Wade Robins asked:




Even if you love your home and think you know it like the back of your hand, you cannot know every nook and cranny. Especially when it comes to your home’s plumbing system. Because they are trained to work on home water systems, it only makes sense that plumbers know your home’s plumbing system best. To better understand what is required of the plumber you hire, you should familiarize yourself with the basic water system layout of your house. This will also help you manage any minor plumbing problems in the event that your plumber is delayed when you call with an emergency water system problem.

Becoming Familiar With Your Home’s Water System

Your home’s water system is much more complicated than you probably think, involving several separate plumbing systems all working together to provide you with functional service and comfort. Any qualified plumber is thoroughly familiar with all these separate systems and how they interact. He also should know what each problem means and how to go about solving it. The following paragraph will help you get a grasp of the various water systems that are at work within your home. For more info see http://www.i-plumbing.com/Plumber_Contractor/ on Plumber Contractor.

All home plumbing begins with a fresh water supply system. This system takes care of the distribution of fresh water to all parts of your home that require fresh water. This includes the water you drink, wash your dishes in and bathe in. The outdoor lawn sprinklers and the irrigation of your garden are also served by this part of the system. The plumbing for this part of the system is probably the most extensive in your home, as it needs to serve all areas of your house.

The drain and waste water system is another important part of your water supply. As important as the pipes that bring water into your home are the pipes that carry the used water away. These pipes take the water to the wastewater site in your community for proper and environmental treatment.

Another important aspect of your home’s plumbing system involves properly venting the sewer gases that naturally build up in waste water pipes. This venting is generally accomplished via a small pipe that vents the air outside to the roof of the home. This venting also allows proper pressure to be maintained allowing the drainpipes to work, as they should. It should be noted that some homes have more elaborate and specialized piping systems in place that allows for the use of more varied water systems for a pool or hot tub.

Tim Bryce asked:




“Regardless of company size, the concerns of executive management are all essentially the same.”

- Bryce’s Law

I was recently at a gathering of independent consultants from around the Tampa Bay area and we got around to talking about the concerns of owners of small businesses. From this, we devised a list of pet peeves commanding the attention of small-to-medium sized business owners, to wit:



Employees/Human Resources – staffing and allocations, payroll, benefits, and management.

Work environment – facilities and equipment, corporate culture.

Systems – implementing business processes productively, and staying abreast of technological developments for competitive advantage.

Regulations – complying with rules as established by government and industrial concerns.

Time Management – scheduling and devoting time to the proper set of priorities.

Financial Resources – managing and planning cash flow and investments for optimal return on investment.

General Planning & Strategy – both short term and long term, including an analysis of the market and competition.



At the end of this session, we discovered that the concerns of small business owners are essentially no different than large corporations, except on a much smaller scale. The only difference was that the small business owner has to move faster than his corporate counterparts simply due to the size of his operation. For example, he doesn’t have time to read voluminous business plans and financial statements. Instead, he requires summary reports which get to the point in a couple of pages. He needs good, sound supporting advice to make his life easier.

This got me thinking about the amount of time and money corporate executives invest in managing their company’s affairs. True, some things require considerable time and effort to investigate, such as researching new products/services and checking market conditions, but most of what is done is what I refer to as “meatball” type analysis which should be easy and relatively inexpensive to prepare. Let me give you an example; a couple of years ago I was working with a Fortune 500 company who had contracted with another firm to produce a Business Systems Plan. This took several months to perform and resulted in a substantial document over three feet thick (I kid you not) costing the company $1.5 million. I was asked to flip through the document and give an opinion. It only took me a couple of minutes to discover the authors had reused narrative from other client projects in the document and that most of it was superfluous. But the fact that it was incredibly thick and printed on some pretty impressive looking paper, gave the company the feeling they had gotten their money’s worth from the consultants. Interestingly, the company never acted on the information contained in the document simply because it was so voluminous and they couldn’t find their way through it. In reality, a ten page report could have satisfied the company’s needs, but I guess you cannot charge $1.5 million for a ten page document can you?

The point of all this is that the size of a company really has no bearing on the concerns of those charged with running it. They are all essentially the same. Nor does any business owner have the time or inclination to be devoured by detail. Although detail is important to substantiate claims, summary reports are more effective for supporting the needs of business owners. They simply want accurate and reliable information to act on regardless of the form it takes, but preferably not three feet thick.

If you would like to discuss this further with me, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail at timb001@phmainstreet.com