What's an EHS Consultant Doing in this Forum?

Joined the Scrap Metal Forum on Feb 11th and that is the second question that I received on my introduction post. The reason is that I am happy to share the environmental, health and safety experience that I have and I am looking forward to continuing to learn the recycling industry from the wealth of employees on this site.

A summary of my background. My last eight years have been in the recycling industry (e-waste), first as an operations manager and then as an EHS Manager. Over that time I have developed and maintained environmental, health and safety management systems that are certified to ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, RIOS and R2. I have a lot of experience reviewing regulations, creating legal registers and performing compliance audits in the recycling industry. I also have experience responding to EHS incidents and performing root cause and corrective action.

You can review my experience and services at the seedtosequoia website. I started my first post in the safety forum that is titled: "Got Questions for the Environmental, Health & Safety Manager?" I look forward to responding to your EHS questions and creating more posts in the future.

From your experience, what would you say is the one thing that all e-waste recycling and/or scrapers doing that is done correctly? Also what is the one thing that most do wrong?

I've been considering this for sometime now.However, learning who to contact, and where to apply or which certification would best suit my goal, gets confusing. Government website's are not very junkfreak friendly. But I still get most of what the info is. My problem is time! I don't have enough time in a day. And with the market the way it is I got less.

Just a thought: upgrade your membership and offer your services here on the forum. If its allowed that is, don't see why it would be prohibited.
Depending on the cost I think it would benefit the members here that want to go to the next level but are intimidated by the process.
Just a thought, I get them every now and again hehe.

bigburtchino,
Thank you for your question. I believe that most recyclers that I have observed have a good sense of the physical hazards in the workplace and they have developed appropriate (but could be improved upon) controls to safeguard employees like personal protective equipment, training and equipment checklists. The concern that I have with recyclers is not being able to control chemical hazards, especially with universal waste. The majority are unprepared to properly handle and clean up leaks and spills with products such as CRT and batteries. You have given me the idea that this may be one of the first posts that I put up on this site.
Russell Ballard
www.seedtosequoia.com

Junkfreak,

A great question that every one that is determining whether to implement or improve an EHS system should ask. About three weeks ago I wrote a blog post to address this question called: “Your EHS Management System Should Be a Great Return on Investment – Part 1”. The post is located at BLOG. The post is a brief discussion on the benefits that need to be considered and weighed to decide whether to proceed and how to proceed. If you are looking for more specific information, feel free to contact me anytime at rballard@seedtosequoia.com.

Regards,

Russell

It's nice to have someone on the site who is a EHS professional, however...

I would suggest that you upgrade your account, since you are obviously advising people to visit your website and to contact you using your personal email for your business I would suggest even paying for advertising.

As well, even thought there do exist some larger corporations on this forum, that recycle, I would suggest doing a little research so that you understand the dynamic of this forum. Your consulting services while seemingly professional, do not take into account that the majority of the people that contribute to this forum are small scale, individuals who either own their own business and only have themselves or perhaps a couple other people who help or work with them. Or they are hobbyists earning extra money. To try an sell them on the idea that they need to pay someone to give them advice on how to do their work, how to be safe, etc is probably, in most cases, not going over so well.

So, since you are a consulting business, posting links to your own site, and attempting to drive business in that direction, I would again suggest paying for advertising.

I would also suggest that if you truly and honestly desire to contribute to this forum, that you post information here instead of only linking to your site. These are only suggestions I am making, as a member and individual on this forum as I am not involved in administering this site at all. I do not wish to mislead you in any way. But it does bother me as a member that you seem to be attempting to drive traffic to your website, instead of interacting with people here in the way we all do. Nothing wrong with doing business, but I feel you should be honest about why you are here, and do so in the proper way.

In any case, welcome, I hope you become an active and contributing member of this forum, it's one of my most favorite.

Scott

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

Joined the Scrap Metal Forum on Feb 11th and that is the second question that I received on my introduction post. The reason is that I am happy to share the environmental, health and safety experience that I have and I am looking forward to continuing to learn the recycling industry from the wealth of employees on this site.

A summary of my background. My last eight years have been in the recycling industry (e-waste), first as an operations manager and then as an EHS Manager. Over that time I have developed and maintained environmental, health and safety management systems that are certified to ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, RIOS and R2. I have a lot of experience reviewing regulations, creating legal registers and performing compliance audits in the recycling industry. I also have experience responding to EHS incidents and performing root cause and corrective action.

You can review my experience and services at the seedtosequoia website. I started my first post in the safety forum that is titled: "Got Questions for the Environmental, Health & Safety Manager?" I look forward to responding to your EHS questions and creating more posts in the future.

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I guess that answers that question... I was wondering why an Ethiopian Homeland Security agent would join our forum...

I'm married with 3 kids...........just what I need someone else telling me what to do and I have to pay them for it.............LOL (just kidding) Welcome to forum and wish you luck in your venture

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

I'm married with 3 kids...........just what I need someone else telling me what to do and I have to pay them for it.............LOL (just kidding) Welcome to forum and wish you luck in your venture

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Oh we pay for it! Kids are gone ( well one is moving back in yea free labor) but the wife still bosses me around while iam depositing money. Lol wouldn't know what do without her.

Scott,
I am not sure I understand the concern that you have for me posting on this forum as I intend to have good interactions with members on environmental, health and safety topics.
Yes its free advice with the desire that there may be some companies in the forum that may hire me to take their EHS to the next level. Last month I helped a company with five employees get certified to R2 (Responsible Recycling).
Yes, I may respond to some questions with referring them to a blog post that I previously created on my website. I also intend on posting long columns to this site after I figure out some tech issues that I am having on this site.
I guess I am feeling that you have singled me out although we are both here for the same reasons to interact, give advice, learn and generate business. I assume it is because you do not regard EHS consultation as important by stating: “To try and sell them on the idea that they need to pay someone…”.
I hope that my assumptions are wrong and I hope that others can see the value that I can bring to this forum.
Russell

Mikeinreco,
Thank you for the welcome.
Russell

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

Scott,
I am not sure I understand the concern that you have for me posting on this forum as I intend to have good interactions with members on environmental, health and safety topics.
Yes its free advice with the desire that there may be some companies in the forum that may hire me to take their EHS to the next level. Last month I helped a company with five employees get certified to R2 (Responsible Recycling).
Yes, I may respond to some questions with referring them to a blog post that I previously created on my website. I also intend on posting long columns to this site after I figure out some tech issues that I am having on this site.
I guess I am feeling that you have singled me out although we are both here for the same reasons to interact, give advice, learn and generate business. I assume it is because you do not regard EHS consultation as important by stating: “To try and sell them on the idea that they need to pay someone…”.
I hope that my assumptions are wrong and I hope that others can see the value that I can bring to this forum.
Russell

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I understand your desire to add validity to your business by expressing certain things on a site like this. However I do also realize that in doing so, imparting too much information would negate the need for a consultant.

I also realize that it is most likely your intent to increase traffic to your own website, by using this forum, that would be a natural intention of anyone who owns a business, to increase traffic to their own site.

For some, an EHS consultant may be useful, and important, but after reading your website I came to realize that you have posted some benefits which while seemingly part of what might be, generally are not and certainly not in the case where there is only one person doing the scrapping, or only a few.

I used to own grocery stores, and hired an EHS consultant who did a great job suggesting posting posters, instituting training programs, etc so that I could lower my insurance rates. But honestly, it did not increase nor decrease the number of accidents as accidents are exactly that, accidents. We already had in place best practices and policies that allowed us to function at the highest level of safety. The only reason I hired an EHS consultant was to lower our insurance. However, after all was said and done, and considering the requirements of our insurance policy in reducing the cost of the insurance, it ended up costing almost the same to dedicate the labor for specialized training instead of doing so by managing as opposed to a special class set on a specific day where employees would be required to attend and thus also require to be paid for the study time.

It's a balance to be sure, value added services often do add value, but often increase expenses as well. In attempting to drive business, you may be overlooking the fact that the majority of the people who post on this site, while finding any information you impart here useful and important, will not be buying your services as a consultant.

If your intent is to drive traffic to your own website by posting links, and your personal email address so that they contact you outside of this forum, so that you can impart pricing information on consulting for them, then any monies you gain were at the expense, or perhaps more correctly because you were exposed on this site and you perhaps might think about upgrading your membership to reflect your appreciation of this fact.

I do not know you, and you have yet to spend enough time on this site to allow me to make any kind of judgment call about your intentions or actions, as well I am not even inclined to judge anyone. But I would suggest supporting this site more than only posting links to your own website. And if it does turn out that you impart useful and important information that can be retained on this forum for all future members, and current members for that matter, then that is a wonderful thing. But the key is that the information you may impart be done on this forum, so that it can be retained for it's members. There is no guarantee that your site will always be in operation as you may sell your business, move onto something else, fail even although I would like to avoid that scenario, or otherwise. Having the information here ensures that it will continue to be accessible for posterity, not only for your benefit but for the benefit of everyone who attends this place on the web.

I am not sure how you can reason that I must have no faith in EHS consulting, just because I stated the obvious in that you are trying to sell people on the idea that they need a consultant, when the vast majority of people on this site actually do not need a consultant, only information. Matter of fact, since hiring a EHS consultant, I have never required one since because I retained the knowledge. The majority of time, small businesses incur more cost in hiring an EHS consultant, than they receive in benefit as I have stated above. Most of the businesses on this forum are smaller rather than larger, however there are larger businesses that might be able to, in a cost effective manor, hire your services and benefit from them. Most of the people here will benefit from your generosity in providing valuable information. If you have not already noticed by my own posts, and those of others, we impart valuable information here in a fairly regular basis without sending people to websites we own, or others we are attempting to drive business on. As well, you will also notice that those who are advertising buying, do so on a specific thread that has been created for them to do so which they must first provide a donation for in order to have a buyers thread. You will also notice that there are places provided for paid advertisement, and that some choose to do this as well. While these have been made available for your use, I do not see that you have used any of them and would encourage you, as a paying member myself, to make use of these offerings to increase your exposure in a way that also benefits this forum, and thus benefits all of us in that way as well.

While I can appreciate what you have stated, in that you are here to exchange information, to impart information to help others, and by the way I think this is a wonderful thing. I also am concerned as to your intent, and the fact you are attempting to drive business that is service related that specifically is set up for people to pay you, for this same information and advice you seem to be insisting you will provide here, on this forum, in the form of posts. That seems contradictory to your business model if we are being totally honest.

Without getting into specifics on the things you state on your website, as I would not want to affect your intended business in a negative way. We can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that most of what you state on your website as benefits in paying you for your services, would not be so for small businesses under a specific number of people. Without stating more I think we can agree on that point, if we are being totally honest.

My problem has always been that I say exactly what I think without reservation, usually. I have reserved some of what I might have said in respect for the fact you are a business owner, and attempting to drive your business in a way that leads me to believe you have not only just started it, but intend if by sheer will alone, to make it work. I respect that, being a business owner myself. I do not want to affect your business in anyway that might be negative. But I also believe that the people here are very good people in almost every case, and I consider them the type of people we need to see more of in this world. I would see them elevated because of the information that is shared, that they share and discuss, that others share and discuss rather than sent to another site. I would also prefer to see them increase their own businesses without the additional costs of things they can obviously do without if only they have the information required to do so. To this end as well, I would welcome any information you post here, and encourage you again to do so. But I would also encourage you to do so here, instead of driving the traffic and discussion here, to your own website. It is just as simple to copy and paste that information here as it is to post a link to the information on your site, there are no specific technical issues you have to contend with. The only difference is that one is a button you have to click to enter your website link, and the other simply what you do anyway, posting text in a box such as I am doing currently, which by the way seems to be something you are more than capable of doing, without any technical difficulties at all.

Scott

Well said Scott.

Thanks Scott. Wow!

"accidents are exactly that, accidents.” Yikes! I hope that is not the knowledge that you received from your EHS consultant experience. EHS is about putting in controls for risk avoidance (likelihood of accident x magnitude of accident).

There appears to be a lot of opportunities for an EHS expert to provide his knowledge and experience. It does not matter what the size of the company is, it matters what is the future intention of the company. That appears to be a great discussion for one of my next posts.

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

"accidents are exactly that, accidents.” Yikes! I hope that is not the knowledge that you received from your EHS consultant experience. EHS is about putting in controls for risk avoidance (likelihood of accident x magnitude of accident).

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While I can appreciate the fact that you can express sarcasm, I have chosen not to turn this thread into a sarcastic, humorous post, as I believe it's an important thread even though you may not. If you want to turn this into something like this, please express the fact and I will express myself in such a sarcastic manor as you will find it difficult to eat or drink without spitting up all over your computer screen. Until that time, I will express myself on your thread, in a professional manor, regardless of your insulting sarcasm.

But please, do allow me to explain the point I was attempting to make, which seems to have been lost on you. Being that you are a self described EHS consultant, I would think you already would understand the terms that the insurance industry uses. Accidents generally are not a term that they prefer to use, allow me to present an example:

If you are driving, and are involved in what most people call an "accident", when you receive your police report, or read your insurance documents, it will almost certainly be described as a "collision". The reason for this is, that when what we call an "accident" occurs, it is almost never an accident, but because of some error that was made, and thus it is called a collision. An "accident" refers to chance, something that happens outside our ability to negate or control it. If you look up the meaning for the word accident you will find both explanations, however the insurance industry uses other terms to describe what we might call accidents, so that it is clear it was not chance.

In the future, I would appreciate it if you would keep the discussion on topic, rather than attempt to make it seem that I am lacking in safety, or my understanding of it. Have you ever in your experience, consulted for someone who works with things that are so deadly, and so incredibly toxic to humans, that any mistake could cause death? I deal with these types of dangers on a regular and consistent basis, as do others on this site. Suggesting that I do not value safety in stating plainly that an accident is an accident, meaning that they happen because of chance and cannot be avoided, could lead others to believe that I do not take seriously the safety concerns related to my chosen profession. And that sir, I will not put up with, not even for a sarcastic joke.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

There appears to be a lot of opportunities for an EHS expert to provide his knowledge and experience. It does not matter what the size of the company is, it matters what is the future intention of the company. That appears to be a great discussion for one of my next posts.

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You are right, there are many opportunities for an EHS expert to provide HIS/HER knowledge and experience. And you are also right, it does not matter the size of the company at all if you are actually imparting the information on this forum, for no fee at all. What I said was in direct relation to your seeking to drive business on this forum. Being that the majority of the people who do own businesses, own small ones that can ill afford to absorb the costs of a consultant. I was actually giving you advice, although perhaps not wanted, about the size and scale of the businesses that exist on this forum. That is not to say there are not businesses of the right size, that generate enough revenue, that would not be allowed to pay you for your services, on this forum. But only to say that the majority of people who contribute, and selflessly I might add, to the accumulated knowledge of this forum also happen to be those people who would not pay for your services.

As of right now, while I write this post, at 7:45 AM on a Tues, and I am posting from California so we are talking about 7:45 PST There are currently 707 users online. 58 members and 649 guests. That is a lot of people, online, right now. A lot of paid members. I would wager that the majority of those members paid for their membership even though it was not really an expense they wanted to incur or could easily afford. But they value this forum so much, that they did so anyway. For many of those that cannot afford to purchase a membership, they are imparting valuable information that can be accessed and used by members, and guests. YOU have stated:

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

Joined the Scrap Metal Forum on Feb 11th]

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Yet in the 6 days you have been on this forum, the only thing you have been able to do is post your expertise, and state repeatedly that you plan to post information we might find valuable. You did however give your reasons for not doing so:

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

I also intend on posting long columns to this site after I figure out some tech issues that I am having on this site.

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Yet I have not seen one post asking anyone to help you with your technical difficulties. Matter of fact, on the contrary, I have seen you post in even just this thread, in many different ways. In quoting you I have stripped away all the bold, enlarged font, etc in your posts which you seem to have no problem operating, to good affect. Matter of fact, considering all you have to do in order to post "long columns" in a post, is simply to just copy and paste what you have already accumulated on your own website. Yet, still, you have not done so.

I would like to point out, that if I hired a consultant who promised to give me information, and did not do so for a full week, I would hold that consultant as suspect.

I also get the feeling that you do not fully understand the real value of this website. So allow me to act as consultant for you in this regard, and impart some important information you seem not to be aware of.

This forum, this place, most likely has more accumulated knowledge on recycling, material handling, hazardous waste and how to deal with it, recovering valuable assets, re purposing and much more, than any other single repository of information anywhere on the internet. Do you have any idea what that should mean for someone like you, with very little experience in comparison to the thousands of years worth of accumulated knowledge that exists on this forum? Think about this, intelligently. There are currently, as I write this, 22,060 threads, 219,489 posts and 18,207 members. If each member only has 1 years worth of experience, that is over 18 THOUSAND years of accumulated experience. You yourself have stated that:

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

My last eight years have been in the recycling industry (e-waste), first as an operations manager and then as an EHS Manager.

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And while I can understand why you might move from being an Operations Manager to an EHS Manager, as the pay range is from about 50k-60k per year for an Op Manager, compared to about 55k-65k for an EHS manager in the scrap metal industry, I have to ask myself the question "how many years of actual experience as an EHS manager does this gentleman actually have?" Compared with the literal, thousands of years of accumulated experience on this website, it would seem that you most likely have far more to learn here, than you could ever impart in what I am sure is valuable information, but yet you still have not imparted.

My point is that if you stop, and think about the real value of posting your information, compared to the real value of the information you have access to, there is a huge giant deficit. I realize this, I understand, and humbly so, that there is far more for me to learn here, than I can ever hope to impart. This is also why I choose to support this forum by becoming a paid member. So any information that you do choose to post here, will never be nearly as much as the valuable information you have access to. I would keep this firmly in mind when re-stating over and over your intent to post columns of information. You have far more to gain by being here, than you could ever give back. And if you are as good of an EHS manager as you seem to be leading us to believe, and if you just last month helped someone with licensing, I am sure you can easily afford the membership fee, and would encourage you to become a member.

Regardless of the way my responses to you might sound, I can appreciate the fact you are here, and also consider a consultant of your type a valuable forum asset. But you will not actually become so unless you contribute. When you post links to your own website, you are not contributing here. When you post and encourage people to ask you questions, via your personal business email address, you are not contributing here. When you repeat, over and over that you will post yet do not, you are not contributing here. Please, contribute, engage, enjoy more importantly. You will find the people here are very appreciative, and very very friendly regardless of how I might sound myself. These are good people who freely share what they otherwise could sell to others as a consultant. Who give their time, freely, without any promise of reward or monetary compensation. Who will challenge you in ways that will help you grow your business and help you become a much better consultant. You do not even have a decade in this industry, and I suspect if you were an operations manager prior to a EHS manager, you most likely do not have Project Management experience which is a huge plus in your chosen consultancy field. Not that you need it, but you could certainly learn it here. There are so many people who have experience in exactly that field, organic and natural, that you stand to learn very valuable information just by interacting with them. There are a few really good threads on project management, large scrapping efforts, I would encourage you to access them.

Take what you will from what I have said. If you wish to engage me in intelligent and thoughtful conversation I would gladly engage you. If you use sarcasm in order to make it seem as if I do not care about safety, or for any other negative purpose I will simply do as I have done here, correct you and then point out those things I think are more important. I do not wish to turn this into a tit for tat argument. My intent is to encourage you to become an active, valuable, contributing member of this forum because I do happen to understand the value you might bring, if you do only what you have stated you plan to do.

And if another week goes by, you have not imparted the information you have stated you intend to, I think perhaps I will make the time myself, and post information I believe would be important in this regard on this subject. I believe it is that important for that information to exist here. But I would like to see you do so instead, so please do.

Scott

OK seed. Since my first post:
I talked to my insurance rep.(workman's comp.)
Researched OSHA
". Epa
My findings: they have" free" info in hard copy that they are sending me
Also my insurance company has a program that trains you in work place safety for free, so that you can train your employees.
So, my question is, why should I pay for this service?
Iam not being negative. To be honest I never knew companies that provide your services ever existed till you posted.

so eloquent!!!!!!!!! Thanks again

Welcome!

Noble, members like yourself inspire me to learn as much as as I can.
I've always love learning something new.

This is not the place to hand out the business card and expect the masses to be blowing ones door open with sign me ups now please!

Scott,
Relax, I have only been on this site for six days and I made the following post: "Got Questions for the Environmental, Health & Safety Manager?" on my second day.

That has not been my expectation. I know that my niche size is small.

Thank you submarinepainter!

Appears I won't get an answer to my question.

Good question junkfreak.
There is a good amount of free information out there. Unfortunately, in many cases, including OSHA and EPA regulations there are a lot more questions that you have after you read the legalese then when you first started. Which is good because that is the learning process. Many people find it easier to turn to someone who has expertise with understanding EHS requirements and has experience implementing them in different settings. A knowledgeable EHS consultant will have absorbed the best practices of other companies and industries that he/she can then implement at your facility. You may have an idea on how to implement a system or control, but a second pair of eyes will likely mean even more ideas and solutions to ensure you have a safe work place for yourself and the environment. I liken it to having the blueprints to build something complex. In some cases someone will be fine building it for the first time, but in other cases it will be a lot less frustrating if you have an expert help you. I hope that I have left you with some justification for my occupation. :)

No, just had to go pick up my daughter and the other posts were easy to answer quickly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by junkfreak

OK seed. Since my first post:
I talked to my insurance rep.(workman's comp.)
Researched OSHA
". Epa
My findings: they have" free" info in hard copy that they are sending me
Also my insurance company has a program that trains you in work place safety for free, so that you can train your employees.
So, my question is, why should I pay for this service?
Iam not being negative. To be honest I never knew companies that provide your services ever existed till you posted.

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If you must deal with the EPA either to comply with laws in your region, or to obtain licensing, I would suggest seeking out a law firm that specifically deals with EPA law, regulations, licensing, etc. A EHA Consultant will most likely suggest the same. In my own business, because of the complexity of the work I do, and laws I must abide by being those of the city, county, state of California EPA, Federal EPA and Bay Area Air Quality, I hired the services of such a law firm, and glad I did so.

As well as the free information that your insurance company most happily will provide you, and do so because it lowers the risk of you requiring to make a claim of them. You can also contact your local power company, many times they will provide safety information free of charge that pertains to their systems. Where I live in California, it is PG&E, you can get their website here:

Energy Safety | PG&E

You can also obtain a lot of really good solid safety information, for free, from the "Safety Management Group" who are Safety consultants for industrial and construction compliance training and staffing here:

Safety consultants, industrial and construction consulting, OSHA compliance training and staffing

There is also the "Non Profit Risk Management Center" where you can also download and read a lot of good free information here:

https://www.nonprofitrisk.org/

There is "Wellness Proposals" here:

Free Workplace Safety Handouts

There is "SafetyInfo.com" which provides many free software programs, as well as information for download, here:

https://www.safetyinfo.com/

There is the "Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety" which provides a lot of really good information for access and download, here:

http://www.ccohs.ca/resources/

Of course there is also OSHA or "Occupational Safety & Health Administration" here:

https://www.osha.gov/workers/index.html

NFPA or "National Fire Protection Association" the authority on Fire, Electrical and Building safety, here:

http://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standa...=code&code=70e

There is also EHSO or "Environment, Health and Safety Online" which can be found here:

http://ehso.com/

And EXCELLENT resource for all types of recycling information including safety, the ISRI or Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc and can be found here:

http://www.isri.org/

If you want to know the skinny on EHS professionals, you can read the online journal "EHS Journal" here:

http://ehsjournal.org/http:/ehsjourn...uld-know/2013/

To give you an idea of what an EHS professional or consultant should be doing consider this. An experienced EHS Professional should provide leadership, direction, and rally involvement of key management and employees to institute compliance, reduce hazards and begin to transform company culture in this direction if it does not already exist. They should possess the ability to engage employees from every level within an organization. They should be proficient in EHS regulations; understand the delicate balance between compliance and profit; and have the ability to deliver effective compliance solutions.

There is a absolute ton of totally free information that exists all over the internet. You seem to already have tapped your insurance company, which is probably the smartest source of information considering it's in their best interest for you to conduct your business in the most safe way possible. There is also your state EPA, and perhaps county and city resources. There are also groups on facebook, perhaps even in your region, set up to support individual business owners and large businesses alike. There are conferences you can attend if you are so inclined. You also have sources such as industrial supply companies, like Grangier that have sales people who are specifically trained to help you in deciding what you require in the way of safety equipment, they can be found here:

http://www.grainger.com/category/saf...gestConfigId=6

I have purchased most of my industrial safety equipment from Grainger such as chemical spill kits and safety mats, etc.

If you are looking for something specific, or require specific information, and I perhaps might be able to help you. Post your question here so that I can also answer here. In that way the information will be retained, and other members can benefit from it. Or perhaps another member will know better than I and post as well. Or even better, if you truly require specific information create a new thread and pose your question for the entire forum and open it up to be answered by one of the more than 18 thousand members that attend this website.

Scott

Thanks Noble,
Looks like I got some reading to do.lol
Much appreciated!

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Originally Posted by junkfreak

Thanks Noble,
Looks like I got some reading to do.lol
Much appreciated!

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Anytime, no worries. I would encourage you to start your own thread if you have questions, like I said, it's a good thing to ask publicly so they can be answered in the same, and thus everyone ends up benefiting for it.

And to SeedToSequoia, perhaps you might want to chime in and fill in the gaps in suggestions I did not make or missed. Providing more information is always in the best interest of everyone that attends this forum, and since you have the experience you do in this particular industry, your input would have value I am sure.

Scott

SeedToSequoia I hope you are getting the "drift", you have a thick skin and most of all I hope you stick around! As I'm sure you will find your way around this community. Most all of us have a desire to help one another and at the same time, most of us have been running our own "Rodeos" for awhile now!

bigburtchino,

I get it. You all are not happy with advertising unless it is paid for. I just hope that some will be more open minded that consulting could be a gift, not a tax. Thanks for wanting me to stick around.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

bigburtchino,

I get it. You all are not happy with advertising unless it is paid for. I just hope that some will be more open minded that consulting could be a gift, not a tax. Thanks for wanting me to stick around.

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might as well upgrade to a member....You get a buyers thread as well as some other perks and I don't think it's very expensive

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeedToSequoia

bigburtchino,

I get it. You all are not happy with advertising unless it is paid for. I just hope that some will be more open minded that consulting could be a gift, not a tax.

Thanks for wanting me to stick around.

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No, no I am afraid you do not yet get it. I have attempted in several different ways to express the same concept, yet it seems to be utterly lost on you.

You seem to think you are an expert, and in being so that there is not information here for you to enjoy and benefit from yourself. Let me enlighten. There is far more information on this forum, that you can learn than what you can impart, specifically to do with your chosen field of profession. Let me put this a different way. If you never gained any paid business by being on this forum, you still would benefit yourself, and your business greatly if you did nothing else but just simply read the posts and parts of this forum that can help you in your business, outside of this forum.

That is not to say that you might not gain business by being here, but in order to do so, you should be posting something of value, contributing something that is worthy of notice. You have yet to do so. In posting something useful, in case you do not already realize this, you will be promoting your business on the internet at large. You see, every post you create is also searchable on google. The more posts, the hirer you will rank on a google search, the more business you will be potentially creating.

If however, your posts consist of people begging you to post information, or to answer questions, HERE, and you are not doing so, your potential customers will only be seeing how you behave in that way, rather than in a capacity that is helpful and contributing. Allow me to expand on this concept by expressing something that recently happened with me.

I was contacted by someone who wanted to conduct business with me. In talking with this person, he stated that every search he conducted, in looking for specific information that had to do with something particular he was looking for my business name kept coming up. He read posts I made, read what other people had to say about me, and decided instead of attempting to do what he wanted to do himself, he would ask me to help him instead, and even offer to pay. I did help him. In helping him, he eventually decided that he would prefer someone doing it for him, and since I already had built up the relationship, asked me if I would. In the end, I purchased the material from him, and processed it myself. I even went so far as to tell him what the yields were, so that if he decided to sell to someone in the future he would be armed with good, solid information. In doing so, he even went so far as to offer me some of what I paid for the material back because he felt I should have made more off the material. I didn't accept for many reasons, but could appreciate his offer. I was able to build a very strong relationship with this person, and now whenever he has material he knows I will be interested in buying, he contacts me first. Not only that, but he is sensitive about dealing with me fairly, because I freely gave him information that empowered and helped him.

I know this seems like it's contradictory to the way most people conduct business, in that everyone is attempting to exact the most possible profit when dealing with others. However, if instead of using this mentality when dealing with others, we instead think in terms of profit sharing, everyone is left making money, and feeling good about the transaction.

If you give to this community, in the form of information that helps members. Who do you think they will suggest to people they do business with, if ever they are asked about an EHS consultant. Or better yet, if in dealing with all the scrap yards and recyclers, the people on this forum do, they have a conversation with someone complaining about safety issues, or the EPA, or OSHA or whatever other entity you might have expertise and knowledge about, who do you think will be the very first person or company that comes to mind.

The very sad thing in my having to explain all of this to you, is that I am having to explain all this to you. You are a consultant, you should already be aware of everything I am stating here. You were an operations manager, you should be aware of these things just on that note. You have started a consulting business, and wish to grow it, you should realize this just based on that as well. Yet you seem so intent on driving business in the way, and direction you have set your mind to that you seem unwilling to think in any other way that might be beneficial, but also is a different path.

I personally have spent a lot of time attempting to explain these concepts to you. I am attempting to help you, yet you seem to think that I am attacking you and are far more defensive than what would be healthy for your business. I will not get any of that time back, I am not going to be paid for my attempting to help you. But I will benefit. I will leave it up to you to figure out how exactly I will benefit from helping you, in this thread, so that in that way you will own the idea and perhaps not be resistant to the concept. Once you realize this, then apply that same reasoning to yourself and your own business and ask yourself the question "how can I help other people so that I derive the same residual benefit".

I have helped many business become successful, and have owned a few myself. I am sharing with you information and knowledge that I could ask payment for, and have been paid for in the past when I used to consult for people who wanted to get into the grocery business, or wanted to purchase a POS system, or install a computer network, etc. I do not share this information to make you look bad, but rather to help you. If you do not see that, or understand this, specially being that you have chosen to be a consultant, you perhaps might want to re-think what you are doing.

In any case, I have spent far too much time attempting to help you, and unless I see some glimmer of understanding or hope in whatever responses you may make on this thread, I don't think I will involve myself further. I do wish you the very best of luck, and regardless of what you might think I do believe your being here, so long as you interact and post good solid information that is useful to the type of businesses and people who frequent this forum, could potentially be very valuable to not only members here, but yourself and your business as well. I want to see you do very well, as I would want to see any small business owner do well. I believe this is the only way we are going to wrestle this country back, that being the United States, from the huge corporations that seem to be able to do at whim, whatever it is they please.

I hope you choose to take what I have said in the spirit it is meant, and not react defensively. I hope you become an important member of this forum, as I do anyone who has valuable information to impart that everyone can benefit from. I am far from being perfect, and my way might not be the best, or even good in regards to your own business, but I do offer it to you, free of charge in the hopes that it will help you. Please consider doing the same for the members here on this forum.

Scott

As always Scott you put it about every way it could be said. Sometimes a person fixates on his/her thought and they are stuck there until out of no where, they get it! We can only hope.