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9 Uses of Dams in Civil Construction

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article|Dams in Civil Construction|9 Uses of Dams in Civil ConstructionCivil engineers design dams and the final product is amazing. Dams are majestic but they also serve many purposes. Here’s a look at what dams are and the structures’ many uses.

What Is A Dam?

Dams are barriers built across a river or stream. Engineers design dams so water pools behind the barrier. Water is collected on the upstream side of the dam and the water is called a reservoir. The other side of the barrier is called downstream. Municipalities who plan to build dams need civil engineering services.

There are many types of dams including embankment dams. These are artificial dams made with a semi-plastic structure and a mix of sand, soil, clay, and rock. Gravity dams are huge and are made of stone and concrete masonry. Earthen dams are made of soil while timber dams are made with wood.

#1 Irrigation

Results of a recent study show half of the world’s large dams were built for irrigation. Moreover, over a billion people around the globe depend on reservoir-generated irrigation. Egypt sits in the middle of the desert and crops have been depleted by droughts. The Aswan High Dam was built to protect farmers by controlling water flowing in the Nile River. An agreement between Egypt and Sudan allows Sudanese farmers to use some of the water.

#2 & #3 Water Supply

Some water from reservoirs is used to supply fresh water for commercial and residential use. Further, dams are often used to control water flow in rivers. Warragamba is an Australian dam used to supply water to millions of people.

#4 Hydropower

Hydropower is popular because it’s environmentally friendly. The U.S. is one of the largest producers of hydropower, followed by Canada. Dams produce up to 12 percent of the U.S. power supply. Brazil’s Itaipu Dam is the world’s largest hydropower dam.

#5 Flood Control

Flood control dams hold floodwater and prevent it from getting to residential areas. They’re usually built in areas where flooding happens regularly. For example, The Tennessee Valley Dams, help to control flood on the lower Mississippi, lower Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers. Floodwaters are either released downstream or stored for future use.

#6 Navigation

Navigation dams are used to allow ships to travel in certain rivers. The dam is designed so the river maintains a depth deep enough for ships to pass. Bonneville Dam, located in Washington State, is a river navigational dam.

#7 Debris Dam

A debris dam is used to store debris from river water. River water may contain sand, rocks, and wood. The water on the dam’s downstream side is clear.

#8 Recreational Purposes

Most dams serve more than one purpose. Indeed, the building of some dams created booming recreational areas. These areas would not exist if the dam hadn’t created the reservoir of water. Some communities built beaches adjacent to the reservoir along with boat landings. The Russell Dam was built on the border of South Carolina and Georgia in the 1970s and 1980s. The dam created Russell Lake which is the center of recreational activity. The dam’s original purpose was flood control and hydropower.

#9 Mine Tailing

Mine tailings are by-products of certain mine operations. Mine tailings disposal is a major environmental concern. The tailings have to be stored permanently and dams are the perfect repository. Previously, mine tailings were dumped in rivers and contaminated the area.
Civil engineers design many types of dams. Most dams serve many purposes including flood control, irrigation, and a source of hydropower. It’s easy to see why some dams are major tourist attractions.

5 Common Finance Mistakes to Avoid for Small Businesses

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |finance mistakes|5 Common Finance Mistakes to Avoid for Small BusinessesDid you know 82% of businesses fail due to cash flow and cash management problems?

This can be due to a lack of planning or trying to DIY your finances and making business finance mistakes you cannot overcome. While this is a staggering statistic that may leave you feeling overwhelmed, you can use it to make better financial choices and give your business a fighting chance at success.

If you are a small business owner who wants your business to succeed, here are several financial mistakes you should avoid making.

1. Not Having a Financial Plan

When starting a business, one of the most important things you can do is create a financial plan. This is the part of your business plan details the financial side of your business. Creating a financial plan will help you know if your business idea is viable or not so starting with this plan is essential.

2. Not Following a Budget

If you don’t have a budget or are not following a budget, you can spend more than your business brings in and experience cash flow problems.

Because there are many common business expenses, creating a business budget is as simple as detailing your income sources and determining your fixed, variable, and one-time expenses. Following a budget is the easiest way to take control of your business finances.

3. Getting Into Business Debt With No Repayment Plan

For many small businesses, having debt is necessary to start and run your business. The problem comes when you have several forms of debt with no viable way to repay it. Never take on more debt than is necessary and always have a reasonable, short-term repayment plan.
If you are overwhelmed with debt, search “how does debt relief work” to learn about debt consolidation.

4. Ignoring Your Business Credit Score

Like your personal credit score, your business credit score is an instant indicator to lenders and investors of how well you manage your business finances. Having a good business credit score can be the difference between receiving funding to grow your business and being denied.

It’s important to maintain a great business credit score so you can have another option for funding your business.

5. Combining Your Personal and Business Finances

A common mistake many small business owners make is combining their business and personal accounts. This is dangerous because a misstep with your personal finances can negatively affect your business reputation and vice versa. It can also make your business and personal taxes difficult to figure out.

Separate your business and personal finances from the start to avoid the headaches that are sure to come if you don’t.

Avoid These Finance Mistakes to Have Business Success

These are the common business finance mistakes that result in failure.

Start with a plan and a budget to manage your business finances. Avoid unnecessary debt as this will put your small business in danger of failing.

Don’t ignore your tax planning, keep your personal and business finances separate, and make sure to maintain a good business credit score. Create an emergency saving account so you can stay afloat during difficult times.

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Achieving Balance: How Hormone Health Improves Personal Performance 

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Hormone Health|Achieving Balance: How Hormone Health Improves Personal PerformanceThe human body is made up of numerous hormones that all have essential functions for the body’s overall well-being. It all stems from one straightforward concept. The hormones of the body have quite an element of control in how the human body functions through the control that it has. These hormones act as messengers so that your performance daily is as it should be.

It’s precisely for this reason that today, various health remedies are in place to help address the need for better hormone health. As one strives to keep their entire body in check, their hormone health should also be cared for.

Here’s why:

1. It Controls Overall Organ Functions

By the nature of what hormones are, it has the task of controlling the overall organ functions. Hormones travel all over the body. When they reach and bind to receptors, they lock together. When this process is completed, the hormones transmit the specific messages that they’re responsible for. Henceforth its ability to control the various functions of organs.

This is important so that every day, the human being can perform even the basic tasks that you’re supposed to achieve. With this, healthy hormones can accomplish the following:

  • The growth and development of the body
  • The reproductive processes of the human body
  • The various sexual characteristics that distinguish male from female
  • The ability of the body to store and process energy

Note that while hormones are widespread in the body, these don’t affect the human body in entirety. Every type of hormone has its respective function, depending on which organ or tissue it’s meant to send a message to. Because hormones perform this very important function for the human body, all the more that the clamor for balanced hormones now exists.

This is precisely the reason why it’s very important for individuals to check from time to time, their hormone levels, to ensure that all is well with them. Thankfully, products like HealthConfirm’s Hormone Vitality Complete have made it possible now to have hormone level measurements done at home, through their kits. This advantage gives you no reason not to be this prudent also about regularly checking your hormone levels.

2. It Helps Control How You Feel

Personal performance also includes one’s ability to process emotions or your ability to feel. If hormone health is poor, this also means that the level of hormones is disrupted. When this happens, you’ll also begin to notice changes in your mood. Imbalanced hormones lead to more severe mood swings. This can hinder even your behavior and your overall outlook for the day.

For example, even after a good night’s sleep, you notice that you’re still feeling weak and moody as you wake up. This may not be a problem of lack of rest anymore. It could also be a deeper problem, such as poor hormone health. With a better balance of your hormones, you end up happier.

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Hormone Health|Achieving Balance: How Hormone Health Improves Personal Performance3. It Controls The Metabolism Of Your Body

No matter how much you exercise or control your diet, if your metabolism is poor, this could also affect your ability to maintain a healthy weight. One of the functions of healthy hormones is its ability to control your metabolism.

This function stems from the hormones of the thyroid, which were built precisely for that purpose. Along with metabolism, other functions of healthy thyroid hormones include:

  • Regulating weight
  • Managing hair growth
  • Determining energy levels
  • Controlling the inner temperature of the body

4. It Boosts Brain Function

Good hormonal health is also necessary for the brain to function adequately. Remember that the brain doesn’t merely work on its own. It’s reliant on its connections and relationships with the other organs of the body. One of these are the hormones, or the critical messengers so that the brain can process various information, depending on the specific performance that it’s meant to do.

For instance, if your hormone health is poor, specific cognitive issues can arise. When this happens, your overall personal performance is also affected. You may not be able to do the tasks you were accustomed to, not just in your job, but even in other aspects of your life.

Examples of these adverse effects of how poor hormone health affects your brain would include:

  • Having only a short attention span
  • Quickly losing one train of thought
  • Experiencing frequent short and long-term memory gaps
  • Changes in creative coordination ability

You need to think of your brain as an operating system of a computer. To fuel its functions, excellent hormone health is necessary. The healthier your hormones are, the better your overall performance is.

5. It Keeps Your Body Healthy

When your body isn’t healthy, then it’s expected that you wouldn’t be able to function to your full potential. If you notice that you’re also getting sick more frequently, this could mean that your hormones may also be of poor health.

A proper balance of your hormones is needed to keep the immune system healthy. That way, you can better function and perform, as your body’s innate ability to ward off bacteria and viruses is stronger.

Takeaway

It’s normal for the human body to experience instances when certain hormones are depleted or that their overall function is affected. While the effects may sometimes be minor, this isn’t to be taken lightly. After all, good hormone health is needed for the body’s performance to be excellent. The more that you’re able to understand about hormone health after reading through this, the more that you can step forward with ensuring that your body’s overall hormone health is excellent.

Why Small Businesses Should Transition to Online Faxing

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Online Faxing|Why Small Businesses Should Transition to Online FaxingMany small businesses are quickly adopting digital practices to survive the rapid digital transformation driven by technology and evolving consumer needs. That is playing a significant role in enhancing their operations and facilitating their employees. One of the latest digital practices has been the adoption of online fax systems from the traditional fax machine.

There’s no doubt that fax remains an indispensable tool for many businesses. When you consider the limitations of operating and maintaining a fax machine, including the costs, you’ll understand why digital faxing is the future of fax. Online faxing helps address operational challenges and makes it easy to send and receive fax from anywhere on any device.

So, why should you transition to online faxing systems?

Increased Fax Accessibility

If your business relies on fax, you’ve likely gotten new employees or even existing employees who wanted to learn how to fax something. If you’re still using a traditional fax machine, what follows is a time-consuming process of pressing buttons and waiting, with limited access to the machine only during office hours. That is not productive for any small business.

By switching to online faxing, sending a fax is easy and quick, and you get to enjoy increased fax accessibility. Most digital faxing solutions can now be accessed via mobile, PC, or tablet. That means that your employees can send and receive documents and access their fax records anytime and anywhere.

Streamlined Efficiency

By transitioning to online faxing, your small business gets to streamline operations and improve efficiency. Instead of your employees spending countless minutes on the fax machine, they can send faxes in seconds and do more productive work. Complex on-premise storage solutions for your fax documents are also replaced by online fax storage solutions.

Your employees can access all the fax information and documents they need from a single location. Whether you use fax to communicate to clients, market your products, or keep your customers in the know, online fax streamlines the entire process for better efficiency.

Enhanced Faxing Security

With 46 million fax machines still operational worldwide, it’s easy to see why there have been growing calls about the security risks that these machines pose when conducting confidential business transactions. For small businesses in industries that still rely on fax such as real estate, legal, and healthcare, transitioning to online faxing offers enhanced security.

Online faxing helps you reduce compliance risks and ensure data protection when sending and receiving faxes. Even when sending confidential documents, your small business can be assured of a secure solution. When choosing an online fax service, be sure to confirm the security protocols in place for peace of mind.

Reduced Costs

By transitioning to online fax, your small business gets rid of the costs associated with fax machines, including hardware, software, networking systems, and maintenance. You can save a significant amount of money by simply switching to a cloud-based solution that is much cheaper, more efficient, accessible, and quicker instead of relying on a complex on-premise fax system.

No more buying ink, toners, and papers. With a quick and easy setup, you should be faxing by email, online, or a mobile app in minutes. Most online fax services feature a scalable and affordable pay-per-use pricing model or a monthly subscription model depending on your faxing needs. You can easily choose a pricing model that suits your small business.

Conclusion

Faxing is here to stay, and online faxing offers small businesses complete flexibility and access to their document sharing needs while ensuring secure data sharing. Being able to continue working and sending and receiving documents without the need for a physical fax machine will help your business streamline operations.

How To Use Your Website As An Effective Customer Service Tool

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Service Tool|How To Use Your Website As An Effective Customer Service ToolMany businesses don’t consider how important their website is when it comes to customer service, but it’s actually one of the best tools that you have at your disposal. It’s important that you have a well staffed customer service team that has the right training and knows how to deal with customers, but you also need to consider making changes to your website. If you manage it in the right way, your website is an incredibly effective way to improve customer service throughout the customer journey. These are some of the best ways to use your website to improve customer service.

Set The Right Tone

Many people don’t consider how their website sets the tone for your customer service strategy, but it’s important that you think of your website in the same way as you would any other customer service operative. If somebody calls your customer service line, do you want an operator that answers with no enthusiasm or do you want somebody that is friendly and welcoming? Do you want a long and complicated menu system that is frustrating for the customer to use or do you want to connect them to the right person immediately? These same questions can be applied to your website and they should direct your website design from the outset. If you create a website that is vibrant and welcoming, and take steps to improve the user experience so the process of browsing products is quick and easy, that sets the tone for your customer service experience as well. People will feel more comfortable buying products from you because you have given them a good first impression and they will feel confident that they will receive good customer service from you.

Make It Easy To Contact You

If people want to contact your company, they will probably start by visiting your website and looking for contact details. It’s important that you make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch with you if you want to improve customer service. You need a ‘contact us’ page on your site but you should also display your phone number throughout the site. Don’t just put it on one page, have it on the header and footer of every single page so people don’t need to search through the whole site to get in touch with you.

As well as a phone number, you should also include a simple contact form on the website. Many people prefer to contact you via email, and a contact form makes it quick and easy to do. If you just display your email address, the customer still has to open their email and input the details etc. But with a contact form, it’s all there for them.

Live chat features on your site are a must as well because they’re perfect for customers that don’t have much time and want to chat with you directly. Say, for example, somebody has a quick question about a product before they buy it. They’re not likely to take the time to call you up or send an email, so they will probably just leave the site and forget about the purchase. However, if they can fire off a quick question and get an answer right away, their first interaction with your customer service team is a positive one and they’ll be more likely to buy products. It also improves the service for existing customers because the response time is so much faster. Live chat apps also help you to save money because one customer service operative can deal with multiple queries at the same time, which is far more efficient than dealing with customers over the phone.

Provide Useful Content

Content marketing is a brilliant way to drive traffic to your website and it has many other benefits outside of SEO, but did you know that it is also a great opportunity to improve customer service for your existing customers? If you post content that addresses frequently asked questions about your products, you can solve customer issues without them having to contact you directly. You can also provide content that gives tips on how to get more out of the product, so you add value and improve the customer experience long after they have made their purchase.

Make Returns Simple

If a customer needs to return a product for any reason, it’s important that you handle it efficiently. If the returns process is long and complex, the customer will leave with a bad impression of your business and they are far less likely to use you again in future or recommend you to friends and family. It’s important that you have a simple returns process on your website so people can easily send products back and get a refund or replacement. Before any product is purchased, you need to make sure that your returns policy is clearly stated because this will avoid any conflict later on when a customer wants a refund but you will not accept the return.

Integrate With Social Media

Social media is one of the most important customer service tools that you have at your disposal. Many people prefer to contact companies directly on social media when they have an issue, rather than emailing or calling you up. That’s why it’s important that you integrate social media with your website. Adding simple follow buttons to the website helps you to build an audience on social media and makes it easier for customers to contact you on social media without having to manually find your account. You can also use social media to promote the useful content that you provide, which will boost likes and shares and expand your audience.

Many businesses make the mistake of viewing their website as a sales tool and considering it separately from the customer service branch of the company. However, the reality is, your website is a hugely important part of your customer service strategy and you need to consider that when building and maintaining your site in the first place. If you make these simple changes to your website, you can improve your customer service in a big way.