Damage caused by flooding can be quite extensive. If not given immediate solutions, this will give rise to problems that affect a houseâs structural integrity and the health of its occupants. The cost of restoration services after a flood can be overwhelming based on advertised figures. Of course, there are additional service add-ons charged by cleaning and restoration companies that can get the bills pumped up.

An owner of a house or a commercial establishment should have an idea of how much should be spent on water damage restoration services. It is to be noted that while there are prevailing industry rates when it comes to this type of service, cleaning companies may differ greatly on the quotes or estimates they would give.
Potential clients of these companies should not worry that much though. There are ways to estimate the cost of hiring these restoration service providers. These are as follows:

⢠Dimensions of the area â Cleaning companies usually charge per square foot. For the cost of materials and the professional fee of the technician, the prevailing starting rate is $11.03. However, there are instances wherein the entire house may get affected due to calamities like storms and flash floods. Under these circumstances, the NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program) provides a simulator tool to estimate cost of cleaning and restoration based from factors such as height of flood water and location of the house.
⢠Liquid category â The IICRC (Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification) has set standards regarding the type or quality of water involved in a flood scenario. This can be used to determine the extensiveness of the cleaning and restoration tasks that should be done.
There are three categories. Category I is the least expensive while category III is the costliest. Category I include water that comes from sanitary sources such as faucets and drinking stations. Water that has significant amounts of contaminants is classified under Category II. Examples include water from washing machine and dishwashers. Category III liquid is the dirtiest and contains disease-causing components. Examples include liquid from septic tanks, garbage-laden bodies of water, and stagnant stored water.
⢠Extent of Damage: This is a big factor in determining overall cost of the service because it will indicate how extensive the labor will be and what material needs to be repaired or replaced.
For this matter, damage is classified into 4 classes. Class 1 is the easiest one to deal with and has the least cost. Class 4 is the most destructive and requires special equipment and techniques of cleaning/restoration. It is also the most expensive. Cost can be based on what needs to be cleaned, repaired, restored, or replaced.
⢠Special Measures: This will cover matters pertaining to the need for proper disposal of materials, ventilation of the area to be cleaned or restored, and containment measures needed to complete the tasks.

Currently, a bathroom with a size of 80 square feet that needs water removal, cleaning, and restoration will cost a homeowner $18.22 to $23.43. Cost by city varies so it is a good idea to ask for free estimates first from different companies before deciding which one to hire. If you have a problem with water damage or need Fire and smoke damage help You can get advice and help from Denver Restoration Masters

When one is starting up a business, many people are usually short of know-how on what to do to be relevant with regards to the requirements of the law. This knowledge is important for starters, especially those running small businesses, to operate and do what is expected of them legally. Knowing the legal status of your company, considering the health and safety law and most importantly, taking care of the insurance issues can go a long way in operating without stepping on the wrong side of the law.

Legal Status of the Company

When starting a business one of the initial decisions you will need to make is to decide on the legal status of your company. This will affect how you run your business and will have implications for how you pay your tax and record your accounts. The two main formats are sole trader and limited company. However, there are additional options such as a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and a Community Interest Company (CIC).

Whilst it is possible to change the legal status of your company once you are trading, it can be very disruptive and costly. For this reason, it is important to give this some careful thought at the outset of the business.

Health & Safety Law

All businesses, no matter how small, need to be aware of how Health and Safety legislation affects them. All businesses, regardless of size, must carry out risk assessments. If your company employs more than five people, there is a legal requirement to record theses assessments.

Employers have a legal duty to ensure that their employees work in a safe environment and this also extends to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of their customers whilst on the company premises.

Insurance Cover

Any business employing staff is legally required to take out employer’s liability insurance with a minimum of £5 million worth of cover. The insurance certificate must be clearly displayed on the premises.

If your business deals directly with members of the public on the premises, you will need to take out Public Liability Insurance to cover any accidents or injuries concerning members of the public.

Sourced from: http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/articles/business/businessstartupslegal

Business activities are widely governed by legal realms that practitioners must abide with. These are the boundaries that are set out to provide the business owners with a space within which they can operate legally without going overboard. For one to be on the safe side of the law, he /she must be well conversant with the confines of the law that are within their bounds as well as understanding the lengths which are out of bounds.

Legal Traditionalists

The legal traditionalists view law as a body of principles and rules that courts `utilize when deciding disputes. The traditionalist approach is steeped in the belief that the basic constructs of right and wrong are fixated even though society is continuously changing its beliefs.

Environmental Approach

The environmental approach views law as an arm of societal control that must continuously reflect the current society’s moral constructs through the enforcement of rules, regulations, and laws. This approach is much broader in scope, since the law is an institution that reflects the societal need for social order.

Sociological Jurisprudence Theorists

Sociological jurisprudence theorists profess that society ultimately shapes and molds the law and the mechanisms for its enforcement. This school of thought views the legal system and the law as a means of providing an orderly, predictable system of social order, change, and legal reform.

Sourced from: http://www.enotes.com/research-starters/legal-environment-business

Running a successful small business will bring you to friction with a number of legal concerns. These legal aspects, if well adhered to, helps business owners avoid coming into conflict with the law, especially when it concerns what they are obliged to do on their part. Here are a number of things that as a business owner you can do to avoid running into confrontation with the law.

Pay all of your bills on time to avoid fees and lawsuits.

Pay payroll taxes on time to avoid being held personally liable.
Keeping Track of Your Business

Recordkeeping is just as important as remaining on the legal side of doing business. You’ll want to prove your side of things in any conflict, so you’ll need to maintain clear and concise records of your business dealings. For easy access and storage, make sure you get a good set of filing cabinets. If security is important, opt for locked cabinets. It may also prove valuable to maintain a second set of files off-premises in case of fire or flood.

For electronic documents, an external hard drive can provide you with plenty of backup space. You may also consider keeping an electronic copy off-site using a data storage service in order to give yourself the same protection for loss as you have with off-site storage of physical documents.

Establish Legal-Mined Activities at Startup

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It’s vital to plan ahead when establishing many of the legal tips listed. You’ll want to begin thinking in terms of limiting liability immediately upon starting your own business. The severity of a legal issue can be relative. What would be an annoying contract snafu years into your small business’ lifecycle could be a business-crippling legal matter if you’re just starting out. However, with the ten tips listed, you can limit the damage from common legal issues and keep your business safe.

Sourced from: http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/tech-services/explore-tips-and-advice/tech-articles/important-legal-tips-for-starting-a-small-business.html

In 2014, Google launched a mobile friendly algorithm that required that all sites be mobile friendly. This was one of the factors that would affect a site’s ranking. You site really needs to be mobile friendly or else you will be missing out on a lot of traffic. The aim is to make your sit accessible to all.

 

ipad-608206_1280The point of making your website mobile-friendly is that you want to make it as easy as possible for visitors to use your website. It can be fiddly and frustrating if you’re trying to zoom in on a mobile screen in order to browse a website, meaning that mobile users may just choose to click away from your website if you haven’t made it easy for them. Considering all the work you’ve probably been doing to drive traffic, don’t lose it again due to technical issues!

Sourced from: http://www.autopilotyourbusiness.com/why-you-must-have-a-mobile-friendly-website/

Gone are the days when people used to spend a lot of time in front of a PC. People have done away with desktops and laptops. They are into tablets and smartphones. So they are always gazing at their mobile devices even when on the move.

According to Google, 60% of users expect a mobile site to load in three seconds or less. More than half of users wouldn’t recommend a business with a bad mobile site. So even if you don’t think you need a mobile version of your site, you could, in fact, be losing customers without one.

According to Nisheeth Mohan of Keynote systems, mobile users will be spending even more time browsing the mobile Web in 2012. “Consumers are beginning to expect a desktop experience with their mobile devices,” he said, “With increased spending for mobile advertisements and marketing as well as the use of mobile for commerce, businesses must be mobile ready to leverage mobile to reach existing and new customers. Optimized mobile websites will be critical components in driving revenue moving forward.”

Sourced from: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/01/is-your-site-mobile-friendly-google-can-tell-you.html

The next step that you can take after knowing the relevance of having a mobile friendly site is to find out if your site complies. There are several online tools that easy and free to use.

With these tools at your disposal CEO’s can check if their site really is mobile friendly. Developers can get specific instructions on what needs to be fixed how.

Whether you want to please your users, don’t want Google to push your site our of its mobile search results, or want to get specific instructions on what on your site needs to be fixed to make it work (better) on mobile, we’ve got the tools for you.

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test

This test actually will tell you more about how Googlebot will see your page rather than how your mobile users might see it. That itself is very helpful because you can use their feedback for SEO purposes as well.

If your website passes the test, you will see a green message that says Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly. If it does not pass, the message will be red and say Not mobile-friendly.

In the event that your website does not pass the mobile test, it will also give you the reasons why it failed such as the content is wider than the screen or links are too close together.

This is the tool that shows you if Google considers your page mobile friendly or not. If the tool says “no” then the page will be pushed down in the mobile search results in favor of similar pages from other sites that are mobile friendly.

Sourced from: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/150441155-mobile-compatibility-tools.html

If your website fails the mobile test then there is no other way about it. You must act quickly because your online visibility and business success are in line. The situation can be dealt with in three ways.

  1. Create a Mobile Version of Your Current Site

The quickest way to make your site mobile-friendly is to create a mobile version of your desktop site using a conversion platform like bMobilized or Duda Mobile.

  1. Use Mobile Plugins on Popular CMS Platforms

The most popular website content management systems — WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal — all have bolt-on solutions to make your site mobile-friendly without needing two separate versions. Some include additional ways to customize the mobile experience to not only provide the content, but incorporate other features best used on mobile devices.

[youtube video=https://youtu.be/t526Lt_O7zo ]

  1. Use a Mobile-first Responsive Design

The solutions above are just stopgaps until you can redesign your site by deploying a mobile-first strategy using responsive web design practices.

Designing the site with a mobile-first approach requires planning about how it will be used on mobile devices — an exercise that helps prioritize what content goes on the site. It also begs the question that, if it isn’t needed on mobile, then should it be on the desktop version?

Sourced from: http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/115764-Make-Your-Website-Mobile-friendly-Now-3-Ways/