Wholesale Dropshippers & Dropshipping Product Suppliers Blog

Get jewellery at wholesale rates and flaunt with style!

2012-01-17T05:16:00.000-08:00

A woman does not only need stylish clothes to look chic and fashionable, fashion accessories are also vital to complete and complement her individual look. The most important item out of these fashion accessories is jewellery. Can you expect from a woman to not purchase necklaces, pendants, earrings, and/or rings of her choice? Today’s unpredictable economic conditions keep us from enjoying freely and we do not afford to spend a fortune on buying fashion accessories. The women, however, cannot give up the idea of shopping and the best option in this regard is to buy wholesale jewellery items.

The first and the foremost reason why some women prefer buying jewellery items in wholesale is that it becomes affordable for them. Secondly, the variety in shapes, size, colours, and price range of the wholesale jewellery items is wide and satisfies the varying needs of women from different age groups. Since the fashion changes abruptly, it is only wise of you to not spend much on transitory accessories. Wholesale traders know the female desire for fashion accessories and especially for the classic jewellery, therefore they collect fine jewellery items and sell them at discounted bulk rates.

Jewellery is a must-have for every woman. Any outfit is complete only when you wear stylish jewellery with it. Jewellery that complements your look and invites positive comments from others will be a perfect choice that can truly represent your style and individuality. Any retailer can buy variety of popular and in-demand wholesale jewellery items from wholesale traders at cheap rates. This is the best tactic to attract women to buy items from your retail outlet.

The wholesale jewellery items come in a large variety and enable women to choose perfect accessories according to their fashion need, choice, and preference. There are many wholesale jewellery items available in the market, which are not costly for your pocket because they are available at wholesale rates. Any retailer can place an online order by visiting wholesale supplier’s business website or by visiting wholesale jewellery market.

Importance of Promotional items in a wholesale business

2011-11-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

Marketing is not a static field but it makes experts to try something new every time that can be a trend for others to follow. One such trend is giving away promotional products to advertise your wholesale business. Experts believe that it is one of the best forms of marketing nowadays and companies spend a lot of time in picking up the best products to give to their customers.

All that matters for marketers is to get the maximum out of any marketing activity. Almost every wholesale trader is following this (promotional products) trend but the question is; is this trend worth following? And is it working as much it should? If it is not, then how we can reap benefits out of it?

According to experts, following the specific product to use as promotional product may be useless now, so wholesale businesses must study the trend further to include few more products in this category. Remember promotional products are used to get instant attention and larger exposure for your wholesale business. Giving away the same kind of promotional products like other wholesale businesses might work against your business.

Therefore, it is advised that rather than following the current hype of promotional products trends, conduct an independent research and find out the products that can really be helpful for your businesses. For instance, for stationery items wholesale traders, using steel pens can be good promotional items but for clothing wholesalers cannot reap the same benefits from the same items so they may consider giving away customized cloth bags.

Few other things must also be considered such as the products must be customized according to your business needs so that your current and potential customers must recognize your message instantly. Majority of people are cautious about environment so your promotional products must be eco-friendly, according to current fashion, of higher quality and most importantly products must be easy to use.

Try to customize products according to your company style like rather than using your company name in plain words, you may use company logo to match with your company name.

The Best business opportunities during recession

2011-10-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days when you needed a hefty capital to start wholesale business and make your dreams, of becoming a wholesale entrepreneur, come true. In most cases, capital is believed to be the basic entry barrier but you must know that, before you actually start a wholesale business, there are some things to scrutinize. Prior to deciding the best business niche and the suppliers you would deal with, it is important to know some of the business opportunities, which can be commenced at low capital. Be very specific about the business niche, which you plan to deal in and adjust the wholesale business execution strategy accordingly.

First thing first, you got do proper research to find out the potential of your business niche in the market and what “value for money” it can offer. Identify your customer base and plan the business ideas, which can interest and intrigue that customer base. Secondly, at the beginning of your business, the storage space wouldn’t be much of an issue as you cannot start the business with all your cards in. Your house or a small place on rent can temporarily act as the warehouse.

Small Wholesale Business Opportunities!
Once you are done with the planning phase, the next step is to look for different business opportunities and find the best deal.

Financial Consultancy!
Due to market condition and economic downturn, it is highly recommended to begin with the financial consultancy for your wholesale business after deciding on the particular business opportunity. To wholesale traders lose their investments because they could not sell out wholesale products and services, is a common thing. If you have been wise right from the starting of your business by carefully researching and planning everything, you would be a position to offer professional advices to the suppliers who just couldn’t do that. If you do this consulting thing with more focus on the details and market research, wholesale business consulting could become your primary profession.

Food Business!
If you cannot offer a piece of advice to other wholesalers, you can start a low-cost food business at local level as it has the potential to go well in the recession. For instance, you can start delivering packaged food items to retail shops, large shopping malls or directly to office goers. Another way is to start delivering food items to retailers at discount rates or you may start delivering the spices in bulk such as salt, sugar, and dozens of other exotic spices which make the food irresistible.

Cosmetics Business!
Beauty products can never go out of demand because people, especially women can never stop spending money on their looks. At the point where you start your business, setting up a manufacturing plant for cosmetics would be too much to expect but becoming a wholesale cosmetic supplier would not be. These wholesale products have the potential to ensure steady flow of profit.

Wise Marketing techniques to attract eBay buyers

2011-09-13T03:01:00.000-07:00

You might have heard the success stories of eBay wholesalers who started selling simple products through eBay as a part time business and now their success have pushed them to make this hobby as their permanent trading source of living. On other hand, you might also have heard people who were unable to sell through eBay and complain about its features and operations.

Being successful in selling through eBay is an art and to master this art, the seller needs to adopt certain marketing techniques. Most of the new sellers remain confused about the ways to attract buyers, which is the main essence of marketing. Buyers are becoming more and cleverer and they are well familiar with the rule of Caveat Emptor. If you don’t know wise techniques to lure them, you can be out of the game.

I am discussing some useful marketing techniques that are necessary to attract eBay buyers. These are specialization in your niche, active participation in Groups and Discussions and offering free gifts to the customers.

Specialize in your Niche:

In order to attract buyers, you should specialise your niche. It does not mean that you sell only one kind of product but it means to choose a specific category in selection of a product. I have seen people selling car spare parts and women clothing side by side. These two categories are not alike which give buyer a big impression of confusion. He can think of you as unprofessional and an occasional seller and might not trust in you.

While on other hand if clothing suppliers specialise in their niche, buyer gets an impression that sellers are the professional ones irrespective of the fact if they sell children clothing or adults clothing. If you do want to sell other lines then the simple solution is to have another ID on eBay as it allows multiple IDs and multiple product listings. So specialization gives potential buyers a positive impression, which can increase their sales.

Participation in Groups and Discussions:

Remember! Imparting valuable knowledge to others can boost your reputation in the eyes of the buyers. When you participate in groups and discussions and answer questions and give replies to discussions, your reputation on eBay gradually boosts. Almost all eBay buyers and sellers ask questions on community forums and help each other by resolving problems or confusions of one another. This would make you an honest and helping person and they will surely love to deal with you.

Offer Freebies:

Offering freebies to buyers make them happy and they just love it. Offering freebies does not mean that you have to give buyers huge gifts or offers that are special. There are many booksellers who often include a paper back book or there are many clothing suppliers who include fancy napkins and stuff like that as free gifts. The idea of free gifts is to make buyers happy and make sure that they get more than what they expect from you. This ultimately changes the buyers’ perception and your business gets more customers coming back to you for more.

Franchise – Benefits of becoming a Franchisee?

2011-05-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Franchise has been one of the most widely know methods of running a business. In this type of business usually there are two parties involved. Franchising is mainly a concept of opening further branches of your business by partnering with other investors. Franchising has become very famous with the time. The reason is very simple and straight forward. Franchising is beneficial for both the franchiser and the franchisee both. For the franchiser, the most important consideration is the expansion of his business. It is very difficult for the franchiser to expand on his own, by investing himself. If he tries to do that, it will take much more time. The effort will be more decentralized and this will also result in mismanagements at mass levels.

If for example the franchiser had the management ability to expand, even then they may need to have a lot of capital in hand to materialize his dream. By offering a franchise, they can not only expand, but expand at a very rapid rate. In this way the business has a wider presence, and they still own a sufficient portion of the business. He can transfer all his technology without transferring the title of the ownership to any one else. All his copy rights regarding making of the products or the idea behind the services remains in his own control. Franchisee or the person who has invested into the franchise for a share in the business proceedings has also got a lot of benefits on his end. One of the best advantages for the franchisee is that he is investing into something that has already been a success story. This not only helps minimize the risk but also makes it easier for the franchisee to attract new customers. Starting one’s own business from scratch is very costly and difficult. It is very difficult for an entrepreneur to establish its brand name over night. This needs years of brand equity building for the customers. By opting for a franchise, the franchisee has been able to save a lot of cost associated with the advertising of the business.

Next bigger challenge for an entrepreneur is to implement and successfully run a business model planned in his own mind. For that he requires to tweak his management a lot to get a final best mix of the most successful business running. On the other hand, if any problem occurs for a franchisee during the running of a franchise, then the franchisee can always ask for a helping hand from the franchiser to sort the issues out. It is also very challenging for an entrepreneur to run along with the new development stages of his business. On the contrary, a franchisee has nothing to worry about. He gets all the upgrades without any of the hassles. These are some of the major considerations which result into creation of franchises and are helpful for both franchiser and franchisee.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Evaluating business ideas before you put in your resources

2011-05-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

All business ideas have something in common, all of them sounds great when they first come to your mind. It’s only after you start poring over these ideas, the loopholes start to appear and sometimes these ideas are rejected right away, others are postponed and only few of them gets “a go ahead”. So far so good, but at times trying these ideas (and eventually failing) means a huge loss in terms of finances or other resources. Sometimes, it just happens despite careful evaluation and pre-planning but most of the times it is a result of slipshod planning and little or no assessment. Given, that it doesn’t take anything but some time to carefully evaluate a business idea, it is a must to scrutinize an idea before you invest, no matter how eager you are to give it a go.

Idea evaluation should always be carried out by more than one person (especially if the person is also the originator of that idea). If it is an expansion idea, the head of all departments should come together and discuss. If it is an idea about starting a new business, you should contact the experienced persons in your friend and families and ask for their opinion. Ask others to come up with constructive criticism and write down all plus and minuses, don’t get too bogged down if you get negative opinions from most of your friends. Just compare pros against the cons and decide if the idea is worth giving a try or not.

Ideally the product or service in question must have some unique features; if the product is not unique then you must make sure that the demand is there. If the demand is not there and the product or service has no competitive advantage to boost, it will most probably be a waste of resources to launch this product. Make estimated figures of the start up cost and the cost of running the business and see if the idea is profitable or not, don’t start some business for the sake of it. There are many aspects to peruse, for example the size of market, barriers of entry, exit plan (yes every business plan must have one), profitability, target market, pricing, etc. Also, you must do a test run before fully launching your product or service to see the actual demand, doing this test run will also give you an idea about your personal capacity and the possible barriers.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers Directory

Etiquettes for writing Business Email

2011-05-02T02:55:00.000-07:00

Globalization is shrinking the world to newer levels. Faster means of transport and communication have put greater responsibility on our actions. An unintended communication at the speed of light can result into an uncontrollable disaster. Remember the good old days when there use to be companies proud to deliver your communications in time. Businesses find it very easy to communicate with the advent of email. Few however realize the hazards attached to an abusive use of email service. Some of these uses can lead to losing a deal to a business crash. Email allows you to send the same message to many other businesses you are dealing with simultaneously. That makes it more powerful and also more vulnerable to miss communicate. Let’s discuss some of the most important aspects of email to be understood and well taken care of.

First of all it is very necessary for us to understand that email has a lot faster response time then the conventional mail, so each word written and each format followed makes a hell of difference. Every email written must be well written in terms of its grammar and spell check. Its subject line should be catchy enough to grab the attention of the receiver. A carelessly scribed subject would not grab the notice of the receiver. A well thought out thing in writing email subject is the realization of other person’s time. This age of connectivity has connected the people too well. So don’t expect to be the only one sending an email to the receiver. Other sensed empathy for the receiver is the email itself. Writing a well regarded email is not difficult, only if you assume what qualities you wish to see in emails your receive.

Avoid writing unnecessarily long sentences. They don’t only waste the receiver’s time but also arise confusion of the theme behind the email. Following long sentences often results into confusion and utterly loosing control over the though process following. Be precise and use sentences with appropriate number of words. Never think of being perfect in communication. When you have the facility why shouldn’t you avail that? Always use the spell checker by the email service provider to ensure your email should be taken seriously. If in case you don’t have a spell checker integrated into your email service, then try using a word processor like Microsoft Word. A well spelled email will ensure that the receiver doesn’t doubt your command on language and takes your email seriously. Only spell checking an email won’t be enough to have the right results from the email. Proof reading is must. No matter how much confident you are about your emailing ability. Proof reading does two jobs for you. One is avoiding clumsy construction of sentences. Second is the overall meaning you intend your email to convey. Reading will let you know what you meant to convey and how effectively your email did that.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Entrepreneurship and “The Recession Saga"

2011-04-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

Recession cloud has been dominating the business scene for some time. Future predictions don’t see so much change in the near time. Businesses no matter big or small are feeling the pinch and always thinking about how to get them out of this slump. Ever since the realization of the big recession, things have never been the same again. A lot of things have been happening and only few have bear fruit if any. Stimulus packages to cost cutting and restructuring are some of the major changes made to make things roll back again. Entrepreneurs are also in deep trouble as sales have not been even near the mark since long. Change has been through our businesses and should be taken as an emergency situation. Entrepreneurs though very enthusiastic about their businesses but they should also keep in mind those cash flows are hard to come by so money should be spent in a wise manner. Only necessary expansions should be carried out. Once the change is realized, it will easier to determine the future course of action. It must be noted that revenue generation happens through the contribution of different departments. Secondly an approach that is sustainable in the longer run should be adopted.

Recession is a situation we all are facing globally, but we also know that different regions have different scales of recession. One size doesn’t fit all is the case. Problems are different, so are the solutions. Localized approach should be used to determine what a particular business is facing and try to first eliminate those problems. We cannot look at the same string of restructuring and downsizing for example. We have different labor laws and union’s negotiation powers. Some of these problems arising from recession are indirectly affecting our business while others pinching our profits. Priority should be given to the ones that are directly influencing the profit making ability, for long term survivability and then the factors affecting the firm indirectly should be made accountable. One other thing that we always forget is that recession has different meanings for different countries and their respective business organizations. There may be countries badly affected by the recession and then other countries and their business would have almost no effect on their businesses. Recession is a scenario which every entrepreneur should be worried about and communicate it through its hierarchy. It is must for the employees to be communicated regarding the costs the company is paying to retain them and how can they be effective to help the company to get out of this tricky situation. So if you are ready to take the recession seriously and are a proactive entrepreneur then you don’t have to worry. On the other hand if you think nothing bad happening can affect you then think twice about the big corporations who are ceasing to exit in months’ time.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Elements of a Mission Statement

2011-04-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

No one can deny the importance of a mission statement in motivating a business. Mission statement not only helps the business to remain on its track but also helps determining the very purpose of its existence. Finding a perfect mission statement is never possible. Mission statements are made, followed and updated continuously. Updates are made due to many reasons like change in business, change in business philosophy or any other major change that would result in substantial deviation for the organization from the earlier path it laid down in its mission statement. There are nine elements which involve in making a mission statement. Each good mission statement incorporates all of these elements in it. These elements are.

1.Customers
2.Products or Services
3.Markets
4.Technology
5.Concern for survival, growth and profitability
6.Philosophy
7.Self concept
8.Concern for public image
9.Concern for employees

Here is a glimpse of what each of these elements states about in a mission statement

1.Customers
In this element the organization mentions who are its customers or potential customers. What will it do to serve them and how will its customers find this organization different from the other organizations providing similar products or services in the market.

2.Products or Services
In mission statement a business has to mention the producer or service or both they are providing. By defining products or services the company distinguishes its offered products or services from competitive products or services of similar nature provided by other competitors in the market.

3.Markets
By defining markets, the company is declaring which types of customers it will target. Or who will be the intended audience for which it will produce products or services. For example, a luxury car maker like Rolls Royce has a potential market of only the richest of the rich in the world.

4.Technology
By defining technology, the company tells its current technology use in making of its products. It also tells about the unique ways in which its products or services are technologically more advanced then their alternates.

5.Concern for survival, growth and profitability
In this element of the mission statement business defines the means it seeks to survive in the longer run. It not merely lists them out but also defines the logic behind them and how will the company strive to achieve them.

6.Philosophy
Philosophy of a company is a much wider term to cover. By defining philosophy, the company defines its way of working, its culture, its beliefs and how it sees work to be carried out. It is also an analytical way of defining the norms on which it runs.

7.Self concept
By defining the self concept, the business is telling its heart out to the world. In this the company shows the outside world, its core strengths and the place it sees itself in the future.

8.Concern for public image
The buzz word is usually corporate social responsibility mixed with concern for public image. First of all these two terms are totally different and they can by no means be intermingled with each other. Corporate social responsibility points the ways in which the business wants to contribute towards the betterment of the society. Concern for public image is a much wider term and can include not only the corporate social responsibility but the overall impact of the actions taken by the company on its image. This may include from minor issues like installing manufacturing recycling plants by a company for pollution reduction to improve its packaging to enhance a better brand image for one of its top line brands.

9.Concern for employees
Earlier day corporations didn’t care much about their employees. Thankfully the trend has started shifting from no focus to a lot of concentration on working environment. In a mission statement a company also defines the ways in which it is beneficial for potential and currently working employees to work at a certain organization. This also includes the ways in which the company will treat its employees and how will it look towards this relation in a longer period of time.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Different types of online scams and how to avoid

2011-04-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Along with individuals, entrepreneurs, students, professionals, internet has also been extremely helpful to scammers. Just like the internet provided a great opportunity to small businesses to reach out and find buyers from all over the world, scammers can also prey at victims* from all over the world, just like the students can make use of various techniques to acquire more and more knowledge, scammers can also employ techniques as hacking, forgery* and the likes. Where the online marketers are always thinking of new ways of doing business, making sales, converting leads into sales, scammers are also thinking hard to defraud people in new ways.

Work at Home:
Of course, lots of people work from homes and it has transformed into an industry. But that only makes it worse, because people can see other people working and earning from their homes, they fall easily for these work at home offers and pay some sort of registration fee. Whole websites are dedicated to lure people and it’s not easy to differentiate between the real and the fake ones. So what’s the best way to see if they are fake or real? There’s no fool proof way to do that, therefore the best bet is to don’t pay any kind of fee to any of these work at home companies. There are very few companies who actually provide this kind of jobs but they wouldn’t be asking for any registration and they won’t be promising big dollars for little amount of work either.

Billionaire & Six figure Income:
Often, you’d have been to some website of an “allegedly” billionaire, who narrates his success story and then tries to sell his secret to you. These “getting rich quickly” stories are enticing and they make you miss one obvious point. The person who’s selling his secret to you is already a billionaire and he’s comfortably earning billions right now so what’s the point of selling their secret to others for a minimal amount? Billionaires aren’t supposed to go for these small profits, second selling their secret means they are inviting lots of competition that will only slash their own profits. Therefore these schemes have fraud written all over them.

Money Transfer:
This is another very, very common type of online fraud. Doesn’t matter which email service are you using, this email must have reached your inbox at some point of time. That narrates some tragic story; praise your nobleness, and concludes with a request to help the sender transfer, a huge amount of money. You don’t even need to put a fraud-check to these emails because these are confirmed imposters.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Dealing with difficult employees as a manager

2011-04-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

Often people complain that their boss is not good. He takes them for granted. He doesn’t appreciate their true efforts. He has no heart and is only a number crunching robot. He doesn’t care about their emotions at all and he doesn’t know how to treat human beings. Well that is a story we all have heard about. What about other side of the flip? Have you ever been a boss yourself? If you were one, then you definitely know that it is not an easy task to be one. Being boss means taking responsibility. That is taking the responsibility of your actions alone but as well as of those whom you can only influence, but they will do the things they want to do. During this tug of war, many problems arise and get solved by the boss on a daily basis. However, there are problems that need extra skills to get them done out of your way. These problems are usually unique in nature and vary from case to case. These problems arise due to the difficult to handle employees. No company can go into the job market and pick out perfect employees. It is extremely difficult to find the right kind of guy for each job.

There will be situations when being boss you will have to deal with an extremely tough nut to crack. At this time you would wish, that you are not the boss. People have always been in this situation and will always be. The need is to understand that you shouldn’t be too aggressive while dealing with these employees. If such a situation arises where you have to deal with someone really difficult, then the first rule of thumb is to never confront straight with that employee. Second important thing is to try to get information on the situation from as many sources as possible. Try to make a neutral picture of the whole scenario. Once you are able to conclude what happened, then call in the employees involved in the conflict turn by turn. Ask each of them what happened individually. Try to convince the more normal being that the company knows that he’s right, and he doesn’t have to worry. At the same time, the problem maker should be warned in a diplomatic way, so the distress of the company on the event should also be conveyed in a lighter manner. If you have a problem making employee, other employees should be directly or indirectly conveyed about the condition of that employee. Last very important thing is that the boss or any other employee should never try to over react over a problem arising due to the problematic employee. A silence and patience in itself will deliver a greater lesson to the employee.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Consumer Sales Promotion – Doing it the Right Way

2011-04-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

Sales promotion plays a vital role in promoting the products and its sales. As sales promotion is an activity directed towards the channel members as well as the end consumers. Each type of sales promotion has different types of activities involved like sales promotional tools that work good for wholesalers and distributors may not be appropriate for consumers. Similarly, sales promotion tools deployed for end consumers may be ineffective when employed against the wholesalers and retailers. Some of the most widely used ways to entice customers are discussed here:

1.Lucky draws
2.Free samples
3.Loyalty rewarding
4.Free product extras
5.Events invites
6.Discount coupons
7.Special price offers for limited periods
8.Trading opportunities
9.Consumer involvement in product design (lays chips)

1.Lucky draws
In this type of sales promotion the company usually asks the customers to send the empty packets or coupons of the product. The company then announces special prizes for the lucky ones out of draw. This scheme in the past has significant impact on the sales increase. This is one of the most costly methods of sales promotion but can have instant impact, provided the whole campaign has been handled well.

2.Free samples
This kind of technique is employed for either a new company and its new product or an existing company with a new product. At times the product’s packaging is changed. This also needs to be communicated to the customer. In this case small number of free samples is also given to the customers. Usually this method is used for two purposes. First is that customers should be able to identify the product. Second, the customer should use it without cost to know the utility he can derive from the use of that product. A company that persuades costumers through its products quality but due to lack of customer’s attention towards the specific product usually tries it to take advantage from this kind of promotion.

3.Loyalty rewarding
Under this method a company rewards customers for his regular purchase of the product or service offered. This technique not only helps to retain customers, but also making this realization to customer that company values his decision to purchase its products.

4.Free product extras
When the competition amongst companies on certain products gets intense, they often struggle hard to get the attention of their customers. When the products of different companies usually provide the same utility, then customers start comparing their prices and quantities. Usually a company charging more money for smaller quantities has to readjust its quantities or give some extra quantity in same price.

5.Events invites
At times the companies want to see the direct reactions of the customers to their products. In this search, companies often try to organize events that involve competitions while consuming their products. Like a detergent maker might hold a competition amongst house wives for washing clothes or other fun relating activities like a paint competition among kids. It is not necessary that the company’s events directly relate to its product. The company however tries its best to establish a connection, so it can promote the use of its products.

6.Discount coupons
Discount coupons are also one of the most widely used methods by a company to promote its products. In this method the company sends discount coupons hidden in its boxes. The customer who gets the discount coupons is sure to get the benefit. So he will usually make the purchases at discounted rates. Companies at times give time limits attached to the coupon. By including this intended pun, the companies cleverly make the customers go for purchases within a specified time. This helps company boost its sales for a specified period of time.

7.Special price offers for limited periods
In this case the company’s target is to increase sales only for a specific period. The company offers products at discounted rates for limited time.

8.Trading opportunities
Some of the companies also offer a trade in for older products. There are hundred of examples on it. For example television makers have long used this technique. By this way the consumers are given some reimbursement on the new purchase made.

9.Consumer involvement in product design
There is another sales promotion method which is very unique and advance. This type of method has been in vogue for quite some time now. One of the major benefits of this method is that when the consumer is involved in making of a product, he then not only appreciates the product but also uses it. He considers it as a product of his own creativity.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Comparing Online stores with Bricks and mortar stores

2011-03-31T22:50:00.000-07:00

Online shopping is fast becoming the norm with people buying everything on internet from books to DVDs, and cosmetics to heavy machinery. You can purchase just about anything, anytime on internet. There is a tremendous growth in the numbers of dollars spent every year on online shopping, which is fast, far more convenient and economical, all at the same time. However, shopping from an online store is an entirely different experience and not everyone is at ease while buying from a website, especially those who are not on the ball and well-informed about new technologies.
Let’s compare online stores with conventional stores and look at its advantages or disadvantages.

Advantages:
Online shopping is all about expediency, ease for both buyers and sellers is the biggest plus point of online shopping. To start with the buyer, first of all you don’t need to store products in large quantities, instead you can place images of products at your website and purchase from manufacturer only when someone place an order (especially when you are acting as a dropshipper). The real advantage that online shopping brings to the customers is the option of carrying out research and price comparisons on internet. It’s a matter of minutes to get hold of the information about different products, including their features, reviews, customer experiences and price comparisons for any given requirement. Even those who don’t buy online, likes to surf around for some information regarding a particular product. Such extensive information and research is almost impossible in a traditional store where you are stuck with limited options. Also, online stores are open 24 hours, whole product selection and payment takes little time and the product is delivered to your doorstep.

Disadvantages:
Biggest disadvantage at the moment is probably the access factor, not everybody has the access or the knowledge required to use internet for shopping purpose. One needs to be adept in searching and surfing internet, because the nature of online shopping makes internet an ideal place for scammers. In case you’re caught in the trap of some scammer, it’s really hard to recover your money, once you’ve made the payment. Therefore, some people are always reluctant to buy online; there are very few laws and regulations to keep online businesses under check. Even if the supplier is not fraud, the actual product can turn out to be completely opposite to what you had conceived after looking at the image. If you are running an online store, you must consider these reservations.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Causes of Economic Recession and Our Attitude

2011-03-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

Business Cycle refers to the relatively long term fluctuations in economic activities or production side and contraction in Business Cycle or slowing down of economic activities is called Economic (Financial) Recession. A lot of theories can be provided to present the macro causes of Economic Recession. Few of which are collapsing down of property business, hiking up of energy prices, fading of business profits, high interest rates, weakening of job market, drop down in tax revenue and drop-off in business investments by foreign and local investors in many countries. These are all indicators that give bearish trend to the stock market. But many experts around the globe believe that a rigorous economic recession is a result of negative GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth in many successive periods.

The economic recession cycle is based on several continuous phases of positive and negative GDP growth. Often, it is observed that before a true recession starts a mild cycle of negative growth is followed by a slight positive growth in GDP and then again the same cycle of negative growth starts and so the recession trend elaborates. A lot of people are affected by economic recession and it becomes harder for almost everyone to survive in this tough span. Generally, government or administration is blamed for this state during this time. According to experts, recession is unavoidable to some extent and its causes are not well understood but the administration has some influence in the degree of recession. The government must take some beneficial steps to soften the impacts of recession on common people. Most of the time the steps taken appear to be unsuccessful but still the government should put some effort to make the recession less severe.

We hardly get to know officially that we are into some kind of financial crisis and we seriously need to do something to get out of it. As one expert said, that "Part of the problem is just not knowing, the longer the process of not knowing what the losses are takes, the longer the resolution takes." Working well and working together in one direction can be like a light at the end of a tunnel and all must march towards that end.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Business Presentation: The Basics

2011-03-24T02:35:00.000-07:00

Business presentations not only speak for the person presenting them but also reflect the image of the organization for which they are presented. An effective presentation can result into creating success stories for an organization. A bad presentation on other hand will let down the business. There are some basics, though important to presentations that help us make better presentations. First thing to be concerned about is the time and interest of the audience. The most precious your audience’s time is, more important it will become to stick to the basics.

Presentations can become very challenging at times. Choosy audience and competitive environment in business puts much more responsibility on presenter to have a more focused approach. Presentation should contain only necessary information in a compact manner. Lengthy sentences should be avoided and one word substitution with one line phrases should be more appropriate. Professional approach should also be used in selecting the slide template and layout. Unnecessary or irritating colors can obstruct the ability to read and understand the words and resulting in uninterested audience. Don’t use capital letters unnecessarily, as that would distort the real message and confuse the audience as to what is important and what is not. Punctuation marks should also be used carefully and only when needed. Some of our business professionals are over obsessed with aesthetics of the presentation. They start finding new and unique styles of fonts (e.g., cowboy fonts or etc). They should understand that audience is only interested in the real message and aesthetics are only there to support the message. Unnecessary focus on aesthetics can stress the audience.

Colors play a vital role in presentations making. Intelligent use of colors not only increases the readability of the presentation but also gives it a professional look. Length of the presentation also counts. First of all the audience should be given a rough view of the outline of the presentation. And lengthy presentations should only be made once required. The length count will help audience realize the time it would take them to get through all presentation proceedings. Using large number of slides is not a very suitable option and their use should also be limited to need. Picture is worth a thousand words. Graphs, pictures and charts not only help reduce the amount of words and slides used, but also grace the presentation with colors. Their use helps the audience correlate a lot of information simultaneously. Animation effects should also be used sparsely, as their overload will result in distortion. Last but not the least is the portability of your presentation. It is important to make a presentation that runs on that computer on which you have to present. There have been format problems as well in word processors. For example it is better to save in old and new format of Microsoft Office Power Point, or else you can land yourself in trouble if the PC on which you are going to present has a different version of Microsoft Office Power Point then the one on which you are making the presentation. Caring these simple basics is sure to help you remain focused and make more effective presentations.

Source:
Pakistan Real Estate
Dubai Properties

Business Conflict – A Myth or Reality?

2011-03-21T02:30:00.000-07:00

Often business organizations are run by mere humans actually working robotically and not withstanding the requirement of real humans made up of flesh, blood, and thinking ability. That lack of contribution to the optimism and prosperity can be attributable to many things. One of the major factors responsible for this unattractive interaction is the conflict prevailing in business organizations. There are many who think of conflict as a source of negativity, and they don’t question the ways to do work? They keep on doing what they are suppose to do, without thinking that is it the way they want to do it? Well that might be taken easily by some, but mind you, serious entrepreneurs and senior management who think of their organizations as manifestations of creativity, do take it seriously. If you want to know why then read on, because it is important to know what fuels the passion and desire to work for an organization and the hardest challenge for the employers.

First and foremost thing is the fear of rejection and putting one’s job on line for being so open about how a work is performed. Open communication is a cultural thing, and starts from the top. If open communication is not encouraged in an organization, then people would never have their say through because of the fears being settled in. Now someone might ask, what difference will it make to communicate or not what one feels while working in an organization. That makes all the difference in the world, for a second, just think of working in a jail. Where you know that you are there for a time being, you don’t have any say, and your participation is highly discouraged. You will eventually start shutting your mind at work on regular basis and will eventually feel that you have to do with the things the way they are. That would result in negativity towards the organization, its culture and its working environment. Conflict then doesn’t only mean the major things, but it starts from minor issues.

Open communication discourages conflicts, though one has to have the heart to encourage as well as reward the ones who are right. This culture will eventually make people share their ideas, make organizations a better place to work in and also a better organization to share views with. Just think about an organization where the employee comes in the morning with a lot of ideas to share with and get praise on, with another organization where an employee comes with low self esteem, cluttered mind and unsatisfied job with no creativity at hand. Though this might look to some as encouraging conflicts unnecessarily, ideas should be discussed in open and voted for to get the real thought on top. As businesses are made by people, so they should be flexible enough to include what the people think of their work and how can they be facilitated to further improve the business working environment.

Source:
Wholesale
UK Wholesale

Budgeting Tips for small business start ups

2011-03-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

In simple words budget is an estimation of all costs, expenditures and of course the profits you might incur in a specific time period, budgets are made normally on yearly or quarterly basis. Just like any other plan, it’s better to put your financial plans in writing. It’s easier to analyze and improve a documented plan which is in front of your eyes instead of analyzing bits and pieces in your mind. A budget can also help in pinpointing the culprits (biggest expenditures); you can make changes on sheet and see the impacts in overall profit/loss of your business. Big businesses have got their financial experts to do this planning, however not all small businesses need to hire such experts. You can do it yourself by keeping in mind the following guidelines.

First, no matter how tightfisted you are, do not play down the expenditures. In other words, employ as many of your cost saving skills in actual business dealings as you can, but don’t give too much weight to these skills while budgeting. For the reason that it will make your business look a lot more profitable then what it will turn out to be. Therefore, don’t be too positive when making estimates for expenditures and profits. The toughest part of budgeting is to make estimation for future sales, no matter how much research you’ve carried out, you can never predict sales with accuracy. If you’ve got some sales or marketing staff, you must discuss and ask them to make sales predictions based on their experience.

You can get lots of small business budgeting templates at internet for free, where you just need to put values and you’ll get the total amount for sales, revenues and profit/loss. These templates are designed by professionals, and they will prompt some expenditure that you’d have forgotten to include. Coming to the second part, which is review and correction. Don’t worry if you found the actual expenditures or profits are different from the budgeted amount (it was supposed to happen because a budget is after all an estimation). Another thing to remember is that your small business budget is not some commandment that must be followed and not be changed. You must keep an eye on the actual expenditures and keep reviewing your budget on regular basis, especially if the budget extends over one year period.

Source:
Wholesale

Brand Name and Celebrity Image to promote business

2011-03-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

Modern Marketing needs more than just developing a product, pricing it attractively and making it accessible in splendor shopping malls. Now a day’s, marketing is one step ahead than it was earlier. It needs to communicate with common people, address their inner fantasy world and attempt to inform consumers that your product (brand) is their ultimate choice. Many companies use known or unknown people to convey their message but how a message is delivered has a greater impact on consumers than the Brand name itself. Messages delivered by media icons or popular sources mostly achieve higher attention and recall that is why advertisers often use celebrities as their brand representative or spokespeople.

Brands are considered to have personalities and identified the characteristics like sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness and zealous and consumers are likely to choose brands whose personalities match their own. So the choice of celebrity is critical that who is going to represent which specific brand. The celebrity must have high recognition, extremely positive high profile, immense likeability and high appropriateness to the product. For example, any sports personality has high recognition but due to involvement in drugs and rude behavior they have negative affect among youth and other groups. Similarly, many media images like Brad Pitt, Sindey Crafford, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Brett Lee and Ronaldino are successfully endorsing a large number of products because they have extremely high positive rankings in recognition and likeability.

Athletes and Sports Personalities usually endorse sporty apparels, shoes, blazers, sport products and sports companies, health and energy drinks. Media icons represent brands that are sophisticated, mild, and create fantasy like designer dresses, watches, cosmetics and fragrances. The known personalities (Celebrities) do not always cast a successful promotion of a specific brand to position in public mind. For example, if someone has a high liking towards a personality but not towards that brand to which he is endorsing, a two way effect can occur, either, the consumer will end up liking that celebrity a bit less or start liking that brand a bit more. But if that person will see his favorite celebrity continuously attached in praising other dislike brands, he or she will eventually develop a negative image of the celebrity and maintains the negative attitudes towards the brand.

According to an expert, a number of companies also use a specific personality to overcome the crisis if their brand faces at some point in time. Because, celebrities have an assuring personalities and they can give a positive reputation to that tangible product.

Source:
UK Wholesale Suppliers

Why do you need to have a merchant account for your online business?

2011-03-07T01:39:00.000-08:00

A question that haunts anyone who is planning to sell his/her products or services on internet is the mode of receiving payments from buyers sitting in another city, state or country. The best and the quickest option is to accept payment through credit or debit cards. There are other alternatives but none as quick and as convenient as this one. Online shopping is all about convenience and speediness, if the buyer has to wait for days before the payment arrives into seller’s account so that he might be able to dispatch the products. Such a lengthy turnaround time destroys the whole advantage of online shopping. In view of that, when you are setting up an online business, you must arrange for a merchant account to be able to accept payments through credit/debit cards. Asking your customers to send checks or money orders just doesn’t fits in.

Merchant Account is a type of bank account that makes it possible for account holder to accept credit card payments from his/her clients. In other words merchant account provider is a service that allows business owners to accept payment via credit/debit card. Though in most cases, you’ll not be dealing directly with merchant account providers, especially if you are a small or medium-sized business. However, the idea is to be able to accept credit card payments, be it through Merchant account providers, Independent Sales Organizations, Payment Processing Companies or Payment Gateways. Let’s take a look at how payment gateways or third party merchant accounts can help you in this regard.

Payment Gateway:

If you are an online business, you must sign up with a payment gateway service. Payment gateway allows you to offer an easy solution to your customers to make on the spot payments. The process starts from customers clicking on the “pay now” button and the whole transaction takes not more than 4 – 5 seconds (even though there’s a lot of data transfer taking place at the backend that includes various parties validating the process).

Third Party Merchant Account:

Third party merchant account is the most convenient and also the most commonly used medium by small businesses. Third party merchant account services serves the same as the traditional merchant account, however the prices differ. Third party merchant account typically cost less than the original merchant account when it comes to setting up an account; however the transaction fee is significantly higher. Some examples of third party payment processors are PayPal or 2co.

Source:
UK Wholesale

What’s an Exit Strategy and why you need to have one in place

2011-03-03T22:07:00.000-08:00

Exit Strategy is one of the most important element of your preliminary business plans (even though you wish that the need of executing these plans will not arise anytime soon). Exit Strategy (also known as an Exit Plan) is the line of action that you may choose in case the going gets too tough to continue. In simple words, it’s the easiest way out of a ruinous situation while incurring the least possible loss. You’ve got to have an exit strategy as a backup plan right from the start instead of waiting for some unfortunate situation to surface, since in most cases the upheaval will be too sudden to tackle on the spot.

Even if there’s no catastrophic situation, you can possibly have other reasons for disengaging from the business that you’ve started (when wrapping off everything is not an option). These reasons can be, you looking to go for another more lucrative venture, or you may be thinking of giving up work for some time, you may also need an exit strategy when planning to sell a running business and sellers are interested in knowing if there’s any exit strategy in place, in case the profits start to go down, putting up an exit strategy will cast positive impression on prospective buyers or investors.

People often make this mistake of ignoring the exit strategy and starting without having any backup plans. Some entrepreneurs are too optimistic to think that anything can go wrong with their business; others are confident that they’ll handle the situation, then and there. Nothing’s wrong with the optimism or confidence but it’s always harder to evaluate and tackle the situation once you are “in” it, the haste or pressure situation can get on your mind, resulting in an erroneous decision. Besides, having an exit strategy will only boost your confidence.

Put these two kinds of entrepreneurs side by side, one starts off without an exit strategy while the other one is having a solid exit plan. Who do you think will crumble more easily and more quickly as soon as the proceeding goes wrong? Quite obviously, the one who’s having an exit plan will immediately get to the task, while the other one will have to do the thinking from the scratch. More often than not, this thinking will eat into the grace period and result in a much bigger loss as compared to the loss incurred by the other fellow.

Source:
Sports Wholesale Suppliers & Distributors

Utilizing demographics in online marketing

2011-02-28T01:56:00.000-08:00

In simple words “demographics” is the data or information about some specific group of population. These groups are formed on the basis of distinctions like age, gender, monthly income, race, education, marital status, etc. The word demographics has stemmed from demography which is the study of population. In modern marketing, marketing persons tend to use psycho graphics in conjunction with demographics (demographics is the classification on the basis of age, sex, race while psycho graphics is the study of their attitudes, values, lifestyle, etc). Though some experts are not in favor of mixing up these two, you shouldn’t be too concerned about making out if the information you are going to use in your marketing falls under the label of demographics or psycho graphics (because in all likelihood you’ll be using both).

Using Demographics in Online Marketing:

The most commonly used demographic profiling is based on age, where we have groups like baby boomers, adults, teens or children. Other profiles include men, women, African American, Generation X, Hispanic, and so on. As you can see, knowing the demographics of your target market is imperative when making your marketing strategy or advertisement, or else you’ll be shooting in dark when making your marketing strategy. Therefore, the first thing when planning your internet marketing campaign is to make a demographic profile of your target market.

For example, if you are going to start an extreme sports blog, you must be aware of the fact that the majority of the visitors will be coming from the age group of say 18 to 35, most of them men (the figures are not based on some research but just been quoted as an example). Such generalization helps when deciding what kind of ads you can place on your website or what sort of design or features your target audience would like to see.

Similarly, when you are planning to start an e-commerce portal for some specific region, you must get hold of the information like internet usage in that particular region, online habits, online shopping behaviors and the likes. Users from one country or region can typically have quite a different set of habits, preferences, routine, etc. Furthermore, studies have shown a clear difference between the online habits of men and women. You can find plenty of survey reports doing rounds on internet with a focus on online shopping behaviors. Going through these reports and knowing the facts will definitely help as opposed to a marketing plan which has been put together around assumptions or wild guesses.

Source:
USA Wholesale Suppliers, Distributors, Dropshippers & Manufacturers

Things to remember when searching for job

2011-02-24T22:49:00.000-08:00

Recent economic crisis has left many people unemployed. Being out of work for an extended period is a terrible experience to have, especially when you are the sole earner in your family. At these times, the only thing that lingers in your mind when searching for a job is that “you are jobless”. Such stressful situation can hurt your chances of getting a job because you are not able to do your best in job interviews, mainly because your mind stays overwhelmed with the worries and concerns. Therefore, the first thing you should do is to get a little loosen up, to let your mind work more freely and clearly.

Next step is to find a vacancy in your respective field. This part is not difficult, thanks to the Internet where you can find a number of portals to assist you in job search. You can upload your curriculum vitae at each of these websites and all it takes is a search with relevant keywords and a click on “apply now” button and your CV will be forwarded to the employer. If you’ve got the right qualification or experience, you can be sure of an interview call in most cases.

Some candidates get to the interviews with a negative frame of mind, thinking that there’s no way they can be selected. The truth is that most of the short listed candidates have fairly equivalent credentials; it is only after the interview that employers make their minds to select/reject a candidate, which means, you should approach every interview with positive mind and confidence. Don’t try too hard to impress the interviewee because you might end up talking too much, and whenever there is excessive talk, there’s every chance that you’ll come up with some thoughtless remarks or answers, resulting in a rejection.

Always follow up by sending a thank you letter (or email) to the employer after the interview. Tell them that it was a pleasant experience and you’re thoroughly impressed with their approach (yes, a little flatter can go a long way). Besides, follow up letter is a great way to put forward some of your plus points that you forgot to mention during the interview. In the end, whenever you receive a job offer, take some time to weigh up the salary and benefits against the duties you’ll have to perform. However, be practical instead of being greedy, especially in such circumstances when new jobs opening are already scarce to the point of non-existence.

Source:
Computer Wholesale Suppliers

Some basic ways to improve your business liquidity

2011-02-21T03:07:00.000-08:00

The liquidity of an asset can be determined by taking into account the convenience, when converting it into cash at any given time. For example, an asset is highly liquid if it can be switched into cash quickly and easily, whereas an asset is less liquid if it takes lots of time and efforts to convert it into cash. Liquidity is an important factor, which is considered by investors whenever they are looking to invest. When we talk of business liquidity, it is the ability of some specific business to arrange cash for its daily requirements. A business can be profitable and all, but it can still fail to prosper if it lacks in liquidity department. Business liquidity is necessary to carry routine business operations, for example paying utility bills, wages and fulfilling other obligations.

Cash management and liquidity:
Business liquidity is directly related to cash management that includes budgeting, forecasting, ROI, cash collection & allocation, and the likes. Poor cash management can hurt business liquidity in many ways. Finance managers must consider liquidity risk every time they are looking to invest the capital in any venture; also they need to monitor cash flow closely.

Account Payable & Receivables:
When you’ve got lots of sale and purchase going on credit basis, you need to keep an eye on your account receivable, as well as account payable. The idea is to try and collect payments as soon as possible, while trying to delay payments which are due (while staying in ethical limits and not bullying your creditors). Encourage customers to pay in cash, remember cash is the king, even more so in times of recession.

Don’t stack useless assets:
Some businesses make the mistake of piling up assets that are not really useful at that particular time. These assets can be some seldom-used vehicles, vacant land, useless furniture, inventory or machinery that they don’t need at the moment. Sometimes renting or outsourcing can do the job, therefore you don’t really need to purchase all sorts of equipment every time the slightest need arises.

Choose the right investment:
When the company holds cash that exceeds its present expenditures, the excessive amount must be invested instead of holding (because of opportunity cost). However, the people responsible for choosing investment options must keep the liquidity factor in mind. Try to avoid investments that lack in liquidity, and keep an eye on future expenses as well.

Source:
UK Wholesale

Price determination – Profit and other contributing factors

2011-02-17T22:31:00.000-08:00

If you are in retail or reselling business, setting price is not a concern, but if you are the manufacturer or producer, or if you are going to provide some sort of services then setting price can be a very difficult job. At times, new startups set prices in a hurry and focus more on making sales, only to find later that even though they’ve made good enough sales, the accumulated profit is not up to the mark. That is why when setting prices; you need to keep each and every cost in mind, along with adjusting the variables like competitor’s price and consumer’s purchasing power into the price. A price too low would bring more sales but no profits, whereas a price too high will bring large profits but very few sales (unless you enjoy some sort of monopoly). Therefore, the price needs to be spot on.

Rule of thumb when setting prices:

Try to kill your competition by setting low price, but make sure you are not choking your own business of profits. Whatever pricing model you use for pricing your products or services just remember this one point; you’ve got to set a price that will give you an edge over your competitor, still providing you with much needed cash to cover your costs while earning some profits. One more thing, the price you set initially is not something written on stone, it can be changed and it should be changed if the initial price doesn’t prove to be the right one for any reason.

Costs & Expenses:

The price should cover the cost of production and advertisement, that’s simple and everybody knows that. Where most businesses go wrong is when they are calculating their costs of doing business, they often overlook the possibility of some future expenses or completely ignore one or two indirect expenses (transportation & depreciation, etc). Therefore, before you start calculating the right price, you must be having an idea of all costs or expenses that will occur in course of business.

Different Prices for Different stages:

If you are just starting, your first goal must be to enter the market and capture as much market share as you can. At this point of time, you probably need a price as low as possible; some businesses even take a risk of setting a price lower than their break-even point. However, once you’ve managed to make inroads, you can raise your price, later when you’ve established as a well known brand, you can always set a price that offers maximum profits.

Source:
Computers Wholesale Suppliers

Improving productivity by removing bad working habits

2011-02-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered how big an impact our habits can have on our destiny? Do you have any idea as to how much of what we do or what we think is actually habitual? You don’t need any stats or figures to understand the gist, as a little bit of pondering will reveal that most of the time what you do is nothing more than you following a pattern, set by No one else but yourself. You are not to be blamed though, because most of the times you were not even aware of the negative bearing some particular habit might have on your career. One wicked thing about bad habits is that they are hard to break, however the good thing about these habits is that we can replace them with new, more productive ones

Punctuality:
Often, we found ourselves reaching late at offices, day after day, despite the fact that we would like to get there in time. It almost works like a curse. Every time you find yourself behind schedule, you make up your mind to be on time from now onwards, only to find yourself behindhand once again, that too for no obvious reasons. There’s no need to describe how unpunctuality can hurt your professional life as everybody is well aware of the importance of punctuality. If your lateness is limited to reaching late at your workplace then maybe all you need to do is to sleep early and use alarm clocks, however if you are behind schedule in most of your business projects or meetings, then you may need some serious planning.

Unprofessional Conduct:
Maintaining a professional behavior is very important. There are many kinds of inappropriate behaviors, for example arrogance, humor, bullying your coworkers or dressing unprofessionally. There should be a friendly environment at the workplace, but some people go overboard and start cracking jokes and calling names in a manner that spoils the working environment. These funny fellows then proceed to ridicule some relatively shy ones, resulting in hostile feelings among the coworkers. Therefore, you must keep your anger, attitude or sense of humor in check while at office. The focus must be on official assignments, all other things (socializing, having fun, gossip) should be secondary.

Wasting time on irrelevant stuff:
One of the very few evils of internet is that it allows us to burn hour after hour of our precious working time, without us even noticing it. There are protocols in place at most offices now; however the time-wasting habit keeps hampering those who work from home.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Hone your skills to provide better customer service on phone

2011-02-10T22:57:00.000-08:00

If you’ve got the experience of calling some company’s helpline and talking to their representatives, you must be having an idea of the difference that the person on the other side of the telephone line can make. Some representatives are able to make a positive impression even before the actual conversation take place. Research shows that a good percentage of angry customers skipped the idea of getting rude and using foul language, just because the person who received the call sounds too polite and erudite. We can safely assume that a big majority of these customers must have skipped the idea of bad mouthing that particular business in front of their friends, as well.

On the contrary, some representatives take pleasure in poking fun at customers and making them feel sorry for even thinking about complaining or making an inquiry. Sometimes it can be due to insufficient training or little or no check over your CSR. Sometimes little things like advising them to call to another number or sending an email to some specific address can prove to be a big enough turnoff (ideally it should be the customer service representative who’ll forward their complains to the concerned department). At times the prospective customer calls a new business and upon hearing a somewhat discourteous greeting, the first thing that comes to his/her mind is “if hiring their services means hearing such displeasing response more often, then there’s no way I m getting into business with these fellows”.

Your customer service staff needs to be au fait with the main idea that they are there for customer’s service. What a “shocking revelation” Mr. writer, you must be thinking, but this obvious point is ignored by customer service staff quite often. CSR people are there to serve the customers, not for giving short answers to their questions and hanging up the phone instantly or take another call. However, it’s not always the customer service staff that makes this mistake, sometimes business owners are themselves the culprits, without even noticing it. If you are a small business and you don’t have the need or resources to hire specialized staff, you must hone your skills to give a better impression.

You don’t necessarily need to join some crash course of improving your telephonic conversation; some mock calls with your family members or friends can give you plenty of advice to work on. All you need is to ask them to comment on your voice quality, selection of words and convincing techniques.

Source:
UK Wholesale Suppliers, Distributors, Dropshippers & Manufacturers
Computers Wholesale Suppliers

Green Business – Change your business into eco-friendly business

2011-02-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

These days business circles are abuzz with the talks of eco friendly practices. New startups and small businesses are keen to jump on eco-friendly bandwagon by adapting environment friendly practices like recycling, green manufacturing, sustainable development or renewable energy. Not only these practices provide small businesses with good projection, but the technologies like recycling or renewable energy are also beneficial to the businesses in terms of cost reduction. “Green business” is a recently introduced phenomenon and it is much more than placing a greenish logo on your products or packaging. In actual fact, Green businesses are enterprises that use natural products, reprocess materials and try to be as energy efficient as they can.

Efficient Use of Energy:
Businesses are keen to minimize energy cost and emissions. Businesses can save a handful on bills by taking initiatives like switching off unnecessary lights or using appliances which are much more energy efficient than the older ones. Energy efficient electronics like computer monitors, cooling systems or lighting systems have in-built programs along together with different kinds of sensors, which helps them save energy in various ways. Buying these appliances or installing new cooling systems may sound a little squandering, however when you look at the amount you can save on bills, it is easily justified.

Environment Friendly Manufacturing:
Manufacturers are quickly realizing that adapting an eco-friendly approach is actually more beneficial for the business itself than it is for the environment. A green manufacturer will focus on the longevity of the products, it won't pile up unnecessary inventory, it'll think of ways to recycle scrap and it wouldn't be wasting resources in over production. As you can see, these are all commonsensical practices. Therefore, green manufacturing is not some useless hoopla; it is in fact a more sensible approach of doing business.

Working for the waste reduction and Recycling:
Waste reduction should be added into the job description of managers or supervisors as an added responsibility. Take the example of paper wastage, which can be reduced significantly by taking small steps. For example, using electronic mail for internal communication or printing on both sides of the paper. Stop purchasing or making use of color printers when you can do with black and white copies. Read the instruction manuals of your electronic appliances like Air Conditioners, generators or printers and follow the instructions, it will maximize their performance while increasing their lifespan. Manager or anybody else who is in charge of purchases should make sure that the need exists before authorizing any purchase.

Source:
China Wholesale Suppliers, Distributors, Dropshippers & Manufacturers
UK Wholesale Suppliers, Distributors, Dropshippers & Manufacturers

Do you need a Sales Compensation Plan?

2011-02-04T01:57:00.000-08:00

Sales Compensation Plan, or in simple words “sales commission plan” is a must to attract and motivate a sales force that delivers. In the absence of a sound Sales Compensation Plan (or in case of poor planning), you’ll keep loosing your sales reps (and eventually your sales) on regular basis. Apart from the motivating factor, it also helps in effective HR management, assisting you in carrying out duties like promotions, downsizing and recruitment. It won’t be an exaggeration if we state that the sales-force works as the engine of a business, by the same token sales commissions can be deemed as the fuel that runs this engine. Good commission means good fuel and good fuel means a more strong and effective engine.

Remember, products are more or less the same; and most of the times it’s the sales representative who can make a difference.

How to devise a practical Sales Compensation Plan:

As it is the case with most management decisions, you’re ought to be fully aware of goals and available resources for your business. As a general rule, sales compensation plan is the combination of basic salaries and sales incentives. Basic salaries are fixed wages that the sales people are going to get every month, irrespective of the number of sales they make. Whereas incentives are sales based commissions and you can add further bonuses on reaching some monthly or quarterly targets. While doing the planning, you must be able to come up with the answers to the questions like what percentage of total sales could you disburse as commissions? Or what’ll be the better option, giving out commission on each sale or when they reach some specific target?

A well planned incentive strategy will go a long way towards making your business a success; on the contrary an insincere plan may cause the collapse in no time. There’s no single structure for a good compensation plan, it differs with the type of business, product, industry, and the job market. Sometimes you must offer good basic salary; sometimes just good incentive package will do the trick. However, many businesses just rely on offering a hefty commission and no base salary; such compensation plan can be counter productive as no sales person will take the job seriously, moreover you won’t be able to execute any kind of control over your workforce, let alone holding anybody accountable. Therefore, you must take everything into consideration before finalizing a compensation plan.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers
UK Wholesale

Consumer's income and its implications on your marketing plans

2011-01-31T01:22:00.000-08:00

Marketing plan is not just a yearly ritual that managers should perform, so as to give an impression of being proficient. If truth be told, a sound marketing plan plays a pivotal role in the success or failure of any product (or product line). Along with many other aspects, a core function of marketing plan is to look at the marketing environment and how it will affect the product in question. Marketing plan comprised of (but is not limited to) taking into consideration the overall situation of the market and economy, consumers, competition, upcoming trends and consumer behavior. Another part of marketing plan is customer segmentation based on different preferences, age, demographics or social class.

The most influential factor in consumer’s purchase pattern is of course, their income. Income plays an important role in distinguishing social class and consumer behaviors. A significant shift in consumer's income can invariably change the way they look and decide about purchasing some specific product. When the income increases, normally the quality of the product and the satisfaction they are getting out of this purchase becomes more important, on the other hand when it goes down, the cost may become the most decisive factor. Consumer’s income is also said to effect the hedonic consumption.

There are other factors for sure; however a shift in income can outweigh many of them. Therefore, when you are in the initial stages of making marketing plan, keep in mind the income level and social class of your targeted customers, and build up your plan around it. You can conduct your own research, to get an idea of the average income of your targeted customers; or you can also rely on secondary resources if you are a small business.

The information will help you in determining future demand for the product, consequently helping you in setting prices for your products. Also, when you are about to launch a new product (or an old product in a new market); you must consider the personal income of your targeted customers. For the reason that they are less likely to spend on trying a new product and experimenting when their income is decreasing, no matter how good the product is, except for when someone comes up with an alternate product or service which is cheaper than the existing one (that is why the recession is the best time for small businesses to get a jump start by providing low cost alternatives to the consumers caught in financial crisis).

Source:
Mobile Phones Wholesale Suppliers
China Wholesale Suppliers, Distributors, Dropshippers & Manufacturers

An overview of Direct Selling as a marketing option

2011-01-28T01:57:00.000-08:00

If you are living in some big town, chances are that you must have been visited occasionally by those sales representatives or distributors who come at your doorstep with some products, trying to convince you into purchasing that particular item by stating numerous benefits and offering a price lower than the market rates. That’s called direct selling, and it has been used as a selling medium for over a decade. Direct selling is not limited to distributors going door to door and selling products, it can also take place via internet or home parties. Generally, these sellers are not regular employees of the company; they are commission agents, working for commissions that they can earn in proportion to the number of sales they make. Bear in mind, direct selling is not the same as direct marketing.

Advantages of Direct Selling:
Direct selling is a growing phenomenon, especially in the developed countries. Now, why’d someone prefer direct selling over the conventional methods that have been practiced for years? First, direct selling is not new to begin with. New companies have been using this tactic for introducing and selling their products to the customers, at their homes or offices. For manufacturers, it provides a relatively inexpensive way to launch the product (all you need to do is to hire some commission agents). These sales people are often self-employed and quite good in this trait. You can outsource this task to small companies with trained sales staff who are good at convincing people. Direct selling is also advantageous for sales people, given it doesn’t need any specific education or experience. Anybody can try his/her luck if one is unemployed (being unemployed is not some prerequisite though). It can turn out to be a very rewarding career in case you succeed.

Disadvantages of Direct Selling:
Direct selling is not practicable if you are looking for mass distribution, large businesses cannot rely solely on direct selling in general. Direct selling cannot completely take over the conventional means of selling, because of the nature of this medium (which requires going door to door). Another disadvantage is the credibility factor, because this method is also employed by some fake or low quality manufacturers, some people might be suspicious of the people insistently trying to sell a product, especially if they are not familiar with the product. Another disadvantage is the possibility of half-hearted effort on part of sales people. For the reason that they are not regular employees, you cannot exert sufficient control over the sales staff.

About the Author
William King is the director of England Wholesale Suppliers & Distributors , Wholesale Trade Suppliers, Distributors & Manufacturers and Australian Wholesalers Directory . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Advantages of Radio Advertising and how to make an effective one?

2011-01-25T01:43:00.000-08:00

Radio is often neglected as an advertising medium by a majority of businesses. Even though, television has completely overshadowed its predecessor as a broadcasting channel, still the numbers of radio listeners is continuously growing with the passage of time. What’s more, when we look on the advantages as compared to the reach and cost associated with radio advertising, it comes out as an extremely useful medium. Radio advertisement costs hardly 5 – 10% of what a TV advertisement can cost (both in terms of the fees for “spot” and the cost of creating an advertisement). On the other hand, impact is not as bad as compared to the differences in cost. As a matter of fact, some radio programs can have a much bigger audience than the television shows. For example “The Rush Limbaugh Show” has an audience that exceeds 20 millions or “The Savage Nation”, which is estimated to have approximately 10 million listeners.

Adding more to the point, majority of radio listeners fall between the ages of 18 – 40, therefore if your products or services are intended for this age group, you must consider radio advertisement. These days radio tuners are available in vehicles or cell phone, resulting in an increasing number of radio listeners. Research suggests that radio is the second best medium, having the kind of reach which is surpassed by television only. Some may believe that the majority of radio listeners are coming from lower income bracket, which is absolutely wrong. The fact of the matter is that radio reaches more than 90% of age 15 or older in United States; hence the question of income level is off the point.

Creating an effective Radio Advertisement:
Radio commercials (or Spots) are sold on the basis of durations (generally of 10, 20, 30, 60 and 120 seconds). Therefore, you must be aware of your budget and the on-air time you’re going to get before creating an ad. The fate of your ad will be decided by the opening; that’s why you should be looking to hook the listener in first 5 seconds, as tough as it may be, but that’s your only chance. It doesn’t matter if you are making use of appealing jingles, straight read or sound effects, there’s no single successful structure that may suit all types of products or services. One advice that holds true for any other advertisement as well is that you’re ought to focus on the customers and their needs (when creating an advertisement) and not on your product.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers
Wholesale Products

A brief introduction of Money market instruments

2011-01-20T23:29:00.000-08:00

The market that helps short term borrowers find the lenders or vice versa, is known as money market (similar to the other financial markets however “short term” is the key word that distinguishes money market from other financial markets). Borrowers go to the money markets when they are in need of short term loan and the lenders provide them with the required financing. However, both borrowers and lenders do not trade in cash. Securities which are traded in money markets are called money market instruments. Following are some of the most commonly used money market instruments.

Commercial Papers:

Normally banks and financial institutions issue commercial paper, which is a promissory note that entitles note holder to get the face amount on a fixed date. Usually commercial papers are issued for short terms and their maturity period ranges from 1 to 270 days. The only guarantee you have when purchasing commercial paper (to get the promised amount or at least the amount you’ve invested) is issued by the bank or corporation itself, which is why they are known as unsecured promissory notes. Because of the high risk involved, issuing companies offer higher interest rates to investors.

Treasury Bills:
Very similar to commercial papers, however treasury bills come with the guarantee of the treasury department of United States, making them an investment with very little risk. The maturity periods often extends to one year (starting from 4 weeks) with no payments preceding the maturity date. These bills are divided into two categories known as marketable and non-marketable securities. You can buy directly from treasurydirect.gov or from brokers.
Certificate of Deposit:
The investors deposit some amount into banks or financial institution and get a certificate known as Certificate of Deposit. Interest rate is fixed (the bigger the amount, the higher the interest rate will be) and a fixed maturity period as well. You cannot take out your money before the fixed date, in case you really need to withdraw; you’ll have to pay a penalty.

Banker’s Acceptance:
Banker’s Acceptance is basically a draft accepted and signed by some well known bank. The acceptance by that particular bank makes it an instrument used in money market as it carries very little risk. Once a time draft is approved (accepted) by some bank, the drawee can sell it in secondary market in case he/she is in need of immediate cash (of course at a price lesser than its face value). It is very similar to US Treasury bill; however the guarantee comes from some reputed bank instead of US government.

Source:
Wholesale
Wholesale Products

Your business growth is linked with your Organizational culture

2011-01-17T01:41:00.000-08:00

Culture is defined by a set of beliefs, values, attitudes and lifestyle that is specific to a group of people, originating and living in a specific region. Needless to say, culture is powerful enough to mold the habits, thinking patterns and objectives of these people. People coming from two different cultures are likely to conceive a problem in a different manner; they’ll go after solving this problem in their own way and the level of dedication will also be different. Bottom line, culture can cast positive or negative effects on the overall personalities and consequently the fate of the nations.

If the culture can make or break a nation (along with many other factors), there’s every chance that the organizational culture is going to play an equally important role in the overall success or failure of a company.

What is organizational culture?
Similar to the national culture, organizational culture is a set of values, objectives and attitudes that exists and prevails within an organization. If you have been a part of different organizations in any capacity, you’ll most probably be aware of the variance in organizational cultures. Whenever you move to a new organization, you have to make changes in your personality and attitudes according to their culture or you can try to change the culture itself if you are sitting at some managerial positions (it’s going to be tough though). However, once the culture incorporates the positive values, vision and directions, you can be sure that the company is heading into the right direction.

How does it affect the business?
In many ways, for example culture will form the character of your company (and the character of your employees), it develops an ownership among the staff, and it ties them in a bond and improves collaboration. A positive and strong culture sends out strong messages to your clients, as well as your competitors. Similarly strong organizational culture helps in shaping up the workforce, especially if it is coming from diverse backgrounds.

Laying foundation of a strong Organizational culture:
Once established, Organizational culture is very hard to change, this is something you need to work on right from the start. Characteristics of Organizational culture travel from the top management to lower staff, the dedication and the attitude you want to see in your workers should be noticeable in you, as a manager. Also, you should endorse the culture in company meetings, workshops or any other event that take place.

Source:
Wholesale Manufacturers
Wholesale Products

Types and characteristics of consumer loans

2011-01-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

Banks normally thrive on the loans and services they provide to businesses. For example, offering funds for new businesses or expansion of some existing business, managing inter-city or international transactions involving large sums, or offering financial advice, etc. However, no bank can completely ignore the individual consumers, as they constitute a large part of the market and are considered an important source of funds for the banks.

With the passage of time, more and more individuals have shown interests in lending from banks, they'll seek loan for a small home-based business, go for a loan for house construction, or even knock at the door of bank when they need a brand new car. Consumer loans differ in sizes and characteristics, ranging from long term huge mortgage loans to small loans taken out for shopping through credit cards.

Consumer loan is different from business loan in many ways. Even though the business loans are borrowed by individuals as well, but people tend to think differently when borrowing for the business as compared to the borrowing for personal use. Consumer loans are thought to be the more risky ones than business loans because individuals defaults (fails to payback) more often than the businesses, that's why consumer loans normally have higher interest rates than the business loan. Also, consumer loan mostly has fixed interest rate.

Different types of loans:
Consumer loans can be divided into different categories. Some commonly known types are …

Credit Cards:
One of the most widely used forms of consumer loan; Credit cards have got such a huge user base because of the convenience factor. People use it for shopping at large retail stores, dining out in restaurants or at petrol pumps. Best thing about these loans is that consumers can avoid the interest altogether by paying back shortly after the transaction, otherwise a small percentage is added into the basic amount on monthly basis as interest.

House Finance or Auto Loans:
Another very important type of loan, house finance or mortgage has helped many to be in possession of their own house. Auto finance is a loan that succeeds in the time of economic growth. However, both of these loans are subject to manipulation by dishonest parties.

Installment vs. Non Installment Loans:
Installment loans are relatively smaller loans which the borrower is required to return in monthly installments, whereas non installment loans are needed to be paid off in a lump sum after a fixed period of time. Most of the time consumer loans fall in “installment based loans” category.

Source:
Whoelsale Suppliers
Wholesale Manufacturers

Tips for designing your business cards

2011-01-10T01:15:00.000-08:00

Business card is one of the most inexpensive medium for marketing, but a very important one at that. You'd have exchanged business cards with many people, and from your personal experience you must be having an idea that a unique and well designed business card is more likely to stay in their wallets for long, and as long as a prospective customer has your business card, chances are that he/she will be calling you, whenever they are in need of a product or service you offer.

In order to secure its place in their wallets, your business card needs to stand out from the others, because even if your products or services are in cut above your competitors, your business card still needs to make an impact on its own. At times, a business card can lead to a new business deal or sale, all on its own. Question is how to design a business card, which may result in more sales inquiries and customer calls?

Be a little creative:
How do you make your business card stick out from the regular ones? Answer to this question is … “inventiveness”. If your business card is one of those run-of-the-mill types, with white background and some plain text printed, chances are that it will be thrown away just like them. To make someone hold your visiting card with them, for a longer period, you need to demonstrate some creativity. Be original and bring into play some unique designs, striking colors or employ any other idea that will compel them to retain it.

The information that must be there:
Sure enough, both yours and your business name, a brief introduction of your products/services, and last but not the least, your business address and contact details. If you prefer to be contacted by email, doesn’t mean you should not give out your phone number. One more thing, use your creative side more when choosing colors or designs instead of saving it to present the actual information. All the information and contact details should be unambiguously given.

How much to spend on a business card?
This will be determined by the size of your business and more importantly the impression you want to make. The cardstock, design and colors of your visiting card, says a lot about your professionalism and originality. Poor quality cardstock or wacky color selection is certainly going to hurt your professional reputation. However, you should not be spending too much, because the main idea of a business card is to hand it out to as many people as you can, but a costly one will make you think twice every time you are giving it away.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers
Wholesale

The importance of Marketing Relevance

2011-01-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

Not more than a decade ago, marketing was considered a relatively simple job, however with ever growing competition and consumers becoming more and more ad averse, marketing is turning out to be a job that leaves you pulling your hairs in frustration, every now and then. At times, it seems that you had left no stone unturned in your efforts to make more sales and still, you keep falling short of the target. Terms like ROI, targeted marketing or marketing relevancy are much weightier than they used to be, and the business owners and company directors are now capable of differentiating between the effective marketing and mere boondoggles by their marketing personals. On the other hand, customers are getting increasingly irritated by the manner businesses have bombarded the digital or print media with their ads, as a result they have gradually developed a tendency to skip any advertising material, come what may.

To cut the long story short, any advertisement that is not relevant will be rejected by the customer, straight away. Imagine that, an outright rejection, which can be regarded as an absolute failure for the marketing department. Therefore, spending time on marketing relevancy is as important as working on the idea and presentation of the ad (even more in many cases). For the reason that a brilliant idea will be wasted, in case the ads do not appear at the right place and at the right time. It applies on all types of marketing, namely online marketing (email marketing, pay per click advertisements or pop up banners), ads in electronic media (Radio & Television channels) or print media (newspapers and magazines).

Online marketing is much more efficient in this scenario, seeing that it provides the marketers with much more control over the display and exposure of their ads. You can spend bucket loads of dollars on sponsoring some of the most viewed TV shows and still more than half of the viewers would downrightly ignore the commercials. Why? Because they are in no mood to ponder over some buying decision in their leisure time, for example if some life insurance ad appears during a football match (viewers will be in a different state of mind altogether, because of the nature of the show). However, online marketing allows you to take help from useful data like search patterns or bouncing rate through different sources, enabling you to keep an eye on your marketing effectiveness throughout the time.

Source:
Wholesale
Wholesale Suppliers

Social group influence on buyer’s behavior

2011-01-03T01:13:00.000-08:00

It is the customer, who makes the decision of buying something, right? But how does he/she reach to that decision? There's a complete procedure and different stages to this decision and as a marketer, you must know the process. For the reason that you are not going to win a customer unless you are well in terms with the factors that influence the buying behavior. Generally, the process starts from the moment a customer feels the need of a particular product (or service), next step is to look for different options available, after weighing up these options, the customer then reaches on a final decision to pay for one of these options.

Very few customers are capable of making an entirely independent and rational decision, without getting influenced by any of the external factors. One of the most important factors is the social influence, which plays a very important role in a customer purchase decision. Let’s have a look at how these social influences can affect the buying behavior.

Family Buying Behavior:
Among all social groups, family of course is the closest, hence the most influential. Knowing the answers to the questions like … who in the family is going to make the final buying decision, or who is going to pay the bill, can help a lot. Because even if your product has got nothing to do with parents, and is mainly intended for the children use. It is actually the parents who are going to pay the bill, therefore you are supposed to market the product from parent’s perspective and not of children (unless the product is some inexpensive toy or candy that the child can purchase from their pocket money).

Social Class:
Society is normally divided in three classes by sociologists, namely upper class, middle class and lower class. Some divide it in further sets like upper-middle or lower-lower classes. All of these classes have their own characteristics, social values, set of needs and spending patterns. Obviously, the buying behavior is going to be different for people belonging to any of these classes, you need to address the right set of needs when marketing for a specific class of society.

Cultural Influence:
American, European, Indian, Chinese … all of these cultures are poles apart when it comes to the people’s needs and preferences, who are a part of some specific culture. Your marketing tactics should be strictly in line with these cultures and their moral values.

Source:
Wholesale
Wholesale Suppliers

Retirement planning –When you should start

2010-12-31T03:44:00.000-08:00

Many people don’t even bother to think about retirement planning before they've stepped into their 50’s. For a majority, thinking of retirement is a little too early when they have just started working. An advice to save as soon as you start earning may sound pretty off-putting but nobody can disagree with the wisdom it contains. Saving is certainly not an easy habit to adopt when you are young, energetic and not thwarted by the thoughts of old age. Living a carefree life and assuming that the life will go on like this is closing your eyes to a reality, which may possibly will turn out to be bitter if you don't accept it, as soon as possible. As it happens, saving in good days for the rainy ones is without a doubt, a very sensible thing to do. And yes, do not rely on your pension or social security for that matter; it may get more and more difficult to make both ends meet by just social security, given the rapid increase in rate of inflation, these days.

Planning way ahead of your retirement gives you more control over your future and saves you from some unpleasant surprises, sometimes you may need these savings even before your retire, in short the planning and the habit of saving is going to help you, sooner or later. Retirement plan doesn’t just mean desperate savings; it is more like a complete strategy that includes your preferred time of retirement, amount that you should be saving and the ventures where you’ll invest these savings. Since all of your retirement plan will be based on your desired lifestyle after the retirement, you should be absolutely clear about the standard of living you want to take up once you retire, especially if during the course of your life, you have grown to be accustomed to a luxurious one.

A retirement plan, with some calculations would give you an idea on how much do you need to save and for how long? It also helps you in deciding the time of your retirement so that you'll not be working for too long (or retiring too early). Besides, starting early with your retirement plan and saving means, you can have a much more diverse portfolio. You can go for long term investments like stocks or real estate, which are risky but more profitable, or you can choose any other long term investment, which may take time to mature.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Job Satisfaction - How satisfied are your employees?

2010-12-27T02:06:00.000-08:00

How satisfied are your employees with their jobs and the company? You should be asking this question to yourself, quite often. For the reason, that a worker who is not satisfied with his job would not only be looking for a new job, he/she will also be uninterested in performing at their full potential. What’s more? They’ll transfer this negativity into their fellow workers and you will be left with a workforce where majority of the workers is discontent with their jobs. You can well imagine the consequences.

On the other hand, an employee who is satisfied with his/her job will continuously strive to work hard so that he/she can retain the job. Job satisfaction is a product of many elements, some of the important ones are remuneration package, workforce environment, management style and the nature of the duties assigned.

Management Style:
The relationship between the manager and subordinates is a very critical one, if the managers or supervisors are disrespectful or unconcerned about their subordinate’s emotions; the job satisfaction level is always going to be low, no matter what the other instrumental factors are. Nobody likes discriminatory treatment, insulting remarks or overly authoritative behavior. Employees should feel at ease in the workplace, therefore the supervision should not unnecessarily violate the comfort level.

Workforce Environment and health issues:
Bad working conditions includes (but of course are not limited to) bad lighting, insufficient ventilation, hot temperatures or any other kind of health hazards. If the workers’ health is at risk, they can be anything but satisfied. These concerns should be solved on first priority basis without waiting for someone coming up with complains. In addition to the physical safety, working environment should also be able to provide mental peace. Issues like overly aggressive supervisors, bullish co-workers or impractical work targets can ruin the peace of mind.

A good salary package can nullify various minor issues:
Probably the most influential factor in job satisfaction is the remuneration one gets for his job, a reasonable pay will compensate for many hitches, for example work overload, overtime or even a stressful job. Job satisfaction is directly related to remuneration packages and dissatisfaction mostly come up when a worker feels that he is not being appropriately compensated for the work he is doing for the company.

Apart from these factors, there are some other weighty elements as well, for example job security, overall economic conditions, growth opportunities or work/life balance. If you are experiencing high turnover rate, workers taking excessive leaves or low productivity, then you must look into these factors.

Source:
Wholesale
Wholesale Products

Is franchising the right business plan for you?

2010-12-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

Talk of the franchising business and the first thing that comes to your mind is all those fast food chains scattered everywhere in your town. However, that’s not the only industry that uses franchising to enhance the availability and distribution of their products, you will find similar setups in fashion and garments, IT services, Salons, education sector, etc. Franchising is a type of collaboration between franchisor and franchisee, where franchisee gets the name, product (already successful or some newly launched product with huge prospects), techniques and training while the franchisor gets the opportunity to quickly grow as a brand throughout the cities or even nationwide. Franchising is quite a unique business model for both parties, being a franchisee; you invest the capital however you are not really free to run the business in your own way, whereas being a franchisor you make all the decisions about the product or prices, still you don’t really own the business.

Franchising as a Business opportunity:

At first glance, franchising looks like an ideal business opportunity if you have got the money and basic business management skills. You can instantly get a hot running product, so you don’t need to bother about the manufacturing or marketing stuff. You can also benefit from the experience and expertise of franchiser. In short, it is a ready-made business, all you need to do is to invest some capital and select an appropriate spot for franchise, and you are all set for a jump start. You don’t need to arrange for raw materials, set up manufacturing plants or go around spending big amounts on marketing, as the franchiser will be taking care of these aspects.

However, no business opportunity comes without negative aspects and there are some down sides in franchising business as well. First, you've got little or no control over the proceedings of the business. Most of the times, you have no say into the decisions of actual company or product, you are obliged to operate under the boundaries set by the franchiser, and at times it can get a little annoying.

Therefore, when you are looking to start a franchise, you must try to get in touch with other franchisees dealing with the same franchiser and ask about their experience so far. Also, be mindful when choosing location of the franchise as it is going to play an important role in your initial success or failure.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

How to dress professionally for different occasions

2010-12-19T22:12:00.000-08:00

Dressing professionally is a part of corporate lifestyle, which you have to adopt even if you are not keen to dress formally in your routine life. You can spend hours and hours in advocating casual dressing as an attribute of being yourself, but the fact remains that your appearance does matter and your attire plays an important role in your overall appearance. If nothing else, it shows how enthusiastic you are about the job; a casual or sporty dress can represent you as someone who doesn’t take his/her job seriously. Needless to say, such flippancy means no job (if you are dressed up badly in an interview), or no promotion (if you don’t get dressed professionally in the workplace). Call it the narrow-mindedness or unfairness of the people, but this is the corporate world for you.

Have you not heard the phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”? Similarly, corporate life has its own culture and you need to acclimatize with it. Let’s have a look at some suggestions on how to get dressed for different business occasions.

Getting dressed for Interviews:

Whether you should wear a suit for the interview or not, depends on the job you will be interviewed for, however in many cases it is the safest and the least fussy option available. However, a clean, long sleeved shirt with black or navy pants can also do the job. Do not try to give a youthful impression by dressing overly casual, as it’s not going to impress the interviewer in most situations. You can skip the tie, if you think being too formal is unnecessary. Avoid jeans, collarless shirts or sneakers for the interview, same rules apply to both interviewer and the interviewee.

Office or workplace:

Once you have got the job, you can easily ask about (or just observe) the dress code at workplace and follow that. However, being a greenhorn you should be a little more careful than those senior ones. If you see them wearing casual stuff, doesn’t mean you have got the license to put on street wear on next weekend.

Business meetings:
There are various types of business meetings, for example a meeting within your workplace; or you may be meeting with a client in their office or at a restaurant; then there are those events when people are looking to network with potential clients or partners. All of these business meeting require different attires, such as formal, informal, semi formal or casual (for events like business cocktail parties).

Source:
Dubai Property

How important is work life balance

2010-12-12T22:14:00.000-08:00

Balance is a must in all aspects of life … for example balance between curricular and extra curricular activities in your student life, balance between earning and spending in your professional life, materialism and spirituality in your routine life, and so on. As soon as you get one sided, your life starts getting affected in a negative way. You have to balance yourself on a very thin line throughout your life to keep yourself on track. It’s like you are walking on a very narrow track, as long as you keep yourself balanced, you will keep heading towards your destination, the moment you go a little astray (on either side of the path), the destination is lost and you start falling down.

Work Life Balance:
Many people in today’s world are not able to balance their work with their routine lives, which results in serious stress problems. Work (our job, business or any other profession), of course is the most important thing for most of us, one can’t really do without working (except for some very rare born-with-a-silver-spoon cases). At times, you are so overwhelmed by the thought of accomplishing more and more in your life that you fail to pay attention on what you already have, it can be your family, friends or your health. Raising the bar constantly, you go from work to working hard, working overtime and ends up becoming workaholics.

Here’s when the ill affects starts approaching, you distant yourself from your family, your health deteriorate, and you miss out on so many special occasions and joys of life in your pursuit of your dream position or business. Your productivity level also suffers in these situations, working more do not always result in more accomplishment, rather such extensive efforts may fail you in the long run. Remember, you cannot sprint in the marathon or you may not even reach the finishing line, let alone finishing first.

How to balance:
Of course the best way to maintain work life balance is time management. You need to realize that your body and mind needs sometime off to keep performing on their optimum level. You deprive your body and mind of rest, and they will get even by stop responding to your commands, gulping down energy drinks is not going to help either. Best approach to deal with work-life imbalance is to make a time table and then do your best to complete your tasks within the given time frame and do not over burden yourself.

Source:
Wholesale

How important are business surveys and customers feedback

2010-12-09T01:36:00.000-08:00

How do we differentiate between serious and not-so-serious businesses? An easy way to make this distinction is to take a look at how eager they are to get the feedback from their customers? More often than not, customer feedback is free but when we look at its value, it’s priceless. Making a product and then vehemently trying to convince customers that this is the product they need, is nothing more than a shot in the dark that mostly misses the target. A much better and more practical approach is to ask customers what they want and then make it available to them. Customers can give you much better advice than any of those high priced consultants, and customer surveys and feedback is the only way to get this information.

Instead of welcoming feedback, some businesses are seen trying to discourage any kind of feedback, probably because they are sure that there's going to be nothing but complains. Not knowing, how imperative these complain can be to their long term success. Don’t think of the complaining customers as unappreciative souls who’ve got nothing better to do but to criticize your product or services, rather take them as courteous friends who were kind enough to take some time out and guide you on how to make improvements to your products. They could’ve just dump your products like others, leaving you in dark as to where did you go wrong? Irrespective of the feedback being good or bad, it is something that must be encouraged, for it will provide you with the opinion of those, who matter the most (i.e. consumers).

Coming to the question of what’s the best way to get customer feedback? It depends on the type of your business and as well as your customers. If your customers are internet savvy, then a quick survey form at your website or some other social networking website is an excellent bet. Encourage suggestions and request them to come up with honest reviews of your product, when they do, don’t forget to acknowledge their contributions.

Whatever method you choose for acquiring customer’s feedback, make sure that all those suggestions and feedback is not going in vain. Try your best to take appropriate steps according to the feedback; the customers must not get the impression that they are wasting their time for nothing. Instant reaction on customers complains and suggestions will make them feel privileged, ultimately resulting in a more loyal customer base.

Source:
Wholesale

How can the World Trade Organization help your small trading business?

2010-12-05T21:34:00.000-08:00

World Trade Organization is an autonomous body that works for free and transparent trade between its member countries. As an organization, its rules and functions are looked upon in bigger context, it is essentially meant for free trade, irrespective of the size of trading businesses. World Trade Organization main objective is to facilitate free, transparent and non-discriminative trade, for this purpose they make rules and issue guidelines that its member countries must follow. These rules are a result of intensive negotiations between the representatives of its member countries, who then sign on these contracts. In addition to free trade facilitation, it helps brining consistency in rules and regulations related to trade, taking out the uncertainty factor from the international trade, to some extent.

Criticism:

Although, it calls for equal opportunities and economic growth, it is often being criticized for doing exactly the opposite. Mainly because the under-developed nations is the least influential group during the decision making process. According to activists speaking against World Trade Organization, the organization actually safeguard the interests of developed nations most of the times. Plenty of economists completely turn down the idea of trade liberalization as a tool for economic growth, stating that it actually opens up under developed markets for the exploitation of the developed ones.

How can it help a small trading business?

As stated earlier, WTO is not intended to help businesses directly, but you can benefit from the information and statistic available at their website or other forums. World Trade Organization publishes various research reports and trade statistics on annual basis. For example, international trade statistics provides figures, charts and other trading details for International traders. Other equally useful publications include World Tariff Profiles, Trade profiles and WTO annual report. In case you are planning to start exporting to some particular region, you must consult these reports and look for the demand, existing trade and tariffs that may apply to your trade. You can also find information on dispute settlement, competition policies, electronic commerce, regional trade agreements or trade policies.

WTO offers internships and other learning resources for students from all over the world, such as online training, distance learning and training videos. Some of the courses available are General Agreement on Trade in Services, WTO dispute settlement system, barriers to trade and WTO legal underpinnings. Anybody can go through these courses to perk up their own trade business, or to work as a consultant for other businesses.

Source:
Wholesale
wholesalers

Full service wholesalers vs. Limited-function wholesalers

2010-12-03T03:21:00.000-08:00

A wholesaler purchases directly from manufacturers, in large quantities and then sells the products to retailer, who then sells them to consumer. The difference between a wholesaler and retailer in this transaction is the nature of the customer they are selling to. A wholesaler is selling to another business for reselling purposes, while the retailer will be selling to the consumer, who is buying that product for his/her personal usage. Remember, this is just a general description of wholesaler and there can be some variations. For example, a wholesaler doesn’t always sell to a retailer, or sometimes a business listed as a retailer can act as a wholesaler when it sells a large quantity of products to another business for commercial use, and still this transaction will be regarded as a wholesale deal.

Full Service wholesalers:
As the name suggest, full service wholesalers offer a complete range of wholesaling services to their clients. These services are
Buying & Selling:
This is the very basic of wholesaler’s functions, buying directly from manufacturers in bulk and then selling it to the customers in smaller quantities, which suits both, the producers and the customers.
Providing storage facilities:
As stated above, wholesalers buy in large quantities, but they can not sell out these products right away, because the customers do not have the space to store these products. Hence, wholesalers take up the task to preserve these products in their warehouses.
Freight & Transport Services:
Again, buying in bulk and then storing the inventory at some place near to the consumer markets can reduce the cost of transportation; it also ensures a speedy delivery of the product on timely basis.
Expertise of Market:
Interaction with both producers and buyers allows them to understand the demands and limitations of both parties; in most cases they understand the market better than the producer, mainly because of their experience.
Apart from these, a full service wholesaler may also indulge in marketing the products, conducting surveys, and even providing after sales customer service.

Limited Service Wholesalers:
We are living in an era where the focus is shifting towards specialization from businesses that fall in jack-of-all-trade category. A business that specializes in any of the above mentioned services can provide much better service at much lower cost than any of the full service wholesaler. Another reason behind the rise of limited service wholesalers (e.g. drop shippers) is more and more people looking to start their own businesses. Since these individuals do not have financial or other resources to start as a full fledge wholesaler, they prefer offering limited services according to their expertise.

Economical Start Ups – Avoid using up all resources

2010-11-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

Cheap-to-run businesses are just the thing you need in present situation, and there are plenty of them, for example consulting business, online businesses (e.g. drop shipping), real estate brokerage, and the like. Some of these economical businesses initially need a huge capital to start with, and every so often people get carried away by the excitement and spend on things that are not really necessary in the start, it makes business startups a risky endeavor. Overspending at any stage of the business is obviously a bad practice, but being wasteful when you have just started, is asking for trouble. In case the business fails, it'll be so much more difficult to recover from that failure. Huge spending in the start will make you impatient and even the small setbacks will felt like a blow.

Start small and grow rather than starting big and diminishing:

Some startups, while trying to devastate their competition, spend too much on marketing and other stuff, which overburdens their finances. As a result, the first business that gets hurt by this excessive spending is ironically their own. Rule of the thumb for most businesses is to start everything on trial bases, instead of jumping in the market with high hopes and putting everything on stake.

Plan & Research:

Make a list of all requisites and expenditures that you may need in the start and then try to avail most of the low-cost alternatives available. For example, when you are looking for office furniture, you can save plenty by getting some second-hand office chairs and tables (in good condition), as the brand new furniture hardly plays any role in the final decision of a customers who pays a visit to your office. Similarly, don’t indulge in extensive borrowing from banks or other resources; do not unleash some lavish advertising campaign as well.

Niche Segment:

You cannot capture the whole market all at once; you have to start by small segments. Big ambitions are fine but make realistic targets and go step by step. Niche is the keyword for any small business, even more so when you are just starting. Targeting a specific set of customers allows you to save on research, marketing, production and distribution. Also, starting by focusing on a small niche won’t put other relatively large businesses on the alert, saving you from some serious blocking up tactics that these business can employ to choke your business in the start.

Source:
Wholesale Trade Suppliers, Dropshippers, Distributors & Manufacturers

Different types of discounts you can offer to your customers

2010-11-25T23:35:00.000-08:00

What are the two most attractive words, you can use in your advertisement to lure customers? Answer is Discount and Free, and although “Free” can pull much larger crowds as compared to “Discount”, you can’t really offer your products for free. Therefore, discount is a more practical, sensible and smart option to use. Different types of discounts and sales are very effective to curb the competition. It can also provide a good boost to your sales in the time of recession, when people are looking to save on every deal. However, offering discount on your products will obviously reduce the inflow of cash, therefore you need to chew over your discount strategy over and over, keeping in mind all costs and expenditures. In addition to this, there are some laws in developed countries that impose some restrictions on discounts; you need to confirm to these regulations as well.

Here are some of the discounts you can offer to your customers.

Quantity Based Discount:
You must have noticed a huge difference between wholesale and retail price. Whenever you buy something in large quantities you expect some discount from the seller. People are more than happy to offer low prices to a buyer who will purchase in large quantities because it allows the seller to save in many ways. But normally these quantities are too large for a normal consumer and only businesses can afford to purchase a product in these quantities, however you can offer some sort of off-price if the customer buy more than one units, for example 5% off if someone purchases 10 units or more.

Payment Based Discount:
If majority of your customers make purchase on credit then you can offer payment based discounts to these customers, tempting them to pay as soon as possible by offering a small discount on paying cash without delay. Prompt payments will save you all those collection costs and help you with daily expenditures of the business, as well.

Trade Discounts:
These are the discounts you have to offer to the middleman, be it the wholesaler, retailer or distributor, so that they can cover all costs of marketing that may be needed before the product reaches to the ultimate consumer. Trade discounts are in fact, the biggest of all.

Special Discount:
In some cases you can offer discounts to some specific group of customers to capture that special segment of the market. This niche group can be of students, house wives, doctors, your previous customers, small business owners or any other strategically targeted group.

Source:
Wholesale

Different approaches for investment in Private Equity

2010-11-21T22:40:00.000-08:00

Private equity is the capital of a company that is not for sale for general public at stock exchange. Equity securities are privately owned by the owner(S) of the company and they are not publicly traded. Investment in Private equity often involves huge amounts, which is why normally investment organizations like investment banks or mutual funds carry out these investments as an entity. Private equity investors often acquire a company, even if they don’t get the complete ownership of the company, they still hold enough shares to be actively involved in the management and company decisions. That’s the key thing about holding private equity, that you can be instrumental in the company decisions.

Leveraged Buyouts:
The most common investment made in private equity is a leveraged buyout, in which the investor acquires considerably large number of shares in some company, with an amount that is mostly borrowed from small investors. The investor in this case can be some private equity firm or even the manager of the company (who will purchase private equity to have power over the business that he/she has been managing so Far. It is also known as management buyouts. A rarity in the past, leveraged buyouts occurs quite often now days, as more and more institutional investors raise funds to purchase the majority of shares in some operating business. These investing companies then take drastic steps to improve the performance of the business after acquiring control over the business, however leveraged buyouts are not always successful and collapse as often as other businesses.

Distressed Securities:
Any kind of investment in a bankrupt company (or a company that is about to go bankrupt) is called distressed investment (so it’s not the investor who is making some distressed investment decision). These securities are often valued at a lower price than the original value. By nature, it is a risky investment; therefore it has to be handled by experienced investors and not the starters.

Investing as Venture Capital:
Venture Capitals are raised to support big business start ups, Venture Capital is a pool of cash that goes around looking for entrepreneurs with sound business ideas. Entrepreneurs have to rely on Venture Capital when the required amount for start up is too large to be raised by any other mean. Though it means less control for entrepreneurs, still it helps them getting started and executing the idea that has been haunting them for some time.

Source:
Wholesalers

Commonly used types of branding

2010-11-14T22:45:00.000-08:00

Having a large pool of brand loyal customers is probably the best asset a business can have in the long run, it is always easier to hold on to an old customer when compared to the efforts it take in acquiring a new one. Building a brand is like building your stronghold in the market, it’s like a castle that will protect your business from the competition; however you need to keep building up and keep strengthening incessantly, in order to stay safe. Branding is not simply choosing a catchy title and spending hefty amounts to have it appear everywhere. Branding is the name of a thoroughly planned marketing strategy, where you choose your strongest point and foster your marketing plan around your strongest features, while adding new features with the passage of time.

Branding focused on company name:

Majority of the brands are based on company names. In this technique the business starts from thinking of a name which is unique, easy to remember and likeable, all at the same time. Once you’ve your company name established as a popular brand, the whole range of the products attached with this brand will get an upper hand in the market. Sometimes, the association of your brand name is enough for a soon-to-be launched product to hit it off with the brand loyal customers. Coca Cola, Microsoft, Nokia, Nestle, Pizza Hut, these are all examples of some enormously popular brand names. A company can focus on just one Brand for entire product range or choose a separate brand name for each of its products.

Iconic Branding - The untouchable:

Some businesses grabbed the idea of Branding and took it to a whole new level, becoming monstrously huge and almost unbeatable in their respective fields. In some cases it was the product alone, which took them to these heights (e.g. Google); in other instances there were some great marketing tactics involved (e.g. Nike). Some of them gain such popularity that they’ve started to represent the product itself, for example Google is now widely used as a term, standing for online search.

Mood Branding:

In a relatively new branding technique, businesses have started to attach a general feeling or attitude with the usage of some particular product. Companies make inspirational taglines to appear with the product. For example “Think different” by Apple or the famous “Do It” by Nike. These slogans are used extensively in the ads, so much so that the name of the product alone can ignite some specific feeling in consumer's mind.

Source:
Wholesale

Writing a business proposal that works

2010-11-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

Business proposals are important even if you are the only business vying for the customer, and their importance increases twice as much when you are dealing with tough competition. What’s more? An outstanding and exceptionally written business proposal will go as far as closing the deal for you. Do you need anymore reasons to carry on reading?

Up till now, you must be having an idea of the purposes or objectives of a business proposal. In simple words, business proposal is a message in written form (containing announcement, special offers, product details or directions to make a purchase, etc) that is intended to convince some potential customer to buy from you. You ought to spend more time and effort on business proposal than any other promotional material because in most cases business proposal will make or break the deal for you.

Requisites of a Business Proposal:
Business proposals are often sent out following the request coming from an interested party; try to focus your business proposal on the information that the client has asked for. An ideal business proposal is supposed to endow your customer with the specific information that he/she has requested, effectively matching the customer requirements with your products or services. Business proposal can have any or all of the information regarding your products, price quotes, past experience, salient features, legalities, testimonials, etc.

Know the Nature of your business proposal:
Before you sit down and try to come up with a business proposal, you must be having an exact idea of how much information your customer wants? Unnecessarily stuffing the document with everything related to your business e.g. business history, product details, prices, terms and conditions, etc will irritate the customer, as he/she’ll have to undergo quite a number of pages, just to locate the information he/she has requested for.

Writing a Successful Business proposal:
As a copywriter, business proposal is one of those marketing copies, where you have got to give your best shot, because you need a very balanced approach when preparing business proposal. For example, you must make your point that you are the best in the business but at the same time, you are obliged to avoid artificial amplifications. Steer clear of spelling mistakes at any cost, business proposal is the reflection of your commitment towards your business and a spelling mistake will reduce your image to rubles. Throw some incontestable reasons to buy your product, highlight the benefits but don't narrate false stories. In the end of the document, provide the customer with all necessary steps and procedures, in case he/she decides to buy after going through your business proposal.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Winning combination of internet and B2B marketing

2010-11-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

Though business to business transactions have been there for ages, B2B marketing is a relatively new phenomenon (or perhaps marketing was not classified into separate categories like B2C, B2B, and B2G back then). Ever since the categorization, business marketing has surpassed the traditional "consumer marketing" by all measures, that too in this short time period. Business marketing is now established as a much bigger and more profitable venture, particularly in the developed countries. Basic difference between these two, as evident by the names is that in B2C marketing we target individual consumers, while in B2B marketing our aim is to engage businesses, organizations and large corporations. Business marketing is undoubtedly a tough job, but far more profitable without any doubt. Mainly, for following reasons …

• The profit margin is much larger than consumer marketing
• You don't have to cope with the cut-throat competition that exists in consumer marketing
• Business marketing is not unpredictable and complicated when compared to consumer marketing
• Once secured, the customer (i.e. a business) stays with you for a much longer period
• Customer acquisition cost is lower when weighed against the income that generates as a result

Internet and B2B Marketing:
From positioning to promotion, and sales to customer support service, Internet has revolutionized the B2B marketing, B2B marketing and Internet make an excellent duo that is cost-effective, far reaching and equally promising. Ignoring internet as a marketing medium altogether, can prove to be a suicidal decision if you are running a B2B business.

Low cost:
If you are looking to cut down costs for research studies, promotional campaigns, lead generation or even branding, internet is the most economical medium to carry out all these tasks, and the fact that most of online marketing techniques may draw in only the targeted customers, makes it even more worthwhile.

Cementing your relations with the customers:
Social media networks e.g. Facebook or LinkedIn enables your customers to interact and get the answers to their queries (regarding your business or products) in no time. Corporate Blog is an excellent way to establish yourself as an experienced professional; you can elaborate your business mission, share your knowledge of the industry, and get immediate feedback. Similarly, you can provide your customers with an expeditious customer support service at absolutely no cost involved.

Online B2B marketing platforms:
Luckily, internet offers various types of B2B marketing platforms and business networks, which mean you've got a pool of interested buyers readily available. These networks (e.g. dailytrader.com) can take the fuss out of B2B marketing and give an instant boost to your sales.

Source:
Wholesale

Which business structure is best for your small business?

2010-11-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

There are basically three types of business structures (or forms of ownerships) to start with, and if you are looking to commence a business, you need to study all of them in detail as they are not just different methods to manage a business. Business structure actually plays an important role in many ways. For example, cost of starting and then maintaining a business varies with different structures; then you have this very important objective of minimizing tax payable, another decisive perspective can be the liability factor. You can change the structure in future (e.g. getting into a partnership from operating as a sole proprietor) but it's better to start from the right one, instead of going through the change process later on.

Sole Proprietorship:
The most basic form of small business, where one man starts, manages and owns a business. There's no or minimum start up costs involved, you are the sole possessor of your business and all its assets. However, this sole ownership comes with unlimited liability, which means even your personal assets are at risk in case something goes wrong and a suit is filed against your business. As a sole proprietor, you are responsible to pay income tax on your profits. Apart from the unlimited liability part, sole proprietorship is the most convenient way to start a small business, for example consultancy services, real estate agent, retail store, etc.

Partnership or Joint Venture:
Another very simple form of business structure is known as partnership; in which two or more persons join hands to establish and manage the business. Profit, loss and liabilities are equally divided between all partners (or as per the agreement). Taxation liabilities are same as sole proprietorship, as partners are required to pay taxes on their share of profits, in individual capacity. Just like sole proprietorship, your personal assets are not protected as each partner carries unlimited liability (unless some of them are mentioned as limited partners in the agreement). Partnership can also result in some disputes or personality clashes if all members are fixed at running the business in their own way. Partnership helps two or more people to combine their finances and expertise to form a more competitive business when compared to sole proprietorship.

Limited Liability Company:
Limited Liability Company has characteristics of multiple business structures; it offers tax advantage similar to partnership, while precluding the unlimited liability. Limited Liability Company functions like corporations except that they are not required to offer company shares in stock exchange. Even though the cost of maintenance or establishing a Limited Liability Company is higher than partnerships or sole proprietorships, many smart entrepreneurs still prefer this business structure just because of limited liability clause.

Source:
Wholesale

Valuing a business before investing into it

2010-11-02T05:09:00.001-07:00

Business valuation is the assessment of economic value (Fair market value) for that business. You may need business valuation for a number of purposes, for example when you are looking to invest in some business, or planning to buy/sell some enterprise. Business valuation is not only handy when investing into some business, it also helps in taking better decisions when you are getting into partnership with someone or seeking loans for your business. Valuation is normally carried by professional appraisers, first because it is a complex task and needs professionals to do it; second an outside party will provide a more objective and neutral report. However, a better understanding of what contributes into the valuation of businesses will help you to progress into the right direction.

Just like any other financial report, the appraiser or valuator needs to disclose what approach has been applied for business valuation as all approaches have different pros and cons. Three approaches mostly used for business valuation are

i) Asset based approach
ii) Income based approach
iii) Market approach

Sometimes a combination of all of these approaches is used.

Asset Based Calculation:
Anything of economic value, that a business own is called an asset. As the name suggests, in asset based approach a business worth is calculated as the sum of its assets (both tangible and intangible) minus the total amount of its liabilities. These figures are picked from balance sheet. In liquidity based approach, assets are valued by the net amount they can generate in case their owner decides to sell them in the market.

Income (or earning) Based Approach:
Several methods are used in Income based approach, but the most appropriate method is "discounted cash flows". Unlike asset based approach where business is valued by the value of assets, this approach focuses on the future earning potentials. The drawback of this approach is that it depends mostly on the projected cash flows and expected returns, which are not guaranteed to be correct.

Market Value based Approach:
Market value based approach seeks to determine the business value by comparing it to some recent sales of similar type of businesses. There are no real calculations involved and this is merely an estimated value, which relies on the simple demand and supply rule for the markets.

Most experts recommend a combination of these approaches for a more realistic result. There's no single approach that will suit all types of businesses; stakeholders can choose an approach of their liking or leave it to the professional valuator to decide the most suitable one.

Source:
Wholesale

Using Marketing Information System to Perfection

2010-10-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between a good marketer and an average marketer? Probably the most vital one is the ability to anticipate the demands and trends in the targeted market; it is in fact the essence of marketing. Marketing manager, who can foresee coming trends or demands, is a piece of good fortune for the business. Given these forecasts are based on actual information and figures, rather than just gut feelings. The businesses that can “smell the blood” (anticipating changes) and “go for the kill” (prepare for the upcoming boom in demand) always manage to get their hands on the biggest share of market.

To help managers foresee the change in market or customer’s preferences, you need a sound information system, which is known as marketing information system. Marketing information system collects the relevant data; organize it into something meaningful, make recommendations based on these figures and than stock it up for future use. Any marketing information system that lacks in any of these three departments is nothing but an encumbrance for the business.

Among these three components, the first one is also the most important one, because the effectiveness of the entire system depends on the availability and correctness of information. There are two types of resources, normally used for collecting data. Primary resources, where the company carries out the research itself, through different means (interviews, observing consumers behavior, etc) and the secondary resources, where research work of some outside party is used (e.g. government or some research specialist firms). All of these resources have their own pros and cons and the people involved in the decision making should choose the source carefully, consistent with the quality of the data required and the cost.

Then comes the organizing part, where this raw data is sorted out and organized into something purposeful. If the information was collected through primary resources, then this task of organizing the information should not be much of a problem, however if secondary resources were used, it may take some time to segregate required bit of information. Even that has been made easy by powerful computers and data stored in electronic forms.

Last part is deriving results and making decisions based on these figures. This is done mostly by the management, but the success of these decisions is based entirely on the figures originated from the marketing information system. As you can see, marketing information system is a basic requisite for the most important decisions; still many businesses continue to operate without a proper MkIS.

Source:
Wholesale

Using Home technology to improve your living experience

2010-10-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

Home technology is not necessarily about installing some Hi-fi home theatre system in your bathroom, it is all about using new innovations and remodeling techniques to improve your living experience. You don’t need to wait for a brand new home to perk up your lifestyle (especially when this wait can stretch to a lifetime); instead you can work on your existing home to make small improvements and modifications. Depending on your budget, these modifications could range from installing multimedia home theater systems to small renovations like more efficient lighting or cooling systems. Let’s start from some of these technologies and see what sort of changes they can make.

Security:
Home security systems can save you from theft, burglary, fire, etc and people are increasingly opting into using these security systems, given the present state of affairs in most countries. These systems use cameras, different types of sensors, alarms and remote controlled devices to protect you, your family and valuables. Home security systems differ in prices, depending on the level of security they provide. In normal circumstances you don’t need to install a fool proof security system, most of the times you can do with getting your hands on some surveillance cameras or burglar alarms.

Bathroom:
So many new technologies are in market, promising to change your daily practice of using bathroom into a luxurious, rejuvenating experience (not only promise, they actually do) by providing everything from infrared sauna systems to LCD Televisions right there in your bathroom. As stated earlier, you don’t really need to install some electrical tanning bed or sauna systems (as they can be a little too expensive), but you have many other less expensive options like whirlpool tubs, steaming showers, different types of vanities, mirrors, better lighting and much more.

Kitchen:
Microwave oven is probably one of the most commonly used technologies in the kitchen but it doesn’t stops here. More advance appliances could reduce the traditional cooking to bare minimum. Various types of kitchen cabinets, sinks, ranges, BBQ and grill equipments are available, providing more efficient energy consumption and speedy solutions.

Living Areas:
Apart from Kitchen & Bathrooms, many technologies have been introduced mainly for living rooms like bedroom, dining room or hallways. For example, Home theater systems (which is an industry in itself, thanks to the incredible demand) to give you that cinematic experience at home. You can also spend on some smart cooling or heating systems to overcome extreme weather conditions. Similarly, you can set up a computerized and proficient lighting system in the living space.

Source:
Wholesale

Total quality management and its building blocks

2010-10-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

"Total Quality Management", the title is almost self-explanatory; still a brief definition of TQM by "International Organization for Standardization (ISO)" will help you in coming to terms with this system. It states, "TQM is a management approach for an organization, centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society". Although, such exemplary business models that act in accordance with all these requirements (especially the last one about society) are hard to find, but this all-inclusive business standard (known to be a product of Japanese industry) is worth putting into practice. First because it calls for an equal level of dedication and contribution from all levels and departments of organization, second because it focuses on quality and third and the most critical, it lays emphasis on customer.

It starts with customer & end on consumer:
Total Quality Management approach has the customer on the top priority for all business decisions. It presents "customer satisfaction" as the key to the "long term success". Many times businesses are carried away by some glamorous product coming from their competitors, or a low-cost alternative, while compromising on customer requirements. "Total Quality Management" theory lays emphasis on making products or services with customer satisfaction in mind, not your personal preferences, not the competitors, not anything else, nothing, nada, zip.

Quality:
Literally, the word means a set of standards while in business language a product is a quality product if it provides your customer more than what he/she was actually anticipating (usability and durability vise), for the given price. Nowadays, there's so much competition that you should not be offering anything at all if the product you are offering is not a quality product. Apart from the product, your customer support should be of excellent quality as well.

"Total" is for "team effort":
In the set of guidelines known as "Total quality management", the word "total" symbolizes team work. As a business, you'd not be able to come up with a quality product unless all departments of your company are not into it. Total quality management is not only for manufacturing department or for marketing section or purely for upper level management; you need to get each and everyone on board. Define the tasks for everyone; make them realize their significance and the contribution they can make towards company's success. Leader's function become much more significant, supervisors and managers should be leading from the front.

Source:
Wholesale

Things to consider when taking out business loans

2010-10-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

Starting a business is an exciting experience except for the time, when you get to the stage of acquiring business loans. It's another thing to be all excited about your business idea, but to transmit this excitement into someone else and making the investor believe in your idea as much as you do is something else. And when the person in question is a banker or venture capitalist, the job becomes even harder. Acquiring a business loan for an established business is relatively easy and it should not be a problem if you are maintaining a good credit history. However, the success rate is significantly low when we talk of business startups going out in search of loans. Ironically, they are the one who need it the most.

Critically review your idea:

Before going to the bank or any other traditional lender, scrutinize your business idea from all perspectives. Understandably, you'll be a little biased towards your own idea, for you that's nothing but perfect, but try to think from a third party viewpoint. Are their any statistics, which you can turn up to support your idea? Does your idea complement some ongoing market trends? Are you going to offer some product or service that's already in demand? Better discuss your idea with some of your friends or relatives to get some neutral comments or reaction. More often than not, you'd get some off-putting reminders, try and come up with the counter arguments or plans.

Make a Business Plan to present your case:

You need to present a comprehensive but concise, and fully documented business plan. It will help the banker to understand the prospects of a business, a well thought out plan also represent you as a person who is capable of running a business. The business plan should clearly explain the growth potentials with the help of facts and figures. If you are seeking loan for a business startup, your personal credit history should be clean, because more often than not you'll get a loan on the basis of your personal net worth and guarantee. You can strengthen your case by coming up with estimated Balance sheet or cash flow.

Another thing that will strongly go in your favor is your experience (if you have any) of working at some high-level position at a company that relates to the business you are willing to do. It amplifies that you know the trade secrets and the market for this business.

Source:
Wholesale

The emotions you can use in marketing campaigns

2010-10-15T03:07:00.000-07:00

The goal for modern era marketers is to click the right set of emotions in their customers through their advertisements, which will make them go for their products. They do not always succeed in doing so, but when they do, rewards are great. Though debatable, these tactics manages to sell more than any other marketing ploys (if there are any). Bottom-line is that marketing persons should be aware of the emotions that will trigger sales and the knowledge on how to spark these emotions in their targeted customers. We see modern marketers using this tactic in their advertisement a lot, next time when you see some advertisement (even those that seems to make no sense); try to see if it taps into emotions or triggers some feelings in you.

Behavioral sciences and the study of human mind have changed marketing from a simple practice of selling into a scientific field where new experiments are carried out, new hypothesis tested and new theories made on regular basis. Companies are no longer limited to attracting people through their ads; they are now looking to go for the kill in every marketing campaign. So much, that many intellectuals have now started to raise questions over these manipulative techniques and methods. Whether it is completely ethical or not is another debate, but the fact is that using the knowledge of human emotions in marketing campaigns works wonder.

Fear & Panic:

Probably the easiest to use and also the most criticized one. Ignite some fear in the customer mind, and it will set them in motion towards taking some action (while the required action is highlighted as buying your product). Fear works, just like the controversy. Though, responsible companies refrain from both of these "hot selling" tactics, because of their negative effects on customers and society. If you want to see this emotion at work then tune on to some news channel (who actually overuse it).

Desire & Hope:

This is the more appropriate emotion. When you have to ignite fear for some reason (insurance companies ads or some health related advertisements can't really do without this), you can always compliment it with providing hope. However, it will take more time and efforts to churn out such ads, because you are not leaving the customer in dismay by just highlighting some problems, you are actually coming up with solutions. Mortgage companies or election campaigners may use this emotion in their marketing.

Love & Belongings:

Another very powerful feeling, may it be the love for their children, their spouses or the love for some product itself. If you have some doubts that good marketing can make them fall in love with your product, then you can look at the likes of Coca-Cola, Nike, or Nokia, customers love these brands. Make the customers own your brand as much as you do.

In spite of these emotions, you can also focus on patriotism, dreams, jealousy or pride as well.

Source:

Wholesale

Some standard export contracts and their significance

2010-10-11T02:16:00.000-07:00

Export Contracts:
Buyers and sellers have to settle on issues like price, mode of payment, delivery of goods or the possession of goods in all types of sales and purchase. For example, when we go to the market and buy something, there is an understanding at work between both parties, because the payment and delivery of goods is made on the spot, we don't normally need a contract or agreement in this case.

Export and especially international export is not that simple. So many new factors come into play such as different currencies, mode of shipment or delivery time. Delivery takes time and somebody has to bear the risk and expenses of cargo, insurance, etc. Importers and exporters need to secure themselves and this sense of security comes from agreeing upon all the terms and conditions of trade. Both parties will sign on an agreement that states these provisions in detail. Normally export contracts have following sections.

i. Specifications & Signature of contracting parties
ii. Specifications of trading products
iii. Price & terms of payment
iv. Mode of shipment & Delivery period
v. Contract Validity

Following are some of the standard export contracts. These standards are known as "Incoterms", developed and published by "International Chamber of Commerce".

Free on Board:
Importer designates a board (ship) and exporter is responsible to deliver goods on the ship. Exporter has to bear all expenses except the insurance and cargo charges. FOB contract works only when maritime transportation is used as the mode of shipment.

Cost, Insurance and Freight (C.I.F):
Unlike F.O.B, the exporter has to arrange (and pay) for everything including shipment and insurance. In both types (F.O.B and C.I.F) delivery time is crucial and exporter is obliged to deliver the goods on the exact date that has been specified in the contract.

Ex works:
Seller's obligation ends when he makes the goods available at his place. Buyer arranges and pays for everything after that (clearance, transportation, etc).

Delivered Ex Ship:
Seller is responsible for delivering the goods to the port (advised by the buyer). Unlike F.O.B, where seller has to deliver the goods on the ship, in DES the seller has to bear the risk along with freight and insurance cost.

Free Carrier:
This "incoterm" is quite similar to F.O.B, but unlike F.O.B (that's just used for maritime transport), Free carrier (FCA) is used for all types of transport including air, by rail or road.

These are the ones mostly used in international trade; other types include "Cost and Freight", "Carriage paid to", "Delivered Ex QUAY" or "Delivered Duty Paid".

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Retail marketing – Boost up your retail business

2010-10-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

Retailing is an important component in the supply chain. In most cases the products are sold to their final customers from a retail outlet, it is the retailer who gets to know the customer feedback more than anybody else. Retail business is a form of small business but most business owners do not even consider marketing or advertising their retail business, which is absolutely wrong. Remember, no matter how small or how big your business is, if you are not doing appropriate marketing, you are going amiss. The marketing techniques may differ, the amount you spend on marketing your retail store may be relatively small (or maybe you won't even need to spend anything at all), but overlooking the marketing altogether is definitely a bad business decision.

Retail marketing – is it really necessary:
Do not retail businesses have competition? Do not retail businesses have to target customers? Do not retail businesses need sales? If all of these business traits are as applicable to retail businesses as any other business, then why is not marketing? Only difference is that as a retail business you probably have to target a very small set of customers, therefore the efforts you'll put into marketing will be relatively lesser than a large business.

So, what is the best way to market a retail business?
The best way to market a retail business, is to don’t overlook any single medium that falls within your resource limits. It can be anything, a business card, pamphlet, press release, small ads in your local newspaper classified section or yellow pages, attractive display of products, banners in the locality, special discounts and sale or maybe making a special effort to please your customers. As you can see, by spending a very minimal amount every now and then, you can rise above your competition with more or less the same products and prices.

Making it more profitable:
The notion is that starting or running a small business needs little or no planning, which is clearly incorrect. Small things can prompt big changes, for example more efficient pricing, product sourcing, smart money management, etc. If you have not been paying attention to any of these, it is time to start keeping tabs on all aspects of your business and see if you can improve on some aspect. It can be anything, such as less electricity consumption, dumping your supplier who charges too much and getting into business with a new one, putting extra effort to connect with your customers on individual level, etc.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Recession – The time is right to start a business

2010-09-30T23:08:00.000-07:00

If, after reading the title you are thinking that starting a business during recession is a walk in the park then wait, that's not what the title indicates. Before we proceed, make one thing clear, recession maybe a good time to start a business but it's definitely not an "easy" time to start a business. Still, the true entrepreneurs would be rubbing their hands in excitement with the hope that this recession, like its ancestors will reshuffle things and make new in-roads to enter into the business world. Have you ever read the stories of all those "today's huge businesses", which got started during recession or even great depression? If such stories failed to motivate or even excite you, then probably you should stay away from this highly demanding venture of starting a business during recession. These are testing times, game is on and the one who'll emerge as a winner after defeating all odds will go home with huge awards.

Now you know the importance of saving:

When something is in abundance, we tend to overlook its importance; it's only the situations like credit crunch or recession that we are reminded of the importance, of every single dollar we save. Because of recession, we are automatically urged in that "saving mode" that is so crucial for new start ups, especially when you have seen how hard it can be to raise the capital for new business. You are bound to cut as many expenses as you can; you become more concerned about whatever you spend on marketing, management or financing your business. You want to make sure that every single penny that you spend, will add value to your business. That is an ideal state of mind for someone who has just started, many times business owners lose the initiative when they get carried away by the initial success and become reckless in their spending.

Going the extra mile:

News of downsizing coming from everywhere, big companies laying off thousands of workers in one go, businesses reluctant to hire, all of these are bad news, but they may have a positive effect on your staff. The fear of loosing the job hangs around, and it makes them work even harder. They are looking to prove their worth; everybody is on their toes including managers or senior staff. Also, because the jobs are hard to get, you can get employees with good qualification at a very reasonable salary packages (you can always pay back once the business starts to grow).

Choose your product carefully; try to come up with some inexpensive but equally good alternative. Make sure, you won't need big investment in the start. Internet or home based businesses (because of their low startup costs) are the ideal types of businesses that you should take into account.

Source:

Wholesale Suppliers

Recession - Reasons, Consequences and Remedies

2010-09-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

You can be at variance about the definition of recession, but the chances are that present economic crisis (especially in United States) will make it to the list of recessions by any definition. It may not be that serious in all regions but news of credit crunch and bailout plans are coming from other countries as well. Recession is quite simple to understand; especially when you know the next stage of this economic turmoil is called "depression" (the word pretty much sums it up). Recession is an extended period of economic decline (a fall in GDP growth, employment rate, production and Personal Income, etc for two or more quarters). One or few of these problems are always there in most economies, however, we don't "cry recession" as soon as there's a drop in employment rate or GDP. Recession is a continuation of some economic crisis for a longer period.

Reasons:
There are many things that can trigger recession, wars, wrong government policies (of course the intentions are right, but some policies may not go as planned) or interest rates to name some of them. For instance recent recession is blamed largely on excessive "sub prime" loans. Contracting monetary policies caused that famous great depression back in 1929 and increased oil prices triggered a severe recession back in 1973. It's not that these causes always result in a recession, at some instances they are handled quite easily, at other times things get out of control. Mostly, when one trouble is followed by another and then another, the economy starts to cripple.

Consequences:
Although the reasons are different, consequences are often the same. High unemployment rates, financial markets failure, stock exchange collapses, businesses going bankrupt, downsizing in major corporations, low production, are just some of these consequences. Panic strikes in all segments of the society, working and lower-middle class might be afraid of loosing their jobs; large businesses will fear significant drops in sales, and government will be bothered by the public outrage. Investors are reluctant to invest in stuttering economy and consumers hold their money instead of spending.

Remedies:
A good thing about recession (or call it a relief if you think there's nothing good about recession) is that it takes time to develop and can be spotted way before it builds up into a recession. Ups and downs are a part of business or economic cycles and cannot totally be avoided; however precautionary measure at government or individual levels can cut the damage down to a minimum. On a personal level, you can prepare yourself better by saving more, keeping your expenditures to an essential minimum and when you feel too depress of the situation, remember the saying "In every chaos, there is an opportunity."

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers

Pros and cons of different approaches for decision making

2010-09-23T02:17:00.000-07:00

Whether your business or professional career meets success or an abrupt failure, it is going to depend largely on your decision making skills. The difference between a successful entrepreneur and a failed businessman is basically the effectiveness of decisions they will make in critical situations. Some have this ability to hit the nail on the head while others waste time in pointless arguments and analysis. Making right decision is of use only if made at the right time, not after you have suffered the loss.

So how can you prepare yourself to make correct and timely decisions? Do your decision making style really affects the appropriateness of your decision? Read on to know the answers.

The importance of Discussions:
Discussions are very important, even if the point in discussion does not affect anyone else but you. Discussion is not about asking someone else to assess the situation and come up with a solution, because you are not capable to do so. It should be a dialogue between you and other concerned persons, where everybody comes up with their own viewpoints and ideas. A decision made after some healthy discussions and with majority's consent is supposed to be a more sound one, as it has been pored over and scrutinized by a group of people (and not just one person).

Democratic approach vs. the despotic style:
There are two ways to settle on a decision after sufficient discussions and arguments. First, asking everybody to vote and putting down an autonomous decision. Second, the manager concludes with his/her own verdict as the final decision after listening to everybody's viewpoint. Democratic approach works best when you need to motivate your employees by making them a part of the decision. However, you cannot cast off autocratic style completely, as it has its own benefits. For example, sometimes the manager has the vision and information to see things differently, or because workers or staff will be inclined towards a decision, which is more advantageous to them than the company. For all these reasons, manager have to make a decision that may not be well-liked by everyone, but in the end it is the manager who will be held responsible.

Analytical vs. Impulsive:
Analytical decision making approach is a scientific approach that involves mathematical, statistics, analytical software or any other mediums to examine the situation and finishing off with the most logical solution, whereas impulsive decision making works best when you have to make a decision, then and there. Both of these approaches are effective, problem occurs when somebody starts wasting time in analyzing when a quick decision is needed, or else when someone makes an impulsive decision when he/she was having all the time to analyze the situation and weigh different options.

Source:

Wholesale Suppliers

Planning for your business travel? - Read this

2010-09-20T02:20:00.000-07:00

Business travels can be exciting, challenging and nerve-racking, all at the same time. There are people who love to travel around, and there are people who'd like to avoid traveling unless it becomes absolutely indispensable. If you belong to the first category (those who like traveling around) then good for you, but if you are one of those who reflect on traveling as a source of fatigue, you really need to stir up.

After all, you do travel from your home to the office and other places on daily basis, why lose sleep over traveling to some other state or country? Especially when you know that business travels open up a whole new set of opportunities. In most cases it's a wonderful experience where you learn so many new things, get the hang of new technologies, pick up new ideas and take hold of a completely new market.

Plan in advance:
No matter how much "in control" do you feel of yourself, last minute preparations are always risky because most of the times you'll end up missing out on some important items or documents. When you are traveling abroad, you need to plan in detail, from booking your tickets and hotel rooms to making a to-do list, trying to plan your journey in the nick of time would certainly make you overlook some of these.

Get as much as necessary sleep:
Business travels are quite challenging, both physically and mentally. You are constantly on road, moving around, meeting new people, making quick decisions and all. You may feel exhausted and worn out, especially if you are not getting sufficient rest. Good sleep is the biggest energy boost you can get and the most beneficial as well. It has an effect on your productivity, decision making capabilities and overall health. Give your body and mind adequate sleeping hours while traveling and they will take care of the rest. If you are undergoing JET LAG, drinking plenty of fluids can help.

Keep your luggage to a bare minimum:
When shopping or packing the accessories for traveling, you should try to come up with the lightest possible travel baggage (there’s no need to carry the best part of your wardrobe with you). A burdensome luggage will most certainly prove to be a hindrance at some stage of your journey. Make a list for all necessary items, give it another read and try to take out some non-compulsory stuff, do this a number of times, for example if you are traveling to a major city there’s no need to carry stuff like alarm clocks, compass, plastic bags, preventive medicines or toilet papers, etc.

Travel Safe:
Now days, security concerns are at an all time high, you are advised to be a lot more attentive and watchful irrespective of the city or country you are traveling into. Keep an eye on your luggage when on airports or railway stations; try not to wander around especially in less populated areas, try to hang around at some well reputed places, frankly ask for directions or guidance from your hosts or hotel staff.

Source:

Wholesale Suppliers

Part time business - Do they really exist

2010-09-17T03:17:00.000-07:00

You must have heard about how part time businesses turned into large corporations, and how some business started as a hobby converted into a ground breaking company. These success stories are often considered flukes, and people brush aside ideas of having a part time business, knowing that no business can thrive unless you give it your 100 percent. They are not totally wrong but not entirely correct as well. Part time businesses exist and many of them grow into full time money spinning ventures, not merely by a twist of fate.

Businesses are like plants, they need your time, care, and patience before they develop into something fruitful. Some may need less time than others, but you can't just start a business and leave it to grow on its own. Ok, you are supposed to invest relatively less time into these part-time ventures but you can not completely ignore them.

Advantages:
When you have got an idea, but you are unsure about the outcome, you can always give it a try by starting on part time basis. Just to get a grip of the possible results. You can try something totally new, some interesting innovation; target some untouched niche or anything else like that. You can use your time in something productive instead of wasting all the time in watching useless soaps or motion pictures. Even if the business fails, you'll still end up having a lot of experience on your hands.

Disadvantages:
Part time businesses are not for everyone, only well organized and disciplined people can carry a successful side business. Otherwise they will just add into the list of your incomplete tasks. Another disadvantage is that your social life will be disturbed; your family members may also find it hard to adjust with your extra working hours. Your employer can also have some problem if your nature of business clash with their interests.

Do's and Don'ts:

Part time businesses should be related to some task that you enjoy doing. So much that you don't care about a lot for monetary gains. Make sure you are not putting too much time and investments into your part time business in its early stages, at the same time don't completely ignore it. Do not get over excited at earliest signs of success and dump your primary job or business for that, give it some time before you conclude on its fate and make decisions about your future.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Marketing for small businesses with low budget

2010-09-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

If you are running a small/home based business, you are supposed to be low on budget. That's quite obvious; consider it an advantage or disadvantage, but small or home-run businesses can't spend fortunes on marketing that is not generating sales in real time. For this type of enterprises, this is just so important to ensure some return on all investments they make on marketing. Small businesses do not have the funds for unproductive marketing; they need sales to keep up. In this regard, first advice and the most important one as well, do some research and make sure that the product you are going to offer is already in demand. Remember, if you fail to do this, you are most probably in for a disaster.

Choose a market segment and stick to your niche market:

Targeting the whole market may sound more lucrative but that's not practical for small businesses, at all. They do not have resources, funds or skills for that kind of penetration, for them the best option is to choose a particular segment and design their products in line with this segment's needs and requirements. Remember, by choosing and serving some specific segment of the market, you can effectively kill half of the competition, straight away.

Be consistent and steady:

Don't judge the success of your marketing campaign on day to day basis, some days your cold calls, promotional e-mails or other marketing attempts may generate lots of leads, while on other days you'll find yourself not up to snuff. But you need to be consistent and patient, especially when the times are tough like recent economic crisis. Keep a note of your conversion rate, work extremely hard to put the required finishing touches if your conversion rate is somewhat below average. You can boost it up by working on minor things like your landing page copy or improving the quality of your follow-up calls.

Internet & Social Media Marketing:

Internet can prove to be a stroke of luck for small businesses, in particular with the inception and growth of social media networks. For many small businesses, Internet and social networking websites can prove to be so effective that ignoring them should be declared a crime, for their own betterment. Using these social networks and social media websites, with a little creativity can produce unbelievable results, and the best part is that it won't cost you a dime, as long as you can come up with something interesting, informative and valuable to share with your targeted customers.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Making use of your expertise to start a business consulting service

2010-09-08T23:41:00.000-07:00

If you are an expert in some particular field, you like working with new people, love challenges, and you are keen on starting and running your own business (in other (and more appealing) words “be your own boss”), then working as an independent consultant is the perfect business for you, which accommodates all of the above mentioned features. Do you think your expertise is sellable in today’s business world? Well, what are you waiting for? Get your skates on and go, sell it.

These days, consultancy businesses are growing like mushrooms. Businesses may use their advice or services in many scenarios, for example to spot the fault, training the staff or helping the business coming to grips with a new market or technology.

Different types of business consultants include:

Management Consultant: Helps with issues related to management such as business planning, implementing new strategies, brainstorming, etc.

Marketing Consultant: Helps you in getting started with marketing campaigns, identifying the niche, making market penetration plans, writing marketing copies or creating the buzz for your business.

Human Resource Consultant: Deals in recruiting and training the staff, also helps when the business has to go through some downsizing.

Financial consultant: Financial consultant can help you in financial planning, budgeting or making some crucial decisions of financial nature.

IT consultant: Many types of consultancy services may fall under this category like networking consultant, Microsoft consultant or SEO consultant.

Legal Consultant: You may seek their advice on all of the laws and policies related to your business.

These are just few of the promising consultancy services, but of course, these are not the only options, the fact is that you can offer just about any kind of consultancy service that maybe helpful to some businesses. You may or may not need to obtain relevant degree or certification, depending upon the competition, but for the sake of outshining your competitors, it is always recommended to have sufficient educational background along with your experience.

Starting and advertising a consultation business:

If you have got the knowledge and expertise, starting a consultancy business is not much of a fuss. You can start from your home, and you don’t really need any staff in the beginning (though having an assistant or secretary can be helpful). Real challenge is to reach your potential clients and establish yourself as an expert, in your respective field. There are various methods of advertising, such as brochures, newspaper’s classified section or public speaking, etc. Then we have a relatively new but mighty effective method known as "Blogging", use the ever growing internet to start a Blog and write regularly on your specific topic.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Keeping an eye on your advertising effectiveness

2010-09-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely, majority of businesses now understand the importance of marketing. Even the businesses with minimum resources are aware of the concept and significance of marketing. But there’s one thing that still goes without being noticed by many of them, that is advertising effectiveness. Many businesses have no idea on how to measure the success of their marketing campaigns. As a result, they keep running advertisements and marketing campaigns without really knowing if it is effectively working or not. Keeping a check on your advertising effectiveness is very important, or you may be wasting your resources on something useless, without even knowing it. On the other hand, measuring the accomplishment of your advertisement or marketing initiative is not as simple as measuring the increase in sales or inquiries.

How do we know if a commercial is effective or not?

A commercial that turns out to be extremely popular, doesn’t guarantee to be effective. For the reason, that the effectiveness of a commercial can be judged by evaluating its achievements and not by the hilarity in it. Therefore, if a commercial or any other marketing material that was meant to bring in more customers or to build a strong brand image is not effective unless there’s a positive change in the number of enquiries or the brand awareness. In fact, sometimes the storyline gets so interesting that it overrides the intended message in customer’s minds.

Setting objectives:

It is very important to jot down goals or objectives before initiating a marketing campaign. Most of the time, advertisement is targeted at generating sales but other equally important targets could be customer loyalty, product awareness, persuading customers or brand recognition. When setting objectives, make sure these are unambiguous and measurable, especially if you are delegating the project to some outside company.

Evaluating effectiveness:

Many companies test their ads or infomercials on a sample group of targeted customers to see the reaction. For small businesses that may not be possible but you can get the help from your family members or friends and ask for their opinion, the earlier you spot an ineffective medium, the better. If, after spending plenty of time and resources the end result is not impressive, don't waste more resources in distributing, publishing or making it public. Getting the accurate feedback is the key to constructive evaluation. Also, if you are trying to asses on the basis of increase in sales or revenue, don't rush into the process as soon as the commercial goes on air; you need to give it some time to develop.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

International payments - Some commonly used methods for International Export

2010-09-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

When trying to setup an export business (especially one that's intended to be operating at small scale), one has to make some vital decisions. One of them is deciding on a method for collecting payments from an overseas party. Ideally, as an exporter you'd like to collect payment in advance, but advance payments are hard to obtain in international market (in fact it's the same with local markets as well). Unless you have some large, internationally reputable business, you can't expect your seller to trust you with advance payment. But you don't need to worry; there are some other alternatives, though not as secure as advance payments, still reasonably safe. Let's take into account some regularly used ones.

Letter of Credit (LOC):

This is the most widely used and the most recommended method for international export. The biggest advantage of choosing "letter of credit" as your payment method is that it provides security to both buyer and seller; therefore it is equally acceptable for both parties. When all details are finalized between the buyer and seller; the buyer contacts his/her bank and asks for the issuance of "letter of credit". The buyer's bank sends out the LOC to seller's bank. Once the seller is notified, he/she will dispatch the items to the address provided by the buyer. The shipping documents are sent to the buyer's bank via seller's bank. Buyer then make payment to his/her bank, which is transferred to the seller's bank in due time.

Open Account:

Completely opposite to "advance payments" and advisable only if the buyer is extremely trustworthy, open account method allows buyer to pay after he/she has received the products. While at first it may sound like "a risk too big to take", the method is quite common when you are dealing with large established businesses as your buyers, because of their trustworthiness and business history. Still, the method is risky and not practical for exporters who are just starting, for example if the buyer defaults with the payment, you are left in dire straits, especially if you fail to provide sufficient documented proofs in the foreign court.

Document against Payment:

Safer than "open account" but still reasonably risky mode of payment, in this method the goods are shipped by seller, but the buyer can only take the possession when he/she has agreed to the obligation of paying the seller. Two types of collecting documents are normally used, known as "document on payment" and "document on acceptance".

There are some other mediums as well, like credit cards or online payments but those are normally used to make small payments.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

International Export Packaging – A checklist

2010-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

In international export, it may take several days, even weeks before the products reach to the customer, after being dispatched by exporters. Being an exporter, it's your responsibility to package all exporting items in a way that your customers will acquire them in excellent condition. Apart from protection; packaging is also used for marketing (labels & logos) or information (guidelines for consumers) purposes. Exporting products are vulnerable against physical shocks, crushing, climate change, mishandling, etc and the packaging should be able to safeguard them against all these hazards. Though the packaging standards differ with the countries and products, there are some minimum requirements that you need to take care of.

Packaging Box and Tapes:

Usually cardboard boxes are used when packaging for shipment. Always use firm boxes with proper flaps; extra padding (or cushioning) is compulsory for breakable items. Size of the box should be according to the product size, not too small (that you have to forcefully stuff all items inside) and not too large (that the goods can move around and clash with each other). Use separate wrapping for each item. If the products are of fragile nature, you can use wooden box for extra protection. Use standard tapes instead of normal household tapes, special tapes for packaging purpose are easily available. Extra safety measures are needed when you are exporting "food" items.

Addressing & Labeling:

Recipient address should be clearly mentioned, also the sender address where the products will return in case they don't reach the addressee. Also, mention the recipient contact number to ensure the delivery. Your business or brand logos on the package can be used for marketing and promotional objectives. Sometimes attractive packaging is used as a competitor advantage. You can also use the packaging to communicate with the customers about the other products or services you are offering. If the products are fragile or breakable, you can state these characteristics outside the box and give instructions for careful handling.

When exporting to developed countries, be sure to obtain knowledge about the acceptable packaging standards in that country. You can also refer to ISO standards in these cases. It's better to have a clear idea of all the possible hazards that the products can face before they will reach their destination. Remember the main motives of packaging that includes physical protection, quality preservation, storage convenience, marketing and product information. Adopting world-class standards is vital when doing international export, not only your product but your packaging should be of export quality in order to stand out.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

Implications of the "Incoterms" in international import & export

2010-08-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

Communication is crucial in international import & export, where both buyers and sellers are located a long way away, there’s every chance of misunderstanding in the interpretation of various terms used in contracts and agreements. These confusions and misapprehensions can cost one or both parties, dearly. What sounds pretty simple and straight-forward to a buyer sitting in United States, could turn out to be a perplexing one for the seller in China.

This problem continued to exist and resulted in many mix-ups and losses until the International Chamber of Commerce set down “Incoterms”, which is a set of 13 terms, referred as

1. EX-Works
2. FOB (Free On Board)
3. FCA (Free Carrier)
4. FAS (Free Alongside Ship)
5. CFR (Cost and Freight)
6. CIF (Cost, Insurance & Freight)
7. CPT (Carriage Paid to)
8. CIP (Carriage and Insurance Paid to)
9. DAF (Delivered at Frontier)
10. DES (Delivered Ex Ship)
11. DEQ (Delivered Ex Quay)
12. DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid)
13. DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)

Businesses can choose any of these 13 terms according to their own needs and requirements. For example, "Ex-works" inflict the minimum liability for seller; on the other hand "Delivered Duty Paid" makes it obligatory for the seller to arrange for almost everything including export duty expenses, loading and unloading expenses, landing charges, transportation, insurance and custom clearance. Incoterms are not applicable to all aspects of trade, however they do standardize most of the terms used in international trade. For example, they spell out the terms of delivery in detail, and establish the responsibilities for buyers and sellers as to who will bear the expenses of insurance, clearance or various other taxes. Another important implication of "Incoterms" is the reduction (or removal) of uncertainty about the transfer of risk.

As an exporter or importer, you need to spend some time on understanding each of these 13 "Incoterms" and their explanations given on the official website of "International Chamber of Commerce". Each of them is an agreement in essence, with predetermined terms and condition, for that reason each of them has got different advantages and disadvantages. After a careful study, maybe you can underline the best ones and then stress on using that particular Incoterms when getting into an agreement with some buyer or seller. Incoterms are acknowledged all over the world (by courts, governments, etc); therefore a good comprehension of all of these terms is a must for all international exporters. Remember, ICC keep making minor changes (not very often though), it's important to keep a track of these modifications.

Source:
UK Wholesalers

How to deal with employee's high turnover rate

2010-08-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

Turnover rate is the ratio of employees leaving the company (or some specific industry) in a given period. A company or industry has high turnover rate when the workers of that company tend to ditch their jobs more often than the employees of other companies (in the same industry). Some industries and jobs have high turnover rates because of the nature of work, however if your company has a high turnover rate than your competitor and you are not able to sustain your employees with you, there maybe something wrong with your policies. In case you don’t pay attention, not only you will be loosing your good employees to your competitors, your business will also suffer from high costs of attracting, recruiting and training the new staff.

Atmosphere and working conditions:

At certain workplaces, you will feel the tense atmosphere as soon as you put your feet in, reason can be strict management or unrealistic targets. Being a manager, it is necessary to maintain some discipline but some managers overdo it by importing rules straight from the books of military. For many individuals (especially fresh graduates) it becomes really hard to adjust in this kind of atmosphere.

Working conditions are linked with health related issues. Light, ventilation, air conditioning, heating systems and safety measures are some of the basic requisites. Sometimes, improving your high turnover can be as simple as loosening up some rules or dealing with some unhealthy environment issues.

Salary & Growth Opportunities:

Excessive work, no incentives and low salaries, these are all grounds for a high turnover rate. Employees are here to earn, and their morale is directly related to their income. If you are expecting them to give their 100 %, you should be giving back in form of good enough salaries. Your salary packages should be competitive if not the best in market. A good salary package will make up for many other factors, but if the salaries are low from the market standards, nothing can hold the employees for long. Similarly, motivating employees by providing growth opportunities is also necessary.

Choosing the right candidate and the nature of the work:

If your recruitment and hiring process is flawed, you are destined to have a high turnover. Many small businesses, in a hurry to fill out vacant positions, hire some unskilled individuals, thinking that he/she will learn the traits with the passage of time. Such hiring is nothing but wastage of time, both for employee and employer. The interviewee should have complete knowledge of the skills required for some particular job, and the successful candidate must be having most of them, if not all.

Sometimes the reason for high turnover is the nature of work, for example the jobs that require night shifts or excessive late sittings. These types of jobs are not suitable for everyone; hence turnover rates are often high in such jobs. These are just some of reasons, apart from looking into these areas; you can communicate with your employees to get the idea if they are having any reservations.
Source:
Wholesale

How important are Performance Appraisals

2010-08-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

There may be a huge difference between the performances of two employees, even when their qualifications or all other variables are same. Reason can be the difference in their dedication, commitment or personal traits. Quite obviously, the one who put more effort, more time or more commitment, for the growth of business than his/her counterparts, should be getting some extra reward for that. A timely salary increment or promotion for the best employee is not only an encouragement for the frontrunner; it also motivates others to work harder. If you don't come up with any kind of bonuses or rewards, it won't take long before you see a drop in that employee's performance graph too. Also, performance appraisals are essentials to keep a track of your overall business performance and figure out the deficiencies.

It may sound quite simple to choose the best contributing worker and hand him the reward. In reality, performance appraisals are something that needs lots of planning and careful thinking. Sure, it brings the sense of competition in your workforce, but the evaluations will also attract lots of puckered brows and objections. A flawed performance appraisal will go as far as completely shattering employee's confidence or loyalty towards your company. Bottom-line … don't take it lightly; you need to be extra cautious and fair when planning and implementing some performance appraisal program.

Guidelines for performance appraisal system:
Performance appraisal systems are based on some ranking or scaling criteria. Ideally, the judgment should be made with the help of statistics, along with the feedback coming from managers, coordinates and peers. Assessment criteria must be uncomplicated and easily available to everybody. Give them a transparent review system, where employees can judge themselves against their fellow workers, at any given time. Monitor the performance on regular basis instead of waiting for the month end before you go through the evaluation process. Don't try to stuff your performance appraisal plan with too many attributes and benchmarks, keep the requirements simple and easy to comprehend.

Performance appraisal Meetings:
The most important part of performance appraisal is to communicate with employees and discuss their overall performance. Don't discuss anybody's problem or dismal performance in front of his/her colleagues. Also, don't ignore past performances when judging an employee, if the worker has constantly been performing well except the present month, ask for the reason, especially if something is bothering him/her at workplace. Keep in mind the main objective of performance appraisal i.e. to encourage and motivate your employees, not to mark their short comings or hurt somebody's feelings.

Source: Wholesale Supplier

Decorating your office - the right way

2010-08-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

Office design and decoration plays an important role in the overall environment of the office, by the same token the overall environment plays an imperative role in the productivity of the company. Hence, a professional and pleasant looking office is as important as anything in your business success. Remember, you need to maintain a balance in all aspects when trying to decorate your office. For example, employer's comfort is vital but not to an extent that they start getting drowsy or lethargic in the working space. Similarly, it's good to try and make your office a fun place to be but it should not be giving an impression of some discothèque. Here are some important considerations for workplace setting and decoration.

'Light' Delights:
Surprisingly, light has been treated as an addendum when planning for your workplace. Whereas proper lighting at workplace is supposed to be your first priority, because that is where you spend most of your time. Bad lighting will harm your mental and physical health; in addition to this it may have a negative impact on your productivity. Excessive use of computers has made it so important that hiring some lighting expert is not a bad idea if you are not good with lighting standards or requirements. Ideal lighting arrangement should give your working space a feel of comfort and openness.

Comfortable Furniture:
Do some planning before going out to purchase your office furniture, so that you have a clear picture of the furniture that is fitting for your office space, this will save you from buying some needless fixtures. A chair or table that looks classy at furniture shop can turn out to be extremely inappropriate when placed in your office settings. Don't go for the looks, price or designs, comfort should be the main concern. You can go and talk to some sales person at furniture store, tell them your requirements and they'd show you the right piece of furniture.

Right colors for the Right mood:
Even before we had these research works, we knew that some colors have kind of soothing effect on our nerves; on the contrary some colors are quite stimulating. It means that using the right blend of colors, when painting your office walls can bring forth the right set of feelings in you and your staff. It's better to use different colors in different sections, like using neutral colors at workplace and cool colors at recreation room.

Source: Wholesale Furniture Supplies

Coping with the workforce diversity for manager

2010-08-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

Workforce diversity is often considered a characteristic of large corporations, with considerably large pool of employees; however workforce diversity is not limited to just large companies. If we go by the definition, any business having two or more than two employees coming from different age groups, ethnic backgrounds, religious sectors, race or gender, etc is basically having a diverse workforce. Sometimes the differences are trivial and hard to notice, sometimes quite flagrant.

Workforce diversity is not something to be wary of, even if it requires a little bit more planning and thinking at manager's end, because it brings so many different perspectives and thought patterns to the organization, hence a diverse workforce is more of a plus than minus for businesses. A diverse workforce results in a more flexible and innovative business. That is why, there's no need to panic, if you find yourself managing a multitalented workforce. Wasting your time in planning to avoid people coming from difference age groups, gender or religious backgrounds is not only a discriminatory practice, but also a bad management decision. By doing this, you are closing your doors to a more versatile workforce, which is more capable of dealing with challenges.

Do's:

First of all, you need to accept diversity and allow your employees to carry and develop their own unique personalities (as long as it doesn't clash with office discipline and business objectives). It comes handy during the process of decision making and business meetings, where some sort of brain storming is needed. A group that consists of managers or attendees with similar ages, genders or experiences is more likely to miss out some noteworthy aspects, which a more diverse group can easily point out. As a manager, you must make use of the diversity when making some important decisions like finalizing a project, making appraisal plans or launching a new business.

Dont's:

Never go over the top with your efforts to eradicate individuality from the work place, with the intention of developing a more standardized workforce. By doing this, you may end up killing the creativity of your staff, a business having no originality or inventiveness can never reach its true potential. Take the example of this world, despite of so many disasters and challenges; this world continues to exist so far because of its diversity. To manage a diverse workforce efficiently, a manager should be having excellent communication skills and an understanding of human behaviors.

Choosing the right Freight forwarding agency

2010-08-08T22:46:00.000-07:00

Many small businesses (or those who have just started) find it extremely hard to go through the frustrating procedures of documentation, legalities and clearance, that unfortunately, is a must in all types of international trade. There are quite a number of fronts to handle, and more often than not you find yourself trapped in these time-consuming tasks, when you should be working on the more important ones like marketing, communicating with clients and finalizing new business deals. As a small business, you are left with two options, either hire more staff for these jobs or outsource everything to a freight forwarding agency.

Professional freight forwarders have a clear advantage over your newly hired staff, first they are far more experienced, second they have good working relations with many parties involved in transaction and third, they know many cheap alternatives for transportation. A good freight forward agent will be able to assist you from the word go if you have no real knowledge of international trade. Best way is to engage a freight forwarding agent even before you finalize the prices, as he/she can give you an exact idea on how much documentation, insurance or shipment can cost.

While choosing the freight forwarding (or clearing) agent, you must consider following guidelines.

Experience:
The prime reason for you going to the freight forwarding agent is his/her experience for carrying out those tasks. No matter how qualified your freight forwarding agent seems to be, don't close your eyes to the past experience he/she has in the field. An experienced freight forwarder can prove to be a lot more helpful because he/she will be having working relations with relevant parties. Being an "old hand" also reflects that the freight forwarding agency is a long-standing business.

Knowledge:
Choose the one with extensive knowledge of the market, policies, rules and procedures, and more importantly the best modes of shipment. The agent should be capable enough to go through complete process with ease and in a timely manner. An ideal freight forwarding agent will have the knowledge, skills and technology to provide, you and your customers with top-notch services.

Price:
Freight forwarding agent substitutes you for a good number of tasks, plus he/she will provide you with valuable counseling and guidance as well. So, the fees are supposed to be considerably high. Decide all the services you expect to receive and settle on prices in complete details, make sure there will be no additional charges in the future. If you are dealing with a freight forwarding agent from another country, bear in mind the communication problems (because of foreign language involved) that can arise in the future.

Choosing the right bank for international trade

2010-08-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

International exporters need the services of banks or financial institutions at many stages of their trading business. They need loan to help with initial setup, they need financing for production phase, and they need the services of banks to make or receive payments (letter of credit, wire transfer, etc), they can avail lots of other services like online banking, small business loans, credit cards, etc. When deciding on your bank you should consider following points carefully, because you can't keep changing your bank often.

Interest Rates and Service Fee:

Normally, there’s not much difference between interest rates offered by various banks operating in the same market and circumstances, mainly because of cut throat competition. However, that doesn’t mean you should completely ignore the small differences at hand. Similarly, banks charge different fees for different services, if you have a clear idea of the services you are going to avail, you can easily decide on the most suitable bank. Banks have to rely on these service charges and fees for their profits, but you must make sure that you are not getting ripped off by your personal bank.

Repute & History:

A well reputed bank of good standing will also speak for your business credibility at international export, so you better go for some bank, which is highly regarded among business circles. If you are choosing a bank for long term relations, you should go through its business history, past performance and achievements. Another question to go over is how financially strong that bank is, especially after we have seen more than 15 US banks failures in first three months of 2009. Just because they deal in money, doesn’t mean they’d never run out of it.

Customer Relations & Customer Service:

Good banker-customer relations are a result of mutual understanding and collaboration. Bank staff normally consists of well mannered and courteous individuals; still some banks go that extra mile to please their customers and establish long term relationships. Customer service can slightly vary on branch to branch basis as well. Don’t get overwhelmed by the politeness and the display of utmost sincerity when going through the procedures of opening an account, instead you should talk to some existing customers to make sure they are satisfied with the banking services and the behavior of staff.

In addition to the points described above, you can look for the quality of products and services offered by the bank.

Checklist for organizing successful meetings

2010-08-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

Company meetings are meant to be highly informative, problem-solving and solution-providing events, however most of the times these meetings end without accomplishing any of these targets. That is why many people consider these meetings as a waste of time, for them participating in the meeting is nothing but an obligation that doesn't make any sense to them. For all these reasons, as a chairperson or someone who's looking into the task of organizing a company meeting, you need to take care of these points, in order to turn it into a constructive and valuable experience for participants.

Purpose of the meeting:

As earlier mentioned, all meetings are supposed to have a clear purpose; these are not mere gatherings where some employees spend some time sitting around the table and crack jokes at each other. For example, some meetings are meant for informational objectives like holding a meeting to explain some policy that has recently being implemented, or to pass out instructions for the use of some newly introduced technology. Another likely purpose could be to analyze or get to the bottom of some problem. The person who is named as the chairperson must have an unmistakable idea on what the meeting is all about.

Choosing the participants:

Preferably, a meeting should be having a small number of participants; however that doesn't mean some persons who are closely linked to the meeting agenda are left out just for the sake of having the least possible partakers. Choose the participants according to the nature of meeting; if the meeting has been conducted for instructive purpose, it's quite obvious that you must have an expert speaker who'll brief the participants on that particular topic. If the meeting is taking place because a problem has occurred and some kind of brainstorming is needed, it's better to have managers or representatives from all departments.

Controlling the discussion:

If you are chairing the meeting, your role is of utmost significance. First thing first, don't try to get overly authoritative, that will discourage free flow of information and ideas, once you have started the discussion, encourage everyone to take part, don't impose your ideas on anybody, during the discussion your main role is to keep the dialogue on track. Settle down the situation if participants are getting excessively aggressive, rude or emotional. Once everybody has shared his/her opinions with the group members, it's now your turn to evaluate and come up with conclusions, which will be based on the discussion and everybody's opinion. Last but not the least, prepare the minutes of the meeting and forward the detailed report to higher management.

An insight into the Path Goal Theory for leading your workforce

2010-07-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

In the past ten years or so, we have seen an abundance of new management theories/models being introduced. However, there’s no management theory that’s worth calling a perfect one, also it is practically impossible for all managers to try and apply each of them. Does that mean, a manager should pay no attention to these theories? Well, the answer is in negative, for most of these models are laid down by successful managers or erudite scholars. Therefore, you must go through all of them once in a while, for the sake of learning one thing or two, even if you are not looking to adapt.

One of these management theories is referred to as the “Path-Goal theory of leadership” that has been jotted down by Robert House. In simple words, the theory describes the role of managers in setting goals and then laying down a roadmap to reach there, more importantly it discusses four different types of approaches that a manager could use according to different circumstances. The theory is a good reminder of the fact that management is much more than hiring and firing employees, or maintaining discipline in the office. The job doesn’t end on stating the desired results and pointing towards the resources; it actually starts from that point and remains a manager's duty to support, motivate and guide his/her workers all the way through.

Following are the four different styles of management (or leadership, for that matter) described in the theory. Remember, you don’t need to choose and then stick with only one of them; an efficient manager should be able to adapt any of the following styles, according to specific situations or workforce.

Supportive approach:

A manager is ought to be supportive to his/her subordinates, right? Still, managers like to carry that “bossy aura” around them, most of the times. As a result, subordinates feel reluctant to speak to their managers. Now, managers are supposed to be the most experienced and well-versed person in the workforce, how efficient do you think will be the workforce, where the most qualified person is reduced to sit in his/her office and look into various reports once in a while?

Directive Approach:

This is the standard approach now days; managers set the targets, assign tasks and resources and provide the subordinates with guidelines. This approach is not bad, given that the workers are qualified and experienced enough.

Achievement Oriented Approach:

This approach is recommended in challenging projects (for example when you need to motivate your sales staff to introduce a new product in the market). At such instances, you need to raise the bar, and then push them to rise above by offering sufficient rewards and appraisals.

Participative Approach:

In this style of management, the manager encourages the participation of each and every member in the team, especially when implementing a change or making some important decision regarding business.

Alternative trading systems and organization

2010-07-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Fair trade is a relatively old phenomenon that presents an alternate trading system, which facilitates small scale producers and workers (mainly from undeveloped countries), so that they can sell their products in the developed markets without being duped by the middleman or the capitalist who pay these workers the smallest amount but sells the product to consumers at a hefty price. At the end of the day, it is the middlemen or industrialist, who takes home the larger profits while the real worker is left with little or no opportunities to grow, which is quite unfair. For that reason a fair trading system has been introduced that tends to be directed more by socialist viewpoint than the capitalist.

Alternative Trade Organizations:

Fair trade (also known as alternative trade) calls for market access for low level producers, so that they’ll be able to sell their products at reasonable price. This is what these alternative trade organizations (or fair trade organizations) works for. Fair trade movement, which was started back in 1940’s, was initially based on religious or ethical commandments. With the passage of time, as more and more people including NGO’s and students joined in the cause, it is now becoming more and more popular especially in Europe and North America. For the reason that it’s not only the worker who benefits, but the whole society, especially the consumers who will be paying fair price.

To achieve their ultimate goal (which is to empower destitute workers towards economic prosperity), fair trade organizations works toward promoting this trade system, and spreading awareness among consumers. Such products are not easily available in all markets, so these organizations have to endorse the locations and stores where such merchandise is available. There is a type of certification known as Fair trade Certification, granted to businesses who meet the standards (works pretty much the same like ISO certification). Some of these standards are no gender discrimination, decent wages for workers, no child labor and safe working conditions. Though there’s no restraint but till now the fair-trade is normally limited to simple household stuff like tea and coffee, fruits, chocolate or handicrafts.

Alternate trading systems:

Some people confuse alternative trade with alternate trading system, because of the similarity in the names. Alternate trading systems are actually unconventional trading system set up for the convenience of stocks buyers and sellers. These are not necessarily stock exchange, though a set of regulations made by SEC applies on them. Online trading system is an example of alternate trading.

Starting your own export business, The process explained

2010-07-23T05:29:00.000-07:00

Whenever you decide to start something big, a little time spent on planning in the beginning will save you from lots of thinking sessions (filled with frustration, panic and disappointments) later on. You can make giant looking tasks a lot easier by dividing them in small, practical step-by-step procedures. Starting an export business is not a walk in the park, and when you decide to get into this business, you have to make quite a number of arrangements such as deciding your product, choosing shipment mode, arranging finance and much more.

Initial Stage:

Select your product

Determine potential buyers

Market research

Exporting method

Comprehensive business plan

First you have to select the product; in case you are not already involved in producing or exporting some product locally (even then you may need to improve its quality and features for international export). After choosing the product, you can now assess the targeted customers. Do some research on the market and analyze it carefully. Next step is to decide upon the exporting method. Remember, all of these decisions and selections should be based on some facts and figures, and not mere assumptions. As stated earlier, time spent in planning & research will save you from possible loss and failures in the future. You need to be watchful, alert and patient in the start, so that you don’t fall in hands of frauds and scams.

Middle Stage:

Determine Price

Payment terms & conditions

Terms and conditions for delivery and shipment issues

Shipping mode

After you are done with initial research and planning work, you now have a plan in your hands. You know your potential customers by now. Next step is to determine prices, while doing this, keep all costs and expenses in mind, don’t try to take too much risk by offering extra ordinary low prices. Payment terms and the mode of payment is also an important decision, so is the selection of shipment mode you are going to use.

Final Stage:

Financing

Production/Manufacturing

Packaging

Shipment

Collection of payment through your bank or some payment processor

After all the planning and marketing, you will start receiving orders from interested customers. At this point, you need to have sufficient funds in hands to manufacture or arrange the products you are looking to export. Once you have got the funds, and you are done with the production work, you need to go through packaging and documentation work before making a shipment to the customers.

This is the basic framework for starting an export business, which will help you in starting smoothly and gradually growing.

Sorting out business failures, you haven't lost it all

2010-07-20T02:35:00.000-07:00

Businesses may fail to prosper for many reasons, bad marketing, insufficient funding, poor customer service, non-supportive market conditions or incapable management. But this article is not about escaping business failures, because failures are a part of life and sometimes all the efforts and capital spent on planning/management can go in vain. If you are into reading success stories or biographies of successful businessmen, you'll note a common pattern in all of these memoirs i.e. they started, fell short, learn from their mistakes, tried again and carried on with the pattern until they accomplished their goals. They all seem to agree on this one point, that the secret to their success was their "never say die" approach.

No failure means No improvement:

It may sound quite idiotic, but the more failures you have in your early days the better, only as long as you are learning from these failures and constantly improving. Let the failures take care of your short comings and make sure you work on your weaklings once they have been revealed by some kind of failure. As a result, your chances of a slip-up decrease in later stages. What comes out of this string of "blunders and correction" is an experienced fellow who knows what's actually going to work and what's not.

You are not a failure just because your business fails:

Quite obvious, isn't it? Still many of us go down with their businesses and never recover. You need to realize that there are many other factors that will decide the fate of your business other than your personal skills, and many of these factors are not even in your control. Businesses should be treated like businesses, an investment or a gamble. Sure, you've got to work hard, give your 100 percent, apply all your experience and skills but please don't put your self-belief on stake.

Don't spend a lifetime in grieving over your failures:

In words of Marlon Brando, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger". Luckily business failures hardly kill anyone; they are not the end of the world even if you have lost it all. To tell the truth, financial deficit is the easiest to regain (you can't recapture youth, friends or time once you lose them). Getting into a mourning mode and staying like that forever will make the situation worse. Business failures (or any other failure) are just a stopover in the journey of your life; do not treat them as your final destinations.

Role of distributors & agents in exporting business

2010-07-16T02:54:00.000-07:00

As a manufacturer or exporter who is willing to step into some foreign market, you should better be starting in a safe and calculated manner. One relatively safe and secure method is to start with indirect exports and see the response. There are many ways to start indirect exports, but the most widely used method is to hire the services of commission agents or get into a contract with some distributor. Although, their roles may sound a bit similar, both of them differ at some points. Let’s look into the role of these two in detail.

Agents:

Also known as commission agents, they are responsible for selling your products in foreign market. They are experienced campaigners and quite familiar with the market you are going to target. They know the customers and their needs. However, the thing to remember is that they are solely responsible for selling your products. They do not buy from you directly; neither do they involve themselves in delivery or after sale services in most cases. Their source of earning is the fixed commission on every sale (or gross sales, they will make for you).

Commission agents must be able to meet following requirements before you hire their services.

Should be having loads of experience

Check to see if the agent also deals in some of your competitive products

Past record of sales and the stats for business they have provided to other exporters in the past

How much of the market that agent can cover on his/her own and to what extent

Do they sell to end users or businesses?

Distributors:

Unlike commission agents, distributors normally purchase the product from you (at low rates) and then sell it in the market, all the time maintaining some inventory with them. Given, they also provide after sale services, they are more suited if your product needs some installation work or requires after sale services.

Distributors should be financially stable

They must be good in inventory stocking and warehouse management

Should be having technical information about the product (train them if needed)

Should be ready to work at price margins you are willing to offer

Be careful when going into a contract and think over the clauses many times before signing

Distributor should be capable of running or managing the advertising campaign if needed

Now, whether you should go for agents or distributors? The answer to this question will depend on your product and preferences.

Risks and challenges involved in international business

2010-07-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

International businesses have to face risks and challenges at many fronts. Some are similar to the risks and challenges a domestic business confronts and some are unique. Even the challenges that are similar by definition differ in nature. For example both types of businesses have to face financial challenges, but an international business will be facing many factors related to global financial markets that don’t affect domestic businesses as much. They are more of a challenge in nature than risks and most of them can be handled through proper planning. Keep reading to understand these challenges better.

The challenge of international planning & strategy:
The first challenge for an international enterprise is to make a global strategy and then implement it. The managers and those at decision-making positions often find it difficult to change their thought pattern, which is not used to work in global paradigm. There are many international businesses but just some of them have truly adopted a proper global strategy. Though the situation is improving with more and more trained graduates and professionals taking on the management roles. Nevertheless, international business management requires extra ordinary management, foreseeing and leadership skills.

Financial and economic challenges:
It starts from arranging the funds to start international business and includes everything such as fluctuation in exchange rate, global economic crisis (or some economic crises in the host country), shift in oil prices, global inflation or tariff barriers imposed by the host government, also the export related policies of your own government.

International Politics:
Political know-how is a must for everybody but it becomes all so important when operating at international level. If some policies were suitable for your business, a change in ruling party can bring drastic changes in those policies. Political chaos will bring down the economy and with that your business. To prevent your business from such negative impacts, you need to make sound political judgments.

Environment, natural disasters and warfare:
Many multinational businesses have to face serious opposition by some environment friendly organizations. Citizens are more concerned about air and water pollution these days as it is becoming a serious threat to their health. Some natural disaster like floods and earthquake, or some kind of civil war breaking out in the host country is also in the list of possible challenges. A new challenge that an international business has to bear now days in some specific countries is the threat of terrorism.

Improving your personal productivity in this fast paced world

2010-07-08T03:54:00.000-07:00

Just ask anyone around you, and you will find most of the people complaining about their low personal productivity. How they were not able to give their hundred percent and how much more they could have achieved only if they were able to utilize their full potential. How, for some reason they keep falling for the less important, insignificant activities every now and then? Isn’t it strange that the man has been inventing so many machines and devices to keep up with the time and complete lengthy, irksome tasks in shorter period; still the time manages to run faster?

In our effort to catch up with this fast paced world, and to meet all the expectations of the people around us, we pointlessly drift through the days and nights of our lives, years and years seem to pass in a twinkling of an eye and every time we look back, we are struck by a sense of guilt, realizing that we have spent most of our time in activities that were of no use to anybody. Even those who are relatively more successful than a common man will agree that they were capable of doing much more than what they have achieved so far. So what’s there to be done? Luckily, it’s never too late to start improving.

Time Management:

Good personal productivity is closely linked to better time management but good time management is something easier said than done. Who can deny the importance and scarcity of time, yet we continue to waste time, sometimes watching TV, going out and staying up late with friends, checking emails a thousand times on daily basis or just thinking how unfortunate we are for not having enough resources to fulfill our dreams (always forgetting that if we keep sitting idle like this, our dreams will just slip further away). To manage time effectively, you should carefully observe your daily routine. Sometimes we go through these time-wasting activities just out of habit. These habits are often not hard to break, and sometimes just knowing that you have already wasted so much time at something without getting anything out of it can make you quit that routine.

Don't Panic:

No matter how much work is left, as the deadline keep nearing, do not panic. Panic or stress will do nothing except eating out your energy and the time that can be used for more preparation and work. That doesn’t mean you should stop worrying about the cut-off dates or targets at all, just don’t let the fear of not being fully prepared or not meeting the deadline overcome. In panic, you may push yourself a little too hard and as a result you will end up feeling depleted.

Be focused and keep challenging yourself:

Again, simple rule but really hard to abide by. Never loose your focus, even before doing something constructive; ask yourself if it is going to help your goals in any way or not? Keep challenging yourself on constant basis, never shy away from challenges because often a challenge is all you need to get yourself back on track.

How to manage negotiations and conflicts at workplace

2010-07-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

It’s good to have diversity in your workforce where different types of people can bring different advantages to your company. But this diversity often results into difference of opinions between two employees or two different departments. Conflicts are a part of working environment and as a manager you don’t need to panic in such situations. You cannot eliminate the disagreements altogether; all you can do is to manage them in a way that it won’t affect your productivity levels. The sooner you deal with them, the better it is for your business; otherwise the conflicts will give way to negative behavior and lack of team efforts, and as a result low productivity.
Possible Causes:
Whenever you get to the bottom of any conflict, you will find the same old cause lying in the roots, and that’s poor (or the lack of) communication. Different types of personality clashes and characteristics are another common problem. Unfair handlings, unmerited promotions, lack of opportunities or any other thing that results into insecurity among employees can also lead to the conflicts. If the work expectations or production targets are too hard to achieve, the workers will get frustrated, outcome might be bullying or regular exchange of harsh words between workers.
What to do:
As a manager who is looking to resolve conflict, you should start with communicating with all parties involved. Be calm, and listen to the whole thing patiently. Encourage everyone to speak their heart out, especially those who are less conversational. When thinking of a solution, try to focus on the problem and not personalities. Keep your personal prejudice away from the decision-making. Be sincere to both parties when taking corrective measures. One thing you should do even before some conflict arise is to eliminate favoritism of any type.

Precautions:
Employees and workers should be well aware of their job descriptions and what the management expects out of them. The rewarding system should be clear and well communicated. Joint decision making at all levels will reduce negative feelings to a great extent. Keep an eye at bullying types, and never let anyone get away with any kind of harassment or discrimination. Try to avoid personality clashes as much as possible, when making teams. If you have this feeling that two persons can’t work together, change the individuals if possible. Interact with all employees every now and then and never rely completely on your sources for the input.

Globalization & making global strategies for your business

2010-07-01T03:30:00.000-07:00

Globalization presents a whole new set of opportunities, a totally different type of threats and so many alternate options to do business. It is going to affect your business one-way or the other, that’s why the sooner you start thinking in a global perspective the better. Globalization has made the future even more uncertain for the businesses, raising the bar to a new level. If your business was somewhat secure in the old domestic setup, you should get ready for some competition coming from across the borders. Being the best in your country is not enough anymore. You need to look for improvement constantly, as a business and as an individual to be able to survive.

On the positive side globalization is not all about threats and insecurities; it also provides so many new lucrative markets and opportunities at the same time. But to avail these benefits you need to be proactive. Unlike most businesses that just go with the happenings; you should make a global strategy and then stick to it.

Internal & External Considerations:

Internal & external assessment is the first step towards making a global strategy. It starts from deciding if your product or service has got the potential to make it at international level. If the answer is in yes, then you must go for it. Other factors include available resources (capital, technology, and skills), environmental factors, global inflation, trade barriers or the alternates available worldwide. An example of these alternates is how globalization has made it so easy to outsource some of your tasks to a firm located in some low cost zone and save significant amounts.

Set Goals:

Keep in mind the availability of finance or the requisite like supplies in the host country, when setting goals. Don’t overlook the hurdles like host Government policies, political uncertainties or global inflation in your excitement of going global. Set priorities and the level of risk your business is capable of taking.

Long Term Planning

The formulation of long-term plan requires the managers to look into all departments, starting from entry method to diversification targets, product marketing and distribution. If you have been running or managing a business locally for some time, it may take time and effort before your mind can adapt an international approach while planning. It may be hard at first, but then that’s something you can hardly ignore in this age of globalization.

Change, Learn to deal with this unchangeable reality in your professional life

2010-06-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

The catchphrase for Obama's (now successful) election campaign was "Change", and the fact that it worked means Americans welcomed the idea of change. On individual level, we tend to approve of change when the proceedings are not good, and quite understandably we are annoyed when this inevitable comes at a time when everything was going smooth. So … is the change really bad or something good? Searching for the answer of this question is ineffectual, because whether good or bad, change is inescapable. Besides, the answer to this question (if the change is good or bad) depends on how good we are at dealing with change.

We can't control the universe, that's it:
Even though, we'd feel in control of the events in our lives at times, the fact is that things get out of control in no time and we are left with this unsympathetic reality that we are helpless (as far as the happening goes). But, we are absolutely in charge of our reaction and that's what really matters. Sometimes we distance ourselves from positive changes just because they are enforced upon us, or they seem to pull us out of our comfort zones. So the first step towards handling the change in a more positive way is to evaluate instead of rejecting instantaneously.

Look at the change as an opportunity:
Sometimes you get into some competition and find out that no matter how hard you try, you can't beat the old, experienced and established players, because they are just so comfortable with the techniques or procedures. Change can prove to be a blessing in these situations, a change in rules, introduction of some new technology or installation of new software, changes like these mean everybody has to start from the scratch. This is the time where you can create some sort of supremacy over others, but only if you were ready to embrace change. Sometimes we are too perplexed by the change that we fail to see the opportunity lying within the change.

Don't underestimate your potential:
We are much more capable of adapting to changes than what we assume of ourselves. (If we were not, we'd have vanished from the face of earth like those monstrous dinosaurs). On a more serious note, it's not that hard to adapt in most circumstances, all you need is to have some flexibility and focus. It’s quite possible that after sometime you’ll feel that you are much more comfortable with the new settings or situation.

Carrying out marketing for different types of customers

2010-06-22T03:45:00.001-07:00

Customers can be divided into different categories according to their decision making patterns. They have different sets of priorities and their own different reasons to buy or reject any given product. It is vital for a marketing professional or sales person to understand these types and to approach different customers in a slightly modified manner. Memorizing same sales pitch for every customer and repeating it to customer after customer is not the ideal way to go. You will soon be frustrated due to lack of sales. To avoid such situations, you should go through some research and come up with a marketing plan that will be able to accommodate all types of customers.

Some basic types of customers are described below.

Loyal customers:

A marketer's (or sales person's) dream coming true, this loyal group of customers is devoted to your brand. Not only they make repeated purchases, they also influence others to try your brand. They may be small in numbers but the bigger part of sales still comes from the same category. When trying to attract new customer, do not make the mistake (rather blunder) of ignoring your old dedicated clients. Do not make unexpected changes in your product or services because it may upset the existing ones.

Price conscious consumers:

Not necessarily, but normally these customers belong to the middle class, and most of their buying decisions are initiated by low prices. Even if they are making repeated purchases, they cannot be considered as loyal customers. They are only loyal to their mantra and that is to pay the least possible amount. You can attract this group of customers through some special bargains or discount offers but trying to retain these customers by continuously offering low prices for all of your products is not viable.

Status conscious clients:

Another important type, and more profitable too when handled properly. They normally comes from the upper or elite class, they have the riches to look around and get their hands on the most stylish, unique or expensive item. At times, they'd spend quite an amount just to be the first one to get hold of some product. In short they don't mind spending as long as are getting something of excellent quality and value in return.

Self-confident assertive customers:

This is hard to impress, unyielding category of consumers. You cannot tempt them into making a purchase unless they already need something badly. That is why; it's not very productive to spend so much time, trying to convince them. They'll buy when they feel like it; otherwise they won't spend a penny.

Why appearance and body language is crucial for your success in professional life

2010-05-17T22:16:00.001-07:00

Body language and appearance falls under the non-verbal communication category. The power of body language is often under estimated. The fact is that no matter how wisely you choose your words, if your appearance or body language is not supporting the message you are trying to convey, it’s not going to work. Body language is much more than making eye contact, firm handshake or continuously smiling (smiling is good but having a smile on your face all the time can make you look quite sheepish).

Following are some points that you must remember and apply in your business meetings and communications.

Getting the aid of appearance:

When we talk of appearance, it includes both.

i) Your appearance in oral communication

ii) The appearance of your message in written communication

Good brains are undoubtedly more important, but good looks do not go in vain either. In fact, they become essential if meeting with clients or making sales is included in your job description. Spend some of your earnings on buying good professional dresses, shoes, jewelry or perfume. As far as written communication is concerned, use good quality papers, envelopes, and most importantly a neat organized message. Typos or grammatical mistakes will also ruin the appearance of your message.

Body Language:

Your body posture, gestures, expressions, hand movements or your voice tone, each of them contributes in making your communication effective or ineffective. The sooner you realize it, the better your chances to improve. Imagine yourself in different professional scenarios and visualize your body language. Were you too aggressive or dominant when communicating with your subordinates? Did you have that closed body posture during the last business meeting you had? Do you think your interviewee noticed that you were nervous, even when all of your answers were reasonably good? Body language can convey some pretty useful messages even before you have uttered a single word.

Improving your body language:

Improving your body language needs practice and a lot of that. It’s not easy to change your gestures, movements or posture that you have been carrying since your childhood, but it’s not impossible at all. Start from your facial expressions and voice. Make eye contacts when necessary; try not to reveal the negative emotions during business meetings from your face e.g. boredom, anger or tiredness. Record your voice and then listen to it. This practice will give you an idea on how understandable your oral communication is. Avoid making gestures as much as you can, especially if you are meeting some foreigners. Don’t make unnecessary movements while talking; it will only distract your audience. You can even control your nervousness by just acting more confident. Ask your friends or family members to comment on your body language and if they are kind enough to point out some shortcomings, try to improve on them.

What does your brand name promise to your customers?

2010-05-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

Do your brand promises something to your customers? Maybe some uncompromised quality, lowest prices, most innovative designs, unparalleled durability, or matchless customer support service? Theoretically, a brand promise is a statement that the company makes to its customers. Ideally, an established brand is in itself a promise. It’s not just a name, not merely an idea and most certainly not limited to a logo. Brand name is an image, trust and a set of expectations all associated with the brand. Till now only large companies have successfully used the power of brand promise, however, there is no reason why some small businesses cannot reap the benefits of branding in their respective niche.

Planning a brand promise:

Planning a brand promise goes beyond thinking of some fascinating tag line with a smart play on words. Planning your product or services as a brand starts from the very early stage of your business planning. You need to build your business around your brand promise. Your budget, advertising, sales, each and everything should be according to your brand promise. Think from the customer’s perspective, what unique offer do you have? Why would some customer want to buy from you repeatedly? The promise must be distinctive, apart from being deliverable.

Delivering what you promised:

Promises are meant to be broken? Don’t even think of this phrase when talking about brand promise. A brand that fails to deliver on its promises is a brand lost forever. It’s not about delivering once; it’s about delivering again and again. It’s about delivering each and every time a customer buys from you. That’s how you achieve customer loyalty. You cannot start with promising for higher quality and after realizing that you are unable to deliver, change it to lowest prices.

Putting it across your employees:

Remembering what you have promised to deliver is easy if you are a sole proprietor. The things may get a little difficult if you are running or managing a large group of employees. Many times the employees have no idea (strange but true) of what their business promises to its customers. You need to communicate, train and motivate them to deliver the same.

If you are a small business, start from a single promise (e.g. quality, price or design, one at a time and not all). If needed, you can add more in future. Try to appeal a specific set of customers in your initial brand promise. Instead of changing your brand promise to attract new customers at expense of disturbing your old customers, try coming up with a new product or a new brand.

What details should be included when replying to some sales inquiry

2010-03-03T02:42:00.001-08:00

Once you start a new business and promote it through various mediums, you will start getting inquiries from interested customers, who are interested in your product or services after seeing your advertisement. However, they are not clear on some issues and they need to know some particular points before making a purchase. It can be anything, pricing, mode of shipment, product details or your business details. At this point you need to do two things. First, congratulate yourself that your promotion and marketing efforts have so far been successful and you are able to exert a pull on your customers. Second, you need to understand that the job is only half done and real test of your skills starts now.

Once the customer comes your way, dont let him slip. If you arent getting any sales inquiries then probably you need to look into your marketing campaign, but if you are getting tons of sales inquiries and a few sales then you really need to read following instructions. Converting sales leads into actual sales is where most businesses fail. Bear in mind these points to ensure that you make the most of your sales inquiries.

No Delays & Language to use:

You should respond to the interested buyer promptly. Any delay can make him move to some other seller. Check your mail daily to make sure that you don’t miss any. Most of the times you can rely on English as far as language is concerned. But sometimes the customer will appreciate the reply in their native language. If it can be arranged then go for it, otherwise stick to the simple English.

Product details:

Some businesses make this mistake of replying with “one liners” to all the inquiries they get. Although this may seem the right way to just answer what was asked, the idea is to cash in the customer’s interest. You can do this by describing the highlights of your product. Do not go into details, stick to the main points only.

Pricing & Payment method:

Normally customers are asking for price quotes in these inquiries. When narrating prices; make sure to explain the payment methods for convenience of your customers. Especially if you are some online business and your customer is a national of some other country. If you are offering discounts on bulk purchases, mention them as well.

Packaging & Shipment:

Explain the packaging arrangements and shipment modes. Make clear your minimum order quantity. If you are offering free shipment, then don’t forget to confirm if you can distribute to the location where the customer wants you to deliver. If that area is not included in your offer or it requires some extra charges then state them.

Business Details:

End your message with a short description of your company and its product range. Clearly specify your name and the position in company to facilitate future correspondence.

Understanding common stock and why companies issue them

2010-03-03T02:41:00.000-08:00

Common stocks are the shares of a company, which large businesses and corporate issues to raise funds. Rarely some partnerships or trusts can also offer their shares, but only in special circumstances. Initially company’s shares are held by a group of individuals but when some business is going through significant growth and it needs substantial capital, it can offer its shares to the general public and investors. Companies are said to be “going public” when they list themselves on some stock exchange.

Where to buy these common stocks:

Initial public offerings take place in primary markets. Original issuers will offer these stocks as financial claims to general public; in return of cash they receive from these investors. Sold shares are called “issued and outstanding”. Sometimes the company will purchase some of them back; these shares are kept in treasury and recorded as “issued but not outstanding”. After the IPO (Initial Public Offering) the shares (or stocks) are traded (repeatedly sold and purchased) in secondary markets. These secondary markets are normally known as stock exchange, for example The American stock exchange or New York stock exchange. Difference between primary and secondary markets is that the original issuer is not going to get any cash from the sales of stock in secondary markets. Stock prices are quite high on the first day of initial public offering and normally big players are involved. Normally companies hire investment bankers to manage the initial offerings process. All companies are allowed to offer only a limited number of shares, which is mentioned in the articles of incorporation (known as authorized shared capital).

What kind of rights do you get with these stocks?

As stated above, common stocks are financial claims. When you purchase and hold a share, you become one of the (many) owners of that company. Stockholders are entitled to vote for the appointment of company’s directors and some other major decisions. One share means eligibility to cast one vote. Voting (through majority voting system or cumulative voting system) is needed for various decisions. Stockholders are also entitled to receive dividends when the board of directors decides to pay. Corporations can pay these dividends in cash or they can simply offer more shares to their stockholders. You can also earn by reselling these stocks for higher prices at stock exchange. At the liability side, the stockholders have “limited liability” i.e. the amount of shares they own is the most they can lose if the company gets into trouble or goes bankrupt.

Some basics for your personal portfolio management

2010-01-27T23:18:00.001-08:00

A portfolio is made of all the investment and securities held by an investor. Big investors often hire professionals to manage their portfolios, but for small investors this can be a little bit costly. However, you do not need to loose heart. After reading the step-by-step procedure described in this article, you will be able to manage it yourself. Portfolio management can be divided into three phases.

Planning

Implementing

Controlling

Planning:

As you do in any other business planning, start with determining your investment objectives and goals. Doing this will give you a clear set of requirements and make it easier for you to choose one investment over others. Investment objectives are not limited to deciding how much profit would you like to make? But you should also consider the time and liquidity factors. Also the amount of risk you are ready to undertake. Take all possible scenarios like inflation or some change in laws into consideration. Although you will try your best to pick the most reasonable securities for your portfolio, you need to remember that the realized returns will actually be quite different from the expected risks and returns. So all of your portfolio planning and security selection process should take into account this uncertainty.

Implementing:

After making a decision, based on your investment objectives, expected risk & return, time frame and other factors, the next step is to decide and go for the selected securities. When implementing your investment strategy, you should follow the rule of diversification. A good portfolio needs diversification to counter that “unknown” factor. This diversification can be achieved in local markets or more effectively by exploring global markets. The effectiveness of some portfolio can be judged at any given time by comparing its peak level of expected return to some specific amount of risk.

Controlling:

When you are managing your portfolio, you need to keep a constant check on its performance and market conditions. In most cases you will need to make some changes continuously. All of this can be a challenging task and there is every possibility of some initial decisional errors and failures, but as your experience grow with the passage of time, you will soon find yourself managing all of these departments with ease. Managing your portfolio will not only save some expenses, but it will also bring that independence of controlling the destiny of your investments, yourself.