Top 10 tips for a safer home

More New Zealanders are injured in the home than anywhere else. Every 56 seconds someone in New Zealand has an injury at home.

These startling statistics are behind Treasure Rotorua and Safekids Rotorua encouraging locals to learn how they can make their homes safer, during Home Safety Week from 15 to 21 August.

Rotorua District Council community safety projects officer Amy Duckett says over 500 New Zealanders will die this year because of an accident in the home – more than the number of people killed on our roads.

“In Rotorua alone around 1000 people are hospitalised every year because of injury – with a third of those injuries occurring at home. However many accidents at home can be prevented.”

She says during the national safety week Treasure Rotorua and Safekids Rotorua are promoting simple things residents can do to reduce the risk of being injured in their own homes.

Ten safety tips to avoid falls at home:

� Use a non-slip mat in the bathroom.

� Wipe up spills on the floor immediately.

� Ensure ladders are on flat firm ground, and don’t over-reach sideways.

� Wear slippers or non-slip shoes around the house, especially on polished floors.

� Always turn on the light switch when using stairs.

� If you need to reach up high use a stepladder not a chair.

� Plug in electrical appliances close to the socket and avoid trailing cords over walkways.

� Put stickers on glass doors and windows to make them more visible.

� Clear away moss and leaves on outside steps and paths

� The more you drink, the greater your risk of injury – plan activities so drinking isn’t the focus of your social occasion.

Representatives of Treasure Rotorua and Safekids Rotorua will be at this week’s Rotorua Night Market [18 August] promoting home safety messages.

People will be invited to complete a quick home safety quiz and all entries will go into a draw to win a home safety pack, a family pass for Skyline’s gondola and luge, and a family pass to the Aquatic Centre. There will also be heaps of information available on how to make your home safer for you and your children.

For regular safety tips, you can ‘like’ Treasure Rotorua on their Facebook: page on www.facebook.com/treasurerotorua. Everyone who ‘likes’ the Treasure Rotorua page during home safety week will go into a draw to win a home safety kit for their family.

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Five essential business tips

Simon Sharwood, editor of My Business magazine. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied

AS the editor of My Business magazine, I talk to a lot of people about how to build successful businesses. I’d like to share the top lessons I’ve learned.

1.      Plan your exit from day one

Some people go into business to replace a job. That’s the wrong attitude, because what’s the point of buying yourself a job when business is riskier than being on a salary? And why treat it as just a job when being in business is a chance to build wealth?

Always be thinking about how you might one day realise value by selling the business or the methods you have developed, franchising it or licensing your intellectual property. If you think this way, you’ll build value, not just pay yourself a wage.

2.        Find a way to do what your customers want

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A few months ago I went to a furniture store and bought three chests of drawers. The smallest was 2m long and would not fit in my car. But because it came from the “homewares” section the store would not deliver it. This was insane: I was spending $2000 and deserved better.

The lesson: Don’t tell your customers what you won’t do, just find a way to delight them.

3.      Be genuine about what you do

Australia’s patent office employs more than 300 PhDs, all experts in very, very granular fields. These people are super smart, have umpteen university qualifications and really know their stuff.

I mention this because when I hear a company say it has “the best people” I think to myself that maybe, of all the organisations in Australia, perhaps only the patent office is anywhere near being able to sustain that claim.

There are two things to learn here. One is that claims like “having the best people” are impossible to sustain and therefore aren’t a differentiator.

The other is that it’s way too easy to fall back on cliches like this when you describe your business. Everyone is committed to quality. Everyone is customer-focused.

Except everyone isn’t too. Every business sometimes cuts corners. Every business sometimes annoys a customer.

This means that all these terms are valueless and meaningless. Instead, try to describe your business truthfully. Explain what you do and how you do it, and make it real … not just a cliché.

4.      Don’t put off the hard staff decisions

People management is the hardest thing to do in business, and therefore the easiest thing to put off.

So if someone needs a reprimand, do it fast. And if someone’s not working out, fire them fast.

This may sound harsh, but nothing hurts a business more than the wrong people. And you’ll spend much more time worrying about – or trying to work with – them than you will by finding the right people.

The flipside here is that you can’t put off learning good people management skills and industrial relations laws. If you don’t learn how to reprimand someone without making them hostile or setting yourself up for an unfair dismissal claim, you’ll waste more time than you can possibly afford.

5.      Keep your finger on the pulse

Every business has key indicators that represent their pulse. It could be stock levels, outstanding bills, a sales pipeline or another indicator.

Whatever the number is that makes the most difference to your business, check it obsessively. That way your finger will be on the pulse and you’ll know trouble is on the way in time to react to it, instead of being swamped.

Simon Sharwood is editor of My Business magazine. You can find it at www.mybusiness.com.au, Facebook and Twitter or reach him at mybusinesseditor@mybusiness.com.au.

 

 

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