What to Do When Your Business Is In Need of Elevator Service

As a business owner and operator, you may already be aware that there will be times where you will not be able to prevent your equipment from breaking down. Even though you may strive to keep everything working in its best capacity, there are unfortunately times when your dumbwaiters may need a little extra attention. In order to minimize the amount of costs and downtime you have to deal with, it is best for you to find a company that specializes in elevator service.

It may seem like a good idea for you to use the company that manufactured your equipment, however if you are trying to stick within a budget or a small to medium sized business, you may want to consider some alternatives. In many cases you can get the same or better quality of service from an independent company, tea of contractors or a facilities management team that provides elevator service.

Don't wait until there is a problem that requires immediate attention before you start shopping for an elevator service provider. To prevent you from losing business, customers and reduce the amount of downtime you have, you should make sure you start your search early on. This means that if you don't currently have a provider, you need to get one as soon as possible.

You should always investigate any maintenance provider before you decide to do business with them. You need a company that is going to be available when you contact them. You need a provider that is able to get their hands on any parts you may need in as little time as possible. Ultimately, you need an elevator service provider who is going to charge you a fair and competitive price without you having to sacrifice quality.

Even if you think that you can get by with just waiting until something happens, you can't afford to take any chances. Every day there are thousands of lawsuits filed against companies because they failed to provide their customers with the safest dumbwaiter service possible. You can't afford to let someone's claim of negligence ruin the reputation of your business and cost you thousands of dollars in legal fees. If you want to keep your operating expenses down and reduce your liability, you need a good service provider that can inspect your equipment on a timely basis. That same company can prevent any potential problems by identifying any hazards and correcting them as soon as possible. You save more time and money by increasing the efficiency of your dumbwaiters than you do by ignoring them or restricting them for use until you feel like getting to them.

Be proactive and practice good business sense. Have your equipment cared for on a regular basis. Don't try to cut corners by hiring the cheapest elevator service company available for the job. Consider this a necessary expense that you can reduce by searching for the right provider for your business and establishing a good relationship with them.

Why My Failure Was My Biggest Success

It started so well, 2012.

After months of planning, the end of March was going to decide it all. The Liquid Art Fair, Liquid Gallery's pet project, was due to launch on 31st March. At first I had worried whether artists would sign up to exhibit with us. Then I worried that people wouldn't come to see the show.

With something like an art fair, as with any event planned in London, adrenaline pumps until the very last moment. There's an internal sigh of relief when your first guest comes through the door, and the second

I needn't have worried - they just kept coming. Over 100 people crossed the threshold of the tiny gallery in Battersea, clamouring to see a range of eclectic art from a range of international artists. For most of the evening I was in a mixed state: delight, and shock. MP for Battersea Jane Ellison, who opened ths show said that Liquid were doing an amazing thing for the arts in London.

In my eyes, after months of hard work, we had finally arrived. I raised my glass to the future of the Liquid Art Fair programme, and the success of Liquid as a whole.

But then a very strange thing happened.

It started with an email from a close colleague I had come to regard as my business partner. This colleague had invested many hours into the business - plannning meetings, meeting colleagues, visiting venues and exhibitions with me.

Which was why I was surprised to receive an email one sunny morning in April in which this said person basically backed out of involvement in the Liquid Art Fair programme.

This was basically cutting me adrft, as I had relied on my colleague for technical support due to his extensive exhibition experience. He was a whizz with a hanging system, and now here he was, backing out of an arrangement which we had only discussed the week before.

Not only our own art fair programme: I had signed up and paid deposits on a number of third party art fairs. Now, without his assistance, I couldn't meet my obligations. Naturally, I lost money, as none of these third-party agencies refunded my deposits.

I emailed my colleague to find out what had brought on this sudden decision, but to this day, I never heard another word from him.

This wasn't the only thing that happened at this time. After a massive rush of interest in the Liquid Art Fair, applications died off. A combination of factors - the continually sinking economy, and the beginnings of an over-saturation of such events in the London art calendar.

For the June show, I had one applicant.

I had to think long and hard. It was now costing more to keep the business going, than we had ever made. After two years, I made the decision to close Liquid Gallery.

During this time, it became such that I had to drink long and hard as well. I began to empathise with those people you read about who commit suicide when their businesses end. You invest so much of your time, and so much of yourself - even though people tell you its not personal. I'm sorry - it is personal. Your business. It's as close to you as a child.

From April until September 2012, I lost my sense of purpose. It was such that it hardly seemed worth getting up in the morning. What difference was I going to make anyway? All I had ever wanted to do was help rising artists, and now I had been kicked in the teeth. I couldn't even write a poem anymore - nothing inspired me. Every day I tried to figure out where things had gone wrong.

The doctor told me she was worried about me. My husband was worried about me. I lost weight. I looked like everyone's idea of the 'before the makeover' photograph.

I came off Facebook - how could I face all those people who thought I was doing such great things. In the face of my failure, I hardly communicated with anyone in the outside world. What I thought I knew had disappeared - I felt so utterly alone.

I do believe I had a mini-breakdown during this time - I would sit on the sofa, staring into space for hours at a time. Other times, I would rave at my husband over the most banal of domestic errors. I was told, simply and without malice around the end of August, that I was becoming unbearable to live with.

I do also believe that this is where my recovery started. There's nothing like being told that you have turned into a screaming harridan to force you to get your backside into gear.

Realising how lonely and isolated I had actually become, in September, and for the first time in months, I logged back into Facebook. What I found there was amazing. I realised that I had a whole support network there, that had been there all along. The messages I received were warm, and supportive - like I'd never been away.

Slowly, my sense of purpose came back. Over dinner one evening, a close friend suggested that I not waste anything that was published in Nyne Magazine because people had really liked it.

Out of that came After Nyne, which is currently reaching thousands of hits a month.

I decided to resurrect my publishing house, Tempest, and started to take on work that was not my own. Again, I started to get that hunger to help, and influence as many people as possible.

Now things are going even better than they were before. Things are really starting to happen for After Nyne and Tempest - we have published Micheal O Coinn's debut poetry pamphlet, Five Words and Callie Carling's eBook Callie's Story has hit the bestseller list for Health books on Amazon.

I have many writing projects of my own scheduled for 2013/2014, including my third poetry collection Human Error. Once again, I see a way forward.

Thing You Need to Know to Start a New Business

As the title says, this article is to discuss the things needed to start a business. If you want to start your own business, you need to know and analyze many things.

First thing is the reason behind your decision to start a business. Some possibilities are as below:

• You are a graduate and are unable to find a suitable job for you in the industry.

• You do not want to work under someone else so want to start your own business.

• You are willing to make a career in business industry as an entrepreneur.

• You want to be your own boss (freedom of work)

There are many other possible reasons. You must know the reason of your decision so that you have a certain aim.

Second thing you need to know is how to take the start. If you are new to the industry, you may face some problems while doing the task. But if you are already working in the industry, things would be easier for you.

The thing you need to know is how to start with the task. Then, you will have to make a detailed step-by-step plan. As a starter, you will face several problems. Many things will be new for you. Since you do not have many contacts in the industry you will have to make some extra efforts to reach the people.

The possible difficulties you may face while starting a business are as below:

Finding a relevant Industry: This is the first step of starting a business and if you are not properly focused while choosing the industry, you may not get desired success in the business. You need to give some time to find the industry that is very much relevant to you and your interests.

How to Start: This is the second important thing. Suppose, you want to start a business in marketing industry, the question you will face is how to do that. For this, you have two options available. You can start a new business from scratch or can buy an existing business.

If you want to start a new business, you will have to arrange many things including finance, market for your product, audience, suppliers, employees, and a place to work, office supplies, and the most important the product that you will sell through your business. While if you choose to buy an existing business, you will get all these things along with the business, a ready-made product, an established market, customer, employees, suppliers, business plan, etc. So, choice is yours. Buying an existing business is the best option for a business start-up.

Entrepreneurship - A Perfect Solution of Unemployment

Unemployment is one of the biggest problems of this century. Problem is that population is increasing rapidly and so is the demand of employment. We do not have enough jobs to fulfill this demand. Unemployment is not the problem of a single country, but whole world is suffering from it. Recession is also the result of over population. Since we do not have enough resources to cop with the increasing demand, companies are not able to make good use of whatever resources they have and so they start firing their employees. According to estimation, if population keeps increasing with the same rate soon there will be double the people than the number of jobs available.

We need to deal with the situation and that too immediately before the situation goes out of our hands. There are many solutions to the problem of unemployment. One of them is population control. This is a good solution, but the problem is that it is not an immediate solution. Even if we start today it will take us many years to control the situation completely. Another possible solution is increasing the number of jobs. Though that also is not an immediate solution, but if we take a start now, we can meet the goal in a certain time.

Now, the question is how to increase job opportunities. There is only one way to increase the number of jobs, which is by creating new jobs. The possible solution is starting new business, firms, and small business, in short the entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a term gaining very much importance these days. Entrepreneurship is defined as an act of starting an organization with available resources and finance. There are many advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship. The biggest disadvantage is the risk involved. Risk is the main reason that stops us from taking initiative with new business. Though this is not such a big issue and if we follow proper method, we can deal with it.

The best thing one can do to cut the risks in starting a business is buying an existing business. There are several benefits of buying a business. The most important one is less risk. With an existing business, you get a built product, customer base, market reputation, ready-made product, and a running business. All these factors cut the risk that you may face in starting a new business. Buying a business is the best option to start a business and to increase the number of employment opportunities rapidly.

The One Secret You Need To Know To Market Any Product

There are some core ingredients to marketing your product and doing that successfully. A recent definition of marketing stated: Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. Marketing might sometimes be interpreted as the art of selling products, but selling is only a small fraction of marketing. As the term "Marketing" may replace "Advertising" it is the overall strategy and function of promoting a product or service to the customer. What can you do that will help you in marketing your product?

If you research you'll find as many answers to this as there are available products. I specialize in helping women entrepreneurs avoid the learning vortex and take action. But sometimes as women in business we are not sure what action to take. When it comes to marketing there is a key ingredient one secret if you will: Communication.

Work on the first aspect of this definition

Communicating

Many us are expert communicators. However some of you may need some extra help. So here are a few things that you can do to become a better marketer.

Focus on some communication skills that will help clarify our message. These quick tips will help you become an amazing communicator which in turn will help you be an excellent marketer.

Listen

If all you do is speak you'll never hear what your clients needs, what they want, and how you can provide a solution to their problems. So in my slightly funny way I'm asking you to "Zip It"

Engage

Listen to a client, ask them valuable questions to help you define how your product is the perfect solution they need for their problem.

Be confident

Great communicators are confident. Uncertainty breeds inactivity. If you are unsure of your offer, or your product guess what? Your client will be unsure of their buying decision.

Be Clear

If you don't know what your offer is your client won't either. We've all made the mistake of not being crystal clear in what our brand or product is and how it can help. If we are not clear they again the client will be confused. A confused client will never become a client. So work on making your offer clear.

Smile

There is a lot happening in the world and in case you didn't notice and many are walking the earth like the Grinch in Dr Seuss. If you laugh and offer a smile it's contagious. That will make your client more at ease and enjoy doing business with you. Learn to smile.

Honesty

I hope I don't have to elaborate on this point. Be honest and sincere when you communicate it will do amazing things not only for your business but your soul. It's very important.

Be prepared

If you are going to share a presentation, or do an interview prepare yourself. Ask questions before you get to the interview or before you speak with your client. Think of objections ahead of time and you'll see it will reap great rewards.

How Workforce Mobility Can Help Your Business

According to Kelton Research, workplace mobility is increasingly being valued at both American and British companies, with 68% of IT managers providing support for personal devices and technology being used in the workplace and 63% of non-technical managers saying that allowing their staff to use their own devices make them more productive. Workplace mobility is on the rise even as businesses are required to have a new technology infrastructure, such as Citrix remote working systems, in place.

Why is this? Simple. Because workforce mobility, gives rise to the following benefits to businesses:

1. Faster response times.
Your customers will no longer have to wait until his or her contact is in the office to find out if there are new products available. The customer can expect a more immediate response ensuring higher customer satisfaction.

2. Better employee engagement.
Your employees buy and use iPhone because they love it and its features. The know it and use it. It does not make sense to force them to use a Blackberry when they find the small keypad cumbersome. As such, by letting your employees use their own preferred devices, they can be more productive and they would not feel stiff-armed by management. In fact, a survey by iPass showed that employees using their own laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other devices often put more hours - up to 240 hours more - compared to those who are not allowed to use their own preferred devices.

3. Free up your IT resources.
Workplace mobility may lessen the devices being monitored, serviced and provided by your IT departments. In short, it would reduce hardware costs as well as the support time that your IT guys would need to spend if they were to help out other employees in using your company's specified devices. Because your employees are more familiar with their own devices, they can troubleshoot it themselves rather than go to the IT guys for every little problem.

4. Lower costs.
The business can transfer operating costs to the user. Your employees are effectively paying for their own data plan, or even buying their own devices.

5. Higher employee retention.
Today's workers put a premium on workplace flexibility and prefer to be able to work wherever they want.

One of the solutions to help companies make workers more mobile is Citrix workforce mobility. Citrix workforce mobility means that businesses do not only allow their employees to work where and when they want using the devices they choose, but they also allow them to have a better user experience.

Citrix workforce mobility systems will also handle the security of your network, data and information efficiently, making sure that everything is secure and fool-proof. That means that your employees get the kind of flexibility they want, without having your IT department lose sleep from worrying about security measures and possible technical mishaps.

Business Lesson From A 13 Year Old

Actually the 13 year old in question was me - in 1974!

I guess I had an entrepreneurial streak even then. In 1974, Britain was in recession. The miners' strike had resulted in a national fuel crisis and on many evenings the electricity was shut down at about 7pm. I did my homework by candlelight.

It was also the year I had my first business - and my office was the school yard.The school's system was that every Monday morning, we would all queue up in the assembly hall and buy five pale green plastic tokens. Each token cost 12p, and so every pupil would buy 5 tokens to last the week for a total cost of 60p. We'd then exchange one of these each day in the canteen to pay for our school dinner.

The idea was that this meant the kids didn't have to carry cash on them whilst at school and would be 'committed' to eating a school dinner each day. It also meant the canteen could operate without handling any cash directly.

By Thursday or Friday however, there would always be a surplus of these plastic tokens in possession of the kids. This was because not everyone would have their lunch every day. Some would have been absent for a day or two, others chose to buy sweets or chips in the nearby town instead. So at the end of each week, I could buy dozens of these plastic tokens for about 3p each.

Come the following Monday morning, my school mates could either buy 5 tokens from me for 50p, or buy the same thing from the school for 60p. Inevitably, my supply could never meet the demand. As a result I was always by far the wealthiest kid in my class.

Looking back, there were a number of interesting aspects to this. Some I can explain, others not. The first inexplicable fact is that no-one ever copied my idea, even though all the other kids knew exactly what I was doing. They were just happy when they got to me quickly enough to buy from me on a Monday morning and could immediately pocket the 10p they were saving. I guess the lesson from this is that the majority of people don't think long term (even if by long term we mean 3 or 4 days). They just want a quick and easy deal today.

Secondly, this was a business with no investment required, no overheads and huge profit margins, which just couldn't meet the demand. Not that I worried about this, I was doing just great thank you. The lesson here is that a good business always creates happy sellers and happy buyers, and this was exactly what I was doing.

Thirdly, in hindsight I guess there was a risk for me. If the school had ever discovered what I was doing, I would probably have been expelled, rather than praised for my business acumen. So I took measures to ensure that the school could never pin anything on me. My 'stock' was hidden in a variety of secret locations. I was never caught and the risk never materialised. This lesson is that although we can never eliminate risk completely, we can take effective steps to minimise it.

You might argue that I was robbing the school and even devaluing their 'currency', and it's true that today this moral aspect would prevent me from adopting a similar business model. But then I was only 13 and learning the ropes! It would be quite a few years yet before I was being invited to speak at business schools.

The last and perhaps biggest lesson is the great feeling I had from helping my friends save money. My business made me a lot more friends than I'd have had otherwise. And that's the most important thing. A good business is about satisfying your customers needs in a way that they love. If you can do that, you'll always keep them coming back for more.