This post is written by Ben Jenkins and is brought to you by Purecontent, Purecontent is a leading web content production company.

Regulations abound for health and safety at work, and in some occupations there are obvious hazards connected with specific environments. A factory floor or a construction site are two examples where workers often need to deal with heavy machinery and equipment, and where protective clothing or other safety gear has to be worn. In large offices there may be issues around how rooms are laid out and where equipment is placed, and normally a risk assessment or audit will establish key areas where certain precautions need to be taken.

For both large and smaller companies, including those whose workers sometimes work from home, it may be that few people give any thought to health and safety issues when employees are spending most of their time simply working at their computer or at a desk. In fact, employers and employees alike ignore these issues at their peril. It is possible to sustain harmful injuries as a result of long-term deskwork and, as employers can be held liable even when employees work from home, it makes sense to take advantage of health and safety at work training to ensure preventable injuries simply do not happen.

What could go wrong?

The kinds of injuries that are frequently sustained include pain in the hands or arms from repetitive use of a keyboard or mouse; eye strain, headaches or pains in the neck or lower back. This often occurs because the worker has adopted a poor posture, their seating arrangement or screen height is wrong, or when computer use is uninterrupted for a long time. There are some basic tips that help to ensure these injuries are avoided.

Seating

An adjustable chair enables employees to select the right height for their desk or computer. Wrists and forearms should be straight and parallel to the floor, not stretched upwards or bending downwards to reach the keyboard. The chair should support the lower back and supports for the feet may also be needed, so that the hips are level with the knees, and the legs are not crossed, which can affect circulation.

Computer screen and keyboard

Monitors should be at eye level and at arm’s length to avoid eyestrain and prevent computer users from having to bend their necks into uncomfortable positions. Use a stand if necessary to change the height of a screen. Reduce unwanted glare from a screen by changing position or adjusting brightness levels. Keep wrists straight when using a keyboard and use a wrist rest if necessary between typing sessions. The rest might be attached to a mouse mat, and the mouse should be kept close to hand to minimise stretching and strain.

Desk accessories

Keep frequently used items, such as telephone, paper, or pens close by, so they can be reached easily. Do not stretch or twist to retrieve objects, and if a telephone is used a great deal, opt for a headset.

These are a few pointers, but there is no substitute for a good health and safety training course which will provide comprehensive information on staying healthy and avoiding injury, and this is a good investment for employers and employees alike.

It was back in the Summer of 2010 when I had just finished the first year of my BA Hons degree in Media and Communications at Birmingham City University, that I had the idea for my business. As a vegetarian I and had become increasingly concerned by some of the ingredients in many well know High Street beauty products and cosmetics. Animal fats, crushed beetles and pig placenta are common ingredients as well as harsh alcohols. These ingredients are used predominantly because they’re cheap and they’re used as fillers but are clearly not ethical or good for the skin.

Over the summer I started to research halal products as I found their stringent criteria matched my own beliefs. I then found that actually there was a demand for these products not only from the Muslim community but also from vegetarians and vegans. In Islam, ‘halal’ means permissible or what is allowed in the Muslim faith. Where beauty products are concerned animal ingredients, animal testing and haram alcohol is forbidden. Halal certification is a strict process whereby the products are tested and certified halal meaning they comply with Islamic law. I was convinced that there would be a demand for these type of products.

Initially I was going to run the business online and thought that maybe I would be able to combine business and studies. One day whilst shopping, I came across a very small but perfectly usable unit in The Pavilions Shopping Centre in Birmingham. The unit had been empty for many years basically because it was too small for most businesses. I managed to get the unit at a very good price and with the help of friends and family painted it and did it up myself to keep costs as low. I soon realised that I had created something very special and was determined to dedicate all my time and energy into the business in order to give it a chance to grow.

There’s no way I could have combined both the business and studies so I made a choice and put my degree on hold. I believe I made the right decision and I found that I had learnt many useful things on my degree course that were very much transferable to the world of business, so my studies were certainly not a waste of time. At first there were so many new things that I had to get to grips with. Everything seemed so confusing; corporate tax, vat, rent and business rates, importation duties, my head used to spin with it all. As time went on though, I did plenty of research and sought advice from people like business link and my local chamber of commerce and things became a lot clearer. Everything in business is a learning curve and every day presents new challenges and obstacles to overcome. Pure Halal Beauty is a unique concept and the first store of its kind that sells solely halal certified beauty products.

When our store first opened in December 2010, we received a lot press features and articles from around the world from national press, international press, local press, bloggers and we were even on television.

As the months went by I realised that some products although they are halal are not particularly natural with regards to their ingredients. I knew we could improve on the products that were available which is when I decided I wanted to create my own natural, halal collection that was completely ethical and eco-friendly.

In the Autumn of 2011, just before we reached our 1st birthday, we launched The PHB Collection- the worlds’ largest range of natural, halal and vegan beauty products. The collection includes, skincare, body care, hair care, cosmetics and men’s and baby products also. Most of the collection is made by hand in the UK, and our packaging is 100% recyclable.

I am incredibly proud of the PHB collection and we have had some amazing reviews and feedback about the quality and efficacy of the products. We did a lot of research before finding a manufacturer that we were happy with and who could offer us what we needed with regards to the ingredients and ethical stance of the products. I didn’t want to use any chemicals, parabens or petro chemicals which are common ingredients in many beauty products, mainly because they’re cheap. We researched and selected ingredients that are gentle, natural and effective. For example rosewood, gardenia and rosehip have some fabulous anti-aging properties, so we use these in our Elixir of Youth range. Whilst ingredients like grape-seed, rose and aloe-vera are used in our Pure & Natural range for Very Sensitive skin because they’re incredibly kind to skin. Also it is important to me that none of our products or ingredients are ever tested on animals or contain any animal ingredients. The halal certification and vegan society registration serve to add extra assurances to my customers.

Since the release of the PHB collection we’ve been inundated with interest from around the world and had a number of exciting opportunities. We’ve had a lot of enquiries about potential distribution and franchise opportunities in the UK and Internationally – so this is something exciting that we are exploring. We hope to expand our number of store in the future also, as we are constantly getting calls from customers who can’t wait for us to open up shops in London, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford etc. So overall 2012 looks like being a very busy and exciting year for Pure Halal Beauty!

For more information visit: http://www.purehalalbeautyproducts.co.uk/
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Wahanda, a health, beauty and wellness community & marketplace that connects consumers, wellness businesses and professionals through content, community ratings & reviews and commerce.

Basically Wahanda partners with spas, salons and health centres across the world to offer the best deals around and they also have mob deals which follows the Groupon model, where the large number of buyers brings the price right down.

Founded in 2008 by Lopo Champalimaud and Salim Mitha, on Valentines day no less, Wahanda has grown to a point where the site receives over 10 million hits a year and lists 250,000 businesses offering over 5,000 exclusive deals.

“Our vision is to do for health, beauty and wellness what Amazon did for books,”

……………………………………………………………… Lopo Champalimaud

The two young entrepreneurs set up Wahanda because they were frustrated with the lack of online resources to help consumers make informed buying decisions.

Wahanda allows consumer the ability to learn about treatments, read and contribute ratings & reviews, and ultimately transact by booking online with businesses and independent therapists.

Lopo and Salim started Wahanda just before the economic downturn hit, but saw that many people affected didn’t want to give up on luxuries, such as spa days, but couldn’t afford to go anymore as the recession hit. They took advantage of this, and not in a bad way, they are offering great value and service to customers while helping businesses attract more customers, but they were able to make the most of an opportunity during the economic crisis.

In 2008 they secured £1.5 million in seed funding which helped the duo rapidly grow business and just last week they announced that they had secured another round of funding of £3.5million, which will help fuel growth further and also help in expanding overseas as Lopo and Salim look to take their UK startup global.

The two young entrepreneurs sum up the name of the company, Wahanda, which is native American for ‘great spirit and creator.’

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In 2007 a 31 year old Jay Parkinson started Hello Health,  a web-based patient communication, management service and electronic health record. What does that mean? Well it helps bring patients and healthcare providers closer together. Practices which implement the solution can better help patients contact their doctors while also access information better online.

As the world moves more and more toward online based services, it was only a matter of time before the world of healthcare was given a refreshing modernisation.  He started the service at his own practice that he set up in 2007. He knew he had to put it online so the tool could be used by doctors across the US.

It only cost him $1,500 to set up and he hopes now that this will change the face of  a stale industry.

“What I’ve done isn’t rocket science, it’s just business basics applied to an overly complicated industry,” he says.

Jay left Hello Health in 2010 to start his second company. Considering his background as a medical practitioner it is no surprise his second startup is also based in the medical field.

Jays whole ethos is about helping streamline the healthcare industry, an industry well known for being inefficient and notoriously out of date.

The Future Well is a design consultancy focused on improving healthcare services. “So we work with them to come up with a new product or service, reach out to our network to hire the best team we can imagine to build it, and then build it for the client,” Jay explains.

A lot has been said about Jay, he has been called “The Doctor of the Future” and one of the “Top Ten Most Creative People in Healthcare” by Fast Company.

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Ben Atkinson-Willes is a 23 year old young entrepreneur from Kingston University in South West London where he is studying for a product and furniture design degree. The young entrepreneur was inspired by his ill grandfather for his venture Active-Minds. The company sells activity products for dementia patients.

The current products, which started as a part of his coursework, include jigsaw puzzles and a unique and reusable painting activity, both specially developed for people with Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

“It’s important to keep people with Alzheimer’s as physically and mentally active for as long as possible, because it gives them a better quality of life in the long run,” Ben explained. “One thing my granddad loves doing is puzzles, but the products with fewer pieces were generally designed for very young children. I wanted to create something that would suit his need and respect his age.”

Ben founded the company while in his second year at Kingston University after securing £5,000 funding from the University’s Entrepreneurial Grant Scheme, which enabled him to get the product designs and website created.

Ben has since gone on to win Pitch 2010, where he pitched his product to judges much like you would in Dragons Den. He won the top prize after coming through the south west heats and beating 6 other finalists to claim £50,000 of funding and support for his business.

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Like many successful businessmen, Kentaro Iemoto from Japan has come up against many obstacles in his journey to creating one of the biggest Internet host providers in Asia, however it was his unbelievable resilience in the face of adversity that makes his story so special.

When Kentaro was 11 years old he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, which resigned him to his bed for the majority of his teenage years. Things went from bad to worse when he was 15 years old, when he underwent surgery in 1996 and a medical mistake left him paralysed from the waist down.

I think you’d agree that his road to recovery and entrepreneurial greatness is all the more remarkable given this dreadful turn of events.

During Kentaro’s long spell in hospitals he read the business sections of newspapers and became increasingly drawn to the world of opportunities that the Internet offers a disabled person, “Living in a wheelchair, I realised how difficult and inconvenient it is to communicate with others. I want to utilise the internet to create a society where disabled people can get information just as easily as able-bodied persons”. With this in mind Kentaro founded a rental server company called Clara Online with just $9,000 in start-up capital.

However, it was a truly miraculous turn of events that effectively starved off the threat of bankruptcy in 2001, when he began to regain movement in his feet and legs.

This provided to be the spark of life that reinvigorated his failing business and by 24 he was no longer disabled and was managing six data centres in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Seoul from his central offices in Japan and Taiwan.

To this day he is pushing Clara online to become Asia’s largest service provider and who would bet against him doing so when taking into account all the other challenges that life has thrown at him.

Written by Henry Colburn

Wheelie bins or home bins now have the chance to smell good, Such an impossible concept has been proven possible by Mr Woolman.

Mr Daniel Woolman has had more than five years in the consumer and hygiene product development department, along with three years in licensing technology, royalty structures and joint ventures in various consumer hygiene products.

Eight years of staunch knowledge has assisted him in creating such an idea that is liked by many.

Mr Woolman is an history graduate from University of Leeds, his years at university instigated Binifresh existence, “each night, people would dread going near the wheelie bins or putting their waste in the wheelie bin due to its intense smell he said”.

Mr Woolman is now the CEO and founder of Binifresh, a company he started in January 2007.

Binifresh organization creates automatic control devices that fit inside wheelie or personal home bins.

Binifresh devices automatically neutralize and eliminate odours from rubbish, as well as killing bacteria on the surface of the bin, using the specially formulated Binifresh refills.

He has sold more than 10,000 units since 2007 within such stores as ASDA, Lakeland and Home base.

Dreams of being within major shops like Tesco have been achieved via maintaining patient and determination.

Binifresh Future looks bright…

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