12 Things to Do Before You Close Your Shop or Business for Christmas

You have heard of the 12 days of Christmas, but have you done these 12 things in preparation for closing your shop or business for the holidays? Many businesses close their doors for at least a few days to let their employees spend time with their families and because business can be slow on holidays.

If you take some steps before you close up shop, you can be sure your business is safe and sound while you are away and that it will be ready to take on the new year when you return to open it again.

Inform Your Customers and Post Holiday Hours

There is nothing worse than showing up to a store or business and finding out it has changed its hours. Don’t let your customers down this Christmas. If you work in a shop or have a business were clients frequently stop by, inform your customers through email, mailers or social media of your holiday hours. It’s also a good idea to post holiday hours on your shop door.

Turn off Water Supplies

When it's so cold outside, your pipes are at risk of freezing, which can cause them to burst. Burst pipes can also be the result of other plumbing problems, and flooding can lead to a lot of expensive damage. Avoid this hassle and expense by turning off the water supply if you have access to it.

Prepare Security Systems

Your shop or business should have some security systems, like surveillance cameras, motion-activated lights and door and window alarms installed. Make sure those are working properly and will be activated when you leave. If you don’t have any security measures in place, now is a good time to install some.

Set the Thermostat

Since no one will be in your office or store while it is closed, it is okay to turn your thermostat down, but do not turn it completely off. If your furnace is turned off, the water in your pipes or appliances could freeze, causing a lot of damage. Cold air can also damage things like flooring, appliances and electronics.

Store Valuables in a Safe

Things like cash drawers, valuable equipment and important documents should be stored in a safe while you are away. The hope is that no one will break into your business, especially with your security systems in place, but just in case, it is wise to have these things protected.

A safe will also keep things secure in case of a flood, fire or other emergency. Make sure your safe is fire resistant and waterproof, and in the rare case that something happens to your business, you can rest assured that important paperwork and expensive equipment isn't damaged.

Turn on Outside Lights

Leave some lights, like a porch light or landscaping lights on while you are gone. If your business has a system that turns these lights on and off, make sure that system is working. Keeping the lights on will deter burglars and keep your business safer.

Set Timers for Inside Lights

It’s also a good idea to set a timer for lights inside your business, so it isn’t completely dark and doesn’t look empty, making it a target for burglary. If your building doesn’t already have a system installed, you can buy very affordable timers at a hardware store that will allow you to set at least some lights to turn on and off while you are away.

Shut Down Computers and other Electronic Equipment

Computers, printers, copy machines and other electronic equipment should be shut down completely before you leave for the holidays. These things can overheat if they are left on, and turning them off is a good way to decrease your utility bill. Of course, the exception to this rule is any equipment, like lights, timers, and security systems, that need to be left on to keep your business safe.

Do a Deep Clean

Doing a deep clean before you leave the office means it will be ready to start work with you when you return. When you get back, you’ll already be dealing with a lot of things, like emails, phone messages, and catch-up work, and you won’t want to deal with cleaning your office.

Right now is the opportune time to use a floor scrubber on the floors, clean out the refrigerator, take
out the garbage and dust shelves and storage areas.


To hire a floor scrubber, please head to our website: www.hss.com/c/1014427/Floor-Scrubbers.html.

Face the Shelves and Straighten Client Areas

If you face your shop’s shelves and straighten client areas before you leave on vacation, your business will be ready to accept guests immediately upon opening again. Straighten products and inventory, organise magazines and reception areas and prepare your office for clients before you shut things down for Christmas.

Have the Post Office Hold Your Mail

If you receive mail at your business, ask the post office to hold your mail. This is safe because it will prevent people from being able to steal important documents from your mailbox and it won’t make your store look empty and like a good target for burglary or vandalism. This holds true for newspapers too. Pause the delivery of anything you normally receive at your store before you leave.

Set up Email Vacation Responders

Before you leave, set up email vacation responders so that people won’t expect an immediate response while you are away. This is ideal if you aren’t planning on checking your email while on vacation, but even if you are, it’s still a good idea. With a vacation responder in place, you will probably get less email to catch up on when you come back and you won’t feel pressure to respond right away, since you contacts will know you are on vacation.

Preparing to close your shop or business for Christmas does take some work, but when these things are in place you will be confident that your business is safe over the holiday season and that it will be ready to take on work as usual when you return.

Which Lighting Solution Better Suits Your Needs?

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Whether you are working at night or just in a dark area, having appropriate lighting is important to keeping you safe and getting the job done right. There are several different lighting options available for hire by HSS and choosing the right one can feel like a daunting task.

While it’s true that light is light, different tools have different features, which lend themselves better to some situations than to others. But, regardless of the situation you are working in, there is a lighting solution that will help you stay safe and get the project done efficiently.

Here are some common work situations and the best lighting options for each.

An Industrial Environment

If you are working in an industrial environment, you need powerful lighting that can effectively cover large areas. A halogen light with a short stand that can be angled in any direction is a good fit for industrial work. This type of light is also very mobile, so you can move it to different areas of your work site.

Halogen lights with tall stands that can be adjusted for height are perfect for industrial areas. These lights are very powerful and light up large areas, so you won’t need as many sources of light to cover one space.

You can also hire festoon lights, that can be strung on fences or trees and work well in industrial environments. They usually come in long strands so you can cover a large distance with them and they emit a bright light, lighting up an entire area or perimeter.

In a Warehouse

Lights that work well for an industrial environment will also work for a warehouse. But, there are a few more options you may also want to consider. Magnetic site lights that can be attached to metal rods, poles and shelves can help you light up aisles and assembly and loading areas.

Halogen lights on both short and tall stands are also ideal for warehouses, since they can be set up in any configuration to meet your needs and can be rearranged as things in the warehouse change.

Underground Work

When you work underground, you need the best lighting possible. Start with a hand lamp that is bright enough to help you find your way to and from underground work sites. Then, set up some halogen lights in the areas you are working in to light up a large radius.

Some of the lights mentioned for other circumstances will work for underground projects as well. Look for floor lights that can easily be moved in small spaces or lights with adjustable poles so you can adjust their height as needed.

Finding Your Way

If you work in the dark, getting to and from your work site requires light too. There are lots of powerful hand lamps available that can help you safely travel between worksites or in darker areas of your environment.

Traveller lights are a great choice for situations that require you to move from one place to the next and quickly set up lighting. These lights are not as powerful as other options, but they do provide adequate lighting and are extremely mobile.

To choose the best light for your situation, decide what your needs are. Do you need to light up a very large area? Will you be required to move between areas or from site to site while you work? Do you need to light up one portion of an area or the perimeter? These kinds of questions can help you decide which lighting option is best for you.

Having appropriate lighting while you work is important to your safety and will make your job easier. Start improving your workplace by investing in some good lighting and setting it up where it will be most beneficial. You can browse HSS Hire's extensive collection of lighting solutions for hire by visiting our Lighting & Power Solutions page.

8 Spooktacular Halloween Decoration Ideas that Will Blow Your Mind

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The mornings and evenings are getting gloomier earlier, there’s a chill in the air and pumpkins have appeared on supermarket shelves. With the onset of autumn comes Halloween with ghosts, ghouls, witches, wizards and zombies creeping about. Whether you want to host a theme party to remember, impress your neighbours or scare trick-or-treaters, you don’t need to rely on copycat decorations from the fancy dress shop or local store.

Here are our top Halloween decoration ideas, some of which you will need some simple materials and flair for creativity and others a few household tools or gardening equipment. 


1. Spooky walls
If you are planning on hosting a Halloween party then why not make a feature out of one of your bare walls? Perhaps you plan to repaint a wall or room anyway, so why not create a scary scene for Halloween beforehand? You could use black paint on a bare white wall to stencil on an eerie, thorny tree with a tweeting owl, set against a moonlit background. Or you could use wall stickers to add funky spider webs or graveyard headstones with freaky hands reaching out. If you don’t want to mark your existing décor, then you could always cut out an array of spiders, bats, headstones and evil pumpkins from black and orange cardboard and pin them to your freaky feature wall with temporary adhesive. 

2. Brilliant broom sticks
You can’t have a Halloween party without a gaggle of wicked witches and wizards! So why not create some broomsticks to add the finishing touches to your pointed hat, crooked nose and wonderful wizard capes? You could use old broom handles and tie bundles of straw onto the back. Or for a more authentic look you could go hunting for foot-long logs or large branches to use as the base of your broom. Just make sure you sand properly any wood you use with a sander or sanding paper to prevent any splinters or injuries. 

3. Sinister scarecrow
Scarecrows are traditionally used by farmers to scare birds away from their bounty of juicy vegetables but why not create yours to scare your unsuspecting guests too? The easiest way to create a head for your scarecrow is to carve a pumpkin or a turnip with a scary face. But you could also use an old pillow case filled with hay as the basis for your freaky face. This method will allow you to be more creative with the characteristics of your face; why not give him one eye, a mole or a hooked nose? Now you need to find an old shirt and pants and stuff with more hay or old scrunched up newspaper. Why not use a black and red striped top and make your scarecrow look like Freddie Kruger! 

Fix your scarecrow together with string or sew the top and bottom together – you don’t need to be a competent sewer, the rougher the better as it will all add to the overall effect. Adding accessories is the fun part. If you have made a witchy scarecrow then why not add a broomstick and pointy hat or even some red sparkly shoes like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz? You could create a severed head with another pillow case and bloody coloured straw or cover your figurine with evil rats, bats and bugs. 

4. A bathroom bloodbath
We’ve all watched Hitchcock’s classic thriller Psycho through our fingers in terror as Norman Bates takes out his murderous revenge on guests at the Bates Motel. So why not transform your bathroom into an eerie scene from the movie by painting bloody red handprints onto a plain white shower curtain, footprints onto an old bathmat and blood splatters along the walls? You could also slash the shower curtain with scissors too for added affect. Your party guests may end up feeling so freaked out they leave the light on and door unlocked! 

5. Lurid lanterns
Cheap circular, paper lampshades can be easily transformed into something far freakier with a bit of imagination and creativity. You could spray paint them orange and create menacing pumpkin-style faces with black paint. Or, as you would with a pumpkin lantern, why not carve out scary faces or bat and spider shapes so the fragmented light scatters eerily across your room? You could also use your lights to hang decorative creepy paper cut-out spiders or bats. Or you could even pick colourful autumnal leaves from your garden and attach them to your light decoration to emphasise the seasonal theme. Eeeek! Just make sure none of your decorations touch the light bulb to prevent any fires. 

6. Grisly ghosts
If you have some tools to hand and would like to scare your neighbours during October then why not create some ghostly figures for your garden? You will need some easily pliable chicken wire, some tough protective gloves and pliers. Use the tools to shape the wire into headless, ghostly figures, perhaps with wavy Victorian style dresses. You will then need to spray paint the figurines with glow in the dark or white paint so they eerily light up when darkness falls.

7. Haunted garden cemetery
No one needs to die in the making of this Halloween decoration! To create your haunted garden cemetery cut out different shaped headstones from old cardboard boxes – cereal boxes would be ideal – and paint them grey and black to look like century-old ageing tombstones. Once the paint is dry then you can customise them either with a simple RIP or even with the names of some of your guests to spook them as they arrive at your party. You could glue some artificial moss onto your tombstones to make them look more aged or even attach some wretched looking zombie hands reaching up from the earth.
 
Glue a wooden or plastic garden stake onto the back of your tombstone to plant it into the ground. If you don’t mind making holes in your lawn you could also use gardening tools to create holes in front of your headstone to create the illusion of zombies having escaped.

For a more authentic approach you could also use pieces of reclaimed wood to create your headstones so they look more authentic and will last for more than one Halloween season. You can buy cheap pieces of wood from any DIY or hardware store but you will also need protective gloves, a saw and sander to complete the job.

8. Coffin cooler
What screams Halloween more than a creaky coffin? With some wood, nails and a little imagination you could make your own ‘bed for the dead’ to use in a variety of ways. If you want your coffin to be approximately life-sized you will need six pieces of wood, two for the top and bottom, two long sides and two shorter ends. Cut the bottom and top lengths of wood into a graduated coffin design, slimmer at the bottom where your feet would go. Measure out the sides and ends and nail together, sanding down any rough edges as you go. You will need some hinges for the lid and should be able to buy these from any DIY shop.

Then you need to paint your coffin black, brown or grey to make it look more authentic. Try using an old sponge or scrunched up newspaper dipped in paint to create a mottled, aged look. You can even add an RIP to the lid or your name and a freaky testament about how you might have died.

You could line your coffin with material, hay or soil, depending on how and how or where you want to use it. You could use it to create a gravedigger scene on your front lawn, perhaps even hiding in it to jump out on your party guests as they arrive! Or if you have made a smaller one, why not turn it into a drinks cooler? You could extend the theme by creating unappetising labels for your drinks, transforming ordinary tomato juice into bloody Mary’s and beer into witches brew. Serve yours with toy eyeballs, fake false teeth and plastic bugs frozen into ice cubes.

19 Things That Drive Us Crazy When Shopping

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You might be one of those people who simply love shopping.  If you are, you’re not alone, you’ve got a lot of company. And even though shopping has changed some, and you can order online, that doesn’t mean that you’ll do it all that way. There’s a fair chance that you’ll end up at the shops at some point.

But, even if you do love it, you’ll have to admit, there are a few things that drive you mad (or is it just me?). Just take a look...

1. Dirty or Slippery Floors – How comfortable do you feel buying cheese from a deli when there's dust or dirt all over the floors? And when it comes down to cleaning, many store managers just choose to tip over a bucket of water and... and that's all, basically. Well, this is just downright dangerous. And, there’s only so much that you can blame on inclement weather. But the reason this is so annoying is that even if you don’t slip and fall on your bum, you can imagine yourself doing it – so you end up tip-toeing around the shop, even when you’re in a rush. The solution is easy, actually. All a store manager has to do is hire a floor scrubber.  

2. Untidiness – Oooh, this is so irritating, isn’t it?  It’s one thing if you head off to pick through sale racks; then you expect a bit of untidiness. But, if you head off to the local grocery store, or a high end clothing store, you expect it to be neat, don’t you?

3. Dirty Exteriors – When you ran into the store, you may not have taken a whole lot of notice, but then you’ve paid and you’re on your way out when you see just how dirty it truly is, especially if a renovation is in progress. There’s something about that which makes the entire shopping process feel a bit, well, dirty. Thank God, hiring a skip can save any store manager from this awkward position.

4. Noise – You do expect a certain amount of chit-chat in a crowd, but there are certain noises that just grind you down. It can be anything from overly loud music projection in a shop, to noisy heating and cooling elements (which should really just be replaced). And of course, there’s that kid crying an aisle over to drive you a bit insane!

5. Construction – Yes, yes, you do want that shop to be upgraded and you’re mighty happy that they’ve kept the place open while they renovate. But, they seriously need to make sure that they can adequately control the flow of traffic. Easily done by hiring and installing barriers. Because, if there’s a lack of barriers, it simply won’t work at all.

6. Ineffective Lighting – Shopping isn’t like eating at a restaurant. There, you can easily dim the lights to enhance the mood. Plus, you already have a general idea of where you mouth is so the lack of lighting is not likely to impact on your evening. But, when you’re shopping, it’s always best to see what you’re purchasing since it’s a pain to come back with returns.

7. Not Enough Changing Rooms – Not everyone is lucky enough to shop at 11am on a Tuesday morning when the stores are quiet.  Most people head to the stores after work and on the weekends, when – everyone else is out shopping, as well.  They may not be in your way while you’re browsing, but when there’s a queue to try something on, it’s a monstrous hassle.

8. Only One Till – Unless you’re in an exclusive boutique, there’s probably a bank of tills. So how is it that you can wait, in a queue, to pay at the only till that’s open? Of course, this always seems to happen when you’re on your lunch hour, and you’ve not got any time to spare, doesn’t it? 

9. Credit Card Service Down – A store’s connection issues should never be your problem. But every now and again, it happens that the card machines are unable to connect to the bank. The problem is that you only learn about this once you’ve finished your shopping and you’re at the till. At best, there’s an ATM next door, but more than likely, you’ll need to walk half a kilometre to a bank and back to pay.

10. No Parking – Whether the store is on the high street and you always knew you’d battle to find a spot, or it’s a shopping centre and their lot is full – this is an inauspicious start to any shopping trip.  Whether or not you can find a close parking place, is likely to impact on the entire experience.

11. A Lack of Parking Demarcation – It’s been years since the parking lot has been painted, and, in fact, they’ve rearranged the parking a few times, so no one knows exactly where they’re meant to park. This is even worse than not finding any parking, simply because you feel the need to swear at every car that’s parked inappropriately.

12. Sale Items Are Out Of Stock – You saw the ad, you convinced yourself you need whatever item is on sale and then you braved the traffic to get to the shop. And as you cruise the aisles, you discover that everyone else has had the same idea. Even if the shop offers to give you the discounted price whenever they’ve got the item back in stock, it’s still a hassle. 

13. They Don’t Stock It – This always happens when you head to the grocery store with a specific menu in mind.  More often than not, it’ll occur when you’ve got friends coming round for dinner.  And it’s a real pain because you just assumed that one shop would have what you need – and that’s why you stopped there in the first place.

14. Change in Opening Hours – Curses. Maybe you even knew this was going to happen, you just didn’t think it had taken effect already.  The problem is that you scheduled your day around picking up the groceries, or that particular item that goes off sale tomorrow – and now, you can do nothing about it.

15. Nothing in Your Size – If you’ve got an average sized foot and you’ve gone off to the shoe shop during a sale week, you’re likely to be told they don’t have your first choice in your size. When the shop assistant returns empty handed for the sixth time, you’ll want to cause a scene. (Don’t.)

16. No Change for the Parking – You may be so well adjusted to parking in the permit only areas around your office that you’ve completely forgotten that you need some change to pay for parking at the shops.  And, it usually happens when you’ve only got large notes – or nothing to break at all.

17. Strange Smells – This makes any experience unpleasant, but it’s especially distressing when you’re shopping.  Nasty smells are easily associated with filthy, dirty surroundings; so the minute you smell something foul; you no longer feel like shopping. It could only be one of the other customers, but it’ll put you off.

18. No Cell Phone Reception – You’d think you could connect just about everywhere (except on trains between cities), but somehow there’s hardly a signal inside your favourite store. And that would be okay if you didn’t need to call your spouse to check a size, or you weren’t waiting for a prospective employer to call you back.  Just how are you supposed to multi-task without cell phone reception?

19. Price Checks – It only happens when you’re in a hurry; you know, when you can’t stop looking at your watch, and even the ticking seems to be mocking you. That’s exactly when the guy in front of you has picked up an article without a price tag.  And then you wait.

The good news is that not every shopping trip ends up like this. But when it does, you’ll find yourself bargaining for Tuesday mornings off work the next time you’re up for an increase. And why not? You’d only spend that time shopping online anyhow, right?