Business Payment Methods Essay Example for Free

Business Payment Methods Essay At this time of building my business I need to consider the ways in which I will permit my customers to pay for the books that they buy from my book store. Today there are a wide array of payment solutions available for any buyer of goods and services and to buy books, almost all modes of payment available can be used by the customer whether it is electronically or by direct use of card at the shop or by paying in cash. If the customer is   regular and can be trusted or is a regular bulk customer, check payments can also be accepted. In view of the competitions in the sale of books I have to take some element of risk in this regard in keeping with the business practices. For direct sales at the store a wide choice of payments are available to the customer. He can pay directly in cash or by credit or debit card. I believe cash payment has the least hassles applicable as the money has already come in the moment a sale is done. In the ase of debit and credit cards a wide margin has to be provided for without any applicable discounts since a percentage of the sale amount has to be given to the financial institutions as part of the applicable commission for use of their services. The business of electronic payments is growing rapidly in view of the convenience involved and a wide array of payment options are available which are acceptable in the case of my book store. In addition to the tradition card payments other options are also cceptable to me such as mail order, online payments, acquiring bank payments and through payment bureaus. I understand that as long as a sale is taking place I can accept 2 any of these payment modes provided the financial institution is reputed to make fast payments and is reliable for its transparency in fair dealings. In such cases I may have to reduce my margins a little, but that is ok since most businesses work on volumes and hence I can make up on the low margins.

Lack of Flexibility with Employees Essay Example for Free

Lack of Flexibility with Employees Essay One of the main reasons that the company William Beckett Co needs to have a flexible work force is a factor that we have already spoken about which is the increase of work for the company that has happened in the last few years, which has created a few problems for them in most parts of the business. The other major factor that requires the company to have a flexible works force is the job rotation strategy that I have also mentioned earlier. This can only work if the employees themselves have the skills and abilities to actually perform this different jobs otherwise the whole thing will break down. If the employees dont have the right skills and abilities then the process is pointless and costly to the company as the workers would be very ineffective to produce the same standard of work that the other employees produce as they have been trained to do this. Although many view employee training as a necessary evil and expense that must be tolerated, a well designed training program pays for itself and increases the bottom line. Such a program teaches new employees to do it right the first time, thus minimizing down time, equipment damage, and personal injury while maximizing productivity and profits http://pages.prodigy. net/pblair/ttthome. htm (technical training tips) To help control the increasing level of work that the company has, they would need a flexible workforce who could move around to different areas in the company to help out with the work in order to create some stability of the work that is coming in and the work that is being completed. This would allow the company to deal with the influx of work, help the productivity of the company and even help with the motivation of the employees, whilst maintaining the impressive level of sales. As the company is over run with business, they are in need of more staff to handle the amount of work which they are generating. So the director employees a new sales administrator to help with the situation. The problem is that the person he has employed is a friend of his so he has had no formal interview or application. After a while the man redefines his own job to sales representative as he is more experienced at doing this job as he knows more about this side of the company than the administration side. The director had employed his friend to do a job he is not really qualified or able to do. I believe that the company needs to set up a human resource department which would be able to deal with the recruitment of new employees for the company. The problems with recruiting employees who are not able to do the job are that the will not be able to complete jobs on time or to a high standard of quality, which also means that productivity will be affect and the employee himself will be unhappy as he isnt able to perform the duties in his job specification. Once the HR department is setup the managers will be able to move some of their tasks over to them like recruitment, appraisals, motivational and training. As the directors are struggling to do this now the only solution would be to set up the Hr department as soon as possible. The training needs are needed throughout the company, this is due to the fact that the company has grown rapidly and the fact that the company has invested in a new range of technologies to keep them up to date with their competitors and the changes in the market. I have identified certain areas that need improving with the management which are leadership training, interpersonal relationships need to be worked on and they also need to be able to delegate tasks and responsibility. The interpersonal skills when the one to one trainer has to exercise are described by Megginson and Boydell (1979) as being similar to those required by the skilful counsellor page 229 of the theory and practice of training, 4th edition by Roger Buckley and Jim Caple. The results of this should be an increase in productivity and an improvement in sales. They could also develop their own internal learning programme as they dont have a lot of time to send them away from the company for a long time as they are so busy. The lower level staff need new training as they will not be able to work effectively enough with the new technologies as they will not be familiar with it compared to the old equipment they were familiar with. The areas that they will need to be trained on are their team working abilities, stress and pressure courses, good communication and motivation skills and theories. This should help the employees to work together as a team which will help morale and productivity as a team that are working together and are happy will be a great asset to the company.

Methods Of Waste Management And Recycling Environmental Sciences Essay

Methods Of Waste Management And Recycling Environmental Sciences Essay Waste management means collecting, transporting, processing, recycling and monitoring of the waste materials. The term waste management generally relates to those materials which are produced by human activity and is usually undertaken to reduce the effect of these activities on their health and environment. Waste management is also useful to recover useful resources from the waste. Waste management involves all solid, liquid and gaseous or radioactive substances which are managed with different methods and expertise is required for each of them. Waste management practices are different for different countries of the world be it developed or developing nations. The management is different for urban and rural areas, for residential and industrial waste producers. Management of residential and institutional waste in cities and metros is done by the local government authorities or what we call as Municipal Corporation, while management of non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste is done by the generator of such waste. Solid waste Management Plasma gasification Plasma is a highly ionized or electrically charged gas. An example in nature is lightning, capable of producing temperatures exceeding 12,600  Ã‚ °F (6,980  Ã‚ °C). A gasifier vessel utilizes proprietary plasma torches operating at +10,000  Ã‚ °F (5,540  Ã‚ °C) (the surface temperature of the Sun) in order to create a gasification zone of up to 3,000  Ã‚ °F (1,650  Ã‚ °C) to convert solid or liquid wastes into a sun gas. When municipal solid waste is subjected to this intense heat within the vessel, the wastes molecular bonds break down into elemental components. The process results in elemental destruction of waste and hazardous materials According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. generated 250 million tons of waste in 2008 alone, and this number continues to rise. About 54% of this trash (135,000,000  short tons (122,000,000 t)) ends up in landfills and is consuming land at a rate of nearly 3,500  acres (1,400 ha) per year. In fact, landfilling is currently the number one method of waste disposal in the US. Some states no longer have capacity at permitted landfills and export their waste to other states. Plasma gasification offers states new opportunities for waste disposal, and more importantly for renewable power generation in an environmentally sustainable manner. Landfill Disposing of waste in a landfill involves burying the waste, and this remains a common practice in most countries. Landfills were often established in abandoned or unused quarries, mining voids or borrow pits. A properly designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials. Older, poorly designed or poorly managed landfills can create a number of adverse environmental impacts such as wind-blown litter, attraction of vermin, and generation of liquid leach ate. Another common byproduct of landfills is gas (mostly composed of methane and carbon dioxide), which is produced as organic waste breaks down anaerobic ally. This gas can create odour problems, kill surface vegetation, and is a greenhouse gas. Design characteristics of a modern landfill include methods to contain leachate such as clay or plastic lining material. Deposited waste is normally compacted to increase its density and stability, and covered to prevent attr acting vermin (such as mice or rats). Many landfills also have landfill gas extraction systems installed to extract the landfill gas. Gas is pumped out of the landfill using perforated pipes and flared off or burnt in a gas engine to generate electricity. Water Treatment Water treatment means all those processes which are used to make water acceptable for a desired end-use. These include use of water for drinking, medical, industrial processes and many other uses. The goal of all such water treatment is to remove the contaminants present in the water or reduce the concentration of contaminants so that the water becomes fit for consumption. One meaning to it is returning water to its natural environment without adversely impacting the ecology. The processes for treating water for drinking purpose can be solids separation by using physical processes such as settling and filtration, and chemical processes such as disinfection and coagulation and Biological processes if required. In general the process includes: Pre-chlorination for algae control and arresting any biological growth Aeration along with pre-chlorination for removal of dissolved iron and manganese Coagulation for flocculation Coagulant aids, also known as polyelectrolyte to improve coagulation and for thicker floc formation Sedimentation for solids separation, that is, removal of suspended solids trapped in the floc Filtration removing particles from water Desalination Process of removing salt from the water Disinfection for killing bacteria. There is no unique solution for any type of water. Also, it is difficult to standardize the solution in the form of processes for water from different sources. Treatability studies for each source of water in different seasons need to be carried out to arrive at most appropriate processes. Sewage treatment is the process which removes the majority of the contamination from wastewater or sewage and produces both a liquid effluent suitable for disposal to the natural environment. To be effective, sewage must be conveyed to a treatment plant by appropriate pipes and infrastructure and the process itself must be subject to regulation and controls. E-waste management Electronic waste is defined as all the secondary computers, entertainment devices, mobile phones, all other items like television, refrigerators, whether they are sold or donated or discarded by their original owners or users. In simple terms all those items mentioned above which are either dumped or disposed or discarded by their buyers rather than recycling and reusing them is called E-Waste. A major portion of this waste is generated through products like personal computers, laptops etc. According to recent estimates about 50 million tons of E-waste is produced each year around the globe. The USA alone discards 30 million computers each year and nearly 100 million phones are discarded in Europe each year. The reasons for these huge figures are that there are the rapid changes in technology, low cost of the product initially which encourages people to buy new instead of repairing and reusing and also the cost of modifying the features is much more than the original cost. Moreover t he electronic goods today are made in such a way that they follow something called as planned obsolescence which means they get obsolete with the passage of time. Electronic waste processing first involves dismantling the equipment or the electronic item into various parts i.e. metal frames, circuit boards, power supplies, plastics etc. and this is often done manually. The advantage of this process is that humans have the ability to recognize and save those parts which are working and are repairable which includes chips, RAM, transistors etc. The disadvantage of this process is that the labour might often be expensive in those countries which have high health and safety standards. An alternative to this is called bulk system; wherein a hopper conveys material meant for shredding into a very sophisticated mechanical separator which has screening and grinding machines to separate the constituents of metal and plastic fractions. These plastic fractions are then sold to plastics recycle rs or smelters. Emissions are caught by the scrubbers and screens. To separate glass, plastic, harmful and unharmful metals; magnets and eddy currents are used. Copper, gold silver, tin etc. valuable metals are sold to smelters for recycling purpose. Hazardous smoke and gases are captured, and then treated to remove the environmental threat. An ideal electronic waste recycling plant is one which combines dismantling for recovery of its components with increased cost-effectiveness of processing of bulk electronic waste. Reuse is an alternative option to recycling because it extends the life of the device. Recycling Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are known as the 3R of the waste hierarchy. Recycling involves processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for conventional waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles, and electronics. Although similar in effect, the composting or other reuse of biodegradable waste such as food or garden waste is not typically considered recycling. Materials to be recycled are either brought to a collection center or picked up from the curbside, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials bound for manufacturing. Recycling Saves money, energy, trees the planet Earth. In a strict sense, recycling of a material would produce a fresh supply of the same material-for example; used office paper would be converted into new office paper, or used foamed polystyrene into new polystyrene. However, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so recycling of many products or materials involve their reuse in producing different materials (e.g., paperboard) instead. Another form of recycling is the salvage of certain materials from complex products, either due to their intrinsic value (e.g., lead from car batteries, or gold from computer components), or due to their hazardous nature. Critics dispute the net economic and environmental benefits of recycling over its costs, and suggest that proponents of recycling often make matters worse and suffer from confirmation bias. Specifically, critics argue that the costs and energy used in collection and transportation detract from (and outweig h) the costs and energy saved in the production process; also that the jobs produced by the recycling industry can be a poor trade for the jobs lost in logging, mining, and other industries associated with virgin production; and that materials such as paper pulp can only be recycled a few times before material degradation prevents further recycling. Proponents of recycling dispute each of these claims, and the validity of arguments from both sides has led to enduring controversy Recent developments: Jamshedpur Utilities Services Company (Jusco), which is a fully owned subsidiary of Tata Steel, recently bagged the Municipal Solid Waste management contract for Mysore city from the Mysore City Corporation and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management contract under the Kolkata metropolitan area for six municipalities. Under the project Jusco will construct 5transfer stations and 6 compost plants in the municipalities of Champdani, Baidyabati, Serampore, Rishra, Konnagar and Uttarapara-Kotrung which fall under Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). The Rs 39 crore projects will be funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Jusco offers integrated solutions to municipal waste management which comprises of waste transfer, transfer station management, composting, engineered structured landfills, integrated waste recycling and reclamation, recycling of municipal and specialized wastes, etc. The utilities major also bagged the TPM Excellence A ward -2008 instituted by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) and has several other national and international awards like National Urban Water Awards (NUWA) in the citizen services governance category for 2009.

Poetry Coursework :: English Literature

Poetry Coursework I am going to compare these two poems by thinking about the theme, purpose, mood, language and imagery. An extract from â€Å"The Ballad of Reading Gaol† by Oscar Wilde. In the first verse of this poem, the writer introduces us to a miserable setting of a prison, â€Å"the dripping wall, the leaden sky.† This sets us in the mood of how it was to be a prisoner at the end of the 19th century. Oscar Wilde introduces us to another character, a murderer. Throughout the poem, Wilde sympathizes with this character. We see this by the use of language. Wilde tells us about the wardens who watched this prisoner, â€Å"for fear the man might die.† â€Å"And by each side a warder walked.† Although the wardens knew that this man would be put to death, they still watched him in the event that the prisoner might take his own life. Wilde refers to this man as ‘prey’ thus giving the impression that the wardens are hunting this man’s blood. This use of language reveals that Wilde disapproves of the way the man is treated and sees this as an unjust act. The purpose of Wilde’s poem is to protest against the authorities and against the way the prisoners are treated. He writes about the harsh conditions, â€Å"We rubbed the door, and scrubbed the floors, And cleaning the shining rails: And, rank-by-rank, we soaped the plank, And clattered with the pails.† The rails were already shiny they didn’t need cleaning. Wilde also protests against the difficult and monotonous work. The structure, language and brisk rhythm in this poem give emphasis to the main point of Wilde’s poem. â€Å"And shaven heads and feet of lead Make a merry masquerade.† He uses harsh repetitive words that are difficult to pronounce. â€Å"With blunt and bleeding nails.† Just as this is difficult to say, it was difficult work to do. The thought of this cruelty makes you quiver. Oscar Wilde was in prison when he wrote this poem, and therefore he could not openly address his intended audience. Instead, He used a lot of irony in his writing. He questions the role of compassion through irony, in such a place with a definitely ironic tone, â€Å"And what should human pity do Pent up in a murderer’s hole? What word of grave in such a place Could help a brother’s sole?† Wilde is attacking the governor, the doctor, and the Chaplin for not having pity on the prisoners. He disapproves of their approaches by listing their actions coldly. A minister of church should be praying with him. Religious men have jobs to pray with him and accompany him. But the Chaplin isn’t doing his job.

Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Great Expectations The novel great expectation was finished for the first time in 1860; it was created in weekly instalments in a weekly journal called â€Å"all year round†. The story went on for 36 weeks. This gave the author Charles Dickens few challenges he had to beat to keep the readers interests up. He used cliff hangers and other ways he needed to grab the reader’s attention. Dickens grew up in a small house in Landport, by Portsmouth, on the 7th of February. John his father was a clerk. Charles had a rough childhood, and wasn’t liked by other students due to his fragile body. That’s why he always preferred reading books instead of playing physical games. Much of Dickens hard life is expressed in his novels. The 39th chapter is a pivotal chapter because he uses it as a great changing and turning point. Like pivoting in basketball holding your left foot still on the ground and using your other leg to move around and choose a different direction or move to carry on. Charles uses authoritative and descriptive sentences. In this chapter he builds up drama and creates huge tension. In this chapter he makes the reader remember Pip’s situation. Pip received money but had to leave his family to gain it. Pip moved away and received money on a monthly basis. Dickens reminds us of Pip’s situation the readers feel that an important thing is about to happen. At this point Pip is feeling disheartened and Dickens uses bad climate to project his feelings. When Dickens uses this to project pips situation the reader’s feel sorry for Pip and can comprehend what his going through. Using the weather conditions gives Dickens another aspect on how Pip feels. But they also know he left his family for money making him look slightly guilty. The unsettled weather creates drama and gets the way Pips feels to the readers. Dickens repeats words and uses long sentences constantly this helps creating more tension. Dickens uses academic language and makes the reader more involved using words that can only describe things with the ones his chosen; making the reader involved helps them to interact more with the chapter. The language is altered to the other chapters because this one is filled with tension. As Dickens generates tension the reader’s anxiety and strain also builds up thus making the readers more concentrated into the book. Dickens makes the pressure and tension last a long time using the long sentences and words to keep the readers more intrigued. The atmosphere changes and it becomes silent because no ones ready for what’s about to hit them.

The Daimon and Anti-Self Concepts in Per Amica Silentia Lunae by William Yeats :: Per Amica Silentia Lunae William Yeats Essays

The Daimon and Anti-Self Concepts in Per Amica Silentia Lunae by William Yeats In July of 1914 Yeats began communicating during seances with a spirit which he called his "daimon," one Leo Africanus, a Renaissance geographer and traveller. At Leo's request, through the voice of the medium, Yeats began a written correspondence in which he would write questions and observations to Leo, and Leo would answer through Yeats's hand. This correspondence would prove influential in Yeats's evolving concept of the sources of artistic inspiration as emanating from the interaction between the physical and the spiritual worlds. This paper will explore the growth of the daimon concept out of Yeats's divided-self theory during his correspondence with Leo Africanus and then its explication in the 1917 Per Amica Silentia Lunae. Background From the beginning of his literary career Yeats, like many authors in this age of a dawning awareness of modern psychology and concept of the sub-conscious, had been fascinated with the concept of an divided self or anti-self or a self which is covered by a mask or "pose." In these early John Sherman stories, the the dreamy, unsophisticated John Sherman is tempted by the elegant, citified, and High Church Rev. William Howard. In the Rosa Alchemica stories of 1897, we are introduced to two characters who will remain staples of Yeats's oeuvre: the pious, conventional John Aherne who is "educated" and tempted by the mysterious Michael Robartes, with his secrets of the "Order of the Alchemical Rose." In On Baile's Strand (1904) the instinctive, active warrior Cuchulain struggles against the wiles of the crafty, domesticated ruler Conchubar. By the 1900's, Yeats is using the metaphor of the mask to portray this dichotomy in man. "The mask," Richard Ellmann says, "had come to occupy in his system during the first decade of this century the position which the rose had held in it during the 'nineties" (190). In 1907 he begins The Player Queen, in which each character seeks an antithetical self, and he introduces it with the explicit song "The Mask." Whatever exactly "the mask" is--an alter-ego, a heroic ideal, a protective shield--it is a metaphor for an internal struggle, a psychological process. The next step would be to give this process more cosmic implications by making the struggle involve an outside force, a representative from the "spirit world" who could put one in contact with the "beyond." This would happen when Yeats discovered his Daimon. The Daimon and Anti-Self Concepts in Per Amica Silentia Lunae by William Yeats :: Per Amica Silentia Lunae William Yeats Essays The Daimon and Anti-Self Concepts in Per Amica Silentia Lunae by William Yeats In July of 1914 Yeats began communicating during seances with a spirit which he called his "daimon," one Leo Africanus, a Renaissance geographer and traveller. At Leo's request, through the voice of the medium, Yeats began a written correspondence in which he would write questions and observations to Leo, and Leo would answer through Yeats's hand. This correspondence would prove influential in Yeats's evolving concept of the sources of artistic inspiration as emanating from the interaction between the physical and the spiritual worlds. This paper will explore the growth of the daimon concept out of Yeats's divided-self theory during his correspondence with Leo Africanus and then its explication in the 1917 Per Amica Silentia Lunae. Background From the beginning of his literary career Yeats, like many authors in this age of a dawning awareness of modern psychology and concept of the sub-conscious, had been fascinated with the concept of an divided self or anti-self or a self which is covered by a mask or "pose." In these early John Sherman stories, the the dreamy, unsophisticated John Sherman is tempted by the elegant, citified, and High Church Rev. William Howard. In the Rosa Alchemica stories of 1897, we are introduced to two characters who will remain staples of Yeats's oeuvre: the pious, conventional John Aherne who is "educated" and tempted by the mysterious Michael Robartes, with his secrets of the "Order of the Alchemical Rose." In On Baile's Strand (1904) the instinctive, active warrior Cuchulain struggles against the wiles of the crafty, domesticated ruler Conchubar. By the 1900's, Yeats is using the metaphor of the mask to portray this dichotomy in man. "The mask," Richard Ellmann says, "had come to occupy in his system during the first decade of this century the position which the rose had held in it during the 'nineties" (190). In 1907 he begins The Player Queen, in which each character seeks an antithetical self, and he introduces it with the explicit song "The Mask." Whatever exactly "the mask" is--an alter-ego, a heroic ideal, a protective shield--it is a metaphor for an internal struggle, a psychological process. The next step would be to give this process more cosmic implications by making the struggle involve an outside force, a representative from the "spirit world" who could put one in contact with the "beyond." This would happen when Yeats discovered his Daimon.

John Stuart Mill Essay

Moral theories try to explain what distinguishes right actions from wrong ones. The theory of utilitarianism tries to do the same by incorporating several aspects that set up a moral standard to help investigate the balance between right and wrong. John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher of the 1800’s defends the utilitarian school of thought by pointing out what it is that makes utilitarianism the standard theory for morality. According to Utilitarianism as explained by Mill in his essay â€Å"In Defense of Utilitarianism† the fundamental principle of morality is the promotion of happiness on a scale that benefits an individual and the ones around him; also to promote pleasure and to prevent pain. Several major objections are raised towards the moral theory of utilitarianism some examples can be the idea that the theory asserts too much emphasis on pursuing pleasure which makes it â€Å"a doctrine worthy of swine† (â€Å"Defense†). Another objection is that in everyday circumstances it is impossible for humans to make a morally just decision (â€Å"Defense†). An additional counter-argument that struck me the most was the statement that utilitarianism sets standards that are deemed â€Å"too high for humanity† (â€Å"Defense†). What this objection projects are the predisposed and unwarranted capabilities of the human race. According to this statement humanity is made comparable to other (lower ranking) species that lack the intrinsic values that make us humans human; like thinking faculties that are much superior to other animals or the ability to have languages or develop intricate cultural systems, just to name few. Therefore, making this objection a weak one and one that displays an inferior and subjacent view towards the principle of morality. Mill on the other hand deduces the true motives of these objections and labels these ideas as being of such nature that promote actions in accordance with one obliging to a certain duty. If that is the case then individuals can be comprised of nothing but a niche in society. He argues that ethics holds the responsibility of outlining our duties, fulfilling them is dependent only on factors that promote the larger well being of a society. Mill states such objections as â€Å"misapprehensions† and transcribes an important point which nonetheless reconstructs and fabricates the idea of utilitarianism; he states â€Å"this affirms that the motive has nothing to do with the morality of the action, though much with the worth of the agent. † (â€Å"Defense†).