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Archive for March, 2010

Many people enjoy exercising and keeping fit, but are reluctant to go to the gym because of the expense and the unpleasantness of exercising in a crowded room full of other sweaty people. For this reason home gyms are becoming increasingly popular, especially as people realise you don’t need a huge amount of space or money to exercise at home.

However, you’re not going to be very motivated to use your home gym if it’s cramped, dark, dingy or otherwise unwelcoming. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to make your home gym into a place you actually want to go to if you follow these easy home gym decorating ideas.

1. Arrange your exercise equipment well

Firstly, no matter how small or large your home gym room, it’s important to arrange your equipment well in order to make the most of the space that you have. Exercising in a cluttered environment is no fun, so make sure that any tall or bulky machines are placed by the wall, and keep the centre of the room for smaller items and space in which to move freely.

If you’re just planning your home gym, it can be useful to make a floor plan in advance if you know which equipment you’ll be buying, and then you can plan the rest of your decorating around this.

2. Choose the right colour scheme

Secondly, it’s worth spending some time thinking about the best types of colours to use on the walls. There’s no right or wrong here; just be aware of your individual reactions to various colours, and realise that the colour of your walls will have a strong influence on how you experience your gym.

3. Wall decorations

Once you’ve got your walls painted the right colours for you, don’t just leave them blank. It can be a good idea to make use of your wall space and decorate them with images that make the room more appealing. You might also consider some motivational posters or fitness-related images, especially if you find it challenging to maintain your exercise routine.

4. Make use of a mirror

While having an entire wall covered with floor to ceiling mirrors like commercial gyms do might not be a practical option, it’s worth adding at least one full length mirror when decorating your home gym. If you’re just starting to get into shape, it’ll be motivating to see your body firm up. And even if you’re already very fit, being able to watch yourself in the mirror as you exercise is useful for ensuring that you’re maintaining the correct form, especially if you’re using weights.

5. Add some entertainment

A stereo or MP3 dock, and a TV or screen with a DVD player can also be invaluable additions to any home gym. Most people find that music helps them to enjoy their workout more, and while it’s easy to use headphones, filling a room of music can be more pleasant and will give your ears a rest too.

The DVD player is also an essential if you like to do workout videos, and even if you don’t you should consider them as they can be a great way to add variety to your exercise routine.

6. Get the right lighting

Another thing to think about when it comes to home gym decor is the lighting. If you’re room is dim and dingy, you probably won’t want to spend much time there, so make sure it’s brightly lit.

7. Keep it smelling nice

A well decorated room will please all the senses, so don’t forget about your nose. As well as just opening the window, you could try burning some aromatherapy oils or incense sticks – these can be especially nice if you’re doing a lot of yoga or stretching exercises, as they really helped to create an appropriate atmosphere.

You might also want to keep some plants in your home gym – as well is looking nice, they can help to purify the air.

Hopefully this article has given you some ideas for decorating your home gym and making it into a space that you actually want to spend more time in. No matter how much or little money you have to spend, it’s possible to create an environment that is appealing enough that you’ll no longer have any excuses not to exercise!

If you’re in the market for a new dining room table there are many to choose from. They come in all design styles form modern to traditional. If your home is one where guests regularly drop by for dinner, you may want to buy a table that has one or more extenders. They automatically enlarge your dining space without having to add an additional table to accommodate guests.

Usually people have a set amount of people who will be eating at the dining table on a daily basis. This is typical since most people buy their tables with that in mind.

The dining room space that is not being used when the extenders are stored can be left open.

Dining tables with extenders have been around for years. The design concept of the extender table is pretty simple. A small, six foot table can easily be converted to an 8 or 10 seat table by just pulling apart the two ends of the table. The space in the middle is where you place one or more extenders.

Extender tables are easy to find. They come in a wide variety of sizes from two seat cafe tables to six feet dining tables. All kinds of tables can be converted, such as round, square, and rectangle. When you go shopping for tables you will find that extender tables are most commonly made from wood, although glass extenders are available.

A vital number that every business owner and finance director should know is their monthly Break-Even. This is the point where the business generates sufficient profit from sales to exactly cover its fixed overhead costs. Higher sales and the business will make a profit; lower sales and there will be a loss.

Fixed overheads, as the name suggests, are the costs that tend not to vary in line with turnover. These include administrative staff salaries, property costs, insurances, stationery, equipment rental, motor expenses, depreciation, bank charges etc. To work out your profit Break-Even sales point, you only need two pieces of financial information:

1) Total fixed overhead costs
2) The gross profit percentage (GP% or gross margin)

The gross profit percentage is calculated from the average profit that a business makes on each sale. So if you sell a product or service for £250 and your variable costs are £175, then the gross profit is £75 and the GP% 30%. If you made ten sales, the gross profit would be 10 x £75 = £750 but the GP% would still be 30%.

Now let’s assume that total fixed overhead costs each month average £25,000. To calculate the sales required to Break-Even, divide the overhead costs by the GP%. £25,000 divided by 30% = £83,333.You now know that the business has to generate at least £83,333 of sales each month to avoid making a loss.

Note that the Break-Even point is not set in stone. It is a financial information tool for the business owner to use and react to. If the business is struggling to consistently generate more than the £83,333 sales needed to generate a profit, then the business owner aware of Break-Even knows that he is losing money and can immediately take remedial action.

The quickest way to reduce Break-Even is to reduce costs. If you could reduce fixed costs from £25,000 to £20,000 per month, Break-Even sales would fall from £83,333 to £66,666, a significant difference.

If the GP% could be increased from 30% to 33%, then Break-Even on fixed costs of £25,000 would be £71,428.

Combining both strategies ie cutting fixed financial overheads to £20,000 and increasing the GP% to 33% would result in a new Break-Even sales of £60,606.

What we have discussed above is PROFIT Break-Even. A variation of this, one which most business directors do not understand or appreciate, is CASH Break-Even. This can literally make the difference between business success or failure.

Break-Even recognises that fixed overhead costs include non cash items such as depreciation. The lorry has normally has a working life of 10 years so is depreciated in the profit and loss account at £10,000 per year. The haulier can’t afford to buy the lorry outright and enters into a finance agreement to pay for the lorry over 4 years.

Ignoring the impact of interest on the loan, cash repayments against the finance agreement are £25,000 per year. In this situation cash outlays of £25,000 exceed the depreciation overhead by £15,000. Based on a GP% of 30%, this means that sales have to be £50,000 per year higher to achieve CASH Break-Even than PROFIT Break-Even. To conclude, calculating the PROFIT and CASH Break-Even sales points for your business is vital for helping manage cash flow. Making Break-Even as low as possible achieves two great outcomes. It maximises the opportunity to make profit/generate cash and, just as importantly in harder economic time, it considerably reduces the risk of business failure.

If you’re a business director and you don’t know what your Break-Even sales point is, find out now.