All About the Habits and Traits of Carpenter Bees

All About the Habits and Traits of Carpenter Bees Carpenter bees dont exactly endear themselves to people. They excavate nests in wood decks, porches, and homes, and the males tend to  exhibit an unsettling aggressiveness. However, despite their bad behavior, carpenter bees are quite harmless and are actually excellent pollinators. Large carpenter bees (about 500 different species) belong to the genus Xylocopa. Interestingly, these insects inhabit every continent except Antarctica. Identifying Carpenter Bees Carpenter bees get their name from their woodworking skills. These solitary bees excavate nest tunnels in wood, especially in lumber that is bare and weathered. Over several years, the damage to wood can become quite extensive, as the bees expand old tunnels and excavate new ones. Carpenter bees often nest in decks, porches, and eaves, putting them in close proximity to people. Xylocopa bees look quite similar to bumblebees, so its easy to misidentify them. Look at the upper side of the bees abdomen to differentiate the two kinds of bees. While bumblebee abdomens are hairy, the top of a carpenter bees abdomen will be hairless, black, and shiny. Male carpenter bees will hover around nest entrances, chasing away intruders. They lack a sting, though, so just ignore their buzzing and aggressive flights around your head. Females do sting, but only if seriously provoked. Refrain from swatting at them, and you shouldnt have to worry about carpenter bees causing you harm. Carpenter Bee Classifications Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ArthropodaClass: InsectaOrder: HymenopteraFamily: ApidaeGenus: Xylocopa Diet and Life Cycle Like honey bees, carpenter bees feed on pollen and nectar. Female bees provision their larvae with food by placing a ball of pollen and regurgitated nectar in the brood cell. Its important to note that carpenter bees do not feed on wood at any time during their life cycle. Carpenter bees overwinter as adults, usually within vacant nest tunnels. As the weather warms in spring, the adults emerge and mate. Males die after mating, while females begin excavating new tunnels or expanding tunnels from previous years. She constructs brood cells for her offspring, provisions them with food, and then lays an egg in each chamber. Eggs hatch within a few days, and the young larvae feed on the cache left by the mother. Within a period of five to seven weeks, depending on environmental conditions, the bee pupates and reaches adulthood. The new adult generation emerges in late summer to feed on nectar before settling in for the winter. Special Adaptations and Defenses Though they are good pollinators of open-faced flowers, deeper flowers present a challenge for the large carpenter bees. To get to the sweet nectar, they will slit open the side of the flower, breaking into the nectary center and robbing the flower of its juices without providing any pollination services in exchange. Carpenter bees practice buzz pollination, an active method of collecting pollen grains. When it lands on a flower, the bee uses its thoracic muscles to produce sound waves that shake the pollen loose.

buy custom Buster’s Business Plan essay

buy custom Buster’s Business Plan essay Focusing on its strengths, key customers and the underlying values, Busters seeks to increase the provision of a wide range of products. The store intends to sell snacks, small gift items, pre-wrapped sandwiches, greeting cards, bottled/canned beverages, newspapers and paperback books. We also target to make prompt minor alterations on our prices, while improving the gross margin on sales and cash management, as well as the working capital. This business plan leads the way to renewing the stores vision and strategic focus: provision of the first class stores services and products, while adding value to our target market segments. Busters is positioning itself strategically to offer the store products in the new office building, which will open two blocks away from the building our retail store occupies currently. Business Description Busters is looking for $500,000 for its first round of financing and $700,000 in second round. Busters projects a return of approximately 60% IRR after 3 years of operations with 57% share worth $2 million. Because of the strategic location of the store and the long-term loyalties of Busters will have an indefinite life cycle, as long as its high standards of products and services will be maintained. The management will conduct a self study regularly to ensure that the display and the products are rejuvenated Marketing Busters will continually learn more about its target market and identify the new marketing opportunities. The store will come up with focus groups composed of existing and potential customers that will help them to identify what customer wants. Busters will focus on the extensive communications between the upper and lower management, so as to identify opportunities for new customers or the special promotions. Niche marketing will play a big role to Busters marketing strategy. This is because it will help to expand our companys products to cater for the entire market segment. Our company also adds the private label products, such as gifts, to attract women. Promotions will be used to keep customers interested. At the same time, employees will change the two window displays every month. Busters will also use the cost-effective cooperative advertising that will keep customers up-to-date on the latest specials. Products The store intends to sell snacks, pre-wrapped sandwiches, bottled/canned beverages, greeting cards, newspapers, paperback books and small gift items. The choice of these ranges of products is based on the fact that the products and goods offered by other stores in the neighboring buildings are generally focused on low-end customers. Busters will serve individual customers, businesses and organizations in the new building who have a high usage of such range of products. It also intends to introduce the new products, such as office stationeries, so as to increase our market share. Positioning Busters will initially be positioned as the quality provider of current products in the target markets described below. Our strategy is to build a good customer loyalty within the key markets of store products in the building, before moving on to the other building in the town. New products, such as beverages and snacks, will be promoted as the most stylishly advanced in the market. The use of social networking sites will be vital to achieving this image. Our marketing strategy is the core of the main stratagem: emphasize good customer service and support, build a relationship store business, and focus on lower and high-end customer, as the key target markets. Target Market Busters will serve different categories of people in the building, as well as customers and visitors coming from other towns. The table below shows the type of customers Busters is targeting within its new building. Category Estimated customers In the building/year Percentage of Potential customers Potential Customers (2012-2013) Office workers 5000 10% 500 Professionals 4000 10% 400 College students Teens 10000 10% 1000 Visitors 10000 10% 1000 Firms and Companies 500 10% 50 Total 2,950 The employees of Busters will have to realize that prices determine the sales, and consequently, revenue generation of the store. In this context it will leverage the quality of products, in order to increase the sales. In pricing, we will minimize the profit margin to increase the total sales where applicable and necessary, and at the same time, lower the cost price and introduce the service charges to special customers who need the customized clothes. Busters will maintain a mailing lists of its customers and prospects from information obtained at the point of sale. We will then use the lists to send flyers, announcing the current store promotions and new products. Busters will ensure that each employee works with 50 key personal customers, sending those flyers, announcing new products and offering personal shopping services. As the part of the promotional strategy employees at Busters will send thank-you cards to customers who purchase more than $50 worth of products. The above promotional strategy has been projected to cost the business a substantial amount: 1st Year $3,000; 2nd Year $ 4,000 and 3rd Year $8,000. Supplemental to these efforts will be the development of the stores website and development of supporting print. A direct mail campaign will begin immediately to prospective clients, notifying them of the available gifts, snacks and beverages, their features and benefits of purchasing such products. Busters is targeting to the new office building that will open two blocks away from the building our retail store currently occupies. The sales team in partnership with our vendors will often visit the large buildings in downtown to create awareness of our store. There will be later plans to move to the neighboring buildings which have the potential market. Busters will also ensure there is effective communication with its existing and prospective customers. Established partnership with vendors will enable Busters to create a network of client contacts, and this will lead to the ease of customers reaching us on the mail or telephone, in case they have any questions. Busters will make a good use of the social networks as a tool, such as Facebook, Twitter and You+ to distribute and promote the efficiency in the daily distribution operations. Busters will also establish partnership with vendos of the latest products and with this network; the vendors will give us leads to sales of ours. Busters will offer the relaxed atmosphere with some personalized attention. The store will feature a modern design and offer an inviting feeling. The store will maintain regular office hours of Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. These hours will be suitable to all customer segments, especially those working in the offices. Busters will offer the delivery on a regular basis of newspapers, snacks and beverages, and besides that it will offer, it will maintain a website together with an active e-mail correspondence with customers, so that they can express their feelings about any concerns. In addition, Busters will keep its employee turnover rate low by making everyone to be the part of the management team, and keeping the lines of communication open. This is because employees also feel empowered to do whatever it takes to get things done, is it responding to customers complaints or special ordering merchandise. Busters will keep its employees up-to-date on product trends and business practices by holding monthly employee meetings. The management of the store assisted by sales personnel will make all decisions concerning the stock purchases. Once we know what products are required, we will be inviting the vendors to supply their goods, while at the same time informing them up front what they expect in terms of performance. While keeping in line with their desire for fresh products, we will place the high value on the sell-through quality products, such as snacks and beverages. We will stick with vendors with fast-selling products and quickly dismiss vendors with slow-moving goods. As the part of our operations, it also brings new products in on the trial basis and restock based on their selling patterns and power. To be effective, our company will develop a formal sales training manual and include such items as; sales attire, register functions, job expectations and performance standards. Busters will also develop a selling productivity measures, such as sales per employee hour, as standards to review the performance of the sales associate in the store. Busters will develop its operating systems in a way to identify both financial and non-financial key performance indicators to measure the goal achievement. Such performance indicators will include sales per employee and percent of the total sales needed for the payroll. Future Trends There are conflicting trends that will affect the Busters. One of the future trends of the store is that the new building is currently gaining popularity, as more clients and professionals are entering the building offices. For my business, this implies that professional working men and women will appreciate even more in the years ahead the extra service and convenience that Busters will continue to offer. In order to take care of these trends, Busters will pay attention to its customers changing tastes, as they grow older, not ignoring the growing teen. The management will come up with new ways to market to smaller number of younger women and men entering college and workforce. Finance The start-up costs of $350,100 are to be financed by the loan form a bank will additional boost from an angel investor. The details are shown in the table below. Start-up Funding (Year 2012) First Year Second Year Third Year Start-up Expenses to Fund 150,100 0 0 Stock to Fund 200,000 750,000 1,300,000 350,100 750,000 1,300,000 Bank Loan 350,100 750,000 850,000 Venture capitalist 0 0 450,000 Total Investment 350,100 750,000 1,300,000 In the third year, Busters will also seek funding to the tune of $ 850,000 from the bank and 450,000 from venture capitalist to open more stores downtown. It will utilize the anticipated cash injection to indulge the store operations. Provided below is a breakdown of the sources and application of the funds. Backup statement: The additional funding will be used to acquire expand the store business operations. The $ 850,000 from the bank and 450,000 from venture capitalist are needed by January 1st, 2014 in order to precede with the purchase more stock and open a chain of stores and make it fully operational. Financial Projections By critically looking at the financial projections of the business plan, it can be concluded that the business idea will be profitable before it is implemented. Busters financial section will take into consideration the break even analysis, sales revenue forecast, fixed costs, and gross profit for each sale and break even sales revenue. Sales revenue for Busters will be the total dollars from the sales activity that we will bring into the business each month, year or week. Fixed costs also called overheads for Busters must be paid, regardless of how well we will do. Fixed costs usually will include rent, insurance and other set expenses that we will incur. The gross profit for each sale is the amount of money that will be left from each sales dollar after paying for the direct costs of that sale. Finally, the breakeven sales revenue will be dollar amount the business needs each week or month to pay for both direct product costs and fixed costs. This will not include the profit. Sales Revenue Forecast Busters intends to open a 2,000-square foot in a main building to sell snacks, pre-wrapped sandwiches, bottled/canned beverages, greeting cards, newspapers, paperback books, and small gift items. After comparing with other stores retailers, reading trade magazines, visiting similar stores in other building, Busters decides that it can achieve the $200-per-foot-per year figure. This implies that our annual sales should be $400,000 (2000* $200). To be conservative we plan the first years sales to be about 20% below that level to allow for the business to build. This, therefore, means that the first year sales will be about $320,000, or $160 per foot. Sales Revenue Forecast. S/no (month) Month Total Estimated Revenue ($) 1 May 10,000 2 June 12,000 3 July 15,000 4 August 17,000 5 September 16,000 6 October 15,000 7 November 16,000 8 December 16,000 9 January 15,000 10 February 16,000 11 March 18,000 12 April 20,000 Total 320,000 Fixed Cost Estimated at Monthly Basis By looking at the table below, we realize that we should have at least $ 5,150 left after accounting for the sales. Annually, this amounts to $ 61,800. To do it proper, company must not only cover fixed costs, but also take enough to make a decent living. Allocation Cost ($) Rent, including taxes, maintenance 500 Wages, employees 2,000 Utilities 200 Advertising 250 Telephone 250 Supplies 300 Insurance 250 Legal 400 Others 1,000 Total 5,150 Gross Profit for Each Sales Dollar Busters should determine how much of each dollar will be left after subtracting the costs of the goods sold. This number will pay fixed costs and determine the profit of the store. In this context, we plan to sell half of our products at the double cost we pay. Snacks will sell at a profit of about 30%, pre-wrapped sandwiches will sell at profit of 35%, bottled/canned beverages will profit 50%, greeting cards will sell at a profit of 50%, newspapers 25% and paperback books will return 50%. Small gifts bought at $ 50 we will sell at $100. This implies that our average gross profit for our products will be estimated at 40%. Forecasted Gross Profit. Description Product Sale of product Total Average cost of product 50 5 N/A Bags/wraps 2 2 N/A Average total cost 52 7 N/A Average selling price 100 15 N/A Gross Profit (Selling price less Total Cost) 42 8 N/A Gross Profit% (Gross Profit / Selling price) 42% 53% N/A Total Annual sales 160,000 160,000 320,000 Total Annual Gross profit 67,200 84,800 152,000 Average gross profit % ($152,000 / $320000 = 47.5%) Busters needs $130,105 in sales revenue just to break even. This is $2, 895 more than we expect the first year and $5,000 more than we expect for the second year. A B C Fixed costs per year The average gross profit percentage expressed as the decimal Break even sales revenue (A/B) $61,800 0.475 $130,105 Busters will improve its profit, by increasing our sales revenue by selling more bottled/canned beverages, snacks, pre-wrapped sandwiches, , greeting cards, newspapers, small gift items and paperback books to our customers and increase the gross profits percentage by raising the selling prices or by lowering our product costs. Busters should realize that a very aggressive sales increase alone will bring a small profit. Our company will find some combination of the higher sales estimates, higher gross profit margin and lower fixed costs that will improve profits and enable to make a living wage. Busters starts generating profit in the first year of operations, and positive cash flow appears in the same year. It means that once spent, money can be fully recovered by the bank. This creates very good chances for the bank to recover its money and for the shareholders to sell their participation at a very good price for other investors. This business plan depends on the important assumptions: The main underlying assumptions are that there will be a slow-growth economy, without the major recession and that there are not any unforeseen changes in the technology to make the products immediately obsolete. Buy custom Buster’s Business Plan essay

How over expansion and militarism led to the fall of Rome Essay

How over expansion and militarism led to the fall of Rome - Essay Example The term Roman Empire referred to a period in the history of Ancient when Rome, as well as its territories, ware ruled by tyrannical Emperors. The empire is believed to have lasted from 27 BC-475 AD, a period believed to be more than 500 years. During this era, the Roman Empire was very powerful and had territories covering south and west Europe, land around the Mediterranean Sea, Britain, North African and Asia Minor(Goldsworthy, 2009a). From the mentioned continents, it is evident that Roman Empire had widened its boundaries extensively. However, its expansionism strategies were diminished by its fall. Though this may be one of the features that led to the fall of Roman Empire, there are also other major factors that contributed to the same (Gibbon, & Bury, 1946). According to Gibbon (1932) and Goldsworthy (2009b), events took place in a chronological manner, and therefore, one cannot say that there was no order in which these factors occurred over the period of about five hundred years. The five hundred years that took place before the rise and fall of Rome Empire were accompanied by many factors that resulted in its decline. The major causes of Roman Empire’s decline can be detailed as follows: Antagonism between the Senate and the Emperor Political Corruption and the Praetorian Guard Decline in Morals Constant Wars and Heavy Military Spending Barbarian’s Knowledge of Roman Military Tactics The 'Mob' and the value of the 'Games' ... the 'Games' Decline in Ethics and Values Fast expansion of the Empire Unemployment of the Working Classes (The Plebs) Failing Economy Christianity Barbarian Invasion Natural Disasters and slave labor Antagonism between the Senate and the Emperor As in examples above, antagonism between the senate and the Emperor could be counted as one of the major causes of the collapse of the Rome Empire. At this time, the legal powers to rule the Rome’s religious, the civil and military associations were under the emperor while the senate acted as an advisory body. Though the two bodies were meant to act together, things never worked as their relationship began to change (Perkins, 2005). The emperor had no authority over life and death. The two bodies started taking different directions as the authoritative and affluent roman Emperors unavoidably become corrupted and lived a dishonest, deceptive and dishonest lifestyle (Parsons, 2010). As a result of this, Roman Empire experienced a lot of opposition between the Emperors and the Senators. In his case, everybody saw each other as the most corrupt, viewed each other as enemies and as enmity persisted, poor leadership set in resulting in the collapse of the empire (Nardo, 2001). Constant Wars and Heavy Military Spending This being one of the results of the fall of Roman Empire, constant war played a vital role in its fall. Since the empire was growing at a rapid pace, it needed more soldiers for it to survive a great conqueror. In this case, constant fighting needed heavy military spending. This demand for the military was high since the Roman Empire became over stretched, and the need for more solders was proportional to its obligations for expansion and protection of their overstretched territories (Fagan & Stonebarger, 1999). Due