30.12.2022
WHAT ARE THE HOLIDAYS IN 2023
Current calendar of public holidays in 2023. See which days are holidays and the possibilities of combining leave with holidays.
In short, the following days are public holidays and non-working days in 2023:
January 1, 2023 – New Year.
March 3 – Liberation Day of Bulgaria from Ottoman slavery.
April 16, 2023 - Easter - the Christian religion celebrates the Resurrection of Christ.
May 1 - Day of Labor and International Workers' Solidarity.
May 6 – St. George's Day, Day of Courage and the Bulgarian Army.
May 24 – Day of Bulgarian education and culture and Slavic writing.
September 6 – The unification of Bulgaria.
September 22 – Bulgaria's Independence Day.
December 24, 25, 26, 27 – Christmas.
30.12.2022
12 QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU CHART A NEW PATH FOR YOURSELF IN 2023.
As 2022 draws to a close, we think we can all agree on one thing – it's been a strange year. With the worst of the pandemic (hopefully) behind us, people have finally come out of the dark rooms, looked around, and started asking themselves: What do I do with my life now?
This confused determination to chart a new course, both in life and professionally, is reflected in persistently high attrition rates, a growing interest in entrepreneurship and digital nomadism, and an increase in the number of publications and reflections on how many of us are rethinking your priorities and attitude towards work.
It's clear that many people are determined to reinvent themselves in 2023, but the question is where to start. There are a number of articles by organizational psychologists and even entire books that promise to help guide you on the new path you want to take. But one of the most thought-provoking resources we've stumbled upon recently is a set of questions from Thought Catalog.
The simple list of 31 questions is designed to get you thinking about what motivates you, what drains your energy, what holds you back, and where you ultimately hope to end up. We have selected 12 questions to help you find a new path in 2023:
After thinking about these questions, you will be ready to take a new path in 2023.
30.12.2022
SCIENCE MAGAZINE HAS ANNOUNCED THE 10 BIGGEST SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS OF 2022.
Every year in mid-December, the journal Science publishes a list of the scientific achievements of the year, choosing one major breakthrough and nine other important discoveries. Unlike Nature, the Science list is not dedicated to the people whose names are associated with the most important scientific stories of the year, but to the events and discoveries themselves.
In 2021, the journal's editors announced as the major scientific breakthrough of the year advances in protein structure prediction using machine learning, specifically the open source algorithms AlphaFold2 and RoseTTAFold. The main breakthrough, according to the editors, this year is the commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Top 10 scientific achievements for 2022
The James Webb Space Telescope mission
JWST is a space observatory for studying the universe in the infrared wavelength range (unlike, for example, Hubble, which works in the optical and ultraviolet part of the spectrum). The observatory's main mirror consists of 18 gold-plated beryllium segments with a total area of 27 square meters and a weight of 625 kilograms: six times larger than Hubble's mirror and almost a third lighter.
It took almost a quarter of a century and $10 billion to prepare for the launch of the telescope. Therefore, the launch and start of observations is a real breakthrough.
In fact, the space observatory will not fly into space in 2022, but at the end of 2021 - on December 25, 2021, after three years of comprehensive tests, the Ariana 5 rocket with the telescope launched from Kourou in French Guiana. To avoid chronological inconsistencies, the editorial board calls the breakthrough not the launch, but the telescope flight, because it occurs after the publication of the previous list.
In January 2022, the infrared telescope entered orbit around the second Lagrange point in the Sun-Earth system and on February 11 sent its first technical image. Another five months later, the observatory officially began its science program, and the first science image—an example of gravitational lensing of light from a distant galaxy from the early universe—was released on the evening of July 11. The following day, images of the Carina and Southern Ring Nebulae, as well as the Stefan Quintet group of compact galaxies, were presented.
For six months after that, the telescope regularly took pictures of both new and well-known objects, but with previously unavailable resolution and in a different part of the spectrum.
Perennial rice
According to the editors of Science, a high-yielding perennial rice variety deserves a place in the top ten. Converting annual grasses to perennial forms is one way to achieve higher yields, but also to preserve soil fertility without using up too many resources.
Perennial rice was first bred twenty years ago by crossing the cultivated Asian rice Oryza sativa with its African perennial relative Oryza longistaminata. But it took another two decades to achieve sufficient extraction from it. Chinese scientists began to study it in 2018, and this year they report their successes.
Their PR23 variety yields about the same amount of grain in the first year as regular annual rice, at the same planting and cultivation costs. And in the second, third and fourth years, the yield remains the same, falling only in the fifth year. This saves 77 man-days per hectare per season and cuts costs in half.
Neural networks - creators
2022 is the year that artificial intelligence (AI) technology enters fields that were once considered uniquely human, including art and scientific discovery. At first the entry of machines was slow, but this year it became an unstoppable colonizer of these new territories.
Last year, the editors of the journal Science recognized AI tools that predict the 3D structure of proteins from the sequence of their amino acid building blocks. Extending this work, researchers are now using AI to design entirely new proteins that could be used in vaccines, building materials or nanomachines. One technique, called "hallucination," starts with random sequences and mutates them to sequences that other AI tools are confident will fold into stable proteins.
But this year's edition celebrates the neural networks used to create images and videos.
The most impressive evidence - inevitably in social media - comes from so-called "text-to-image" patterns. They use machine learning to analyze pairings of text and images online, finding patterns that allow them to create new images based on new text.
Last year, the OpenAI research lab introduced a software system called DALL-E that, when asked about an "avocado-shaped armchair," could spit out several fascinating examples. This spring, OpenAI released a major upgrade, DALL-E 2. It implemented a machine learning technique called "diffusion," in which images emerge from "noise" guided by context or textual descriptions.
The method can effectively generate realistic and attractive pictures. Several diffusion models became available for public use this year, and an artist using one won a fine art competition, sparking both curiosity and denial.
In October, Google expanded Imagen's creative algorithms to video. Neural networks have now learned to generate videos based on text descriptions. A few days before, researchers from Meta presented a similar algorithm. A little later, Google researchers developed Imagic, a neural network model that edits images based on verbal instructions.
You can read about how such neural networks are already influencing the practice of artists and designers in the article "Is Lensa's artificial intelligence stealing from human art? Expert explains the controversy".
The biggest bacteria
In June of this year, biologists described the largest known bacterium. It is not just larger than all other bacteria, but larger than most of them by about 5000 times. Its cell can reach two centimeters in length. The bacterium was discovered in a mangrove swamp in the Caribbean and is called Thiomargarita magnifica.
Unlike larger, multicellular organisms—eukaryotes like us, which have membrane-enclosed organelles in their cells such as the nucleus—bacteria belong to a group of organisms called prokaryotes, which were traditionally thought to be just "bags of enzymes" without internal membranes to separate genetic material.
RSV vaccines
The editors of the journal Science cite clinical trials of two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as an important breakthrough.
According to studies by Pfizer and GSK, the new vaccines protect infants and the elderly, the groups most at risk from RSV. RSV usually causes only mild cold symptoms, but in infants it can affect the lower respiratory tract and cause bronchiolitis with acute respiratory failure, and in the elderly it can exacerbate heart disease.
Both vaccines prevent severe symptoms in people over the age of 60 without causing serious side effects. They also protect babies from RSV if their mothers are vaccinated late in pregnancy.
Development of RSV vaccines has been halted for decades since more than 50 years ago, during clinical trials of an inactivated vaccine, two children died and 80% of study participants were hospitalized. The scientists later identified the main reason why the vaccine virus was so dangerous to the test subjects: It induced the formation of relatively weak antibodies that not only failed to stop the virus, but through poorly understood mechanisms helped RSV damage the respiratory tract.
New vaccines solve this problem: now antibodies are formed more reliably and in higher concentrations.
The virus responsible for multiple sclerosis
Another breakthrough in 2022 was the discovery that the herpes simplex virus is a major factor in multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease in which the immune system attacks and damages the myelin sheath of neurons in the brain and spinal cord.
Analysis of a vast array of military medical records shows that multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease believed to be of unknown etiology, is a complication of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection.
Epstein-Barr virus, also known as human herpesvirus 4, is a member of the herpes virus family. It is one of the most common human viruses. EBV is found worldwide. Most people become infected with EBV at some point in their lives. EBV is most commonly spread through body fluids, primarily saliva.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The underlying cause of this disease is unknown, but the Epstein-Barr virus is thought to be the possible culprit. But most people infected with this common virus do not develop multiple sclerosis, and it is not possible to directly demonstrate the cause of this disease in humans.
Using data from more than ten million United States military personnel observed over a 20-year period, 955 of whom were diagnosed with MS during their service, Kjetil Bjornevik and colleagues tested the hypothesis that MS is caused by EBV. They found that the risk of developing MS in individuals who were EBV-negative increased 32-fold after EBV infection.
The findings could lead to new ways to treat or prevent the mysterious disease, which causes mild symptoms - including blurred vision, fatigue and numbness - in some 2.8 million sufferers worldwide, but gradually leaves others unable to speak or walk.
America's Climate Act
In 2016, the Paris Agreement was signed as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The signatories of the agreement recognize the need to contain the global increase in the average temperature of the planet within two degrees Celsius by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the laws of the signatory countries themselves prevent the achievement of this ambitious goal. In the US, for example, emissions reductions have not been regulated so far.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which Joe Biden signed on August 16, 2022, is this year's breakthrough. This law should encourage the transition to clean energy and electric cars. Over the next 10 years, $369 billion will be used to finance clean energy sources. The authors of the law believe that by 2030 it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 40%.
The Science editorial notes that the Inflation Reduction Act is a necessary, though still insufficient, measure to meet the US's commitments under the Paris Agreement. In addition to federal law, state laws will also be needed. Similar laws are expected to be adopted soon in other countries that have signed the agreement.
The genetic imprint of the plague
In October, Nature published a paper showing how the Black Death - a plague pandemic in Europe in the 14th century - affected Europeans. After that, Europe's population declined significantly, and subsequent plague outbreaks were less deadly—whether the pathogen changed or the people. The work of geneticists at the University of Chicago shows that the plague changed Europeans quite dramatically.
Geneticists analyzed the DNA of people who died shortly before and after the pandemic and found loci that were most likely to have been under positive selection. It turns out that the Black Death most affected the development of the human immune system.
One of the loci discovered contains the ERAP2 gene, which is linked to the immune system. On the one hand, this can be considered an adaptation to infectious diseases, but changes in this locus also increase the risk of its owners developing autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
The deflection of an asteroid
Another breakthrough in 2022 is the success of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. The mission began two years ago when NASA's DART spacecraft was launched into space -- specifically to collide with the 160-meter asteroid Dimorphos, which is not dangerous to Earth. The mission was intended to alter the asteroid's trajectory to test a controlled collision technique, one way to protect Earth from asteroids.
On September 27, 2022, at 02:14 Bulgarian time, a 550-kilogram probe hits Dimorphos at a speed of over 6 km per second.
A number of space and ground-based telescopes watched the collision to confirm that the asteroid's trajectory had changed. The results even beat scientists' expectations and model estimates: Dimorphos' rotation period around a larger asteroid from the same system changed by as much as 32 minutes - 26 times more than NASA predicted. These results allow scientists to verify the effectiveness of the kinetic deflection method. And also that their models will need to be refined.
An ancient ecosystem reconstructed from 2 million-year-old DNA
The latest breakthrough, which the editors of Science write about, is the discovery of fragments of the oldest DNA in the Kap København formation (Kap København from the Danish "Cape Copenhagen") in northern Greenland.
According to the analysis, the genetic material found is more than two million years old. It is twice as old as the previous record - DNA from a Siberian mammoth bone. Apart from the record age, the importance of the work lies in the fact that molecular biologists were able to recreate an entire ecosystem of multiple species of plants, animals and microorganisms, which at the time was experiencing a dramatic climate crisis, based on sequencing data.
Samples of the genetic material have been stored in a laboratory at the University of Copenhagen since 2006. The ancient DNA in these samples is relatively well preserved because it binds to the minerals in the clay. Thanks to this, modern sequencing methods have produced more than 16 billion records. The results were compared to existing databases of genomes of modern animals, plants and microorganisms, and the ecosystem of Cape Copenhagen two million years ago was recreated. At that time, poplars, birches, arctic grasses and bushes grew there, and mastodons walked among them, as well as the ancestors of modern rabbits, reindeer, rodents.
The Science editors note that genetic adaptations that allowed plants and animals to live in the far North at warmer temperatures than today can be found in these data. And this can be used - for example, to build into the genes of modern plants to adapt crops to a changing climate.
These are the achievements noted by the editors of the journal Science. Are they missing something important? Definitely.
30.12.2022
CHEAPER VIGNETTES FROM JANUARY IN OUR COUNTRY
From January 1, 2023, new prices for vignettes and tolls in our country will come into force, the Road Infrastructure Agency reminds.
All types of electronic vignettes for road vehicles with a total technically permissible maximum mass up to or equal to 3.5 tons will become cheaper by nearly 10%. The annual vignette will cost 87 BGN, the quarterly vignette will be 48 BGN, the monthly – 27 BGN, the weekly – 13 BGN, and the weekend vignette – 9 BGN.
Electronic vignettes bought in December 2022, even if they have an activation period after 00:00 on 01.01.2023, are calculated at the prices valid until the end of the current year. They are as follows - annual vignette - 97 BGN, quarterly - 54 BGN, monthly - 30 BGN, weekly - 15 BGN, weekend vignette - 10 BGN. Therefore, it should be taken into account that if a driver of a motor vehicle facility buys an annual vignette at the end of December 2022, it will be sold at the prices in effect in 2022.
Revenues from tolls at the end of November 2022 are nearly BGN 511 million, the Road Infrastructure Agency reports. Approximately BGN 268 million of them are from e-vignettes, and about BGN 243 million from tolls.
The expected revenue from tolls - e-vignettes and tolls - in 2023 is about BGN 800 million. It is estimated that nearly BGN 550 million of the revenue will come from tolls that vehicles over 3.5 tons pay for tolls distance. About BGN 250 million is the expected revenue from e-vignettes.
The National Toll Administration appeals to users to use the website www.bgtoll.bg or the mobile application to purchase an e-vignette. Electronic vignettes can also be bought through the other sales channels of the Road Infrastructure Agency - at the counter against payment in cash or through a self-billing terminal - with a card. There are counters at the main border checkpoints, as well as in the 27 regional road administrations in the country.
Electronic vignettes are also sold in the partner network of the Road Infrastructure Agency, which includes the sites www.vinetki.bg, www.tollpass.bg, www.digitoll.bg, www.epay.bg and others.
When purchasing an e-vignette, users must carefully review and check the information entered by them or the relevant employee before finally confirming the payment of the toll. The owner or user is responsible for filling in correct information about the vehicle number, its category and the validity period of the vignette. In case of incorrectly declared data, it is considered that the due vignette fee for the respective vehicle has not been paid.
The characters of the registration number can be written in both Cyrillic and Latin letters, but must correspond to the characters in the registration number itself. When writing the number, only letters and numbers are entered. The symbols 0 (zero) and O (letter O) are not interchangeable. 0 (zero) must be written for a digit of the number, and "O" for a letter. In case the registration number contains a dash, period or space, they are not entered.
Persons with 50 percent and more than 50 percent reduced working capacity are entitled to a free e-vignette, as well as families raising children with permanent disabilities up to the age of 18 or until they have completed secondary education, but no older than 20- years old. According to the Road Act, the right is for one car with a power of up to 160 horsepower and engine volume up to 2000 cubic cm.
It should be taken into account that the free electronic vignette does not follow the road vehicle in case of transfer of its ownership. In such a case, the right holder is obliged to notify the Road Infrastructure Agency of the transfer within three working days in order to be issued a new free electronic vignette.
The application for the issuance of a free e-vignette must be submitted by the holder to the "Social Assistance" Directorate at the current address - in person or through an authorized person, by letter or electronically. The social services process and approve the documents within 7 days of submitting the application.
The Social Assistance Agency sends the processed requests daily to the Road Infrastructure Agency, which issues the e-vignette within the next working day.
In case of difficulties and the need for consultation, those wishing to be issued a free e-vignette through the Social Assistance Agency can contact the customer service center of the National Toll Office on tel.: 0700 10 876 or on e-mail: info@bgtoll.bg.
30.12.2022
WHAT IS THE MOST URGENT CHANGE IN LABOR LAW
Comment from the specialist
Despite the unstable political situation, amendments and additions to the Labor Code in Bulgaria were adopted in mid-2022, aiming at the security and predictability of the employment relationship, while preserving its flexibility, as well as improving the possibilities for reconciling work and family obligations.
An important change in this step was the change in the current legislation, which would regulate the individual right of the father (adoptive) to parental leave with a guaranteed right to compensation. Before the 2022 changes, only the mother could enjoy this right.
Through the changes in the Labor Code, some of the rights of employees regarding the information provided by the employer when concluding employment contracts were added, as well as the obligation of the employer to provide information regarding the options and ways to leave work, if the employee so wishes.
Legislation already enables the worker or employee to enter into employment contracts with other employers to perform work outside the working hours established for him under the main employment relationship (external compatibility), unless a prohibition is stipulated in his individual employment contract under his main employment legal relationship due to trade secret protection and/or conflict of interest prevention.
I recall that before the change, the reasons for such a ban were not specified, and thus each employer subjectively had the right to impose a ban on the worker or employee to work in another place. Of course, this does not completely exhaust the changes that were made to the Labor Code in 2022.
What remained unfinished regarding the change in the labor legislation and why it is necessary to take decisive steps towards the legal amendments, answers to the questions are provided by Dr. Todor Kapitanov, an expert in the field of labor law.
Unfortunately, despite the many opportunities on the part of the rulers and despite the serious demands of the workers and the trade union organizations representing them, the problem in the legislation with the regime of introducing the summary calculation of working hours, which for inexplicable reasons in Bulgaria deviates from the international ones, still remains unsolved. requirements, which in practice leads to a deterioration of the health and safety conditions of work, taking away part of the usual free time of the workers and disrupting the balance of the time intended for work, personal time and time for the family.
That is why changes should be urgently made to the legislation, with which the maximum duration of the weekly working time when calculated in aggregate is changed from 56 hours to 52 hours, and such a working regime is only possible in productions with an uninterrupted working regime, as European directives and conventions indicate.
If measures are not taken in this direction, the probability of social tension among workers, expressed through protest actions throughout the country, is extremely high.
Along with inflation and the political crisis in the country, such actions would further deepen the social crisis in Bulgaria. This is another additional reason for the authorities to immediately take action in the direction of regulating the Labor Code in accordance with the requirements of European legislation.
29.12.2022
RIGHT TO SOCIAL BENEFITS IN THE CASE OF A SECOND EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT
According to Art. 111 of the Labor Code, the worker or the employee may enter into employment contracts with other employers to perform work outside the working hours established for him under the main employment relationship (external compatibility), unless otherwise agreed in his individual employment contract under his main employment relationship. Paid annual leave is determined in proportion to the time counted as work experience. The length of service is calculated according to the general rules, being calculated by hours, days and months (Article 355 of the Labor Code). When working under two employment contracts, leave is allowed and used in any legal relationship. There is no obstacle to using a paid annual leave at the same time for both legal relationships in the case of a second employment contract based on Article 111 of the Labor Code.
In the event that the paid annual leave is not used at the same time or leave of different duration is taken, it is possible to apply for the use of paid annual leave from one employer and unpaid leave - from the other employer.
According to Art. 12, para. 8 of the Ordinance on the structure and organization of the salary, the additional remuneration for seniority and professional experience (class) is paid for the time actually worked within the relevant monthly duration of the working time only under the main employment relationship, and in the case of part-time work - under each individual employment contract, until they are supplemented to the corresponding monthly duration of working hours. Therefore, if the main employment relationship is 8 hours, then according to the contract under Art. 111 of the Labor Code, remuneration for work experience and professional experience is not paid.
According to Art. 296 of the Labor Code, the employer provides workers with free work and uniform clothing under conditions and according to the order established by the Council of Ministers or in a collective labor agreement. The Ordinance on free work and uniform clothing (SG, No. 9 of 2011) regulates the order, manner and conditions for providing free work and uniform clothing by employers to employees.
According to Art. 292 of the Labor Code, social, household and cultural services for employees are financed with funds from the employer and from other sources. The manner of using the funds for social, household and cultural services is determined by a decision of the general assembly of workers and employees - art. 293, paragraph 1 of the Labor Code.
Therefore, the funds from the social, domestic and cultural services of the employees are used in the manner determined by the general assembly. In view of the provisions, the employer cannot order the payment or non-payment of funds for social, household and cultural services without a decision of the general assembly of workers and employees.
29.12.2022
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: MY BUSINESS PLAN - WHEN, HOW AND WHY TO UPDATE IT?
Every successful business needs a well thought out business plan. This year is almost over and it's time to quickly check if and what you can change to increase the efficiency of your business and end the year with a sense of satisfaction.
Fact: Businesses that build a business plan at the very start have a 7% higher chance of growth than those that do not rely on one. (Francis J. Greene & Hopp, 2017).
Why do I need to analyze my business plan?
The answer here is simple – because everything changes. You are a different person, your team has evolved, so has the business and industry you work in. These factors give rise to the danger that the goals set at the beginning of the year or when starting the business are no longer relevant.
Here are examples:
Maybe you started with a small online store and a basic service plan in order to validate your idea without risking a large amount. At that point, you've bet your store on low traffic expectations and ignored the need for more than 5 mailboxes because that was the capacity of your team.
Already in the first months, however, the idea proved to be successful, and the product was in demand. You increase your advertising efforts and drive more traffic to the site. Respectively, your team is growing and you need an additional number of professional emails. It's time to move on to the next level with more resources and options to meet your needs.
Similar is the situation where you start with a shared hosting plan, but as your business grows, you feel the need to have your own server space provided by the ManagedVPS service.
Or maybe you started ambitiously, presenting a rich portfolio of products, but sales never reached a level you were satisfied with. A few months in a row filled with financial worries and searching for alternative methods of promotion can be quite frustrating. Even if they make you ask yourself questions like whether you did the right thing at all, is your strategy reasonable, is your site good, etc.
Don't be afraid. By taking the time to rethink the direction of your business development, you can identify gaps at the right time and look for a reliable solution to increase your successes.
How often should I update my business plan?
Many experts say it's a good idea to rethink your business goals at least once a year. We share their opinion, but add that the frequency depends on several important factors:
Your progress so far. Think about how much of your previously set goals you were able to accomplish and over what period of time. When replanning, it is not right to force frequent changes just to note that they are there. Rather, they should be tailored to your gaps and progress to date.
Maybe you thought it would only take a month or two to promote your social media page, but half a year later you're still trying to build an engaged following. This should not discourage you. In the beginning, you hardly had a realistic estimate. Extend the deadline, but don't neglect these channels. Look for alternative quick methods of promotion while you improve yourself.
The development of the industry. Don't be like the fish condemned to not be able to ride a bike, but adapt to the pace of development of the sphere in which you are positioned. Among some businesses, no changes have been implemented in the last 50 years. In others like technology, innovations come daily.
Be flexible and adjust your goals relative to your competitors and customers as their needs change.
It's helpful to create a routine and set aside a few hours each month to read and watch different studies and best practices from businesses similar to yours. This will help you in making correct and timely decisions.
Imagine you are selling homemade honey. It is good to mix the sources of information. Subscribe to a blog, for example, to keep your site and advertising strategy always up to date. However, do not lag behind with the information on improving the technique of keeping the hives, extracting honey and storing it. Quickly apply what you've learned by adjusting your performance.
The new trends. As industries change, so do consumers, generations, laws. From time to time, look at the situation in scale. That way, you'll get out of the details you work with on a daily basis and open your eyes to the big picture. This approach is very useful in setting long-term goals and objectives.
How can I improve my goal setting?
So far we've left quite a bit of food for thought on the plate of your mind, haven't we? Let's get down to practice. Whether you're happy or unhappy with what you've accomplished this year, here's a strategy to help you do even better with goal setting for the next year.
The strategy in English is called SMART and is an abbreviation of the first letters of its main ingredients. Let's see the ingredients of this proven recipe that will help you mix up the most delicious cocktail with goals.
Specific. The more specific and clear your goals are, the easier it will be to achieve them. A subjective and vaguely formulated goal like "I want my business to be the best in the world" sounds enticing, but it doesn't work. Instead, write down the steps you need to take to make your business the best it can be.
Measurable. How will you know you've achieved your goal if you haven't established clear metrics? Let's say you want to increase visits to your online store by the end of the year. This is a clear goal, but to make it measurable, add a number or percentage increase.
"I want to increase visitors to my online store by 20%" is a specific and measurable goal. You can find out how successful it is in just a few clicks using Google Analytics, for example, by tracking the number of visitors over the past 6 months and using that as a starting point.
Achievable. Find out if the goal of increasing visitors to your online store by 20% is achievable by analyzing the market and competitors and by listing the tactics you will implement. What advertising channels will you use? Can you increase your budget to find new people? Can you offer a new feature/addition/benefit to your products or services to attract new users?
If the answers are rather negative, then consider lowering the target or other alternative methods. Strive for a balance between high motivation and challenges. An unattainable but too high target would disappoint you, just as one too easily attainable would make you unnecessarily conceited.
Relevant. And we mentioned above, don't be the fish who suffers because he can't ride a bike. Always match your goals to the situation you are in and your capacity. Ask yourself if with a 20% increase in site visitors, which would potentially lead to more orders, you will be able to serve them well. Better fewer but satisfied customers than very disappointed ones.
Time-bound. The deadline should not be seen as a limitation, on the contrary, it is your guide. Goals left without a deadline often fade over time, and it's far easier to make excuses for not accomplishing them.
Run your entire business plan through this kind of criteria filter to check your clock and validate that you're actually moving in the desired direction. If not, make the necessary changes and move forward boldly.
23.12.2022
JOBSEEKERS WILL BE ABLE TO REGISTER AT AN EMPLOYMENT OFFICE WITHOUT THE NEED FOR AN ON-SITE VISIT
This can be done electronically in accordance with the Law on Electronic Government, through a licensed postal operator or in another appropriate way, published on the website of the Employment Agency.
In case of on-site registration, it can be done at any employment office, regardless of the person's permanent or current address.
This is foreseen by the adopted changes in the Regulations for the implementation of the Employment Promotion Act. The unemployed will be provided with information, counseling, referral services for independent job search or registration in a territorial division of the Employment Agency.
The main objectives are the easing of the administrative procedure for registration in the labor office of jobseekers, the regulation of activities to promote the employment of economically inactive people and the determination of the terms and conditions for financing procedures for validating professional knowledge, skills and competences for the unemployed.
The new regulations reduce the administrative burden for employers applying for employment and training incentives.
To facilitate access to the labor market, labor brokers will guide the unemployed to validate their professional knowledge, skills and competencies. The Employment Agency will publish on its website a list of the institutions that have the right to carry out this validation procedure. The unemployed who wish to join it will submit an application form at the labor offices. For participating in the validation procedure, they will receive funds for a scholarship, transport and accommodation expenses.
23.12.2022
ECB AND BNB WITH AN IMPORTANT AGREEMENT, BRINGING US CLOSER TO THE EURO
An important framework agreement was signed between the Bulgarian National Bank and the European Central Bank, BNB announced. It is linked to the Eurosystem government securities transaction processing platform.
Thus, the Depository of Government Securities, which is owned by the BNB, will be able to offer its participants the so-called "delivery against payment" principle of securities and funds in central bank money.
In 2021, the platform to which the Bulgarian government securities depository is joining processed an average of 700,000 transactions per day.
This is another important step of our financial system on the way to the euro.
23.12.2022
"ARSENAL" IS LOOKING FOR 2000 WORKERS
At the beginning of December, the "Arsenal" weapons plant in Kazanlak opened its office in the center of Stara Zagora, where documents for work will be accepted and forwarded, and anyone who wishes can get acquainted with the available positions on the spot. During the opening, the executive director of "Arsenal" AD and "Arsenal 2000" AD Hristo Ibushev announced that the enterprise is looking for about two thousand workers and specialists in various fields.
"The most important thing is to know that the jobs at "Arsenal" are extremely secure," Ibushev emphasized and pointed out that the company has signed contracts for the next two years. According to him, this year the salaries of the employees of the enterprise have been increased by 63 percent, which is three times higher than the official inflation in the country.
"Salaries are higher than the average for the mechanical engineering sector," he also pointed out and noted that "Arsenal" also offers very good benefits for people with higher education and specialties. "We are one of the few remaining large enterprises in the country, which means that ambitious people have the opportunity to develop professionally," commented Hristo Ibushev and noted that the plant has been the largest employer in the country for over ten years. According to him, the enterprise currently employs about 8,000 people, and in 2015-2016 the number of employees was 11,600.
"We realize that this is quite ambitious, but at the moment our goal is to become 10-11 thousand people," he added. According to Ibushev, the main goal of the opening of the new office is that all interested parties from Stara Zagora and the country can get the information they need on the spot, as well as submit documents for work, without having to travel to Kazanlak for this. "We want to answer our potential workers' questions in person, not over the phone or email," he commented.
Plamen Staykov, head of the "Personnel" department at the company, specified that the variety of positions and professions at the plant is huge. "We have almost 700 types of professions, and the options for working hours are about 48", he pointed out and added that "Arsenal" is one of the few remaining employers in the country that offer a second category of work. "This is quite attractive for many people, because it offers earlier retirement," Stajkov explained. He pointed out that the average salary in the company is currently around BGN 2,050, and there is also a bonus system for each new employee depending on his qualification and position.
"According to this system, each new worker receives between one thousand and two thousand BGN in addition, payable twice - after the third and after the sixth month of his appointment", explained Plamen Staykov. Another social benefit is the free transport, and besides it, the employees from the municipalities of Stara Zagora, Gurkovo and Nikolaevo, who work in the factories in Kazanlak and Maglizh, receive an additional 250 BGN per month for remoteness.
"Every year, all employees at "Arsenal" receive food vouchers worth three thousand BGN - two hundred BGN per month, as well as two hundred BGN on the occasion of Christmas, Easter and the company's holiday in October," commented Staykov. He added that the company also provides free rest in the "Arsenal" hotel complex in Nessebar, which annually benefits about 2,600 people. "The enterprise has medical services, an ambulance, a fire department, a kindergarten, a sports team, and everything is free for the employees," he added.
In 2022, 145 years have passed since the establishment of "Arsenal" AD and 99 years since the establishment of the enterprise in Kazanlak. Over the last few years, the investments made in the company exceed BGN 200 million. In parallel with the renovation of the production workshops, the construction of new facilities and the introduction of modern technological equipment, the company also expands its social program concerning the employees of the companies "Arsenal" AD and "Arsenal 2000" AD.
