Monthly Archives: August 2016
Current Trends in Furniture and Interior Design
Aside from their functionality and aesthetic value, home furnishings add up to your total home value. However, designs change to suit the current trends and needs of the buyers. For that, some homeowners replace their old furnishings in a few years’ time.
Before you actually make a purchase, here is Furniture Expo Outlet’s update on current trends in furniture and interior design:
Kitchen cabinets in two tones
For a clean and neat look, use neutral colors like white or gray for the upper cabinets. Lower cabinets can be in deeper tones like bright blue or green. The idea is to have different directions for a stylish look.
Outdoor fabric replacing indoor fabric
Outdoor fabrics are durable and stain-resistant. For high-traffic areas like the dining and living rooms, outdoor fabrics are better than the traditional indoor ones. You can use them in sofas, kitchen and dining room chairs, and even as shower curtains.
Deep drawers
Instead of a lower cabinet, you may use cabinets with deep drawers for easy storage. Install them under the sink or range top. Furthermore, use dividers to organize your pans and other kitchen utensils.
Warm metals mixed with natural materials
You can mix metals like brass, gold, and copper with natural materials like marble and wood. They make a good combination for furnishings in the bathroom and kitchen.
70s furnishings
Furnishings of the 1970s are bold and raw, reflections of the free-spirited nature of the era. Inspired by these, musician-turned-furniture designer Lenny Kravitz came up with lights and accessories in polished metals and geometric patterns.
Huge-format tiles
Kitchens and bathrooms have never been the same with these huge format tiles. Such tiles come in more or less 31 by 71 inches. You can use these tiles in your fireplace as a sight to behold!
Home furnishings make life easy and comfortable, but they need replacement as well. For good-quality items, purchase only from reputable dealers to get your money’s worth.
Asking Cash from Relatives? Borrow from an External Lender Instead
At a time when many of us are going through financial difficulties, there comes a point when borrowing money becomes necessary to stay afloat. But who to ask? The usual answer would be family member and friends.
We all have the best intentions when it comes to people closest to us. Often, we are willing to offer what we can to help each other out, especially in circumstances when we would never for a stranger. This also means, however, that the rules can be very different from when we ask for personal loans from a lending institution. Rapid Loans agrees that the potential challenges associated with it can be different as well.
Emotional Baggage
While the ties of family and friendship may seem strong enough to withstand such a simple transaction, sometimes the emotional baggage associated with money can be too much to handle. The set-up puts a price tag on the relationship.
Awkwardness During Family Gatherings
In addition, there is nothing worse than attending a family reunion or gathering with a strong feel of awkwardness in the air, or not attending at all because you want to avoid the relative who lent you the money.
Expectations from Both Parties
In addition, borrowing money from people closest to you may be the easiest option, but the set-up often comes with a set of expectations from both parties. For instance, if you are a business owner and needed the money for start-up costs, there could be an expectation with the lender asking for more involvement in your business affairs.
The Problem: It’s in the Informality
The root of the problem here lies on the informality of the transaction and the lack of concrete terms in the lender-debtor relationship. The solution here, therefore, is to make sure the terms are very clear — or better yet, borrow money from an external party instead. Lending institutions often involve agreements in writing, signed by both parties and includes the loan amount, the time frame, the interest rate and what happens in case of a default.
Borrowing money from a family member or friend is fraught with problems, to the point that it is often better to simply refuse the generosity even when it seems like the easiest choice.
The Truth about Vitamin D and Overexposure to the Sun
Vitamin D plays many different important roles when it comes to your health. One of the most crucial is regulation of the body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients such as phosphorus and calcium. For your body to produce this type of vitamin, you need sunlight.
Lack of this vitamin means increasing your risks of osteomalacia, or abnormalities of the bone, as well as osteoporosis, or fragility of the bones.
How much complete sun exposure do you need?
According to WebMD, you only need at least thirty minutes of complete sun exposure (face, back, legs, and arms) once a week in order to make your body produce enough Vitamin D.
What happens when you get too much of the sun’s rays?
There are a lot of health dangers associated with overexposure to the ultraviolet radiation of the sun. Among these include loss of skin elasticity, premature skin ageing, rashes, dryness, itchiness, sunburn, and the worst of all, skin cancer.
Does staying indoors help prevent overexposure?
Yes, it definitely does. However, this does not automatically mean that the sun’s powerful UVA rays cannot get to you even when you stay indoors. This is particularly true when you spend plenty of time near glass windows since they can only block UVB. Depending on the type of glass used in your windows, you can still receive up to 75 percent of UVA radiation, Yes Blinds says.
What should you do then?
There are plenty of ways to avoid overexposure inside your own home or office. You do not have to stay away from your windows completely, as long as you have them covered the right way. Window treatments, such as roller blinds, will give you a way not only to cover your windows but also to control the amount of sunlight you want to allow through.
And with the low cost of roller blinds, you do not have to worry about UVA radiation exposure nor putting a huge dent in your wallet.
MAP Policy: What Exactly is It?
From the perspective of a value-added reseller, a minimum advertising price or MAP policy must be a great thing. Although it doesn’t command selling prices, it does, however, control how low a product’s price could be displayed. This essentially means that consumers don’t actually see a visible discount, which in turn could translate to potentially higher margins for supporting enhanced client satisfaction.
Defining MAP
The minimum advertised or advertising price is basically the lowest price on a product that manufacturers allow their resellers to advertise. Plenty of manufacturers now have MAP policies in place for ensuring the integrity of pricing their products, most especially online, to provide authorized resellers the ability to compete with similar businesses. Among the prime justifications of enacting a MAP policy indicates the exclusive manner to correctly represent the manufacturer’s brand is to enable a reasonable margin so that resellers could earn enough in support and representation of the brand to the specific level that the manufacturer expects, says an expert from PriceManager.
Manufacturers enacting MAP policies normally require their resellers to implement some kind of agreement that authorizes them to represent, advertise, and sell their brand. The majority of these manufacturers likewise uses a system for MAP policy monitoring to determine which resellers are violating their MAP agreements. Some even use independent services that will perform online shopping and purchasing of their products in order to track serial numbers to whoever violates the MAP policies. Resellers found in violation of the MAP policy risk losing authorization for selling the manufacturer’s products.
An Important Note to Resellers
While the main point of MAP policies is essentially the same, they still vary from one manufacturer to another. Resellers should be aware of the specific policies that apply to their businesses because even a five-cent error could mean losing the right to sell a manufacturer’s product line. Lastly and most importantly, take note that some manufacturers even enact HARD MAP policies, which are basically MAP policies with no leeway or flexibility regarding MAP rules as opposed to typical MAP policies that allow for exceptions and some level of flexibility in the agreement.
Setting Up Shop: Cafés
Have you ever thought of opening your own coffee shop? As difficult as it may seem, it can also be rewarding. Think about it: you get to serve people their favourite drinks – and a pastry on the side maybe, meet new people and provide them with space where they can relax and hang out with their friends and colleagues for their coffee fix.
Hostservice shares a few pointers on where and how to start your coffee business because setting up shop takes more than just buying or renting a place and serving people coffee.
Know Its Premise
Before you design and buy equipment, one of the biggest decisions you will make is thinking of the premise of your café. Do you want it to be a den for students to relax or study in? Are you open to turning it into a cocktail bar or a place that hosts open-mic nights? You decide, but it cannot be all of these things at once.
Researching Your Brew
Before opening your own café, you should spend time learning as much as you can about how to make coffee and how to taste it. Visiting various coffee shops and trying different beverages can open your palate to the many flavours of coffee available. Plus, you should know where to get the best beans so your customers keep coming back for more.
Buying the Right Equipment
Food storage is one of the essential things to consider when buying equipment. It is imperative that the staff maintains the proper temperature of their food products for safety reasons – inadequacy may result in the spread of bacteria, which can cause food poisoning and other severe health concerns that may give your café a bad rap.
Owners must choose food storage equipment that maintains food at certain temperatures while meeting the safety regulations established by local councils.
If your coffee shop intends to make meals onsite, then you will also need food prep stations. These provide a sanitary location for you to prepare food. Brewing equipment should also be chosen carefully, especially if you intend to make a variety of beverages. The right equipment will help your business soar if you are able to prepare delicious, top-tier drinks.
These are just some of the things you should consider when setting up your own coffee shop. Investing in one is a big decision on its own, but if you do it right, then you have nothing to worry about.
5 Essentials Every SME Should Have
Many employees are starting to venture in and penetrate the competitive market in hopes of settling for bigger opportunities — that means, a more challenging scope of work, better financial stability, and improved career growth. However, small and medium enterprises are faced with a myriad of challenges, one that involves competing with established and other budding businesses. But with the steep competition, there’s only one question that business owners usually face: how can I ensure my company’s steady growth?
A lot of up-and-rising entrepreneurs are making a mistake in growing their business. Often, this is attributable to their inability to discern the right strategies to achieve optimum growth. Because of this, nine out of ten companies are expected to fail.
Here are a few essentials to help ensure your company’s success.
- Make your product unique but relevant. Studies show that 42 percent of startups fail to find a market need for their product. If you want to not only thrive but win in the market, make sure that you researched your product well and target the right consumers.
- Maintain job management. Small companies need real-time communication, easy access to information and a suite of compliant forms all in one place. Some companies are delivering service management software, such as JobLogic, that will help you improve job management in singularity.
- Prepare the right investments. Up-front investment of capital is by far one of the most important considerations if you want to innovate your business, more particularly your product. But on a bigger perspective, having financial security allows you to prepare for troubleshooting that may come in the future.
- Hire the right people. Boarding the right person for the right job goes a long way in ensuring work gets done at the end of the day. If you have the right resources and the right people, you won’t have a problem dealing with the other facets of your business.
- Explore the benefits of Big Data. Some companies venture into marketing, advertising, operations, customer relations and the like. But for startups that have a limited budget, exploring Big Data can help get these areas done in the most hassle-free way.
Most startups don’t make it that far, but with the right tools, strategies and mindset, you can conquer the competitive world and expand your business to bigger heights.
An Overview of Dental Implantology
Dental implantology primarily concerns itself with the study and use of a dental implant. As a surgical component, a dental implant allows the interfacing between a dental prosthesis, such as an orthodontic anchor, with the bone of the jaw or skull.
Osseointegration: Metal and Bone
Dental implantology roots itself in osseointegration, a biological process wherein foreign materials, like titanium alloy, bond to bone.
Dental implants, in particular, rely on osseointegration. Upon its placement, the implant eventually osseointegrates and allows the anchoring of a dental prosthetic, such as a crown. When you go for an implant procedure, there will be a variable amount of time for the healing period as osseointegration has to take effect.
The Priory Dental Practice, an established family dental practice located in the heart of Walsall, Aldridge, simplifies the explanation. Essentially a titanium post, a dental implant, locates itself in the jawbone and functions as a replacement for the tooth root. After integrating into the bone, it serves to fill a gap with a crown or bridge. In addition, it can also function as a support to loose dentures.
What You Need to Know About Dental Implants
It is indeed nerve-wracking to imagine having a thingamajig of metal installed in your mouth. But as countless treatments and procedures have proven, dental implants are safe. As a form of restorative dentistry, implants are the closest thing to having natural teeth. Well taken care of and maintained, as if real, implants can last a lifetime.
Whether you are missing a mere few or you still have a full set of teeth, you can have implants to replace a single tooth or all. In replacing missing teeth via implantology, though, your orthodontist or dentist must first determine if there is enough healthy bone in your jaw. In the unfortunate case that you have barely any, you will have to undergo bone grafting.
Conclusively, the treatment can take as little as a few months to a year or so. This largely depends on the amount of work and healing necessary for your dental implants.
Financial Balance Through Business Bank Accounts
When running your very own company in Bloomington, a personal bank account may not be good enough to manage your finances. Your expenses as a company owner must have a balance between your personal and your business expenses to ensure that you keep financial equilibrium.
That is where a business bank account comes into play. Business bank accounts allow you to divide your expenses efficiently without having to do the math with your personal account. On top of that, this allows you to both manage and monitor both your personal and business accounts.
It puts a much-needed divider on expenses
Have you ever had to compute how much you would have to put aside for your personal expenses and your business expenses every time bills come in? That is not very efficient. With a business account, you do not need to do that anymore, because it is already separate from your personal account. This means while you are spending on your personal needs with your personal account, your business account still has money in the bank for running your business and you no longer have to worry about not having enough for it.
Business transactions are easier to do
When you have a business account, banks often provide a representative to assist you with your business transactions. That means it is relatively easy to make loans with the bank to help your business grow, and can make payroll processing significantly easier and more cost efficient through outsourcing. They also normally put forward invoicing services, and can establish transfers to outside banks for simpler transaction procedures. Some banks go even as far as allowing you to make online deposits through scanning checks.
As a business owner, having a business bank account is not just for looking more professional. Business bank accounts are a necessity to have for proper financial management and easier transactions for efficiently running your business.
How Cosmetic Braces Can Give You the Beautifully Aligned Smile You’ve Always Wanted – In a Matter of Months
The modern orthodontic world offers several alternatives to fixed metal braces for adults who want to improve the position of their teeth. One popular choice is to have cosmetic braces, which are designed to blend in well with the natural colour of your teeth for maximum discretion.
Fixed braces remain, in many cases, the best way to straighten teeth, because the give your orthodontist or dentist maximum control over the movement of each tooth. Although children and teenagers may enjoy the colour-customisation options available with today’s fixed metal braces (using coloured elastics to personalise your braces in the colour of your favourite football team, or matching your brace colour with your friend’s) the thought of metal can be a barrier for adults.
Tooth-coloured braces do what they claim – they blend in well with the natural colour of your teeth. You should have a professional tooth clean before your braces are fitted, and should practise rigorous oral hygiene to avoid any plaque discolouration or stains, helping to make your braces next to invisible.
Six Month Smiles, a popular system of cosmetic braces used at Slough Braces Centre, are one of the world’s most trusted clear brace brands. In addition to blending in with your teeth, they take an average of half a year to work, and are considered much more comfortable than traditional braces.
The significantly shortened average treatment time is possible because these braces work on the front six teeth – the ones on show when you smile. Whilst they are not designed for major correction of issues affecting the bite, in cases of mild to moderate cosmetic correction, Six Month Smiles are often the perfect solution.
To ensure you know how to clean around your braces properly, being careful to remove any trapped food particles quickly and efficiently, you will need to book a visit to your dental hygienist. He or she will teach you the best methods of brace cleaning, including using any special techniques or tools.
Once tooth straightening is complete, many people enjoy a brightness boost with teeth whitening treatment – an added bonus to their smile makeover.
Safety First! What Artists Need to Wear Before Sandblasting
People use sandblasting for various purposes. A typical DIY application of sandblasting is removing old paint or some other material stuck on a metal surface. Others find creative uses for sandblasting. Artists, for instance, use sandblasting as an art form by etching cool designs into their art material.
If you happen to be an artist looking to utilise sandblasting as your next medium, you should know about the safety gear when operating sandblasting equipment. Failure to wear the right safety gear can result in injuries and may even lead to death. One must suffer for his art, but nobody said anything about prolonged hospitalisation.
Here are the necessary precautionary items you should put on before you use sandblasting for creative purposes:
Protective Clothing
There is a lot of dirty work involved in sandblasting and you do not want to get all that dust on your skin. If you do not have access to sandblasting suits that professionals wear, you can make do by wearing these clothes:
- Long pants
- Long sleeved shirt
- Gloves
- Socks and shoes
Safety Glasses (or Goggles)
As mentioned earlier, sandblasting is dirty work and all that dust floating around can irritate your eyes. Floating particles are crazy harmful to your eyes, so make sure that you put on safety glasses or goggles before you start working.
Dust Masks
You might be downplaying the importance of dust masks, but given how tiny dust particles are, it could harm your lungs. You can develop silicosis if you inhale a high amount of silica. To prevent this, make sure that you wear, at the minimum, a dust mask. If you have the budget, you can purchase a dual respirator filter mask which is better at keeping out all the dust.
One needs not suffer for their art. You can create your next masterpiece without you getting hurt or dirty simply by wearing the appropriate safety gear.
