In most offices staff are encouraged to wear smart casual clothes, with many men opting for suit jackets and shirts without the tie. However, over recent years the focus has been on being comfortable and able to transition from work to after-work clothes easily.

One great way to combine style with comfort is to start wearing sports clothing to the office. This might seem unacceptable, but over the year activewear has become smarter and more popular with office workers. By wearing your gym clothes to the office, you can save yourself time after work changing before the gym and feel more comfortable during the day, as opposed to having to suffer in stuffy suits and restricting shirts with tight collars then change after work.

Smart casual office wear can be tricky to pull off, and being smart in today’s corporate environment revolves around being fashionable as well as comfortable, so sports clothing is the perfect way to combine the two. Activewear has become a key focus for many brands and consumers, making it one of 2019’s hottest fashion trends. Incorporating it into your work wardrobe can be tricky, so here are some tips on how you can make sportswear a key part of your work wardrobe.  

Choose Big Brands For Quality

It’s always tempting to pick up cheap clothes, particularly if you know you’re only going to be throwing them on to go to the gym and get sweaty in, but for activewear, you’re going to wear to the office make sure you buy quality. This will not only ensure that your clothes last longer, but also help the environment, as you won’t be replacing them so often. Choose a retailer selling clothes from a number of brands so that you can explore all the options before you make your decisions and find the perfect activewear to suit your needs and personal style.

Don’t Wear Bright Colours

Neon bright clothes are prevalent in many activewear collections but they’re too bold for working in an office environment, so instead choose more muted tones. If you’re bored of the usual black, white and grey then choose navy blue, deep red or even dark purple to give you a masculine yet unique look that’ll really stand out from the crowd.

Fitted Clothes Look Smarter

Many gymgoers throw on a baggy t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms so that they feel free and able to move while they workout, but for the office select fitted styles of activewear, such as a fitted t-shirt that will give you a more refined style and keep you looking smart. Trousers should be less restricting but can still be neat with elasticated cuffs and fitted fabrics along the legs to give you a more presentable appearance.

Wear Fashionable Footwear

When you go to the gym it can be tempting to just chuck on any old shoes that are lying around, but for the office make sure you have clean and stylish footwear. Trainers are perfectly respectable for work as long as they look good, so check out the designer collection at SSENSE to find some stylish Fendi kicks that will leave you looking great and feeling comfortable.

Dress Up Your Outfit With Accessories

If you think your sportswear looks too casual for the office then consider using stylish accessories such as a luxury watch to enhance your appearance. By wearing one smart item of clothing you can lift your entire outfit, and using an accessory is an easy way to look presentable and still feel comfortable in your activewear.

Layer Activewear With Office Classics

One easy way to combine sportswear with the office environment is to wear your activewear with a stylish suit jacket so that you can make a distinctive impression. Mixing your formal attire with more casual sportswear will create the perfect smart casual outfit, and you can easily remove any office clothes for when you want to pop to the gym for a quick workout at the end of the day.

Keep Everything Else Casual

Make sure that your entire outfit matches; if you’re wearing casual clothes then keep your hair casual too so that you don’t look out of place. Be well-groomed and tidy without being too neat if you want a casual, relaxed look that will see you through from the office to the gym.

Don’t Take The Sportswear Trend Too Far The most important rule when dressing for the office is to make sure that you look smart and presentable. As this article proves, this can be achieved even whilst wearing activewear, but don’t take it too far or you will end up being the punchline of your colleague’s jokes. Whilst you can look to the wider fashion community for inspiration, make sure that you remember that catwalk fashion isn’t always suitable for the office and tailor what you see to your work environment. Choose more muted colours and clothing with less ostentatious branding for the office, then save the bright, logo covered clothes for after work.

Launching a new business is a serious undertaking, no matter how much prior experience you have. If you are preparing to launch your first startup, you will inevitably have to do a lot of learning on your feet. However, the more you can prepare yourself beforehand, the easier you will find it to pick things up as you go.

In fact, the choices that you make during the earliest stages of your business will significantly impact how smoothly your first year of operations proceeds. Good planning will go a long way to making sure that you are able to launch without a hitch and give you the best chance of surviving those treacherous first few months when your business is at its most vulnerable.

One of the most important decisions you will have to make as you prepare to launch your business is where you will base your business. Whether your business is going to operate out of a brick and mortar premises or you are planning on delivering your services remotely, choosing the right base of operations is an important decision. When choosing a home for your business, you need to think about more than just the practical considerations.

Lots of entrepreneurs will found their businesses in the area where they live, or in an area that they have a connection with. While these can both be advantages in their own right, you should also consider what’s on offer in terms of support and funding. By this measure, Suffolk is one of the best places in the UK to start a business.

Why You Should Choose Suffolk

One of the biggest challenges any new business in the UK faces is finding support. A decade of austerity has led to a significant reduction in the availability of grants and other sources of support and funding that were once prevalent throughout the country. Now that these are gone, businesses are left to fend for themselves. While some feel the central government has let entrepreneurs down, local authorities have picked up the slack, in some areas at least.

Suffolk is one of the best places in the UK to launch a startup, not just because of the variety of support options that are available, but also because of its proximity to London. Travel between Suffolk and London is relatively cheap and only two and a half hours away by train. Suffolk is also a relatively affluent area with a wealthy local client base, but there are plenty of affordable accommodation options.

As well as its desirable location, startups in Suffolk can also benefit from a number of local initiatives that exist to support fledgeling businesses. For example, there is the East of England Energy Zone. The East of England is the perfect place for wind offshore wind farms, as well as gas and nuclear energy facilities. Businesses looking to enter into the energy sector can qualify for rates relief and other benefits, including free support and advice and funding of up to £500,000.

Another reason that Suffolk is an exciting place for entrepreneurs to invest in and launch their startups is its shifting demographics. Around a third of the businesses launched in Suffolk over the last two years have been targeting over-50s. This is reflective of a broader national trend, but where Suffolk differs from the rest of the country is that there are a growing number of young entrepreneurs looking to start businesses immediately after finishing school, college, or university.

Many of the younger entrepreneurs who have made Suffolk their home are starting what we would call “non-traditional” businesses. These include businesses that are focused on delivering online services and creative businesses like textile printing, music, and other media-based industries. The one thing that all these Suffolk startups have in common is access to the unique support infrastructure that exists in the county.

Defining Your Business’s Purpose

Hopefully, if you are planning on launching a business of your own, you will already have a good idea of what your business will be doing. Whether you are planning on opening a retail store, a marketing agency, or any other type of business, you need to define what sets your business apart from your competitors. To do this, you will need to clearly set out your goals and establish exactly what the purpose of your business is.

Every business should have a business plan. A business plan is a document that sets out what you want to achieve and how you will go about achieving it. By keeping your business plan updated to reflect your progress, it can also serve as a roadmap. However, while your business plan is an excellent way of defining and measuring your business goals, it is important to also have personal aspirations.

You should be aiming to get more out of your business than just money. Launching and running your own business is a difficult undertaking – if you aren’t getting anything out of it on a personal level, then you are going to find it a very difficult slog. Think about what you want to get out of this as a person and how you can go about achieving it.

Getting Your Admin in Order

Different businesses will have different admin requirements. Some business types require an inordinate amount of paperwork just to get the doors open, whereas others won’t have to fill out a single form. You may also need to consider how you will provide new workers with the training that they need. For example, consider whether IPAF courses will be beneficial to your business – if your startup is going to be operating out of a warehouse or in another environment that requires the use of powered access platforms, then you should consider IPAF courses for new workers.

The last thing you want is to launch your business, only to discover that you have overlooked a piece of important paperwork and now have to put your plans on hold. Do your research beforehand and make sure that you have identified every piece of documentation that you will need to open your doors legally.

Local Marketing

When you first begin trading as your new startup, it makes sense to target your local market first and foremost. Local marketing is a very different beast to your general marketing and needs to be approached in a particular way.

Social media marketing is ideal for boosting your local profile because you can micro-target your campaigns so that your marketing content is being shown mostly or only to people for who it is relevant. There’s no sense in advertising your local business to people on the other side of the country.

The way that you launch a new business will have a significant bearing on the trajectory that it ends up on. The more time you take beforehand to prepare yourself, and the more care you take with every major decision, the better the chances of your business surviving through that first year of vulnerability. Suffolk is a wonderful location to choose as your business’s home. If you are planning on launching your business here, make sure you check out what kind of support is available from the local authority.