Good Contract with a Good Contractor

 

Contractors in any field are easy to find via Google or word of mouth but how do you get a reliable one out of all those around? You research and check your sources  before the final hire is the simplest answer.

Review reviews! The great thing about the internet is that we can go to a contractor’s website, social media pages and Google page for reviews or comments about their services. A good suggestion by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is to search the name of a company with the words “scam” or “complaint” in the search to see what pops up. Asking neighbors, family, or friends about any projects they have done and if they are able to recommend who they’ve enjoyed using.

Understand the what your project is as an entirety. Knowing what it is that you want completed, how you want it completed, the idea cost of materials and what you’re hoping vs expecting to pay is helpful in trusting the estimates you get. Getting more than one estimate also gives you a range of how far your pocket book can expand and also helps in seeing which company will provide the best customer service on top of the services you’re expecting. The least expensive option isn’t always the best option but neither is the most expensive. Really get a feel of who you want to work with.

While researching your prospective contractors, look for red flags such as those without a license (if required), bonded or with no insurance, and finally those who don’t have or won’t give a reference. Will the company have a portfolio or allow you to see any of their work? Ask the company about their past experiences in projects like yours and how they felt about the ending result. All of these questions keep the contractor honest and show the pride they take in their own work.

When deciding on your contractor, check to see if they require deposits and never pay the contractor in full before the job is completed. Make sure to read over any estimate paperwork, the contract, ask about the logistics of the project, will there need to be any permits pulled and who is responsible for pulling the permits? Make sure you have great communication with the contractor that is hired. Being able to talk often is important to keep the project on time or to know if there are any mishaps that need to be taken care of.

Doing the research you need to do is important in finding the contractor you can trust with your project no matter how big or small the repairs or renovations are. Being diligent before the project starts will only save you time and money with a great experience at the end of your project.

Earth Saving

Protecting our seems like it can be too big a job, but all the little things that everybody could do and pitch in can add up to make a difference for our Earth. Some small steps to begin with are recycle more and use more reusable cups and straws, don’t throw harsh chemicals into the water system, use long lasting light bulbs, try to drive less, try to conserve water and volunteer at cleanup events.

Recycling can seem to be a tedious chore but when you’re really careful about it and know what items can be recycled to make into new items to be used again or in another form, it can be a second nature. The less trash we throw away into our landfills creating mountains of debris buried in our soil helps from causing hazardous waste where we grow a lot of our food. Ways to recycle include using reusable cups and reusable straws. You see it all the time with ads on saving the turtles by using reusable straws or no straws at all, as most of the straws we use end up in the ocean and affecting not just turtles but all sea creatures. This can be dangerous for people too since the sea contains a lot of our food for survival. And not only our survival but survival for land animals that also use our seas and waters for food.

Long lasting light bulbs are beneficial in the sense that we’re not throwing away constantly burned out bulbs in the trash but also helps to conserve the energy used. Conserving energy helps to efficiently run not only our homes but other important businesses such as hospitals, jails, schools, super markets and factories. The power grid can be a very sensitive operation and taking care of it the best we can with the use of solar panels or longer lasting light bulbs can help conserve the energy we need.

Driving less can prove to be a heartache responsibility but also proves to be an efficient way to save our air quality. A lot of state inspections do include emissions tests but a lot of states don’t and bad omissions going in the air and gas usage all causes stress and pollution to our earth's atmosphere. At some point it’s going to be very hard to breathe our air and sustain our plant life.

One of the easiest ways to help with our earth's pollution crisis is to join a volunteer cleanup group with your friends, family or local community users and do the little things like pick up trash, plant some trees, clean up the beaches and even teach others about the importance of recycling.

The earth is our responsibility and there are so many ways we can continue to protect it from the harm of everyday living. It’s a tough job but if we were able to all work together we could definitely keep our earth the cleanest place that we want to live.

National Small Business Week

 

The world of small businesses is very large and wide. It continues to grow with more than 32.5 million small businesses around the world. These Businesses can range from brick-and-mortar to in-home e-commerce based. A lot of these business courageously started with an idea to be able to control their own time, their own work ethic, their own goals and to break free from the traditional politics of a full-time job working for a big corporation.

The Small Business Administration defines a small business as one that has fewer than 500 employees. This category also includes start up companies, most of which have less than 50 employees. To give a better idea of the number of small businesses in America there are about 38 million businesses to have fewer than 100 employees, and 23 million show to have fewer than 20 employees. That’s a lot of small businesses in America alone

So why are small businesses so important? Small businesses generate about 1.5 million jobs in America. And whether or not small businesses become large corporations, they generate a lot of unique products, continuously generate jobs and have always shown to be part of the US economic growth. Another factor of small to medium size businesses, also known as SME, is they bring knowledge to how to better network, digitalization, global marketing, and global economic growth. Needless to say larger establish corporations tend to learn a lot from these millions of small businesses, not only in America but around the world.

One of the many reasons that people start their own business is the dissatisfaction of working in corporations. That is one thing that larger corporations have yet to learn to inhabit from smaller businesses is employee satisfaction. But how do you give people their own freedom, ability to work wherever, whenever, however and still trust them to do their own jobs accurately and efficiently? You can’t, so you let them start their own business.

You would think with all the small businesses out there, more people would be able to do it, however the biggest fear in starting a new business is the risk of failure. About 20% of small businesses fail the first year and about 50% of startups fail in the first five years. These are understandable statistics for why more people don’t leave corporate America. Those that have survived and continue to create new businesses, also create new jobs and opportunities and have brought great economic pride and growth to our system. 

The number one reason most small businesses fail is the lack of cash. Before starting a small business you should take into consideration of what you’re offering as what customers mean. Without the need of a product, there’s no reason for a customer to spend money on it which then has the lack of demand to continue generating or selling supply. The other reason behind an unsuccessful business is not having a team to Work with, being out competed against others in the industry, And cost related issues. 

Starting a small business definitely takes a lot of courage and risks but if an entrepreneur can find the right demand and provide an even amount of supply working with a great team, the business can strive and teach a thing or two to  larger corporations!