How to Get Cash For Old Cell Phones to Benefit Your Charity or Cause

If you re working on raising money for your favorite charity or cause, you ve probably tried all the normal ways of raising money phone calls, direct mail, and so on. But everybody does that, so you have lots of competition. With so much competition for orthodox ways of raising funds, why not try something a bit different?
Collecting old cell phones is one of those "different" fundraising methods that you may want to try. Many people have old cell phones lying around or packed away somewhere. Chances are they would be more than happy to give their old cell phones to you to benefit a good cause. You just need to ask!
What kind of money can you get for a used cell phone? I m going to be honest with you: you probably won t be raising a considerable amount with every cell phone you collect and sell. The average per phone is about $5-$10. (Some cell phones are worth $0.50, some are worth $100+) You can find out the exact value for a specific model of cell phone at http://www.I-Buy-Phones.org. The real key with collecting cell phones is getting a large quantity of phones.
That said, you have many options for collecting a decent amount of cell phones. One option is to use the normal routes of fundraising, such as through snail mail or phone. But instead of competing with other charities and causes for a person s monetary donations, you ll be asking for donations in a different form (old cell phones) that probably no one else is asking for.
Another option is asking store owners and people in charge of events if you can set up a "drop box" at their locations. This way, you make a drop box and get donations without constantly working for them. However, you will have to do the hard part up front convincing the store owner or other person that your charity or cause is worthy of their "real estate." One tip: make sure your drop box is professional looking and that it explains what you are doing and where the money for the cell phones will go. Make sure you show the store owner or other person the drop box when you contact them.
What do you do with the phones once you ve collected them? That s the easy part! You simply log on to a website that buys used cell phones. http://www.I-Buy-Phones.org is a good website to do this on. Not only do they offer free shipping, but they also tell you what they will pay you for a cell phone upfront instead of surprising you with a low price after you ve sent the cell phones in. Keith Gilbert is an online business owner who has donated his time and web design skills to non-profit organizations. He advocates finding new sources of funds for charities, such as collecting old cell phones and selling them to businesses such as http://www.I-Buy-Phones.org (http://www.I-Buy-Phones.org)



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How POS Barcode Scanners Can Improve Your Business Efficiency

Are you a small retail business owner looking for a way to speed up the waiting time of your customers when they are at the cashiers? Then POS barcode scanners can help you with that.
POS barcode scanners or point of sale scanners will allow the cashier to scan the product and all the important information such as product category, product code, pricing etc will be digitally recorded. This process is very fast and easy to learn. The only difficult part comes when you need to tag all your store s items with a barcode in order for the POS barcode scanner to be able to read.
Another advantage of using POS barcode scanners is that all recorded information is easily retrievable. This makes it easy to generate accounting data, ledgers etc convenient. Also the inventory levels in your store can be easily identified as well.
POS barcode scanners are not just useful in retail outlets but also can be used in clinics, libraries and any other business or organization where a large quantity of items are being transferred/purchased each day.
There are 2 types of POS barcode scanners. They are CCD-based and laser-based. CCD-based POS barcode scanners are more common and cheaper, however they have a disadvantage in that they can t read rounded surfaces. So if you have products which have a smooth curved surface, it is better to use laser-based barcode scanners.
Laser-based barcode scanners can read from any surface and can do this at a greater distance than CCD-based barcode scanners. This is because CCD-based scanners uses cameras to capture the barcode information hence they need to be within close distance of the barcode in order to capture the barcoding information.
An important type of barcode scanner is one that uses CCD technology. This technology was widely used in many retail outlets and involves scanning by pressing the scanner on the barcode to feed information into the computer. But its inability to read from round surfaces has resulted in the development of laser-operated scanners, which pick up barcodes from the surface of products even from a distance. With the advent of omni-directional laser scanners, more and more dealers are opting for those barcode readers that send out laser beams in different directions and pick up the barcodes on the products in a matter of seconds.
There are a wide variety of POS barcode scanners available in many different configuration depending on your market sector. Some uses USB, others wireless and some are handheld.
I personally prefer handheld POS barcode scanners from Symbol and Datalogic. I found they have the best support and handheld POS barcode scanners are light and portable and can easily to transport to other location as I see fit. You can check out their websites for their range of POS barcode scanners.
Ricky Lim runs a barcode scanners reviews site. Visit his site for reviews of POS barcode scanners , wireless barcode scanners etc.



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Job Search Lessons from The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is a game but, like sports in general, it offers useful life lessons that we can take with us . . . if we only look below the surface. As I watched the game, I saw a number of things. How many did you see?
1. Winning is a team effort. The teams that make it to the game don t get there by accident. There are teams of planners and leaders who are constantly evaluating player performance and performing competitive analysis of the team and its capabilities with others. Scouts are looking to improve it. A GM looks at the draft and player cost to see where he can improve. Trainers and doctors are reviewing medicals. And then the coaches start getting involved.
You need to look at your own career in the same way in advance of when you need to make a job change. What is the market like for what you do? Do you excel, are you ordinary or below average? What can I do to upgrade my skills before management starts looking for lower cost alternatives? What is my real value (and understand that is a changing figure both up AND down)?
2. It is important to network to develop close and effective relationships with other professionals in your field. When management starts looking to hire new players, they are working with player agents who they often know from other negotiations. Doesn t that make the process smoother for everyone?
3. Attack your search like your life depends on it. Teams often come out attacking their opponent on both offense and defense. You need to attack your search with ferocity and not casually.
4. If your plan isn t working, make adjustments. Both teams enter the locker room with concrete feedback about their plan and how it s working or not working. If your plan isn t working as well as you like, change it using the feedback you re getting, just like the pros do. Analyze what is working and what isn t and adapt.
5. Keep a level head about you. It s one thing to play with a lot of emotion on the field, but it s hard to sustain for 60 minutes. Both the Eagles and Patriots came out with aggressive blitzes early in the game and attacking offenses before settling into a rhythm. In job searching, you may start off the search with a lot of fervor, but you need to remember that a search can take a long while. You need to manage your emotions for a 60 minute game and not just the first quarter.
6. Try not to be predictable. A football team that runs the same plays in the same sequence or under the same circumstances becomes predictable and other teams learn what they will do and will out perform them
7. Big mistakes can be critical. It s one thing to be defeated on a play or a series. It s another to make a bad call and be left exposed to a big play at a critical time like the Patriots did letting the Eagles back in the game with a 30 yard touchdown late in the game. When you get to the end of the search, it is best to have an agent negotiate for you, rather than leave you exposed to your own emotional whipsawing; if you aren t being represented by one, try to get input from trusted advisors with real knowledge (not your uncle who knows nothing about your industry but has good intentions).
8. Planning starts as soon as the game is over. As soon as the teams walked off the field, I can assure you that both will be planning for change for the next season and will take steps to rectify perceived weaknesses. What that means for you is that you continue your career development, training and networking even when you ve just started a job. After all, the time when you have the most leverage in a negotiation is when you don t need a new job.
If you have other suggestions, email them to me at nymtj@optonline.net and we ll forward them to him.
Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2005 all rights reserved.
For other articles by Jeff Altman, go to www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.com; for help with hiring staff, email Jeff and let him know how to best reach you.



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