Smart changes your construction company can make to combat climate change

The UK has already taken action to meet its goal of net-zero by 2050 but reducing carbon emissions won’t be an easy task for every industry, including construction. The construction industry is the sixth-highest carbon-emitting industry in the UK. Around 10% of the country’s carbon emissions come from construction activities, and the built environment sector is responsible for 45% of the UK’s carbon emissions. The industry faces multiple challenges in combating climate change. Still, construction companies need to change how they operate to support the government’s net-zero strategy.

What is the UK government’s net-zero strategy?

There are several ways the government hopes to reduce its carbon emissions by 78% by 2035 and achieve its goal of net-zero by 2050. It plans to introduce grants for low-carbon solutions like heat pumps and electric vehicles; phase out the installation of gas boilers by 2035; ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030; replace all energy sources with renewable energy by 2035; build or retrofit homes with high-quality insulation and green heating.

These are some of the ways the government plans to combat climate change, and your construction company can keep these in mind when implementing strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

Use recycled and locally sourced materials

Using recycled and locally sourced materials is one of the most impactful ways the construction industry can reduce its carbon emissions. Recycled materials are often cheaper and can reduce your costs. By using locally sourced materials, you’ll have more control over your supply chain, and you can support local vendors who produce sustainable materials. Materials from local suppliers also don’t need to be delivered from far away, reducing the carbon footprint of your supplier and your projects.

Consider the impact of construction vehicles

Most construction vehicles and machines use diesel, which is a fossil fuel. When fossil fuels are burned, they release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. While the construction industry can’t give up vehicles and equipment, it can look at investing in low-carbon alternatives. Some heavy-equipment manufacturers are starting to introduce electric heavy-duty trucks and equipment, which your construction business could consider in the future. There are minor changes you can make now to reduce carbon emissions, including using energy-efficient vehicles to transport materials and workers.

Start using renewable energy

Construction sites depend on electricity to power tools, so reducing the energy you use is difficult. Instead, your business could use renewable energy sources like solar, wind and hydroelectric energy to power equipment. In 2020, 42% of the country’s power was generated by wind, solar, bioenergy and hydropower. As renewable energy becomes widely available, it will become easier for your business to switch to green energy. You can also promote renewable energy solutions and encourage clients to choose low-carbon energy sources for their buildings.

Recycle construction and demolition materials

You can send less waste to landfills by employing a waste management company to assist you with recycling construction and demolition materials. Construction sites generate a lot of waste which ends up in landfills, which are one of the leading causes of climate change as they release biogas into the atmosphere. When you recycle materials, you reduce the need for the industry to make as many new materials from scratch, saving energy and reducing the consumption of natural resources. Some of the construction materials that can be recycled include brick, stones, plasterboard, and reinforcing bars.

Cut down on paper with Construction Software

One of the simplest ways your construction company can reduce its carbon footprint is by creating a paperless work environment with Construction Software. You can use Construction Software to create digital Job Sheets, and paperwork can be uploaded to the software and stored digitally. Your technicians can complete forms online using their Mobile Device and email Quotes and Invoices instead of printing them.

Different fabrics used for curtaining

Polyester fabrics: Polyester is a synthetic fabric that is wrinkle-resistant and does not shrink. Polyester is a good choice for curtains that need to be washed often.
Cotton: Cotton is a natural fabric that is soft and breathable. Cotton curtains are best for rooms that do not get a lot of sunlight, as they will fade over time if exposed to too much sun.
Linen: Linen is a natural fabric that is strong and durable. Linen curtains are best for rooms that get a lot of sunlight, as they will not fade as easily as cottons.
Silk: Silk is a luxurious fabric that has a smooth, shiny surface. Silk curtains are for formal rooms or bedroom windows. They are not as durable as other fabrics and can be easily damaged by sunlight.
Velvet: Velvet is another luxury fabric that has a soft, smooth surface. Velvet is quite heavy and ideal for formal drapes.
Wool: Wool is a natural fabric that is strong and durable. Wool curtains are best for rooms that get a lot of sunlight, as they will not fade or damage easily.

Now that you know the different types of fabric used for curtaining, you can choose the right type of fabric for your room! If are still unsure about what to select, speak to a professional in curtains in Sydney, and they will be able to help you make the right decision for your home depending on the specific needs of each room.

Don’t forget that with curtaining there are many options in terms of colours, textures, prints etc, so you can really personalise your window treatments to make a statement in your home. Curtains can also help to insulate your home and keep out the cold in winter, so be sure to consider this when making your purchase.

5 Reasons to Make SAP Business ByDesign Your ERP Solution

The present is a curious and opportune moment to be an SME. It is granted that the disruptions of the past several months while hitting all businesses alike has been particularly brutal for the mid-market players. But it has also mainstreamed the Digital like never before, leveling the playing field and nudging the SMEs to reclaim their rightful position as the cornerstone of the economies worldwide.

Nevertheless, the New Economy is characterized by an imperative to drive non-linear growth, stringent compliance, demand for optimized time-to-market with quality, and a customer base that is increasingly aspirational and visibly impatient. Arguably, these are factors that small and medium businesses operating on conservative enterprise management practices or legacy ERP stacks may find quite overwhelming to deal with.

A future-ready ERP

Throwback to 2007, the product planners at SAP predicted a growing appetite for cloud-borne services across industries. They also perceived a wide capability gap between low-end systems like SAP BusinessOne, targeted at small firms, and high-end systems like SAP ECC, designed for large enterprises. In response, SAP Business ByDesign ERP was launched to address the unique requirements of the mid-market segment in a cloud-first world and help them operate profitably in closely contested landscapes.

SAP Business ByDesign ERP is a cloud suite-in-a-Box engineered around SAP’s HANA in-memory database technology, facilitating fast, transparent, efficient, and organized governance. For SMEs, SAP Business ByDesign ERP integrates all core enterprise processes including Finance, HR, CRM, project management, and supply chain functions around an intelligent, cloud-native platform using pre-built processes, enabling them to compete without the cost and complexities of managing on-premise infrastructure.

Why should you embrace SAP Business ByDesign ERP?

Whether your organization have actually outgrown its current ERP installation or considering a proactive vertical migration, here are five compelling reasons why your enterprise transformation investments should not look beyond SAP Business ByDesign ERP:

The cloud advantage: Perhaps the most prominent feature of SAP Business ByDesign ERP is that while SAP BusinessOne and it’s enterprise peers like SAP S/4HANA are available in both on-premise and cloud versions, it is an exclusively cloud-native product. It offers you the option to run your enterprise services on SAP’s world-class shared cloud infrastructure or avail the advantages of the public cloud in a dedicated and highly secured environment, eliminating the need for on-premise installations and optimizing TCO in the process by scraping out significant capital outlays. Further, in contrast to recurring expenses often associated with other ERP products, SAP Business ByDesign ERP comes at a fixed installation price. It collapses Annual Maintenance and Version Upgrade costs into a per-user subscription, simplifying the operating cost predictions for running your ERP stack.

High scalability: SAP Business ByDesign ERP is a cloud ERP built for growth, supporting you from inception and throughout your journey along the maturity curve. It aims to bring postmodern enterprise management features for entities with a market cap of $500k to $1 billion through a SaaS model and cater to a user base of 7 – 9,000 employees per system. SAP Business ByDesign ERP is a modular product that supports a broad spectrum of enterprise functions, including Financials, CRM, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Supplier Relationship Management, Compliance Management, and Executive Management. It can be scaled up or down as per your business requirements. Further, there are a series of solution extensions and industry-specific packages available to enhance your ERP stack’s capability. In fact, currently, the product is backed by an ecosystem of 125+ software ISV partners with 2,600 add-on solutions. SAP Business ByDesign ERP is localized for 20 SAP delivered countries and is available in more than 12 languages.

In-built analytics: SAP Business ByDesign ERP has been conceived to facilitate insights-driven governance through embedded analytics and performance metrics, delivering real-time intelligence for your decision-makers. SAP Business ByDesign ERP serves a panoramic view of your operations, helping you understand the root cause of issues, key business trends, success drivers, and critical situation estimates by assimilating data streams from various enterprise processes. Your managers and process owners can consume such insights on demand through a series of role-based dashboards, ad-hoc reporting tools, and analytics embedded into the transactional environments.

Improved customer relations: The account and activity management functionalities in SAP Business ByDesign ERP ensure optimum visibility into your Order To Cash cycles. It allows your sales teams to closely manage the opportunity pipelines, orchestrate leads along the funnel, pinpoint revenue augmentation potentials, provide quotes, and process fulfillment without lag. As a single source of truth, the out-of-the-box CRM functionalities in SAP Business ByDesign ERP allow your customer-facing staff to access critical information and better navigate customer transitions. With unrestricted access to data from multiple sources like sales, logistics, finance, and marketing, SAP Business ByDesign ERP allows your customer success teams to inspire buyer delight and improve the CSAT score.

Mobility: SAP Business ByDesign ERP features complete mobile compatibility and can be accessed on a hand-held device of your choice. It helps achieve better shop floor to top floor cohesion and allows your on-field employees with active internet connectivity to be productive by remotely accessing the ERP stack for various roles.

Final notes

That SAP Business ByDesign is currently trusted and used by mid-market organizations in over 144 countries worldwide speaks at length about its capabilities and relevance in the New Economy. However, rather than joining the bandwagon, the decision to make SAP Business ByDesign your ERP solution should be an informed and deliberate one with clear visibility of the advantages that can be derived. For this, SAP Business ByDesign Partners like Percipere are available with a rich trove of skills and deep solution implementation experience. Instead of leaving success to chances, it is prudent to approach such experts and let an SAP Business ByDesign Consultant guide you through the transition.

Having a Static Webpage Is Like Presenting Only 7% of What You Are

On a networking event you see a meeting planner. You approach him/her and say, “I’m a great Speaker.” That’s Direct Marketing.

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a meeting planner. You have one of your friends’ approach him/her, point at you and say, “She’s/He’s great speaker.” That’s Advertising.

You see meeting planner at a party. You approach him/her to get their telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m a great speaker.” That’s Telemarketing.

You’re at a party and see a meeting planner. You get up, straighten your clothes, walk up and pour them a drink. You open the door, pick up their bag after it drops, offer them a ride, and then say, “By the way, I’m a great speaker.” That’s Public Relations.

You’re at a party and see a meeting planner. They walk up to you and say, “I hear you’re a great speaker.” That’s Brand Recognition.

OK, just a little fun, but seriously if you are a communicator you do understand that communications can be broken down into 3 elements:

• Message: 7%

• Tone of Voice: 38%

• Body Language: 55%

And you also know that a communicator makes a living speaking, i.e. showing up for live presentations. Consequently 93% (38%+55%) of you message depends on how you present yourself.

How then do you expect meeting planners to hire you by reading a web-page?

How do you expect coaching clients to do the same or to get your message across to prospect buyers when you are holding back 93% of your message?

Having a static web-page is like presenting only 7% of what you are. You MUST have several videos to showcase your talent, ideas, and products to get 100% of your message across.

Would you hire or buy from anyone that only shows you 7% of what they are capable of?

Videos are a crucial marketing package item for speakers, coaches, ministers or anyone that speaks to market their business.

Videos also help consumer make educated decisions. When Zappos (the online shoe store) introduced videos not only did purchases increase by 10% when a product included a video description, but returns for the product also decreased due to a more educated consumer.

An you as a communicator would benefit from this education too. Having educated consumers about you and your products will increase your sales convection. More educated consumer means less time on calls / explanations and more inclined to hire your services or attend your seminars and ministries.

Get your well produced videos as soon as possible and see the impact they can have on your business. Don’t be behind on this next wave. You KNOW whoever launches last rarely gets in the front of the pack.

What To Expect When You’re Presenting: A Beginner’s Guide To A Great Speech

Giving your first major presentation is always going to be a bit nerve wracking. It’s something to get used to, whether it’s a presentation in front of your direct superior, in front of the board, or in front of a whole room full of people. Anyone you ask will tell you to practice and prepare; few can give you advice based on experience that will help you give your talk with confidence and poise.

Preparation And Research Is Everything

There is only one way you can really prepare for a talk, and it’s not simply by practicing. You do need to practice, but that doesn’t mean simply reciting your prepared speech to get it memorized. Real practice means anticipating questions, accounting for possible errors, and speaking to a group. Recruit your friends to help you with the practice phase. They should act as your listeners, engaged and interested in your topic. They should be ready to ask questions and, if appropriate, challenge your conclusions. They should ideally have about the same level of previous knowledge about your topic that your final audience will possess.

In addition to speaking in front of people, you need to make sure that your facts are in order. Whether you’re talking about last year’s budget figures or a recent discovery, there is nothing more embarrassing than an improperly cited fact. You should double check everything that you plan to reference in your talk beforehand, and check again a week prior to the event. Using bad information is the fastest way to make yourself appear unreliable and cast a shadow of doubt over everything you say.

Visual Aids Help Your Audience Engage

If you are giving a long talk, you have to expect that people will have some trouble concentrating during at least a part of it. When people are asked to sit and listen, they have difficulty focusing because they are asked to engage with their ears only. The best way to prevent this problem is by adding a visual element of some kind. One of the most popular ways to do this is with portable trade show displays. A table top display or other small portable displays provide a lot of information in a small space. Plus, portable units tend to be inexpensive, making them available to academics on a tight budget.

A well-designed table top display will be able to communicate the main points of your discussion without being so revealing that it practically makes your talk unnecessary. Portable trade show displays are also useful for showing any kind of graph or other visual aid that is referenced during your presentation. If a table top display or other portable displays aren’t in your budget, then you’ll want to make use of printed flyers for anything that your audience will need to see. Portable trade show displays are better because they don’t distract from you on the stage, but printed flyers can be an acceptable substitute.

Don’t Stress Yourself

Once you’ve got everything set, the most important thing to do is not be stressed. Even if your job performance is being reviewed or you’re giving a talk to your profession’s most illustrious governing body, you need to be relaxed. It will help you remember what you want to say, and it will make the entire experience much more pleasant.

Fruit Is a Great Gift Especially When Presented As a Bouquet or Table Decoration

Flowers have been one of Earth’s many wonderful creations. Naturally beautiful and colourful, flowers have made great gifts since civilisation began. Often presented as bouquets their look and smell brighten up any location they are displayed.

Fruit is also one of Earth’s other wonderful creations that not only come in all the colours imaginable but is sweet delicious food we can eat in its natural form. Fruit has frequently appeared in paintings and graphics through the centuries of civilisation. But unlike other foods fruit is normally displayed in its natural, picked from the tree or bush, form.

Fruit trees appear naturally all around the world and climate and soil conditions denote the type of fruit trees that grow in different parts of the world. Now in our modern societies and worldwide transportation systems we can experience the taste of fresh fruits from all corners of the world.

Most major stores now stock every fruit imaginable from every fruit producing country and not just when it is in season but throughout the year. Fruit and vegetables are natures natural foods. Vegetables often look more appetising when cooked but fruit looks best in its natural fresh state.

Fruit given as a gift is normally presented as a bunch of grapes, bag of apples, oranges, etc, or as a basket of fruit. Fresh fruit arrangements as edible bouquets are now appearing as an alternative gift to a basket of fruit or flower bouquets.

Edible bouquets are fresh fruit cut into various shapes and arranged like a bouquet of flowers with some of the fruits covered in white, milk or dark Belgium chocolate. There are as many colours in fruit as there are in flowers and cut fresh fruit gives off an amazing aroma.

Edible fresh fruit bouquets are appealing to adults and children alike. Also an edible bouquet is an ideal gift for both men and women. When an edible bouquet is delivered it has the wow factor as a bouquet of flowers but also has a second wow factor when eaten as part of a celebration or just consumed over a number of days.

Flowers and fruit have a long tradition as gifts. Flowers are always on display at Wedding, but rarely fruit. That was until now as edible bouquets are now appearing as wedding table decorations. Again fruit bouquets as a table decoration give a wow factor and can be eaten during the wedding celebrations or as part of the desert.

Edible fruit arrangements can be presented at Wedding as bouquets, platters, favours, etc. Strawberries are always regarded as a special fruit and now a tower of strawberries covered in chocolate and even decorated as bride and groom can be a centrepiece at a Wedding.

Network Marketing Tips and Strategies – Four Proven Tips to Make A Better Presentation

One of the most important network marketing tips and strategies to master as a distributor with a network marketing company is how to do an effective presentation about our MLM’s products, services, and/or business opportunity. As Tom, Big Al, Schreiter says, without skills all reps are dead in the water. Without skills, everybody knows its easy to end up fire-hosing our MLM prospects and setting up their salesman alarms to go beeping like crazy.

So, here are four proven tips all leaders need to learn and apply in order to present their MLM product, service, and work from home opportunity with the power it deserves. When you nail these skills, you will become much more effective and successful at recruiting/sponsoring business opportunity seekers as well as building up a nice customer base.

Tip #1: Avoid making price an issue. Many studies show that the salesperson is more concerned with price than prospects and customers. Amateurs love to talk about price. Unfortunately, all this does is remind the MLM prospect of how much it is to join the work from home opportunity or the cost of the product. Successful reps handle the process as if they were minor considerations. If a potential client does make it an issue, they deal with it effectively.

Tip #2: Focus on benefits and not features or price. A feature is an attribute of a product or service; some quality that makes it attractive. Benefits are different because they are an advantage that an opportunity or product provides. When your MLM leads ask questions, the best approach is to always focus on the benefits the person will gain.

Tip #3: Be valued focus and work to deliver it. Showing your prospect the benefits of being a home-based business owner or the benefits your company’s products or services provides is the only way to create value. The more value you as a leader can deliver, the more desirable the product, service, or opportunity will be to others. Plus, with this approach, the less important price becomes.

Tip #4: Relate benefits to every value. Your goal is to attach every benefit of every feature to a tangible value; something your MLM business lead desires. If you create enough desirability, you will create customers and sponsor new people into your downline each month.

Growing a highly successful MLM business with lots of volume and sponsoring quality people does take persistence, a burning desire, and skills. When you learn the skill of how to make effective business presentations, your home-based business will grow.

How To Present Attractive Promotional Products

Have you ever had a chance to celebrate a national event that has something to do with foods? National Pecan Month, for instance, aims to pay attention to the different benefits that pecan consumption can bring. This is commonly celebrated in April and everyone is encouraged to participate in its commemoration. For the whole month, you can design your meals to include pecans as one of the ingredients. This occasion may be promoted with the use of promotional products as your main advertising tools.

Customized products come in many forms and one of them is food items. Don’t believe me? Well, try taking a look at some promotional items websites so you can see some products being sold by promotional items suppliers. They are available in different varieties which can cater to different campaign needs. You just need to identify how best to present them to your target audiences.

Are you wondering about how you can properly present promotional products in your celebration of National Pecan Month? Here are some tips you can follow so you can have an easier time figuring out what to do for this event’s celebration:

1. Identify the Proper Customization Technique – In preparing your promotional products, you need to figure out which customization techniques are suitable to use for your promotional items. Bear in mind that this particular celebration involves food, so you need to choose the right customization method that will suit the promotional items.

2. Identify the Ideal Packaging Materials – If you’re thinking about serving or giving out pastries or dessert treats to your potential customers and clients, you might want to hunt for eye-catchy packaging materials to place these products in. Get your target audience excited by just a first glance of your promotional products.

3. Identify a Highly Effective Advertising Slogan – This is one of the most efficient ways to ensure the success of your campaign. You have to think about an appropriate tagline that can get your target audience
talking about the whole campaign itself. Create an imaginative and original tagline that they will never forget.

If you think that imprinted products can only be used with office or home supplies, think again. You can also produce food items that can be used as main promotional tools. You just need to present them well so people will immediately like them. Have you thought about which recipes or food items to prepare that can be used in the celebration of National Pecan Month?

Do’s and Don’ts While Presenting a Corporate Gift

There are many things to be considered beforehand only while purchasing corporate gifts. The most common questions that come to one’s mind are: What to buy, How much to spend and When is the best occasion to gift?

There are a lot of factors attached to the promotional corporate gifts, as it shows that you are loyal and truly valuable to your clients and their business.

Besides this, gifting the right promotional product can also boost the employee’s morale.
 
On the other hand, if the process of presenting the gift to your client is not done correctly, it can really damage your company’s reputation and can cost your business as well. Therefore one must follow certain guidelines in order to present best promotional gifts.

Do’s

Do determine an object - The best time to present a corporate gift is during the season of holidays. Thus an objective in this case must be to gift a holiday present. Besides you can also present gifts to your business associates or clients during the beginning of a business or an incentive program. Thus, if you have an objective your gift selection will become simple.

Do make the list of recipients - Determining in advance the recipients will help you choose the right item. You shouldn’t present the similar gift to your clients and customers.

Do be uniqueIt isn’t it difficult to go to the market and buy a popular, trendy item and present it as a corporate gift. It is a difficult task to present unique gift items that you can brand well with your logo.

Besides this, you will also be remembered for long if you present a thoughtful gift to your clients.

Don’ts

Don’t give personal gifts – Personal gifts are meant for family, friends or neighbours. You should never present a personal gift in the corporate arena; rather select a tasteful and professional gift. By choosing a neutral gift, you can avoid offending your clients.

Don’t present an expensive giftIt is very significant to pay attention to your budget while choosing a corporate gift. An expensive gift will not help you in creating an expression on your clients; rather it could be misconstrued as a bribe.

Don’t wait till the last minute - Planning ahead is the key. Therefore it is always better to plan a corporate gift for your clients in advance only. Choosing the gift at the very last moment can result you in choosing an inappropriate gift.

You can find the most appropriate and unique gifts at various gift stores and web sites. There are many websites that even specialises in promotional gifts. Presenting the right gift to your clients, can really help you maintain a healthy relation with them in the long run.

How to Make a Good Presentation?

When you are making a presentation, your posture can affect the quality of your voice. The way you stand, you know, the position of your head, neck and shoulders and feet and so on is important. Check that your feet are parallel and apart and your weight is slightly forward on your feet. Make sure that your knees are relaxed; as if you are tense your back will suffer.

Pay special attention to your head. Look straight ahead and do not push your neck out or drop it on to your chest.

Now most of us feel quite nervous before we speak in public. You will feel better if you spend some time dealing with the tension. It is a good idea to try and think about what it is that is making you feel this way. That way you can have some control over it. Next, try and locate the area of tension in your body. Often it is your neck or your shoulders. Then concentrate on massaging these parts and consciously trying to relax them. Believe me, it works.

Let us think about what you say, now. To maximize your performance make sure you are well prepared. Look over your notes, practice what you want to say, preferably out loud, and then, perhaps most important of all, try to feel you really want to share your subject with your audience. If you feel and share your enthusiasm with them, you are more than half-way there.

Remember that how people feel about you and what you are saying to them will depend on your body language. There are three main behavior types: passive, aggressive and assertive. You can use any of these types, although I think the assertive posture is one that suites most occasions best.

The passive body type has a withdrawn posture. You may fidget a bit with your hands and hair. In fact, I remember a well-known politician who whenever he was speaking would constantly message the top of his head. So beware of those funny little mannerisms. They can become intensely irritating to an audience.