How often do you wash your towel? Some people wash once a week, while some, once a year. The towel is a fertile breeding ground for millions of microbes, especially those found on human skin and on the gut. No wonder the towel is one of the objects that facilitate fecal-oral contamination (literally connecting the two ends of the gut). Worse still, most people keep towels in the bathroom (near the toilet). Every flush of the toilet sends mist with millions of microbes, ranging from H.pylori, salmonella and other deadly bacteria and viruses. When you wash your hands ready for a meal, and dry them with your body towel, there's high chance you are directly ingesting your fecal matter, or, if in a shared lavatory, someone else's faeces. Unless cleaned well, viruses such as human papillomavirus (causes warts, anal cancer and cervical cancer) can be transmitted when towels are shared with infected individuals. So, what to do? 1. Launder towels once a week. 2. Use hot water and det...
It can be easy to neglect risk planning when you first open your start-up. However, it is very important to attempt to assess the levels of risk involved in your business activities in order for you to try and come up with ways to reduce them. This article will mainly cover general risks involved with business, although your enterprise may have additional specialised risks related to the industry you are in.
Risk management is a process of continuous analysis of your business practices and a lot of communication at all levels of your organisation. You also need to identify potential hazards and a ‘worst case scenario’, and then work on devising contingency plans in case they ever occur. If something goes wrong it can be very reassuring to have a plan to work from to restore the status quo.
Business insurance is an integral part of risk management in order to make sure that you are compensated or protected if something goes wrong. You must first consider what needs to be insured (e.g. equipment / inventory / property / vehicles / employees / liability or business interruption) and decide upon a realistic amount that it is worth. It is then possible to decide what you wish to insure each item against (e.g. fire / theft / accident / everything). Make sure you get multiple quotes and choose the best one.
Things to remember:
*.
Identify Risk – If you are unsure about this, a good place to start is reading through your business plan
*.
Measure Risk – There is computer software that can calculate risk well, in addition to specialised risk consultants
*.
Decide how to Limit Risk – Brainstorm some solutions to the risk issues which are identified
*.
Implement Solutions – Put the solutions in place e.g. install a fire alarm
*.
Monitor Risk – Review the situation at regular intervals
Comments