#because every review I’ve come across of it has been ‘the best affordable 5 string absolute bargain’

[athetos]

I hate that I play 5+ string bass and am interested in high-end bass-only pedals so no store in this godforsaken city has any of them in stock for me to fool around on and I refuse to buy anything I haven’t played

[exocomical]

best led grow lights for seedlings

We reviewed hundreds of LED grow lights available on the marketplace as of May 2018 and created a very simple list that will assist you decide on the top LED lamp for your cannabis grow. Each lamp has been assessed across many different factors: cost, wattage, return, durability, spectrum and more, and these lights are actually the best choices on the market.

Have a question about a particular increase light? Ask us at the comments!

We compiled a list of the best LED grow lights available on the market for your year of 2018 (the cheat sheet table is under with cost ranges). Bear in mind, price can fluctuate depending on the manufacturer so we will attempt to update the prices as frequently as you can. Please refer to the product links in each of the sections to acquire the most up to date pricing information on Amazon.

Things to Think about before buying You can find a couple of things you absolutely need to Think about Before picking the best LED grow light:

1) Spacing: You absolutely need to make sure you've got some idea of the total amount of space you would like to cover with your LED lighting fixture. Each light has a maximum range of space that it may cover, and it'll be important to understand the measurements of your grow space down to the centimeter. If you presently do not understand what that is, you should find out now. After that's completed, be sure that you read reviews and opinions from other people on the actual area that the LED light can cover (occasionally, products are not as advertised... shocking, I know).

2) Brand/Budget/Price: This is important as the higher-quality lights usually yield the best results. If you're a beginner, you will probably wish to start with a lower priced option to receive your feet toes wet. If you are more experienced, it never hurts to go with the quality, higher-priced option. In addition, brand and quality of the light is extremely important. A fantastic brand that has raving customer reviews, is almost always, a sure bet.

You'll need blue or red spectrums, but also ultraviolet and infrared, depending upon the stage. The full spectrum yields are a bit newer to the industry, but they are definitely making headway to any excellent growers catalogue. They run cool and don't need any additional lovers, they cost less overtime awarded the electric savings, and also the durability is second to none. It is highly recommended to buy a complete spectrum LED grow light. Most LED lights have a range of colours being emitted (full light spectrum) - the top lights offer the full range, including UV light.

4) Electrical Use: Your LED lights need to have durability and excellent electrical efficiency as well. A fantastic LED light should be functioning for at least 10-12 hours a day. When studying a fantastic LED light, you'll need to fully understand exactly what the totaloutput is (1000w, 400w, 300w etc). The bigger you go, the more powerful and more likely contributes to less electric use (and more cost effective for you).

5) Lighting Control: Depending on the stage, you will want to ensure your plants receive the proper quantity of lighting (down to the exact hour). See a breakdown of the stages below for developing LED lighting:

It is extremely important that light cycles are followed to a tee because it can seriously alter the growth and potency of your crops.

What else could you possibly want? Bonus:

Grow Tent: It's definitely easier to grow whenever you've got an enclosed environment which protects from external forces and sunlight. You can also control the temperature much easier in a restricted space. You might believe that every grow kayak is the exact same... wrong. There are different brands out there which have a greater quality tent with more openings (to provide easier access) as well as rods that are stronger. All this things, my recommendation to get mature kayak is that this Apollo Horticulture Tent. When we used this tent, we did not observe any light come through. It's readily accessible with access from the back and the front.

This light is priced modestly and runs really cool. It works great in different sized tents and the light spread is second to none.

These lights are made from China, but don't let this fool you, they're very potent and work very well for any kind of grow. The fans are really quiet. It's suggested that during the flowering stage, you restrict the usage of the light to some 4x4 area in order to optimize for efficacy and light intensity. The design of the light allows for great light penetration and the set up is simple with minimal weight limitations.

This light does not have a veg/flower change, but it will have an on/off switch so it's far better than some of the cheaper LED grow lights available on the marketplace. This LED grow light definitely shined during the flowering stage, the results that we saw were incredible. We're extremely impressed with this grow mild, particularly with the brightness (our crops were flourishing).

For those who love the P600 but do not have quite that big of a budget or dimensions of an increase tent, the Advanced Platinum Series P300 is a superb runner-up. This is definitely a more affordable LED grow light that offers many of the same advantages as the P600, however at around half the cost.

Its policy is roughly 4.5 ft by 3.8 feet at an 18-inch height, ideal for compact grow areas, or when used together with additional lamps for bigger areas. This mild panel effectively replaces a 400W HPS mild, while just actually using 180 watts of electricity -- which makes it an energy efficient alternative to your conventional light. It is just perfect for your little home grower. Just as the P600 represents the higher end of the current market, this remains a serious piece of gear--practically a steal for the wonderful coverage you get.

This is a system which has a great large PAR per Lumen output of some other LED grow light panel I have seen. What does that mean? It means the panel gives off about 2-3 times the intensity of other grow lights.

More importantly, it has an 11 band spectrum which provides your marijuana plants the maximum nutritional value including those desired from UV and IR. The mild chips are all 3W LEDs, and as I've mentioned previously, the finest 3-watt panels have an additional lens to concentrate the light a bit more. This panel comes with a 60-degree lens and secondary 90-degree working lens to give more intensity for plant development.

The chips in this lamp are also replaceable and yet another reason for the slightly higher price tag. This means that you may always maintain that 400-watt output, even when a chip stinks. Just order the 1 processor and replace it when it arrives from the manufacturer.

Morsen 2400W Full Spectrum Tool - Highest Wattage Morson is a top brand and you are looking for premium quality. These lights normally run bigger and stronger than most other LEDs. These lights have reduced energy consumption and really run great regardless of what stage of plant growth you are in.

It is a very high excellent merchandise and trusted brand for an excellent price (especially once you compare to more expensive alternatives out there like California Lightworks). Can be utilised in house garden, pot civilization, sowing, a greenhouse + more. This specific merchandise comes with a free electricity cable and free hanging hook. The life span for this light is particularly long and runs50,000 hours and you should be good to choose the 3 year warranty in case anything breaks. This is a really safe option as it is also 3x to 5x the efficacy compared to HID & HPS lights.

GoGrow V3 Master Grower 630W - Great For Beginners These lights have good design and also have high PAR worth across your canopy. GoGrow is a really big company with an international presence (large in Europe, Japan, Australia) so their products are highly commended as some of the very best in the marketplace.

Great for grow tents, a room, and greenhouses. This is also a excellent product for you in the event that you want something which's simple to set up as it comes with all you desire (hangers, strings, carabiners).

This light produces very high PAR at a really low wattage. Perfect for energy intake and for the price, this light gets the job done.

[davidcdelreal]

5 Crucial Lessons I Learned by Starting My Own Business

As a kid, I had no aspirations of being a business owner or entrepreneur.

I was a baseball card collector investing way too much money in Jose Canseco baseball cards.  (That probably ranks as one of the worst investments I’ve ever made but, hey – I was just a kid).

Even going into college, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I graduated.

I majored in finance because my dad thought it would be a good major, and I kind of liked numbers.

The self-employment revelation hit me when I read Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. That really changed my whole mindset, and got me to thinking seriously about becoming an entrepreneur.

After graduation, I was attracted to the financial services industry, because I felt that the income potential there was unlimited. I put in my time doing cold calling seminars – and doing anything else I needed to do to get clients. All went well for the first five years – or so it seemed.

Then another revelation hit me: Even though my income was unlimited, I was still a W2 employee.

That wasn’t exactly the message of Rich Dad Poor Dad, but it did have certain advantages. After all, I didn’t have to worry about who was paying the rent, how much the phone bill was, or what happened if my computer became outdated. My old brokerage firm took care of all that responsibility.

But in the end, that arrangement wasn’t as cozy as it seemed.

My brokerage firm was bought out, creating one of those moments that almost forces you to change direction, and that‘s what I did. Me and three other coworkers took the leap of faith of actually starting our own financial services firm. I was finally – and officially – crossing over from W2 employee status to legitimate business owner.

I was finally self-employed.

It definitely was very exciting, but it was also very scary. I quickly realized I knew nothing about running a business. Sure, I knew how to make cold calls, get new clients, and schmooze with the best of them. But actually running a business was something that I had never been taught in school and really had no experience with.

I’m proud to say that it’s been six years since I made that bold and daring move, and things have worked out like you wouldn’t believe. This is one of those situations where you ask yourself why didn’t I start my own business sooner?

Here’s what I’ve learned in starting and running my own business – maybe these lessons will help you to start your own venture…

1. You wear a lot of hats.

I think I first became aware of this from Michael Gerber’s book, The E-Myth. Gerber talks about how difficult it is for anyone to run a business, and that it goes way beyond just being “good“ at what you do. For example, let’s say that you’re a plumber, and a great one at that – what do you know about marketing your business, pricing your services, ordering equipment, and manage employees?

That’s where most business owners fail.

When it came to starting our business, we had to find a suitable place to rent, and choose and buy office equipment at affordable prices. We had to learn to market ourselves – no small feat since we were a brand new company that no one knew existed. We also had to hire staff and train them to learn our processes.

And we had to do all of this while servicing our existing clients in a way that would make the transition smooth and painless.

Every business is different, including the initial roll out. But the point is, self-employment requires wearing a lot of hats that you don’t need to concern yourself with when you’re on someone else’s payroll. There’s a learning curve involved, and you have to master it in order to succeed. That means learning the various jobs, skills and tasks that you need in order to make your business work.

2. Overhead can kill you.

At my old brokerage firm we had impressive features, like premium office space, high end furniture, expensive pictures on the walls, and a streaming live quote system that could show what 100-plus stocks were doing at any time of the day. All that stuff costs money, and when you start a new business, that’s something that’s in short supply.

But here’s what I learned: Frugality is a virtue when starting a new business.

When you start a business you have to think “shoe string”, and that means finding less expensive ways to do everything. It might even mean doing without a few things. It’s your basic business service that matters most and draws in clients. The rest is mostly window dressing that clients and potential clients may not even notice. Let me give you some examples.

We looked into that streaming stock quote system from the old broker; it cost $300 per month, and that would create instant overhead. But the exact same information could be had on Yahoo Finance for free!. Needless to say, we didn’t sign up for the streaming stock quote system.

We needed a sign for our building. We found one with flashing LED lights that would be really perfect – but it cost roughly $30,000. Not gonna happen! Instead we settled on a sign that could light up at night only, but cost just $3,400. That‘s roughly 10% of what the deluxe sign would have cost.

In the end, it didn’t matter all that much. People aren’t buying your sign – they’re buying your service.

Businesses fail for a lack of positive cash flow more than anything else. The sooner your business starts generating that positive cash flow, the greater your chance of business success. You can give yourself a big, fat advantage by determining from the get go that you won’t spend money on stuff you don’t absolutely need.

3. Select your partners carefully.

We went into our business as a partnership, and that always presents special challenges. My partners were three financial advisors from our former brokerage firm, so we all knew one another on a professional basis. We agreed on how the partnership would be run in advance, including that any major business decisions would require a unanimous voting process.

These weren’t necessarily people I would hang out with after work, but all were individuals I felt I could trust, and who I felt comfortable with on a professional level. It is, after all, a business, so the reasons for having these people as partners was more about business concerns than social factors.

We also committed our partnership agreement to writing. Partnerships don’t always work out, so you have to have written procedures on how to run the business, how to settle disputes, and if necessary, how to handle the departure of one of the partners.

If you’re a sole proprietor, the partnership issue won’t apply to you directly. But anytime you start a business, you will be involved in all kinds of loose and informal partnerships with people you need to rely on. They can be suppliers, vendors, contractors or even major clients. Choose them all wisely, understanding that a bad relationship has the potential to sabotage your business.

4. Work on being efficient. Start processes.

The biggest key to running virtually any business successfully is your ability to concentrate most of your time and effort on the activities that will bring in the most money. That means that you have to minimize the time spent on routine functions.

This is especially true for any service-related industry. Any tasks that are repetitious have to be streamlined so that you won’t be performing them over and over again. We had to come up with processes in our office that would minimize paperwork and administrative tasks.

Personally, I hate doing that kind of work, so we had to create a process flow that would make these as simple as possible. Some of the functions include accepting client checks, making bank deposits, opening new accounts, and conducting annual reviews with existing clients.

You need to identify repetitious functions early in your business, and streamline them immediately.

This is particularly important when starting your business, because building a cash flow has to be your top priority. You have to create a workflow that maximizes efficiency, and enables you to establish that process throughout your business from the very beginning.

5. Make sure you have some paying customers first.

I get dozens of emails from financial advisors across the country who want to start their own practice, probably from reading my posts about the steps I went through in starting my own financial planning practice. What many of these advisors might not realize is that I was in the business for five years before I decided to go out on my own.

Could I have accomplished it sooner?

Perhaps – but having an established client base was huge.

Before you actually start a business, you might want to test it and treat it more like a side hustle. Keep your day job and just see if your business idea has roots. Test it out with family and friends. Test it out with your network. Find out if you actually have something that people are going to pay money for on an ongoing basis.

If you can do that, then at least 51% of the risk will be removed from your business. Not only will you have a cash flow going in, but you’ll also have the benefit of having the confidence that comes from knowing you have it. That may be the single best piece of advice I can give!

The post 5 Crucial Lessons I Learned by Starting My Own Business appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

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