Can precious metals ever be ethical?
All silver, gold, platinum etc. would have been mined originally, most likely in non-fair trade circumstances. So a 100% ethical stamp can never be given to precious metal jewellery. As a large majority of the trade sells cast items, this has to include around 50% new silver, as to assure a good quality casting result. This doesn't mean that we can't try to aim for a more sustainable and thoughtful way of working. It surely is more environmentally safe to re-use old gold and silver? One has to consider the process needed to melt down, refine, and then re-make silver sheet and wire. Still, even accounting for the energy needed for this to be done, putting it up against gold mines run by semi-slavery, exploitation of people and the environment, poisoning water supplies and excavating more and more of the earth's beautiful landscape in order to get at a few more kilos of gold ore, it seems to be a better way to produce the basic material for what is, lets face it, luxury goods. Last year's massacre at the Lonmin mine in South Afrika, which resulted in 44 deaths, is a terrible reminder of how costly the extraction of this desirable metal can be. The reason I am just mentioning gold mines is that silver is very often a by-product of the gold mining, or copper mining, industries. Of course, silver is also used in the medical and IT industries, but in very small quantities compared to the jewellery trade. Given the choice, and if the prices are comparing favourably, which would you rather choose? Newly mined silver or gold or the reclaimed version? Items which are made entirely by hand can very often be made completely out of reclaimed silver, or gold.
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Beware Of The Small Print in Telecoms Contracts
Do you ever check the terms and conditions of a telecoms contract before signing it? If not beware. The most common problem is with early termination. Although all contain an early termination clause, they fail to state the amount that will be charged if you terminate the contract early, therefore, the company can charge what it likes. Other examples: 1. One company boasts in its terms and conditions, which are on its website, are not in small print but these are 84 pages long! Are YOU going to read through 84 pages? 2. Another company offers a three year contract but fails to mention that the terms and conditions specify you have to give three years’ notice. One company that we know were told that it would have to pay £4000 plus VAT for early termination and they only had two analogue lines. 3. Some companies specify that its early termination fees are £300 per line. If you go down to the woods today For many of us, when we go about our daily duties, visiting or greeting customers, we are on our own. This can make some people nervous, especially when visiting a new prospect that we want to impress, and may even prove to be too daunting – so we fluff it up, or just don’t bother. The idea of collaborative working is not new, but for many, it is still an experience we have never had. After all, you want to concentrate on delivering your service or offering your product – you don’t need the distraction of someone else trying to pitch in do you? In my experience, the opportunity to bring complimentary services or distributors together can be very powerful, and surprisingly well received by clients. It demonstrates that you have adopted an holistic approach to a particular requirement of theirs, and not just restricted your efforts to a narrow brief. An example of this might be when a customer tells you that they have plans to expand or move premises. You might be their telecoms provider, or you might supply their stationery, but this scenario opens a number of other opportunities for you to effectively use the close network that you have developed, to offer a total solution. Why not take along an accountant, a solicitor, HR specialist or even an insurance broker? Or perhaps you’ve identified that they would like to speak to a carpet supplier – you make the call. Anyway, returning to the subject of my “blog”, my point is that there really can be strength in numbers, and you don’t need to always go it alone. In the words of the nursery rhyme, if you go down to the woods today, you’d better not go alone. Time to Freshen Up!
I have recently had a bit of a revamp in the image department, and I am not talking photographs. I have changed my hairstyle and colour quite dramatically, which is so unlike me but hey ho! This change got me thinking, maybe my website looks as tired as my old hairstyle, maybe I need to update old images, give my site that clean fresh look, like the one that I am faced with in the mirror in the morning! Take a look at your own website, are the images recent, have they been there so long that you have stopped noticing them? If you have, have your clients? Maybe it is time to give your website the once over, make it look fresh, you will be surprised how different it will look by just changing a few images. It won’t take long and if your website looks as fresh and new as I feel with my new coiffure, then what are you waiting for! I’m never going to write a blog again
Is probably the strongest piece of reverse psychology to make me write the blogs I ought, because I thrive on challenges. In July, when I first agreed to write a blog for CAP, it was going to be a standard one of all the benefits to your business of blogging. What at WSI Leading e-Solutions, I tell my clients to do all the time. Yet somehow it’s been difficult actually writing it. Not because I don’t accept the reasons for doing it, but because I can’t turn blogging into a habit or something I look forward to. As for many it’s the first week of school, I thought I’d share my top 5 worst excuses to myself for not blogging: 1. Too busy- I have so much to do that I simply don’t have time to spend blogging nor can find the time. When I was blogging regularly it was because of a child’s hour swimming lesson where it didn’t make sense to drive home and back. I started this as I’m half hour early for a meeting and feel guilty that Paul is still expecting it! 2. No one will read it. I know the web is full of content that is never seen, but uploading regular content to a site increases the chances that the site itself will be seen. So it’s not time wasted if only one person reads it sometime and heaven forbid they then contact me. 3. Everyone will read it and I’m not a ‘good’ writer or the blogger as the perfectionist creative artist excuse. If this means grammatically correct and without spelling errors I should remember that the message is often more important than the means of delivery. Business blogs help to give more personality to the static page and most people buy people not things or firms. And nobody is perfect. 4. It’s just too big a task. How do I distil everything I know on x into under 400 words. If you tweet you micro-blog and the difference between texting and tweeting is merely the potential numbers in the audience. The best blogs are like a good email. They think about what is interesting and relevant to the potential reader and include the right level of detail. It’s a conversation not War and Peace. 5. The web will stop working so there’s no point. Like at midnight UK time on 16th August when Google went down unexpectedly and 40% of the world’s traffic disappeared. Could it happen again-yes is it likely to-no. AND 6. I’m afraid of looking foolish……….but you’ve seen the photo and with the blog now finished, I now have to arrange with Alison Ball of Lemon Photographic to get a professional photo taken. And remove that excuse as well. |
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