”

On the other hand, if not executed properly, Big Data campaigns may do more harm than good. The challenge is both an organizational and technological one. Research conducted by Mckinsey & Company found that despite the success stories at high-tech companies such as Amazon and Google, legacy companies have not been as successful at capturing the benefits of Big Data. For example, they found that companies may make the initial investment necessary to achieve marginal results yet lack the managerial will necessary to make larger investments, resulting in wasted resources. Mckinsey says that a successful data analytics campaign demands the creation of new senior-management capacity to really focus on data […] managers need to change their way of making decisions to take advantage of analytics.”

Companies must also know how to most efficiently collect, store, and analyze their data. Software Database giant and industry leader Oracle has stated that “how an organization defines its data strategy and approach—including its choice of big data and cloud technologies-- will make a critical difference in its ability to compete in the future”. Oracle defines big data by the four “Vs”:

1.) Volume or amount of data, including low-density, unstructured data such as data feeds, click streams on a web page, mobile app, and network traffic, stored using a hadoop cluster.

2.) Velocity or the rate at which data is received.

3.) Variety or new unstructured data types (text, video) that require additional processing.

4.) Value or quantitative and investigative techniques used to derive value from data such as recognizing patterns or predicting customer behavior.

It is quite clear that although the benefits of Big Data are numerous, an organization must be firing on all cylinders in order to successfully leverage their Big Data or risk falling behind the competition.