Alpacas produce a premium fiber in 22 vibrant colors, the demand for which is ever increasing. Annual fiber yields vary from about five pounds from a single female to a reported thirteen pounds from a larger male. Breeding and selling in this ever increasingly popular industry is another easy way to add to your investment dollars!

Not to be overlooked as a very important aspect of raising alpacas are the great tax benefits provided to both farms and any small business. An alpaca can typically be depreciated over a five-year span or 20% per year.  In addition, Section 179 of the tax code to allows for the deduction of a capital asset.

Effective as of 09/27/2010, H.R. 5297 (the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010) had a substantial impact on Section 179 – below is quoted from “section179.org”:

• An increase of the total amount available for deduction to $500,000 (up from $250,000)
• An increase to the total amount of equipment purchased to $2 million (up from $800,000).
• The above numbers are to be in effect for 2010 and 2011.
• In addition, the bill also extended the 50% bonus depreciation to tax year 2010 (it was rescinded earlier, but has been restored.)

Capital gains can be available on the sale of breeding animals and their offspring. Current expenses are deductible.

Consult a tax advisor for specifics as they relate to you.

Add to all of this that alpacas are 100% insurable. Can stocks do all of this?

All You Need Is Love  Alpacas are so easy to raise, practically all you need to give them is love. They eat very little food and therefore require only a small amount of acreage per animal. Veterinary costs are minimal. Besides their endearing qualities of warmth, friendliness, and trainability, they have an enduring quality of strength and toughness. That means you’ll have a friend for a long time to come. Coming from the rugged Andes makes life on the farm a piece of cake…for your alpaca and for you!

The Many Benefits Of Breeding  As your alpaca herd breeds and grows, the return on your initial investment multiplies at a strong and steady rate. Along the way, you’ll receive numerous tax benefits and incentives that make your investment even more attractive! Deductible expenses, capital gains benefits, and insurable, depreciable investments are just a few of the many ways you can save money while also taking part in one of the most exciting industries in the world.

Cubicles are great because they can be set up into various arraignments and can be utilized in almost any setting. You can start with the area that is most needed, and always bring more cubicles in as room becomes available or staff grows. Used office cubicles can save a company quite a bit of money. The difference in cost is dramatic and can be as high as an 80% savings. You can find refurbished cubes with a little research on the internet.

The process of refurbishing cubicles makes for a quality end result. The metal is repainted to desired color and the panels get new upholstery applied to them. Any changes to the sizing of the cubicles can be made at this time as well.  Woodwork is also refinished and cleaned to look like new.

Companies that supply refurbished cubes let the customer pick colors, styles, and dimensions that are a good fit for them. The best bet is to ask for the company’s office designer and they will ensure your needs and specs are followed through on to your order.

Used office cubicles that have been refurbished, look just like new.  Instead of spending a ton of money on a remodel or brand new cubicles, try the refurbished cubicles and save money and time.

A good salesperson can probably sell a product or service to anyone—once. But it’s by mastering the art of customer service that you’ll be able to build a relationship and sell to the same customer over and over again. People don’t buy products, they buy benefits and solutions they believe the product will provide. Customer service is a big part of the benefits that go along with a product or service. In fact, treating your customers right can be one of the best startup business ideas you have ever had.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. In fact, you’ve likely heard the saying that it is more costly to acquire a customer than retain a current one. How much more costly? According to studies conducted by Flowtown, the cost to acquire a new customer is actually six to seven times more than retaining an existing one. So, what things can you do to provide better customer service and keep those customers coming back?

Acquire the right kind of customers from the start. First, try to attract a customer base of people that appreciate your products and services, not those simply looking for the lowest price. Bargain shoppers are fickle and are more prone to jump ship. Second, always assume that a new customer is going to be a long-term, loyal customer and treat them as such. Finally, don’t neglect or ignore your current customers while pursuing new ones. Remember, the customers you need to grow your company may already be the ones doing business with you. This is especially true if you are a new entrepreneur starting your own business.

Keep customers like you keep friends. Your oldest, dearest friends are the ones who you can count on the most. The same goes for your oldest customers. Treat them with the same respect that you would an old friend. Notify customers of the status of their orders, let them know when there are updates on products or services, or send them birthday wishes and thank you notes. Make customers feel special by recommending other businesses that might benefit them and if you’re developing a new product or service, consider bringing in your most loyal customers to serve as a focus group.

Play the name game. According to Dale Carnegie, a pioneer in public speaking and personality development, “a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Customers seem to listen a little more to what’s just been said, or what’s about to be said, if you call them by name. Whether during a new or routine sale, or handling someone with a difficult personality, you can get your customers to pay more attention to what you’re saying by using their name. Also, by repeating someone’s name at least twice in a conversation you are more likely to remember their name in the future, and people feel astonishingly important when someone remembers their name.

Address complaints quickly and with transparency. According to the Marketing Tips Every Entrepreneur Should Know, fifty percent of people who complained said they would do business with the company again if their complaints were handled satisfactorily. Listen to your customers and acknowledge their complaints. And admit when you are wrong—nobody’s perfect. Complaining involves some inconvenience and possibly expense, so customers who register complaints expect action. Show concern for the customer, personalize your response, and ask questions to identify and analyze the problem. Once you obtain the customer’s ideas concerning possible alternative solutions, do what you can to make things right.

Go above and beyond what is expected. After a customer makes a purchase, follow up on their satisfaction by telephone, direct mail, or email, depending on the size of your business and level of technology. You can also install a simple, automated system that handles your follow up, thus saving you time. Not all companies use a follow up marketing method. By delivering this special service to your customers, you make them feel special and when they feel special, they are less likely to leave you. Entertain your customers by being a destination. Make it fun for people to come to your store or website. The longer your customers linger, the more comfortable they will feel with you and your business, and the more products or services they will buy.

Smile and say thank you. Remember those simple rules your mom taught you as a child? Well, they apply in customer service as well. Smiling shows that you’re calm, in a good mood, and willing to help do what you can for your customers. And don’t forget, a smile can be heard over the phone. Make sure you put on a big grin before answering any calls. Here’s a great example of the power of audible smiles. And a simple, meaningful thank you can go a long way with customers. Let them know how much you appreciate their business. Don’t assume they know—tell them. Say thank you and ask them for input. In addition you can use this appreciation during the selling process by consistently and effectively communicating with your prospect that you value them.

Keeping customers is both an art and a science. You need to be creative when dealing with customers; always finding new ways to keep them happy so that they spread the word about your company. Also, you should keep track of your customer satisfaction efforts and measure the results. This will ensure that you are always aware of what works and what doesn’t. Using these tactics will assist you in getting the right customers, providing them with what they want, and keeping them coming back.

Tiffan Clark is the Vice President of IdeaCrossing, a free online community created by JumpStart, which connects entrepreneurs with the capital, mentors and technical resources necessary to grow their businesses. Tiffan has worked at several venture-backed startup technology companies and strategic marketing agencies in both Boston and Cleveland.

The procedure for plastic extrusion is a high volume manufacturing process where raw plastic material is melted and shaped into a continuous profile. During this process, raw thermoplastic material in the form of small beads, called resin, are fed from a top mounted hopper into the barrel of the extruder. The material then enters through an opening near the rear of the barrel and comes into contact with the screw. The rotating screw forces the plastic beads forward into the barrel which is heated to the desired melt temperature of the molten plastic. Usually this temperature can range from 392 °F to 527 °F depending on the type of polymer. This allows the plastic beads to melt gradually as they are pushed through the barrel and lowers the risk of overheating which may destroy the polymer. The extrusion process produces end extruded plastic products like pipe/tubing, weather stripping, fence, deck railing, window frames, adhesive tape and wire insulation.

Products of the extrusion plastic process, such as drinking straws and medical tubing, are manufactured the same as a regular extrusion process up until the die. Hollow sections are usually extruded by placing a pin or mandrel inside of the die, positive pressure is applied to the internal cavities through the pin. Tubing with multiple holes or lumens must be made for specialty applications. For these applications, the tooling is made by placing more than one pin in the center of the die, to produce the number of lumens necessary. These pins are supplied with air pressure from different sources so that the individual lumen sizes can be adjusted by adjusting the pressure to the individual pins.

Most people never stop to think all the things that touch their lives that have been made from plastic tubing. The plastic tubing extrusion process can produce everything from the toothbrush you use every morning to the large rod pole that rolls out your porch or camper awning. Plastic tubing extrusion products are all around us every day. We touch them, we use them, and they make our lives better.

Auburn Hills, Mich., May 19, 2011 – Guardian Industries Corp. held a groundbreaking ceremony in Krasny Sulin (Rostov region), Russia on May 13 with local and state government officials to kick off construction of its newest float glass manufacturing plant. The $220-million plant will be Guardian’s largest, producing 900 tons of glass per day, and will include a technologically advanced glass coater.

The Rostov region plant will produce Guardian’s high-performance, energy-efficient ClimaGuard® – residential and SunGuard® - commercial glass products for construction of homes, offices, retail, health-care and other facilities. The plant is expected to begin operations in the 3rd quarter of 2012, and will initially create 300 new jobs.

At the event, Guardian Glass Group President Russell Ebeid thanked those in attendance for their support of Guardian and the company’s decision to build in Rostov.

“We appreciate the outstanding support we received from Rostov Governor Golubev and his administration,” said Ebeid. “It is evident that they view new investment as a priority, and the government works hard to streamline the development process to attract new projects that will create new jobs. Guardian is bullish on Russia given the excellent growth at our first plant in Ryazan and the customers we have in the country. The timing is right for the region and for Guardian.” Following the ceremony Mr. Ebeid was seen by Governor Golubev for a personal conversation in his office.

The location is a good fit for Guardian’s growth strategy to supply glass to Russia and neighboring countries. In 2008, Guardian began production at its plant in Ryazan, Russia, serving the greater Moscow region.

Located 957 kilometers (594 miles) from Moscow in the southern part of Russia along the Azov Sea, Rostov has sufficient natural resources, a large workforce and a well-developed transportation infrastructure. The area is also close to Sochi, home of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

“We have enjoyed strong support in Russia from both the government and a wide variety of customers,” said János Együd, managing director of Guardian Steklo Services, the company overseeing the existing Ryazan plant and the new project in Rostov. “We look forward to continued growth in the country as we work closely with our customers and suppliers.”

Guardian was one of the first companies to invest in Eastern Europe beginning construction in Hungary in June 1989, prior the fall of the Berlin Wall, and presently operates facilities in Hungary, eastern Germany and Poland, among other European locations.

Guardian is a diversified global manufacturing company headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, with leading positions in float glass, fabricated glass products, fiberglass insulation and other building materials for commercial, residential and automotive applications. Its automotive trim group, SRG Global Inc., is one of the world’s largest suppliers of advanced, high value coatings on plastics. Through its Science & Technology Center, Guardian is at the forefront of innovation including development of high performance glass coatings and other advanced products. Guardian, its subsidiaries and affiliates employ 18,000 people and operate facilities throughout North America, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. www.guardian.com.

Contact:
Amy Hennes
ahennes@guardian.com
248.340.2109

Cirque is developing their third show based on the music of Michael Jackson, called Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour It is an arena show version scheduled to begin touring North America later this year and the residency show scheduled to begin in 2013 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Get discount Cirque du Soleil tickets now!

The shows are a combination of circus styles from around the world, with its own central theme and storyline. The audience is drawn into the performance through continuous live music, with performers rather than stagehands changing the props. After financial successes and failures in the late 1980s, Nouvelle Expérience was created – with the direction of Franco Dragone – which not only made Cirque profitable by 1990, but allowed it to create new shows.

Cheap tickets for Cirque du Soleil are still available.

Zarkana, an annual seasonal show will be performed at New York’s Radio City Music Hall during the summer months starting June 2011. This show will last five years. The show will be a reinvention of the variety show, with a story about a magician in an abandoned theatre who has lost his love and with her, his magic has disappeared. As he cries and begs the Gods for her return he is plunged into a world inhabited by surreal creatures. This $57 million show will start playing in New York, before going to Madrid and Moscow.

When it comes to maintaining your marine engine, one of the most important things you can do is protect your battery. In general, the biggest enemies of your marine battery are:

1. Heat

Summer heat is killer, especially for your marine battery. In fact, high temperatures are the primary cause of battery failure. Like any 8th grade science teacher will tell you, the heat causes the water in the battery’s electrolyte to evaporate, which causes rapid corrosion to the positive plate grids. In case you did not know, you don’t want that to happen.

What to do: make sure your battery has lots of water! Check your marine battery as often as possible. The distilled water should reach approximately 1/4 of an inch above the plates.

2. Old age

If your flooded lead acid battery in your boat or jetski is more than 4 years old, there is a good chance it is working harder than it has to. This can harm your…

• Alternator: As a battery gets older, it holds less of a charge, causing the alternator to work harder to charge it.
• Starter: When your marine battery holds less of a charge, it is produces an inadequate amount of cranking amps. Over time, this adds significant stress to your starter, and could cause costly damage.

What to do: this one is a little harder to solve than simply checking water levels. The most obvious solution is to buy a new marine battery every 4 years. Sometimes, though, one can prolong the life of a battery by taking care of it. Keep it moderate temperatures, do not over-crank it, or over-exhaust it.

Following these simple tips should add a bit of time to your battery’s life… and keep you on the water longer!

…but unless your success in the weight room (fueled by your favorite AC/DC mix) translates into success in competition, what good is it?

Being able to transfer the acquired strength from the weight room into actual vertical jumping requires sound movement mechanics. Applying your strength in the right way can take you much further. Time and time again, we see athletes who perform well in the weight room but lack efficient movement mechanics and cannot transfer their strength into athletic events.

The Culprit?

In most cases, the culprit is too much–

• muscle mass (If I put on a 20 pound weight vest and tried to high jump a bar 7 feet off the ground, it wouldn’t happen.)
• body fat (In order for an athlete to high jump 7’5, they to be as strong as a bull without the mass and keep my body fat under 8%.)
• lack of flexibility (If my muscles were tight and restricted, I couldn’t freely transfer the explosive energy vertically and that would be equivalent to driving a car with the emergency brake on. You use more fuel and the performance suffers due to the restrictions.)

The Solution

How can an athlete improve vertical jump?

To jump higher, your arms need to swing free through the shoulders. Your legs need to swing freely through the hip joints in order to maximize force production through the ground and enable it to rebound through the body.

I often see a number of athletes who are strong and powerful but when they jump and leave the ground, the muscles and joints lock up due to lack of proper movement mechanics and tightness. Strength is of no value without efficient movement and flexibility. Vertical jump training, not just time in the weight room, will really help.

Wiring the athletes neuromuscular system with the proper movement training will enable them to utilize their strength because they will be more in tune with their body thus enabling them to be fluid and feel the athletic movements. You can be the strongest athlete in the weight room but without time spent on proper mechanics, true strength cannot be unleashed in an athletic fashion.

Fortunately, the answer is usually: Yes! Induction heat treatment is a very versatile method of heat treat and has many applications. Induction heat treating is a very controllable process and usually the resultant distortion can be controlled much better than with other heat treat methods. Sometimes, though, I have questions of my own:

• Is your material a metal that be can be hardened?
• Is this material suitable for induction hardening? This can be a bit tricky as the material may have plenty of carbon, but the structure is not a suitable structure for induction hardening. Because the induction heat treatment process occurs very quickly, some materials will not go into “solution” quickly enough, and the heat treat ends up being spotty or just too soft.
• Is there proper carbon content? The material will only hardened to its maximum hardness based on the carbon content, this is mostly true regardless of the heat treat method used.
• Is the depth of hardness appropriate? Induction is best suited for shallower depths, it is by definition a “case hardening” process. As a general rule of thumb most of the higher alloy steels will allow a deeper case depth than regular carbon steel.
• What about bores, can I induction heat treat this bore? Usually the answer is, Yes! But some bores due to small size or geometry may prove to be difficult.
• Will the part weigh over 100 lbs? Typically, for Zion Induction, an Ohio based induction heating company, it is not a problem. They heat treat parts that weigh several hundred pounds, parts that weigh just a few grams, and everything in between.