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The availability of garage packages makes it very easy for you to build your own garage and not have to worry about trying to make up the amount of lumber you need for certain measurements. These packages are available at virtually all locations where you can buy lumber and offer the convenience of including everything you need for the garage. You can choose a single garage with a 9 x 7 garage door or a double garage with one 16 x 7 door or two standard size doors. The package kits contain the lumber, hardware, paint and the plans. All you have to do is have the cement slab ready to start building the garage.

If the sizes that are available in the packages for garages, most of the lumberyards will be able to help you design the size of garage you want and supply everything that you need to complete the work yourself. The standard features that come with these packages include the sheathing for the roofs, the bottom plate, the fibreglass shingles, the overhead garage door and a side entry door as well as the windows that you need. The garage has a 12 inch overhang and even the trim for the outside is included. The lumber is usually pre-cut in the lengths that you need to fit the measurements of the garage, but you may need to so some cutting yourself.

Before you purchase a particular package, you can study different plans to make sure you get the one you want. You can even have a package for a garage that consists of panels that snap together to create a continuous foam surface for maximum energy efficiency. You can have the whole garage built in less than one day with this type of package, but even with the garages built out of lumber you don’t have to have all the lumber sitting in the driveway for long periods of time. Once you purchase a package, the company will deliver the materials in stages according to how far along you are with the construction. When you have one part ready, you just have to give them a call and they will deliver the next lot of materials you need.

The concept of a garage door system arrived during the Second World War. Garage Door Openers have been saving Americans from back injuries for over 35 years, yet there have been few new modifications or major innovations in these garage door openers. Believe it or not some people have voice activated garage door openers instead of you having to place your finger over the button when you walk from your house to the garage.

Garage door can keep the home safe because when they close the doors are locked automatically, this way you don’t have to worry about locking the doors. Garage doors are important features in a security system for a number of reasons and those who use openers, however, need to be mindful of a few things. The main parts in a garage door opener system are: transmitter, the remote control, safety sensors, key pads, receiver/remote kits, screw drive and much more.

The garage door openers are automatic and so convenient they are standard in most garages today. An automatic garage door opener is not just a convenience; it’s an investment in your house, and an important home appliance that will get daily use for many years to come. An automatic garage door opener is a terrific convenience and it may give you a sense of security as well.

When building a home it is sometimes confusing when trying to figure out the opening of the garage door. The rough opening for a garage door, simply put, is the actual size of the door itself. You should make sure the garage door is properly balanced you can do this by slowly opening and closing the door, when the bottom of the door hits the floor evenly and the door doesn’t sway back and forth the door is balanced.

The reason garage door openers do not burn out is because the springs allow the door to open easily by pulling the door up so the opener has less strain on the motor, the springs also help if you need to open the door manually. Usually two types of springs are used linear expansion and tensional springs. The springs on your garage door can pose a safety hazard. These kinds of springs are installed over a shaft that helps roll the door up to the open position. Garage door springs are very dangerous, even when the garage is closed, as they contain large amounts of potential energy (that’s just waiting to be suddenly converted to kinetic energy, ie movement) and have killed or seriously injured many people.

Some garage door openers offer heavier steel or a sturdier design. Some garage door openers do not use the steel chain pulley system; they use a screw threaded steel rod that turns to move the garage door up and down. If you are deciding on which type of garage door to purchase keep in mind the differences between wood and metal, the wood doors need to be taken care of just like a deck, you need to stain or paint it so it doesn’t rot, a steel door is easier to maintain. If you decide to get a steel door the main thing to check is that it has been properly prepared to prevent rust.

A carryover from 2004, the most recent Kia Amanti is a family sedan made available in one trim level which is the Base. It can take up a maximum capacity of five passengers along with an easier entry and exit with its four doors. It can up 17 mpg during city driving and a 25 mpg while on the highway.

Although the Kia Amanti bears quite a resemblance to a Mercedes, it is quite different overall. This vehicle invokes luxury from its overall appearance. The interior has seat adjustment buttons mounted on its doors so as to help facilitate a Mercedes illusion. This vehicle is the most expensive among Kia’s model line up, however this vehicle is worth every cent for it provides an enormous interior, excellent performance with its quiet yet strong V6 engine, and its comfortable and quiet ride due to the Kia Amanti’s good sound isolation techniques. Something that the Kia Amanti is proud of is its seemingly endless allocation for space.

When Kia has designed the Kia Amanti, the automobile manufacturer has certainly made sure that the safety of the driver and the vehicle’s passengers would not looked over and missed out on. And for sure, even the previous generations of this vehicle holds safety intact. The Kia Amanti offers more standard airbags than any other car in its class. It also holds airbags that provides the utmost protection during inevitable accidents along with the vehicle’s front active headrests. Each and every Kia Amanti has front and rear crumple zones, side-impact door beams and also has reinforced pillars. Even if it has children for passengers, the little ones are carefully protected by the vehicle’s rear child safety door locks, the internal emergency trunk release, and the specially designed anchorage system that excels in providing an extra secure hold on the child safety seats.

The Kia Amanti owns up to an excellent performance which is all due to its 3.5 liter DOHC V6 engine. This family sedan has a wheelbase of 110.2 inches, a length of 196 inches, a total width of 72.8 inches, and an overall height of 58.5 inches. The Kia Amanti has features and additional options like a multi-port fuel injection, electronic power steering, a double wishbone front suspension, gas shock absorbers, alloy wheels, clear-lens halogen headlights, side markup lamp, in-glass antenna, dual body color power heated mirrors, a windshield de-icer, a solar glass windshield, one-touch auto up/down power windows, power door locks, a remote keyless entry system along with an alarm with panic button, an AM/FM/cassette/CD audio system, four door mounted tweeter speakers and dual front airbags.

www.partstrain.com provides Kia Amanti and Kia vehicles owners a complete line of the highest quality Kia car parts, performance parts, like Kia Amanti parts. These Kia auto parts are highly dependable and proven to satisfy manufacturer’s standards.

Have you ever been to one of those spooktacular haunted houses that people set up in the neighborhoods during Halloween? I’ll bet you have and, if you’re like the rest of us gruesome ghouls, you’ve been chomping at the bit to make one for yourself. We’ll stop chomping and start reading because I’m going to take you through the “basics on a budget” spending as few dollars as possible.

Effect is everything with a Halloween Haunted House

And that effect should begin before the unlucky visitors to your house of horrors even step foot inside.

Outside Effects

Start by making sure that any windows which face the front of the house have been blacked out from inside. Black plastic garbage bags work fine. You may have to split them or double them up but they’re cheap enough. Black plastic shower curtains can often be found in the dollar stores. Grab a lot if you can find them because we’ll be using them later.

Replace your porch and outside lights with blue, red, or orange bulbs. A black light works great on the porch if you have some glow-in-the-dark critters or effects you can place nearby. If your street is well lit then the black light effect is reduced, so save your money in that case.

Portable spot or flood lights with colored bulbs can be aimed at your roof or door to add additional lighting effects. If you have some Tiki Torches left over from the summer then place them strategically up and down the front walk.

Wal-Mart and the better Dollar Stores have Halloween lights that are a lot like Christmas lights but have little pumpkins or cats on each bulb. They’re cheap and you can string them around railings and lay them in bushes. Of course you’ll need some black cats, jack-o’-lanterns and fake spider webs hanging from the porch.

Decorate your front door to look like a coffin. It’s a great effect. You can also buy the Styrofoam grave stones to put on your lawn or you can make them yourself out of spare lumber and some black or grey paint. Don’t forget the scary music, wolf howls plus some moans and groans

Inside the Front Door

When your gory guests first set foot inside your haunted house, set the tone for the remainder of their visit by having a body hanging from the inside light fixture or some other convenient point of death. Stuff a pair of jeans and an old shirt like you’re making a scarecrow. You can use an empty bleach container for the face and cut out or paint on the features. Top it off with an old hat. Or, as an alternative, hang a huge papier-mâché bat instead of the dead guy. Don’t forget plenty of plastic spiders and webs.

If there are rooms or staircases leading from the entryway which are not part of the tour, cover them with those extra shower curtains that I told you to get, or use more garbage bags. If you have a friend who is a cop, see if you can score some crime scene tape to wrap around off-limit areas. Hey, the local PD might even donate some if you agree to put up a sign somewhere thanking them for their assistance. Police Departments have community outreach officers so they’re the ones to call.

The remainder of the house

Close off doors to rooms where you don’t want visitors to go. Decorate the doors to look like coffins, or hang ghoulish effects over them. You can also block them off using black plastic or shower curtains. Most visitors won’t even know that the doors are there. Doors to off-limit rooks are also great places to station your human ghoul helpers who will be jumping out and scaring the dickens out of your guests. Just make sure that they know to never actually touch anyone. That can open you up to a lot of legal problems and it might get them into a fist-fight with a visitor with no sense of humor.

Create you inside effects by using dark and colored lighting in each room. Black light sensitive decorations work great inside but only if you have black light bulbs installed!

Sprinkle gruesome props throughout your rooms. You can make great bloody hands by filling surgical gloves up with sand, tying the open end off with a rubber band, and then some “blood” effects with red paint Dry ice creates great fog effects but it will burn the skin if touched so don’t leave it where guests can get at it.

Hang creepy things from the ceilings. Wet (not dripping wet) yarn feels really creepy when it brushes across someone’s face as they are entering a dark room. Spirtz it throughout the night to keep it wet. Remember that most fishing line will react to black lights so use black thread instead.

Walk through each room as if you were a visitor. Fill in empty areas with appropriate props. Re-walk the house several times until you are 100% happy. Remember that you have a lot of flammable things in your haunted house. Candles, smoking and lighted flames of any type are off limits! Keep several a fire extinguishers handy and spread them around the house. Make sure that your helpers know how to use them. Also make sure that each helper has a flashlight and knows where the room’s light switches are in case anyone gets hurt or a young child becomes too frightened to continue the tour.

That’s it. You’re on your way to having the dream haunted house that you’ve always wanted. Better get busy. It will be Halloween before you know it.

I think we’ve all heard different speakers say different things about marketing. Some say that you should knock on as many doors as possible. Others say that signs are the way to go. Some talk about direct mail. Others swear by newspaper ads. Over the next several weeks, we’ll look at the pros and cons of each. Today, it’s door knocking vs. direct mail. Who is gonna win?

Direct mail. Hands down. There’s no doubt in my mind. I’ll put my money on it every single time. Why? Let’s discuss.

• First, door knocking obviously takes up a lot of time. Let’s talk about time for a second. It’s the one thing that Bill Gates can’t make more of, Warren Buffet can’t buy more of, and Donald Trump can’t build more of. If there’s one thing your daily schedule is ruled by, it’s time. Why would you spend an entire day going from door to door when you can acheive the same results by sending out a direct, targeted mail campaign to the same folks, sitting in your underwear at home and still have time leftover for internet surfing, watching your favorite show on TV, or spending extra time with your kids (my personal favorite)???

• Door knocking is not necessarily cheaper than sending out letters. People assume that letters have to go out in lots of 100. Not true. You can send out as many or as few letters as your budget will allow. With current gasoline prices being what they are, you will probably spend more money going around and knocking on doors all day, using up a tank of gas than you would if you’d mailed the same, targeted group of folks.

• Let’s talk about what you say when the door opens. Can you guarantee me, 100% of the time, that when the door opens you know exactly what to say, can say it in 200 words or less, never fumble or “um” and “uh” your way through the presentation, and answer every single one of the seller’s questions while you’re there? I can…with direct mail. I can tailor my message to say exactly what the seller needs to know about how I can help them with debt relief, job relocation, marriage, etc. and I have as long as I need to get the message perfect. And I can do it for $1.00 per letter. I doubt many can say the same thing about door knocking - especially if you’re just starting out!

Just from these 3 points, I already will make a strong argument for direct mail. I could go on all day long, but will spare you today. But I can hear you now:

“But, I can’t write my own sales letters, besides, what would they look like???”

Maybe you don’t think you can do it. Maybe you need proof.

xxxx Overbend Trail, Suwanee, GA 30024

Yepper. I bought that $341,500 house (Don’t laugh, in Georgia that’s above the median price range) off a $1.00 direct mail letter to the sellers.

I’m getting a 20% response rate on my mailings. The industry standard is 1%. What are you getting?

At any rate, I’m hoping that you’ll see that direct mail can utilize your current marketing budget, whatever that may be…and save you something you can never get back. TIME. Give it a shot. You never know how much money you could be making right now.

No, you should not need a V8 engine to run the garage door. The automatic garage door openers are so convenient and they are standard in most garages today. No rain or snow when you get out of your car to open the garage door.

There are some issues to be aware of concerning the safety and security. For example for young children, some old garage doors can pose a risk. Even if your home is child free, you need to concern yourself with any neighbor kids, even housebreakers! that you could be held liable for if an accident were to occur. The newer models of overhead roll up garage doors feature pinch resistant or anti pinch panels. This feature makes the door safe and fingers will not get injured if stuck in the gap between panels while the door is closing.

When you have decided which type and make of your garage door that suits you, the next step is to choose a garage door opener. You will need a powerful opener if the door is heavy. An opener with at least 3/4 horsepower may be your best option. Also choose a model that uses heavy-duty, industrial-strength chains that will guarantee you years of dependable operation. If your door is of normal weight you can go for a less powerful
opener.

Most garage door openers make noises and so does the door itself although some models are specifically designed to be quiet. If you want a more quiet system you need openers with very quiet belt openers. The models have flexible rubber belts that mute vibrations and eliminate the metal-to-metal contact of other chain- or screw-based models. Also more powerful systems usually work easier, smoother and are more silent.

For safety reasons an electronic eye at the base of the door automatically cause the opener to reverses during the close cycle if an object or person breaks the beam. Usually the systems work even when the door sense an excessive load on the closing mechanism, which will automatically reverse the closing or opening.

Some models, actually a lot of them, claim to be virtually maintenance-free. It is usually self-lubricating systems with chains that always run smoothly and make as little noise as possible. More expensive models have a kind of isolation of the motor which gives a quiet and powerful operation.

Building kitchen cabinets is certainly within the reach of most people, especially if they are of a regular size. Even though carcasses come in different sizes, they are all essentially built in exactly the same way, so once you have put the first couple together the rest should be a lot easier to manage.

But admitting your kitchen isn’t a regular square or rectangle shape? What if you have a sloping roof? Or an awkward recess? Or simply an irregular wall that needs to be hidden behind your kitchen cabinets?

In this case, building kitchen cabinets might not be as easy as you think. Proper preparation is required here to make sure the finished kitchen looks as good as it should. Here are some tips for making your ideal remodel come true.

Building cabinets of an irregular shape needn’t be as hard as you think. In fact, in some cases - such as the above example of the irregular walls - you might not need to butcher regular size cabinets at all.

Find out if the range you are considering has wall cabinets that are the same height as floor cabinets. If it does, simply buy a wall cabinet in place of a floor cabinet. They are not as deep and will save you the trouble of trying to cut an awkward shape in the back of your floor cabinet.

Building kitchen cabinets that need to go under a sloping roof can be done in two ways. The easiest option is to buy several different heights of cabinet, so that the cabinets are staggered in height. Attractive boxes can be bought to fit in the gaps, or alternatively you can use the space for storing cookery books.

Secondly, and depending on what style door you choose, you can cut down both the door and the cabinet, so as to allow a perfect fit between the sloping roof and the cabinet itself. Make sure the door won’t scrape against the wall when it’s fitted.

When you are building kitchen cabinets, it’s important to fit all the carcasses in place first, before you fit the doors or interiors. This is the quickest and easiest way to install any kitchen, and it means your doors will stay wrapped up and safely stored away while the main building work is done.

Imagine how you will feel once you hang the doors and get them level, you can then stand back to admire your new kitchen. Your joy will be infectious to everyone around since you designed and built it.

“If you use Emotion and Love to drive your sales and your business, you will create Loyalty Beyond Reason. And I promise you, you will build relationships and enjoy a business that exceeds beyond your wildest expectations”.

My name is Patti Page, owner of Page’s Personal Cleaning. I started a successful house cleaning business in 1998. I would like to share what I have learned through the years in hopes of helping others who are thinking about starting their own cleaning service.

First of all, before you decide to start your cleaning business, make sure this kind of work is right for you. You will need to be in good physical condition. Cleaning is very hard strenuous work. You will need to have good customer relation skills. You will need to have basic office skills and some accounting skills.

If you are planning on leaving your full time position to start a cleaning business, make sure you have at least six months of savings. Or keep your full time job and start out part time.

Research all the aspects of the cleaning service business. From customer service to advertising, taxes, employees, insurance and bonding, what to charge and how to clean a home professionally. Cleaning your own home and cleaning professionally is totally different. Learning how to clean professionally takes a lot of time. When a client pays for your services they expect to come home and find their home spotless.

Getting those first clients takes time, persistence and patience. You will not get a hundred clients overnight.

Obtaining Those First Clients The hardest part of starting your own cleaning service is obtaining those first clients. Most clients want to know how long you have been in business and want references. The best thing to do is let clients know that, yes, you are new to the business but that you have thoroughly researched all aspects of the cleaning business and assure them that you know what you are doing and that you are quit capable of cleaning their home to their specifications. Be confident. I can’t stress this enough. Clients love to see confidence. It relieves their worries and lets them know that their home is in good hands.

References: To get a few good references when starting out, ask some friends or family members if you can clean their home for free or at a discounted rate. The sound of working for free may not be appealing but it will be worth it to get some good testimonials.

When cleaning those first homes, go for quality, not how fast you can clean the home. Cleaning efficiently takes a long time, but you will get to the point where you can do a thorough cleaning in a short time. After cleaning make sure you go back and double check all rooms to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Impress those first clients and word of mouth will spread soon.

Advertising Your company image is everything. Before you start advertising, decide what image you want to portray on your advertising material. Your image is very important. Be consistent with all your advertising. If you have a logo be sure to use it on all your advertising materials. I think it is best to have a website developed before you start advertising. When advertising, stick with the same logo and colors.

Advertise in Local Paper: Start by running a text ad in your local newspaper. Try to come up with an eye catching ad. Do not sell your services on low rates, sell your services on your quality of work and what you can do for the client that other companies don’t. There is a lot of competition in the cleaning service. You have to stand out from the rest.

Magnetic Signs or Lettering for your Vehicle: Having your business name and contact information on your vehicle is a great way to advertise. We use the vinyl lettering. The lettering looks much more professional than the magnetic signs. You can purchase whole vehicle lettering (both doors and back window) for $120.00. Or you can letter the back window only at a very affordable rate.

Flyers: You can print nice flyers on your home computer, but I would suggest investing in some professional flyers. Hang flyers at Hair Dressers, Laundromats, Restaurants, Bakeries, Grocery Stores, etc. Put flyers on car windows at local groceries stores and businesses. You can even go door to door in neighborhoods you would like to work in. You cannot put them in mailboxes. but you can put them in the front door.

Door Hangers: Door hangers are a great way to get new clients. Pick the neighborhood you would like to work in and hang the door hangers on the doors. When people get flyers or ads in their mailbox they usually throw them away with the junk mail. But if there is a door hanger on the door they will take the time to look at it.

Business Cards: Start passing out your business cards to friends and family members. You can also ask your local businesses if you can leave some cards on their counters.

Referral Program: A great way to obtain new clients is through a referral program. Offer existing clients a discount when they refer a friend. You can give your existing clients a discount when the friend uses your services three times.

Website: These days people live very busy lives so they use the convenience of the internet to shop for the services they need. A lot of working women will shop for services while at work. We obtain 90% of our new clients from our website. Everyone that has a business should have a website. It shows clients that you are serious about your business and allows them research your business in their own time.

Supplies You can purchase all the cleaning supplies you need to start your cleaning business for about $100.00. Home Depot and Sam’s Club are great places to buy cleaning supplies.

Page’s Personal Cleaning made the decision in 2006 to start using all natural cleaning products with the added benefit of aromatherapy to clean our clients homes. By using all natrual products, we can offer our clients a healthy cleaning experience and protect ourselves against harsh chemicals

Tip: Always carry hand sanitizer and wash your hands often while cleaning homes. Wear gloves when cleaning bathrooms. You will be exposed to a lot of different germs in clients homes.

Remember most customers prefer that you bring your own cleaning supplies. That way they do not have to worry about going to the store for cleaning supplies before you clean. Some customers have special cleaners for certain appliances or floors in their houses. These customers usually will have these cleaners on hand for you to use. We almost always use the customers vacuum cleaner. That way you do not have to carry a heavy vacuum from house to house.

What to Charge I mentioned earlier that you should sell your services on your quality of work and not your low rates. If your rates are too low, clients will think that your work is sub-standard and that you are not experienced. Also you want to attract the clients that can afford your services. I made the mistake of pricing my work too low when I first started out. Cleaning is hard work, charge what you are worth. As the old saying goes “You get what you pay for.”

Some companies charge by the hour, some charge by the room, some charge a flat rate per home and some charge by the square foot. I always give a flat rate charge per home. I think it is better to charge by the home, not by the hour. If a client knows they have to pay one set fee, they don’t care if you take 2 hours or 5 hours. Also your clients will know what they are paying up front and won’t have to worry about added expenses.

No two houses are the same. And there is no set charge for all homes. You have to clean for awhile yourself to get some experience and to work out a system to clean efficiently. Only you know what you want and need to make. Decide what you need to make hourly to cover all expenses and still make a good profit.

A Basic Price Guideline: 2 bedroom, 2 bath home, bi-weekly: starting at $90.00.

3 bedroom, 3 bath home, bi-weekly: starting at $100.00.

4 bedroom, 4 bath home, bi-weekly: starting at $ 125.00

These are just example rates. Rates will vary by State.

A word of advise: Make sure when you start your company that you charge what you would charge if you had employees. Some people make the mistake of under charging when they start out just to get customers and then later on when they grow and need to hire help they aren’t making enough money on their houses to pay help. Don’t under price your work. Cleaning homes is very hard physical work and you didn’t get into this business to work for nothing.

New Construction Cleaning If you decide to do this type of work you will need more equipment. You will need ladders, window cleaning kits with long extensions, a shop vac, etc. These types of jobs are usually 2 to 3 person jobs. New construction cleaning requires a lot more cleaning. You may have to remove stickers and labels from windows and bathroom showers, sinks and toilets. Some require that you clean the vents to remove dust from construction work. There will be ceiling fans to clean, scrubbing floors, and cleaning woodwork to remove dust. New construction cleaning rates depend on the area you live in. Normally they run from .12 cents per sq .ft. to .25 cents per sq .ft. depending on where you are located. Insurance and Bonding

Insurance and Bonding. You need to be an honest person and somewhat personable. People will need to trust you to be in their homes. Most clients are concerned about having someone new in their house, with good reason. You should be bonded and fully insured. Liability insurance rates depend on your insurance carrier and where you are located. Each person you hire will increase your liability insurance. It’s well worth the cost. You can pay quarterly or yearly. You can purchase your bond through your local insurance company. You will need to renew the bond every year. *Note: if you hire employees and cover them under your insurance, they must be an employee on payroll and not a sub-contractor. If you employ them as a sub-contractor your insurance will not cover them. If they are a sub-contractor they are required to carry their own insurance. You need to carry at least 1,000,000 in general liability insurance.

Taxes I have listed a few links that are very helpful with answering questions about taxes for your cleaning service business: starting a business and keeping records, deductions for your business, employee taxes and a very nice withholding calculator.

Small Business and Self Employed One Stop Resource. http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small Business Taxes http://www.irs.gov/business/small/article/0,,id=98966,00.html Starting a Business and Keeping Records http://www.irs.gov/publications/p583/index.html Businesses with Employees http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98862,00.html IRS Withholding Calculator http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html

Franchises This is a link to some great information about Franchises and why you don’t need them. http://www.build-a-business.com/cleaning_franchise.htm Hiring Help If you start out cleaning the homes by yourself, you will eventually get to the point where you need to expand your business. Start out with one part time employee. Train her and let her take your place one day a week. Then have her take your place 2 days a week and so on. This will give you the free time that you need to market your business and obtain more clients. After you get more clients you will be able to hire more part time help. Eventually you will be able to stop doing the cleaning yourself and just run the business end, which is the only way you will be able to grow your business. When training new employees, always, either train them yourself or have a lead person train them. Make sure there is a lead person on each and every cleaning job. Employees have a tendency to slack off when they are on their own.

Growing Your Business You will eventually get to the point where you have enough employees and lead people and you will be able to stop working in your business and start running your business. You will find that after awhile it will get to be too much trying to clean everyday and at the same time giving estimates, answering calls, scheduling, doing book work, obtaining new clients, etc.

Remember one of the most important qualifications for a cleaning service is TRUST. A client has to know they can trust you alone in their home. After you acquire a few cleaning positions ask the clients if you can use them for a reference. Most of the time they are more than willing to let you use them for a reference. This is how you build your business and acquire new clients is through referrals. Be dependable. Most clients will want to be set up on an every week or every other week schedule on the same day of the week. Try to always keep this same schedule unless the client asks you to switch to another day. If you have to cancel a cleaning date, make sure you try to reschedule at the earliest possible date to make up the cleaning.

There is a myriad of choices when it comes to Double Glazing Installers, who to buy it from and what to choose. The options are almost endless and long gone are the days when a homeowner had to buy the same conformist windows as everyone else. Nowadays, double glazing can be tailored to meet the individual needs of each house, to reflect the homeowners’ style and to fit in with the rest of the street as much as is needed.

Virtually every newly built house has double glazing fitted as standard and most other houses have had some kinds of double glazing fitted at some point. This is for very simple reasons. Double glazing insulates a house and keeps in the heat. This saves money on energy bills as well as making a home cosier. The Energy saving Trust estimates that a massive 50 per cent of energy lost through normal windows can be recouped when double glazing is fitted.

Double glazing is also a lot safer - it is much harder to break then single glass as it is usually toughened. In addition, the PVC surrounds on double glazing are more durable than wood and do not rot in the sale way that wood does.

Although looking at the lists of companies which offer double glazing can appear daunting at first, the vast majority of companies offer a free quotation service. This means that it is a simple process for homeowners to call up a raft of companies and ask them to come and give than an estimate. As this is usually a no obligation service it allows homeowners to shop around until they find the best firm for them. But beware and do not go with the cheapest offer just because of price. Look at everything else the company offers, including after care and insurance. You will also be able to ask which houses nearby the company has fitted windows on and go and have a look at those to see if the windows are the sort of work you would be expecting.

And of course, double glazing is not just for windows. There are patio doors, French windows and front and back doors as well. The beauty of this is the fact that homeowners are now able to obtain a uniform look across their whole house, with matching windows, doors and patio doors. This will add greater warmth and security as well as making the property look a lot smarter.

Double glazing works by, in effect, actually giving your home three layers of protection. While single glazing will have just the one pane of glass between your home and the outside world, with double glazing, you will get a pane of glass, a trapped layer of air and another pane of glass, making it very good at insulating. Trapped layers of air are an incredible effective way of insulating anything , which is why of you wear several light layers on a cold day you will be warmer than wearing just one, because they trap layers of air between them.

Double glazing is the right choice for any home for all these reasons - start making those calls as soon as possible to put your house on the road to increased warmth and security.

Alarm Contacts- Contact switches are magnetic switches used to protect doors and windows for the most part. There are three main styles that are used by most alarm companies. They are recessed contacts, surface mount contacts and roller-ball contacts.

Recessed contacts are hidden in the window tracks and door jams so that they can’t be seen when the window or door is closed. The switch is on the fixed or non-movable side of the opening and a magnet is placed on the movable side. When the magnet meets the switch the circuit is complete and the control knows it is closed. Recessed contacts are more complicated to install unless they are placed during the construction phase of your home or business. A good installation technician can install recessed contacts in your home after construction as long as they have an unfinished basement, accessible attic or closet to run the wires in.

Surface mount contacts function the same as recessed ones however they are visible when the doors or windows are closed. They come in three main sizes being large, small and micro. They come in the colors white, gray and brown so they can blend in to the door trim or window- sill they are mounted on.

Roller-ball contacts are in the hinge side of your door jam and the spring- loaded ball is pushed in when the door is closed completing the circuit. These are more likely to need replacement in a few years as they are considered a moving part.

All types of recessed and surface mount contacts can be hardwired directly to your control panel or you can get them in a wireless version. Wireless contacts have a transmitter tied to them or built into them that sends a radio signal to a receiver in the control. The transmitter is surface mounted and comes in two colors, white and brown. If white and brown are not your desired colors, you can paint the switches and transmitters to match your decor.

Doors are the most common point of entry and should be protected by your system. I always recommend contacting every perimeter door in your home or business

Window contacts can add up in a hurry as most homes have many windows. I have always felt that window contacts give the homeowner a false sense of security because of the fact that a window has to be opened in order for them to work. If your window is locked (and it should be) when you are away or sleeping, a burglar has to break the glass or remove the glass to unlock it. If they break the glass and the alarm does not sound, why would they open the window? Instead they would most likely clear the broken glass and climb in. That is why your money is better spent on motion detectors and/or glass- break sound detectors.

If you have children, window contacts can be a valuable tool. They will keep your youngsters from opening the window for a stranger. And they will also make your teenager sorry you ever read this. (If they tell you all they want for the holidays is a magnet, the jigs up!) Window contacts are often better at keeping people in than they are at keeping burglars out. If you do choose to use window contacts you may like the fact that the surface mounted versions can be set up so that you can keep your window open a few inches for ventilation and still be armed.