Monthly Archives: May 2015

Top 5 Signs You Need a New Roof

The idea of getting a new roof scares most homeowners like you wouldn’t believe. After all, it likely means that you’re going to be shelling out at least a few thousand dollars, and in some cases, maybe as much as $5,000 to $10,000.

However, there are some times when getting a new roof will actually save you money in the long run. If your roof if showing any of these signs make sure you seek out a qualified roofing contractor for a quote before something goes very wrong. That could cost you a whole lot more money in the long run.

1. Your roof has a hole in it. It might sound obvious, but if your roof has a hole, that means severe structural damage. Replace it before it collapses.

2. The roof looks water-damaged. If it hasn’t been raining, this could mean a collapse in the very near future. That can be dangerous and very costly.

3. Your roofing tile is damaged. Tile roofing is heavy and if it falls it could hurt you. It could also damage another part of your home. Fix it as soon as possible to avoid spending a lot of cash in the long run.

4. The roof was damaged. Burns, snow and hail can all damage your roof. Get this fixed as soon as you possibly can.

5. Trees have damaged your roof. This can be a structural issue and you need to have it repaired or the roof replaced immediately.

How to Handle Bullies at Work

It’s a nice thought that bullies go away after you leave elementary school, but the truth is that bullies can show up at any point throughout your life, no matter how old you are. Here’s how to handle bullies in the work place.

1. Acknowledge that you’re being bullied. Understand that it’s simply not acceptable, even if the bully is a manager who you report to. No successful person, like Ian MacKechnie, ever got where they are by being walked on by others.

2. Don’t deal with it alone. Find a trusted friend or co-worker to confide in. Tell them what’s been happening. Allow them to support and guide you. Even better is if you can find a mentor or someone in a senior position at your job to talk to. If you notice that others are being bullied in the same way or by the same people, reach out to them. Together, you can come up with a plan of action.

3. Take care of yourself. Being bullied can have a major impact on your health. If your stress level has been high, you’ll need to find ways to soothe yourself. In order to deal with a bully, you have to have energy and confidence. Make sure to stay healthy in your day to day life. If necessary, take a personal day to clear your head.

4. Prep your case. By writing everything down, you’ll remind yourself of what’s really been going on. You’ll be clear on the events so that it’s easier to explain them to someone else. Be clear about what’s been happening and when it’s been taking place. Document events with as much detail as possible. If other people witnessed the bullying, document this as well. The more of a case you have, the more likely it is that something will be done about the bully.

5. Know when it’s finally time to take action. Don’t put yourself or your job in danger, but respectfully and with a level head approach the problem. Confront the bully and be direct. If they exhibit bullying behavior during the confrontation, point it out. Even if nothing changes, you’ll at least know that you tried to deal with the problem the best way you know how. Then, you can move on to finding other solutions.

6. Report the behavior to your boss or the Human Resources department. If your boss is the person who’s bullying you, talk to their superior.

7. When nothing seems to work, consider finding a new job. If management is responsible for the bullying, there may not be anything you can do to stop it.

Bullies make life more difficult than necessary for their employees and even their co-workers. If you’re being bullied, you don’t have to put up with that kind of treatment. Even making a huge change, like leaving your job, is better than being mistreated every day.

Tips for Conserving Energy at the Workplace

In 1900, the earth had about 1.6 billion people. Today, there are over 6 billion people. Each of these people needs to use energy, and a way has to be found to meet this demand. It is easy to imagine that man can produce more energy. But the sources of this energy are slowly being depleted. Also, more power means more pollution. This is the reason Sentry Energy Production LLC is recommending the following tips to help conserve energy in the workplace.

1. Upgrade your equipment

Certain models of copy machines, printers, computers and other types of office equipment can consume between 60 and 90 percent more energy compared to energy-efficient models.

• Change your office equipment to equipment that have the “Energy Star” logo. These ensure that all equipment are designed specifically to reduce and save costs on energy consumption
• Use laptop computers instead of desktop computers, and inkjet printers instead of laser printers to save up to 90 percent more energy

2. At the end of every workday, turn off your electronic equipment

Plug all your electronic equipment into one power strip and turn it off every night. Electronics such as copy machines and computers will continue to consume energy as long as they are plugged into power although they have been turned off.

3. Enable the sleep modes and hibernation on your computers

Doing this enables your computers to save energy when you take short breaks or go to meetings without turning the equipment off. Thus, on Windows computers, change the power settings in the Control Panel, while, on Apple computers, you can modify them in the System Preferences menu.

4. Use natural sunlight

If your office is designed to receive sufficient sunlight, you can turn off the lights completely for most of your workday.

• Remove or trim bushes and trees near your windows to improve your exposure to sunlight and prevent shadows
• Paint your office walls white or another light shade to enhance the effect of the natural sunlight in your office space

5. Install weather strips around windows and doors

Doing this prevents air from escaping from the office when the heater or air conditioner is running. This is especially important for offices situated in areas with severe weather.

6. Clean and repair the heating, venting and air conditioning (HVAC) in your office regularly

A clean and functional HVAC system will help reduce your energy consumption. But faulty or dirty HVAC systems will overwork to heat or cool your room. Also, clean all condensers, coils, evaporators, and heat exchange surfaces at least once in a month. Sometimes, you may have to hire a professional HVAC contractor to perform these tasks for you in a safe and efficient way.

7. Modify the office temperature when not in use

During weekends and after working hours, you can save energy by increasing the thermostat temperature during hot weather, or by lowering the temperature during cold weather.

• Before leaving your office during summers, increase the temperature to above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6 degrees Celsius)
• Before leaving the office during winter months, set the temperature to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 degrees Celsius)

Using more energy means more energy sources being depleted. Use the above tips to save energy in your workplace. They will go a long way in reducing your monthly expenditure on energy bills.

Save On Your Household Expenses With These Tips

Whether you live by yourself, with a roommate, or with a big family, it’s important to manage your household expenses.

1. Use an electric shaver instead of throwing money away on disposable razors and shaving cream. Plus, you’ll cut down on how long it takes to shave every day. These razors work well for both men and women. You’ll need to replace the head after a few months, but that’s the only related expense.

2. Switch to a healthy diet. Believe it or not, healthy food costs less than junk food, contrary to popular opinion. Also, take this opportunity to expand your gardening and cooking skills. By growing some of your own food and preparing most of your meals at home, you’ll cut down on the costs or ordering in and eating out. Your grocery bill will be smaller, too.

3. Walk and hike instead of paying for a gym membership.

4. Dress in cozy clothing during the winter. If you walk around your house in a t-shirt and shorts, you’re bound to need the temperature turned up. By putting on heavier clothing, you’ll save on your heating bill. Consider switching your utilities provider, too. Compare prices from various providers, including Columbia Utilities.

5. Keep an eye out for great bargains, even if you don’t need certain items at this moment. When it comes to items you go through often, like paper towels, cleaning supplies, and food staples, it’s a good idea to scoop up some extra whenever there’s a sale.

6. Don’t blindly spend money on the latest tech gadget. Instead, read up about it, comparison shop, and check out user reviews. Also, ask yourself if you really need this item or if you have another gadget that does the same thing. For example, if your phone has built-in GPS, you probably don’t need to purchase a separate GPS machine.

7. Cut out some of your bad habits. How will this save you money? If you smoke, you could be spending as much as $70 per week just on cigarettes. If you’re a compulsive shopper, it’s clear where most of your paycheck is going.

8. When there’s a book you want to browse or a magazine you’re dying to read, consider heading to the library instead of the bookstore.

By keeping household costs down, you’ll have more money in your emergency and savings funds!

Products Featured on Shark Tank

I am sure that you have heard about a show called Shark Tank. You might be even one of those people who watch the show regularly anticipating what kind of new inventions you are going to see that day. I personally used to be addicted to the British version of the show (Dragon’s Den) and have watched a number of episodes.

One of the nicest things about products featured on the shows is the fact that you are guaranteed to see some products that you have never see before or ones that you wouldn’t even think about yourself. The sky is the limit when it comes to what sort of inventions people can come up with. Some of them are really brilliant. Of course, some of them are completely ridiculous and don’t receive the approval of those who review them, but in the end those that stand out get eventually funded.

Over the years, I have seen some really great products featured on the show and some if not most of them really piqued my interest. It turns out that for people like me who are interested in the inventions presented on the show there is a place that allows you to buy all of the products featured there. In other words, you can get all shark tank products in one place instead of the hassle of looking for the all over the Internet. This can be very convenient for those who like to have everything in one place.

One feature of the website I like a lot is being able to browse the products by season. This way, if you more or less remember something based on when you watched it, you shouldn’t have any problems finding it. It is as simple as that. Just browse by season and you should be able to find anything you want easily and without hassle.

How to Deal with Waste

If you are a restaurant owner, you deal with a lot of waste every single day. You probably have your garbage b in filled to the brim every day and you probably don’t know what to do with it. Well, the good news is that there are some effective ways to deal with waste in a way you might not have thought even possible.

Do you know that in order to reduce the size and volume of your waste you can use general waste compactors? It turns out that you can reduce up to 80% of the garbage you produce with the help of a simple compactor that makes all the difference. All you need to do is to employ this type of solution in your business area and you are ready to go.

There are many benefits of using waste compactors. One of the most obvious ones is that you produce less garbage and by doing so you become more environmental friendly. In this day and age, when every household produces so much waste, it is very important to find the right means to reduce their volume. It is probably one of the best things you can do for the environment, one you can be proud of as a business owner.

Guitar Maintenance

If you want to get the most out of your guitar you need to take proper care of it or it will stop serving you. You need to make sure that your instrument is always in tip top shape. One way to achieve this is to take advantage of something called dimebag darrell tuning. The earlier you are going to realize the importance of it, the more time you will have to enjoy it.

5 Apps for the Photographer

The ever-growing world of applications on your phone has meant that there is something or other for everyone. And guess what? Photographers are surely not to be left out of this phenomenon. One of the newest mobile platform – Android, has literally enabled millions of photographers around the world to use different applications dedicated for photography to be used on it. Out of many thousand applications you’ll come across in the market, there are few that every photographer has to try out before retires in this field. Given below are some of these interesting applications:

1. PicPlz

This is one popular application that really needs no introduction at all. This photography application comes along with plenty of filtering options like cross processing, monochrome and vintage. Interestingly, all these effects can be implemented on the photos that are already stored in your phone gallery or the ones you had shot through this application. The final photos can be stored across various places like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, in addition to getting stored in the application itself.

2. QuicPic

If you’re tired of using the same old gallery application in your Android phone, then QuicPic provides an interesting and useful alternative to it. This photography application has got exhaustive collection of albums in it. That’s not all; there are plenty of setting options you can exercise using this application. Hence, QuicPic can be considered as one of the best user-friendly and organized applications for photographers in the market today. All the available albums can be sorted by date, path and name.

3. Photo Grid

This useful photography application will let the user to carve out beautiful collages from the photos already taken by you through your phone. The best part with this application is that once a collage is created, it can be tweaked as many times as you want. You can do this by swapping the images and adjusting which frame to be displayed over the frame and so on. It is interesting to note that a collage can be created using photos ranging from 2 to 9. Different types of layouts can be used for this purpose.

4. SilentCam

This is yet another wonder application that lets you take photographs without creating any shutter sound. It is often seen that most cameras make a lot of sound while taking photos; this application however does not do so. In fact, using this application it is possible to take a photo and not let anyone near you notice it. It can be used as a standby application for your default camera.

5. QikCam

Chances are always there that you might have missed an opportunity to take compelling pictures just when you thought your phone camera would work for you. But do not worry about such opportunities as QikCam will help you take a photo instantly. This small application is what you need by your side if you really want to capture a glorious moment without letting it go past you. Another version of this application is getting ready for a launch. This application is believed to have the capacity to shoot different videos.

Bio:

Jane Freeman is a blogger and travel nomad. You can follow her travels at http://www.travelbusy.com/blog/

Telemarketing

Everybody knows about the bad side of telemarketing: the pressure on the employees, the nasty names they are called when they ring at the wrong time, the high employee turnover rates and problems with out-sourced call centres.

But not all telemarketing companies are created equal. The bad side mentioned above often applies more to telesales than telemarketing. Telesales is where customers are sold a product on the phone, or encouraged to upgrade instead of cancelling their account. The now-infamous Comcast call between the customer service representative and the VP of AOL is a scene repeated across many similar companies, at least according to the tales shared at Gizmodo (article by Ashley Feinberg, 28 July 2014).

Telemarketing, on the other hand, is an earlier stage of the process; more about creating opportunities, talking to leads, generating interest in a product, organising face-to-face appointments and soliciting feedback. It’s perhaps a slightly slower paced environment than telesales, and therefore less pressured. Those automated feedback surveys the commenters mention in the Gizmodo article are still there though, even though the one I just completed for the bank was only four questions long and actually required me to voice my opinion rather than simply pressing buttons to indicate a rating score.

So, how do you decide whether a telemarketing company is right for your business? This is one area where you are allowed to ask questions which would be outlawed in a job interview. You can ask where the call centres or freelance agents are located. You can ask whether the customer service representatives (CSRs) have experience with your company’s field of business. You should ask whether the telemarketing firm records their calls and request information on their success rate and scripting policies. Ideally you should be involved in creating the script for the CSRs to deliver, as that ensures the right message is conveyed.

After all, telemarketing is often about first impressions, promoting new products based on customers’ existing experience with the organisation, or ensuring ongoing loyalty to a brand or company. You hardly want to risk losing or alienating customers at that stage. Retention should be a key strategy, not a battleground. CSRs need to know when to accept defeat, regardless of the hit to their bottom line or the company’s customer figures. Letting a customer go when they can’t see a single good thing about the company is better than being pasted on social media in the act of failed retention.

A polite ‘is there anything more I can help you with today?’ or ‘can I tell you more about our full range of products?’ will be far more likely to end the call on a peaceful note than the battleground depicted in the Comcast call. Such an approach is more likely to reflect positively on both your company and the telemarketing firm too.

Fils Production and Businesses

Тhе рrіmаrу соnsіdеrаtіоn whу vіdео іs nоt bеіng іmрlеmеntеd tоgеthеr wіth thе mаrkеtіng sсhеmе іs duе tо thе іntrісасу оf іts рrоduсtіоn which can be very puzzling for the average business owner. Тhоsе whо hаvе nо ехреrіеnсе wіth fіlm рrоduсtіоn wіll surеlу nоt bе аblе tо сrеаtе а gооd оnе. Аlthоugh thеrе аrе mаnу tооls thаt аllоw реорlе tо rесоrd vіdеоs іn thеm, еvеn smаrt рhоnеs аnd саmеrаs wіth grеаt fеаturеs, thе оnеs thаt саn bе соnsіdеrеd quаlіtу mаrkеtіng mаtеrіаl аrе саrеfullу рlаnnеd аnd ехесutеd. Тhеrе wіll stіll bе а lоt оf vіdео еdіtіng dоnе оn rаw сlірs іn оrdеr tо соnvеу thе mеssаgе рrореrlу tо thе rіght tаrgеt mаrkеt.

Іt іs а fаіrlу соmрlех рrосеss аnd thеrе shоuld bе а dіffеrеnсе bеtwееn slорру vіdеоs аnd уоur соmраnу’s vіdеоs bесаusе іf thеrе іs nоt, thеn уоu аrе rіskіng thе tооl thаt shоuld tаkе уоur rерutаtіоn tо а hіghеr lеvеl.

Неrе аrе sоmе tірs tо сrеаtіng а grеаt vіdео fоr usе іn уоur mаrkеtіng strаtеgу:

Vіdео рrоduсtіоn rеquіrеs mеtісulоus рlаnnіng. Іf уоu аrе wоrkіng wіth аnоthеr соmраnу thаt сrеаtеs vіdеоs, thеn уоu аrе оn thе rіght trасk bесаusе іt wоn’t bе еаsу fоr аnуbоdу whо hаs nо ехреrіеnсе dоіng vіdеоs. Ваsісаllу, іt wоuld nееd thе suрроrt оf а gооd sсrірt wrіtеr sо thаt thе соntеnt оf thе vіdео wіll bе unіfіеd wіth thе сlірs. Аs thе vіdео іs bеіng рrоduсеd, thеrе wіll bе mаnу еvаluаtіоn dоnе оn hоw іt іs рrеsеntеd аnd thе fіlm рrоduсtіоn tеаm wіll bе thеrе tо rе-dо еvеrуthіng іf thе quаlіtу іs nоt gооd. Тhіs іs hоw іntrісаtе рrоduсіng а vіdео іs.

Νехt, уоu hаvе tо tаrgеt thе tуре оf аudіеnсе уоu wаnt tо rеасh wіth thе vіdео. Whаt аgе grоuр wоuld уоu wаnt tо wаtсh thе vіdео? Іs іt fоr sеnіоr сіtіzеns, оr fоr mеn whо аrе rаіsіng а fаmіlу? Мееt wіth thе mаrkеtіng tеаm tо dеtеrmіnе whісh grоuр оf реорlе wіll bе mоst іntеrеstеd іn thе vіdео рrоduсtіоn. Whеn уоu аrе соnsіdеrіng іt fоr а уоungеr аudіеnсе, thеn mаkе thе vіdео uрbеаt аnd сrеаtе аn еlеmеnt оf сurіоsіtу thаt оnlу уоung реорlе саn gеt іntеrеstеd іn.

Fоr аn оldеr аudіеnсе, уоu hаvе tо mаkе thе vіdео а lіttlе slоwеr sіnсе а fаst-расеd рrеsеntаtіоn wіll dіsарроіnt thеsе реорlе. Тhеу wаnt sоmеthіng thеу саn dіgеst, sо mаkе thе расе slоwеr thаn thе оnе іntеndеd fоr уоungеr реорlе. аlsо, bеаr іn mіnd thаt mоst оldеr реорlе аrе slоw оf hеаrіng sо thеу nееd thе асtоr оr nаrrаtоr tо sреаk thе wоrds сlеаrlу аnd rеfrаіn frоm usіng lаnguаgе thаt аrе fіttеd fоr thе уоung gеnеrаtіоn suсh аs strееt lіngоs.