Traditional Home Furniture

The different elements of traditional furniture

When you first hear references to the Captain’s bed you immediately think of sailors that have been through the rough seas. However there are practical uses for this piece of furniture in the home. In fact it can help the home owner to increase the enjoyment that they get from their living spaces. All this is achieved with the use of minimalist principles and materials that are actually sustainable. It is a pity that not many people are completely used to the idea that this piece of furniture can make great furnishings for the home.

  1. The Modern bed is great for storage purposes. You have an item of furniture that is used for a variety of functions including storage. If you have security needs you can even put a lock onto the furniture to ensure that it is not easily accessible. The people that run with such a course of action can look for other discreet ways of securing the storage space. The needs of the individual customers will vary and therefore the solutions to their problems cannot be generic. However we can conclude that this piece of furniture is very useful when it comes to protecting your property in storage. The delicate items will not be shifting from side to side and that is a definite advantage.
  2. Depending on the brand that you buy the Usable bed can be very comfortable. You can use the mattresses and other cushions to ensure that you have a very comfortable stay. This will be nothing like the conditions that you can expect in a cramped ship. Instead you will have great flexibility in terms of the way that you can arrange your home yet at the same time you will be living in relative comfort. It is the thing that is making this piece of furniture very popular with the public. Even children might be able to use if you take the necessary safety precautions. In using the item you are really just getting the benefits that the manufacturers planned all along.
  3. You can use sustainable materials for the Captain’s bed. This means that you do not have to restrict yourself to wood. It is possible to look at the other alternatives and see whether they can do the job effectively. At the same time you will be playing your role in securing the environment. This is the dual role that you can look to in order to ensure that you are getting the maximum benefits from the purchases that you make for your home in terms of furniture.
  4. Space is utilized responsibly when you buy the Captain’s bed. If you live in the modern homes where the space that is available to you is at a premium, this can be a great solution to your problems. You will be able to fit in well and yet you will have the extra room to store your property as well. This is a complete furniture piece.

Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Puts A Damper On Many Travel Plans

As many of you may know by now, especially if you have upcoming plans to travel to one of our neighboring countries like Canada or Mexico, your travel plans just might be at risk. “The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act or 2004 requires the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State to develop and implement a plan to require all travelers, U.S. citizens and foreign nationals alike, to present a passport or other document, or a combination of documents, that denote identity and citizenship when entering the United States. Congress amended portions of the Act in 2006. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative is the Administration’s proposed plan to implement this mandate.” So what does this mean? Well, for starters, if you’re traveling to Mexico, Canada, Bermuda or the Caribbean, you are now required to obtain a passport for your travels outside the United States.

You could, not to long ago, travel to Canada or Mexico as easily as traveling to visit your parents 5 states away. Not anymore. The Federal government’s goal to “strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for U.S. citizens and legitimate foreign visitors” now requires all travelers to basically “check-in” by obtaining a passport for identification and proof of citizenship. This is an absolute necessity to secure our borders against un-authorized access with the foremost hopes of preventing terrorist acts by individuals abroad. Unfortunately, the policy and enforcement on border security will affect both incoming travelers and domestic travelers going abroad. As of January 2007, traveling to Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean is now considered “traveling abroad,” where once we could travel to the above countries with limited or no documentation needed at all.

So how does this affect travel to Canada? Or Mexico? Or Bermuda? Or the Caribbean? Well the short answer for you is not much. But if you’re like me, and take family vacations annually to Mexico, it might cost a bit more this year. Take for example a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children under 16 years). The cost of our trip just exploded because by law, I am now required to obtain a passport for each individual crossing in and out of the United States. So, lets see, not only do I have to pay for the monetary cost associated with obtaining a passport, 4 passports in this example, but I now have to take the time out of my day to find out where I can pick up 4 passport applications; then fill them out, and then find a place that will take my passport photo to be attached with the passport application. I’m not done…I have to round up my entire family to go on this passport excursion. Do I pull my kids out of school for this? Do they miss band or sports practice after school? Do I waste an hour and fight traffic with my family just to find our passport applications and a place that will take our passport photo? Unfortunately, this scenario will look all too common in 2007 and beyond as the Federal government continues to increase security for our Country. My advice is to get your passport early and beat the rush. And if your lucky, you can find someone who will come out to your work place or home and furnish all your passport needs, from forms to photos, like Mobile Passport Photos in the Midwest.

Small Business Owners: Improving Profits in Daily Operations

When you own a small business, there are dozens of people and projects vying for your time and attention. It can get hard to figure out where to focus your resources and easy to become overwhelmed.

Furthermore, in my years of consulting what I have found to be the difference in success or failure of a business was not the amount of money, a business owner had on hand, nor the education level of the management team. It was his or her daily habits and beliefs, that determined success or the lack there of.

What is profit? It is simply, how much money the business makes after transaction and paying taxes is over.

Traditional thinking about profit says, Revenue – Expenses = Profit. However, this method fails to measure lost opportunity.

What is lost opportunity?

First, business has people performing activities each day. The lost opportunity is in not measuring, managing and leveraging those activities on a real-time basis.

Management fact, your company profitability depends on how well your people consistently perform specific activities minimizing errors.

The following are 12 tips to help your business increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition.

1 – Living a balanced life

A. Work and business are not the be-all and end-all of your life. Learn to have fun! Spend more time with your family. Take a vacation once in a while. Engage in activities that will rejuvenate your spirit and your life. Take care of yourself, and your health, exercise and eat fruits and vegetables. Your productivity and focus will improve if you are stress-free and healthy. Bad health and divorces has destroyed more businesses than I have room to write about in this article.

2 – The Destination: Goals, Themes and Vision

A. Go find your business plans and update it. Since your business’ inception, a number of factors must have changed – from the overall business climate to your product line. Take all those changes into consideration, consider the business and economic climate, factor in your and your family’s goals, and get a clear assessment of the direction of your business. Get in touch with your business coaches, if any. What is your overall vision of your business? What are your goals 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now? What is your business theme and brand to your customers? Is it relevant to your business and memorable and fun for your customers?

B. Setting Team Expectations

1. Small business owners need to insure all managers and employees are on the ‘same page’ daily. Setting proper team expectations and accountability, is the most impactful thing you can do to insure the success of your business. Have weekly meetings with management teams to discuss accomplishments and challenges.

3 – The System: Starting your day off with motivations

A. Take a notebook (or a laptop or tablet) and jot down your thoughts and plans for the day. Whether you prefer doing this in the morning or in the evening, it is always best to take a step back, review what happened during the day (or the day before), and think of ways how you can do better. Take time to review your profit scorecard, in order to find quick hits and losses. Send out an email where you see outstanding work, done the previous day.

B. Figure out the 20% of activities that are producing 80% of desired results. Eliminate activities that are keeping you busy but not producing results, daily.

4 – Understand Customer Needs

A. Write down ideas, whether for your marketing strategies, product lines, or new projects that you want to take on. List your ideas on how to expand and energize your business. Only through innovation and continuing adoption of relevant new products and ideas can your business improve its competitiveness and profitability.

B. Take time to tap into your customer database and get in touch with your existing customers. Whether by phone, email or letter, contact your customers to greet them and remind them that your business is ready to serve them again. Get their opinions about what they think about your business (and make getting customer feedback a part of your business processes). You need to constantly look for ways to encourage repeat business. Although marketing and advertising are important to get more customers, quality, service and customer satisfaction are what keep a business successful in the long run.

5 – Understand the Profit Formula in your day to day operations

A. What are the critical success factors in your business, daily and monthly targets to meet or exceed annual profitability?

B. Develop an executive dashboard for monitoring operational progress on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

C. Compare the employee time documentation with information gathered from your operational monitoring process. If productivity is not meeting or exceeding goals, look at employee time logs where time is not being used as effectively as possible and make adjustments to that employee’s job role. If operations are running on track with goals, consider elevating goals by small increments until you reach a point of break-even.

6 – Keep employees involved, motivated and trained

A. Good employees are hard to find; yet they are an important element in your business. It all comes down to choosing the right person and personality type for each role so that no one is doing tasks that they resent. Forget coaching weaknesses (too time consuming), focus on leveraging strengths and passions. Check to see if they are getting what they need and make them part of the team. Help them understand the importance of their role in your business and how their job impacts the business as a whole. Review your relationship with your employees and find ways to keep your relationship happy and avoid costly attrition.

B. Hiring the right leader, someone who owns the operation from start to finish.

1. The small business owner needs to hire a operations leader to own the operation from start to finish. This person should be obsessed with the details, the metrics, and the numbers. They should be elated to hit their goals, inspired by business coaching to do better when they miss it. They love the success of your company; it’s not a job but an adventure to them.

7 – Keep an eye on new opportunities, markets and products

A. Start the year by exploring new markets for your business. Whether you are looking at targeting a new demographic or getting your business up on the web, take time to plan how you can expand your existing market. Look for ways to improve your marketing, whether by winning easy publicity, arranging an open house or preparing direct mails.

8 – Find Ways to Operate efficiently with lower cost

A. Motivate employees with production goals and ask employees and managers what they need to improve workplace operations. If suggestions seem practical and are within budget, consider implementing them. Example, only scheduling 30 minute meetings unless subject requires extra attention.

B. Documenting your Processes

1. Document the workflow of every operation within the business, with policy and procedures and special customer instructions. Yes, this is a time-consuming, tedious, boring exercise, initially. However, if you are able to provide clear and concise documentation to your team, it leaves very little room for things to be miscommunicated. Documentation makes it easier to onboard new employees, saves business from being reliant on any one person and allows the business to continuously improve and innovate operations, without having to waste months and money, researching and gathering workflow procedures from inexperience contract workers. Documenting helps to avoid ‘lost opportunity’ of being slow to change operations in the marketplace.

9 – Use Process Improvement initiatives to your competitive advantage

Six Sigma methodologies is a tool that can be utilized to improve process, people and profits. By establishing performance measures for key processes, asking the following questions.

• What is the purpose of the key process?

• What is the expected deliverable?

• How will the process owner know if there process has succeeded?

Six sigma benefits for small businesses are

1. Provides a road map and tools to determine root causes and solve problems

2. Reliable facts for decision making, improved metrics and measurements

3. Improvement in order accuracies and on time delivery

4. Improvement in labor efficiencies enterprise wide

5. Increased customer confidence and profitability (customer buy more better quality)

As a business owner, it is vital that you understand how ‘technology’ helps me to make more money by eliminating errors, overhead expenses and attracting more customers.

Invest in new technology that will help streamline operations and improve productivity, after processes have been documented. This could include new computers or equipment related to your industry or designing more efficient work stations and telephone systems. Provide training for new hires to ensure they are aware of how to effectively perform the functions of their job. If seasoned employees are underperforming, send them for training refresher courses.

Documenting processes, installing six sigma and implementing technology improves the customer experience with your business, making your profit planning measurements more transparent to employees throughout the enterprise.

Implementing an employee recognition system and recommendation process, continuously improves operations aligning performance with corporate vision, mission, performance measurements and corporate profit scorecard. Quality improves your customer emotional attachment to your business. Loyal customers are repeat customers which will recruit others to your business, increasing profits.

10 – Identify and Resolve Weak Spots in the System

A. Take stock of all aspects of your business operation and list down the areas that you want to improve. If your list of delinquent receivables is longer than Santa’s list, find out how you can improve your billing and collection process. Perhaps you need to improve your record keeping to help flag you on delinquent accounts

11 – Keep an eye on your competition

A way to get the inside edge on your competitors is by asking your customers for help. This need not be especially difficult or complex. Simply ask your customers (in the form of a survey or follow-up call) if there’s anything a competitor does (or sells) that they wish you did. Now, the idea isn’t that you’ll necessarily turn on a dime and honor every request that comes in.

Own a share of stock in their publicly-traded competitors. This alone entitles you to detailed financial information about the company each and every year. But what if you and your competitors aren’t public companies? The basic idea is the same: any financial data you can get your hands on is worth having. You want to know as much as possible about what their costs are, who their suppliers are and how you stack up in comparison.

If there is a trade journal or research study about your industry, now is the time to subscribe – and digest what it contains.

In addition to using your competitor’s products, you should go through and closely study their sales funnel. Every successful business has a system for attracting, educating, selling and following up with customers. Whether it’s via direct mail, Internet marketing or the telephone, this is the infrastructure that actually turns their prospects into buyers. How do you know if your sales funnel is performing at max capacity if you don’t compare it to the competition?

12 – Go Play Golf: Network, Network, Network

Effective business networking is the linking together of individuals who, through trust and relationship building, become walking, talking advertisements for your business.

Join business associations to meet other business owners, you might be surprised at who will assist you towards your success or what ideas you hear that can solve your current dilemma.

Join your areas Chamber of Commerce and participate in community service events. Get involved in your community by volunteering, donating to and/or sponsor local events. It gives you the opportunity to network with other business owners and maybe cross promote with others. These monthly meetings let you know what going on economically in your area.

What You Need To Know About Online Education

Generally, online education needs someone who has self-discipline, knowledgeable with modern technology, and someone who is organized. Students of online education should believe that education is not confined within the four corners of a traditional school setting. To determine whether or not online education is the right thing for you, here are some factors to consider.

Taking up a college course is essential to your success. There’s a ninety percent chance of you completing the course and getting your degree if the purpose for which to take up a college course is to advance your career or set an example to children or to have a better standard of living. Internet education is the right method if you are quiet and reserved as opposed to someone who’s a social butterfly. There are studies that show that quiet students often thrive in online courses.

If you are a motivated person, online education is the better choice than in the traditional setting. This is because completing the degree will require a huge amount of commitment and discipline on your part. The fact that you get to study along can also prove beneficial to someone who wants to pursue online education. This does not mean, however, that will not be dealing with other students. Online education will entail classroom discussion through the internet. Thus, there will still be interaction among the students.

The method in which you prefer to be taught will also influence your decision on whether or not internet education is the right thing for you. If you learn more things through audible or visual techniques, then go for the traditional education setting. However, if you prefer reading and writing, then online education is for you. This is because the courses will require more of written words in the asking and answering of questions.

When you choose to pursue online education, you will have to devote a certain time of the day to work on the course. Whether the requirement is related to reading, researching or writing a report, your education will still need a bit of your time.

The demands in pursuing an internet education course will need a high-speed computer that has the capacity and hard drive space for the software programs of your course. This will not work on an old computer. Also, you will need a good working internet connection. This kind of education entails more time on the internet researching for course work. Thus, the student should have a working, if not advanced, knowledge in this particular field.