Guest blog post By Hernan Popper
Strategic-Partner – Schooley Mitchell of Winnipeg

By 2030, experts expect that digital wallets, like those used by Apple Pay, will be the primary source of payments around the world. Mobile payments are often as simple as using a physical card, and you can make secure purchases in stores, in apps, and online. So is it time for you to add mobile payments to your arsenal of merchant services solutions?

One thing to consider regarding mobile payments are the demographic of your customers. According to Big Commerce, which surveyed businesses that added Apple Pay, many of them chose to do so because they had a younger, millennial and Gen Z demographic in mind. This has been especially effective for businesses using online transaction options with mobile payments in mind.  The same business surveyed by Big Commerce answered that Apple Pay improved the outcome of their online sales, with fewer items being placed in a user’s ‘cart’ being abandoned due to a complicated checkout process.  

Mobile payments are useful for in-store transactions as well. With Apple Pay, anyone with an iPhone or certain iPads can utilize this method. Of course, not all of your customers will have Apple Pay equipped on their devices, or use Apple devices at all, so it is important to have a wide variety of POS solutions in this mobile era. Mobile payments are also generally secure, with multiple levels of authentication before confirming a purchase. For example, if you’re using your iPhone to make a payment via Apple Pay, you will likely have to use your thumbprint. This might also be a reason why many customers would be attracted to the option of using mobile payments to make their purchases.

Of course, there are plenty of risks to mobile payments as well. High-profile data breaches make overarching security a large concern for both business owners and customers. While the payments are generally less expensive than traditional point-of-sale systems, most still require you to purchase new technology and upgrade your terminals. With the variety of mobile devices on the market, a one-size fits all option can be very difficult to implement.

In conclusion, if you are willing to outfit your Point-of-Sale terminals with the necessary tech, mobile payments can be a rather convenient addition to your merchant services solutions that can also help improve the customer experience. Online check-out buttons attached to mobile payments have proven to make online sales easier for merchants and buyers. If you are hoping to attract a younger demographic, mobile payment solutions can be a great way to go about it.

Is a mobile payment solution right for your business?

One way to help make a positive impact on our planet is to think about the ways you and your colleagues can reduce the waste you generate at work. But waste management can be expensive! From printing to drinking habits, here are some of our suggestions for maintaining a cost-effective, waste-conscious work life.

Paper and Printing:

This may seem obvious, but one key area where most businesses could improve is paper waste. With today’s technology, it is easier than ever to maintain a paperless workplace, and doing so could save time and money and reduce waste.

Utilizing services like Google Docs and Dropbox allows co-workers to collaborate, review and send files from person to person without ever using a printer. Even when printing is necessary, printing double-sided, black and white and in draft mode are all ways to reduce the amount of paper and ink you are using. Create a culture at your workplace where printing isn’t the default – it’s a decision made after thinking about whether a printed copy of a document is truly necessary.

When it comes to recycling paper, remember that convenience is key – so make sure the recycling bin is easy to find. If every desk in your office has a small recycling bin, the amount of recyclable paper ending up in the trash will decrease.

Office Supplies:

Many of the products we buy for work come with a lot of packaging. It is possible, however, for you to make the conscious effort to search for products and alternatives with little to no packaging. One example might be buying things like pens in bulk rather than in smaller, individual packages. You can also search for companies that deliver in your area via returnable containers, cutting back on the overall waste and impact of your operations.

Be sure to recycle electronic equipment and batteries that might otherwise end up in the trash. The Balance recommends that small businesses looking to cut back on waste “… don’t allow obsolete equipment to take up space and collect dust. The sooner it is recycled, the quicker that valuable resources will be available for reuse, thus avoiding the processing of more virgin materials.”

You can also change habits to make office supplies last longer. Remind employees to clean the tips of their pens and keep them in a cool, dry place when not in use to expand their life cycle. Losing track of pen and marker caps creates waste and is an unnecessary expense. As well, using supplies that are more environmentally conscious – like paper clips instead of staples – can save money in the long run. Even investing in refillable fountain pens rather than one-use ballpoint pens has a positive environmental and financial impact.

Other important items that are easy to reuse are binders and file folders. By providing your employees with labeling stickers rather than endless folders, you’ll be able to write over old labels and reuse these organization tools again and again.

Personal Initiative:

As much as it is important to change the office culture surrounding waste, you must also lead by example. Packing a lunch, bringing a reusable mug and water bottle and avoiding paper plates and plastic utensils at lunch are all good habits that will eliminate waste. Make a company policy banning plastic water bottles and provide company-branded reusable water bottles to your employees as replacements. These initiatives will save your business money in the long run and leave a positive imprint on the environment in the process.

In conclusion…

There are so many ways to reduce your waste spending and your environmental impact at work. It really is a win-win situation, if you are willing to put the thought and time into changing your habits and your office culture.

According to a report by Canalys, smartphone shipments in North America fell 18 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to a five year low of 36.4 million units. That is down from a record high of 44.4 million in the first quarter of 2018.

So why is the demand for smartphones decreasing in North America when it seems like practically everyone has one in their pocket?

Well – that could be precisely the reason. According to the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of adults in the United States own a smartphone. Paired with reduced innovation from cell phone manufacturers in 2019, the fact that the majority of adults have a phone that they’re content with means they aren’t purchasing upgrades.

Whether you’re happy with your device as it is or you’re waiting for the next big innovation to upgrade – we’re willing to bet that you’re underestimating the capabilities of your smartphone.

Here are some cool things that you might not realize your phone can do.

Identify flying objects:

Powered by Wolfram Alpha, Siri can help you identify any airplanes you might hear or see flying above you. Simply activate Siri and say “What planes are overhead?” In just moments, Siri will give you a chart that shows you the airline, flight number, altitude and degrees off the horizon of all the airplanes in your area. It can even tell you how far away the plane is from you and in which direction.

Now, Siri isn’t actually tracking the planes. Instead, your phone is checking the projection of where the plane should be located based on its flight plan. So while you may not always be able to locate a plane directly using Siri, you can usually get pretty close!

Customize your vibes:

Some texts are just more important than others. And most of us don’t want to seem like we’re always attached to our phones. While individualized ringtones are common, for those of us that like to keep our phones on silent, you can customize your phone’s vibrations! That way, you can tell who is contacting you without even taking your phone out of your pocket – even while it’s muted!

On your iPhone, you can open your contacts app, choose the contact you want to assign a certain vibration pattern to, tap edit, then text tone, then vibration. You can choose from various standard options from Apple or create your own pattern.

Android phones don’t have contact-specific vibration settings by default, but there are several different apps you can download to achieve the same effect. Check out Good Vibrations or WhoIsIt!

Selfie while you Vlog:

Nearly all smartphones have a camera, but did you know that you can actually take pictures and record video at the same time? That way, when you’re filming a video and find that perfect angle, you can take some snapshots without even stopping your recording.

While you’re recording with an iPhone, a circular white button appears in the corner of the screen. Simply tap that white button and you’ll take a photo without interrupting your recording.

On Android, the process is just as simple. While recording a video, just tap the “camera” icon. The photo will be saved to your gallery instantly.

One thing to note: Any photos you take while recording video will be at a lower resolution than if you just took them normally. The resolution is still more than enough for everyday use, but if you’re a stickler for quality, make sure you stop your recording before you start taking snapshots.

See the invisible:

While not necessarily a hidden feature, you can actually use your smartphone to check whether the batteries in your remote controls are dead if they stop working.

The camera on your smartphone is sensitive to IR radiation, which means that the infrared beam emitted when you press a button on the remote can be seen in the viewfinder of your camera despite being invisible to the human eye. Go check it out yourself! Point your remote at your camera and press a button. You should see the sensor on the remote light up in the viewfinder. If it doesn’t, you might want to put some new batteries in that remote! (Or your remote doesn’t use common IR radiation.)

Your smartphone has plenty of other uses – especially when you start to delve into the world of apps. Download a bubble level app to help hang your photos straight. Monitor your heart rate, activate your smart home devices, measure height, distance and width using your camera – even start your car! You can raise your volume by tilting your head, find out what song is playing over the speakers in the coffee shop, or even let your friends track your every move if you’d like.

Before you get wooed by the next big innovation and unnecessarily upgrade your phone, make sure you do your research and learn about all the great things your current device can do!

Waste disposal is one of the most important services a business needs to function. Every business generates waste, and without proper disposal services, we’d be quickly buried by it. But where does all our waste go when it’s taken away by our disposal provider? Here are a few of the different places where your waste ends up.

Transfer Stations and Material Recovery Facilities

Before your waste arrives at its final destination, it will likely run through a transfer station and/or a Material Recovery Facility (MRF). Transfer stations are a temporary destination for waste disposal vehicles to drop off their collections. At the transfer station, the waste is usually compacted, loaded into even larger trucks, then shipped off to its next destination. These stations help to reduce waste disposal costs and allow the regular garbage trucks to pick up trash more efficiently throughout the day.

Material Recovery Facilities are separate locations where trash is sorted, usually in order to recover useful materials from the MSW stream before it reaches its destination. MRFs use tons of different machines, methods and technologies to achieve this. Some of the methods include running the trash through powerful magnets to collect metals, massive shredders, and even eddy current separators that help separate non-ferrous metals from regular waste.

Landfills

North America is the top producer of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the entire world, generating about 301 million tons of trash every year. According to studies from the Environmental Protection Agency, anywhere from 52 to 55 percent of MSW winds up in landfills.

Unfortunately, landfills aren’t designed to break down waste. They’re designed to store it. Most landfills are built into the ground and lined with clay or plastic to isolate the trash from the environment. They’re often bisected with drains and pipes designed to collect leachate – the wastewater that drains from a landfill. Leachate has its own rules and regulations for collection and disposal and is a very important concern for any landfill operator.

When a layer of a landfill reaches its capacity, it is covered in plastic and topped with soil and plants. While the garbage will eventually decompose – it will take a very long time. Partially because a large portion of the waste that ends up in landfills is naturally slow to decompose, and partially because the decomposition process is slowed down in the oxygen-free environment underground.

Waste-To-Energy Plants

Most Waste-to-Energy plants are composed of massive, industrial furnaces known as trash incinerators, designed to burn MSW. Around 13 percent of MSW ends up in these incinerators – burned to ash in chambers that operate at 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Not only does this process produce extra heat that can be used to heat and power our cities, but it also greatly reduces the volume of the waste, which in turn significantly reduces the landfill space it would otherwise occupy.

Some other methods of producing energy through waste include anaerobic generators that turn organic materials into energy through biological processes, and wastewater treatment plants that use similar microorganisms to contribute to the power grid.

Recycling Facilities 

According to the EPA, roughly 35 percent of MSW makes its way to a recycling facility. This also includes composting facilities, as they operate under the same basic premise – reuse waste to create new products. While recycling facilities primarily focus on items such as paper, glass, aluminum and plastics, composters use agricultural and food waste to create compost.

Recycling rates have been on the rise since the 1980s, and some of the largest cities in North America have extremely ambitious, large-scale recycling systems. In fact, the top five recycling cities in the United States divert 60 to 80 percent of their waste away from landfills and into recycling facilities.

Unfortunately, there are many types of waste that can’t be recycled and plenty of stresses regarding contamination. Recycling facility operators need to be extremely diligent with what they accept. For example, plastics must be clean to be recycled. A plastic container with food waste inside could contaminate thousands of pounds of otherwise perfectly reusable material. Some other items to keep out of your recycling bins include paper soiled by food, plastic bags, electronics, batteries and lightbulbs.

Waste is something most people don’t want to think about. For the majority, waste is a by-product of what we do want to talk about. It’s something we’d rather not handle, think about, and certainly not smell – but it’s a necessary evil.

Few people have the time to monitor the associated costs on an ongoing basis, and it’s not an easy job if you aren’t familiar with the industry. For our purposes as waste disposal and expense reduction experts, waste is separated into 12 different categories. Below are the types of waste and how they’re typically collected.

Garbage:

Garbage is what most of us think about when we hear the term waste. Regular trashcan garbage created by one or multiple people is known as Municipal Solid Waste, or MSW. Pre-consumer waste is known as Non-Municipal Solid Waste (NMSW) and is generated in the production of products.

Liquid wastes such as wastewater, fats, oil and grease, used oil, gases, sludges, or hazardous substances like cleaning fluids or pesticides also count as garbage, and they are typically collected and taken to a materials processing facility, transfer station or landfill disposal site.

Recycling:

Most people understand the basic concept of recycling – the conversion of waste materials into new materials and objects. Recycling benefits the world by preventing the waste of potentially useful items and reducing our overall consumption of raw materials.

Most cities across North America have recycling programs, and some major recyclable items include paper, cardboard, glass, bottles, jars, tin cans, aluminium foil, and certain plastics.

Compost:

In basic terms, compost is organic matter gathered to allow to decompose in a relatively contained environment. It has many great benefits as a soil conditioner, and it’s very rich in nutrients for plant life.

Compost includes fruits and vegetables, meat (including bones) bread, flowers, leaves, coffee and tea, dairy, hair, egg shells and food-soiled paper towels. Some things that aren’t included are liquids, bio-plastics, sawdust, wood, grass clippings with herbicide, or dead animals.

Many cities have Green Bin programs that keep food waste out of our landfills. Instead, it’s used to help growth in our gardens and parks.

Metal:

Unlike a lot of the others on this list, metal has monetary value, especially recovered metals that can be melted down and reused. Many major metal manufacturers end up selling their leftover scrap metal to recyclers who know the market value and will pay to take it off their hands.

Many places across North America also require scrappers to carry a scrap metal license before they can handle scrap professionally.

Electronics:

Electronic or e-waste is mainly comprised of discarded electrical or electronic devices. Some examples include appliances, light bulbs, TVs, computers, screens, phones, alarm clocks, and watches.

While these items also have monetary value, they are also intrinsically more dangerous to handle and dispose of than your average metal waste. Potentially harmful substances like lead, beryllium and cadmium are often used in electronics, and great care must be taken by those who handle e-waste in order to avoid unsafe exposure.

Shredding:

Most businesses shred files for safety reasons. Unfortunately, paper shreds cannot be placed in the recycle bin with the rest of your paper waste. Most recycling centers don’t accept small strips of paper because the large scale recycling facilities use very large screens to dry recycled paper, and the small shreds tend to fall through the screens.

Alternatives to office shredding include professional shredding services, which are available for around $1 per pound of paper. Professionals shred on a large enough scale that the shreds can be combined and recycled.

Wood:

Wood is a solid waste, and while it can be disposed of in a landfill, there are better options. While you can reuse and recycle wood, there are also options such as biomass-to-energy and wood processing facilities. Burning wood is fairly clean compared to most fossil fuels (though it still does result in emissions!) and taking your wood to a processing facility will often cost less than simply disposing it in a landfill!

Hazardous:

Corrosive, explosive, poisonous, flammable – hazardous waste is, well, hazardous.

Some examples include paints, chemicals, tires, batteries, light bulbs, appliances, aerosol cans, fertilizers and freon.

Most cities and towns have dedicated acceptance days for hazardous materials – check your cities website for dates. When transporting hazardous materials, they should be tightly sealed in their original containers and never allowed to mix. Trained professionals should be available to accept these materials on those assigned days, and they will be ready to package, transport and store these materials safely.

Toxic:

While all toxic waste is hazardous, not all hazardous waste is toxic. In waste terms, “toxic” is used to describe waste that, when ingested or absorbed, is harmful or fatal to living organisms. While the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is able to designate any waste hazardous as they deem fit, and many toxic wastes would fall under that general umbrella, they also have another law for mitigating harm to the public caused by specifically toxic wastes.

Some examples of toxic waste include lead-based paint, radon, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, pesticides and herbicides.

Biomedical:

Biomedical waste is any that includes blood or tissue from operating rooms, morgues, laboratories or any other medical facilities. It could also include anything used in treating a patient – from bedding to hospital gowns.

Biomedical is further separated into four categories (general medical waste, infectious medical waste, hazardous medical waste and radioactive medical waste) and has incredibly strict laws surrounding its handling and segregation.

Medical waste is handled by specifically trained, license-holding professionals.

Agricultural:

Produced as a result of various agricultural options, agricultural waste includes materials such as manure, poultry and slaughterhouse runoff, harvest waste, fertilizer runoff, and pesticides, salt and silt drained from fields.

It also includes general farm waste related to the growing of crops or raising of animals – vegetable waste, grape vines, fruit bearing trees and palm fronds.

Most agricultural waste, including animal carcasses, is handled directly by the farm owners and workers, but is still regulated by the government for safety.

Industrial:

Industrial waste is generally described as waste that was produced by an industrial activity, and includes materials that have been rendered useless during a manufacturing process. Factories, mills, mining operations and industries all produce industrial waste.

Dirt and gravel, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber – these items can be hazardous or benign, and are often mixed with regular municipal waste.

Each of these categories are composed of sub-categories, all with different rules and regulations in regards to disposal, storage and care. At the end of the day – no matter how much we want to brush it under the rug – waste will be with humanity until its end. So it’s best that we keep it in mind.

By Jerry Sarno
Strategic-Partner, Schooley Mitchell of St. Joseph

Being successful in business is rarely a solo endeavor. It usually takes a team: trusted mentors, solid employees, good leadership, the right financial backing. Even though we know it’s hard to go things alone, we lose sight of this when faced with day-to-day tasks.

Most businesses have meager beginnings. Often the founder is in charge of everything from accounts payable to HR, marketing to IT. It’s understandable – we try to do as much as possible ourselves in an effort to save money. Eventually, that strategy usually backfires. As the business grows, demand grows with it and soon, a single person just can’t keep up.

Enter outsourcing. Many business owners may be reluctant to outsource or hire outside help out of fear – scared they’ll lose control or look vulnerable. Perhaps they’re nervous the person they bring in won’t have their best interests at heart or will cost them serious coin in the long run. As an independent consultant, it’s something I see all the time, especially small and medium-sized business owners who fall into the trap of thinking they can do everything themselves.

The truth hurts: no one can do it all. Albert Einstein had it right when he said, “Genius is the ability to focus on one particular thing for a long time without losing concentration.” He understood the concept of jack of all trades; master of none. By spreading ourselves too thin, we end up doing nothing well. We forget what we’re good at and truly passionate about. Those tasks, not coincidentally, are usually what make us the most money.

By identifying tasks and seeking outside assistance, business owners can realize plenty of benefits. Some include:

• Time – It is the scarcest resource in today’s economy. An outsourced expert can save you substantial time by handling tasks that interfere with the work you should be – and need to be – doing to make your business thrive. Engagements can be of varying length, but for complex projects consider partnering with someone who will stick with you in the long run to ensure demands continue to be met.
• Money – Outsourcing can help you mitigate operating costs. Too often we mistakenly think the cost is too high to engage an outside consultant when, in fact, it is far more economical than hiring a full-time staff member to handle the task. That is, of course, if you can find someone with the credentials needed and keep them busy enough to justify adding another salary to the books.
• Security – There are so many aspects to running a successful business, it is unlikely someone is an expert in all of them. Enlisting the help of an expert gives you peace of mind knowing you’ve made the right decisions and taken the right steps to take care of business. No longer will those nagging questions keep you up at night.
• Knowledge – There are so many aspects to running a successful business, it is unlikely any one person is an expert in all of them. Enlisting the help of an expert gives you peace of mind knowing someone with specialized knowledge is giving you proper advice tailored to your specific needs.

Even the strongest companies can benefit from outside assistance. In my work as cost-reduction consultant, I routinely encounter businesses who think they have their expenses and services under control when, in reality, there is plenty of room for improvement and cash savings. Next time you’re facing a challenge or hit a roadblock, consider outsourcing it to a professional in the field. Then spend your time focusing on what you do best: growing your business.

Jerry Sarno is a Schooley Mitchell Strategic-Partner based out of St. Joseph, Michigan. For more information on how Jerry can reduce your costs and save you time, visit www.schooleymitchell.com/jsarno

According to an investigation from Stitch Labs using data mined from more than 1 million US Shopify orders, small businesses are three times less likely to offer free shipping than their larger counterparts. However, the same study showed that customers avoid paying for shipping at all costs, with 44 percent of all ‘shopping cart abandonment’ being due to shipping costs.

Here are a few things to consider when attempting to take advantage of the overwhelming demand for free shipping – without it costing you too much revenue.

Shipping-Included

Obviously, one way or another, someone is paying the cost of shipping. But offering something for free can influence your customers into thinking they’re getting a better deal – even if, in the end, they’re paying the same price.

By using a shipping-included strategy, you avoid the gut check that online shoppers experience at the checkout screen. That jump in price when the shipping is calculated is when the majority of people will back out of the purchase. Shoppers are more likely to buy a 20 dollar item with free shipping than a 15 dollar item with a shipping fee of $4.99.

Free shipping increases your conversion rate at checkout – and you can bet that if your competitors offer free shipping, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not offering it as well. And don’t make the mistake of assuming your customers won’t shop around. According to AdWeek, 81% of shoppers conduct online research before purchasing.

Watching the Margins

When you’re competing with e-commerce titans like Amazon with their Prime offering – who are willing to do things like swallow a $7.2 billion loss on shipping costs in order to maintain their massive market share – you need to find a balance between your margins and your conversions.

Eating the cost of shipping will have a much bigger impact on the bottom line of a small business compared to a large one. For high-ticket items, it can be easier to offset that cost with markups because they’re less noticeable and you need to make fewer sales overall to cover the costs. For shops that sell less expensive items, markups are more noticeable and could lead to an overall decrease in sales – even if you’re offering free shipping.

Minimum Order Thresholds

For those businesses that can’t get away with markups, one way to help offset the cost of offering free shipping is by offering it for those who spend over a minimum dollar amount in total. Not only can this save you money overall, but it also encourages your customer to buy more then they initially intended.

The psychology behind the minimum threshold is clear – people want to take advantage of a deal if they can, and they’re more than willing to convince themselves that spending extra in order to qualify is the right move.

In fact, a study from Comscore and UPS came to the conclusion that 52 percent of American online shoppers purchased more than they intended just to hit a minimum threshold for free shipping.

Conclusion

Of course, there are several other options. Offering free shipping to qualifying members, free shipping only for specific items, free shipping if you buy within a certain period of time, or even free shipping to your nearest brick-and-mortar store for pickup. The best way to find out the offering that is right for you is by testing different methods and collecting the sales data.

Whether you’re offering free shipping on all purchases, a minimum purchase threshold, including shipping costs in your pricing, or some other method, one thing is clear: shoppers really love the word ‘free.’