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April 8, 2018April 8, 2018 by Josiah

Solar Real Estate

The Solar Real Estate Market – Why Go Solar

The U.S. solar market has grown substantially over the years, especially in sunshine states like California, Arizona, and Florida. Previously, solar was something that was not very accessible to homeowners. Now, with so much to be gained from energy efficiency the solar market is booming. So why would you upgrade your home with Solar energy? There are many reasons that include financial and environmental benefits. Here are some of the main reasons why homeowners are jumping on the solar train and converting to energy efficient means of powering their homes.

1. Saves You Money

Depending on the state you live in and the incentives available this may fluctuate a little, but overall these savings tend to be universal for homeowners living in the states. Monthly savings from solar can exceed $100 dollars a month in many of the states. If you add those savings up for a 20 year period, which is typically less than the length of the warranty for solar panels, you can calculate a savings of over $30,000 dollars. There are homeowners in Arizona, that on average save $64,000 dollars after 20 years of going solar.

2. Instant Savings

There are Solar purchase power agreements, and solar leasing options that have made it possible for homeowners to get into solar energy for next to nothing, and sometimes for no money down. There are ways that homeowners can finance as they go, making it a more affordable option then most people realize. After the solar panels are installed you pay the solar company that owns and manages the panels rather than the utility company. The savings are instant. Pay as you go solar is available to all homeowners in the States.

3. Return on Investment

If you were to drop cash on a solar system, your return on investment could be made in about 10 years depending on the state you live in. In Arizona, it can take a homeowner about 5 years before the savings they made matches the cost of purchase. In this case, your return on investment is sooner than many anticipate.

4. Added Property Value – Faster Sales Process

If you own a home with solar panels it can increase the property value and also make the home attractive to buyers. Buyers that know they will get immediate energy savings may be more likely to purchase a home on the market that is equipped with solar panels. You could say that a home with solar panels is seen in the same regard as a home that offers other amenities like pools and sports courts. These are attractive incentives for buyers. There are also studies that suggest that homes with solar panels have seen sales prices increase over $15,000 thousand dollars after hitting the market. Prior to selling your home with solar, you should consult with a solar broker to find out the true value of your home and how to leverage that added value for resale.

5. Incentives

In 2009, the $2,000 dollar limit on the Federal Solar Tax Credit was lifted. You can receive as much as 30% of the total solar system expenses back for the cost of the equipment and installation fees. As a result, you could save up to $7,500 dollars on a home solar system that is worth close to $25,000 dollars. If you combine that with local state rebates, Solar Renewable Energy Credits, the cost of going solar can literally be reduced by 50% or more of the initial quote.

6. Investing in Solar is Safe

Energy prices in your local market can be as volatile as the stock market. At any time an energy company can create peak energy times, increase rates, and charge for just about anything they want. When going solar it’s pretty easy to calculate how much energy you will be generating and what it will cost you monthly for the next 20 years. Having this fixed rate allow homeowners to have a fixed dollar amount set into their monthly budget.

7. Solar Panels Work and Are Efficient

The manufacturer’s warranty is usually good for 20-25 years. This is a standard performance guarantee that you will find is offered with most solar solutions. It’s also industry standard to also guarantee that performance after the 25-year mark. After 25 years it is said that most solar systems will continue to generate energy with over 80% efficiency. Solar panels usually exceed that guarantee and can last anywhere between 30-40 years.

8. Better For The Planet

The money saved from going solar is reason enough to upgrade, but there are other reasons that might make a homeowner choose to go solar. The impact on the environment is extremely beneficial. The United States is right behind China in carbon dioxide emissions. We can lessen our carbon dioxide emissions by ditching the local utility company and opting into the generation of clean energy with solar panels.

9. Free Yourself From Energy Dependence

If you are like me you don’t like depending on others for anything. In the case of energy, depending on the Government to produce what I need is not appealing, especially when our own Government is dependent on other countries of many of the natural resources we currently use to produce energy. By freeing yourself from the dependence on this energy, you can also help us as a country lessen our dependence on the foreign importation of natural resources. Going solar is a great way to aid that process.

10. Going Solar is Not as Hard as You Think

Technology has made many things in life easier. The ability to get online and search for a competent solar specialist is also easier than ever. There are hundreds of solar companies across the U.S. dealing in solar energy that have great information on the web to help educate you and get you on the path of going solar. You can contact any one of these solar specialists to receive an energy audit or a quote for solar installation. Typically the quotes are free, don’t hesitate to contact someone about the process and get pricing.

You can learn more about saving money with solar energy by viewing this energy savings chart released by Energy.Gov. • solar energy savings chart

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Leveraging Online Partnerships

Every business has an employee, partner, sister company, vendor, or associate that has a website. Are you leveraging that relationship to gain an advantage online?

There are plenty of web developers that partner with film crews, photographers, writers, and creatives to conceptualize and execute online marketing strategies.

Some of these strategies included product placement and cross promotional efforts within content that’s distributed on the web through social media and other media outlets.

Cross Promoting Products

I happen to be a fan of Five Finger Death Punch, so I am going to use this for my example here. If you look a little deeper into the photos taken (currently on their home page – see below) or the release of their new album ‘Got Your Six’ you will notice Zoltan Bathory in the forefront with a Zombie Brainsaw and another member of the band in the back with what looks like a cleaver. This is an example of strategic product placement. Weather it was intentional or not, I don’t know… but it was brilliant!!

The product placement by the production team at SDARR Studios is an example of a business capitalizing on an opportunity to get their products placed into a photo shoot for something or someone that has a longer reach on the inter webs.

It would be interesting to see if they noticed an increase in sales after this photo shoot. Product placement has been used for years in commercials, music, movies, sporting events, and everything else that has an audience. I even remember when Pepsi and Doritos had a cross promotional commercial during one of the main sporting events, might have been the Super Bowl.

To conclude on this and how you can leverage it with your online business, think about all the people you know with websites, Facebook pages, twitter accounts, instagram feeds and so on. Now, imagine if you collectively came together and promoted each other to your respective audiences. Your online reach just extended far beyond it’s current reach.

Think more about networking on the internet like you might about networking at your local meet up, or coffee shop. Networking on the internet provides so much return that it can’t be ignored. Start paying attention to it!

November 18, 2016March 15, 2018 by Josiah

The Power of Marketing With Music On Hold

I know you’ve heard it time and time again but what they say is true… “When you have an opportunity to potentially sell your client either further on your company or a service, do it!” This case study goes a long way in giving an outsider an understanding of the power that marketing through hold messaging. Fortune five hundred companies have done it for years so why hasn’t it trickled into the small business owners suite of tools? Simply put, until recently this was a very exclusive marketing tactic reserved for the big players until company’s like Music On Hold came in and made it an option for everyone.

“As a small financial institution, a little marketing can go a long way,” the CEO told me, “and we certainly don’t have money to throw around. We need to target our spending to make the most of our limited resources.”

When we began working with his team, he had just added a newsletter for its 3,900 members, increased the frequency of in-house marketing fliers from quarterly to monthly, and encouraged representatives to get more involved in pitching promotions to members as they visited the credit union or used the drive through.

This service is unlike any other marketing tactic you will employ because it’s the only time you will be able to reach your client in a captive state unless you have a very trained sales staff that knows how to frame calls. You customers can’t help but to be attentive to everything your promps are saying because one misstep could mean more time unwanted time on the phone.

But there was one element still missing: custom on hold messages for when members had to be placed on hold, and it was this service the CEO was desperately seeking. He knew that callers are captive, they’re listening and they want information. So we explained how we produce custom content and play it back into the telephone through a cloud-based player that starts and stops content on certain dates or days of the week, as granularly as the situation calls for — perfect for communicating their time-sensitive promotions to current or prospective members holding for assistance.

Our client agreed to the service. We shipped the equipment, his IT team installed it, we began to produce and upload messages and, several months later, received this unsolicited letter: “When we added Easy On Hold to our phones, booked loans increased from roughly $300,000 per month to $900,000 monthly. Clearly our policies, promotions and staff played a major role in our success, but without this marketing, who would ever know? Currently our members are telling us that they learned of our products and promotions in roughly equal portions: 1/3 from our newsletter, 1/3 from our teller line and 1/3 from Easy On Hold.” Read more…

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November 7, 2016November 2, 2016 by Josiah

How To Sound Like a Fortune 500 Company With a Call Tree

Even though that the automatic telephone greetings is usually the initial conversation a person has with a company, numerous small businesses do not consider the actions needed seriously to guarantee they truly are producing on the first-impression. Most small businesses don’t need the initial audio recording features that call tracking provides but they are missing a huge potential marketing opportunity by not investing in a personalized call tree. Determining what choices to provide to a customer, creating the greetings such that directs the potential client is vital.

Below, we determine several guidelines regarding establishing a telephone greetings that provides the impact you certainly will effectively and appropriately set for the potential client requirements, and are as structured as a fortune 500 organization.

Get The Most Crucial Information Immediately

The primary reason for your greetings that is automatic ought to be immediate these towards the correct individual to deal with their requirements, or to possibly instantly supply callers using the info they need. That you don’t wish to consider lower your phone menus using an excessive amount of info, however for many companies, you need to contain your workplace hrs (if you don’t run 24/7), as well as your website link, when you yourself have one. This can instantly solution numerous callers concerns, conserving these (and also you) period.

Depending the company, you might contemplate including other forms of related info on. For instance, if you run a clothes shop, you will include the place of one’s company in the beginning of one’s greetings and never have to search on the internet therefore clients will find you effortlessly.

Before anyone expose any choices for callers to select from, it’s also wise to allow callers realize when they understand it, anytime that they are able to enter the expansion of their celebration. Making clients once they know who they would like to achieve to hear a summary of options is just a certain method to displease them.

Call Prompting System Must Be Easy To Understand

Whilst an inclusive listing of extensions may ultimately get clients towards the individual they require, that you don’t wish to place these of ready via a listing of limitless options through the experience after.

For this finish, your greetings that is automatic must have a simple and very easy menus of choices which are simple to choose between. Mid-sized and many little companies need only one degree of choices e.g, using numerous extensions. “Push INCH regarding Revenue, Push TWO Regarding Customer Support, Push THREE regarding Charging,” . Usually utilize self explanatory expansion titles or perhaps a obvious call e.g, to action. “to listen to your balance, push THREE.”

Furthermore, be sure you listing choices in order that is statistical, e.g. “Push INCH for Reserving,” “Push TWO regarding Room-Service,” etc. (this might seem like a no brainer, but believe me, businesses do get this to error.) Do not leap about and allow it to be difficult for clients to consider which choice is. It’s also wise to usually provide callers the choice to become instantly associated with an individual that is stay by pushing several, such as for instance “NINE” or ” ” or stating something similar to “talk to a realtor.”

Listing the Absolute Most-Required Choices Initially

We’ve all been there: anyone push several, are attached to an expansion, explain the thing you need towards the individual who their initial reaction as well as solutions would be to move you elsewhere. Checklist the absolute most generally required choices at the start of the menus to ensure your visitors get wherever they have to continue the very first attempt.

For instance, in case furnishings is sold by your organization, numerous callers probably possess demands concerning concerns about repayments or the standing of the purchase, therefore these choices must certainly be outlined initially. Clients are most likely phoning in using tech support team problems, so that your customer support division must certainly be among the initial options in the event that you market application methods.
Use Plug-Ins that are Individual to Exchange Comprehensive Info
Auto-attendant providers usually provide extensions to info- mailboxes that are just. These mailboxes perform a pre recorded greetings that enables the harasser to possibly replicate the info by pushing a switch or move back once again to the primary menus and provides details about the individual or division using that the mail is connected. Make the most of these containers even to express extra information about deals and revenue, or to solution frequently-asked concerns such as for instance instructions for your company

Company Slogan Must Be Brief

Your organization mantra is a superb method to place in the beginning of the phone call but something greater than a brief phrase top in to the menus may irritate callers. For instance, you start with, “thanks ” is a great example of maintaining a mantra nice and brief. ” regarding phoning Beds Are People thanks. We are a household-operate company getting just the best quality beds for more than 30 years to clients, and it is our objective to assist you obtain the ideal evenings rest,INCH about the other-hand, is not way too short.

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