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miami waste management offers free shipping

Posted on November 18, 2012 by mcooper

Dave Gilboa was an MBA student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School when he and three of his classmates realized they could use free shipping to shake up the e-commerce eyeglass industry.

In 2010, they launched Warby Parker with not just free shipping and free returns on all products, but a promotion called the Home Try On Program that lets consumers receive up to five frames and choose the ones they like best. Then, they ship all of them back and the frames they selected are fitted with prescription lenses and redelivered–all with no shipping expenses. The program has proven popular, and the New York-based company has grown to 100 employees. The company declined to disclose financial results.

 

While shipping is a significant cost, Gilboa views it as a marketing expense. “We really rely on customers to do our marketing for us,” he says referring to word-of-mouth promotion and the buzz the company gets on Facebook and other social media sites.

To properly execute and promote your own free shipping program, consider these seven approaches:

Think beyond your website’s home page. Merchants should include their free-shipping message throughout the shopping process up until the moment of purchase, says Kevin Eichelberger, founder and CEO of Blue Acorn, a Charleston, S.C.-based e-commerce agency. That means using the same colors, graphics and language throughout your site when referring to free shipping. Because consumers often don’t come to your site through the home page, make sure the free shipping message is incorporated into your product pages, as well.

Work “free shipping” into your website’s meta filters. People will often type “free shipping” with a product name when searching online, says Linda Bustos, director of e-commerce research at Elastic Path Software Inc., an enterprise e-commerce platform based in Vancouver, British Columbia. By including the term “free shipping” in your title tag, you give your business a greater chance of turning up in an online search.

Create delivery deadlines. Building urgency into free shipping offers can help push shoppers to buy. When holidays approach, let customers know their last day to qualify for free shipping and still receive their purchases on time, Eichelberger says. Whether through an email campaign or on your website, hard deadlines can be particularly effective with last-minute shoppers who tend to drag out their buying decisions.

Work with a third party to spread the word. Signing up for Free Shipping Day on December 17, or the website freeshipping.org can help you gain exposure, says Luke Knowles, founder and CEO of freeshipping.org, a Fort Collins, Colo.-based Web aggregator of free shipping deals. Last December, his website attracted 500,000 people looking for free shipping. Retailers can sign up for Free Shipping Day by filling out a form on the website, freeshippingday.com.

Use free shipping to raise the average value of your orders. If your website requires a minimum purchase amount to qualify for free shipping, make sure customers know how far they are from meeting it as they fill their shopping cart, Eichelberger says. You also can provide customers with a link to a page with items in the price range needed to reach the minimum threshold.

Offer free shipping as a reward to valuable customers. Rather than use free shipping to attract customers who are just out for a deal, make it a loyalty incentive for your existing customers, Eichelberger says. “Use it as a means to reward your best customers by making it an exclusive offer.” You can create a Members Only section on your website to offer such exclusives and help build brand loyalty.

Promote free shipping after the sale. Don’t waste the purchase completion page that appears after an online order has gone through, Eichelberger says. You can use it to offer a free shipping voucher on the customer’s next order or advertise upcoming shipping promotions. Another option is offering customers the opportunity to post their purchase on their Facebook wall, Eichelberger says. You can include a message about free shipping in that status update to let others know about it.

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miami waste container pricing strategy

Posted on November 18, 2012 by mcooper

As the abandoned locker door is opened on A&E’sStorage Wars, the teams have only a few minutes to decide if there is anything of value among the old furniture, books and mystery boxes. While you probably don’t spend your days sorting through castoffs, small-business owners must often make quick decisions without having all of the necessary information.

Just like on Storage Wars, informed decisions on purchasing and pricing is often the difference between being in the black versus the red. On each episode of the show, professional buyers bid on storage units and then resell everything of value at their own consignment stores or to buyers directly.

Related: Why Some Entrepreneurs Are Turning Pricing Power Over to the Public

Here are three things you can learn about pricing your products and services from Storage Wars, without even having to step foot into a storage unit:

1. Get the best price possible from your vendors. The teams on the show often act disinterested in a locker or even hide behind another bidder just to get the lowest price. While feigning disinterest might not be the best tactic for your business, you should have a firm budget in mind before negotiating with vendors.

 

Jarrod Schulz and Brandi Passante, a team on the show who own the Now and Then Secondhand Store, often allow their emotions to take control of their wallet and while sometimes this works, they often end up paying too much.

Related: 7 Ways to Improve Pricing With a New Mix of Products 

Negotiate with all vendors for the lowest price by asking for cash discounts, volume discounts and even take a page from consignment store owner Dave Hester‘s playbook by being willing to walk away empty handed.

2. Consult experts on pricing and sales trends. Instead of just slapping a price tag for a few hundred dollars on an old desk, regular bidder, Jeff Jarred, took the piece to an antique dealer to have it appraised and found out that it was worth over $5,000.

Use all of your available resources when setting your pricing structure, including industry experts, competitor prices and nationwide sales trends. Although Hester was convinced that an envelope full of stock certificates was going to make him a millionaire, an expert was able to quickly tell him that none of the stocks were redeemable.

3. Know what the product is worth to your customer. Who would have thought that someone would pay $500 for three pairs of tiny rose colored glasses for chickens? When determining your pricing, know the value that it has in the current market to your customer and what they are willing to pay.

Related: Why You Can Raise Prices Now

Many of the teams write off lockers containing surfing gear, tools, and contracting equipment as junk. But Darrell and Brandon Sheets, a father-son team, often realize the value that these items have to people in those with those interests and take home significant profits as a result.

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miami garbage to energy plant

Posted on November 18, 2012 by mcooper

WASHINGTON — For years, scientists and engineers have been juggling various combinations of acids, steam, bacteria, catalysts and the digestive juices of microorganisms to convert agricultural waste and even household garbage into motor fuel.

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distracted garbage drivers

Posted on November 18, 2012 by mcooper

Distracted While Driving

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), distracted driving is “any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving.’’ There are four types of distractions:

1. Visual – taking your eyes off the road;
2. Manual – taking your hands off the steering wheel;
3. Cognitive – taking your mind off what you are doing; and
4. Auditory – hearing something not related to the road.

While all driving distractions endanger the driver, passengers as well as bystanders are also endangered. Common distractions while driving include:

• Using cell phones (e.g., handheld and smart phones);
• Texting;
• Eating and drinking;
• Talking to passengers;
• Grooming (e.g., putting on make-up, shaving);
• Reading (e.g., maps, newspapers);
• Using navigation systems;
• Watching videos; or
• Adjusting radios, CD players, or MP3 players.

The U.S. DOT considers text messaging as a more serious distraction because drivers use visual, manual, and cognitive attention when sending these messages. Key facts regarding the consequences of distracted driving include:

• 3,092 people were killed and another 416,000 (estimated) injured because of distracted driving in 2010 (U.S. DOT 2012);
• 18 percent of all injury crashes in 2010 were reported as distraction-affected crashes (U.S. DOT 2012);
• 11 percent of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash (U.S. DOT 2012);
• Drivers using handheld devices are 4 times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves (Hosking, S. et al. 2006);
• Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted (Olson, R.L. et al. 2009);
• Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 second, which is equivalent to driving the length of an entire football field blind at 55 mile per hour (Olson, R.L. et al. 2009);
• Headset cell phone use is not substantially safer than handheld phone use (Olson, R.L. et al. 2009); and
• Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent (Just, M.A. et al. 2008).

Because of the dangers of either using a cell phone or sending and receiving text messages while driving, many states have banned or partially banned the practices. According to Governor’s Highway Safety Association (2012), the following states have enacted cell phone and texting bans: Handheld Cell Phone Use

• 8 states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington,) and the District of Columbia ban cell phone use and have primary enforcement (i.e., officers can ticket a driver without any other traffic offence); and
• 2 states (Maryland and West Virginia) ban cell phone use and have secondary enforcement (i.e., officers can only ticket a driver if a driver has been pulled for another violation);

Text Messaging

• 35 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) and the District of Colombia ban texting and have primary enforcement; and
• 4 states (Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, and Virginia) ban texting and have secondary enforcement.

Research has shown that cell phones used for texting can increase fatal crashes by 6 to 23 times. However, only a limited number of experimentally controlled research studies have examined the dangers of texting and most studies were performed using a driving simulator not actual driving. Because distracted driving poses a deadly risk to everyone on the road, companies should inform drivers of the risks and make sure that they understand what they should and should not do when driving company vehicles. Note that many of these distractions will apply to personal vehicles as well. To manage the most common driving distractions, companies should require drivers to:

• Turn off personal phones or switch them to silent mode before entering a company vehicle;
• If drivers need to make a cell phone call, have them pull over to a safe area first;
• Ask a helper or another passenger to make a return call for the driver;
• Arrange times during the day for drivers to contact supervisors or dispatchers when the vehicle is parked;
• Do not allow drivers to ever send or respond to text messages, surf the web, or read emails while driving because it is dangerous and against the law in most states;
• Familiarize drivers with state and local laws before they drive a company vehicle; and
• Have drivers refrain from smoking, eating, drinking, reading, and any other activities that divert their attention from driving.

 

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miami garbage market getting tighter

Posted on November 18, 2012 by mcooper

Financially troubled Swisher Hygiene Inc. is selling its Choice Environmental Services subsidiary to Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd.

Swisher Hygiene, which is struggling to file past financial reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will receive $123.3 million for Choice Environmental. The selling price could increase by $1.75 million if a revenue target is met.

Choice has more than 150,000 residential and 7,500 commercial customers in Southeastern, Southwestern and Central Florida. The company operates six hauling operations and three transfer and material recovery facilities.

“We have been pleased with the operations of our Choice subsidiary over the past year-and-a-half and we will miss having the Choice team as a part of the Swisher Hygiene family,” said Thomas Byrne, chief executive officer of Swisher Hygiene, in a statement.

“However, during this period we determined that we could provide our customers with the same benefits through a less capital intensive, more cost-effective approach by partnering with other service providers to cross-sell waste services on a national scale,” he said.

For Progressive Waste, the purchase continues the company’s push into the Florida market, where it already established a presence when it previously acquired Waste Services Inc.

Choice Environmental brings an additional $72 million in annual revenue to Progressive Waste.

“As one of the largest independent waste and recycling service providers in Florida, Choice Environmental brings residential, commercial and industrial collection operations, along with transfer and material recovery facilities, that are well-positioned in southern and central Florida,” said Joseph Quarin, chief executive officer of Progressive Waste, in a statement.

Swisher Hygiene said the company remains dedicated to providing hygiene and sanitation services to its nationwide customer base.

The company had viewed solid waste management as a natural extension of its other hygiene and sanitation services, such as providing soap and cleaning chemicals to businesses. But the initiative fell short of the company’s vision after Swisher Hygiene fell into financial difficulties.

Swisher Hygiene stock soared on the news of the sale Friday morning with shares jumping more than 40%.

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miami real estate getting better

Posted on November 18, 2012 by mcooper

Residential turning into seller’s market

By Laura Stace     The rise in home and condo prices may signal a return to a seller’s market in Miami, with realtors saying well-priced properties are being snapped up quickly by local and international buyers.    Last year, as the market started to turn around and bounce back from the slump experienced in 2008 to 2010, realtors in Miami sold a record number of homes, said Ralph De Martino, board member of the Master Brokers Forum and 2011 Residential President of the Miami Association of Realtors.    Mr. De Martino, president of Ocean International Realty, said judging from the first three quarters of this year realtors would match last year’s numbers while having achieved considerably higher sales prices.

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miami’s peogressive waste

Posted on November 14, 2012 by mcooper

Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd., by its own admission, has faced challenges with its Northeast U.S. business for years now.

But the solid waste management company’s CEO said it has not entertained thoughts of getting out of that market to concentrate efforts elsewhere.

As a matter of fact, the Vaughan, Ontario-based Progressive is directing more capital into that market, as it strives to increase waste disposal internalization rates, a metric that the company says will help it become more profitable.

 

Progressive Waste made two acquisitions during the third quarter, one in Washington, D.C., and one in New York, CEO Joseph D. Quarin said on a recent conference call with stock analysts.

“We feel quite good about the Northeast right now,” he said.

Progressive typically talks about three distinct markets where the company operates, the Northeast, the South and Canada.

And talk about turning around the Northeast business seems to crop up during earnings calls most quarters.

“Absolutely not on our radar is any kind of [sale] transaction [in] the Northeast,” Quarin said. “We’re very happy with all of our operations in the Northeast.”

While praising the company’s assets in that part of the country, he said, “now our opportunity is to make them work a lot better.”

Progressive Waste operates three landfills in the Northeast, including Seneca Meadows in Waterloo, N.Y., and disposal locations in Bethlehem and Chambersburg, Pa.

“While we have high-quality assets in our U.S. Northeast market with integrated collection, transfer and disposal operations, we need to do more to leverage this attractive asset base,” Quarin said on the call. “We need more of our own collection volume to internalize in our landfills and to better balance our collection and disposal assets. A higher level of internalization will reduce our reliance on third-party volumes that are price-sensitive, especially in periods of economic softness.”

The company previously had relied on waste captured in the New York City area to support all three disposal sites. But, in recent years, it has been diversifying collection operations to funnel waste from other areas into those sites.

“For the longest time, we were feeding all three of our Northeast landfills out of New York City and everybody knows the Northeast, and [in] particular New York City, that economy has been challenged,” Quarin said.

Progressive Waste entered the Baltimore-Washington corridor about five years ago, and its recent acquisition in Washington “further improves our asset base in that market,” Quarin said.

Muscling up on its own collection business in that region will help Progressive Waste be less dependent on third-party haulers, who shop around for the best price, to supply waste to its landfills.

“It’s going to improve the overall volume environment and how much we control as opposed to being out in the merchant market to solicit volume,” Quarin said.

Less than half of the waste heading to Progressive landfills in that market comes from company collection operations. The company seeks to increase that figure to around two-thirds or higher in a couple of years, Quarin said.

“We feel that we are starting to turn around here. The Northeast headwinds, year over year, will be past us hopefully this year, and we start moving onwards and upwards with a larger asset base,” he said.

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miami real estate clean outs

Posted on November 11, 2012 by mcooper

Although there has been some loosening of the purse strings among lenders, active brokers in the county’s residential market say cash is still king.    “We’re seeing both cash and non-cash buyers,” said Tere Shelton Bernace, broker and co-owner of Shelton & Stewart in South Miami, who works primarily in the $1.5 million-plus category.    “A recent phenomenon is that buyers who would otherwise pay cash are deciding to finance 40% to 50% because the terms are so attractive.”    The international buyers who have dominated in the post-recession market, she said, are in general accustomed to paying all cash or a large percentage of cash, though financing for foreign nationals is loosening up, especially for those who already have some kind of banking relationship or assets in the US.    And in multicultural Miami, the definition of an international buyer can be somewhat hazy.    “It’s split down the middle between those who are gradually moving to the US but still have a home in their own country, and those who have been here for years,” Ms. Bernace said. “We also see local buyers, of course.    “While banks are there for a good-credit candidate, the higher the price of the home, the more likely it’s all cash or a higher percentage of cash.”    For buyers not in the market for luxury homes, financing can still be tricky, said Iliana Abella, owner of Greater Miami Investments in Coral Gables and treasurer of Miami Brokers Forum, a network of top-producing real estate professionals.    “Unless you have a really, really good credit score and all the ducks are in order,” she said, “you can’t count on being approved by a lender. A lot of people would prefer not to go through the hassle if they don’t have to, and are paying cash if they can. Even most REO [bank-owned real estate] transaction are cash now.”    For many foreign buyers, Ms. Abella said, paying cash is the point. “They need to park their money somewhere,” she said, “and have a legal reason to take money out of their countries.    “In my opinion, this is going to last for a while, because with everything that is happening in some of their countries, they’re thinking they need to make plans to stay here permanently.”    Pat Klock Parker, a broker-salesperson with the Klock Parker Group at Coldwell Banker in Coral Gables, said even if a buyer can qualify for a loan, in today’s low-inventory market many sellers are now entertaining multiple offers, and a cash offer is generally going to win.    “The market is very strong,” she said, “and all-cash buyers win because the seller would prefer not to have a contingency on the appraisals. So in multiple offers, all-cash comes out of the woodwork. It’s a tool used mostly in multiple-offer situations.”    A second scenario where all-cash transactions make sense, Ms. Parker said, is when the property is not financeable because it’s in poor condition or has too many violations.    “With some condos,” she said, “all cash may be a requirement because if [the building is] more than 35% rented, then you can’t get financing.”    “Seventy percent of all sales are cash,” said Carlos Garcia, vice president and broker at Keyes Co. Realtors. “If a seller whose property is appraised at $230,000 has two offers, one to be financed by an FHA loan for $260,000 and one cash offer for $250,000, the cash is a slam-dunk.”    First-time homebuyers, typically active in the under-$350,000 price range, he said, may now be able to afford a down payment because rates are so low, but they’re being shut out by cash buyers.    “There’s a lot of investors in that space,” Mr. Garcia said, “because because rents are so high and interest rates are so low that the under-$350,000 market makes sense.    “When the market picks up, they can see and show a profit. That has become a problem for first-time buyers.”    While there’s plenty of inventory in the $4 million-plus ultra-luxury market, he said, in the luxury range between $1.5 million and $4 million “it’s definitely a buyers’ market. A lot of the buyers are foreign nationals, coming from all over — the Caribbean, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, Canada, Russia, China — and they tend to pay cash.” To read the entire issue of Miami Today online, subscribe to e -Miami Today, an exact digital replica of the printed edition.

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miami garbageman gets angry

Posted on November 11, 2012 by mcooper

http://www.complex.com/city-guide/2012/03/pissed-off-garbage-man-throws-hilarious-tantrum-video

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miami solid waste department

Posted on November 11, 2012 by mcooper

Garbage pick-up on Monday in Miami-Dade and Broward? We have the answer

By MIAMI HERALD STAFF

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