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Year: 2009

Top five cool office stocking fillers

Posted on by aleks

If there is one thing we really appreciate at Serviced Office Company it’s cool stuff for the office. With Christmas just over a week away, some of us still haven’t had the time to buy Christmas presents for work colleagues and friends. To help you with your last minute shopping, we’ve found our top five cool office stocking fillers to really make Secret Santa memorable this year!

1) The Street Mouse
Whether you’re the boy or girl racer in the office, the Street Mouse means you can speed around your mouse mat as you surf the internet. This flashy desktop accessory comes with alloy wheels and LED headlights, as well as a variety of exterior colours. Who said using your work computer wasn’t fun?

 

2) Bendi Board pink computer keyboard
Bring some life to your desktop with an ultra cool, flexible, silicon keyboard. Not only will you look great using one, but its versatility means it’s coffee and tea-proof and can be easily rolled up and carried in your bag. There is a white option too.

3) Finger Print Lock
The fingerprint lock is the ultimate security gadget entry system for the budding James Bond! Great for the home too, you’ll never worry about being locked out again or the busy office with staff working all hours. Configured to hold up to 25 different finger prints in its memory.

4) Stationary Kit
This ingenious little stationary kit would please a CEO or student due to its pragmatic simplicity. Whether you work at home or in the office, you know that this kit will keep your administrative life in order!

5) Autobin
None of us particularly enjoy emptying a smelly that is riddled with germs and your colleagues left over curry remnants! The beautifully engineered AutoBin, with its non touch opening lid, is the ideal way to maintain hygiene in the office.

All of our serviced offices are unbranded space, a blank canvas if you like, which means that your business can really make our managed offices your own – especially with our cool Christmas office gift ideas. A big Merry Christmas from the Serviced Office Company team!

For more cool office stocking filler ideas visit www.urbanjunkie.co.uk

I want you on my desk

Posted on by aleks

We have a new solution to irritating corporate speak and annoying colleagues. It is this: The USB missile defense array! Inclusive of software, this cunning little devise allows you to aim and fire at targets at your will!

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Gosh! Just think of the possibilities! This is a better time waster than Twitter and is a sure fire way to get your revenge on your most annoying of work buddies!

Top tips: Avoid the pig flu!

Posted on by aleks

Swine Flu has taken 29 lives to date in the UK, and in high volume, face-to-face places like the office it can easily spread. Little known fact: The influenza bug can live for up to two hours on surfaces like desks, keyboards and doors.

The office is a hot house for multiplying bacteria so “moving forward…” here are our tips to keeping the virus to yourself:

  • Carry tissues
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth
  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you sneeze or cough
  • Wash up cutlery, plates and mugs properly as soon as you have finished with them
  • Clean your hands thoroughly and regularly

Carry Tissues and Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough

One sneeze can spread disease up to 100mph, so covering your mouth and nose is very important. Remember to throw all your tissues away once you have used them, and wash your hands.

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Clean your hands thoroughly

Washing you hands properly is extremely important. When you are sharing a space with people, germs can spread quickly. Hands get everywhere so make sure they are clean!

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth

Germs live in hot, moist places – places like your eyes, nose and mouth, so avoid touching them and spreading these germs. The bacteria, once they have set up camp on your hand, will contaminate desks, doors, keyboards and mugs. Remember: The office can be a very dangerous place. So keep it clean!

Top ten annoying corporate catchphrases

Posted on by aleks

When you work in an office environment and you spend up to eight hours a day with the same people, things are bound to get on your nerves a little bit. But, there are a few phrases which have become universally irritating. Here are our top ten:

1) Moving/Going forward

What this really means is ‘let’s try and forget your massive complaint and keep going’.

2) Incentivise

This word is used when discussing the best tool to make someone do something they do not want to do.

3) Let’s touch base about that offline

No one really seems to know what is meant by this, but it usually refers to having a private meeting about something.

4) Referring to a problem as a challenge

This is a clever way of side-stepping the acknowledgment of a problem.

5) Pre-plan

What is wrong with planning? You cannot pre-plan. It is not possible.

6) My door is open on this issue

Never have we heard this used by someone who has their own office. What is wrong with plain old ‘I am happy to speak about this’.

7) At the end of the day

Never have we heard this phrase used in reference to the end of an actual day

8 ) Thinking outside the box

Since when was there a box?

9) Give it 110%

Again it doesn’t make sense. This one is used to let people know that 100% will never be good enough!

10) Out of the loop

Translated, this means I don’t have all the information. Out of what loop, I’m not sure?


Office of the month

Posted on by aleks

This month’s office of the month goes to…. Red Bull. And we’ll tell you for why:

As well as slides and a beautiful roof terrace, employers of Red Bull get to cruise around a fantastically modern office space and play table tennis at lunch! To inspire the creativity needed to work for the brand, and to possibly burn off all that extra energy they have from sampling the energy drink, this office is more like a playground than a place to work.

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How do you get to your meetings? According to the adverts, Red Bull gives you wings – and the employees of Red Bull certainly do fly into their meetings – on slides!

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Here at Serviced Office Company, we offer a home away from home type experience where comfort and inspiration is paramount to our clients, but we thought that the Red Bull offices deserved a mention in our office of the month for going above and beyond creating an exciting and energetic work space!

Staff area: table tennis anyone?
Staff area: table tennis anyone?

Keeping your coffee warm!

Posted on by aleks

One thing that drives us mad is when you make a nice cup of coffee or tea, return to your desk and forget about it. Then about ten minutes later you fancy a hot drink, remember you’ve made one already, then realise its cold! Well, not anymore!

Chow China have released this little office gem.

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I know what our new office gadget is going to be! Say goodbye to cold coffee and tea.

Top tips: Starting a business on a budget

Posted on by aleks

In this economic climate, launching a startup is harder than ever before. But, it is the bold and the brave who succeed in the face of adversity, and if you’re considering setting up your own business, then here are some pointers that can help:

Budget

I know this is obvious, but it really is the most important thing to get right. Whether you are spending a business loan, inheritance or savings – make sure your budget is big enough so that you can commit to your business idea. Quite simply, if you haven’t got enough money, save. Your budget everything – and we mean everything. Budget for every lunch, phone call,, pencil sharpener, and if you have to estimate – over estimate!

Ideally you will have an accountant, but if you don’t then at the very least talk through your budget with one for a one off charge. This is the most important thing a startup has to get right

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Create a strong brand

A brand is not just a logo. You need a vision and a mission statement, and a list of core business values in order of priority. This will depend on your main unique selling points. Are you the best, the most affordable – or are you the most enjoyable to work with? When you have sorted out what your company stands for, ensure that your logo represents these values. Choose company colors and a memorable name. While you are thinking about these things make sure that every decision is relevant to your target market.

Get a decent website

This doesn’t have to cost the earth, but it is worth getting right. Find a web developer who is on the same page as you are. Have a look to ensure that they’ve created the kind of site you would like to have before. If you’re strapped for cash, then write your own copy for the site and take your own pictures, but don’t try and create the site yourself – this will require a professional. Make sure the design is visually appealing to your target demographic and make sure it is straightforward and user friendly.

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Marketing

Luckily for startups, we have this little tool called the internet. The internet makes what was once an impossible dream, possible for entrepreneurs everywhere. You can now market your business yourself. Admittedly as your business grows you will want to pay an agency to do this for you, but as a one/two-man-band, you can do the bare essentials yourself.

Do some research and find out where your market is hanging out on the web. What blogs are they reading? What social networks are they having conversations on? Where do they get their information? There are plenty of free and cheap tools to measure where people are talking about your business on the internet, so it may be useful to start doing this from the very beginning. Then start talking to people, spread the word of your business by creating content and distributing it where your market are looking.

Your office

James Caan started out in a broom cupboard and went on to be a millionaire. Luckily, times have changed and there are other options when looking for office space. Serviced offices are perfect for small startups. With meeting rooms, a secretary and a central location, new clients will not be able to see how big/small/new you are. It is never a good idea to work at home, unless you have a separate office in your garden. Serviced offices can give you that space as well as high spec computers, a nice atmosphere amongst other business people (whom which to share contacts with) and a 9 – 5 office environment.

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We wish all new startups the very best of luck with their business endeavors and we hope that our tips have helped!

A freelancer’s guide to improving the worst chair in the office

Posted on by aleks

Are you fed up with using offices that have shocking chairs and ending up with back ache? Well, Jo Blood at Posture People helped us produce a practical guide to good posture and improving your office chair.

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“In my previous life as an Account Director for a marketing agency, we frequently had freelancers in a variety of roles, but the one aspect that never changed was whenever a freelancer was due in, they were invariably allocated the worst chair in the entire office.

No matter how bad the chair is, it is always worth having a bit of a play around to see if there are any adjustments that you can alter to improve your sitting position to promote good posture.

Here is Posture People’s quick run down of how to improve your office chair:

  1. To be at the right height for sitting at the desk, your arms need to be at a comfortable right angle – so, see if you can alter the office chair to get to the right height.
  2. When your arms are at the right height, your feet also need to be on the floor or a footrest
  3. When you are sitting on the office chair always sit at the very back of the chair, supported by the backrest (unless it’s broken – then it’s worth having a bit of a moan).

Here’s a few if’s and but’s:

  • If you find that the office chair doesn’t come up high enough it’s worth looking at a cushion to sit on or invest in a sitting wedge (an angled cushion that will help promote a better sitting posture).
  • If when you are sitting at the right height your feet aren’t firmly on the floor, then you need a footrest, if they don’t have one in the office grab a couple of telephone directories and ‘blue peter’ yourself one.
  • You always need to be able to get three flat fingers between the back of your knees and the start of the seat.  If the chair comes right up to your knees, you need to put a cushion on the back of the chair or get a separate back support cushion that you can put on the chair.”

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Of course at Serviced Office Company we ensure that all our chairs are comfortable and good for your posture because as a freelancer, if you can’t work because you’ve backache then it will cost you money. However, if you suffer from back pains it may even be worth investing in a portable kit that you can take around with you –   more advice can be found on http://www.posturepeople.co.uk/ .