Firm Voice

Bottles, straws, handbags, disposable cutlery and polystyrene takeaway containers – plastic products have become so omnipresent in our daily lives that we barely notice them. However, they cause considerable damage to the environment and increase polution. Indeed, plastic products generally take 1,000 years to decompose and manufacturing them consumes most of the world’s oil. To overcome this, the junk disposal and waste management experts at Dumpster Rental Near Me Summerfield offer some useful tips that each of us can implement to help reduce the number of plastic waste.

1 – Quite simply, say no to plastics

This involves learning to refuse plastic things that you don’t need. Whether it’s a pen, straw, toothbrush or personalized plastic bag from a store or other free plastic items that stores give you, know that they are only used to attract consumers. Most of the time, we don’t think twice before accepting them. However, every time we accept these items, we create demand to manufacture more.

2 – Buy in bulk

When you go shopping, consider choosing to buy groceries and other essential products in bulk, so you will need less dumpster rental services to discard your junk in the future. In case you can’t do this at your local store, find other suppliers. If you do not want to change supplier, other alternatives exist. For example, you can bring your own jar to the ice cream parlor, your own bag to the bakery or bring your own bottles to the cellar or brewery.

3 – Replace disposable products with reusable products

To reduce plastic waste, you should use reusable products, rather than disposable plastic items. Indeed, reuse saves more time and money, but also saves the energy and resources necessary to manufacture more disposable items. To do this, bring your own tote bags to the grocery store. Use old glass jars to buy anything wet like oil, sauces, shampoo and liquid soap. Put anything dry like cereal, sugar, flour or salt in a cloth bag. When you go out to eat, you can also bring your own utensils instead of using disposable plastic utensils.

4 – Think about recycling

It’s not about prioritizing recycling, but rather about preventing unnecessary items from entering your life. Indeed, you should know that the plastics found in recycling units are not really “recycled”, but rather “downcycled”, that is to say, they lose their value when they are recycled. However, other materials such as glass, aluminum and paper can be recycled endlessly without their quality degrading. For this reason, it is advisable to only recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce or reuse. What you must remember: to summarize, there are simple ways to reduce the use of plastic in your daily life. Here are some best practices:

• Instead of using plastic containers, opt for reusable glass or stainless steel packaging
• When ordering takeout, remember to ask the restaurant not to send you plastic cutlery or straws
• Choose bulk products like bars of soap and shampoo instead of buying their liquid equivalents in plastic bottles
• When purchasing items online, consider asking the seller to ship them together in boxes. You can also choose to only buy from sites that use recyclable materials

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Houston Dumpster Rentals

Houston residents use dumpster rentals to discard their junk in bulk. This is good waste management, but the question is where does all this waste go? To the landfill

Access to the landfill should be facilitated by a well-developed road. It is advisable to have a two-lane road with a minimum width of 7.5 m. Drainage must be careful to avoid the risk of flooding during rainy periods.

This is an important point given the frequent dumpster rental traffic. In the event that the traffic is between 25 to 50 trips per day, a compacted and neat dirt road may be suitable. For higher traffic, an asphalt or concrete pavement is warranted.

A fence surrounding the site secures the facilities and controls access. Two entrances, one main and the other emergency, must be provided on the site, preferably opposite one another. The main entrance is located upstream of the prevailing winds reaching the landfill in order to limit the inconvenience related to the smells of fresh waste.

A checkpoint must regulate the circulation of dumpsters there and a weighing station must assess waste dumping. It is a wooden, steel or concrete platform mounted on a structure associated with a scale allowing trucks of 30 to 60 tonnes to be weighed, before and after spills.

Other buildings are also being built on the site to accommodate administrative services (offices, laboratories, canteens, etc.) and technical services (maintenance and depots for site equipment, leachate and gas treatment plant, etc).

A ring ditch of the landfill is made in order to collect all the rainwater that has fallen outside the developed area to accommodate the waste and route it to the natural hydrographic network after minor treatment to remove the pollutants linked to the operation. site (oils, organic matter, suspended matter, etc.). In this sense, it is necessary to provide a cleaning station for the wheels of vehicles leaving the site.

Finally, we also emphasize the need to provide piezometric wells surrounding the site in order to control the level and quality of the water in the aquifers in the basement of the landfill. Eventually, in order to confirm the absence of impact of the landfill on the environment, air quality and surface water analysis stations will be set up near the site, both downstream and upstream.

The development of a landfill

The Houston facilities that have been described are essential due to their reassuring nature aimed at isolating the waste, and the dumpster flows it generates, from their environment. However, the climate in Texas, and more particularly the water balance, is an important parameter which conditions the biological activity of a landfill and consequently the means to be implemented in order to limit the impact on the environment.

Consequently, the methodology for producing the basic waterproofing and the cover of the landfill can be reduced when the biological activity which develops within the waste is negligible throughout the year: absence of production of leachate and emissions of polluting gases at concentrations below the strictest international standards for public health.

In order to enable residents and businesses to bring waste to Houston landfills, two categories of landfills can, with little means, satisfy these restrictive conditions.

The first category, of the fossilized dry landfill type, is possible in areas with a negative water balance (evapotranspiration is greater than rainfall). Rainwater cannot penetrate deeply. The landfill therefore does not have enough water to develop biological activity. The second category, of the intermediate crustal discharge type, is possible when the calculated balance is positive but the precipitation is occasional and heavy.

Best Waste Management

With certain precautions, it is possible to reduce the production of leachate so as to no longer have a negative impact on the quality of the water table. In both cases, the purpose of the cover developments will be to limit, during storms, percolation and hypodermic flows through the waste.

Explicitly, the climatic conditions in Houston and Texas must induce a significant loss of moisture in the waste and in situ pilot tests must demonstrate that the facilities and the burial method envisaged do not induce any biological activity, or at most negligible.

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Based on observations in Cleveland regarding waste management practices,, the whole point of waste management in a city such as Cleveland is to succeed in combining the efficiency of public authorities, while relying on the involvement of the already existing population.

It is about combining technical development and confidence in local players. As it stands, municipalities seek to take effective action, relying on waste management indicators provided by developed countries. However, in view of the differences in the context, this objective is impossible to achieve in the medium term.

On the other hand, American cities are now seeking to reconnect with the practice of recycling and the daily handling of waste by the population using bins and dumpster rentals. Why then seek to eliminate this participation in North America when we are trying to reinstate it elsewhere?

Finally, the fierce fight waged against the illegal practices of recyclers is futile in the short term, in an urban context where a large part of the population lives in conditions of poverty and where informality represents more than half of economic activities. .

Therefore, Cleveland and its American counterparts may seek to take advantage of elements perceived to be weaknesses, by moving directly from self-management of waste to shared management, without even going through the public management system.

The transition from the first to the second and, finally, to the third system requires a series of long and costly adaptations to put in place. To move from a self-management system to that of public management, a significant financial investment is needed to modernize the infrastructure, using dumpster near me services and other junk disposal operations.

This effort has already been largely achieved in Cleveland with the upgrading, between 2000 and 2010, of the five controlled landfills. The transition from one system to another is done, however, by losing an important asset of the self-management system: the involvement of the population.

However, this involvement of the population is essential for the establishment of a shared waste management system. The generalization of household waste recycling is based most of the time on selective collection at source. It therefore implies a sharing of tasks between the public authorities which ensure the collection, transport, treatment and recovery of waste, and the population which is responsible for preliminary sorting.

This involvement of the population still exists in the self-management system. It is gradually eradicated during the transition to the public management system. The challenge of the transition to the third system is to maintain the technical improvement resulting from the public management system, while recovering the factor of involvement of the population from the self-management system.

There is therefore a major interest in leading the modernization of infrastructure and the stimulation of the culture of recycling at the same time, in order to move directly from the self-management system to the shared management system while reducing overall pollution.

This change would make it possible to target financial investments directly on infrastructures allowing the recycling of waste. Above all, it would make it possible to take advantage of an already existing competence in waste handling on the part of the population. It would also be possible to rely on the intermediary network of recyclers, in order to improve waste management while improving their working conditions.

It is obviously necessary to change the conditions for handling waste by recyclers, in order to limit the spread of risks. The direct transition to the third system would then be facilitated by the fact that there is not yet any disdain for the waste object.

Support for informal recycling and dumpster rental circuits would then be an asset for local public authorities. It is in this perspective that a number of municipalities are already working in Cleveland, and the surrounding counties.

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The public authorities could not remain indifferent to the seriousness of the situation highlighted above and this is when the public authorities. Texans felt challenged, that local authorities were all naturally” asked to actively participate in this new policy of waste disposal. It follows that indifference, neglect or excessive outrage reflected the obvious sign of insufficient policy or adequate legal instruments.

In addition, with this new waste management law, we went from a almost avowed lack of interest in a policy that aims above all enterprising and ambitious. The Ministry of the Environment introduced a law which is part of a comprehensive waste elimination policy, requiring local communities to be the main players in this new regulation.

Its objectives are to prevent or reduce the production and harmfulness of waste, to organize the transport of waste and dispose of it at a distance and in volume, to promote recovery by reuse or recycling in distance and in volume, to only landfill ultimate waste from year 2025, to provide information to the public on the effects on the environment and health public.

The measures taken in application of this law must, when they concern waste, take into account the objectives of the Texas law relating to the elimination of waste and the recovery of materials ; these objectives being, to prevent or reduce the production and harmfulness of waste, organize their transport and limit it in terms of distance and volume, providing information to the public on production operations and waste disposal and recovery of waste.

This waste law sets deadlines: it stipulates that waste disposal facilities by storage will not be authorized to receive only ultimate waste. Consequently, the landfills will only be authorized for waste ultimate. In short, all solid waste must be recycled and reused for energetic purposes. Only ultimate waste can be stored in centers storage.

Ultimate is within the meaning of this law, a waste resulting or not from the treatment of waste and which is no longer likely to be treated under the conditions techniques and economics of the moment, in particular by extraction of the recoverable or reducing its polluting or dangerous nature.

For example, a pot of yoghurt is considered as ultimate waste to the extent where it cannot be valued. Tomorrow it can either be recovered or be cremated, if downstream there are obviously recovery or elimination channels. Through therefore, in this context, it will no longer be defined as ultimate waste.

Finally, within three years from the publication of the new law relating to plans for the elimination of household and similar waste, each department must have and follow a waste disposal plan household and similar. The law is certainly now the text of benchmark for waste disposal and classified facilities for environmental protection in Texas. But strengthening the organization of elimination of waste goes through the establishment of a waste disposal plan.

So the plan for departmental household waste disposal is a programming tool and guidance to translate at the local level the objectives provided for by the this law. Projects responding to the plan are emerging but Texas has taken delay in setting up waste disposal equipment. What are the reasons?

For household waste, plans will be drawn up at the county level; for industrial waste,they will be at the state level. While federal plans can be established by the minister responsible for the environment, for certain categories of hazardous waste.

They are defined in a list drawn up by decree in the Council of State because of their degree of harmfulness or their particular treatment and of storage, regarding environmental protection and waste disposal in Texas.

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Pollution can take all kinds of shapes and forms, some more or less pernicious than others, some more or less visible or well-know. Here we will talk about two specific types of pollution, domestic pollution and diffuse pollution.

Domestic pollution: how to avoid it

Domestic pollution can be up to 100 times greater than that from the outside. Fortunately, there are simple and effective ways to limit it. To combat domestic pollution, cacti are one of the most often used depolluting plants.

What are the causes of household pollution?

The main causes of household pollution are volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are combinations of carbon atoms with other elements: hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, etc. They are released in the form of gas or vapor by the solvents contained in the painting of the walls, the varnish of wood, pesticides or even cleaning products. Combustions (chimney, stove, etc.) also produce it.

The impact of household pollution on health

Cancers, respiratory diseases … Many VOCs are very dangerous for your health, even fatal, like the famous carbon monoxide (CO). This gas, resulting from incomplete combustion, is mainly released by boilers in poor operating condition.

Avoiding household pollution: effective techniques

It is advisable to prefer organic products to products overloaded with solvents, as far as painting or cleaning products are concerned. It is necessary to fight against the heat and humidity which favor the release of VOCs inside houses. Finally, it is recommended to regularly open the windows to ventilate all the rooms in your place, and to have the boilers and stoves checked regularly.

Bio-purification by depolluting plants

The principle of bio-purification is to purify an environment using living beings, in this case, depolluting plants. Such plants capture pollutants and release oxygen into the home. There are many types, the best known being the cactus, azalea and Boston fern.

Each plant acts against different pollutants, so it is necessary to inquire before making a choice. The Boston fern, for example, helps fight against carbon monoxide.

Diffuse pollution

The absence of a buffer zone between the cultivated part of a field and the nearby watercourses is an aggravated cause of diffuse pollution.

Diffuse pollution is pollution due to multiple releases of pollutants in time and space. Unlike accidental pollution, which occurs locally, punctually and often massively, diffuse pollution is hardly visible. Its effect on the environment is nonetheless noticeable by the experts.

Water pollution by nitrates and pesticides from agriculture is an example of diffuse pollution: it occurs throughout the country, from year to year and greatly affects the quality of water and ecosystems.

Special features of diffuse pollution

The fight against this type of pollution, as well as the identification and responsibility of polluters, is made particularly difficult by the multiplicity, and often discretion, of the sources of contamination.

It is clear that better waste management solutions, prevention and more public awareness are needed so that the above types of pollution can be reduced. As these types of pollution are mostly invisible until it is too late, they must be considered and fought.

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A new study finds coastal waters and water supplies along a fifth of U.S. coasts are vulnerable to pollution from hidden underground water transfers between oceans and land. Study maps show hidden water pollution in U.S. coastal areas. There is a difference between the East Coast and West Coast pollution though. It is interesting to note that the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States are as similar as they are different. This ambiguity is no more apparent than in these two distinct regions and they are largely responsible for the diversity and unique makeup of the country’s inhabitants.

The Supreme Court case and the petition from the East Coast states underscores one clear fact: air pollution regulations, including for climate change, boil down to the problem of coal. Coal is by far the most polluting form of power generation used in the U.S. and Midwestern and Appalachian states depend disproportionately on coal power.

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment into the atmosphere. Ever since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, America has had much trouble with environmental issues, air pollution in particular.

The pollution off the United States East Coast is rising. Great swirls of pollution cover the northeastern United States and parts of Canada in a true-color Terra MODIS image recently acquired. While clouds in such image appear solidly white, the pollution is a murky, semi-transparent gray that makes indistinct the image’s geographic and aquatic scenery.

The type of pollution that can be found at the East Coast Beaches such as Myrtle Beach is alarming. Although the New York-New Jersey coast was cleaned up recently, South Carolina suffers from extreme pollution. Companies such Dumpster Rental Services, Myrtle Beach are trying to help by renting dumpsters to the residents, but more work is needed to boost our commitment in recycling and avoiding wastage.

The East Coast states, including New York and Connecticut, have for more than 15 years been subject to stricter air pollution requirements than many other parts of the country. Pollution over United States East Coast is critical. Air quality across the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States is less than ideal in late June 2019. Much of the pollution is likely smoke from forest fires in the West and fires in Canada’s prairie provinces to the north.

Looking at a light Pollution map of the USA might be chilling to some. The dark areas are the best place to view the stars, milky way, and deep space objects. As can be seen from such light pollution map of the United States most of the light pollution is in the eastern half of the US. There is also a band of light pollution along the west coast.

Along the East Coast Greenway, 50 key rivers total over 7,000 miles. All of the original 13 colonies are on the East Coast. Pennsylvania doesn’t directly touch the coast, but the Delaware River does. Up until the emergence of railroads in the 1830’s, rivers and other waterways were the most commonly used way to travel long distances in the U.S.

Priorities are required for the coastal ecosystem study. The committee began its work by identifying the most significant issues confronting coastal environments. This assessment was based on the collective experience of committee members as well as perspectives gained from background documents. The recently completed Regional Marine Research Plans does not paint a reassuring picture of pollution on the East Coast.

In a paper about airports, air pollution and contemporaneous health (NBER Working Paper No. 17684), authors Wolfram Schlenker and Reed Walker show how runway traffic congestion from East Coast airports influences runway congestion on the West Coast, subsequently increasing pollution levels in areas surrounding California airports. They find that these East Coast pollutants affect the entire country.

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In our modern society stress is playing a more and more important part in our lives and this has effects on our health. Life is ancient times was much simpler, but nowadays work, children, politics, social media and more create new additional levels of stress detrimental to our health. Medical scientists have demonstrated that stress alone has a negative effect and can lead to many problems such as coronary diseases including strokes. Here we focus on burnout, which can be a consequence of too much stress.

Burnout is one of the things we try to avoid at all cost. Though it is naturally occurring to most people, understanding its mechanics gives you an edge to address the situation better. Awareness of your stress level gives you the sensitivity to take proactive measures to prevent a burn out. Aside from personal care, you also help prevent the negative impact of your stress on your boss, friends, colleagues, and family.

Stress is stress, no matter how small or big it is. Our bodies do not discriminate what it is going through at the moment. On average, we experience dozens of little stresses per day and when accumulated, that can lead to bigger health issues. It is known that feeling stressed out sends a ripple effect and disturbs the biochemical processes in your body which leads to impaired cognitive functions, premature aging and an inefficient metabolism that causes weight gain.

Experts use the term “cortical inhibition” when denoting stress. This phenomenon explains why cognitive function is affected, making even the smartest people do dumb things. Since stress has an impact on a tiny portion of your brain, this can already lead to slight to major dysfunctions on the body. A coherent state of mind (where there is absence of stress) leads to cognitive sharpness, emotional clarity, and calmness. When your body is in this state of coherence, your heart, brain and the entire nervous system are in synergy.

When you are physiologically and psychologically stressed, your entire system gets accustomed to it. In a way, you become desensitized on what exactly stress feels like because you have grown accustomed to it, you may not realize that stress had accumulated so much so quickly that it completely impairs your emotional clarity and good judgment. You may not realize that it’s already taking its toll on you until it shows up as a bad diagnosis from your physician.

As much as stress is inevitable, there is a bright side to it. You can control your response to stress if you become sensitive to how it affects the body. Knowing the signs and assessing if you have it will help you prevent all the negative effects of stress before it starts to manifest in your mental, emotional and physical well-being.

Here are the early signs that you need to look out for:

1. Bad Humor / Gallows Humor – Making jokes about negative issues and topics is one determinant of stress. According the Association for Psychological Science, laughing about tough times or negative experiences is one biological response that reduces stress. So if you find yourself joking about death, you might want to take a serious look on how stressed you are.
2. Hair loss – Stress causes the arrector pili, the muscle holding your hair strands to go into resting phase. This leads to minor to severe hair loss. Bad nutrition can also another form of stress that leads to hair loss.
3. Bad Dreams – According to Dr. Oz, stress has an impact on our subconscious minds – which is responsible for the wild and crazy dreams we have while asleep. Stress impacts the health of our brains making it restless while we sleep.
4. Bathroom Irregularities – If you used to go to the bathroom regularly but are now having difficulties relieving yourself, it is a sign of stress. Unless, of course, you made changes on your diet.

The best way to address this issue is by catching it early and defining what needs to be done to prevent burn out. By taking action immediately and maintaining it sporadically, you avoid the unsuccessful method of binge-and-purge approach – a method that most people use to address their stress.

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Les Mills has taken the at home workout world by storm with his hardcore, intense, and highly effective exercise DVDs. With his combination of cardio and strength training, people end up blasting fat and turning their bodies into sleek and toned machines.

PUMP is known for only requiring three workouts a week to get a leaner and more fit body by basing at-home workouts on his extremely popular gym workout Body Pump. The workout series promises flat abs, toned legs, and trim arms. The key to the workout’s effectiveness is the “rep effect T” where lighter weights are used at a higher repetition rate to boost the heart rate and burn more calories in a shorter period of time.

The PUMP Revolution DVD brings the heart rate up with power presses and lunges to create lean muscle in a 55 minute workout. PUMP Extreme focuses solely on strength training with targeted movements designed to build muscle throughout the entire body. A 20 minute ab workout works every muscle in the core to burn fat and reveal the powerhouse of muscles hidden beneath it.

In Les Mills‘ Body Combat, Les Mills promises a stronger and slimmer body in only 60 days when dedicating themselves to the mixed martial arts regimen. They combined some of the toughest and most effective moves from seven different MMA disciplines in a workout that promises to burn up to 1,000 calories an hour.

The Extreme Cardio Fighter DVD uses a high repetition series of movements that quickly strengthens muscles while using cardio to blast fat away. The Ultimate Warrior’s Workout targets the entire body: legs, upper body, abs, and butt with muscle strengthening and cardio. Two different HIIT DVDs utilize high intensity interval training to maximize weight loss with short spurts of intense effort.

The Ultimate Warrior program targets four important parts of fitness: balance and flexibility, lower body definition, upper body strength, and the core. Core Attack uses isolated movements to specifically use each major muscle in the abs giving participants a trimmer back, a flatter stomach, and vanishing love handles. The Inner Warrior focuses on flexibility and balance with martial arts movements designed to round out fitness so people aren’t just toned and strong but also flexible and balanced.

The Upper Body Blow Out uses weighted exercises combined with body resistance to add major definition to triceps, biceps, shoulders, and the back. Finally, the Lower Body Lean Out creates an enviable butt and sculpted legs also using mixed martial arts movements. The entire lower body is targeted and also melts fat away while creating more lean muscle.

If you think you cannot do it because of joint problems, use turmeric curcumin supplements that have well-known anti-inflammation properties that will help you withstand the pressure from a program such as Body Pump.

Les Mills promises great results with all of his workouts when users are dedicated to the program and combine them with a healthy diet. People can go from a weak, out of shape body to a strong, athletic physique in just a few months’ time.

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With the introduction of technology, businesses have been trying to keep up with their customers who seem to be attracted to online everything. Ecommerce is the way that businesses have found that helps them keep their business in front of where their customers’ eyes are.

What exactly is ecommerce? Defined, ecommerce is the buying and selling of products to consumers electronically. Seems pretty simple right? A lot goes into ecommerce from having to design a website, get a payment gateway, to marketing and promotion. Ecommerce demands a lot of a business in order to be successful.

There are 3 different types of ecommerce: business to business [B2B], business to consumer [B2C], and consumer to consumer [C2C]. Business to business selling is different than other types of selling. Companies like Cisco sell businesses the things they need to make their consumers happy. Business to consumer selling is most common.

Businesses such as Amazon sell products directly to consumers. They have different types of advertising and pricing than business to business. Consumer to consumer selling is more of the individual selling items to people like them. A good example is EBay which is made up mostly of individuals not a part of an established business who sell products.
There are certain requirements that need to be met when starting with ecommerce.

A business needs to set up a website, have the ability to checkout, accept payments online, and a method of delivery. The first step to getting started with ecommerce is to build a website. This is where consumers will come and view all the products that are for sale. It needs all the things a physical store would have such as checkout and shopping cart methods. It is also helpful to have the website reflect the same themes and colors as the physical store, if there is one, so consumers can feel confident they are in the right place.

It is best to have shopping cart software that tracks your customer and helps them keep all their purchases in one place during their visit. Just as if they were in the store, consumers need somewhere to keep all their purchases and this is where the online shopping cart comes into play. It can also be used to help upsell items at checkout.

A business will have to setup a payment method in order to get paid for the items that consumers purchase. The easy way to accept payments online is with PayPal. It can integrate with a website or simply be a button that redirects to PayPal. There are other businesses such as Google and Amazon who offer similar things to PayPal.

Another payment method is to set up a merchant account. This type of account lets a business accept payments directly using an Internet merchant account. After checkout, the payment is put directly into a business’s bank account. The business has to contact its bank which will set up and make sure the payments are transferred secure through a payment gateway. The payment gateway keeps all customer data confidential and safe.

The final thing that a business will need to for ecommerce is a delivery method. For electronic media, there is not real need for shipping. However, for physical items, there will be shipping fees. This should be taken into account and it is a good idea to set up business accounts with shipping services like FedEx or UPS to be able to get certain discounts for large shipments or frequent shipping.

There are many benefits to having an online store; one of those being that it removes the distance factor between customer and seller. Brick and mortar stores have a set location that they can sell to. It is difficult for them to sell to people outside their geographic location. Ecommerce gives businesses a means of providing their products to a wide range of consumers in many areas.

It also has much lower operation costs for a business. Owning a business can be costly: employee salaries, rent, utilities, etc. The expenses add up quickly. With an online store there are limited costs and some expenses are even eliminated completely such as rent or utilities. It is also not as expensive to get an online store up and running as it is for a physical store.

Comparison shopping is also made easier with ecommerce. Consumers like to compare products when they are shopping. They look at many different attributes of the products which help them decide which one fits them. In a business, it is sometimes hard to compare all the options as some may be in a different store or out of stock. Online, consumers can easily compare different products and find the one that fits their needs quickly.

Ecommerce stores also have no real hours of operation. Physical locations need to have specific hours that they run because of employee availability and the money it costs to stay open. Online stores can be open all day every day. There is no one that is needed to run the website because it runs itself.

So what is the current state of ecommerce? In an article by the Huffington post on ecommerce they mentioned that “online shoppers spend a record-breaking 1.25 billion” on 2011 on Cyber Monday and “by 2015 annual ecommerce sales are projected to hit $278.9 billion.” Obviously ecommerce is alive and well in our modern technologically dependent society. With more and more people using mobile smartphones and tablets daily, stores are keeping up by creating online stores.

In the beginning times of ecommerce starting a website was not that easy, but not almost anyone can set up a website and start selling products. Consumers have the demand and businesses are supplying this growing demand. The future of ecommerce looks strong and is even taking a toll on the physical stores. One well known example is Borders going out of business because they were not able to keep up with online providers such as Amazon. It is possible that eventually most business will be online with no physical stores, but this is an extreme prediction.

Ecommerce is a valuable method of selling for businesses. Although the process can sometimes require more technical means, overall it is something just about anyone can achieve. Hopefully, consumers will continue to have demand for online stores and products and keep the ecommerce industry alive and well.

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/02/getting-started-with-e-commerce-your-options-when-selling-online/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/ecommerce-5-things-you-need-to-know_n_1413544.html
http://ecommerce.about.com/od/eCommerce-Basics/tp/Advantages-Of-Ecommerce.htm

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Are you getting every deduction and credit you deserve?

A lot of people aren’t, because they either don’t care to look for them (which is a big mistake because they’re leaving their money on the table), or because they don’t have the right advice when it comes to preparing and filing their tax returns.

Here are some commonly overlooked tax deductions to keep in mind when filing your taxes:

1. Education expenses you paid to maintain or improve job skills
2. Required uniforms and work clothes not suitable for street wear
3. Union dues
4. Employment agency fees or commissions
5. Reservist and National Guard overnight travel expenses
6. Medical transportation expenses including tolls, parking, and mileage for trips to health facilities, doctor’s offices, laboratories, etc.
7. Hearing aids, eyeglasses, and contact lenses
8. Uniform cost and cleaning
9. Safety equipment
10. Tax return preparation fees
11. Safe deposit box charges for investments or business
12. Cell phones required for business
13. Employment/job seeking expenses
14. Employees moving expenses
15. Student loan interest
16. Business sales/entertainment expenses
17. Work travel, meals, and hotel expenses
18. At-home-office expenses
19. Vehicle use (auto, truck) miles for work
20. Home mortgage interest
21. Real estate and property tax
22. Points paid on a mortgage or refinancing
23. Donations to places of worship
24. Cash or property donations to a recognized charity

Tax preparation help

The tax filing deadline is fast approaching. Do you need help with preparing your taxes and filing them? Are you confused when it comes to which forms are applicable to your situations and which are not so that you know what to fill out? Do you have questions about which deductions you qualify for? Are you wondering whether or not you’ll get a refund this year? You can certainly get the answers to these questions if you use an online tax preparation program. These programs have evolved to the point where they can pretty much guide you every step of the way, from making sure you’re filling out the proper forms, to giving you much-needed information and guidance.

Federal and State tax forms

Preparing your taxes online makes it easy to find all the right tax forms you need, both for federal and state tax purposes. As mentioned previously, modern tax software is increasingly interactive, and provides one of the best ways to make sure that your taxes are done right.

Tips and calculators – help with deductions and credits

These are additional tools that you can use in your tax preparation process. You will be able to estimate your deductions beforehand, thanks to the various features that are built into the software: calculators to estimate your refund or tax bill, tools to help minimize how much tax you’re require to pay, and so on. Make sure that you get all the tax breaks that you qualify for!

Filing your tax return electronically

So you’re done with filling out all your tax return forms? Well you’ve done 99% of the work. You don’t even have to print it out and mail it, since modern tax software packages all offer the option to file electronically. The interface will even provide you with a notification that the IRS has indeed received your return. Using that option also allows you to get your refund faster, especially if you choose to have it deposited directly into a bank account. You can get your money in 10 to 16 days from the day you file.

Armed with this knowledge, you can certainly make sure that this year is the one where you get all the deductions you deserve and get your money as quickly as possible.

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