You have bought a beautiful house and everything’s working perfectly. But lo, it rains and your house is flooded with water! Yes, waterlogging issues can be an unforeseen problem that can arise after you have moved into your new apartment. Most common during seasonal rains, waterlogging can leave you stranded when you get out of your house. It’s true that most of us are still in the dark when it comes to dealing with this issue. Keep reading to find out some of the most effective techniques that you can use!

Understanding The Issue

Waterlogging in your house can be caused due to many reasons such as storm runoff, sullage, or damaged drain sewers. Apart from the short-term effects like hampering your daily routine, it also causes other serious damages like weakening the foundation of the entire house. When water mixes with other garbage and wastes, this can pose a great threat to your health. So, it is always important to understand these risks and deal strategically with water logging issues.

Effective Precautions And Strategic Troubleshooting

Once you know what the problem is, it becomes easier to take steps to troubleshoot. Some effective solutions to prevent water logging in your home are given below. Depending on the reach of the issue, you can employ any or all of the following solutions.

Solution 1: Rainwater Harvesting To Cope With Flood

It may be impossible to prevent the huge amount of water entering the premises during heavy monsoon rain or flood. But, it is possible to direct the flow of the water and treat the problem of waterlogging judiciously. Rainwater harvesting is the most effective way to cope with the issue of rainwater flooding your house.

Solution 2: Downspout Extensions For Basement Flooding

Installing downspout extensions is an effective solution to keep your basement dry. This helps in redirecting the water flow from the rooftops as well as basements to a safer location, such as a dry well or any other rainwater harvesting system.

Solution 3: Dry Well For Cheap Water Logging Solution

If you are looking for an economical way for solving water logging issues, nothing works better than a dry well. Standing water can be directed to the dry well using downspout extensions. The dry well is usually filled with stones, gravels, and pebbles so that water does not seep back into your lawn.

Solution 4: Installing A Sump Pump

Foreseeing the issue of waterlogging, you can install a sump pump that can pump out the standing water from your basement. This is a simple solution that can help you tackle waterlogging issues effectively.

Solution 5: Rain Gardens For Rain Runoff

Rain gardens are an ideal solution for apartments, schools, and other residential premises where run-off rainwater poses a major issue. Creating rain gardens in well-drained/sandy soils can be perfect for capturing storm water.

Solution 6: French Drains For Plain Surfaces

When you cannot judge the slope of your lawn to construct a dry well, a French drain, also known as the weeping tile is an effective alternative. A French drain is nothing but a trench filled with sand and gravel. It has pipes that drain the stagnant water and direct it away from the area.

Why shipping and receiving affects the entire process

A recent idea that reduced product weight by 60%, cut fuel bills and cut tyre costs down by 6%. With a fleet of over 100 vehicles, this is just one small project idea out of five to emerge from a program of high impact change management. Internal procedures and methods are easy to devise but hard to turn into reality. Whether starting from scratch or overhauling existing systems, this general prompt list is a useful guide. Equipping and design becomes considerably easier when you have a map with a clear way marked out for you. Set out as a 10 point list of general rules and consequences, the idea is to help you think through the subject headings and support the thought process in an orderly set of steps. This method will help produce a workable system with a minimum of shocks and surprises which inevitably dog all change management. All quality systems benefit from totally thinking through the job. Micro-managing the process now will save you a lot of money and time later and equipment selection will be a lot less hazardous.

Design – Start with a design for the entire system otherwise you will discover to your cost that changes rarely just affect one small area of your business. Rule 1, therefore, is don’t fiddle about with small areas of malfunction because you are likely to make things worse.

Traceability – If you don’t have time to do it correctly at the outset where are you going to find the time to put it right? Rule 2 – spend some time thinking about how to get what you sent to your customer back to your supplier again without bankrupting yourself in the process.

Handling – If you think handling and storage systems are expensive wait until you pick up the bill for labour, injuries, duplicated and damaged stock. Rule 3 – design your operation to be able to efficiently deal with through put. Everything in its place and a place for everything..including charging batteries! (18 months ago, a few weeks after taking delivery of their new fork truck, one of my customers allowed the battery to run right down. This truck cost nearly £38,000, the replacement batteries were just short of £5,000. They also lost a lot of time whilst things were sorted out).

The Smallest unit of measurable cost – How much control do you require? Pallet sized or pint sized, are you selling bricks or diamonds? This is your reporting size for your monthly performance review and it seriously effects how you interface with your supporting distribution and logistics work. Rule 4 – round up the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves

Storage – Considerations for this includes on or off site stores, work in progress and what you expect suppliers and customers to hold for you. Never hold on to junk or old stock, get rid of it and use the cash or space for something more productive. Rule 5 – be very sure of your operational space needs. These are your fixed overheads and if it is not working you will find these costs expensive and risky to deal with. Use other people’s overheads as a first low cost option before committing yourself to long term leases. Fixed costs have that title for a reason!

Picking Systems – Typing is quicker than walking so start with a well thought out, efficient list. Avoid warehousing or production work at the same time as picking work. Make sure your shelves have all your picking requirements ready to pick. Keep stock recognisable for both picking and counting, either by eye or scanning. Keep stock in easy reach of pickers or picking machinery. Rule 6 – apply the Grand Prix principal, the fastest stock movers get pole position!

Equipment – You will need it. Rule 7 – treat your business like your children. Get the very best and keep the discipline and training as a matter of priority. If you think training is expensive you certainly won’t be able to afford ignorance!

Packaging – This needs to get the product to its destination properly identified and no more. Make it like Christmas for the new owner but at the same price as Christmas paper. When it is opened it should still have that magical pleasure of Christmas and like Christmas if it going to be thrown down chimney pots it should be protected from Santa’s little helpers and reindeer shocks. If you are going to send out as many Christmas presents as Santa does, make sure you have good cross dock and marshaling systems that do the counting and sorting quickly. Rule 8 – think the journey though from the shelf to the opening ceremony. You don’t want it back in bits. Sending goods out twice wastes resources and alerts the customer to possible system issues.

Packing – This is an operation and needs to flow with everything on hand and with as few process interruptions as possible. Connect it quickly to issuing invoices or contents notes, or receipts if it has been prepaid. Rule 9 – make packing as continuous and uninterrupted as possible as it cuts down mistakes due to distractions.

Minimum Order Values – Add up the time your product takes to turnover on an activity basis. Batch them up into the minimum quantity which produces enough gross profit to pay for it or make that your minimum charge regardless of quantity, then factor in good will…or not! Rule 10 – study your order book carefully and make sure the value you add covers your costs.

Bonus Idea – All systems should consider the environment. All systems should allow for a tidy work place. Make sure your products are well protected but yet easy to access. Products which have their own boxes or cases should consider the on going role and environment by keeping to the point and be well supported with maintenance and application ideas. Never miss the chance to let the user know what else you do, especially if it improves their day

We are living in a world that can be scary and full of unknowns. Never before has there been anything exactly like the COVID-19 pandemic that has been terrorizing the entire world. Governments have followed recommendations of researchers and health experts in ways that have changed our entire lifestyles. At the same time, however, I have noticed that there are many, many positives that are occurring every day.

Following are some of the things that people tell me they have been enjoying:

1. Time – Being required to respect physical distancing and working from home for those who can, has allowed us much more time to pursue interests. Instead of having to attend meetings or appointments and drive children to events we can pursue other personal interests. Many people are investing the extra hours saved in hobbies, learning a language, reading, or exercising.

2. Money – A large portion of the population have less money coming into the household but those who are on fixed incomes have told me that they are spending less than they did previously. Some of this, of course, is because businesses such as beauty shops and retail outlets are closed but being at home also means that there seems to be less interest in spending money. The government has been trying to fill the gaps with financial programs and we are also watching the stock market with the hope that it will rebound over time. It seems that everything we were used to has shifted.

3. Skills – Being at home provides more opportunities to learn and use skills. Many family members are cooking and baking, renovating, starting seedings, doing their own hair or sewing – practical skills that our ancestors used for everyday survival. Before the pandemic our busy schedules often would encourage us to turn to others to do the things that we are now doing ourselves.

4. Relationships – More time with those who live in your home can be positive – a time to communicate and share activities. Fortunately, we have social media sites and technology that allow us to stay close to loved ones who are living at a distance. Close proximity can also be stressful though and it is therefore important to schedule “alone” time.

5. Reflection – Facing difficulties can led to assessment and realignment of values. When we are in isolated situations, we begin to think about what is really important in life. Most recently the ideas of health and loved ones top the list.

I know that there are many challenges that have been brought on by the pandemic. One of the most serious is that we do not have any clear idea about exactly how it will affect us and when it will end. It is therefore very important to drastically limit the input from television and internet as these can significantly increase stress. Instead focus on the things that you can do that will make today and your future more satisfying.

And remember to laugh as often as possible for laughter is good for the soul!

Workflow is the manner of managing office work based on the specific requirement of the individual work item. It thus involves timely and effectual response. Hence this assures analyzing, providing solutions and expediting all transactions.

Workflow has to focus on the entire transaction and not just single transaction or part. The end result of any workflow is customer satisfaction. This involves empowerment of the worker, resulting in proper management of the workflow. Workflow of any organization is also based on relationships that exist between the partners.

In some offices and work places, there is a dominance of point of view of a workflow. There is no set flow in the work schedule and the exigency and character of the incoming procedures restrain the job. It is noted that in such a work atmosphere, events that occur are given a lot of importance and the entire action is aimed at reacting to them.

Worker empowerment is one of the traditional tools employed for managing workflow. It is seen that this empowerment involves doing away with the difference between designing and carrying out the concerned work. In this, the worker is allowed to manage as well as design their work. In such a scenario, the worker is not carrying out a series of tasks that is already programmed, but made to judge the suitable tasks that are required to be carried out at a specific time in order to accomplish customer satisfaction.

Several web-based solutions allow an organization to effectively manage its workflow. This is a very useful tool that could be used for creating jobs, ensuring timely completion of projects, storing important information, in short, having the control of the organization. It also increases productivity and thus profitability of any organization.

Workflow management tools can be used to control long-term scheduled transactions that are to take place on specific dates. Workflow management tools are designed to control all projects within the organization.

Writing articles can lead to an entire online business for you. You can market yourself and your business by writing articles, or you can use article writing as the basis for writing on a blog, writing ebooks, or even doing copywriting on the internet. The sky is the limit, so it up to you how far you want to take it. Here are some ways you can use article writing to build an online business.

• Choose a niche market to work in. This may be related to what you have been doing offline, or you may decide to write in an entirely new area.
• Go to the article directories and read some articles that have already been written on your niche. This will give you a good idea of what article writers are writing and what readers are interested in reading.
• Make sure you have a blog or a website at the end of your article for people to visit after they have read your article.
• Decide as soon as possible whether you will be writing regularly on a blog, writing a short report or an ebook, or you will exclusively be writing articles.
• Use article writing templates to make this entire process simple to do every day.

I encourage you to learn more about how article writing can be used as the basis for all of your online writing. Many people are writing articles to market themselves and their businesses and also to build an entire online business by writing and providing information for others.

I have often been asked, “Why should I hire a security consultant to tell me what security measures my business needs?” I guess the biggest reason is if you know little to nothing about security, then you need to hire someone that does know the ins and outs to get the most benefit!

There is a lot more than just looking at your doors, windows and locks or alarm systems to figuring out what security measures are need to protect your entire business. The main goal is to look at all your liabilities on security issues and reduce or eliminate them. This saves you time and money in the long run and keeps you out of a possible court situation in the future.

To this end, you need to do a physical site security survey. This will identify the most pressing of your security issues that can get you in trouble. By looking at the entire company, those issues can be identified, measures to protect you implemented and your liabilities reduced!

There are measures that only need to have policies and procedures changed or implemented that will reduce your liabilities. There are other measures that you will need to put in place to protect your hiring process that can save you from a lawsuit. Then there may be other measures that contain a security presence on site or after hours that will protect you.

The thing with competent security consultants is, they know what to look for when identifying security issues and they know how to deal with them with cost effective reductions/eliminations. They know what does and does not work for a variety of business types and your particular area of location.

Security measures do not mean that it has to be a major expense outlay every time. But, it can come to a major expense if you do not have the proper security measures and wind up in a court situation being sued for that reason. You may have insurance to cover it and they may not cover you if found negligent.

Then there is the bad publicity, the court time, the lawyers fees and on and on. You can see it can be very traumatic for a business owner! Especially if you lose the case and very expensive too!

So it makes sense to use a security consultant to get the best benefits you can, think of the expense as an investment for the future. It will keep you out of court, it could save you on your insurance, it will keep you out of the bad publicity limelight and it will give you piece of mind.

It is better to be prepared and not need it than to not be prepared and need it. This is true for any type of business! Stop looking at security as just an expense and look at it for what it is, an investment to protect your future!

Consultants can help you with the following issues:

Ø Negligent Hiring/Retention

Ø Premises Liability

Ø Negligent Security

Ø Hiring Contract Security Services

Ø Physical Site Security Surveys

Ø Business Espionage

Ø Fraud and Internal Thefts

Ø Disaster recovery

Ø Risk Analysis

There are many ways a consultant can protect your business. You are looking at reducing your liabilities and protecting your self, employees, assets and the facility you have. After all you have worked for a while to get where you are, would it not be silly to lose it all because you thought it was an unnecessary expense?

Publishing Guidelines: You are welcome to publish this article in its entirety, electronically, or in print, free

of charge, as long as you include my full signature file

for Ezine’s. Please send a courtesy link or email where you publish to secuone@aol.com Thank you.

“Why Hire a Security Consultant”

©2004 By Gary L. Cunningham, C.P.O.

C&M Consulting Services

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE

Accounts Receivable or the AR process is the key to receive payments from customers. Businesses use it to manage the cash inflow and their collection process for the good or services they have already sold.

To be able to handle the AR efficiently it is important that your Finance and accounting team knows the keys to handle each and every step effectively. They also have to be capable of collecting payments on time and innovating and developing latest strategies. They should also be upbeat when it comes to the best practices about maximizing their cash flow. Further they need to have a thorough knowledge of all aspects of AR, cash application, contact administration, collections and credit management to be able to operate in a holistic manner.

According to some research results the receivables constitute 2/5th to 1/3rd of the total balance sheet and yet most companies end up not managing this process effectively. The risk management is often not proportionate to the importance, even though it significantly affects the bottom line of all businesses irrespective of their segment, domain or any other factor.

The AR processes are actually important because, they affect the entire cash flow of the company. Further they also can become a bottleneck for the entire bookkeeping and ledger processes. So, it is often preferable that a business constantly monitors.

The process has multiple steps like:

• Credit decisions
• Billing and Bill Distribution
• Receipting, Allocations and Reconciliations
• Collections
• Dispute Management
• Bad Debt

Credit Decisions – This step includes checking whether or not the prospective customer has sufficient credit worth to get the products or services supplied to him under an account arrangement.

Bill Distribution and Billing – This happens after the services / goods have been provided to the client. The customer usually completes the payment once the invoice is generated, but at times they also pay when they are ready to.

Receipting, Allocations and Reconciliations – This step is handled by an AR Officer. They identify a payment that’s deposited into the bank account of the supplier. Then they receipt it into the system, and allocate the payment to the relevant invoice. Following this is the reconciliation to make sure that it is a correct payment.

Collections – All invoices that are unpaid or short paid are identified by the collections officer at any given date. This might also include sending reminders to the customer and receiving the payments as and when, or as per the company / business policy.

Disputes Management – Typically, this step is managed between the collections officer and the customer, if the clients / customers dispute an invoice or a bill. However, in some businesses (largely B2C models), there can be dedicated dispute handling teams.

Bad Debts – Any debt is observed for a certain time frame or a date. If a debt reaches beyond this debt and / or is disputed and no mutual resolution is agreed upon (to the satisfaction of the supplier), then the bad is put into the bad debt category.

After the event of the Death of Superman, four individuals appeared and tried to claim (or so it seems) for the rights to bear the Man of Steel’s famous “s” insignia. These individuals were Superboy (Con-el), the Man of Steel (Henry Irons, later known as Steel), the cyborg Superman (Hank Henshaw) and that one with the shades that was later identified as the Eradicator.

I am not going much into detail about the whole Reign of Supermen or The Return of the Superman event. What I am after here is the effect of this incident to the life of Hal Jordan and how it had eventually affected the entire Green Lantern Corps, and it did bigtime!

In the midst of the argument to claim the right to be identified as the new resurrection of Superman, an unidentified spacecraft hovers over Coast City (the hometown of Green Lantern Hal Jordan). The massive spacecraft implanted 77,000 detonating globes all around the city. Eradicator was there to investigate but Hank Henshaw (cyborg Superman) attacked him. The two fought, with the spacecraft proceeded to its goal and,”It sounds like a million thunderstorms all rolled as one. 77,000 explosive devices erupt as one–, –and the world is changed forever.””Every Office, every home, every school and hospital is atomized. The west coast and its entire ecosystem is instantaneously shattered–, –and more than seven million men, women, and children that once called the coast city area home–, –die.”

Turns out, cyborg Superman was behind it all, and his accomplice, Mongul. The two shared a common hatred for Superman. Their plan, make Earth to be (Mongul’s) new Warworld, and they have chosen Coast City as their primary base of operations. And they have succeeded in their initial plans. Coast City was gone. All of it.

The real Superman finally appeared and together with Steel, Superboy, and Supergirl, forge an attack to the now dwellers of what used to be Coast City, now known as Engine City. Also, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Coast City’s hometown hero arrived from outerspace (Oa probably). But he is a hero with no city to call his own. He arrived on a strange place where a massive engine is on its place. He forced his way in searching for the culprit of this madness. He came in, blasting anything and everything on its path until finally Mongul. The two fought brutally with each other (great fight sequence by the way, if that fight scene would have been adapted into animation, it would have been awesome). After numerous exchanges of attacks, Green Lantern emerged victorious with Mongul lying unconscious.

Green Lantern met up with Superboy, Steel, and Supergirl and in the end, the real Superman. Cyborg superman was turned into pieces. All seemed over, that’s how this story ended for now. But the outcome of what had transpired cannot be changed. Coast City was gone, reduced to a barren land with a monstrous construct for its landmark. Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) was well aware of this, but it seemed like the effects of this catastrophe is yet to sink in to him. Well, things definitely changed after this.

At least one out of ten people in this world claim to have had an astral projection. Simultaneously, a sizeable chunk of the human population rubbishes the entire idea of consciousness leaving the body and travelling to distant places such as Moon, Mars, and Jupiter. Rationalists label the phenomenon as “tricks of the mind,” “mind thing,” “hallucination,” “imagination,” “drug abuse,” “too many quick ones,” and so on.

The Skeptic’s Dictionary says (quite truthfully) that there is absolutely no evidence that anybody can get their consciousness, mind, soul, spirit, astral body, or whatever you might choose to call it to leave their physical bodies and travel to distant places on Earth or the Universe. The entire body of “evidence” that astral travel has is in the form of testimonies, experiences, or tales of people who claim to have had an astral projection.

In recent days, scientists have dragged the phenomenon of astral traveling to the laboratory and tried to find the truth about it. Two teams of scientists, hailing from University College London UK and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, used virtual reality goggles to fool the brain into believing that the body was located somewhere else. These scientists have pointed out a neurological explanation for astral projection. They claim that some out-of-body experiences (OOBEs) might be because of a disconnection between brain circuits that process touch and visual information.

And what do practitioners say? The best of them do admit that some OOBEs or astral travels are not really true. They are just figments of imagination, generated by an alcohol-soaked or drug-influenced brain. In other words, they are “dream” stuff originating from the unknown recesses of the brain. These experiences can be had as a result of deep sleep, drug and alcohol abuse, exhaustion, or just plain imagination running wild.

Simultaneously, seasoned practitioners claim that certain OOBEs are genuine. Practitioners know that they are real simply because these experiences produce knowledge that was not available before the projection. For instance, in case of certain near death experiences (NDEs), the subjects converse with relatives they do not even know are dead. Several recorded OBE’s were later carefully analyzed and investigated by experts who came to the conclusion that the subject was indeed out of his/her body.

And how can you know about the truth of astral traveling? You can, in the first place, read about it. Accept it as the truth only if you can really experience it first hand. Many people who have experienced it feel that it is a “trick of the mind.” But there are many more who are convinced that it is real. You have to draw your own conclusions on the basis on careful study, analysis, research, and experience.

The art of face painting began thousands of years ago when it was used by some cultures for hunting and for battle. Other tribes used it for religious ceremonies and important ethnic occasions. Today, it is done more for fun and pleasure. A painting booth can be commonly found in carnivals, fairs and charity events and is always a hit among the crowd. Everyone, children and adults alike, just love to participate. In this type of painting, the entire face is designed to emulate a certain character. However, some people prefer to have just a small part of their faces done. For clients like this, cheek art is your best bet. In cheek art, only the side of the face is covered . But even if the area covered is smaller compared to a full face design, it can be just as exciting and appealing as face painting. Face painting cheek art also has many advantages.

First, cheek art is done on a much smaller area. This saves a lot of time. Compared to painting an entire face, considerably less time is spent when cheek painting. This is perfect both for you and your clients since everyone now seems to be in a hurry. This will also work great if you are painting little kids since children are not known for their patience. They cannot tolerate sitting still for a long period of time. So the faster you get done, the better. Aside from saving a great amount of time, you also get to save money since you will be using considerably less paint. Since quality face paint does not come cheap, this is ideal for customers who are concerned about things like the cost. This will also enable you to price your services at a cost that most people can afford.

Second, cheek art designs are more easily done compared to the bigger and more intricate designs of full face painting. Considerably less effort will be spent on creating the entire design since you will be painting on a much smaller area. And huge and complicated designs are no longer required to make a beautiful creation.

Third, you can be more flexible in your creations. Any design of your client’s choice can be resized and turned into cheek art. You do not even have to paint on the cheeks alone. You can paint anywhere! Face painting cheek art can be done on the shoulders, hands, neck…It depends on where your client wants it.

These are just a few of the advantages of cheek art. But you won’t really know unless you try it for yourself. So pick up that brush now and make your first stroke!