David Cameron is about to announce that unused Government offices will be offered to budding entrepreneurs as launch pads for new businesses across the UK. The idea is to try and kick-start the economy through an entrepreneurship boost.

The huge stock of buildings owned by the government is to be used to match capacity to need by providing more than 300 premises at low rents for a year boosting Treasury finances and giving entrepreneurs a chance to rocket their business ideas into reality.

And like Cinderella, dress is all important. Rick Santorum, a candidate for the American Presidency, has been winning friends and votes through his dress code. While his rivals wear boring suits, he has launched out into what the Americans call a sweater vest – what the British have always called a tank top. However he does in the candidacy race, he’s certainly gained a massive amount of recognition through his appearance, and that’s a lesson for all entrepreneurs. Marketing matters, not just for your business, but for you as the figure who embodies the business. So self marketing means:

Look at what your competition is doing and dare to be different. Think about Richard Branson and the Virgin adverts which subverted the ‘traditional’ adverts of other companies, just as his jeans and shirt wardrobe subverted the ‘suits’ of his rivals.

Entertain people – wear something bright, something relaxed, something that people can talk about. Even if they don’t like it, they will remember you: bright polo shirts with smart casual trousers can look good for men, or for women, a jewel coloured camisole top under a designer jacket can really make you stand out from the crowd.

For many, and not just women of a certain age, winter offices can be a problem. Those whose metabolisms are fast will often find that the temperature of a winter office is kept uncomfortably warm and that they would be quite happy wearing their summer clothing in the depths of winter! But that isn’t always appropriate to the season and what looks okay when everybody is dressing for warmer weather can seem inappropriately casual when others are well wrapped up in polo-necked jumpers and cosy fleeces.

The answer is simple: clothing either insulates or refreshes, so choosing clothing that refreshes allows people to look as if they are in business attire but still feel comfortably cool.

Colours are important. You can wear sleeveless or short sleeved T-shirts that will look thicker and heavier if they are in winter colours like purple, dark green, red or mustard. Pop them under a lightweight shirt or silk cardigan and it will look as if you are layering your clothing like everybody else but actually you’ll be ventilating your arms by only having one thin layer between your skin and the air.

Avoid polo necks and turtle necks and all acrylic clothing. Stick to cotton or poly-cotton polo-shirts, and don’t button the neckline to allow maximum exposure of the torso (which sets the core body temperature) to the air. The more we cover up the chest and neck the hotter we feel.

For both men and women, crisp cotton shirts worn loose if you’re a man or belted low on the hip for women, are a good alternative to jumpers – women can pop a camisole top under the shirt and wear it largely unbuttoned and it looks like an extra layer but is in fact as cool as can be.

Scarves can be worn unwrapped. If everybody else is knotting a scarf around their neck, just lay yours under the collar of your shirt. It reduces the heat factor by more than 40% but keeps you looking like everybody else.

Wear a sleeveless fleece instead of a jacket – it looks appropriate to the weather but is much cooler than a sleeved jacket.

Casual clothes in technical fibres will wick away sweat in a really overheated environment so look out for sporting clothing that you can wear under smarter shirts.

In a provocative article in the Financial Times, hospital doctor Sophie Harrison points out how the role of uniforms matters in the healthcare workplace. A 2007 ruling banned the traditional white coat for doctors and brought in a policy of bare arms from the elbow down, in an attempt to increase hygiene procedures. This, in turn, was designed to fight hospital transmitted infections like MRSA or c difficile.

The result though, has been to confuse patients and visitors, who struggle to identify clinicians and other hospital staff, and to create a culture of fear which has led to excessive measures in some bacteria-conscious hospital visitors.

If workplace hygiene is essential, then taking a look at premises, as well as work clothing, can be the best route. If staff have to get changed in toilets (as Harrison claims) it’s much more likely that they will come into contact with dangerous bacteria – and bacteria and viruses are much more easily spread by hand to hand contact than they are on clothing, so it’s what staff touch, more than what they wear, that matters.

And if you have an environment like a clinic, hospital or other health centre, the effect of removing distinctive uniforms may be to add to the psychological stress of the non-hospital employee – Harrison says that it’s now difficult to distinguish junior doctors, ward pharmacists and medical students by clothing alone and that can cause anger and distress in people who don’t understand why the ‘doctor’ in front of them is unable to help them.

Clearly defined uniforms are important and there’s no need to sacrifice clarity for hygiene – colour coding of tabards and different styles of short sleeved shirt and polo shirt can really help visitors to understand the distinctions in employee status and responsibility.

If you’re going to make a resolution or two, why not make them for the workplace?

Invest in an audit
Not financial, but energy – some firms actually provide a free audit for businesses and will point out ways to save money over time. It’s a good way to get good PR too – once your audit is over and you’ve made some energy saving resolutions you can email (no wasted paper) or facebook (so you can include photos and get feedback) your environment saving progress to your clients, customers and suppliers so that they know they are working with a ‘green team’. Don’t forget to let the local paper and radio station know, as they love to have stories for their local news sections.

Declutter
Many organisations are actually renting space to store things or space to do things, when they have the space themselves. If you hire meeting rooms for small groups but have offices with loads of filing or have documents or stock in storage, take a good look at what your organisation is hoarding – piles of old CPUs or files going back twenty years can be using up space that the organisation can benefit from. Consider donating usable old furniture, clothing or other office items to charity.

Water
Either invest in a cooler or get a water filter installed in the kitchen so that staff don’t buy bottled water which is costly and adds to the amount of rubbish that pushes up business rates!

Party Planning

if you’re charged with organising an office party, ensure that all staff are invited, to avoid potential discrimination claims: this means choosing a venue and entertainments that will suit people of non-Christian faiths or no faith and that they should have the choice to opt out if they feel uncomfortable for any reason – and if partners of employees are invited, make sure you include same-sex partners.

Pacing and getting home

If you’re organising or attending a work’s Christmas party, remember that alcohol can cause more than merriment: and that you can lose a job through your behaviour if you drink too much during a work event. Employers need to be aware that if they contribute to an employee’s drunkenness by running an open tab at the bar and or providing booze at the dinner table, and then need to discipline that employee for their behaviour they could actually be considered to have contributed to the problem, and might find themselves facing an Industrial Tribunal. And remember that employers who let staff drive when they are under the influence may be legally liable too – a company has a duty of care to staff which includes ensuring people have sensible plans for getting home when alcohol is involved.

Dressing up

If you have a workplace party, make sure that the Christmas tree and decorations don’t present risks to health and safety – and when people dress up for Christmas events in the workplace it can be a risky issue too: Converse trainers instead of safety shoes, sparkly dresses instead of T-shirts and trousers and distressed denim instead of polo-shirts and chinos can all lead to accidents as clothing dips, dangles and drapes into machinery around the workplace.

Traditions

Watch out for habits and customs. It’s not just mistletoe that can lead to misunderstandings: when employees have been used to getting a Christmas bonus or days off, and the company has to change the set up for some reason, it can lead to discontent: promises made verbally can be considered binding in law, so ensure managers aren’t mistakenly telling staff that ‘traditional’ benefits will continue unless that’s actually the case.

Entering a family-run business can be a difficult proposition for both family and non-family members. Here’s a simple guide to getting it right.

Check for Rules

A family business can often have no clear structures, as family members pick up (and put down) tasks and responsibilities in a fluid fashion. While this can be a great way to transfer skills, it’s also a recipe for chaos. A good business still has guidelines, job descriptions and clear lines of decision-making – if the business doesn’t seem to have this, think carefully about joining it, as you have no way of objecting to requests or arbitrary changes to your work, if that’s how everybody else operates. Remember that these rules should apply to everybody and prevent overdue leniency where family members are concerned, and stop nepotism.

Work Relationships

If you are in a family business as a family member, it’s important that you have a clear demarcation between family and work life. One way to do this is to have a separate workplace (even if it’s a desk within your home) that you only go to for your ‘day job’ and to have distinctive clothing that you only wear when you are ‘at work’. This stops you slipping into family relationships in the work zone and also stops the constant intrusion of work into family time. The rule should be if you’re dressed for work you are at work, if you are not dressed for work, work should not be mentioned.

Conflict

Every workplace has some conflict, but in family businesses it’s important to demarcate work conflict and family issues;

•    Never mention relationships or personal issues in a work argument – if your little brother outranks you in the office, don’t call him ‘baby bro’ in a work based argument, it’s an abuse of family privilege.
•    Keep work arguments to the workplace, don’t let them spill into family time or space
•    Keep to the policies established in the workplace when handling work conflict
•    If necessary, use an independent mediator to help you and family members explore work-based conflict.

Performance

Ensure an annual review applies to all staff – and don’t let off family members because you know their personal circumstances. It may be best to appoint an outsider to conduct reviews alongside the boss, to keep everything honest and fair.

There seems to be an increasing concern about the role of clothing in small businesses, particularly those that offer some kind of professional service. As companies downsize and out-source, it’s becoming important that the appearance of all those involved in a company reflect the company ethos, including the professional nature and status of the organisation. The loss of intervening layers of middle management often means that those at the front of the business, such as receptionists, are the figureheads for the business in general and so their appearance becomes vital.

However, it can be difficult for small firms to discuss, let alone impose, a dress code on members of staff who have got used to dressing casually or provocatively. One sensitive way of dealing with this issue is to hold a firm-wide seminar or lunch meeting on the subject of Appropriate Work Clothing using one of the many online guides to dressing for success. Divide the company on gender lines for this event and offer some light-hearted fun as well as serious exploration of what counts as professionally appropriate clothing.

You can, for example, invest in some clothing props: these could be anything from fridge magnets of famous figures with a range of magnetic outfits through to paper cut-out dressing up dolls, right up to shop window dummies and cheap clothing in the form of second-hand or discount clothing. These can be used during the session to create the most and least appropriate outfits for various situations: work, barbecue, going to the theatre etc – this stops it feeling like a lecture and gives people an idea of how to put an outfit together: not a skill that everybody possesses!  If you really want to invest in your staff, you can even get an image consultant to come in and suggest the best colours for each member of the team to wear.

Once the seminar has taken place, you can have one-to-one conversations with any team member who is sloppy or overly sexy in their dress habits, confident that you can hold a conversation on professional grounds without it being seen as a judgement on personal style.

A recent survey by Peninsula, the legal specialists, discovered that over 60% of British workers have had a workplace affair.

For companies this is a dangerous issue: every employer wants staff who enjoy their jobs, like their colleagues and have fun at work, but when this good workplace vibe tips over into clandestine romance, it can lead to work-based rows, colleagues breaking up and others taking sides, people leaving the workplace to avoid a former lover and even to legal action.

Part of the issue is familiarity which causes us to get to know our colleagues better than anybody else – once we reach a point where the office, factory or shared workspace becomes our world, we start to expect to meet our emotional needs within it, and colleagues easily become sources of admiration, attraction and love. The team-building part of work can also lead to romances – when we’re encouraged to bond with our workmates, it’s easy for them to start looking like life-mates too.

It’s not all bad, around half the people currently working in offices have met a partner at work, according to the Industrial Society, but on the other side, around 20% of people regret work romances enough to leave their jobs, which can be damaging ot the company.

Some organisations try to control workplace romance by setting rules about appropriate clothing and ‘fraternisation’.  This rarely works and can lead to a different form of legal problem, when people object to being restricted in their behaviour. It’s better to try and widen the pool by bringing your workforce into contact with a similar workforce nearby – shared cafeteria facilities, organising sports such as 5-a-side football, running groups at lunchtime or gardening clubs to improve an industrial estate or suite of offices can all bring your staff into contact with people in a similar situation which sparks romance.

For many of us, the lives of Premier League footballers appear to be adult-rated fantasies of sex, shopping and international travel, but Blackburn Rovers have decided to kick against the trend by giving away a big part of their income generation to raise funds for the Prince’s Trust charity.

In addition to wearing the Trust logo on their shirts, the football team have committed to running fundraising throughout the season and to supporting work with disadvantaged youngsters in their region.

In Ireland a charity called Camara (West African for ‘teacher’) takes unwanted computers from Irish businesses and government offices, refurbishes them, loads them with educational software and ships them to Africa and the West Indies. This month it sent computer number 25,000 to West Africa, where it will help children learn how to use computers and to study other subjects that they may not have physical teachers for (such as sciences and languages) via the specially chosen software.

The charity’s Chief Executive said, ‘We have hit a milestone in Camara’s history in exceeding the 25,000 mark for computers distributed. I want to thank all of those that have given technology, time or donations and contributed in reaching this significant achievement.’

Several organisations now collect and refurbish office equipment for use in charities or as training aids for the homeless or the elderly who may be unfamiliar with new technology. There are also new charity recycling schemes in several UK cities offering people the chance to bring old but good work clothing into a depot where it will be redistributed to homeless people or those with special needs to help them dress appropriately for job interviews.

In Ireland, a major energy provider has won the battle not to compensate its staff after removing the uniform privileges it had offered.

Over 600 employees of Bord Gais brought a court case claiming they deserved compensation after the withdrawal of uniform allocation. Bord Gais is a partly state-funded company whose staff said they had incurred expenses in maintaining or buying items to replace the corporate clothing that was previously issued every two years. The management countered this claim with the statement that as staff were not required to buy new uniforms, but were allowed to wear clothing of their choice, no compensation would be paid. Previously the employees got two uniform jackets, four pairs of trousers or four skirts, eight shirts, and two ties which were issued in 2004 and 2007, but not in 2009 when the company decided an allocation of workplace clothing would be reckless in the face of potential rebranded due to changing EU energy legislation.

Bord Gais has now said it will discuss a “common sense approach” to the issue of branded corporate clothing with unions with a view to cutting costs in a difficult economic environment.

Other employers may wish to look at this ruling and see if it effects their own uniform policy – in other EU countries staff are currently challenging the issuing of uniform items that have to be dry-cleaned as the employees say this is an unfair requirement. A case in Italy has been won on this basis but is being reviewed under appeal in a higher court.