Top Seven Tips and Things to Avoid When Washing Your Motorhome

Well, I guess it goes without saying that some of the things we think are the simplest to do, often cause the most aggravation. Perhaps it's because they are such easy jobs, that we forget some of the pit falls along the way. Today's discussion is about washing your own motor home and saving the money. It's not easy to find a truck wash, or a carwash which is willing to wash your RV. And if you hire a mobile car washing or auto-detailing service to come to your house and clean your motor coach, sometimes the price is a little overbearing.

You see, after I retired I bought a big motor coach and I went to every single city in the United States over a seven-year period. It was absolutely exhilarating and fun and I must say; what a great country we live in. Nevertheless, I often washed my own motor home because I didn't want to go to a truck wash which used hydrofluoric acid because it might ruin decals. Secondly, I wanted it done right, and therefore I did it myself.

Now then, I'd like to talk to you about some of the things you should avoid and give you some tips to help you clean your own motor coach just like me. Below are some tips;

1. Be very careful not to put too much water on top of the vehicle
2. Be sure to close the windows
3. Only use soft bristle brushes
4. Only wash the vehicle in sections
5. Use a shut off nozzle
6. Make sure wash water run-off stays out of the storm drain
7. Have a step ladder available to clean the windows outside

If you put too much water on top while you are washing, then it will puddle on top and could leak into the cabin, or drip down the sides and leave streaks. Worse, if the puddles are on top and you drive away it will go all over the side and ruin your perfect wash job. And if you leave your motor coach there for a while with the puddle-water on top, mosquitoes might lay their eggs.

I recommend using a soft bristle brush which is 18-inches wide, the kind of brush you might use on a hardwood floor. Also, make sure all the windows are closed because the water will leak in, especially if you are using a small pressure washer, or a garden hose with a powerful nozzle. Speaking of nozzles make sure you have a shutoff nozzles so you don't waste water. And speaking of water, make sure that your dirty wash water doesn't go into a storm drain and pollute.

Lastly, you need a stepladder to make sure that you clean the outside windows perfectly, because if you are inside your motorhome that's the most important part when looking out. Indeed I hope you will use these tips to do a perfect job when you clean your own RV. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, http://www.truckwashguy.com/ and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,222 articles by July 22, 2011 at 2:22 PM is going to be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

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Top 7 Things to Avoid When Maintaining Your Pace in Fleet Truck Washing

If you own a mobile truck washing business, then you will be cleaning fleets of vehicles in the company yard of the firm that you have the contract with. There are some things you need to know if you hope to make money doing this, because it is all about production and efficiency. After all, you are giving the company a fleet discount, and you may be washing each truck or vehicle for a very low price, but you hope to make it up in volume due to the economies of scale.

Before retirement, I had franchised a mobile truck washing business around the country, and I'd like to give you some tips in improving your efficiency and maintaining a fast pace when cleaning fleets of vehicles. You must understand the money is in the time and efficiency, not in the per unit wash. Okay so let me give you some good solid tips for you to think about;

1. Use a high pressure hose that is light, but doesn't easily kink
2. Make sure debris stays out of your fresh water tank
3. Make sure no dirty wash water goes into any storm drain
4. Don't let the brushers get too far ahead of the rinsing man
5. When cleaning box trucks, do all the rear ends first
6. In cold climates be careful not to allow ice to form
7. Don't get too close to the decals

Your high-pressure hose should be lightweight so that you don't throw out your back trying to move it around, but it also needs to be double steel braided so it doesn't kink easily. When filling up your water tank you must make sure that the garden hose you use doesn't have any gravel around it, because that gravel can get inside the tank, and often it gets through the filters and into the pump. When this happens your pump's pressure will go way down, and then you have to take apart to get the grit out, which takes a lot of time.

You must also remember that you must do environmentally friendly washing, and use the correct methods, never letting water that's dirty go into a storm drain. When you are washing you'll have a crew of many people, and you have to make sure that the people brushing with the soap don't get too far ahead of the person rinsing, otherwise the soap will not come off, it will dry on, and you have to re-wash those vehicles to prevent streaks.

When cleaning box trucks I recommend that you do all the rear ends first, because they are all the same and you can do them quicker that way, then go ahead and wash the rest of the vehicles in a line. In colder climates you must be careful not to allow ice to form, and take a little road-salt with you to sprinkle all the puddles so you don't slip and fall. I once had an employee cut themselves very badly when they slipped and tried to grab a piece of the truck that was near them, and an old rusty bolt sticking out cut and sliced them open - many stitches big scar, expensive hospital bill as I recall.

Lastly, remember those decals with the company logos on them don't do too well when a hot-water pressure-washer nozzle is directly upon them. That pressure and power can rip the decals, and your customers will be very angry if you do that, the decals aren't cheap. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, http://www.truckwashguy.com/ and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,222 articles by July 22, 2011 at 2:22 PM is going to be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

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Things to Consider While Making a Wise Wholesale Purchase

It is no more a secret that one can earn huge profit by buying wholesale items and selling them ahead to the customers at more prices. But to make profit, wholesaler needs to work with the genuine sources. Choosing the right path matters a lot. I am going to write down few tips in my post that can help you in going on the right path that ends well.

Updated Inventory:
When it comes to selling items to the customers, keeping pace with the trends is quite important. Look for a wholesale suppliers or manufacturers who update his inventory regularly. The trends in the market change constantly and good wholesalers are the ones who hit the floor before it gets too late.

Multiple Deals:
Most of the times it happens that you don't need the whole lot of certain products but your supplier does not have any such offer. In such case, I will advise you to visit different suppliers' website and compare prices. There are many suppliers who have exciting offers such as major discounts or less quantity orders. You can choose the offers according to your needs whether in small package form or more discounts.

Shipping Costs:
Shipping costs are one of the major checks that can increase and decrease your profit instantly in wholesale business. Therefore, look for the supplier who is ready to supply wholesale products to you at lowest possible shipping costs. If the shipping costs will be high, they will certainly cut i your profit margin. There are certain suppliers in the market who ship products at the best possible rates that facilitate both parties.

Beware of Scams:
In e-commerce world, it is quite easy to get scalped but if you are an adroit wholesaler, you must check out the legitimacy of the supplier and the website as well. On legitimate websites, the authentic phone number, email and postal address are always given. If a website just collects payments and do not sell or ship goods, there are 99% chances that it is a fake website.

Multiple Ordering Options:
Neither every legitimate supplier is online nor can it be said that every online supplier is legitimate. There are few things that legitimate suppliers must do for the wholesalers and one such thing is to make ordering easy for wholesalers. Look for the suppliers who provide you multiple ordering options such as through phone, email, fax or online.

Terms & Conditions:
Communicate with supplier and ask about his hidden charges such as insurance charges, overhead charges and shipment charges. Increased overhead charges can increase your cost of merchandise that will finally decrease your profits. Look for a supplier who has internet presence and operates from a warehouse that means less overhead costs and ultimately less cost for the customers.

Ask Questions:
Most of the suppliers offer discounts or sales during a year. It is plentiful to buy large quantity of items but hold on! Ask him few questions such as why these products are on sale? Are they not of good quality or no more, hot selling items or is their condition deteriorated or they will soon be expired? These questions help you in making a careful purchase.

William King is the director of Wholesale, UK Manufacturers and UK Wholesale Suppliers. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

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So You Want to Be a Successful Web Designer? 7 Things You Need to Know

There are certain things you need to do to become a successful web designer. I'm talking more about the non technical things, as it's assumed you already know your bread and butter HTML, CSS, etc...

1 - Play nicely with others
Playing nice - Teamwork - will be important for a number of reasons. Bigger projects will mean a bigger budget, but you'll need to spread out your workload and 'manage' the project. Sometimes you may be asked to work on things which are outside of your skill set, such as editing an intro video of a website, or writing the content of a website. In which case it makes obvious sense to hire an expert in that field.

2 - Leave the ego with personal projects
Be selfless, think about your client and their website visitors. How can your service benefit them? It's not about how fantastic or jaw-dropping you can make their website look. Nor is it about making a portfolio piece. Don't get bent out of shape if your client picks the least appropriate layout or design choice. You can influence their decision, sure, but if they're adamant then don't spit out your dummy. Criticise their design choices, but do it constructively and with reason. Inform them on the best decision to make. Don't simply state because it looks 'crap'. Aesthetic value alone is subjective, they might actually like what you think is 'crap', and vice versa!

This also holds true to working with other experts in your field, such as designers working with coders. Read 'Play nicely with others' above, and appreciate the perspective and ability of others.

3 - Don't let yourself go stale
Keep up to date on what's going on around you, be aware of what your competitors are doing. Sign up to newsletters, buy magazine subscriptions, follow the experts on Twitter. Trends are always changing, as well as technology. You might think you're the best thing since sliced bread, but the problem is there's always somebody in the background, sharpening their pointy stick, ready to pick you off your pedestal. So don't become complacent and keep your skills fresh and up to date.

4 - Learn when to say no
It's okay to say no sometimes. If you're simply too busy to take on another job, you'd be foolish to add another to the list. Negotiate with your potential client, being seen as busy is good. If the really want your service they will wait until they have your undivided attention.

If a job isn't very well paid, consider other benefits. Will it result in a lot of positive publicity for you? Are you helping a good cause? Low budget projects can be acceptable, if it's for the right reason. If your client says 'it's all I can afford/I want something cheap', then that's clearly not a good enough reason - unless they're the kind of client you're looking for. Don't devalue yourself. But on the other hand, don't be ridiculous and charge too much.

5 - Learn to be flexible
I'm always asked, 'how much does a website cost?' You and I both know that we really can't answer that question on the spot. But you can estimate based on the needs of your client. Say they want a standard one page website design. Do they need design and/or HTML? Do they have good content ready? Will they need a customised form or any other special features? Will the website be mobile compatible? Explain to your client the benefits of the extras, and give them a price range from no frills to all-inclusive. If they want to go for everything, but are struggling with finance, offer to break up their payments into installments. Or roll out the extra features gradually when payments can be made.

Sometimes it helps to be flexible in your skill set. I'm not saying, 'be an expert of all things', just have an understanding of other disciplines within the field Web Design. If you're a coder, get to know a little design common sense. If you're a designer, look at the basics of web programming. Not necessarily how to code, but get to grips with the terminology. If you're a non coding designer and you know what LAMP and OOP are, you're halfway there! Which brings me onto my next point...

6 - Keep some business cards on you at all times
It's always funny how you hear that a 'mate' built a website for somebody. It seems everyone has a friend who does a bit of web design. I'm the worst culprit for not business cards around with me, but you'd be surprised how many people know somebody who's been involved with a web designer in some capacity. You need to get in there, show that you're more professional than the 'mate' who does it in his spare time as a hobby.

7 - Believe in yourself
A famous American businesswoman once said she believes in P.I.G. Not really sure how 'pig' relates to anything, but 'P' is for Persistence. You'll need a lot of this, as you'll get a few knock backs when starting out. Especially in the Web Design trade, where you can get the rogues and the cowboys. Nobody quite trusts a newcomer.

'I' is for integrity. Do right by your clients at all times - even if they screw up. So this does not mean holding your customers domain name to ransom when they decide to leave you. Don't leave them in the lurch or disappear off the radar when things go wrong. If the worst case scenario happens, make sure they're taken care of by another 'good' web designer! And so on, you get the idea.

'G' is for guts. You'll need it when trying to gain new clients. You'll need it for chasing up unpaid invoices and closing sales. You'll certainly need it if you decide to hold presentations and training seminars. Who knows where your career could take you, with a bit of guts!

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9 Important Things to Do Before Conducting a Webinar

Your company assigned you to conduct a webinar and you do not know where to start. Let's first understand what a webinar is. According to Merriam-Webster definition a webinar is a live online educational presentation during which participating viewers can submit questions and comments.

That's a good start! Now you know that a virtual presentation will be delivered by you and you will have to answer questions. Before you conduct the webinar, you will need to do some preparation work.

The 9 important things you need to do before conducting a webinar are:

1) Select the webinar title. The title should be appealing and it must be tailored to address the audience perspective

2) Webinar promotion. Design an advertisement that will describe the benefits of attending your webinar and select the notification media: email, social media or periodicals. Include the registration link or telephone number where the attendees can register

3) Registration. This will be your first contact with the potential attendee. Define a registration form and only request the data that is needed, make sure that the attendee will receive a confirmation email with the webinar details

4) Prepare you presentation material. This will be your "face" to the audience, it needs to be powerful to attract and retain the audience attention. Include slides in which you can interact with the audience (i.e. pools). In addition to your presentation include lobby slides that will be displayed during the minutes before the webinar start

5) Select your webinar team. Your team should include a host, moderator, and technical staff. Your host will introduce you and close the webinar. The moderator will take care of interaction with the audience (i.e. collecting questions, ask questions, read pool results). The technical staff will ensure audio, video, and webinar platform are working OK. With the support of the team you will be able to focus on the webinar

6) Event Schedule. Schedule each component of the presentation. Plan for a 60-minute presentation and identify who from the team will take care of each component. Consider forty-five minutes for your presentation, thirteen for Q&A and two minutes for closing

7) Rehearsal. Preparation is king for any kind of presentation. Consider several individual rehearsals before having the group rehearsals. The event schedule should be followed during the group rehearsal

8) Define a back-up plan. It is better to be prepared in case of human or technological issues. Identify the potential points of failure and define a mitigation plan so you can maximize the delivery of your webinar

9) Mark your calendar. Block the webinar date and time. Make sure you will be available at least one hour before the webinar for the final checking

Fulfilling this preparation work will ensure that your webinar will be a successful one. Get ready to engage your audience and share your knowledge.

You are now ready to rock & roll!

Conrado Morlan has more than 15 years of experience managing programs and projects in the Americas, Europe and Asia and has led multigenerational and multicultural project teams. Mr. Morlan was one of the first people to attain the PMI Program Management Credential (PgMP) credential in Latin America and the first one in Mexico. Mr. Morlan is a frequent guest speaker at Project Management congresses in America and Latin America, is an avid volunteer with PMI chapters in America, Mexico, Costa Rica and Spain, and is a contributor for PMI Community Post and a blogger at http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/

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