Top 10 Mistakes Business Owners Make With Their Technology and IT Decisions
Technology. Love it or hate it, it’s a necessary part of business today. Some business owners feel investing in technology is a waste of funds. Others think technology works well for other business owners, but can’t make it work for them. Here’s a list of the top 10 mistakes business owners make that leads to the cost of inefficient IT adding up. Read it and avoid the same pitfalls.1. Is IT a part of your strategic business plan? If not, why not?If not, your company will be unnecessarily challenged in meeting strategic goals.Technology is complicated, confusing and intimidating, but also closely tied to the success of an ever increasing number of businesses in today’s marketplace. All you need is a good IT Advisor to work with you, make recommendations based on your goals, and deploy those recommendations on time and on budget. Don’t think it’s important? Well let’s review that for a moment.
Your client info is stored on computers
Your sales efforts, leads etc are stored on computers and require advanced software to track.
Your employees work on computers, and are more efficient with file and printer servers installed as part of the network.
Your communications rely on email, antivirus software, cell phones and SmartPhones and syncing them all back to office computers and so on.
All your data needs to be protected, backed up and available for recovery should disaster strike.
If you haven’t thought about just how important a regular IT audit & review is for your company, you’re leaving too much up to chance. IT is an integral part of your business. Give it the appropriate focus, budget and consideration and see how it can add value to the overall strategic plan.2. Does your technology match your business plan or did you try to make your business plan fit with whatever technology you had?If your growth strategy requires a team of independently operating sales reps, make sure your IT supports that in the most cost and time efficient way possible. If your work flow is more of a process that must go from person A to person B to person C, then your IT design should match your work flow. If it doesn’t, it’s costing you time and money.Don’t make the mistake of making your business strategy fit into your existing IT set up. That could be a devastating move for your business. With the help of a trusted IT Advisor, you can find and implement solutions that support your business needs, add value to your company and simplify daily operations for your entire team.3. Is Your Technology Secure?
Your threats might include:
A virus
A network wide virus
A fire
The failure of your single back up drive
Employee theft of data
And just plain ol’ we hack for the fun of it hackers Your technology should be secure. Many businesses under invest in this area and too many come to regret it. One unfortunate incident can prove to severely outweigh the cost of investing in appropriate security.4. Are You Under Utilizing Technology In Your Business?Have you purchased the right amount of technology or power for your needs? Are your processors slowing down your team? Is your server scalable? Do you continue to invest in an antiquated model when the cost/benefit ratio for a new system makes fiscal sense. Technology is an investment and can give your company a considerable competitive edge. Don’t overspend on unnecessary technology just because you are enamoured with “toys” – yes, this is the case with some rare folks. But do strike the correct balance that will give your business the IT power it needs to excel forward.5. You bought what? How are you planning on using that technology?You might be surprised to learn that there are cases of business owners purchasing technology and then never using it. It usually results from an impulse buy or a “sale” purchase. If your technology purchase was not part of strategic business plan, it may not fit in. If your technology purchase was the result of a sale, it may be the wrong technology. Even if it is the right piece of equipment or software, simply purchasing it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have thought enough about how to:
Make it work with what you’ve already got
How to properly install and configure it
How to train your team on using it properly/to full potential
Porting your data over to it…and so on.
Don’t be frivolous with IT purchases. Work with your IT Consultant to make planned purchases and implementations.6. Don’t Get “Sold”If you go out shopping for IT, or give most IT “departments” a budget, I assure you they will find something to spend it on. It may not be what your business needs, but they already have a “new”, “exciting” or “cutting edge” solution that they have been drooling over and dying to work with. Is it what best suits your needs? Maybe. Maybe not. Will it be the simplest most effective solution for your needs, and easy enough for all you employees to use? Are you sure about that?It comes down to this: You don’t want business processes to fit in to your technology. You want the right technology to support your business processes in the most efficient way possible. An independent IT Consultant who won’t gain financially from a purchase recommendation is a wise choice here. Such an IT Advisor won’t “sell” you anything, but will help you navigate your options and purchase the IT you need.7. Failing To OutsourceThere comes a time in every new business when the cost benefit of managing your IT yourself diminishes to the point of no return. At that time, outsourcing might just be the sensible option. In mid size companies, outsourcing or having an IT firm on call as needed helps balance costs and necessary IT support. In a large company, outsourcing can significantly reduce the IT budget with Service Level Agreements.Service Level Agreements are suitable for many companies, giving them a fixed cost for enough IT service to efficiently run their business. The best part is that Service Level Agreements cost a fraction of a full time IT employee. Be sure to explore this option thoroughly. Unless technology is your core service or product, your needs may best be served by an independent IT firm and a good Service Level Agreement.8. Failing To Plan for the WorstDisaster recovery is a term often used for cleaning up after a hurricane, tsunami or data loss. Albeit in different ways, all incidences are considered a disaster for those involved.But data loss doesn’t just happen when a drive fails or becomes corrupted. Paper fades or goes up in a fire. Devices are stolen. Data Protection solutions help reduce such losses. Overall, a well thought out back up and recovery plan can be simple to implement and low cost to run. Not having a data backup and recovery plan is just too high of a risk. In some instances, it could mean the death of a business.9. What’s Your IT Policy? How Many Hours Do You Want Employees On Facebook?Endless of hours are wasted each day by employees who are the clock, but doing anything but business related work. Web surfing, IM, chatting, social media, online dating and personal email pervades the business landscape. You don’t have to be austere and cut it out completely, but you can monitor it, curb it and significantly reduce those lost productivity hours.How about your company green policy and the environment? Is it important to you? Have you communicated that to your employees? Do they know not to print documents unless essential, to refill cartridges if possible, to recycle old electronics in appropriate ways?Make it policy and it will stick. Whether it’s reducing wasted hours on social media or dating sites, or saving paper, your trusted IT Advisor can help you better manage your resources by implementing the right technology and policy.10. Grow With It. Scale It. Upgrade. Keep Your Technology Up-To-Date.Technology evolves faster and faster. Don’t buy in to the one sided view of “IT is a never ending cost with no return”. Rather, accept and plan for technology that will suit your purposes today but will also grow with you in future. Accept that upgrades are as essential as ongoing product development, sales training and team building. Avoid delaying upgrades until all your technology is obsolete and unsupported by your industry ( or the software industry), leaving you with an enormous upgrade bill due all at once.Of course on the flip side of that token, don’t be the company buying up technology aimlessly. Your IT purchases should always be planned out and support your business model.
Why You Must Learn SEO
Every website owner wants his website to climb to the top of the search engine results pages – and stay there. But climbing to the top and staying there takes a whole lot of doing, and there is only one way that can take you there – and that’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you want to become a SEO professional then you must first learn SEO.SEO is the biggest thing happening in the market right now because there are millions of websites, and each website owner desperately wants his website to be found in the top results of mainline search engines like Google, Bing, and yahoo. Every website owner has 100s of competitors breathing down his neck in the physical world – the situation gets worse in the online world because competitors keep recruiting affiliates leading to 1000s of competitors for any product.SEO helps cut through the noise and make the website stand out. This is why learning SEO can ensure either a steady, well-paying job or a flourishing business, depending on your inclination. Even if you are a website owner, you must learn SEO because it will help you understand the market better.Reasons why you must learn SEO1. SEO is indispensable. No website can do without it. Without SEO, a website will perish, it’s as simple as that. The number of websites will continue to increase, and it makes sense to learn SEO because it is part of an industry that’s booming.2. An SEO course gives the student a 360-degree view on Internet marketing. The student learns what can impact a website and how, and this knowledge helps the student brainstorm niche and creative Internet marketing strategies.3. SEO can help website owners score way high over their competitors. SEO is a very creative area where words and codes combine to make a website popular. A SEO student, therefore, also gets to learn how websites are made and how their code can be optimized.4. SEO is dynamic. Its tactics keep changing over time. A SEO professional has a lot to look forward to in the subject. It is also important that the student always keeps himself up to date with what’s happening in the SEO world.5. SEO students learn how to create a technically-perfect website that can be easily found by search engines. This is invaluable knowledge.6. When SEO professionals increase a website’s visibility, their name spreads across the industry. People tag them as experts in the field and they get assignments falling into their lap without any effort.7. SEO students also learn about the good and evil SEO practices. They understand how black hat SEO techniques can harm a website. Moreover, performing legitimate SEO techniques in an ethical manner helps a website build up its credibility.These are the reasons why website owners and aspiring SEO practitioners must learn SEO. Students must also realize that SEO is a complex and long process covering a large field of practice. It just cannot produce overnight results. SEO takes time for its magic to work – but one thing’s certain, it works, and how!
Drone Insurance and What Every Drone Owner Needs to Know
Insurance is the financial responsibility that is taken by a firm or person in case you damage someone’s property or cause harm in any way to another person. Insurance is important to own before you drive any manned vehicle and the same is true for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Insurance is a key aspect of risk management and can help your business get through legal complications resulting from unforeseen accidents caused by your drone.The owners as well as the manufacturers and operators of drones are finally showing interest in learning about drone insurance. Drones are still in a developmental phase and there aren’t any specific rules and regulations governing their use. Therefore, there are a number of questions in the minds of the people regarding the insurance policies of these aerial vehicles. People want to know how the drone insurance is going to work. The following is a compilation of all the aspects that need to be kept in mind when it comes to drone insurance.Is Drone Insurance Really Necessary It is true that right now there are no implications for not having drone insurance. You can fly your drone even if it hasn’t been insured. However, it is becoming increasingly necessary to buy insurance for these aerial vehicles as they can cause some serious damage if they go out of control and cause an accident. Moreover, as the use of these drones increases, the authorities would most definitely make it compulsory for the drone owners to buy insurance before they can start flying them. Therefore, it is a good idea to buy drone insurance today so that you don’t have to worry about it at a later stage.Criteria for Setting Premiums The cost of drone insurance mainly depends on the level of danger that may be involved with the operation of the drone. Mostly, the choice of platform, the operator’s experience and the use of the drone is taken into consideration for estimating the coverage that the insurance company will provide you. If there is a higher possibility of an accident happening, the cost of insurance may go up. On the other hand, if the operator is an experienced one and the chances of a collision occurring are less, the premium amount might not be that high. So, when looking for a good drone insurance plan make sure that the drone you have is a safe one and is being piloted by an experienced professional.Insurance CoverageEvery drone insurance plan is different. The coverage that is provided by the drone insurance will largely depend on the policy that you are buying and the company providing it. The areas that are covered by drone insurance plans are different for the owner and the manufacturer. For instance, most insurance plans for drones provide coverage to the owners for the legal liability and the physical damage caused by their drone either to a person or a property. This insurance will cover you for the following aspects:· Personal injury: If your drone invades the personal space of your neighbor or some other person and ends up injuring them.· Non- owned: If you happen to crash someone else’s drone that is not owned by you.· Medical expenses: If your drone collides with a person, causing him/her injuries which require medical treatment.· Premises liability: If your drone enters the premises of a person who does not like your drone invading his privacy.· Damage to the UAS: Any damage sustained by the UAS during its flight either because of inclement weather condition or collision with an aerial object.Factors to Consider When Choosing a Drone Insurance ProviderDrone insurance is a very important issue and thus it is vital that you choose your drone insurance provider very carefully. There are a number of insurance providers available in the market offering various plans for insuring your drone. However, not all of them are good. Some of the companies are only in this business to make money and don’t really care about their customers. If you want to find the best drone insurance provider then you will have to take into account the following factors:
Reputation
The reputation of the drone insurance provider is of critical importance. You should only choose that insurance provider that has a good reputation among the people. The easiest way of finding out about the reputation of a drone insurance service is to have a look at the testimonials posted on its website. If the testimonials are generally positive then the company is a reputable one.
Reliability
Reliability is also an important factor that should not be overlooked when it comes to choosing a drone insurance provider. Make sure that the company you are buying the insurance policy from is reliable and can be trusted with if you get into trouble with your drone.
No Hidden Cost
All the best drone insurance providers have a very clear and transparent price structure. They do not have hidden costs which are revealed when you need the insurance to cover you. To avoid such an instance, go through the terms and condition of the insurance provider with the help of an insurance lawyer to be sure that there aren’t any hidden costs mentioned in there.
Customer Support
Customer support is also an important aspect that should be given due importance if you want to find the best drone insurance provider. You should make sure that the insurance company you are dealing with has a responsive customer support staff that answers all your questions promptly.In a nut shell, drone insurance is very important and it would be wise for you to buy it if you plan on using these aerial vehicles for personal or commercial use. However, choose only a reliable and reputable insurance provider to get your drone insured.
Get a Number One Google Ranking With This Simple Technique
You probably do this already – complete regular searches in Google for your key phrases and see how high you rank. It’s well known that the first three results are far and away the sites that get the most clicks. If you can get one of the top three results in your key terms then you will have more targeted visitors coming to your site. If you can get the first result, well that is even better. Of course all your competitors want to do the same.One of the great things about Google is that is updates quite frequently. That little GoogleBot is busy 24/7 indexing the web to make sure everyone gets the best answers to their search questions. I’ve recently been playing with a technique that I thought might be worth testing and because Google has updated so quickly I’ve been able to get a result within a few weeks, and I got the perfect result – a number one ranking for one of the key phrases I was after. In fact this technique worked so well that I got the number one result for a related search phrase too!A Quick and Easy Google SEO TrickThe technique I used was to place an ad in a particularly highly ranked classified site. In this case it was the famous site Craigslist.org for London (http://london.craigslist.org/). This site is the original free classifieds trading community that has become a world wide phenomenon driven by word of mouth. But that’s not important. What is important is that Craigslist is very popular and has a high PageRank, and most importantly you can place a free ad on the site anytime you want to. There are restrictions and limitations but it is easy to do, there is no reason you shouldn’t make an ad or two. It’s free promotion for your business that may happen to also help with your placement in Google SERPs.Key Term: SERP – Short for Search Engine Results Page, the Web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search. The major search engines typically display three kinds of listings on their SERPs. Listings that have been indexed by the search engine’s spider, listings that have been indexed into the search engine’s directory by a human, and listings that are paid to be listed by the search engine. A Practical TestFor testing I was after the search phrase “Thesis Proofreader” for my business site’s thesis proofreading service. I entered the term into Google and noticed that a Craigslist entry was receiving a high result, but the subject and keywords were not highly targeted. However they were good enough to get a third page result in Google for that term. I went in and created a very simple ad in Craigslist that directly targeted my keywords and a week or two later I had the number one result for that term in the Google global SERP. Also because I had used the term “Essay” in the subject of the ad I managed to secure the first page result for “Essay Proofreader” as well. Not bad 
.A Bit Hit and MissI was surprised that it worked as well as it did but I know better than to expect that good a result every time. One important consideration in my test is that there just isn’t much competition for my search phrase; hence it was easy to get the top result. If your market is more competitive your result likely won’t be as good. Craigslist deletes ads in 45 days so it’s not a permanent result either, you will need to keep going back to recreate your ad if you want to keep the result.You should be sure to check the current results in Google to see if any free listing sites like Craigslist are pulling up high results for your terms. If you have some advertising cash to spend, see if any pay-for-entry directories or classifieds are pulling high results too. If there are then there is a good chance that if you create a well targeted ad you will have positive results.It’s important to do search research first so you know which city listings in Craigslist are pulling the high results. Ideally for an online business that can service the world you would have a Craigslist listing for every city, but that just may not be feasible and may break the Craigslist rules anyway. With search research you determine which city is pulling the best results for your terms, which could be caused by a whole number of reasons – backlinks to that particular Craigslist city, key terms – the amount of variables to consider are beyond human comprehension, let Google handle that and just take the results on face value.Take the time to locate the best city based on current search results and place your entry in that city at the very least. If your business is specifically targeted at a geographical area then it is a good idea to do a comprehensive ad in your Craigslist city (if available) as well, it certainly won’t hurt.It’s also important to note that there is nothing stopping competitors doing the same thing as you. The SEO war may spread into Craigslist and muddy the site, which would no doubt prompt a clampdown on commercial listings in Craigslist. Perhaps this technique is best for those operating in small or unique industries since it is unlikely that competitive action will ruin it for everyone.Also note that Google itself is a completely uncontrollable variable in this equation. Google may decide that it will no longer count Craigslist entries. Maybe it will decide to only index for certain terms. Just accept that you can’t control what Google decides to do, but you can test to see what results you can get. Not trying guarantees no results.It’s Too Easy Not to TestThere is no good reason not to use this technique. Classified sites want listings, it’s what they do. You may or may not achieve better search engine results but at the least there is a chance that a browser may stumble across your ad and come shopping at your business. It takes very little time and usually is free so get out there and start creating those free ads. Just remember to use the right keywords and don’t go overboard, you don’t want all your incoming links to come from free directories because in the long run Google may penalise your results.
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.
Complete weight loss strategy
For those who want to lose weight
Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.
So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.
I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.
A few key myths about losing weight
The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more
The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.
Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.
Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements
At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.
The key to understanding how to lose weight
You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!
You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.
Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf
In the middle of this picture is the heat balance
So we can know that calorie balance is very important
But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites
If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).
When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.
However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.
Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.
When losing weight, the body is like a factory
For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.
Think of the body as a factory
-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations
-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are
-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel
If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.
Hormones vs Weight Loss
This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.
There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.
This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290
Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.
We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.
To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.
If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.
With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?
When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals
When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.
I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight
But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.
For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.
Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79
The study concluded:
-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful
-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.
But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable
Lose weight with a high-carb diet.
So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!
The Negative Impact of E-Levy on Mobile Banking.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Mobile Banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.
Electronic Transaction Levy or “E-Levy” is a tax applied on transactions made on electronic or digital platforms.
ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE BANKING
Mobile banking offers numerous benefits such as ease of transaction, convenience, time-saving, managing your finances, and budgeting. Some advantages of Mobile Banking in remote areas include:
Financial Inclusion — mobile banking offers convenient and easy banking services to people in remote areas. Thus, it allows banking on the go and offers all benefits of a banking system to rural areas without the presence of a financial institution.
Accessing the bank 24/7 — Mobile banking provides ubiquitous banking services without the need to visit the bank to have access to services. This offers time to benefit and ease of transacting at a distance.
Cost-benefit — Mobile banking saves the banks the cost of building physical infrastructures (branches) and maintaining branches and staff. Also, reduced costs on the customer side since the burden of visiting the bank for services is eliminated.
Improving resilience in the face of poverty — Mobile money acts as both a savings vehicle and a means of transferring funds during times of economic or environmental shocks.
Strengthening the formal economy — For many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), opening a mobile money account can facilitate access to formal financial services. Mobile money is well placed to address the issue of informality that blights many developing economies and hampers domestic resource mobilization efforts. Mobile Money enables ease of transacting, thus increasing business profits for MSMEs.
Facilitating economic growth — Mobile money has been shown to contribute to economic growth by increasing both productivity and per capita incomes
DISADVANTAGES OF E-LEVY ON MOBILE BANKING
The design of mobile money taxation policy appears to be the antithesis of a well-designed tax system. The disadvantages include:
Inequity — Mobile money taxes as currently structured to create inequity in the tax system. As the tax is mostly borne by the poor and users of the services are subject to additional taxation (unlike bank or cash transactions), the principles of both horizontal and vertical equity in the tax system are contravened.
Uncertainty -. Uncertainty and lack of transparency over taxation systems can have a direct impact on the operations of the tax authority, increasing enforcement costs, as well as discouraging investment.
Inconvenience — The administration of mobile money transaction taxes creates an inconvenience for MMPs who must calculate and collect the tax on the revenue authority’s behalf. There is an additional inconvenience for users of the service for whom remote digital transactions become more expensive or out of reach if they revert back to cash.
Inefficiency — Badly designed mobile money taxes have been shown to have a distortionary impact on demand for mobile money services. This in turn has had negative impacts on overall tax takes, as well as impacting the attainment of national economic and development goals.
EFFECT OF MOBILE BANKING — CASE STUDIES
The decision to impose taxes on mobile bank transactions will trigger so many problems.
Ghana — According to The Fourth Estate Ghana; Although the government projects a 24% decline in transactions when the levy is finally implemented, preliminary findings published by the bank of Ghana indicate the value of mobile money transactions had dropped by 3.2 billion in December 2021, less than 2 months after the proposal to introduce E-levy.
Uganda — An e-levy of 1% introduced in 2018 has led to an overall drop in the person-to-person transaction by more than 50%, and a 24% drop in industry transactions within the same year the tax was introduced according to a report by Global system for mobile communication (GSMA).
Congo — An e-levy of 1% was introduced in 2019. The government had to reverse the tax on cash outs only due to negative results of the levy on Mobile money users such as a decline in mobile money agents (unemployment) and high-value withdrawals by people.
Other countries include Benin (5%) and Cameroun (0.2%). In all these countries, the e-levy has imposed a negative effect on the economy and people. If we want to ensure the financial inclusion of people in rural areas, we need to ensure that we encourage mobile banking by withdrawing the e-levy tax.
Reference:
https://thefourthestategh.com/2022/03/16/e-levy-this-is-what-happened-when-other-african-countries-passed-it/
Purohit, S., & Arora, R. (2021). The benefits and challenges of mobile banking at the Bottom of the pyramid. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol, 27(1).
Charles G. Kpan, Jr. is an Information Technologist with over 5 years of experience in the provision of Information Technology Services and an emphasis on Web Development and Visual Branding. He’s the managing Director of CYGEC IT SOLUTIONS INC. and holds a bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Blue Crest University, Liberia.